that of music are the same to him. He If a man have no more power or ability puts no difference whatever between to believe than to create a world, he is the timbrel and the harp-the stringed no more to blame for not doing the forinstrument and the organ-the sound mer than the latter. It would be equally of the trumpet and the tinkling cymbal. just to condemn a man because he is But is he criminal on this account? Is not as beautiful as Absalom, tall as he an object of blame or pity? His case Goliah, or strong as Sampson, as for excites our commiseration; but we not possessing and performing that are conscious of a very different feeling which it was impossible for him to postowards the person who, like the adder, sess or to perform. Human ability and is deaf only because he stoppeth his human guilt are of the same extent. ears, and will not hearken to the voice The Judge of all the earth will do right. of the charmer, charming ever so wisely. If faith be impracticable, unbelief is inNow, if the sinner be as unable to be- vincible, and the unbeliever is excusable, lieve in Christ as the blind man is to unless man is guilty for what he cannot see, or the deaf to hear, an incapacity help, however desirous to avoid it; and respecting which the will has no choice, unless the righteous Judge consign his I should as soon exhort the blind to see creatures to eternal misery for not perand the deaf to hear, as call upon the forming impossibilities. If any foreign sinner to believe, and equally charge power be needed, in consequence of a them with criminality for non-compli- weakness or debility in our natural faance. The one would be no more ab-culties, so interposing between our insurd than the other. Mephibosheth clination and performance, that however was lame, and could not follow David, desirous a person might be to perform however desirous so to do.-Was he his duty, yet, by reason of the demand equally guilty with Ahitophel, who op- being above his physical strength it posed the king, or with Shimei who were impossible without foreign aid cursed him? Paul's bodily presence for him to execute his wish, then, inwas weak, but surely that was not his deed, the want of such aid must be an fault. Let the sinner prove that he can adequate excuse for his non-performno more hinder or prevent his unbelief, ance.* Where there is strictly no than Mephibosheth his lameness, or power to believe, want of faith is no sin. Paul his weakness; and that it is no The wicked and slothful servant was more his duty to believe, than for them not condemned for not performing a to be sound and strong, and we will duty beyond his strength, but for negreadily allow him an exemption from lecting that which was within the comguilt in this respect; and that, if he pass of his power. He is judged out of finally perish for his unbelief, we will his own mouth. He had his Lord's grant that he suffers for the non-per-money, but he refused to lay it out. formance of an impossibility. But He was only required to use the talent would not this associate the divine Be- he had, not to use two or five talents ing with the Egyptian taskmasters, which he had not. "Thou oughtest who required bricks without straw? to have put my money," saith the Would it not justify the complaint of Redeemer, "into the bank or to the the wicked servant, who said, "I knew exchangers." Nothing impracticable thee to be a hard master, reaping where was required of him; and, therefore, thou hast not sown, and gathering he is called a wicked, slothful, unprowhere thou hast not strawn?" Where- fitable servant for neglecting his duty, as, the Bible represents God as requir- and is cast into outer darkness. ing no more of any man than he has, defence proves the reality of his offence. be it little or much. "My son, give me Whoever can, like Adam, frame an exthine heart:" that is, give me thyself cuse for his sin, shows that he possessthy all. "Thou shalt love the Lorded ability to obey. Thus power abused thy God with all thine heart, and soul, becomes the measure of the sinner's and mind, and strength." "I only guilt, and the ground of his condemwant all thou hast." "If there be first nation. a willing mind, it is accepted according to that power or ability a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." His 2. If men, strictly speaking, are totally destitute of power to believe; that is, if they are not merely unwilling but * See a Sermon on the power of God in the soul of man, by J. Gilbert. |fluence, and converted to the use for which they were originally given. The strength communicated is not natural or physical power, but of a moral kind; i. e. a disposition to love, fear, and serve God. 3. If a man who has the Bible in his had, cannot believe, though he desire to do so, is he not under the fatal necessity of making God a liar? 1 John v. 10. Besides, if he cannot believe, he cannot obey the gospel; and if he do not obey it, must he not be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of God, and from the glory of his power? and does not this make his condemnation inevitable? The preaching of the gospel is said to be the savour of life unto life to some, and of death unto death to others. But how can it be the means of increasing or aggravating the man's guilt, who refuses or rejects it only because he is naturally unable to comply with it? On this principle Christ may indeed be set for the rising of many in Israel; but not for the fall of any; for how can they be said to reject the Saviour who have no power to embrace him? unable to do so; then, when they do believe, some new power over and above their being made willing, must be given them. But what is this power? Can it be defined? Is it some new faculty which the sinner possessed not before? The sinner, equally with the saint, possesses the faculties