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who would be able to call the public attention to a subject of very great importance, by the strength of their appeal, and the authority of their

names.

I

SIR,

JOHN MORELL.

Tenterden, November 3, 1823. OBSERVE in your obituary list, (p. 607,) the name of my beloved friend and fellow-student of the same class, at Hoxton College, Mr. J. Cor

nish; and hope for a more particular

account of his life and ministry. He was much respected by the neighbouring ministers, and was upon very friendly terms with the late Dr. Toul min.

Whilst at College he published a small tract, entitled "A Serious and Earnest Address to Protestant Dissenters of all Denominations," which soon passed to a second edition, and also a very brief "History of the Puritans" of the same size. We carried on an epistolary correspondence to the last, with a full flow of cordial affection, in which time and long separation caused no abatement. In one of his last he writes, “I heartily thank you for yours of May 23. Few ministers have continued so long with the same society as you and I. I rejoice that your society flourishes; mine, as to numbers, is much the same." In another part he observes, "Most of our fellow-academics are gone before us; but our venerable resident tutor," referring to Dr. Rees, " brings forth fruit in old age." In this he well knew that with him I should most cordially rejoice.

One circumstance also I had from his own pen, which was highly to his honour. From the fluctuations in trade during the American war, his father was a sufferer in his circumstances; and at length called his creditors together, and honestly divided his remaining property among them, Many years after this, when my beloved friend, by the profits of a school, had it in his power to do it, he called the above creditors together, and paid them up to twenty shillings in the pound. Providence still continued to bless him, and he informed me, by a letter, not long since received, that he had every comfort which this life could afford him, still beloved by the

congregation to whom he ministered. I have written the above, hoping that, if it shall be judged to be useful, some neighbouring minister or friend may give a more particular account of the unostentatious and retired, but I would persuade myself useful, life of one who has never ceased to have a place in my esteem and affection.

SIR,

N

L. HOLDEN.

Plymouth, November 2, 1823.

In the Course of Lectures on Nonconformity, which are now in the hands of the public in most of the counties of England, I have said that "with regard to the archbishops and bishops of the Church of England, they can be regarded in no other light than as ecclesiastical attorneys, employed to do the work of the Church," (p. 99,) which, "in point of fact, is one of the many branches of the estate of the realm, over which the king presides as head." Pp. 87, 158, 191.

It would, I now think, have been more correct to have said, that they are ecclesiastical magistrates, to whom the people are directed to look up among other duties for a licence to open a place of worship, in the same manner as others apply to the civil magistrate for a licence to open a tobacco or a gin shop.

I also feel some regret at a passage in p. 145. "Consecrated water to sprinkle the living, which is employed in the Catholic ceremonies, is not in use in the Protestant Church: but, in what does this rite, so much laughed at by Church-of-England men, differ from the consecrated buildings without which they are not permitted to offer a public prayer, or the consecrated ground in which they must bury their dead?" I had recently read of the consecration of a church by Archbishop Laud, and of all the muminery practised by that zealot upon the occasion; and, in common I believe with the public at large, as well Churchmen as Dissenters, I had supposed that some superstitious rites were observed in the present day in what is called the consecration of churches. I have since learned that I was under a mistake, and that the good sons of the church in my immediate neighbourhood found themselves

strument of donation or endowment, in which provision is in some way made for a salary for the minister and especial care taken not to entrench in any respect on the rights, privileges and immunities of the vicar or rector of the parish. The bishop then bespoke the attention of the audience, as to the expediency of having fit houses of worship, and observed

