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upward to dwell spiritually near to God. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Psalm xci. 1. What secret place? The Lord Christ, that secret which was hid in God; the person of the God-man, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, or embodied. This is the true, the real, the permanent, and most inward tabernacle of God, in which God reveals himself, and meets his worshipping people; in whom all access is had, and through whom all spiritual sacrifices of persons, prayers, and praises, are accepted. Rom. v. 2. and xii. 1, 2. John xiv. 16.

This glorious Christ is the true tabernacle of sanctity and safety, of worship and communion; and he is the heavenly altar that sanctifieth every gift and offering; and he is the chief Priest by whom all spiritual worship is directed and presented. He is not only our way into God's presence in glory, but he is our mouth to God, and God's mouth to us; and the gospel is his voice which we hear, and by which we know him, and are instructed and edified. This Christ of heaven and of God is the hope, the life, the right, the fulness, the happiness, and the all of his believing, adoring household.

The great office of the divine Comforter consists much in testifying of this adorable, this wonderful Saviour. He takes of his things, and shews them to the ransomed of the Lord, shews them in his own way, by a divine light, and a love-kindling effect. Faith too, the Christreceiving grace, here has her object, her satisfaction, and her end. To bring the merit of Christ into experimental enjoyment, is its use and tendency. The Lord Jesus gives the faith, and faith honors its divine. Author and Finisher; it works by love to Christ and his people, to God and his word. It is the wilderness grace, during our absence from our Lord: "we walk by faith, and not by sight;" it is the infallible evidence of things not seen. Grace, Christ, faith, hope, love, and endless glory, are inseparable. Oh! may they all dwell richly in the hearts of all the saints, by the testimony of the Divine Spirit, that they may know with unutterable satisfaction and joy the things that are freely given them of God; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Woolwich, July 3, 1828.

Mr. Editor,

QUERY TO A CORRESPONDENT.

ENON.

WILL your correspondent J. B. T. inform your readers what constitutes a Jobbing Parson?' (see p. 67, last month.) And say, whether a man leaving his employment where he could obtain a comfortable maintenance, and giving himself up, not to the call of a church of Christ, but merely to preach where he can, in order to obtain support, though a scanty one, is sufficient to prove that he has received his credentials from the high court of heaven?

An answer to this will oblige one who feels it his duty to labour with his hands, in imitation of Paul.

August 4, 1828.

VOL. V.-No. 53.

A LABOURER.

REVIEW.

Crown Street Chapel Tracts; containing an Abridgment of the Works of Ancient and Evangelical Divines, with a short Memoir of each Author. By John Rees. R. Baynes, Palmer, &c.

A short notice was given in our last vol. p. 59, 60. on the commencement of this series of tracts, and we therein anticipated a wide circulation, and that much advantage would result from the perusal of them. Mr. Rees has pursued his design to the extent of thirty numbers. Whether he proceeds with the works of Arrowsmith, Ġurnal, &c. in the same cheap way as promised in his address of June, 1827, we have not learned. The published numbers contain an abridgment of Jacomb, on the 8th of Romans,-a Sermon preached at St. Margaret's, Westminster, in 1642, by the Rev. R. Harris, B.D. and Watson's Divine Cordial, which together make a valuable and moderate-priced volume.

As it may be expected we should make some further remarks, we briefly notice each author. Dr. Jacomb writes much and well on the inward warfare, and almost astonishes the reader with the multitude of particulars in evidence of the trials and spiritual exercises of the christian. His faith appears to have been unwavering in the all-sufficiency of Christ; but not so strong as to lay firm hold on the covenant, and to depend on its eternal enactments with the confidence which the argument of his favourite apostle inspires. The greater number of believers of the present day appreciate his mode of treating the truths of the gospel more than that which, in our opinion, is founded expressly on the apostolic example.

Of the "Sermon" on the unjust judge, we think more highly. Watson's Divine Cordial is by far the best of the three.

To invite attention to this exceedingly cheap publication, and particularly to the last mentioned author, we extract a sentence or two on 'effectual calling.'

"The method God useth in calling sinners. The Lord doth not use the same order with all; he comes sometimes in the still voice. Such as have had godly parents, and have sat under the warm sunshine of religious education, know not many times how, or when they were called; the Lord did secretly and gradually instil grace into their hearts, as the dew falls insensibly in drops; they know by the heavenly effects, that they are called, but the time or manner they know not. The finger moves on the dial, but we are not sensible when it moves. Thus God deals with some. Others are more stubborn, and God comes to them in a rough wind; he useth more wedges of the law to break their hearts; he deeply humbles them, and shows them they are damned without Christ; then having ploughed up the fallow ground of their hearts by humiliation, he sows the seed of consolation; he presents Christ and mercy to them, and draws their wills, not only to accept Christ, but passionately to desire, and faithfully to rest upon him. Thus he wrought upon Paul, and called him from a persecutor to a preacher. This

call, though it be more visible than the other, yet not more real. God's method in calling sinners may vary, but the effect is still the same.