essential to the human mind or soul. He has an understanding, a will, affections, conscience, &c. But in conversion, is there some new faculty added to these which he did not previously possess? If there be, what shall we term it? Man did not lose his mental faculties by the fall; he lost much of their moral goodness or rectitude. His weakness, therefore, as a fallen being, does not consist in the want of faculties or of physical power; if it did, it would excuse him in his most extravagant actions; for no creature can be bound to do that which is simply impossible. Obedience can only consist in what a man hath a faculty or power to perform. But to believe the testimony of God is perfectly suitable to the nature of the faculties with which God has endowed us. It is quite consonant to the powers of the soul to admit truth upon proMinisters of the gospel are comper evidence. The change produced manded to warn sinners of their danger, upon a sinner in regeneration, is not and to beseech them to be reconciled to effected by communicating new powers God. And are not sinners who neglect or faculties of mind, but by calling into these warnings, and continue in impeexercise and giving a right direction to nitence and unbelief, rendered inexcusthe powers already possessed. A changeable, and their sin and misery augmentis produced upon his will, not a new ed thereby? Matt. xi. 20-24; Heb. ii. faculty given; and he is made "willing 1-5: 2 Cor. ii. 14-16; Prov. i. 20— in the day of divine power." The fa- 35. But if man has no power to comculties he previously possessed are re-ply with the exhortations, where is the novated; the understanding is enlight- reasonableness of enforcing them? ened; the judgment convinced; the affections called from earthly things, and set on things above, and the whole bias and bent of the will is radically changed. But then these are not new physical powers or faculties, but identically the same which the sinner previously possessed. In fact, the contrary supposition would destroy the identity of the man, and make the sinner and the saint two, not only different, but separate persons, in which case the repentance of the saint could not avail the sinner, it being the repentance of another man; nor could the criminality of the sinner be any injury to the saint, for it would be the conduct of a distinct person. The faculties which were disordered by sin, and employed in the service of Satan, are rectified by divine in Had the Jews laboured under any natural inability or want of capacity to embrace the Redeemer when he came to them as to his own people, how could they be criminal in rejecting him? Surely, upon this principle, their case ought rather to be viewed as pitiable than blameable, and the heavy judgment inflicted upon them for seventeen hundred years for rejecting him, must be regarded severe and undeserved! I apprehend that the conscience of every man will tell him that he ought to serve God, and that there is nothing in his way to prevent him doing so, but his own criminal unwillingness. Is it not upon this very principle that men's thoughts accuse them? A conviction of this will strike them speechless at the day of judgment, and be to them a source of misery through eternity. But how could they feel their damnation to be just, if they were punished for the neglect of what they never had the power to perform? Would they not, upon that supposition, consider their Judge as acting a most unjust part? 4. That man's aversion, free, voluntary aversion to God, to Christ, to holiness, to the divine law, to the glorious gospel, is the sole and only reason why he cannot, that is, will not believe in Christ, can never be successfully controverted; because his inability to believe is the very ground of his condemnation. Why are sinners blamed? Is it not because they have an evil heart of unbelief? The carnal mind is enmity against God, and refuses to be reconciled to him. Heb. iii. 12-19; 2 Cor. v. 19, 20; John iii. 18-21. Were not this the case, the slothful servant would have a strong plea, and the proceedings of God in his final condemnation could not be vindicated. But the Lord says, "I'called, and ye refused-ye would have none of my counsel-ye hated my reproof, and hardened your hearts against me," &c. Prov. i. The sinner is hearty in his opposition to God. His heart is fully set in him to do evil. Eccl. viii. 11. He does it earnestly with both hands, and bids the Almighty to depart from him, saying, "I have loved strangers, and after them I will go." Jer. ii. 25. He shuts his eyes that he cannot see, and stops his ears that he cannot hear; breaks the bands of Christ asunder, and casts away his cords from him, saying, "I will not have this man to reign over me." Psalm ii. 3; John v. 40; Luke xix. 14. God now complains: "I have called, and ye refused," &c. "I will therefore laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh." On this ground the sinner's mouth is stopped; his guilt is established; and the severity, the righteous severity of God in his condemnation will be justified and applauded before the whole world. But this could never be the case if man's strength was unequal to his duty. God does not reap where he has not sown, nor require his creatures to perform impossibilities. He condemns men only for abusing or neglecting the power they possess. He makes the man's will, not his power, the ground of praise or censure. [To be concluded in our next.] For the New Evangelical Magazine. IN consequence of the operation of the late marriage act, some of your thinking readers have been imperceptibly led to reflect upon the subject, which has matured into an inquiry after the primitive mode of union or marriage during the first ages of Christianity. The question having it in my power to gratify my friends, I conbeen put to me, Mr. Editor, and