some are of the writings of many of the old divines, yet we felt some pleasure while reading this. We believe the author was taught of God, and knew something of the mystery of God in his own soul, and it affords no smali comfort and encouragement to see that the Lord the Spirit works in his people the same experience and leads them in the same paths in all ages.

Our author takes up Jacob's vision of the ladder, as recorded Gen. xxviii. 12, 13, in a threefold sense; literal, allegorical, and providential; literal, as to Jacob's going to Padan-Aran, his stay there, and his return from thence; allegorical, as applied to Christ; and providential, as signifying the Divine Providence; and this latter part forms the greater portion of the work, tracing the "variety of Providence in the many steps thereof. The providence of God hath but one end, yet it hath divers ways to that end. The locks on the spouse of the Canticles are black and curled; black for their obscurity, and curled for their various intricacy. The Lord keeps his people from infection by leading them through divers airs. Standing waters corrupt and breed noisome creatures, but running waters are pure and preservative. Every new day brings with it a new temptation, and we shall never be experienced soldiers till we are tried at all sorts of weapons. We must not look on the scattered lines of providence, but tarry till God hath made a conclusion; never say providence scribbles, till you have seen the whole copy. Princes' letters, we say, ought to be read thrice; let us consider the ways of God, and we shall never censure them.” The price is so low, that some of our wealthy readers might do worse than buy a dozen or two copies, and give them to their poorer brethren.

The other work referred to is a grand display of the incarnation of the Son of God. It is very ably written, the great and glorious mystery of "God manifest in the flesh" being scripturally and well handled. The author seems to have felt something of the beauty and worth of this mystery in his own scul. "If it be demanded," says he, "how these things can stand together, that the Son of Man speaking upon earth, should yet at the same instant be in heaven? that the Father of eternity should be born in time? and that the mighty God should become a child, which is the weakest state of man himself? we must call to mind, that the first letter of his great name is "WONDERful.” And so it is; wonderful indeed! "the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." The work is no mean witness against human Pre-existerianism, and Socinianism in every other shape. It truly exalts the God-Man in the mystery of his incarnation.

The Baptists' Hymn Book; being a Collection of upwards of One Thousand Hymns, harmonizing with the Scriptures of Truth, in Doctrines, Ordinances, and Precepts; and corresponding with the manifold Experience of the brokenhearted, conscience-wounded, soul-humbled, Spirit-taught, truth-seeking, bloodredeemed, hell opposed, earth-despised, and grace-defended Sinner, to whom, and in whom, and with whom, and for whom Christ is all in all. By John Stenson.-Stenson.

This is the hymn book referred to by R. E. in his letter, which will be found in another part of the magazine. It is, indeed, as R. E. says, anything but what it professes to be. It is in perfect keeping with another selection, called "Hymns of Praise," the tendency of which is, to stuff the head with doctrinal knowledge, and leave the heart untouched. Instead of entering into the varied experience of the children of God, there is little or no experience contained in it that may not be possessed by an hypocrite. It says, certainly, that there is an experience, that there is tribulation; but it enters not into that experience, nor does it at all describe real spiritual tribulation. We have carefully gone over the hymns under the head "Christian Experience;" and, strange to say, we only find three that were penned by Hart or Berridge, almost the only two men, now in glory, who penned any hymns on real experience worth reading,— a proof this that the compiler of the Baptists' Hymn Book did not learn his experience in the same school. The bait thrown out in the title is very enticing, but we feel called upon to caution living fish to beware, lest they should get a hook in their jaws. (Ezek. xxix. 4.)

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. 44.

AUGUST, 1839.

VOL. V.

LETTER FROM A PASTOR TO HIS FLOCK.

