aloof from both Churchmen and Dissenters. We stand forth as the advocates of TRUTH, without regard to sect or party. Since the fashionable scholastic religionists of the day first opened their fire upon us at the age of eighteen, we have traversed the path mostly in solitude; and now "the poor deluded Editor of the GOSPEL MAGAZINE" (as an Independent Minister, residing not very far from the Welsh coast, is pleased to term him) occupies his "niche," as far as this Magazine is concerned, with the most perfect independence: no bishop dares to control him, nor does he inquire of any Dissenting tutor what he shall say. He cringes to no one; calls no man lord or master, except the God-Man Christ Jesus, to whom he looks for a blessing on the word of his own grace, under the ministration of the Holy Ghost. Father Crispin, whose "hoary hairs" and "furrowed brow" demand our veneration, if nothing else did, for the present adieu! The great Captain of salvation be with thee in his sweet manifestations, as thou descendest the path of life, and drawest nigh the valley of the shadow of death. The good Lord hear "the prayers of an old man" for us, and ours for him, that while He is pleased to keep alive in his heart a holy jealousy for his Lord's honour and glory, he would indulge him with a kindly tenderness and solicitude for the lisping ones of the fold, who, by an incautious zeal on the part of an elder, might be wounded. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. TO "A SINNER SAVED BY GRACE," DORKING. High claim, dear sister; not an angel in heaven can possess such a privilege. Thine inability to "open thy mind to creatures is no bad mark against thee; better be a silent closet-worshipper than a talkative out-door professor. A sense of thy "coldness, deadness, and ignorance," proves that thou hast a heart to feel and light to discover what thou wast in thine Adam-state, and` what thou still art in thine old carnal nature, which, in itself, can never be improved. Ah! we have no doubt of thy wish that "thy dear Lord would never depart from thee, but daily lift up the light of his countenance upon thee;" we heartily unite with thee in the same desire, but it is far from our Lord's pleasure to grant it. Many days have passed since it was our happy privilege to lay full claim to dear relationship. A thousand fears have pressed in upon the mind; a multitude of misgiving thoughts occupied the place of simple dependence; and we that are sometimes triumphing in the God of our salvation, are obliged to seek him sorrowing, exclaiming with the spouse of old, “Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou dwellest, where thou causest thy flock to rest at noon;" yet, apparently, in vain do we cry. All continues dark, and the mind is still bowed down with many anxious fears; yet we have not sunk so low as once we did-to cast away our confidence, which hath great recompence of reward; but have felt, and still do feel, the buddings of hope under these two precious lines "Though with no sweet enjoyment blest, The covenant stands the same." A thousand times have we been in this dark state before, and have been ready to give up all for lost, thinking the Lord would never again appear; yet he has appeared: and now, though never so weak, and never more apprehensive of portending evil, for which we can assign no reason, yet we will not, we cannot give up. We venture upon Him, poor and needy, saying with the psalmist in our introductory subject for this month, "I am this day weak;" yet laying claim to the power of Jesus, and exclaiming with one of old, "Didst thou not say thou wouldst surely do me good?" TO "T. H. B.," OF PORTSMOUTH, No motives of prejudice induced us to withhold any remarks as an accompaniment to the portrait of Mr. Godden. If we were to listen to every "Lo here, and lo there," we should be in a maze, and have enough to do to extricate ourselves, without seeking the comfort and welfare of the family. Mr. Godden had been known as a Correspondent of this Magazine for years, and had just appeared in an article of some length. Moreover, in future it is our intention to be as brief as possible in our remarks of living ministers, and, where we can, will let them speak for themselves, and leave our readers to judge for themselves. EDITORIAL REVIEWS. By the Rev. Plain Sermons on the Church-Ministry and Sacraments. CYRIL HUTCHINSON, M.A., Student of Christchurch. Cleaver, Baker Street; and Parker, Oxford. Pp. 283. WHAT possible object could the Rev. Cyril Hutchinson have had in view in forwarding a copy of his work to the GOSPEL MAGAZINE ? Surely he could not have been aware that it no longer attempts to limit the church of the living God to what is termed the Church of England? He cannot be conscious of the fact-unless he wants his work to be brought into notoriety by contention that the present Editor of this Magazine entertains the fullest conviction that the eternal God has chosen for himself a church from among the sons of men, both within and far beyond the limits of this Establishment; yes, and that that God, too, has commissioned