(For the Spiritual Magazine.)

CHOICE SAYINGS OF A LIVING MINISTER.

HEAVEN will never repay the debt of gratitude that is due to Christ, for the merit of his cross. The inhabitants of that land will be ever improving.

God is the source of our felicity; therefore we can carry nothing to him. The relations of life are mutually supported by just conduct. Evil may be a channel of good, when it cannot be the cause of it. It may afford an opportunity for God to disseminate good of a better kind than man had in perfection. That which would have banished a whole universe to perdition, can never be the cause of good.

A christian is a wealthy person when he has suffered every privation that he can bear, because he is related to the person of Christ, and is with him a joint inheritor of the love of God.

Jesus Christ in his man glory has a perfect knowledge of, and love to the gospel without a book, so will the church when she will go to dwell above.

Were we able to see the host of devils that range in the air, or the myriads of angels that travel through our streets, we should be exceedingly alarmed at the sight.

The christian has a high honor conferred upon him, for he is the only person who is brought into a state of nearness to God, to offer sacrifices to him, and he alone is qualified to do so.

In every part of the work of Christ's redemption, his deity appears. Let him but come forth from his secret pavilion, and unfurl his banner, and I challenge all hell to prove, that the agent who could perform this great work had nothing but humanity in his person.

The lordship of Christ could not be maintained except there be found in his person omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. Who could have thought that weakness should have been joined with omnipotence, so that omnipotence might appear through the weakness, and the weakness be the medium through which almighty power would become the salvation of the church.

The lordship of Christ is universal, both with respect to persons and things; therefore there is nothing that the saints can want but he possesses it, and he will convey it to them.

One law and government binds the whole church to Christ as the Lord of Zion.

When I consider that there is not a good man upon earth, nor an angel in heaven, but such a poor worm as I am is connected with them in the person of the Lord Jesus, who spreads his covering over the whole host-when I look into the holy oracle in my study, and report to my friends what I know of it in public, so that they may be a little refreshed, I say that I am very much pleased with the thought, that Christ is the only uniting head of every saint on earth and in heaven.

REVIEW.

The Sinlessness of Jesus; being the substance of some Discourses delivered at Salem Chapel, on the words," He knew no sin:" to which are annexed, Animadversions on the Rev. E. Irving's Doctrine of our Lord's Humanity. By John Stevens, 8vo. p.p. 104. Palmer.

IT is indeed to be lamented, that amidst the awful strides heresy has made in the church during past periods, it should be reserved for the nineteenth century, when moral light is diffusing itself through the world, to produce men bearing the christian name, and sustaining the ministerial office, so awfully hardened as to assert the peccability of the human nature of Christ; thereby blaspheming the adorable person of our Emanuel. As we have been on several occasions called forward to refute this awful error, we felt no small pleasure in finding Mr. Stevens enter the field to oppose the unscriptural dogmas of Mr. Irving and his coadjutors.

Mr. Stevens has ably proved the sinlessness of Christ, and shown that the scriptures fully testify that he indeed " knew no sin," and that those who dare to assert the contrary, contradict the Holy Spirit's testimony, and create a disgust in the soul of every enlightened christian which he cannot find words sufficiently strong to express. After adducing a number of scriptures in proof of the sinlessness of Christ's humanity, our author draws the following conclusions.

"Though he came into our world and assumed our flesh, physically considered, yet he never defiled himself in so doing. The Holy Spirit has fully evidenced his determination to vindicate his moral excellence, in all his testimony concerning him, so that whoever presumes to charge him with inherent depravity, must deny the scriptures by their temerity. Therein his holiness is evermore attested, while his tenderest compassions are invitingly displayed. Yes, my brethren, the Holy Comforter most carefully defends the purity of his character, the sinlessness of his person, while he brings him down to our view, and, in a rich diversity of language, sets forth his union with his beloved people. He admirably vindicates his innocence, even when he exhibits him as made sin for us: he shews him on a cross, numbered with transgressors; but, at the same moment, he proclaims him guiltless and just. "He died, the just for the unjust," is his faithful testimony. Yea, he caused Pilate to acknowledge that he found no fault in him; and the Centurion declared him a righteous man. The enraged Jews indeed were forward to charge him with being sinful, and deserving to die: some of them said, "He hath a devil and an unclean spirit;" but surely it can be no honour, but a great wickedness, for any christian, and more so for any christian minister, to adopt any such language. Yet we have to regret that it is said most publicly, that his body was devil-possessed-death possessed," and that "all wickedness was inherent in his humanity." Authority infinitely greater affirms that he knew no sin, and that in him was no sin."

