of the concerns of life do men act from demonstration. The farmer sows with the probability only that he will reap. The scholar toils with the probability, often a slender one, that his life will be prolonged, and success crown his labours in subsequent life. The merchant commits his treasures to the ocean, embarks perhaps all he has on the bosom of the deep, under the probability that propitious gales will waft the riches of the Indies into port........In the eye of his countrymen, few things were more improbable than that Columbus would survive the dangers of the deep, and land on the shores of a new hemisphere. Nothing appeared more absurd than his reasonings-nothing more chimerical than his plans. Yet under the pressure of proof that satisfied his own mind, he braved the dangers of an untraversed ocean, and bent his course to regions whose existence was as far from the belief of the old world, as that of heaven is from the faith of the infidel. Nor could the unbelieving Spaniard deny, that under the pressure of the probability of the existence of a western continent, some of the highest qualities of mind that the earth has seen, were exhibited by the Genoese navigator-just as the infidel must admit that some of the most firm and noble expressions of soul have come from the enterprize of gaining a heaven and a home beyond the stormy and untravelled ocean on which the christian launches his bark in the discovery of a new world. We might add also here, the names of Bruce, of Wallace, of Tell, of Washington. We might remark how they commenced the great enterprises whose triumphant completion has given immortality to their names, under the power of a probability that their efforts would be successful.

We might remark how many more clouds of doubt and obscurity clustered around their enterprizes, than have ever darkened the christian's path to heaven, and how the grandest displays of patriotism and prowess that the world has known, have grown out of the hazardous design of rescuing Scotland, Switzerland and America from slavery. But we shall observe that there was just enough probabiliity of success in these cases to try these men's souls-just as there is probability enough of heaven and hell to try the souls of infidels and christians, to bring out their true character, and answer the great ends of moral government." pp. 20-21.

He warmly rebuts the assertion, "that all presumption and experience are against the miraculous facts in the New Testament," the so-called unanswerable objection of Hume:

"It might be safely admitted, we suppose, that all presumption and experience were against miracles before they were wrought;

man.

and this is no more than saying that they were not wrought before they were! The plain matter of fact, apart from all laboured metaphysics, is, that there is a presumption against most facts until they actually take place, because till that time all experience was against them. Thus there were many presumptions against the existence of such a man as Julius Cæsar. No man would have ventured to predict that there would be such a There were a thousand probabilities that a man of that name would not live-as many, that he would not cross the Rubiconas many, that he would not enslave his country-as many, that he would not be slain by the hand of such a man as Brutus,-and all this was contrary to experience. So there were innumerable probabilities in regard to the Emperor Napoleon......Indeed in regard to all events of history, and all discoveries in science, and inventions in the mechanic arts, there may be said to be a presumption against their existence, just as there was in regard to miracles; and that they are contrary to all experience, until discovered, just as miracles are until performed."-pp. 22-23.

of

We are afraid our author is liable to be misunderstood when he says "that all the objections urged against Calvinism lie against the actual course events." He is far from advocating the extreme sentiments that pass under that refer to his own account of Butler's not general name. In proof of this we may touching this argument. He maintains that in Butler's day the Calvinists held principles substantially agreeing with those of the school-men; and that they waged war with the weapons of Augustine and the Bishop of Yprès. "When they told of imputing the sin of one man to another, and of holding that other to be personally answerable for it, it is no wonder that such minds as that of Butler recoiled, for there is nothing like this in nature. When they affirmed that men have no power to do the will of God, and yet will be damned for not doing what they have no capacity to perform, it is no wonder that he started back, and refused to attempt to find an analogy, for it is unlike the common sense of men.

limited atonement-of confining the When they told of a original applicability of the blood of Christ to the elect alone-there was no analogy to this in all the dealings of God towards sinners; in the sunbeam, in the dew, the rain, in the running rivulets or oceans; and here Butler must stop, for the analogy would go no fur

ther upon the then prevalent notions of theology." He means therefore, "the doctrines of grace," as they are called. We are far from agreeing with all that he attempts to prove on these points; and we cannot but regret that there is an entire omission of any statement as to the duty of all christians to open up the plan of redemption to mankind at large. There is no allusion to the last great command of our Lord-no urging of our duty to preach the gospel to every creature. We do not, we cannot admire the coolness with which he speaks of our duty in reference to a universal atone ment. "Some Solon or Cadmus may yet cross the trackless oceans to bear law and letters to the barbarian; some Howard to pity and relieve the sufferer; some Xavier or Vanderkemp to tell benighted men of the dying and risen Son of God. So we say of the atonement." Can the distinguished commentator be so ignorant, or so blinded by pre-conceived notions, as to overlook the urgency with which all are directed to extend the benefit of Messiah's love? 'They may tell them," is not the mood in which Christ gave his parting command. Unless we very much mistake, that is in the imperative mood, and not in the subjunctive.

