means by which it is conveyed to him; yet where the first branch is acquired, the second cannot fail of accompanying it.

The duty, therefore, of those who are commanded, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people saith your God, is to teach the troubled soul that his daily, spiritual exercises, are evidences of that knowledge which is of the Lord, that he who alone teacheth to profit, leadeth him by the way he should go,-and that from and to eternity he is blessed, whom the Lord hath chosen and now caused to approach. Every renewed apprehension of the depravity and corruption of self, and of the need of Christ, is proof of the presence of Christ. The sun of righteousness, the light of the spiritual world, must have already displayed the effulgence of his beams, where these discoveries are realized and so long as the all-glorious orb continues to emit his rays, will the believer continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of God.

Be it the never-ceasing concern of the fearful and the fainting pilgrim, to walk closely and diligently the way marked out for him : that if he go slowly, it may be with his eye on Jesus,-if he advance with speedier steps, it may be looking to Jesus,-and if he run the way of his Lord's commandments, it may be with dependence on Jesus. And may he follow on continually to know that he hath eternal life, and to believe on the name of the Son of God.

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy; to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

ANECDOTE.

Mr. JOHN WELSH, one of the eminent Scotch worthies, was summoned to appear before the king; who, greatly incensed, with a threatening countenance asked, what he was, and how he durst preach heresy so near his person? To which the faithful veteran made the following reply "I am, sir, the servant and minister of Jesus Christ, "whose truth I preached this day, which, if your majesty rightly "knew, you would have judged it your duty to have come yourself, "and heard; and for my doctrine I did this day preach these three "truths to your people. 1. That man is fallen, and by nature in a "lost condition, yea, by his own power and abilities is not able to 66 help himself from that estate. 2. That there is no salvation, or "deliverance from wrath by our own merits, but by Jesus Christ and "his merit alone. 3. I did also preach this day the just liberties of "the kingdom of France, that your majesty oweth obedience to "Christ only, who is the head of the church; and that the Pope, as "he is an enemy to Christ, and his truth, so also to the kings of the "earth, whom he keepeth under slavery to his usurped power." Whereat the king for a time keeping silence, with great astonishment turned to some about him, and said, "surely this is a man of God!" Yea, after did commune with him, and dismissed him with great respect.

REVIEW.

Christian Characteristics; or, an attempt to Delineate the most prominent Features of the Christian Character. By T. Lewis, Minister of Union Chapel, Islington. Baynes, Westley.

WHILE other of our pages have been employed in proving, that "the Christian character" cannot possibly be delineated with correctness, by persons deficient in knowledge of any one essential principle of the glorious gospel; we will here take the liberty to state the primary cause of failure, in those who have hitherto attracted the notice of our correspondents. We may expect to obtain the ill opinion, if not the rebuke, of many, but of these we are regardless : our duty is paramount to every consideration arising from the prepossessions or prejudices which others may exercise: we are constrained to be faithful. It has not been our practice to allege a charge we were unable to substantiate; nor have we when making it, declined advancing the proof: and we trust never to be found backward in rendering a reason' for our conduct, whenever required, and that we shall never refuse the acknowledgment, if proved to have drawn incorrect conclusions.

6

We now, fearlessly assert, that the primary cause of failure, on the part of those who give a false representation of "the Christian character," may be traced to anti-scriptural views of the attributes and covenant designs of Jehovah. Our remarks are meant to allude solely to the ministers and writers professing to be trinitarians,—with others we have in this place nothing to do.

The incommunicable Jehovah is declared to the church to exist in three divine persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who are mutually engaged by covenant and by oath to secure her eternal blessedness. Without entering into a statement of scripture evidence to that effect, it will suffice to assert, the indispensable duty of the advocate for truth is, as each glorious person equally bound himself to the accomplishment of their united purpose,-to give each glorious person, equal honour, in the exhibition of those engagements to the church.

The ministers and writers we speak of acknowledge with great truth, that the only acceptable character in the sight of God, is the man who is quickened into spiritual life by the power of the Holy Ghost, and whose future progress is marked by the powerful influences of the same divine agent. We grant they make this acknowledgment, and are bound therefore to give some credit for sincerity in its adoption but by a close examination of the purpose to which it is devoted, it may be clearly inferred, that the credit of a nominal avowal, is the whole that can be allowed. It will be thought by many, that we here incur a heavy responsibility:-we beg to direct their attention to the "Christian Characteristics" now before us.

Mr. Lewis, in one place, gives this scriptural account of the state of man by nature, and the necessity of regeneration:

"Now, that this work can be nothing less than a creation, or a bringing to new life, will be acknowledged, when it is recollected, that the origiual transgression,' lost to man the image of God, in which he had been created. In other words, the righteous sentence, of which he had previous warning, was executed upon him;-in the day that he sinned, he spiritually died. That beautiful and noble state of rectitude in intellect, in will, in affection, constituting the life of God in his soul, and given him of God in his creation, was not merely marred, but slain, by sin. The life thus lost he cannot recover for himself, no more than he could at first have been his own creator. Hence, as it has been forcibly expressed, "We are by nature in the dark grave of depravity, and we can no more raise and bring ourselves out of it, than a carcase which is lain in a grave can throw off the clods that cover it, or unlock the door of the vault it is in." Therefore, to have this life restored, a man must be born again— created anew, and that by a power out of himself. The agency of the Holy Spirit is that power. The regenerated person, or the christian, is said to be born of the Spirit,-to live,-to walk, in the Spirit," and to be "saved by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost."

And, yet, when he essays to explain the grace of "faith," he observes," In reference to its object, it is the bond of union between Christ and the believer." Now, this is a virtual denial of the eternal union subsisting between Christ and his church: it goes to undermine the foundation of the safety of the church, and would tear from the brow of the second person in Jehovah the eternal honours with which he is adorned.

Faith the bond of union! It is profaning the person of the Father, who from the bosom of his own eternity declared the decree: "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen, thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth, thy possession." Faith the bond of union! Why, then, adored Lord, didst thou vouchsafe before all worlds to betroth thyself to thy church? and why declare that, by an ineffable union, thou wert married unto her? Faith the bond of union! It beclouds the glory of the person of the Holy Ghost, who creates the living principle, is the only revealer of the secret of the covenant,—and who brings into present knowledge, past transactions.

In the chapter on " knowledge," Mr. L. says, " He cannot, therefore, know God aright who denies the law to be a rule of duty to christians, or asserts that their transgressions of it are not sinful.” By the former part of this sentence the extent of the writer's charity may be measured, which, so far from being universal, excludes all who deny the moral law to be the believer's rule of life, and pronounces them ignorant of God. If by those that assert "their transgressions are not sinful," Mr. L. means the confirmed infidel, we most heartily coincide in his conclusion; but the whole paragraph, (p. 91) is sufficiently explanatory of the writer's object in penning the remark. It contains a charge (a thousand times repeated, and as

often repelled) against fall who faithfully and fully declare the believer's deliverance from the law, by the substitution of the obedience and the imputation of the righteousness of the Lord Christ. If there be any who name the name of Christ, and assert that their transgressions of the law are not sinful, let them be reminded of the solemn sentence of the beloved apostle, "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." But it should be-and is, as grace reigns-the believer's boast from day to day, that sin, which is the transgression of the law, in its every motive and action, yea, the whole body of sin with which he is burdened, is atoned for, and its merited punishment is borne: and yet every rising corruption, every sinful thought, every impure motive, as it appears in his unsanctified nature, involves him in grief and causes him to mourn. Such a one may deny the law to be his rule of life; but he never conceives that his " transgressions of the law are not sinful." Mr. L. cannot know much of the inward conflict the Lord's people continually have with their enemies, or he would not join with the multitude in libelling the truth of the believer's complete deliverance from the law.

On the grace of " temperance," to guide the judgment and controul the passions, he remarks, "the features of the evil one vitiate the moral taste, and pollute every affection of the heart, so that”

"No sweetness is felt in the cultivation of pious and virtuous emotions; nor any beauty seen in the exhibition of a benevolent and holy life. The Christian's character is formed on a model the reverse of all this. That model is the character of his Divine Master. He imbibes his spirit, and the foul demons that rioted in his breast before are expelled. He receives his light into the understanding, and he sees the deformity of sinful passions, and learns to hate them; and growing, under divine influence, in his knowledge and in his love of the Redeemer, he contracts his resemblance, in kind and benevolent sentiments, and in meekness and lowliness of heart, until he can say, "Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty;-my soul is even as a weaned child." But the Christian's conformity to his perfect model is a gradual work. Much peculiar discipline is necessary to its accomplishment. He has not only to study his Saviour's portrait, and seek to make its features his own-but he must carefully inspect himself, and watch and pray against every evil quality in his heart, that retards the attainment to which he aspires. He ought never to forget, that the old man, his natural depravity, is not put off at once. He has passions and appetites still that want to be subdued'; and he succeeds not in putting on the new man, his conformity to Christ, till this is done."

We are content to leave this characteristic' to the reader's own comment.

Several other chapters marked for observation we must now pass by, having already filled more space than we intended. The subjects they treat on are, fortitude, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity; and the principles embraced by the author, which we have commented on, govern the whole series. In conclusion we would only remark, that so long as professors of godliness continue

to commend to their fellows any thing short of the righteousness and perfection of Christ, for the soul's preparation and meetness for eternal glory; just so long, while we have the means, shall we continue to abominate the system, and to expose its fallacy. If the moral virtues are made to supplant the gifts of righteousness, (which they are-if Christ be not exalted as the all in all of the sinner's salvation) then, we say, it were as well to recommend the mysticism of Swedenborg, or the madness of Southcott, as to enforce their exercise. But if Christ and his cross, Christ and his great salvation, are the sole argument for the hope, the joy, and the confidence of the sinner; then will spirituality of mind give new life and impetus to the moral virtues, causing them to shine brilliantly; and not only will man then be worthy the name of man, but as a saint be enabled to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.

The Predictions and Promises of God respecting Israel.

A Sermon

preached June 22nd, 1825, in the Parish Church of St. Andrew, Plymouth, on the Baptism of Mr. Michael Solomon Alexander, late Reader in the Jewish Synagogue. By the Rev. John Hatchard, A. M. Vicar of St. Andrew's, Plymouth.

It is more than probable that the observations we may make, in reviewing this Sermon, will call forth not a little of the hostility of those who are ever exclaiming, Speak unto us smooth things!' yet we dare not barter the expression of honest conviction, for the cant and hypocrisy which are catered with an unspairing hand to the religious public. The author's great diffidence' in submitting to its publication, might tend to qualify the terms in which we should express ourselves, were the subject of his discourse of private interpretation: but since thousands of persons are seduced by unfounded reasonings, similar to those here expressed, we take it in its general acceptation and on its own merits. The discourse is founded on, Hosea iii. 4, 5. on opening which the preacher proposes to direct the attention of his hearers, to the prediction-to the promise in the text-and to the particular circumstance mentioned on the title-page. When treating on the prediction, he exhibits not a ray of spirituality, -not one beam to cheer the gloomy path he has traced; not so much as an allusion to the spiritual David, nor to the spiritual seed of which the children of Israel spoken of in the text were figurative. Now for a christian minister to talk of the divine prediction concerning the Jewish nation, with his mind immediately directed (as on p. 11) to the covenant exhibited to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,and not take occasion thence to proclaim Jehovah's eternal choice of his church to be a special people unto himself above all people upon the face of the earth, and from this only cause because the Lord loved them; proves either an entire ignorance of the chief import of the declared will of God, or, so superficial an acquaintance therewith, as must tend effectually to prevent the advancement of others in the knowledge which is necessary to salvation. Alas! a fatal slumber