THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

HAVING glanced at the divine sovereignty over nature, we offer the following thoughts on this branch of the general theme of the divine kingdom. 1. Its Reality. It is a true sovereignty, an actual dominion, a veritable possession of the throne of the universe. Though hid, it is not less real. There is much of the hiding of his power in God's dispensations toward man. This is inseparable from a state of rebellion. An insulted monarch retires from the rude and clamorous insurgents. To show his power is to terrify. So in Egypt and at Sinai, 'So terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.' This retiring on God's part is equally kind as prudent. The fool may say, there is no God-believe it he cannot. 2. Its Specialty. It is entirely unique, there is no sovereignty like it, it is absolutely one of its kind. Creation gives rights of dominion that no compact can. The rights of discovery, conquest, descent, election, and possession, are not for a moment comparable to the supremacy expressed in these words-all things were created by him and for him,'-'Of him, and through him, and to him are all things.' 3. Its Absoluteness. Being 'of,' 'through,' and 'to' God, the universe is absolutely under his control. The divine is the only really unlimited monarchy.' No earthly monarchy is of, through, and to the sovereign. So far as any human potentate has sought to arrogate such an empire, he has violated the rights of the people, the ends for which kings reign, and the peerless prerogative of the most High. But through all nature, the only response to God is submission-complete, instant, constant, perpetual, entire. 4. Its Inalienability. Its rights are unsurrenderable, they cannot be alienated. Vicegerents, viceroys, ambassadors, apostles, God may appoint, and has appointed; but their part has ever and only been to do his will. To give the sovereignty up to their will is an abdication-an impossibility with the immutable. All sacerdotal and regal pretensions to the contrary, find their general characterisation in the man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God' the lawless one whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming. His glory will he not give to another, nor

No. 7, Vol. I.-July 1857.

his praise to graven images. 5. Its Universality. There is no exemption. The earth, the sea, the sky, sun, moon, and stars, and all that in them is; animals, men, demons, angels, and archangels, faithful and rebellious, living and dead, unknowing and knowing, all-all-all are certainly and securely under the power of the King Eternal. His kingdom ruleth over all.' 6. Its Infinitude. The infinitudes of space, the infinitudes of duration, are its limits-nothing less or short of these. What a title—the King Eternal!' He who was, and is, and ever shall be, the Almighty. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain unto it; whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I fly from thy presence?' 7. Its Wisdom. What countless adaptations, arrangements, provisions! What contingencies, compensations, evolutions! What variety from simplicity! What magnificent results from the poorest means! What order from the bed of chaos! O the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! for who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor, or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?' 8. Its Potency. Who can comprehend the import of the word, The Almighty? Who can fathom the power involved in the saying, 'He spoke and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast?' Who can conceive what is implied in the fact that, at the forthgoing of the fiat, Let be light, the firmament, the sea, the land, the vegetable and animal worlds sprang into being! And, 9. Its Goodness. God saw it was good. How much goodness in the revolving seasons, the stores of provisions, avenues of enjoyment, opportunities of happiness we still possess, notwithstanding sin, none can reckon! And but for sin how much more good none can tell.

As our world's fairest fields have often been the theatre of earth's kingly battles, so Eden's lovely bowers were the scene where first the black standard of sin was raised by man, and the all bounteous God was challenged to assert his supremacy. Sin is the transgression of law, and therefore the joining in contest with the lawgiver. The power whose law is thus violated, must, therefore, either surrender to the rebels, or vindicate his authority. That God should do the former, it were blasphemous to suppose; for his own glory, as for the good of the universe, his empire must be maintained. To

have done so by the immediate apprehension, imprisonment, and punishment of the offenders, could only require his command. But God had already given the worlds a more notable example of his power to punish, when he spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment.' God had other resources, and other attributes than power and justice, to bring into view, of which the universe had seen nothing as yet; but of which he now designed to teach it glorious lessons. His power, wisdom, and goodness were everywhere seen in his creation, and universally experienced in his providence; the inflexibility of his justice, the inviolability of his government, the adequacy of his word to punish as to create, his determination to preserve his holy, happy realm from sin and ruin, were all manifest in the sentence executed on the fallen angels; it was even evident that the divine justice, when thus it first broke forth in judgment upon the astonished vision of the heavenly hosts, and hurled the rebel hierarchies from their lofty seats, was kindness to all the universe beside, in preserving it from the anarchy which these defiant spirits had sought to introduce. But with God there were depths of kindness, aspects of regard, manifestations of love, resources of goodness, which he had never shown, and of which he alone knew. Does God love the sinner? Can he forgive sin? Does he so love the transgressor as to forgive him? Can he do so without compromising his justice without lowering the sanctions of his government? without leading his subjects to presume on his goodness? Can he do so, and still manifest his hatred to sin? save the transgressor from its dominion? exhibit its dire inveteracy and make its victim a more loyal and happy subject than if he had never needed forgiveness? These questions, and many such, involving all the attributes of the divine character and government, remained unanswered and unanswerable, unless God himself were pleased to be the revealer.

