sonant to the will of God.] vii. 22. viii. 6. ix. 15. x. 7-9.

2. Christ's enjoying the rewards due from the righteousness of the divine government, to his meritorious obedience. Of these rewards, the most grand and gratifying to his exalted benevolence is the right of conferring infinite and everlasting blessings upon an inconceivable multitude of sinful and otherwise lost men, in unison with securing and displaying the brightest glory of the divine perfections. "The Author of eternal salvation to all those who obey him. Wherefore, he is able to save to the uttermost [the most perfectly, in every sense] those who approach to God through him.--The service of the Living God ;-the redemption ;-the promise of the eternal inheritance." v. 9. vii. 25. ix. 14, 15, 28. x. 10-18; besides other passages and the general tenour of the Epistle, all leading us to continue "looking unto Jesus, the Author and the Finisher of our faith, who, FOR THE JOY that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." xii. 2. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of RIGHTEOUSNESS is the sceptre of thy kingdom! Thou hast loved righteousness and hast hated iniquity THEREFORE, O God,* thy God hath anointed

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* Heretofore, I have not ventured to render & còs, here, in the vocative; but the judgment and example of Michaelis, Dindorf, the younger Rosenmüller, and the recent Lausanne version or revision, Kuinöl, and even De Wette (in his German Version, 1831), have emboldened me to follow. Yet it cannot be absolutely either proved or disproved: either translation

thee with the oil of gladness above thy companions!" i. 8, 9. See also Matt. xi. 27. John i. 12. xvii. 2.

3. The legal reconciliation of God and all sinners who cordially receive the gospel method of salvation. This all-important idea is presented under two aspects.

(1.) Expiation or atonement.

This denotes the doing of something which shall furnish a just ground or reason in a system of judicial administration, for pardoning a convicted offender.

(2.) Propitiation: anything which shall have the property of disposing, inclining, or causing the judicial authority to admit the expiation; i. e. to assent to it as a valid reason for pardoning the offender.

Expiation therefore regards the condition of the offender; propitiation, that of the judge or sovereign. We can conceive cases in which an expiation, good and reasonable in its kind, might be offered, and yet

is agreeable to both the Hebrew and the Greek. In the phrase oil of gladness, the allusion is to the ancient Asiatic custom of pouring upon the heads of the guests, after a splendid feast, a small quantity of a very costly and exquisitely fragrant oil; and the highest measure of honour intended to be conferred upon an individual, was signified by the greater copiousness of this perfume. The imagery in the xlvth Psalm, is that of a royal bridal feast, in which the bridegroom's table is graced by the presence of other kings; but he has the preeminence above them all. In the oriental style, kingdoms and governments were called brides, and the inauguration of a sovereign was a marriage or a marriage-feast. Taking away the metaphor, the sense of the last clause will be of this kind, God hath pointed thee out as the Saviour and Sovereign of thy redeemed people, by the superabundance of the most valuable endowments and qualifications, distinguishing thee above all other rulers, instructors, or deliverers."

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a wise and good government might not be willing to accept it; i. e. might not be propitious to the offender and to the proposal for his being forgiven. We can also conceive of a wise and good government being cordially disposed and greatly desirous to pardon an offender; but unable to gratify this gracious disposition, because it can find no just grounds for such an act, and it is aware that a pardon arbitrary and destitute of unexceptionable reason would relax the obligations of law, bring dishonour upon public justice, and prove of pernicious example throughout the whole community.

It is also obvious that the same thing may be, and is most naturally fit and likely to be, both an expiation and a propitiation; i. e. be both a valid reason for pardoning, and a determining motive to the will of the competent authority to admit and act upon that

reason.

Now, in applying these terms to the great and awful case of ourselves, the whole world of justly condemned sinners, and our Judge, the infinitely Perfect God, there are some cautions of great importance to be observed.

(1.) Nothing can be admitted that would contradict incontrovertible first principles. But there are two such principles, which are often violated by inconsiderate advocates of the doctrine of salvation by the mediation of Christ; and the violation of them has afforded the advantage of all the plausible arguments urged against that doctrine by its adversaries.

His

The first is, the Immutability of God. moral principles, that is, his rectitude, wisdom, and goodness, as expressed by his blessed and holy will, can undergo no alteration; for to admit such a supposition would be destructive of the ABSOLUTE PERFECTION of the divine nature, as it would imply either an improvement or a deterioration in the subject of the supposed change. We cannot, therefore, hear, or read, without unspeakable disapprobation and regret, representations of the Deity as first actuated by the passions of wrath and fury towards sinful men, and as afterwards turned, by the presentation of the Saviour's sacrifice, into a different temper, a disposition of calmness, kindness, and grace.

The second foundation-principle is, that the Adorable God is, from eternity and in all the glorious constancy of his nature, gracious and merciful. He wants no extraneous motive to induce him to pity and relieve our miserable world. No change in God is necessary or desirable, if even it were possible. This is abundantly evident from many parts of the divine word e. g. Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7. John iii. 16. vi. 39. x. 17. Eph. i. 3-10. 2 Cor. v. 18, 19.

(2.) This concern is entirely one of Law and Administrative Wisdom. The great God is, in the unalterable nature of things, and from the necessary volitions of an infinitely perfect mind, the Righteous Ruler of the universe, intellectual as well as physical. Over the latter he rules according to certain fixed principles, some of which he has enabled mortals to discover; and they have called

them Laws of nature. Over the universe of intellectual beings, who act from volitions and are governed by motives, he rules also according to certain fixed principles; and these are the Laws of the moral world. Our knowledge of them is derived from himself; partly as he has implanted them in the moral instincts of our nature, partly as he has made them discoverable by our reasoning powers, and partly as he has given them clear expression by the voice of revelation.

The question, whether sinners shall be pardoned, is not one that can be referred to arbitrary will or absolute power. It is a question of law and govern

ment; and it is to be solved by the dictates of wisdom, goodness, justice, and consistency. God's disposition to shew mercy is original and unchangeable : in this sense nothing is needed to render him propitious. But the way and manner, in which it will be suitable to all the other considerations proper to be taken into the account, that he should shew mercy, none but HIMSELF is qualified to determine. To deny this would be manifest folly and impiety. Now we have found, and the design of this volume is to present the evidence on the case, that He has determined upon this matter; and that he has given us to know that pardoning and restoring mercy shall be exercised in the way of MEDIATION and EXPIATION.

From these facts it clearly follows, that a phraseology derived from the administration of government and law is proper and necessary, in all our considerations upon this, the most momentous and interesting