to true faith. Thus he makes faith in every case a miracle equal to the resurrection of the dead.

Now I neither affirm nor deny the accompanying influence; but I do affirm the following propositions:

1. The scriptures no where intimate that the Spirit of God does or must accompany the word, to make it either intelligible or credible, or to enable any person to believe it.

2. The scriptures no where teach that any person, in order to his salvation, is operated upon by the Spirit without the word, or antecedent to his believing it.

3. The Saviour affirmed that he who heard him speak and saw his miracles, had no excuse for his sin; whereas now many say, We have an excuse for our unbelief, because the Spirit has not helped us.

These are tangible matters-questions of fact, not opinions; and I

HAVE NEVER YET FOUND THE ANTAGONIST THAT COULD SUCCESSFULLY

IMPUGN ANY ONE OF THE THREE. I also opine that my friend Mr. Lynd will not, on equal terms, impugn any one of them.

But to return to his accompanying influence. On this hypothesis, to which I have no objections whatever, I reason as follows:

THIS SUPERNATURAL AID, WITHOUT WHICH NO ONE CAN BELIEve, alWAYS ACCOMPANIES THE WORD TO ALL WHO HEAR IT, OR IT DOES NOT. If it does, then the word is always intelligible and credible, and all men have ability to believe; but if it does not, but only to a few, then all the rest are as helpless and as hopeless as though there was no Saviour; and to them salvation is as impossible as it is to Satan. And this corresponds, if not with Peter and his Master, exactly with the 4th section of the 3d chapter of the Regular Baptist Confession, which saith"These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained to eternal life, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished;" and with the 1st section of the 10th chapter, which says of these predestinated ones-"God is pleased in his appointed and accepted time, effectually to call by his word and Spirit," except in the case of elect infants-and "they are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, without being called by the ministry of the word." sect. 3. Of all this "sound doctrine" I only affirm that if it be true, it certainly' is not glad tidings of great joy to every creature; and therefore is not exactly the original gospel proclaimed by the holy Apostles. I trust when my friend Mr. Lynd next writes, he will take up some of these tangible points.

A. C.

THE ROCK, THE KEYS, THE GATES OF HADES. I tell you likewise, you are called Stone; and on this Rock I will build my congregation, over which the gates of Hades shall not prevail.-Matth. xvi. 18.

IT has been generally received that the above promise made by the Messiah, is fulfilling and to be fulfilled to his congregation on earth: but to this construction it appears to me there are no trifling obstacles. Without dwelling at present on the fact that it involves a figurative meaning, where the literal one is at once obvious and consistent, it is not in keeping with the tenor of the Lord's warnings to his disciples, that "in this world they should have tribulation;" that "those who should slay them would think they were doing God service;" nor with the view presented by him of his kingdom, which he says (Luke xvii. 20.] "is not ushered in with parade, nor shall people say, Lo here or Lo yonder." It also involves the anomaly that he has made a promise, the accomplishment of which, in some measure at least, is devolved on man; for it must be conceded that if all mankind should refuse to submit to the Messiah, his congregation must cease to exist on car h; nor can we escape from this difficulty, without having recourse to the dogma of eternal decrees and arbitrary election.

But it is still more difficult to reconcile this doctrine, (viz. that the existence of the church on earth is guarantied to the end of this age, that she has the power of binding and loosing, is constituted the guardian of the truth, and that man may look to her for salvation,) with the fact, that it is a matter of prophecy and warning with every Apostle whose writings have come down to us, that in her own bosom would be found men speaking perverse things, &c.-that there would arise the Man of Sin; and whilst they seem scarcely to notice the world without, they fail not to point earnestly to the false teachers which will arise within the congregation. See Acts xx. 17; Thess. ii. 1; 2 Tim. iii. 1; 2 Peter ii. 1.

When we read what the Spirit saith to the seven congregations of Asia, we look in vain for any allusion to this promise as now understood: but we find much to contradict it in the threats addressed to that of Ephesus and of Laodicea, whilst all the promises to them refer to that period when they shall be beyond this world's influences.

