siastical history. God hath never left himself without witnesses: men who have neither bent the knee, nor bowed in heart to Baal. This truth, by an alchemy peculiarly their own, worldly minded priests in the exercise of their craft, have transmuted into the base falsehood of a successional priesthood, continued by a carnal imposition of hands upon heads: the hands and the heads all alike, in most cases, belonging to men whose hearts are totally ignorant of God, and at variance with his revealed truth. This clever tract is written to make still more manifest the absurdity of the sentiment. It is composed in a style of good humoured irony, except where the author waxing warm for the honor of God, rebukes sharply, according to apostolic rule. It consists of twelve sections, from the last of which, in allusion to the late persecution of the Rev. James Shore, we take one ex tract. "The tyranny with which the Apostolic Successors lord it over one another, is a peculiarity of the system, which savours more of Satan than of Jesus. If a man be once enrolled under their banners, he is never allowed to retire, but is for the rest of his days a serf, appended to the soil of the Succession. If in imitation of Paul or Peter, he preach the glad tidings in an "upper room" or other place, not licensed by his brethren, he is punishable for so doing. "Dearly beloved brother," they may say, "you shall preach no more in the edifices of the Succession, and if you preach in other buildings, or in the open air, we have power to inflict suffering upon you, and we will exercise that power. Our confraternity resembles a mousetrap into which ingress is easy, but from which egress is impossible. To become a Minister of the Apostolic Succession, you gave up your liberty as a Minister of Christ. One of our conditions of membership, is that you shall abstain from the rambling habits of the Apostles, and preach all your life to the same Villagers, although the people reject and ridicule your Ministry. Though the devout and honourable women and chief men raise a persecution, yet our Ministers must not shake off the dust of their feet against the place, Acts xiii. 51. "Tis vain to say, perishing sinners desire to hear the word of life in a barn, miles from any edifice of the Succession; this argument might have had weight with irregular Paul, but with us it cannot prevail; the regularity he failed in, we have established: and our regular course is to let who will perish for lack of knowledge, rather than suffer a Successor of the Apostles to break bounds. It is useless to say conscience urges you to minister in an "upper room," and that you are willing to relinquish all the honours and privileges the Succession bestowed upon you. As for recession that is impossible, you are caught for life in the Apostolic trap, and as for conscience, you should have thought of that before you "cast in your lot with us ;" "we have all one purse," Prov. i. 14, which means, that our individual consciences are asleep, and submit to be guided by the common public conscience of the Succession, which shudders at the idea of preaching beyond the pale. Ah, beloved brother, you have but a mean conception of our greatness. "The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are we;"-we gag within the pale, and we gag without the pale;— shall a dog bark in the name of Christ without our permission ?" We conceive that the recent enthusiastic meeting in favour of Mr. Shore, and expressive of the abhorence entertained of the Bp. of Exeter's persecution of him, will induce that haughty priest, even for the sake of expediency, to abandon proceedings, which otherwise we trust his excellent ecclesiastical superior will compel him to terminate, A Protest against the Doctrines, that a child of God cannot backslide; that the Lord does not chastise his children for sin; that sin in the thought of the heart is as offensive to God as sin in the outward aetion. A Sermon, by John Kershaw. 12mo. pp. 32. London: Groombridge. It was with feelings of peculiar gratification that we first saw the announcement of this sermon. Regarding its esteemed author, as occupying a position of much influence amongst our Baptist brethren, and it is among them primarily that these three sentiments have been most assiduously promulgated, we considered that Mr. Kershaw was, perhaps of all men, the most proper to expose their evil tendencies, as well as unscriptural character; vindicating thus himself, and those like-minded with him, from seeming to participate in these errors. Mr. Kershaw has ably fulfilled his mission; taking for his text the Holy Spirit's approval of the Bereans, he has in imitation of their conduct brought each sentiment to the touchstone of Holy Scripture and also to the bar of christian experience, proving each of them by these testimonies to have no foundation in the word of God, and calculated to lead the soul into presumption, indifference and guilt. We have read the Sermon throughout with both pleasure and profit. We approve of it entirely