your course, and those with you. I expect, ere long, to address you, as brethren beloved, in the full fellowship of the Gospel. But for the present, if you do not choose to say anything about our difference, be silent on it, and write only about the grand point of agreement. With the most affectionate interest, yours,

LXXII.

TO THE SAME.

April, 1821.

MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,-Believe me, I never had an idea of putting out of view the question so painfully at issue between us, though I wished to hear of your course, even though you should, for a time, say nothing upon it. Your letter of Feb. 8th, though professedly giving a view of the meaning you attach to the precept in Matt. v., really left me quite at a loss to know what you mean. I have sufficiently marked that I understand it to be a prohibition against binding ourselves, as to our future conduct, under the imprecation of any forfeiture, however small, or by any pledge that we stake for our acting as we engage to do. At times you would seem to intimate that all such binding of our souls by a bond, is inconsistent with Christian principles. Yet, at other times, you seem to have a different idea. What do you mean by quoting the Apostle's language-"I call God to [record] witness upon my soul? Do you think, with many, that Paul intended to imprecate the divine vengeance on his soul, in case he spoke falsely-in short, to say may God damn me if it be not so and so? The plainness of the dress in which I put the sentiment does not at all increase its profaneness. Do you ask how I interpret the passage? As usual I say, in the first place, I am sure he had no such meaning as this. In the next place I say, that I think he uses the word soul here as equivalent with the inward man. What he was assuring the Corinthians of, was not any thing cognizable by man-any thing of outward conduct-but the inward motives which influenced his conduct; and he suitably appeals to God as the witness of them. I smile, and I sigh, at the fight you make about the import of the promissory oaths in this country. And let it be observed, that every oath administered in this country is essentially a promissory oath, as much as the oath of allegiance. But do you deny that the oath administered in England and Ireland to all nations, except those of the Scotch Kirk, is expressly imprecatory in the words, "So help me God!" or, as it ran originally, "So help me God at the judgment day?" The special clause in an Act of Parliament which provides for swearing those of the Scotch Kirk here, according to the Scotch form, pro

ceeds not upon any difference in the import of the two forms, but upon their scruples to kiss the book, &c. And truly, any one who chooses to see, may easily see precisely the same import in the phrase, "As I shall answer before God at the great day of judgment.' You quote various persons, lawyers and others, who loosely speak of an oath, as the most solemn of all appeals to God, or modes of affirmation; without their marking in what its peculiar solemnity consists. Does that go one tittle against the uncontradicted interpretation of those who do precisely mark what the others admit? And are they divines merely? Was it as a divine that Archdeacon Paley wrote? No: it was as a civilian. Were the compilers of the article Oath, in the Encyclopædia Brittanica, and Rees's Encyclopædia, divines? One of the Barons of the Exchequer in Ireland, distinctly admitted to me last summer the imprecatory nature of every oath; and confirmed it, by mentioning the form in which (I think) a Japanese was lately sworn in our courts, by holding up a china dish, and dashing it against the ground: just as Livy, detailing the form of Oath by which the Romans ratified their treaties, describes the priest knocking out the brains of a ram, with an imprecation that Jupiter might so destroy the party who should violate the terms of the league;—and agreeably to old Varro's express declaration, that every oath terminates in an imprecation. Yet, I would observe to you, that I am by no means sure that all the things called oaths, under the old Testament, were of this nature; or were, some of them, any thing more than such a simple appeal to God as the witness, as any Christian may employ. I was pained, my friend, by an appearance in your last to me, as if you were disposed to cut this subject short. If you write again, keep in view the distinctness of the two questions.-1. What the thing prohibited in Matt. v. is.-2? Whether the oaths of this country be a thing of that nature? Still affectionately yours, for the truth's sake,

LXXIII.

TO THE SAME.

June 11, 1821.

I bear you on my heart before Him that heareth prayer, in whose gracious presence we sinners are set by the revelation he has made of his glorious name. I cannot but say, that I think your flesh has been struggling against plain scriptural principle. You now doubt the lawfulness of what men call you to. Under even that doubt, I trust you will see your course plainly marked, not to do the thing. How can my friend express himself so undecidedly upon the clause, "So help me God!" "It is an ill phrase-but is a person necessarily obliged to subjoin what is not expressed-but not otherwise ?" And

does that need to be expressed, my friend, in order to expose the wickedness of our saying "So may God help me, as I shall bear true allegiance to," &c. If that be not binding ourselves, under a curse that we shall act so and so, I know not what is: and you have professed to abhor the thought of this. That this is the design and intention of every oath administered in this country, I think has been fully established, whatever be its form: but when the form is as above, I know not how it can be disputed. And is there any instance of such an oath being enjoined, even under the law of Moses? Or is this, by any subtility, to be confounded with a solemn declaration of an antecedent fact, as in the presence of Him who searcheth the hearts? But if you bring the oath of cursing, enjoined in Numb. v. 21-22, as parallel, I must say you might as well bring the meditated slaying of Isaac by Abraham, or the extirpation of the Canaanites by the Jews, as justificatory of similar acts now. The divine COMMAND rendered that right which, without it, must have come from the evil one. I have already marked the passage of the law, to which the Lord's prohibition decisively refers: and the binding of the soul there was voluntary; and I hesitate not to say even then came from evil-from the hardness of their hearts-on account of which it was permitted, just as the putting away a disagreeable wife was permitted. But I have done. I have been corresponding with one A. Ma baker in Cupar Fife, and, from his last, I hope the Lord has opened his eyes. To the riches of his abounding mercy I commend y and yours.

