cies and God of all grace! who hast spared | humiliation and gratitude, I refer to the me an unworthy creature, and preserved and upheld me in the midst of all my ingratitude, rebellions and sin to the present moment; do thou truly give me a broken and a contrite heart for all my past offences, and enable me by thy grace to cleave unto thee with full purpose of heart. I trust I can say with David, 'I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice, and my supplications.' I can advert to a period, and it awakens the sweetest feelings of gratitude and joy in my bosom, when the Lord delivered me out of the horrible pit and miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, even the rock Christ Jesus. That was a happy time, a glorious season, a period never to be forgotten, when seated in the thick darkness, and as the Psalmist most emphatically expresses it, 'bound in afflictions and irons,' when there was none to help, not a ray of hope, but all substantial gloom! then I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me, and snatched me as a brand from the eternal burnings. Then he brought me out of the darkness and shadow of death, and burst my bars in sunder He cut the gates of brass in two And let the smiling prisoner through. As this evening has been devoted to prayer, and dedication, may I be assisted by the Holy Spirit to live conformably to the vow I have made; that from henceforth I may live more habitually under the influence of a living faith; that I may enjoy a more intimate union and communion with the Lord; may live more habitually in the exercise of every grace of the Holy Spirit; that I may grow more in knowledge and experimental acquaintance with Jesus Christ; feel more of the constraining influence of his love, and by the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, be stimulated to active service in his cause: to devote all the energy of heart and life to him, who died for my sins, and rose again for my justification. Oh! that the truth as it is in Jesus may be operative and influential in subduing my inbred corruptions, every rising lust and propensity, and may it be made manifest in my life and conversation, and in my readiness to every Christian duty, fleeing from the very appearance of evil. Oh! that the Prince Immanuel may sway his sceptre in my soul till every enemy shall have been put under his feet. May the mysteries of redeeming love be more the theme of my thought and meditation; the glories of his cross, life, death and resur. rection; the characters he sustains, and the offices he fills be more the food and nourishment of my soul. That I may be enabled by faith to appreciate, and apply to him as my all in all. With sentiments of deep time when he brought me into the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love; then I could truly say Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love.' Oh! that a sense of Christ's unspeakable love may have a sanctifying influence upon my soul! and awaken me to a greater zeal and determination to love him. May I never disgrace the profession I have made of his holy name; but that I may adorn the doctrines of God my Saviour in all things; and if it is his pleasure, may be made useful in the promotion of his glory in the world, and to live to some important purpose in his church. I desire that Christ may be made unto me wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. I feel grief and sorrow on account of my coldness and formality in the cause of Jesus. What unbelief and pride of heart yet prevail. What little progress do I make in spiritual knowledge! Oh! that from henceforth I may make more rapid advances in experimental acquaintance with the truth, feel a greater concern for the prosperity of Zion, and may it be my daily prayer that her cords may be lengthened, and her stakes strengthened; sinners converted, and flocking to bis courts; and the Redeemer's cause becoming universally prevalent, with a humble, and I trust fervent desire to be made instrumental for the promotion thereof. I commit my soul, and everlasting all into the hands of him who doeth all things well; who overrules all the concerns of his kingdom, and appoints, and qualifies by the ministration of his Spirit for employments that shall bring most glory to his name. May the Lord give me grace and strength according to my day, that may walk in his fear, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost, and be daily preparing for that inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. In the name of Jesus do I ask every mercy; to whom with the Father and Holy Spirit be glory for ever and ever. Amen and Amen.' Friday night, 28th March. It is now a year, within a few days, sinoe I was first delivered from the power of darkness, from the service and dominion of sin, and brought into the glorious light and liberty of the children of God. Nearly twelve months have fled into eternity since that happy and memorable period when the mountains flowed down at his presence; when all my load of guilt was removed and cancelled, and when the power, the love, and the mercy of God were unfolded to my astonished view: a period in which I