Dear Brethren in the Lord and Life of Zion,-Through mercy I am still in the wilderness, and no worse in bodily health than I was when I left home. O my dear brethren, what an infinite mercy it is to be stripped of self and self-dependence, and to be drawn by the sweet and solemn power of God the Holy Ghost to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in him find rest, peace, and quietness of soul. There is an indescribable glory in Christ, a glory which all the wisdom of the world can never fathom, no, nor even glance at. Poor broken down sinners, who are taught by the Lord, now and then have a small glimpse of it, and only a small, and often a very short glimpse. But small and short as it is, it is very solemn and very sweet; and, which is very, very blessed, it is a sure pledge of eternal glory. Bless the loving and lovely name of my dear Lord, there are sweet moments when his name is manifestively as ointment poured forth; therefore do I love him. What can be so blessed as a precious Christ revealed to the conscience by the unctuous power of God the Holy Ghost? Even our weakness makes room for his glorious strength, and our foolishness makes room for the manifestation of his wisdom, our vileness for his glorious purity, our guilt for his pardoning blood and righteousness, our emptiness for his matchless fuluess, our fickleness for the glory of his stability. A worthless, filthy sinner and a precious Christ brought together by the glorious power of God the Spirit; Christ embracing the sinner in the arms of everlasting love, and sweetly speaking to the conscience, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn

H

thee;" and the poor sinner receiving him by faith and love in real feeling, and sweetly saying, "Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation;" and for the soul in holy freedom, under the anointings of the blessed Spirit, to call Christ her Love, her Dove, her Husband, her Friend, her Portion, her Lord, her Life, and her All and in All; and to have that holy freedom with him in claiming him in all the glorious beauties and blessedness of his glorious person, as the God-Man Mediator, which none can really do but living souls, and they only as the blessed Spirit teaches them the deep things of God, and draws their souls in some solemn measure into them, but when this is done, and the dear Lord speaks again and again with divine power, and says, “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee; thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes (the precious eye of vital faith); with one chain of thy neck" (the blessed chain of love to him and to all that is dear to him); I say, brethren, when this is the case, the world drops its charms, and the dear child of God proves that there is a glorious reality in the religion of Christ, and that the most holy, the most heavenly, the most sweet, the most humbling, the most exalting, the most harmonizing, the most God-glorifying spot that a poor sinner can be in while in this vale of tears, is to meet God, by faith and in feeling, in that holy place, the secret of his tabernacle, his blessed pavilion, the glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ, there to have fellowship with the Father, with the Son, and with the blessed. Spirit.

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God grant that you may be enabled, in all your approaches to God, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and in holy meekness and vital faith wear him as the Lord your righteousness and strength. Without and separate from him, you are a mass of filth and wretchedness, but in him, as one with him, you are glorious and beautiful; yea, a crown of glory and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God." (Isa. lxii. 3.) Well may it be said, "What hath God wrought?" Aye, what indeed! The united tongues of men and angels can never fully describe what God hath wrought for his people. Hear what he hath and does work in his people. The blessed Father has given his glorious Son, and with and in him all real good both for time and for eternity, and the blessed Son has given himself, yea, given himself in a thousand senses; and to give full proof that his whole soul was in the business, gave himself up to all the malice of men, rage of devils, curses of a broken law, yea, and the wrath of a highly insulted God, determined to do and bear all that could honour God, defeat devils, magnify law, overcome the world, clear and acquit his spouse, and present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. To accomplish this great work, it cost him sighs, and groans, and cries, and pangs, and horrors indescribable; yet, such was and such is his matchless love, that he did it with his whole soul. This is love indeed. O that you and I may now and then meet him in Gethse

he

mane, and, under the anointing, sealing power of God the Spirit, may we there bathe in blood and love, and feel the glorious impress of his image upon our souls, and in very deed hold converse with our glorious Three-One God, and then we shall know a little of what God the Spirit has wrought in us. Bless his precious name, all the spiritual life and light we have, every broken-hearted sigh, every particle of real tenderness of conscience, every act of faith and love, is all his blessed work, and every vital spark or principle from which they spring is all his gift. He will never totally leave us; we may at times have dreadful darkness and hardness, and be filled with doubts and fears, and feel faint and sickly, and almost conclude it is all over with us, and begin to wish that we had never been born, and a thousand distressing things may vex, and tease, and perplex us, but the Lord will appear again, and cause us to feel this blessed truth, "My grace is sufficient for thee, and my strength shall be made perfect in thy weakness;" and thus bring us to give the whole glory to a Three-One God.

