spared. It is a wonder that I have been permitted to hear the glad tidings of the Gospel, and not only to hear, but to hope. But, O, the question. occurs, Have I walked worthy of this hope, as those should do who look for forgiveness through the merits of the Son of God? Have I not had slight repentings, slight, temporary, and partial convictions of sin, slight faith, slight hope, and consequently slight, and partial, and fitful obedience, and slight joy? whereas there should have been deep humiliation, deep contrition, abiding self-abhorrence; which again would have led to a closer, more continuous cleaving to Christ, a fuller and more abiding hope in Him, a more unwavering faith, a more lively joy, a more consistent and constant obedience. How have I answered this just expectation of the Saviour, who so generously and freely gave Himself for sinners? I have to confess, with shame and sorrow, that I have not walked worthy of the mercy shown me. But, this day, let me anew loathe myself in dust and ashes, crying, "Unclean, unclean." Let me this day remember the open fountain for sin and uncleanness. Let me this day anew repair to the blood that cleanseth from all sin,-and "why not from my sin?" as Dr. Chalmers used to say. Let me bless the Lord that I am yet in the place of trial and hope,-that the door of mercy is still open,-that the Saviour still stretches out His arm to welcome sinners to His bosom,—all who thirst, all who "labour and are heavy laden,"-that He may give rest and refreshment,‚—a peace that the world can neither give nor take away, "the water of life freely."

A NAME TO LIVE.

While others talk of such experiences as mine being mysterious, there ought to be nothing so mysterious to the subject of them, knowing, as he must do, his own sins; and he will, if he search to see, have abundant cause to acknowledge, that, if they bring his sins to more lively remembrance, it is to rebuke him for forgetting them. There may have been slight repentance because of sin,-the sin may have had great aggravations connected with it, and yet the conscience may have been too easily satisfied, or laid asleep amidst the decencies and external habits of a religious profession, or amidst the hurry and bustle of a prosperous worldly career, surrounded by friends and flatterers, perhaps honestly doing homage to what they conceive to be your worth and excellence of character, which you yourself are easily persuaded to acquiesce and believe in ;-while anything you are doing in the church or the world, that has a Christian tendency and aim, is considered by others, and yourself too, as proof positive of your excellent, decided, and established Christian character. Now all this is very dangerous. Let the individual become more than usually active in prosecuting Christian enterprises, and receive the applause of his fellow-men, especially the wise and good,-he may be encouraged onwards to much zeal and usefulness in the church, at the expense of his soul's health and growth. He may be so occupied with the plans and projects of benefit to the church, as to have no time, or no taste, for

watching narrowly the growth or the decay, which there is likely to be, of real life or health in his own spirit. Is this not a possible, nay, through our corruption, a very likely state for a man to fall into?-a keeper of vineyards not keeping his own.

We are, I doubt not, all apt to deceive ourselves as to the grounds of our trust. We may trust in a name, the name of Christian, in a form, in baptism, in external admission into the church, in the soundness of a creed, in the communion of a church famous for its testimony, or the purity of its discipline, and all the while be away from the true foundation, Christ Jesus, and Him crucified,-the one foundation on which any individual member of the church, or any living church, as such, can be built! And as men will be judged, not collectively, but as individuals, man by man, it will appear in the great day that there will be many accepted in the Beloved, who were called to be Christians even in churches which have far severed from the true foundation, but who have been individually building on it notwithstanding; while there will be others failing to attain life, who have been, it may be, loud professors, though belonging to a church sound in doctrine, and strict in discipline, and notorious for the zeal which generally distinguishes her and her members. The one may have been trusting in Christ Jesus, "the Head of every man ;" the other, in the external tie between him and the church, rather than in the church's Head. The one has been trusting in a living Saviour, the other in a mere name. Not that it is unimportant to what church a man attaches himself, but that that question should not supersede the more important one: "Do I belong to the church invisible, the true church, built on the one foundation, Christ Jesus? Am I, in reality, and in truth, united to Him, resting in Him, deriving my nourishment and strength, as well as my very life, from Him, the living Vine?" These are the all-important questions which a man should put to himself, and which, it is to be feared, many omit, trusting to be saved in company with the church to which they belong; to this extent following the very principles of Popery, although, it may be, strongly protesting against it. Popery has her seat in the natural human heart, and this is one main secret of her strength in the world. Man can have a religion that insures salvation upon easy terms-communion with the church here insuring acceptance yonder; and that communion kept up here at the expense of certain worldly sacrifices, and the compliance with certain rites and ceremonies, with which the heart has nothing to do! Is there not something of this kind in Protestant churches? A man who observes the public rites of religion, attends church regularly, gives statedly, and with a due measure of liberality, to the advancement of the cause of Christ, is looked up to, and praised by his fellow-men, and is perhaps put in the position of being called to take a lead in the sphere where he moves. Such a man may be most dangerously beguiled into a high notion of the excellence of his Christian character; he easily swallows the praise that is heaped upon him, easily believes what all men else believe, and so, without a doubt as to his state, is carried thoughtlessly

