these learned lexicographers afford us, J. D. MICHAELIS has an observation on the very point in hand, which deserves attention, and which the author of the examination just noticed, has not mentioned. Speaking of the Greek words baptize and baptism, MICHAELIS says, "If a man wishes to know what terms Jesus would use in the language which he spake, for these words, they would be, my and yay, from which last the disciples of John are called Sabians, that is, (taufer,) plungers." Dogmatik. Von der Taufe, §. 182, p. 623.

It seems as if some people wished to remove our cause to another court; but it is evident we need not fear the issue, if only candid and learned judges sit on the bench. If the above observations are deemed suitable for the Magazine, they are at your service.

I am,
Yours respectfully,

March 31, 1825.

Βαπτιστης.

REMARKS ON ROMANS I. 17.

For therein is the righteousness of God

revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."

THE meaning of this passage appears to me to be very imperfectly developed in the authorized version. The phrase " from faith to faith," certainly conveys no distinct and definite idea to the mind; and it has thrown an air of obscurity over the whole passage. The verse might, I think, be more clearly and correctly rendered thus: For in it the righteousness of God by faith is revealed to faith; as it is written, The just by faith shall live. Paul professes not to be ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; that is, it is the mighty and efficacious means of se

grave.

By connecting εκ πιστεως with dialoovvy Oɛov, a meaning is elicited, which not only accords with the general scope and design of this epistle; but exactly corresponds with several particular passages; especially with the 22d verse of the third chapter; in which the same idea is expressed with greater amplification: the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ, (is) unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. Now the righteousness of God is a righteousness by faith; and this constitutes the grand peculiarity of the gospel; it reveals a method of justification suited exactly to the fallen nature of man; not by the works of the law, but by a simple reliance on the sacrifice of Christ, who has fulfilled the law, and endured its penalty. This leading sentiment of the gospel, is confirmed by the quotation from the prophecy of Habakkuk, and in this quotation EK TISEWC, Ought certainly to be connected with dukaios, rather than with norat, for this is not only the most natural arrangement of the words, but is absolutely necessary to complete the sense; since the design of the quotation was not to shew how the just shall live, but how he becomes just, which is, by faith,

H.

MENNONITES.

LETTER, No. IV.

Zaandam, Sept. 22, 1820.

My last, informing you of my departure from Amsterdam, and proceedings up to that time, has, I trust, been sometime since received. Before making you acquainted with my movements, since then, on the Zaan, where I arrived Friday last, allow me to ask, what you and the friends think of the very prompt and willing manner, in which theChurch of Amsterdam acted in favour of the Mission, the existence of which even they were not before aware of? This proceeding, on their part, does it not, as far as it goes, counteract the idea many have entertained that the Dutch are scarcely ever known to act upon the spur of the moment, and especially so, when it is considered that this followed not long after a case, which, from its nature, might seem, if any thing would, to have put the Amsterdam friends upon a line-measured conduct with regard to me?

The case alluded to is as follows. A person came to Holland, representing himself as a brother out of Prussia, and addressing himself to one and another for funds towards the erection of a new Chapel, for a number of his poor brethren, who were without a place to worship in. All the aid required, though considerable, was promptly afforded, and the chief part by the churches of Amsterdam, and those on the Zaan. The person in question, in order not to disturb the entire confidence he had gained with his friends and brethren in Holland, refused to receive into his hands the sum collected, but recommended that it should be remitted by them, so as to arrive the sooner and the safer at its destination. For this end he gave the address of an individual in Berlin, said by him to be respectable. The remittance was thus made, and the man returned home

wards by way of Berlin on foot as he had come. Shortly after, suspicions began to be felt by some, and, as it was not too late, it was thought proper to act upon them. A confidential friend in Berlin was written to, and on the necessary inquiries being made, it was ascertained that the address was a fictitious one; the person in question was a religious adventurer, and the whole a hoax. You will, however, be glad to find that the discovery was made in time to save the remittance from the hands of this monstrous hypocrite, who had not arrived in Berlin in time to apply for it at the post-office. Excuse my detaining you so long with this digression. Shortly after my landing here from the passage boat, I presented myself to Mr. Koopmans, pastor of one of the Mennonite Baptist Churches in Zaan, and brother to the professor Koopmans mentioned in my last. An opportunity was now afforded me for the first time, of exhibiting my introductory letter from Amsterdam, and of putting its contents to the trial. The result was all I could possibly desire. The reception it procured was open, cordial, and hospitable, and served me as a hopeful earnest of what I might expect to my journey's end. Having thus opened my commission to Mr. K., we entered largely into the subject of the Mission, and at the close of the interview, reason was given me to hope that it would find friends in Zaandam. In this conversation we were joined by two other of Mr. K.'s brother ministers, who also appeared to take a lively interest in the object of my visit. Next day I dined with Mr. K.'s family, and spent the evening at a Mr. De Vries's, an aged deacon. The conversation ran chiefly upon topics connected with the Mission, which lost nothing of their interest from the circumstance of their being almost entirely new to the company.