That the God of peace may be with you, and bless you with much of his divine tenderness, and holy anointings and sealings, is the prayer of, yours in the Lord,

May 25, 1839.

SKETCH OF A SERMON.

W. G.

David was led into a varied experience on purpose to speak to the cases of the Lord's family, both then and in after ages. There are many that say that the Psalms are solely applicable to Christ; and if the Bible were not against them, they might pass current; but as it is, it is all on the side of little-faith. You may, perhaps, ask, Where is the Bible against such commentators? I answer, in Isaiah, for the prophet, speaking of Eliakim, who was typical of Christ, says, "The key of the house of David (not the world) shall be on his shoulder; that he shall shut, and none shall open; and open, and none shall shut." Here, then, I take the text as having a reference to Christian experience. In the first place, we will look at the shutting up, and at the impossibility of such getting into liberty that are thus shut up, and the reason why they are thus shut up.

First, shut up. The whole world of non-elect is shut out, but at present not shut up. They are reserved for the day of destruction, when they shall be gathered together as prisoners in a pit, and then they shall be shut up in hell, with their father, the devil, for ever and ever. But God's people shall be shut up before then, and these are God's prisoners which are only sent out by the blood of the covenant. This was plainly shown by the leper, under the law. When his leprosy was discovered, he was unclean, he must be brought before the priest; and if he was not in a fit state to be pronounced clean, he was shut up. Just such it is with a poor sinner when guilt is felt; he is unclean, feels himself not fit for any one; he is then like a pelican of the wilderness, or owl of the desert; the sun has shone upon him, and he is black; believe he cannot; make himself

power

clean he cannot; sin (of which leprosy was a type) hunts him continually; and this was the state in which Paul was when the law made a prisoner of him. Jesus looked upon him, sin was charged upon him, and he could not get away, neither could he make himself clean; he was under the arrest of justice till mercy liberated him. Yes, say some, and when he was liberated he never doubted any more; he had only outward troubles; he never doubted his interest. I believe that Paul came into establishment in the same way that Ezekiel did, for you find that the prophet could not get into the water; no, not up to the ancles, till the angel measured a thousand, and he must measure the same before he could get up to the knees, and another thousand before he could get up to the loins. O, I believe Paul often got into prison. By these things he was taught to live. When he was a child, he spoke like a child; he knew, by experience, that grace admitted of growth, for he knew there could be no good hope without experiencing a Christ formed in the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost, not in the head. We hear the dear man saying, after he was liberated the first time, that he was brought into captivity to the law of sin that was in his members. If a man is in captivity, he is a prisoner; therefore, he stood in need of the of Christ, and here he found Zion's deliverer strong to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. We find this apostle brought into captivity to the fear of man. Fine work, indeed, for a full assurance man to circumcise Timothy, and shave men's heads. O ye presumptuous mortals, that are always preaching up your full assurance to poor burdened sinners! You will be detected, and though you, like Amalek, appeared to be the first of the nations, your latter end will be, that you perish. Poor Jeremiah is a witness against all such brazen brows, for he was shut up and could not go into the house of the Lord, therefore sent Baruch to read the roll. Ministers of the letter never know what it is to be shut up in their understanding; they can take a text, cut it in pieces, and put it in such a systematic way as to gain the approbation of mortals, and never have the approbation of God in the conscience; they never seem to be confused in their brain; while a poor minister, whose dependence is on the Lord, is obliged to go oftener praying to the pulpit than studying. A man shut up, feels his heart as hard as hell can make it, and as cold towards God as it is possible to be; he feels earthly, sensual, and devilish; sin binds him down; he wants liberty, but not a fleshly one; he, like Daniel, is in the den of lions, finding every thing goes contrary to what he thought; his case is singular; like the man that lay at the pool of Bethesda, another steps in and gets the blessing; something sticks to him like a horse-leech, crying, "Give, give!" Such a poor creature as this must have Jesus himself; it is like that spirit which only went out by prayer and fasting. Oftentimes we find God's people shut up in Providence, closed in as with stones; and when they pray and shout, their prayer is shut out, and will be till the time that God arises for their help. Many cases might be mentioned, both ancient and modern, to prove this; but let it suffice, at present, to say, that he will never let his