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STATE OF GOSPEL CHURCHES.

The State of Gospel Churches.

(Continued from p. 177.)

Tring.-It appears (from a letter now before us, as well as from other evidence,) that the Lord has been pleased to honour the labours of our brother Elven (at Tring) to the benefit of many souls: we hope to give some parts of this letter next month. On Lord's-day, July 22nd, he baptised three persons; who were afterwards received into the church. The presence and power of our heavenly Lord was especially enjoyed both by the preacher and the people. We trust this is but the beginning of better days for that part of the gospel vineyard. Cambridge. Green - street Chapel, in Cambridge, has recently been taken by a few brethren, who are desirous to establish a Particular Baptist Interest there. It was opened on Wednesday, July 18th, by Mr. James Osbourn, and C. W. Banks. If it please the Lord to send them a faithful, and an able Minister of the Gospel, Truth might make a stand there; but the very name of Cambridge (in connection with the cause of Christ) makes many a christain's heart to ache. We do not, however, despair: only let THE GOSPEL stand there in uprightness, christian charity, consistency, and power; and it will yet triumph over all its foes.

at Risborough; where hundreds of persons gathered together as the last token of friendly respect, towards one highly esteemed for his work's sake.

Trowbridge.-We have come to the determination, to hold a special church meeting for solemn prayer and deliberation, with regard to our enlarging our Chapel. God is smiling upon us. We are moving on in peace and union among ourselves. Many have come forward to say what they will give to a very encouraging extent. J. F. R.

Shipton, (in Hampshire).-Another new house for God and gospel truth was opened on Tuesday, July 17, at Shipton. Brother Joseph Rudman preached three times, taking Genesis xxvi. 22, for the opening subject'He called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, for now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.' Master Osbourn said the other day, 'Rudman promises to be a sterling gospel preacher; but I fear he is not long for this world.' Well; we hope (with all his infirmities,) seeing he is enabled to preach(ah, and boldly too,) three times in one day; that there is more vital and inward strength about him than many conceive. God be praised, the blessed truth of Christ is marching into Hampshire. 'Hampshire!' said a friend, 'there is no truth much in Hampshire.' It has been a dark county we know; but the Lord has a remnant there. We would say to the friends at Shipton, as one said of old,' Fear not, nor be dismayed; for the Lord will be with you.'

Whithall Heath.-In a retired and quiet corner of Worcestershire, stands a very compact Baptist Chapel, where, (we rejoice to say) THE TRUTH-in sincerity, and Bexley Heath Baptist Cause. — Many of faithfulness, is preached by our esteemed your readers will rejoice to hear that the brother, John Freeman. In a loving Lord has again visited this lately forlorn epistle lately received from him he says- spot. As a prelude to future good, on As regards my pastoral charge, I am Lord's-day, July 8, I had the pleasure of thankful to state that peace prevails: we taking into union with us ten steady united are standing in the spirit of the 133rd followers of the Lamb. Seven were bapPsalm. The anniversary of my settlement tised the Sabbath before, (July 1,) the other which was held on the 10th and 17th of three were previously members of other June, was to me a solemn time,' On Lord's-churches; all, except one, have stood many day, July the first, he baptised his own dear wife; Mrs. Charman; and E. S. King, the eldest daughter of a valiant and much esteemed friend to the real gospel of Christ. Blessed be God, for such additions to the visible church: we do certainly believe they are of such as shall be saved; and such as will prove a blessing to the cause with which they are connected. We have some sermons on the book of Revelation, by John Freeman; and from them we purpose to make extracts as soon as it shall be possible.

