any thing therein contained appearing vague, ambiguous, or of uncertain signification, or very mysterious, admitting of a fair debate, in that case, difference of opinion should not break fellowship, but should agree to think and let think, bear and forbear, as we unhesitatingly affirm, that it is the unalienable right of every individual to think for himself. I would say more, but time fails, and I must desist, but hope to see you again shortly. Farewel.

[The publication of the above Dialogue in a Western paper, occasioned the writer of it to be excluded from the church. Such is the intolerance of the populars!]-Ed. C. B.

ESSAYS ON THE PATRIARCHAL, JEWISH, AND CHRISTIAN AGES-No XV.

CHRISTIAN AGE-No. I.

THIS is the consummation of the Ages. Types, symbols, prophecies, and promises, have their completion here. The law by Moses came; the favor and the reality by Jesus Christ. A righte ousness without law, and eternal life are its new and joyful developements. Faith, first honored in the person of Abraham, is now made the principle on which the enjoyment of the new salvation turns, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." This was the novelty of this salvation. Of all the Saviours and Messiahs which God sent to Israel, not one came to save that people from their sins. From their temporal enemies, from the power of them which hated them, they were their redeemers. But now, once, in the end of the ages, has a Redeemer, a Saviour, come to redeem and save men from the guilt, pollution, and dominion of sin.

The superlative excellency of this economy consists in the clear discovery it affords of the character of God, his gracious purposes to be developed at the Resurrection, and the immediate and perfect pardon of all sin, which at once perfects the conscience and begets that peace of God which passeth all understanding. On this so much has been said in the preceding volumes, and as we have arrived so near the close of this work, only a few general views, rather inferential from the premises so amply laid, than from any new topics, shall be submitted in two essays.

It has been somewhere said that the priesthood of every divine economy was to the whole system what the heart is to the human system. It gives life and energy to it. It is the vital office. So the office of a High Priest was the active and operative principle in every dispensation.

All Priests have been a sort of Mediators, and the High Priest the great Mediator of the institution under which he officiated. To present sacrifices and oblations-thank-offerings and peaceofferings to make reconciliation for sins-was at least one half of his official duties. The other pertained to intercessions and benedictions. Every High Priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

To perfect the conscience as respects sin; to reconcile to the divine government; and to produce a perfect reconciliation among men, is the great object of the High Priesthood of the Christian Economy. "Glory to God in the highest! peace on earth! and good will among men!"-are the tendencies of the Christian Institution. The experience of all christians-nay, of all men who ever had the consciousness of sins, who ever felt the pangs of a guilty conscience, will attest the truth I am about to utter. It will vouch for the truth of this assertion, viz. that to be assured of the pardon of sin-to feel ourselves justified in the sight of God, is the reign of heaven in the heart-the very essence of happiness, from which, as from a fountain of living water, springs up eternal joy. This is the peace of God which passeth all understanding, ruling and reigning in the heart. This is, then, just wherein christianity, rightly understood, has the excellency over Judaism, and, every other institution, human or divine, which the ear of man has ever heard.

To speak in the figurative style with Paul in his letter to the Hebrews:-The Holy Spirit signified by and in the Jewish institution, that the way into the holiest was not laid open while the tabernacle had a standing upon earth. This figurative representation was for the time being; according to which gifts and sacrifices were offered, which could not make him who performed that service perfect as pertaineth to the conscience; they being imposed for meats and drinks, and diverse immersions, and rules of conduct respecting the flesh until the time of the Reformation. But now Christ being come a High Priest of the future and eternal good things, has entered into the holies-having by his own blood, once for all, procured everlasting redemption. If the former sacrifices cleansed the flesh, how much more will the sacrifice of Christ purify the conscience from dead works, to serve in a new spirit the living God? He having offered one sacrifice for sins to last for ever, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he has made perfect for ever them who are sanctified. Having, then, a great High Priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart, in the full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

In this way the Apostle directs us to the superlative character of the New Institution as respects its purifying influence upon the conscience. The first and most distinguishing character of the New Institution is the ample provision which it makes for taking away sin from its damnatory and polluting power over the conscience. It authorizes all its subjects to say, from experience, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin!" This blessedness is theirs who have intelligently submitted to the government of

Jesus.

