to it; and then you fly to the old threadbare objection | of Papists, Quakers, and Arminians if I am elected, I shall be saved, do what I will; if I am not elected, I must be damned, do what I can.' Now, this is the abuse of the doctrine, but by no means the doctrine itself, holiness of heart and life being the middle link of that chain, which connects God's eternal decree with the execution of that decree in the salvation of all his elect. And if you can cast your eyes upon the Christian world in general, you will find that real practical religion is more to be found among those who adopt the Scripture plan of predestination, than among those who reject it. But let us have recourse to a familiar illustration of the point in hand. "When Archbishop Chicheley founded All Souls' College, in Oxford, he made a decree that they who in future times were founder's kin should succeed to the fellowships of that College, in preference to all others. This decree is inviolable in the choice of the candidates; but I never heard of one that intended offering himself, who reasoned after this manner-' if I am founder's kin, I must succeed, do what I will, or even whether I offer myself or not.' No, but they all go about to prove their pedigree and relationship to the founder, and for this purpose they anxiously search the old book entitled Stemmata Chiciliana, and apply themselves diligently to their probation exercises, in order that no requisite may be wanting on their parts. Now, my dear produce your pedigree, and learn your exercise, and the thing is done. Take but the same pains (though surely you ought to take more) to prove your relationship to the great Founder of the universe, whose decree is that none shall partake of his spiritual blessings, but those who bear a relationship to him through faith in Jesus Christ; apply yourself to the study of that old book the Bible, from which alone you can trace your descent, and study your exercise as becomes a candidate for an heavenly fellowship with God and glorified spirits. Set about this in earnest, and I will venture my own soul upon the safety of yours; for though I cannot climb up into heaven to read God's decree, yet I shall be very certain from that middle link of the chain which is let down upon earth, that it is in your favour. But if you neglect this, surely the diligence of every individual that ever stood for a fellowship at All Souls' College, must condemn the supine indifference of my dear who I hope will believe me to be with great sincerity, &c." Scarcely had Mr Hill brought to a close his controversy with Mr Fletcher and Mr Wesley, when he was again called to enter the lists in defence of an excellent minister of Christ, Mr Hallward, the early friend and associate of his brother Rowland. In consequence of a sermon which he had preached at Reading, on the doctrine of good works, Mr Hallward was violently assailed by an anonymous writer in the Reading Mer cury. The author of this attack was discovered to be Mr Wainhouse, some time curate of St. Giles's Church, Reading. Mr Hill addressed a series of letters in support of his friend to Mr Wainhouse, and he afterwards published them in a collected form under the title of Pietas Redingensis, or Reading Piety.' Soon after, he also published a letter which he had addressed to a Roman Catholic friend, exposing, in a calm and conclusive manner, the unscriptural doctrines of Popery. CHRISTIAN TREASURY. A Sacramental Meditation.-I go to the sacrament for mercy and strength to keep mercy; to possess my faith in Christ that I have pardon and peace with God, life and righteousness only by his death and merits, and to own my obligation to live unto him that died for me, in faith, love, and self-dedication. I go to the sacrament for Christ's love and likeness for the benefit and for the munition of the cross, to have the load of sin taken from my heart, and any other which Christ thinks fit laid on my back. I go to the sacrament to know God and myself, to wonder at the reconciliation of strict punishment with free pardon; to see the greatness of my sin, and the greatness of my hope in the greatness of the sacrifice therein represented; to sin no more because I believe there is no commendation for my sin; to be raised as high as heaven, and humbled in the dust; to be astonished at the mystery of Christ crucified, and to profess that I know less of God than ever. Let me be daily thinking of the sacrament, daily in a state of preparation for it, daily living on it, resolving to secure my portion in the love therein exhibited, by receiving it in faith and humility, as love and undeserved mercy, making it my pattern and dreading the sin which could be expiated with no less a sacrifice. "Do this in remembrance of me.' Remember who I am, and what thou art, remember me as thy Saviour; remember me as thy Master; remember my love, remember thy obligations; remember me as hating thy sin; remember me as bearing thy sin; remember me and fear not; remember me and sin not; remember me to live for me, by me, with me. Lord I here appeal to thy sacrifice against my sin, to thy grace against my corruption, to thy love against my fears, to thee against myself. I believe thy word; I remember thy command; I wait for thy salvation. Give effect to thine own ordinance, and make it the seal of mercy and the conveyance of life to my soul. O Jesus come to my heart.