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useful. Yes, my dear James, I believe, and am sure, that primitive Christianity shall be again revived; nay, I witness its revival, though in a very small and despised way. The ground on which I express myself with so much confidence, is that word of the Lord "which abideth for ever." He has said that he will consume the man of sin with the spirit of his mouth, 2 Thess. ii. 8; and "is any thing too hard for me, saith the Lord?" Every departure from primitive Christianity, either in doctrine or in practice, is the work of the man of sin-the effect of human ungodliness corrupting and setting aside the word of God; and by that word, as the sword of his spirit"— "the sword which proceedeth out of his mouth," he is bringing back the flock of his pasture to the good old paths from which they have been turned. It is one of the signs of the times, an indication of the approaching appearance of the Lord.from heaven. There are many adversaries: but he laugheth them to scorn, and his is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. All of man's that has been displayed on earth since the entrance of sin into the world, has been one exhibition of ungodliness, and of besotted blindness-of rebellion, stubbornness, and ingratitude: but on that dark ground the mercy and the power of God are exhibited, accomplishing that work of saving whom he will, which is his own exclusively, and in which he displays all his glory. I should be very glad to send you some of my publications on the subject, and I hope yet to find an opportunity of doing so. I think I will enclose in this letter a smaller tract-very short-but simply putting forward that fundamental divine truth, of which it is declared, "whosoever believeth shall be saved." All return to primitive Christianity must commence there. As long as men disbelieve the truth of God, and are left to strong delusions that they should believe any of the lies which pass under the name of Gospel, but are not the Gospel-all their religion is vain, and all their very sacrifices abomination to the Lord. And such false religion is one of the main instruments in the hands of the man of sin for leading his captives to destruction. In the revealed truth of God there is one thing alone excellent and glorious discovered, the glory of the Lord-as just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly-the just God, and yet the Saviour of sinners, even the chief, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He appeared once in the end, or last age of the world, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, Heb. ix. 26. He has finished that work; it is done; and the divine acceptance of that, his one offering for sin, has been proved by his resurrection from the dead. The Gospel is sent preaching or proclaiming to the rebellious peace by Jesus Christ— peace made by the blood of his cross, who bore the sins of many, and was made a curse for them, that men might be blessed in him. The same divine word brings nigh this righteousness and salvation of God, to every one alike to whom it comes in the declaration, not that whoso doeth this or getteth that to forward himself to it—but that whoso believeth the testimony of God shall be saved-not put into a salvable state (as many profanely talk) in which he may save himself if he bestir himself sufficiently in the work-but shall be saved unto the uttermost by him, who is the captain of salvation appointed 2 A

VOL. II.

to bring many sons unto glory. The belief of this of old gladdened the heart, enlightened the eyes, and made wise unto salvation even the betrayers and murderers of the Lord of glory. They were then taught by the apostles how they ought to walk and to please God, as children of the light and of the day, as heirs of the kingdom. And those apostolic instructions are still given in the New Testament Scriptures, and in the record of the way in which the first churches walked in the fellowship of the Gospel. 'He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." * * * * It is now many years since I have renounced with abhorrence the title of Reverend, and the whole of the clerical character connected with it. That character, under whatever name or modification, is one of the ungodly fictions of the man of sin, and one of the main pillars of Antichrist's kingdom.

XC.

TO DR. F.

Dec. 8th, 1821.

