of the Spirit, his first sanctifying operations on the heart, cause it to thirst after God. Ps. 42, 1.2. Hope includes both expectation and desire, and therefore the inward work of the Spirit being of the nature both of an earnest and a foretaste, it necessarily produces hope.
Another ground of the unity of the church is, that all its members have onze Lorp. Lordship includes the ideas of possession and authority. A lord, in proper sense, is both owner and sovereign. When used in reference to God or Christ, the word expresses these ideas in the highest degree. Christ is Tae Lorp, i. e. omnium rerum summus dominus et possessor. He is our Lord, i. e. our rightful owner and absolute sover- eign. This proprietorship and sovereignty pertain to the soul and to the body. We are not our own, and should glorify him in our body and spirit which are his. Our reason is subject to his teaching, our con- science to his commands, our hearts and lives to his control. We are his slaves. And herein consists our liberty. It is the felix necessitas boni of which Augus- tin speaks. It is analogous to absolute subjection to truth and holiness, only it is to a person who is infinite in knowledge and in excellence. This lordship over us belongs to Christ not merely as God, or as the Logos, but as the Theanthropos. It is founded not simply on his divinity, but also and specially on the work of redemp- tion. We are his because he has bought us with his own most precious blood. 1 Cor. 6,20. 1 Pet. 1,1. For this end he both died and rose again, that he might