of the misery of the damned, is the existence of conscious guilt, freed from all restraint, bursting forth in all its fury, and filling the soul with its dreadful consequences. Here, then, let reason try her powers. From these premises, let her draw the fair inferences. What must be the results of such a state of mind? Must it not increase, at a fearful rate of exasperation? Will not your wicked passions rage with an evergrowing violence, when the restraining mercies of a state of probation are gone, and you are given up by the justice of God to yourself and to your sins? Reflect upon what must be your prospects in such a state. Can they be any other than those of an ever-swelling and uncontroulable action and re-action of guilt, and its attendant wretchedness? And what ground can you have of expectation, that this current of misery will ever cease to flow? The principles of nature and reason portend the direct contrary. You can have no hope, except God should interfere by a miracle, to put an end to your existence, or to dissolve the necessary and righteous connexion of sin with remorse, agony, and all misery. Wretched hope, indeed! a hope impossible to be realized, for it would be a violation of his own word, and a manifest, contradiction to his unchangeable per

fections.

Thus, then, the dictates of your boasted reason conduct you to the regions of despair, and leave the adamantine bars about you for

ever.

Our proper limits now forbid the examination of the grounds upon which this false and ruinous expectation may be rested. If God enable, we shall carry on the investigation in a future paper. The peculiar importance of the subject is our apology N. S. No. 27.

for thus prolonging the discussion of it.

But surely enough has been written to convince any reasonable and unprejudiced person of the extreme folly of trusting to a refuge which, in whatever point of view we survey it, turns out to be utterly destitute of any foundation of rational and scriptural evidence. The infatuation of such a resolution can be equalled by nothing but its daring wickedness. O, courteous reader, exhibit not so deplorable an instance of the very madness of sin!

Let the awful truths which have been set before you, awaken you to seek salvation while it may be obtained; the full, rich, and free salvation to which you are invited in the glorious Gospel.

Jesus Christ is Now ready to save you from all your sins and pollution, your guilt and misery. Still he is waiting to be gracious: and is it your resolution not to come to Him?

་་་་་་་་་་

ON COMMUNION WITH GOD.

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THAT pious men enjoy a special and enlivening intercourse with the Great Father of Spirits, the fountain of blessedness, will be readily admitted by all who pay deference to the volume of inspired truth. Truly," said the Apostle John," our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." Without entering largely on this most interesting topic, we shall touch on two or three points. A habit of holiness, and a principle of living faith, are essentially necessary to communion with God. Where these are wanting, no apparatus of external means, no endowments of nature, or efforts of reason, can put us in possession of the high and distinguished privilege; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteous

R

ness,

or what communion hath light with darkness? Let us, however, suppose the mind illuminated, the heart renewed, and a root of faith planted there. How is communion with God maintained? We answer, chiefly by meditation and prayer. In these spiritual exercises, the principle of faith is called forth, and displays its energy and influence.

Every process of thought, even where God and religion are its prime objects, is not meditation. We employ this term to designate those thoughts which have not only a high and sublime direction, but also a holy and salutary tendency. When the intellect labours alone, a train of clear and connected ideas may pass through the mind, and if a vigorous fancy lend her aid and her colours, some lovely scenes will be created, and some vivid though transient impressions made; but a deep and affecting consciousness of the Divine Presence is wanting. All that philosophy and poetry can effect, is done; but we look in vain for the sacred and peculiar lustre, the sanctifying and exquisite delight, which genuine religion only has power to bestow. A spiritual mind converses with God, both in his word and in his works. Every new disclosure and manifestation of divine wisdom, power, and goodness, in the grand theatre of nature, or in the grander and more glorious temple of revealed truth and redeeming mercy, touches the reflecting and devout soul with emotions of joy. The thoughts of such a man, employed on such themes, may not have the regular flow which proud science would prescribe and approve; yet they have a richness, a sacredness, and a savour, which no laborious research or dry study can impart. A Christian holds communion with God by humble

Although the agency of the Holy Spirit is required to quicken and prepare us for meditation and prayer, infinite Wisdom has appointed various means, and subsidiary helps, which must not be neglected. Retirement, reading, and self-scrutiny, are confessedly of high moment and importance. Scougal's Life of God in the Soul of Man, Bishop Hall's Contemplations, Baxter's Saint's Rest, and many other productions of pious men, may give us much valuable assistance.

