THE CASE OF ELIZABETH EDWARDS.

DEAR SIR,

I have given you a copy of a letter which I have received from a member of Mr. Irons', of Camberwell; you will see that it verifies your remarks that followed the case of Mrs. Edwards.

Yours, truly,

R. B.

"DEAR SIR, "When I first saw the case of Mrs. Edwards as stated in the GOSPEL MAGAZINE, I felt a great desire to see her, but, at the same time, felt a great opposition in going; the consequence of which was, that, in my poor and feeble manner, I asked the Lord to direct me; and in the night I awoke several times with these words powerfully impressed on my mind, "So to do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." From which words I immediately took them to mean that it was the Lord's will that I should visit her; and hoped the Lord would be present to open my mouth to speak to her. Although she did not appear to receive any sensible comfort, my mind was solemnly impressed in returning home of the solemn position in which she was placed, and thus I argued the matter with myself, Have I been opening anything contrary to the word of God? Have I been saying anything to delude her soul? for I told her that I believed she belonged to God in an immutable covenant which could not be altered or broken. And again I was asking the Lord (some may deride and treat with contempt such things, but I wish to state the truth), I say I was asking the Lord, Have I been casting pearls before swine? have I been giving children's bread to dogs? and other things of a similar nature; when all of a sudden, as if in answer to my inquiries, the words darted into my mind, "She (she, mark, not he) is a chosen vessel unto me;' and I must say my mind was much comforted from them, and I felt at the time an assurance that she was the Lord's.

"I have thus briefly given an answer to your inquiries, and am quite satisfied in my own mind that if the statement she has made to me be correct, she must be a regenerated soul. Mind, I do not set myself up as an infallible judge in this matter, for it is God alone can search the heart and really know the case of every poor sinner; but I believe there are in her marks and evidences characteristic of a soul that is born again. One evidence that I observed struck me as conclusive on this point-namely, she possesses saving faith, although she has it not in lively exercise nor is it of that appropriating character which necessarily imparts joy and peace to the soul. I believe also she possesses love to the person of Christ, though at present under the hidings of God's countenance; but that love is not felt in its actings and the drawings of it forth, so as to be enabled to say with the apostle John, 'I love him because he first loved me.'

"I would just state, that I think her sufferings arise in a great measure from a nervous state of mind, through which the enemy is suffered for a season to harrass and distress her, and cast her soul down to the ground. I hope that the Lord in mercy will soon appear, to deliver her poor soul from the snare of the fowler, and give her to enjoy his sensible presence and the manifestations of his love; and then may he give her grace to ascribe the glory of her deliverance to the great Three-One God. "Yours, in Jesus Christ,

"THOMAS FIRMINGER."

THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY.

To the Editor of the Gospel Magazine.

DEARLY BELOVED BROTHER,

It seems long since I had the pleasure of writing to your periodical; the cares and concerns the pressure of vanity which makes us groan, has hindered me from those exercises, and robbed me of those enjoyments after which in their undisturbed possession my spirit longs with ardent desire. But my soul is supported by firm faith in the promises which yield strong consolation; and by the full assurance of hope of an entire and perfect emancipation of my whole person at the appearing of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. At that moment these vile bodies shall be changed, and fashioned like unto his glorious body; but up till that time these creatures must remain in the land of the enemy, either as quick or dead; and while they draw the breath of animal life we must, more or less, groan being burdenedwe must be subject to vanity, and when they drop (as very soon they will), they must be left for a time in the same land of the enemy. The grave shall be their slumber-house, in which they shall rest in hope as rested the bones of Joseph in the house of bondage, until the exit of the tribes from their thraldom into the good land which their king had espied for them; and these bones were brought (having been embalmed) into their appointed restingplace. A lively representation this of the care that our Joseph takes of the bones of his mystic body; for we are members of his flesh and of his bones, and not an atom of the sleeping dust can be lost. Were each of the bodies of the sleeping saints preserved in odours and watched over by sleepless grdians, they would not more surely come forth eutire at the resurrection of the just, than now they will, though every particle be lost to human view, and human reason laughs at the idea of restoration, as being impossible. "There is," saith the Spirit to Zion, "hope in thine end, that thy children shall come forth again to their border from the land of the enemy," and inherit life, even immortality and eternal glory. The great jubilee trump shall sound through the shades of the gloomy kingdom, and the prisoners of hope all burst forth from the caverns in which for ages they have been confined. The sleeping dust of Abraham shall awake and start forth from Machpelah's cave, and appear with more than the cherub-like beauty and glory of an angel's form. All those worthies, too, whose once devoted frames were of old active in the service of their God, shall spring forth from the desolated tombs of Palestine, and shall stand up a glorious army; and then wing their way to meet their Lord in the air. All the faithful, too, who in later times have laid down their sleeping dust, whether in the defence of truth or otherwise, in the various climes of North, East, West, or South, shall, in that auspicious-that grand and wondrous moment, receive back, all sparkling and brilliant-all pure and holy, those tabernacles which, once being smitten with leprosy beyond cure, were dissolved and thrown by in the unclean place, the grave. In a word, all who sleep in Jesus, from Adam till the event itself, shall hear the bodyawakening voice of, Lazarus, come forth;" and the slumberers shall instantaneously arise from their couch, and the earth shall cast out its dead.