Never did the congregations appear adorned with such purity and single-mindedness, as when assailed by persecution, slander, and all the weapons of the world; and it was nothing but the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life that prompted them in "a sunny hour of ease" to devote the simplicity of the truth at the shrine of the world: then they adopted as an article of faith the well-known dogma, "I believe in the Holy Catholic Church," showing that in proportion as they lost their purity, meekness, and love, they grew in arrogance and every evil disposition. In fact it appears to me that our blessed Master has so fortified his kingdom as to render it impregnable to all assaults from without: teaching within is alone to be feared; for, from the day of Iscariot until now, he hath still been wounded only in the house of his friends-still been betrayed with a kiss.

Paul tells the Collossians, iii. 3., "For you are dead, but your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ our life shall appear, then you

shall also appear with him in glory:" thus repeating the promise made in the passage in Matthew xvi. 18.; for I hold that to mean neither more nor less than it simply expresses the resurrection to eternal life. This same Apostle when before Agrippa, (Acts xxvi 6.) alludes to the hope of the resurrection prevailing among the Jews as a fact well known, and it is also evident that this hope was connected with the expected advent of the Messiah: in Matthew xvi. Jesus of Nazareth is for the first time confessed as "the Messiah the Son of the living God." What time so appropriate to give to these believing Jews that promise, "to which their twelve tribes, worshipping continually night and day, hope to attain"? and what to them the future interests of the congregation on earth in comparison with the glory of this hope? But Matthew goes on to tell us that "from that time Jesus began to disclose to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and there suffer much from the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and that he must be raised again the third day"-information in entire accordance with the promise of the resurrection, but surely bearing no analogy to any promise connected with this world. Nay, it was so opposed to all worldly hopes, that Peter rebelled and drew on himself the Master's reproof, as well as elicited the irresistible arguments in the succeeding verses, in which he taught the absolute necessity of renouncing their own wisdom, wishes, and prejudices, in order to be his disciples; for, says he, "What is a man profited if he should gain the whole world with the forfeit of his life?". -a question the more pointed after he had just given the promise of the resurrection to those who should put their trust in him.

In Hosea xiii. 14. it reads, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O Death, I will be thy plagues! O Grave, I will be thy destruction!" Paul, in 1 Cor. xv. 54., shows when and how this glorious promise shall be fulfilled, and cries in exulting anticipation, "Death, where is thy sting? O, Hades, where is thy victory?" Does not the glory of this promise correspond much better with the important truth declared by Peter than any concerning this world possibly could?

When the literal power of Hades is so frequently alluded to in the scriptures, and never as exerting influence in this world, I can see no propriety in regarding it as a figure in a passage so plain as the one in question; and there seems also in the word "prevail" an intimation that, though finally triumphant, his congregation would pass for a season under the dominion of Hades; and as far as my very limited knowledge enables me to judge, the same idea is conveyed in the original words. I object not to the opinion that this world has never been entirely destitute of faithful disciples, and never will be until the close of time: but the conviction of this fact in my own mind is not founded on any special promise to that effect, but on the dealings of Jehovah with mankind as manifested in the Holy Record. I there learn that when the old world and Sodom became thus destitute, Gad poured out on them the vials of destruction; and as I believe Him to be unchanging in his purposes, when I see this world still existing, I feel convinced that this people still inhabited it, although neither history nor tradition may assure me of the fact. If in the single nation of Israel there still existed seven thousand true worshippers, when Elijah thought he "alone was left," I can readily conceive that on the broad surface of

this earth there have always been many thousands unnoticed either by history or tradition.