forward. It is a great mercy when such a man is crushed by affliction, outward or inward, to consider his heart and his ways, to examine the foundation of his hope, to feel indeed his need of a Saviour, and to betake himself in real earnest to that Saviour; whose name, no doubt, he bears, but whose image and character have yet to be wrought upon him.

COMPASSIONATE CHASTENINGS.

"The Lord doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." (Lam. iii. 33.) "God never brings on an affliction without a cause. There is ground enough to be found for affliction in the best of God's people." So says Willison, in a passage I have just read; and therefore we should set ourselves to inquire as to the cause of our afflictions and trials. I have not to go far to find the cause of mine. I had been a great sinner, and I had begun to forget what I was. I had been living too lightly and carelessly, even during the progress of my disease, which I failed to regard, as I ought, as an admonition to "consider my ways," and the attitude of mind which it became me always to maintain. I think I now see there was a need-be for my sufferings: and although Satan, who was permitted to try me, meant it not so, the trial may be overruled for my great good; which it will effect, if it drive me out of a fancied security, and make me, even in alarm of Satan's power, flee anew with greater earnestness and alacrity to the only Saviour, both from sin and Satan.

LONGINGS FOR HOLINESS.

There is nothing about salvation that is more difficult to believe than that this impure soul can be made pure, and fit for the holy service of God. It is more easy to believe, (one thinks often,) that the God of infinite holiness and justice should pardon the sinner for the sake of the all-perfect Sacrifice, and that the sufferings of the Son of God should have such virtue and power in them; also, that Christ, having battled with and overcome Satan in behalf of His people, should deliver them from the oppression or sway of that prince of darkness. I say, to one those things appear to be easier of belief, than that our guilty and polluted souls should be so cleansed as to be made fit for the holy service of the holy God.

O Lord, Thou hast enabled me to see a small portion (I know it must be a small portion) of the defilement of my own soul. May I be thankful for this! Thou hast made me to desire deliverance; Thou hast made me in some degree to long for conformity to Thy holy will, and to love righteousness. May I be thankful to Thee, O Lord, who hast implanted these desires in my heart, which are not native there. Be pleased to "perfect that which concerneth me." I commit my soul to Thy hands, who only canst save, and keep, and defend, and preserve, and wilt sanctify that which I commit to Thee, by working in me both to will and to do of Thy good pleasure, by renewing me in the whole man after Thine own image, and so making me fit for Thine own holy worship and service throughout eternity.

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THE LAST STEP-THE CONFESSIONAL IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

(Continued from Vol. IV., page 1116.)

