authority and power. As it follows, "who is even at the right hand of God."

Thither, then, let us follow him in thought. Thither let us raise our hearts and affections. Because he humbled himself below all other humiliation, even to the death of the cross; therefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places; far above all principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.

The Father has fulfilled to his dear Son that prediction of the Psalmist, "The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." The right hand is the place of honour. Thus when king Solomon would pay his mother the most marked respect, he sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for her on his right hand. What a demonstration then is this, that Christ has been accepted of his Father, that he has accomplished all on our behalf, that he undertook to accomplish; that he hath magnified the divine law, and satisfied the Divine Lawgiver,-"who is even AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD."

Were a prince of the blood, for imputed rebellion against his king, condemned; were an act of attainder passed upon him, depriving him of his properties and titles, and sentencing him to death and decapitation; and were we afterwards informed that this very individual had been received at court, treated with distinguished attention, and placed at the sovereign's right hand at table, and invested with unbounded authority, could we question for a moment the fact of his reinstatement in the royal favour? No; we could not. Who, for example, could have questioned

Joseph's restoration to the favour of Pharaoh, when he was taken from his dungeon, and set over all the realm of Egypt? Seeing, then, Christ is thus exalted in the court of heaven, installed in the administration of affairs over all worlds, how vain were it to doubt for a single moment, that all the iniquity wherewith he was charged on our account has been remitted, and that he is " God's beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased?"

Now, let us always bear in mind the relation which the Saviour fills to those who truly trust in Him. He is their Representative now, as well as he was when on earth. He represented them on the cross. There and in the garden did he bear the full storm of the divine indignation. He was bruised for their iniquities: he was punished as their surety, or rather, they were punished in him. By a just and necessary consequence, then, being united to him by faith, they are now in him accepted, exalted, and glorified.

There is another circumstance connected with this branch of our subject which further establishes the same conclusion, which is the posture ascribed to Christ in the heavenly kingdom: that of SITTING. The inspired writer of the epistle to the Hebrews draws a remarkable contrast between the Jewish high priest and our's, in this particular: " every priest," says he, "standeth daily ministering, and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God."

Standing implies something remaining to be done; but sitting that the work has been completed, and that the person now rests from his labours: as God is said to have rested the seventh day from all his works. Christ's sitting at the Father's right hand denotes that he is invested with supreme power; that

he has taken possessioa of heaven in his people's name; and that he is employing his unlimited influence and power to aid, defend, and bring them thither. Who then can question their perfect acceptance with God? Who can accuse those who are thus already glorified and saved in their exalted Mediator?

There is another step still in this heavenly ladder; but that I must defer to a future consideration. For

the present 1 conclude with a very few observations relative to what has been already advanced. Do I address any sin-convnced soul, oppressed with a sense of its guilt, and apprehensions of divine wrath? Let such be encouraged by the foregoing meditations, to look unto Jesus" and be saved. There is sufficient merit, sufficient power, and sufficient willingness also in him, to cleanse and deliver you from all your iniquities: ay, though they had been ten thousand times more numerous or enormous than they are. Though you had been guilty of as many sins as ever were committed by the whole human species, magnify and multiply them as you please; yet the blood of the blessed Lamb of God, sprinkled on your hearts by the Spirit of faith, can wash them clean away, and present you as spotless before the Father, as the holiest angel that stands in his presence. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. It is a sea which has neither bounds nor bottom and can cover the top of the highest mountain that is cast into it.' We read of lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition, but here is an ocean that can drown those very lusts. The deity of the offerer confers on the sacrifice an unlimited value.

Yea, such is the wondrous wisdom and consideration of God, that he has graciously provided us in his dear Son some countervailing circumstance against every peculiarity and grade of transgression

that might possibly oppress the conscience of any sincere penitent. For example: have our sins been many and heinous? Christ Our surety was charged with many and heinous crimes. Were you even a traitor, an impostor, a seducer, a blasphemer, a devil himself, the Holy One of God was innocently accused of all these enormities.

Again, are your outward misdemeanors aggravated by inward depravity of heart? Christ's bodily sufferings were incomparably exceeded by his mental. The sufferings of his soul were the soul of his sufferings.

Once more: have you presumptuously made a covenant with hell? as some are asserted in scripture to do this is not probable; but supposing you had committed even this iniquity-what then? Christ offered himself for your sins by a covenant with heaven—or rather heaven's King.

