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or climate, profess his religion, and hear his sacred name. There is, indeed, a true church of the Redeemer, consisting of those alone who really believe the Gospel, and love and serve him. But these are often wholly unknown to their fellow-creatures. They may worship the Saviour of sinners amidst the snows of Lapland, or beneath the suns of the line; they may pour out secret prayer from the bed of a hospital, or the innermost dungeon of a prison; but, however unknown to men, they are well known to the Divine Master whom they serve. He regards them as the sheep of his flock; he calls them by name; he goes before them; he leads them by fountains of living water; he gives unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, nor shall any pluck them out of his hand. But this is not the church to which the expression "the kingdom of heaven," refers. That kingdom comprehends, not only the true disciple, but the false; not only a Peter, or a John, but a Judas; not only the real, but the nominal, follower of the Cross.

By the expression, "the good seed," are meant, says our Lord, "the children of the kingdom." The figurative expression, "seed," is not here used, as it often is in Scripture, for the word of God, but for the people of God; for those whom we have just spoken of as composing the real invisible church of Christ. They are often described in Scripture under similar images; as branches of the heavenly vine as trees, the planting of the Lordtrees planted by the rivers of water, which bring forth their fruit in due season. All these images most aptly describe those whom the Saviour has rescued from the wilderness of the world, has gathered into his own garden, has watered and cherished, from day to day, by the dews of his grace, watched with his eye, and guarded by his hand; and who are daily bringing forth fruit to the glory of CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 327.

God, and the honour and interests of his church. What a happiness is it to believe that, even where religion is at the lowest ebb, some such individuals may be discovered! that some are to be found faithful among the faithless, devout among the dissipated, determined among the irresolute, true to the banner of their crucified Lord, while so many prove either cowards or deserters.

"The Sower of this good seed," says our Lord, is "the Son of Man;" that is Jesus Christ; who is Man as well as God; and who, in this mysterious character, presides over the church in heaven and earth. He

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By the tares sown in the hours of sleep are meant, says our Lord, "the children of the wicked one.' "They are not all Israel," the Apostle tells us, "who are of Israel; neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children of the promise." And so in the church of Christ, in every age; they are not all Christians who bear the name of Christian. The waters of baptism may have been sprinkled upon a child, without its being washed from its sinfulness. The cross may be stamped upon the forehead, without its being stamped on the heart. The bread and wine may have been administered in the Lord's Supper, and yet the soul be destitute of the bread and water of life. Every Christian kingdom, parish, and congregation, is made up partly of the sincere, the contrite, and the devout; and partly of the mere professor of Christianity, the presumptuous usurper of the privileges of the servants of God. And

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observe the awful description given of such persons by our Lord: "They are the children of the wicked one;" the offspring of the devil. Their evil passions, and tempers, and principles, and tastes, are so many fires lighted up, as it were, in hell. If the ministers of Christ express even a doubt of the eternal happiness of the impenitent and unconverted, of the man whose religion is little better than a shadow, they have to encounter the charge of uncharitableness. What, then, is to explain the language of the meek and lowly Saviour? If such persons are, as he calls them, the children of the devil, does not humanity demand that they should be told their real circumstances; should be arrested on the brink of destruction; pointed to the dark cloud which hangs over them, and warned of the coming ruin? Let those consider more carefully the language of our Lord, who boast of the independence of the man who has cast off the restraints of religion. While remaining in their present state, the Saviour describes them as children of the devil: they are under his guidance and controul; he holds them in his chain; he takes them captives at his will; their own will, without which he could have no power over them, yielding without a struggle to his devices. He fixes their daily task, he assigns their peculiar office; the image they reflect is his; the family to which they belong is his. For a little while the mercy of God has withheld them from the last consequence of that disastrous connexion: but how long shall the child of destruction be detained from his last abode? How long shall the gate of mercy be kept open? How long shall the voice of the Saviour be heard, "Come unto me, and ye shall find rest?" How long shall the impenitent be permitted to dwell in the region of hope and of possible repentance, instead of sinking into the pit whose "smoke ascendeth for ever and ever?"