Something that was wanting in every previous dispensation is supplied in this—a rational and certain pledge of the forgiveness of all sins. True, the Jewish Economy made provision for the transgressors; but how the blood of bulls and goats could take away sin in any sense, was a mystery of that Economy. No developement was made until God said, "In sacrifice and burnt offerings and offer

ings for sin according to the law, I have no pleasure." To do his will Jesus came. The New Constitution, so often dilated on in these volumes, contains the distinguishing privileges of this economy. "Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more," stands forth to view as the constitutional privilege of all christians. An act of oblivion on the past, and a promise that sin shall not lord it over them in future, are the pledges which in baptism are given to all who come to Jesus. I could wish that this excellency of the New Institution was held up to the eye of this generation as was the brazen serpent to the eyes of Israel in the wilderness. It is not known-I say, comparatively it is a secret to this age. The confessions and prayers for pardon echoing every Lord's day from ten thousand pulpits on this continent; the mournful and long details of past sins offered up with every morning and evening sacrifice upon the family altars of the worshipping families, more resemble a Jewish sacrifice or sin offering than the incense of purified hearts warmed and cheered with the forgiving love of God. "The worshippers once cleansed should have no more consciousness of sins." But in their prayers and confessions there is a remembrance of past sins every morning and every Lord's day. This is proof positive flowing from the hearts and lips of professors, that they are either ignorant of, or unbelieving in, the Christian Institution. They feel not the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth not sin. If they do, their lips utter the words of deceit and guile. They profess to feel and to desire that which they neither feel nor desire.

To open these prison doors, to release these captives, to introduce them to the golden day of christianity, to proclaim to them the jubilee of heaven, to declare the acceptable year of the Lord, has been a primary object in all the essays I have written upon the Ages.

To this purpose I again call their attention to the distinguishing character of the Reign of God. "It is not," says Paul, "meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in a holy spirit." This is a summary view of the Kingdom or rather the Reign of God. The reign of these principles within men is, what the Lord himself affirmed, the discriminating criterion of his reign. The Reign of God comes not with observation, with external signs and evidences, as does the reign of a worldly prince. It comes with no external pomp. It is within men. And it is the dominion of righteousness, peace, and joy, terminating in a holy spirit-issuing in that spirit and temper conforming to the Spirit of God. The alliance of King Righteousness, King Peace, and King Joy, produces the happiest heart under heaven. Melchisedeck, the type of our High Priest, was King of Righteousness and Prince of Peace. Our King of Righteousness and Prince of Peace was anointed with the oil of joy, with the unction of the Holy One, above all who ever sat upon a throne-above all God's Messiahs. His dominion, his rule and reign, is, therefore, the reign of these principles-righteousness, peace, and joy. To be under the sway of these is to be holy, and that is to be happy. To feel ourselves righteous in the presence of God, to feel ourselves pardoned and accepted, naturally produces peace with God, and that naturally fills with joy. Being made

