brought under condemnation. Having sinned, he must die, ere justice could be satisfied.

This condition of man, led to the covenant of redemption. Christ only could undertake the work of reconciling the two opposing attributes of the Divine nature, Justice and Mercy; therefore, it was the will of God that He should accomplish it,—that He should take man's nature, and, as his federal head and representative, obey the law; and then, as man again, and in man's stead, pay the penalty of death for the violation of the law by Adam and his posterity.

This being the purpose of the Tri-une God in establishing the covenant, all the details of that agreement, which were necessary to carry it out, were settled. From Christ nothing was concealed; and all the humiliation to which He was required to submit, was pre-determined. He knew the bitterness of that cup which He was to drink, and could have declined it had He any misgivings of the result, or thought that the conditions were hard; but with this knowledgewith all His earthly trials before His eyes, He entered upon the work, and undertook to accomplish it; because He saw that unless it were fully-wholly-completely done, man must be eternally lost. The terms proposed were accepted. There was no shrinking from His engagement. A labour of love, involving great physical and mental suffering, was laid before the Redeemer to be accepted or declined; and it was willingly, yea gladly, undertaken. His Father's intention was

declared, and Christ exclaimed, "I delight to do Thy will," (Ps. xl. 8). He came to obey the law, and to die for man, because it was His meat to do the will of His father who had sent Him. (John iv. 34).

Then, as God the Father required a righteousness, both of obedience and satisfaction, as the condition to be performed by God the Son in the covenant; and as Christ undertook to perform this condition, we must ascertain how He was qualified for His office, and then whether He faithfully fulfilled His engagements: and as these investigations are necessary, inasmuch as upon Christ's qualification for His work, and the fidelity with which He performed it, we can alone depend for a participation in the promised blessings, I shall proceed to examine, at large, the evidence which is adduced to prove that our Redeemer did fully and faithfully comply with all the terms of the everlasting covenant

CHAPTER IX.

OUR COVENANT REDEEMER'S DIVINE QUALIFICATION FOR HIS WORK.

"O God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy upon us miserable sinners."

Litany.

Ir was a great and glorious work which the Son of God undertook to perform, when He consented to atone for the sins of a world. The work of redemption was one which no man or angel could have undertaken. It was a work which God himself, in His abstract spiritual nature, could not have undertaken; and therefore, Infinite wisdom contrived the plan of a vicarious atonement, to be effected by an union of the Divine and human natures in one person, who should thus be furnished with power sufficient for the work of satisfying justice, and justifying sinners.

The Divinity and humanity of Christ must, therefore, be ever regarded as fundamental doctrines, and should not be passed over in any treatise which pretends to unfold the true nature of redemption. If Christ be not God, we can have no confidence in His life; and if He be not man, we can have no confidence in His

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death. Before we can trust in his full and perfect obedience to the infinite law of God, we must be assured of His Divinity; and ere we can rest peacefully on His death, as the sacrifice for sin, we must be assured of His humanity. The separation of these two natures would be fatal to the whole scheme of redemption by a vicarious atonement. If we believe that Christ was but a man, we must reject His obedience as insufficient for the satisfaction of justice; and if we believe not in His perfect humanity, we cannot rest our hope on His death.

The doctrine of Christ's Divinity being, then, so important a part of evangelical faith, I shall, in the first place, proceed to examine it by the light of God's Word; and may the Holy Spirit who indited that Word, assist both writer and reader in the investigation of this great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. (Tim. iii. 16).

Great, indeed, is this mystery! Its depths are unfathomable, its wonders are unsearchable. That God, the Creator of all things, should condescend to dwell in our frail fleshy tenement; that He should stoop to the littleness of infancy; that He should place Himself under the guidance of earthly parents; that He should suffer poverty, and shame, and death; are truths which cannot but fill the mind with awe.

The incarnation of Deity is an unfathomable wonder. There is in it a mystery, which we presume not to unravel, knowing that our powers are inadequate

to the effort. But, though we willingly admit that the subject is above reason, we do not allow that it is contrary to reason. It is, indeed, beyond the stretch of any human intellect, and cannot be unravelled by the skill of man; but, this we refuse to accept as a reason for its denial.

Were we to reject all that our minds cannot grasp, pitiful, indeed, would be our knowledge. Where is there a single phenomenon, either in physical or moral science, of which all the causes can be assigned? A stone falls to the ground, and we call the law by which this movement is governed, gravitation. But, if we demand the nature of this attracting power, with disappointment we hear that it is a mystery. We stretch forth the hand; and when the physiologist is asked how the will can so operate upon muscular fibres as to produce this result, he can only answer, it is a mystery.

If, then, the most familiar phenomena of nature daily presented to our notice, are clouded in mystery, without affecting our belief-if we constantly receive as settled truths, facts which reason cannot explain, why should our faith be shaken, and our peace disturbed, because "now we see through a glass darkly,”"the wisdom of God in a mystery"? (compare 1 Cor. xiii. 12 and 1 Cor. ii. 7). GREAT IS THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS! How, then, can we hope to comprehend it? If we could understand it, it would cease to be a mystery; but this cannot be accomplished by any