heart, as I do here at this present.

Wherefore have mercy on

me, O God, whose property is always to have mercy. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for thy great mercy. O Lord, I crave nothing for my own merits, but for thy name's sake, that it might be hallowed thereby, and for thy dear Son Jesus Christ's sake."*

This part of our Lord's counsel would apply not only to those who have fallen into gross immoralities, but to such as have deserted the principles of the gospel. It was asked the Galatians, through what medium it was that they first received the Spirit; by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith. This question proceeds upon the principle of that being the true doctrine which is productive of the best effects; and by the manner in which it is introduced, This ONLY would I learn of you, it is intimated that the solution is of itself sufficient to determine what the true doctrine is. And what are the effects produced by a relinquishment of the doctrines usually denominated evangelical? Nay, I might say, by only a hesitation concerning them? I appeal to those who have made the trial. Have you the same joy and peace in believing your present principles, as you had in your former ones? Can you, or de you, go to a throne of grace with the same holy freedom as heretofore? Do you feel an equal concern for the salvation of your poor ungodly neighbours? Rather is not the far greater part of your zeal consumed in labouring to make proselytes of serious Christians to your new way of thinking? Does the society of those who are like-minded with yourself, afford that inward satisfaction which you once enjoyed in the fellowship of those whom you are now taught to pity as enthusiasts? If, while professing these things, you were strangers to them, you may answer these questions in the affirmative: but if otherwise, you will not. Remember from whence you are fallen, and repent! Remember how you have received and heard, and hold fast and repent.

Fifthly Set apart special times to humble yourself before God

That which is included in double reversed commas, is a part of the prayer of Archbishop Cranmer; who, through fear of man had denied his faith, but was, notwithstanding, burned to death. When brought to execution, (which was at Oxford, on March 21, 1556,) he uttered the above prayer; and on the flames approaching him, first thrust into the fire the hand with which he had signed his recantation.

by fasting and prayer.-Extraordinary cases require the use of extraordinary means. When a great army was coming against Jehoshaphat, it is said, he feared, and SET HIMSELF to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. But the loss of the soul is of more account to you than the temporal overthrow of a country was to him. When Judah, for its backslidings, was under the frowns of God in Babylon, and had been so for about seventy years, Daniel says, I SET MY FACE unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. The apostle Paul plainly intimates that there are times wherein we are required to give ourselves to fasting and prayer. And surely there can be no times in which these means are more necessary than when we have got out of the way, and desire to recover it. There is much meaning in the words, He SET HIMSELF to seek the Lord; and I SET MY FACE unto the Lord God. They denote something more than the ordinary exercises of prayer; even a special fixedness of the thoughts, purposes, and desires to a particular object: and God has usually honoured those extraordinary approaches to him, when influenced by a pure motive, with success. It is true, we may attend to duty in a superstitious, or self-righteous spirit; resting in it as an end, instead of using it as a mean; but this is not setting our face unto the Lord God, or seeking him. A day devoted to God in humiliation, fasting, and prayer, occasionally occupied with reading suitable parts of the holy scriptures, may, by the blessing of the Holy Spirit, contribute more to the subduing of sin, and the recovery of a right mind, than years spent in a sort of half-hearted exercises.

Sixthly: To prayer it is necessary to add watchfulness.—Our Lord unites these together as an antidote against temptation. It has sometimes been one of the devices of Satan, after a backslider has been drawing near to God, and strongly soliciting for mercy: yea, after a time has been set apart for this particular purpose, to ply him afresh with some powerful temptation; and while his mind has been unsuspicious, and, it may be, thinking itself to be somewhat secure, on account of having so lately been engaged in earnest devotion, he has been surprised and overcome! The consequence as might be expected, has been a future neglect of prayer, under the idea that it must have been mere hypocrisy before, and would now be

adding sin to sin. Instead of depending upon spiritual frames for preservation, and especially when they are over, perhaps we ought to expect that our comforts should be succeeded by conflicts. We know it was so in several cases recorded in the scriptures. Immediately after drinking at the smitten rock at Rephidim, Israel was called to fight with Amalek. Paul's thorn in the flesh succeeded to extraordinary revelations. Our Lord himself went up from Jordan into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil.

Do

Seventhly: In your approaches to the Saviour, let it be under the character in which you first applied to him for mercy, that of a SINNER. If you attempt to approach the throne of grace as a good man who has backslidden from God, you may find it impossible to support that character. The reality of your conversion may be doubtful, not only in your apprehension, but in itself. Your approach, therefore, must not be as one that is washed, and needeth not, save to wash his feet: but as one who is defiled throughout, whose hands and head, and every part needs to be cleansed. not employ yourself in raking over the rubbish of your past life in search of evidence that you are a Christian. You will not be able in your present state of mind, to decide that question: nor would it be of any service to you if you could decide it. One thing is certain; you are a sinner, a poor miserable and perishing sinner: the door of mercy is open; and you are welcome to enter in. Let your past character then have been what it may, and let your conversion be ever so doubtful, if you can from this time relinquish all for Christ, eternal life is before you.

The Laodiceans, who, though composing a Christian church, were doubtful characters, are counselled to deal with Christ in the same manner as sinners deal with him, for riches, for righteousness, and for heavenly wisdom.

Lastly: In all your supplications, be contented with nothing short of a complete recovery-It is possible you may obtain so much ascendency over your evil propensities that they may seem to be slain before you; or at least, that you are in no particular danger of yielding to them any more; and yet you may not have recovered that holy rest in God, that sweet peace which arises from VOL. IV.

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confessing our sins upon the head of the gospel sacrifice. But while this is the case there is no security against their revival. The first temptation by which you are assaulted may afford lamentable proof that they are yet alive. Nothing will serve as a preservative against the risings of evil propensities short of walking with God. There is much important truth in that declaration of the Apostle, This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Sin is not to be opposed so much directly as indirectly; not by mere resistance, but by opposing other principles to it, which shall overcome it. It is not by contending with the fire, especially with combustible materials about us, that we shall be able to quench it; but by dealing plentifully with the opposite element. The pleasures of sense will not be effectually subdued by foregoing all enjoyment; but by imbibing other pleasures, the relish of which shall deaden the heart to what is opposite. It was thus that the Apostle became dead to the world by the cross of Christ. Do not, therefore, reckon thyself restored till thou hast recovered communion with God. David, though the subject of deep coutrition, yet was not contented without gaining this important point. Till then the poison would still, at times, be rankling in his imagination. Hence arose the following petitions:Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right Spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit. Make these petitions thy own; and if God grant the thing that thine heart desireth, go and sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee!

EXPOSITORY REMARKS

ON THE

DISCIPLINE

OF THE

PRIMITIVE CHURCHES.

WHEN the Apostles, by the preaching of the word, had gathered in any place a sufficient number of individuals to the faith of Christ, it was their uniform practice, for the farther promotion of his kingdom in that place, to form them into a religious society or Christian church. Being thus associated in the name of Christ, divine worship was carried on, Christian ordinances observed, holy discipline maintained, and the word of life, as the light by the golden candlesticks, exhibited. Among them our Lord Jesus Christ, as the high priest of our profession, is represented as walking; observing the good, and applauding it; pointing out the evil, and censuring it; and holding up life and immortality to those who should overcome the temptations of the present

state.

Let us suppose him to walk among our several churches, and to address us as he addressed the seven churches of Asia. We trust he would find some things to approve; but we are also apprehensive that he would find many things to censure. Let us then look narrowly into the discipline of the primitive churches, and compare ours with it.