have had innumerable mercies calling for gratitude, love and praise; and in which I have had abundant reason to mourn my folly, supineness, and barrenness of soul before God. Adorable My dear Brother, I have looked over the MSS. of your dear friend and mine. I cannot but admire that and ever blessed God! I would prostrate myself before thy footstool at this time. Guilty, worthless, and almost hopeless I lie! at thy feet, and would in the most humble chasteness, simplicity and piety which dismanner beg that all my past enormous guilt tinguished him when living, and are dismay be cancelled, if it be thy holy and gra-played in his writings in an eminent degree. cious pleasure, and may I be restored to His mind appeared fitted in a remarkable thy favour, and by thy all powerful hand be brought out of my present darkness into light and again make me to taste of thy loving kindness. Oh! Lord make me to feel my own wretchedness before thee, and be pleased to give me an humble, broken, and contrite heart, for the sake of the blessed Jesus. Amen and Amen! Having falsified so many professions, I have but very faint hopes indeed of mercy; yet Oh! Lord, look upon thine unworthy polluted dust, and make thy face to shine in mercy!" loved!" manner for the work of the ministry. You are aware that he cherished a strong predilection for that work, and it is evident that his motives were of the purest kind. In his afflictions he was wont to regret that he had not been engaged in the services of the sanctuary. Of the moral excellencies of our dear Brother, it would be quite superfluous for me to say any thing. He embodied in no ordinary degree the mild and amiable qualities of his Saviour, which being sustained by a highly cultivated mind, My dear young friend was subject to and improved by ardent piety, rendered much mental depression, but it pleased him extensively useful, and eminently beGod to hear his prayer, and to restore unto him the joys of his salvation. During the last summer he kindly paid me a visit in town, and then discovered his usual piety; his mind, however, was suffering, and disease was then preying upon his vitals. But that mind appeared richly stored with divine knowledge. His simplicity of character, his benevolence of spirit, his unaffected humility, his ardent and holy love to God and to men, endeared him to his parents as a son, and to others as an invaluable friend. In his renoval there is something truly mysterious. One who both could and would have served the interests of religion most efficiently is taken to glory, whilst those who can do little are suffered to remain. Religion seemed to have less to do for my friend than for many others. God had from infancy endowed him with grace and moral beauty. In our Sunday school at Shipley he was indefatigable in labour. His services were truly valuable, and all regarded him with tender affection. His last affliction My worthy friend and brother who succeeds me at Shipley, the Rev. Jas. London, March, 1828. Edwards, thus writes to me : ISAAC MANN. GLEANINGS. RELIGIOUS DISABILITIES. Extracts from Mr. Fox's Speech for the Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, delivered in the House of Commons May 8th, 1789. was, whether the Church and the Constitu tion were necessarily connected and dependent on each other, and in what degree? would be careful how they assented to the and on this point the House, he trusted, proposition of the Noble Lord (Lord North.) (Continued from p. 126.) Mr. Fox said he hesitated not to state, in The Hon. speaker observed, "The first he broadest manner, his opinion on the subquestion which naturally presented itself ject. He thought religion ought ever to be distinct from civil government, and that it was no otherwise connected with it than as it tended to promote morality among the people, and, by so doing, was conducive to good order in the state. No human govern ment had a right to inquire into men's private opinions, to presume that it knew them, or to act on that presumption. Men were the best judges of the consequences of their own opinions, and how far they were likely to influence their actions; and it was most unnatural and tyrannical to say, because you think so you must act so. I will collect the evidence of your future conduct from what I know to be your opinions.' The very reverse of this, Mr. Fox said, was the rule of conduct that ought to be pursued. Men ought to be judged by their actions, and not by their thoughts: the one could be fixed and ascertained, the other could only be matter of guess and matter of speculation. "No proposition could, he contended, be more consonant to common sense, to reason, and to justice, than that men were to be tried by their actions, and not by their opinions; their actions ought to be waited for, and not guessed at as the probable consequence of the sentiments they were known to entertain and to profess. If the reverse of this doctrine were ever adopted as a maxim of government, if the actions of men were to be prejudged from their opinions, it would sow the seeds of jealousy and distrust-it would give scope to private malice-it would sharpen men's minds against one another