as much mistaken as I was, upon an occasion that recently presented itself in this town, of witnessing the consecration of a Chapel of Ease to the Church and Parish of St. Andrew. The term consecration I imagine led us all astray; and the Churchmen were as much pleased as I confess myself to have been, on discovering that there was not even a tincture of superstition in the whole service," that devout and holy men, moved which was conducted in its different parts by the bishop, his official principal, his chaplain and the gentleman who is appointed to do the duty of the chapel. The ceremony might very well be called a dedication. "It was little different from what might be observed in a Dissenting Chapel on a similar occasion; excepting the signing of a deed drawn on parchment by the bishop, constituting that building a place for divine worship according to the ritual of the united Church of England and Ireland. A elergyman, on receiving orders, binds himself to his bishop not to perform or assist in divine worship in any building that is not set apart for that purpose by a bishop of the English Church; therefore, until a licence had been obtained from the bishop of the diocese for using this chapel as a place of worship, no deacon or priest of the church could do duty in it. The ceremonies which were gone through were as follows.

On the day appointed, the bishop, attended by his vicar general and other officers, entered the building by the west door, when, having put on their respective robes, they went out again into the yard, where the parishioners waited for them. Then a person deputed for the purpose offered a petition to the bishop in writing, at the same time requesting him in the name of the parishioners, to consecrate this chapel to the uses mentioned in the petition. To which the bishop replied that he was ready to do as they desired, and besought God to bless and prosper the good work they were going about. Then all entering together and passing up the middle aisle, they repeated the xxivth Psalm, the bishop beginning, "The earth is the Lord's," &c. The bishop being seated at the side of the altar, the petition was then read, which was immediately followed by the in

either by the secret inspiration of the blessed Spirit, or by express command from God, or by their own reason and sense of the natural decency of things," (which last expression I am pleased to see inserted after the others,) "have erected houses for the worship of God," &c. Then followed suitable prayers, collects and lessons, after which the instrument of consecration, that is the licence, being read by the official principal, it was signed by the bishop, and the remaining part of the prayers and a sermon followed.

The ceremony of consecrating a burial ground, which took place at the same time in a neighbouring pa rish, is of a similar character, a mere licence to use it for the burial of the dead; and, that it is not considered in a religions or sanctifying point of view, is evident from this cireumstance, that the parish having occasion to make use of it before the bishop could come down, obtained a dispensation from his office and actually buried many bodies in the ground before the consecration took place.

I had a short time since the pleasure of hearing the first charge delivered by the present Bishop, Dr. Carey, to the clergy of this diocese, in which it appeared to me, that he was aware of his duty as chief steward of this portion of the ecclesiastical estate; for, excepting a slight hit at Antinomianism, which he did not consider to belong to the Church-ofEngland religion, his design was evidently to shew, that he should make it his business to see that every one of the lessees under this estate did his duty, in the post he held under his lord. He spoke of service being regularly performed according to law, curates being properly paid, too much service not being covetously undertaken by one man, parsonages being

kept in repair and in creditable appearance, and the like; his whole charge bore upon the temporals of the Church, and he talked much as a steward would talk to tenants about the cultivation of their farms and the proper apportionments of their pieces of land. I commended him for what appeared to be a fulfilment of his duty, and I thought this diocese was happy in not being plagued, either with a Burgess who thinks himself authorized to enforce the rigid systems of Orthodoxy, or with a Marsh, who will bind the poor candidates for clerical honours and profits with more than an Egyptian burden.

I. WORSLEY.

P. S. I must not omit the present opportunity of remarking upon a mis

statement which a friend informs me

I have made in p. 99, respecting the words used by Mr. Jones, Curate of Bovey in this county, on the Athanasian Creed. His words are said to have contained a disbelief of the damnatory clauses of the Creed, and not of the Creed altogether; but if it were so, it does not invalidate my observation. A man who is in the Church is not at liberty to believe a part of its professed doctrines, and to deny another part; for if this were the case, how could he declare his assent and consent to all and every thing contained in the book of Common Prayer? As a faithful steward the bishop had no right to admit Mr. Jones to the duties of the Church, when his conscience would not permit him to fulfil its requirements, one of which clearly is, to consign to everlasting damnation all those who do not believe the Athanasian Trinity.