But consider the next statement made in the text, as to the mischievous agency of the devil in the visible church. When the servants of the householder said, "Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?" the answer was "An enemy hath done this." And that enemy is interpreted by our Lord to mean the devil. He it is who corrupts the professors of the religion of Jesus Christ; who substitutes nominal for real religion; the shadow for the substance; the form for the power; ceremonies for principles; talking for doing; the outside badge of Christianity for the religion of the inmost soul. And who can wonder that the great enemy of souls should be thus anxious to sow tares on the soil of the church? What is so hateful to God, so painful to his real servants, so injurious to the Gospel, so ruinous to the offender, as profession without principle, as "naming the name of Christ without departing from iniquity?" Oh may the great Householder of the Christian family shield his church from that worst enemy-a false friend! and may every member of that family keep in mind that whenever he sleeps there is an enemy ready to sow tares among the wheat; and may we resist the devil, that he may flee from us!

Look next at the cause stated in the text, on account of which the punishment of the wicked is delayed in this world. It is said in the parable, that when the servants of the householder said that the field was sowed with tares, they said, "Wilt thou that we go and gather them up? but he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them." How truly is this in the spirit of the tender Master whom we serve! How precious are the souls of his people in his sight! How does he spare the guilty, at least for a time, rather than pluck up the wheat with the tares. But let this passage lead the careless and impenitent to

a solemn consideration of their actual circumstances. The cities of the plain could not be destroyed till Lot was removed from them; but when he was removed, the tempest of fire descended. And thus the prayers of the penitent and believing ever stand between the infliction of the just anger of God, and a guilty world. Let the church of the Redeemer be complete, and the storm will fall. Is, then, any one halting between two opinions, instead of giving himself, hand and heart, to God? Let him tremble to think of the slight barrier which stands be tween him and destruction. There is but a step or a breath between the sinner and eternity- and what an eternity! Is this a state, then, in which to trifle or to delay? Ought not the language of such an one to be that of the sinking disciples, "Save, Lord, or we perish?"

But let us pass on to the last stage of this history. The master of the field, when he has checked the well-intended but rash zeal of his servants, in wishing to destroy the tares, immediately adds, "Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather together, first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn." Our Lord thus explains the passage: "The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels: as therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels; and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and those which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." These words need no interpretation. But how solemn is the scene which they present to us! Thousands who have sunk to the grave in a state of unpardoned sinfulness, and who, long spared, not for themselves but

on account of the church of Christ, shall awake to " everlasting shame and contempt." In the great harvest of souls, they shall be cut down and cast into the furnace of fire. And thousands, on the contrary, whom no eye has discovered upon earth, or who have been recognized only as sufferers in the cause of the Gospel, as the objects of worldly contempt and persecution, shall arise from the chambers of the grave, shall be fixed as suns in the firmament of glory, and shine in eternal brightness. What more need we add for the consolation and support of such persons? Already they are adopted into the family of God; "now," says the Apostle, 66 are we the sons of God;" and soon they shall be admitted to the kingdom of their Father. That kingdom is their Father's house. Thither has their Redeemer already gone to "prepare a place for them;" and when he

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comes again, he shall receive them unto himself; that, where he is, there they may be also." And will you not wait with patience for such a change? Will you not redouble your holy labours and supplications, for the possession of such an inheritance? Will you not esteem all the evils of life as insignificant, if only you" may win Christ, and be found in him?" Shall it not be seen by your meekness in adversity, your calmness under reproach or injury, your vigorous discharge of every duty, your comparative indifference to the good things of this life, that you have your portion and heart in a better? Will you not, amidst every trial and disappointment, adopt the glowing lan guage of the Prophet: " Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation."

of God? Not all the inhabitants of

WHEREFORE SERVETH THE LAW? Christendom; not the lawless and

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The Apostle's argument, I admit, applies in its fullest sense to the state of a Jew before and after embracing the Gospel, and would appear to such a person, accquainted as he would be with the whole Law of Moses, most convincing and beautiful. But has it, therefore, no meaning to us? Is not our nature prone to fall into the errors of the Galatians; and does it not, therefore, require a strong and standing protest against them, such as the Apostle has furnished in his Epistle to that church?