On the Sabbath, before church time, I passed a very agreeable and edifying hour with an aged Mennonite Baptist minister, aMr.DeHope, who, something

in the spirit of good old Simeon, rejoices in the prospect of his Saviour's coming glory among the heathen. After hearing Mr. Koopmans preach, I dined with his family a second time. There were present also other friends, deacons and members of his charge, to meet us. I seemed to have a welcome in every heart, and the time past in a pleasing and edifying flow of inter

course.

The Mennonite Baptist Churches on

Him who, though the Lord of glory, the King of kings, became the son of a carpenter, inhabited a manger, not for his friends, but for the rebellious, that they might be with him and see his glory. O that this may be your eternal portion, and that also of,

Yours, always truly,
W. H. ANG AS.

most part, large. It was at first in my heart to go through them separately, but second thoughts, that the season was already too far advanced, and Mr. K. and the other friends having pledged themselves to communicate with them, set the first aside. I have, therefore, decided at once to set off for Alkmaar by the first conveyance that offers, either by water or by land.

To a stranger, fond of the scenery of active life, the town of Zaandam has much of what is interesting. Wherever you look up, the air, during the day, appears all in motion with wind-mills, while the spreading sail meets the eye on every side. Then what an air of decency, cleanliness, and order, is every where to be seen! Had there been time, I should liked to have seen the famous village of Broek. Till some future opportunity, however, I contented myself with a look at the humble cot which the great Czar (Peter of Russia) inhabited whilst he was learning the art of a shipwrightin the Zaandam yards. This once imperial habitation has but three apartments, and many of our journeymen shipwrights houses' could vie with it. In the time the French had the mastery in Holland, it was bought by an innkeeper for sixty guilders, but he, after the marriage of the Prince of Orange with one of the great Czar's descendants, restored it to the Orange family for six hundred guilders. It has drawn many a stranger from Amsterdam to see it, and perhaps from much greater distances. On coming out, I met two persons, whom I afterwards ascertained, from the book wherein visitors leave their names, were a French duke and his dutchess.

Deep as this act of condescension in the Czar was, still how short, how far short it falls of that which we see in

Writings.

No. IV.

is reserved the blackness of darkness før JUDE 13. "Wandering stars, to whom ever."

Perhaps an astronomical critic would observe that false teachers are represented as planetary or wandering stars, that in their eccentricities run out into an eternal aphelion from the Sun of Righteousness, beyond the system which he warms, illuminates, and beautifies; and are constantly receding from the fountain of light, life, and bliss; and, therefore, must wander through the blackness of darkness for ever. A darkness unpierced by one ray from the great sun and centre of the moral world;-" blackness of darkness," an abstract, predicated of an abstract. How gloomy and strong the expression!

PRESIDENT DAVIES.

Phil. ii. 15. “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.'

The closing part of this verse may be translated "elevated lights," and very beautifully alludes to the buildings we call Light-houses erected by the side of the sea to guide the mariner in his progress. The most remarkable of these buildings was that raised in the island of Pharos, where Ptolemy Philadelphus built that celebrated tower, on which a bright flame was always kept burning in the night, that mariners might see their way, and be in no danger of suffering shipwreck upon the rocks which they had to pass in entering the haven of Alexandria. SAURIN.

1 Cor. vii. 31. "The fashion of this world passeth away.”

It has been apprehended that this sentence contains a fine allusion to the stage, on which persons enter, and perform certain parts, and then throw off the disguise and retire: so in the world, we are now performing our parts, but we must soon retire, and descend to the grave. Upon the Greek or Roman theatres to which the apostle alludes, every actor appeared in disguise; so in the world men assume the garb of excellence, while they do not possess the reality; but the time is short, and then the disguise will be thrown off.

DUNLOP.

Rom. ix. 22, 23. "What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, whom he had afore prepared unto glory."

It is somewhat surprising that the doctrine of unconditional reprobation, or the eternal misery of men irrespective of character, has been attempted to be proved from this text. Nothing can be more evident from it, than that the finally impenitent are by their unholy dispositions and conduct in the present state, fitted for destruction in the next. They have, by rebelling against God," heaped up wrath against the day of wrath.” On the other hand, by the implantation of a principle of Divine grace by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the vessels of mercy" they are "afore prepared unto glory." The following anecdote may tend to illustrate the subject.

