not clear it to my mind until a few days since, when the Holy Spirit was pleased to make it as clear as the sun at noon-day, that he never did partake of the Holy Supper; and to me this is an important trnth. I call it so, because if Judas was at the Holy Supper, and our Lord said unto him, "This cup is the testament in my blood which was shed for you;" in my opinion it would at once prove universal redemption and salvation; because if he shed his blood for Judas he did for all Adam's race. But to prove the He did not, I will begin with John xiii., for there the foundation stone is laid :-verses 21 −30, reader, you will bear in mind that this was at the Passover Supper ; verse 26," when Jesus had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas, and said (verse 27), That thou doest do quickly. He then (verse 30) having received the sop, went immediately out, and it was night. Therefore (verse 31) when Judas was gone out, Jesus said," &c. Thus far St. John. Luke xxii. 7—18, the apostles sent to prepare the Passover Supper; and verse 17, "Jesus took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves, this is the Passover cup. Our Lord did not say, "This cup is the testament in my blood which is shed for you;" no, no, it was the Passover cup. Then, (John xiii. 30) Judas having received the sop went immediately out, and then (Luke xxii. 19, 20) our Lord instituted his Holy Supper to the eleven apostles. But, you will enquire, did not the Lord say (verse 21), "But behold the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table," &c. I answer, yes, but that table was the Passover table where the twelve sat at supper with him, see Matt. and Mark xiv. 12-21. His disciples said unto him," &c. verse 18. "And as they did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, one of shall betray me :" this was at you the Passover Supper. Then (John 66 xiii. 30) Judas after he had received the sop went immediately out," and then my Lord instituted his Holy Supper (Mark xiv. 22-25) to the eleven apostles. In Matt. xxvi. 17-25, Jesus gave orders to his disciples respecting the Passover Supper. "Now when even was come (verse 20) Jesus sat down with the twelve," &c. "Judas which betrayed him (verse 25), answered, and said, Master is it I? Jesus said unto him Thou hast said; then (John xiii. 30) Judas after he had received the sop went immediately out ;" then (Matt. xxvi. 26—30) my blessed Lord instituted his Holy Supper to the eleven disciples. This is a proof that no person has a right to partake of the Holy Supper but believers in Jesus. Plymouth. G. S. ADVICE TO A YOUNG MINISTER. My Dear Friend, You have expressed a wish to hear from me, and to give you what advice I may think needful, as suited to the situation you have been recently called upon to fill-to take the pastoral oversight of a church of Jesus. I do not wonder at your fears and your feelings, and being overwhelmed with a sense of your incompetency for so weighty a work; but he that has called you to the work of preaching the everlasting gospel, is all-sufficient to give you wisdom for the employment, and strength to bear the burden, and heat of the day. Do not expect a life of idleness and ease: you have a large flock to feed, and a large variety of food must be provided for them. Although they are all travelling one beaten road, yet they are all the subjects of different exercises; under different dispensations of Providence]; exercised with different fears; exposed to different attacks from the enemy; some dark in their minds, dejected in their souls, labouring under a weighty sense of sin; all their title-deeds mislaid, evidences lost, the Comforter that should relieve their souls very far from them; some of the flock straying, some diseased, some bleating for food, some running against each other, some have fallen into pits and sloughs. Thus you will find that you have plenty of work to do, and no idle time upon your hands: your whole de pendence should be upon the Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, to lead and guide you, feed, and keep you within his fold. Do not, my friend, be so much elated with your success in the high employment that you are called to; many may be gathered out of Satan's fold, that may prove your crown of rejoicing, but they may prove thorns in your sides in this world; and remember, that your success is not salvation. The blood and obedience of February, 1842.] Jesus are the subjects you are to preach, and to draw all your comfort from, and not your own usefulness. Some good men can hardly ever ascend the pulpit but they must tell their auditory how many have been called through their instrumentality. Is not this sounding their own trumpet, and not giving God all the glory, and putting the crown upon the head of him who alone deserves to wear it. I am sorry to find that you are so depressed, because you seemed to feel so much emptiness in yourself and in your sermons; this is as it should be: the lower you are in yourself, the higher you will be constrained to lift up the Lamb of God above all your own misery, guilt and emptiness, and the misery, guilt, and emptiness of your people. This is one important branch of preaching, to lift up the beauty of the Lord and Saviour, in whom alone the church is made beautiful and comely, and are accepted, and are complete. The measureless fulness of Christ is an inexhaustible subject for the pulpit, and so exactly suited to all the emptiness of the church in all her individual members : their empty souls may here have an over-abundant supply; not to have a stock for the morrow, but to be a continual coming to too, receive; and this fountain can continue to impart, without being impoverished. And Jesus, in that beautiful