likely to reduce the natural rebellion and corruption of the human heart as tliat which God has actually ailopt- ed, namely, by the iiresentation, in the person of the Redeemer, of a specimen of perfect holiness suffering the penalty due to the sinful race from pure motives of philanthropy and piety. This spectacle at once en- hances the majesty of law, puts sin to the blush, and enkindles the least spark of magnanimity remaining in man's bosom. There have been instances of simi- lar devotion among friends on earth, and these have stirred the generous emotions of humanity wherever recounted ; how much more the unprececlented self- immolation of a disinterested (or rather offended) one in behalf of guilty man (Rom. v, 7, 8) ! So far, then, from the vicarious suffering of Christ being necessary to appease the wrath of God, it is really seen to be the highest exhibition of his love yearning for some consistent plan of salvation (.John iii, 1(5). In point of fact, it is found that this act — as a divine and not mere- ly human expression of symjiathy — does melt and sub- due the sinful soul, when it comes to be apprehended under the Spirit's light of conviction, as no denuncia- tions of vengeance or view of dangerous consequences can do. Yet the penalty must still be held in reserve for recusant and hardened cases, else the effect of the contrast itself would be destroyed, and the conscience of the universe would be shocked. We conclude, then, in a last analysis, that the moral purpose and need of the death upon Calvary was for the condemnation of sin and for a crowning proof of divine intervention. In a forensic point of view, it was substitutional, if so accept- ed by the party for whose benefit it was voliniteered ; but as a remedial measure, its virtue lies in its power to impress and win and reform (.John xii, 32). It is thus that the cross becomes the instrument of a glorious re- generation (Gal. vi, 14). In other words, the final cause of the sacrifice of Christ is to be sought, not so much in any prudential considerations of the divine government or human society as in the essential nature of God him- self and in man's conscience, which is a copy of God's moral consciousness. Both these retpiire a penalty for the violation of that law which is written in the consti- tution of the intelligent universe, not simply as a vin- dictive infliction for the past, nor merely as a safeguard against the future, nor yet purely as a spectacular ex- hibition of infinite and gratuitous compassion, but chief- ly and imperatively as a satisfaction to the instinctive and irrepressiijle sense of ill-desert which the view of sin excites in all right-minded beings, and to stamp it with an emphatic rel)uke. Tiiis is wholly irrespective of personal interests, whether of resentment, injury, or pride, on the part either of iiuiividuals or of communi- ties; it is alike, if not equally, shared by the Creator and the creature, by the innocent and the guilty. To this grand sentiment all other ends are subordinate; and thus, as ever with groat moral principles, the com- paratively minor, altliongli really immense, advantages of amnesty and protection and reformation are at the same time secured, not by a compromise, but by a full and inexorable adlierence to the demands of everlasting right. The substitution of .Jesus, the innocent victim, for the conscious culprit is indeed a device of that love which is always fertile in resources; but it is not an evasion of justice: it is an accomplishment of the law far more significant and effectual than the personal an- guish of the sinner himself can be; and yet it leaves room for the latter also in tlie alternative of the refusal of the former. Just at this point, too, comes in appro- priately the determinative weight of the human will, which God has left free to be cast into the scales of des- tiny. In the interval which divine forbearance has set between the sentence of the convict and his execution (Eccles. viii, 11; Rom. ix, 22; 1 Pet. iii, 20; 2 Pet. iii, 9) an ample pardon has been provided, not by "execu- tive clemency," but as a "receipt in full" from a friend- ly hand, which needs but the grantee's endorsement to make it valid. That act on the subject's part is gen-
VICARS' COLLEGE
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VICELINUS
nine penitence, incliidinn; the individual faith which alone prevents remorse from degenerating into despair (2 Cor. vii, KM; and this complex state of the soul — a hopeful contrition — could, so far as we can see, only be engendered by the proper apprehension, under the light of the Floly .Spirit, of a just but relentless doom, vica- riously but fully endured. In the Cross these demands all meet and harmonize.
Vicars' College is the house of residence of those members of a cathedral corporation who do not belong lo the chapter. Anciently such a building was prob- ably attached to most cathedrals. Until the civil wars the collegiate life was everywhere maintained in Eng- land, and at Hereford so late as 18-28.
Vicars, John, an English Presbyterian minister and violent writer on religious and political subjects, was born in London in 1582. He was educated at Christ's Hos[)ital, London, and Queen's College, Oxford; and was, during the greater part of his life, usher of Christ's Hos- pital. He died in 1052. He was the author of the following works, among others : Prospective Glass to Lookinto //f>r/rfH(Lond, 1(518,410): — EwjlaiuVs flullelu- jah (IGol, 4to): — Jehovah Jireh, God in the Mount; or Km/land's Remembrancer (1641-44, 4to) : — God's Ark Overtopping the Worlds Waves (1646): — Prodigies and Apparitions: — England's Worthies (1647).