On the whole, however, we warmly recommend the present volume. It is invaluable, as containing Butler's great work in a portable form; and its worth is far from being diminished by the "Introductory Essay." The first is a work of principles in theology; and the second is a successful attempt to show

their application. Ministers of religion need not our recommendation to urge them to study the Analogy, since many, we have good reason to believe, have long known and estimated its worth. But we would earnestly persuade every young man in our churches to rest not until he not only possesses a copy, but has made himself master of its entire argument. He will be able to draw from its rich store-house that which will strengthen his faith in the religion of the Bible, and "fill his mouth with arguments," to be ever of use when assaulted by the enemies of his faith. J. REMARKABLE DELUSIONS; or Illustrations of Popular Errors. Tract Society.

This number of the monthly series contains a well-digested account of various popular delusions, from the earliest periods down to the present times. Ancient superstitions relating to days, herbs, numbers, unknown countries, various charms, &c., supernatural visitations, witchcraft, bubbles and speculations, oracles, legends, &c., here pass under calm review. The perusal of them is humiliating, interesting, and instructive.

LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN DE WYCLIFFE. Monthly Vol. Tract Society.

Compiled from authentic sources, here is a well-digested narrative of the life, labours, travels, and toils, of this morning star of the Reformation.

THE FRIEND OF ISRAEL. B. L. Green.

This is a penny periodical, published under the superintendance of the Scottish Society for the conversion of Israel. It is cheap, and interesting. It contains much important intelligence.

DEAR MR. EDITOR.-Your willingness to afford space in your columns for the discussion of queries originating in candour and love of truth, I regard as a most useful principle in conducting your Magazine. Among these queries none are so worthy of insertion and a reply, as those which

presenting divine truth to the understanding of man, and of persuading sinners to be reconciled to God. I am, therefore, pleased with the subject of the query contained in your last number, page 524, and respectfully give to your unknown correspondent my views of the matter.

Allow me here to premise, that the querist is neither happy nor logical in the form in which he puts the interrogation. I agree with him that "supreme love to God" is the first and most essential element of religion, but I cannot agree with

him in considering this love as being, "purely disinterested," that is, in loving God for his own sake, irrespective of the favours he has conferred upon us. Such a love may glow in the bosom of one who has never sinned; but that it can be kindled in the heart of fallen man, I cannot believe. If, however, so pure and ethereal an affection may burn in the heart of a transgressor, as your correspondent assumes, then the questions he asks are inconsistent, for his assumption negatives them.

I conceive, therefore, that your estimable enquirer meant to ask, "Is it scriptural or not, to appeal to the principles of hope and fear in man in endeavouring to bring him to Christ? and if such a course be scriptural, how far should it be pursued ?"

Now I submit, Sir, that it is scriptural to make such an appeal, and that for the following reasons:—

First. On the nature and pretensions of the gospel my view is founded. I regard christianity as divinely adapted to the moral nature and necessities of man; of man considered generically, and not of men. It professes to save man from the wrath to come; to restamp the blurred and blotted image of God upon his soul, and to raise him to that region of light and of loveliness where he shall be for ever with the Lord. Now if this be the sublime aim of christianity, if it be regenerative and disciplinary, it must adapt itself to all the moral principles of our nature; appeal to all, and properly influence and control them. By moral principles I mean principles of moral action, or those which render us capable of worship and benevolence. Now it will not be denied that man acts from the principles of hope and fear; the due exercise of which constitutes the difference between self-love and selfishness, in his character as a religious and social being. We avoid breaking civil laws, and respect domestic charities: and why? Because we fear punishment, and hope for tranquility, as well as recognize the righteousness of social bonds. We struggle for worldly comfort and competency: and why? Because we fear poverty and embarrassment, and hope for a sufficiency of temporal blessings. The Bible tells us that all have sinned against God and are amenable to his law; and as law supposes reward and punishment, it supposes the existence of hope and fear in the transgressor, from which principles obedience and disobedience partly spring. If God in his great mercy should provide a remedy for sin in man, and furnish a basis for moral obedience, am, for the reasons above stated, compelled to expect that he will adapt his gracious scheme to all those powers in man which constitute him a moral being.

Then to leave out these principles of hope and fear, is but to regenerate us in part, and therefore to fail in effecting our complete salvation.

