A Practical View of the Redeemer's Advent, in a series of Discourses. By the Rev. James Haldane Stewart, M. A. Minister of Percy Chapel, &c. Pp. xx. and 406. Hatchards: 1826.

Sermons by the Rev. J. G. Foyster,

A. M. Minister of Trinity Chapel,
Knightsbridge. Pp. xvi. and 416.
Hatchards: 1826.

Sermons in which the connexion is traced between a belief in the Truths of Revelation, and the character, comfort, and prospects of Christians. By the Rev. Miles Jackson, Minister of St. Paul's, Leeds. Two vols. 12mo. Pp. xii. and 324. viii. and 324. Hurst and Robinson: 1825. Family Lectures, in three parts, on the Principles and Practice of the Christian Religion. By John Pridham, M. A. Faringdon. Two vols. 12mo. Pp. viii. and 424. viii. and 360. Seeleys: 1826.

WE find ourselves at present, as indeed is usually the case at the close of the year, very much behind hand in our review department; and must therefore now, as on former occasions, content ourselves with a short character of each of the above publications, with such an extract or extracts as may afford our readers some idea of the style and manner of the respective au¬ thors.

The first of these volumes proceeds from the pen of the Rev. Mr. Stewart, of Percy Chapel. We have seldom, if ever, been more impressed with the truth of Luther's position, Bene orasse est bene studuisse, than in the perusal of the volume before us. Mr. Stewart is emphatically a man of prayer; and God has graciously heard his petitions, and enabled him to diffuse through these Discourses a holy, heavenly influence.

It were easy

.

to name Discourses very far superior in literary pretensions, displaying much more of critical acumen, profound research, and extensive reading, (not that we would at all insinuate that Mr. S. is deficient in these particulars) but we very rarely meet with Discourses abounding so much in Christian simplicity. Addressed, as they have been, to one of the most respectable congregations in London, and marked throughout with correctness and propriety, they are yet intelligible to Christians in every walk of life; and calculated for extensive useful.. ness as village discourses.

Mr. S. has divided his work into four parts. In the first and second he considers the Redeemer's Advent, desirable to his friendsand, terrible to his enemies: the third part contains, reasons for expecting it; and the fourth, the course of conduct becoming such expectation. He thus includes, in the review of this one subject, a compact body of Divinity, comprising the principal features of Christian faith and experience.

The following extracts will at once afford specimens of his style, and communicate important instruction.

Are you then the friends of Jesus? They cannot be more accurately described than in this chapter: "We are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." "What things were gain to me, these I counted loss for Christ: yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dross, that I may win Christ, and be found in him; not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." Are you such characters? We speak as having his glorious advent in view. Beloved friends, be

hands will not then be seen, as you last beheld them, pale and wan and lifeless, but in the full enjoyment of perfect health and vigour! Dry, then, your tears, and cease to mourn for the coming of the Lord draws nigh, and "those that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him; ""therefore comfort one another with these words."

When he appears, there will be the clearest views of his Eternal Self-existing Godhead.

honest to yourselves: do you count all things loss for him? Do not deceive yourselves. If you have any doubt, adopt the course of the first members of this Philippian church. Acts xvi. You observe among them two remarkable characters; one of them earnestly asking the Apostles, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" the other, frequenting a place where prayer was wont to be made." Unite their spirit. With 'a teachable mind inquire, "What must I do to be saved?" Let your closet also be a place "where prayer is wont to be made." This is the course to become the friends of Christ: not receiving the mysteries of his religion in a self'confident spirit, as if your own wisdom were sufficient for your guidance; but meekly consulting the sacred volume, and in earnest prayer saying, with the devout Patriarch, "What I know not teach thou me."

The two converts to whom I referred afford a delightful encouragement that none thus seeking the Lord shall seek in vain. Few natural characters seem more opposite than those of Lydia and the Jailor the one, a mild and gentle female; the other, a man whose office had increased his natural obduracy. If, however, you examine their history, you will see that the Lord freely imparted his grace to each; and when that grace had been received, or when they were made partakers of faith in the Lord Jesus, there was a great similarity between them: both publicly confessed the name of Christ, and both courteously received the Apostles. Oh then, do you profit by their history, that you may be found among the friends of Christ at his coming.-Pp. 17—19.

