serpent in the wilderness. "Yes, sir; but that is not the promise Mr. Cadogan speaks of: the words draw all men unto me, do not come in at that place." I can only say, that I purposely tried the experiment with an intelligent child, but found it not so easy as I thought to explicate Mr. Cadogan's remark; the analogy between metaphorical exaltation and literal elevation, like the serpent, or our Lord's crucifixion, I saw did not satisfy his mind. I could not convince him that "the promise" is what Mr. Cadogan says it is: nor is it so, except analogically, or figuratively; but what do uninstructed persons understand of theological analogies and figures?

SIMPLEX.

NOTE ON JOHN xi. 25, 26.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

I VENTURE to present to your readers the words of our Lord to Martha, in a view, as it respects the last clause, not usually taken of them, but which appears to me to convey their plain meaning. Martha, having expressed her confidence as to the future resurrection of Lazarus, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day," our Lord returned, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live and whosoever liveth

the life, that every believer in him, who shall be alive and remain unto his coming, shall never die; he shall not sleep in death, even as to his body, as do those who have gone before, but he shall be changed. He shall undergo that change explicitly mentioned, 1 Cor. xv, 51, &c.; and 1 Thess. iv. 15, &c.; which is analogous to the blessed resurrection of the righteous dead. By this interpretation, the passage seems divested of the obscurity or indistinct combination of ideas generally attached to it; and by which the last clause is made to express little or nothing more than what is contained in the preceding. Martha, having specified the last day, it may be supposed that the answer would refer to the event of that day to believers in general; the believing dead and the believing living. The passage may be thus paraphrased: "I am the resurrection and the life. As the resurrection, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; his body shall be raised again, and he shall live, body and soul re-united, in everlasting life. And, as the life, whosoever shall be found alive at my second coming, and believing in me, shall never die; he shall not sleep, as have others, but he shall be changed; and so shall he ever be with me." J. M.

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ASSURANCE.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

and believeth in me, shall never die." MR. IRVING ON THE DOCTRINE OF After the declaration of the future resurrection of every believer who shall die in the Lord, may not the subsequent expression, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, refer to those believers who shall be found living on the earth when the Lord shall come again? Our Lord appears to assure Martha, first, in reference to his being the resurrection, that every believer in him, though he die as to the body, yet shall live; he shall be raised again; and then, in reference to his being CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 329.

MR. Irving is no trimmer, and his talents are equal to his courage : so that where he is right, he is nobly right; and where wrong, proportionably wrong. He gives no quarter to any man of any party; he graduates only for the extremes of heat and cold, frost and fever; all mea. sure, all qualification he instinctively rejects. Hence his volumes are

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strange tissue of opposites: a re

pertory of anomalies; a mae

of splendid good and splendid (never intentional) evils: you alternatively smile and frown in every page; all are pleased with some, and none with all; and to analyze and pronounce an opinion upon the whole, you must give an estimate, para. graph by paragraph, and often line by line.

These observations occur to my mind in reading the following pas sage upon the doctrine of assurance; and which I cite, without note or comment, for the benefit of all whom it may concern. It may furnish an appropriate sequel to the discussion in your pages on the subject.

"Besides these forms," says Mr. Irving, "which the revival of the last fifty years has assumed, there is another engendering by the subtlety of Satan, which to delineate and expose aright may be of great profit to the Christian church: for it hath not yet settled into the chronical state of a sect and party. The Arminian spirit of preaching experience, and registering experience, which is nothing different from the confessions and good works of the Papists, hath at length begun to alarm many with apprehensions for the honour of Christ: who, (not comprehending the proper position from which to contend, through their ignorance of the true visible church, which they see only in our Arminian and Pelagian formalists, who call themselves churchmen, but are of the synagogue of Satan,) do come forth in their own single strength, and preach the assurance of faith, the immediate and instant assurance of our salvation through Christ Jesus. They preach Christ, as they term it; that is, the liberty of salvation through his merits; and they say, Do you believe that you are saved? And if you say 'yes,' they call upon you to rejoice, to go on and prosper. And on they go at full gallop, rush ing against every sober-minded Christian, and upbraiding him as they pass. Our good old distinc