Risborough.-Mr. Thos. Terry, of Long Crendon, Bucks, departed this life, on the 21st of June, 1849, aged 65. He was born near Favershamin Kent. Ministered thirty years at Risborough, Askett, and Long Crendon; and for many years preached four and five evenings in the week, in surrounding villages. He suffered much, in his last illness, his nervous system being broken in upon, by the disease that terminated his mortal existence. He was buried

a storm from satan and from those who have shewn their vindictive opposition to the sublime ordinance of believer's baptism; but sovereign love caused them to yield to the Word of God, and the dictates of a good conscience; I make the distinction of the other one, in order for your encouragement; he was first under your ministry, some time since, shewn the plague of his heart, and having through grace, fled to Christ for refuge, will, I doubt not, be a useful member to our number.-J. WALLACE.

Wolverhampton.-A friend and brother says, "the word of the Lord, in John Street Chapel, has been made a blessing; the congregation is increasing; a solemn spirit of prayer is poured out upon the church for better days." Oh, that the little one at Wolverhampton may yet become a thousand! They have now, we believe, a faithful ministry. The hand of the Lord has surely been seen in placing it there; and we trust it is for real good.

On the Full Assurance of Faith.

DEAR BROTHER,-I send you the following excellent article on Faith; it was written by the elder John Ryland, of Northampton, father of the late Doctor Ryland, of Bristol. R. DE FRAINE.

The full assurance of faith consists of a feeling application by God the Spirit of Christ to myself; being persuaded that by God's free gift Jesus Christ is mine; that I shall have life and salvation by Him, that is to say, a life of holiness and a life of happiness; and that whatever Christ did and suffered for the redemption of sinners, he did the same for me; he did as much for me as for any soul in all the creation of God.

This faith is a wise fitness of means to a most grand end; it is fitted to give all that glory to God that he can possibly receive from a rational creature to eternity. This act of vital faith on Christ brings more glory to God than the obedience and services of all the angels in heaven. It gives God greater honour than Adam could in Paradise. It brings more glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, than our keeping the whole law, as a covenant of works, from our birth to our death. In a word, this act of vital faith ascribes the greatest honour and glory to the eternal Jehovah, than the faculties of a rational creature can give him through an immortal duration.

Let us view this glorious faith more at large in its nature-its foundation-its fruits and uses, with respect to God, our selves, and others :

1st. The nature of this assurance of faith. It is a clear, vigorous perception of God's will to be as good as his word; a distinct discernment of God's heart and bowels in scripture promises; a firm reliance and fixed confidence in God's immense perfections; a heart-felt lively persuasion of God's faithfulness to me; a quick and keen sense of God's resolution to fulfil his agreement with Christ on my behalf. It is a strong consciousness that there is an astonishing reality in all God's voluntary declarations of his free choice and unalterable resolution to do every thing great and generous for my service and good, for my welfare and happiness, for my consolation, honourable support, and eternal joy.

This noble vital faith is a kind spiritual sense, or feeling persuasion that Christ VOL. V.-PART LVI.-September,

yielded a perfect and persevering obedience to the law for me; that he paid down the price of his divine blood for my deliverance from slavery and bondage; that he offered up his body and soul for my complete reconciliation and eternal friendship with God: that he endured the very same punishment of loss and sense which was due to my sins from the law and justice of God. And thus Christ has provided for the eternal honour of the law for me, has given perfect security for the dignity and majesty of the divine government in the pardon of my sinful soul, and my salvation and happiness. In short, that Christ by his obedience and blood has united and reconciled the infinite majesty and abounding mercy of God's administration for me, and that I am now a rightful heir, and shall quickly be an actual possessor of God's heavenly and eternal kingdom.

2ndly. The foundation of a full assurance of faith. The love of God, or his will to do us good with delight, arising out of his own sovereign and immense goodness. The love of God is an eternal, free, invariable purpose of communicating grace and glory to his people with the utmost pleasure. This love operates in a way of pity and bounty towards us as recoverable from the ruins of the apostacy, and the actings of God's love include an actual approbation of, and delight in, the persons (but not the sins) of his people; and it rejoices to promote our true and everlasting blessedness.

