there was a period when he had it not. This is to make the Son of God a nonentity. For if he took upon him the divine nature, what was he before he took it? Nothing. For if the God-man has two natures, the divine and the human, in one glorious person, and he took both, then, before he took either, he was nothing. A nothing, therefore, a nonentity, according to Thomas Pepper, became God. Strange blunder for a champion of the Trinity to make! Again, p. 7, we read, "And the Holy Ghost is the third person in the Trinity, who personates Father and Son." What a strange blunder is here!, How can the Holy Ghost be "the third person in the Trinity" and yet "personate,” that is, represent, stand for, "Father and Son." That is, he is a distinct person and yet stands in the place of the two other persons of the Trinity. If all advocates for the Trinity were as confused, blundering, and ignorant as poor Thomas Pepper, the Unitarians might well triumph. He may be a good man, and cer tainly is a well meaning one, but it is a great pity he ever published this letter. Nor, indeed, has the printer performed his office properly, as there is both bad spelling and bad punctuation very visible in this little tract.

EDITORS' REMARKS.

We are often obliged to alter the language of our correspondents, when incorrectly or erroneously expressed. In a communication, for instance, inserted this month, the expression "a reconciled God" occurs. The word of truth speaks of the church being reconciled to God, but not of His being reconciled to the church. Such blemishes, therefore, we remove, as feeling ourselves in a measure responsible for what is contained in our pages. Our poetical correspondents, too, will perceive occasionally traces of our pruning hand, as indeed their verses are often a foot too long or a foot too short; and the rhyme, or rather that intended for such, is often no rhyme at all. If they object to our alterations, their remedy is easy. Let them keep their poetry at home in their drawer. But if they send it to us for insertion in our pages, they must submit to our pruning, correcting hand.

POETRY.

A SONG OF PRAISE.

"My song shall be of mercy."

A song of praise I'll sing to thee, my King,
And of thy mercy I will ever sing;

His wond'rous love what mortal tongue can tell?
He came to rescue dying men from hell.

And canst thou, then, my soul this truth believe,
That all who Jesus died for he'll receive?

His precious blood was never spilt in vain;
His own elect he loved ere time began.

If once he loved he loves unto the end;

In this rejoice, he is no fickle friend:

'Twas love that caused him once his blood to shed,
And love will bring me to my cov'nant Head.

O sovereign love, how wonderful and free!
That precious blood, I trust, was shed for me;.
I feel convinced salvation's all of grace,
Because he chose me from the fallen race.
Then, O my soul, cast on him all thy care!
Does sin molest thee? yield not to despair;
Art thou cast down by reason of the way?
Hope thou in God, he'll change thy night to day,
Trowbridge, April, 1840.

S. M.

THE PRECIOUSNESS OF THE GOSPEL.

Hail! downcast soul, with guilt oppress'd, It is the voice of Christ, our King,
With fear dismay'd and sorrow press'd;
The gospel shows a sure retreat,
It points thee to Emanuel's feet.
Good news the gospel brings indeed;
The captive sinner now is freed,
The law fulfill'd, and Justice paid;
Ah! weeping soul, be not afraid.
What cheering words are these I hear
From Calvary's hill? O earth give ear!
Manchester, April, 1840.

Whose conquests make all heav'n to ring.
'Twas there our Captain fought and bled;
There hell and sin were captive led;
There justice met in mercy's arms,
And lost his frowns beneath her charms.
""Tis finished!" yes, the work is done;
Our Lord has paid the heavy sum;
At Calvary now we find repose,
There stand and smile at all our foes.
A SUBSCRIBER.

A DIALOGUE BETWIXT JESUS AND THE SOUL.

"Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed.'' Psalm vi. 2.

Soul: Ah, Son of David, help!-(Jesus:) What sinful cry
Implores the Son of David?-(Soul :) It is I.
J. Who art thou?-S. Oh, a deeply wounded soul,
That's heavy laden, and would fain be whole.
J. I have no scraps; and dogs must not be fed,
Like household children, with the children's bread.

S. True, Lord; yet tolerate a hungry whelp

To lick their crumbs: O, Son of David, help!
J. Poor Soul; what ail'st thou ?-S. O I groan, I sigh;
I cannot rest, I know not where to fly

To find some ease; I turn my weeping face
From man to man; I roll from place to place
T" avoid my tortures, to obtain relief;

But still I'm dogg'd and haunted with my grief:
My midnight torments call the sluggish light,

And when the morning's come they woo the night.
J. Come, cease thy tears and speak thy free desires;
S. Quench, quench my flames, assuage these scorching fires.
J. Canst thou believe my hand can cure thy grief?

S. Lord, I believe! O, help my unbelief!

J. Hold forth thy arm, and let my fingers try

Thy pulse. Where, chiefly, doth thy torment lie?

S. From head to foot, it reigns in every part,
But chief the tyrant rules within my heart.

J. Canst thou digest and relish wholesome food?
How stands thy taste?-S. To nothing that is good;
All sinful trash, and earth's unsav'ry stuff
I can digest, and relish well enough.

