tical divisions, or to exalted station, or to personal merit, or to enormous wealth, to receive him for their lawful superior. And the monarch, on his part, has shewn that he claims no arbitrary power over the lives and property of his people; that he does not presume to confide in the greatness of his power. He has promised to preserve our liberties, and to protect our Church; and has solemnly besought the Almighty to hear and to record his vow. He has graci ously accepted the proffered fealty of his people; he has proved that he is not the king of a party, but of a nation. Henceforth he may reasonably expect the undivided allegiance of his subjects. No rank or class among them can, for the future, pretend to talk of the equal rights of all men, or of the republican, self-governing constitution of this country.

Our constitution is in reality compounded of parts almost innumerable; the connection between them, under Providence, has been at one time the fruit of profound wisdom and experience, at another, the apparent result of chance, at another, the effect of opposite and contending forces. The whole has been mellowed down by the fostering hand of time; and those who are best acquainted with the general result, are most ready to declare that they cannot separate a part from the rest, or foresee the consequences of detaching a single buttress from the building.

In newer and simpler governments, the case may be different. Where liberty was acquired by a single blow, or the immutable basis of a constitution can be discovered and consi. dered, there may be many plausible

arguments for change, and its danger may dwindle down to nothing. But the policy, the principles, and the conduct of this country; the feelings of her kings, and her nobles, and her commons, have not sprung from one source. Much has descended to us from our feudal forefathers, much from the preju dices of our various stations, much from the modifications of those prejudices which time ceases not to introduce, and which are so often mistaken for the original sentiment. Modern philosophy pretends to amalgamate the whole-but she undertakes a task which is far above her strength; and which never can be entered upon without imminent risque. Let us determine therefore to hold by our ancient land-marks. The people of this country may yet be persuaded to love and reverence their Sovereign; the nobility may be secured in the enjoyment of their just privileges-the common welfare of us all may be established on the firmest foundation, if each person will consent to be guided in his political conduct, not by the caprice of the passing hour, but by the recorded advice of the wise and the good; by the experience which is every day augmenting for our use, by the dictates of religion and common sense.

The great mass of our fellow-countrymen have been found, on the present occasion, ready to express their attachment to the Monarchy and the Monarch. The expression is unbought; and is no doubt sincere. Let us hail it as an omen of more tranquil days than it has of late been our lot to witness. Let us pray that a reign which com menced in storms and tumults may be prolonged in prosperity, in ho nour, and in peace.

No. 33.]

AN OBEDIENT WILL NECESSARY TO THE RECEPTION OF THE TRUTH.

IN the attainment of all human science, we constantly find that much of our future progress, depends on our laying a good foundation of elementary knowledge, and having our minds duly disposed to receive and obey the directions of our instructors. Why, then, it may be well asked, are we to hope to become religious, to attain the knowledge of our most holy religion, without taking any such pains, either with ourselves or others; without any elementary instruction, or any predisposition in our minds to receive those high and awful truths, which it is the object of that religion to inculcate ? Our Lord (to direct our attention to the latter of these qualifications) has surely taught us a very different lesson, by his expressly annexing the promise of divine knowledge to an obedient will. "If any man," says he, "will do," is willing to do, "his will, he shall know of the doctrine." And if we will only reflect how much influence the will has on the understanding; and farther, that the religion of Christ contains not only a collection of doctrines, but a rule of life, nay, that all its doctrines are essentially practical, we shall see cause enough, I think, to admire the reason, as well as the mercy of this promise. Look abroad into the world. Go among the shrewd and the clever, the self-sufficient, REMEMBRANCER, No. 33.

[VOL. III.

and vain possessors of its wisdom; and consider what treatment religion, I will not say will always receive, but is likely to receive at their hands! Will men, who think so highly of themselves, be eager to comply with these admonitions of Holy Writ, "Be cloathed with bu mility;" "Be converted and become as little children;" "Be fools that ye may be wise?" And can we wonder that they should disbelieve, or refuse to receive into their hearts a religion so spiritual, and necessa rily in many parts above their com prehension?