prayer that he presented to his Father, just before he quitted the stage of time, made this important declaration: I am glorified in them. And he is glorified in imparting out of his free and royal grace to the impoverished sons of men. Your stock of ideas and sermons, my good brother, will be soon exhausted, and you may write upon all your gifts, duties, enlargements, and experience, as many mercantile houses have lately done: stopped payment; but no suspension with the royal riches of our high and heavenly banker. So it is with the fountain of his F most precious blood: its transcendant efficacy exceeds all comprehension. This should form a most prominent part of your preaching. While the fulness of the adorable Immanuel is to be constantly exhibited to all comers, without money or price, and the comers need have no fear but an abundance will be left behind for all after-comers, after all their own needs have been most profusely supplied; so with the royal bath, and the royal blood of the King of kings: its virtue to cleanse effectually still remains the same, although millions of Manasseh and Magdalen sinners have been cured therein, yet it retains all its healing and cleansing properties, as when the rock of ages was first smitten. The song of love and blood is ever new in heaven, and the virtue of the same is ever new upon earth. When God the Holy Spirit opens up this great love-mystery to the mind of an alarmed, an awakened, seeking sinner, then you see, my fellow labourer, what a choice variety of rich provisions you have to bring before your people, whenever you meet; do not trust to your skeletons and your scraps, and your midnight studies, but to that able assistant, the everblessed Comforter, to bring all things to your remembrance, and who delights in glorifying Christ, and the riches of his grace. Then you have all the lovely and endearing relations that the Lord of life and glory sustains a most loving and lovely Bridegroom, a kind and tender and everlasting Father, and whoever met with such a Friend as one to love at all times-in riches and in poverty, in pain, sickness, and in health; when sailing through deep waters, and every moment expecting to be drowned; and in the serene and safe calm, the wind either for, or against. Thus you have a sweet series of subjects abounding in the sacred volume; you need never complain about being empty; and as some good men have said in their dark low frames: “Oh, I have not another idea left me; my people must discover the nakedness of the land." Yes, and it is a pity but they should see the barrenness of the land, if you are hoping to set off your own talents, and knowledge, and experience, in order that you may be admired. 66 I would advise you often to read the 103d Psalm: you have Jesus set forth there in many characters-David addresses his own soul: 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” There the Lord is set forth as the sin-forgiving God, "who forgiveth all thine iniquities.' Then as the Almighty Physician, before whom no diseases can stand, “who healeth all thy diseases." Then as the Redeemer and his work, "who redeemeth thy life from destruction." Then as the liberal Lord and benefactor, "who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies." Then as the great providential provider, "who satisfieth thy mouth with good things: he giveth liberally." Then as the Renewer, "so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." Thus we see that the subjects that ministers have to preach are endless and bottomless. Our own stock is very soon exhausted, but those riches of Christ that Paul preached are unsearchable, always seasonable, and suited to the cases of the saints of God. I would advise you not to take notice about what is said of you and your preaching; it is in the very nature of some people to cavil and find fault; and some of our hearers are so weak in their judgment, that all sorts of preaching is acceptable to them. Legal, evangelical, or moral; experimental, practical, or providential; the terrible law, or the good tidings of the gospel: they have no discernment about things that differ; their minds are like some tradesmen's shops, every thing huddled together in confusion; so that it is not known where to find it. "Give no heed to all words that are spoken," was the advice of a very wise man. Nor be elated with the hosannas of another class, who are often friends under a mask; but there are some feeling and faithful friends to be found, who correct as well as caress; drop a word of reproof as well as counsel. You have to be much in prayer; often wrestling with God in secret for direction. The servant of the Lord must be patient: many things will occur to vex you. Satan will often frown; saints will sometimes look cold; friends fail, and fall off, old professors act inconsistently; often toiling and casting your net, but no success. But this is the lot of all good and faithful men. But the Lord Jesus in his person, love, salvation, righteousness, and promise, remains the same. him I commend you may every good descend upon you; may you be blessed with much of the Spirit of the Lord and then you will walk humbly with God. То The Lord bless and shine upon you. JAMES. Hampstead. STRICTURES ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE ETERNAL SONSHIP OF CHRIST. Dear Mr. Editor, SHOULD not a public reviewer of a book take heed how he commends any controversial work, lest by his recommendation he sanction error under the name of truth? In this month's "Spiritual Magazine" you assert that a Mr. Gunner has scripturally explained "the Eternal Sonship of Christ," and strongly recommend it to your readers. Allow me, dear sir, to ask you-Does the Holy Scripture once