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    some texts * to which we shall refer them , will hardly dispute the justness of our remarks . Whether to redeem be simply to deliver , or specifically to ransom , we know that both deliverance

    and deliverance by ransom are often effected by human beings for human beings . Let every passage adduced from the sacred volume , toe first examined by the aid of its context , and then be compared with other passages in that volume . When the Psalmist

    says , " No man , " &e ., he makes no allusion whatever to redemption by Christ and the gospel : it is a perfectly distinct subject on which he writes . The words are . misapplied , when cited in proof of the tenets , of which the select preacher is the advocate .

    There is one sense , we most reverently and gratefully acknowledge , in which God alone can be the Redeemer of man . All means , all instruments , are his : what bis creatures possess , the opportunities and the ability of

    effecting , is really effected by Him from whom that will and ability proceed * On this point Dr . Spry will scarcely differ from ourselves . This , however , is not the statement which he has made , nor this the doctrine \ Vhich he here maintains . Were we

    strangers to the mighty power of preconceived opinion , we should feel astonished at his thus interpreting Scripture merely by its sound . In the same way , several favourite yet unfounded notions might be rested on the basis of single words , or single

    clauses , where a negative is either expressed or implied . So , because we read in JViicah iii . 7 > there is " no answer of God /* we might be led , by this sort of criticism , to conclude

    universally from these detached terms , that Almighty God does not answer prayer . Numerous examples to the like effect might be brought forward : and the present is but one among a multitude of instances of the

    unsoundness of such a principle of exposition . But Dr . ; Spry resumes his observations on Gal . iv . 4—7- In liis opinion " , The divinity of the Son of God is

    + Job xxxiii . 24 ; Prov . xxi . 18 ; Matt . xx . 28 ; Levit . xxv . 48 , 49 ; Nam . xviii . 15 ; Nchein . v . 8 ; 2 Sam . xii . 7 ; Gen . xxxvii . 21 .

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    further to be proved by the effect of hh mission , as it is set forth in this important passage . He was sent forth to redeem them that were under the law , c that we might receive the adoption of

    sons . ' Aud one consequence of this adoption is , that thus becoming the sons of God , we are made partakers of the spirit of his Son * * * . The mysterious being here spoken of as the spirit of the Son of God 9 is in other places called by

    the apostle , in language equally explicit , the Spirit of God , ' ' the Spirit of the living God / It is then clear , that the apostle , when he here called him the Spirit of the Son , intended to describe the Son himself as God . "—Pp . 23 , 24 .

    Such reasoning , if it be good for any things proves too much . We will try the principle and the force of it upon a simple case . In 1 Cor . v . 4 , Paul uses this language * " Id the name of our Lord Jesus Christ , ( when ye are gathered together , and my spirit , ) with the

    power of our Lord Jesus Christ . " Here , by my spirit , * the Apostle means the authority of his official inspiration . His spirit then was the spirit of God and Christ . But is the phrase a demonstration , is it even presumptive , o f Paul ' s deity ?

    Obviously , the Spirit of Christ , the Spirit of the Son of God , signifies a portion of the Spirit with which the Messiah was pre-eminently invested , and which , at his request , and by his agency , was imparted to his early followers . The source of this , as of every blessing , is uniformly declared ,

    in the Scriptures , to be God , even the Father . It may be added , that Rom . viii . 14 , decides the point : ' * As many as are led by the Spirit of God , tjiey are the sons of God" [ ylot 0 sV ] . Now being led by the Divine Spirit they possess it , yet are not , therefore , in rank divine .

    It is a collateral , but not altogether an unimportant question , whether Paul wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews . Mr . Belsham thinks that he did not : and this judgment of the case Dr . Spry terms Mr Belsham ' s " dictum ; " and * ' leaves it to weigh with those who tw

    _ look up to its author as their guide . " u r ... . _ , . . . . . . . ^ . . - , r ^ , | i * - * n ¦ ' I > See the complete form in 1 Cor . vii . 40 . To nrv £ vfA . a , is inspiration ; and the above clause should be read in & parenthesis .

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    296 Spry ' s Two Sermons before the University of Oxford .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1825, page 296, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2536/page/40/