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fusion of our mind, we are determined to have our fill of sin, damned or saved. At this time, all is in haste; there is no time to think of consequences; and should the fear of God be drawn into exercise for one moment, just to give the soul an intimation how matters will be should be run into sin, and tell you that it will bring a dishonour upon the cause of God, deprive you of all communion with him, bring barrenness and horror into the conscience, and distress into the family, yet all this would not keep the soul from falling into the most foul temptation, were it not for the power of God that holds us in this fiery trial. In a few moments after this, we are brought to our wit's end, to think how near we were to destruction. The devil comes in, crying, "() what an awful wretch you are; as much like a believer as I am!" The poor wretch has nothing to say, but falls down, (knowing it to be true,) and heaps ten thousand damnations upon his own head, and even tells the Lord that he ought to be damned, calling himself one of the vilest hypocrites, and hardened, presumptuous villains that ever existed. Now the Lord comes into view again. We are led as the most vile (under a certain and sure sense of being damned without it) to cry and crave for mercy, knowing that it must be as free as the air if ever it reach our case. "O,” says the poor soul, "what a devil I am! O what a monument, what a miracle of mercy, if ever I am saved!" The Lord is pleased to give a little of the spirit of supplication, and out comes the burden of our souls to the Lord, in honest confession, in such broken language, and in such familiar nearness as would cause the heart of a pharisee to boil with enmity and disgust. But, however, I know the matter ends with ascribing salvation to the Lord.

My dear friend G— M— informed me, in his last letter, that at times the Lord causes you to open your mouth amongst the people. This rejoiced my very heart. Blessed be the Lord for his goodness towards you! My soul's desire is, that the Lord may bless it in very deed to the encouragement, edification, and establishment of their souls, and cause their souls to return and give glory to God in the highest. O Tom, may the Lord reveal himself to your soul in all his fulness of grace, wisdom, power, love, and condescension, and enrich your soul with the sweet revelation of what he is in all his covenant relationship, as the wisdom of every sensible fool, as the righteousness of every guilty soul, as the sanctification of every sensibly filthy soul, and the eternal redemption of every captive soul! May the dear Lord enable you to point out the many false resting places! Insist upon their being brought to a sense of what they are as sinners. Point out to them that all they ever did, or all they ever can do, without union to Christ the living Head, will certainly end in damnation. Insist upon a vital faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; "for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Insist upon an application of the precious blood of Christ to the guilty conscience, by the Holy Ghost, to produce peace and pardon. Encourage every sensible sinner that has a spark of life in his soul. And may the Lord keep your eye single to his glory, and cause his fear to rule in all your hearts!

My wife joins in love to P- and all the friends. I often long to be with you for a few hours; but at other times I know that I should be only a burden. But, however, my heart is united to many of you, with whom I shall spend a never-ending eternity in singing "unto Him who hath loved us, and washed us in his own blood." I hope to hear from you, or any of the friends that like to write. The Lord bless you, and give you peace. Amen. Yours in truth and in the Lord,

Wallingford, March 11, 1832.

NATHANIEL MARRINER.

THE FINAL PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. Dear Nephew, I received your kind letter, and was not a little surprised at the ingenuity and ability with which it was written. I was quite aware that you thought differently from me concerning religion; and as I knew that you belonged to the Methodist society, I very carefully abstained from saying anything upon religious subjects. I am not aware what I wrote in my last letter, as I have not a copy, but I can assure you that whatever I wrote I had not the most distant idea of giving offence. I am quite sensible that I am very singular in my opinions, and I have very great reason to rejoice that I am so. I wish it had been anybody else but you that I had to answer, for I feel very anxious not to give offence, and I cannot point out the absurdity of your theory without making use of very strong language; and as I have uniformly received nothing but kindness from you, I feel the more unwilling to offend you. I am aware how hard it is to have prejudices we have sucked in from childhood removed, I know it is painful to think for a moment that we have imbibed delusion; therefore we energetically and tenaciously hold fast to what we have always considered right. I know that the religious world, were they to see my writings, would call me a fanatic or an enthusiast; but I believe I am in my sober senses, in the best, sense of the word. It is more than fifty-one years since the Lord first revealed himself to me, and I am a living monument against the delusive theory you are defending.

I believe every man that is born into the world is born under the law, and is subject to all its requirements, that is, he is bound to fulfil that law, if he cannot find a surety to fulfil it for him. I believe no man ever fulfilled the law, from the time of Moses, until the day that Jesus Christ appeared. And I believe that no man has fulfilled the law, from the day that Jesus Christ was crucified up to this very moment. Therefore, I believe that the whole world lieth under the curse of the law; for, "Cursed is every, one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." This scripture is definite. I believe that God, in his infinite wisdom, gave to the Lord Jesus Christ a people that were chosen in him before the foundation of the world: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world."

