ashamed of modifying their views of God, by the systems of human science. Let them return to the strong and Scriptural statements of the Reformers on the subject, and as little children believe God's account of himself.

The attentive reader of the preceding part of this Epistle, who is willing to submit to receive in all things the true and obvious meaning of Scripture, cannot fail to perceive that all the doctrines which are there brought before us give the whole glory of every thing to God. Jehovah is seen to be glorified in his judgments as well as in his grace, in his wrath as well as in his mercy, in those who are lost as well as in those who are saved. However disagreeable this may be to the natural mind of man, it is truly reasonable. Can there be a higher end than the glory of the divine character? And can man, who is a fallen and lost creature, share with his offended sovereign in the glory of his recovery? Such a thought is as incongruous as it is palpably unscriptural. If there be hope for the guilty, if there be recovery to any from the ruins of the fall, it is the voice of reason properly exercised, as well as of the divine word, that it must come from God himself.

How astonishing, then, is it that men should be so averse to the doctrines of the Scripture which hold forth this view. So offensive are

they to the mind of man that every effort of ingenuity has been employed by those who understand not the gospel to eject them from the Scriptures, and many even of the people of God themselves labour to modify and bring them to a nearer conformity to the wisdom of the world, or, at least, to make them less offensive to human prejudices. This wisdom is foolishness, and is highly dishonourable to God, as well as pernicious to themselves. When God has brought salvation nigh as entirely his gift, and has exhibited Christ as a Saviour, through faith, to the Chief of Sinners, how injurious is it to the honour of his truth, and to the interests of sinners, to put the salvation of the Gospel at a distance, and as it were in defiance of the Apostle to send men to heaven to bring Christ down from above, or to the deep to bring him up from the grave! What folly appears in that wisdom that sees greater security for the believer's final happiness in making him the author of his own destiny, than in resting the security of his salvation on the power and love of his Almighty Saviour! How vain is that wisdom which considers the performance of good works to be better secured by resting them on the resolutions and faithfulness of the believer himself, than on the fact of his oneness with Christ in his death and resurrection.

All who acknowledge regeneration by the Spirit of God virtually concede the things that they are unwilling to confess in plain and direct statement. If men are by nature dead in sin, surely their new life is not in any sense produced by themselves. If their change from sin to holiness be a new birth, how contradictory to suppose that they have any share in this great change. Yet how many will acknowledge that every thing good in us is of God, who will yet labour to show that still there is some remaining moral ability in man to turn himself to God. Is not this to sacrifice to their own wisdom? Will they proudly refuse submission to the declarations of God's word till they are able to fathom the depths of the divine counsels?

Many Christians, who admit the truth of all those doctrines that are most offensive to the world, act on the principle, that it is wise to conceal their views on these points, or at least to keep them as much as possible in the back ground. They think in this way to be more useful to the world. But is it wise, is it duty, is it consistent with our allegiance to Christ, to keep in abeyance doctrines that so much glorify God, and which are so prominently held forth in the Scriptures? Christians should recollect, that although the avoiding of certain offensive

doctrines may lessen the prejudice of the world against the professors of Christianity, yet that to turn a sinner to God is, in all cases, the work of God himself. How can we then expect a blessing on our efforts, if we seek to conceal what he exhibits in a blaze of light? Better, much better in all things, to exhibit the truths of the Divine word just as that word itself exhibits them, and leave the success of our efforts to him who alone can make them effectual. We cannot by all we can do bring one soul to Christ. We cannot make one sinner alive by the Gospel, more than we can raise the dead out of their graves. Let us then renounce our own wisdom, and our own plans, and let us teach Divine truth as it is taught in the Scrip

tures.

All religions, but that of the Bible, share the glory of recovering men to happiness between God and the sinner. All false views of the Gospel do the same thing. The Bible alone makes the salvation of guilty men terminate in the glory of God as its chief end. This doctrine is peculiar to right views of the Christian religion. Can there, then, be a more convincing evidence that the Bible is from God? If such a feature is peculiar to the Christian religion, yet offensive to most of them that bear the Christian name, it is the most demonstrative

evidence that this revelation is not from man. How solid, then, are the foundations of the Christian religion, when the very things in it that are most offensive to the world afford the most satisfactory evidence that it is from God!

END OF VOLUME Second.

EDINBURGH PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND CO., PAUL'S WORK.