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ness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God." The word is the same as is employed respecting the inhabitants of the new Jerusalem (Rev. xxi. 24): "The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it." There are several other passages in which the same Apostle makes use of the present tense in a way not very consistent with the position of B. W.; "that the sacred Scriptures never speak of salvation as already obtained, but simply as an object of hope and future expectation.' But I will pass by these, to notice the language employed by St. Paul, in the second chapter of his Epistle to the Ephesians. He begins by reminding "the saints at Ephesus," that they had been "dead in trespasses and sins; walking ac cording to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience;" that they were "by nature the children of wrath; that they had been without Christ, without hope, and without God in the world; but they were now quickened," made alive," raised up together with Christ," made to "sit in heavenly places with him; " were God's workmanship" created in Christ Jesus unto good works;" or, to sum up all in one word, they had been saved by grace;" xaploi eσTE χαρισι εστε OεowoμEvoL. Certainly this language must mean something " already obtained," and not simply an object of hope and future expectation."

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I am perfectly of B. W.'s opinion on the impropriety of such expressions as he quotes from M. Malan : "It is finished," "all is accomplished," and that common one finished salvation." Redemption was finished so soon as the Saviour's sufferings were ended, for "he hath redeemed us to God with his blood;" but salvation will not be finished, till the true believer, having been "kept by the power of God through faith," shall be finally placed beyond the reach of sin, of suffer

ing, and of danger. But in opposing incorrect expressions on one side, we need not run, as I think B. W. has done, into equally incorrect ones on the other; for it certainly seems to me as unscriptural to say that salvation is all future, as to say that it is "all accomplished."

The motive which has influenced many in adopting those opinions which I have endeavoured to combat, is a dread of the consequences which may possibly follow where the idea of a present salvation has been taken up by men who were seeking something which might quiet their fears without compelling them to part with their sins. But may not this danger be more effectually obviated, by shewing the ́real nature of salvation, than by advancing statements which can hardly, if at all, be reconciled, with so many passages of Scripture? Salvation, as now possessed, in part consists in deliverance from the fearful anticipations of the wrath of God, which we are conscious we have deserved by our transgression; but it equally comprehends a deliverance from the dominion of sin, and the overwhelming influence of this present evil world, with all its pomps and vanities and covetous desire. These are inseparable, while both are equally necessary to the Christian's comfort in the present state; though the unholy heart would gladly separate them, and claim the former as its portion, while it rejected the latter as burdensome and legal. It appears to me that the true method of ob. viating the danger of abuse, is thus to exhibit the doctrine as it is set forth in the Scripture.

This view of the subject serves also to shew the impropriety of the expression from the Conventicle of Rolle which B. W. has objected to; "no works in order to salvation." Those works which the man who is seeking to justify himself would put in the place of that righteousness that is of God by faith, not being done as God willeth and com

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"the transfer of our sin and guilt to Christ is not scriptural ;' and when he intimates that nothing but the good intentions of the writer he combats saves it from being " blasphemous." Would not an ordinary reader of his Bible be quite confounded, when, after perusing such a passage as this, he found Isaiah saying, "The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all?" Or when he found St. Paul asserting that God "had made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him?" To a plain student, there certainly in these texts appears to be the idea of a mutual transfer. If any one states the doctrine so as to import that moral criminality belonged to our Saviour when he took our place, and bare our sins in his own body on the tree, then I join with B. W. in his strongest terms of animadversion; for in this sense he was as holy, harmless, and undefiled, and separate from sinners, while engaged in his work of expiation, as when in the bosom of the Father before his incarnation. But the transfer which seems to me implied in these texts does not go to this point; nor do I perceive that M. Malan's language implies it. By being surety for some immoral spendthrift and profligate, all his debts may be transferred to me, and I may be brought to rum by putting myself in his place, while he is completely freed from all the demands of his creditors; but still I incur no moral imputation. Such was the transfer of our sin and guilt to the Redeemer, when "the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all," and then "made him to be sin," or a sin-offering, "for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

mandeth they should be done, can says,
effect nothing in the accomplish
ment of our salvation, but rather
are they offensive to God, as is
stated in the Thirteenth Article of
our Church. And the good works
of the Christian, which follow after
justification, are "the fruits of the
Spirit;" and as such are rather
a part, an essential part, of our
salvation, than the meritorious cause
of it. Such seems the Apostle's
argument (Ephes. ii. 8-10): "By
grace are ye saved, through faith:
not of works, lest any man should
boast; for we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good
works," &c. Where good works, as
the fruit of the Spirit, and the con-
sequence of this new creation, are
not found, there is no present, and
consequently no just, expectation of
future salvation. But while I agree
in the general doctrine of B. W.,
the same motive which induced me
first to take up my pen, leads me
to ask him whether he has not been
rather too much led by the sound,
in selecting the texts by which he
supports his opinion. I allude more
particularly, though not exclusively,
to the application of the exhortation
of St. Paul to the Philippians, "Work
out your own salvation with fear
and trembling" Were a man, in-
quiring what he must do to be
saved, to ask B. W. how he might
"work out his salvation," I have
no doubt his answer would shew
that he attached a much more ex-
tended idea to the words, than that
which is implied when it is adduced
to shew the inseparable connexion
between good works and salvation.
It would be made at least to com-
prise the same Apostle's answer to
the jailor, who was probably one
of the company to whom the epistle
was addressed: "Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved." An inconclusive refer-
ence frequently destroys all the
effect it was intended to produce.