Let this subject (1 Thessalonians iv. 13, 14.) console those believers who now mourn for their departed Christian friends. Here is your strong consolation: they are not lost-their spirits live with Jesus; and when he comes, He will bring them with him; and you will see them, and you will know them with a perfect knowledge. For you will see not their unclothed spirits, but their bodies, fashioned like unto his glorious body. The very eyes that have smiled upon you, the very lips whose sweet accents have so often cheered you, the very hands which have performed such numberless kind offices, will all be visible. And how delightful, my mourning friends, is the thought, that these eyes and lips and

This will be brought intuitively to the mind; for our text declares, “ we shall see him as he is."-It is impossible to read the Scriptures, with a reasonable mind and a humble spirit, without acknowledging the Deity of Christ. For he must be God, reason says, who is every where present; who communicates life and light to all nature; who formed the heavens and the earth; who searches all hearts; who has all the Divine attributes; and who in heaven receives the adoration of all the angels. He must be God, reason, says. Still, it is by faith and reasoning we discern it. But when he comes, and is seen as he is, his Deity will be made manifest. As one confined in a dark mine, who had heard of the glories of the sun, had seen some beautiful flowers which his rays had tinted, or had tasted some of those delicious fruits which had been ripened by his beams, or had beheld some scattered particles of his light which had reached his gloomy cavernsuch a person might believe the sun to be a glorious object, either from what he had heard, or from what his own reason had induced ;-but were he admitted to the light of day, were he to behold this orb in its meridian splendour, he would require neither faith nor reasoning to convince him of its glory his eyes would see it. Thus it will be on that day. The eye, the noblest faculty, shall intuitively perceive the eternal Deity of the Lord Jesus, and every one immediately confess that he is "God over all, blessed for ever and ever."--Pp. 47, 48.

But the suitableness of his advent for this season is especially manifest from this consideration, that then both the righteous and the wicked will have attained their full state. The wickedness of many persons is not discovered to man till after their death, and the measure of the evil that they commit is not known for many ages-for the poison of their writings may remain in full force when they have ceased to speak--but in

that day they will have filled up the measure of their iniquity. And, oh, how terrible will it be for the impenitent to stand at his bar with this fulness of sin upon them! We have heard of those, who, having committed secret iniquities, have for years had the fear of a disclosure before them; but this day will bring every hidden thing to light. There will be no keeping of secrets when the Lord comes: "the books will be opened, and the judgment will be set." All the wicked plans, the sensual indulgences, the private frauds upon society, upon unsuspecting friends and masters and kind benefactors; all, all will be brought to light. And what a sight will this reveal! Well has it been said of that day, "Some shall rise to life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." For what shame will then cover the wicked, when those sins, which they would have blushed that even a child should see, shall be publicly displayed before an assembled world !"

Oh, my friends, it appals the spirits even to think of such a sentence. What will it be to have it executed! To be forced, by an irresistible power, to turn away from the joys of heaven, from the society of the righteous, the songs of angels, the sight of the Saviour, the unclouded presence of the ever-blessed God, to turn away from these everlasting joys, and to plunge into an abyss of eternal woe !—Ỗ thou merciful God, who wouldest not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live, look down in compassion upon every thoughtless reader who may cast his eyes upon this page, and, ere the sentence be pronounced, turn his heart from sin. Grant him repentance unto life, and free forgiveness, through the merits of thy Son.

66

And you, my beloved friend, my kinsman, my brother, my fellow-sinner, think of these things. I write them, not that I have any pleasure in declaring the terrors of the Lord; but I write them in love to your soul. It may be that it was expressly for your benefit that the God of love and mercy instructed me to write these truths. By all the terrors, then, of that awful day, now prepare to meet your God." Think not that what has been written is an idle tale: it is the Son of God sent down from heaven, it is the Saviour of sinners, the Judge of quick and dead-yes, the very Person before whose bar you must stand-who gives you the warning. He says of his first coming, "I came not to DEC. 1826.

