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God work true faith in the soul, and then | bones, so that he can no longer withhold draw that divine principle into lively action, enabling the possessor of it to lay hold of that robe that justifies him in God's sight from all eternity; the real evidence of which brought home to his heart, acquits the conscience of every charge, frees it from guilt, and enables the believer to say, being justified by faith, I have peace with God Romans v. 1. i. e. justified in God's sight, in the righteousness of Christ, and in the conscience, by or through a living faith in what Christ has done and suffered for him. Thus when true faith views the cross, the burden drops from the back; when faith lays hold on the best robe, the conscience is freed from all condemnation; when faith looks to the surety, the law can have no claim on the debtor; when faith takes hold on the horns of the altar, the avenger of blood can never lay hold on the sinner; when faith looks to Jesus for deliverance, justice pronounces the sinner innocent for ever; and when faith keeps her eye on the captain, the poor soul is sure of final victory. Thus the Spirit of the living God, agreeable to eternal love engagement, himself takes possession of the heart, abides as a living principle in the soul, draws out all his own graces in lively exercise, and graciously demonstrates liberty to the man possessed therewith; for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty;' and no man can be a real minister of the Spirit, but what has the true witness of the Spirit of God in his own soul, bearing an evident testimony to his conscience that he is really called, and fully sent of God as an heir of promise, to do the work of an evangelist. See Romans viii. 16. 2 Timothy iv. 5. Now such a one will,

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telling poor sinners what God has done for his soul, i. e. how, and where, he found him, viz. in a waste howling wilderness, cast out into the open field to the loathing of his person: how he quickened his soul, and made it alive unto himself and brought him to a feeling sense of his own state by nature and practise; how he broke his heart by the power of blood applied, and then healed the wound by the same efficacious balm; how he took away his filthy garments and invested him with a change of raiment; how he liberated him from legal bondage, and made him rejoice in the finished work of the cross; how he fed him with spiritual food, and made him drink full draughts of the water of life which flows from the river that runs in the midst of the paradise of God; these things experienced and enjoyed in the soul, the man of God forcibly impressed and inwardly compelled to tell others of their saving effects having at the same time an eye to God's glory, and the eternal welfare of all the elect at heart, at last he cheerfully goes forward in the vineyard of God; labors to expose error, detect hypocrisy, vindicate the truth, and comfort the minds of God's dear people. The man thus wrought upon by God the Spirit, and having a clear knowledge of all the essential doctrines of grace, not merely in the head, but in the heart, his aim is to glorify the author of them in every step he takes; and I am bold to say in the presence of God, and a faithful conscience, the above has really been my own experience; and when my divine Master first called me to the work, I can truly say, I met with the most violent opposition, both within and without; fears within and fightings without, "3. Know that his call is real, not merely the world, legal-mongers, Baxterian spouters, because he may be solicited by the people of Arminian groaners, Pre-existe rian or Arian God to go forth in the work; for I believe professors, universal restitutionists, dutythousands, in the present day have no more faith priests, rotten hypocrites, and drunken call than what they receive from a few old professors like bees, swarmed around and women who call themselves believers; nor encompassed me about, and I can truly add, is it because vast numbers flock to hear him, that, after the manner of men, I have fought that he has any proof of his commission with beasts, at S-h-d, i. e. hypocrites of from God; and, although he may be poss-beastly tempers, and brutish dispositions ; esssed of great volubility, and may have great zeal in the work he is engaged in, many, apparently, called under his ministry, and be much applauded by the religious world all this with a thousand times more, will not be sufficient to satisfy him that he is really called of God to the office he sustains, unless he has the witness of the Spirit within him; which nothing short of a miraculous impression of God's Spirit on his heart will ever bring forth the decision in his own conscience. Now, what I mean by a powerful and miraculous impression on his heart, is this, that he is called of God to this work by an internal call, the force of which makes his, (God's) word like a fire in his

but having obtained help of God I continue to this day. And I am neither afraid nor ashamed to say, that my call to the work I am now engaged in, (i. e. the ministry,) has not only been owned and blessed by God outwardly, but he has, blessed be his dear name for ever, manifested his approbation thereto repeatedly in the night season.

(To be Continued.)

Many have asked "Where is hell?" "Tis of little importance where it is located. 'Tis where the wrath of God is.-James Wells.

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STATE OF THE LONDON CHURCHES.—No. 7.

