and hang thieves and robbers of men, and to indulge, nay, to encourage a weekly robbing of God himself, by multitudes of the pation! Mal iii, 8, 9.

"The religious observation of the Sabbath stands further enforced by the example of God himself. In six days the Lord made beaven and earth, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh,' Exod. xx. 12, and xxxi. 37. Why did the almighty Creator, who; fainteth not, neither is weary, rest in this manner, but to enforce the observation of his Sabbath by his own pattern? While the patterns of the great, in dress or conduct, are so eagerly followed, in Britain, must only that of the infinitely high, holy, and only wise God, recommended by himself, be contemned? Besides,"God hath blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it, He hath set it apart, not only for his own worship, but for bestowing spiritual blessings upon men, and even promoting their temporal happiness in the right observation of it. In the blessing of the Lord, which maketh rich, and addeth no sorrow with it; are all his. spiritual and eternal blessings, in Christ Jesus, to be despised? Nay, what will it avail you to live and heap up wealth as the dust, if not the blessing, but the curse of God attend it? What vanity and vexation of spirit; what cares; what losses and disappointments, without grace, or even patience to bear them, will ensue? Or, which is inexpressibly worse, your trade, your riches, will become your snare and trap; will decay you from all proper thoughts and cares about your eternal salvation; will lead you into further degrees or new forms of wickedness, and thus ripen. you for deeper damnation in hell. If any man love the world, the love of God is not in him,' 1 John ii. 15. Whosoever will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God,' James iv. 4. The minders of earthly things are enemies of the cross of Christ, and. their end is destruction,' Phil. iii. 18, 19. The love of money is the root of all evil, which, while men covet after, they err from the faith, and pierce themselves through with many sorrows,' 1 Tim. vi. 10.

"In fine, the observation of the Christian Sabbath is the honourable commemoration of the resurrection of our divine Redeemer, who was delivered for our offences, and raised again on it for our. justification. It is the season which he hath appointed for the recording of his name, and his coming to bless men, see them again, and make their heart to rejoice, Mat. xxviii. Mark xvi. Luke xxvi. John xx. Must we Britons forbear worldly labour, and at no small expense celebrate the birth-day of our earthly sovereign; and shall we dislike, shall we grudge duly to commemorate the day on which our King of kings, the great God our Saviour was born again from the dead to everlasting glory and honour, when the whole observation is calculated to promote our real, our inconceivable and everlasting advantage? Are you, Sir, and your fellow-neglectors of this duty, in order to push your

worldly concerns, never affected with these dreadful words, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha,' 1 Cor. xvi. 22. Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him,' Rev. i. 7.

"Let me conclude, earnestly beseeching you, as in the sight of God, and in the view of your and my future appearance before his judgment seat, to give the above lines a serious and impartial consideration. They have proceeded from a heart which earn. estly wishes both your temporal and your eternal welfare."

To Mr. Brown's letter let me add by way of postscript, that in the New Testament it is written, that the Sabbath-day, and a holy** day, are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. (Col. ii. 16, 17)

In the Old Testament, besides the festivals appointed by God, we read that others were introduced on occasion of particular or new mercies: the feast of Purim, or of lots, instituted by Mordecai, and approved by the Jewish Church, (Esth. ix. 27.): the feast of Dedication, in memory of the reparation of the temple, and of the deliverance from the tyranny of Antiochus: which feast CHRIST himself honoured by his presence, (John x. 22,) which, doubtless, Christ never would have done, if a holy-day appointed by man for the memorial or acknowledgement of divine benefits was not lawful and right! But if the observance of a day appointed by man for holy use be lawful and right, and acceptable to God, how much more so must be the due observance of the Sabbath day, sanctified and appointed by God himself to be kept holy. There were also other holy-days appointed by God, and instituted as a memorial of past benefits; as the Passover in commemoration of his people's deliverance from Egypt; the feast of Pentecost in remembrance of the giving of the law; the feast of Tabernacles in memory of the divine protection of the children of Israel in the wilderness. These Holy days the children of God kept; and by faith saw in these shadows, the substance of good things, for the body is of Christ!

As God did rest the seventh day from all his works, so he also spake by David of another day, a Sabbath or rest that remaineth to the people of God, of which Sabbath our Lord is the substance; for on the first day of the week Christ entered into his rest, was loosed from the pains of death, having ceased from the work of redemption as God on the seventh day ceased from the work of creation.

The Jewish or seventh day Sabbath was, as well as the other holy days, a shadow of Christ, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness; because the law made nothing perfect, and the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law, and, therefore, "The stone which the builders refused, is become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day, the Lord's day, the first day of the week, the Christian Sabbath, which the Lord hath made, we will

rejoice and be glad in it; for on the FIRST DAY of the week, the Apostles met to BREAK BREAD, that is, to administer the Lord's supper and the first day of the week was thenceforth called the Lord's day, in commemoration of Christ's resurrection; as on that day Christ rose from the dead, freed from the sentence, power and stroke of the law, he having discharged on behalf of his people, all the demands of the law. (Acts ii. 24.) And then were all the types and prophecies fulfilled, which set forth Christ's work of our redemption.

As Christ is the true rest or Sabbath for the people of God, so John tell us, that it was not on the seventh day, but on the Lord's day, the first day of the week, when he was favoured with the glorious vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle John, by birth a Jew, observed the first day of the week in honour of our Lord's resurrection, instead of the seventh; he called it the Lord's day! It is also evident, our Lord himself approved thereof, by his personal presence and manifestation to John upon that occasion. John honoured the Lord by observing the Lord's day, and the Lord honoured John by his presence: an unanswerable argument, that they who honour the Lord, will be honoured by the Lord: as it is written, them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me, shall be lightly esteemed; for the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble.

