ther is that saving baptism which consists merely in the application of water to the body. He is a Christian who is one inwardly, who has the good conscience towards God; and saving baptism is the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Let all remember that if they would be saved-enter into the kingdom of God, they "must be born again," "born not of water only, but of the Spirit." And let all who have made profession of a good conscience remember, that where there is a good conscience there will be a good conversation; and that, if “ a man be in Christ a new creature," he will "put off the old man, who is corrupt in his deeds, and put on the new man, who, after Christ Jesus, is renewed in knowledge and in true holiness." Professing to be saved, from the fiery deluge which is coming on the unbelieving, disobedient, world, by the blood of Christ represented in baptism, he will show that, by the same precious blood, he is delivered from that world's power; redeemed from "the vain conversation received by tradition from his · fathers.' Freed from spiritual captivity, he will walk at liberty; and, brought into a new world, all old things will pass away, and "all things become new."

I cannot persuade myself to close this discourse, without dropping a word or two of warning to those "spirits in prison," of whom there are so many in our world, of whom I am afraid there may be some in this assembly, who, though the great Emancipator is present preaching peace and liberty, are yet disobedient, clinging to their chains, and refusing to come forth from their prison-house. I beseech them to consider that the long-suffering of God will not always wait for them, and that the deluge of fire will as certainly come as the deluge of water has come.

"C Is it

Oh! think, what must be the issue of this course of yours? a light matter to you to die in your sins, and to have the wrath of God forever abiding in you? Think you that it is a light matter to have refused Christ so often, and that after you have been so often requested to receive salvation? after the Lord has followed you with entreaties, hath called so often, 'Why will ye die?' yet wilfully to perish? Would you willingly die in this state? Oh! think, then, he is yet speaking peace; yet waiting, if at length you will return. This is one day more of his waiting and of his speaking to you here; but it may be the last day. For you the flood of fire may come to-morrow. You may die to-night, and, as death leaves you, judgment will find you. Oh! that ye were wise, and would consider your latter end. Why wear out the day of grace, as careless about Christ, as uncertain about salvation, as ever? As you love your souls, be serious in this matter. This was the undoing of the spirits in prison in the days of Noah. They were all for present things; they ate and drank, married and were given in marriage; they were exclusively occupied with things seen and temporal, drowned in them, and that drowned in a flood. Noah ate and drank, too; but his main work was the preparation of the ark. The necessities of life, the children of God are tied to. They must give some time and attention to them; but the thing that takes up their hearts, that which the bent of their souls

is set on, is an interest in Jesus Christ. All your wise designs are but pleasing madness, till this becomes you chief concern also. Others have had your privileges, and abused them; they might have obeyed the gospel, and obtained salvation; but they were disobedient, and are lost, lost forever. And all they set their heart on has passed away as a shadow; they have nothing of it but the bitter reflection, that they sold their souls for a thing of naught."

Will you follow them? You must to the grave, and that soon; but will you follow them to hell? Stop! Consider! Believe, obey the gospel. Now, now is the accepted time. He who listens to this call shall find, amidst the overflowing flood of Divine vengeance, in the blessed GoD-MAN, "a hiding-place from the storm, a covert from the tempest," and "shall be safe in that day of evil."

NOTE A. p. 479.

From the Talmudical writers, it appears that the dead body was not hung by the neck, but by the hands; and that it was hung, not on "a tree" properly called, but inì ov, on a piece of timber or stake,-Mischna, c. vi.; Gem. Babyl. Sanhed. c. vi. fol. 45, col. 2; edit. Amstel. The manner of hanging is thus described by one of these writers:They fix a stake in the earth, and out of that stake comes a piece of timber; and both the hands placed together are tied, and by them the executioner hangs the body up."— THEOD. DASSOVIUS. Dissertatio de suspendio hominis lapidibus obruti ad, Gal. iii. 13; Deut.

xxi. 22.

NOTE B. p. 490.

In bringing about the change referred to, the chief agent employed by Providence has been the Rev. ADAM THOMSON, D.D., of Coldstream. Few men have been honored in a higher degree than this public-spirited minister of Christ. Through his instrumentality, that Word of God, which its Author glorifies above all his name; that Word which is able to make men wise unto salvation-which was, to a certain extent in this country, "bound"-now runs, has free course, and is glorified. May nothing henceforth stop its course!

NOTE C. p. 510.

These are well-weighed words of the candid and learned Joachim Camerarius, a man every way worthy of being Melancthon's friend :-"Est hic unus ex iis locis sacrarum literarum, de quibus pietas religiosa quærere amplius et dubitare quid dicatur, sine reprehensione: et de quibus diversæ etiam sententiæ admitti posse videantur, dummodo non detorqueatur kavov Toù rò avrò ppoveiv, id est, religiosa de fide consensio, neque aberretur, àñò rǹs avaλoyías ris níorews." Luther's remarks, characteristic as they are, do not merit the same eulogium :--" Hac tam horribili pœna Petrus Apostolus quoque motus videtur, ut non aliter quam fanaticus loquatur talia verba, quæ ne hodie quidem, a nobis intelligi possunt."-1 Pet. iii. 19, 20. Mirabile profecto judicium, et vox pæne fanatica."--LUTH. Exeg. Opp. Latt. tom. ii. p. 221. I do not know that we can make any better apology for the rashness of the great reformer, than to confess with Langé, the worthy father-inlaw of the learned and judicious Rambach, " virum optimum aliquid humani passum esse ;” and that what he says, "ex affectu potius, quam verbis æstimandum esse."