assert the eternal sonship of Christ? I know, and you ought to know, that it does not. Why then should Protestants, any more than Papists, add to the word of God? That Christ is God, the true God, the mighty God, God over all blessed for ever in his divine nature, and that this, his divine nature, is unbegotten, underived, selfexistent, and independent, the writer most readily and devoutly acknowledges; but he decidedly objects to the doctrine of Eternal Sonship, or that Christ is God, as he is God's Son; for two reasons, and many more: first, because no part of Holy Scripture asserts it: and secondly, if true, then Christ would be an Arian's God, inferior as God to the Father, because begotten, derived, and the offspring of another. What do you think of this, and what answer can you give to it? As to the notion of Eternal Sonship, or, as some express it, eternal generation-what is it but an eternal contradiction? For this reason-proper eternity forbids sonship, and sonship cannot agree with an eternity of existence. Pray, dear sir, have you any idea of a son but by creation, as Adam; by generation, as the children of men; by adoption and grace, as the children of God; or by the Holy Ghost, as in the Virgin's womb; and will you, and can you truly say, that any of these is eternal? If not, whence but in the brains of speculative men could originate the self-contradicting tenet of Eternal Sonship. What saith the scripture? Will you appeal to that?"This day I have begotten thee." I am no pre-existterian, and therefore view this assertion as prophetic, and not declarative of the past. But if it did, the act and fact of Christ as Son being begotten, utterly discards the idea of essential Godhead existing in that which is truly begotten. Again to the Son he saith: Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee above thy fellows." It follows that, as the apostles frequently testify, God is as the Father, so the God also of his Son. Holy scripture, and right reason, founded thereon, equally reject the notion of two supreme Gods, or one . God inferior to the other, which conclusion must follow, if Christ is God, as he is the Son of God. From this dilemma how can you escape? Must you not give up the doctrine as a tradition of men, though of good men, and choose rather to abide by the testimony of God's word alone. In page 11 Mr. Gunner asserts, after a certain great, but not infallible, man-"The human nature of Christ is not a person." Is not this a wonderful discovery: more rare than true; for if a spirit, soul, and body united, (which was the man Christ) be not a person, will the learned Mr. Gunner, or his eulogiser, the Editor, please to inform the writer what is, or what constitutes, a person; and whether he is one or not? Pilate said, I am innocent of the blood of this just person:" and who else was that person, but the man Christ Jesus; there bound, scourged, tried, and about to be condemned? Page 12, That Christ received divine worship, as God over all, by reason of the fulness of the Godhead which dwelt in him bodily, is readily and cheerfully admitted: but not one instance of divine worship, as the Son of God, while on earth, can be produced. The Godhead alone was, and is, the object of that worship; and Christ is God and man; not the Son of God and man. He is God manifest in the flesh, not the Son of God manifest in the flesh. Again, did Christ, as man, ever pray to the Son? Can you find one instance thereof? Yet, if the Son was God, as he was a Son, why should not the man Christ pray to him also, and not always, as he does, to the Father, and as he directs his disciples to do? Having most painfully studied this subject, I could add much to disprove the unscriptural and contradictory dogmas of Eternal Sonship, or eternal generation, which I suppose are synonymous; but to eonclude-is not the whole secret, the history and mystery of Christ's Sonship contained in the 1st of St. Luke xxxv; and are you aware, Mr. Editor, that there is no other text in the Old or New Testament but this, which telleth us why, and sheweth us how, Christ is the Son of God. He that runs, may read it, unless he has been warped by prejudice : "The power of the Highest," namely, God the Father by the Holy Ghost, produced “that Holy Thing” in the Virgin's womb; which, when born into the world was to be called the Son of God. This child born, this son given, must of necessity have a father. It is evident that the Holy Virgin was his mother, and by the carnal Jews, Joseph the future husband of Mary, was only reputed to be his father; but in reality, God, not Joseph, was his Father, and Mary his mother, after the flesh. Now Christ had not two Sonships, but was God manifest in the flesh-Immanuel God with us. Now that Godhead had no Father; for if it had, what would such a Godhead be, but an Arian's Godone inferior to the other? And as by holy scripture we are forbidden to worship two Gods, whether both supreme, or one inferior to the other, so the mystery of God, even the Father and of Christ, is simply this: "There is to us, as St. Paul saith, one God the Father;" and that God was in Christ reconciling the (elect) world unto himself; and Jesus Christ was, and is, "the Son of the Blessed" in his human nature, and, as I believe, in his human nature only; of which God the Father was the real Father, and Mary the real mother. This, the Holy Scriptures teach-so I believe, and so I speak-and as Mr. Gunner truly says, in page 15, The Holy Spirit never teaches contrary to his word;' therefore, as taught by him, I reject in toto the doctrine of our Lord Christ's supposed Eternal Sonship. If you, dear Sir, or any of your correspondents can scripturally shew me a more excellent way, I shall gladly |