OPENING OF BETHEL CHAPEL, HOLLAND STREET, KENSINGTON, WITH CRITICAL REMARKS ON MR. OSBOURN'S MINISTRY.

THIS neat and commodious chapel, was opened on Wednesday, March 10, 1847, when sermons were preached by Mr. James Osbourn, Mr. Sears, and Mr. Shorter.

The opening of a new chapel for experimental preaching is a thing of rather a rare occurrence in these days. I trust, in the building of this small chapel, like Noah, the friends have moved with fear;' or have been moved by the fear of God, to build a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.' The principal parties connected with its building, are a few, who separated themselves from the ministry of Mr. Broad, a Particular Baptist, at Kensington Gravel Pits, five years ago. This Mr. Broad is now over a mixed communion church, at Hitchin. We can hardly hope he moved with fear,' in throwing open, or coming into such wide doors.

Mr. Septimus Sears, was engaged for the first two Lord's days, to supply the pulpit of this new Bethel. We trust that that character of ministry which marked its opening, will continue to be sounded forth from this quarter; and, that its present feebleness will not prove a drawback from such ministerial support. May the Holy Ghost come down upon it, in the power of his word, as showers that water the earth, and make this little hill a blessing. We give a very brief notice of the discourses of the day, commencing with Septimus Sears, who, in the afternoon, spake from John xii. 32. 'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.' His subject embraced a wide field in shewing us the glories of the God and Man, Immanuel, connected with his lifting up, and especially as being the great gospel theme of the ministry, to draw sinners unto him.

To lift up Christ as Head over all, should be the aim of every gospel minister. The uplifting of Jesus in the conscience is by the power of the Holy Ghost; and this is when he is beheld just such a Saviour as I feel my need of, and want, when I am driven out of all shelters to shelter only in Immanuel.

Mr. Sears concluded by observing, he trusted this chapel would be a finger-post, like John, to direct sinners to Christ, saying, 'Behold the Lamb of God.'

"When first the great project to angels was known,
They hailed him in songs as the Lamb on the throne,
The concave of heaven resounds with their cry,
God-Man Mediator, they lift him on high."

In the evening we heard Mr. Shorter, of the City Road, and must confess we were reminded of the Gadsby and Kershaw school in him, who, in a noble style, followed out the afternoon strains without a

VOL. III.

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jarring note, from the words-But Christ is all, and in all.' In the course of the sermon, he said, 'I once went to hear Mr. Warburton, in a wretched state of mind; he spake from these words, 'The Lord will go before you.' He shewed how he had gone out before us in creation, providence, and grace-how he had gone out before us in all our paths, up to his going before us in glory. I so heard that had it been lawful, I could have sung his praises before all the people in the chapel, so were my feelings changed.' Again, he said, I once was oppressed with the thought of being only an hypocrite: I was determined to leave the place where I lived and go somewhere else, to avoid being seen. I set off, and walked fourteen miles one day, without having anything to eat or drink; when I reached Marlborough, I went into a place and called for refreshment. Here I heard such conversation that made me tremble-I apprehended the judgments of God would immediately come down upon them for such profanity. In this situation these words were applied, "Who maketh thee to differ?' I said, Who, Lord! but thee? That night I returned back over the Downs, and went blessing and praising God for the difference between me and them. Christ is the life of every promise: the life of every prayer: the life of every song: the life of conversation: He is all that is spiritual life he is the beauty of the church : the Bible, from beginning to end-is full of Christ. Christ is all the promises; and is the original promise. Christ is all, and Christ is in all.

Mr. Osbourn, from America, in the morning, spoke from Psalm lxxv. 1. Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare.' would now take this opportunity of saying a word or two respecting his ministry.

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Mr. Osbourn's writings have ushered in his name among us, so that he has received a hearty welcome to England. His writings for the most part will leave a sweetness behind when the writer is mouldering in the dust. Probably there is more solid gospel in some of his publications, than all our present writers put together can produce. Well-we have heard him ourselves, and listened with strongly excited feelings. And how have you heard? Partially disappointed. Those deep and broad features of experience, so ably written and delineated, have seem to come short in preaching. We have found him a determined enemy, making a firm stand against an enemy we did not expect him to say anything about; and no

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Two particulars must comprise what we have to remark on the character of Mr. Osbourn's ministry :

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now looks like a miracle to me. Everything looks like wonder, as I pass this little wee island, England."