and should have been very happy to print it entire in our pages; but as that may not be, we will take a brief extract under each head of the discourse, recommending all of our readers to possess a copy for themselves. Without physically discussing the structure of man, our author spiritually enters upon the subject, and refutes at once the absurdities of those who divide man into pieces, that, by a syllogism, they may demonstrate that a child of God cannot backslide. "To prove that a child of God cannot backslide, it is argued that a regenerated man possesses two natures, an old man of sin, and a new man of grace; that the old man of sin never made any progress in the divine life nor ever can, consequently that he can never go back from that in which he has never made any advances. It is also contended that the new man of grace never sinned nor ever can sin, so that he likewise can never go back or imbibe the least stain or particle of sin. Now as this is said to be the constitution of a christian, namely, that the old man of sin never made any advances in the divine life, so that he can never go back, and as the new man of grace cannot sin, the question is-How can the child of God backslide ? "Beloved, the statement we have just given of the constitution of a child of God is a very superficial notion, falling far short of the true scriptural definition of what constitutes a regenerated man. There are four things here to be considered"1. The body, "2. The soul. "3. The old man of sin. "4. The new man of grace. "In the first creation God formed the body of man out of the dust of the earth, and after it was formed it was an inanimate mass, cold and lifeless. 'The Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.' Here we have man, a creature of God, with a body and a living soul-an immortal spirit, good, upright, and perfect, as first turned out of the hands of the great Creator. "In man's primeval state we find that he had body and soul, but no old man of sin nor new man of grace. But after the fall, through the disobedience of our first parents, man became subject to the old man of sin, "Which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts under its domineering power, and was led away captive by Satan, 'prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.' Thus we have a body, a soul, and an old man of sin, but in this state no new man of grace. A man becomes a new creature only when he is born again of God, and thus made the subject of a divine nature, or a 'new man which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness.' This new man of grace is holy and pure as its divine Author, and neither is nor can be contaminated with sin. "This being the constitution of a regenerate man, the question arises, In backsliding, what part of this nature is it that backslides? I grant at once to my opponents that it is not the old man of sin nor the new man of grace. The question, then, still occurs, What is it? I answer, It is the soul of the christian." Under this head are some severe reflections on Mr. Wells, and upon the motives influencing his visits to Manchester. Into them we shall not enter. We see so much of a sinister under-current actuating even what appears outwardly fair in the conduct of good men, that we have long come to the conclusion that those only are well kept who are kept by the Lord, and that he who most feels his entire dependance upon the preventing and restraining grace of God, is the most likely to be withheld from those things which will assuredly, as our author proves, be visited of God when they break out into open act. The thought in the heart, may be the suggestion of the enemy, but the outward act is the transgression of the man. suggestion of the enemy is often times repelled by the shield of faith, and the weapon of all-prayer; and, that sin in the outward act may not in his own children ripen into death, which it never shall, the Lord chastises with a parental rod, and scourges because he loves. The The sentiment of non-chastise. ment for sin is refuted briefly in the anecdote which we extract. "I shall introduce my views upon this subject by drawing your attention to what is said in the word of God respecting it; and I cannot do this better than by naming what took place many years ago. At that time I went to supply a destitute people in Yorkshire. I got there on the Saturday night, and several of the friends came to see me at the deacon's house, with whom I was then staying. I soon found that they had been debating amongst themselves, and had become a little cross one with another. A minister had been supplying for them, who preached from Numbers xxiii. 