210 part m. Ch. xvn.— justification.
the Bible, and with the experience of the people of God in all ages and under all dispensations. In no instance are believers represented as trusting to what is within them, but to what is without them. The Protestant doctrine, as we have seen, makes full provision for an inward work of deliverance from the power of sin, as well as for redemption from the curse of the law ; for sanctification as well as for justification. But it does not con- found the two, neither does it refer either or both to the new prin- ciple of life, the new seed or leaven implanted or inserted which works as "an organic law," and by a regular process of develop- ment, as natural as the operation of any other law. The whole work of the Spirit is ignored in this new theory of redemption. What in the Bible is referred to the Spirit of God is, by the theologians of this class, referred to the " divine-human " nature of Christ. The latter, and not the former, is the proximate and efficient source of holiness of heart and life. " Christ," says Dr. Nevin, " does dwell in us, by his Spirit ; but only as his Spirit constitutes the very form and power of his own presence as the incarnate and everlasting Word."1 That is, the Spirit is the power of the incarnate Word, i. e., of the divine-human life of Christ. u The life," he adds, " thus wrought in our souls by his agency, is not a production out of nothing, but the very life of Jesus Himself organically continued in this way over into our persons." "It is with the mediatorial life of Christ that the Christian salvation, in the form now contemplated, is concerned. In this is comprehended the entire new creation revealed by the Gospel ; the righteousness of Christ, and all the benefits He has procured for his people. But the mediatorial life, by the com- munication of which only all this grace is made to pass over to men, is one and undivided ; " and this life, as he goes on to show, includes his body, soul, and divinity. To the same effect,2 it is said, " That the whole spiritual life of the Christian, including the resurrection of his body, is thus organically connected with the mediatorial fife of the Lord Jesus, might seem to be too plainly taught in the New Testament to admit of any question , and yet we find many slow to allow the mystery, notwithstand- ing. A very common view appears to be, that the whole salva- tion of the Gospel is accomplished in a more or less outward and mechanical way, by supernatural might and power, rather than by the Spirit of the Lord as a revelation of a new historical life in the person of the believer Himself. So we have an outward
i Mystical Presence, pp. 197, 198. I Ibid. p. 228, note.