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exemplified in the Punishment of Saul. 13. Deceitfulness of Sin, and Efficacy of Repentance, exemplified in David's Fall and Restoration. 14. On the Existence and Divinity of the Holy Ghost. 15. Necessity, Evidences, and Means of receiving the Holy Ghost. 16. The Fruits of the Spirit exemplified in the Character of Joseph. 17. The Spirit of God manifested by his Fruits. 18. Pride a worldly Quality; irreligious and irrational. 19. Uncleanness inconsistent with a Profession of the Gospel. 20. The Danger and Sinfulness of Covetousness exemplified in Ahab. 21. Malice incompatible with the Christian Character. 22. The Doctrine of Grace, a Motive with St. Paul to Humility and Di ligence. 23. Efficacy and Requisites of Prayer. 24. Self-Deceit of those who are Hearers, but not Doers of the Word. 25. Necessity and benefit of Baptism. 26. Necessity and Benefits of the Lord's Supper. 27. The Duty and Advantage of Church Communion. 28. Spiritual Blessings no Privilege for Sin; exemplified in the Punishment of the Jews in the Wilderness. 29. The Uses of Affliction. 30. The Death of the Righteous. 31. The Glory which shall be revealed."

In the tenth of these Sermons, the insufficiency of works of righteousness to purchase salvation is most ably stated, and the fallacy clearly exposed of those, who, like the Jews, on the one hand, rest their hopes upon their own obedience to the law of God, instead of relying on the all-sufficient merits and the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ; or who, like the Gentiles, on the other hand, substitute "a vague and heartless morality. for the glowing faith, the unfailing charity, and the undefiled holiness of the Gospel."

While the author as a faithful minister of Jesus Christ, clearly displays and refutes these errors, at the same time, he forcibly demonstrates the necessity of belief in Christ's merits being ac companied by righteousness of life.

"Do I mean to speak contemptuously or slightingly of obedience to the commandments of God? God forbid! Such obedience I understand to be, generally speaking, indispensibly necessary to salvation:-the surest evidence, the constant accompaniment, the fairest ornament, the only infallible criterion, the very crown and perfection, of a true Christian faith. It is that without which faith is nothing,' and 'is dead*. But my meaning is to set obedience upon its true scriptural ground; to exclude it from every pretension to be considered as meriting our salvation: to protest most decidedly against the notion, that any thing or every thing, which we can do, is to be considered in the light of an atonement for what we do not do: and to assert most unequivo cally the doctrine, that after all the exertions of a Christian, he

1 Cor. xiii. 2. James ii. 17, 20, 26.

must

must throw himself unreservedly for salvation upon the meritorious sacrifice of Christ; for that there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.'" Vol. I. P. 222.

Many erroneous notions have prevailed and still continue to prevail, among Christians, respecting the precise nature of faith in Jesus Christ, and the merit of obedience to the commandments of God. Mr. Mant, in different Sermons, administers a seasonable remedy to these erroneous notions, and successfully proves the necessity of faith in Jesus Christ as it may become an operative principle of good works, and the necessity, at the same time, of those works being performed in humble reliance for their acceptance upon the mercy of our Heavenly Father, through the meritorious sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the twelfth Sermon, the effects of disobedience are exemplified in the punishment of Saul. Having in the tenth Sermon, displayed the insufficiency of righteousness to purchase salvation, the author is not satisfied with the cautions which, in that Sermon, he ju diciously suggested against an abuse of the doctrine which might lead to the depreciation of good works, but he now teaches that obedience to the commandments of God is no less strictly enforced by the Gospel than by the law, that it is no less the duty of the disciple of Christ, than it was of the followers of Moses.

"It is from this consideration that the historical parts of the old Testament derive their principal interest. Take away from the Christian his obligation to keep God's commandments, and it follows, that the examples of virtue and vice which the Jewish scriptures afford, however they may interest us on account of the persons in whose characters and conduct they were exhibited, become altogether of no value, as to any effect which they might produce practically in ourselves. On the contrary let it be allowed, that the Christian is bound equally with the Jew to keep the com mandments of God; and then every example of obedience on the one hand, and on the other hand every example of disobedience, which the old Testament contains, become respectively an enCouragement or a warning to us, in our conduct towards that supreme Being, in whose sight, now as ever, to obey is better than sacrifice, and who never faileth to reject them, who reject his word." Vol, L. P. 257,

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On this proper scriptural ground, Mr. Mant proceeds to exemplify the fatal effects of disobedience in the punishment of Saul, applying his interesting history so that every Christian may be edified, by accompanying the author in his devout meditations. None can read them with attention without being

reminded

reminded that their obedience, if such it may be called, is very faulty, and none can be influenced by the pious admonitions. offered on this occasion, without becoming better men, and better Christians.

But these volumes are not only valuable as they contain the justest description of Christian faith and practice; they are further valuable, as they point out the scriptural and apostolical means by which that faith and that practice may be maintained. This they do, generally, by stating the efficacy of those truly Christian virtues of humility and teachableness, without which, it may be said, that the spirit of the Gospel dwelleth in no man. But these means are specially insisted on in the twenty-seventh Sermon, on the Duty and Advantage of Church Communion; wherein are most ably shown, in a Christian temper and spirit, becoming a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus, 1st. The general Sinfulness of Schism, or an unreasonable Separation from the Church; and 2ndly, the Benefits to be derived, individually, from a conscientious Communion with it.

