the flame of divine wrath, and turn away the anger of God from guilty man?

Ans. You still deal in unscriptural expressions; so that I must either give you no answers at all, or give you answers which will be unsatisfactory.

Q. Just answer me as well as you

can.

Ans. Well then, I do not believe that the blood of Christ has turned away the wrath of God from guilty man. God is as angry with guilty men now as he ever was. The Gospel reveals the wrath of God against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men. God's anger is turned away from none but those who are turned away from their sins.

Q. Your answers confuse me. Ans. Perhaps they only make you feel the confusion which has existed in your mind before.

Q. Do you believe in the atone

ment?

Q. That is all I mean. Ans. Then why did you express yourself so unwisely?

Q. I only used the expressions which are commonly used by some of the ablest writers on the subject.

Ans. Many of those who are called able writers, use very objectionable expressions on the subject; expressions calculated to bewilder and mislead the mind; expressions calculated to darken the truth of Christ, and perpetuate error and unbelief.

Q. But you consider that we are accepted and saved entirely for the sake of Christ, I suppose: for the sake of what he has done and suffered?

Ans. The Scriptures do not say so. The Scriptures speak of men being saved by Christ, but they no where speak of men being saved for the sake of Christ. There is one passage which speaks of God pardoning men for the sake of Christ, but the passage is not correctly translated. The word which is translated for the sake of, is en; and ought to have been ranslated by, or through. Kathos kai o Theos en Kristoo ekaristo umin;

as God through Christ has forgiven you." Eph. iv. 42.* The word commonly translated for the sake of, is encken; as Eneken emou, for my sake." Matt. v. 11. Matt. x. 39. There is no other passage in the whole Bible that speaks of men heing either saved or pardoned for Christ's sake.

Q. But there are other forms of expression in the Scriptures, which have the same meaning, I suppose?

Ans. I cannot say that there are. If the expression means that God pardons, approves, or saves people without regard to their own conduct or behaviour, there are not any ex. pressions of the same meaning. The Scriptures uniformly represent God as having regard to men's conduct in bestowing pardon and salvation. None are pardoned, accepted of God, or received to heaven, but such as receive the truth, leave their sins, and live to God; and all who do thus are pardoned, accepted, and received to heaven.

Q. I don't know whither you would lead one?

Ans. Back to Scripture,-back to the simplicity of Christ.

Q. Then what do you regard as the ground of a sinner's acceptance with God?

Ans. No sinner is accepted until he leaves his sins, and turns with purpose of heart to the Lord; and no sinner who does thus leave his sin, and turn to God, is rejected. The language of the Scriptures is,

Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and

I have before me four German translations, the Lutheran, the Roman Catholic, the Reformed, and the New Transla tion; but not one of them translates the Catholic translation is " As God in Christ hath forgiven you." Luther's translation is, "Like as God hath forgiven you in Christ." The Reformed Translation is, "Even as God hath forgiven you through Christ" and the New Translation is, "As also God in Christ has forgiven you." The Dutch and the Latin Translations

passage as our version does. The Roman

are to the same effeet.

:

doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell; and great was the fall of it."-Acts iii. 19.Matt. vii. 21, 24-27.

Q. But does not God accept the obedience, sufferings, and death of Christ as a substitute or equivalent for man's obedience? Is it not purely in consideration of Christ's obedience, sufferings, and death, that God forgives man's disobedience, and looks on the sinner as though he had himself kept the law of God?

Ans. The Scriptures do not say so. The Scriptures do not say that God ever looks on a sinner as though he had kept his law. God forgives the sinner, when the sinner repents and returns to obedience; but he does not look on the sinner as having kept the law. Nor does the Scriptures say any thing about God accepting the obedience, sufferings, and death of Christ as a substitute for man's obedience, or as a compensation for man's disobedience.

Q. I suppose you simply consider the death of Christ as purchasing God's favour for man?

Ans. No; I am not aware that God's favour can be purchased. God's favour need not be purchased for a good man; God bestows his favour on the good, freely; and nothing can bribe him to bestow his approbation on a bad man. God loves goodness, without a price; and he cannot love wickedness, with a price.

Q. Do you then consider the sacrifice of Christ as the procuring cause of God's mercy to men generally?

Ans. No on the contrary, I consider the sacrifice of Christ as the result of God's mercy or love to mankind. God was merciful before Christ came; and it was God's mercy, his unbought, unmerited mercy, that led him to send his son. As Baxter says, Christ did not come to change God's disposition to

wards us, but to change our disposition and conduct towards God. He did not come to make God good, but to make us holy and obedient, that we might be prepared for the reception of his favours. It was not the sun that had left the earth, but the earth that had left the sun; and it was not the sun that required to be brought nearer the earth, but the earth that required to be brought back to its proper place in reference to the sun.

