ing sands are fallen from your glass, you then will believe the preexistence; yes, my brother, when you are called up to see your elder brother Jesus who once was dead, enthroned in that glory which he had before he appeared on earth, you will bow amongst his ransomed brethren there, and worship at his feet as the first-born of them all. There, "The God shines gracious through the man, And sheds sweet glories on them all.”

God's

The sentiment in your P. S. seems to be this: that the patriarchs, prophets, and saints of old, were saved by the decretal act of God. This method of stating things is to me very exceptionable. decree to save any is the basis of their salvation, and includes in it all that is needful to bring the church home to glory: but we must not step from the foundation to the top-stone without taking in the intermedium. The covenant of redemption between Father, Son, and Spirit, comes in between the decree and the salvation of the saints of old. Christ not only stood in the decree as the sacrifice of his chosen, but stood in covenant, as such, and represented his church in his person, possessing her nature, and pledging himself to become her ransom at a then distant period, when he would take the body prepared for the purpose of suffering unto death. Justice held this judgment-bond and gave up its claim, and bade mercy enter and deliver the insolvent church from prison, wash her guilt away, and fit her for the glory of the upper skies. Thus the glorification of all who entered heaven before Christ suffered, rested not only on God's decree to save, but also upon (yea, immediately upon) the sacrifice of Christ, or payment made by covenant, by promise, by oath. They had, according to this view of the subject, a real Mediator and a real payment made, as well as a real deliverance from sin and hell.

Indeed, the transactions of men go upon this principle, where justice is duly regarded. If Insolvo is under an arrest, and Benevola gives his bond to discharge that debt at a future period agreed unto and dated, Insolvo has a right to liberty, and Benevola thinks he has a right to say he has paid the debt by giving his promise. Thus our adorable Surety paid Zion's redemption from before the foundation of the world, as the Lamb in promise slain, Rev. xiii. 8. Hence the sacrifice of Christ offered up on Calvary, under the idea of a price paid, is so often represented as having reference to a voluntary engagement, and as being paid accordingly when due. "OUGHT not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?" Luke xxiv. 26. John xiii. 1. " In DUE TIME (according to time,— margin) Christ died for the ungodly," Rom. v. 6. This accounts also for his blood being called the blood of the covenant, and shews the voluntariness of his suffering, as well as the justice which shines therein. It was not only written in the volume of the book, that he should be a sacrifice, but he also delighted to display his love and faithfulness to his church in becoming one, Ps. xl. 7, 8. Cant. ii. 8, 9.

This stamps an infinite honour upon the character of our

glorious Lord, inasmuch as he was found" faithful to him that appointed him," and that, as a "Son over his own house." Zech. iii. 2—6.

Now he is the Son of God either in his divine nature, or in his human nature, or in a union of both. The first you, (as well as I) reject, as being derogatory to the self-existence, independence, and proper eternity of his Godhead; the second makes him but a human person, and therefore denies his divinity altogether; the third gives him all the glory of his Godhead, and maintains the reality of his manhood. The Sonship of Christ therefore is founded in his complex person, GOD-MAN. If in the fulness of time God sent forth his Son, then the pre-existence is essential to his having a Son to send. Yes, I believe the very nature that suffered had previously consented to do so, for,

"Justice its victim did pursue,

He undertook and must go through."

I now take my leave of you. Grace, mercy, and peace be with you. I write not, as you observe, for contention, but for edification, if it is the Lord's will to bless the few remarks. May the Lord graciously gild your evening of life with his presence, and at last may, your sun set to rise more bright in the world above, is the sincere prayer, friend Love Truth, of

Suffolk, March 28, 1828.

Your's in him,

GAIUS.

(To the Editor of the Spiritual Magazine.) PRESUMED DOCTRINAL ERROR OF A RECENTLY ORDAINED MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL.