not having ceive it would be a suitable subject for a page in your useful Magazine, should any of your learned correspondents feel disposed to turn their attention to it. To prevent mistake, the inquiries I wish to make are the following: Was the Did the primitive Christians consider marriage to be a religious or a civil conDid they use any form, ring, or any thing tract? What has baptism to do with it? else in the solemnization of it? marriage contract, in the pure ages of the church, ratified by ministers of the gospel? Was their presence indispensable? A reply to these interesting inquiries will be highly acceptable to many of your friends, and I flatter myself agreeable to the whole. DISCIPULUS. West End, London. LITERARY NOTICES. Mr. John Birt, of Manchester is preparing for publication, five Lectures on the Pretensions and abuses of the Church of Rome; viz. 1. The claim of the Church of Rome to the appellation of Catholic. II. The connection of the Papal Usurpation with Ecclesiastical History. III. The Genius and Characteristics of the Papal Ascendency. IV. The Church of Rome at present, viewed with reference to the past. V. The prospects disclosed to the Christians by the actual state of the world. Preparing for publication, TRUTH against FALSEHOOD; or FACTS opposed to FICTION, in a series of Letters addressed to DOUGLAS, the author of "No FICTION,” by Lefevre. public view, a real statement of facts, in The design of these Letters is to expose to the principal character of the above popular religious novel;-to detect the artful sophistry-the gross falsehoods, and the shameful calumnies, in the discordant mate rials of which it is composed-to unfold the character and different courtships, with the contemptible vanity of Douglas, in the por trait which he has drawn of himself-the and to show the absurdity of religious noreal and not the fictitious correspondence; vels, and the nonsense imposed upon the public, for the gratification of passions under the baneful influence of avarice and vanity. Theological Review. while we see so much ignorance; such viewed as a matter of surprise :-for, to the corrupt taste of the world, in an inclination to accommodate religion those who undertake to instruct mankind in the truths and practice of Christianity;-what can we expect to see but avarice, fraud, extortion, injustice, deceit, voluptuousness, libertinism, and an unblushing abandonment to the vain pastimes, the fashions, and follies of the world, predominant in their disci ples? Should any one who may read this, be disposed to charge us with extravagance in our statements, we pity his ignorance of the awful realities that exist around him; and while we make this close appeal, we most unfeignedly congratulate all to whom it is not appli cable. Is it not high time that men should begin to search more closely than they have done, into the cause of the evils of which they so loudly, and with so much justice, complain! Our pulpits constantly resound with lamentations respecting the alarming progress of error and vice; the press teems with productions, moral and religious, all professedly intended to check the growing evils of the age: societies for the suppression of vice, and the encourage ment of virtue, are rising up in every quarter, yet the torrent is neither stemmed nor weakened, but rolls on with accumulated rapidity. The Epistles of Paul the Apostle, Translated, with an Exposition and Notes. By the Rev. THOMAS BELSHAM, Minister of Essex Street Chapel. In 4 vols. 8vo. London: Hunter, St. Paul's Church Yard. 1822. Price £2. 12s. 6d. bds. THE present state of the Christian world presents to the reflecting mind, a most interesting and affecting spectacle. There never was a time when greater exertions were made to diffuse abroad in the world, the knowledge of divine truth; nor was it ever known that, by the whole body of professing Christians of all denominations, a greater degree of attention was paid to the externals of religion. This is certainly very imposing, and, no doubt, in the hands of Him who governs the Universe, will be rendered subservient to the promotion of His universally benevolent purposes. Nothing, however, is more dangerous than to judge from appearances: and he who should form an estimate of the real state of religion in this country, from the apparent love and zeal which characterize the set speeches delivered at the concentrated meetings of the various sects into which it is divided, would be just about as near the truth as if he had lived in the fourth century, and been dazzled by the splendour of the gorgeous apparel in which Constantine decked the church, and which concealed the corruption that secretly consumed her vitals. Happy, indeed, would it be for the church in the present day, if she could boast of a depth of spiritual mindedness proportionate to the extent of her surface: but alas! so far is this from being the case, that the mind which is at all under the guidance of the light of heaven, turns away with pain from the sight, and sighs and cries for the abominations that are desolating, and threatening to bring speedy and irremediable destruction on the heritage of the God of Israel. Nor is this to be VOL. VIII. Now, most assuredly, there must be some radical error, some direful defect, in the method hitherto pursued of conducting the public exhibitions of religion. Else, whence comes it to pass, that, for so many centuries, we have had so many thousands of learned men employed, both in and out of our national establishments, whose time has been professedly devoted to the elucidation of truth and the correction of error, and that at the present hour we seem as distant as ever from the grand object of pursuit. Nay, more; so far are we 2 X from "holding together the unity of the bears, if it did not contain within itself |