Go among the gay, the thought, less, and the trifling. These can neither bear to " commune with their own hearts," nor to "be sober and watch unto prayer," nor to take off their eyes from the giddy flutter of worldly vanities, and fix their whole souls in deep and solemn attention on the awful objects of eternity. And can we wonder that these should pretend to disbelieve a religion, that in the very nature of its communications, no less than in its express injunctions, requires its followers to do these things?

Go among the worldly-minded and the avaricious. These cannot consent to give up the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches; they will not go in the secrecy, or the bountiful charity of the Christian, and give to the poor, or serve God at the expense of mammon. Can we wonder then, if among men, such as these, we 3 U

should find disbelievers in the gospel of Christ?

Go among the sensual and the dissolute. What chance with these can a religion have that requires the unconditional surrender of the whole man to the will of his Maker, and saith in words that can neither be mistaken nor eluded, "As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." Surely, if they would but speak it out, the grand secret of their infidelity is this, "We will not become Christians, because we must become good and holy, and keep ourselves unspotted from the world."

Propose now to these same persons a system of natural philosophy, and request their assent to its laws, and concurrence in its discoveries: they will listen with the deepest attention to your arguments, watch the result of your experiments, thankfully accept your explanations, admit their force, and probably become hearty converts to your notions. But open the Bible, enlarge on the sublime simplicity of its style, and the richness and variety of its matter; unfold out of its holy pages the nature, and existence, and attributes of the Godhead, and the whole scheme of man's redemption; they may possibly give you audience to this word. But when out of the same Bible, when as an integral and indispensable part of the religion of Christ, you press the return that they are expected to make; build up on the foundation of faith, the rules of Christian charity, in the most extended sense of the word, and "reason of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come," their bad incliuations take the alarm, and, like Felix, they tremble within themselves, and answer, "Go thy way." Religion is a question that touches a man to the quick. It is not confined to the head; it is not a mere speculation, that, whether true or false, interferes nothing with the full gratification of " the lust of the

flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life." They plainly perceive, that if they once acknowledge the gospel to be true, they must convict themselves of being wrong. They can no longer go on, as they have done, but must submit to an entire change of heart and practice. Either their Justs must be given up, or the truth denied, and they choose the latter. "The carnal mind is enmity with God.”

In making these remarks, I can only be actuated by one motive, the advancement of the cause of true religion. I am far from meaning to assert that every individual instance of infidelity is necessarily, and in all cases attributable to depravity of heart, and immorality of practice. At the same time, I must confess myself unprepared to admit those high pretensions to be good and moral men, which have been boldly made by some unbelievers, and triumphantly re-echoed by their admirers. To do the will of God, implies somewhat more than a mere external decency of manners, and regard to the established laws and feelings of social life. Humility of temper, purity of heart, self-restraint, and a care for the souls of our fellow creatures, which may be as deeply and extensively injured, if not more so, by the insidious propagation of false doctrines, than even by open immorality of life, (which in the very disgust that it excites, seems to provide in some degree its own antidote)-all these several graces are to be comprehended under that willingness to do the will of God, which is spoken of in the Scriptures of truth; and where this willingness really and fully exists, I can never believe that the good and gracious Lord will ever suffer infidelity to take root in the heart. And must still recur with confidence to my Saviour's words, "If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine.”

C.

ON PSALM xxxv. 15.

OUR last translators of the Bible have followed the pious Coverdale in rendering the word nachim, by" abjects."

As the original term comes from a verb signifying "to smite," or "cut off;" they seem to have considered the plural here, as denoting persons in a state of separation or excision ;-the refuse and outcasts of society; -on which account they choose to express the sense by the correspondent English word "abjects." But the Septuagint gives the reading much more correctly and descriptively, by Martys, "scourgers:" and in the same version the whole passage exhibits who was the real sufferer and who were his tormentors :-"The scourgers were malignantly glad, and confederated secretly against me; they lacerated me, and relented not."

Bishop Horne, in his excellent Commentary, has properly substituted " smiters," instead of " abjects;" and in this he agrees with the learned Parkhurst; but it is remarkable that neither of those venerable divines and admirable scholars, should have taken the least notice of the Greek translation, which so directly gives the prophetic sense of the original.

