Christ, the hope of the gospel, regeneration, sanctification, and in short the name and character of the only true and living God. The difference is most favourable to the evangelical dissenters, as far as every thing creditable and respectable in the eyes of man is concerned; for my sentiments must ever appear abominable and vile, except to the few who are likeminded with me, and find their life in what the world abhors. The scriptural account of conversion is very short and simple. Acts xiv. 1. Paul and Barnabas "went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed”— believed the things spoken by Paul and Barnabas concerning Jesus of Nazareth (see also Acts xxviii. 24.) This is all the plain account of the matter. Those men were at once Christians, converted to God, born of God, saints in Christ Jesus.

But the mere believing or crediting the things testified in Scripture concerning Jesus Christ, is made nothing of by the evangelical dissenters-it is the faith of devils-it and its few advocates have every opprobrious name heaped upon them; and any one who looks at their numerous accounts of so-called conversions and experiences, will find indeed a very different story. Great and glorious must have been the things believed by the first Christians, when the mere belief of them produced such great effects. But in the popular systems, all that greatness and glory are made but subsidiary to the series of religious exercises and feelings, which their disciples are brought through in their progressive efforts to attain to righteousness, till they are supposed at length to arrive at it by some private revelation of what is no where declared in the word of God.-An Apostle also tells in few words what that gospel was which he preached in every place, 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4. "That Christ died for our

sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures." Many an evangelical professor says in his heart about such a gospel when it is proposed "and is this all?" Yet it is all, and it is enough. The sinner, whoever he be, that believes this knows that God whom to know is life eternal, has a good hope that maketh not ashamed, and boldness of access into the holiest. He sees that which a sinner wants-that propitiation for sin which God hath accepted, and which (as of his provision) is adequate for all the ends designed. He rests in what God is well pleased with, and discerning the glory of God in the face of Jesus is passed from darkness into light, from death to life, and from the bondage of sin into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. The same light that discovers to his view the glory of divine righteousness, discloses to him the bottomless abyss of human ungodliness and ruin. He rejoices in Christ Jesus, and has no confidence in the flesh; he is called to hold the beginning of his confidence and rejoicing of hope firm unto the end, to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made him free, and to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; his hope and joy indeed are suited to the publican and the harlot, and throw contempt upon all that is most highly esteemed amongst men as abomination in the sight of God. He can therefore expect no favour from the

world-the religious or the irreligious world; and the former, as abounding most in those highly esteemed abominations, he may expect to find his most embittered foes; yet he has nothing to boast over them; he sees displayed in them only the enmity of his own heart against God, and he has cause to know more of its continued deceitfulness, ungodliness, and pride, than of theirs; he has a blessedness indeed which they yet know not of, but all centering in an object which they only need to see in order to be partakers of its blessedness with him :—with the little flock partakers of like precious faith he is prepared to walk in the fellowship of the gospel, in the enduring bond of christian unity, receiving as little children the gracious directions which their heavenly head affords them in his word, building up each other in their most holy faith, taught of God to love one another with a pure heart fervently, bearing each other's burdens and comforting each other's hearts with the prospect of the second appearance of the Lord without sin unto salvation, when the righteous shall shine forth in the kingdom of their father.

And is it so, dear sir, that you are subdued by the divine mercy to take part with this despised flock in their sorrows and their joys? Is it so that the propitiation which emboldened the prayer of the publican and the thief upon the cross is seen by you as the only spring of hope and relief to your conscience, and sufficient to fill with joy unspeakable, and full of glory, the very chief of sinners? Is it so, (as a sentence in your letter would seem to import) that you perceive the gods of the professing world around you to be idols, and their votaries to be wearying themselves in the greatness of their way, and rejoicing in the work of their own hands? Is it so, that you have come out from among them? that the snare is broken to you of all the deceivableness of unrighteousness in them? that the glitter and parade of their religion have lost their attractions to you, in the view of the one thing that is needful for a sinner, and divinely glorious? O, if it be so, with my whole heart I bid you God speed, and pray that he may fill you more and more with the knowledge of his glorious name, and with the knowledge of his gracious will, fulfilling in you all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power. If it be so, you will not be displeased or offended with my freedom, nor wonder that I have left so little room to answer what forms the main topic of your letter. I have published two pieces on the Baptist controversy, but they have been both for some time quite out of print: nor have I been yet able to find a single copy of either. But I shall make every inquiry, and expect very soon to transmit them to you. The first is very short, and I long wished to reprint it, with some observations on a review of it by Mr. Haldane; but circumstances have hitherto rendered this and other similar schemes impossible. The second piece is considerably longer, and was occasioned by the attack of one who had left our fellowship on the Baptist principles, but has been, for many years blessedly reunited to us as a brother beloved. The manner in which the Baptists have been generally opposed by Pædobaptists affords them great advantages; and certainly in their argument on the first view there appears a specious plausibility well calculated to ensnare disciples.

"The members of all the first Christian churches were dipped in water; and why should not all, who profess to be followers of those churches, imitate them in this rite ?" It sounds fairly, and calls for fair consideration. But, looking beyond the surface of their argument, I find them introducing a rite, for which, I am bold to say, there is not a single precept nor a single precedent in the word of God-the baptism of persons who have never professed but to believe the apostolic testimony concerning Jesus of Nazareth. In this view their conduct is but a farcical child's-play in imitation of what the Apostles did. But in other views I find it vitally erroneous; I find it employed to mark, in a professing Christian, the epoch of a supposed transition from a spurious to a genuine profession, and this connected with the worst systems of popular conversion. I find it directly opposed to the important precept, which calls a believer "to bring up his children in the instruction and admonition of the Lord," Ephes. vi. 4; and in the contempt which it pours on the idea of the discipleship of such little children, I find all the high-mindedness of Antichristian profession which strikes at the very truth of Christ.

