11

may or may not lead to a happy issue. The spirit often, indeed, in his providential dealings, takes advantage of this feeling arising from temporary and natural causes, and leads the soul, thus conscience-struck, to repose in Christ, whose loveliness he displays, and whose nature he communicates. But, alas! how often does this feeling pass away, like the morning cloud, without affecting any salutary end. That conviction of sin is alone of value which the renewed soul experiences when it obtains a believing view of the great propitiatory victim..

II. The agency employed in effecting this change need not detain us long→→

The great agent is God himself. See John iii. passim.-James i. 18.-I Pet. i. 3; and particularly John i. 12.

Were scripture indeed silent as to the agent, reason alone would be sufficient to assure us that God alone could impart so mysterious a participation in his own nature to any of his creatures; we would be led to the same conclusion with the Apostle, that they who are thus begotten are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that they should walk in them.

The instrumental causes are various in the extreme-Providence, the ministry of the word, the use of the Scriptures, Christian conver sation and prayer are the principal means employed by the spirit to effect his gracious designs towards the soul. But we have no reason to affirm that the spirit is dependant on these means in order to regenerate the human heart. We can prescribe no limits to his operations. He, who is the only generator of spiritual being, and who seeth the heart, requires no external manifestations of the divine life which he communicates to the soul, to ascertain the character or fix the destiny of a single individual. Therefore is it that I entertain no doubt of the fact, that many shall be found finally united unto Christ, who possessed no possibility of evidencing that union during life, having either departed in infancy before the dawn of reason, been born again to a lively hope in articulo mortis, or renewed by the divine power in Pagan lands, remote from all the means of Christian instruction. A fine illustration of the last instance is to be found in the closing canto of Montgomery's Pelican Island.

T

III The absolute necessity of regeneration must be obvious to all who are acquainted with, and admit the truth of revelation."Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." 11 Towelt

"If a man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature."

"Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." "We shall assuredly be uncloathed and left miserably naked if we partake not here of the incorruptible seed. No glorious body shall invest the unregenerated soul."-Infer

1.They must connect regeneration necessarily with the administration of the outward ordinance of baptism. Let

none pretend to Protestantism, who cleave to the exploded and unseriptural doctrine of the Romanists, that the rite itself effects the change. The Saviour could never have adverted to baptism in John iii. 5, for,

"

1

(a) The Christian rite was not then instituted. John, indeed, i had baptised with water, but the inefficacy of that baptism appears sufficiently from the record in Acts, xix. 1, 7.

(b) The doctrine of regeneration was known and insisted on under the Old Testament dispensation, from the very beginning.John iii. 10. Many proofs might be adduced to this effect from the law and the Prophets. If unconnected originally with water baptism or any external ordinance, it was surely not placed in relation to it as cause and effect, at a time when shadows gave place to realities.

(c) While our Saviour declares regeneration to be indispensable to our admission into the kingdem, he cautiously teaches us that baptism is by no means an essential pre-requisite. He who be lieveth, and is baptised, shall be saved; but he who believeth not, shall be damned. The omission of the word baptised in the latter clause is marked and decisive.

(d) If the agent in regeneration, as we have shown, is the Holy Ghost, then the baptismal application of water can in no wise entrench on his office. Man is exclusively the agent in baptism ; one mightier than man is the agent in regeneration.

2d. The utter inability of man to render himself meet for heaven is another obvious consequence of the doctrine. Thanks are ascribed by the Apostle to him that sitteth on the circle of the heavens, WHO hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots then may ye also do good, who are accustomed to do evil. Jer. xiii. 23.

God never puts forth his power in vain, and would never stoop to accomplish that for man which man could accomplish for himself. o3d. If we are unable ourselves to regenerate our own souls, and if the Lord is both able and willing to do so, it is obviously the interest of all to seek for the divine influence. The necessity of the case demands it. 4th. The Christian minister should make this matter a very to his Hock prominent feature in the instruction he offers He is to utter the command he is to give the exhortation, repent and believe; thus knowing that he who has given him the commission to do so, is able to infuse a life-giving spirit into the word preached. As for himself, it must ever be his encouragement and consolation to be assured of this, that our sufficiency is of God.