This, my brother, is the grand object of my hope. Concerning the salva

tion of my soul, I have long ceased to hope, for hope has been lost in the full assurance of faith; for that which I see I hope not, but that which I see not, for that I hope and the redemption of my body as yet I see not, therefore do I in patience wait for it, knowing that it will come and will not tarry. I wait for the hour when the creature also shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God at the time of their full manifestation as being the sons of God; when he who is their Elder Brother shall appear-and he who is the first fruits shall return, and suddenly come to his temple reared beneath the sun. Ah, yes, the first resurrection (of which that of the body of Jesus is the earnest, and the justifying ground of our hope) is the prime event of the future. And what shall I say it is? Surely, as I at this instant see it, it is that interesting moment in the history of the elect, when the bride shall go forth from her closet, and the bridegroom from the chamber. Of this the saints in things spiritual have had many an antepast, but now the fulness of the marriage feast is come; the bride, the Lamb's wife, has made herself ready. All her members having been purged with blood, washed in the crystal fount, made white and anointed with heavenly perfume, are now covered with the robes of immortality; and she appears from the land of her captivity as beautiful as Tirzah, and comely as Jerusalem, to give her hand to him who is "the chief among ten thousand and the altogether lovely.” Hark! hark! the sweet symphonies of angels elect unite in pleasant concert to welcome the lonely stranger to her everlasting shade. And see! the mother of the prince is crowning him with the bridal coronet in this the day of his espousals, and the day of the gladness of his heart. Having sat at his Father's right hand till his enemies have become his footstool in Armageddon, and "the dragon dragged in chains;" he has now commenced his reign of peace, and taken Egypt's daughter for his reigning consort-and she gladly forgets her own people and her father's house, by relying on the promise that her children shall be made princes in all lands. As Rebekah left Syria, and bade farewell to the house of Laban, so now the spouse so long connected with the vanity of earth, shall bid an eternal adieu, and have "new heavens and new earth for her abode."

Thus, to my own reviving in the midst of my bondage, I have glanced at the resurrection of the dead, which will surely transpire at the appearing of the Redeemer. But there is an attendant event which I can but notice, and that is the translation of the saints then living; "We," says Paul, "which are alive at his coming," shall not prevent or precede those which sleep, but shall immediately on their ascent from the tomb be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and so be caught up, Elijah like, to meet the Lord in the air, and so be ever with the Lord. Thus, by angelic agency, the living saints shall be gathered from the four quarters, so that they shall be missed by their companions, one being taken and the other left. Even as the Spirit caught away Philip from the Eunuch, so these shall be caught away to meet him who was all their delight. Nor can I forbear saying, it is my decided belief that the circumstance of Elijah and Elisha's parting is typical of this astonishing event; but I feel afraid to say more, knowing that some of your readers are dull of hearing.

I bless God, my brother, that during my contemplation on this subject, my soul has been somewhat refreshed and cheered with holy feeling. May your cruse overflow to the replenishing of the souls of the needy of your readers, and to the glory of God.

[The fact of men falling so much into their own spirit when engaged in controversy is one great cause of our aversion to it. The following savours too much of that bickering spirit which characterized the old GOSPEL MAGAZINE. -ED.]

To De M.

ON THE EXTENT OF THE LAW OF MOSES.

MY DEAR SIR,

As you have spared time to give an hurried note, in answer to my inquiries respecting your statement on the law of Moses, I purpose now devoting a short time in making a few remarks on the same, so as not to trespass too much on your patience in reading them, it being also a busy time with us farmers and graziers just now. You state that you are doing a great work and cannot come down to write a systematic dissertation on the subject, as it would be at the expense of neglecting more important engagements; to me this is, I assure you, an important subject, (though not an essential one) and right views of the same appear necessary and very desirable before we can rightly understand the word of God; and as the establishment of truth is my only aim, I trust what may be written on either side, may have that only in view; so that we rightly understand the word of truth, and that truth alone may prevail; and though you do not expect this subject will have any settled abode with you, who can tell but that at the blowing of a ram's horn these Babel buildings (confused ideas) about the law, may fall as the walls of Jericho of old did, when the Lord was pleased, that the people or nation to whom the law was given, should obtain possession of the land into which he had brought them by so signal a miracle? This emboldens me, and with a sling and a stone, it is my intention to encounter as far as I am able any volunteer or Goliath that may come against me.

