1. The Grace of the Covenant
Rev Roderick Macleod
The Shorter Catechism states, “The decrees of God are His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, whereby, for His own glory, He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass” (Ans 7). One important aspect of the eternal decree is the divine purpose to save some of the fallen race of Adam from ruin. The fact that God saves any sinner is a matter of pure grace, or unmerited kindness. The fact that He decrees to save one and not another is divine sovereignty. The arrangement by which elect sinners are saved is called the covenant of grace. It is like a jewel with many facets. No earthly prince could ever have admired his priceless jewels with such delight as the believer may admire that priceless arrangement we call the covenant of grace.
A covenant is a formal legal agreement or contract involving two or more parties about a matter that they each have an interest in. In it, one or more of the parties bind themselves to obligations. In this paper, the covenant discussed is that eternal arrangement between the Father, representing the glorious Trinity, and the Lord Jesus Christ as the “last Adam”, representing His people. This covenant is concerned with the salvation of God’s elect. The Shorter Catechism says, “God having, out of His mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer” (Ans 20).
Grace. The word has various uses in common English. Even in the Bible it has more than one meaning. We are at present concentrating on grace as a divine attribute. It is the attribute of divine goodness, viewed in a particular light; it is God’s boundless, timeless and changeless goodness viewed in a unique way. When infinite goodness freely bestows salvation, or any aspect of it, on one who in himself is viewed as unworthy, God’s goodness is called “grace”. It will help us form a clearer idea of what grace is if we view it by way of contrast. It is not merit which we have accrued by works of righteousness. When the Word of God speaks of grace in the context of the salvation of sinners, it is opposed to merit and works.
In Romans 4:4 Paul states, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness”. In 2 Timothy he says that God “hath saved us, and called us with an holy call-
1The first section of a paper presented at last year’s Theological Conference.
ing, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began”.
Paul makes plain that the salvation of the elect, based on free, sovereign grace, is irreconcilably opposed to the idea of salvation or election, based on merit accrued by works. He states, “And if it is by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work” (Rom 11:6). Paul insists that election is based on God’s sovereign and gracious will, decreeing that some shall be saved; it is not based on God looking to see who will be worthy to be elected. He will not allow us to think that these two, grace and human merit, can be mixed. This verse teaches that if we add one drop of works to grace, then grace ceases to be grace.
Paul compares what God decreed about the two brothers, Jacob and Esau. His argument shows that election is God in His grace sovereignly choosing a people from eternity: “For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth” (Rom 9:11).
Paul sees that the idea that merit is accrued by “works of righteousness” has great credit among men, and he labours to move them off it. He never says anything against good works, but he abhors the idea of self-righteousness, or merit accrued by sinners through their good works. He condemns the attitude of mind which imagines that we put God in debt to us by what we do for Him, or that God owes us salvation for our (poor) obedience to His law. Paul would put this counterfeit religion out of the Church because by it God is dishonoured and Christ’s righteousness is despised; it will keep those who trust in it out of heaven.
Human merit cannot justify a sinner. What use is it to trust in something that cannot justify? “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law” (Gal 2:16). “That no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith” (Gal 3:11). What use is it to trust in something that cannot remove the curse of the broken law? “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them (Gal 3:10).
Let us take heed to the warnings against trusting in human merit. It manifests a mind blind to our own sinfulness. Our words and thoughts are stained with sin. Behind every sinful thought or word, and every sinful feeling, there is a sinful nature defiling our moral character, making certain that everything proceeding out of our hearts will be sinful. To trust in human merit betrays ignorance about the Fall and its sad effects on us personally.
It manifests blindness to the spiritual depth and breadth of the law. It also manifests blindness of mind to the demands of the strict justice of God. It betrays a soul-ruining ignorance of the sweet reign of grace. This mercenary kind of religion is the ruin of thousands in the anti-Christian religion – a counterfeit Christianity and another gospel.
Grace can accomplish what the merit accrued by our righteousness (so-called) cannot. By this blessed attribute of divine grace, God gives help and mercy: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16).
By grace alone sinners are accepted: “To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6).
Grace purchased redemption and gives forgiveness: “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph 1:7).
By grace the spiritually dead are made alive: God, “even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)” (Eph 2:5).
The Almighty God justifies the ungodly. Because grace reigns in His Kingdom, God justifies sinners without reference to their moral character: “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:24).
By grace sinners are effectually called. Paul affirmed that this calling was by free, sovereign grace: “God, who . . . called me by His grace” (Gal 1:15).
By grace they are adopted: “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will” (Eph 1:5).
