Here, doubtless, we lay ourselves open to the attack of many, both friends and foes: but we dare not cancel the idea. Our readers in general, we believe, are not disposed to class us with those "who make a man an offender for a word, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought;" nor do we desire to be of their number; but we can make no concession here. The extent of the writer's spiritual attainments it is not our province to measure; that question must be decided between God and his own conscience.

We affectionately and most earnestly entreat him still to prosecute his enquiries on the all-important subject; "to the law and to the testimony" may he unceasingly make his appeal; and may the Lord the Spirit lead him into all truth: so that he may, according to the apostle's sweet prayer, be stablished, strengthened, settled, in "the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."

A Short Statement of the Reasons for Christian, in opposition to Party Communion. By Robert Hall, M. A. Hamilton and Co. We have read this "short statement" with great pleasure. The freedom of style, and elegance of diction, are charms which can but delight the reader who possesses an admiration of what is excellent in human acquirements. It having been our lot to meet the Rev. Robert Hall on terms of a hostile nature, when reviewing his sermon (p. 216, vol. 2.) we are happy, in taking up this work, freely to acknowledge the favourable impression it has left on our mind. In it we find nothing of a doctrinal nature requiring animadversion: but we take it as a clear and lucid illustration of the subject so significantly expressed in the title.

The frequent cause of uneasiness of mind, discontent, and open enmity which have ensued among true believers, through certain restrictive terms of admission to the Lord's table; and which by various means have been effected, not only by baptists and pedobaptists, but others whose church-order differs from both; is with great ingenuity exposed in the author's preface, from which we copy the following conclusion and anecdote

"The prevalence of this disposition to bow to authority, and to receive opinions upon trust, is strikingly illustrated by the following anecdote. A highly respected friend of mine, on asking one of his deacons, a man of primitive piety and integrity, what objections he had to strict communion? he replied, with great simplicity, that he had twoin the first place, Mr. Fuller did not approve of it; and in the next, the scripture declares, that he who pulls down a hedge, a serpent shall bite him. The good man very properly placed that reason first, which carried the greatest weight with it!"

We must now permit the Rev. gentleman to speak on his own behalf, as we cannot elucidate the interest argument in superior terms to his own. It would be well, did christian churches more generally adopt the wholesome and liberal recommendation here presented them.

"Having cleared the way by shewing that scripture precedent, properly interpreted, affords no countenance or support to strict communion, the remaining task is very easy. For nothing can be more evident, than that the whole genius of christianity is favourable to the most cordial and affectionate treatment of our fellow christians. To love them fervently, to bear with their imperfections, and cast the mantle of forgiveness over their infirmities, is to fulfil the law of Christ. A schism in his mystical body is deprecated as the greatest evil, and whatever tends to promote it is subjected to the severest reprobation. "Now I beseech you, by the name of the Lord Jesus," is the language of St. Paul, “that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared unto me, by them who are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" In applying these and innumerable other passages of similar import to the point under discussion, two questions occur. First, Are our pædobaptist brethren a part of the mystical body of Christ? or, in other words, do they form a portion of that church, which he has purchased by his precious blood? If they are not, they are not in a state of salvation, since none can be in that state who are not vitally united to Christ. The bible acknowledges but two classes into which the whole human race is distributed, the church and the world; there is no intermediate condition; whoever is not of the first, necessarily belongs to the last. But the advocates for strict communion are loud in their professions of esteem for pious pædobaptists, nor is there anything they would more resent, than a doubt of their sincerity in that particular. The persons whom they exclude from their communion are then, by their own confession, a part of the flock of Christ, a portion of his mystical body, and of that church which he has bought with his blood."

