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they cared not whether God heard them or not, like cold suitors who are indifferent whether they succeed or no. Not that a christian is always alike in prayer, but as the Spirit is pleased to help his infirmities: the Spirit must enliven and pour into us, before we can breathe or pour out from our hearts unto the Lord. The wind must blow that the spice may flow out. Sometimes our affections seem like Pharaoh's chariots, the wheels seem taken off, and we move heavily; and sometimes we are like Elisha, and in a chariot of fire and horses of fire our affections seem to ascend even into heaven.

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VIII. Another evidence of our saving acquaintance with Christ is, when our wills are brought into subjection to the will of God, when like the Psalinist we can say I have respect to all thy commandments." Suppose a woman should say to her husband I love you better than a hundred and a thousand men, only I love one man better than you,' were she not an adulteress? So if a soul could say I would willingly renounce every sin but this particular one; I would without repining accede to every dispensation of God concerning me but this one; I would bow to all God's attributes but the gospel description of his boundless sovereignty; I cannot reconcile the doctrine of election with my view of the infinite mercy of God. Aye, but if you are a child of God you shall do this, and you shall adore him as much for election as for salvation, shouting with the Poet,

""Twas the same love that spread the feast,
Which sweetly forced me in;
Else I had still refused to taste,
And perished in my sin."

You shall be brought to say "He hath led me by a right way to the city of habitation." And although while in this time-state the believer will always be as the Shulamite, having the company of two armies, the

flesh striving against the Spirit, there will be also the Spirit striving against the flesh, which will not permit him to live in the unrestrained indulgence of any besetting sin, any favourite lust, upon the false hope that because he outwardly breaketh not out into many sins this one will be overlooked and forgiven.

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IX. This brings us to the ninth mark whereby a man may know that Christ is his, which is self-denial. If any man follow me he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Faith destroys not obedience, but makes us to yield the only gospel obedience. Thus it was with Paul, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" As if he had said, I am willing to be anything, do anything, suffer anything, I am wholly thine. And thus it was with the Prodigal, " Make me as one of thine hired servants." And the Psalmist, Let him do with me as seemeth good in his eyes." And this discovers many that think they have put on Christ, and are deceived; because their faith works not obedience, but rebellion. They say To us a child is born," but they pluck the government off his shoulders; living in constant rebellion against God, acting according to the law of their own minds, and walking after the stubbornness of their own hearts. They are content that Christ should rule them so far as his pleasure and his will pleaseth them; but if it dislikes them, Christ may deny himself if he please, for they will not stoop to his will. They say We have no king but Cæsar," none shall rule us but our own wills. Who is the Lord that he should rule over us? Where Christ is not Lord he will be no Saviour.

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X. Another sign of a supernatural knowledge of Christ is, when all a man's actions are done with a view to the glory of God. When he is more grieved at God's dishonour than his own, and content to be abased that

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God may be glorified. The will is now raised above nature, and looks at a higher principle, even the glory of God. Thus did Joseph, "It is not in me, God shall give Pharaoh an answer." And Daniel, "God revealeth secrets but as for me, this secret is not revealed me for my wisdom, that I have more than others." And the disciples when they healed the lame man, told the people who were gazing at them Why look ye so earnestly at us, as though by our own power and holiness we had made this man walk." Nature never prompts this: nature cannot rise above nature. Therefore this may be taken as an undoubted mark, that wherever this is manifest in a man, there the Spirit of God hath been at work.

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XI. The eleventh and last sign of the saving knowledge of Christ which I shall mention is, the witness of the Spirit. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God." Some make this the only work to prove our interest in Christ, and deny all signs from the fruits of the Spirit: but this were to deny the fruit growing upon the tree to be a sign that the tree is alive, and our Saviour tells us that a tree is known by its fruits. The witness of the Spirit may be considered in a two-fold view. 1. The Spirit persuades my conscience that I am a child of God. There is as it were a secret voice speaking to our hearts and saying as Christ said to the leper," Be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee. 2. This witness of the Spirit further consists in an inward ravishing joy and comfort which the Spirit works and leaves with this assurance. This is that hidden manna which the man that feels it in himself cannot express to others, which is called the Lord's supper with us, and cheering us with flagons of wine. And hence the Spirit is called the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, for he fills the heart sometimes by this testimony with such

joys as are passing understanding and unspeakable and glorious: the soul, for the time, being with Paul rather in heaven than on earth. Though here he hath but a taste, yet the fulness thereof are the joys of heaven itself. For the kingdom of heaven is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. But how shall I know that it is the Spirit of God that beareth witness to me, and that it is not a delusion of the devil? I answer, first, God usually sends this voice when the soul is mourning and full of heaviness, as we give wine to those that are of a heavy heart. "Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted." And likewise this witness is sent either when they are waiting upon God in his ordinances to find Christ, as Mary waited at the sepulchre to see him; or when they are wrestling with God in prayer, as Cornelius was when God sent his angel to him. So likewise Daniel, Whilst I was praying and confessing my sins, and presenting my supplications before the Lord; yea, whilst I was speaking, the angel Gabriel said to me, 'O Daniel, thou art greatly beloved." Moreover, the Spirit witnesseth always according to the word, and that by discovering the promises in the word to our consciences, persuading us that they belong to us. This witness of the Spirit always fills the heart with love and thankfulness to God, and makes a man more watchful and diligent to walk in answerable obedience.

