d, is meant to be asserted? Is it, that men have life in
them _first_, to capacitate them to eat the flesh and drink the blood
of the Son of Man? This seems to be said: but Himself hath said,
"Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, ye
have _no_ life in you." Not life then without the food, or before the
food, but _by_ the food. This banquet _is_ to be spread before the
dead. Thus only shall any live. Is spirit and life in men first from
another source, and then do they take and profit by his words? But
"the entrance of his words _giveth_ light," and that light is life.
"The words that I speak unto you," says the Lord, "_they_ are spirit,
and they are life": and that spirit, the spirit of his words, he tells
us it is that "quickeneth" or produceth life. Is there, then, no need
for regeneration? Surely there is: but it does not follow that the
principle of regeneration is one, and that of faith another to be
superadded to it. "We are born," says Peter, "not of corruptible seed,
but of the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever;" adding, in
very remarkable language, "This is the word which by the Gospel is
preached unto you." An explanation which removes all doubt as to the
meaning of James, when he says, "Of his own will begat he us with the
word of truth," that is, according to Peter, with the Gospel preached.
John, in like manner, tells us, that "whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world," and if we ask, what is born of God? Is it a
principle antecedent and necessary to faith? He answers, It is faith
itself. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith."

NOTE C, page 104.

The question is not whether the scheme of salvation is merely
reconcilable with divine love and justice, but how it constitutes the
grand proof and manifestation of these attributes, and in general, of
the perfections of God. In it he undertakes to shew himself worthy of
love, and thus to win our love to himself. Any other means to that end
than such as should prove his own worthiness, He could not use. One
may confer a benefit on an individual from a thousand various motives,
of which one only may be morally right. In event of any of the others
having prompted the action, the benefactor may be regarded with
gratitude, but then it is either because the motive is mistaken for
the nobler one, or the gratitude is a mere reflected selfishness. As
an example of the latter sort, the Jews, in the da