"Angels assist our mighty joys! Strike all your harps of gold; But when you raise your highest notes, Go, my flesh, and be refined in the dust, and be prepared to dwell in heaven forever!"-" Praise him! praise him! O help me to praise the Lord!"-The place was truly awful on account of the Divine presence! every person in the room was bathed in tears, while she was clapping her emaciated hands in token of victory! The next time I saw her she was in great pain, and pressed sore by heavy affliction; but still "in patience possessing her soul." Upon my asking her how she was, she replied, "Just on this side Jordan."-" My bodily affliction is great." I said, I hope your faith does not fail; she replied with a smile, "No, blessed be God, neither life, nor death, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus!" The day before her departure I called to see her, and found her, surrounded by female friends, in an extacy, pouring out her soul in torrents of praise to God, in language which seemed to be almost more than human! Upon my approaching the bedside, she cried out, "The chariots are waiting!—Victory! complete victory! O what glory opens to my view!-Could I but tell you the sweetness that I feel!-never did I feel any thing like this before.-The day is broke! the day is broke!-Hail him! hail him! hail him!"—And repeatedly clapt her dying hands in triumph over the King of Terrors. She then requested us to pray and praise; after which she cried out in these beautiful and solemn lines of the poet, "Soon shall I feel my heartstrings break! A mortal paleness on my cheek! Then she said, "The convoy of angels is waiting—surely I see them! Look! I can almost point to where they are!-surely I see them!"Raising at the same time her feeble hands, and exerting every power of soul and body, as if she would rise to meet the celestial messengers! "Glory!" "Praise him!" "Hallelujah!" "Victory!" and “Hail him!” “Hail him!"—were alternately poured forth from her quivering lips, and faultering tongue. About three hours before her spirit returned to God, I saw her again for the last time on this mortal shore. Death had then nearly completed his conquest over all in her that was mortal. She was in the last struggle, just passing through the stream of death, with weeping friends silently viewing the arduous conflict. Her reason still maintained its empire. When I asked her, shall we pray and praise God with you, she could but just articulate "Yes; O yes!" When I asked her if Jesus was still precious? with the last effort of expiring nature, she said "Yes!"" Not long after this, like an expiring lamp, or the setting sun. without a cloud, she fell asleep in the arms of Jesus!! "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!" Amen. MISCELLANEOUS. SOCINIANISM EXPOSED. To the Editors of the Methodist Magazine. DEAR BRETHREN, Ir affords me no small degree of pleasure, to see the Methodist Magazine revived: a work of such general circulation, and calculated, by the blessing of God, to be made profitable unto thousands. To contribute my mite to the support and encouragement of this publication, I will always be willing; and therefore send you the following compilation for insertion.The reasons that have induced me to turn my thoughts particularly to this subject, of late, are the observations that I made myself, and the remarks that I heard made by others, in the Southern and Western States. It was stated to me, and I fully believe it to be a truth, that the friends of ancient and modern Socinianism are using great exertions to spread their pernicious doctrines through the means of books and missionaries in those sections of the Union. These gentlemen artfully conceal their designs, and advance on the simple and unwary, by proposing questions, that it is not in the power of the most intelligent and comprehensive minds to answer: and because it cannot be philosophically explained how there can be three persons in the Godhead-or how the Logos was made flesh, they exultingly conclude, that the divinity of the blessed Redeemer is a falsehood. Nor ought it to be concealed, that I have not met with an individual, either among the preachers or members of the Methodist society, who was apprised of the lengths to which the modern Socinians or Unitarians go, in their denial of the doctrines of Chistianity. To place, therefore, before your numerous readers, in a small compass, the sentiments and declarations of some of the most distinguished writers among them, I thought would subserve the cause of vital religion; and against which I could see but one objection, viz. that as the human mind from its natural inclination to evil, is found to grasp at every thing that would countenance its standing aloof from Christ and his cross, evil might come out of my manner of attempting to do good. a reply to this objection, it was supposed, that the absurdity of the doctrines exposed, would furnish an antidote against their deleterious effects ;-that a full and candid statement of them would guard the sincere enquirer after truth, against the artifices of those wandering stars-and serve to endear to the penitent and pious, that Christ, through whose blood there is salvation and remission of sins in this life, and for whose sake the faithful shall finally be admitted into the everlasting mansions of light and glory. A. As SOCINIANS. They were so called from Socinus, who died in 1604. He held that the Arians had given too much to Christ; asserting that he was a mere man, had no existence before Ma. ry, denied