who forms no projects nor designs but in reference to God, and the interests of mankind; who banishes from his understanding and from his memory every useless, foolish, and dangerous thought, together with every idea that has any tendency to defile his soul, or turn it for a moment away from the centre of eternal repose; who uses all his abilities, both natural and acquired, to grow in the grace of GOD, and to perform his will in the most acceptable manner;-in a word, he who sees GoD in all things, thinks of him at all times, acknowledges him in all his ways, and begins, continues, and ends all his thoughts, words, and works, to the glory of his name.

This is the person who loves God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his strength, and with all his mind: for he is crucified to the world, and the world is crucified to him. He lives, yet not he, but JESUS CHRIST lives in him; and the life that he lives in the flesh, he lives by faith in the Son of GOD. O glorious state! far beyond my description, which comprises an ineffable communion between the ever-blessed Trinity and the soul of man!

II. Of the Love of our Neighbour.

It is a love of equity, charity, succour, and benevolence. We owe to our neighbour, what we have a right to expect from him. This our blessed SAVIOUR positively asserts: "Do unto all men as ye would they should do unto you." By this rule, therefore, we should think, speak, and write concerning him ;-excuse him, bear with him, forgive him ;-rejoice in his felicity, mourn at his adversity, desire his prosperity, and procure it, when in our power ;-instruct his ignorance, help his weakness, and risk our lives for his sake, for the salvation of souls, and for the public good. In a word, we should do every thing for other persons, through all possible varieties of circumstance, which we could wish them to do for us, were the situation reversed. How happy would society be, were this sacred and rational precept properly observed! Reader! if others do not attend to it, it is not the less binding on thee. To him who loves God with all his heart, the fulfilment of this duty is not only possible, but easy and delightful. The adage says, Love feels no loads. And ever remember, that the man who would deprive another of any temporal or spiritual privilege which he requires that man to grant to him, is a bad member of civil and religious society, and neither loves God nor man.

III. Of the Love of Ourselves.

"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Self-love, as some have termed it, has been grievously declaimed against by many, who either did not understand the subject, or, mistaking that intense propensity which unregenerate men feel to gratify their vicious passions, have called it by this name, whereas that of self-hatred or self-murder would have been much more proper and expressive. If I am to love my neighbour as myself, and this love worketh no ill to its neigh

bour, then self-love, as used by our LORD, is something excellent. It is properly a sentiment essential to our nature, and inseparable from our being, by which we desire to be happy; by which we seek that happiness which we have not, and rejoice in it when we possess it. In a word, it is a uniform wish of the soul to avoid all evil, and to enjoy all good. In one sense, this is not so properly love, as the foundation and bond of love, by which we are united to the object which constitutes our happiness. We are the subject which receives the happiness, and is happy in consequence; but we are not the object which constitutes this happiness: for it is that object, properly speaking, which we love. The love of GoD and our neighbour is commanded in the sacred writings, but to love ourselves is not commanded, except by negative precepts; for this love, in the sense we have given to it above, is inseparable from our nature, and essential to our being.

IV. The consequence and recompence of this love.

"This do, and thou shalt live." He whose soul rests in God, supremely and intensely satisfied, who always lives to, and ever acts for God, must be happy. GoD, the author and fountain of life and felicity, lives in him: he lives, therefore, a spiritual life, which consists in the union of GoD and the soul. The works of righteousness which he performs are at once both the evidences and the functions of this spiritual life. He lives to all the important purposes and concerns of life, to glorify his GoD, and do good among men. He lives under the influences of the life-giving SPIRIT, and increases daily in love to God and man. The life of the wicked may be justly termed an ever-living death, but the life of the righteous is an ever-living life. He lives in death itself! Death is his: it is the gate of eternal life to his deathless spirit. He lives through eternity! He sees GOD as he is! Penetrated with the rays of his glory, he contemplates his infinite perfections, each of which must beget in him endless wonder, delight, and gratification! Behold! what manner of love the FATHER hath bestowed on us that we might be called the sons of GOD! -Father of Mercies! GoD of light, power, and love! illuminate, quicken, and invigorate our minds! Let us see the glorious hope of our calling, and never rest,

"Till transform'd by faith divine,

We gain that perfect love unknown;
Bright in all thy image shine,

By putting on thy SON!"