T

2, St. John Street, Clerkenwell, SIR, Nov. 2, 1823. HERE is no subject upon which a greater variety of hypotheses have been formed than that of the redemption of mankind by the death of Jesus Christ; particularly as to its nature, and as to the means by which it was accomplished. Much has been said and written upon the subject; but all that I have seen and heard upon it, I confess, appears to me very unsatisfactory, and as not entering sufficiently into the ideas respecting it which were meant to be

conveyed by the sacred writings, in which it is treated of at large, and from which alone a clear and accurate knowledge of it can be derived.

Let us then endeavour to ascertain what is stated in those writings upon this important subject. And we may observe, in general, that they represent Christ as dying for, or on account of, the sins of mankind, as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, as delivered for our offences, as dying for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God; in particular, that his dying for sins was to put them away, to make reconciliation for them, to make an end of transgressions, to redeem us from them, and to purge them away; and all this is represented by those writings as having been actually accomplished by the death of Christ. "When he had, say they, by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. This man after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, for ever sat down on the right hand of God: for by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He was once offered to bear (i. e. to carry away, to remove) the sins of many. God hath reconciled us to himself by the death of his Son; for God was in or by Christ, i. e. by his death reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them."

Testament on this interesting subject. Such is the statement of the New The necessity of such a redemption death of Christ will appear, if we as that which was effected by the

take a view of the state in which the world was when Jesus appeared to put away sin. With respect to the Gentiles, the Apostle Paul describes them as sunk into the grossest idolatry and wickedness, and as being without hope and without God in the world. With respect to the Jews, he represents them as in no wise in a better state than the Gentiles, as alike afar from God, as being no less sinners before God than they were, and equally with them in a state of condemnation and death; so that the whole world was become guilty before God, subject to the judgment of God,

who had concluded them, both Jews and Gentiles, all under sin.

To this state of condemnation and death, does the death of Christ for the sin of the world refer, and the design of it was to reverse that state in which all mankind were, to annul the sentence of death which they were under by taking away the sin of the world, the cause of that condemnation, by reconciling them to God, who were in a state of irreconciliation and enemies to him by wicked works, and by establishing a new dispensation, (not of terror, condemnation and death, like that under which they then were, but,) a dispensation of grace, mercy and free forgiveness, to open to them a door of hope, and a new and living way of access unto God. "He died for sins," says Peter, "the just for the unjust, that he might bring us unto God."

That mankind, universally, both Jews and Gentiles, were in a state of condemnation and death, without hope and without strength, sinners and at enmity with God, at the time when Christ died for them, the apostle infers from the fact of his dying for them. "If one died for all," he says, "then were all dead," and he died for all, that they who live might live unto him that died for them and rose again. And again, "When we were without strength, when we were yet sinners, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." And again, "When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son."

From the above premises we are naturally led to an inquiry respecting the extent of the efficacy of the death of Christ. We are told that he appeared, by the sacrifice of himself, to put away sin. Did his sacrifice effect this both prospectively and retrospectively? Did he die for the future sins of mankind, as well as for their past transgressions? If for the former, i. e. for all the sins that should be committed throughout all the future ages and generations of men, will it not follow, that he died for a nonentity, to put away that which, in reality, had no existence? For sin has no existence until it is committed; it is the act only that gives it a being. Should it be said that the future sins of mankind were all present to the omniscient mind of the Divine Being,

(who seeth the end from the beginning, and to whom all futurity is present,) and were contemplated in the sacrifice of Christ and put away by it, will it not follow, that since that period, no sin, even in the Divine Mind, has had any existence in the world, either to be charged to the account of the sinner, to be repented of by him, or to be pardoned by the mercy of the Divine Being? These considerations are sufficient, I think, to shew that the death of Christ was not intended to put away the future transgressions of men, although, (as we shall have occasion to observe,) it laid the foundation of their remission under the new dispensation, but that it had respect to, and an immediate effect on those which had taken place prior to that event. This is clearly implied in various passages of the New Testament, and expressly asserted in others.