incite each man to divine the private opinions of his neighbour, to deduce mischievous consequences from them, and thence to prove that he ought to incur disabilities and be fettered with restrictions. This, if true with respect to political, was more peculiarly so with regard to religious opinions; and from the mischievous principle he had described had flowed every species of party zeal, every system of political intolerance, every extravagance of religious hate. In this position, that the actions of men, and not their opinions, were the proper objects of legislation, he was supported by the general tenor of the laws of the land. History, however, afforded one glaring exception. in the case of the Roman Catholics. The Roman Catholics, or, more properly speaking, the Papists, as the Noble Lord had very justly called them (a distinction which, he trusted, was perfectly understood by all who heard him, and would ever be maintained by the English Roman Catholics in time to come), had been supposed, by our ancestors, to entertain opinions that might lead to mischief to the State. But was it their religious opinions that were feared? No such thing. Their acknowledging a foreign authority para mount to that of the Legislature, their acknowledging a title to the Crown superior to that conferred by the voice of the people, their political opinions, which they were supposed to attach to their religious creed, were dreaded, and justly dreaded, as inimical to the Constitution. Laws, therefore, were enacted to guard against the pernicious tendency of their political, not of their religious opinions; and the principle thus adopted, if not founded on justice, was at least followed up with consistency. Their influence in the State was feared, and they were not only restricted from holding offices of power or trust, but rendered incapable of purchasing lands, or acquiring influence of any kind. But if the Roman Catholics of those times were Papists in the strictest sense of the word, and not the Roman Catholics of the present day, still be would say that the Legislature ought not to have acted against them till they put in practice some of the dangerous doctrines which they were thought to entertain. Disability and punishment ought to have followed, not to have anticipated offence. Those who attempted to justify the disabilities imposed on the Dissenters must contend, if they argued fairly on their own ground, not that their religious opinions were inimical to the Established Church, but that their political opinions were inimical to the Constitution. If they failed to prove this, to deprive the Dissenters of any civil or political advantage, was a manifest injustice; for it was not sufficient to say to any set of men, we apprehend certain dangers from your opinions, we have wisely provided a remedy. against them, and you, who feel yourselves aggrieved, calumniated, and proscribed by this remedy, must prove that our appreheusions are ill founded. The onus probandi lay on the other side; for whoever demanded that any other person should be laid under a restriction, it was incumbent on him first to prove that the restriction was necessary, to his safety, by some overt act, and that the danger he apprehended was not imaginary but real. No such thing had been attempted by the Noble Lord. He had spoken liberally and handsomely of the Dissenters. Why? Because he felt the propriety and the justice of it. He knew that they had been steady in their attachment to Government; that their religious opinions were favourable to civil liberty, and that the true principles of the Constitution had been remembered, and asserted by them, at times when they were forgotten, perhaps betrayed by the Church. Such had been the character of the Dissenters. Were their political opinions now different from what they had been formerly? Were they more formidable from their numbers, more dangerous from their principles, more con siderable in any respect, except, perhaps, merited every praise, because it had not from the talents of some of their members ? been indulged in its whims or imaginary No such thing was asserted; and the Noble fears. Since that time it had flourished Lord, finding their exclusion from an equal and improved but how? By toleration participation of power with their fellow-sub- and moderate behaviour. And how had jects a topic on which it was impossible for these been produced? By the members of bim to serve his cause, had entered ona more the Established Church being forced to hear pleasing theme-a panegyric on the Church the arguments of the Dissenters; by their of England, which he said had shared the being obliged to oppose argument to argudangers and the fate of the State, had sunk ment, instead of imposing sileuce by the and risen with the Constitution, and there- strong hand of power; by that modest confore ought to be peculiarly endeared to us. fidence in the truth of their own tenets, and Mr. Fox said, he felt no difficulty to join in charity for those of others, which the collithe panegyric, but he could not consent to sion of opinions in open and liberal discusadopt the conclusion—that the happiness sion, among men living