and, under the head sanctification, natural repentance, without a connection with any spiritual and evangelical religion of the hearts" (p. 575.) I no more think of troubling a reader, accustomed to his Bible, with the processes (falsely called reasoning) by which such conclusions are supported, than I should think of troubling him with the arguments, by which a certain ancient philosopher demonstrated that snow was black!! I read "The believer is possessed of a sanctification which no pollution can tarnish, which no defilement can do away. He learns from the holy Scripture, that according to the appointment of God in the Covenant of Grace, Christ is made the Sanctification of his people by the imputation of the holi ness of his nature." (p. 587.) This may be paralleled with the extracts from Dr. Crisp, in your Number for September. Again, (p. 588); "Believers are of God in Christ Jesus.' There never was a time in which they were not so!" I next turn to a communication on" the kingdom of God," and there read (p. 572), “Let it not be supposed that it is here intended to refer the believer to his own works for evidence of his accept ance with God-far otherwise." It must be needless to remind your readers, that the language of Scripture is, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." Hereby do we know that we know him, if + we keep his commandments." "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit," &c. &c. I proceed to a paper on Exhortations;" the object of which is stated to be, "not to establish any particular system, or to serve any favoured party, but merely to shew the impropriety of universal exhortations to faith in Christ!"-In pursuance of this design the writer comments on various passages of Scripture. First on John vi. 29; "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent:" John xii. 36; "While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light:" Acts viii. 22; "Repent therefore of 4his thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee." "All these (he remarks) have been, and still maybe explained, of a merely The next passage of Scripture is John xvi. 8, 9; "When he (the Holy Ghost] is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they believe not on me." Here the remark is; "The original of because is not to be understood in a causal sense. As special faith in Christ is only and purely of heavenly origin, the want, or non-possession of it, CANNOT be the cause of condemnation." (p. 577.) With this compare the following note, in the Socinian Improved Version" of the New Testament, on Rom. i. 4: "The Apostle COULD NOT mean to assert or countenance the strange and unintelligible notion of two natures in Christ," &c.-Acts iii. 19; "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;" the same writer interprets only of "their regicidal sins" being so far blotted out, as to have preserved their temple, their city, and their nation." (pp. 578, 579.) Finally, on 2 Cor. v. 20; "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God;" he observes, "This glorious text is often pressed into the unworthy service of that Arminian doctrine, which addresses Christian' exhortations to unchristian, that is, to unconverted persons!" (Qu. Did this writer, who talks of " Arminian doctrine," ever read Calvin's writings ?) He them, to render them commensurate with human wisdom! goes on to remark, that the exhortation is directed to the church of God at Corinth, and to all the saints in Achaia,"", instead of "all the sinners in the world." (p. 579.) Another communication (and the last I shall advert to), is intitled a Critique on Heb, vi." in which it is maintained, that, in speaking of persons whom, when "fallen away," it is impossible to renew to repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame," and who are accordingly compared to ground which, "bearing thorns and briars, is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned;"- the Apostle speaks not of any final or total falling away, even of persons who had only seemed to be believers, but merely of" falling from steadfastness in Christ:" "a fact, of which every Christian man's experience teaches him hourly not only the possibility, but absolute certainty!" (p. 580.) The "impossibility of renewing them to repentance," he seems to confine to the period of their continuing "under the power of unbelief," during which they cannot enjoy the benefits of the repentance in which they walked, while faith, the fruit of this repentance, laid hold on the hope set before them in Christ Jesus." The "being nigh unto cursing," is the mind's "hearing nothing but the terrors of the law :" and "its end being to be burned," refers "not to the popish purgatory, nor the fire of hell, as the simple dream in their terrified imaginations, but to tribulations and manifold temptations"-the "purging" of the branches of the vine spoken of, John xv. 2, severe discipline (apostolicé caustics, from xavis, burning) through which they mostly pass." Such is the spirit of system, which is perpetually placing the sacred Scriptures as on the bed of Procrustes; stretching and distorting contracting and maiming I do trust, indeed, that there is sufficient sobriety of mind, and scriptural simplicity left amongst us, to render the religious world proof against such unchristian perversions of the word of God. Let us hope, that "their folly shall be manifest unto