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MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

ON THE PRESENT ASPECT OF THE TIMES.
To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.

Ο γαρ λογος του Θεού, αυτου του ουρανου
δυνατωτερος, ο γαρ ουρανος έργον του
λόγου. Είπεν ο Θεος, Γενηθήτω ουρα
νος και ο λογος έργον εγενετο.

In the present day the minds of the faithful in the Christian church are deeply awakened to the anticipation of the latter day's glory, so explicitly foretold in sacred Scripture by the ancient Prophets and holy Apostles. And truly the signs of the times in which we live appear to be portentous of the approach of some important crisis which is to decide the world's destiny. The plans and operations of infinite wisdom are seldom at once developed and perfected, but gradually and in a successive series of events, one surpassing another in light and splendour, until the whole is completed. The universe was not at once created and disposed into its finished beauty and magnificence, but in the succession of six days. The full glories of day do not burst upon the world in an instant; but there is first the dawn at the horizon, then the rising sun, and finally his meridian glory. The grand scheme of human redemption by the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ was not at once announced and fully illustrated to the world; but there was first the reviving hint of a gracious promise, given to our first parents ere they quitted paradise "with wandering steps and slow; "then the cheering illumination of divine prophecy, accompanied with the shadows of the Levitical dispensation running on in a long succession of ages, until the Messiah himself appeared on earth "to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself," and to commence the establishment of a spiritual kingdom in the world. Now in a similar manner the Almighty has been pleased to act toward mankind in reference to the world's regeneration. In the

first ages, he instructed man by his own immediate voice, in reference to his proper eternal existence and infinite attributes and perfections; and also in regard to the presentation of sacrifices and the nature of religious worship; but that knowledge, descending by tradition, became at length lost in the world, or at least its influence was lost upon the hearts and characters of mankind, except Noah and his family; and the whole earth at length, becoming corrupted, was filled with violence, until the righteous indignation of Jehovah was roused to destroy it by a deluge of waters, preserving only Noah and his family in the ark from the universal inundation.

In the course of years Jehovah instituted a new dispensation, selecting the family of Abraham, of whom was to come "the Messiah, according to the flesh," for the grand theatre of his miraculous operations. The terrors and solemnities of his own immediate presence were manifested on Mount Sinai by the thick cloud, by thunderings and lightnings, by the voice of the trumpet waxing louder and louder; and, above all, by the voice of God himself, "speaking out of the midst of fire" all the words of the moral law. And now expiatory sacrifices, and carnal ablutions and purifications, were instituted, all covered with a veil, which was to be "done away in Christ; " and a long succession of illustrious Prophets arose, who "spake of the sufferings of Christ, and of the glory that should follow." All the splendid temple-service, and all the exterior pomp and magnificence of that dispensation, were only preparatory to the glory which was to be revealed when the Son of God himself should appear. "But if the ministration of death written and engraven in

stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?" At length the Gospel dispensation commences. The Messiah appears. He exhibits a temper and deportment of immaculate purity; he works the most stupendous miracles; he preaches the most sublime and heavenly doctrines; he suffers the most painful and ignominious death; he rises from the dead, and ascends into heaven. He then sends down the Holy Spirit. His Apostles, who were chosen witnesses of the transactions of his life, “endued with power from on high," go forth to announce his Gospel to the world; and while the great mass of the Jews reject the Lord of life and glory, multitudes of the Gentiles believe on his name, obtain the forgiveness of their sins, and are turned from dumb idols to serve the living and the true God. Christianity every where spreads and prevails, until many cities, and towns, and countries renounce their idolatries and superstitions, and become the professed disciples of Jesus Christ. How gloriously and extensively, in the primitive days of Christianity, did the Gospel of Christ advance in the world, and what mighty wonders did it achieve! So that the Apostle Paul exclaimed, "Now thanks be to God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place!" But alas! that bright hemisphere of celestial glory was soon obscured and darkened by the dense clouds of error and superstition, which every where spread themselves in Mahommedan and Papal delusion. Then the beauteous forms of polite literature and graceful science, her ever-attendant companion, were seen prostrated and rolling on the ground all defiled and disfigured with dust; and the remaining light of divine truth appeared glimmering like the last quivering flame of an exhausted taper, until at length ignorance and

vice, profaneness and immorality, were diffused through all classes of society, from the Monarch to the peasant, "from the chariot to the plough." Ages elapsed, and the moral world continued to wear the same disgusting and appalling aspect, until, by the special providence of Almighty God, the celebrated Martin Luther, an obscure Monk, arose to assert the dignified and violated claims of Christianity. Finding a copy of the sacred Scriptures in the convent where he resided, and studying it with assiduity and prayer, he became illuminated with the saving light of divine truth, and in Germany began to announce the great and essential doctrines of the Gospel, which the Papal Church had so long obscured and concealed by her erroneous traditions. The publication of the important doctrine of justification by faith in the atonement of Christ was heard with wonder and amazement by all, and became "the power of God unto salvation" to every one who believed.