5th. Decisive are the tests of Christian experience this subject furnishes. 173 LABI JO Tis book bog dast

As many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of

God. Rom. viii. 14.

Through the spirit do they mortify the deeds of the body.inite The spirit of adoption bestowed on them enables them with the affection and confidence and simplicity of a child to cry Abba, Father.

Their's is it also to have the persuasion of an interest in a Father's love. The spirit itself bearetli witness with their spirits, that they are THE SONS OF GOD.

In all their trials they have succour near-the spirit helpeth their infirmities.

I

They have obtained the mastery over their corruptions, and are freed from the dominion of sin. Whosoever is BORN OF GOD doth ; not commit sin, for HIS SEED remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, › { BECAUSE HE IS BORN OF GOD.

Divine love forms a discriminating feature in his character. Every one that loveth 18 BORN OF God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God-for God is love.

Very inadequate is the outline I have thus been able to draw of this amazing subject. I fear I have exceeded in some measure the due limits, but I had no time to condense my matter further; I have omitted much that is important. I trust that the Divine Spirit will rest upon all our meditations on this important doctrine.

J. D. S.

sun

S--The catholic opinion of the Millenium has ever been, that in the latter days of the Church there will be a more perfect development of the attributes of God, and of his dealings with his people. The Church, growing up from infancy to maturity, will then have become, as St. Paul expresseth it, "the perfect man," and will then enjoy a degree of prosperity and happiness which it had never known before. All the prophets seem to point to this period, in which the darkness of error shall flee away before the light of truth, and the Church of God shall bask herself in the shine of the love and mercy of her Redeemer. She has long struggled with the wickedness of Paganism-she has long warred against the abominations of Popery-she has long shed a tear over the records of the blindness of Israel: but the time will come when the struggle will be over, her warfare accomplished, and her tears dried up; for all the prophets speak of a time when these three sources of suffering and sorrow to the Church shall be annihilated; they speak of a time when the whole unscriptural system of Romanism shall vanish away, and thus leave the Church freed from that most awful and terrible of all scourges. They speak of a time when Israel shall return to the Lord, and wake the long-slumbering harp of Sion to the praise and glory of the Lamb; and they speak of a time when all ignorance and blindness shall be dissipated, that so Paganism, like another Dagon, shall bow before the cross; and so those three classes of persons-Jews, Papists, and Pagans-shall all join with the Christian Church, and, being converted to Christ, shall extend over the world and the Redeemer's kingdom. This is

Sion when all

a glorious and happy state, in which the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the seas," in which allo men shall know God from the least unto the greatest," and in which "the kingdoms of the earth shall become the kingdoms of the Lord;" for the Church shall extend her arms over the whole, tilly like the birds nestling in the branches of the mustard-tree, all nations shall flow into the bosom of the Church, and kings shall be ni her nursing fathers, and queens her nursing mothers." This happy and prosperous period is called the Millennium, because it will con tinue for a very extended time, a thousand years; not that it will be precisely of that definitive duration, but of some very great \ lapse of years, after which error will again break forth, and the Church will again suffer affliction; in which the Lord comes to judge the world the day of judgment arrives-men are welcomed into heaven, or hurled into hell and time and this world are no more! + {€ytJt! {h) $ UttC/A