all men," and "shall proceed no further.", But surely when "such erroneous and strange doctrines, contrary to God's word," are sedulously disseminated a mongst the people, it behoves the watchmen of our Israel to be "ready with all faithful diligence to banish and drive them away * The good seed is now widely sown: we must expect that the enemy will not be wanting in exertions "to sow tares among the wheat;" and I must consider such a distorted perverted Gospel as this (whatever be the infentions of those who publish it) to be one great means by which he is endeavouring, at this day, to counteract the great good which is otherwise do ing amongst us. But I beg leave to subjoin a few remarks on the mode by which such a system is supported, and on the principles upon which if rests. The abettors of it have, I know, a just borror of Socinianism, and suppose themselves the very antipodes of that heresy; and so, in the detail of doctrine, they may be. Yet no one, I think, can seriously contemplate their mode of proceeding, without being struck with its resemblance to that in use among Socinians. The impuguers of the Divinity and Atonement of our Saviour, embrace and give prominence to one part of Scripture, to the neglect or disparagement of others. Now do not these persons fall into the same practice? One principal employment of thre former class is, to bend or break down a multitude of texts to conformity with the sentiments which Office for the Ordering of Priests they are determined to support; and that by processes which Bishop Stillingfleet has happily exposed, by shewing that, if skilfully applied to the first chapter of Genesis, they might prove, that it contains not a word about the creation of the world. And what else is one principal employment of the writers in the Bible Magazine, if the Number for October, 1817, may be taken for a specimen? What greater distortion of Scripture can the sturdiest maintainer of the mere humanity of our blessed Lord ever need to employ, than that which finds in the words, "he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God," no proof, that the want of faith in Christ is a cause of condemnation?" Nay, which asserts, in defiance of this and all other passages upon the subject, that such a want "CANNOT be the cause of condemnation?" The reasonings which prove that there is no exhortation to repentance, faith, and prayer, addressed to unconverted sinners, in the texts, "Repent, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out;"" Repent of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee;"-what will they not prove, that a capricious systematist may desire to find true? Your readers will easily apply similar remarks to the pernicious and anti-scriptural positions concerning works considered as the evidences of faith and acceptance with God, and other subjects, which have just passed in review. But having seen by what similar means Socinianism and the erroneous system of the Bible Magazine, apparently so opposite to it, are supported, it may be worth while to trace the cause of this phenomenou; which, I contend, is no other than this, that the two systems, however repugnant in the detail of their dogmas, rest upon one com but its Such a charge will be readily admitted against one of the systems in question: supposed extravagance will, Í doubt not, provoke a smile in the abettors of the other, when it is preferred against them. Yet I verily believe it to be strictly applicable to them, however little they may intend, or may suspect themselves, to be guilty of the proceeding which it imputes to them. Why does the Socinian deny that Christ is God as well as man? Is it because the Scripture forbids us to think so, or, at least, is silent upon the subject? It is scarcely possible to set up such a pretence. No: but it would be "a strange and unintelligible doctrine:" the inspired writers, therefore, “COULD NOT mean to assert it," however plainly they may have done so. And why does the hyper-Calvinist deny that the want of special faith in Christ is a cause of condemnation? Is it because Scripture gives no countenance to such a sentiment? On the contrary, Scripture appears to lay it down repeatedly, and as plainly as words can express it. But it "CANNOT" be so. Wherefore? Because such a faith is "purely of heavenly origin," and it would be "strange and unreasonable," to make the want of that which must be “the gift of God," a cause of condemnation! Why, again, is the doctrine of Atonement to be rejected? Principally, likewise, because it is á strange and unreasonable” doctrine, irreconcileable (so the Socinian thinks) with the notions of the Divine attributes, which we derive either from reason or Scripture. And why must not exhortations to repentance, faith, and holiness be addressed to unconverted sinners? Certainly not because holy Scripture forbids such exhortations, or gives us no example which countenances them, No: it is still not a matter of submission to scriptural authority, but of reasoning. Scripture teaches us, that fallen man is incapable of obeying such exhortations, without the aids of Divine grace: it would be "strange and unreasonable," therefore, to call upon those who are yet strangers to that grace to yield such obedience! This appears to be, throughout, the way in which the conclusions in question are arrived at.