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just? do ye live by faith? do ye really believe in the promise of God? If so, why do ye not feel secure of the faithfulness of Christ? why do ye not embrace his call, and bless yourselves that ye shall soon be with him, and be no more exposed to Satan? . . . . . Since, then, to see Christ is joy, and since our joy cannot be full till we do see him, what blindness, what infatuation is it to love the penal pressures and tears of the world, and not to be desirous of quickly partaking of that joy which shall never pass away! The cause of this, dear brethren, is unbelief. We none of us believe really and solidly those things to be true which the God of truth promises, whose word is eternally firm to those that put their trust in him. If a man of a grave and respectable character promises you any thing, you do not doubt his performance, because you know him to be faithful. Now God himself speaks with you; and dare you waver in uncertainty? He promises you immortality when you shall depart out of this world; and will you still doubt? This is not to know God; this is to offend, with the sin of unbelief, Christ the Lord and Master of believers. 'To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,' said the blessed apostle, who computed it to be gain indeed, no longer to be detained in the snares of the world, no longer to be obnoxious to sin and the flesh, to be exempt from excruciating pressures, to be freed from the poisonous jaws of Satan, and lastly, to go to the joys of eternal salvation upon the call of Christ."

the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Even here, though faulty in judgment, it must be allowed that Cyprian evinced more moderation than some of his chief opponents.

We are now approaching the closing scenes of this venerable father's life. The kindness which the Emperor Valerian had hitherto shewn towards the Christians was, in the year 257, changed into enmity. A violent persecution in consequence commenced. The bishop of Carthage was soon seized by the officers of Paternus, the proconsul there, brought before his tribunal, and commanded, on pain of death, to adore the heathen deities. "I am a Christian," replied the prelate," and know no god but the one true God, who created heaven and earth, the sea, and all things in them. This God we Christians serve: to him we pray night and day for all men, and even for the emperors." "You will die the death of a malefactor," rejoined the judge, "if you persevere in this disposition of mind." "That is a good disposition," answered the bishop, "which fears God, and therefore it must not be changed." "Then," said Paternus, "it is the will of the prince, that, for the present, you should be banished." "He is no exile," replied Cyprian, "who has God in his heart: for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." He was afterwards commanded to discover his presbyters; and when he refused, he was threatened with torture. "By me," said the intrepid bishop, "they shall never be discovered: do what you are ordered." He was then banished to Curubis, a little town fifty miles from Carthage, on the sea-coast. Here he was permitted to live in quiet for about eleven months. The inhabitants of the place treated him with kindness, and his Christian friends were allowed to visit him. His deacon, Pontius, who accompanied him in his exile, asserts that the first day of his residence at Curubis he was forewarned by a vision of his approaching martyrdom. Cyprian certainly believed himself favoured with special intimations from God; and before we discredit the report of these things, we must remember that the Scripture informs us it was his usual practice in ancient days so to speak to his people; and that by the time of Cyprian it is not clear that miracles had altogether ceased. There is nothing therefore that shocks probability in the idea that, at a period when the heathen were furiously raging, God should make bare his arm among his Church.

Valerian succeeded to the empire A.D. 253. For the first three years of his reign the Christian Church had rest. At this time a council was held, known in ecclesiastical history as the third council of Carthage, attended by 66 bishops, with Cyprian at their head. In it we find the following among other matters discussed. A doubt had arisen in the minds of certain persons, whether, in order that the analogy between baptism and circumcision might be complete, the rite ought not to be deferred, in all cases, till the eighth day. The council determined that there was no necessity for this delay; baptism might be administered at any time after birth. This fact, it may be observed, furnishes a remarkable proof of the early authority of infant baptism. A question is started respecting the baptism of children, not whether it was lawful to baptise them at all,- no one thought of contradicting that, but whether they might be baptised immediately, or not till the eighth day; and the whole assembly gave at once their judgment, that they need not be debarred from this sacrament even for eight days. Let any one recollect that this occurred within a century and a half of the death of some of the apostles, and that every departure from early practice had excited the warmest contentions; and then, if he can, let him conclude that infant-baptism could, if the apostles had not used it, have crept secretly, as an innovation, into the Church. The inevitable infer-glory," says he, "requires, blessed and beloved brethence is, that the baptism of infants was an apostolic usage.