From Germany, the reformation extended to England, when the national Church, becoming purged from the most pernicious errors and superstitions of Popery, assumed a new elevation and glory. A free course was then made for the extended promulgation of the truths of the Gospel; and some honoured names of that period will descend to the latest posterity, associated with the reminiscence of whatever is pious, and zealous, and magnanimous in Christianity. England has thus been visited by the serene and steady light of divine truth, that she may diffuse it all over the earth; and although, since the period of the Reformation, that light has suffered some remarkable obscuration, yet, during the greater part of the last century, it has been extending its powerful influence, not only over England, but over many other nations of the globe. One important medium of communication by which the knowledge of the truth has been more widely propagated in the world is Wesleyan Methodism, a wiselyarranged system of doctrine and

discipline, which has had an important bearing, directly and indi. rectly, upon the established Church, and upon other Christian communities, and indeed upon all ranks of society although some celebrated writers of the day, either ignorantly or designedly, neglect to allude to its efficacy, in calculating the operations and effects of Christianity upon the world. The followers of John Wesley, an eminently pious Clergyman of the Church of England, have done much to revive pure and undefiled religion in the world, and their operations have extended into every quarter of the globe; so that now, in Great Britain and America, and in other parts of the world, they number about one million and fifty thousand members of society, and also about four thousand five hundred regular Ministers. Besides these, it may be fairly presumed that double this number attend their public services. The purity of the doctrines which they believe and teach; the zeal and faithfulness with which their Ministers explain and enforce evangelical truths; the jealous and watchful care which is constantly exercised over their Ministers in reference to Christian experience, morals, and doctrine, and the faithful discipline which is maintained over all the members of their societies, together with the great variety and multiplicity of talent which they every where take hold of, and press into action: all these remarkable peculiarities, combined and embodied in one Christian community, have rendered almost unparalleled assistance in the propagation of vital Christianity, and made the Wesleyan Connexion almost invulnerable to the adversaries of the cross of Christ. Let the Ministers and members of this Christian community still continue to pursue the same undeviating course as they have hitherto done, and Methodism is destined, under the providence and grace of God, to be a very important and powerful apparatus for rescuing the world from spiritual thraldom and despotism, and for raising it to a state of purity, felicity, and glory.

In the established Church also much good remains. In her pale she has numbered many profound and eminent Divines, whose writings will be read with admiration and delight by the truly pious as long as the sun and moon endure. Her doctrines are pure; her liturgy is replete with devotional sentiment, and its language almost divine. The piety and zeal of her Ministers have of late years greatly increased; and many faithful and laborious Preachers have been added to her hierarchy, who publish the truth with great success, and duly and faithfully administer the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper, instituted by the omnipotent Founder of Christianity. Yet, even admitting that the present order of officers in her ministry of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, is agreeable to the New Testament; still she fails in the very important point of Christian discipline, in which the Wesleyans and some other denominations of Christians excel. Who is a member of the Church of England? Who can answer this question? Are all those her members who have been baptized into her pale? Then many professed Dissenters are among her members. Are all those her members who do not belong to any other denomination of Christians? Then she numbers multitudes of the most profane characters among her community. Or are they only her members, who regularly and statedly attend her public worship, and partake of the sacrament of the Lord's supper? And are all these proper to be members of a Christian church? Is the conduct of the whole of these even moral, not to say, holy and devout? Yet such is the constitution of the Church of England. But is this after the model of the ancient Christian church? No; that was a church gathered out of the world, and out of the public congregations who assembled to hear the word. Doubtless many heard the Gospel preached, who were not, and who never became, members of any of the first Christian churches. The Christian church commenced with our Lord and his

Apostles, who associated apart from the public congregation for private communion and devotion; and the disciples, after the resurrection and ascension of their divine Master, still continued to meet apart in prayer and supplication, until the day of Pentecost, and then the Christian church was exceedingly enlarged, and “continued steadfast in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” And in the first Christian churches, we find that Christian discipline was exercised over offenders; for the Apostle Paul commanded the Corinthians to put away the incestuous person from among them; and our Lord censures the angel of the church in Thyatira for suffering that woman Jezebel, a false prophetess, to remain a member of that community. It might as truly be said that a wilderness is a garden, as that a mixed congregation, however large, and an evan. gelical Minister, constitute a Christian church similar to that presented to us in the New Testament: for, although in a wilderness there may be found, here and there, tufts of verdure, and sometimes a solitary flower blooming in vernal beauty; yet no one, on this account, would conclude it to be a garden, which is an enclosed, protected, and cultivated plot of ground; so neither does a faithful Minister, with a truly pious Christian here and there, among a mixed congregation, constitute a Christian church; which ought to be so organized as that every member should be placed under pastoral care and spiritual jurisdiction. Happily, in some congregations of the established Church, this evil is already remedied, by their Ministers having formed select societies of persons around them, whom they weekly address in more colloquial and familiar discourse than the pulpit admits, and, with great tenderness and many prayers, watch over their spiritual advancement and moral conduct; and thus they comfort the weak, support the wavering, and dismiss the bold, presumptuous, and persevering offender from their communities. How high