"Nothing is more certain than that the communion of saints, is by no means confined to one particular occasion, or limited to one transaction, such as that of assembling around the Lord's table; it extends to all the modes by which believers recognize each other, as the members of a common head. Every expression of fraternal regard, every participation in the enjoyments of social worship, every instance in the unity of the Spirit, exerted in prayer, and supplication, or in acts of christian sympathy and friendship, as truly belongs to the communion of saints, as the celebration of the Eucharist. In truth, if we are strangers to communion with our fellow christians on other occasions, it is impossible for us to enjoy it there; for the mind is not a piece of mechanism which can be set a-going at pleasure, whose movements are obedient to the call of time and place. Nothing short of an habitual sympathy of spirit, springing from the cultivation of benevolent feeling, and the interchange of kind offices, will secure that reciprocal delight, that social pleasure, which is the soul of christian communion. Its richest fruits are frequently reserved for private conferences, like that in which the two disciples were engaged, in their way to Emmaus, when their hearts burned within them, while the Lord opened to them the scriptures. When they take sweet counsel together, as they go to the house of God in company, when they bear each other's burdens, weep with those that weep, and rejoice with them that rejoice; say, have christians no mutual fellowship? Is it not surprising that, losing sight of such obvious facts, our opponents always reason on the subject of communion, as though it related merely to the sacrament. In every other particular they act just as we do."

Having already trespassed much, we refer the reader to the work itself, as being well worthy, and demanding, their attentive perusal.

A Refutation of the Erroneous Doctrines of the Mortality of the Body of Christ; and the glorious foundation of the Church being the everlasting love of God in Christ. In a Letter to a Friend in the Country. By Christopher Goulding.

This book, and one entitled "The Confession of Faith, &c." by the Rev. John Vinall, of Lewes, written in 1822, have been sent us with an urgent request, that the former may be noticed in this department of our work: with the solicitation we willingly comply.

It being an incident of rare occurrence, that such a length of time should ensue before the appearance of a "Refutation," as it professes to be to a sentiment advanced in the latter; and especially from the circumstance, that these gentlemen's opinions were during that time well known to each other; our first determination was to ascertain the cause of the writer's delay. On reading the introductory address, we find several reasons stated for the tardiness of its progress, none of which, we conceive, can be considered satisfactory either by Mr. V. or his friends. We also regret to observe, through the whole, much censoriousness of spirit; and a want of christian forbearance, which is ever due to a faithful minister of Christ, though he appear to err.

It is, then, more than four years since Mr. Vinall in his Confession of Faith, espoused the sentiment, that the human nature of Christ, from the birth to the crucifixion, was mortal: his words, as quoted by his antagonist, are these:

"It was the same body that hung, suffered, and died on the tree, that was raised again the third day; with this difference, before he suffered it was a mortal body, but it was raised again immortal, spiritual, powerful, and glorious."

6

If human authority were our guide, we are aware that the opinions of some great and good men, 'the excellent of the earth,' might be produced in support of the word mortal,' as understood here. The writings of Calvin, Flavel, Gill, and others, afford some argument in its favour, and are likely to supply the few who have revived the topic, in later times, with the means of going on with the controversy, if they are so disposed. We say the few, because we have reason to believe that many have not adopted the term from Mr. V. though his opponent asserts the contrary, and draws therefrom such inferences as we cannot coincide in. But we believe that divine authority for it there is none.

Mr. Goulding, in reply, enters largely into the subject, and under a variety of heads proposes to treat,

"I. Of the origin or cause of mortality.

"II. Of the human nature of Christ, shewing how his body was formed.

"III. Of the blessed effects of his incarnation.

"IV. Oppose the belief of the mortality of Christ's body, and shew in some instances the evil consequences arising from such an error.

"V. Shew the absolute necessity of Christ's body being in itself free from every cause of death, in order to establish and preserve a sure foun dation for the church of God.

"VI. In conclusion make some observations arising from what has been said."

Where the writer has confined himself to the subject, we think he has done well, and proved his point by unanswerable scripture argument. In proportion as the opinion he contends against is calculated to divert attention from the matchless beauties of our adorable Lord, and to becloud the glories of the complex person, God and man in one Christ, his view of the subject adds glory to glory, and establishes the rightful honors which are the sole possession of the great Head of the church. The best arguments are deduced from the following citations from our Lord's own words: "I lay down my life for my sheep"-" The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep”- "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself"" I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again: this commandment have I received of my Father." John x. 11, 15, 17, 18.