MY VERY DEAR DR.-.-Though I should in general be glad to take up my pen to you at any time, yet I own that on the present occasion there are considerations which would make me very averse to it, if I dare yield to them. But as I see that I ought to encounter the task, let me set about it cheerfully; in the hope that it will end in the profitable correction of error, on which ever side that error exists at present. Poor B has naturally and necessarily transmitted to our brother Cyour two letters, with a copy of his reply to your first. You will, in the first instance, be confirmed in your apprehension that our minds "need some regulation on the subject," and that we "have still to learn what the scriptures teach about church-bounty," when I tell you honestly that I dislike your letters very much; that I think they are very like giving a brother a stone when he asks for bread; and seem to me to assert principles with great confidence as scriptural, which-from their plain opposition to the spirit of brotherly kindness-I am persuaded the Word does not sanction. Observe, that however I may have occasion to advert to B's case for the purpose of illustration, I write not to press that case upon your attention, but to sift the general principles of the Word. You say that his case "is not such as can scripturally be met with the bounty of the church :"-that "the objects of church-bounty are such as may be said to be past labour and desolate ;"-referring for the proof of this to 1 Tim. v. 4, 5, 9, 16. Now, if this language (in the connexion in which it stands) have any meaning, it must mean that this passage marks the limit, beyond which church-bounty cannot scripturally extend. And I conceive

that you might as reasonably adduce the same scripture to prove, that no poor saints but widows are to have their necessities supplied by the church, and no widows but those who are at least sixty years old. As to the 9th verse, if you can point out to me its precise meaning, I shall be glad; for I confess myself doubtful about it: but I am quite sure that it does not mean what you seem to adduce it to prove. As to the 4th and 16th verses, if you can shew that B has any near relatives, who are able to relieve his wants and are believers, their attention ought to be directed to the plain instruction there given. There remains only the 5th verse, which I believe you will scarcely say has any thing to do with the question: and I am utterly at a loss to conjecture what part of the entire passage you mean to say proves that B's case "cannot scripturally be met with the bounty of the church." As to desolate, if you had taken any trouble to inquire, you would have found that he has long been so desolate, that but for the bounty of an individual brother he might have starved in a gaol. And it does seem to me extraordinary to assert, that what any individual may scripturally do in such a case, a number of the brethren, or the whole body, cannot scripturally assist in doing. What mystic charm is this you have discovered in the word church? Besides that passage in Timothy, you refer in proof of your assertion to Rom. xii. 13. Now, in the whole of the latter passage, from the 9th verse, it does appear to me that the apostle treats of the conduct and tempers of individual believers one towards another, rather than of any thing to which he calls the church in its collective capacity as a body. And if I judge rightly in that, and you judge rightly in thinking that the 13th verse amounts to a prohibition, on those addressed in it, to supply B- -'s wants, it must exclude him from the bounty of any individual brother, at least as much as from church-bounty. I confess I think you had not any right to rebuke poor B so sharply for not yielding to the force of what you put forward as scripture principles. But I am sure you had every right to rebuke him sharply for his worse than foolish language about brother Cand myself; and also to expose the unsuitableness of his applying to any church for a loan. But observe, my dear F, (I think it not unimportant to note it, in order to call your attention to the kind of mind in which you wrote)-observe that you quoted Rom. xii. 13. as excluding his case from the bounty of the church, before you had got any of that proof against him, which you think his reply affords, that it was not for necessities he sought relief, but that it was in "a worldly speculation" he desired the church to aid him. You think his reply affords you proof of this; but it is because you misunderstand it: and your mistake might easily have been prevented or rectified by a communication with P. For bread to eat and raiment to put on (which I think are necessaries) he must have continued dependent on the bounty of his brethren. I am ashamed of the special-pleading question which put-" are your pupils saints?"-as if he thought of their being supported by the bounty of the church. He does undoubtedly "hope to make gain of them;"-if that be sufficient to put down his object as a worldly speculation." And so would a shoe-maker hope to

