We may add that a presumption arises from the supernaturalness of the Incarnation that there would be a supernatural element in all cases of redemption. It was said to Mary, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee," and the same Holy Ghost, though in a different operation, unites believers to the Incarnate One. Parallel with the supernatural in Christ, which commenced in Incarnation, and ended on earth in the resurrection, runs the supernatural and Spiritual in man, commencing in regeneration and ending on earth in his resurrection.

But the supernatural is not alone. With the Spirit goes the word, and especially the example of Jesus, which the Spirit ever uses to bring men to the image of the Son. This example stands apart from all others in two respects; first, it is a perfect human example. Jesus stands before the race a faultless model. Who can estimate the power of this? Secondly, it is pervaded and glorified by the manifestation of Godhead. Divine love shines from the glorious life and the glorious death of Jesus, and with it is blended Divine justice obeying the behests of the infinitely holy law, and tasting its curse with infinite humiliation.

But this revelation of God shining through the glorified veil of perfect humanity is, we think, the Atonement. Here, then, Atonement and Redemption join in the work of the Holy Spirit that unites men to the Atoning Person, and stamps the features of his work upon their hearts. To be more particular,

III. The union of believers with Christ, by the Spirit, corresponds to the supernatural features of the Atonement, and gives a share in Christ's destiny and character.

This union or connection may be illustrated by the connection between father and child. In the one case the bond is natural by birth, in the other it is spiritual by the new birth. The results of this union we will state in brief outline, quoting for each particular a text in which this work of the Spirit is alluded to.

Believers being united to Christ share in his legal standing. "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the

Spirit." Rom. viii. 1. This is a state of "justification," "imputation" being a hypothetical (legal fiction?) basis for justifica

tion.

Believers share in Christ's outward condition, being raised from the dead with a body "like unto his glorious body," and "joint heirs" with him to eternal glory. "If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Rom. viii. 11.

Believers share in Christ's family standing and filial spirit. He is preeminently the Son of God, but when he leaves the world he says, "my Father and your Father." And in this the Spirit is concerned, for we read "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Rom. viii. 14. This is receiving "adoption."

Believers share also in Christ's holiness. "But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Cor. vi. 11. "When he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." 1 John iii. 2. This is perfect sanctification." Nor will it be a transient possession. Our free will will not be simply restored to the dangerous equipoise of Adam's will, but exalted to the freedom of Christ's fixed choice.

IV. Conversion is the free response of the soul to the moral features of the Atonement.

At conversion the soul experiences chiefly Faith, Repentance,

and Love.

Faith is a response to the truthfulness and sincerity of God in his manifestation through Christ. This is fundamental. Unbelief denies the presence of God in Christ, denies that the true and only way of salvation is by the Atonement, and thus cuts off the soul from Redemption. Faith "takes God at his word," and hears his word from the lips of Christ.

Repentance is a response to the justice revealed in the Atonement. Divine justice has been often revealed in other ways, but never in a way worthy to be compared with the work of Christ. "Holy and righteous," says the penitent, "is my Saviour. Holy, just, and good is the law which he

obeyed, and under which he suffered. His justice I love, his law I honor. Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."

Love is a response to the unspeakable love and mercy revealed in the Atonement. "We love him because he first loved

us." 1 John iv. 19.

Thus in Faith, Repentance, and Love, the soul freely takes Christ, and in responding to his Atonement finds in itself redemption begun; and in the same free and joyful response to Christ and his work does it go on to perfection.

A word may be required on the point that the holy under the old dispensation could not respond to the Atonement. They responded to an imperfect foreshadowing of the Atonement. There were with them supernatural manifestations of God, though no incarnation; there were sacrifices, though not the sacrifice. There was revelation enough to call out responses to God's truth, justice, and saving mercy, and there was genuine faith, repentance, and love. Yet they were not "made perfect "-"God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Heb. xi. 40.