judge the world, but to save the world." He says of his second advent, that "He shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him: then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats: and these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." Receive him, then, as a Saviour, ere he comes as a Judge. Fall before the footstool of the Divine Majesty; and, pleading the name and the merits of his only begotten Son, say unto the Lord, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me: Take away the stony heart, and give me a heart of flesh: O God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"

Another reason for this doctrine (regeneration) exciting so much opposition is this, that this divine change particularizes between man and man. It descends to each individual. It is not, like the atonement of our Saviour, a blessing which may extend its beneficial effects to many in a general manner; but it separates one individual from another. A person is born again, or he is not he has received the Holy Spirit, or he has not received that divine gift. His state turns upon this point. And as it is very humbling to the mind to perceive an inferiority to another; to be sensible that it has not obtained that which another has obtained, this produces a desire to discredit the truth altogether.

It is to this cause that we may trace many of the controversies upon this subject; many of the attempts to turn aside the thoughts from the thing itself, to disputes as to the time in which it takes place: whether, for instance, this divine change is always infallibly made at baptism, or only in some cases; or whether it is only begun at baptism, and afterwards completed. Few of these dissensions would have arisen, had the mind been disposed fairly to meet the question; "Am I a partaker of this divine change? have I received the Holy Spirit? am I a new creature?" It has been the unwillingness to enter upon this inquiry which has caused many of those controversies which are a discredit to the Christian name; controversies which may lull the unthinking into a

3 R

false security, but which can never satisfy a sentient being,-a being whose eternal destiny depends upon this question, "Am I born again, or am I not?"

Should there, therefore, be any one present to-day, who may be in any degree prejudiced against this truth, let me entreat him to lay aside his prepossessions; to give the subject a candid hearing; to attend to the words of our blessed Saviour, "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." And may the Spirit of God accompany the word with his effectual power, for Jesus Christ's sake.-Stewart, pp. 206–208.

The Sermons of Mr. Foyster may be considered as of a more literary character than Mr. Stewart's; while at the same time they are decidedly evangelical and no ways deficient in close and personal application. The seventeenth sermon, from John iii. 14, 15. preached on Good Friday, affords a fair specimen of Mr. F.'s style.

To this occurrence our Saviour refers in the text, as a striking emblem of that great propitiation for sin which he came to offer by his death upon the cross.What then, let us proceed to inquire, are the principal features of resemblance in the two appointments?

I. There is a striking similarity in the occasion or design of each of these appointments. The rebellion of the Israelites had exposed them to a severe chastisement. Their impious murmurings and base ingratitude had brought down the wrath of heaven upon their heads in such a form, that the calamity, with which they were now visited, appeared to threaten nothing less than their utter extermination. They were helpless, and almost hopeless. No earthly hand was stretched out to succour them. No earthly physician came forward with the offer of a remedy. No herb of the field yielded its medicinal virtue to counteract the speedy operation of that destructive venom which preyed upon their vitals. They dropped around in heaps, and expired. Under these dreadful circumstances did Moses plead with God for the people; and, at his intercession, the brazen serpent was erected, and made the appointed instrument of staying the plague.

And is not the death of Christ a similar appointment, with regard to its occasion or design? The fall of Adam brought ruin on himself and his pos

terity. The sentence of mortality passed upon all men, in consequence of his transgression; and this sentence had been carried into effect, by the infliction of temporal death, with only two exceptions since the creation of the world. But temporal death carried with it a sting; and that "sting" was "sin." Sin was that fiery serpent, the venom of whose bite was propagated beyond the grave. In the case of every impenitent offender, it was to be followed by condemnation and punishment in a future world. Even repentance was insufficient, of itself alone, to cancel the guilt of past transgression. And to such a state of moral weakness was man reduced, that, without grace and aid from above, he wanted even the disposition to return into the way of righteousness. Thus he appeared to have lost, for ever, the hope of pardon, spiritual restoration, and a blessed immortality. He appeared banished from Eden, never to return. While he was in this most awful and unhappy condition, a mighty Deliverer came to his relief; one who was "manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil;" that he might heal those wounds which the original transgression had inflicted on our fallen race, and extract that fatal venom which "the old Serpent" had infused. Christ was "exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins." Such was the occasion of his coming in the flesh: such the design of that appointment through which he condescended to suffer and to die. And thus, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so was the Son of man lifted up.