you

make gain of the leather which he bought. And therefore, I suppose, a christian of that trade, but so poor that he could not buy leather, could not scripturally apply to the church to aid him in the purchase; nor could his case scripturally be met with the church-bounty. If he did apply, it would certainly be very fair and right for the deacons to exercise a sound discretion in judging, whether it would not be better for him to seek journey-work: but I can easily conceive the circumstances to be such, that he could not get any journey-work, from not having served a regular apprenticeship, or various other causes: and to say that it would then be unscriptural to apply to his brethren, either individually or collectively, to enable him to get the materials by which he has a prospect of earning his own bread; —to say that the scriptures "prescribe limits of church-bounty," out of which he lies, because he is not past his labour, or because he aims at making a gain of the materials, &c., does appear to me, I confess, a gross abuse and perversion of scripture. When I read in scripture of a christian church, that none among them lacked ;—when I hear an apostle saying, "bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ;"-and presenting to the attention of disciples on the subject, that principle of the word-" he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack ;"—I ought to be very jealous of your language, as indeed a worldly speculation, when you talk about the limits of church-bounty prescribed by scripture. I know no limits, but the ability and willingness of the church on the one hand, and the real good of the brother to be aided on the other. But if the church were to aid B in carrying into effect his worldly speculation-for earning his bread,-they would be employed in raising bounty, to put one member much above most of the others.' Well;. I shall allow some force to that argument when you shew, either that B- is aspiring to any situation above that "wherein he was called;"-or that he can earn his bread in any other situation. I am intimately acquainted with him and with his affairs; and I confess I know not any way in which he could set about earning his bread different from the present,—or on a more moderate scale, or with any thing like so fair a prospect of successful exertion. I am sure you could not expect a man near seventy years old, who has never worked as a day-labourer, to earn his bread by digging. And yet he might be immediately connected with a church, in which every other member was a day-labourer. If they affected to become farmers and to live in slated houses, it might immediately appear that they were forgetting that truly important word, which calls us "not to mind high things but conform to low :" while he might be perfectly warranted by scripture in seeking means for doing so, as the only way in which he could make the legitimate effort to eat his own bread. But why is he not only to be refused the aid he sought, but made an offender for seeking it? If he meant by calling on the church in Dublin, or by having a claim on them, any such claim as it was compulsory on them to answer,-(but I am sure he did not)—he meant very wrong indeed. Christian bounty, I conceive, is in all cases a matter of bounty and not of necessity. The only compulsion in it is the constraining influence of the love of

Christ; the only necessity, that which the law of love binds upon the conscience. And here also I believe we differ. You seem to conceive that a church, however abounding in means, is not to be applied to for the relief of necessitous brethren, unless in some extreme cases which you contemplate, and in which you think the applicant is warranted to say in effect " you must supply me, or I will bring you under discipline." Every part of the idea I protest against, as contrary to the real scriptural nature of christian bounty. If a man in any case be warranted so to apply to me, he would apply to me not for bounty, but for his due right. I believe that you have lately had one error on the subject corrected in your mind: but think well, my dear F, whether you have not been running right a-head into another. That is the way of us all. It is very strong language you use, that the nature of B's application "would only need to be known" by the church in Dublin" to be resisted, if the scriptures were attended to." And has it really come to that with the church in Dublin? I can only say, that--if it be so-however proud they may be of some supposed knowledge of scripture principles,-I fear it is a knowledge which puffeth up, and not the love which edifieth. Now, do not suppose that I have any quarrel with you for declining to lay B's application before the church; or with the Dublin brethren for declining to take any share in the burden of relieving him, with the individual on whom it has lain so long. No: I dare not call you or them to account for the free exercise of your judgment in the matter. But to say in effect, that attention to the scriptures must bind the Dublin brethren to resist the application, does indeed appear to me awful. Certainly the new scheme that you have discovered, seems well calculated for saving the pockets (and hardening the hearts) of the Irish brethren; as well as for draining the pocket of the only one here, who can exercise christian bountifulness.

Though my letter is enormously long, I have much that I could wish to add on the subject. But if the Lord bless what I have written, it will prove sufficient for bringing us to one mind on principles; and believe me always, in the love of the truth,

Your attached brother,

XCI.

TO J. L

1822.

THE opposite objections to your doctrine from the Baptists and Bereans, are just as it should be. That there is some lie (though hard to be detected) in the Gospel of the latter, I have no dc ubt ;