"The properties of this call. It is a sweet call. God doth so call as he doth allure; he doth not force, but draw. The freedom of the will is not taken away, but the stubbornness of it is conquered. "Thy people shall be a willing people in the day of thy power." After this call there are no more disputes, the soul readily obeys. When Christ called Zaccheus he did joyfully receive him into his heart and house. It is a holy call. "Who hath called us with a holy calling." God calls men out of their sins; by it they are consecrated, and set apart for God. The vessels of the tabernacle were taken from common, and set apart to a holy use; so they who are effectually called, are separated from sin, and consecrated to God's service. The God whom we worship is holy, the work we are employed in is holy, the place we hope to arrive at is holy; all this calls for holiness. A christian's heart is to be the presence-chamber of the blessed Trinity; and shall not holiness to the Lord be written upon it? Believers are children of God the Father, members of God the Son, temples of God the Holy Ghost; and shall not they be holy? Holiness is the badge and livery of God's people. The people of thy holiness. As chastity distinguisheth a virtuous woman from a harlot; so holiness distinguisheth the godly from the wicked. It is a holy calling ; let not any man say that he is called of God, that lives in sin. Hath God called thee to be a swearer, to be a drunkard? Nay, let not the moral person say he is effectually called: what is civility without sanctity? It is but a dead carcase strewed with flowers. The king's picture stamped upon brass will not go current. The civil man looks as if he had the King of heaven's image stamped upon him; but he is no better than counterfeit metal, which will not pass for current with God. It is an invincible call. When God calls a man by his grace, he cannot but come. You may resist the minister's call, but you cannot the Spirit's call: the finger of the blessed Spirit can write upon a heart of stone, as once he wrote his laws upon tables of stone. God's words are creating words; when he said, "Let there be light," there was light; and when he saith, let there be faith, it shall be so. When God called Paul, he answered to the call: "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." God rides forth conquering in the chariot of his gospel; he makes the blind eye see, and the stony heart bleed. If God will call a man, nothing shall lie in the way to hinder; difficulties shall be untied, the powers of hell shall disband. Who hath resisted his will? God bends the iron sinew, and cuts asunder the gates of brass. When the Lord toucheth a man's heart by his Spirit, all proud imaginations are brought down, and the fort-royal of the will yields to God. I may allude to that: "What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? and thou Jordan, that thou wert driven back?" The man that before was as a raging sea, foaming forth wickedness, now on a sudden flies back and trembles! he falls down as the jailor, "what shall I do to be saved?" "What ails thee, O sea?" What ails this man? The Lord hath been effectually calling him, he hath been working a work of grace, and now his stubborn heart is conquered by a sweet violence. It is a high calling. "I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God." It is high, because we are called to high exercises of religion; to die to sin, to be crucified to the world, to live by faith, to have fellowship with the Father. This is a high calling; here is a work too high for men in a state of nature to perform. It is a high calling, because we are called to high privileges, to justification and adoption, to be made co-heirs with Christ. He that is effectually called is higher than the princes of the earth."

Those who have been unable to procure the old edition of "Watson's Divine Cordial," in consequence of its scarceness, will seize the opportunity of obtaining this excellent abridgment.

The Way of Salvation and of Christian Edification: an Essay, by James Churchill, Minister of the Gospel, Weston Green Chapel, Thames Ditton, Surrey, Author of "Pocket Anecdotes," an "Essay on Unbelief," &c. Churchill, Leicester Square.

THE reader is informed in the preface to this volume, that most of the truths enlarged upon by the author were delivered in a sermon which was published some years since, and has run through two editions, and that the same subject considerably extended forms the present treatise. The persuasion that good has resulted in the edification of many,' from perusal of the sermon, offers the inducement for its re-appearance; and at the suggestion of a friend it is amplified and arranged as an essay.

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It is conveniently divided into chapters under the following titles: I. The place and characters appertaining to Christ in the plan of salvation. II. On the impossibility of righteousness by the law. III. In what way the acknowledged insufficiency of our obedience to the law establishes the importance of the Saviour's death. IV. The way of christian edification.