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Some other bishops were treated with more severity than the bishop of Carthage. It is likely that the peculiar benevolence and sanctity of Cyprian's character had caused even his enemies to reverence him. Be this as it may, nine bishops, together with several of their clergy and lay persons, were, after much personal ill usage, sent to labour in the copper-mines. Cyprian wrote a sympathising letter to them. "Your

How

ren, that I ought to come and embrace you, were it not
that the confession of the same name has confined me
also to this place: but if it be forbidden me to come to
you in body, I am present with you in spirit and affec-
tion; and I endeavour to express my very soul to you
in letters. How do I exult in your honours, and reckon
myself a partner with you, though not in suffering, yet
in the fellowship of love! How can I hold my peace
when I hear such things of dearest brethren?
have the Divine dispensations honoured you! Part of
you have already finished the course of martyrdom, and
are now receiving crowns of righteousness from the
Lord; and the rest, as yet in prisons, or in mines and
bonds, exhibit, in the tediousness of their afflictions,
still greater examples of patience and perseverance,
which will arm and strengthen the brethren, at the
same time that these long-continued torments will ad-
vance the sufferers to a higher proficiency in Christian
glory, and ensure to them a proportional reward in
heaven..... Let malice and cruelty bind you as they

please, ye will soon pass from earth and its sorrows to the kingdom of heaven. In the mines you have not a bed on which the body may be refreshed; nevertheless, Christ is your rest and consolation. Your limbs are fatigued with labour, and lie on the ground; but, so to lie down, when you have Christ with you, is no punishment. Filth and dirt defile your limbs, and you have no baths at hand; but, remember, you are inwardly washed from all uncleanness. Your allowance of bread is but scanty; be it so-man doth not live by bread alone, but by the word of God. You have no proper clothes to defend you from the cold; but he who has put on Christ is clothed abundantly." This surely is the language of a man who, though in the world he might meet with tribulation, had in Christ found peace.

When permitted to return to Carthage, he lived in a garden near the city, which he had formerly sold, but which was now restored to him. He would have sold it again, had he not feared by so doing to seem as if he was ostentatiously inviting notice. Here then he managed the affairs of his diocese, and continued his usual works of charity. He soon learnt that Valerian was sending letters through all the provinces, commanding, among other cruelties, the immediate execution of all bishops, presbyters, and deacons. "These letters," writes Cyprian, "we daily expect to arrive. We stand, however, in the firmness of faith, in patient expectation of suffering, and in humble hope of obtaining, from the Lord's help and kindness, the crown of eternal life."

Galerius Maximus had now succeeded Paternus, who was dead, in the proconsulship; and Cyprian anticipated immediate apprehension. But many persons of rank came to him, and offered to conceal him

from the persecutors. This, however, he declined; for, though he conceived it wrong to do any thing which might accelerate his death, he felt that the time was now come for him to seal his testimony with his blood. He therefore remained, calmly, at that perilous hour, animating and exhorting his beloved people, and wishing that death might find him thus diligent in the service of his Lord. When, indeed, he heard that the proconsul was at Utica, and had sent soldiers to convey him thither, as he wished to suffer among his own flock, he retired for a little while but when Galerius returned to Carthage, Cyprian returned to his garden.

:

Very shortly after, he was seized, and the proconsul gave orders that he should be judged the next day. The tidings spread through the city, and crowds both of Christians and of pagans assembled. The officer who guarded him permitted his friends, during the night, to be with him. Many also passed that night in the street before the house; and Cyprian benevolently desired that the young women among the crowd might be especially taken care of. In the morning he was led to the judgment-hall, and the proconsul not being quite ready, he was told to sit down and wait. Being much heated, a soldier, who had been a Christian, offered him fresh clothes. But Cyprian said, "Shall we seek a remedy for that which may last no longer than to-day?" The proconsul now arrived, and began to interrogate hini. Are you Thascius Cyprian?" "I am." "Are you he whom the Christians call their bishop?" "I am.” "Our princes have ordered you to worship the gods." "That I will not do." "You would judge better to consult your safety, and not to despise the gods." "My safety and my strength is Christ the Lord, whom I desire to serve for ever." "I pity your case," said Galerius," and could wish to consult for you." replied the bishop, "have no desire that things should be otherwise with me than that I may adore my God, and hasten to him with all the ardour of my soul; for the afflictions of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed

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"I,"

in us." Then the proconsul grew red with anger, and pronounced the sentence "You have lived sacrilegiously a long time; you have formed a society of impious conspirators; you have shewn yourself an enemy to the gods and their religion, and have not hearkened to the equitable counsels of our princes; you have ever been a father and a ringleader of the impious sect. You shall therefore be an example to the rest, that, by the shedding of your blood, they may learn their duty. Let Thascius Cyprian, who refuses to sacrifice to the gods, be put to death by the sword." "God be praised!" said the exulting martyr: and then they led him away. But deep was the impression made on the surrounding multitude. They felt as if about to lose a beloved parent, and with overflowing heart they exclaimed, "Let us die with our holy bishop." And as the soldiers conveyed him to the place of execution, a field, surrounded with trees, many ran before, and climbed up to the top of them, that they might see the last sad act of this tragedy.

Cyprian calmly laid aside his mantle, and then knelt down to prayer. Then he put off his inner garment, and stood up only in his shirt. And when the executioner approached, he ordered money to be given him, and bade him do his office quickly. He himself bound the napkin over his own eyes, and a presbyter and a deacon tied his hands, and the Christians placed before him napkins and handkerchiefs to receive his blood. The executioner waved his sword, and Cyprian's rejoicing spirit ascended to the throne of God. This blessed martyr entered into his rest Sept. 14, 258. He was the first bishop of Carthage that obtained the martyr's crown.

Little need be added to this narrative. Cyprian was an eminently holy man. A spirit of devotion breathes in his writings and in his life. He was not, perhaps, a deep theologian; for the shortness of his Christian course, only twelve years, and his manifold duties, forbade this: still he had given "attendance to reading." Tertullian was one of his favourite authors. In asking for his works, he used, we are told, to say, "give me my master." But he had learned, also, in the school of a better Master, whose faithful servant, though in frailty and infirmity, he "He was a burning and a shining light," and the Church, for a season, rejoiced in his light: he is now in the presence of the true Light, beholding and joying in his ineffable glory. S.

was.

SACRED SONG.*

POETRY, associated with music in the expression of devotional sentiment, is once and again recommended to Christians by St. Paul, under the threefold distribution of "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs." The series of short poems contained in this volume may be regarded as humble specimens of the third class, as distinct from the "psalms" of the inspired volume, and from "hymns" designed for congregational use. It may be affirmed, without meriting the charge of censoriousness, that songs are usually associated with sentiments of a character at the best innocently frivolous, neither adapted nor intended to benefit the mind. The most numerous and the most admired compositions of this class, are, by a sort of hereditary claim, amatory: their influence, so far as it prevails, is employed to awaken the softer passions, and enervate youthful sensibility. Yet, when it is remembered how many hours

Extracted from the Preface to a "Century of Original Sacred Songs, composed for favourite airs; by Thomas Grintield. M. A.;" a little work which we have already recommended as calculated to sanctify domestic harmony.

are allotted to vocal music of this lighter kind, a reflecting observer can scarcely forbear to regret that so favourite a recreation should not be more frequently improved into a delightful medium of moral and religious benefit.