There are things which makes Mr. Osbourn's an interesting and highly privileged ministry. He rather seems to us a second Whitfield, though quite an Huntingtonian in style, mánner, and doctrine. We view him rather, and hail him as a father in the gospel; a welcome messenger coming not with a rod, but in love, and in the spirit of meekness,' full with the blessings of the gospel of Christ. And to those who are afraid their experience is not as so and so's, and conclude themselves all wrong, because they have not been through such deep waters, fiery furnaces, hard bondages as some have, Mr. Osbourn will be very acceptable.

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where so strongly, as at Zoar Chapel. And what is this enemy? You shall have his own words in a sermon preached there, March 7th, on Isaiah, xxxv. 3, 4, respecting slavish doubts and fears, he said, 'I suppose you want me to act the liar's part, to indulge you in your fears, frames, feelings, and doubts, and to tell you this is christian ex perience. I would rather be run over by the railway, or die in a ditch, than preach such a gospel and yet this is spoken of as gospel in this city, and elsewhere. I say, it is not a span from blasphemy, and yet God's children are overrun with these things, and men call them gospel.' This is a broad saying: and will please numbers. But Mr. Osbourn must go on and finish. 'Doubts and fears are attendants upon the grace of God, but are intruders, and must not be considered wel- But, secondly,- -as we perceive no exagcome visitors.' Some ministers would cer- gerated statements of himself and his trials tainly have been cashiered Zoar pulpit for beyond a simple narration, so there is no giving expression to these things-we make extravagance. By extravagance we mean no comment; forty years must speak, before no spiritual extravagance, in not giving a us minors. Mr. Osbourn aims in his min-just and due regard to the letter of the word. istry, to bring forward the fulness of the Mr. Osbourn's is a spiritual ministry: he gospel. Nor is there any uncertain sound, shall speak for himself. The gospel is the or confounding law and gospel,-we seldom breath of God, breathed over the field of hear the distinction so strongly kept up and death to resusitate it. As the trunk of delineated. Adam was lifeless until God breathed into it the breath of life, so is a sinner-so is the letter of the word without the Spirit: but how different when the Spirit breathes upon it.' Extravagance is not faithfulness in any sense. I do not believe the Lord will accept of any strange fire, no more than he did of old. Lev. x. 1, 2. I believe too that an Achan will only trouble the camp and prevent its going forward, but that every Jeremiah and Isaiah speaking in the Lord's name, will prove a blessing, though their testimony be despised. I do not believe the Lord will set his seal upon that which is false, bearing the semblance of, but not the truth.' Truth is himself speaking, and his truth may be spoken and owned by a little maid in captivity, as well as from a Paul, less than the least,' or from one just putting on the gospel harness, as well as by an Osbourn who has nearly passed through the toils of it, and must soon put it off. The rough garment to deceive (Zech. xiii. 4,) he does not wear : no cutting and deep sentences belong to him: littleness is rather more conspicuous than greatness; no putting on what does not belong to him, a charge brought against the church of old, awfully true now. Jer. iv. 3. Yet he shews two sides in his ministry, death before life, darkness before light, sorrow before joy, and captivity before freedom; a ministrythat will cut off some thousands; but exaggeration and extravagance, or the extremes that men so easily run into, he is preserved from. These two are rather the dresses of error, the mask of deception, and the paint

First, That it is without exaggeration. We do not feel as if listening to a man, of deep experience in the gospel, of the most extensive knowledge of the church of Christ, or to one who has travelled over vast tracts of land, thousands of miles from home, and must have witnessed a great variety of circumstances; nor would you think him one whose experience has been, as it were, at the bottom of the sea, swallowed up with the apprehension of the wrath of God, and yet mercifully delivered from the horrible pit and miry clay, firmly established upon the rock of eternal truth, and going forth in songs of deliverances to the God of all grace.' Mr. Osbourn is one whose life has been signally preserved in perils by sea and land. Let his own words speak, in which he concluded his sermon, at the opening of the chapel. Not long ago I was forty days on the Atlantic. The oldest sailor on board never knew such a storm. Who would have thought that the little vessel could have possibly endured those mighty billows and surges that swept over it, and perfectly baptized the men, and yet to safely reach Liverpool? So it is with the soul, tossed up and down, but arrives safe-not after a passage of forty days, but perhaps forty years and not to Liverpool, but to the continent of glory. Forty or forty-five years ago I used to pass this way, when a giddy youth, without a friend, half starved, and half naked. It

