"reign through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." And for mercy it is "built up for ever." Thus, there is a restitution of glory to the Divine goodness.

And likewise there is a restitution of glory to the DIVINE FAITHFULNESS. The faithfulness of God engaged in the penalty, was trod upon by man and the devil; but the faithfulness of God is maintained in the execution of that penalty threatened against man in the person of our glorious Immanuel; and not only so, but the faithfulness of God comes to be ESTABLISHED in the new covenant" in the very heavens:" for all the promises come to be "yea and amen in Christ, to the glory of God." Thus Christ restores what he took not away from his Father; he restores glory to God in the highest, which he never took away.

Human nature was debased by sin, and sunk below the beasts that perish, but the Son of God comes and takes the human nature into a personal union with himself, and thereby exalts the human nature above the angelical nature: "Verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham." And," Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?" And," When he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him." Thus the glory of human nature is restored and advanced to a far higher pinnacle of glory and honour, than when it stood in the first Adam before his fall, adorned with all its embroideries in the state of innocency. Believers, look up and see your nature exalted, taken out of the dunghill, and set on the throne of God. The throne of God is called "the throne of the Lamb," because our nature is there in a personal union with the Eternal Son of the Father.

But this is not all: he not only restores the glory of human na ture: but to all who believe in him, he restores to advantage all the losses we sustain, either by the sin of the first Adam, or our own personal transgression.

Did sin rob us of our sight and light, and leave us in darkness? Christ makes a restitution of that; for he comes forth as the bright and morning star, to give light to the darkened world, which may make us all sing and say with Zacharias, "Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us." "God is the Lord, which hath showed us light; bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar. Thou art my God, and I will praise thee; thou art my God, I will exalt thee. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever."

Sin hath robbed us of life, and left us among the congregation of the dead? Christ makes restitution of that; for he is the resurrection and the life and having recovered life by his own death, he keeps it in his hand and heart, and binds up our life with his,

Because I live, ye shall live also. Our life is hid with Christ in God.

Sin robbed us of our liberty: Christ makes restitution of that; he buys our liberty at the hand of justice, and then takes the executioner and binds him, and spoils him of his power over the poor captive; and having purchased liberty, he goes forth and proclaims liberty to the captives, and the opening the prison doors to them that are bound.

Satan and sin did spoil us of our wisdom, insomuch that ever since we are infatuated, and like fools, spend our money for that which is not bread, and our labour for that which cannot profit us? Christ restores wisdom unto fools and babes; he is "made of God unto us wisdom; and when we are determined to come to him, he makes us wiser than our teachers; wise to know the mysteries of the kingdom that are hid from the wise and prudent of the world, and revealed unto babes: "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven."

Sin spoiled and robbed us of our original righteousness: Christ makes restitution of that; for he himself is "the Lord our righteousness, and he was made sin for us, he who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

Sin divested us of the beautiful image of God: Christ makes restitution of that; for that very moment a poor sinner looks unto him with the eye of faith, he gets the print of the second Adam drawn again upon his soul, and it is by beholding his glory that we are changed into the same image.

Satan and sin robbed us of, and took away our health; so Christ, he comes to take possession of that: for he is the Physician of va, lue, and there is no disease so obstinate as is able to stand the virtue and healing power of this Physician; so that if we perish with our diseases, we need not do it with that word in our mouth, "Is there no balm in Gilead, and no physician there?"

Satan spoiled us of our peace: Well, Christ makes restitution of that; for "he is our peace." Peace on earth was one of the articles of the angels of praise," Peace on earth, and good-will towards men." Sin robbed us of our peace with God. Christ restores that; for "God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." As sin robbed us of peace of conscience, Christ restores that; 66 peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I

unto you."

When sin kindles a fire of war and strife between man and man ; when Christ comes with the sceptre of his power, he makes them beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; he makes the wolf dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid.

Sin robbed us of our ornaments; Christ restores these, he makes the king's daughter all glorious within. He brings us a far better

garment, even the garment of salvation, and the robe of righte

ousness to adorn us.

Sin took away our riches and treasures: Christ opens up a far better treasure, even unsearchable riches; and he tells us, that "riches are with him, yea, durable riches and righteousness."

By sin we were left without God in the world: Christ makes restitution of that; for what is Christ? He is IMMANUEL. And what is that? He is GOD WITH US. That may make our hearts rejoice indeed; our God is come back to us, and is saying, "I am the Lord thy God; I will be their God, and they shall be my people." It is a God in Christ that speaks in such a dialect to poor sinners. Thus you see, that Christ restores to man, what he took not away from him.

Sin robbed us of our title and charter to eternal life; whenever the covenant of works was broken, our charter was gone. But Christ restores a better charter even the covenant of grace; he himself is "given for a covenant to his people," and is the Alpha and Omega of the covenant; all the promises and blessings of it are" in him yea and amen." The covenant of works was a frail covenant, a slippery security; but the covenant of grace, and the charter granted unto us in Christ, it is a lasting charter. "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.