J. Is not thy blood as cold as hot, by turns?
S. Cold to what's good, to what is bad it burns.
J. How old's thy grief?-S. I took it at the fall
With eating fruit:-J. Tis epidemical.
Thy blood's infected, and th' infection sprung
From a bad fountain; 'tis a fever strong
And full of death, unless with present speed
A vein be open'd; thou must die or bleed.
S. O I am faint and spent, the wound that shall
Let forth my blood, lets forth my life withal.
My soul wants cordials, and has greater need
Of blood than (being spent so far) to bleed ;
I faint already; if I bleed I die;

J. 'Tis either you must bleed, sick soul, or I.

My blood's a cordial, he that sucks my veins
Shall cleanse his own, and conquer greater pains
Than these. Cheer up! this precious blood of mine
Shall cure thy grief, my heart has bled for thine.
Believe! and view me with a faithful eye,

Thy soul shall neither languish, bleed, nor die!

THE BELIEVER'S WANTS.

(July No., 1839.)

If on thy God thou tri'st to call,

He'll meet with thee e'en there;
He'll null thy claim with "Reprobate,"
The border of despair.

The heavens awhile as brass may prove,
And thee with horror scare;

Its length and breadth with Jesus' love, Conscience condemn, and guilt accuse,

THE

GOSPEL STANDARD,

OR,

FEEBLE CHRISTIAN'S SUPPORT.

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled."-Matt. v. 6.

"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." "-2 Tim. i. 9.

"The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded."-Rom. xi. 7.

"If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.-And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.-In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."-Acts viii. 37, 38; Matt. xxviii. 19.

No. 57.

ન

SEPTEMBER, 1840.

GRACE.

VOL. VI.

The Epistles of the Apostle to the Gentiles are especially remarkable as beginning and ending with the sweet salutation of "Grace unto you." Grace appears to have been ever uppermost and reigning in his soul when writing, as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, to the churches of the saints, who were "partakers of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God; who hath saved us and called us," saith he, "with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began; but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." (2 Tim. i. 8-10.) Nothing but grace, which is the free, sovereign, eternal, and never-varying love of the Three which bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, which Three are One in nature, glory, power, will, design, and pleasure, could suit the palate of this "man in Christ," (2 Cor. xii. 2,) who, like David, could say from his heart, his “ conscience also bearing him witness in the Holy Ghost;" (Rom. ix. 1;) "I have seen an end of all perfection, but thy commandment is exceeding broad." (Ps. cxix. 96.) And to this standing or persuasion, spiritual vision, and felt reality, must every elected, redeemed, and quickened heir of "the grace of life," (1 Peter iii. 7,) be brought, naked, poor, miserable, guilty; a transgressor of the holy law of Jehovah, deservedly condemned thereby; impotent, without strength, unable to do anything good, right, or acceptable in the sight of God, or even to think a good thought of himself; needy, unclean, full of leprosy; "the whole head sick and the whole heart faint; from the sole of the foot even unto the head with no soundness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying

sores, that have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment;" (Isaiah i. 5, 6 ;) undone in himself, without any "confidence in the flesh; a stinking carcase, a cage of unclean birds, a sink of every abomination; his eyes full of adultery, his throat an open sepulchre, his tongue set on fire of hell, which oft has used deceit, and la boured as the willing servant of a heart "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" the poison of asps under his lips; his mouth full of cursing and bitterness, which he has often feared would burst out in opon curses, or give vent to the atrocious and unspeakable blasphemies against the blessed God and his purity which sometimes swell within him to his soul's misery and bitter anguish; his feet swift to shed blood; destruction and misery in his ways; ignorant of the way of peace, with no fear of God before his eyes; altogether unprofitable and ungodly, he is made sensible of this truth, that "by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Rom. iii. 9-20.) His mouth is stopped; he feels he is guilty before God, and boasting is excluded. Such a one cannot unite with, or delight in the accursed doctrines of Wesley and his blinded disciples and admirers, who, proud of their deceived and deceiving leader, and glorying in their shame, in the face of the sun, with his image on their breasts and flags in their hands, not long since assembled to perpetrate their enmity to the grace of God in the public market places and streets, like the Pharisees in the days of old, who were the most deadly enemies to the dear Redeemer and his fulness, from which poor, empty, hungry, and thirsty sinners receive grace for grace. Such a one, when experiencing the love of God in his soul, drawn with "the cords of a man and with the bands of love," the yoke taken off his jaws and meat laid before him, can enter into the apostle's feelings when, writing to the Ephesians, he holds forth the fruits of the tree of life, which they had tasted; “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and hath made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus; for by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast." (Eph. ii. 1-9.) To talk to a child of God-to one who groans under the weight and burden of a body of sin and death, unto whom the commandment has come-who finds by what passes in him daily, yea, continually, that sin has revived, and that under it he has died; to talk, I say, to one who has eyes to see inwardly as well as outwardly, like the beasts John saw before the throne, (Rev. iv. 6,)—of the merits or good works of such as he is—is worse than mockery. He hates, loathes, and detests the very thought of his having any such things in himself; he is conscious that it is a lie, a delusion, and treason against the majesty of God; it is nauseous to bis soul, and so are all who maintain it. He knows that they are damned to all eternity if they die in that stronghold of Satan; he can see the chains of darkness on their souls, the shadow of death on their eyelids, the strong man armed in their hearts, which is his house, keeping his goods in false though flesh-pleasing and rational peace. He has in himself a living witness, which is faithful and true, that, if he be not eternally loved and elected by God, perfectly and for ever redeemed and saved by God, and effectually quickened by God, so that he never can return to his former death in trespasses and sins, he must be, he is lost for ever, without any possibility of ever escaping the unquenchable, ever-burning, eternal