The power of God, or the strength of the divine nature, which is able to do every thing that is for God's honour, and the salvation of his people; every thing that shall serve to display his perfections, and advance our happiness. The invincible arm of God has undertaken the scheme and will infallibly carry it on to perfection.

The word of God. His plain and absolute promises, or the ideas of God's understanding, and the acts of God's will delineated and expressed all through the Bible. The promises of scripture are a true copy of God's heart. Faith takes God at his word, and depends upon him for our whole salvation. God is good, and will not-he is true and faithful, and cannot-deceive me. I believe that he speaks as he thinks, and will do what

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and therefore let me be strong | noble preservative from presumption in in faith, giving honour to God, and re- sin, and a powerful antidote against joice with joy unspeakable and full of despair. True faith will never suffer me glory. to have the impudence and wickedness The blood of God, or that blood which to presume on God's favour, while I the eternal Jehovah in our nature shed wilfully break his laws, and indulge on the cross; that blood which, in an in-myself in sin! What ground have I violable connection with our Saviour's for such horrid and abominable insoactive and complete obedience all through lence? Has God given any promise to his life, constitutes the true, the only, the daring and resolute sinners? Is there entire matter of our justification at the any encouragement for a wretch that divine tribunal. On the foundation of goeth on still in his trespasses? No, this blood, I challenge ten thousand of not in all the scriptures of God. Faith the most enraged devils to deprive me of knows and assures me, that a God of my happiness. I defy all the united force infinite fidelity has prepared eternal of the world, the devil and the flesh, let terror and damnation for every foolthem do their worst; I shall be more than hardy rebel.-But shall a sensible sinner a conqueror; I shall win the battle with despair of thy mercy seeing inviolable eternal triumph through the Lord my God. faithfulness is the basis of my hopes? The oath of God, or God's solemn ap- God forbid! Despair flings the utmost peal to all his immense perfections for disgrace on the eternal Godhead, on all the truth of his promises. He calls upon the divine persons, and all the divine his attributes to witness against him if perfections. "Despair is nothing but he breaks his word; if he imposes upon an abiding apprehension, or a prevailing us by fair speeches without accom- thought, that there is an utter inconplishment; if he deceives our hopes, dis-sistency between the glory of God and appoints our expectations, or damps and our happiness; that if we are unhappy, destroys our lively desires of everlasting God must suffer injury in his essential happiness. God swears by his eternal existence, he swears by all the worthiness of his nature, that he will execute his purposes, and fulfil his promises, in the salvation of my soul through Christ Jesus. The Spirit of God felt in our own vital experience. By the light and power of God the Spirit we are assisted to see our true state in Christ, our right to his person, his atonement, and his grace; and by his almighty influences on my soul, he assures me I am the Lord's. Deprived of his light I am all darkness and confusion, utterly at a loss whether I belong to God or the Devil, whether I am going to a heaven of happiness or a hell of misery. Let men that are full of themselves, but devoid of the life of God, despise God's Spirit, and banter his operations as they please-I am as sure of his presence and blessing as of my own existence, and so fully persuaded of the necessity as well as reality of his influence, that, were it not for these, no true church of Christ could ever be formed, no true christian could ever exist. In short, those that separate the Spirit of God from the word of God, had as good burn their Bibles and commence infidels and atheists at once.

3rdly. The effects and uses of full assurance of faith. This vital faith is a

honour;" or, if God is truly glorified, we must be eternally damned. But the fidelity of God in his word, and the full assurance of faith in my heart, are a glorious prevention of despair. This is God's promise: I will be merciful to their sins. I can be just and the justifier of the believer in Jesus! and says faith, shall I dare to make God a liar? when he swears by all the worthiness of his divinity, shall I charge Him with perjury, or for a moment doubt of the reality of his intentions? No, verily. I am as sure of the fulfilment of his declarations to me, as I am of the existence of a God.