-ADAM. " Secret Sins. I denounce secret sinnes against God. Thy secret sinnes shall bring an open shame to thee, if thou have not recourse to the shame of Jesus; either of necessitie thou must suffer in thy person eternally, and drink out the full cuppe of the wrath of God, or els thou must have recourse to the shame of Jesus Christ: and this is our comfort that we have. Wilt thou first of all repent thee, (an impenitent man will never get the cloake of Christ's righteousnesse to cover his shame) and turne, and believe in Jesus Christ? Wilt thou have recourse to him, and his passion? I promise thee that thou shalt never come to an open shame. It may be that men come to an open shame for sinne in this worlde, but in the worlde to come, I promise thee, thou shalt not suffer any shame ; in that daye thy sinnes shall not come to the light, neither man nor angel shall see them. But if thou have not recourse to Jesus, thou shalt bee rooted out like a thiefe out of a hole before millions of millions of angels, and before all the worlde; and the secrets of thine heart shall be reveiled, and heapes of the wrath of God shall be powred on thy miserable head. Hell stands not only in paine, but in shame and confusion. Thou shalt goe downe to hell with a fearfull shoute, from the slight of this worlde, at that judgement.-ROLLOCKE. (On the Passion of Christ.) The effect of good Example.-Good example is an unspeakable benefit to mankind, and hath a secret power and influence upon those with whom we converse, to form them into the same disposition and manners. It is a living rule that teacheth men without trouble, and lets them see their faults without open reproof and upbraiding.-TILLOTSON. Justification and Sanctification.-The Gospel runs in two golden streams-pardon of sin and purity of walking. They run undividedly all along in one channel, yet without confusion one with the other; as it is reported of some great rivers that run together between the same banks, and yet retain distinct colours and natures all the way till they part. But these "streams that glad the city of God" never part one from another, -the cleansing blood, and the purifying light-these are the entire and perfect sum of the Gospel; purification from sin in its guilt and the purity of walking in the light flowing from that, make up the full complexion of Christianity; if they be divided they cease to be, and cannot any of them subsist save in men's deluded ima. ginations. BINNING. "Think on these Things."-Recollection is the life of religion. The Christian wants to know no new thing, but to have his heart elevated more above the world, by secluding himself from it as much as his duties will allow, that religion may effect this its great end by bringing its sublime hopes and prospects into more steady action on the mind.-CECIL. THE CHRISTIAN MOTHER, "Her lovely babes around her rise, To which a transient fate is given; In the eternal bowers of heaven." Or all the relations of domestic life, perhaps there is none more interesting than that which subsists between a mother and her child. The affection of a father, of a brother, or a sister, the endearments of conjugal love, may severally possess all the force of strong and overpowering emotion, but they cannot compete with the constancy of a mother's devotedness. It forms perhaps the closest and the most enduring of all the ties by which the framework of society is knit together, and like a plant of heaven's own planting, it seems too clevated and pure to grow in the barren soil of our corrupt and sin-stained hearts. There is this to distinguish a mother's love from all the other bonds of friendship or affection, that while we can conceive the selfishness or self-interest of individuals to mar the glory of their most heroic efforts, there is a tenderness and a holiness which we associate with it which place it immeasurably beyond the pollution of our baser feelings. "God is love," says the Scriptures, and if he has formed man after the likeness of his own image, he has indeed left an impress of his own perfections on the human heart in the purity of a mother's love, by which, even amidst the defilements of impetuous passion, we can recognise the movements of his hand. And this will appear all the more powerfully if we analyse the associations