a goodly number without the pale of that Establishment, to go forth and preach a full, a free, and an eternal salvation, to a people preordained to everlasting life. These are the principles of the GOSPEL MAGAZINE, and not the erroneous rubbish-we dare not call it less, however plausible and talented its form-with which the Rev. Cyril Hutchinson has been attempting to fill the minds of the unfortunate "parishioners of Hawkhurst." You tell your readers, Sir, in the NOTE or PREFACE to your volume, that you have made no scruple to "avail yourself of the works of various commentators." We give you full credit for the assertion, and would add our conviction of the necessity of your so doing; for you give not the veriest proof of having been instructed by that blessed and eternal Spirit, who has declared that he will "lead his people into all truth." You stand, Sir, in an awfully responsible situation, between a holy God, and souls dead in trespasses and sins. You go forth professedly as a witness for God, and an advocate for his most glorious truth, and yet you deny, at the very onset, a fundamental doctrine of that truth, which proves to a demonstration that as yet the enmity of your mind has not been slain, and that you who stand forth as the friend of God, are nothing less than a decided enemy, and at present (if you still hold the views advocated in the volume which you have thought proper to send us for review) under spiritual condemnation yourself, and sealing more effectually the condemnation of those whose ill fate it is to sit under your ministry. In page 18 of your work, you say, "Remember we derive our authority from the bishops, the bishops from the apostles, the apostles from Christ; nay, Christ himself, as if to show divine appointment requisite, by direct appointment from God the Father." Rely on it, Sir, that if no other proof of the fallacy of apostolical succession were to be brought, your own argument is sufficient, for God would never call into his service a man betraying such a want of skill in the Word of Life as you do; for, in page 4 you remark (alluding to Judas, who, notwithstanding your endeavours to prove to the contrary, was merely used as an instrument to bring about a special end; he ranked among the disciples, it is true, but his entire rejection was confirmed by our Lord, in John, xvii. 12), "I mention this, my friends, by the way, to check those high notions of favouritism in which some men indulge themselves, men who flatter themselves that they are so sure of salvation, because they think they are the peculiarly called, elected, or chosen by the Saviour, and that his spirit is within them ;" and again, in page 20, you say, "Some have taken up strange notions of God's decrees, and flatter themselves that they are favourites, and must be saved, live how they will." This is holding up to ridicule, as we have before hinted, a fundamental truth of the Bible, wherein the doctrine of election is repeatedly set forth in the clearest manner. Read, Sir, before you attempt again to enter a pulpit to instruct others, the following passages of Holy Writ, and in the language which you so often use before the congregation (we would fain hope it were a very small one), "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them;" "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Rom. viii. 29, 30); "And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed" (Acts, xiii. 48); "The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded" (Rom. xi. 7); "That the purpose of God according to election might stand" (Rom. ix. 11); "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John, i. 13); and, moreover, this chosen, elect people, so far from "living how they will," as you ignorantly term it, are made the partakers of a new nature, which is in itself so pure, so holy, so like unto its great Author, that it cannot sin, it hates, it abhors it; it dwells in the individual, so graciously chosen, as a new and living principle which, according to the apostle in his seventh chapter to the Romans, wars against the flesh-the old nature-of which every man is made the partaker, and which every elect vessel of mercy is doomed to drag about with him to the grave, till this "vile body," which is sown in corruption, shall be raised in incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. Oh, Sir! our ardent desire is, that God may show you the dangerous ground you occupy. You are attempting to insist upon practical holiness, but it is the holiness of the creature, which rises as a stench in the nostrils of Him unto whom you attempt to commend yourself; it belongs to the characters described by the apostle in Rom. x. 3, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." Christ dwells in the hearts of his people by a living faith; they are his kindred; a divine relationship subsists between them ; and the moment that relationship is made known by the adopting grace and regenerating work of the Holy Ghost, so beautifully set forth by our Lord to Nicodemus (John, iii. 3), that moment is eternal enmity to sin and