"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us; unto Him be glory in the church, by CHRIST JESUS, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."

EXTRACTS FROM ARMINIUS'S FIRST ORATION ON

THEOLOGY.

(Continued from page 227.)

On the UNION and SUBORDINATION of LEGAL and CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.

"I. SINCE We have GoD and his CHRIST for the object of our CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY, the manner in which LEGAL THEOLOGY* explains God unto us, is undoubtedly much amplified by this addition, and our Theology is thus infinitely ennobled above that which is Legal.

"For God has unfolded in CHRIST every one of his blessings. 'It pleased the FATHER, that in Him should all fulness dwell;' (Col. i. 19;) and that the fulness of the Godhead should dwell in him,' not by adumbration or according to the shadow, but 'bodily.' For this reason he is called, the image of the invisible God; ' (Col. i. 15;) the brightness of his FATHER'S glory, and the express image of his person,' (Heb. i. 3,) in whom the FATHER condescends to afford to us his infinite majesty, his immeasurable goodness, mercy, and philanthropy, to be contemplated and beheld, to be touched and felt; even as CHRIST himself says to PHILIP, He that hath seen me, hath seen the FATHER.' (John xiv. 9.) For those things which lay hidden and indiscernible within the FATHER, like the fine and deep traces in an engraved seal, stand out, become prominent, and may be most clearly and distinctly seen in CHRIST, as in an exact and protuberant impression, formed by the application of a deeply engraved seal on the substance to be impressed.

"1. In this Theology GoD truly appears, in the highest degree, as the Best and the Greatest of Beings: (1.) The BEST. Because he is not only willing, as in the former Theology, to communicate himself (for the happiness of men) to those who correctly discharge their duty, but to receive into his favour, and to reconcile to himself, those who are sinners, wicked, unfruitful, and declared enemies, and to bestow eternal life on them, when they repent.-(2.) The GREATEST. Because he has not only produced all THINGS from nothing, through the annihilation of the latter and the creation of the FORMER,-but because he has also effected a triumph over sin, (which is far more noxious than nothing, and conquered with greater difficulty,) by graciously pardoning it and powerfully putting it away;-and because he has brought in everlasting righteousness, by means of a second creation, and a regeneration which far exceeded the capacity of the law that acted as school-master. (Gal. iii. 24.) For this cause CHRIST is called the wisdom and the power of God, (1 Cor. i. 24,) far more illus

For the sense in which the learned PROFESSOR uses the term Legal Theology, as distinct from Christian Theology, see Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine for March, p. 225.-EDITOR.

trious than the wisdom and the power which were originally displayed in the creation of the universe.-(3.) In this Theology GoD is described to us as in every respect immutable, not only in regard to his nature but also to his will, which, as it has been manifested in the Gospel, is peremptory and conclusive, and, being the last of all, is not to be corrected by another will. For "JESUS CHRIST is the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever," (Heb. xiii. 8,)" by whom God hath in these last days spoken unto us." (Heb. i. 2.) Under the law, the state of this matter was very different, and that greatly to our ultimate advantage: For if the will of God, as unfolded in the law, had not only been fatal to us, but also the last expression of it, we, of all men most miserable, should have been banished for ever from God himself on account of that declaration of his will; and our doom would have been to a state of exile from salvation. I would not seem in this argument to ascribe any mutability to the will of God. I only place such a termination and boundary to his will, or rather to something willed by him, as was by himself before affixed to it, and predetermined by an eternal and peremptory decree, that thus a vacancy might be made for a better covenant established on better promises.' (Heb. vii. 22; viii. 6.)

