網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

*

vation. Thus David calls the Lord "his light and his salvation," his counsellor in all his difficulties, and his comforter and deliverer in all his distresses; and he breaks out in this exulting language, "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid." In like manner our Lord also is sometimes denominated Salvation; as, when Simeon sees him when an infant in the temple, he breaks out into an animated expression of praise to God: "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation;" + that is, I have seen him whom thou hast sent to be the preacher and instrument of salvation.

Salvation, then, in its proper New-Testament sense, is used to signify that eternal life and happiness which the Lord Jesus Christ hath brought to light in his gospel. Now, upon the first mention of such an object of faith and hope, can we forbear to ask, How must we obtain it? It is God's free gift to man through Jesus Christ; but upon what terms does he propose to grant it?-Hear what Christ himself declares: "God sent his Son into the world, that whosoever believeth in him and keepeth his commandments," (for no man can truly believe in him as a teacher sent from God without complying with what he taught,)" he should not perish, but have everlasting life;" and what saith his holy Apostle Paul? "To them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, honour and immortality, God will grant eternal life:"§"The grace of God, which bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared, teaching that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, men should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world, looking for the blessed hope." || He therefore exhorts us "to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, and then God will work in us, will assist us and bless us in our sincere endeavours, both to will and to do according to his own good pleasure:" or, as another apostle says, "Give all diligence to make your call

ing and election sure, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ."**

My young friends, the words which form the answer to

* Ps. xxvii. 1. § Rom. ii. 7.

Luke ii. 30. || Titus ii. 12. ** 2 Pet. i, 11.

John iii. 17. ¶ Philipp. ii. 12.

the question of your Catechism which we are now considering, are taken from a very remarkable passage; it is the affectionate exhortation of the Apostle Paul to Timothy, in which he exhorts him to "continue in the things which he had learned and been assured, knowing," says he, "from whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make all men wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus."* Here you see, my young friends, that this holy apostle considered it as a great happiness that from a child Timothy had been instructed in the Sacred Scriptures; he was sensible that even little children might learn many useful lessons from them. I hope you will always esteem it your happiness also, that from children you have been made acquainted with them. Study them diligently, for the more you study them the more you will find them "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:"† treat them with the reverence due to the oracles of eternal wisdom; above all, write their precepts on your minds and on your hearts, that you may always have them ready for your direction in the path of duty, and your security against temptation; you will then find that they are, truly, what the Apostle has described them, "able to make you wise unto salvation.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Let us conclude with the excellent Collect of the Church. Almighty God, who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning, grant that we may so hear, read, observe, and inwardly digest them, that by patience, and the comfort of thy holy word, we may attain and ever hold fast the joyful hope of eternal life which thou hast given us by our Saviour Jesus Christ."

OBLIGATION AND USE OF THE LORD'S SUPPER.

+ Ver. 16.

WE have just read with great satisfaction a short discourse on this subject by Mr. Turner, of Newcastle.§ The * 2 Tim. iii. 15. Second Sunday in Advent. § "The Obligation and Proper Purposes of the Institutiou of the Lord's Supper. A Sermon, preached in the Chapel in Hanover Square, Newcastle, on Sunday, Feb. 17, 1828; previous to a Meeting of the Congregation for Petitioning Parliament for the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts. By William Turner. Newcastleupon-Tyne: printed for the Unitarian Tract Society, by J. Marshall."

preacher's observations are not many, but they are weighty. In answer to the inquiry, "whether our Lord intended that his apostles should, in future, imitate the practice of which he gave them an example?" he says,

"Now, that he designed it to be observed at some future time is evident, from the words which he himself uses, Do this in remembrance of me." For remembrance always relates to those who are absent; and no one ever thinks of performing any act as a memorial of one who is actually before his eyes. Our Lord must, therefore, intend to direct his apostles to repeat the action which he now first performed in their sight, and for their imitation, when he should no longer be present with them; when, consequently, a memorial of him would be peculiarly proper and seasonable.

6

"This will be further confirmed by considering what our Saviour says of the parts of which this ordinance consists. The death of Christ, of which they were to be memorials, had not then taken place; so that if he had had a view to the present occasion alone, he would have said, 'This bread is, or represents, my body, which is speedily to be broken; and in like manner of the wine, As a memorial of his blood, which was soon to be shed for the remission of sins.' It is evident, then, from the manner of expression used at the first institution, that it was by no means his intention to limit the action to this particular occasion, but that he had a reference beyond it to some future times, and intended to give his followers a pattern of what they were to do after his departure from them; when alone the expressions which he then chose to use would be literally just and proper."-Pp. 5, 6.