openly the pre-existence of the Word, denied that the Holy Ghost was a distinct person, and maintained that the 'Father alone was truly and properly God, exclusive of the Son and Holy Ghost; alledging that the name of God given to Christ in the scriptures signified no more than that God the Father had given him a sovereign power over all creatures, ' and that in consequence of this privilege men and angels ought to adore him. To maintain this delusion, and to avoid the 'force of that text, John iii. 13. he feigned that Christ took a journey to heaven after baptism, and came down again. Hè denied the redemption of Christ, saying that what he did for 'men was only to give them a pattern of heroic virtue, and to seal his doctrine by his death. Original sin and grace passed 'with him for chimeras. The sacraments he esteemed inefficacious. He denied the immensity of God, ascribing to him a ' particular corner of heaven, and alledging that he knew only necessary effects. It is also charged upon the Socinians that they believe the death and resurrection of the soul to be judged 'with the body, with this difference, that the righteous shall be ' raised to eternal happiness, and the wicked condemned to fire, 'which shall be eternal; but consumes the body and soul of the 'wicked in a certain time proportioned to their demerits. 46 "In the works of Socinus himself, and other writers, these principles are to be found; "That man before his fall was natu"rally mortal and had no original righteousness; that no man by the light of nature can have any knowledge of God; that "there is no original sin in us, as it imports concupiscence or deformity of nature; that we have a free will to do good, and "may here fulfil the law; that God could justly pardon our sins "without satisfaction; that Christ died for himself, that is, not "for his sins, for he was without sin, but for that mortality and "infirmity of our nature which he assumed; that Christ became "not our high-priest, nor immortal, nor impassible, before he "ascended into heaven: that death eternal is nothing but a perpetual continuance in death, or annihilation; that everlast"ing fire is so called from its effects, which is the eternal ex"tinction or annihilation of the wicked, who shall be found "alive at the last day; that Christ's incarnation is against rea"son and cannot be proved by Scripture; that Christ and the "Holy Ghost are not God; that there is no Trinity of persons, "and that the Old Testament is needless for a Christian."* 66 "It is however to be observed,' says Dr. Mosheim,†' that this ' denomination does not always convey the same ideas, since it is susceptible of different significations, and is, in effect, used ⚫ sometimes in a more strict and proper, and at others in a more improper and extensive sense. For, according to the usual * Heckford's Account of Religious Sects, page 337, and seq. who refers to the works of Socinus Lubbertius, Crellius Volkellius, and the Racovian Catechism. See Buck's Dictionary, article Socinians. VOL. I. Ecclesiastical History, vol, iv. page 470. 24 ઃ 'manner of speaking, all are termed Soeinians, whose sentiments bear a certain affinity to the system of Socinius; and they are 'more especially ranked in that class, who either boldly deny, or artfully explain away, the doctrines that assert the divine nature of Christ, and a Trinity of persons in the Godhead. But in a strict and proper sense, they only are deemed the 'members of this sect, who embrace wholly, or with a few ex'ceptions, the form of theological doctrine, which Faustus Socinus either drew up himself, or received from his uncle, and delivered to the Unitarian brethren or Socinians in Poland and 'Transylvania.' The Dr. then proceeds to examine with that ability and accuracy for which he is celebrated, the different authors who have written on those doctrines, and gives us the substance of primitive Socinianism, in Vol. iv. page 501, in the following words: 'God who is infinitely more perfect than man, ' though of a similar nature in some respects, exerted an act of that power by which he governs all things; in consequence of which an extraordinary person was born of the Virgin Mary. That person was Jesus Christ, whom God first translated to * Heaven by that portion of his divine power, which is called the Holy Ghost; and having instructed himself fully there in the knowledge of his will, counsels and designs, sent him again ' into this sublunary world, to promulgate to mankind a new rule of life, more excellent than that under which they had formerly lived, to propagate divine truth by his ministry, and to confirm it by his death. Those who obey the voice of this Divine Teacher (and this * obedience is in the power of every one whose will and inclination lead that way) shall one day be clothed with new bodies, and inhabit eternally those blessed regions where God < himself immediately resides. Such on the contrary, as are disobedient and rebellious, shall undergo most terrible and exquisite torments, which shall be succeeded by annihilation, or the total extinction of their being.' . An abstract, presenting at one view the leading principles and consequences of the system' of the Socinians or modern Unitarians, divested of the imposing phraseology, which those writers know so well how to apply to all objects whether worthy or unworthy, may prove not less beneficial to some who have, than to others who have not, embraced their doctrines. The task is, indeed, not without its difficulty. To seize what is fugi |