You say necessity is laid upon you and that a great door seems opened before you; if this great work that you have to perform is to make alive your "dead congregation," you are engaged indeed in a work that no mortal man ever yet accomplished. However I trust the Lord is with you; if so, the word will be accompanied with power, be a savour of life to some and of death to others, it (not you) will accomplish that for which it is sent. You also say; "Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel" I have no doubt the celebrated John Wesley with every one sent out from conference, from his time to the present, have quoted the same passage of Scripture. So that you will perceive it is an easy matter to quote Scripture to answer (apparently) our purpose. This I believe to be a great failing in the present day, for if a statement is made and backed (as it is called) with a quotation from Scripture it passes as current coin, without any further examination or even consideration to whom it was written, or on what occaison. This is I believe how half the sermons, even of men of truth so far as they are taught, are made up in the present day, though the quotations be as foreign from the subject as the east from west or light from dark. This appears further clear from the quotation you make from the Epistle to the Galatians, when you state, Paul told his Gentile converts, that Christ had redeemed them from the curse of the law of Moses I suppose you intend, if so I plainly deny it, and can only account for your quoting it by your not having had time lately, only to take an "hurried glance at the Epistle

in a similar manner as the Magazine. It is I believe a great fault and error with the church of God at this time among the Gentile world to take to ourselves many parts of the word of God, especially in the Old Testament, which in no way belongs unto us, and is in no way applicable to us as Gentiles, any more than the laws of France have to do with us as Englishmen. It is in this way that all the elect and non-elect in this professing Christian land, read the New Testament and lay claim to the same as if interested therein, whereas at the time many are reading their own condemnation. I have no doubt many this day (Sunday) will read Paul's letters or Epistles, written to particular persons or churches of God at such a place chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world; and take for granted that the contents thereof belong to them; not that I wish by any means to set aside a single line of the word of God, or the reading of the same even by the unconverted; but it is this misappropriating or misapplication of Scripture that I find fault with, and many a child of God has similar confused ideas respecting the law and the contents of the Old Testament; this is clearly the case, also, respecting your quotation from the Epistle to the Galatians, as it contains reproofs by Paul to Peter and other brethren of his own nation, (the us, redeemed from the law) for wishing to bring the Gentile converts-believers in Christ—in bondage to the law; it also contains exhortations to the Gentile converts to stand fast in the liberty of the gospel. Observe what Paul says, when addressing his brethren (the Jews), the law was our schoolmaster &c., until Christ came; but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law (he being a Jew), to redeem them that were under the law (the us spoken of in the verse you quote) that we to whom the law was given, might receive the adoption of sons. Then, in the next verse, see how the apostle evidently alludes to the Gentile believers in Christ, and because ye (Gentiles) are sons (of the spiritual seed of Abraham), God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son (not the law) into your hearts, crying Abba, Father; even to you poor sinners of the Gentiles; for he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me, Paul, towards the Gentiles; for ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you, and said "I marvel that ye are so soon removed, and get into bondage so as to observe days, and months," &c. I stand in doubt of you again, behold I (Paul) say unto you, that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing; plainly shewing that they were uncircumcised heathens, consequently the Mosaic dispensation was in no way applicable to them; and if you, my dear sir, will give this epistle a little more consideration I have no doubt you will plainly perceive how Paul throughout the whole of it is endeavouring to keep the believing Gentiles from being in bondage to that which in no way ever belonged to them, or to you and me, we being also sinners of the Gentiles.

For fear of being tedious, I leave the subject for the present, with just a remark or two respecting the law being older than Moses, the patriarchs, or even Adam himself; and that Moses was not its author. I assure you these ideas never entered "my poor head" nor indeed are they likely to have any "settled abode " in it, as I have always understood that Moses received the law for the children of Israel from the very best authority, and was as much the author of the same, as the Apostle Paul was of any of his epistles, or any of the writers either in the Old or New Testament; so that with equal propriety, you might say that the inspired writers of the Scriptures were not the authors of the same. It really causes a smile while looking at your statement, that the