These are subjects of peculiar importance at this present time; they have, indeed, been of importance at all times, since we find that schisms prevailed in the Christian Church so early as in the days of the Apostles, and have continued to prevail to the present period. But that which renders them now of very peculiar importance is that we live in times when many strange opinions prevail in faith and in practice, when there exists an alarming indifference as to what religious opinions are adopted, and when, even the professors of the true faith, are likely to become suicides on their own just opinions by their evident unconcern to check the progress, or to mark the evil of schism, which is the too fruitful parent of much false doctrine, and of much destructive heresy.

Let

We would not willingly speak with harshness of any, particularly of those who cherish the best and most pious intentions; but surely this unconcern is too strongly displayed in the novel union, or rather affectation of union, among Churchmen and every description of dissenters, both in doctrine and discipline, which is invited by the British and Foreign Bible Society. it not be thought that it is our intention to charge all Churchmen, who have involved themselves in that vortex of false union, with religious indifference, or to describe them as ignorant, or careless of the evils of schism. But we do charge them with allowing their honest desire of circulating the Scripture to gain the ascendency over their prudence, and to render them too incautions as to the means by which that circulation is to be assisted, and the channel through which it is to flow. The means adopted with this view are those which invite to one association

persons

persons of the most contrary opinions on the fundamental articles of the Christian Faith; friends of the Church, and enemies of the Church; those who reverence the Sacraments of Christ, and those who despise them; those who believe in the meritorious atonement of a Redeemer, and those who deride such belief in his atonement as idolatry. The union, thus invited, is not, as it might innocently and meritoriously be, to promote any good office of healing the sick, of delivering the oppressed, or of relieving the indigent; it is a religious union; its object is indeed to circulate the Scriptures; but it is to circulate them under the influence of living and practical commentators, at variance with each other; and thus the way is prepared, now under the Gospel, in a general indifference, for a revival of that position which prevailed among the heathens, who were unblest with Revelation, that no certainty was to be discovered. This is called liberality; in other words, it is a surrender of honest attachment to truth; or it is any thing, rather than being "zealously affected" in the good cause of supporting the essential articles of Christianity. Thus, with the Bible in their hands, many good persons are undesignedly, through this association, lessening that horror which we would wish ever to prevail in the minds of Christians against impugners of the prominent articles of the Gospel, as they are professed by the Church; and many dissenters are designedly encouraging the association, because they know that its tendency is to diminish the Churchman's horror of those doctrines which they themselves maintain. It is in the ordinary course of things that such should be the fact; prior to all experience, it is manifest that it must be so. The spirit of the old and trite adage may be here well applied, Noscitur a sociis. Without multiplying words on a subject, which fortunately is duly understood by a considerable portion of the wise and the good among us, it may be remarked, that, if we wish to find the promoters of every heresy with which the Christian world was ever pestered, we know where to find them; we know that they are in the British and Foreign Bible Society; and we know that this Society has become the grand rallying point of all that is opposed, not only to our Church, as an establishment, but that is opposed to it as the depository of that form of sound words which was once delivered to the Saints. And is it by uniting with such persons, who, with the Bible in their hands, propagate schism and heresy, that we should honestly exert ourselves to banish, as far as may be in our power, all false doctrine? Strange that there should be persons, professing themselves Churchmen, thus infatuated;. strange that they should not perceive the tendency of their inconsitent and unnatural connexion with their enemies.

We offer these reflections as properly belonging to the subject

of

of the Sermon now before us, which most ably states the duty and advantage of Church Communion; since, in the laxity of opinion prevailing among the members of the Society, and which is necessarily promoted by the association, a general notion prevails, that it is altogether indifferent whether a person resorts to Church, or to Meeting, to hear the Gospel preached. We speak what we know, when we state the fact to be so general, as to be unfortunately illustrative of the prevailing indifference with regard to Church Communion, that persons of this Society, professing themselves Churchmen, go to Church indeed, but, as their practice warrants us in lamenting, without any adequate impression of the duty of Church Communion, if it suit their convenience; and just so too, if it suit their convenience, they go to Meeting. And what. is more to our point of proving, that this Society operates prejudicially to Church Communion, we know many persons belonging to it, who, while they profess the warmest attachment to the Church, carry their attachment to its Communion no further. than to resort to those Churches where are preachers of their own particular bias, and inculcating doctrines in their own peculiar way; and where they do not find these preachers, whatever may be the piety or talent of the Clergyman ministering, they desert the Church, and resort to Meeting. It is then, we conclude, while so powerful an engine as the Bible Society is at work, naturally promoting indifference to the Church and to ber Communion, of peculiar expedience to show the evils of schism and separation. The Bible Society gives its immediate sanction to a ministry foreign from that of the Church, since one source of its revenue arises from the use which it makes of the dissenting ministry to raise funds for its support. Thus the whole Society is directly implicated in the charge of encouraging a ministry of which no true member of the Church of England can allow the validity. How those Churchmen belonging to the Society can reconcile this with their professed attachment, and their plain duty, to the Church, we cannot imagine. But we are sure that Mr. Mant renders a most important service in ably demonstrating the sinfulness of schism, and exhorting to a conscientious communion with the Church.

"Let it not be supposed, that, in speaking of the unity of the Church, I am raising a phantom to deter the ignorant from an action in itself indifferent. Little indeed can he be acquainted with the general tenor, or with particular passages of the Gospel, who is not aware that such unity is there most earnestly recommended and enforced. Else, why did our blessed Redeemer so anxiously press upon his disciples his last, and almost his dying intreaty, that they would love one another?" Why did he thus pray for his Apos

tles

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