What reafon then have we to lament and be humbled on this account? Hereby we grieve the brethren, ftain our profeffion, injure the cause of Chrift, and dishonour our gracious God! Oh! what need to pray that God would reftore and revive our fouls! He encourages us to pray in hope. "Return, ye backfliding children," fays God, "I will heal your backflidings." May his Spirit conftrain us to reply, "Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God "After inquiring into the ftate of our fouls, are our evidences right and fatisfactory? Do we enjoy wellgrounded and lively hopes of Heaven? What a distinguifhing mercy is this! How thankful fhould we be for it! But let us beware of depending on thefe comfortable experiences. They are fubject to change. In the enjoyment of them let us ever remember that Chrift is ftill the ground of our dependence, and the fource of our comfort. Prizing these cheerful fenfations, we fhould pray for their conti nuance, and, whilft they are continued, as at all other times, may we walk humbly with our God! MANCUNIENSIS I LETTER V. ON THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. MY DEAR FRIEND, RECEIVED yours of the 17th inftant; and I am conftrained to bless the Lord that your prejudices against the truth appear to be in any measure removed. I fincerely pray that you may be enabled ftill ferioufly and diligently to fearch the word of God, and humbly and earneftly to implore the Spirit of Truth, further to inftruct your mind. I obferve, with pleasure, the ftrong defire which you express to experience the power of vital godlinefs in your own foul. I firmly believe that orthodox notions will never carry one foul to Heaven, unless born of the Holy Spirit, and taught by him experimentally to know the joyful found; but what is real Chriftian experience? Is it not the power and influence of divine truth upon the hearts of the veffels of mercy, by the gracious, fovereign, and invincible power of the Holy Ghoft?" Ye fhall know the truth, and the truth fhall make you free" Again, "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy John viii. 32. Rom. xv. 13. word Word is truth." Errors in principle lead to errors in prac tice, therefore the Lord has faid, "My people fhall know my name." As to the concern you exprefs, that you have given me fo much trouble in writing, I again affure you, that thofe motives which have actuated me hitherto, ftill influence me to continue our corespondence. I have reason to be thankful that this ferious difcuffion of the fubjects in debate, has been beneficial to my own foul. Thofe truths which before appeared interefting and glorious, now appear more fo, and with increafed evidence. In addition to what was faid in my laft letter concerning the vast importance of the eternal divinity of the Son of God, I obferve in the word of God, that when Jefus Chrift is fet forth as the Saviour, the compaffionate, the all-fufficient, the only Saviour, of poor, helpless, miferable finners, his effential dignity is mentioned as a bleffed fource of encouragement for fuch as truft in him, who feel that they need an Almighty Saviour: hence we read, " I, even 1, am Jehovah, and befide me there is no Saviour. I am Jehovah your Holy One, the Creator of Ifrael, your King. Again, "Look unto me and be ye faved, all the ends of the earth || :" and obferve the gracious encouragement, "For I am God, and there is none else." It appears to me that in the words last quoted, there is a very ftrong allufion to the brazen ferpent in the wilderness, which was a beautiful type of the Lord Jefus Chrift; for, "as Mofes lifted up the ferpent in the wilderness, even fo was the Son of man lifted up; that whofoever believeth on him fhould not perish, but have everlafting life §." As the poor, wounded Ifraelites were directed to look to the ferpent of brafs, in order to be healed, fo are poor, diftreffed, helpless finners gracioufly encouraged to look to the Lord Jefus for pardon, healing, peace of confcience, and eternal life. To demonftrate that the infpired prophet is fpeaking of the adorable Immanuel, Paul quotes his words when speaking of our appearing before the judgment-feat of Chrift. As I live, faith the Lord, every knee fhall bow to me, and every tongue fhall confefs to God. So then every one of us muft give an account of himself to God *** Alfc, when I contemplate Jefus Chrift under the folemn character of our final Judge, I recollect, the Pfalmift fays, "God is Judge himself?? clude, therefore, that our Saviour is effentially God. I con Ifa. lii. 6. Ifa. xliii. 11-15. I believe, my dear friend, when you and I come to lay our heads or a dying-pillow, having death, judgment, and eternity in immediate profpect, we fhall not be conscious that we have thought or fpoken too highly of Jefus Chrift. I was very much affected fome years ago, in reading the fol lowing folemn account of two perfons (which account I bave now before me in print): one faid, "I am now going to receive my final doom from that very person whofe divinity I have often denied; and whofe falvation I have defpifed and publicly ridiculed. No fins in all my past life appear to me now fo heinous as thefe. What fhall I,-what can I do?" Another perfon, who had for several years joined with the former in falling on this ftone, and trampling under foot the Son of God, before he died was heard to reafon thus: "He who is the Judge of all the earth, and whofe is the judgment-feat, muft certainly be God; but it is faid in fcripture, that we must all ftand before the judgment-feat of Chrift; therefore I muft, and do believe that Chrift is God." Thefe folemn things I recommend to your farther confideration. Moreover, as for me," God forbid that I should fin against the Lord in ceafing to pray for you; but I will [endeavour to] teach you the good and the right