May I be allowed once more to ask your correspondent whether he be not a little too decided, when he

IGNOTUS.

FAMILY SERMONS.-No. CCXXI. 1 Cor. xv. 53, 54.-For this corruptible must put on incorrup

tion, and this mortal must put on immortality; so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality: then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

ALL men are naturally appalled at the thought of death. They see in it an enemy who lurks about their path by night and by day, to rob them of all they account valuable; to deprive them of their possessions, their honours, their pleasures, their very earthly being itself. Still more are they appalled, when they look beyond it, and remember, that after death comes judgment; that not only is every earthly tie broken, but that they must enter into a new and eternal state of existence for which they feel themselves unprepared, and which, when they review their transgressions against their Creator, they cannot but fear will be a state of the bitterest misery. But the true believer views this last enemy in a very different light. He considers death, though a part of the original curse pronounced against sin, as having lost its sting to all who die in Christ. He thinks of dying, or wishes to think of it, not with its original terrors; but as one link in the golden chain by which all the privileges of this world and that which is to come are bound together. Without death he cannot enter upon a blissful eternity; he must continue in a world of change and trial, of sin and temptation, of sorrow and bereavement; a world which is not his home, and is incapable of making him really happy. To be happy therefore, unspeakably happy, eternally happy, he must die. Yet still death is awful; the body and soul, which in the present state of being have been constant companions, must be separated: the former must become senseless, motionless, breathless; it must decay; it must mix with its native dust; it must lose all that distinguished it as

a living body; it must exchange warmth and action, and cheerfulness and loveliness, for all that is most painful and revolting to the natural senses and perceptions. The soul in the mean time, disentangled from the flesh, has winged its flight to the presence of God. Though hitherto known only in connexion with its mortal habitation, it is not dependent upon it; it can exist dis-` embodied; it survives, either a happy spirit before the throne of God, or a condemned spirit in the world of darkness and despair.

But shall this disunion last for ever? In the world of blessedness is only the soul redeemed and safely housed, beyond the reach of earthly storms; and in the world of misery, is the body, which was the companion of the soul in sin, exempt from its share of punishment? The word of God alone can answer this inquiry. Multitudes of the heathen, perhaps the large majority, can be scarcely said to have any intelligible persuasion of the resurrection either of the body or the soul; and, of those who acknowledge the latter, very few seem to have any fixed opinion respect. ing the former; so that, even by the Athenians themselves, St. Paul was accounted a babbler, for preaching the resurrection of the body. The soul they could perhaps more easily think of as incorruptible, and heir to a future existence; but the body, being corruptible, being actually seen in a state of dissolution, they could not look beyond its present degraded condition, to contemplate its resurrection. Yet the youngest child who has been instructed in the Holy Scriptures, has learned this surprisingly interesting and momentous truth. Our belief in the resurrection of the body is expressed in the very same creeds, and with the same certainty, as even our belief in a God. And with the revelation of our Creator in our hands, well may it be so expressed. For it was disclosed in the early stages of that revelation; so that the patriarch Job knew that, though worms

should destroy his earthly dwelling, yet that, in the latter day, he should in his flesh see God. But we need not go back to dates so ancient; for we live under a dispensation in which life and immortality are more visibly brought to light, through Christ Jesus; we are not left to doubt whether these mortal bodies, which, frail and sinful as they are, are still endeared to us by innumerable sympathies and tender associations, by our attachments and friendships towards those whom we have known and loved in the present life, shall be preserved and glorified, so as to become fit dwellings for our immortal spirits. The certainty of this truth is revealed to us in Scripture beyond any possibility of mistake; it shall so be; "this corruptible," as the Apostle Paul declares in our text, "must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."

The Apostle, when he penned this declaration, was replying to a twofold inquiry, or objection, which might be brought respecting the doctrine of the resurrection. "But some man will say, How are the dead raised up, and with what bcdy do they come?"

