Notes

Note A. Page 20.

“So also is the Christ.” (i Cor. xii. 12.) Here the whole structure of the sentence would lead us to expect the words, so also is the Churchy How striking this turn in the thought by which, almost as by an inspired lapse of speech, the body of believers is named Christ P’’ Language can go no further in expressing the perfect oneness of the Lord and his Church.

Note B. Page 20.

I find an almost identical definition of Christian experience by Mr. Jukes.i He says, “Christian experience is our measure of apprehension of that which is already true for us in yesus.” Now it is already true for us in Jesus that “by Him all that believe are justified from all things.” And one believer is just as completely justified as another. But how various the degrees of apprehension of this fact! One Bees it hardly at all in such a way as to find true spiritual comfort from it. Another catches glimpses of it, a little while seeing it, and a little while not seeing it And a few perhaps apprehend it always and in its completeness. A groinng experience is a going from strength to strength in this truth, till every one of us in the Zion of full assurance appeareth before God 1

1 Law 0/ tht Offerings, p. 44.

Note C. Page 30. **Iam crucified with Christ (Gal. ii. 20.) I+is universally conceded that the verb here, as in the parallel passages in which the believer is represented as dead with Christy crucified with Christy etc., should be translated by the perfect tense, connecting the event directly with the crucifixion of our Lord. When, for the sake of bringing out this meaning, it has been necessary to vary from the common version, we have, for the sake of uniformity, taken Dean Alford’s translation as given in his English New Testament, marking the passages so quoted, by a * in the margin.

Note D. Page 32.

1. “If Christ took our nature upon Him, as we believe, by an act of love, it was not that of one but of all. He was not one man only among many men, but in Him all humanity was gathered up. And thus now, as at all time, mankind are, so to speak, organically united with Him. His acts are in a true sense our acts, so far as we realize the union; his death is our death, his resurrection our resurrection.” — Westcott’s Gospel of the Resurrection ch.

“•39.

2. “The Son of God took on Him human nature, not a human personality. ‘He took not angels, but the seed of Abraham.* Therefore He becomes the Redeemer of our several persons, because He is already the Redeemer of this our common nature, which He has made forever his own. As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.’ As human nature was present in Adam, when by his representative sin he ruined his posterity; so was human nature present in Christ our Lord, when by his voluntary offering of his sinless self, He * bare our sins in his own body on the tree.’ Christ is thus the second head of our race. Our nature is his own. He carried it with Him through life to death. He made it do and bear that which was utterly beyond its native strength. His eternal Person gave infinite merit to its acts and its sufferings. In Him it died, rose, ascended, and was perfectly well-pleasing to the All-Holy. Thus by no forced or artificial transaction, but in virtue of his existing representative relation to the human family. He gave Himself to be a ransom for all. In inten-”” tion and efficacy his suflferings were endured on behalf of all who share his human nature. In point of fact they avail to / pardon those who, through faith and the sacraments, are, livingly one with Him, so that his personal acts have be- i come their own.” — Liddon’s University Sermons, pp. 225, 226.

3.” * He took not angels, but the seed of Abraham.’ It pleased not the Word or Wisdom of God to take to itself some one person amongst men,y2>r then should that one have been advanced, which was assumed, and no more; but Wisdom, to the end she might save many, built her house of that nature which is common unto all; she made not this or that man her habitation, but dwelt in us.’* — Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity, Book v. ch. 52.

Note E. Page 36.

“Seest thou thy Saviour, therefore, hangmg upon the cross? All mankind hangs there with Him, as a knight or burgesa of Parliament voices his whole borough or county. What speak I of this? The members take the same lot with the Head. Every believer is a limb of that Body; how can he, therefore, but die with Him, and in Him? That real union, then, which is betwixt Christ and us, makes the cross or any oassion of Christ ours; so as the thorns pierced our heads, the scourges blooded our backs, the nails wounded our hands and feet, and the spear gored our sides and hearts; y virtue whereof we receive justification from our sins, and

true mortification of our corruptions. Every believer, iheie ore, is dead already for his sins, in his Saviour; he need not fear that he shall die again. God is too just to punish twice for one fault; to recover the sum of both the surety and principal. All the score of our arrearages is fully struck off, by the infinite satisfaction of our blessed Redeemer. Comfort thyself, therefore, thou penitent and faithful soul, in the confidence of thy safety. Thou shalt not die, but live, since thou art already crucified with thy Saviour. He died for thee, thou diedst in ?Iim.” — Bishop Hall.