"As

Satan had nothing in Christ whereupon he could successfully act, his striking his hellish sparks into him, was striking them into water. But he finds it far different when he practises his infernal devices upon us; he finds plenty of dry tinder to inflame. We are not able to quench all his fiery darts; but he soon kindles us into wrathfulness, fierceness, pride, contention, envy, VOL. VII.-No. 76. N

perversity, and many hurtful lusts. How then can it be said that our nature differs not in any of its properties from his? Blessed be his holy name, who is raising us up to be like himself; we are advancing on the line of grace, in the cheering prospect of having our character finally completed. He will have us to be sinless like himself; as he was, so his members were chosen to be, in and through him; and "as he is, so are we in this world." When the saints now in Christ arrive in heaven, Satan will never reach them again, their sanctity will be inwardly complete; and so entire will then be the absence of every thing on which he could act, that his efforts would have no effect, his temptations would be powerless, were he permitted to try them, which yet will never be the case. There we shall all be able to exultingly say, "the prince of perdition hath nothing in us.' This triumph, however, will be founded in the character and work of our ever sinless Redeemer. The purity and endless perfection of all the blessed will be enjoyed, through the vicarious sufferings of the Lamb that was slain; yea, they will evermore exult in the always spotless Lamb, as having been cut off, but not for himself, but for the sins of his people.". "The moral excellence and

sinless character of the Son of God, are of high importance to us, my friends, because we are elected in him, and our life is hid in him. If we cannot maintain his character, we can have no hope for our own. It is highly satisfying to find that they who best knew him, declare his purity. Nor do we find in any of his addresses to his Father, he once confessed his sinfulness, nor lamented his proclivity to sin, of which we are rashly told by erring guides. He prayed for his disciples, that they might be kept from evil, and if his nature differed not in any of its properties from ours, how was it he did not pray in like manner for himself?

"When Satan appears as an angel of light, and affects to benefit the church of God by casting a black veil over the character of the man Christ Jesus, it becomes the faithful to beware of the stratagem. It is a scheme he has repeatedly adopted, and sometimes God has permitted the reckless and speculative to fall by his device. He well knew, that if the Son of God could but be ruined in his character, in the views of his followers, their faith in him must soon fail, and their hope be destroyed. If, indeed, it were possible to prove the Head faulty, the members could have no hope of perfection in and through him. Glory be to God, the proof, which the old enemy desires, cannot be found in that book on which the faith of all true christians exclusively reposes. We live in a period wherein the devil is exceedingly busy about religious things, and is aiming to plunder the church of the gospel of distinguishing grace, under the specious pretences of making it more known, and more successful. But if any sentiment be promulgated that tends to stain the character of our Lord, in any part of his person, it becomes the saints at once to reject it, and flee from the society of those who are its advocates. Whoever may be delighted with it, they have every reason to be disgusted; nor can they be happy, where he is dishonoured. Now, to say that "he was inclined to all those things which the law interdicted," is to dishonour him in his private and personal character. He indeed knew no sin, but was harmless and undefiled."

Mr. Stevens considers the pre-existence of the human soul of Christ, as very essential in establishing his sinless character; here we differ from our author, and feel confident that the complex person of our glorious Day's-man needs not any such aid: we wish the preacher had not introduced the sentiment. Speaking of the conception of our Lord's body, he says,

"Hence we learn two things expressly: 1. That Christ's infantile body was of Mary. 2. That it was of the Holy Spirit; of the virgin substantially; of the Holy Spirit formatively. It is worthy of remark, that, in the subject before us are implicated, the honour of God-the truth of the scripturesthe important character of him to whom we owe the praise of our redemp

tion; and also the hope and salvation of millions. This, therefore, is a matter of the highest concern, and claims our most solemn attention.

"While I thus speak of the truly mysterious subject before us, I am not supposing that, every saved soul must thoroughly understand the various branches of that glorious plan of wisdom and mercy by which it is saved. On the contrary, it is my settled belief, that by far the greater part of the family of our adopting Father reaches the kingdom of ultimate rest, as infants when abroad reach their homes in maternal arms, knowing little, yet saved by what is true; and though they know not distinctly the mystery of Christ, by which they are saved securely, yet God knows it, and intends to perfect their understanding of it, in that blessed country to which he is constantly and carefully conducting them.

"Now, as neither the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit, is to be supposed chargeable with any thing blameable, in respect to the character of Christ; as the scriptures are not to be denied; as the hope of the christian is not to be exposed to danger; as the character of the Head of the church involves that of the members; and as by how much the more Christ is maintained in good character, by so much the more have his followers reason to rejoice in him; so, on such grounds, I consider it is becoming in every christian church, according to its ability, to rise up and resent whatever would plunder the King of their city of his lawful character, and his rightful

crown.

......

