CHAPTER XXXII.

GENERAL CONCLUSION: PROGRESS AND CONSUMMATION OF GOD'S ETERNAL COVENANT.

I. 1. The Objective Knowledge of God-and its Statement: Relation thereof to religion.-2. The Subjective Knowledge of God: the Means and Effects thereof.— 3. The middle term between God and sinless man subverted by the Fall: Restored by the Mediator between God and sinful men: Relation of Salvation by Grace to the Nature of God.-4. Relation of the manner of Salvation to the mode of the Divine Existence: the Eternal Covenant of Redemption: special Relation of the Son of God thereto.-5. First Proclamation of this Eternal Covenant, and the effects thereof: the Kingdom created by and under it: Messiah the Prince: Progress of the Kingdom to the present time.-6. The actual Posture of the Kingdom, in the form of the Gospel Church: the Demonstration which has been attempted of the Subjective Knowledge of God unto Salvation.-II. 1. Consummation of God's Eternal Covenant, with Relation to Him and to all his Works.-2. Future Progress of the Gospel Church: Millennial state: Eternal state.-3. Every Effect of Sin upon the Universe retrieved: the consummation of the Covenant of Grace, with Reference to this Earth.-4. Effect of that consummation upon the Human Race, individually considered: Eternal Death of the Wicked: Eternal Life of the Righteous.-5. The Sum and Result of all, with Relation to God, and with Relation to the Created Universe, especially the human Race.-6. The second Coming of the Son of Man-and his Millennial Glory.-7. Jesus, and the Knowledge of him, and the Life through him.

I.—1. THE objective treatment of divine truth depends for its success upon our knowledge of God, who is both the author and substance of it all. Even our knowledge of ourselves, of the created universe, of the course and event of providence—indeed of all things-depends, when objectively considered, upon this knowledge of God, the author and substance of all truth. In total ignorance of God, there can be no possibility of any treatment à priori of his nature, his Attributes, his works--or the relation of any truth to him: that is there can be no objective treatment of divine truth, in our total ignorance of it. When our à priori knowledge of God, therefore, is ridiculed by infidel philosophers, and the ridicule is extended to all attempts to treat divine truth objectively; it is their own method, not ours, which

is justly amenable to their contempt. For if there is any such thing as Religion, its true nature is to be sought in the relation of an infinite personal Spirit, to a finite personal spirit-that is the relation of God to man: and the knowledge by man of this relation, and the knowledge by him both of God and of himself thus related, is the exact measure not only of the reality, but of the possibility of religion. And if this knowledge could be imagined to be perfect, religion would necessarily be perfect; provided we could conceive of the finite spirit arriving at such a perfect intuition of the infinite Spirit, without involving a contradiction in terms, making the finite infinite, and abolishing the relation on which the existence of Religion depends. But this mortal intuition of God, is strictly speaking, the only conceivable form of strictly mortal knowledge, à priori, of God; and it is this, in so many empty and pretentious forms, which derides all true religion; this, which so far from asserting, I have proved, in another place, to be absolutely impossible. God must manifest himself to man, in order that man may know him; and I have demonstrated, in the former Treatise, in an exhaustive manner, the fact of this manifestation, all the ways in which it is accomplished, and all the methods under each way. The knowledge of God thus obtained by man, is capable of distinct treatment as a body of truth; one, and the highest of whose aspects is religious. God manifests himself to man in the works of Creation and Providence; in the whole work of God manifest in the flesh, and that of God the Holy Ghost; in the Inspired Word, and in the self-conscious existence of the human soul, created, and renewed in his own image. It is not of God simply considered, therefore, that we treat à priori, upon the vain pretext that we have of ourselves, an intuition of the infinite; but it is through Religion, the relation between God and man, revealed to us on the side of God in his manifestations of himself to us, that the sum of our knowledge of God at every stage of its progress, is capable of an exact objective statement. In proportion as our Religion is true, and our Knowledge of its elemental truths is exact; that is, in proportion as we understand the relation between God and man; must be the certainty and the completeness of our statement of the Knowledge of God objectively considered.

2. In the same manner, the subjective treatment of divine

truth involves à priori knowledge of ourselves, as really as it does à posteriori knowledge of God and of Religion. It is not to influence God-but it is to influence man, that Religion exists. God is from eternity, and is the source of all things: man is of yesterday, the creature of God, the source of nothing that rises higher than a second cause. How vain is it to speak of his having, of himself, such an intuition of God, as to guide him steadily along the line of the infinite relation which God bears to him; when he has no such intuition of himself as to enable him to take a single step along that immeasurable line, except by the light which shines from the divine source of light. Even this à priori knowledge of himself, which he must possess before it is possible for him to know what is, what ought to be, or what can be wrought in him by God's truth and God's Spirit ; is not only unreal, but is impossible to any created being, much less to a fallen sinner, independently of his à posteriori knowledge of God, and from God. We cannot know ourselves as creatures, except as we know God the Creator; we cannot know ourselves as sinners, except as we know God as our Lawgiver; we cannot know salvation, except as we know the Saviour. It is God making himself known to us by means of those manifestations of which I have already spoken, who at the same time, and by the same means, and perhaps I should add, to the same degree, makes us known to ourselves. It is in him that we live and move and have our being: and the very conviction of his existence which leaves all men without excuse, and by means of which his eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen and understood through the works of his hands, is a manifestation of God in them made by himself, and a revelation of his wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Step by step the knowledge of God unto salvation is a revelation to us, and a revelation in us. We are the subjects of a sublime subjective work of God's word and Spirit in us; and at the same time, both God and our own souls, and the relation between the two, are objects of a sublime objective knowledge. Created at first in the image of God—but fallible; after our fall, restored indeed to the lost image of God, but so restored that the Godhead has taken our human nature into eternal union with itself, and has in addition made human beings partakers of the divine nature by a divine regeneration-thus securing them from all lapse forever. The

object of the knowledge is infinite-even God himself: the means of it, his manifestations of himself; the result of it knowledge of ourselves. The subject of the work, is lost sinners, who being restored to the image and united to the Son of God, are made partakers of the divine nature, and eternally exalted in glory and blessedness beyond all conception of the heart of man.

3. In a certain sense, the middle term between God and man, the relation between them, namely, out of which Religion springs, assumes a most wonderful aspect as soon as sin enters, and grace and salvation are proclaimed. That middle term as between God and polluted rebels, lost all its original significance by the Fall of man and what takes its place is the mediator between God and sinful men-the Godman-the Saviour of the world. Under the Covenant of Grace the formula is, God—Godmanman. Of man the statement is brief and simple. First, life; then, immortality. Of life two possibilities; first, pollution attended by misery; secondly, purity attended by blessedness. Of immortality, two possibilities: first, shame and everlasting contempt, as the conclusion of the pollution and misery; secondly, infinite glory and felicity, as the conclusion of the purity and blessedness which grace produced. Of God, in whose light every particular concerning man is seen, the statement notwithstanding all his manifestations of himself, can never appear to the thoughtful mind, wholly divested of the difficulty which attends its overpowering nature. God, the infinite, the eternal, the unchangeable, in his being and in his perfections: perfections, infinite in number, and each one infinite in itself—of which we know imperfectly a very few in comparison of all, and even of these so little that even a classification of them above cavil, has never been suggested. This living and true God, our Creator, our Preserver, our Lawgiver, our Ruler, our Father, our Saviour, our Judge and Redeemer; so exists that in his infinite Spiritual Essence, there is absolute unity, and but one God; and yet the mode of that existence is such that of that Essence there are three divine persons, as we express it in English, the same in substance, equal in power and glory: namely the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. In the matter of our salvation-it is the Father, to whose Goodness, Love, Holiness, Justice, Truth, Wisdom, Power, Will, the Scriptures constantly direct our thoughts.

It is to the Holy Ghost, as the Spirit that giveth life, as the Spirit of all truth, and as the Spirit of all Holiness, that they constantly direct us; the Spirit of the Father and of the Son -the true author of all truth unto salvation, whether revealed or only inspired-the true renewer and sanctifier of the human soul—the true comforter of God's children and Reprover of the world. Between these two, is the Son; as between God and men, he is the Mediator. That he may be Mediator, he is God and man-Godman. As Mediator, he is Prophet, Priest, and King: as all he executes the offices of all, in Humiliation and in Exaltation. And that Word of Life, of which I have said the Holy Spirit was the true Inspirer and Revealer, is the only infallible rule to guide us in all knowledge of God unto salvation, objectively considered; as it is the only direct instrument used by the Spirit in all his subjective work in us, unto salvation. From the moment that we find the Godman placed between God and men, as the sum of every relation involved in the word Religion, and the complete expression of everything that points towards salvation for lost sinners; two ideas-with their opposites —reign throughout all the word of God, and throughout all the dealings of God with men. In this life, it is to penitent and believing sinners Grace abounding-Grace triumphant and in the life to come, it is Grace swallowed up in glory. On the other hand, it is in this life, to God's obdurate enemies, warnings, rebukes, and threatenings, mingled with exhortations and entreaties to be reconciled to him: and in the life to come, the worm that shall never die, and the fire that shall never be quenched.

4. The fact that there is any salvation for sinners does not depend more absolutely upon the nature of God, than the manner of salvation does upon the mode of his existence. I have proved in a great variety of forms, that supposing the doctrine of the Trinity, as it is commonly called, to be plainly revealed in the Scriptures, it is not conceivable that a way of salvation at all different from that disclosed in them, could accord with that mode of the divine existence; and on the other hand, that if nothing had been directly taught concerning the mode of the divine existence, the way of salvation disclosed in the Scriptures would be incomprehensible, upon any supposition of the mode of the divine existence, except that mode revealed therein. I will add, that seeing we know nothing concerning the peculiar mode of God's