By grace they are sanctified: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezek 36:26).
By grace they persevere unto the end: “I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me” (Jer 32:40).
By grace they are brought to eternal glory: “For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Ps 84:11).
Let us drive counterfeit works out of our hearts and lives, finish with the covenant of works and our own righteousness, and fall down at the feet of the sovereign God of all grace, saying,
“Remember me, Lord, with that love which Thou to Thine dost bear;
with Thy salvation, O my God, to visit me draw near:
That I Thy chosen’s good may see, and in their joy rejoice;
And may with Thine inheritance triumph with cheerful voice”.
(Ps 106:4, metrical).
It is a Covenant of Grace because God is Gracious. As was affirmed already, grace is a divine attribute. It resides in the heart of the Father: He is the “God of all grace”. It resides in the heart of the Son: it is “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”. It is the leading governing principle in all that Christ did and continues to do for the redemption of His people. The Lord Jesus Christ is “full of grace and truth” – that is, He is exceedingly gracious and is therefore infinitely bounteous to all who ask to be made rich by Him according to the terms of the covenant of grace. Grace resides in the heart of the Holy Spirit: He is “the Spirit of grace”.
God has erected a throne, to which sinners may come, and it is characterised by grace. There grace dispenses the benefits of redemption “without money and without price”, to condemned sinners who make use of this blessed provision. Grace is compared to a sovereign invested with royal power and authority. “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 5:21). Grace, viewed as a divine attribute revealed in Christ, is adorned with both the beauty of holiness and the tenderest compassion and applied with irresistible power.
Grace is infinite kindness and is accompanied with infinite authority to dispense all good things from His banqueting house to the greatest sinner under the gospel, if he will have them. Grace delivers guilty sinners from the jaws of destruction. Grace bestows gifts liberally on men who in themselves are unworthy through sin, but it absolutely refuses to meet with sinners on any terms but its own, which are absolutely gracious. Neither will grace conduct the affairs of the covenant with the self-righteous, but only with self-condemned sinners. When grace wounds the self-righteous, proud sinner, it is like a surgeon wounding in order to heal.
An old writer summed up the freeness of salvation by the covenant of grace in these words: “Entirely detached from every supposition of human worth and operating independently of all conditions performed by man, it rises superior to human guilt and superabounds over human unworthiness”. This is the grace that characterises the covenant.
If the Son of God experienced a storm, His people cannot plead exemption. But they have ground to pray for a prosperous voyage and reason to expect that providence will give it, if divine wisdom has no purpose to serve by a tempest.
The very opposition made to the kingdom of Christ is a part of the plan of divine wisdom.
Alexander Carson
Peter Maclean1
Neil Dewar
Peter Maclean was born in May 1800 in the parish of Uig, in the Isle of Lewis. He was educated in the parish school, but with no thought of the ministry. He began a business and was very successful, but that was not to be his life work. The Lord had bestowed on him qualities of both head and heart which were well fitted, in His providence, to succeed in business, but He had a use for those gifts in the highest work in which a man can labour, and they were consecrated to that work when the time came.
A remarkable spiritual awakening began in Lewis in 1823. Alexander Macleod was minister of Uig, and his parish received a great blessing. In November 1825 Peter Maclean came under the power of the truth. One evening, he had, for the first time, to conduct family worship at home. The part of Scripture he began to read was Hosea 6. He had only read a sentence or two when he was arrested by the arrow of conviction in his soul. At the end of the second verse he had to pause and go back to the beginning, but sobs made him unable to proceed. His convictions were deep and thorough.
Yet, in the midst of his own alarm and anguish, he thought of the souls of others, and that very night he went to his neighbours and called on them to rise from their beds and seek God’s mercy. The people were awestruck. Some rose and began to pray; and at least one gave sufficient evidence in after life that his arousing that night resulted in a saving change. Having found rest in the Saviour, Maclean was possessed with an ardent desire for the conversion of others. To the last, this was one of the most prominent features of his character. After a time, he lost all heart for the work he was doing; he decided to give up his business and pursue his education with a view to the ministry, should the Lord be pleased to make his call clear. In winding up his affairs he gave a clear proof of his love to the brethren by blotting out of his books all the money they owed him.
After a short time at Aberdeen Grammar School, he entered King’s College, also in Aberdeen, in 1828. The following session he went to Edinburgh, where he completed his arts and theological courses. In 1832 he became a missionary among Highlanders, especially non-churchgoers, in Edinburgh and Leith. He visited them during the week and addressed meetings on Sabbath evenings. He became deeply interested in this work, and the Lord blessed it. It was therefore very reluctantly that, later that year, he went to take charge of the parish school in Uig.
