Jehovah is God the Father,' the second is Elohim, our Elohim is God the Son,' for so He is called by the prophet, ‘Emmanuel,' 'God with us;' and the third word, 'Je

hovah,' is God the Holy Ghost;' and the fourth word,Achod,' that is one,' is to shew the unity of essence in the plurality of persons."

NOTE R. Page 89.

It has been said, that religion ends where mystery begins: this, as Seed remarks, is so far from being the case, that religion begins with the greatest, the most incomprehensible of all mysteries, the belief in a supreme Being, self-existing, without beginning and without end. The mere attempt to dwell upon such a Being, throws the mind into the most painful

circumstance that the word Jehovah is rendered Lord; and though it is put in italics to signify this, yet, generally speaking, it is overlooked; and so the literal translation of this passage is Hear, O Israel, Jehovah, our God, Jehovah, one.’ It is rather remarkable that the last word, 'one,' is always, in the Hebrew Bible, to be found in capital letters."

state of tension,1 and shews us the extreme weakness of our intellectual faculties. And yet there are, we believe, few sceptics so daring as to deny the existence of a supreme Being, although, from the moment they acknowledge a God, they bring themselves into difficulties, of which nothing but Christianity. can afford a rational solution. If the sceptic would probe his own faith, if he would look dispassionately at the difficulties of his own creed, we think that he would gladly lay hold of that only clue to all mysteries, which Christianity offers to us here; satisfied that the full development of God's purposes is reserved. for that higher state of intellectual being, where "we shall know even as we are known." How dreadful will it be for those to whom this knowledge will bring condemnation; for

66

hell," it has been well said, "is truth seen too late." And when this dreadful truth is revealed, the sceptic's excuse that he was not

1 It is said of Petrarch, that the effort he made to fix his mind intently for some length of time upon the consideration of God and eternity, so paralyzed his thinking powers, that it threw him into a trance, which lasted thirty hours.

2 For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid. Romans iii. 3, 4.

accountable for his faith will avail him nothing; for unless a man can attain a perfect certainty that Christianity is false-a certainty which none ever can attain-he is bound, as a reasonable being, to act as if it were true.1 The merchant may have no apprehension that his cargo will go to the bottom; he may think it most improbable, but still, as he cannot say it is impossible, he wisely insures his goods, deeming it more prudent to sacrifice, perhaps unnecessarily, some small portion of his substance, than to run the slightest risk of utter and irretrievable ruin.

NOTE S. Page 97.

Our Lord repeatedly appeals to the will of man (where that will was a rational, and, consequently, a responsible one,) in his interrogations: Wilt thou be made whole? what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? as if the concurrence of the will in man was a neces

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God. John vii. 17.

sary condition for the putting forth of that healing power which rested entirely in God.' St. Mark tells us, that in his own country, our Lord "could there do no mighty work," because of their unbelief; they were of those who would not come unto Him. 66 Help thou mine unbelief," is the cry of him who may say with the Apostle, " to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not." Our Lord declared of his sleeping disciples, that the spirit was willing, but the flesh weak. Of Judas, the lost one, it might be said, that he was strong in the flesh, but most unwilling in the spirit. There was a fearful character of determination and ob

'I profess my deep conviction that man was and is a fallen creature, not by accidents of bodily constitution, or any other cause, which human wisdom in a course of ages might be supposed capable of removing; but diseased in his will, in that will which is the true and only strict synonyme of the word, I, or the intelligent self.

I utterly disclaim the idea that any human intelligence, with whatever power it might manifest itself, is alone adequate to the office of restoring health to the will; but, at the same time, I deem it impious and absurd to hold that the Creator would have given us the faculty of reason, or that the Redeemer would, in so many varied forms of argument and persuasion, have appealed to it, if it had been either totally useless, or wholly impotent.-COLERIDGE.

duracy about that man, a promptness to receive, and a physical courage to execute, the evil suggestions of the enemy of mankind. He was one of those of whom the Scripture says, "They made their faces harder than a rock," for even the tender appellation of "friend," given to him by his all-gracious Master at the very moment he was betraying Him, had no power to make the traitor falter in his purpose, thereby shewing the utter insensibility and obduracy of his heart.

NOTE T. Page 97.

Our blessed Lord, in his human nature, was made in all things like unto us, sin excepted; and therefore, as man, knew both to choose the good, and to refuse the evil.1 As man, He was given a will, distinct from the will of his Father; for in the garden of Gethsemane we find that the will of his humanity, and the will of his divinity were no longer one; that his human nature shrunk from that weight

1 See Isaiah vii.