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taker of all His Father's glorious and Divine perfections, and at the same time as true Son of man, and so partaker of all that constitutes unfallen human nature.

When we repeat these clauses, we say what our Lord says: "He that believeth not shall be damned;" and by the rest of the Creed we make this belief to be-what the Scriptures evidently imply that it is-a belief in the Person of the Redeemer as the Son of God Incarnate. If we are to be faithful to God on the one hand, and to souls on the other, we must set forth this belief in the Name of the Only Begotten as it is set forth in Scripture.

God says that to be saved we must believe in His Son, and we must say so too; and if we would be free from men's blood, we must assert that this belief must be, in the first place, a real bonâ fide acceptance of what the Scriptures say respecting Jesus, that He is the Only Begotten Son of God, and that He has "come in the flesh."

We do this, and then leave the matter to God, to deal with the man who comes short as seems good to Him.

So then in the use of these denunciations we are not pronouncing on the eternal state of any one. We are simply saying what Scripture says or implies-that saving faith in Christ must fully recognise Who He is. And we should be unfaithful to our trust if we said less.

Though we humbly trust that God will make every allowance, and take into full account the education or circumstances which have led to the heresy of parti cular persons, we have no power to make exceptions or reservations.

If the Scriptures are to be relied upon, God denounces eternal wrath, not only against sins of the flesh, but against sins of the spirit, such as unbelief-more particularly unbelief in the glory of His Son's Person; and it

must be so, for the unbelief which refuses assent to the glory of Christ's Person as the Only Begotten Son of God, strikes at the root of that manifestation of the love of the Father to us which is implied in His having given His Only Son, for it makes Him to have given a creature Whom He has created, and not a Son Who shares His own nature.

It strikes also, as is evident, at the root of the Scripture manifestation of the loving condescension of the Eternal Son, for the condescension of the Son is this, that being the true Son of God He became the true Son of man, and to save us abhorred neither the womb, nor pain, nor disgrace, nor death.

In conclusion, this Creed is not only a protest against past or present forms of unbelief, or misbelief, it is also a standing protest against the prevalent fanaticism of the day, which calls frantically on the sinner to trust in Christ's "blood," or "finished work," without any reference to, or with very little reference to, His Person.

It is a fact that books are now written and circulated by hundreds of thousands, urging men to believe in Christ, without telling them what they are to believe about Him.'

I say again, we have books written to invite men to come to Christ just as they are, to cast themselves upon

I allude to such books as Reid's "Blood of Jesus." I doubt not God often conveys good through such books, just as He undoubtedly conveyed benefit to thousands of souls by the preaching of such men as St. Francis of Assisi; but Scriptural they are not. I once had an interesting conversation with a great revival preacher of our Church. I asked him what place the application of the doctrine of the Incarnation had in the matter of the present saving of a soul. He seemed to think that it had none. He was surprised at the question, and yet the Incarnation is the first thing in each of the four Gospels.

Him, to wash themselves in His blood, and so on, and the writers of these books marvellously ignore the one thing which makes His Blood to be saving. I may be told that these men are quite orthodox on the Divinity of our Lord. No doubt they are, just as many a "legal" teacher is quite orthodox on justification. But if we are to be guided by Scripture, it is not enough to be orthodox on this point. It must be brought out in the first place, for it is the first thing in the New Testament.

And the bringing forward prominently the Person of Christ as God's only Begotten Son Incarnate, makes the most marked difference in all Christian teaching. It alters its whole tone. It engenders, or, at least, is calculated to engender sober, reverential, humble confidence, rather than noisy, boasting, obtrusive profession.

It damps fanaticism, because it is clearly out of character with that irreverent familiarity which is the life and soul of fanatical teaching.

If we realise that He Who died to save us is God Incarnate, we never can be tormented with doubts about His ability and willingness to save, or whether we have an interest in Him. We are raised into an atmosphere above all this.

Able to save you? why, He is your God!

Willing to save you? why, He took your flesh for this one purpose!

Have you an interest in His Blood?

If He shed His Blood for a select few, you probably have not. If He be the Eternal Word made flesh to redeem mankind and to be our Second Adam, then there seems to be no room for doubt about the matter.

CHAPTER III.

BAPTISMAL SERVICES.

SECTION I.

THE VISIBLE CHURCH.

THE next subject which demands our attention is a great principle pervading the whole of Scripture, and which more particularly finds its enunciation in the Baptismal Services. It is also clearly expressed in the Catechism, and in the Confirmation Service, and will be found, on examination, to be recognised in every part of the Prayerbook, just as it is recognised in every part of the Bible. It may be called the great "Church" truth of God's word; and may be stated somewhat as follows:

From the time of Abraham to the present time it has been God's will to save men, not only by working in them individual personal religion, but by joining them together in a body, or family, or kingdom, or Church.

This body has always been an outward and visible body known by certain outward and visible marks. Men have always been admitted into this Church by a rite or ordinance which betokened God's special goodwill towards each one of them. This Church, or body, has always been governed and instructed by a visible ministry. This Church, or body, or family, always has been, and, till the Second Advent, always will be, a mixed body; i.e., it has always consisted of two sets of persons, good and bad,

penitent and impenitent, those who realise God's love, and those who do not.

The Covenant of God has always been with this visible Church.

The word of God has always been addressed to this outward visible body.

The members of this body or Church are always assumed to be, or to have once been, in the favour of God.

Each member is assumed to partake, or to have once partaken, of the covenant grace, whatever that grace be. When any member of this Church commits sin, he is always assumed to sin against grace, of which he has been once made a partaker.

Never, for one moment, is it supposed that he sins because God has withheld grace from him.

No interior or "invisible" Church within this outward body is ever recognised in God's word as a separate Church. When a man who belongs to the visible body lives contrary to his profession, he is nowhere bid to examine himself as to whether he belongs to the visible body only, and not to the invisible. He is never bidden to get into some inner true fold. Another way of speaking is adopted in his case. He is rather told to believe and realise that the Church, in which he is already, is the fold of God, and so his condemnation will be the greater if he do not live and love accordingly. He is not bidden to examine himself as to whether he be a member of the true Church, but as to whether he be a true member of the Church.

Such is, in brief, what we may call the great Church principle of Scripture, and its practical application. The following remarks may serve further to illustrate it :

God, I said, saves men, not merely by making them onę

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