righteous through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. This is the whole philosophy of the Reign of Heaven. But it is not only the effects produced by the Reign of Favor, to which we look in fixing our attention upon it. There is the Kingdom and there is the Reign. The Kingdom is the effect of the Reign, as it is simply that embraced under it. But there is an activity, an agency in these principles, which may be called a Reign in strict conformity with the liberties of human speech. We say of some they are under the reign of pride, or cupidity, or ambition, under the reign of whatever principle seems to control their actions. Avarice and ambition are as dominant principles controlling the actions of men as ever was an eastern despot; nay, more dominant and tyrannical than a Turkish Sultan. It is no departure from analogy, no abuse of speech, to say, than a man is under the reign of righteousness, when he is righteous in character and loves righteousness;-to say, that he is under the reign of peace, when the peace of God triumphs in his heart, and he cultivates peace with all men; to say that he is under the dominion of joy, when he rejoices always and is habitually employed in thanksgivings. These all conspire in purifying the heart. These all, like fires operating upon precious metals, purge the dross. Hence the result of the combined operation of these principles is a holy spirit or temper of mind, and this is the Canaan of bliss into which all the believing enter. This is the land of promise, and whether rich or poor, whether learned or unlearned, all who enter these precincts feel themselves happy and triumphant in the Lord. Hence it was ordained that one sacrifice should make an end of sin-offerings-should at once, and forever, perfect them thus separated from the world; and that the first act of mercy in the new reign of God would be an act of oblivion, a concealment of all guilt, an ablution from all sin, an ample and perfect remission from all former transgressions. "Where remission of these is, no more sacrifice, confession, or prayer for pardon is needed." Hence it came to pass, that when the proclamation of the Reign of God was first made, reformation and remission of sins, or faith and immersion went hand in hand. Every baptized person, not a hypocrite, was pardoned, and after born of the water and the Spirit, they came into a new kingdom-felt new relations and partook of a joy before unknown. The first strong impulse which the mind of the converted felt, was a sense of the pardoning love of God through the sacrifice of Jesus. This, like the touch of the magnet, turned the affections towards the skies. Risen with Christ, not only from the grave in which they had buried their guilt and their fears, but risen in their hopes of heaven and aspirations after glory everlasting, their affections were placed on things above, and not on the things on earth. This was the strong bold which christianity took on the hearts and affections of the converted. This drew a clear, legible, sensible, memorable line between their former state and the state of favor and reconciliation to God in which they found themselves after they had obeyed the gospel.

To the strength of this conviction, to the vividness and force of this impression upon their putting on Christ, is attributable the

great difference between the first converts to Jesus Christ, and the converts to the various creeds and sects now so numerous. There is something so impotent in an assent to mere opinions in joining a sect, in becoming a Baptist, Methodist, or Presbyterian, that it makes no sensible difference in the affections towards heaven, and therefore fails to purify and elevate the heart, and to reform and decorate the character of the proselyted. The first converts to christianity in the converting act in the assurance of remission, were made strong in the Lord and able to deny themselves, filled with joy and peace. Of them it could be said, "Whom having not seen, you love; on whom not now looking, but believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." But I ask, Is this true of all or of a majority, or of a respectable minority of them who are converted to a sect? If I may judge from long observation, one such christian is almost a prodigy in a city, in a county, or large district of country. The reason is our forms of christianity want something which the gospel, as proclaimed and exhibited by the Apostles, presented to the apprehension of the converted. Ours is a shadow-theirs was the substance. Ours is opiniontheirs was fact. Ours is the distant hope of future pardon-theirs the reward of their faith, the salvation of their souls. This they all received in Baptism. "Receiving," said Peter "the reward of your faith, the salvation of your soul." They were pardoned and felt it-we feel it not. They had an assurance of it, which we have not. This is the true philosophy of the difference between the ancient or true gospel, and the modern-between the first converts and the present converts. Indeed, few profess to believe the same gospel. Many of the preachers laugh at receiving the forgiveness of sins through the obedience of faith-through immersion. They ridicule it; they nickname it, like Mr. Brantly, "Baptistal Regeneration," they hold it up to derision. How, then, can those, led by them, experience any great felicity from that which their spiritual guides ridicule!! They cannot. The popular immersion is no better than a Jewish ablution. It is a mere rite, a ceremony, an ordinance, or any thing but a pledge of our pardon and acceptance with God, or the means of our entering into the kingdom of God. The popular preachers preach another gospel and another baptism. Theirs is the gospel of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Theirs is a speculative gospel about spiritual operationscold and inoperative. If ever it flames, it is by a friction of the hands, or by a vigorous operation of the lungs, the bellows of life. As Sampson's strength lay in his hair, so the strength of the popular gospel of speculative influences lies in the vociferations of the proclaimers.

The ancients never strove to produce good feelings by describing them; they were better taught than to make such an effort. They called the attention of men to that which would make them feel, and good feelings followed as a matter of course. I will now assert it, and I shall leave it to philosophers and historians to disprove it if they can, that he that is immersed for the remission of his sins, in the full belief that be will receive remission in the act, will enjoy more of the life and joy of christianity, and not be half so Vol. VII.

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