Sir,

I have lately, by favour, obtained the perusal of a pamphlet, which seems to me to contain matter of a very serious nature in connexion with a right understanding of the truths of the gospel. If compatible with the plan of your publication, I should be obliged by your giving publicity to a few remarks on the subject.

It purports to be written by a person who on the title-page chooses to be known only under the enigmatical form of four initial letters, thus," Z: S.S.S." but in the course of his writing, he twice appears by the name of " T. L. Styles." His object, under cover of an address to the Rev. Joseph Irons, of Camberwell, is to render a reason' for withdrawing from communion with the Rev. Jesse Hopwood, of Union Chapel, Chelsea. The complainant's uncouth manner and lack of conception in conveying his feelings, makes it rather a difficult affair to understand the precise nature of the charge he brings against his late minister. As to the appendages to that accusation,-and particularly the narrative of conduct and behaviour' in certain private parties, I presume, neither I nor the public have any thing to do. The following, alone, affords sufficient and ample ground for close enquiry; seeing it has come forth into the world in the shape of a VOL. V.-No. 50. C

solemn charge against a young and aspiring servant of Christ. It is alleged that Mr. Hopwood has affirmed publicly, on the doctrine of atonement, that "the church had made an atonement with Christ to "the Father for her sins, on which account the sinner had an equita"ble right to claim his pardon."

As I am not disposed to follow the track of his antagonist, in desiring to procure a scriptural proof for this assertion,' I prefer affectionately and earnestly entreating Mr. H. to give a public explanatory statement on the important point. And, as I have reason to believe that he is a reader of, if not an occasional contributor to, the Spiritual Magazine, probably the pages of that work would be open to him for the purpose. His friends who have not the opportunity of hearing his public ministrations might then, as well as others, attain to some correct conclusion,-which I am convinced can never take place by means of this singular pamphlet.

[The following Address is inserted at the earnest request of our Correspondent: some part of its contents we approve-ED.]

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW BAPTIST MISCELLANY. Sir,

I Have read with interest some parts of your Miscellany for the present month, (April) but in one page of it you have excited in my breast a feeling of regret. Dr. Hawker was no favourite of mine, Colyer I never heard, but from hearsay I have long supposed him to be a very injudicious man. Of the Gospel Tracts I have seen very few. It has always appeared to me that that Society was not wanted; it considered itself, however, to be a desideratum. But, Sir, to the point.

I am sorry that you should have attacked with so much severity the application of certain epithets to God, and to our Lord Jesus Christ. I was not educated at a school which led me to the use of such epithets; but I love and venerate many who have frequently applied them to the Saviour, and who were quite far enough (as far as you are, Sir) from hyper-calvinism. Were I at all connected with the Spiritual Magazine, (a work that hardly ever comes into my hand) I certainly would quote in that work very extensively from the writings of those who are acknowledged to be our best divines. But you will say, "this would prove nothing as to the propriety of the practice in question." I would say, in reply, that it ought to produce compunetion on account of some of your remarks. I well remember Dr. Dwight's remarks about the epithet dear,' as applied to Christ, and I think them a disgrace to him. Surely, Jesus Christ will forgive his children this wrong of calling him dear. If you and I, Sir, had loved the Son of God more ardently than we have done, we should I think have run all hazards of offending him by the application of the epithets 'dear' and 'precious;' especially as the apostle Peter

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seems to have sinned in the same way. 1 Pet. ii. 7. As to any criticism upon the word translated precious,' it could avail nothing to the immense majority of plain people who had a right to take the word as they found it, and who will continue to apply it according to its usual acceptation; and be assured that Christ will forgive them, and so he will if they now and then in the warmth of their hearts, borrow portions of the phraseology of Solomon's Song.

But, Sir, should you not have remembered that the Hymns of Dr. Watts, are sung in almost all our places of worship; and that the millions who have sung them, have probably had no suspicion that the very pious and learned author was deviating from propriety in any of his expressions of ardent attachment to the blessed Redeemer ? Let us bring forward some of his "luscious" and "impure" expressions.