7

While meditating on these happy promises, there is only one subject of regret to mingle with our thoughts on so interesting a subject, and that is, that this bright and glowing expectation of the Church has given room for the play of fanciful and visionary minds, so that some heated imaginations have built thereon a wild and splendid dream of romance, more suited to the visions of eastern mythology, than to the sweet and solemn religion of Him who would have our moderation made known unto all men: there is a conscious sense, a reasonableness, or, to use a Scripture phrase, a sobriety in the revelation of the Gospel of Jesus, which is altogether inconsistent with those rainbow dreams of modern Millenarians. These observations are suggested by an article signed J. K. in the Examiner of July, in which it is asserted, that at the opening of the Millennium, all the departed saints of the Church will rise again Ch their being, from their graves, and again" live and move, and have in this world! That they will leave the home of peace when they need not, and return to this lowly world, so as again to mingle in its scenes! This notion he founds on the words of Rev. xx. 4. where there is mention of a first resurrection. Now, this resurrection of departed saints to earth, I utterly deny. I hold that this first resurrection mentioned in Rev. xx. 4, is a resurrection of souts in heaven, and not as your correspondent teaches, a resurrection of bodies on earth. I hold, that at the opening of the Millennial age on earth, the souls of the martyred saints will be raised from among the rest of the dead, and exalted to the presence of God, and permitted to surround his throne IN HEAVEN so that while there is happiness for the Church on earth, there will also be happiness for the Church in heaven, that so the Church above and the Church below my FS7 joice together. This resurrection of souls to heaven, I hold, because revealed in Scripture; but for the system which asserts the resurrection of the body or soul TO EARTH during the Millennium during the Millennium, let it be anathema! But to my proofs

as

re

It is clearly revealed that certain saints will be dwelling in heaven before the second advent. This may be pronounced as an indisputable truth; as one of which it may be said, as of the greatness of

to

the mystery of godliness, that it is" without controversy;" for the Scriptures proclaim that certain saints are to have a part in that glorious event it is revealed as lucidly as the Holy Ghost could reveal it by the mouth of the apostle Paul, when that man of God prays that Jesus "might establish our hearts unblameable in holiness at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints,” 1 Thess. iii. 13. This is a very explicit proof; and although any one revelation of the Holy Ghost is adequate to establish any truth, yet that "out of the mouth of two witnesses every word may be established," the revelation of the same Spirit to St. Jude may be added, when he states, that when our Lord comes to judge the world he will be accompanied, in that coming from heaven, by a multitude of saints:" The Lord," says he, "cometh with ten thou sand of his saints to execute judgment." These are plain and intelligible revelations of a plain and intelligible fact. Now, I argue that this revealed fact of our Lord being accompanied from heaven in his second advent by a multitude of saints is a demonstration that that multitude of saints must have been previously raised up that heaven, so as to be able to accompany him in his coming from thence. There is " a cloud of witnesses" in the sacred volume, testifying to this truth; and it will be found, on examination, that when that fact is kept in mind, many of the apparent difficulties connected with the language applied to the second advent will be dissipated. For example: The second advent is described in Titus ii. 13, in a remarkable manner, as "the appearing of the glory of the great God and Saviour;" and in several other scriptures, as Mat. xvi. 27, this glory in which he is enveloped seems to be, not that brightness or supernatural illumination, called the Shechinah, but a mighty and lovely company of angelic spirits who surround' his throne, and a bright and rejoicing band of redeemed saints, such as are described by the spirit as "light in the Lord." How happy and elegant is the allusion to the Shechinah, when the apostle says of such saints as are described elsewhere as "light;" that they are to be regarded, as it were, by anticipation, as "the glory of Christ," 2 Cor. viii. 23. This will enable us to understand the mind of the the Spirit in an otherwise difficult text, (2 Thess. i. 9,) where the punishment of the wicked is described as "everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;" meaning thereby that they never will have part among the beaute ous spirits that form the glory of our God, or mingle with those glorified ones who form the presence of the court of the King ng of

* This resurrection to heaven of certain saints previous to the second advent is important, and is admitted by many Millenarians; as Marsh, in his “ Plain Thoughts on Prophecy ;" and the author of the Dialogues on Prophecy" says, Our Lord has many risen saints with him already, Enoch, Elijah, Moses, and many who rose at the same time when he himself rose, we know of; landɑ it is not improbable, therefore, that he often raises up his people to sit and reigną with him.'

bym would not be so, formal in laying down this evident truth, as it is admitted Millenarians, only that K. against whom I write this paper, has declared it to be a great error to suppose that the saints ever go to heaven.