In a note on this passage, Mr. Turner says,

"This, by the way, appears to be a sufficient confutation of those who plead that the bread and wine used are converted into the real body and blood of Christ, and adopt those forms of expression which seem to intimate a real sacrifice every time this ordinance is celebrated: for this is directly contrary to its original design; which respects not one who is actually present, but one who is absent, and is hereby called up to our remembrance."

The preacher refers in the Sermon to the well-known anecdote of Lord Barrington, the Dissenting peer, and father of the late Bishop of Durham, which he gives in a note, as follows:

"It is related of his Lordship, that he always made it a point, when on journeys, to rest on the Lord's Day, and to attend public worship at a Dissenting chapel, if there was one. one occasion of this sort, finding that it was Communion-day,

On

he kept his seat at the conclusion of the ordinary service: on which the deacons came to him and observed, "That the supper was about to be administered.' 'Yes,' he replied, I see it is, and mean to receive it with you.' They informed him that they did not use to admit any but members of their own church on which his Lordship begged their pardon, and acknowledged that he had quite misconceived the thing; he had thought they were going to celebrate the Lord's Supper, but if it was any private supper of their own, he had no wish to intrude;' and retired."-Pp. 12, 13.

The Sermon being preached previous to the signing of a petition from the congregation for the abolition of the Sacramental Test, the preacher speaks thus on this subject:

"So gross an abuse of an ordinance, evidently appointed by our great Founder for a very different purpose, has naturally excited frequent efforts for its removal. After a considerable interval, the present has been thought a favourable time. I sincerely wish that it may prove so: but I am not myself, nor do I wish you to be, sanguine in the expectation. I am too much aware of the influence of early prejudices, I am too conscious of their influence on my own mind, to be disposed to cherish any thing but regret-I would fain not admit a single resentful feeling-in case of disappointment. But I think that a frequent, calm, and deliberate discussion of the question, connected as it is with many others, highly interesting to Christians and free Britons, can scarcely fail, in process of time, to lead the several parties among us to a more liberal and Christian feeling. With this view alone it is that I concur in the present application to Parliament; and if I thought it would add fuel to angry and bitter passions, or impede the just claims of others to the redress which they are seeking, I would be the last to join in it myself, or to propose it to you.”—P. 13.

The words which we have put in italics are worthy of notice, as shewing the little expectation which the Dissenters, who generally felt with Mr. Turner, had of immediate success, and the desire of a large proportion of the Dissenters, in common with this gentleman, that no separate interests of theirs should stand in the way of the just claims of the Roman Catholics. The Dissenters, thanks to a wise and good Providence! have succeeded, and, if we mistake not the signs of the times, their success is an earnest that the great Christian community already named will not be much longer deprived of their civil and political rights on theological pretexts.

THE REPUBLICAN BISHOP HOBART.

DR. HOBART is a bishop in the Episcopal Church of New York, in the United States. Our readers may remember that he came over to this country not long ago, to obtain help for his religious community. He was patronized by the dignitaries of the English Church, and treated by the highest of them, in both rank and doctrine, as a brother bishop. On his return to New York, he preached and published a Sermon, in which he institutes a comparison between the United States and other countries, particularly England, and gives the preference to his own country on account of her free institutions. He describes the advantage to the Christian Religion in its being unconnected in the United States with the civil power. He asserts apostolic purity on this account for his own Episcopal Church, and laments the corruption and degradation of the British Church in consequence of her being the handmaid of the Magistrate. He even contends that the Episcopal plan of Church Government is the most conformable in its principles and rules to the republican confederation of the United States, and in fact more favourable to the well-regulated liberties of the people, than any other.This Sermon surprised some readers in this country, who had been accustomed to hear the cry of "Church and King," and who remembered the applauded maxim of the British Solomon, James I., "No Bishop, no King;" but it gave mortal offence to many Churchmen, especially such as had patronized the republican prelate, and they did not scruple to charge him with foul ingratitude.

An occasion has since arisen in which Bishop Hobart has shewn that he is resolved to act upon the principle that the secular power has nothing to do with religious matters. On the death of De Witt Clinton, governor of New York, who was much respected and beloved as a citizen and magistrate, and who was taken off suddenly while he was in the exercise of his magisterial duties, the Corporation of the City of New York came to a resolution respectfully to request the reverend the Clergy to notice the deep bereavement sustained by their common country, in their respective churches," on the ensuing Sunday. The clergy of all denominations are represented to have generally complied, but Bishop Hobart addressed a letter to the Mayor of New York, stating the grounds on which he

[ocr errors]
« 上一頁繼續 »