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bears a clear and perceptible testimony in the minds of individual Christians, that they are the chosen and adopted sons of God. But, a very slight consideration of this text, when viewed as it stands in the writing of the Apostle, will prove to us that its real meaning is widely different from that which has been stated. The Apostle, in this part of his epistle, is exhorting the Christians whom he addressed, to bring forth the genuine fruits of their faith, by living, not after the flesh, but after the spirit. In the preceding verse he had said, 'Ye' who are Christians, have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear,' ye are not subject to the slavish fear of the wrath of God, and to the consequences of that wrath, as were the Jews under their dispensation, but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father; that is, ye are inspired by the Gospel with those lively hopes, and encouragements, which enable you to apply to God, as a kind and merciful Father. He then adds, in the two following verses, The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.' His meaning evidently is, the Holy Spirit of God, whose gifts and graces we Christians experience, confirms the testimony of our hearts and consciences that we are the children of God, and, if children, then heirs, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be, (or upon this condition,) that, like our Redeemer, we pay a dutiful obedience to the will of our Heavenly Father, in bearing patiently the sufferings which may befal us in the cause of righteousnesss; for then, and only then, we shall be glorified together with Christ. Thus then is it very clear that this text bears not the most distant reference to the assurance of individual Christians respecting their own particular salvation. It solely and entirely refers to the general assurance which all Christians have, an assurance built in their hearts and consciences by faith in the promises and reliance on the merits of Christ, and confirmed by the encouraging influence of the Holy Spirit, that, if they perform the duties which their religion requires, they will be received as the adopted sons of God, and rewarded with admission into that glorious inheritance which He has promised to his obedient servants." P. 7.

Every other passage in Holy Writ, which has been wrested by the outrageous zeal of fanaticism, into a support of this doctrine, is separately considered; and in our opinion, Mr. D'Oyly has most successfully proved from the common laws of interpretation, and the full and fair consideration of the context, that in every instance they have been ignorantly misapplied, or wilfully perverted. This survey of the context is universally avoided by all the disciples of enthusiasm, to whom the rules of reason and the laws of interpretation, are beggarly elements, to whose ardour the

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rapid quotation of insulated texts is far more congenial than a dull and tedious consideration of a long chapter.

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Mr. D. proceeds to argue, that the great Apostle himself, inspired as he was, and full of God, felt not the conscious exultation, arising from his assurance that there was laid up for him a crown of righteousness, till the express revelation of his approaching martyrdom. This he deduces from these and similar expressions; "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God," in a former part of the same chapter having also said, not as though I had already attained, either were made already perfect," and again, from what is still stronger, I keep iny body under; and bring it into subjection, lest ..... I myself should be a cast away."

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From the authority of Scripture, our attention is now directed to the testimony of individuals respecting their private feelings; the truth and reality of which may be doubted upon the following grounds.

"For, in the first place, it is a fact no less confirmed by general experience, than singular in its nature, that the feelings of men in general, and especially of those whose temperament is warm and enthusiastic, are extremely delusive, and can never be trusted so as to afford a proof of any position or opinion which the individual maintains. Let a person of an enthusiastic turn of mind once become convinced that he ought, under particular circumstances, to experience some particular feelings, and he will soon work himself into the conviction that he actually does experience them. As a full and sufficient proof of this, it may safely be affirmed that there has scarcely ever existed an enthusiast of any description, whose feelings have not been very soon enlisted in the support of his opinions, and who has not supposed himself to experience a positive assurance of those truths of which he was before convinced. Thus then, in every such case, when an individual professes to feel internal notices and impressions, we may be fully convinced that he himself is firmly persuaded he ought to fecl them; but, as long as the supposed dictate of his feelings remains unsupported by some external test, no weight whatever will be attached by any reflecting person to the proof which they afford.

"In the second place, we have the strongest grounds for believing, that, in the case of ordinary Christians, perceptible notices are never impressed upon their minds, by the Holy Spirit of God. This Spirit exercises its sacred influence, by suggesting emotions, inclinations, and affections, which cannot be distinguished from the natural operations and movements of the human mind. That the gifts of the Spirit are bestowed on Christians in the measure in which they are deserved, is most sound and scriptural doctrine. We have general grounds for referring to its co-operation all our better emotions, all our purer inclinations. But still no ordinary Christian is

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authorized by Scripture to refer this or that particular feeling of his mind, decidedly and unequivocally, to the Holy Spirit. Thus then no one can be positively certain that he receives a particular impression of the assurance of his salvation from the Holy Spirit; for he cannot be certain that he does not mistake for such an impres sion the suggestion of his own too presumptuous and confident feelings.

"In the third place, if it were true that such assurance of salvation is ever felt by perfect and regenerate Christians, it would be felt, not partially and by a few, but generally by all, who have attained to such triumph in their spiritual warfare. It would ill accord with the equal dealings of God, to grant this assurance to some Christians, while he withheld it from others in the same spiritual state. Now there are, and have been, undoubtedly, a very large number of Christians, the most sincere, the most holy, the most deyout; Christians, who, as far as outward appearances could shew, have approached as near to heavenly perfection as human infirmity can permit; and yet who have not made the slightest pretension to any such feeling of the assurance of their salvation. All holy Christians, indeed, have expressed a firm and religious trust in the atoning merits of their Lord and Saviour; have been animated by an ardent and swelling hope of better things to come; have receiv ed from the Holy Spirit those blessed gifts of calm composure and inward peace, which are the richest meed of holiness here below; but they have expressed nothing whatever respecting a notice written as it were on their hearts, an assurance sensibly impressed on their feelings, of their salvation being secured. If then any argument can be drawn from the experience of those Christians, who have alleged themselves to have felt these assurances, a fully coun-. teracting argument must be drawn from the experience of numberless other holy persons, who have never felt them, and who, we cannot doubt, would have been favoured with them if it were ever consistent with the divine plans to afford them." P. 20.

