resurrection from the dead. To which question I answer thus: The translation of our sins to Christ may be considered two ways; either as in the decree-and then it imports nothing else but the certainty of that event which should take place at the appointed time-or as in the execution, which began when the Son of God, having assumed the nature of man, and the form of a servant, was in such a state that he could actually satisfy Divine justice for the elect.

acknowledging the him, and the handAll that form of a

"II. The very assumption of human nature was an debt of our sins which the Son of God had taken upon writing was sealed with the blood of his circumcision. servant, and the likeness of sinful flesh, which, continuing from the beginning of Christ's life even unto death, is an evidence of sin translated to him. For all that time which he passed in a mean and an abject state, he was never seen without sin, as Paul speaks (Heb. ix. 28). And in that meanness and misery, there was not only a confession of debt, but also a part of satisfaction. For as the death which God threatened to man, who was soon to sin, comprehends those miseries to which the sinner is obnoxious through the whole of life, and which are some part, at least, of the curse lying upon him, so it was just that Christ, in order to the payment of the debt which he had taken upon him, should pass a life obnoxious to many miseries, such as that of the sinner is. Now, as God exerciseth much long-suffering towards sinners, until the day of wrath and of just retribution come, when all the weight of his curse shall lie upon the damned, in like manner, neither was Christ in his servile state always so pressed with the weight of sins lying on him, but that now and then he was refreshed with a remarkable sense of the Divine favour, till the hour and the power of darkness came, when, being called to judgment, he underwent the most terrible things. Then chiefly was our iniquity exacted then most of all was Christ afflicted-then the satisfaction was perfect to the uttermost farthing. To say it in a word, as all miseries taken together are the debt of sin, so also Christ, to whom all the debt of the elect was translated, while he spent a life liable to miseries, which were most grievous at death; by all those miseries taken together, and by a cursed death itself, he satisfied Divine justice. So that all these, taken in cumulo, make up the payment which was due for our sins.

"III. Therefore they begin too late, and lengthen the time too much in which our sins lay upon Christ, who make it to commence with the cross, and to terminate in the resurrection. For elsewhere I have largely proved that those pains which he suffered in his body and soul prior to his crucifixion, belonged to the punishment of our sins, and that in them there was a demonstration of Divine wrath; but that after death he remained still loaded and deformed with our sins, does not agree with the celebrated saying, It is finished; nor with Paul's doctrine, who asserts that the handwriting which was against us was nailed to the cross, and so taken away; and that Christ, having spoiled hostile principalities and powers, and made a shew of them openly, triumphed over them by his cross (Col. ii. 14); nor, in fine, with other arguments of learned men, to be examined by and by. For it cannot be conceived how Christ was forsaken of God, cast off, and abominable to him, when the Father kindly embraced his spirit, and received it into heaven, and considered his body lying in the grave as the body of his Holy One, loving him, and beloved by him; hence his flesh did rest in hope (Ps. xvi. 9, 10)."

I am, yours truly,

A LOVER OF THE OLD THEOLOGY.

Poetry.

BETHEL.

CALMLY resting from thy toil
On this lonely spot;

Sleeping, dreaming, happy saint,
Earth and time forgot;

On this rocky waste thou liest,-
Thine the blessed lot!
Soaring dreamer, on thee shine
Rays of love and joy divine,-
What a dream-land now is thine !

Who would not sleep on such a bed,
With stony pillow for his head,

If they might dream with thee,
Whose glad dreaming is no seeming,
Nor whose sleeping ends in weeping,
And whose waking is no breaking
Of the bright reality.

Nearer to thy God in sleep,

Tasting fellowship more deep,

Entering heaven in glorious dreams,

Drinking there of living streams.

Meeting angel friends above,

Greeting them in peace and love,

Hearing songs unheard on earth,
Songs of everlasting mirth;

Who that dream would seek to break,

Who from such a sleep would wake?

NOTICE.

All readers of the Journal are most earnestly besought to give it room in their prayers; that by means of it God may be honoured and His truth advanced; also, that it may be conducted in faith and love, with sobriety of judgment and discernment of the truth, in nothing carried away into error, or hasty speech, or sharp unbrotherly disputation.

BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.

In the October Number, at page 377, six lines from the top, for "The scale is 62 English
miles to an inch," read "The scale is 187 English miles to an inch."

BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.