Communion with God renders his word doubly interesting, and often throws a new and attractive aspect over the visible material frame of nature, and the comprehensive and connected system of providence. One instance to illustrate our meaning we shall here adduce. The profound and excellent President Edwards declares, that the first time he ever found any delight in divine things, was upon reading the following Scripture: "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen." "As I read these words," says he, "there came into my soul, and was, as it were, diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite

different from any thing I ever experienced before." After this, according to his own account, the majesty and grace of God seemed to give an exquisite and peculiar charm to the whole face of nature. Every thing on earth below, and in heaven above, appeared with a beauty and magnificence derived from the stamp of the Creator's excellency, and displayed his wisdom, purity, and love, in a manner which thrilled and ravished the heart. We are aware that such narratives call forth from many the cry, to beware of enthusiasm; but perhaps no man living possessed stronger powers of reasoning, or was less likely to become the dupe of enthusiastic emotions, than Dr. Jonathan Edwards.

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Communion with God is certainly the richest and highest privilege a Christian in this world can enjoy. By our natural weakness, we are exposed to continual danger; by our ignorance, to wandering and error; by the corrupt propensities of our fallen nature, to guilt, terror, and misery; we are oppressed by fear, harassed by temptations, agitated between hope and apprehension, and ready to faint under the painful and ever-during conflict of nature and grace. Under these, and all the other complicated forms of sorrow and affliction, which are more or less the portion of every human being, what situation could be conceived more desolate and comfortless, than that of a man forbidden by the Almighty God to approach him with prayer and supplication? What a state of darkness, horror, and distress! To live upon the earth, excluded from all intercourse and communion with the ever-blessed God; prohibited from looking up to the throne of grace for mercy, from reclining on Almighty power for succour in our feebleness; interdicted all access

to the fountain of light, and life, and love, under the pressure of despondence, anguish, and calamity!"

But the Christian holds this high privilege by a tenure which all the power and craft, rage and malice of his enemies cannot destroy. In the valley of humiliation, as on the mount of triumph and transport, he walks with God.

This divine fellowship sustains and invigorates his spirit, assuages his sorrows, disperses his fears, blesses the present moments as they pass, and brightens the prospect of a distant futurity. Hence, too, his motives to patience, watchfulness, zeal, and perseverance in well doing, take their rise and their strength, their purity and their permanence. Nearness to God produces a holy indifference to the world. Its treasures seem dross, its honours and delights vanity, to one who is advancing towards an incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance, reserved in heaven for him; and who possesses even now, in his happy experience, a pledge of the full and final enjoyment of it.

How wise and circumspect then ought those to be, who find daily admission into the presence chamber of the King of kings! How anxious to preserve a calm serene, humble, holy, and heavenly frame of mind! How fearful of dishonouring their God and Father, of injuring the cause of their Divine Redeemer, and of grieving the Holy Spirit, by whom they are sealed unto the day of redemption ! Let them set the Lord always before them, and esteem it their best privilege to walk in the light of his countenance! Even a temporary suspension of fellowship with God envelopes the soul in a sort of Egyptian darkness; brings the blast of barrenness, which, withers

every Christian grace, every spiritual comfort, every heavenly hope; and lays us open to the fierce assaults and fiery darts of infernal legions. Well may a

believer in such circumstances exclaim, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee! Seek his favour, which is life, and his loving kindness, which is better than life. One smile of thy reconciled Father can scatter these gloomy and appalling clouds; one whisper of thy Saviour's voice, saying, "peace be still," can calm this tempest within! Experience has abundantly demonstrated, that all real prosperity and advancement in genuine religion, depends on communion with God. It is the very life, soul, and essence of personal piety. Promises and ordinances will prove fruitless, unless they quicken and promote our intercourse with heaven. Christian reader, keep close to thy God, the fountain of life and felicity. AMICUS B.

Jan. 18, 1827.

ON THE RIGHT OF DISSENTING MINISTERS TO THE NAME OF BI

SHOPS.

Volo Episcopari.

SCARCELY a Dissenting Minister can be found who does not regard himself as the legitimate and authorized bishop of the church of which he has the oversight: and scarcely a dissenting church exists, which does not recognize and accept its pastor as its bishop to the utmost extent of the scriptural use of the term. Since the name of bishop is avowedly claimed by the pastor, and tacitly conceded by the church, how then comes it to pass, that the name is not generally and publicly adopted, as the designation of the ministerial office?