-Thus, in both one case and the other, certain principles are assumed, (grant them to be ever so scriptural, this will not affect the argument), and systems are drawn from them, by way of consequence, which contradict the current language and practice of those who "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." But the inference, the consequence must be adbered to, for it is rational, it necessarily fol. lows that is, it appears to poor, blind, weak, erring man to do so, though God has not sanctioned it, but quite the contrary. Is not all this "leaning to our own understanding?" Is it not refusing to speak as the oracles of God?" Is it not failing "to receive the kingdom of heaven as little children?" This studious attempt to be more consistent than the Scriptures APPEAR to be, seems to me to pervade every page of the publication on which I am remarking. Scarcely a sentence can be trusted out of the writer's hands without some distinct allusion to the doctrine of Election. To say no more, how different a proportion does the subject bear in the Bible Magazine to what it does in the Bible itself! If such a passage as Rom. ii. 10, is to be alluded to, it must be in the terms "glory, honour, and peace to the preserved and called," (p. 565); not in such legal language as that of the Apostle himself, "Glory, honour, and peace to every man that worketh good," &c.-All this appears to me very deplorable: and I heartily pray God to preserve all men, and especially all good and pious men, from such narrowing, curtailing, or perverting of his word! I will only add, that it is pleasant to see error inconsistent with itself, and those who have embraced it deviating from their own principles towards truth and right, whether it is allowable to say, victi naturæ bonitate, or not: consequently, after reading the above coudemnation of exhortations to unconverted sinners, I perused with pleasure the following passage (p. 573):-" All we can say in these cases," (cases of persons living in known sin, and thus affording very great reason to fear that they are NOT converted,) "is, Escape for your life; tarry not in all the plain; flee to Jesus for pardon and grace, that the door of hope be not shut against you." J. S―. H. To the Editor of the Christian Observer, IN looking through the stereo type edition of the Cambridge Small-pica Bible, I was much surprised to observe the seventh and eighth verses of the fifth chapter of the First Epistle General of John printed as follows: "For there are three that bare [instead of bear] record in heaven," &c. "8 And there are three that bare (instead of bear] witness in earth," &c. The alteration is evidently purely typographic error: my only object, therefore, in mentioning the subject, is to excite the attention of some person, who may be ena bled to prevent any more copies, being struck off before it is cor rected. Fi 2. B. H. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. You will permit me, I trust, to offer a few explanatory remarks to a correspondent in your Number for September, who expresses himself dissatisfied with my estimate of certain writers, characterized, in a former communication, as the secondaries of the moral school, The most direct way of explaining myself will be by opposing names to names; and, accordingly, I shall place on one side, Blair, Jenyns, Lyttleton, Johnson, and Paley; on the other, Leighton and Milnertwo, among many, of the primaries of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The six moralists de serve the gratitude of mankind for their illustrations of the evidences and civilizing tendencies of Chris tianity, their exposure of libertinism and fashionable folly, and for their not-unsuccessful endeavours to elevate, in many instances, buman opinion, by appeals to the preceptive parts of the New Testament. So far they have done greatly; and may be read with the highest advantage, even by those who, on subjects purely spiritual, have attached themselves to a superior class of instructors. But let not the primaries and secondaries be confounded. The popularity of Blair, in that extensive pórtion of the reading, and of the gay world too, which would shrink from the closet companionship of Leighton, gives us, as I think, with tolerable accuracy, the weight and measure of his divinity. Had that divinity been of firmer texture, the amateurs in pulpit eloquence would surely long since have inserted the author's name in the index expurgatorius of their own exclusive communion. Soame Jenyns's short treatise, on the internal evidences of the Gospel, professes to shew why Christianity ought to receive the Homage and obedience of man- kind; yet leaves out all, or nearly alf, by which that religion is dis tinguished from others, as a reme. CHRIST. OBSERV, No. 192. dial dispensation for the guilty. Lord Lyttleton's Essay on the Con version of St. Paul, deservedly ranks high among performances of its own order; but neither touches, nor professes to touch, the Apostle's doctrine. Of Paley I would always speak with profound admiration, as of a man who thought, and expressed his thoughts, with transparent clearness; and had the art, as Lord Verulam says, of "making men wax wiser than themselves," by communicating to his readers a certain consciousness of possessing, for the time at least, a * In vindication of the above, I might, in part, appeal to the Review of Paley's Sermons in your vol. for 1809, p. 236, et seq. 5 KR |