Songs there doubtless are, and of such not a few may be selected from the myriad, which, without pretending to importance in their sentiments, are elegantly pleasing or pathetic. Of songs like these, who would blame the temperate indulgence? Yet, even these may not be adapted to satisfy the taste of those who, desirous to blend religion with their musical enjoyments, would prefer, to songs of every other cast, an air combined with Christian thoughts and sacred influences. To persons of such a taste the present volume is submitted. The writer has aimed to supply a series of songs congenial with a devotional mind. It is only where such a mind exists, (and happily it is often found in the numerous class of our fair musicians), that songs of a character so unworldly and unfashionable are likely to obtain a favoured reception. That an attempt to consecrate popular melodies may be slighted or disparaged by the irreligious, must indeed be expected; but let the writer hope that both the motive and the tendency of such an attempt may secure it from the dispraise of serious Christians; and that even those who cannot dismiss their prejudice against the airs as thus employed, may extend their favour to the verses. Many religious persons entertain a distaste for the association of sacred sentiments with secular tunes,

and affirm that they cannot disenchant the mind of the unhallowed influence produced by the original

words. So far as relates to the music of the Church, the writer is of opinion that secular tunes should be excluded from the psalmody of public worship; the diversified character of the assembly combines with the sanctity of the place and occasion to justify such an exclusion. The case is very different where a few congenial friends in domestic privacy indulge their taste for " singing and making melody with their hearts to the Lord." A feeling of strangeness and constraint may naturally be expected to attend the first transition from the accustomed words to others expressive of sentiment so dissimilar: but in this, more easily than in most instances, the spell of habit is broken when we are willing to break it; the old associations of sentiment are soon displaced by the new, where the chief requisite is present, a mind attuned to sacred themes; while the sweet or tender, the solemn or pathetic spirit of the melody as truly and as beautifully blends itself with the adapted cast of thought in the religious as in the irreligious song. To an unprejudiced ear, the sweet and well-known air, composed for a love-song of Ben Jonson, harmonises as well, and far more worthily, with that beautiful hymn of Watts, which celebrates the "land of pure delight," confessedly unsuited as is such an air for admission into the psalmody of public worship.

"Let but a wise and well-instructed hand

Once take the shell beneath his just command;

In gentle tones it seems as it complained

Of the rude injuries it late sustained;
Till, tun'd at length to some immortal song,

It sounds JEHOVAH's name, and pours his praise along."
Cowper.

JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS:

A Sermon,

For the Sunday next before Advent, BY THE REV. THOMAS TREGENNA BIDDULPH, M.A. Minister of St. James's, Bristol.

JER. xxiii. 6.

"This is his name whereby he shall be called,
THE LORD our Righteousness."

OUR text is taken from a portion of the Old Testament Scriptures which is adopted into our service, instead of an extract from the epistolary writings of the New Testament, usually read after the appointed collect for the day. It is directed by a rubric on the subject to be invariably read on the Sunday immediately preceding Advent Sunday, whether there happen to be in the calendar, which must necessarily vary with the incidence of Easter, more or fewer Sundays after Trinity Sunday. For this selection, our ritualist, Mr. Wheatley, gives the following reason, that "this Sunday being looked upon as a kind of preparation or forerunner to Advent, as Advent is to Christmas, an epistle was chosen, not according to the former method, but such a one as so clearly foretold the coming of our Saviour, that it was afterwards applied to him by the common people, as appears by an instance mentioned in the gospel for this day; for when they saw the miracle that Jesus did, they said, 'This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world."" Thus the epistle and the gospel for this last Sunday after Trinity are closely linked together as cause and effect.

Our text is one of the most important predictions in the whole current of the Old Testament revelation, because it speaks so unequivocally of the person and office of our adorable Redeemer. It asserts at once the divinity of his person, and the character of his mediatorial office, as "the justifier of the ungodly." The Christian fathers and the Jewish doctors are unanimous in referring this prophecy to the promised Messiah. Rabbi David Kimchi recognises the propriety of this application of Jeremiah's words, or rather of the word of Jehovah by his prophet; and he quotes two other eminent rabbins who concur with him.

Indeed, the context leaves no doubt on the subject. The third verse of the chapter predicts the final ingathering of the Jews to the fold of Christ, by means of his Gospel in the latter days, that is, at a period yet to arrive. In the fourth verse, the establishment of an evangelical ministry among them, as the appointed instrument of their conversion and edification, is announced. Then follows a description of the righteous Branch of David, one who should be his descendant according

to the flesh, who should reign and prosper as a king, and should execute judgment and justice in the earth. And it is added-"In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely"-an addition which proves the futurity of the event to the period in which we live.

