redeem their souls, so that he must let that alone for ever, for the redemption of their souls is precious," and far above any price that poor, polluted human nature can pay for it; and the doctrine of supererogatory works, which has so prominent a place in the Church of Rome, is utterly repudiated by the Bible as a falsehood; for man, it is shown us there, has disqualified himself by his sinfulness for either being a saviour to himself or for others.

Had our only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, then, been man only, His attempting our salvation would have been as ineffectual for "redeeming our souls from the power of the grave," and rescuing our bodies from its mansion of corruption, as the sacrifices under the law had proved. Had He entered the tomb merely as one paying, by death, the forfeit of his own transgression, as a breaker of God's law, he was thus legally in the hands of "him who had the power of death, even the devil," who would have secured him for ever as his rightful prey; and if so, and if Christ had not been raised from the dead, we should be yet in our sins, and all of those who fell asleep in Jesus, perished as certainly as those who died in ignorance or disbelief of a Saviour!

But though our blessed Lord, glory be to His holy name! did indeed enter those dismal precincts, as all human flesh entered them, (for he descended

into hell, Hades,) bound hand and foot, and tied about with grave-clothes, in the custody of man's relentless foe,-the triumph ended there! for "the Prince of this world came, and found nothing in him," "the Lamb without blemish and without spot," that afforded a legal title for his detention;

66

therefore," says He, "did my heart rejoice, and my flesh rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer my flesh to see corruption." "Whom God therefore raised from the dead, having loosed the pains of death, for it was not possible he should be holden of them," who was, in his own person "the Prince of Life!" Our divine head, and brother in the flesh, condescended thus to humble himself unto death, that into the citadel where Satan's strength lay, he might penetrate; there He met our mortal foe face to face, and though the particulars of that final encounter are hid from us, the effects and fruits of it were gloriously revealed, and the victory of our Lord fully manifested, when, "the third day He rose again from the dead," He emerged triumphant from the tomb as conqueror, "the Captain of our salvation" made perfect through sufferings, having "taken the prey from the spoiler, and delivered the lawful captive;" nay, "having taken him captive whose captives we were," "having abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through

the Gospel," and having obtained "the keys of hell and of the grave," he rolled back the stone that would have lain for ever on man's imprisoned body, fulfilling the word that was spoken of Him, "He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations he will swallow up in death in victory," and affording us a pledge of the completion of it; "Thy dead men shall live, together (with) my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth her dead, when all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt;" and giving the believer this day-star of hope in his breast, to guide him through the dark valley of the shadow of death, that though they all must, like their divine Master, pass" through the grave and gate of death," they need fear no evil, for "Their Saviour has passed through its portals before them, And the lamp of his love is their guide through the tomb."

HEBER.

Thus " we see Jesus, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour ;" and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal life to all them that obey Him:" for we come now to the practical part of our subject, our Lord renouncing,

as altogether unbecoming in man, that proud spirit of independence of God, (the assumption of which had been Adam's ruin,) while He wore man's nature, acted and spake ever, we see, as one who stood not in His own strength, but declared, "I can do nothing of myself, but as the Father hath taught me I speak these things," and saying, He sought not honour himself, but His glory alone who "sent him," (John vii. 16-18;) in all this, giving us an insight into the exceeding sinfulness of Adam's sin, and the cause of his fall; who, aspiring to be as God, lost his high standing even as man, and put himself under the yoke of Satan, who had laid the glittering bait before him; and an insight, moreover, into the sin of our own hearts, as well as instructs us in our own duties. For not only did Adam fall by admitting the entrance of this principle of all evil into his mind, but we may, if we have any knowledge of our own hearts, ascertain that this is still the root of bitterness within us, which brings forth fruit unto death, the seed of corruption sown in our hearts by the fall, which is incapable of producing anything but weeds.

. Our Lord, in declaring the grand principle of the Gospel to a master of Israel, repeated three times over, to mark its importance, "We must be born again," "be born of the Spirit," ere we can see the

kingdom of God; and the meaning of this is evident, when we see our state by nature is ever fitly described as a state of death, and therefore does St. Paul describe us 66 as dead in trespasses and sins." How total and how complete this destruction of the vital principle within us became by the fall, we can best learn by observing the terms used to describe our recovery from it, as, had the injury been trivial or partial, such strong and compendious terms would have been most inappropriate; for unless there had been an entire loss of the principle of life, there could have been no necessity for our being regenerated, or born again, as are the terms used by our Lord, and St. Paul, St. James, St. Peter, and St. John. (Rom. viii. 11, John iii. and 1 John v. 1, James i. 18, 1 Peter i. 3, 23.)

Our having to be renewed after the image of him who had created us," testifies how wholly all traces of the Divine likeness were lost, in which we were originally made, or the necessity for our being recast in that divine mould would not have existed; our having to "put on the new man," which after God is created (the term is a very remarkable one) in righteousness and true holiness;" "for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works," may convince us how entirely dead the old principle of life within us had become, to give occa

K