It is an inquiry, very full of interest, how our nonconformist

ancestors came to discard the appellation of bishop, after struggling so painfully, and so triumphantly, to prove the identity of bishops and elders. They contended with the power of prelacy as presbyters or elders,-as presbyters they suffered, and when their liberty was restored, they again, as presbyters, resumed their ministry. But since they resumed their ministry as presbyters, independent of any diocesan prelate, we may now be a little surprised at their not commencing their labours as independent bishops of independent churches, which answered to the ancient apoikia. The nonconformist ministers knew, that in the minds of the people the name of bishop was associated with the ideas of personal aggrandisement and ecclesiastical domination, and their own deep humility and desire of usefulness led them not to assume it. They might also have considered the term presbyter as embracing more extensively the whole range of their office, whereas the name of bishop only regarded their oversight of the particular flock over which they presided. Whatever operated on their self-denying minds to the exclusion of the episcopal name, we feel assured it was not an apprehension that the adoption of it was unscriptural; for it was their unshaken adherence to the scriptural and apostolic import of the term, that excluded them from a prelatical church, and exposed them to "trials of cruel mockings,-yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonments."

None can doubt that dissenting ministers fulfil the duties assigned in the New Testament to the office of a bishop: it is indisputably evident, that the New Testament gives to those who fulfilled such duties, in apostolic times, the name of bishops; it is, therefore, congruous and expe

dient, that those who still fulfil the scriptural duties of such christian office, should also bear the scriptural name and designation of that office.

That dissenting ministers do the work of bishops, is evident from a survey of the episcopal duties laid down in the New Testament. The duties of a bishop are, to conduct public worshipto preach the Gospel-to administer the ordinances-to preside in the discipline of the church-and to ordain other ministers; and these are duties in which we find our ministers on every occasion engaged.

That dissenting ministers are duly and legitimately authorized to preach the Gospel, and administer the ordinances, may be argued from the universal aspect, the indiscriminate tenor, and the unchangeable perpetuity of the commission of Christ to his disciples. In Matt. xxviii. 19, 20. Christ authorises them to preach, to make disciples, to baptize, &c. Is not

this authority the same to all ministers? Where does this commission intimate any distinction of rank among the preachers of the Gospel? Are not all who act under this authority in the same office? To aver that this commission was limited to the apostles only, will not serve the cause of high-church episcopalians, because it could not have been so understood by the apostles themselves. In their very hearing, on a former occasion, Christ had commanded others to preach the Gospel, Luke ix. 60., and consequently, after the Saviour's ascension, many who were scattered abroad through the persecution of Saul," went every where preaching the word," Acts viii. 4., and these were the men who continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking bread, &c. Acts ii. 42. Since we find primitive Christians "6 preaching the word,"

and "breaking bread," and "a certain disciple, named Ananias," baptizing Saul of Tarsus, Acts ix. 10. 18, we conclude, that these were fully authorised to do so, and that such things were not limited to the commission of the twelve. Hence, dissenting ministers can vouch for their preaching and administrations of the ordinances, the highest authority and the most unexceptionable precedents.

Episcopalians confine the right of presiding in the discipline of the church, or rather of ruling the church, to diocesan bishops, &c.; nevertheless the presbyter or elder has as indisputable a claim to it as has the bishop, for the New Testament assigns it as unequivocally and as extensively to the one as to the other. In 1 Tim. iii. 2. 4, 5.; v. 17.; the bishop who rules well, and the elder who rules well, must be the same officer, or else the apostle argues very incongruously in Tit. i. 5, 6, 7, where he cautions Titus to take heed that the "elders" whom he ordains should be blameless; "because," says he, a bishop should be blameless." Paul, in writing to the church or churches among the Hebrews, exhorts the members thereof to "remember them that had the rule over them," also to

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obey them that had the rule over them," and again, to" salute them that had the rule over them." Heb. xiii. 7. 17. In the church or churches, whether of Jerusalem or of Palestine, to which this epistle was addressed, there were several rulers, who could not possibly have been bishops of extensive dioceses, but who were the ordinary ministers of the Gospel. Some of these rulers were dead, others still lived, who were indiscriminately to be obeyed and saluted without any reference or allusion to any ruler of distinction, much less any mention of such a character as a diocesan bishop.