ly is this practice to be commended in every pious Minister of the established Church who adopts it; and how incalculably would it tend to give superior efficiency to the labours of all pious and enlightened Clergymen, and to supply that desideratum which has long been felt in the Establishment! The controversy which has recently been revived in this kingdom by some of the Bishops and Clergy, in reference to the Episcopal succession, will be found, if carried on vigorously and extensively, to work very unfavourably to the prosperity of the national Church; especially if the defence of that doctrine be made the ladder of ecclesiastical preferment. The agitators of this controversy do not content themselves with merely asserting, and attempting to prove, that Bishops, Priests, and Deacons existed as three distinct orders in the apostolic church; but they insist that those only are truly the Ministers of Christ who have been Episcopally ordained by those who themselves have received ordination in a direct line from the Apostles; thereby attributing essential virtue, not simply to the piety of the men, but to the succession itself. The immediate conclusion to which this assumption leads is, that all other Ministers of every Christian denomination, nay, even of the Lutheran and Scottish Churches, are not truly and legally the Ministers of Christ, and ought not to be heard; that even an ungodly Minister in the national Episcopal Establishment, if he read the prayers and administer the sacraments, should be heard in preference to any Dissenting Minister whatever, because even his ungodliness does not nullify the divine ordinances. Now, whether the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper are rendered nugatory by his administration of them, I shall not stay to inquire; but sure I am, that God's great ordinance for the conversion of the world is entirely superseded; I mean, the faithful preaching of the everlasting Gospel:"Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he

that believeth not shall be damned." But how can he preach the Gospel, who never knew nor felt its power on his own heart? How can he preach remission of sins through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who never experienced a consciousness of that remission? How can he describe regeneration of heart who is yet dead in trespasses and sins? And how can he be a signal instrument of the conversion of sinners, who is yet in a state of enmity to God? But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee." Yet the inevitable conclusion to which all must come who believe the doctrine of Episcopal succession, as now defended by its abettors, is, that the people must hear such a Minister, though erroneous in doctrine and immoral in conduct. And what is the result? Why, our Lord has told us : "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." "Like people like Priest." Does not the whole history of the Christian church bear testimony to the truth of this maxim? To what purpose, then, is it written, " By their fruits ye shall know them?” Beloved, believe not every spirit: try the spirits whether they be of God?" And why is the conduct of the Bereans commended, who "searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so," which the Apostles believed and taught, if we are not to seek those Ministers who are the most pure in their doctrines, and the most holy and exemplary in their lives, to be our Teachers and Pastors? It has been well said, "that the Protestant reformation from Popery was the bringing back of mankind to common sense ;" and the remark will truly bear on this controversy. What would now, it may be asked, have been the moral and religious state of this kingdom, but for the zealous and laborious exertions of Whitefield and Wesley, and their followers, and of many pious Ministers of other denominations,

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not connected with the established Church? What has awakened the Church of England from her lethargy and long slumber, and provoked her to love and to good works, but the self-denying and devoted labours of Ministers who never were Episcopally ordained; but who, moved by the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel, have been wholly set apart to that office by some faithful Ministers of Christ, and have been the honoured instruments of the conversion of many sinners from the error of their way? Let not, therefore, the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England, by advocating the virtue of Episcopal succession, (supposing that succession could be proved,) arrogantly elevate themselves above all other Christian Ministers, by styling themselves the only authorized Ministers of Christ; and thus raise against themselves and their Church a strong feeling of prejudice and opposition in the minds of those who wish to live with them in peace and harmony. But rather let them remember, that if they would surpass other Ministers of the Gospel, and be more successful than they in their labours, then they must excel them in piety and zeal, in self-denial and perseverance, in the execution of that high trust committed to their charge; and so will the established Church attain to a lofty pre-emi nence in the esteem and veneration of the people, and become an immense instrument of good to the nation every where, and to the world at large.

The Papal Church, which boasts, like the Church of England, that she is apostolic in her origin, and that her Bishops have descended in regular succession from the Apostles down to the present day, deeming the force and virtue of that Episco pal descent so paramount, as to exclude all other churches (not the Church of England excepted) from the hope of salvation, has most awfully apostatized from the doctrines and ceremonies of the primitive church. And as she has taken upon herself absolutely to decide in reference to the interpretation of holy Scripture, and to pronounce herself

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