Here, then, on the fall of man, opened a new and splendid era of development in the history of Jehovah's reign. The like had never been; the same could never again occur. Who then will say that, with such an opportunity for the inauguration of a remedial economy bringing Glory to God in the highest, on the earth peace and good will to man,' its announcement by promise was not one of the wisest and

best measures in all the administration of the Sovereign Jehovah Who in contemplating it can fail to appreciate the exclamation- The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad I'

Moral. One word, Submission. Reader, Sin does not release you from your allegiance to your God. The long due obligation is not cancelled by its non-fulfilment. The dis honest debtor may argue himself free, because he long since contracted the debt; but the truth is, his obligation grows only the heavier with time. Let, then, your surrender be timeous, heartfelt, and unreserved, for it is written, 'As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.'

THE DOCTRINE OF BAPTISM.

HAVING introduced and generalised this subject, we now particularise it under the following specific references:-1. To the Gospel, 2. Discipleship, 3. Forgiveness, 4. Life, 5. the Family of God, 6. the Kingdom or Church, 7. Holiness, and 8. Worship.

1. The Gospel. The gospel consists in completed facts; expressly in those of the death of the Messiah for our sins, his burial and resurrection. Being a finished work, it remains true and complete, independent of all subsequent facts. True or false doctrine concerning it, the faith or unbelief, the obedience or disobedience of men cannot affect it. But to our enjoying its inestimable blessings, we must be taught it, believe it, obey it. Yet our being taught, our believing and obeying, do not constitute the gospel-it is for ever complete in itself; but its completeness does not supersede the necessity of testimony to its completeness. We require to be taught what it is, and therefore are we so taught of it in the Scriptures, and in the ordinances of Scripture. But there are certain portions of the word which more expressly teach it, and there is this ordinance-Baptism-one aspect of the doctrine of which is, a direct testimony to the gospel and its completion. Baptism is a monument in proof-a standing memorial of the facts of the glad tidings. There are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one testimony. The Spirit by the word testifies, the water in baptism testifies, and the blood by the fruit of the

the

vine testifies. So the faithful alike in announcing the word, in baptizing the disciple, and in breaking the loaf and drinking cup, 'shew forth the Lord's death.' 'Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.' A burial implies death; a man's death implies conformity to him by whose sin death came; and that conformity implies Adam's death. So the burial of a disciple of Jesus in immersion implies his death; but this death implies conformity to him by whose obedience unto death life has come, and this conformity implies the death and burial of the second Adam. As a burial implies death, so a resurrection implies life from the dead, and as the immersion of the believer in water implies his union with Christ in his death and burial, and thereby testifies to the fact of the Saviour's decease and entombment, so this disciple's emersion from the water implies his rising to a new life; but as his baptismal death and burial were expressive of conformity to Christ's, and implied his, so the emersion from the water of baptism implies like conformity in newness of life, and that conformity implies the previous resurrection of the Messiah. Hence the argument of 1 Cor. xv. 29, What shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?' Christian Baptism implies death, burial, and resurrection; it immediately expresses the death, burial, and resurrection of the baptized, and thereby and mediately the same facts respecting him for whom or into whom the disciple is immersed. Now as baptism by the rising from the water denotes the resurrection of the disciples of Jesus to new or Christian life, so it proves the previous resurrection of Christ by the most express and direct implication; and thus it afforded the apostle a monumental proof against the no resurrection doctrine. If there be no resurrection, Christ has not been raised, why then are his disciples raised in baptism? It testifies a lie if he has not been raised! But as it testifies to the disciple being as his Lord,' and as it denotes their conformity in death and burial, it would signify an appointment to eternal death, not eternal life, but for the rising and the implied resurrection of Jesus the third, the culminating fact of the gospel; and therefore in discussing the hypothesis of no resurrection, the incomparable propriety of

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