may then fill the office of teachers, and baptism be the rite by which they will be admitted into the company of Christ's disciples. Mr Brown's construction is not merely not proved: there is no ground on which it can be made the means of supporting his proposition, except the assumption that the limitation of one command and promise to a specific period, carries with it necessarily the limitationto itof all others, and of the work of redemption itself; which we have already shewn to be arbitrary and false.

"His inference from the institution of the Lord's supper is equally groundless and monstrous:

"As to the Lord's supper, what can be more conclusive than 1 Cor. xi. 26: For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.'-P. 108.

"He regards this as teaching that the rite is to cease at Christ's coming. The passage, however, affirms nothing to that effect. It merely declares that they would proclaim Christ's death as often as they should eat the bread and drink the wine, which are its memorials, till he come. But admitting that it implies the cessation of the rite at that epoch, that does not infer the cessation of all the other means of grace, and completion of the work of redemption; nor is there any medium by which he can make it the instrument of proving his proposition, except the assumption on which he proceeds in his argument respecting baptism, that the limitation of any rite or duty to a specific period necessarily involves the limitation of all other laws, ordinances, and means of instruction and justification, also, to that period, and termination, consequently, of the salvation of men ;-the absurdity of which we have already shewn.

"Mr Brown, however, is not satisfied with this lawless deduction from the passage of an inference which it does not authorise; he proceeds to pronounce the Lord's supper a symbol of Christ's coming, instead of a memorial of his death; and to employ that astounding misrepresentation as a proof of its discontinuance, and the discontinuance of the whole system of means for the salvation of men at his advent :

"The Lord's supper will cease to be celebrated after Christ's coming, not because the Lord of the Church has so willed it, but because after that it would be meaningless-because the state of things, and the attitude of the believing soul, with reference to the two comings of Christ-of which the Lord's supper is THE ORDAINED AND BEAUTIFUL SYMBOL, shall then have no place.-P. 109.

"Of this sudden transformation of facts and propositions from their proper nature, to another of a wholly different kind,

examples unfortunately very frequently occur in Mr Brown's discussions. No wizard's wand ever wrought a quicker change of the object which it touched. The most indubitable facts, the most palpable certainties, lose their original qualities under his hand, and assume whatever shape he pleases. Having thus converted the Lord's supper from a memorial of his death into a symbol of his coming, so that the inference that it is then to be discontinued may appear to be legiti mate, and asserted that it is to be abolished independently of God's willing it, he then proceeds in his usual confident style to enounce his conclusion as demonstrated :

"What then have we in respect to these ordained means of grace? Why, that the second advent, come when it may, will put them all out of date. The passages which teach this make no distinction between the means and the end; they so implicate the grace conveyed with the means of conveying it, that both are seen disappearing at Christ's coming. If, then, there is to be a millennium after that, it cannot be an era of Christianity; for the whole Christian furniture, and with it all the Christianity that has hitherto obtained, has been withdrawn from the earth.-P. 109.

"Can this be deemed the work of a sane mind? Does it not rather indicate an intellect that, having been thrown from its equilibrium by some over-excitement, or fallen under the power of a delusive idea, transforms all objects into the shape and colour that suits its morbid condition? The work of Christ, it seems, in becoming incarnate, offering himself as a sacrifice, making expiation for sin, rising from the grave, and ascending to heaven, is no part of Christianity! The great doctrines of redemption by his blood, regeneration by the Spirit, justification by faith; the commands, the promises, the predictions of his Word, are no parts of the Christianity that has hitherto obtained.' Though they should survive the coming of Christ, no trace of the Christian system will remain : for Christianity consists of nothing but predictions of Christ's advent, exhortations to look for his coming, warnings that he will punish his enemies, and baptism and the Lord's supper! Such are the extravagances to which his morbid eagerness to overturn the doctrine of Christ's advent before the millennium carries him! Christianity itself is resolved into its rites, and finally struck from existence to accomplish his object. Not a shred of evidence does he furnish of the truth of his extraordinary propositions; they rest on his mere asseveration. Not an effort is made to obviate the contradictions which his theory offers to the great facts and teachings of the sacred Word. His dicta, though they overthrow the whole Christian system, settle the question as effectually as they could if they had the most explicit sanction of the divine

Word. The principles on which he proceeds, prove indeed as absolutely that Christianity has never had an existence, as that it will not exist. after Christ's coming. For they assume and imply that God could not possibly institute a series of dispensations, in each of which the same great truths should be embodied, and the work of redemption be carried on; as the cessation of any one element of an administrative system, he assumes, of necessity involves the cessation and abrogation of all the rest. The work of redemption must therefore have terminated at the close of the patriarchal age; and again most indisputably at the cessation of the Mosaic dispensation; and Christianity therefore has never gained an existence. On the other hand, he annihilates with equal certainty all that will have been accomplished in the salvation of men. Christianity is the religion of Christ, the system of facts, truths, laws, promises, and agencies which constitute his religion, and are the basis of the renovation, pardon, and justification of men, of their resurrection from the dead at his coming, eternal deliverance from the curse, and elevation to wisdom, righteousness, and bliss in his kingdom. If then, as Mr Brown asserts, there cannot be an era of Christianity after his coming; if all the Christianity that has hitherto obtained will be withdrawn;' if, in other words, all the great realities of the work of redemption-Christ's death and resurrection, the renovation of men by the Spirit, their justification by faith, their resurrection, and adoption as sons of God-are struck from existence, then undoubtedly all the consequences of Christ's death and the influences of the Spirit must disappear along with them; the whole that has been wrought in the salvation of men vanishes: and the ransomed relapse to the condition. they would have occupied had they never been made partakers of spiritual life! If the foundation be annihilated, the superstructure must of necessity be swept to annihilation also. Such is the unfathomable abyss into which Mr Brown's assumptions precipitate him! What a brilliant exhibition of his logical powers! What a worthy expedient for the overthrow of the great prophetic announcement that Christ is to come before the thousand years, and instead of terminating the work of redemption, is then to bring all peoples, nations, and languages to partake of its blessings, and perpetuate and reign over them for ever!"