by which it is fostered and the sources from which it proceeds. The sacred name of mother is almost the first to which the infant lips give utterance, in their efforts to communicate the emotions which the forms of artificial language have not yet taught them to express. It is the mother to whom in the tender years of childhood its care is almost exclusively devolved. It is to her that it unbosoms all the workings of its spirit at a time when the world has not blasted with its chilling influence the blossoms of virtue and of piety which, even amidst the corruptions of our fallen nature, sometimes appear to remind us of the heavenly origin of the plant from which they spring. It is to this tender guardian that the joys and sorrows of childhood are revealed, and with whom an intercourse the most interesting and the most endearing is carried on. In the hour of sickness with what noble solicitude is a mother's affection displayed towards her child! It is then that nature seems to furnish her with energies commensurate with the occasion which calls for their exercise, and that her heroic self-devotion would appear almost to transcend the poet's dream or the fictions of romance. What hand so gentle as her own as she bends over the feverish pillow of the suf ferer with her love-beaming eye, or watches o'er its sleepless couch throughout the dreariness of the night, with an ardour which fatigue may indeed impair, but which death itself can alone destroy? Youth is the spring-tide of our being, it is warm with all the activities of life and all the fervour of passion, which the judg ment has not acquired strength to direct, and which experience has not attained maturity to regulate and to restrain. Let us imagine, then, a mother the most de based and the most wicked, and consider how high an influence she possesses over her child, and we will be able to form some estimate of the holy purities of the love of a Christian mother. It is her care to lead her child to a knowledge of its own heart, and to a knowledge of its God. The first impulses of its soul are directed heavenward, the first dawnings of intelligence are consecrated to its Creator. The warmth of maternal feeling, and the throbbing susceptibilities of childhood are made to harmonize in the song of adoration, and to unite in the accents of prayer to Him who hearkens to the choral strains of the angelic hosts, and who will bless, with the smiles of his beneficence, the rudest forms of infant devotion. The sensibilities, too, of the young heart are excited by all the high hopes of an immortal destiny, and amidst the storm and the sunshine that darkens or that brightens around the ocean of life, it is taught to remember that it is but a voyager on its passage to the shores of eternity, and that the gale of affliction which may seem to baffle or to daunt its progress, may seem only, in the mysterious guidance of Providence, to urge it onwards to a serene and tranquil sea. Need we wonder, then, that our most eminent Christian philosophers and poets have traced their success to the blessed influence of a Christian mother's example, and a Christian mother's prayers? Need we wonder that even the most hardened in the ways of sin have melted into tenderness as the scenes of a mother's love have arisen before them in the visions of memory as a dream of the morning? Their thoughts have reverted to the piety and purity that attended her steps, and to the happy home of their childhood, of which she was once the light and the joy. And it may be that her long forgotten precepts may now be remembered when her voice is no more heard; it may be that the prayers she poured forth at his cradle, may now be answered in recalling her wayward son to the ways of peace. Oh how happy is that mother who has secured an inheritance for her children in those enduring realms where change never enters, and from whose bright mansions sorrow flies away! What to them are the titles, or the honours, or the dignities, of the world? In the glory of their heavenly heritage they far surpass the lordly possessor of the richest domains and of the most ancient name; they are ennobled by the right of loftier creation, and by the imposition of a mightier hand. The Prince of Peace will receive them among the bright hosts of his followers; he will invest them with a many gemmed diadem whose lustre shall not grow dim, whose beauty shall not decay! Behold, then, the Christian mother! The glory which shines from off the mercy-seat lightens up even the darkest stages of her earthly journey, and the | feasts upon the Jewish sacrifices under the law, and the odours of the upper sanctuary are richly fragrant around feasts upon things sacrificed to idols among the heathen, the pathway of her pilgrimage. Placed on a lofty pe- may now be demonstrated from a passage in which all destal, she