J. W.

"a

Jews, who prided themselves on having Abraham for their father, without taking any care to imitate their father's faith, and piety, and righteousness-rich enough in ceremonies, yet poor in judgment, mercy, and truth-believing in a hereafter, yet living only for this world-or disbelieving even this, and wallowing with the infidel, and therefore immoral Sadducee, in all the filthiness of iniquity, the change must have been entire. It was, as the Apostle expressed it, by the two most opposite things in nature, turning from darkness to light." It was the same, or still nore so, with the whole Gentile world, of whose sad enormities the first chapter of the Romans, in strict couformity with the testimony of their own historians, presents so faithful and melancholy a detail. In both these cases I repeat, the change must have been as entire, as human frailty would allow, before either Jew or Gentile could be meet to become the disciple of the pure, the meek, and holy Jesus. For "what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" It may not be amiss here to state briefly the progress of an early convert. He was arrived at the years of discretion. He received the word at the mouth of the Apostles. He believed, on sufficient evidence, that Jesus was the Messias, the Lamb of God, that was to come into the world. In the holy law and spotless example of the Lord Jesus Christ, he beheld his own deformity. He was convinced of the folly and danger of his present conduct, and resolved, if he was a Gentile, to turn from dumb idols to serve the living and true God; and, if he was a Jew, to serve that God more spiritually and acceptably, and "wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even

Hear

Jesus, the deliverer from the wrath to come." In this temper of mind he was baptized; he was born of water and the Spirit; he was filled with the Holy Ghost, and admitted into all the privileges of the Gospel covenant; he commenced his Christian life, and strove in the strength of the Spirit to "adorn the doctrine of God his Saviour in all things, living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." the whole matter in the words of an Apostle. At the conclusion of the sermon, which St Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, we read that his audience were pricked at the heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."Repentance was to come first; but without baptism it was not available to salvation. It was preparatory to the new birth, but the new birth itself took place at their baptism. With us the order only is inverted: we are baptized, or born again, when we are infants; and faith and repentance, and its indispensable fruit, a holy life, must follow after, and, by the grace of God be persevered in by us, or we forfeit the privileges then conferred upon us.

But what, it may be asked, are we to say of his repentance, who, though baptized in his childhood, and admitted into all the glorious and blessed privileges of being a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven, has, whether from the want of education, or the force of bad example, or his own perverse will lived in utter forgetfulness of God and his duty, run riot in the ways of sin, and hardened himself in his iniquity When such a man, as we have now described, shall be convinced of his error, and tura tỏ God and his duty, and become as

bright an example of piety and holiness, as he was before a dreadful instance of impiety and wickedness; in what light are we to consider, by what name are we to distinguish his repentance? shall we visit the perverseness of the man on the holy sacrament of God, and question its efficacy, because from whatever cause the man has resisted its operation? God forbid: the good seed was sown in his heart at the time of his baptism, when he was reconciled to his heavenly Father through the atoning blood of his Redeemer, admitted into a state of grace, and put into a full capacity of working out his salvation. Long time it lay buried under the weight of corruption. At length it vegetates, spreads through his whole soul, and brings forth the fruits of true holiness and righteousness. Shall we confound the season of harvest with the time of sowing? He was made the child of God at his baptism; he becomes undutiful; like the prodigal he goes away from his father's house, and forfeits, during the time of his absence, the privileges of a son; at length he comes to himself; he returns to his duty, and is re-admitted into his former privileges. Shall we call the day of his return the day of his birth?

If, therefore, we would adhere to the language of Scripture, and the sense of the primitive, and our own Church, which is surely the safest and most becoming way-if we would avoid the smallest leaning towards the disparagement of the holy sacrament of baptism, and guard against that confusion of teras, too often the parent of many errors, which will be apt to arise from a loose and incorrect manner of expressing ourselves, we shall not say that the man, who has thus fallen away after his baptism, is born again at the time of his repentance, nor call that repentance a new birth, but in stricter language, a leaving of his sinful course, and the renewal of the whole man to