Secondly, The Great Teacher himself, the first and ablest expositor of the gospel, is my authority for the views I now state. I do not remember that he has anywhere said that God is to be loved for himself alone, or that such disinterested love is the first and most essential element of religion. He understood the philosophy of man and religion too well to propound such a principle; and though he has given to the world a discovery of the Divine character, it has been in connexion and accompanied with appeals to the hopes and fears of man. He told the Jews that there was one that accused them, even Moses in whom they trusted, and that the word which he (Jesus) spake should judge them at the last day. When by some of his hearers he was in. formed of the death of eighteen persons by the unexpected fall of Siloam's tower, what moral did he draw from the fact?—" Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish." He drew out in solemn array the terrors of the judgement, and announced the reward of the righteous and the doom of the wicked; and what was this but setting the joys of heaven and the terrors of hell before us as "motives and persuasives to religion?" Who has not trembled at his scorpion chastisements of the "serpents and generation of vipers" who could hardly escape the damnation of hell, and been melted at the tender invitation- "Come unto me all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And when the heavens were parting to admit him to the splendour of his mediatorial throne he gave the command-" Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." And it will be seen upon careful examination that in all his teachings he blended together the love and the justice of God. He did not use the silken phrases of modern divinity, or deem it contrary to correct taste to tell men that unless they repented they would be cast into hell fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. He spake of his Father's house and its many mansions, told his disciples that he would come again and receive them unto himself, and prayed for them that they might behold his glory,

Thirdly,-The apostles imitated Jesus in this method of inculcating religious truth. When Peter was addressing the Jewish rulers, he quoted and applied to his superstitious auditory the words of Moses predicting the advent of Messiah, Acts iii. 19 -23. "And it shall come to pass that every soul that will not hear that prophet

shall be destroyed from among the people." | What were the striking dead of Ananias and Sapphira, and the blinding of Elymas, but indirect appeals to the conscience by the terrors of hell? When the trembling jailor rushed into the prison at Philip pi and asked, "What must I do to be saved?"-Paul replied, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Here we find hope and fear dictating the enquiry; and that enquiry was not met by the reply-"Love God disinterestedly," but "believe and be saved." And when the same eloquent apostle stood amid the idolatrous images and shrines of Corinth, and bore witness to the claims of " the unknown God," he urged his hearers to embrace the gospel because of the divine forbearance and the certainty of a general judgment of the world by Jesus Christ. Acts. xvii. 30, 31.

With one more example I close. The enquiry of your correspondent is met in his own words in the language of the great apostle, in 2 Cor. v. 10, 11.-" Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men. This terror is the appearance of all men before the judgement seat of Christ, mentioned in the 10th verse; and a terror because of the individuality and equity of the ordeal, and the irrevocable nature of the decree. I conclude from these reasonings and examples that it is scriptural, highly scriptural, to present the joys of heaven and the terrors of hell as motives to a religious life.

But though I have thus established the general principle I do not feel myself competent to say dogmatically "how far it is compatible to introduce these joys and terrors as persuasives to religion." The Scripture has laid down no rule in this matter, but it plainly shows us that these joys and terrors were introduced, and that not seldom, by Christ and his apostles. They aroused the conscience, they allured the affections, they did not fail to set forth God in all the surpassing loveliness of his character; but they remembered that man was a being that could hope and fear. If we do not likewise our ministry will be deficient in scriptural character and moral efficiency, and if we flatter ourselves that we have found out" a more excellent way," we shall find our efforts make the learned more proud and professedly philosophic, but we shall not make either them or profligates christians.

We must, however, remind your querist that the view propounded in this paper is strictly accordant with the assertion that religion is supreme love to God. To a fallen being a manifestation of mercy is the greatest possible inducement to love; it shows divine excellence in its relative dis

plays, and we cannot conceive of a stronger motive to religion than that which arises in the fact of the incarnation and sufferings of the Son of God as a propitiation for sin. To tell a sinner that Christ loved him and gave himself for him that he might be restored to the divine favour and raised to the enjoyment of heavenly bliss, is to propose to him God as worthy of love, not only for what he is, but also for what he has done.

But, Mr. Editor, suffer me to ask what is implied in calling men to embrace the gospel from disinterested motives? Is it innocent? Is it harmless? Is it scriptural? I think not. Does it not abnegate the doctrine of human depravity? If man has nothing to fear and nothing to hope for, is he a fallen being? Is he not perfect? Then if christian ministers urge men to accept the gospel, without presenting to them the joys of heaven and the terrors of hell is it not actually saying that man is not guilty, that he is an angel, or very like one? Such teachers flatter human pride, contradict human consciousness, and the plainest statements of the word of God. And if motives to repentance and holiness be thus lessened, is not the glory of the cross dimmed and darkened, the divine dignity of Jesus dishonoured, and his sacrifice denied? Where, then, is christianity? What is the gospel with these blessed truths diminished in importance, contradicted, or passed by? To answer the queries of your correspondent in the negative, appears to me to be a virtual surrender of all that is divine, gracious and saving, in the person and work of Immanuel, and those who can thus answer it, teach another gospel, and not that which Christ and his apostles preached. I choose the "good old way" I prefer old-fashioned christianity, and old-fashioned forms of presenting it to man, and remain, Dear Mr. Editor, yours in Jesus, JAMES LEWITT.