1Abridged from Disruption Worthies of the Highlands. The writer was a nineteenth-century Free Church minister of Kingussie, Inverness-shire.
In 1836 he was licensed. Soon afterwards a call was sent to him from Highland settlers in Cape Breton, Canada, some of whom had known him before they emigrated. He felt it his duty to accept it and he was ordained to the mission in 1837. After arriving, he threw himself into his work in this extensive field with characteristic zeal and thoroughness. He made his headquarters at Whycocomah and laboured throughout the island, preaching almost daily. From the outset, the people had a thirst for the Word and crowds came to hear him.
In 1839, it was seen that the Spirit of the Lord was at work; many had been brought under concern for their salvation. He had seen the first drops of a shower. A deep, widespread awakening soon followed. To all Maclean’s other labours – of preaching, promoting schools, distributing books, selling Bibles – there was now added the welcome task of visiting, or meeting at his house, multitudes of anxious inquirers. When visiting the settlement many years afterwards, his former elders told him that all those whom he and they had believed were truly converted were continuing consistently in their Christian profession. This is a striking testimony to the reality of the work, as well as to the soundness of his discernment.
Maclean often suffered from the exposure and fatigue of long journeys through the settlement. He might say that he was “in journeyings often, in perils of waters . . . in perils in the wilderness . . . in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often”. Once, returning home by night across a frozen lake, after having become hot while preaching, a dangerous illness seized him and people despaired of his life. Another time, while far from home, a raging storm overtook him at night and he was glad to pass the night in a log cabin, sharing the accommodation – 10 feet by 12 – with children, parents, grandparents, and a black cow! On another occasion, hurrying to a Presbytery meeting, he had to urge his horse through a forest on fire, while burning branches fell all round. But as long as his strength held out and his Master’s work was prospering, he was happy, and thought little of the toil and hardship. But after labouring in the colony for five years, his strength gave way completely, and in 1842 he had to return to Scotland. His health was so poor that his friends scarcely expected him to get better.
After a short period of rest, he recovered a good measure of strength and he felt it a sin to be idle. The Disruption was now imminent and he resolved to preach the gospel in those parts of the West Highlands and Islands where the need was greatest as a result of the blighting reign of Moderatism. His fame as a powerful preacher soon spread far and near, and immense crowds flocked over moors and seas to hear him. The effects were remarkable: often large gatherings seemed powerfully moved as one man, numbers being
unable to refrain from expressing their feelings aloud. The fruit is never so abundant as the blossom; this is true in the spiritual world as in the physical. But genuine fruit did follow, much of which has been harvested, while some remains to this day.
Maclean was in Edinburgh on the day of the Disruption and he rejoiced that so many were ready to sacrifice their earthly all for Christ’s crown and the liberties of His people. He accepted a call from the Free Church congregation of Tobermory, on the Isle of Mull, and was inducted there in August 1843. Soon afterwards, he married a godly lady who proved a true helpmeet. He applied himself energetically to his work in this new sphere. He made frequent preaching journeys to Ardnamurchan and Morven as well as to various places in Mull. The Lord continued to bless his labours. While his great aim was to be an instrument in bringing souls to Christ, he was a formidable champion of Free Church principles.
In 1853 Maclean visited Canada as a deputy from the Free Church. One of his first duties was to dispense the Lord’s Supper at Whycocomah. It was a profoundly stirring, but solemn, scene. “I may truly say”, he writes, “that I never witnessed a more solemn and interesting communion season.” Such a large gathering, estimated at 10 000 had never been seen in those parts. We may get some idea of size of the congregation from the 200 boats moored in the bay and the 500 horses tied up in the woods. During this visit of some months, Maclean scarcely rested a single day; he travelled 7289 miles, and preached 91 times, besides prayer-meetings and other addresses.
During his pastorate at Tobermory he refused proposed calls from various congregations at home and in the colonies. No minister could be more revered by his people than he was. But circumstances tended gradually to raise the question of a change of sphere. He lost fully half of his congregation, by emigration or by moving to the mainland. This was the result of the destitution which followed the failure of the potato crop.
Thus when a call from the Free Church congregation of Stornoway came to him in 1855, he was inclined to consider it, though it was only after much conflict and earnest prayer for light that he saw that it was his duty to accept it. He was inducted in Stornoway in June. His labours in this large congregation were very demanding: preaching three times every Sabbath, conducting two or three meetings during the week, along with other pastoral duties. Though here he met with a good deal to discourage him, he also had tokens of the presence of the Master. In 1859 especially, there was a time of revival in his congregation and in others on the island. The people had a great thirst for the means of grace, so that weekday services had to be multiplied, and an assistant appointed for a time. Not a few were added to the Church.