Satan rooted in the new heart, a living principle of grace implanted; and the language of Solomon, "What will ye see in the Shulamite ? As it were the company of two armies" (Cant. vi. 13), becomes exactly descriptive of that individual's position. We investigate your book no farther; we forbear to add more, beyond that of expressing a caution to beware of the place you stand in ; for the passage you have applied as referring to those who choose to dissent from your Church certainly at present belongs to you, "Lest haply you be found to be fighting against God." The propagation of such notions-appearing in print before the world with such views, may gratify a Pusey, and secure to you preferment in the Church of which you profess to be so zealous an advocate; but, as surely as there is a God in heaven, so surely will He, another day, if such views are still held and propagated as yours, enter into judgment with you; the blood of immortal souls will be upon your head; and through eternal ages the cry of misled souls will wring in your ears to your everlasting destruction and disgrace. Strong language, we admit; but it is not a subject on which to trifle, nor a time to parley; we must acquit our consciences fearlessly, unhesitatingly, without an eye to any man's good or bad opinion, or the coveting of his silver or his gold, whether you do or not? Memoirs of the late Rev. William Nunn, M.A., nearly twenty-three years Minister of St. Clement's Church, Manchester. Edited by the Rev. ROBERT PYм, Rector of Elmley, near Wakefield, Yorkshire. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., Paternoster Row. Pp. 480. WE briefly return to our notice of the life of the Rev. William Nunn, in order to renounce the charges which have been brought against our former review of this work. By some admirers of Mr. Nunn, it has been remarked that our expressions of Mr. N. were of too humbling a character ; that " one would have supposed we had gathered our opinions of him from the self-abasing views he took of himself." Who that took an impartial view of the subject would affirm that in our endeavour to set forth the mighty power and grace of God as so strikingly exemplified in Mr. N., we had depreciated his character as a man, a Christian in the true sense of the word, or as a minister clearly called of God to the all-important office he sustained? It has been remarked that, "we exercised too great a freedom with the name of William Nunn." We had always thought it stood too high in the estimation of those who had the privilege of his acquaintance or his ministry, to require any human appendage to enhance its value. We deemed it sufficient that it should stand with an Augustus Toplady, a William Romaine, a Robert Hawker, a William Huntington, upon its own naked worth, in connexion with that grace of which he had been made the partaker, and that truth of which he stood forth as the unflinching advocate. Farther, it has been said that we wrote as if Mr. Nunn were not possessed of more than ordinary natural ability. If we failed to convey the idea that Mr. Nunn did possess great natural talent, wrought upon more immediately by the distinct and personal operations of the Holy Ghost than by the assistance of men, we fell short of our object. Finally, we add our preconceived opinion that Mr. Nunn was a burning and a shining light, doing honour to his Lord and Master; by whose removal the church has lost one of the most valuable supporters of which, during the last half-century, it has been enabled to boast; and we heartily respond to the sentiments contained in the following extract, which has just fallen into our hands, embodying the opinion of one of Mr. Nunn's hearers, and expressing the heartfelt language of many who enjoyed the privilege of his ministry. "Have we not been favoured for many years with an Abner' and a great one? Did he not cheer our souls, admonish us with all faithfulness, and spend himself for us! We want such; we are much like children deprived of a wise and affectionate father.” ORIGINAL POETRY. TO THE BRETHREN "WHO HAVE OBTAINED LIKE PRECIOUS FAITH WITH US, THROUGH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD, AND OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST." O look unto Jesus! in life and in death, It is he gives the first, as he takes the last breath; To him, the Creator of all things, is given All power on earth, all glory in heaven. O look unto Jesus! the first and the last, Though unseen by faith's eye, or mistrusted through fear. O look unto Jesus! and not at thy sin; Thou art justified freely-accepted in him, Who was holy, and harmless, undefiled, and pure; Who died for thy sins, thy life to secure. O look unto him! shake thyself from the dust Of this perishing earth-in him is thy trust; Thy support, thy dependence, thy strength, and thine all, He will never forsake, nor from grace let thee fall. O look unto Jesus! exalted on high, He pleads with our Father, who will not deny; The good Spirit assist us, dear brethren, to fight, March 23rd, 1841. 1. A. DOUDNEY, CITY PRESS, 1, LONG LANE. B. C. S... |