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By our rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus I die daily," and, saith St. Paul, the love of Christ constraineth us." But, on the contrary, if thy fancied assurance makes thee bold and presumptuous, to walk in sinful courses, and more remiss and careless in thy walking with God, thou mayest fear it is not a testimony of the Spirit, but a delusion of the devil. Again, this witness of the Spirit hath always its own witness, even a secret manifestation to the

conscience that it is the Spirit of DISPLAY OF THE FAITHFULNESS OF God and not a delusion.

There are likewise signs of weak assurance that Christ is our's: as earnestly to long after Christ as he is exhibited; they would fain believe, and grieve because they cannot; they mourn under their sin and make conscience of their ways, and though they cannot believe, yet they dare not willingly sin against God. These have some degrees of a true and saving knowledge of Christ, and are not to be discouraged, because Christ hath promised not to "quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed;" and he hath pronounced them blessed who mourn, who are poor in spirit, and hunger and thirst after righteousness. Therefore trust firmly upon these promises, live and die with them, saying, If I can perish with these marks I am content to perish.

There are likewise signs of strong assurance that Christ is our's: as when a man can hang upon God without comfort or apprehension of favour, nay, when the Lord seems to smite him with great afflictions; when he is filled with ravishing joy and peace in believing more than he can express; when he can contemn the world as vain and dead in comparison of Christ, having the moon under his feet; holy admiration and unspeakable thankfulness to God for Christ, as Judas, (not Iscariot,) "Lord, why dost thou shew thyself to us, and not to the world?" so he continally wondereth why God should bestow Christ upon him, and let so many thousands better than him. self; a longing for death that we might be with Christ, and an earnest desire of the coming of Christ, as Paul did, "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ."

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And many other signs may be brought to this purpose, but all cannot find these marks: yet those who can have the greater comfort.

J. W.

GOD MANIFESTED IN BEHALF OF MRS. MARY DOWNER,

Who Departed this Life at Uckfield, on Tuesday, March 30, 1841.

AFTER grievous afflictions of mind and soul for twenty years, and for the last twelve years of body also, she was convinced of her lost and perishing condition, both by nature and practice, about the year 1821, while teacher to the children of the Established Church Schools in that place; but finding her soul drawn out to hunger and thirst for the Bread of Life, she was constrained, as opportunity offered, to attend at the chapel at Five-Ash Down, about a mile from Uckfield, where she was enabled to hear the pure unadulterated word of God-of the sinner's recovery by grace, which comes alone by the Holy Ghost, convincing him of sin, and finally leading him to an all-sufficient Saviour for pardon, and peace, and righteousness.

About two years after this she was confined to her bed, which she was seldom able to leave, and during the last two years of her life never but once, and then she was taken out and lifted in again, being quite unable to remove herself. Her temptations at this period were exceeding violent, and her bodily afflictions very great, but her view of herself as a sinner was almost overwhelming ; her earnest desire after a manifestation of the atonement of the Lord Jesus to her own soul perhaps was never seen so conspicuously in any person, and for that length of time as was found in her. She was visited occasionally, during this afflictive dispensation, by the Rev. H. Fowler, late of Gower Street Chapel, London, and the Rev. James Funnell, both of whom are now in glory; likewise by the Rev. Mr. Sloper, Mr. Pilcher, and others; yet although they, one and all, felt a close union to her, and she to them, it was

not the Lord's good pleasure to break her bonds, or to proclaim a happy liberty to her captived soul, which she earnestly desired above the whole world.

She has remarked, that such was her unbelief, that if Christ Jesus was to reveal himself unto her she could not believe. The enemy, also, laid hard at her respecting election: when she said, "If I am not elected I cannot be saved." She was reduced to a mere skeleton, but such was her desire for the truth, that although the word of God pierced her through, yet her delight was in hearing it read, in conversing with the family of God, and in requesting them to pray for her; and perhaps few had more of the prayers of the Lord's dear servants and private christians offered up in their behalf than herself. They felt fully satisfied themselves she was a child of God, but this would not comfort her, she could not rest upon this, she required an experimental revelation of the same to her own soul.