In 1861 Maclean’s health broke down again completely and he was laid aside from active work for two years. This was a great trial to him, not only because of his physical suffering, but chiefly because, to use his own words, “the Lord has been pleased to deprive me of the one thing that I had asked, that I might be engaged in preaching the gospel. My highest ambition on earth was to preach Christ crucified to poor sinners, and to enjoy fellowship with Himself and His saints in His house.” When his health did not improve under medical treatment, a sea voyage was recommended, and the liberality of his people supplied the means. He sailed to Boston, in the United States, but returned by the same ship. While on the passage, laid low by his trouble, he wrote in his diary: “Here I resolved and promised the Lord that, should He spare me and give me strength, I would cross the same sea again to America to preach the everlasting gospel”. It was not till the spring of 1863 that, still somewhat unwell but with unabated zeal, he was able to resume work.
After another visit to Cape Breton in 1866, he resumed his duties in Stornoway, often expressing a hope that the Lord would visit the congregation with times of refreshing. But his work was done. That winter, while returning from the communion at Uig, he got wet and caught a severe cold accompanied by a cough which developed into bronchitis. For 15 months he suffered much, and for eight of these he was confined to bed. Except for one short interval, his mind was always clear and his soul in perfect peace. More than once he was heard saying, “I have served a good Master, a good Master”. The good Master came at last, and removed him from his sufferings to rest and reward on 28 March 1868.
Peter Maclean possessed great force of character, and no one could know him without being struck with how entirely he was devoted to his Master’s work. Manly, straightforward and conscientious, he disdained ignoble ends and motives and carnal policy. This purity was as conspicuous as the strength of his character. He was most uncompromising and faithful in maintaining what he believed to be Bible truth and Bible principle, and in re proving error and sin. He did not fear the face of man or shrink from re proving and exhorting, in private as well as from the pulpit. As a preacher, he was forcible and effective. Possessing a vigorous mind, a ready memory and a warm heart, he grasped his subject vividly, and could expound clearly and illustrate graphically. He had an earnest and impressive manner – sometimes vehement, then tender.
The last day will declare his success in the ministry. On this subject he was extremely reserved; he never spoke of what he had done. Once his wife referred to a paragraph in a Canadian paper, in which he was spoken of as the spiritual father of thousands. She asked him if it was true that his labours
had been so greatly blessed. He answered, “It would have been better if the writer of that notice had used the word ‘hundreds’; yes, I think he might have said ‘hundreds'”. That was the only reference he ever made to the matter. We cannot, however, doubt that he was instrumental in turning many unto righteousness, and that he has no obscure place among those who shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever.
Prayer1
3. What is Necessary for Acceptable Prayer
Charles Hodge
(1.) Sincerity. For prayer to be acceptable, there must most obviously be sincerity. God is a Spirit. He searches the heart. He is not satisfied with words or with external homage. He cannot be deceived and He will not be mocked. It is therefore a great sin in His sight when our hearts do not join in the words we utter before Him. We sin against Him when we pray and do not have any corresponding feelings of reverence – although angels would veil their faces in these circumstances. We also sin when we use forms of thanksgiving without gratitude, or those of humility and confession without any due sense of our unworthiness, or make petitions without any desire for the blessings we ask. Even sincere Christians must acknowledge that this evil often affects their prayers, and when, in places of public worship, multitudes repeat solemn forms of devotion – or profess to unite with those who utter them – without the corresponding emotions, the service is little better than mockery.
(2.) Reverence. God is infinitely exalted: infinite in His holiness as well as in knowledge and power. He is to be revered by all who are round about Him. He declares that this holy fear must be the first element in all true religion. His people are described as those who fear His name. We must serve Him with reverence and godly fear. And when heaven is revealed to us in Scripture, its inhabitants are seen bowing before the throne. So we offend God when we address Him as we would a fellow creature, or with undue familiarity. The prayers recorded in the Bible are pervaded with reverence. Every Psalm is a prayer, whether of worship, of thanksgiving, of confession or of supplication. In many cases all these elements are intermingled. They relate to all circumstances in the inward and outward life of those who wrote them. They recognise God’s control over all events and
1Taken, with editing, from Hodge’s Systematic Theology, vol 3. Last month’s article was subtitled: “The Object of Prayer”.
over the hearts of men. They assume that He is ever near and ever watchful, sustaining the relation of a loving Father to His people. But, with all this, His infinite majesty is never forgotten.
