be done, Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together.' The people were gathered together, not to do the will of God, but to do their own will; not to be guided by the counsel of God, but to carry out the counsel of the ungodly. But God was beforehand with them; he knew what they would do, and therefore governed the consequence of their conduct by his own decree, and thus made the works of their wicked hands subservient to his own counsels: for his counsel must stand, and he will do all his pleasure. God's will of decree was that Christ should lay down his life for the redemption of sinners; but it does not follow that this could not be done without the wrath of man stepping in to put him to death. Are we obliged to believe that he could not endure the curse of the law, unless puny man puts forth his hand to put him to death? But for many reasons God suffered it so to be. But we do not think the time will ever arrive when men will be able to plead the secret will of God as their authority for putting Christ to death. God's will of decree, then, was that his dear Son should die for his people; his will of decree, also, was the destruction of that nation who put him to death; but where is it said to be the will of God that men should hate, and blaspheme, and crucify his dear Son? Their conduct was predicted, because God foreknew it. We cannot, therefore, fall in with a doctrine which, as our correspondent says, divides the ever-blessed God against himself. Mark how careful the apostle is to take the foreknowledge of God into account in the matter-" Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." But let us look at it again: God (according to Mr. P.'s notion) publicly says, "Thou shalt not kill;" but privately wills (that is, wishes and desires) them to do what in public he forbids them to do. He publicly says, "No;" but secretly says, " Yes ;"-in public attaches the heaviest penalties, and expresses himself as displeased: but in secret is glad from his very heart to see them doing his secret will. Mr. P. certainly must have obtained this sad piece of divinity from some of the dreamy old prosaic fathers, or from some other dark place; for it certainly is nowhere found in the Bible. But still we are willing to believe his meaning to be much better than his words. EDS. 53 To my well-beloved brethren and sisters composing the churches of Christ, worshipping their three one God, at Biggleswade, in Bedfordshire, and at Oldham Street, Manchester, grace, mercy, and truth, be with you, and all that love the Lord in truth. I promised, through the medium of the Ambassador, to furnish you with an account of the Lord's dealing with me in my removal from Biggleswade to Manchester, and my soul's exercises under the same, which I can now do with much pleasure, the Lord having testified the movement to be under His directions, by signs and wonders being wrought in the name of the holy child Jesus. On the 19th of June, 1847, I received the first intimation of an invitation to Manchester, and on the 29th I made an engagement to supply for the three last Lord's days in August, and the first in September. After I had made this engagement I was brought into a sore soul conflict-first, by a consideration of my own inability, and I verily thought that I was now assuredly wading out of my depth, and should now make a full discovery of my weakness; secondly, from the thought of the truly excellent, very able, and experimental ministry of Wm. Gadsby; so weak, and foolish, and truly forgetful was I of who it was that made man's mouth, that I trembled like a leaf, and when I was informed that the hearers were a very crafty company of critics, and would catch at and make mischief of every mis-spoken word, however well meant; oh, how I wished I had never made the engagement, knowing, from the want of learning, I should make many blunders in grammar, and in my mind I called myself a thousand fools. By these things I saw myself held up to public contempt, and I found under those exercises no sweetness, firm confidence in the Lord, or any feeling access at the throne; oh, how I repented, and wished something might happen to me rather than I should go without the Lord's direction and presence! As I was sitting in this disconsolate and dissatisfied state I opened the Bible, and met with these words: Arise, therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them. This discovered to me the workings of my distrustful heart, under the power of unbelief, and brought tears plentifully from my eyes and contrition into my heart, and I said, I will go in the name of the Lord, and make mention of his righteousness, and his only. I do not remember that I lost the savour of this until the time arrived and I got down to Manchester, when all my confidence was again gone; and oh, when I entered the meeting, which is GOSPEL AMBASSADOR.] D [MARCH, 1848. large enough I suppose to hold somewhere about eight hundred people, with about one hundred and fifty persons scattered about, all of them looking as if they had lost their best friend, and all they possessed-this appeared to me a true picture of misery, and judging from my own feeling I was the most miserable of the lot; I went up into the pulpit, trembling, shaking, and wishing myself anywhere but there, blundered through the time, I cannot tell how, for I have not the most distant remembrance of the subject, neither do I believe it was one; this, indeed, mortified my pride more than a little, and as I returned I thought, Oh, if the Lord would but pardon my folly! and I said, I wish the people would send me home and suffer me to preach no more. After dinner I left the company and retired to my bedroom, and falling upon my knees I confessed, begged pardon, entreated the Lord's interference, but no answer; on my rising from my knees, and taking my little companion, I opened upon these words: Ps. xxvii. 