Jesus Christ was our representative, and that our sins were imputed to him, and his sufferings, actions and virtues imputed to us. In vain doth Dr. Huntington in his posthumous works, entitled "Calvinism Improved," speak in similar language, for every man must represent himself, and have his own sins, or holiness, imputed to him. Every one will stand or fall in proportion to his own improvement, or misim. provement. Such are the views which the Scripture giveth unto us of these things.

Hell

"On these great plans, the law is all against Adam and us. is prepared for Adam and us; but Christ has suffered all the demands of the law and the pains of hell for us-therefore his sufferings are ours, his actions ours, and his virtues ours, so we may now go to sleep; the judgment must be over, and hell must be over and done with already. Owhat a dream! What a mad-man's vision !

"Nevertheless, we know that we must all appear at the judgment seat of Christ in our own persons, and in our own persons suffer the pains of hell or the joys of heaven. Notwithstanding all that Adam and our blessed Lord has done, we shall have, individually, to answer for ourselves.

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'Now, Brethren, if you can find any passage in holy writ that sayeth, directly or indirectly, that Adam was our representative, or that Christ was our representative, that Adam's sins, or Christ's righteousness, is imputed to us, you are safe in believing it, but if not, your danger is great in receiving it. I know of no such passages in the word of God." (To be Continued.)

DIVINITY.

SUBSTANCE OF A SERMON ON 1 JOHN IV. 19.

"We love Him because He first loved us."

THE author of this inspired composition had the high honour of being called "that disciple whom Jesus loved;" and, if we may judge from the character of his writings, he was the disciple, emphatically, who loved Jesus.

Every man impresses more or less of the character of his own temper and spirit on his writings. The disciple John's writings are tender, filial, childlike, and full of love towards the person and

character of his Lord. He has given us within the compass of this short chapter, three memorable sentences, and those on subjects which are so important-so characteristic of the whole of divine truth-and so comprehensive, that had we, through some mysterious and inscrutable act of the Divine Providence, to lament the loss of every other part of the New Testament, or of the entire Scriptures, we might find in them a comprehensive summary of "the faith once delivered to the saints." The first of these is, that incomprehensible but delightfully interesting and encouraging declaration, "God is love." It is in this chapter, also, that we have that other sentence, so big with mercy, and so full of consolation, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." And then, to crown the whole, by bringing the former to bear on our individual character and interests, we have the declaration of the text, "We love Him because He first loved us." These memorable sentences are all contained in the chapter before us; and there is a world of theology, of evangelical truth, embraced in them.

Without stopping to make any formal or technical division of the text, we remark that it presents to us, in its two separate parts, truths of the first importance, and may be considered as the testimony of every living christian to all that is valuable in the gospel.

I. WE LOVE HIM.

It is not easy to define love, but we know it by our consciousness. Love must also have its evidences; and he who ventures to deliver this testimony, ought to be ready" to give a reason of the hope that is in him, with meekness and fear."

Let us try our love :

1. We hold God in the highest estimation if we love Him. Perfection and usefulness are the two things necessary to command love. And is not God prefect? "He is the rock, and His work is perfect." If we contemplate the profound of His infinite essence, we shall see that as the first and the last, the fountain and the giver of Life, He must be essentially and infinitely perfect. All those high and awful attributes of His nature, of which we obtain an imperfect conception even through the medium of revelation, shew Him to us as the chief beauty, the all-perfect God. But love must have an object suitable to it; and useful as well as excellent. And the soul that loves God, not only beholds in Him every thing that is excellent and perfect, but estimates Him as that which is indispensably necessary, and all-sufficient to gratify his utmost desires, and fill his most enlarged capacities.

"We love Him," not only as He is essentially good, but as He is

relatively so to us. But we might acknowledge this, and have correct notions of God as the chief good and the chief beauty, and yet be far from loving Him: but "we know that we love Him," because there is an adherence of our will, and a bias of our affections towards Him. It is one thing to acknowledge His pure and spotless perfection, and another to love him with an entire heart.

2. If we love God, that love saith, "Whom have I in Heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee!" Here is rest and satisfaction to the entire man. This is the property of love; it gives rest and satisfaction for ever. Love is a sacrificing grace: it finds its own happiness in its object. The soul can no more rest in itself than in the creature, and when it is animated by this principle, self is renounced and sacrificed to God, the object of love. Hence, the most delightful conception we can have of God's love toward us is not derived from a consideration of His creative or His redeeming power, or both of them together; but from the fact that He both created and redeemed us to bestow Himself upon us—to make us one with Himself. The whole of His merciful procedure is designed to issue in this. "We love Him," for we are no longer our own, but His. Every Christian heart testifies to this; there is a devoting of our entire selves to Him, every thing we have and are; and there is a holy jealousy lest the sacrifice should not be complete, and extend to the entire man; and, when this is the case, the love becomes mutual-" My beloved is mine

and I am his !"