Note F. Page 38. If such a view of justification seems to some to tend to demoralization, — this easy getting rid of sin, this painless mode of suffering for guilt in the person of another; it seems to us the only true safeguard against such demoialization. A gospel that makes us to be healed of our sins so easily through Christ, makes us to be hurt by our sins, more easily and more deeply through Him also than we could be through ourselves. “Give me an atoning dying substitute, and make me so thoroughly one with Him in God’s esteem, and by the Spirit’s work, and by my own faith, as that in taking guilt to myself, I inevitably aixd immediately lay it on Him; so thoroughly one with Him,, that I cannot possibly take guilt to Him, without taking it to myself, and then and not till then shall my soul return unto her rest;” aye, and then, and not till then, shall that soul be kept from entering into a guilty and self-indulgent rest For the same gospel that bids the penitent believer enter into rest because he has been “critcificd with Christ,” bids the worldly and careless believer remember that he is ^’’crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting Him to an. open shamed

* Rev. Hugh Martin’s .4 /(^ww-w/. p. 187.

Note G. Page 55. Rom. iv. 25. “Who was delivered — irapeSotfT) Sii ra Tropair-T(i/iOTo ^/Ltciv — because of our sins; and raised — ijyepOr) Sihrifv SiKaiaxTtv Tjfidy — because of our justification.” There would seem to be no (^uestion as to the correctness of Bishop Horsley’s view t f this passage, namely, that “the Apostle not only speaks of the sins of men as the cause or occasion of our Lord’s ddth, but of the justification of men as equally the cause or occasion of his resurrection. Or in other terms,” that our Lord’s resurrection took place in consequence of men’s juf/tification, in the same manner that his death took place in cottsequence of men’s sins. See Nine Sermons on our 1 xprd’s Resurrection.

Note H. Page 69. “But ye obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine whereunto ye were delivered.” (Rom. vi. 17.) Canon Wordsworth draws out very beautifully from this passage the truth that Christ’s death and resurrection fix the mould or pattern of Chriotian life into which at baptism we are cast, so that if we are not rigid and obstinate, but plastic and pliant, we readily take its form and wear its impress.

Note I. Page 70.

Since some still question the allusion in this passage to immersion as the primitive form of baptism, we append the following testimonies of learned and judicious men of different communions: —

“For the explanation of this figurative description of the baptismal rite, it is necessary to call attention to the well-known circumstance, that in the early days of the Church, persons when baptized were first plunged below and then raised above the water.” — Tholuck.

“There can be no question that the original form of baptism — the very meaning of the word, — was complete immersion in *>” deep baptismal waters; and that ^’t least foi four centuries any other form was either unknown or regarded as an exceptional, almost a monstrous case.” — Dean Stanley, Eastern Churchy p. 44.

“This passage cannot be understood unless it be borne in mind that the primitive baptism was by immersion.” —

CONYBEARE AND IIOWSON.

“All commentators of note (except Stuart and Hodge) expressly admit and take it for granted, that in this verse the ancient prevailing mode of baptism by immersion and emersion is implied, as giving additional force to the idea of the going down of the old and the raising up of the new man.” — Dr. Schaff, note to Lange p. 202.

Note J. Page 135.

“Name, Svofia, lZK% used in application to God and to Christ as the manifestation of God, — always denotes the entity itself in the whole compass of its properties. Accordingly prayer in the name of Christ, is such as is offered in the nature, mind, and Spirit of Christ.” — Olshausen.

“We pray in the name, that is, actually in the person of Christ, that is, as standing in his place through his preparatory and intercessory supplication, as if he came in with us and Himself prayed what we ask. Nor is this a mere * as if;” rather it is the essential truth of the matter. — «iTIER.

Note K. Page 138.

“Having previously said that prayer in the name of Christ is ever heard by the Father, he now adds the condition that we pray according to his will. The one is involved in the other, as we have already shown. He who prays in the name of Christ is moved and guided by the Spirit of Christ in prayer.

He can ask for nothing but that which is in accordance vAth th4 “Ufill of God; can with assurance ask only that which the Spirit of Christ makes known to him in prayer as corresponding to the Father’s will. When this certainty is wanting, his prayer will always be accompanied with the condition that the desire arising in his soul and taking the form of prayer, may have for its object something which the Father approves.” — Ne-ANDER on I yohn v. 14.

Note L. Page 147. Prayer in Christ is “the Eternal Life which comes to us through the Son, ascending from us through the Son, the Son in us honoring the Father, the worship of Sonship as such grateful to the Father, who seeketh such worship. Freedom and confidence of acknowledgment are of the very nature of such worship; arising necessarily from the oneness of the Spirit, causing oneness of mind and will in the worshippers and in Him who is worshipped. In such worship there is a continual living presentation of Christ to the Father, a continual drawing upon the delight of the Father in the Son, the outgoing of a confidence that, whatever is asked in Christ’s name, in the light of his name, in the faith of the Father’s acknowledgment of that name, will be received. The praises rendered, the desires cherished, the prayers offered, are all within the circle of the life of Christ, and ascend with the assurance of partaking in the favor which pertains to that life, which rests upon Him who is that life.” — J. McLeod Campbell, D. D., Christ the Bread of Life y p. 1 30.