II. There is a striking similarity in the actual consequences and effects of these two appointments. The design of an appointment is one thing; but its actual efficacy, for the accomplishment of that design, is obviously another.

The brazen serpent proved effectual for the cure of the wounded Israelites.

It was no empty mockery of their woe. It was no vain,—no feeble interposition. It was no idle, ostentatious experiment, promising much, and performing little. It was no partial alleviation of their sufferings. It was a prompt and efficacious remedy for all, who did but comply with the prescribed condition. To all such its healing virtue was immediate and complete. The wounded suddenly recovered. The dying suddenly revived. The fiery serpents either lost their venom, or fled away. Thus

the plague was stayed, and the congregation of Israel had to rejoice in their deliverance from one of the most tremendous calamities that could befal a people.

And is the cross of Christ of less efficacy for the pardon of that guilt which the sinner has contracted,-for the repeal of that sentence of condemnation to which he stood exposed? No, assuredly. The crucified Redeemer of mankind is "able to save to the uttermost," and is actually the Saviour of "all who come unto God by him." This heavenly Physician can cure the worst and most inveterate distemper of the soul. His blood can cleanse from all sin can expiate guilt the most accumulated, and crimes of the deepest die. His mediation stays the sword of divine vengeance in its full career. Before his prevalent intercession the destroying angel drops it from his grasp, and at once loses the power to smite. He, in short, is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world; and not a single individual shall miss the benefits of his atonement but through his own fault, folly, and impenitence. And thus too, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so was the Son of man lifted up.

III. There is a striking resemblance in the conditions through which these two appointments were made effectual to the accomplishment of their respective designs. In both cases, certain conditions are required. The mere elevation of the brazen serpent was nothing, of itself alone. It was not of the nature of a resistless charm, working independently of the concurrence of those who were to be benefited by it. It could heal none without their own knowledge, consent, and co-operation. To be effectual, it was to be attended with a suitable act on the part of the wounded person. He was to look at the brazen image. He was to raise his drooping eyes, fast closing in the darkness of death, and to fix them on the appointed instrument of cure. If any, from a spirit of perverseness or unbelief, refused to comply with this easy condition, they were left to perish by their folly. Thus the wounded Israelites were dealt with as rational, reflecting, and accountable beings. The meaning of the action prescribed was obvious. It was intended as expressive of the faith and hope of the sufferer. It denoted his confidence in the alleged virtue of the instrument, and his earnest

desire to avail himself of the offered remedy.

How fitly, also, did this circumstance prefigure and represent that faith in Christ which is necessary for our reaping the promised benefits of his cross and intercession! The Son of man was lifted up, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The merits of his atonement must be embraced by a true and lively faith, or they will profit us nothing. To the unbelieving and impenitent they bring no salvation. Their healing efficacy is confined to the humble suppliant, who, duly sensible of his unworthiness, and spiritual wants, gladly betakes himself to the hope set before him in the gospel." Hope and trust in any particular object have been expressed, in almost all languages, by the familiar image of looking at, or towards that object; and the metaphor occurs frequently, in scripture, with reference to Christ. Thus we are exhorted to "look unto Jesus," as "the author and finisher of our faith." "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth :"these are the words of the prophet, speaking in the person of the Messiah, "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and to them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation." To look and to believe are here convertible terms; and as, in the case of the brazen serpent, looking implied faith in the appointed remedy, so, with regard to our crucified Redeemer, faith in his atonement is expressed by the image of looking to him, or for him.-Pp.

294-300.

What now are the practical influences suggested by the subject we have been considering? Let us beware of regarding the comparison, here exhibited, as a mere point of speculative curiosity. Let us beware of regarding it with that sort of curiosity which amuses the fancy, but fails to touch the heart, and influence the practice. Let us apply it to ourselves in a personal and particular manner. We are called, this day, to commemorate the crucifixion of our Redeemer. And what is the effect which the remembrance of his cross and passion should produce upon our minds? We should be filled with admiration and gratitude, at the view of his condescending pity and love. We should reflect upon the glories of his divine nature, and compare them with the abasement of his voluntary descent from