Coventry, Nov. 19, 1851.

QUERY.

To the Editor of the G. B. Repository. DEAR SIR,-If any of your correspondents will be so kind as to answer the following question they will much oblige an honest enquirer after truth.

"Is there anything in the Scriptures to prove that a man may not become converted from sin to holiness, from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, and thus become a member of Christ's mystical body, and live in the enjoyment of salvation-say ten, twenty, or thirty years, and die a triumphant death, without joining any visible church of God?"

AN ENQUIRER.

MRS. FRANCES COOK, an estimable member of the church at Fleet and Holbeach, departed this life February 21st, 1851. Our deceased friend was the daughter of Job and Frances Shelton, of Weston, near Spalding, Lincolnshire; and was born on the 18th day of December, 1809. Beyond this nothing respecting her childhood or early youth has come to the writer's knowledge. She was married to Mr. Arthur Cook, of Whaplode near Holbeach, before she had completed her eighteenth year. The issue of this union was two daughters, only one of whom survives her mother, the elder having having been removed, as we trust, to a better world, by a painful and protracted illness, in the autumn of 1847. On going to reside at Whaplode, Mrs. Cook became an attendant at the parish church, where she had for some years the privilege of an evangelical ministry, which there is reason to believe was made a blessing to her, in commencing in her that good work which will be completed in the day of Jesus Christ. As might have been expected, when the tone of the ministry at church was changed our friend became dissatisfied with it, regarding it as not being suited to her case nor meeting her spiritual requirements. It was while she was thus situated that our friend was led, doubtless providentially, to hear either Mr. Chamberlain of Fleet or Mr. Kenney, then of Holbeach, at Sutterton. On that occasion she did not hear in vain, for such were the impressions which she received from it that she formed the determination that if she could hear preaching such as that so near home as Holbeach, she certainly would avail herself of the opportunity. This resolution she promptly and steadily acted upon, much to her edification and comfort. In the prosecution of this course, sister Cook had to contend with difficulties, which nothing short of a deep sense of the value of the gospel on the one hand and the worth of her soul on the other would have induced her to encounter. Her constitution was feeble and her health delicate, yet during the former part of the time of her attendance at Holbeach she frequently walked. Nor was she one of those who, discouraged by difficulties, endure for a time and then fall away. On the contrary, she was steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. The result was, her growth in grace, and in the knowledge of her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. She had her trials, but those trials, under the Divine blessing, yielded her the peaceable fruits of righteousness. To her, providential dispen

sations, as well as the instituted means of grace, were effectually blessed. As already intimated, for several of her last years she was the subject of frequent bodily indisposition, which unquestionably tended to deepen her anxiety and increase her earnestness in pursuit of eternal things, while the long affliction and early removal of her beloved daughter had the effect of weaning her from this world and enhancing her interest in that which is to come. She, like many others, learned obedience by the things which she suffered, as well as by those which she enjoyed; hence, in due time, she came to see it to be both her duty and privilege to unite with the people of God, and publicly to avow herself a disciple of Christ. She therefore offered herself for fellowship with the General Baptist Church, at Fleet and Holbeach, and was baptised September 8, 1848. From that interesting day the subject of these remarks went on her way rejoicing, honouring her profession by a holy life, and proving more and more that godliness is profitable to all things. In this even course our beloved friend continued to attend the house of God and to be found amongst his people, as often as health and opportunity permitted, until within a few weeks of her death. On retiring from the house of prayer for the last time she expressed the pleasure she had received from waiting upon God. She did not then appear worse than she had done for some time past, but during the next week the disease from which she had suffered so long assumed such an aspect as to leave no hope of her recovery. Day after day the complaint continued to make such fatal progress that even those who were most reluctant to admit the painful fact, were compelled to own that the time of her departure was indeed at hand. Of this no one was more sensible than herself. But though she knew it, she was not dismayed; so far from this, she was assured, resigned and happy. She knew whom she had believed, and was persuaded that he is able to keep that which she had committed to him against that day. In this happy state our afflicted friend spent her last days, earnestly exhorting those about her to seek an interest in Christ, which she had proved to be the good part, the one thing which is needful. Her language was, " My race is nearly run, but I do not fear to die. The Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation on which I am resting, and I am sure that foundation will not give way." To her pastor she expressed her confidence in the Saviour, and her desire to enter into the rest which remains for the