The Apostle Paul writing to the Romans, tells them that God hath set forth Jesus Christ as a mercy-seat in his own blood,* to declare his righteousness for (with respect to) the remission (the passing over) of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. (Ch. iii, 25.) These words have an especial reference to the Gentiles with respect to whom the forbearance of God had been exercised in a peculiar manner, in passing over, not noticing or imputing to them their former trespasses. No divinely-authorized legislator was ever sent to them to instruct them in the knowledge of the true God, in the manner in which he was to be worshiped, in the knowledge of his will, or of their obligation to him, concerning all which they were in the most deplorable ignorance. From the time that the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, until the coming of the Messiah, no in

"He is the mercy-seat, on which the cloud of glory rests; sprinkled and consecrated by his own blood, as that of victim. On this basis divine mercy takes old was by the blood of the appointed its stand, and proclaims the commencement of a new and glorious æra.” Belsham in loco.

+ So the Greek word rendered remission signifies. It does not occur in any other passage of the New Testament.

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spired prophet was sent to the Gentile world to warn them of the evil of their ways, to call them to repentance, or to offer any terms of mercy and forgiveness. The times of this ignorance, (as Paul tells the idolatrous Athenians,) God winked at, but now," when a universal dispensation of grace and mercy was opened, in which a day of future retribution was clearly revealed, in which God would judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he had ordained, of which he had given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead, and having commanded repentance and remission of sins in his name, to be proclaimed among all nations, God who winked at the former times of ignorance, now commandeth all men every where to repent. No such universal command had ever before been issued, because the reason of it did not exist.

The same sentiment respecting the forbearance of God to the Gentiles, is expressed by Paul and Barnabas in their address to the people at Lystra, when they, supposing them to be gods in the likeness of men, with the priest of Jupiter, were about to offer sacrifices to them., "which when the apostles heard, they ran in among the people crying out, and saying, Sirs, Why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein." They then inform them that this living God, the Creator of all things, "In times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways," i. e. to pursue their evil and idolatrous courses, without interfering to reprove or to punish them. The apostles add, "Nevertheless he left not himself without witness," (that is of his existence, power and Godhead,) but this evidence of his being and perfections was not afforded them by any divine interposition or supernatural revelation, but only by the common bounties of his Providence. In that," say they, "he did good, and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."* Thus we see that it

Acts xiv. 13-17.

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was for the remission or passing over of the past sins of the Gentile world, that Jesus Christ was, at that time, set forth as a mercy-seat to declare the righteousness of God.

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With respect to the Jews, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews more directly and expressly affirms that the death of Jesus Christ was necessary in order to redeem their past transgressions. Speaking of the sacrifice of Christ, he says, "For this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament, (covenant,) that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, (covenant,) they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance; for where a covenant is, there is a necessity for the death of that which establisheth the covenant.+ For a covenant is firm over the dead: whereas it is of no force while that which establisheth the covenant liveth." Upon this passage we may observe,

In the first place, that the dispensation of the gospel is here denominated, "the new covenant;" as the law, the dispensation of Moses is denominated the first, or old covenant. This covenant was the decalogue, the law of the ten commandments written by the finger of God upon two tables of stone, which are called the tables of the covenant: these were deposited in the ark, which on that account is styled the ark of the covenant. Our translators in these verses, and in some other passages, have, very improperly, rendered the Greek here used, with respect to both the Jewish and the Christian covenants, by the word "Testament," thereby conveying the idea that the latter was the will of Jesus Christ, to the validity and effect of which the death of him the testator was necessary. If this be the true interpretation, will it not necessarily follow, that the victim, whose blood was shed, and whose death confirmed the Old Testament, was the testator of that Testament? On the other hand,

Heb. ix. 15.

† Imp. Ver. That is, of the victim by which the covenant is ratified. See Wakefield and Doddridge.

See Deut. ix. 9—11; Heb. ix. 4.

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