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written, "Whom He did foreknow, His purpose being no afterthought, He predestinated, conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. viii. 29).

The invisible Church would be no exclusive testimony, but a witness to the covenant in its universal tendency. It has the spiritual blessings in heavenlies. It knows and testifies in holiness and love to the purpose and grace of God for all men. For the Father hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption, through His blood the remission of sins. In the Book of the Revelation, in the first three verses, there is a repeated reference to the covenant,-to Him who is emphatically it, who has the seven stars and the seven Spirits, and who writes to the seven churches. The Three Persons of the Trinity are referred to, then the four beasts as representing all flesh. The twenty-four elders attest the universal application of the covenant-two twelves representing the two dispensations respectively, the legal and the gospel in their mutual relation: that of the twelve tribes fulfilled in Christ, that of the Apostles in the Spirit. In the covenant addressing itself to the seven churches, we see the truth of God in relation to the human family-that every man may in one of these churches see, as in a mirror, his own generation or condition. To each of these seven epistles most solemn and important words are added: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." What few words could more fully express the covenant? "Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." If thus we receive Christ, who alone has the key of David, and who sets before us an open door, which no man can shut, we enter with Him and partake with Him of the

fulness of the blessing of the Divine nature, and so are one with the Father and the Son in one Spirit. Not to receive Him is to reject redemption, to shut the door against ourselves, to trample under foot the blood of the everlasting covenant, and do despite to the Spirit of Grace.

IX.

EPHESIANS iv. 5.

"One faith."

HAVING considered the covenant in its sevenfold aspect, and our relation to it, we now proceed to the consideration of that faith which is indispensable to a true knowledge of it.

There is but one faith. The Bible knows but one-one, throughout all time, distinct, intact.

It would be useless to attempt to reconcile the conflicting statements concerning faith. If men fail to understand the mind of the inspired writer, and regard not the two unvarying principles of the covenant, even as set forth by the Lord's names, Christ Jesus, in their relative order, they concoct or rest in some scheme or system of theology, which may include some truths and be bolstered up with a semblance of a critical interpretation; yet, withal, promote only a fearful uncertainty, such as is now pervading all classes. Much religious persuasion is the result rather of what men find themselves doing, than of what the Word of God reveals. Men regard as infallible that which they in their self-complacency practise, and so, like the Church of Rome, Protestants so called determine from their own acts, despite the simple teaching of the Word, what is possible and what impossible.

It is apparent to all who have learned Christ, and have life in the Son of God, how mystified and confused is the idea of faith. One, attacking error, thus writes: "I believe a religion without any exercise of the intellect is credulity, and

belief without any exercise of the affections is simply knowledge; but to believe with an enlightened mind and loving heart is faith." Now, it is all-important to know what is this enlightenment, and how to acquire it.

The characteristic terminology and modes of thought of different parties must give place to the truth. A recognition of historical facts, a mental persuasion of certain mysterious acts, is not faith. Nor is it an unhesitating adherence to certain doctrines in a concentrated form-as the creeds; though they contain the fundamental truths of religion.

It is said, "Jesus bore our penalty in His death." Whereas, He bore sin and its penalty; He tasted death, was banished into outer darkness, where He put away sin and so redeemed us from sin and its consequences. If, then, we make effective the covenant of God within us, no charge can be brought against us; if not, then our condition of banishment into outer darkness will be a terrible reality.

Redemption has respect, not to the consequences of sin, but to sin itself. It is said, "Justification is an equivalent for all our transgressions which are the fruit of sin;" but, then, what about sin? It is said, most truly, "Salvation from evil, through sharing the Spirit of Christ, was shifted into a notion of purchase from God through the price of His bodily pangs." There is no purchase from God. We are not purchased from an everlasting Father, with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning, who is ever drawing us to Himself, and who, as the holy, the righteous One, is ever against sin and iniquity, and who in mercy-in the cross of Christ-delivers us. When sin is removed, the attractive power of the paternity is obeyed. When Christ is lifted up in the heart, He draws all unto Himself as the Son in whom the Father is fully revealed.

The truth is ignored in the confounding of sin and sins. It

is said, "propitiation is the offering by which propitiousness is obtained." Propitiation is not to conciliate, as if we reconciled God to us. We are reconciled to God in a condition of peace imparted by the indwelling Spirit of Christ. It is further said, "If peace cannot be recovered so long as sin divides us from God, how is sin to be removed?" This is the important question. But the answer given indicates the sad confusion: it is, "This is the question which rationalism is unable to solve; but which Scripture, with one united voice, answers, "By the blood of Christ, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace." The punctuation after "blood," instead of "redemption," not only is wrong, but destroys the sense. "On the sacrifice of the first martyr, on the doorposts of the houses of Israel, on the Jewish altars, on the blood-sprinkled mercy seat, on the cross of Christ, on the white robes of the redeemed, it is written, without shedding of blood is no remission." These are, indeed, religious phrases; but do they give a distinct sound?

If there were no shedding of blood, pouring out of life,-that is, the Spirit poured out, blessing man, there could be no remission. But the last Adam is a quickening Spirit. The old Adam being first put off, whereby sin is renounced-is redemption, propitiation; Christ is in us, we live Christ; and we then possess life in the Son of God. In the possession of His life we have remission, "We do what is commanded of us" (Luke xvii. 10). Christ, by the sacrifice of Himself, put away sin (Heb. ix. 26). And the covenant attesting the indwelling of the Spirit, says, "I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more (Heb. x. 15, 16).

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