Q. I wish you would just tell us what your views of the subject are.

Ans. I will do that with the greatest readiness; but my views are so simple and plain, and so old-fashioned and practical besides, that I am afraid you will not see much beauty in them. My views are expressed in such passages as the following; "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved". John iii. 16, 17. "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die ; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans v. 6, 7, 8. "In this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1. John iv. 9, 10. that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32. "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." Eph. v. 1, 2. "Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to

"He

the will of God and our Father." Gal. i. 3, 4. "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich." 2. Cor. viii, 9. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Titus ii. 11-14. These are my views on the subject. Here is every thing to encourage man's hope, and to awaken man's love, and yet nothing to encourage presumption or disobedience. Nor is there any of that metaphysical folly or mystery with which many of the writings of theologians abound. Q. But do you take into your views of the atonement and sacrifice of Christ, nothing but what you find plainly laid down in the New Testament?

Ans. Nothing more.

Q. Do you not consider the views which are generally held to be essential to salvation?

Ans. Nothing can be essential to salvation, but to believe what God says, and to do as he commands.

Q. But it is generally considered that unless men entertain such views on the atonement of Christ as are inculcated by such men as Bates, Dwight, and others of the same school, they cannot be saved.

Ans. O yes, I am aware of that. It is quite common for theologians to represent men's salvation as depending on holding their opinions. They would persuade you that to believe what God has said is nothing, unless you also believe their interpretation of God's words. They would have you to believe that receiving the truth of God, as taught by Christ and his Apostles, amounts to nothing, unless you also admit their creeds and theories. But don't be afraid of them. Set the proud, intolerant theologian at defiance; throw his theories and fables to the winds; and, resting on the simple

declarations of Christ, and obeying the precepts of his Gospel, without fear, look for the mercy of God, unto eternal life. "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love." Gal. v. 6. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." Gal. vi. 15, 16.— "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." 1. Cor. vii. 19.

SEALED TO THE DAY OF

REDEMPTION.

Ir is customary when people hire servants, to give them a pledge or earnest of the wages they are to receive when their work is done, as a seal or ratification of the engagement or agreement. The master does not pay his servants their wages beforehand, but he gives them a shilling, a penny, or a pound, as the case may be, as a seal or ratification of the bargain between them, as a pledge that the wages shall be paid when the work is done, and as an earnest, a foretaste of the future remuneration. So does God do with us. When we enter into his service, he not only gives us the promise of eternal life, but the pledge also of that blessedness, the earnest, the foretaste of our reward. He does not give us our reward, our fulness of blessedness at once, but he seals his promise by bestowing upon us the fullest proofs of his intentions to reward us, by giving us an earnest, a foretaste of that blessedness in our souls. This he does by giving to us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is that by which we are blessed with peace, and confidence, and joy, by which we are assured of God's love to us, and of his design to bless us with eternal life and blessedness. "The day of redemption," the day of the resurrection of the body, is the period when our full blessedness is to be given; but between that period and this, we have a portion of blessedness given us, as a pledge of God's intention to give us our full reward.

MIXING LIGHT AND DARKNESS.

IN a pamphlet containing the connexional regulations and general principles of one of the last-formed Methodist bodies, are the two following passages close together :

1. That hereafter every Preacher entering the Itinerancy, shall be required to become a member of the PREACHERS' ANNUITANT SOCIETY." (1841.)

"2. That the Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, were written under Divine inspiration, and are a revelation of the will of God to man, and contain a true and perfect rule of faith and practice."

How is it, if our friends believe that the Sacred Scriptures contain a perfect rule of practice, that they should think it necessary to make other rules? They cannot say that the Sacred Scriptures contain the rule requiring preachers of the gospel to be members of the Preachers' Annuitant Society, and that they have only taken out the rule and printed it, to prevent it from being forgotten or neglected. There is no such rule in the Sacred Scriptures. They cannot even say that the Sacred Scriptures contain the general principle of the rule, and that they have only brought out the principle, and applied it to a particular case. There is no such thing in the Sacred Scriptures as either a particular rule, or a general principle, requiring that preachers shall be members of an annuitant society. The rule is quite a new one. It has no existence, in any form, in the Sacred Scriptures, either in the Old or New Testament. It is plain, then, that our friends who have published this pamphlet before us, as a statement of their principles, must be under some mistake. Either they do not believe the Sacred Scriptures to be "a perfect rule of practice," or they must have made the new rule requiring preachers to be members of the Preachers' Annuitant Society, by mistake.