is elevated, in some measure, above the the three are compared together: Wherefore, my obscuring mists of sin, and she can point, with the eye dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise of faith to the most distant circles of time, when her men; judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which prayers, her precepts, and her example, blessed by the we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of approving voice of heaven, shall influence the destinies Christ? the bread which we break, is it not the comof coming generations! munion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. Behold Israel after the flesh. Are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then? that the idol is any thing? or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of deyils." 1 Cor. x. 14-21. THE FISHERMAN'S TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE. On the sea-beaten shore midst the tempest's loud rage, surge, A Sabbath alas! was no Sabbath to me. Because 'twas removed at a distance from home. His name our loved children shall lisp with regard, He has laid the foundation of our Zion at last, The apostle's object is to convince the Corinthians of the unlawfulness of eating things sacrificed to idols. He says that an idol is indeed nothing, and things sacrificed to idols are physically nothing, as different from other meats (as it seems that they argued, and as he admits verse 19) but that, morally and circumstantially, to eat of things sacrificed to idols in the idol's temple, was to consent with the sacrifices, and to be guilty of them. This he proves, first, from a parallel rite in the Christian Church, viz., the Lord's Supper, in which the eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ, offered up to God upon the cross for us, is a real communication in his death and sacrifice, (verse 16); secondly, from another similar rite among the Jews, viz., their feasting upon sacrifices, in which they that ate of the sacrifice were accounted partakers of the altar, that is, of the sacrifice offered up upon the altar, (verse 18.) Therefore, as to eat the body and blood of Christ is to be made partakers of his sacrifice, as to eat of the And brought forth the top stone with shouting and Jewish sacrifices was to partake in the sacrifices them joy; Our voices shall mingle with Ocean's loud blast, While our prayers for his safety are wafted on high. In the dark night of life may his children then cherish THE TRUE NOTION OF THE LORD'S ABRIDGED FROM A TRACT BY CUDWORTH, THAT the Lord's Supper is, in the proper notion of it, selves, so to eat of those offered up in sacrifice to idols was to be made partakers of the idol's sacrifices, and therefore was unlawful. For they could not partake of both the sacrifice to God and the sacrifice to devils together, (verse 21.) The apostle's argu ment supposes a perfect analogy in the three, or it has no strength. Wherefore it is evident that the Lord's Supper is the same among Christians in respect of the Christian sacrifice, that the feasts upon the legal sacrifices were among the Jews, and the feasts upon the idol sacrifices among the heathen; and therefore is Epulum sacrificiale, a feast upon a sacrifice. controversy about the Lord's Supper being a sacrifice. This idea of the Lord's Supper decides the Popish It is not a sacrifice, but a feast upon a sacrifice; in other words, not the offering of something up to God upon the altar, but the eating of something which comes from God's altar, and is set upon our tables. It was never known among either Jews or heathens, that the tables upon which they did eat their sacrifices should be called altars. The apostle speaks not of the altar of devils, but of the table of devils, as the place on which the idol sacrifices were eaten. According to the same analogy, he must call the communion table the Lord's table, that is, the table | signification was contained in them. Besides the flesh on which God's meat is eaten, not the altar on which it is offered. An altar, indeed, is nothing but a table, but it is a table upon which God himself eats, consuming the sacrifices by his holy fire. When, therefore, the same meat is given from God to us to eat of, the relation being changed, the place on which we eat is nothing but a table. From this truth's being misunderstood and perverted, arose the error of esteeming the Lord's Supper to be a sacrifice, and not merely a sacrificial feast. The true notion of the Lord's Supper being thus determined, it only remains to inquire into its signification. To this we are helped by considering that, under the law, the eating of God's sacrifices was a federal rite between God and the offerers, according to the ancient custom, among both Jews and heathens, of conjoining their covenants by eating and drinking together. In Gen. xxvi. 28-31, we