(To be continued.)

ART. III.-GENESIS.

Chapter vi. 7.-" And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them." PROBABLY these words were spoken to Noah, "the preacher of righteousness," or to some of the other of the righteous patriarchs then on the earth, that they might proclaim the message of judgment. Not without special meaning are the commencing words, "And Jehovah said." He lifts up his voice and makes public declaration of his purpose of judgment, that man may be fully warned—that he may know when ruin comes that it is no sudden outburst of vengeance, but the coming forth or carrying out of a calm and deliberate purpose. † God's declaration is, "I will destroy man!" He has purposed, and who shall gainsay him, or disannul his purpose? He will "blot out" man, he will sweep him away as men do what they loathe. When he "blots out" our sins, on our believing the record of his grace, he blots them out entirely, removing them from us as far as the east is from the west; so he will "destroy" man as completely as he will remove sin; he will "blot out" these sinners of an unbelieving world as thoroughly as he "blots out" the sins of believing Noah and his children.

It is the man whom he has created that he is thus to "blot out." As he blots out the sin that he has not made, so he blots out the sinner whom he has made. He spares not the work of his own hands. Words of deep dread, truly! "I will destroy man whom I have created." Solemn warning and rebuke to those who flippantly taunt us with believing in the eternal doom of the ungodly, and say, "Oh! God did not make man to destroy him." True, he did not make him to destroy him; but he will do it! He did not make him for the darkness, but for the light; yet the everlasting darkness shall

* "I will destroy man,-even that very man whom I created,—not regarding the work of my hands,-from that very earth which I made for him,— man and all these living creatures which I made for his benefit." Thus the words may be paraphrased. The reader may remember Ovid's words-" Perdendum mortale genus.”—Metam. i. 188.

"Before wierd (doom) there's word," says the Northern proverb.

The word is, the same as is used for the washing away of filth, Deut. xxix. 20.; Ps. li. 1.; Isa. xliv. 22. Sept. ȧnaλeiyw; Vulg. delebo. The word translated "destroy," in the 13th verse is, the same word as "corrupted," verse 12; as if God would say, "They have corrupted themselves; I will corrupt them; I will make them reap the fruit of what they have sown." The Septuagint gives karapleɩpw; the Vulgate, disperdam.

be his lot. He desires not the death of the sinner, yet he shall die. He did not make man for hell, nor hell for man, yet the wicked shall be turned into hell. "I will destroy man whom I have created." He will do it himself; with his own hands will he destroy his own workmanship. He will not leave him to fall to pieces himself, nor merely make his own conscience his tormentor, as some men speak; he will execute judgment himself. And all this because he is the "righteous God that loveth righteousness."

He will destroy him "from the face of the earth." The earth is not to be destroyed in this ruin. It is not to receive any further curse on account of man's sin; nay, it is to be delivered from a burden, an intolerable load of defilement that had been accumulating for fifteen centuries. Though God had cursed the earth, yet he always makes it appear that it is for man's sake, not its own. "The creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly," (Rom. viii. 20). Nay, we might say that here there is a purpose of grace intimated respecting the earth, when judgment is proclaimed against its dwellers. God's object by the flood of waters was to cleanse the earth of its pollution, just as hereafter he shall purge it by fire, removing on that day not merely the incumbent wickedness, but burning out the curse from its veins. Water can do the former; but

fire is needed for the latter.

But though the earth itself is not to share man's ruin-the beasts and fowls and creeping things must be swept away along with him. They must share his doom, as being more closely linked to him than the material earth. What, then, must sin be in the sight of the Holy One, when it draws after it such boundless ruin! Whatever is most intimately connected with man, the sinner, must perish with him. Man's first sin introduced the curse, but it did not destroy the creatures; now, however, sin has so swelled, so risen and overflowed creation, that God's righteousness insists upon execution being done even upon the unintelligent creation, that he might thus publish before the universe, by the voice of an all-devouring flood, how terribly he hated that which man had done.

Then the statement of the sixth verse is repeated, "For it repenteth me that I have made them." How solemnly does this reiteration of God's mind fall upon our ears! How deeply does he feel the sin, the wrong, the dishonour that

* "Quod autem etiam interritum omnium animalium terrenorum volatiliumque denuntiat, magnitudinem futuræ cladis effatur; non (nam?) animantíbus rationis expertibus tanquam et ipsa peccaverint miratur exitium."Augustine.