This excellent faith exceedingly honours our Lord Jesus Christ. It treats him as being what He is: it owns him to be God, the true God, the great God, and God over all blessed for evermore. This noble faith owns him to be a real and great Saviour from the guilt and power of sin. It looks to Him for grace to dispose us to obedience, and enliven us in all the acts and duties of real religion. Did we truly consider how much we honour God our Saviour in this noble and difficult act of faith, how highly we exalt the blessed Jesus by taking him at his word, and boldly trusting in his righteousness; we should not be so dis

ON THE FULL ASSURANCE OF FAITH.

pirited with jealousies concerning our right to believe, nor so enfeebled with queries and doubts as to our safety and happiness; but we should rather rejoice in giving the utmost honour to Christ Jesus, and with the greatest activity and cheerfulness we should proceed in a series of such solemn and sublime acts of application to our divine Saviour. Thus we honour the readiness of his tender and bounteous heart to save us. We honour Christ best when we trust Him most.

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the basis of his throne, who has made my happiness as sure as his own eternal existence. What then hast thou to fear, O my timorous heart? With what calmness and serenity, with what exalted fortitude and undaunted greatness of soul, may I commit myself to God, amidst the wild disorder of human affairs, and strange confusion of mortal things, while I go on resolute and steady in the path of active duty to God, and diffusive benevolence to man! This vigorous faith triumphs over all cruel suspicions of God's fidelity to his promises. It cannot endure a thought of God's unfaithfulness. It abhors all base and beggarly jealousies concerning the punctual performance of God's promises to me. It teaches me to reject with scorn all cursed hesitations about the exact execution of God's free will bonds. It disdains the vile imagination of God's being fickle in his purposes, or false to his word. Faith meets God in the Bible, eye to eye, and heart to heart. The actings of the believer's soul correspond to the tender and generous actings of God's soul in scripture promises. Faith inspires a calm confidence that God will fulfil his free engagements to me; that he will make good his gracious declarations in the very best time, in the very best manner, so as to have every amiable property, every circumstance of beauty, and to be the most transporting to my passions, the most endearing to my heart.

This sublime faith gives all possible glory to the united and harmonious perfections of God. It treats Him as a God. It pays that esteem and veneration to Him as a God of consummate worth deserves. It bows to his absolute dominion, and cordially approves of his sovereign method of salvation. It teaches me to say, "My God, I love thee for thine immense goodness, and revere thine awful justice. I consecrate all my powers to thy service, and rejoice to have all my actions of mind and body determined by the dictates of thy wisdom and most perfect will. I confide in the veracity of thy lips, and place the whole stress of my salvation on thy faithful promises. This courageous faith boldly faces the very worst appearances of things in the operations of divine providence. It cuts through the most frightful discouragements from second causes. It laughs at and despises all improbabilities of success in the way of This peculiar faith abhors and scorns duty. It rushes through, and treads down for ever the unbelief of the whole wicked a whole army of dismal doubts, and vic- world. Faith discerns the horrid nature toriously fights with the most violent of unbelief. It is a composition of darkand furious opposition. This vigorousness, pride and enmity to God. It is a faith is not governed by sensible appearances. It is not animated by the principles of flesh and blood. It looks through all the terrifying aspect of things to an invisible and ever-present God; a God who has left nothing to an after thought in his decrees, nor is ever a moment too late in his actions. Faith sees a God at the head of this universal empire; a God who inspects all things mortal and immortal; a God who presides over all human actions; a God who will ever befriend the good and punish the bad; a God who will ever maintain good order and good meaning in the universe; a God who is ever guiding the church to higher degrees of order, perfection and happiness; a God who has made my salvation as firm as

refusal to be of God's way of thinking in matters of eternal consequence to his honour and man's happiness. Unbeliefwhat is it? but a dissent of mind and thought from the testimony of God concerning the true means of attaining a state of final and consummate felicity. God says in his gospel, "The blood, the righteousness, the Spirit of my Son, are the only means my wisdom has ordained, whereby a sinner can obtain a state of everlasting communion with God." Unbelief opposes God to the uttermost. As it consists in ignorance, it sees no fitness or beauty in this means of blessedness. As it is made up of pride, it despises such a foolish method as this: it is not fit that a man should attain happiness, but by his own worthiness, and ascribe the