"Go SHOW THYSELF TO THE PRIEST.' AN EARNEST EXHORTATION TO CONFESSION:" &c. Third Edition. 1853.-Five years have elapsed since this tract reached its third edition; so that Mr. Gresley is by no means the only man who has been long before the public on this question. The author insists strongly on the mighty results of baptism, (baptism of infants, be it remembered,) and argues, that, as all sin after baptism is backsliding sin, it incurs the greater penalty, and therefore needs the more of that renewed forgiveness and grace which Absolution imparts. "Do you believe in baptismal grace? Do you believe that a spiritual change takes place at admission into the Christian covenant? Then a baptized man is not the same as another man--then a baptized man's state is not the same as another man's state-then a baptized man's sins are not the same as another man's sins....... You believe that the baptismal state is a state of grace, in which man by the very act attains a very high state of privilege and responsibility. You believe that the baptized Christian has received the circumcision made without hands; has been dead, buried, ascended with Christ, has his conversation in heaven-has his life hid with Christ in God." All this is held of a baptized infant. "Well, if you think so, what is your view of the result of the breaking of all this beautiful harmony by sin?" All the dread passages against adult backsliders are brought in here, and hurled at everyone who sins after baptism. For so great an evil there must be a "proportionate" cure: hence the necessity of Confession and Absolution. To the objection, that these are "Popish," it is said," So are the doctrines of the Holy Trinity, of the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour, of Baptismal Regeneration, of the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar," &c. "If all things that Roman Catholics believe and make use of are to be avoided, then you must avoid the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, and the Psalms of David." "Many Protestant bodies have sanctioned it, [Confession,] none indeed having life enough to foster it into energetic existence, for that is the supernatural work of the Church "-the Church of England, we might presume; but is she not a "Protestant body?"—" But, what is more to the purpose, it was extensively used in all the best days of the English Church. King Charles I. had his Confessor; so had the Duke of Buckingham; so had most of the English Churchwomen of that and the succeeding time,-such as Mrs. Godolphin, Lady Hastings, &c., &c., &c. There was an officer attached to the British Court, termed the King's Confessor, till the reign of George III. or IV.; and there are constant allusions in the English divines to the prevalence of this practice. Indeed, experience has shown that no person can attain to any very high degree of spirituality without this aid." How far-fetched,

yet how ingenious, is all this! But is he an honest Protestant who labours "Believe so much in argument, and assigns, after all, such feeble reasons? me, that the desire of confession is one of the deepest of our instincts. How difficult is it for a little child to keep a secret!" A rather small argument for Auricular Confession. "How often do we find murderers preferring a chance of the gallows "-that is, running the risk of the Popish Priest's disclosure, notwithstanding the seal of confession-" to their own unconfessed hearts! How much is a misfortune alleviated, even to a strong-minded man, by being communicated to others! Well, this teaches us that Almighty God has planted within us an instinct of our nature, which can alone be fully satisfied in the Catholic Church-that wondrous engine for the salvation of the whole man both in flesh and in spirit." Engine, truly! a human apparatus, and nothing more and now and then, as here, slips out the real idea of those behind the scene who work this engine for the deception of mankind, and their own glory. "Do you ever feel unformed hankerings after sympathy? These are but the solicitations of the ungratified desire of confession." Observe the language. "But perhaps you say, I have no great sins to detail; why should I confess?...... This want of sight of your sins should drive you to the feet [of CHRIST? No!] of your Confessor. His experience, his questions, his instructions, will soon reveal to you what you are, and how you stand in God's sight. For, recollect that in God's eyes spiritual sins are more heinous than fleshly ones; and the unchecked thought of pride, or the deliberate pleasure in the detracting tale, is more dangerous than the grosser sins that at once alarm the conscience." Thus, with these writers, we have "deadly sins," and "mortal sins," and sins neither deadly nor mortal, but worse than either ;-a circle, as usual, to include everything and everybody. "Has over-indulgence in the allowable pleasures of life left you irascible and hasty? have the excessive refinements of society, unduly fostered, left their miserable consequence of unholy thoughts to vex and torment you? in short, do your old sins still bring forth a bitter harvest, the harvest that sowing to the flesh produces even in this world? If so, go thy way for consolation and correction, and show thyself to the Priest."

"I might say many more things, dear fellow-Christian......but I refrain. I would now only speak to you of the act itself. I know (for I have experienced it) that it is painful, awfully painful; more painful than the pang that shoots through a mother's heart at hearing of the danger of her loved one. I know what it is to lay bare, one by one, the accumulated errors of years; to drag from their recesses deeds, and words, and thoughts, long, long gone by, of which the motive and inducement have departed, and nothing but the guilt remains. I know what it is to expose weaknesses and follies only rendered more weak and foolish by their wickedness. I know what it is to stir up the mighty deeps of those old offences in which our passions, and still more our affections, have been concerned ; and yet I urge, I earnestly urge you to confession. None but those who