In short, there is nothing you can adduce as a ground of discouragement; but there is something in the circumstances attending the Redeemer's satisfaction fully to counterbalance and outweigh it. With him there is not only redemption, but " plenteous redemption." redemption." There is not only a sufficiency, but a redundancy of grace. Wherefore He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him." To the uttermost that is, to the uttermost extent of guilt, to the uttermost stage of sanctification, and to the uttermost point of time. He " has the keys of hell and of death." Who then can plunge you into the abyss of torment, when the keys of that infernal prison are in possession of your Saviour?

The question, therefore, is nothow sinful you are; how aggravated your sinfulness by knowledge, by ingratitude, by warnings, by impenitence, or by any other causes; the question is-Do you now repent? Are you heartily

sorry for these your misdoings? Is the remembrance of them grievous to you? Is the burden of them intolerable? And do you now draw nigh to God by Christ, with prayer and confession, and supplication? If so then Christ is able and willing to save you, and saved you shall certainly be. "For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of an humble and contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word: to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite."

Be not dismayed then by fears that you are not of the "elect" mentioned in the text-Who shall prove elect, and who not, is one of those "secret things which belong unto God." Beware then of

:

which, it is to be feared, many have stumbled at the very threshold of religious inquiry and thence been precipitated into desperation and perdition. Remember the

unrestricted fulness and freeness of the gospel invitations. All, all without exception, are invited, nay besought, nay required, nay admonished, at the peril of eternal punishment, to go to God, and lay hold of that perfect and eternal salvation, which he so cordially offers them in the Redeemer. Nor will any perish because they were not elected, but simply because they would not go to Christ that they might have life." Go then to him; cast yourself at his feet: and say, "If I perish, I will perish here." There you are at the very fount and well-spring of salvation. And Christ casts none away that go to him; but counsels all the ends of the earth to "look unto him, and be saved."

IN one of Mr. Legh Richmond's Letters to his son Wilberforce, the following passage occurs.

As I was journeying near York last Saturday, where should I suddenly find myself, but in a little village called Wilberforce, as my driver, and the way-post informed me. Dear me,' said I to my fellow-traveller, how a certain little lad of my acquaintance would be surprised and pleased, had he been in the chaise this moment.' So I got out and walked up and down in Wilberforce, Wilberforce, thinking and talking about that said little lad. It is a pretty little place. As I loved the name, both for your sake, and for the sake of Henrietta's god-father, I amused myself with asking different people the name of the place, and everybody's answer was the same. asked an old man, What is this

I

village called?' Wilberforce, an' please your reverence,' said he, and so said all the rest; and thus I pleased myself with making a great many people speak your name, till one of them said, I canna think wots the matter wi' the mon; he made us aw say the same thing. Mayhop the mon's a foo.' Now all that was the matter with me, was, that I loved you, and it quite pleased me to hear your name when I so little expected it.'

Any one who is accustomed to study the writings of St. Paul must have been often struck with the clear exhibition of a similar feeling, on his part, towards that name, which, as he himself declares,

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is above every name;" and which is so evidently "the chiefest among ten thousand" in his sight, that he frequently repeats it, apparently, as Mr. Richmond did that of his

It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.

It makes the wounded spirit whole,
It calms the troubled breast,
'Tis manna to the hungry soul,

And to the weary, rest.

Such is the natural feeling of one who feels that he has been bought with a price," and who "We love Him, because

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can say,

he first loved us.”

We remark, painfully, and with regret, an opposite state of mind, in one who is nevertheless held up as a pattern and exemplar. In the Remains of the late R. H. Froude, lately published by Mr. Newman and Mr. Keble, we find, placed in the very front of the Memoir, a Private Journal of sixty-eight pages. One of the most remarkable points in this candid exhibition of character, is; that there is little in it to distinguish its writer from a heathen, a papist, or even from a pious Mahometan. The Saviour's name is never once introduced! This total silence is so remarkable, that the editors feel it necessary to apologize for, and to explain it, in the following note, affixed at the end of the said journal.

