a rest to the soul, in resting in the Lord, and waiting on him; so that even in the midst of trouble, there is now remaining this rest for the people of God. "And you, who are troubled," saith the apostle, "rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." Then, as to the blotting out the hand-writing. The question then comes, The hand-writing of what? The apostle saith of ordinances? -then the ten commandments cannot be the hand-writing of ordinances, as no ordinances are contained in them, but commandments only, which commanded perfect obedience in the creature; the necessity for the atonement was shadowed forth in the law of commandments, contained in ordinances of offering and sacrifice, which Paul saith, was a shadow of good things to come, the substance was Christ; but the shadow of the body was Moses, and could not, in all its shedding of blood, cleanse away sin; therefore, could give no rest or peace to the soul: but the blood of Jesus Christ giveth peace and rest. There was a rest under the old testament dispensation, but it did not remain, or continue, but waxed old and vanished away; but the rest or sabbath, brought in by Christ, remains.` It is said that the hand-writing of ordinances was contrary to us, by which it will be seen, that all the offerings and sacrifices for sin, under the law, only tended to certain purifications in the flesh; but never could, like the blood of Christ, cleanse for sins past, present, and to come; nor could they give such perfect soundness, to want no more offering and sacrifice, but a repetition thereof was made, shewing that for the numerous and continual sins of the people, that there yet was wanting a greater and better sacrifice for sin, whereby a sufficient atonement could be made once for all, and wherein no more remembrance should be made of sin, and the saint be released from those, now dead works, under the law, whereof Christ is the end for righteousness, and he is our living Intercessor, having by his blood abolished that law, and blotted the hand-writing that was against us, and which was contrary to us; therefore, "such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners," who could and did "bear our sins in his own body on the tree," that we," being dead to sin, might live unto God, by whose stripes we are healed." Again, this hand-writing stood against us, as our own act and deed, whereby we made ourselves responsible for our sins, with covenant for future good performance, giving our assent to the law that it was good; but through the weakness of the flesh, one and all failed in performance, even of the precept, and the law could give no strength to help, as it bceame weak through the flesh, whereby every covenant engagement became broken, and we were found guilty, and every part of the law, in all its commandments, ordinances, and precepts, stood against us, as so many testimonies of our guilty state and condition, and left us in want of better sacrifices than these, as under the old covenant there was a continual remembrance of sin; so that the comers to the law could never be made perfect thereby, nor could the law perfect them, or they perfect themselves; but the precious blood of Christ, through his suffering, death, and resurrection from the dead, perfects the saint every way, and in every thing, even to the blotting out of the hand-writing, which justice presented to us, and now our answer thereto is, that Christ is the end of the law for our righteousness, and his precious blood cleanseth from all sin. The law of commandments contained in ordinances of sacrifice and offering being our schoolmaster unto Christ, not only taught us our sinnership, but pointed out the suretyship of Christ; but when faith came, or Christ came, to do all for us that our schoolmaster had taught, he (the schoolmaster) was discharged, and fully paid; and since dead; and the hand-writing which he held, taken away, completely blotted out, and the deed itself nailed to the cross, covered with the blood of Him that blotted it out; so that we are dead to the law by the body of Christ, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter; because the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life; therefore, we are delivered from a killing law, by being brought to embrace a saving gospel, which is the spirit and essence of all that went before, wherefore the believer is justified, or delivered from all things, by which he could not by the law of Moses; Christ, our passover, having been slain for us, we are freed from all yokes of bondage. Fifthly. That principalities and powers were spoiled. In this place, I shall not resort to old wives' fables, but come to facts, avoiding all superstitions; and if we refer to the 2nd Psalm, we there read thus, "Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying," &c. Here we are at once in the field, and discover who these principalities and powers were; and this prophecy literally took place with our gracious Lord, and he shewed openly in his death and resurrection, his glorious triumph over them; and we may say, the Lord has gone up with a shout; therefore, he triumphed over them in his cross, upon which he finished transgression, and made an end of sin, who by wicked hands was put to death. But he now lives for his people, and is exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel, and remission of sins; and notwithstanding the craft and policy of all that stood up against him, he conquered; and they were not only foiled but spoiled in his rising from the dead, and ascension to glory. He rose in the face of a confused, disappointed, frowning, but perishing world, ascending on high, leading captivity captive, to receive gifts for men, ever the rebellious hath he led so, conquering every enemy, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Thus, he conquered death, and him that had the power of death, which is the devil, and delivered those who through the fear of death were all their lives subject to bondage; yea, Paul gives to us a solemn account of these poor sufferers. But, notwithstanding their enemies seemed to live and reign, yet they were all conquered, and in chains, waiting only the just judgment and fiery indignation of God to devour the adversary, who had made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all nations, that the ends of the earth should see his salvation, his Christ, the man that he had made strong for himself, to redeem the people that he loved, to be their Leader and Commander; and of him we may say, "the Lord is a man of war," and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory, and he hath triumphed gloriously died to conquer, and conquered to save. "And you, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the hand-writing of ordinances, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, hath made a shew of them openly, and hath triumphed over them in it." Amen. Chiswell Street, Aug. 1835. JOHN STYLE. DIVINE GRACE limited to the church of GOD. 6 WHEN people assert, that Christ died for all men,' they