"How long, dear Saviour, O how long.

"Tell me, dear Shepherd, &c.

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Jesus, my love, my soul's delight. "To dwell for ever with my love.

"In the dear bosom of his love.

"Dear Lord, our souls would thus be fed.

"Yet the sweet streams that from him flow.

"Dear God, let all my hours be thine.

"To thy dear cross I flee..

Thy body slain, sweet Jesus thine.

"But my dear Lord returns again.

"But the sweet theme that moves my tongue.

"Bless'd be the Lamb, my dearest Lord.

"Dear Lord, and shall we ever live.

"Sweet Saviour, tune our songs anew.

"Thy wond'rous blood, dear dying Christ.

"Dear Saviour, let thy beauties be.

"My dearest Lord was slain.

"My God, my life, my love.

"From whose dear wounded body rolls.”

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Let these suffice for a specimen. If you say yes, and a very bad specimen,' permit me to exclaim, "O my soul, come not thou into

that secret."

I do in conclusion repeat the abasing acknowledgment, that a more ardent love to the Lord Jesus would probably have excited me, both in private and in public, to a more frequent application of affectionate epithets to that adorable Lord; at the same time, I grant that you have reason to complain on the head of excess, and that some professors easily run into a sort of cant, whose love to Christ is after all very questionable. They speak to God and of God, in a manner that induces us to ask, "where is their reverence for the divine majesty?" but we shall none of us ask that question respecting Dr. Watts, and many others that I could easily refer you to. And, Sir, if you were able to " PUT DOWN" the application of the words dear, sweet, and precious, to either of the persons in the adorable Trinity, I do not think that the Judge of all the earth would on that account say to you, "well done, good and faithful servant.” London, April 8, 1828.

A BAPTIST MINISTER.

ORIGINAL ESSAYS.

XXXVIII.

SOUND SPEECH-ITS ABUSES.

"In doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you." Titus ii. 7, 8.

DIVERSIFIED as is the phraseology of the various sects and parties professing the name of Christ, it cannot occasion surprise in the contemplative mind that a diversity of opinions should prevail as to the propriety of certain terms peculiar to each. To expect, amidst the almost unbounded variety of sentiment which obtains, that a standard might be devised, successfully to regulate the expression of their ideas, is probably of all things most absurd. And we doubt whether the expedients to which some writers and preachers have recourse, for the correction of abuses on this head, do not involve a species of the same inconsistency. That abuses exist, and such as are of a revolting character, cannot be denied. And that sincere christians have thereby unwittingly given ungodly men occasion to prove the malignity of their hearts, must be as readily, though by some reluctantly, granted. But the latter, undoubtedly, is the more to be deplored, inasmuch as the injurious effects are apparent, and of no ordinary magnitude: while the popular attempts to remove the cause rather tend, we think, to promote than retard the growing evil.

Where there exists a particle of sincerity, whether among a collective body of professors, or in the bosom of individuals, we shall meet with none who deny the simplicity of divine truth, or the propriety of its being communicated to the auditor in plain and unsophisticated language. That all who make this acknowledgment practise the principle to which they assent, is best decided by those who witness and bewail the error, and who strive to burst the party-trammels in which they themselves have been held.

But it would be an useless measure to dwell thus on the point in general terms. To produce any effect,—at least that no effort may be relinquished on our part to stem the swelling stream,—our observations must be brought to bear on personal knowledge; or the hope of success is as vain as the assumption may be considered impertinent.

At the commencement of our fifth volume, the reader need not be told that our sentiments come under the usual denomination of "high Calvinism," and that we scruple not to accept the name, "supralapsarians." Antinomianism, by whomsoever favoured, and wherever found, raises our mortal detestation, and ever meets in us the stern and uncompromising assailant. The charge alleged against us under the latter name, and that of " hyper-calvinism," we take in no other light than a reproach. We are at issue with our opponents