For my more enlarged views on these topics, I must refer you to the pieces, which I hope to send very soon. Let me just remark on the asserted difference you mention between Jewish baptism and that practised by the Apostles, that it goes to assert, that many of the Apostles (such as Peter and John) never had Christian baptism; "for Jesus himself baptized not:" and it is plain that these Apostles followed Jesus without any other water-baptism than they had received from John: and I would add, that the supposition of Christ's having commanded his Apostles to baptize with water, in the commission given to them, is directly inconsistent with Paul's language on the subject, 1 Cor. i. 14. The history of the disciples in Acts xix., contrasted with the account of Apollos in the preceding chapter, I think you will find fully accounted for in the second of my pamphlets. It is idle to represent the Lord's Supper as standing on the same footing, when we have a direct account of Christ's institution of that ordinance, and (besides recorded precedent) express information, that disciples are so to shew forth his death till he come. Hoping soon to be favoured with another and longer letter from you, I gladly subscribe myself, with affectionate interest for the truth's sake, yours,

ON SCRIPTURAL SUBJECTS.

XXXVI.

TO THE SAME.

Dec. 21, 1817. Very Dear Sir,-Your letter was most welcome and gratifying. Indeed it has afforded to me and others much matter of praise and mercy endureth for ever," and has thanksgiving to Him, whose " excited lively hopes that the Lord is visiting benighted England with the light of unadulterated truth. The epithet, by which I have been led to characterize your country, would surprize and offend the But it is an awful character that generality of your professors. forced itself on my mind in all my latter views of it. I have seen there the reign of the clergy of various denominations in great splendour and power, and multitudes blindly following their corrupt ways; but had to mourn that I could not even obtain a hearing, except in very few instances, for the despised gospel, while they have societies-for what (I believe) they call evangelizing Ireland. And let me not be mistaken, when I speak of hopes, that the Lord is mercifully visiting the country: I by no means think myself warranted to expect that the believers of the genuine gospel will there, or elsewhere, be any thing but a little flock, contemptible in the eyes of the world both religious and profane, and objects of its hatred, as disturbers of its peace, testifying against all that it reckons most respectable and good. It is not till the Lord Jesus shall appear in his glory, that his collected people will appear glorious in the comeliness that he has put upon them. Till then, they will present to the eye of man similar characters with their Head in the days of his flesh

“a root out of a dry ground," "having no form nor comeliness;" and all this only illustrates to them continually the essential opposition of fallen man, in all his ways and thoughts, to the ways and thoughts of God. That flourishing state of Christianity, which the popular religionists dream of, countenanced and supported by the great and respectable of the earth, is one of the idols they have formed to themselves and very consistent with the false gospels they Yet how cheering embrace, but utterly inconsistent with the true.

is it when we see any new instances, in which the word of the Lord is made powerful to subdue the stout-hearted, to enlighten the blind, to turn into the way of peace, and righteousness, and life, those who were wandering in the shadow of death; where we unexpectedly find one and another new voices swelling the chorus of those, who in heaven and on earth celebrate the sole worthiness of the Lamb that was slain. I do indeed rejoice to think that we are agreed, nor do I see any thing in your letter to excite an apprehension of the contrary-agreed in the one thing needful for a sinner, discerning that in Him, to whom all the testimony of God points, "behold my righteous servant-behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world--this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well

pleased." O blessed testimony-displaying the glory of the only true God, and that in such a way, that the chief of sinners instead of being terrified rejoices in the discovery and is at once blessed in Him. Who, indeed, teacheth like Him? I think now we could talk for ever upon the glorious theme, and that the sentiments of each would be reechoed by the new mind of faith in the other. How it would delight me, in a long conversation face to face, to compare notes with you upon various passages of Scripture, which the cunning craftiness of those who lie in wait to deceive has perverted. But I must recollect that I am confined at present to communicate with pen and ink, and that you desire my views " of the covenant and the Trinity." You will find me a very poor divine upon both. As to the covenant, all I know or desire to know is that blessed new covenant ordered in all things and sure, in which Jehovah has engaged, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts," (even the law which has gone forth out of Zion), “I will be their God, and they shall be my people: they shall all know ME; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Of this new and everlasting covenant Jesus (the true David or beloved) is the head—the mediator: with him it was made (speaking after the manner of men) in the eternal counsels of peace; "in him all its promises are yea and amen." "Once have

I sworn in mine holiness that I will not lie unto David." His blood of atonement is the blood of this everlasting covenant, and those "sure mercies of David" are in Him sure to all the seed, the many sons and daughters who all are indeed one with him.

But besides this, what more, dear sir, do we want to know about the covenant? Professors of divinity may write learned volumes upon the covenants, and bewilder their hearers in a labyrinth of words. But what have we to do with their vain speculations? I own I was startled when you come to offer an explanation of (what is called) the Trinity, though soon relieved by finding so very little, if any thing, that could be objected to in what you said, and especially by the short concluding remark with which you check yourself — "perhaps, after all, we may be anxious to go beyond what is written." It is a check indeed suitable to the sobriety of mind which the truth imparts. How awful have been the presumptuous attempts of man to scan the infinity of God, while there is not a particle of matter surrounding us but presents mysteries inscrutable to human sagacity! The very name of Trinity I must discard as of human invention, with all the blasphemous farrago of scholastic philosophy which has been so rashly put forward to explain it. But to those who exclaim with Job, "Ó that I knew where I might find him!" is not the reply of the Lord Jesus to Philip in point, "have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father: and how sayest thou then, shew us the Father? no man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." His name Jesus is identical with Jehovah the Saviour: He is Immanuel, God with us. In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and every one who is of the truth will with Thomas hail him-" my Lord