ing of an harlot : but plain truth, comes with | going to heaven in the way of works, and a plain testimony, made powerful by the Holy live in this state, and so speak of it as if it Spirit. And this is the dress of the gospel; were within their grasp. If my salvation its name, features, and character is humility. depended on this, I should have no more Such a man who is least in our eyes, is great hope than the infernal crew in hell have. It in the kingdom of heaven, and with this is a matter of praise that the salvation of the rule I try to measure a man's stature. soul is not depending on human or divine contingency; God throws the javelin and says, 'I will and they shall.' This is God's delight and pleasure, and Unto thee do we give thanks.’

Mr. Osbourn's visit to this country I do hope will not be in vain. There is sickness that wants healing; rubbish that wants removing; carnalites that want purging away; and distances filled up; or some one to say, like as of old, when God raised up Nehemiah to superintend the wall building, 'The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall one far from another. In what place, therefore, ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us : our God shall fight for us.' Nehemiah iv. 19, 20. Oh, that the sounding of the gospel trumpet, as blown by Mr. Osbourn, might be heard, and the savour, power, and dew of the Lord's blessing follow it, and make the spirit of it a rallying point to poor divided Zion.

The poor worm who writes this, whilst he is made to know and feel he has a nature of iron and steel, he also feels it is lighter than vanity, a nature that soon catches, and takes fire at light pulpit expressions; we are such tinder boxes. Mr. Osbourn considers the pure gospel in a cloud in England, and so it is; but why so? Let Jeremiah tell us. (Chap. v. 1-5.)

We say to Mr. O., whom we hear is to be in England about eighteen months longer, that afflictions, temptations, and trials, attend the path-way to heaven; that a daily cross, fears within, and fightings without, with no small tempest, accompany and mark the followers of a meek and lowly Jesus, who was despised of the people. Keep this in mind in declaring the gospel; and it will silence empty professors of every name. Let Mr. Hart declare it

"Afflictions make us see,

What else would 'scape our sight;
How very foul, and dim we be,

And God, how pure and bright,

"His chast'nings, therefore prize;
The privilege of a saint:
Their hearts are hard who that despise ;
And their's too weak who faint,"

The following scraps are gathered from Mr. Osbourn's sermon at Kensington.

The mercies of God, have a strong and powerful claim on our thanks. They demand a tribute of gratitude and praise from us, even common temporal mercies, to say nothing of spiritual mercies. Ingratitude, and unthankfulness mark the footsteps of all men by nature, and is one of the strongest proofs we can give of the depravity of our nature, when God's favours are all thrown in the back ground. And yet men speak of

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We must go further up the field, (so to speak,) than temporal favours, to find a grateful heart. We must forage the household of faith, and now consider ourselves in the company of that diminutive few our Saviour speaks of, Fear not little flock.' And here we must pick and cull to make a distinction, and ask who feels his heart interested in the text, to give thanks?' David was under a gospel influence. His little soul was full of the boundless goodness of a covenant God; he felt it in his soul, and then opens his mouth, Unto thee do we give thanks.' David could give thanks for providential favors, so can the saints at times with the Psalmist; because they feel that if these blessings are all forfeited, they can lay no claim to them. And under these feelings, a place of worship is erected, to sit and bless the Lord for his goodness, to offer praise unto our God; to meet togetherand to talk of the glory of his kingdom. But souls can get to heaven without churches and chapels; but we cannot without some things, as Mr. Hart says—

"Something must be known and felt."

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And what is this something? Christ formed in the heart, the hope of glory.'

1. We will consider under what circumstances christians are disposed to offer praise. When God by his holy law, pulverizes the man, and makes the man's greatness and importance to fall, and to be nothing, like the leaves in autumn, before the northern blast-When under the withering hand of God, the sinner is consumed by the blow of God's hand-When the man feels himself lost, wretched, and undone -This man will ask for the mercy of God, not hypocritically, but from a feeling sense of the state he is in; which he sinks, then with the notes of the and when he is brought up out of the pit in lute or sackbutt, he says, 'Unto thee do we give thanks.' I have found an home for my soul; a refuge to fly unto; a Saviour to hide in. Thus, man sees the end of the storm, with its hurlings, and Calvary, with all its charms: he, like the magnetic needle, flies from one to the other. 'I, a rebel, a transgressor, see myself interested in all the blessings of the gospel.' This is the man, who can, indeed, without the hypocrite's disguise, bow in his feelings before God and