A certain Baptist minister, having changed his views of some parts of divine truth, was waited upon by an old acquaintance, who wished to reclaim him to his former creed; finding be could not succeed in his object, he waxed quite warm, and told his friend in plain terms that God had given him "up to strong delusions," and that he was "a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction." "I think, brother," replied the one who was charged with a departure from the faith, with great calmness, "I think, brother, that you have mistaken the sense of the passage you last referred to. Vessels are denomi

nated according to their contents. A chemist, in conducting a stranger through his Laboratory would say, "This is a vessel of turpentine, that of vitriol, &c. always giving to the vessel the name of the article it contains.' Now when I see a man full of the holy and lovely spirit of Christ, devoted to his service, and imitating his example, I say that man is a vessel of mercy, whom God hath afore prepared unto glory;' but when I see a man full of every thing but the spirit of the Bible,

opposed to the moral government of God,-seeking his own things rather than those which are Christ's,-and filled with malice, wrath, and all uncharitableness, I am compelled to consider him a vessel of wrath, fitted to destruction.””. J. B.

Folkstone,

On the Resurrection of the same
Body.

THE doctrines, exclusively peculiar to divine revelation, have ever been opposed by men of subtle, serpentine talents, and of a philosophic turn of mind, destitute of the grace of God,

However profound may be the rational powers of the human intellect, unenlightened by the Spirit of God, its utmost exertions will abundantly confirm the scripture axiom, that, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. ii. 14.

It is worthy of notice, that those persons who object to the Bible as a divine revelation, do so, in the general, on the ground of certain doctrines which they find to be a prominent part of its contents: such, for instance, as the doctrines of three persons in one incomprehensible JEHOVAH; the Deity of Jesus Christ; bis immaculate incarnation; His vicarious atoning sacrifice; his imputed righteousness; &c.

These, and other doctrines, the Deists perceive to be contained in the Bible; and most of them are free to acknowledge that these are the principal reasons why they deny its divine authority.

We claim, then, their testimony to the doctrines as revealed in the Bible;

"His faithfulness stands bound to see it done."

The philosophy of infidelity, however, stands opposed to this grand article of Christianity. This "philosophy falsely so called," led the ancient opposers to enquire, "How are the dead raised? And, with what body shall they come?" It would be considered as extremely uncivil and rustic, in this age of reason, politeness, and etiquette, were we bluntly to reply, after the manner of so plain a, man as Paul the apostle, "Thou fool." Who, that impugns infinite wisdom, could bear to be thus roughly dealt

with?"THOU FOOL!!".

It is not very easy to comprehend what the infidel objector means by the perplexing term, "the same numerical body.". But, supposing we do, in some measure, comprehend their meaning; let us enquire, Have we the same numerical body that we brought with us into the world? Or, can we prove the identity of our bodies, upon the principles of infidel philosophy, even for five minutes together? Is it the same body that dies at thirty, forty, or fifty years of age, that was born?

We may reverse this question, and ask, Is it not the same body that dies at any given period, that was born? Every man, as he advances towards dissolution, however he may speculate and philosophize, is indubitably conscious that his body has never changed its identity, from his earliest recollection to the present moment.

.

To deny that any human body is the same body, because of the constant change of its constituent particles, appears to us most absurd. Who ever dreamt, (for it would be no better than dreaming,) that it was not the same body that assisted Dr. Johnson to compose his ponderous and elaborate dictionary of the English language, because the material atoms with which his fingers were formed, were not the same atoms when he finished, as when he began the work?

No one, we presume, but a fastidious sophist, would ever dispute that a river, which is composed of a confluence of waters, passing, for ages, through the same channel, is the same identical river, because the waters are so constantly changing that it would be impossible for any human, not to say any angelic, understanding, to recognize the same course, or that they will ever, the same drops, as having twice ran in a second time, form a portion of the same river.

Matter, in all its modifications and cent: and this being the case, it ap combinations, is, allowedly, evanespears to us, that, though it might be able to dispute whether the river is the amusing, it would be equally unprofit same river, or the banks of the river the

same banks; as to enter into a learned disquisition upon the identity of the tion: for, although the flecting parbuman body at the general resurrecticles, which form the animal frame, may escape the notice of finite minds, He that formed them all, has ordained the destination of every atom; and,

"The time draws on When not a single spot of burial earth, Whether on land, or in the spacious sea, Butmust give back its long committed dust Inviolate and faithfully shall these Make up the full account; not the least

atom