"He has, in one word, adapted himself to your circumstances.
It was in all the defective and sinful parts of your history
that he was likely to be the least capable of affording to you
succour or supply. It was in the pity that your misery
demanded; in the forbearance that your propensity to crime
required; in the minute example that your dulness called for;
in the suffering which was necessary for your deliverance;
that there was apparently the greatest occasion to the sinner
for apprehension and fear. But all these parts of the
condition of the human fallen, their Redeemer has met in a
manner which bespeaks wisdom the most amazing, benevolence
that defies adequate admiration. With the view that has been
given of Jesus Christ, in this essay, we cannot reasonably
allow ourselves to be subject to despondency; for finite,
little, imperfect, diminutive, frail, occupying so small a
portion of creation as we are, we cannot possibly despair of
being complete in Him, in whom dwells all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily. Oh, let us then unite ourselves to Him in the
bond of a covenant which can never be dissolved." p. 321.
Towards the close of the 16th essay, he exclaims:
"Oh, what honour is accumulating in the world above! We inform
them of a morning which is not to be succeeded by night; of a
subjection which is more illustrious than all the victories
that the universe will have ever before beheld; of a finite
nature which is clothed with eternal and uncreated light; of
the very last of all the complicated actions belonging to the
redemption of the world; when Jesus Christ shall bring before
his Father the millions that He has saved from every species
and degree of crime and degradation, for the purpose of
introducing them to everlasting fellowship with Jehovah; and
when _He_ shall become subject, to whom perpetual supremacy
belongs, in order that He may show to saints and angels what
has been the greatness of His humiliation, and how unutterable
is the grandeur of God; since when He has risen from infancy
in Bethlehem on earth, to a degree of strength, of lustre, of
possession, and of renown, which all created capacity is
inadequate to comprehend, the next degree of glory above this,
is an act of voluntary subjection to his heavenly Father;
which the honours of the supreme throne, and the laws of
infinite existence, require." p. 365.
_Dissent not Schism. A Discourse delivered in the Poultry Chapel,
December 12th, 1834, at the Monthly Meeting, &c._
By T. BINNEY--Robinson, 25, Ludgate Hill.
Very elaborate, acute, argumentative, instructive, and convincing.
The term _schism_, Mr. B. tells us, is literal, figurative, or
ecclesiastical; but query, is not the ecclesiastical figurative? If
so, the division is only twofold. Dr. Campbell's Dissertations (art,
heresy and schism) deserve to be consulted.
Mr. B., when referring to the three great forms of church
government--episcopacy, presbyterianism, and congregationalism, has
surprised us a little, by saying:--
"There is something in the record in favour of all; but the
book is not the exclusive property of any. There is more,
perhaps, in support of each than the thorough-going advocates
of the others will admit. There is more of episcopacy than is
quite palatable to the presbyterian and the independent; there
is more of presbyterianism than the independent and the
episcopalian can easily digest; and there is more of
congregationalism than either the priest or the presbyter can
manage to get rid of." p. 69.
Is this to be understood _cum grano salis_, or are we left to infer that
the worthy author himself is not quite settled in his own mind as to the
interpretation of the record?
It might have been as well if Mr. B. had confined himself to Dissenters,
_as such_; however, his animadversions on the Methodists and the
strict-communion Baptists, pp. 81-83, will do them no harm.
His castigation of the present bishop of London, in the "notes," is not
more severe than just. The bishop will remember it as long as he lives.