13, 14, I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart wait, I say, on the Lord. This relieved my grief; hope sprang up, faith stretched out her wing, love whispered peace; my unbelief was gone in a moment, and I exclaimed in answer to those words, So had I, David. In this blessed frame of mind the Lord led me to the pulpit in the evening in faith, the devil led me there in the morning in unbelief; now I found that the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow therewith, Prov. x. 22. My soul was now at large, the countenances of the people were changed, the Master was there, the water was turned into wine, the people drank by the way, and lifted up their heads, hearts, and voices to the Lord, in songs of thankful praise. From this time the congregation began to increase, and my hopes and fears alternately rose and fell as I felt the presence of the Lord manifested, for I had lost all my native confidence, and truly found that without the Lord I could do nothing; and although the friends did all they could to comfort and encou rage me, yet I could receive comfort from no such quarter, and I am most happy to say that, instead of finding the people as they had been represented to me, turbulent, austere, and reserved, I can truly say that, taking the generality of them, I never met with a more liberal-minded, open-hearted people in my life; my trouble and difficulty arose from myself, and I could not abide the thought of Manchester, and longed to return to my own little church, where I expected to end my days; but the Lord's thoughts are not our thoughts, is evident, nor his ways our ways, Having thus fulfilled my engagement I returned, and fully intended never to receive another invitation to Manchester, but on the 18th of September I received an invitation to supply again during the month of November; this I presented to my church, who, in accordance with my wish, returned an answer that they could not comply with their request. During this time I made application to my friends for some alteration, which was not attended to, according to my mind; the consequence was, that at a church meeting I informed them that it was my intention, at no far distant period, to resign my pastoral charge over them; they appeared much surprised, and very sorry, and on the following Lord's day, not having been waited on by any of the authorities of the place, I publicly announced from the pulpit my intention, telling them at the same time they were at liberty to engage any persons as supplies, and I should consider myself at liberty to receive any engagement. I here quite expected that I should be waited on by the authorities, to see if the difficulties could be removed, but this was not done. About this time I received an unanimous invitation to take the charge of the church of Oldham Street, Manchester; this of course struck me with much surprise, as I had never intimated to them the probability of my being at liberty, much less willingness, to go to Manchester; to this I replied, that I could not, nor dare not do any such thing, but as I was thus mysteriously at liberty I would receive an invitation for a month, and, on November the 11th, I received and accepted an invitation for the three last Lord's days in December, and the first in January. Now I began most seriously to feel my position, and the utmost necessity for the Lord to guide me in this intricate moment; oh, how my soul was tossed about lest I should take a wrong step! and the thought of going to Manchester gave me pain of mind, and could not be seriously thought of without tears; the thought of leaving my family scattered in the south, and my church apparently destitute, lay with no small weight on my mind, especially if I should move without the Lord's direction, when these words came with much force: Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. And this Scripture followed me powerfully: And hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, Acts xvii. 25. But I do not like Manchester. Lord, to be confined amongst that smoke, I had much rather have a little farm to obtain my living, and preach to a few people gratuitously. During this time my friends at Biggleswade were standing quite still, and the friends at Manchester were carrying out their free trade spirit to the full; I had at one time seven letters in the house, all unanswered, from different parties connected with the chapel, all expressing the most ardent desire for my services, assuring me that the cause had taken a turn for the better from the first of my preaching, and the prayer meetings were much better attended, and a real spirit of prayer prevailed amongst the people on my behalf at this time. I felt as if it must be all flattery; my services seemed to me so insignificant, and the undertaking of the care of that church appeared to crush me down, and I felt as if I could not go, when the Lord graciously introduced this scripture to me: Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites; have not I sent thee? Judges vi. 14. This showed me that the battle strength or skill was not mine; still, though my judgment saw clearly the Lord's hand, yet my heart rebelled, and said, Send by whom ye will send; here I was left to reason a little while again, and I thought, What a foolish thing I am; I have evidence the Lord sent me here, by the abundant use he has made of me; I have peace and prosperity, what do you want more? you will go away and you will be brought into contention, strife, and adversity, and most likely in less than a year have to come back. No man can rightly enter into these conflicts of flesh and spirit, unless brought into them; here I sunk fathoms, and thought I would tell the friends at Biggleswade that if they would freely forgive me for disturbing their minds, I would stop with them; but the Lord reigneth, he soon put a stop to this by directing my attention to Deut. i. 8: And behold, I have set the land before thee: go in and possess the land. I now saw and began to reflect on the extent of usefulness which presented itself at Manchester, a good sized chapel, in the centre of a population of 350,000 souls, and but few that knew their right hand from their left in the things of God, and no settled ministry of decided truth amongst them; thus I saw the Lord might well say, the land was before me; thus I saw that I was not to stop in a village, or town, but to have a land to work in; but my unthankful heart, like Jonah's, wanted to go any way but the Lord's way, and I should have acted as bad as Jonah if I had been left to myself; here I cried, Take me where thou pleasest, or let me stay here, only let me have thy presence, and I will be willing to go anywhere; thus I cried unto the Lord, and thus he answered me: Ye have compassed this mountain long enough turn ye northward, Deut. ii. 3. This struck my infidelity, like a dagger, and I kept praying, for I was very suspicious lest I should be deceived; then I prayed constantly that if the Lord hath not appointed me to settle in the north he would not suffer me to go, even to fulfil this engagement; lay me on a sick bed, or use some means or other to stop me if I was wrong; as I had been as distrustful as Moses, so like him I met rebuke; for a day or two before I started my wife and I : |