read that when Isaac made a covenant with Abimelech, "he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another." In Joshua ix. 14, 15, the taking of the Gibeonites' victuals evidently implies the making of a covenant with them. See also Psalm xli. 9, (which is prophetic of Judas's treachery) and Obadiah, verse 7.. Sacrifices, besides the nature of expiation, had the notion of feasts, of which God himself did, as it were, eat. When God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, he resolved to manifest himself in a peculiar manner, to dwell amongst them visibly. While they were in the wilderness and sojourned in tents, he also had a tent or tabernacle built, that he might sojourn with them. But when the Jews had come into their own land, and had there built houses for themselves, God intended to have a fixed dwelling also, and therefore his moveable tabernacle was changed into a standing temple. In imitation of this seem to have arisen all the temples among the heathens, which were supposed to be so many places of peculiar residence for their deities, next to the heavens, to dwell in. The tabernacle or temple being thus as a house for God to dwell in visibly, there must, in order to render the idea of habitation complete, be all things suitable to a house belonging to it. Hence in the holy place there were a table and a candlestick, because these were the ordinary furniture of a room. The table was always furnished with bread upon it, and had its dishes, and spoons, and bowls, and covers, though they were never used. The candlestick had its lamps continually burning. In this house of God a fire was kept continually burning upon the altar as the focus or hearth. But to carry the idea of a dwelling-place still farther out, there must be constant meat and provision brought into this house. This was done in the sacrifices, which were partly consumed by the fire upon the altar, and partly eaten by the priests, who were God's family, and therefore to be maintained by him. The altar is thus called (Mal. i. 12,) God's table, and the sacrifice consumed upon it his meat. "Ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible." Hence also in the law the sacrifice is often called God's bread or food. And in Psalm 1. 12, 13, though it is denied that God did really feed upon these sacrifices, yet it is implied that this figurative of the beast offered up in sacrifice, there was in the daily sacrifice a meat-offering, made of flour and oil, and a drink-offering, as the bread and drink which were to go along with God's meat. And still farther, be cause meat is unsavoury without salt, it was strictly enjoined that there should be salt in every sacrifice or oblation. "It was not honourable," says an ancient Jew," that God's meat should be unsavoury, without salt." Last of all, these things were consumed on the altar by the holy fire that came down from heaven, because, being God's portion, they were eaten or consumed by him in an extraordinary manner. To represent his fellowship with his chosen people, he commanded food and meat to be offered upon his altar and table. Farther, it appeared that he had a constant talk among them, and was a perpetual guest, and so dwelt in intimate communion and fellowship with them. If, then, the sacrifices were God's meat, they that partook of them were his guests,-in a manner ate and drank with him. That this had the signification of a federal rite is evident from Lev. ii. 13: "Thou shalt not suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking; with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt." As men by eating and drinking together were wont to ratify covenants, so the salt, sprinkled upon the sacrifices, is here called the salt of the covenant; and it is herein implied that, by the sacrifices and sacrificial feasts, God confirmed his covenant with those who, partaking thereof, might be said to eat and drink with him. See also Num. xviii. 19, and 2 Chron. xiii. 5. It is not unworthy of being remarked that salt was an invariable accompaniment of heathen sacrifices, as well as of Jewish, and the reason assigned for this by the heathen writers is, that salt was a symbol of friendship, being a necessary concomitant of all meats, and friendship being confirmed, and reconciliation pledged, by feasts. As, therefore, the legal sacrifices with the accompanying feasts were federal rites between God and man, so the Lord's Supper, which is epulum sacrificiale, a feast upon a sacrifice, must also be epulum federale, a feast of amity and friendship between God and his people, when, by eating and drinking at God's own table and of his meat, we are taken into a sacred cove nant and inviolable league of friendship with him. This is confirmed by the passage already quoted from 1 Cor. x. 20, in which the apostle exhorts believers not to eat of