under the same go. of the State was dependent on the flourish-vernment, and equally protected by it, never ing state of the Church; for who that pe- fails to produce. Moderation, therefore, rused the history of those dangers which and indulgence to other sects, were equally the Church had shared, in common with the conducive to the happiness of mankind and State, but must see that the Church might the safety of the Church; and for that mohave been triumphant while the State was deration and liberality of sentiment, by in ruin? Was it seriously to be contended which the Church had flourished during the that religion depends upon political opi- two last reigns and the present, was she innions; that it can subsist only under this or debted to those very Dissenters from whom that form of government? It was an irreve- she thought herself in danger." rend and impious opinion to maintain that the Church must depend for support as au Thus far the arguments of the Honourable engine or ally of the State, and not on the speaker were directed against religious tests evidence of its doctrines to be found by generally; what remains were aimed at the searching the scriptures, and the moral ef Test and Corporation Acts in particular. fects it produced on the minds of those These Acts, our readers are aware, have whom it was its duty to instruct. The recently received a mortal wound. Noble Lord had praised the moderation of weapons employed against them nearly the Church to this, however, there were forty years ago are substantially the same some exceptions. In the reign of Charles as those by which they have been at last the Second her fortitude had been greater than her moderation; in that of James the Second her servility had been greater than either; under King William, and still more under Queen Anne, so little had the clergy been distinguished for moderation, that they had frequently disturbed the nation by their affected alarm for the safety of the Church; and he never apprehended persecution to be so near, as when those who were actually possessed of power cried out, "that they were in danger; on the well-known maxim Omnia formidant, formidanturque tyranni. "Since the accession of the house of Brunswick, that auspicious era in the history of the Constitution, the Church had The subdued. It is therefore unnecessary to produce them, if it would not be deemed cruel to flourish them over the fallen, at a moment when perhaps they are writhing in the agonies of impending dissolution. Those parts of Mr. Fox's reasoning, however, which were directed against the principle of religious tests (i. e. tests on account of religion under every form and modification they may assume) are unhappily still in point. These, therefore, are worthy of preservation, and will be so until some future Parliament shall have been prepared to admit their force, and every man shall be allowed to follow the dictates of his own conscience, unfettered by legal restraint, and without even the folly of religious toleration. INTELLIGENCE. DOMESTIC. report of the proceedings of the past year was read; assistance was voted to nineteen cases, amounting to 13404. to be sent to the LONDON BAPTIST BUILDING FUND. respective churches as the funds may allow. This Society held their Annual Meeting Resolutions were passed that the Society at No. 6, Fen-court, Fenchurch-street, on hold their Public Meeting in April, when the A brief officers shall be chosen and other business Tuesday evening, Jan. 22, 1828. N transacted, that the present officers hold [lection for the Society to the amount of their situations till that time, and that a 15l. 9s. 1d. sermon be preached the preceding evening At the formation of this Society, twentyon behalf of the Society. seven cases were on hand, ninety-seven have From the report it appeared that twenty-since been received, making in all 124. Of six cases were on hand at the commence- these fifty-two have received assistance to ment of the year, that forty had since been the amount of 39007. Eight more have aid received (twenty-two of them since the be-voted to the amount of 6057. to be sent as ginning of September,) that eleven were re-soon as a generous public will furnish the lieved in July to the amount of 7251. that treasurer with the means. J. Fletcher, Esq. had paid over to the treasurer 100l. as the bequest of his lamented lately deceased father; and that the church and congregation under the care of the Rev. James Upton, Sen. had made a public col Place. The above facts are stated that the friends of the Redeemer may form their own opinion of the necessity, the utility, and the claims of the London Baptist Building Fund. £ £ £ 60 Rev. J. Millard, Lymington. J. Turquand, Mitford. Dec. 1826. 236 166 70 50 T. Pulsford, Torrington. A sermon on behalf of the London Bap- precisely. It is hoped that persons friendly tist Building Fund will be preached by the to the object of the Society will endeavour Rev. Isaiah Birt, at Salters' Hall, Cannon to be present. Street, on Tuesday evening, April 22, 1828. On the following day, April the 23rd, the Service to commence at half-past six o'clock Public Meeting of the London Baptist Build |