NOTE D. p. 511.

Wiclif is uniform in his rendering "made dede in fleisch, but made quyk in spirit; he cam in spirit," &c. So is Tyndale, so far as the repeated mention of spirit is concerned: "Was kylled as pertayning to the flesshe; but was quykened in the sprete, in which sprete he also went," &c. Cranmer repeats Tyndale, as does the Genevan, with some slight orthographical changes. The Rhemists, in the first part of the rendering, are nearer the truth than any of them: "Mortified certes in flesh, but quickened in spirit; in the which spirit," &c.

NOTE E. p. 512.

A pretty full account of the diversified opinions referred to in this and the following paragraph, is to be found in the third excursus appended to the second fasciculus of Pott's Commentary on the Catholic Epistles," forming the ninth volume of the "Editio Koppiana" of the Greek New Testament. It is entitled, "Variæ interpretum, de descensu Jesu Christi ad inferos, sententiæ secundum temporum ordinem enumerantur, et breviter dijudicantur: nostraque interpretatio, copiosius explicatur." Bishop Horsley belongs to the more reasonable portion of this class. His defence of his view of the passage, like everything he did, bears the mark of power, both imaginative and ratiocinative; but, like many things he did, it is lamentably deficient in sober thinking and conclusive argument. It is a happy thing that Priestley had other confuters, and the divinity of Christ other defenders, than the Bishop of Rochester.

"Christus dum in terris vixit paucos Judæos convertit: at post mortem et resurrectionem suam, per spiritum profectus prædicavit spiritibus qui erant in carcere, 1 Pet. iii. 19; id est gentibus quæ sedebant in umbra mortis constrictæ compedibus, atque catenis tenebrarum et ignorantiæ, easque imperio ac regimini suo subjecit."-WOLZOGENIUS, Com. in Evang. Joan. ch. xiv. 12. Bib. Pol. Frat. tom. viii. p. 963.

Quæstio quam mihi proposuisti ex Epistola Apostoli Petri solet nos, ut te latere non arbitror, vehementissime commovere, quomodo illa verba accipienda sint, tanquam de inferis dicta. Replico ergo tibi eandem quæstionem, ut sive ipse potueris, sive aliquem qui possit inveneris, auferas de illa atque finias dubitationem meam. Multa millia hominum qui Deum ignorantes, et dæmonum vel simulachrorum cultui dediti a temporibus Noe usque ad passionem Christi, ex hac vita emigrarunt quos apud inferos Christus inveniens, quomodo illis non prædicavit sed illis tantum qui in diebus Noe increduli fuerunt, cum fabricaretur arca? Aut si omnibus prædicavit cur illos solos Petrus commemoravit, prætermissa multitudine tam innumerabili cæterorum? Quinam isti (spiritus in carcere) sint temerarium est definire. Cur Petrus eos tantum commemorare voluerit quibus in carcere inclusis evangelium prædicatum est, qui in diebus Noe cum fabricaretur arca increduli fuerunt vides quam latebrosum sit-et quæ me moveant, ne affirmare hinc aliquid audeam. His dictis subnectit. Proper hoc enim et mortuis Evangelizatum est,' dc. Quem non moveat ista profunditas! Considera tamen ne forte totum illud quod de conclusis in carcere spiritibus qui in diebus Noe non crediderant, Petrus Apostolus dicit, omnino ad inferos non pertineat, sed ad illa potius tempora, quorum formam ad hæc tempora transtulit. Illa quippe res gesta forma fuerat futurorum, ut ii qui modo non credunt Evangelio, dum in omnibus gentibus ædificatur ecclesia, illis intelligantur esse similes qui tunc non crediderunt cum fabricaretur arca. Illi autem qui crediderunt et per baptismum salvi fiunt, illis comparentur qui tunc in eadem arca salvi facti sunt per aquam. Fieri potest ut mortuos dixerit infideles, hoc est, in anima mortuos. Proinde etiam quod sequitur propter hoc et mortuis Evangelizatum est, ut judicentur quidem secundum homines in carne, vivant autem secundum Deum spiritu' non cogit apud inferos intelligi. Propterea enim in hac vita, et mortuis, Evangelizatum est, id est, infidelibus et iniquis, ut cum crediderunt judicentur quidem secundum homines in carne; hoc est in diversis tribulationibus et in ipsa morte carnis. Hæc expositio verborum Petri cui displicet, vel cui etiam si non displicet non tamen sufficit, quærat ea secundum inferos intelligere: qui si valuerit, illa quibus me moveri supra commemoravi ita solvere ut eorum auferat dubitationem, impertiat et mihi."-AUGUSTINI, Epistolæ. Ep. xcix. p. 500-511. 8vo. Ludg. 1561.