If the gloom or the frenzy of enthusiasm could, in a lucid interval, be reasoned into conviction, we know of no publication, from which so blessed an effect might be expected as from the essay now before us. The full, clear and most satisfactory state. ment of the fallacy and absurdity of sech pretended calls and, emotions which we have thus extracted at large, may perhaps have its desired effect, should it meet the eye of one upon whom the emissaries of the fanatical party are just commencing their insidious experiments. If in such instance that peace of mind, which it is their first effort to dissipate and to destroy, should be again restored, the labours of the Christian Advocate will not have been expended in vain.

It is our earnest hope, that this short but most able and con◄ vincing essay may meet with an extended circulation, as in these days it may be productive of much utility, and may be the instru

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ment of saving many a wavering and unsettled soul from gloom, and the horrors of religious melancholy and despair. We have for this reason been prodigal in our extracts, nor can we conclude without presenting to our reader the concluding paragraph, to which a glow of manly eloquence, and a fervency of Scriptural hope, imparts at once ornament and strength.

"But, while we thus believe, on grounds apparently the most solid, that the expectation of a distinct and perceptible assurance in the minds of individuals of their own salvation is an error no less unscriptural and unsound in its foundation than pernicious in its obvious consequences; still there is an assurance of another description which every faithful Christian may reasonably hope to experience; still there is another sense, in which the Holy Spirit does "bear witness with the spirits of good Christians, that they are the children of God." This Holy Spirit does exercise its availing influence in giving strength to their faith, warmth to their devotion, and extension to their hopes. It does enable, them so to persevere with steadiness in their spiritual course, so to produce the genuine fruits of true holiness, so to exhibit the fairest graces of the Christian character, as to obtain in this life a happy foretaste of those joys which are the promised recompence of sincere obedience. The Holy Spirit does impart to the faithful Christian that steady assurance of a rich and animating hope which is built on a true faith in the merits of Christ, and on a consciousness of sincere endeavours to obey His commands,-that assurance, which, instead of generating careless indifference, or slumbering inattention, or self-sufficient arrogance, urges by the most operative of all motives towards encreasing endeavours after holiness, encreasing watchfulness against temptations, encreasing piety towards God: which, presenting to his view, as he advances towards the goal of life, a nearer and more certain prospect of " the prize of his high calling," enables him to dart forward a glance of joyful anticipation towards the bright scenes of futurity, and to meet, at the last, the hour of his dissolution, in the well-grounded trust of receiving "a crown of righteousness," with the saints that are made perfect in heaven."

P. 25.

ART. XII. Case of the Trust Governors of the Free Chapel of St. James at Brighthelmstone, prepared by Desire of the Right Rev.the Lord Bishop of Chichester for the Opinion of Council; together with the Correspondence which has passed between the Bishop and the Trust Governors: to which are added the subsequent Letters, including the Proposals lately made to the Vicar on the Part of the Governors. 2d Edition. 1s. 6d. Ruddock, Brighton. Hatchard, London. This pamphlet, which we have too long neglected to notice, is a very curious and by no means an unimportant document. Its

claim to public attention, however, is not any intrinsic merit which it possesses, but the undesigned exposure which it makes of one of the many innovating experiments upon our Ecclesiastical Discipline, for which the times are remarkable, and which, with whatever design they are so zealously prosecuted, have evidently no other tendency than to undermine the influence of the regular Clergy, and to reduce the religion of the country a second time under puritanical domination.

It is one of the wise provisions of our Ecclesiastical Law, that no appointment to any ministerial office in a parish can take effect, till the incumbent's approbation of the Clergyman nominated has been signified to the Bishop, and the Bishop's licence has also been obtained. As the platform of Church Discipline was originally laid, the exercise of this right excited no opposition; for there being in each parish only one place of religious assembly, the nomination and the approval of any person to assist in the performance of the sacred services, were one act of the incumbent without the intervention of any other individual; and all clashing of interests and inclinations between the pastor and either his own people or aliens upon this subject was prevented.

Accumulated population having produced in many parishes an excess of inhabitants, far beyond what the Church could contain, and no measures having been taken to remedy by public authority the growing disproportion, private individuals, in some instances from motives of genuine piety, but, in many more, either as a speculation of profit, or as a speculation of influence, have erected an anomalous description of edifices for the purposes of public worship as supplementary to Parish Churches; and thus has a mischievous division of the originally identified rights of nomination, and approval of subordinate parochial Ministers been created; for with much speciousness has the choice of the officiating Clergyman been claimed by those at whose cost the accommodations in question have been prepared; and so urgent in most instances has been the necessity which they were destined to relieve, that the patronage contended for has been gladly conceded, subject however to the incumbent's approval of the nominee; without the reservation of which privilege he could not discharge himself of the responsibility which he contracts at institution, nor could those indispensible requisites to edification, parochial unity and uniformity, be preserved; especially under such circumstances with reference to religion as exist at present, when that jesuitical device, which St. Paul rebukes in the Galatians, so much prevails amongst us the preaching "another gospel which is not another" -a gospel in which there is sufficient of diversity from the national faith to form the shibboleth of a party; and yet sufficient of identity with it, to render it very difficult to bring home to false brethren the precise points of their disagreement.

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