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GOD'S LOVE TO AN UNWORTHY SINNER.

glory to himself. As it includes enmity, | the ungodly. I was the very character.

it hates God's method of deliverance. It says, "I dislike this way because man had no hand in the contrivance of it, and by reason it cuts off all boasting from man, and ascribes all glory to God." Now genuine faith abhors all this damnable impudence, and falls in cordially with God's testimonies. It loves and rejoices in salvation by Christ: "In Jehovah I have righteousness." Thus does faith justify God in his whole plan, and represents unbelief in all its ugly colours as horrible as hell, and worthy of the utmost extent of God's eternal indignation.

Northampton, 1783.

JOHN RYLAND.

God's Love to an unworthy Sinner.

It was early in life, the Lord was pleased (by his Holy Spirit,) to work in my soul a knowledge of my lost condition, and shewed me the just and holy demands of his righteous law, sounding as mighty thunders, and appearing as devouring flames of fire to my conscience. I was dead to all hope of salvation; knew no way of escape from its curse, from the consuming wrath of a holy God: such were the awful feelings of my poor soul when those words entered, "cursed is every one that continueth not, in all things written in the book of the law to do them." Driven almost to despair, under guilt and condemnation, the enemy too, laid a plot for my destruction, sugjesting to my mind, I had better put an end to my existence; how soon did my poor soul accede to this, thinking all my sorrows would be at an end, and that I should escape the vengeance of an Holy God, just ready to commit the deed, when God, in his infinite mercy, by his blessed Spirit, brought this precious truth to my soul," Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." On the back of this came with Almighty power, "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly." The first portion, I was enabled to view at that time in this light, I was of the world, and therefore I must be among them for whom he died. Here I was a little comforted. The second portion seemed to comfort me a little more; although a sinner, and ungodly, no thought about God nor of his truth, and living in rebellion against him, yet Christ died for

Here the blessed Spirit was pleased to lead me into somewhat of the love of a precious Christ; to die for such a sinful wretch as me, so undeserving, so vile, filthy and polluted; this appeared too much for the moment, but the Lord was pleased to shew me that he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance; this broke my poor heart, melted me down into deep contrition before his footstool. Again, I sunk down under condemnation and guilt; was constrained to go to his footstool imploring forgiveness through Jesus Christ, that he would have mercy on me, and not cut me off and send me to endless death; while thus pleading at his footstool, wrestling in anguish of soul during many sleepless nights, and restless days, the enemy persuading me I had sinned against all hope of mercy or pardon; I was as it were in the very depths of hell; killed through the power of the divine law; I knew what the Lord meant when he said, "I KILL;" but understood not what it was " I MAKE ALIVE." Scarce a gleam of hope was left; but, (oh the love of a covenant God in Christ, made known and brought home by the blessed Spirit!) he spake this precious word home with power," Fear not; for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine." What overwhelming, transporting joys I felt, that Christ had redeemed me a sinner so great; that he should have called me by my name; that name he had given me himself, Hephzibah; being married to him in eternal wedlock; and in whom he delighted! Language would fail to describe the overflowing joy and love I felt to my blessed Redeemer when he thus made himself manifest to my soul. Thus the dear Lord was pleased for some time to favour me with his divine presence; gave me to feel I had an interest in his heart, and an abiding place in him, as the Rock of Ages, that was cleft to shelter and securely keep all for whom he died. I thought to walk in eternal sunshine; to know no more sorrow, trial, conflict, or temptation. But alas, darkness again overspread my soul; deep conflicts between flesh and spirit, buffettings from the world, temptations from satan; then I found what is meant by the Shulamite, in which are the company of two armies, the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against

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