"Wherefore then serveth the Law?" Before we answer this question we must observe, that the Apostle was not accustomed to our divisions of ceremonial and moral, but spoke of the whole Law, including both codes; and so far from adverting more peculiarly, as Limborch supposes, to the ceremonies, the types of Christ, many passages would imply that he had the Moral Law more especially in view; as, for instance, the following:-"The law is not of faith, but the man that doeth these things shall live in them: it was added because of transgressions, that the offence might abound: it is the strength of sin: by it is the knowledge of sin: for the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster, for ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." Who are not under a schoolmaster? Who are justified by faith? Who are children

disobedient, against these the law may still be used lawfully; and if it justly alarm them and make them earnestly inquire, "What must I do to be saved?" and bring them to the Saviour, and to the true baptism, the "answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ," to a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness, whereby they are made children of grace, and children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, it will have been a good schoolmaster; for it will have brought them to Christ, and they are then no longer under a schoolmaster, for the law is not made for a righteous man.

Such is the use of the moral law to persons baptized in infancy, but who have grown up in practical heathenism. Let us now apply it to those who trust in outward observances and a partial obedience to its requisitions, whether Jews, Roman Catholics, or nominal Protestants. All these frame to themselves a law of works ceremonial and moral by which they hope to be justified; these are worldly, often covetous, and opposers of the Gospel of Christ. Such persons we must treat as St. Paul treated the Galatians; we must shew them the inefficacy of outward ordinances, and press the spirituality of the law; and if we can convince them of sin by the law, and if they then cry out with the Apostle, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?"—and like him learn to rejoice in God through Jesus Christ; the law is good to them, for they would not have known sin but by the law. Would not the law be to such, a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ, that they might be justified by faith?

St. Paul was addressing the very same description of persons that ministers of the Church of England usually address; not Jews nor Heathens, but nominal Christians, baptized into the name of Christ, but un

enlightened as to the true character of his religion, and practically removed from the faith of the Gospel to a system of works gleaned out of the Jewish law, or elsewhere, and grafted on the profession of Christianity. We cannot be wrong, therefore, in bringing the whole Epistle before those who are under such an error, as Luther did against the Roman Catholics; and a mighty weapon it was in his hands for pulling down their strong holds, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

the interest which it has excited in my own mind, as by a sense of justice to the cause in which his Lordship is so zealously engaged, to request your insertion of the following extracts from it, as containing some of the last results of his Lordship's learned investigation of the subject. Those parts of the treatise which are already out of the press, are distinguished by that extent of learning and calmness of manner, as well as piety of sentiment, which were to be expected from the character of this eminent and devout prelate. His Lordship remarks: "The consistency of the Epistle with the Gospel of St. John is the first general ground of evidence for the verse. In every part of the Epistle, both doctrinal and moral, there is an evident reference to the Gospel in the use of the same principles of faith and charity, the same declaration of the Divinity of Christ as the Word, the Son of God, the same appeal to the threefold testimony of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in proof of that doctrine; and the same three evidences of his death, and therefore of his coming in the flesh."

I will not stay to defend the consistency of a minister of the Church of England addressing many as under the law, and urging them de novo to come to Christ, though I have no doubt that it is consistent: nor do I differ from Clemens in all points, but rather approve highly of the latter part of his paper. I will only offer a plain practical answer to his question, Is the Law our schoolmaster? Many persons may say, "We have experienced a great change in ourselves, and witnessed it with pleasure in others. But how was it effected? By the Law and the Gospel; the Law convincing us of sin, and thus inclining us to look to Christ, who delivered us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Wherefore the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith."

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THE BISHOP OF SALISBURY ON 1 JOHN V. 7.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

In your February Number of last year you gave to your readers a brief introduction to a work about to be published by the venerable and learned Bishop of Salisbury, in reply to Crito Cantabrigiensis on the celebrated text, 1 John v. 7. I have lately had an opportunity of perusing a further portion of that work; and I am induced, as well by

The consistency of the passage with the prevailing doctrine of the primitive church is another general ground of evidence. How the primitive church understood the unity of the three Divine persons, is succinctly expressed by Athenagoras, a father of the second century, in his Legatio pro Christianis, p. 38, ed. Dechair.

"The Father and the Son," he says, "being one; the Father being in the Son, and the Son in the Father, by the unity and power of the Spirit." There is another remarkable of the same passage learned Father, expressing that the great object of a Christian in his search after truth is to know "what is the union of the Son with the Father, what the communion of the Father with the Son, what the Spirit (what that of the Spirit), what the unity of persons so differing (in

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