3. "We love Him." If this be the case, there is one common interest subsisting between us. We love all that God loves-this is its proper effect. It creates a common interest, and hence we love whatever He has marked with the character of His own genius. His word -His law-His ministers-His people-and even His very enemies, are the objects of our regard, that we may be like our Father who is in Heaven, who makes His sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and His rain to descend on the just and on the unjust.

There is no surer

4. If we love God, our desires go out after him. proof than this, that God has the supreme place in our affections: desire is the soul in motion, and by it we testify our love to God. Numerous are the occasions on which we shall find this desire called forth in all its intensity; but especially will this be the case, where we have in any measure departed from the narrow way. When our corruptions have arisen to grieve the loving Spirit of God, how do we grieve, and desire to have a renewal of that sweeter communion with our offended God. But, above all, your desires after the fruition of

God, in eternal glory, will testify whether you love him or not. Can we love God, and not ardently desire and pant for the approach of that day, when, the remaining corruption and infirmities of our nature being removed, we shall love him with a perfect heart, and serve him without any mixture of sin? The Spirit and the Bride unite in praying, "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly;" and St. Paul makes it characteristic of those who love God, to "love the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." By the economy of redemption, and the personal and redeeming work of the Saviour, who, while he was "God with God," was man with men," and, in this character, is made the special object of our affection, our love is greatly promoted and assisted, inasmuch as, by this method, the love of God is more nearly assimilated to the human passion, though greatly modified and refined.

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But how comes such a feeling as this to be superinduced upon us, who never cared aught about it? This leads us to the remaining part of our subject.

II. WE LOVE HIM BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US.

Here is the solution. And how did he love us? He loved us as creatures, by giving us the capacity to love him; by placing us under a law which required us to love him, and by writing this law upon our hearts. He loved us as Christians-understanding by this term, persons initiated into his visible church by baptism. By this initiation, we were placed in circumstances of becoming acquainted with God as our Redeemer; and also with many gracious provisions of the covenant of mercy. These are great motives to the love of God, and they appeal to us as we are creatures, and members of the visible church. In these expressions of God's love to us, there is an objective sufficiency to excite our love to him; but this is very different from the efficiency which is requisite to produce it. And we venture to assert, that never did the heart, the depraved and God-hating heart of any fallen son or daughter of Adam, beat with love to God, without an addition motive to these. This question may soon be settled if objected to. If these things be sufficient to excite this love, then all to whom they are revealed will love. But is it so? Experience testifies against it. There must, then, be another solution of the phrase "We love him because he first loved us."-Here is an assignment of efficiency to this "because he first loved us."

This first loving of us, then, must be referred to that more special love to the sinner, which by its working, begets in us "repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ," absolves us from the guilt of sin, and sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts, as a Spirit

of adoption, and a Spirit of renovation. It is by this revelation, this special love to our souls, that that faith is excited, the property of which is to apply individually to self that which the infinite beneficence of the Deity designed for all-" He loved me, and gave himself for me." This is a point in Christian theology of great importance, and yet it is one about which men have been sadly mistaken. This manifestation of God's love must go before our love to him. A man under the guilt and condemnation of sin, cannot love God: he is afraid of him; and, therefore, his justification and his regeneration must precede his love to God. You know this love to be a fruit of the Spirit, but the Spirit is not given till we are justified. The great moral destitution of our nature is the absence of the Holy Spirit from our hearts; and he must take up his abode there, before we can love God-"The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us." But it may be well to remark, that, notwithstanding the truth of what has just been said, there is a preparatory work of the Spirit in the heart, which gives us some relish for the things of God, and some desires after him; but still it is not till faith comes, and we are justified freely, that "we love him because he has loved us. It is then that the soul sees the king in his beauty, and is united to him; it then enters into the land, and possesses it as its rest.

Brethren, let us not deceive ourselves about love to God; let us not confound it with some good feeling-some generous and kindly emo. tion toward the Deity. The religion of too many is the religion of emotion,-like the lightning, bright and brief. The love of God has its emotions; it is a passion-a sacred refining passion;-but let us not confound it with mere feeling; let us not build so mighty a fabric as our salvation upon the sliding sand; for nothing but the rock of ages can sustain it when the tempest sets in; and, whatever you may think about this love, if it have not been produced in you by the working of the Spirit of God, by saving you from your sins, there is no foundation for the love of God.

If we love Him, we are made partakers of his nature, and we conform to his will; we deny ourselves, and take up our cross and follow Him; we prefer Him and His will to every thing of a worldly nature; and thus "hate father, and mother, and husband, and wife," &c., in comparison of Him. Examine yourselves: have you these Who will appropriate the maxim of the

proofs of the love of God? text?

We have given the love tokens which the believer can present to: