God the Father chose, God the Son died to redeem, and God the Holy Spirit regenerates, forms the soul anew, makes meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. Here, then, ye little ones of the flock, ye weaklings, who are harrassed by distressing doubts and fears that after all it may be that you shall perish, and that all your profession is hypocrisy, is there not a panting after Jesus? is there not a going out of the soul after Him? is there not an "if I could but touch the hem of his garment?" Are these the evidences which you can bring, notwithstanding all the corruptions you feel arising within, and the insinuations of the enemy of souls? Then, verily, you shall never perish; eternal truth hath said it! Tell satan he is a liar, he was so from the beginning. Trust the dear Redeemer; rely upon his word; glorify him by committing your eternal all into his hands. How can you do all this? say you. But he must do it for you; he must come personally to thy soul, and say, "Fear not, I am Joseph thy brother." Then wilt thou be enabled to see thy glorious relationship, and wilt prove indeed that he is a brother born for adversity. I think that is an admirable picture the eternal Spirit hath drawn of the state of every poor condemned sinner, in the history of Joseph and his brethren, where it is said, "Now they were troubled at his presence." Nor do I suppose that any of the attendants would have been able to convince them of the truth, that this ruler of Egypt was poor despised Joseph their brother, whom they sold into Egypt. But mark he speaks to them in person, "I am Joseph your brother!" he makes himself known to them, as flesh of their flesh, and bone of their bone; and then it is they recognize the relationship. Now what is the consequence? they hid their faces, and were ashamed; doubtless a retrospective view of their baseness, their cruel behaviour, stung them with remorse. But how does Joseph act? does he retaliate upon them? O no. He speaks comfortably unto them; even so does our adorable elder brother; our Joseph makes himself known unto the poor sinner who stands trembling as Joseph's brethren did, and says, "Fear not, I am Joseph your brother." Blessed Jesus! do thou in infinite mercy discover to thy feeble ones the relationship which subsists, eternally subsists, between thee and thy body, the church. I am well aware of the handle that is made of this most blessed truth, final perseverance, by the self-righteous pharisee, and by all the enemies to the sovereignty of Jehovah. Oh! say they, this is dangerous doctrine; it has a tendency to lull the sinner into carnal security; to make us careless about our salvation, and to frighten the weaklings. They call this high doctrine, antinomianism, and the like. Well, be it so: if to believe from the heart the eternal electing love of Jehovah to my soul; my interest in the life, death, and sufferings of the Son of God on Calvary; and my effectual calling in time by God the eternal Spirit; the assurance, witnessing, and sealing home those blessed truths to my soul by the self-same eternal Spirit; that I shall persevere unto the end, and that what grace, free grace, sove reign, distinguishing grace has begun, shall be consummated in eternal glory. Now if this be high doctrine, then I glory in it—if this be antinomianism, then I am an antinomian. But we know, as the apostle saith, "that the letter killeth, it is the Spirit that giveth life." O blessed life! a life that shall never die! To deny the final perseverance of the saints, is to deny the sovereignty of Jehovah; is to falsify the dying words of the dear Immanuel, when he said, "it is finished!" it is to deny the work of the Holy Spirit in his effectual calling and divine teaching; it is to overturn the whole economy of the covenant of grace, and to deny the efficacy of the death of Christ. It is God-dishonouring, Christ-debasing, and putting the unchanging Jehovah on a level with worms of the earth. But, it is written, "they shall be all taught of God:" yes, sooner or later, poor worm, Jesus will manifest himself unto thy soul as he does not, and will not, to an ungodly world. Then wilt thou be able to sing "Yes, I to the end shall endure, As sure as the earnest is given; "I will send you another Comforter, and he shall abide with you for up "The work which his goodness began, The arm of his strength will complete; And never was forfeited yet." Thus have I in a feeble manner endeavoured to address the family of heaven, wherever they may be scattered abroad, and whom I love in the Lord Jesus. "Now unto Him who is able to keep us from falling, and to present us before his Father with exceeding joy, the only wise God and our Saviour, be might, majesty, dominion, and glory, now and for ever." Amen. London, May 17, 1825. A SINNER. CHRIST THE ALL-SUFFICIENT. ALL the good things that can be reckoned up here below, have only a finite and limited benignity; some can clothe, but cannot feed; others can nourish, but they cannot heal; others can enrich, but they cannot secure; others adorn, but cannot advance; all do serve, but none do satisfy: they are like a beggar's coat made up of many pieces, not all enough either to beautify or defend: but Christ is full and sufficient for all his people-he ascended on high that he might fill all things, Eph. iv. 10. that he might pour forth such abundance of spirit on his church, as might answer all the conditions, whereunto they may be reduced; righteousness enough to cover all their sins; plenty enough to supply all their wants, grace enough to subdue all their lusts; wisdom enough to resolve all their doubts; power enough to vanquish all their enemies; virtue enough to cure all their diseases; fulness enough to save them, and that to the utmost: over and besides, there is in Christ something proportionable to all the wants and desires of his people; he is bread, wine, milk, living waters to feed them, John vi. 5, 7, 37. He is a garment of righteousness to cover and adorn them, Rev. xiii. 14. A physician to heal them, Matt. ix. 12. a counsellor to advise them, Isa. ix. 6. a captain to defend them, Heb. ii. 10. a prince to rule, a prophet to teach, a priest to make atonement for them, an husband to protect, a father to provide, a brother to relieve, a foundation to support, a root to quicken, an head to guide, a treasure to enrich, a sun to enlighten, and a fountain to cleanse; so that as the one ocean hath more water than all the rivers of the world, and one sun more light than all the luminaries in heaven; so one Christ is more all to a poor soul, than if it had the all of the whole world a thousand times over. THE EMPTINESS OF WORLDLY DELIGHTS. As a cup of pleasant wine offered to a condemned man, in the way to his execution; as the feast of him who sat under a naked sword, hanging perpendicularly over his head by a slender thread; as Adam's forbidden fruit, seconded by a flaming sword; as Balshazar's dainties overlooked by a hand-writing against the wall:- such are all the empty delights of the world; in their matter and expectation, earthly; in their acquisition, painful; in their fruition, nauseous and cloying: in their duration dying and perishing; in their operation, hardening, effeminating, leavening, puffing up, estranging the heart from God; in their consequences seconded with anxiety, solicitude, fear, sorrow, despair, disappointment; in their measure shorter than that a man can stretch himself on, narrower than that a man can wrap himself in; every way defective and disproportionable to the vast and spacious capacity of the soul of that man who has tasted that the Lord is gracious, being unable to fill that, as the light of a candle to give day to the whole world: nothing but emptiness attends them all, unless they be found in Christ Jesus. REVIEW. A Sermon, occasioned by the Death of the Rev. John Ryland, D. D. Preached at the Baptist Meeting, Broadmead, Bristol, June 5, 1825. By Robert Hall, M. A. THE funeral sermons of the present day afford a lamentable proof of general departure from the sound doctrine,' which St. Paul was eminently instructed to inculcate in his epistles to his brethren, and which the faithful in Christ Jesus, even now, with holy jealousy and zeal are ambitious of maintaining with the simplicity that is in Christ. They form a safe criterion by which to determine the spiritual attainments of their authors; and the solemnities of concomitant circumstances offer so commanding a claim to fidelity in their arrangement, that when the responsibility is undertaken of thus standing between the living and the dead, it must be of the first importance to the hearer that he receive the words of truth and soberness. If there be a period in the public labours of those who minister in holy things more important, or more sacred to the cause of truth than another, doubtless it must be that in which they are called to note the progress of the king of terrors, in the exercise of his sovereignty over the destinies of the sons of men! And to those who assemble as witnesses of the solemn deed, whether professor or profane, the instance of mortality is enhanced to a still higher degree of seriousness, when the subject contemplated is the memory of one recently gone to render an account of his stewardship as a minister of the gospel. In such case, he who has the interests of Zion, and the glory of Zion's King at heart, will naturally, though it may be in secret silence,' enquire, whether with him who received five talents, the same faithful use has been made of the rich treasure; or, with him who received one, the faithless servant digged in the earth and hid his Lord's money? But the most earnest desire of his soul, with respect to the departed, and those for whose instruction the testimony is given, will be, that the person, the glory, the grace, the work, and the death of CHRIST, are alone exalted. Twelve pages of this "Sermon," (being a fourth part of the whole) are occupied with a dissertation on patriotism and friendship; to the literary acumen and singular excellence displayed in which we readily give our feeble tribute of praise: for though divine grace has taught us to set but small value on a vaunted exhibition of human attainments, yet where an expanded mind is legitimately employed on subjects conducive to the well-being of man, we are accustomed to applaud the effort, whoever be the agent, and to delight in the exercise, whatever be the subject. But when we reflect on the weighty subject presented to the notice of the preacher, and the awful responsibility connected with its management, the array of talent brought into action on the above-cited topics is as wood, hay, stubble; and the prostitution of intellect, by thus offering sacrifice on the altar of self and self-complacency, demands the condemnation of every true follower of Christ. 6 Towards the close of page 12, Mr. Hall observes, "But it is time "to turn our attention to the passage selected for our present medi“tations: that disciple whom Jesus loved.'" From this text the speaker first comments on the character of the evangelist, and after drawing several lines of distinction in which it differed from, and was assimilated to, that of Him on whose bosom he leaned, he says, "This apostle presents a striking contrast to a certain class of writers, "who, by no means deficient in talent, but possessing little sensibility, afford the reader little or no insight into their character. "Their conceptions and their language are cast into an artificial “mould, which leaves scarcely any traces of individuality." We shall shew, as we proceed, that in several of these particulars Mr. H. has pourtrayed his own character, with a tolerable degree of force and correctness. Proceeding with a review of the labours of the beloved apostle, and tracing them down to the period of his decease, we have on page 21, the commencement of a comparison between them and those of the subject of the present discourse. Of Dr. Ryland we know nothing, but from this sermon:—we know no one, in this review, save the Rev. Robert Hall. After several paragraphs of lofty panegyric on the deceased-so much, and so preposterous, that did a believer, well humbled by divine grace, apprehend he should hereafter be the subject of the same, it would embitter his remaining days, we come to a statement of his imperfections. That with all this varied excellence he united some imperfections, will be readily allowed; at the same time it is but justice to remark, that they were in the strictest sense of the word imperfections, since they grew out of his natural temperament, and were not to be imputed to an obliquity of will, nor to a deficiency in the strength of his moral principle. The most conspicuous of these was a certain timidity of spirit, a proneness to augur danger where none existed, which, from an excessive apprehension of doing evil, sometimes arrested his power of doing good. He not only carried with him no offensive, but he had no defensive armour. This want of force and energy of character, which was his chief imperfection, was not, there is reason to believe, entirely natural, but to be ascribed, in a great measure, to an injudicious mode of treatment in early life, and to some severe trials in the commencement of his career, which pressed with such force on his mind that it never entirely recovered its elasticity. Then follows Mr. Hall's apology for the faithfulness with which he had depicted the failings of his friend. For the liberty I have assumed of alluding to the imperfections of our lamented friend, my only apology is, that unqualified praise is entitled to little credit, and that the failings which attach to the character of the best of men are often as instructive as their virtues. We seriously ask, on the ground of God's truth, which is here set at nought by "conceptions and language cast into an artificial mould," VOL. II.-No. 20. 2 F |