do not mean to affirm that he died to save all: if so, they know the means would be afforded to all; but they intend by it, that all who believe and repent will be saved; and in this we are quite agreed. The point in dispute hinges upon these conditions. Those who maintain the doctrine of general redemption, of course are advocates for freewill, and they imagine that they can repent and believe by exercising their own powers: on the contrary, we maintain, that man has lost his free-will as regards any spiritual actings, that faith is the gift of God, and that Christ was exalted to give repentance. Now, as faith and repentance are both the gifts of God, we conclude, that the death of Christ is limited to those only who receive those graces of faith, and repentance; and of course, we consider, that discrimination is established; for if God bestows those blessings on some, and withholds them from others (which common observation clearly testifies), then we affirm the doctrine of choice is also fully established, which appears incontrovertible, without introducing a long string of arguments to prove it. Z. CHOICE EXTRACTS FROM ANCIENT AUTHORS. THE CHILD OF GOD STRIPPED AND DRESSED, BEING AN "Therefore will I go stripped and naked, and will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning like the owls." THIS prophet Micah lived in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and to him the Lord appeared, and loosed his tongue, and put a word into his mouth, and sent him to preach that word to the men of Judah from hence observe, that the prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream, and he that hath the word of the Lord, let him speak it, and he that hath not got the Lord's word, had better hold his peace. Now the prophet begins to deliver his message; and he calls upon all people to hear, the earth, and all people therein, to hearken, and he upbraids them for their wicked conduct, and tells them, that although they sinned ever so privately, and laboured to cover their iniquities, so that no mortal eye could see them, yet, another day, they should be brought to light; for the Lord God was a witness against them, even the Lord from his holy temple; and he proceeds to say, that the Lord would most assuredly come to punish them for their transgression and their sin. But as this is spoken to God's elected, redeemed, and peculiar people, it must not be confined to the Jewish nation; nor must it be considered as a threatening which proceeds from the wrath of God to man, for there is no wrath from God revealed against an elect world, nor is there an absolute threatening of utter destruction any where denounced against the people of God; the Lord's rod is to them a rod of love, and all his strokes are strokes of love: hence it is the Lord's people that are called upon in this chapter; first, while they are dead in sin, and, secondly, while they are in a state of awful backsliding from a holy God. The prophet tells the people how that the Lord would come down and tread upon the high places of the earth the earth intends, the dull, barren, hard, and faithless heart of man, and this high place is the mountain of pride that there is in this heart, which when the Lord comes he treads it down. The mountains, spoken of in the 4th verse, is unbelief; and the guilt, which, when the Lord comes into the soul as a consuming fire, he moltens those mountains and cleaves the lowest valley of the human heart, and pours out those bitter waters of sin and self which dwelt there, and which were sweet afore-time. In the 6th verse the Lord declares how that he will pour down the stones of Samaria into the valley. The law commands, that adulterers, sabbath-breakers, blasphemers, &c. should be stoned to death: now every threatening of the law, when it comes home to the core with power, comes like a mighty millstone, and brings death into the soul with it now the Lord wounds the sinner, breaks all his graven images and idols to pieces, by throwing these stones into the valley of his heart, and then he heals him another way, which leads me to the words of our text; therefore saith the prophet, as much as if he should say, "Since it is so that the Lord will come from his temple and tread down the mountain of pride, molten and burn up the mountains of unbelief, guilt, and sin, and melt down the deep valley of iniquity, break all my idol gods to pieces, and strip me naked, leaving me without any hopes of ever being clothed since this is the case, I will go all my days naked, wailing like dragons and mourning like owls." And this leads me to the words of our text; in treating of them, I shall, first, consider what is intended by a poor sinner being stripped; or, rather, observe, that the Lord always strips a poor sinner before he dresses him; and also, how he is stripped, and by what means. And this leads me, secondly, to say, that after the Lord has stripped a sinner he then dresses him. : : First. What is intended by a sinner being stripped and this supposes that he must have some sort of clothing on; and I have no manner of doubt but that Adam was a righteous person as he came out of his Maker's hands-he was clothed with glory and honour; hence he is by the apostle called the image and glory of God; but Adam had sinned, and we sinned in him; he fell, and we fell with him; the devil brought all manner of evil into him, and for his rebellion the Lord took all good from him; for I do not believe that Satan stole one blessing from Adam, nor stripped him of his righteousness, beauty, and glory; for the Lord took all that away, he gathered his spirit and his breath unto himself: but if any person wants to know what that righteousness and glory was, I would refer you to our Lord, upon the mount of transfiguration, for there he appeared in all the glory of his humanity, and this was the glory of the first Adam; but for his rebellion the Lord stripped him and for the rebellion of Christ, that is, our sins and rebellion being laid upon him, even he was stripped too: that he might redeem he laid aside his glory; and it is in this righteousness, beauty, and glory, that all the saints will appear, when they appear with Christ, their covenant Head and husband, in glory. But, Secondly.-After that the Lord had thus, in justice, stripped Adam, he opened his blind eyes and shewed him his nakedness; and all his posterity are naked as well as him: naked came I into this world, both body and soul, and naked shall I return thither, unless I am clothed with the righteousness of Christ Jesus my Lord. Herein man is sunk lower than any creature, excepting the devil; all kinds of beasts and birds have a native clothing excepting the snake, and to this creature man is compared: ye serpents and generation of vipers, as destitute of a righteousness as the serpent, as the devil. Now, what effect has the sight of this upon the mind of a poor sinner? the same as it had upon Adam, he sewed fig-leaves together to hide his nakedness. A carnal-hearted sinner, a false professor, is compared to a barren. |