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On Tuesday afternoon, the day on which she died, about six o'clock, she said to a friend, Now what do you think of my hope?" She was answered, "It is on the Lord Jesus Christ." Her reply was, I fear it." She then cried fervently to the Lord to remove her unbelief, and then said "Christ Jesus, come speedily!" On taking leave of her, her friend said, "Should the Lord manifest himself to you, and you have not strength to speak or to lift up your hand, lift up your finger." Soon after 10 o'clock she was observed to put out her hand, she then gently raised it, and waving her finger, said (as it is believed), "He is come." Her hus

band, fearing she might feel the cold, replaced it, but she lifted it up again, repeating, though hardly to be heard, "He is come;" and then closing her own eyes departed in sweet peace.

Her remains were carried to the grave by devout men, after receiving

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ON THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. A Letter to the Editors from Rev. William Allen, of Cave Adullam, Stepney. Messrs Editors-Dear Sirs,

You inserted my letter in your March number, and placed at the head of it, “ Are the doctrines of grace dangerous," which my letter never implied, and then in your note ask why the writer did not give his own thoughts on the subject, and my brother J. E. C. enquires "" What could have been my motive for asking such a question ?" it appears to me that neither yourselves or J. E. C. understood the motive or import of that letter; I did not intend to put it in the form of a question, but a favour, simply to state in a few words what effects we do and may expect to see in those who receive these precious doctrines in an unhumbled mind. Now as I am inclined to think you had some idea I wished to enter into controversy, and was a little upon the catch, and my brother J. E. C. conveying some idea that I am one of those Calvinist Arminian preachers, - Calvinist in name but Arminian in creed, I feel myself bound for your satisfaction, and to put an end to any controversy on a subject which is so plain as to make ministers of Christ's gospel groan before God, both in public and private, and what they too frequent see in and hear of the conduct of many of their hearers who receive these precious doctrines in the head, and who believe them as a doctrinal truth. I say, again, I feel myself bound to give you a straight-forward reason for my sending the letter, which I did not expect ever to see in print. The reason was, as I had in part

stated in my letter, one of our deacons (whose character and conduct I must confess is what the word of God says a deacon must be, 1 Tim. iii) said in his prayer, "Let these high

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and blessed doctrines have a constraining and humbling effect upon our hearts and lives." Now the young man who signed a seeker after truth," felt very angry at the expression used by this deacon, and stated his disapprobation of the same to me: I endeavoured to explain its meaning, and gave him freely my own views on the subject, as to the effects we too frequently see these precious doctrines have upon men who receive them without grace. As I before said, I hope he is a gracious young man, but we know from experience that young christians run too fast, and speak before they think; so seeing he had applied to you, and your answer giving him some encouragement to foster himself with the idea that the doctrines of God's word do not produce those effects in the unhumbled mind that are dishonouring to God, and which are distressing to the real church of God, that we so frequently have to lament over, as we find that which is a savour of life to some is a savour of death to others; I then said, we must make a distinction between the glorious luminary and the effects produced, as we should both see and smell a different effect in the rose and lily, to which God's people are compared, and that of the dunghill, which is not too filthy to set forth a doctrinal professor without grace in his heart.

You then ask, Why does not the writer of this letter give his thoughts? I answer, I did not ask the favour for my own information, but in hope you would have taken the meaning of my plain statement, and have dropped a few words on your cover that might, under God's blessing, have been useful to a seeker after truth," and any others who need a little more of the love of the Christ, which teaches and May, 1841.]

constrains them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world (Titus ii. 12).

What my brother J. E. C. has said in reference to the doctrines of God's grace, and on the effects they do and must have upon the minds of those who receive them in the love of them, I do most heartily agree with. But I must think my brother, in supposing me to be one of the mongrel breed, has lost sight of the inquiry, What effects we do and may expect to see in those who receive (mark, receive) those precious doctrines in an unhumbled mind. Cain, Sodom, and others to whom J. E. C. refers did never receive these doctrines, on the contrary they hated those who preached them. But the persons referred to by my deacon in his prayer, and I refer to the same in my letter, do receive them, and talk loudly and largely about them.

Now as I have taken up so much of your pages, I will say nothing of those glorious doctrines which hold me, and the love of their precious Author that constrains me to preach and contend for them, which I consider far better than my holding them in an unhumbled mind; but I shall consider what it is to receive them in in a two-fold sense, and then shew their different effects.

There is a receiving of them in a natural and speculative sense; and there is a receiving of them in a spiritual and special sense both by the teaching and life-giving power of God the Holy Ghost, as the effect of the Father's love, the dying and doing of the Son of the Father, to those to whom it must and shall be given.

To receive the doctrines of grace in a natural and speculative sense, is to receive them, in the letter, as ré vealed in God's word, and to be satisfied of them and with them as being a Bible truth, without any of their constraining, humbling, sin-subduing, flesh-mortifying, and Christ

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