they boast, is as much a place of merchandize as the Royal Exchange. The disinterested testimony of a few people, who are united together, not by a sectarian, but a truly catholic spirit, and whose life comports with their doctrine, speaks a thousand times louder in the consciences of men, than the decrees of a council, enforced by all the authority, ecclesiastical or civil, which the greatest nation, or all the nations of the earth, can muster up. The army of the Lamb, by which he will overcome his enemies, is not described as connected with the states of the respective kingdoms of the earth; but as a select band, acting immediately under his authority. He is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

REMARKS

ON

TWO SERMONS,

BY MR. W. W. HORNE, OF YARMOUTH,

ENTITLED,

"THE FAITH OF THE GOSPEL VINDICATED.”

My dear Friend,

You have sent me Two Sermons, by William Wales Horne, entitled, The Faith of the Gospel Vindicated; requesting my opinion of them. Why did you wish to impose upon me the task of reading such a performance? I suppose it was owing to your being a Norfolk man, and feeling interested in any thing that is done among the churches in that part of the kingdom. I hope this is not a fair sample of Norfolk divinity. If it be, they are low indeed! It would appear, however, that the author is a man of some consequence, at least in his own eyes as, by the motto he has chosen, he seems to consider himself as set for the defence of the gospel.

Defence implies attack. Has any body in Norfolk, then, been attacking what he calls the gospel? So it should seem; and I should almost suspect, from some passages, that the assailants were in his own congregation. He certainly appears to be out of humour with some of them. (p. 32.) Indeed I entertain a hope, for

their sakes, that this may be the case; for it is grievous to think that a people sustaining the character of a Christian church should suffer themselves to be imposed upon by such flimsy, incoherent, and erroneous preaching, and reckon it the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Of Mr. Horne I know nothing, save from this publication. He seems disposed, however, to give his readers all the information he can respecting himself, and this even in his titlepage. From thence we learn, First, That he is not only a preacher, (which we might have gathered from his publishing" Sermons," (but a "minister of the gospel." Secondly, That he is not an ordinary minister, but one who is peculiarly qualified to repel the attacks of adversaries; "" set,' ‚” like an apostle, " for the defence of the gospel." Thirdly, That he not only preaches and defends the gospel, but does all "extempore ;" that is, without writing, or studying his discourses, before he delivers them. Fourthly, That though he neither writes nor thinks himself, in order to preaching; yet such is the importance of what he delivers, that " James Murden," a short-hand writer, sits and takes down his discourses; by which means they are preserved for the benefit of posterity. Finally, On the back of the same leaf, we are given to understand, that if the public will come forward, and, by a liberal subscription, secure him in a pecuniary view, he will give them a whole volume of these sermons, containing 300 pages, all on the most "interesting and edifying subjects." Whether all this information was necessary, especially that which relates to the sermons being "delivered extempore," some persons may doubt: thus much however may be acknowledged, that if from this time we remain ignorant of Mr. Horne's extraordinary talents, and be either uninterested or unedified by his writings, it must be our own fault.

After a great deal said about faith, in which the belief of the truth is frequently confounded with the truth believed; and much declamation against error, in which we are, after all, left to guess wherein it consists, the preacher at length comes to the point which he appears to have had in view; or, (as he does not think beforehand,) to the point which was impressed upon his

mind at the time; that is to say, that faith is not the duty of either sinners or saints.

"The

Mr. Horne asserts, that "men in nature's darkness have nothing to do with the faith of God's elect." He does not mean by this, that they are destitute of it; for that would be saying no more than his opponents would admit: but that they have no right to believe in Jesus Christ. This he attempts to prove, from their being under a covenant of works. law," he says," is their first husband; and till they become dead to him, they cannot be married to another, (that is, to Christ by faith,) without being called adulteresses." (p. 26.) If this reasoning were allowed to be solid, it would only affect those who are in "nature's darkness;" whereas Mr. Horne's position is, That faith is not the duty of any man, of believers any more than of unbeliev"It is not," he says, "a duty which God requires of his people; but a grace which he gives them." (p. 26.) But the reasoning itself is false. That sinners are alive to the law, as a covenant of works, is too true: but that the law, in that character, is alive to them, is not true.

ers.

The covenant of which the Apostle speaks, in the passage alluded to, is that which was made with Israel at Sinai, to which they, as a nation, were bound by divine authority, till the coming of Christ; but which being then abolished, they were no longer under obligation to adhere to it as a covenant, but were at liberty to embrace a new and better dispensation. This was applicable to the Jews, to whom the Apostle addresses himself, as them who knew the law; but is totally inapplicable to Gentiles, who never were married to the law. But whether the covenant of works be considered as made with Israel at Sinai, or with man in innocence, it is no longer in force; that is to say, it is dead. In the first view, it was rendered null by the introduction of the gospel : For in that he saith, a new covenant, ke hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away. In the last view, it must have ceased from the time of man's apostacy. The law has no promise of life to a single transgressor, and never had; but merely a threatening of death. God is not, therefore, in covenant with sinners; nor they with him; they are not under a covenant of works; but merely under the curse for trans