the idol feasts, because this was to have communion or fellowship with devils. On which Chrysostom thus remarks: "If among men to communicate of bread and salt be a token and symbol of friendship, it must carry the same notion between men and devils in the idol feasts." If, therefore, to eat of the sacrifice of devils be to have federal communion with these devils to whom it is offered, it follows that to eat in the Lord's Supper of the sacrifice of Christ once offered up to God is to have federal communion with God. Printed and Published by JOHN JOHNSTONE, 2, Hunter Square, Edinburgh; and sold by J. R. MACNAIR & CO., 19, Glassford Street, Glasgow; JAMES NISBET & Co., HAMILTON, ADAMS & Co., and R. GROOMBRIDGE, London; W. CURRY, Junior, & Co., Dublin; W. M'COMB, Belfast; and by the Booksellers and Local Agents in all the Towns and Parishes of Scotland; and in the principal Towns in England and Ireland. Subscribers will have their copies delivered at their Residences, THE SCOTTISH CHRISTIAN HERALD, CONDUCTED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. THE ORIGIN OF THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT. E proceedings of the General Assembly of 339, while they diffused general joy through cotland, gave mortal offence to the king, who amed his Commissioner for having exceeded his structions, by sanctioning the condemnation of relacy, and the renovation of the Covenant; so at when the Scottish Parliament met for the rpose of ratifying these acts of Assembly, they are prorogued by royal mandate till June 1640. gainst this arbitrary proceeding, the members Parliament remonstrated, and sent the Earl of ondon, with other deputies, to London, to lay eir grievances at the foot of the throne. The snlt was, that Loudon was sent to the Tower on charge of high treason; and if we are to believe e secret history of the period, the king resolved despatch him, without trial or conviction, after e manner of an Eastern Sultan. About three lock in the afternoon, he sent an order to Sir illiam Balfour, the lieutenant of the Tower, to e Lord Loudon's head struck off within the ison, before nine the next morning. The sentence as communicated to the prisoner, who heard it ith much composure; but the lieutenant, anxious save his lordship from death, and his majesty om disgrace, apprized the Marquis of Hamilton the orders he had received, and both immediately paired to the king, whom they found in bed, and nestly besought him to reverse the warrant. t first Charles stormed, and swore that it should executed; but on Hamilton setting before him e danger of the measure, he yielded, and sullenly re the warrant in pieces. his family and the country would sustain by his death. The Parliament, having cheerfully acceded to this request, her ladyship returned them thanks, "But," said the heroine, "I hope your Lordships will not suffer your loving apprehension of my husband's danger to restrain you from any course which your Lordships think advantageous for the kirk and kingdom. To these I desire your Lordships to have regard only, and never to prejudice them in the least, for any compassionate consideration of my dear husband's sufferings."* Had this speech been delivered by a cavalier's lady, we might have expected it to call forth universal and unbounded admiration. But Lady Loudon was a Covenanter; and, if it had been known, it is probable that it would have shared the fate of similar instances of female heroism and self-denial at this period, which our high-church historians, and prelatically disposed antiquarians, can only account for on the supposition that these ladies, in their zeal for securing to their husbands the crown of martyrdom, must have been contemplating the advantages of another match! But indeed, such writers are as capable of appreciating the noble enthusiasm of these high-spirited women, as they are unfit to comprehend the manly principles which animated their husbands and brothers in this sacred cause. It is needless, as it is painful, to dwell on the subsequent proceedings of the infatuated monarch. Yielding to the solicitation of his prelatical councillors, and having obtained funds from them for renewing the war, Charles once more, in spite of We notice this anecdote chiefly for the purpose all his promises, denounced the Scots as rebels, introducing another, not so generally known, and prepared to invade the country. On this garding the lady of this illustrious nobleman. occasion, the Scottish army did not await the apn hearing of her husband's imprisonment, Ladyproach of the royal forces; they entered England, oudon presented in person a petition to the cottish Parliament, beseeching them to interfere his behalf, from consideration of the loss which No 35. AUGUST 31, 1839.-1d.] and encountering the enemy at Newburn, gained MS. Register of Rescinded Acts, 1640. |