But we are much pained by the unchristian manner in which this controversy is conducted. The numerous unfair deductions, and harsh epithets, speak loudly in reproof of the spirit that guided the pen of. the author: we can notice but few of them. Of the former description we find on p. 50-1. as follows:

"Such as trust in Christ's sacrifice as an immortal sacrifice, shall ever find access to God, and acceptance with him: but such as trust in it as a mortal sacrifice (and a mortal one it must be if his body was mortal, because that was the offering that the Son of God, our great High Priest, had to offer) they are not the true worshippers, and therefore shall be rejected to the end of the chapter, as were those that worshipped by corrupt legal sacrifices under the law. Just the same as the Samaritans, who worshipped they knew not what."

Mr. Goulding's" dreadful ideas"-"horrid consequences"-"doctrinal lies" and "damnable heresies," are, for the most part, conclusions not justified by any thing advanced by Mr. Vinall on this subject; but are the result of an apparent determination to magnify an error which, we should hope, originated in the unguarded use of a term not clearly understood, and which we trust Mr. V. himself will not in future be disposed to defend.

On p. 68 our author produces a charge against "a minister of some popularity" for the use of the following expression, when speaking of the church, in a Tract published by him;-"her glorious foundation is the everlasting love of God in Christ." Mr. G. con

siders this an error somewhat similar to the former.

In his remarks we believe he has laid to the writer's charge, a far more aggravated amount of error than can be justified, from such an observation. It is not, certainly, for us to dictate to the objector the interpretation he should give to a plain, undisguised expression; but this we will say, from our own knowledge, that ministers, and faithful ministers of the gospel too, have unadvisedly used a similar phrase, whose judgment in the faith is as sound as Mr. Goulding's! And

though with him we disapprove the expression, we are not so precipitate, nor so captious, as to re-echo the unqualified sentence, "it is a false foundation, introduced to supersede the true, and consequently becomes a snare and a doctrinal lie." We dare not doubt that the writer of the "Christian Directory" firmly believes that Christ is the precious corner stone, and "sure foundation laid in Zion:" but we must leave him to explain the meaning of his incorrect assertion— and Mr. Goulding to regret the rough treatment he has given him.

Mr. G.'s quotations from other ministers, on the subjects embraced in this work, are of too gross a description to obtain our notice: we join with our author in defying them to justify their unscriptural

notions.

In conclusion, we think proper to spare Mr. G. much we should otherwise advance, in consequence of his apology :'-“ I am a man of slender talent; a very poor scholar; and, being in business, have but little time to spare.' For there are, in the course of the work, several expressions whose plain interpretation gives the contrary idea to that intended.

Dr. Hawker's Works. Uniform Edition-Volume 1. Palmer.

On the completion of the first volume, we take occasion to announce the subjects of which it is comprised. The arrangement stands in the following order :-Eight "Sermons on the Divinity of Christ”Eight Sermons on the Divinity and operations of the Holy Ghost" and Six "Lectures on the person, Godhead, and ministry of the Holy Ghost," corrected and enlarged, by the author, from the preceding editions.

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Those of our readers who have not seen the Doctor's early productions are informed, that of these twenty-two discourses sixteen were published in the years 1790-4 in two volumes; the whole of which, with the Six" Lectures," and considerable additions, may be now obtained at one-half the price of the two original volumes!

The superiority of the present edition in paper, type, composition, &c. is the only circumstance, connected with the publication, we can now notice; as we are debarred from making quotations by want of

room.

A Series of Poems on Cards. By D. Denham, Minister of Ebenezer Chapel, Margate. Palmer.

A part of this series having been some time out of print, the whole is now re-arranged by the author, and published uniformly in a very neat style. These interesting cards, on spiritual subjects, bear the following titles:-"Fifty-six of the Christian's Wants"- "The Sinner Saved"- "The Christian's Soliloquy"— "The Saint's Sweet Home." The sale of these in their former shape was extensive, and we doubt not it will be much more so in their present form. May they be rendered profitable to those into whose hands they may fall!