This is certain, that if the Sacred Scriptures contain a perfect rule of practice, the rule which our friends have made, requiring all that would be travelling preachers to be members of the Annuitant Society, must be an unnecessary rule. They surely

cannot think that that can be a perfect rule of practice, which does not enjoin all things necessary to fit a man for being a good minister of Christ. The regulation requiring preachers to become members of the Annuitant Society, must be a needless one, or else the Sacred Scriptures must be an imperfect rule of practice, for they contain no such regulation.

And what an awful thing for men to require things of their fellowChristians as a condition of exercising their ministry, which the Saviour himself does not require. What a thing for persons professing Christianity, and complaining of "the assumption and exercise of undue authority on the part of the Methodist Conference," and assigning this "assumption and exercise of undue authority on the part of the Methodist Conference," as their reason for leaving the Wesleyan body, to assume the power to shut men out of a hundred or a thousand pulpits, and forbid them to labour as travelling preachers, unless they will become members of a Benefit So

ciety! What a thing for persons who profess to regard the Sacred Scriptures as a perfect rule of practice, to say to a brother Christian and minister of Christ, It is true you are a Christian, a good man, sound in the faith, holy in your tempers and behaviour, an example of meekness, of purity, of temperance and charity, of truth and honesty, of wisdom and gravity; it is true you are well instructed in the Gospel, and well qualified to teach it to others; and it is also true that Christ has sent you to preach it; but you shall not preach it among the people whom we represent,unless you will become a member of the Preachers' Annuitant Society. You may preach as a local preacher, but not as a travelling preacher. You shall not go out of your own neighbourhood; you must not go into all the world; you must not go out as a missionary to heathen lands; you must not be permitted to receive contributions, from those who enjoy the benefit of your labours towards your support. The people may wish to enjoy your labours; they may have received good under your ministry; you may be the very man that God

meant for them; but all that is nothing, unless you can consent to become a member of the Preachers' Annuitant Society. It is true that Christ was not a member of a Preachers' Annuitant Society,—that Paul, and Peter, and Silas, and John, and Luther, and Baxter, and Fox, and Penn, and Wesley, and Whitfield laboured as travelling preachers without being members of any Annuitant Society; but they lived before our times. If they were living now, they should not do as they did; "Hereafter every preacher entering the Itinerancy shall be required to become a member of the Preachers' Annuitant Society." They might tell us they were not anxious about the future uncertain calamities of life,-that they could trust God for times of sickness and old age,—that they considered it wrong to lay up for themselves treasures on earth,-that they also considered it wrong to contribute their money to persons who have enough already: they might also tell us that they could employ their money to better advantage by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and helping the fatherless and widows among the poorest of Christ's flock; but that would be nothing: they must become members of the Annuitant Society. I say, what a thing for people to speak thus ! And yet this is the language of their conduct, when they pass such laws as the one of which we speak.

And it seems the more strange that men should act thus, just after the conference of the New Connexion had destroyed itself by enforcing similar regulations. Do our friends see no danger in the course they are taking? Do they think that the regulation can be enforced without peril? How short sighted, how dimsighted we are! Can we hope to prevail against God? It is in vain to war with the principles of the Gospel. Such regulations may scatter the churches, but they will never support the Annuitant Society, by enforcing their own laws instead of the laws of God.

We hope the friends for whom these remarks are specially intended will not find fault with us for the li

berty we have taken. We feel no unkindness to them: we have no desire to offend them; we only wish

them to consider well the steps they take, and to guard against imitating the various denominations going before them; who have begun with advocating Gospel liberty, and ended in binding themselves and each other with chains.

What greater stretch

of power can they point to in the history of the old Connexion, than they have themselves run into in passing the law quoted above? What more arbitrary law can they find in the whole history of Methodist legislation, than the law which shuts out from the ministry every man, however wise, however good, however able, however useful, who happens to have a conscientious objection to become a member of a benefit society? They must see and feel, if they will consider the matter, that such laws, such interference with the liberty of their brethren, are not right. At least one would think so.

REVIEW.

The Second Reformation.-Proposals for the Formation of a Church Reformation Society, an outline of the Changes it is proposed to make; and a Sketch of the Constitution of the Church of England, as it is intended to be after the Second Reformation. By the Rev. Thomas Spencer, M.A., Perpetual Curate of Hinton Charterhouse, near Bath, and late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Price one penny. Third Thousand.

THIS is a most singular pamphlet ; singular enough, we doubt not, to cause its author to be suspected by many of madness, if not of something worse. And yet the reformations proposed by the author seem to us to be generally good, so far as they go. The society which he proposes to form is to "adopt the Scripture as the only rule of faith, and the public good as the only object at which to aim.” All peculiar creeds and observances of human origin are to be regarded as of no authority.

The following is an outline of the principalChanges which it is proposed to make in Ecclesiastical Affairs, and a Sketch of the CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND as it is intended to be after the SECOND REFORMATION.