tions between justification by faith in the imputed righteousness of Christ, the assurance of which, we also allow, must commence the Christian's work, and sanctification through faith in the Holy Spirit,the former, an act, the latter a work, they give little or no heed to whatever: although I believe this distinction to be at the foundation. of all sound doctrine, and not without the loss of both truths to be confounded.".... "This infection. runs like wildfire: this seed springs up like Jonah's gourd; and like Jonah's gourd it will perish, affording no shelter to a man's soul in the strong heat of the sun. One cannot but love their zeal, and admire the ringlets of their childish beauty, and the freshness of their downy cheek; but, ah! what shall these avail in the day of fierce and fiery controversy, when man must brave the battle's edge, and snatch the martyr's crown from the midst of the fire? I also love them as I love my sweet children, and delight myself with their soft and yielding spirits; but when I speak to them as men, straightway they are offended. God knows how I suffer daily in my heart, when I behold these, and many other exemplifications around me, of this thinness of soil, perceiving how we shall be broken upon the first onset of the enemy, which the Lord for the present restraineth, and which may he long restrain! for who could look upon the tents of Israel scattered, and the children of the living God discomfited?"-Rev. E. Irving on the Parable of the Sower, Lecture II. pp. 488–490.

As I have promised to cite without note or comment, I must leave the eccentric author to pat the

downy cheeks" of his Malaniste friends on the one hand, and to skirmish on the other with more sturdy opponents, who certainly will not admit his assertion that "preaching and registering experience" is "nothing different from Popery." I, however, fully concur with him in opinion

that the doctrine of assurance without evidence is a sickly exotic, unknown to the pure faith of the Gos- comes to this," a tree is known by pel; for, as has been well remarked, its fruits, and faith without works is "the Holy Spirit bears witness; but a dead." witness must have something to wit

MISCELLANEOUS.

"Matt. iii. 29. There are but Wo hairs be found in the way of righ places of reception-heaven andhell; teousness. Live in the constant and but two sorts of persons-wise or foolish virgins, godly or wicked, goats or sheep, sincere or hypocrites.

"Let patience be your chiefest and constant companion, with a meek and

expectation of changes, alterations, losses, crosses, and afflictions, yea, and of death; and then they will be tess grievous, and easier borne. Content not yourselves with the degree of grace, knowledge, and

and constat spirit, which, in the holiness attained; but go forward

and Saviour Jesus Christ: if ye do these things, and continue and abound in the practise of these, saith the holy Apostle, ye shall never fail.

randums, is that you may continue in well-doing, and increase therein unto the end; for, though beginnings in grace and holiness, are lovely, amiable, and commendable, yet it is endings and conclusions in grace, and faith, and holiness, that crown the work; and therefore it is written, 'Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.' And also, that there may be written over the seed of the righteous, the words of King Lemuel, The prophecies which his mother taught him.' Whereas, over too many in this age may be written, not the prophecies, but the profaneness, the oaths, the lies, the scoffs, the oppression, the slandering, the uncleanness, that their parents taught them.

sight of God, is of great price. Get unto perfection, and grow in grace, your hearts inflamed with love to and in the knowledge of our Lord Lord we with ease and delight think on what we love. David said, I will go to God, my exceeding joy, and will praise him as long as I live.' Learn that divine skill of numbering your days, that "The chief end of God's putting you may apply your hearts unto it into my heart to commit to writtrue wisdom. To this purpose, keeping these brief bequests and memoa note-book or diary of all special providences: God keeps his notebook, and so should we. Frequently read the Holy Scriptures, and other good books; and hear the word read and preached with delight and diligence, to increase in faith and holiness. Have for your helmet the hope of salvation, and pitch that within the veil, that, though Satan may darken or cloud your faith, yet let him never weáken or unfix your hope. Let your companionship and delight be chiefly in such as fear God. Come not within the dwelling of the wicked. If you would not be numbered among the goats at Christ's left hand, at the day of judgment, then number not yourselves among them here. Consider what a sweet word was that which the angel brought to Daniel : 'O Daniel, thou art greatly beloved of God.' Surely we would give a thousand worlds if we had them, to receive such a message as this; but if we live soberly, righteously, and godly, the time will shortly come when Christ will say that to us, and much more. "If God bless you with children, dedicate them to him betimes, and imitate the example of Abraham, Hannah, David, Lois, and Eunice, to instruct them in the way of holiness betimes. If God bless you with long life, see that your grey

"Lastly, I shall only add, that you may be kind, loving, and affectionate to each other. And to have a fair, free, and friendly carriage towards all persons."

Appended to this document is a memorandum by James K, the son of the above, "at the age of sixty-six, and being sensible of my approaching dissolution," recommending his grand-children to consider and practise the above rules; and to leave it in charge to their children's children to do the same. Who then can say how great a blessing to successive generations may have

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. irreligious, or invalided; but even