We are now brought to the important words of our text,- -"And this is his name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah our Righteousness."

Should it be objected that our Lord never bore the name which our text ascribes to him, the answer is easy. The Hebrew prophets often predict that a person should be called that which he was to be, or which should be inherent in his character. Thus it was foretold, between seven and eight centuries before the birth of our Lord, that his name should be called Immanuel (" God with us"), which the Evangelist tells us was fulfilled by his being called Jesus, a name of the same import, because he was "to save his people," all who should believe on him, "from their sins," by virtue of his atoning merit. To be, and to be called, in prophetic language mean the same thing; of which it would be easy to produce a variety of instances in relation both to our Lord himself and to his redeemed Church.

We now proceed to examine more particularly the important words which our Church has placed in our view instead of an epistle for the day: This is his name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah our Righteousness." Therein we shall consider,

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I. The divine title by which the promised Messiah is here introduced to our notice; he is Jehovah.

II. His official character: he is Jehovah Righteousness.

III. The force of the possessive pronoun: he is Jehovah our Righteousness.

I. The divine title by which the promised Messiah is here introduced to our notice: he is Jehovah.

The Godhead of Christ is a most important article of our faith, and as such it is interwoven with all the creeds and with all the services of our apostolic Church. It is the key-stone of the arch on which our hope of salvation rests. Its essentiality in the Christian scheme may be inferred from the frequency, the perspicuity, and the urgency with which both Testaments have dwelt upon it. The prophetic, the historical, and the epistolary records of divine revelation, give to it a prominence which must fix the attention of all who are not wilfully blinded by prejudice, or utterly inattentive to "the word of life." An attempt to blot the sun out of the material firmament would be as hopeful as the attempt that is made to exclude the doc

trine of the Divinity of the Christ from the firmament of Divine revelation.

In our text he is called Jehovah, that is, the self-existent Being, with all perfection originally and inseparably inherent in his nature. There can be but one such essence. It is a name, the import of which is incommunicable to any creature: to ascribe it to a' created being would be blasphemy against God. That Jesus our Lord is Jehovah, is implied in the name he bears: for the Old Testament name Jah is a part of the compound name Jesus. The LXX. translation and the New Testament express the name Jehovah of the Old Testament by the Greek term Kupios, deriving it probably from the verb xupw, to be, denoting that simplicity of underived existence which is peculiar to the first Cause of all things. The word is paraphrased by St. John, at the commencement of his mystic book, when he describes the Author of the revelation he received as the Being "which is, and which was, and which is to come;" and when again, at the eighth verse, he introduces our Lord Jesus as thus speaking of himself: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which was, and which is, and which is to come, the Almighty." It would be an almost endless task to quote all the passages in which the incommunicable name is given to our incarnate Lord. The title Lord, generally answering to Jehovah, is applied, says an eminent writer, a thousand times in the New Testament to the Lord Christ.*

This doctrine is, my Christian brethren, our foundation-stone. Could the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour be banished from the revelation of mercy to our fallen race, the whole superstructure of our hopes and comforts would fall to the ground, and become as the dust of the summer threshing-floor. The Godhead of Jesus is the golden ring by which the chain of salvation is fastened to the throne of God. Hold fast by it. Labour, by studying the Scriptures and prayer, for increased establishment of heart in this cardinal doctrine, lest, in these days of rebuke and blasphemy, faith should at any time waver, and hope be blasted before it is ripened into fruition.

We proceed now to consider,

II. The promised Messiah in his official character: he is Jehovah-Righteousness. As the Messiah, the anointed Saviour of lost man, Jesus is possessed in his own person of an allperfect righteousness.

What is righteousness? As this was re

Compare Is. vi. 15, with John, xii. 41. Is. xlv. 24, 25, with Acts, xiii. 29; 1 Cor. i. 30, 31; vi. 11. Is. xl. 3, with Matt. iii. 1-3; Mark, i. 3; Luke, iii. 3, 4; John, i. 23. Mark, i. 2, 3. Is. xliv. 6, with Rev. i. 17, 18. 5, with Rom. x. 13.