But it may be asked, What does Paul mean when he says that the congregation "is the pillar and support of the truth"? To my mind he presents no contradiction. I do not think the new version happy in the word "support." God's truth needs no support, nor was such an idea intended; but the common parlance of the day may lead some readers so to construe it. Although little skilled in the Greek, I think I am safe in saying that the root of the word here rendered "support," is always, and the word itself frequently, translated "sedes," seat, abode, mansion; so that the sentence may with propriety be rendered "the abode of the truth," and then we clearly understand that, as on a pillar, in the day of the Apostles, the laws of the Roman Empire were frequently suspended for the information of all who might see them; so the congregation of Jesus must stand in this world, neither legislating nor dictating, but exhibiting the institutions and laws of her great King; and when she ceases to do this, she ceases to be his. Jesus reigns only where his institutions and laws are reverenced and obeyed: for as this same Apostle tells us, Hebs. iii. 6. "But Christ as a Son over his own house, whose house we are [not by virtue of any irrefragable decree or irreversible promise, but] if we hold fast our confidence unshaken to the end." S. E.

I regret to be constrained to break off in the midst of the article. It is too long for one number. The remainder may be expected in our next accompanied probably by a few remarks.

A. C.

LETTERS TO ENGLAND-No. VI.

Dear brother Wallis,

BETHANY, Va. December 15th, 1837.

PLEASE impute my failure to address you in my December number to the press of various matters claiming special regard before the close of the volume. I have this day received your very welcome epistle of September 26. I congratulate you in the Lord, my dear brother, in the first fruits of your labors in repromulging the original gospel in your city. What a delightful spectacle to have seen, in so short a time, even forty persons immersed into the faith promulged by Peter in Jerusalem on the ever-memorable birth-day of the Christian church. Your observance of the Lord's day, as respects the exercises in which you are engaged, is ours. I rejoice with you in all the joys of which you speak as abounding in your happy society.

Father Jones was somewhat startled at an early period of our correspondence, at my allegation that it would require many centuries to convert the world on the plan of our intelligent and clear-headed brother Archibald M'Clean of Edinburg. His labors were much better adapted

to convert Christians to a more perfect doctrine, than to convert sinners to the Lord. They, too, on whom his mantle has fallen, are, I learn, much more successful in regenerating the church than the world. In the Scotch Baptist system, in all climates, the attraction of cohesion is too weak to preserve the unity of the body while contending for the true theory of religion. The centrifugal force will always overcome the centripetal in every system which approbates Opinionism. Hence the preference manifested amongst that intelligent and virtuous people for multiplication rather than for addition. They can make two churches out of one much more expeditiously than one out of two; and they grow incomparably faster in knowledge than in numbers. The apostolic system embraces both with equal intensity, and is as wisely adapted to the one as to the other. Indeed it makes the knowledge, piety, and morality of the brotherhood the most powerful means of increasing the body.

The most popular and proselyting sects in this country are more skilful in augmenting a party, than in advancing the intelligence and moral excellency of its members. They have more animation and fervor than intelligence; while the less successful have more intelligence than zeal. Zeal without knowledge will do more than knowledge without zeal in building up a party; for knowledge is essentially cold and exclusive, while enthusiasm is most contagious and communicative. We therefore aim at both.

Many a conversion is ascribed to the Spirit of God, which ought to be credited to the speaker; and the proof is, the convert feels much more than he understands. One of our infallible tests of human and divine conversion is found in this secret;-the former feel much and know little, while the latter feel only in the ratio of their knowledge.

Permit me to remark in reference to the reformation of sinners, that much depends upon the manner of the preacher as upon the matter of his discourse. There is, indeed, the manner of truth as well as its matter. The one without the other is always defective. They are in this age rarely united. The manner of truth is sometimes associated with error; and the manner of error, with truth. Godly sincerity, impressive earnestness, and benevolent ardor are essential elements of the manner of Christian truth. These ought always to go hand in hand. This is to commend the truth to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Speaking in this way, Paul a prisoner made the purple tremble on the shoulders of Governor Felix while "he spake of righteousness, temperance, and future judgment."

Next to this, much depends upon laying the proper emphasis on the several parts of divine truth. Like good reading, good preaching and