"The reader's attention should be called to one peculiarity of the foregoing Journal, from which instruction may be gained, viz. the absence of any distinctive mention of our Lord and Saviour, in the the prayers and meditations it contains. That the author's faith in His grace and merits was most implicit and most practical when he wrote it, can be amply testified (as far as such a thing is the subject of human testimony) by the friend

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who was most intimately acquainted with him at the time; nor is there reasonable doubt that where he speaks of God” and “Lord,” he includes an allusion to Christ under those titles. Yet it is remarkable that, though petitioning for the grace of the Third Person in the Blessed Trinity, he does not introduce the name of Him, from and by whom the Holy Ghost is vouchsafed to us; and this circumstance may be a comfort to those who cannot bring themselves to assume the tone of many popular writers of this day, yet are discouraged by the peremptoriness with which it is exacted of them. The truth is, that a mind alive to its own real state, often shrinks to utter what it most dwells upon, and is too full of awe and fear to do more than silently hope what it most wishes."

Now it is not for us to judge Mr. Froude, who has since gone to his account. This way of accounting for his silence may be the most correct one. But at least it exhibits his system in the light of one which keeps the sinner at a great distance from his Saviour. Nothing can be more unlike the language of St. Paul, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (Rom. v. 1, 2.)

But we should remember, that, according to Mr. Newman, we are not "justified by faith;" but by baptism first, and by our own works afterwards! This, indeed, accounts for the difference between John Newton and Richard Froude. This shews us at once, why the name of Jesus was "sweet" to the one; and never once alluded to by the other. But may God save us from having the happy, loving faith of Newton, superseded by the servile, distant dread, of the new Oxford theology.

IT has been assumed with much confidence (says the late Dr. Phelan) by Roman Catholic writers, that the primitive church of Ireland was a branch of the papacy, and until very lately our antiquaries were unanimous in ascribing the origin of the Irish church to a mission from Rome, under St. Patrick; but the opinion rested, I should say, on no sufficient authority. The documents usually quoted in its support, were for the most part, of a date comparatively recent; they abounded in anachronisms, contradictions, and such an extravagant profusion of miracles, as would make a genera law the most miraculous thing in nature.

'Struck with these circumstances, the late Dr. Ledwich, a man of taste, sagacity, and information, boldly denied the existence of St. Patrick. He has been answered by three Roman ecclesiastics, Doctors O'Conor, Milner, and Lanigan, all men of great erudition, and all deeply sensible of the importance of the question to the cause of their church.'

I now propose, (continues Dr. Phelan,) to shew that Ledwich and his opponents have divided the truth between them,-with the latter I maintain the existence of St. Patrick, with the former I deny his Roman mission. To establish this point, it will be necessary to review two classes of authorities; the one, Romish documents, in which, as Ledwich observed, the name of Patrick is suspiciously omitted; the other, Irish documents, which have been adduced on the opposite side, and which, as they are decisive for the existence of our saint, so are they equally decisive against his Roman mission. To begin with Romish

* From Dean Murray's History of the Romish Church. NOVEMBER, 1840.

documents, Patrick is not mentioned in the Chronicle of Prosper. Prosper published his Chronicle many years after the time of Patrick. He was disposed to do full justice to the spiritual achievements of the pontiff, yet he does not mention Patrick. Palladius, as I said before, came to Ireland, staid a few weeks, built three chapels, and ran away; but because Palladius was sent by Celestine, Prosper has commemorated the brief and ignoble effort. On the other hand, when Prosper published the last edition of his Chronicles, Patrick had been twenty-three years in Ireland, and his ministry had been blessed with the most signal success. What could have been the reason that he was omitted by Prosper ?

The venerable Bede agrees with Prosper in the mention of Palladious, and the omission of Patrick. Bede was strongly attached to the see of Rome, and though he speaks in liberal and grateful terms of the Irish, he seldom forgets to qualify his praise by some slight censure on their schismatical discipline.

But let us pass on to Irish writers, especially to Patrick's own confession. We learn from this document, that Patrick was born in Britain, and educated in Gaul; that some time after his return home he felt an impulse to preach the gospel in Ireland; that he was consecrated at home, and that he proceeded immediately to the scene of his ministry. During the remainder of his life, he considered himself fixed in Ireland by the inviolable bonds of duty; but occasionally the high resolves of the apostle were weakened by the natural yearnings of the man. I wished, he says, to go to Britain, my native country, and to my parents; nay, also to go to Gaul, to visit my brethren, and to see the face of the holy ones of my Lord; God knows I wished it very