We

If our object in this Article has been gained, we have shown the value of the Atonement not only as a moral power, but as a vehicle of spiritual grace. We have kept in view both the supernatural and moral features of redemption, though without attempting to adjust them minutely to each other; for who is equal to that task? We have emphasized the supernatural because its relation to the Atonement is often overlooked. have endeavored to show the relation of the Spirit to the person of Christ. God did not become incarnate in a church, but in a person. That Person draws to him other persons, and the Holy Spirit is the bond of union. Here is the wonderful simplicity, beauty, and strength of the way of salvation; simple as the tie of friendship, beautiful with the glory of Jesus' character, strong as the power of the Holy Ghost. If we would defend well the doctrine of a Divine Person in Christianity, we must see clearly that the life of each redeemed soul is derived from Him.

ARTICLE III.-THE REVIVAL OF LETTERS IN THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES.

PART I.—TO The Middle of CeNTURY XV.-(Continued).

WITH the first years of the fifteenth century a new start in the progress of humanism may be detected. Those influences, which it was the part of Petrarch especially to put into motion, not only grew in extent and power, but seemed now to become possessed of a new spring, as if the seed planted in the earlier age was just bearing fruit. How much of this quickened pace was due to the influences proceeding from John of Ravenna and Chrysoloras, we will not try to ascertain. It is more important to notice the historical events which at this time, and through the half century down to 1453, the year of Constantinople's fall, or 1455, the year when Pope Nicholas died, concurred to promote the revival of classical learning.

In 1378 occurred the division in the papacy. The claims of the two sees started discussion, and rendered more negotiation. necessary; apostolical secretaries and orators of a higher character came into demand; and, indeed, the lively political intercourse of Italy at this time in which the smaller lords, as well as the larger states of Naples, Milan, Venice, Florence, and Rome played a part, quickened and, so to speak, modernized the minds of men, giving them a breadth and largeness favorable to the spread of the new kind of learning. The attempt to heal the schism at Pisa, in 1409, was succeeded by the great council of Constance in 1414, at which many of the most culti vated men of Italy were gathered. Here wits were sharpened; here the zeal which had slumbered a while for the discovery of Latin manuscripts awoke again; here those members of the assembly and their secretaries, who had felt the refining influences of the previous age, had a field in which they could show their superior education. The council was followed by the longer one of Basel in 1431, by the summoning of a council at Ferrara in 1437, and a new schism. In 1439,

Pope Eugenius moves the seat of this Council to Florence, and here a main work was the attempt to unite the Greek church, now almost overwhelmed by the advancing Turks, with the Latin. This brought on discussions between the two churches, and collected in Italy a number of Greeks who afterwards remained there to diffuse Greek learning. Nor was it a small thing at this time that the sojourn of the Pope for some years was in Florence, by which means the humanistic spirit of that city penetrated the papal court, and paved the way for the movement in favor of ancient letters at Rome under Nicholas V. The influence now begins to pervade all Italy, even the smaller courts patronize the men possessed of a more brilliant kind of learning, and their lords feel that they cannot be respectable without one or more persons at their court who can adorn them by the new refinement.

The lead in this patronage of letters was taken, as we have already said, by Cosimo de' Medici, the first private citizen of Florence. Born in 1389, he inherited great wealth from his father Giovanni, and a foremost position in the popular or democratic party. He was educated by Roberto dei Rossi, to whom we have had occasion to refer, a nobleman who was concerned in all the movements for the advancement of letters in Florence, and held a school in his own house for the sons of the higher classes. Cosimo acquired a good knowledge of Latin, was cultivated by travel,-he visited the Council of Constance in his youth, and thence passed into Germany and France, staying nearly two years beyond the mountains,—and still more, gained knowledge by the experience of political life, and by the vast transactions of his banking establishment. In 1433 the aristocratical faction banished him, and he spent about a year at Venice. He returned to enjoy uninterrupted quiet, to receive the esteem of his fellow-citizens and of all Italy, to govern Florence by his weight of character and position, rather than by authority, and to be called the Father of his country at his death.

Cosimo was grave in his words, simple in his manners and style, smoothly diplomatic towards strangers, a man of insight and of practical knowledge. His patronage of letters con