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say, 'Unto thee do we give thanks,' while he feels so inadequate, and says, 'Who am I? What can such a poor dog as I am say? Praises fall so infinitely short of the blessings I am put in possession of. But, oh, how the soul tries to sidle along! still anxious to approximate nearer and nearer the bosom of his God: and before he is aware, perhaps, he finds himself in the heart of his Redeemer; his soul is melted with gratitude, praise, and thanksgiving unto God, with a sweet humility. There is such a thing, as a personal appropriation. A man may hope, and feelingly so, and have a little gratitude upon the hoping plan. But Paul says that we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us,' speak ing of the two immutable things. Now laying hold on eternal life,' is going a little further than hoping. But David says, and it is well with us when we do the same, 'hope in the Lord.' But yet Paul comes in and crowns the climax-Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.'

II.—But this man in the language of the text goes a little further- For that thy name is near.' David seems to have been brought up from the depths of the earth, and comforted on every side, when uttering the text That thy name is near.'. Where is it that God is not present? He is omniscient, and omnipresent. Sometimes God is near in his wrath, and visits our iniquities with his rod, and reproves our failings. He is also near us in the furnace; and so he is when plunged in the ditch. This is a nearness of God to us, and a frightful one; but it is not the sense of the text. The apostle Paul will give the sense in the Acts, where he had been pointing out to the idolators, the character of our God; describing his providential greatness towards us. He says 'That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.' 'If haply they might feel after him.' This figure is borrowed from nature, from blind persons feeling and groping their way, who take good heed and security to the ground they stand on; so we feel after God, when we are in the dark, when all our best schemes are frustrated, and are brought into perplexity, then are we like the blind, groping for the wall, feeling after him, if haply he may be found. And then he is nearthy name is near.' Not in wrath, but in mercy. Mercy is one of God's names. And his grace is near. Mercy and truth are twin blessings. If you have received the truth, mercy will be sure to follow. Truth makes us free. Mercy comforts the soul, when God's name is thus near in

mercy, love, truth and grace. The soul makes free with God's name, but not presumptuously. Gloomy doubts and fears are attendants upon the grace of God, but we are not to consider them welcome visitors. We say of these as Christ said of the pharisees, Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.' Faith and believing is of God; doubts and fears of the devil: let us distinguish here: doubts and fears are the mildew of the soul.

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III.That thy name is near, thy wondrous works declare.' The works of creation declare God to be near. Every where is God. But with Zion, his saints, his afflicted ones, he is near in a different sense, to what he is in providence. But what wondrous works declare him near? It is his work of redemption, as Mr. Hart says—

"How wondrous are the works of God,
Display'd through all the world abroad,
Immensely rich, immensely small!
Yet one strange work exceeds them all.
"But what are seas, or skies, or hills,
Or verdant vales, or gliding rills,

To wonders man was born to prove,
The wonders of redeeming love?"

Here his name appears in folio; but of this
large volume God speaks to us in his beloved
Son, and says, 'In him am I well-pleased,
hear ye him.' This is the title page of the
book. Then go on and read the body of the
book; and here is a field for meditation, and
contemplation. Poor trembling sinner!
come to this grand point. Here is Christ
and here is the gospel opened to sinners.
Religion is a tangible thing: there are 110
features in it to awe and terrify our minds.
It was so with the disciples in our Saviour's
time. Religion is the same in this nineteenth
century as in the first, second, and third
centuries. There is joy and freedom in it.
I sat under his shadow with great delight,
and Unto you it is given to know the mys-
teries of the kingdom of heaven.' My God
is it so ? So it reads, and let it stand. 'But
to them that are without it is not given. Oh,
the distinguishing love and grace of God,
for that thy name is near thy wondrous
works declare." His name is nearest in re-
demption. Talk to a man that knows no-
thing of the secrets of God in his soul about
redemption, and he may talk fluently; but
it is only talk; honouring God with the
lips only; what is that work greater and
nearer than this? The Spirit's work—‘The
kingdom of God is within you.' If you
know no more than this, the kingdom of God
coming nigh you, you will be damned after
all; the kingdom of God must be within
you."
H. W.

We purpose, next month, if spared, to review the second edition of Mr. Osbourn's "Lawful Captive Delivered;"

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