and the unquestionably great mystery of godliness is God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (1 Tim. iii. 16). And the work of the Holy Spirit is summed up thus-" After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that, being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs, according to the hope of eternal life" (Tit. iii. 7) :

"The Lord our God is but one God. In which indivisible unity, notwithstanding we adore the Father as being altogether of himself, we glorify that consubstantial Word which is the Son-we bless and magnify that co-essential Spirit eternally proceeding from both which is the Holy Ghost. Seeing, therefore, the Father is of none-the Son is of the Father and the Spirit is of both-they are by these, their several properties, really distinguishable from each other. For the substance of God, with this property to be of none, doth make the person of the Father; the very self-same substance in number, with this property to be of the Father, maketh the person of the Son; the same substance, having added to it the property of proceeding from the other two, maketh the person of the Holy Ghost. So that in every person there is implied both the substance of God which is one, and also that property which causeth the same person really and truly to differ from the other two. The Father and the Holy Ghost have no communion with the incarnation of the Word, otherwise than only by approbation and assent. Notwithstanding, forasmuch as the Word and Deity are one subject, we must beware we exclude not the nature of God from incarnation, and so make the Son of God incarnate, and not to be very God. For, undoubtedly, even the nature of God itself in the only person of the Son is incarnate, and hath taken to itself flesh. Wherefore, incarnation may neither be granted to any person but only one, nor yet denied to that nature which is common unto all three (Ecc. Pol. v. 51.)

In like manner we may affirm that the Father and Son have no communion with the Holy Spirit's office of sanctifying the Church otherwise than only by approbation and assent. For Christ declared it to be necessary that he should go to the Father in order to send the Holy Ghost; for, if he did not depart, that other Comforter could not come; but that he would send him from the Father to abide in the Church as the temple of God. And here we must also beware that we exclude not the nature of God from this indwelling of the Holy Ghost; for where he dwelleth the

Father and Son are also said to make their abode (John xiv. 23); and it is expressly declared that hereby we are made partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. i. 4).

Self-manifestation was the end which God had in view even in the creation and government of the world; for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead (Rom. i. 20). And he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; for in him we live, and move, and have our being; and we are also his offspring (Acts xvii. 25). And the providence by which all thiugs are governed and guided to their destined ends is to be ascribed to God the Father; for it is universal, it is unseen, it is inscrutable, and the times and the seasons the Father hath kept in his own power (Acts i. 7). And the gift of Christ to the world, and the gift of the Church to Christ, and the glory given to Christ as Head of the body to be partaken in by the members, are all to be attributed, in like manner, to God the Father. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me. Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me (John vi. 37; xvii. 24).

There is one God and one Mediator between God and man—the Man Christ Jesus. This is the work of the Son alone, and is necessarily and peculiarly his own. God and man were at enmity and had to be reconciled, and this was effected in the person of the Son, who is the Lamb of God. that taketh away the sin of the world. The two natures were united in his single person; that, being Man, he might have wherewith to offer; and, being God, its value might be infinite, so as to atone for the sins of all mankind. And being tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin, he died in our stead, the just for the unjust, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Thus, while the work of Christ is virtually commensurate with the love of God, and an atonement has been made for the sin of the whole world, yet we must remember that it only takes effect on them that believe, for justification cometh by faith in Christ. But every one who is brought by the providence of God within the sound of the Gospel should regard this as an intimation that the Father is willing to receive him, in having presented Christ as the object of faith. For Christ himself saith-"This is the will of him that sent me, that

every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him should have everlasting life." God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and hath committed to his ministers the word of reconciliation. Now then (saith St. Paul), we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God (2 Cor. v. 21). Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth (Rom. x. 4); and this righteousness is imputed to us through faith in Christ, and is not to be confounded with sanctification which is wrought in us, and is not the work of Christ, but of the Holy Spirit.