'you

LXXIV.

TO THE SAME.

July, 1821.

"How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" This also is the LORD's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes, like all his works. Our hearts embrace you all-yourself and your wife-brother F and his-with unreserved affection, as beloved in the Lord, fellow-heirs of that glory which is about to be revealed, and-fellow pilgrims in a world in which we are warned that we shall have tribulation. Tell me what may be the value of your present employment. We need not trouble ourselves with calculating the probabilities of your being allowed to retain it. The LORD knows and has determined how that shall be. He knows, also, what you have need of for food and raiment and shall he withhold that from those, to whom he has given eternal life and the adoption of children? I shall now be weary to see you all; and if it please God to continue the amendment which appears in my health, I think it likely that I shall strain a point to get to Leith before the

end of the summer. One of my proposed objects in giving up uy establishment at Dublin was, to be more at liberty to go about. Perhaps there was much of the working of fleshly vanity and pride in the wish. "He knows the things that come into our mind, every one of them;" (Ezek. xi. 5.) and knows that every one of them is evil-every imagination of the thought of our hearts: and it is on such a black ground he displays the glory of his rich grace and great salvation. You mentioned brother F 's family as with you. Tell me the particulars of his family-of what it consists. Be not cast down at any prospect of the spoiling of your goods. Take it joyfully, remembering Him who is " GoD with us," and who has said, "I will never fail you nor forsake you." To his rich mercy and mighty keeping I commend you all.

LXXV.

TO THE SAME.

:

Sept. 18, 1821.

MY VERY DEAR L-It affords us matter of thanksgiving to find that you were kept so still and unanxious in your trying circumstances. O yes-kept and it is an easy thing to the Lord to keep us so in circumstances the most trying. What a little glimpse of his glorious name is sufficient to effect it! Well may he say to us-" If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed." I was thinking lately of what a West-India planter once told me, of the comfort of the slaves, in having no care about providing for themselves or their families in sickness or in health, knowing that all this will be done by the master whose they are. "Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price." How wonderfully is our full blessedness and security interwoven and incorporated with the most constraining motive to glorify God with our bodies and our spirits, which are God's. "Be still; and know that I am God." Yes; every thing opposite to that stillness is the working of those atheistic hearts of ours, which deny that God is. The Lord be with you all,and keep you glorying in his holy name.

YOUR last letter, my very dear L, afforded us much matter of praise and thanksgiving to Him "who alone doeth great wonders." For surely it was He that gave you favour in the eyes of Mr. He that turneth the hearts of men whithersoever he will. After such a deliverance, we are often ready to say, in the elation of our minds, that we shall never distrust the Lord again. But that word describes us to the end-" Then believed they his words: they sang his praise. They soon forgot his works: they waited not for his counsel." (Ps. cvi.) Well; that other word describes Him-" But He being full of compassion forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not." (Ps. lxxviii.)

I conceive the fortnight spent at C has been of service to While there, I had much fighting with a set of professors

me.

Mr.

candidly

at their head)-in whom the deceivableness of unrighteousness assumes the novel form, of combining Arian or Socinian views of the person of Christ, with a very plausible language about his work, and such an outward accommodation to some scriptural principles, that Mr. has for some time preached without the usual accompaniments of singing and prayer. He is a very amiable and interesting man; but holds every thing with such laxity, that not only J. Haldane's profession, but John Wesley's, appears very good in his eyes. We found one or two of his people apparently very differently minded: and perhaps it may please God to make the coal of fire thrown in among them burn. avowed a state of mind which I believe is very common, though generally concealed. He sees two sets of scriptural passages, which he thinks speak an opposite language. He balances one against the other; and according as either scale at different times preponderates in his view, he is strongly inclined to adopt one or the other set of sentiments. Such a state of mind is almost unavoidable in a serious inquirer, not persuaded by divine power what is truth: while the man must frequently study to conceal his scepticism from himself as well as others. Such are the men who have two strings to their bow. The Lord himself keep us all holding fast the faith!

I hope you have not been over hasty in calling to fellowship in all the ordinances. I am sure that no precise limit of age can be marked for this. It must vary according to different circumstances and characters. But there are two opposite errors (as in most cases) which we should equally guard against-a premature reception of them into church membership-(I use the phrase for brevity-not that I like it, but you know my meaning-) and such an unwarrantable delay of calling them to it, as would leave them to grow