In short, Christ restores beauty and order again to the whole creation. Whenever man sinned, there fell such a dead weight upon the creation, that the whole creation was like to crumble to its original chaos; but the thing that prevented it was, the Son of God bought this earth as a theatre, on which his love to sinners might be displayed; therefore he will uphold the theatre till the scene be acted; and when it is acted, he will commit it to the flames: there is a word to that purpose. "I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages." The theatre of this earth was giving way under the weight of the wrath of God; but Christ being given as a covenant of the people, he upholds the earth and all things by the word of his power.

·000

The Editors of the Gospel Magazine.

BRIEF OBSERVATIONS ON THE WORD DUTY.

MY DEAR SIR:

E.

THIS is a word much misused and abused, insomuch that some persons, soaring high in the doctrines of grace, make a boast of discarding it entirely from their vocabulary. But it should be

remembered ways, that the misuse or abuse of a thing, is no valid argument against its use. And no doubt the word DUTY, like

LAW, is very good when used aright.

"What is God's gift, and God's work, CANNOT be man's duty." It is not, therefore, the duty of man to believe in Christ for life and salvation, for this he cannot do without an act of special grace on the part of God: in other words, without the Spirit of Christ, which is God the Holy Ghost. Nor is it the duty of a sinner to save himself from hell by his own works, because salvation is the effect of God's grace freely and discriminatively bestowed. It is clearly not the duty of any one to have that which another has an undoubted right to withhold from him according to his will and pleasure. But it is the duty of every human being to render perfect and unsinning obedience to the Creator and Ruler of all. It is objected-"Man is a fallen and corrupt sinner, and therefore cannot pay." This is true, but he is not less a debtor-it is not less his duty to pay-on that account. Inability to pay can never cancel a debt. Happy the man that can say, in the true faith of the gospel," my glorious Surety paid the debt I owe, and thereby discharged me from all legal obligation."

It is moreover the duty of every rational creature to pray to God, and to thank him for rational and providential good things, to be true and just in all his dealings, doing to others as he himself in like circumstances would be done unto. In short, duty is that which we owe to God and to our fellow-creatures.

"Then one of them, a lawyer, asked, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first, and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets." If any oue be disposed to enlarge, here is ample scope. It is an important thing to divide the word of God aright, keeping the law and the gospel perfectly distinct and unmixed! Jesus paid the debt of obedience, and suffered the penalty of transgression, and to them who believe in him, he is a receipt in full of all demands, to them it may be said, Put on therefore the Lord Jesus, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof. What we owe to do is our duty; and therefore let us render to Cesar the things which are Cesar's, and to God the things which are God's. At the same time having no confidence in mere duty-religion-men, who are no better than Scribes and Pharisees-hypocrites!

A CORRESPONDENT.

APHORISMS BY WILLIAM ROMAINE.

Never before Published.

No. LIII.

If thou art not Now complete in Christ, thou never canst be complete.

Believer, fight on in the strength of the Lord, and in the power of his might, soon thou shalt be what Christ now is. The members of his mystical body shall be perfectly like the head—righteous and holy, happy in body and soul.

My corruptions are my cross; and they would have been a sore burden, too heavy for me to bear, if the curse had not been taken out of them. But still pardoned as they are, yet in this tabernacle I do groan being burthened. I believe the day is coming, when I shall have perfect and eternal freedom from sin and sorrow. The first fruits of this only make me long the more for the blessed harvest. But still I desire to wait in hope, bearing my cross until the will of God be done.

The scriptures testify that the conquerors now round the throne, overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of the testimony, thus they found the promised victory.

Fight under the banner of Jesus, keep close to his colours, follow strictly his orders, and he will keep the world, sin and Satan under thy feet to-day, and thou shalt in the end come off more than conqueror.

Thy crown is in thy Lord's keeping, and as sure as it is on his head, it shall be on thine. Thou shalt soon set down with him on his throne, a crowned conqueror for evermore.

My beloved, never forget so long as thou art in the body, the flesh warreth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; in this conflict thou mayest FALL, but the covenant secures thee from PERISHING. Abraham the father of the faithful fell; who was the friend of God, fell into the same sin again and again. Moses fell; so did David. Peter, FOREWARNED, fell; so did all the apostles, yet they were believers, and they were by the Holy Spirit recovered out of the snare of the devil. Thus restored, you will learn to glorify more the infinitely perfect salvation of Jesus, and will be more dependent upon the grace and keeping of the Eternal Spirit.

God loves his family as a father, and loves every one of them with the same Almighty love. He cannot change, nor cease to be a father, and they cannot cease to be his children. His name is a security to them, that they cannot perish, for if ONE of them could, ALL might.

For thy final preservance, search the scriptures, and observe how clearly God declares his fixed purpose to keep his people, and to hold them up to the end.