2. "

With great pleasure we noted the several divisions of the third chapter, on obedience to the law: but we have room to do little more than quote those particulars. 1. "As nothing short of a full obedience can save the sinner, and as we all fail of giving that obedience to the law, there can be no salvation but in Christ; for in him only is righteousness found which will justify the ungodly." Legal obedience leaves us without any love to divine things, and thus establishes the importance of the Redeemer's death." 3. "Moral principles can neither help us one step towards heaven, nor afford us strength to continue in the way: thus the importance of the death of Christ is established." 4. "Moral obedience fails to form a new character, and thus establishes the necessity of the Redeemer's death." Under this head the following will be found :

"While we remember, that the heart is the subject on which the influence of the Holy Spirit descends, the work wrought will admit of the detail here enumerated. The heart is dead, and he quickens it. Eph. ii. 1.—Dark, and he enlightens it. 1 Pet. ii. 9.-Hard, and he softens it. Ezek. xxxvi. 26.Shut, and he opens it. Acts xvi. 14.—Insensible, and he arouses it. Eph. v. 14.-Indifferent, and he impresses it. Acts xvi. 30.-Averse, and he inclines it. Psalm cx. 3.-Neglected, and he notices it. Ezek xvi. 6.—Impure, and he purifies it. Ezek. xvi. 9.-Naked, and he clothes it. Ezek. xvi. 10.-Weak, and he strengthens it. Col. i. 11.-Exposed, and he protects it. Psalm xci. 11.-Wounded, and he heals it. Isa. lxi. 1.-Erring, and he restores it. I Pet. ii. 25.-In bondage, and he relieves it. Isa. lxi. 1.—Mourning, and he comforts it. Isa. lxi. 2.-Poor, and he enriches it. Matt. v. 3.-Mean, and he beautifies it. Isa. lxi. 10.—Hungry, and he feeds it. Matt. v. 6.-Thirsty, and he gives it drink. John vii. 37.-Perplexed, and he directs it. Psalm xxv. 9.-In prayer, and he hears it. Jonah ii. 7.-In the body, and he sanctifies it. John xvii. 17.-In death, and he comforts it. Psalm xxiii. 4.-In judgment, and he owns it. Mal. iii. 17.-In heaven, and he glorifies it. Rom. viii.

30. And to all eternity the soul will be distinguished with the crown of righteousness which fadeth not away. 2 Tim. iv. 8. The effects of grace upon the heart may be compressed into the following five views:-The eyes of the understanding enlightened. Eph. i. 18.-The will inclined to God.-Rom. vii. 22.-Christ formed in the soul the hope of glory. Col. i. 27.-The affections spiritual. Rom. viii. 6.—And the life regulated by the word of truth. Col. iii. 8.

"The new creation being thus effected, we should next contemplate the operations of the heart under the influence of grace: and we shall see, under this part of our subject, how superior God's new creation is to any work produced by moral influence. And it is open to any person's observation, that all that has been known by the christian in his first steps heavenward, he is sure to pray for again in such a manner as to indicate, that he has not known enough of it, but wishes all to be brought before him for his future enjoyments; truly nothing can be more plain, than that it is the sweet experience of the subject, that draws forth his heart for a more enlarged participation thereof. In this spirit the church, in Solomon's sacred nuptial, between her and Christ, who having been, to her holy joy, brought into his chambers, thus prays, "Draw me; we will run after thee." Chap. i. 4. Such language is expressive of a feeling inseparable from a renewed heart, namely, that having known somewhat of a Saviour's love, it must desire to know it more. So the apostle describes believers as constantly looking to, and approaching him, whose love they had already felt. "If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming." 1 Pet, ii. 3, 4. How common is it for gracious souls to pray, that they may be made partakers of grace, after they have long known the grace of God in truth! We may be liable to suppose they were praying for that of which they had only heard a good report; whereas the petition means, either that they may be more certified of their interest in the blessing, or that they may have fresh supplies of that which has oft-times been as the water brooks to the panting hart."

We consider it a useful practical work, founded on a knowledge of sound doctrine, and on an understanding of the life of faith on the Son of God. It may be recommended as not an unfit accompaniment to those treatises, sermons, &c. which are SO exclusively doctrinal, that the reader can scarcely determine whether the religion of their authors is that of the heart or of the head.

The Works of the Rev. Augustus Montague Toplady, A. B. late Vicar of Broad Hembury, Devon. Six Vols. 12mo. with Portrait.

Palmer.

THIS edition, published in numbers and monthly parts, which at its commencement was noticed in the early part of our last volume, is now completed, and is on sale at one half the price of the original. The acquisition of so valuable a work, on such terms as these, is already appreciated by the christian public; as in its progress it has obtained extensive patronage. These volumes comprise the contents of the first edition, without abridgment, and possess the additional attraction of an excellent portrait of the celebrated author.

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It has been now many years a source of anxiety and grief that the possession of the writings of our great divine is exclusively confined to those who are increased in this world's good.' The call for an edition like the present has therefore been frequent and urgent; and it is with pleasure we announce that such appeal has not been in vain.

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