Mal. iii. 1, with Joel, ii. 32, or iii.

quired of man, in his state of innocence, by the covenant of works under which he was placed at his creation, in order to his continuance in the favour of God; and as this is required in him who appeared as the Redeemer of man, under the same covenant, the inquiry is of the utmost importance. What, then, is righteousness in the scriptural sense of the word? It is an undeviating conformity to the law of God, in thought, word, and deed, throughout the whole period of existence, commencing with the very dawn of reason and responsibility. Any deviation in heart or conduct is a failure, a defect, which it is impossible to fill up. Now, as Christ is Jehovah, his character and revealed will necessarily constitute the rule of righteousness to all rational beings; but this is not the subject of our text, which speaks of Christ in his official character, as appears by the possessive pronoun which is suffixed to the term "right

eousness.

| ascribed to man, is a fond and fatal error in papal theology. The whole obedience of a creature, when carried to its utmost extent, is due to his Creator, and can do no more than make up that righteousness which the law of his nature requires. No one, man or angel, can redeem his fellow-creature, or give to God a ransom for him.

The righteousness, then, which is spoken of in our text, is the obedience of the Son of God, whereby he fully satisfied the justice of God, and honoured the claims of the Divine law; and we need not hesitate to affirm, that more honour has been given to the perfections of God, his justice, holiness, and truth, by the obedience of the incarnate Saviour, than would have been given to them had the whole rational creation preserved its first estate. This righteousness of the Divine Mediator is called "the righteousness of God" in many passages of St. Paul's epistles, which time will not allow me to quote; and it is so called, because it was required and accepted by the Father-was wrought out by the incarnate and co-equal Son-and is applied to the heart for justification by the Holy Spirit of God. In object, as in essence, these three are one. It is called also "the righteousness of faith," because it is not ours by operation, but by imputation. "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.' The Gospel is called "the law of righteousness," because it reveals this mediatorial righteousness, and both demands and sanctions submission to it. It was the fatal error, the damning sin of the Jews, as it is stated by St. Paul, that, "being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about," endeavouring in their folly and perverseness, to establish their own, they refused to submit themselves to the righteousness of God." It is plain, that those persons, if such there be, who preach or receive any other doctrine, do not preach or receive the Gospel. And in the fullest confidence that this doctrine is the grand feature of the Gospel, I adopt as my own the declaration of St. Paul: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." (Rom. i. 16, 17.)

Jehovah, having assumed our nature, or, as St. Paul expresses that assumption, being "God manifest in the flesh," became the righteousness by which sinners might be justified, consistently with the character of God, and the requisitions of his unchangeable law. By his active and passive obedience to that law, he bore its curse in his own body on the tree, and fulfilled its precepts by an undeviating conformity thereto. By an atonement for sin he restores those who by faith lay their hands on the head of his burnt-offering (Levit. i. 4,) to a freedom from the guilt they have contracted by their covenant-relation to the first Adam, or by personal failure; and by his obedience to the precepts of the law, he reinstates them in the favour of God, and entitles them to the reward of eternal life. In consequence of his perfect work, God" can, as St. Paul states the consequence, be at once "just and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus."

In order to the accomplishment of this stupendous work of mercy, it was necessary that Jehovah should become incarnate-should "take our nature upon him." "Forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same." Who it was that did so, appears from the preceding chapter, where St. Paul describes the incarnate Saviour as the Maker of the universe; and, by quotations from the Old Testament Scriptures, assigns to him the incommunicable name of Jehovah, and ascribes to him all the attributes of the Godhead.

It was essential to the great work of salvation, that our law-fulfiller should be Jehovah; for, otherwise, no merit could have arisen from his obedience unto death. The doctrine of works of supererogation, as

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III. We proceed to consider, lastly, the force of the possessive pronoun which is prefixed to the word Righteousness. He of whom the prophet is speaking is Jehovah our Righteousness.

That the incarnate Saviour is the right• Ess, unto, not for, or instead of, righteousness.

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