The article in ro veúpari, ch. iii. 18, according to the textus receptus, is rejected from the text by Wetstein, Griesbach, Matthæi, Scholz, and Lachmann. Bishop Middleton considers the true rendering of θανατωθεὶς σαρκὶ, ζωοποιηθεὶς δὲ πνεύματι, as “ dead carnally, but alive spiritually."-Doctrine of the Greek Article, p. 618.

NOTE F. p. 547.

Beausobre's note is worth quoting. 'Erepúrnua, "L'Ame," dit Tertullian, " n'est sanctifiée par le lavement, mais par la confession."-" Anima enim non lavatione sed responsione sancitur" pro sanctificatur. Je soupçonne que Tertullien a bien reconté. En effect, on trouve ce mot (Ερώτημα) dans cette signification. Καί ὁ νόμος αυτῷ πίστος ὡς ἐρώτημα dnλwv. Eccles. xxxiii. 3. La loi de Dieu sera pour un homme qui le craint, aussi fidèle que la response de l'Oracle."

The opinion of the learned and judicious Winer deserves also to be cited:-"'Eneprav can signify stipulari, but inspwrãobat is necessarily promittere, as also the glossaries teach. The answer to the question proposed (formally or implicitly) would be here the principal Bubject. 'Ercorn, derived from the active voice, would here be altogether without meaning. The proposed question was not that which brings felicity: it must be taken passively, and be derived from tanpwrãobal, promittere. More simply, and in accordance with biblical usage, we may translate o. a. e. c. O. the inquiry of a good conscience after God-comp. 2 Sam. xi. 7." This more simple mode of exegesis does not commend itself to my mind. Neander, after stating that the confession of faith made by catechumens at baptism was in answer to distinct questions, remarks in a note, " According to the most natural interpretation, 1 Pet. iii. 21, has reference to the question proposed at baptism,— Entornua, metonymice, for the pledge in answer to the question."-Gen. Ch. Hist. vol i. p. 421.

NOTE G. p. 548.

From this declaration the conclusion has been drawn, that none are fit subjects of baptism but such as have "the good conscience," and can give the corresponding "answer" or profession. The conclusion, though plausible, is not warranted. The Apostle Paul states, that, the true circumcision before God, is not the outward circumcision of the flesh, but the inward circumcision of the heart and spirit.'-Rom. ii. 29. But it would be a false conclusion, therefore Jewish infants, who are not capable of that spiritual circumcision, or of the profession of it, ought not to be circumcised.' The fair conclusion from Paul's statement is, no uncircumcised adult should be admitted to circumcision who does not seem to have the circumcision of the heart. The fair conclusion from Peter's is, no unbaptized adult should be admitted to baptism without seeming to have the good conscience, and making profession of it. Whether any infants, and if any, what infants may be baptized, is a question which must be determined by its own evidence. We know that the infants of Jews were the proper subjects of circumcision, notwithstanding the declaration in Rom. ii. 29: And the infants of Christians may be proper subjects of baptism, notwithstanding the declaration made here. Whether they are so, is a question on which good men are divided; and everything is a step towards their agreement, which distinctly marks what has, and what has not, a bearing on its determination. If the irrelevant arguments on both sides were put aside, the satisfactory decision of this question, which has causelessly divided the Church of Christ, and produced a great deal of unchristian feeling, would be greatly facilitated.

DISCOURSE XVII

EXHORTATION TO HOLINESS BASED ON THE ATONEMENT.

1 PET. iv. 1-6.-Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: wherein they think it strange that ye run not. with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

THE paragraph now read presents us with a very important theme of consideration. It directs us to the practical use which we should habitually make of that great fundamental principle of Christianity, "that Christ, the just One, suffered in the room of the unjust, that he might bring them to God." It teaches us to use it as the most serviceable piece of armor, whether defensive or offensive, that we can employ in the spiritual conflict, on which, as Christians, we profess to have entered; that which, in the preceding context, is represented as the expiation of our guilt, the price of our pardon, the ground of our hope, being here exhibited as also the means of our sanctification, the strongest motive, the most cheering encouragement, to "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God;" to "put off the old man, who is corrupt, and put on the new man, which, after God," that is, in the image of God, "is created in righteousness and true holiness;" or, as the apostle has it here, "to live no longer the rest of our time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God."

1

The words of the text are so obviously and so intimately related to those which immediately precede them, that we cannot help considering the commencement of a new chapter here as injudicious, and as fitted rather to obscure the sense: the natural place for a division being plainly the close of the eleventh verse. The long, and somewhat involved, sentence, which I have read (for it is one sentence), is a following up of the statement which had been made respecting the sufferings of Christ, in their nature, design, and consequences, by an exhortation enforced by two appropriate motives. The exhortation is contained in the second part of the first verse, and in the whole of the second; and the first motive is adduced in the third, fourth, and

1 1 Eph. iv. 24. Karà Ocóv.