"I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me," says the Saviour. Jesus Christ came into the world, and took upon himself our nature, in order to fulfil the law for those whom the Father gave him before the foundation of the world; and when the Lord hung upon the cross, and said, "It is finished," then the whole of the law was fulfilled for all those for whom he became a Surety. Is it reasonable that a people should be chosen in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, that in due time he should take upon himself their nature, and suffer an ignominious death, to accomplish the salvation of those that the Father had given him, and who were chosen in him before the foundation of the world, and that after all God should be defeated by the devil or by the will of the creature, and not accomplish what he undertook? Take it into your consideration. God made man; he made the soul of man as well as the body; and do you think that he gave the soul of man such mighty powers that he could resist and overcome the power of God, and damn his own soul-that soul which was chosen in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world-that soul for which the Lord Jesus came to suffer and die, and to redeem by his most precious blood-that soul which God created as a temple for himself to dwell in ? " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Holy Ghost dwelleth in you?" I say, to take that soul into union with himself "In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you," (John xiv. 20,)—and not. have power to save that soul, appears to me an awful delusion. Really, I tremble at the very thought that there should be such blasphemy preached, such sin committed, as to think that the will of the creature should overcome the mighty power of God, and sin itself to damnation when it likes. Christ has pledged himself to redeem those whom he died for: " Father, I will that those thou hast given me be with me where I am." "Those thou hast given me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled." How can Christ lose those he died for, after manifesting himself to them by a felt possession of the Holy Ghost in their souls, having taken them into union with himself, and "blessed them with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ?" Christ says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand." Is it possible for them to fall away, after they have been chosen in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world; after they have been brought into union with the Lord Jesus Christ; after they have tasted of his redeeming love; after they have been "sealed to the day of redemption?" I say, is it possible, after all this, for them to damn their own souls? If it is possible, Christ never died for them. If it is possible, Christ must have known, at the time he said, "they shall never perish," that he was telling an untruth. He must have known, at the time he said, "All thou hast given me shall be with me where I am," that he was telling a barefaced falsehood. But, blessed be my God, I have not so learned Christ. He has redeemed my soul, and I know that I shall never perish. I should be glad if you would read the 6th chapter of John, where it is said,

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"For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." And at the 58th verse he says, "This is the bread which came down from heaven; not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead; he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever." What a beauty there is in these shalls! Can the Lord be practising an imposition upon his family? What can this eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood be, but the unctuous power and dew of his Holy Spirit descending into our souls in consequence of his laying down his life for our sins? Now there is no choice for the creature; God's word is positive. He says that if we receive this we shall live for ever: Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my words, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." Now what is intended by hearing and believing? Why, it is a spiritual feeling of the power of God in the soul. There is nothing in the creature that can hear and believe, without the inspiration of the Spirit of God: "The natural man knoweth not the things of the Spirit of God." "There is therefore now no condemnation for them which are in Christ Jesus." Here is another beautiful link in the same chain. There is no condemnation if we are in Christ Jesus. What is being in Christ Jesus? Why, it is the descent of the Holy Spirit into the soul, vitally uniting the soul to the Lord Jesus Christ; and where this union takes place, that soul shall never perish, neither shall any pluck it out of the hands of Christ. How is it possible for a man to sin the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost when he is in Christ Jesus, and Christ hath pledged himself that he shall never perish, but shall have everlasting life? How is it possible for him to fall away finally, when "the law of the Spirit of life hath made him free from the law of sin and death ?" If your theory can possibly stand, Christ is mutable. If I have spoken according to what I find in the Scriptures and my own experience, Christ is immutable. The question rests upon the immutability of Christ. He has redeemed the souls of the elect with his own blood, and bestowed upon them eternal life, but if he cannot perform what he has promised and undertaken, why then we may fall away. If he change his mind after he has redeemed us by his most precious blood, and undo all he has done, then we may sin against the Holy Ghost. Now if I can establish the immutability of the Lord Jesus Christ, it will be needless to follow you through all the scriptures you have quoted, though some of them have a sweet mine of experience in them which would very well suit my purpose.

My dear nephew, I could not help smiling when I read your quotation about sinning the sin unto death; but it is a blessed thing for the children of God that they cannot sin the sin unto death; and the apostle says that they cannot: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot commit sin, because he is born of God." How do you make this out? Being born of God makes all the difference. Thousands, and hundreds of thousands

who profess Christianity were never born of God. The Lord Jesus Christ says, "Ye must be born again." When the Spirit of the living God takes possession of the soul at the time of regeneration, there is a spiritual principle planted there, which will remain there as long as that soul remains with the body. That is the seed, and that seed is implanted by the Spirit of God, and that Spirit, bearing witness with our spirit, prevents us from committing the unpardonable sin, and is a sweet evidence in the soul, whenever it comes, that all its sins are pardoned. O the joy and peace it brought into my soul when I knew that I was made as free from sin as ever I shall be in heaven! This glory thus brought into the soul was a felt evidence of regeneration, and I know that this seed will remain with me as long as I continue in the body, and when I leave this body it will go with me to heaven. Then how can I commit the sin unto death? How can I commit the unpardonable sin, the sin against the Holy Ghost, when I am surrounded by the redeeming love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and have a felt evidence in my soul that he died to redeem me? Depend upon it this is no theory. There is a reality in it which I have experienced hundreds of times; and these manifestations every child of God must experience, more or less, or else he cannot be one of God's family. There is a glorious mystery in this felt religion, which the world knows nothing of: "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me." Read the 17th chapter of John, and consider it well. I would also advise you to read 1 John ii.; there is a sweet vein of spirituality runs through the whole chapter, and the 27th verse is an illustration of what I have been endeavouring to show: "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you; but the same anointing teacheth you all things, and is truth, and is no lie: and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.' This anointing is the glorious Spirit of the Lord, which descends into the soul at the time of regeneration; and it is this anointing that remains an evidence in the soul (and a sweet evidence it is) that we are under the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that he will never leave us nor forsake us.

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That the Lord may bring these things home to your heart with unction and power, is the sincere wish of your affectionate Uncle, Handsworth, Oct. 18th, 1843.

G. D.

ARE CHURCH MEETINGS SCRIPTURAL?

Messrs. Editors,-Having seen it asserted in a Religious Periodical of the day that there is nothing in Scripture to countenance church meetings, which is as much as to say that church meetings are unscriptural, and therefore better abolished, as productive only of noise and mischief, I would solicit the opinion of the Editors of the Gospel Standard, when they can find a leisure hour to oblige,

JOB.

[We have not seen the Periodical referred to in the above communication, and therefore cannot be said to have any party or personal feeling in the remarks

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