"2. This Theology offers God in CHRIST as an object of our sight and knowledge, with such clearness, splendour, and plainness, that 'we, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the LORD, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the SPIRIT of the LORD.' (2 Cor. iii. 18.) In comparison with this brightness and glory, which were so pre-eminent and surpassing, the law itself is said not to have been either bright or glorious: for it had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.' (2 Cor. iii. 8.) This was indeed 'the wisdom of God which was kept secret since the world began.' (1 Cor. ii. 7; Rom. xvi. 25.) Great and inscrutable is this mystery: yet it is exhibited in CHRIST JESUS, and made manifest with such luminous clearness, that God is said to have been manifest in the flesh, (1 Tim. iii. 16,) in no other sense than as though it would never have been possible for him to be manifested without the flesh; for the express purpose that the eternal life which was with the FATHER, and THE WORD OF LIFE which was from the beginning with GoD, might be heard with our ears, seen with our eyes, and handled with our hands.' (1 John i. 1, 2.)

"3. The OBJECT of our Theology, being clothed in this manner, so abundantly fills the mind and satisfies the desire, that the Apostle openly declares, he was determined to know nothing among the Corinthians, save JESUS CHRIST, and him crucified.' (1 Cor. ii. 2.) To the Philippians he says, that he counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of CHRIST JESUS; for whom he had suffered the loss of all things, and counted them but dung that

he might know CHRIST, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings. (Phil. iii. 8, 10.) Nay, in the knowledge of the object of our Theology, modified in this manner, all true glorying and just boasting consist, as the passage which we before quoted from JEREMIAH, and the purpose to which ST. PAUL has accommodated it, most plainly evince. This is the manner in which it is expressed: 'Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.' (Jer. ix. 24.) When you hear any mention of mercy, your thoughts ought necessarily to revert to CHRIST, out of whom God is a consuming fire,' to destroy the sinners of the earth. (Deut. iv. 24; Heb. xii. 29.) The way in which ST. PAUL has accommodated it, is this: CHRIST JESUS is made unto us, of GoD, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the LORD!' (1 Cor. i. 30, 31.) Nor is it wonderful, that the mind should desire to know nothing save JESUS CHRIST,' or that its otherwise insatiable desire of knowledge should repose itself in him, since in him and in his Gospel are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.' (Col. ii. 3, 9.)

"II. Having finished that part of our subject which related to this UNION, let us now proceed to the SUBORDINATION which subsists between these two objects. We will FIRST inspect the nature of this subordination, and THEN its necessity.

"FIRST. ITS NATURE consists in this, that every saving communication which God has with us, or which we have with GoD, is performed by means of the intervention of CHRIST.

"1. The communication which God holds with us, is (i.) either in his benevolent affection towards us, (ii.) in his gracious decree concerning us, or (iii.) in his saving efficacy in us. In all these particulars CHRIST comes in as a middle man between the parties. For (i.) when God is willing to communicate to us the affection of his goodness and mercy, he looks upon his ANOINTED ONE, in whom, as 'his beloved, he makes us accepted, to the praise of the glory of his grace. (Eph. i. 6.)-(ii.) When he is pleased to make some gracious decree of his goodness and mercy, he interposes CHRIST between the purpose and the accomplishment, to announce his pleasure; for 'by JESUS CHRIST he predestinates us to the adoption of children.' (Eph. i. 5.)—(iii.) When he is willing out of his abundant affection to impart to us some blessing, according to his gracious decree, it is through the intervention of the same Divine Person. For in CHRIST, as our Head, the FATHER has laid up all these treasures and blessings; and they do not descend to us, except through him, or rather by him as the FATHER'S substitute, who administers them with authority, and distributes them according to his own pleasure.

"2. But the communication which we have with GOD, is also made by the intervention of CHRIST.-It consists of three degrees,-access to God, cleaving to him, and the enjoyment of him.

VOL. I. Third Series. MAY, 1822.

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