The work of the Holy Spirit, which is not wrought for the Church, but in the Church-and is in this respect distinguished from the work of the Father and that of the Sonhas other points of distinction from both, while it has also analogies or features of resemblance to both. The work of the Spirit is of personal application, though not confined to one person, as in the case of Christ; but extending to all the individuals which compose the body, the Church. Yet, being limited to the Church, it has in this respect an analogy with the incarnation which was limited to Christ; while being common to all the multitudes of all generations, of which the Church is composed, it resembles the universality seen in all the attributes of the Father. Ubiquity is the characteristic of the Father's work-limitation to one Person characterises that of the Son-limitation to the Church and ubiquity within those limits forms the resemblance and the distinction in the work of the Holy Ghost, who combines and applies the love of the Father and the sacrifice of the Son.

But we shall fail in estimating aright the work of the Holy Spirit if we do not also take into consideration the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit in the incarnation itself, and in sanctifying the nature of man which the Son of God assumed; and in filling it with the grace of ministry at the baptism in Jordan and in raising it from the tomb on the third dayall which we find ascribed in Scripture to the Holy Spirit conjoined with the will of the Father and the Son. At the annunciation it was said, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore, also, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God (Luke i. 35). Now, when all the people were baptised, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptised, and praying, the heaven was opened; and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and

a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased. And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan (Luke iii. 21; iv. 1). It was through the eternal Spirit that he offered himself without spot unto God (Heb. ix. 14). And it is by the same power, which wrought in him at the resurrection, that we are born again, enlightened, and enlarged in mind, so as to comprehend and enter into the things which pertain to the kingdom of God (Eph. i. 20; iv. 13).

Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." This astonished the Pharisee, and at the same time convicted him of inconsistency; for, if he were consistent in acknowledging Christ to be a teacher sent from God on the evidence of the miracles which were wrought, he ought to have expected the doctrines of such a teacher to be as supernatural as his acts were, and ought to have received them without question, comparing them with Scripture, and seeing in them the fulfilment of the word of God. Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me. Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? (John v. 39, 47).

Christ was sent to teach supernatural mysteries as well as to perform supernatural acts. Nicodemus acknowledged the miracles, but he was not prepared to receive the heavenly doctrine. Our Lord addressed himself at once to what he knew to be in the heart of the man, telling him that he was expecting an unreasonable and impossible thing, since heavenly doctrine can only be received by such as are heavenly minded; and he was coming in the same frame of mind as if he were going to a doctor of the law, and seeking for information on a subject which he was utterly unable to comprehend. To discern these heavenly things, which are altogether of a spiritual nature, requires a spiritual understanding, which may be compared to a new sense or a heavenly birth. It requires an act on the part of God which is called a new creation.

Our Lord was entitled to say, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; because he was not merely man -not like an ordinary prophet merely commissioned to announce the messages of God-but he was the Son of God, a partaker in all the divine counsel; and he had come forth from the bosom of the Father to declare the will of God in the fullest sense, and to bring in the last dispensation for which all preceding prophets had only prepared the way. And

to show Nicodemus how low his ideas were he saith-"If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" That is the change of heart, which so startled Nicodemus, had been spoken of by former prophets who were mere men, and was among the earthly things promised to the children of Israel to be fulfilled on the earth in the last days. It did not require a teacher sent from God, avouched by miracles, to declare anew truths which the old prophets had spoken of and which "a master in Israel" should have known.

"I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord" (Jer. xxiv. 7). "They shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever; and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul" (Jer. xxxii. 41). A similar promise (Jer. xxxi. 31) is referred to in the epistle to the Hebrews (viii. 6, 11.), in proof of a more excellent ministry through the mediator of a better covenant, established on better promises, being yet in store for the house of Israel. "For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second; for, finding fault with them he saith, Behold the days come that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people; and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest."

The same thing appears in the new creation, so often spoken of in Isaiah and the other prophets; and the prophecy of Joel is expressly referred to by St. Peter as fulfilled on the day of Pentecost: the effusion of the Holy Ghost being that characteristic of the latter days and last dispensation in which all the prophecies find their accomplishment, being looked forward to as their end and object.

If Christ had come to teach only such doctrines as were