"Returning to our point of controversy more closely, we here observe, that the human body of our Lord was, in different respects, both of the Holy Spirit, and of Mary; of her substantially, and of him formatively; in this mystery, the holy virgin was passive matter, and the Holy Spirit the only active agent in forming the principle, and imparting the life, out of which grew the body of the only begotten Son of the Eternal Father.". "The Holy Spirit could not produce sin, yet he was the only active agent in the formation of our Lord's infantile frame. Mary, though the mother, was not the maker of it; she passively contributed the substance from which it was made, as the virgin earth supplied the matter out of which God formed the body of innocent Adam. This evinces that, we ought reverently to avoid, as wicked, the assertions that have been made, saying, that "Christ's flesh was sinful-devil-possessed-death-possessed, and in short, differed not in any of its properties from ours." Whereas, had it been kept apart from the imputed sin of others, it had not been an object of vindictive displeasure; but it was assumed for the very purpose of its becoming the atoning victim, to remove the sins of others. Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures of the ancients: the Son of Man went forth as it was determined of him." "Mary remained a virgin when she was become a mother; and thus, by a miracle, her offspring was untainted by original sin, which could only spread in the ordinary way of procreation. (Genesis v. 3.) Human nature, therefore, has its law of contamination, as well as its law of sanctification, regulated by divine sovereignty. Christ was separate from sinners, in not being the son of Adam in the ordinary way. As he had no human father, so the guilt of Adam's headship touched him not. It is here we see the Holy Spirit miraculously interposing, and thus obviating entirely the defilement ordained to spread as aforesaid, from the father to his posterity; and at the same time maintaining the character of the Son of God, as well as his own, in the wonderful production of a clean thing from an unclean one. It is hence concluded, that, as was the divine Author of the conception, such must have been the thing conceived, sinless. Otherwise, why was it said, that holy thing is or the Holy Ghost, if the same inherent depravity attached to our Lord's body, as inhered in the bodies of all infants conceived in the natural way? Why did the Holy Ghost interfere at all? If a sinful body were a proper one for our Lord to assume, he might have taken one without any miracle. The sentiment now opposed is a murderous one, for it kills itself. Its tendency is to lead us to the baneful swamps of

socinianism."

Our author has appended several of Mr. Irving's self-contradictions, and animadverted on them with much ability. He then shews the grounds of his errors, adding strictures on certain extracts from Mr. Irving's writings, and concluding with a review of some of his assertions respecting the Godhead. We strongly recommend the work to the notice of our readers, as well calculated to expose those errors against which it is particularly directed.

The Gospel Herald. A series of Discourses on the Glad Tidings of the Kingdom of God. 12mo. No I. p.p. 16, No. II. p.p. 12. Palmer.

WE have received the first two numbers of this series of Discourses, and while we rejoice to see so many small publications sent forth for the benefit of the christian in humble life, we are frequently grieved to find in many of them such a want of clear gospel truth. If these two discourses are a true specimen of the future numbers, we hail them as exhibiting in glowing colours the glorious and heartcheering doctrines of our holy religion. The nature and the principle of the gospel of the grace of God, form the subject of these two tracts. The first discourse, after a short introduction, treats of the nature of the gospel; and we subjoin an extract from our author's view of it as proclaiming liberty.

"The gospel of God is no less a proclamation of liberty. Having vanquished Satan, as you have it in the 4th of Luke, and in him, in effect, all the powers of hell and of the world, Jesus began to declare, in the synagogue of Nazareth, his authority to confer freedom. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me," or given me my commission, "to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” What a picture is here! How correctly is it drawn! How instantly is it copied from nature! As by so many strokes of a master's hand, the Lord has here given us a most lively and touching, as well as faithful delineation of the world, as lying in subjection to the wicked one. They are poor; altogether impoverished in Adam their father. Like paupers, ever searching out some substantial good, some durable riches, but never satisfied with any; for though they dream at times, in some visionary moments, of having enriched themselves, or ever they are aware a somewhat breaks their slumber, disturbs their night visions, and deprives them at once of all their golden imaginations. They are captives; persons taken in war, and by right of conquest the property of the victor. The prince of the devils subdued us in Eden, in the originals of our natural being, Adam and Eve; and ever since, we have been kept in the snare of the demon, as captives severally taken, and led by him at his own will; and therefore we are represented as being dead in trespasses and sins, alive only to infernal influence, and "walking according to the course,' or existing fashion or mode "of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that even now worketh in the children of the disobedience of unbelief." They are blind; the cruel conqueror puts out the eyes of his victims. "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not." He films the eyes of the understanding. Either with a drop serene he quenches those mental orbs, or with a dim suffusion vails them. He pours a cataract on the soul, and overspreads it with a covering that quite shuts out the light of truth. They are bruised; laden with fetters and chains, they are galled and wounded by