way ||." THE I remain, with cordial love to your foul, your affectionate friend and faithful paftor, 1 Sam. xii. 23. ON THE PEACE. JAMES UPTON. HE pleafing and unexpected tidings of peace have affected all around as an electric-fhock. Every man begins to fpeculate on the confequences. The broker in the alley calculates the probable rife and depreffion of ftock; the merchant, where a good adventure prefents itself; the military-man, how to difpofe of himfelf when his country no longer needs his fervices; - the poor hope bread will be cheaper; and the rich, that they fhall be relieved in time from the heavy taxes, under which all groan and complain. A different train of ideas, Mr. Editor, prefent themselves to my mind, as I have long fixed my attention on a greater object, the falvation of the fouls of men, and the diffufion of the glorious Gospel of Chrift through the world. If this happy event be the refult of all the miferies we have feen and deplore, then will the great Director of the Universe be glorified, as juft and gracious in all his ways, and able to bring even the greateft good out of the evil his providence permits. The first object of my fpeculation, Mr. Editor, is the ftate of the nations around us, with refpect to the probable reception of the everlafting Gofpel; and I cannot but rejoice in the prospects, as aufpicious. No man has beheld with greater deteftation the ravages and cruelties that have marked the bloody train of the late unprecedented war: yet, in the darkeft day of defolation, I always hoped, and dared venture a prophetic fuggeftion, that thefe would prove among the all things which work together for good to thote that love God, and pray for his coming and kingdom. It hath ever appeared to me, that nothing fhort of the inftruments employed could have hurled to the duft the dreadful power of Antichriftian tyranny, and opened the gates for the admiffion of generous toleration into the lands of Popery and perfecution. The beaft has received. its deady wound; and I delight to fee the fuggeftion, in a late impartial hiftory of the church, beginning to be realized. The retura of the Roman Pontiff to his See, is but a feeble image of the firft beaft: his power is at an end, his influence gone, his dictates difregarded, and himfelf bound in links of iron, compelled, as he acknowledges, to carefs the hand of the fpoiler. Much may be faid for the policy of the reftoration of Popery in France: the majority of the nation are not weaned from ancient prejudices they have a right to claim for themselves the worship and profeffion which they prefer: being the body of the nation, they demand a preference, whilft they affect nothing exclufive." Let their bishops be nominated by the government, and priefts appointed and paid by the prefect nothing in this is to be lamented; whilft every man unmolefted is permitted to follow his own religion, to chufe his own minifter, and to be admitted to all the privileges of a citizen in common with the dominant religion, what man of God can with for more? That this will be the cafe in France, there cannot be a doubt; and any perfon from Proteftant countries, that behaves himself in conformity to the eftablished regulations, will, I forefee, find no moleftation in the open and avowed declaration of his religious principles. I hope to see the pure Golpel of Chrift preached at Paris before a year is at an end. What will be the ftate of Holland, Switzerland, and the Italian republics, now merely the fatellites of the greater VOL. IX. 3 M planets planet, can hardly be doubted; and when Bavaria, the moft bigotted of all the Catholic countries, proclaims liberty of confcience, and opens her bofom to men of every denomination, we may, I think, confidently conclude that Catholic Republics will not be lefs tolerant. This alone would be an acquifition, in point of facility, in fpreading the Gospel, that muft make the heart of every good man leap for joy. The Christianity that cannot maintain itself and fpread its conquefts without ftate-fupport, wherever it has free courfe, is not the religion of the Son of God. The facilities of spreading the Gospel to Heathen lands, in confequence of a peace, are evident to the moft fuperficial obfervation. The prices of fhips, and all means of conveyance, will be reduced, the fafety of the carriage be relieved from the fear of enemies, and the melancholy fate of the Duff will be no more to be apprehended. The time is favourable; all circumftances conspire to enlarge our hopes and quicken our exertions: we truft the thing is of the Lord! and His counfel, that shall stand! May every gracious man feel a prepared heart, and from the ground of it, fay, " Lord! what wilt thou have thy fervant to do?" DEODATI. ON THE TRIALS OF MINISTERS. MUCH UCH has been faid lately in your valuable Mifcellany respecting the falaries of minifters: a few thoughts have occurred to me as to their trials. It is the opinion of fome, that to be a minifter, is to be a gentleman; and that fuch characters live at eafe, unacquainted with the toils of labour, and undisturbed by the anxiety of care: but it must be remembered, that although they are not called to engage in the active scenes of bufinefs, nor to experience the difappointments and loffes of trade, they have trials as great in number, and as diftreffing in their nature, as any other clafs of focicty. The office, indeed, which they fuftain is important and honourable; but neither the dignity of that office, the ardour of their piety, nor the greatness of their fuccefs, exempt them from the most painful exercises and trying circumftances. A few of thofe trials, and the fources from whence they arife, we will here attempt to point out, that the reader may learn to fympathize with, and pray for, the faithful minifters of Jefus Chrift. A pious |