To this highly favoured nation, the due observance of the Lord's day, attendance on the ordinances of God's appointment, are of great importance! The Roman Catholics honour their saints every day in their places of idolatrous worship and shall not or will not, Protestants honour their God, the Father of all their mercies, and the God of all their comforts, one day in seven? I would that every Protestant place of worship was open for daily worship; that the ignorant as well as the learned Roman Catholics might not have cause to say there is little or no religion amongst Protestants.

Our Lord wept over Jerusalem, declaring at the same time, that the things which would have been for the Jewish nation's peace had not been attended to, and therefore, the day of judgment upon the nation was near at hand, when the capital city Jerusalem would be laid even with the ground: not one stone upon another which should not be thrown down; and when the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was more tolerable in the day of God's judgment, than the desolation of the cities of Bethsaida, Cherazin and Capernaum! As Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, doth and will visit as a righteous judge, nations in this world for their sins, so he doth and will, as a righteous father, chastize his chileren for their offences: and, therefore, in public calamities the Lord's people suffer in an outward manner in common with the wicked. But if ten righteous persons in Sodom would have saved Sodom as a nation from destruction; surely every one, in whose heart the Lord hath put his fear, should in these days of profession come forth, and boldly declare, from the knowledge they have of God's righteous

judgments, that there can be no true peace for a nation of every religion, than for a nation of no religion; and that God's mercies will not be continued to this nation, unless the nation honours the Lord by obedience to his law, keeping his sabbaths, and destroying idolatry by prohibiting all idolatrous worship.

Dec. 81, 1837.

REMARKS ON THE WORD PRE-EXISTENCE. We have a letter sent us by a friendly correspondent, in reference to a remark we made on our last cover. He says "himself as well as others wish to know what we mean by the word Pre-existence, nor has he any conception how the term can be used to an infinite Person, who is self-existent and without beginning," and says he must confess his utter ignorance of the word pre-eternity.

Meo sum pauper in ære, was a maxim of an ancient philosopher, and the remark often occurs when we have questions propounded to us over and over again, which call from us repetition upon repetion, so as to tread the old beaten track, without striking out any new ideas.

We would observe there was a little speck taken out of eternity, which was called time. A portion of eternity, which commenced, and will end when the purposes of God shall be accomplished. When we apply the particle pre or pre from the Latin, which means before, to the eternal Son of the Father, is most certainly in reference to time. Thus we say, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, were before, that is, pre-existed before all worlds, no priority, neither one before or after another. Three self-existent substances in one Jehovah.

Our dearest Lord used the same particle, pra, when he said, "What, and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was BEFORE." Not as man, as some stupid dreamers assert, with a humanity that he had in heaven, before man was created. No, but with the manhood prepared for him here below, united to his divine personality. Hence the angelic anthem when he ascended, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. The Almighty Conqueror of sin, death, and hell."

Now is it not trifling with words by telling us, as this correspondent does, that he "confesses he cannot understand the word preeternity." Now, if this writer thinks proper to win a foolish word which no one ever heard before, he has no one to blame but the deficiency of his own understanding.

Can any thing be more simple than to say, that God made all things, and that he was pre, that is before all things. For every house is builded by some man, but he that built all things is God. Therefore, in reference to this time state, we must say, that the Maker and the Builder was before the things made or built. The Word, the everlasting Son of the Father.

THE EDITORS.

Theological Review.

Divine Registration; a pledge of Deliverance in the time of Trouble. The substance of a Sermon, delivered at Grove Chapel, Camberwell. By the Rev. Joseph Irons.

We have long looked upon Mr. Irons as a faithful dispenser of the words of eternal life, of deep rooted habits of thinking, forming his doctrines on a just estimate he makes of them from the scriptures; so that he gives to the truth he would enforce the most irresistible evidence. He is a man of decision, and has a hatred to every thing that borders on temporising in religion; at the same time he is liberal and open-hearted in his principles, but not at the expense of fawning sycophancy. His heart expands to all those of every denomination who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, insomuch, that his philanthrophy has been such, that whenever solicited to preach to support the interest of a place of worship of a separate communion with himself, never hesitated, though their straight-lacedness would not allow him to associate with them at the Lord's table. We mention this particular because by our review department we have been made as lookers on, and have seen him pertinaciously assailed by the unnerved arm of bigotry. The gentleman is almost a personal stranger to us, we never saw him but twice, nor should we know him again; but from his writings, and the attestations of good men, we honour him highly for his works' sake. The subject of the above discourse, entitled, Divine Registration, is taken from Daniel, xii. 1. "At that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." From which the preacher delineates a portraiture of the church of the living God in strong lineaments, interspersed with several shrewd observations suitable to the subject; as also a glance at Popery, and the gigantic strides it is making at the present day.

We conclude this article in giving a preliminary introduction prefixed to the above sermon, which will convey a drift of the preacher's design.

"It is not easy to row against wind and tide; nevertheless, the mariner who wouid he honest, and make for the desired haven, must brave the flood and face the wind, to preserve good conscience.

"The Author of the following pages is fully aware, that the flood of superstition and the wind of modern profession are both against him; but he does not hesitate to pronounce the one deep and treaeherous, and the other hollow and deceitful, and oppose the head of his little vessel to them both.

"The current opinion, the tide of the day, considers religion prospering, and deceitfully talks of the conversion of the world; and if men and money could do it, neither are wanting; but the fact is, the world is as far from being converted as it ever was. The church the true living church of God, is indeed gathering in; the number