21: He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel; the Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.' From their conversation, I found the minister had preached well, setting forth the union between Christ and his people, proving, from the word of God, that as the church stood in Christ, God could not see any sin in her, but that she was all fair, and without spot or blemish. Some of the friends contended that the Lord did see sin in his people, and that he chastised them for it too. Thus the argument was renewed in my pre sence. At length my opinion was appealed to. I said, Both parties are right, though there is an apparent contradiction. As the church stands in Christ before a holy, just, and righteous God in his law, she stands as free from sin as Christ, and as white as snow, without spot, wrinkle, or stain of sin, the church being complete and accepted in the Beloved. But mark well, there is another relationship that we stand in to our covenant God and Father. We are his adopted children, and he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. As our heavenly Father, he hath given his children many precepts and exhortations which it is both our duty and privilege to obey, from a principle of love to him for the great things he hath done for our souls. He watches over us in love and with an observing eye, and is well-pleased with our obedience to his commands, precepts, and exhortations, and he is displeased with our disobedience, and assuredly will chastise us for it.'" The last sentiment we have given our opinion upon, in a foregoing paragraph, we illustrate it further by extracting another anecdote. "I cannot forget what a sick man said to me on this subject when on a dying bed. He told me that he once had an argument with a deacon of the church of which he stood a member, who believed and contended that sin in the thought of the heart was as offensive to the Lord as sin in outward actions. 'I told him,' said he, 'that I could not believe such a doc For instance, I might go into a shop that was filled with various articles, for the purpose of buying something I might stand in need of. While there I might feel a wicked thought come across my mind, tempting me to take that and the other article, and appropriate them to my own use. Now I hate such wicked thoughts, and in my mind fight against them, and come out of the shop without putting them into practice, bringing with me nothing but what I have honestly and honourably paid for. I feel ashamed of myself before the Lord for having had such wicked thoughts, but thankful I have been enabled to resist them, thus coming out clear of theft in the outward act. But,' continued the dying man, 'suppose I had taken something I had not paid for, and no one had known but God and my own conscience, I know that my case would have been a great deal worse, and I am confident that I should have felt a much greater burden on my conscience than if I had only been tempted to steal.' Now, my friends, this is bringing the question to a practical bearing. If the man had stolen something, he would have had a conscience burning within him a thousand times hotter than if he had only thought of the theft in his mind, and had struggled against it and overcome it. The advocate for the doctrine we are contending against, replied to my dying friend, in a subtle, sneering manner, quite peculiar to persons who hold these pernicious principles, 'I admit it would have been worse for your outward character and reputation had you stolen something, and been detected, and punished by the law of the land.' The dying man replied, "If there had been no disgrace there would have been a stab in my heart, and a wound in my conscience, before the Lord when on my knees, that would have driven me from his presence until restitution had been made. 'If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.' Jesus Triumphant in the Conversion and Death of Anna Catherina Merks. 12mo. pp. 60. London: Simpkin, & Co. This surprising narrative is again republished: it contains the life, experience, and death of a young woman, who was executed at Rotterdam, in 1763. Had we space we should willingly have given an extract from its pages, from which our readers might have seen the extraordinary character of the work, and formed their own idea, both of the veracity of its circumstances, and the applicability of some of the remarks made in the conversations. LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. Just ready-The new edition of J. Barry's Brief and Plain Discovery of the Unscripturalness of Anabaptism. Neatly printed, 18mo. cloth 2s. Also, the Rev. Dr. Hawker's Zion's Warrior. 32mo. gilt leaves 6d. POETRY. 66 Why is his chariot so long in coming? LIKE Sisera's anxious mother Sighing for his return, My soul cries of another, For whom my heart does burn, With ardent expectation To grace a lowly debtor, To hear all he has done, At morning came to notice, Your Lord will quickly come ; "T is noon, and through the lattice I gaze to greet him home : But though his chariot lingers, CHRIST'S AGONIZING CRY. "Eloi, Eli, Lama Sabacthani. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matt. xxvii. 46; Mark xv. 34. EVILS against my soul prevail, Thy justice fully satisfied? Heaven's chosen hosts thy love partake, And why dost thou thy Son forsake ? Now hangs my sorrowing soul on thee, In pity, Father, succour me. |