(3.) Humility. This includes (1) a due sense of our insignificance as creatures and (2) a proper grasp of our ill-deservedness and uncleanness in the sight of God as sinners. It is the opposite of self-righteousness, self-complacency and self-confidence. It is the spirit shown by Job when he placed his hand on his mouth and his mouth in the dust and said, “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes”. It is the spirit shown by Isaiah when he said, “Woe is me . . . because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips”. And it was shown by the publican, who “would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner”. Such language is often regarded as exaggerated or hypocritical. It is, however, appropriate. It expresses the state of mind which must be produced by a proper sense of our character as sinners in the sight of a just and holy God. Indeed no language can give adequate expression to that rational sense of sin which the people of God often experience.
(4.) Importunity. This is so important that, on three different occasions, Jesus impressed its necessity on His disciples. This was one evident purpose of the account of the Syrophenician woman, who could not be prevented from crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou son of David” (Mt 15:22); and also of the parable of the unjust judge, who said, “Because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily” (Lk 18:5-8). Again, in Luke 11:5-8, we read of the man who refused to give his friend bread, of whom Christ said, “Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many [loaves] as he needeth”.
God deals with us as a wise benefactor. He requires that we should appreciate the value of the blessings for which we ask, and that we should show proper earnestness. If a man begs for his own life or for the life of someone dear to him, his importunity cannot be repressed; he will not take a refusal. If the life of the body is thus earnestly sought, can we expect that the life of the soul will be granted to those who do not seek it with importunate earnestness?
(5.) Submission. Everyone who duly appreciates his relation to God will, no matter what his request, be disposed to say, “Lord, not my will, but Thine
be done”. Even a child feels that it is appropriate to subject his will to his earthly father in all his requests. How much more should believers submit to the will of their Father in heaven. He alone knows what is best; granting their request might, in many cases, be their destruction. The Lord Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane, set us an example in this matter that should never be forgotten.
- Faith. We must believe: (1) that God is; (2) that He is able to hear and answer our prayers; (3) that He is disposed to answer them; (4) that He certainly will answer them, if it is consistent with His own wise purposes and with our best good.
For this faith we have the most express assurances in the Bible. It is not only said, “Ask, and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find,” but the Lord Jesus says explicitly, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do” (Jn 14:13). And again, “If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven” (Mt 18:19). All the promises of God are conditional. The condition, if not expressed, is implied. It cannot be supposed that, in governing the world or dispensing His gifts, God has subjected Himself to the short-sighted wisdom of men by promising, without condition, to do whatever they ask. No rational man could wish this to be the case. He would of his own accord supply the condition which must be understood from the nature of the case and from the Scriptures themselves. In 1 Jn 5:14, the condition elsewhere implied is expressed: “This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us”.
The promise, however, gives the assurance that all prayers will be answered that are offered in faith, for things according to the will of God. The answer may indeed be given in a way we do not expect – as in the case of Paul when he prayed to be delivered from the thorn in the flesh. But the answer will be such as we would ourselves desire, if we were duly enlightened. More than this we need not wish. Lack of confidence in these precious promises of God and lack of faith in His readiness to hear are the greatest and commonest defects in the prayers of Christians. Every father desires the confidence of his children and is grieved by any evidence of distrust; and God as Father demands from His children the feelings which children ought to have to their earthly parents.
(7.) Prayers must be offered in the name of Christ. He said to His disciples: “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive” (Jn 16:24). “I have chosen you . . . that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you” (15:16). “Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do” (14:13).
By the name of God is meant God Himself, and God as manifested in His relation to us. Both ideas are usually united. Thus to believe “in the name of the only begotten Son of God” is to believe that Christ is the Son of God and that, as such, He is manifested as the only Saviour of men. To act in the name of anyone often means to act by his authority and in the exercise of his power. Thus our Lord speaks of the works which He did in His “Father’s name”: that is, by the Father’s authority and in the exercise of His power. And it is often said that the Apostles wrought miracles in the name of Christ, meaning that the miracles were wrought by His authority and power.
But when someone asks a favour in the name of another, the simple meaning is for his sake. Regard for the person in whose name the favour is requested is relied on as the ground on which it is to be granted. Therefore when we are told to pray in the name of Christ, we are required to urge what Christ is and what He has done as the reason why we should be heard. We are not to trust to our own merits, or our own character, or even simply to God’s mercy; we are to plead the merits and worth of Christ. It is only in Him, in virtue of His mediation and worth, that, according to the gospel, any blessing is conferred on the apostate children of men.