The former question he passes over very shortly. Do you ask, as though he said, how this thing can be; what power is sufficient for so mighty, so miraculous, a process? The power of God is sufficient: by that power the seed sown in the ground, while it seems to die away and to be for ever lost, is clothed with new properties, and is made to vegetate with teeming life and beauty: "God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed its own body." Thus we learn, even from the inferior works of his creation, his ability to raise these feeble and mortal bodies from their slumber in the grave, and to clothe them with immortality. But far more clearly and convincingly do we see this power displayed in the resurrection of Christ. Here is a proof that cannot be questioned;

for "now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept." So far as respects the ability of God, if evidence were necessary on such a point, we thus have evidence the strongest and exactly applicable to the case: we have not only our own miraculous creation and preservation from day to day, but we have the resurrection of Christ, the pledge, the proof, the pattern of our own. God therefore can raise the dead; and he who is thus able is equally faithful to his promise or his threatening; therefore God will raise the dead.

The second inquiry the Apostle considers more at length, yet still without attempting to administer to the gratification of a vain and useless curiosity. "With what body do they come?" Is it a body like, or unlike, the present? What are its qualities? What is its appearance? What are its offices? Is it capable of the same pains and pleasures? Will it be recognized by those who had shared its joys and sorrows upon earth? To no such inquiry is any reply given; yet all is disclosed to us on the subject that it was necessary for us to know, or that perhaps we could understand. The Apostle tells us, in substance, that as our present body is conformable to the purposes of our earthly existence, so the body which shall be raised at the last day, shall be fitted for its new existence in the eternal world.

Such a change, he further informs us, was essentially necessary; for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Even in the natural creation, he argues, there is a variety of bodies suited to the different arrangements which the Creator designed them to fulfil; there are bodies celestial and bodies terrestial: and among these themselves there are differences according to their natures, all terrestrial bodies not being alike; for there is one flesh of men, another of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds: and all celestial bodies not being alike, for there is one glory of

the sun, and another of the moon, and another of the stars; one star differing from another in glory, So also in the resurrection of the dead there is a change, whatever it be, to fit each glorified body to its allotted station. So necessary indeed is such a change, adds the Apostle, that even in the case of those who are alive at the coming of Christ, it shall pass upon them: they shall be changed, "in a noment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed; for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."

In describing this change, the Apostle notices various particulars, in which there shall be a great and glorious, though, to our present imperfect faculties, incomprehensible renovation. Keeping up the ana logy of seed committed to the ground, which forcibly represents the last rites offered to the mortal body, he says, "It is sown in corruption:" it moulders away; it shews no symptom of returning life; on the contrary, it mixes with its dust, and appears no more. But how is it raised?" It is raised in incorruption;" without any vestige of mortality; and heir to a never-ending existence. So again, "it is sown in dishonour;" it has lost its strength, its beauty, its animation; it has become offensive to the beholder; it is cast away as a despised and broken vessel, in which there is no plea sure." It is a "vile," because a sinful, body. But "it is raised in glory;" a glory the nature of which we cannot conceive, but which, the Apostle elsewhere tells us, renders it like the glorious or glorified body of the risen Saviour. All that once dishonoured it shall be for ever unknown; and it shall be invested with the dignity due to it as originally formed by the hand of God, as redeemed, in common with the soul, by the blood of Christ, and as the receptacle of a blessed and eternal spirit.

Again; "it is sown in weakness." Weak indeed, even beyond the weakness of earliest infancy; conquered by death, and preyed upon by worms. Yet how shall it be raised? Shall it be with the weakness with which it was laid in the tomb; bearing on it the ravages of time and disease, of mutilation and decay, of cor. ruption and of death? No; for "it is raised in power." The Almighty Power that raises it shall endue it with energies unknown to it in its former condition; with a spirit of life and vigour that shall never become extinct. Again; " it is sown a natural body;" it was subject in its earthly state, to the pains and sorrows, to the sins and temptations, of its mortal and fallen condition: it had an animal existence fitted to the place of its temporary abode, but wholly unfit for its intended residence among the blessed spirits in heaven; but "it is raised a spiritual body,"-a body freed from all mortal passions, all inlets to danger, all incentives to evil. It will not hunger or thirst; it will not feel fatigue or anguish; it will not be subjected to the vicissitudes of the seasons, to the heat of summer or the cold of winter; it will not need the aid of sleep or repose, to recruit powers which can never be exhausted; for it is "a spiritual body." What a spiritual body is, we cannot fully comprehend: it is enough for us to know that it is a body such as is required for its re-union to a spirit freed from all that is sinful, and destined to enjoy for ever the purities and felicities of the heavenly world, Lastly, it was a mortal body. In consequence of sin, the seeds of dissolution were sown within it: no sooner was it endued with life than it tended towards death, which, but for the preserving hand of God, would have subdued it, not after many months or years of existence, but in the very first feeble dawn of its being. This mortal tendency was seen in the pains and disorders which visited it; in the feebleness of its infancy, the feverishness of its

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