and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one, I John v. 7, 8. These are blessed Christmas portions, and all the blessedness that is couched in them is yours, because ye belong to Christ. The experience of these things in the demonstration of the Spirit will produce joy and peace in believing, and open to the renewed mind communion, and fellowship with the Holy ones; which is a mercy unspeakable, so that you will join with me in the following language," the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out; for of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory for ever, Amen." Here I pause and say, What hath God wrought?

I would now take you by the hand, and lead you to another sweet flower that is very fragrant, in the pleasant land of Beulah, which I will say is not generally known in its beauty, nor received in its fulness and importance, by but few of its professors in our day; namely, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." Col. i. 12, 13. Now, to a spiritual mind it is full of order, and beauty, first being made meet before partakers. This is most blessed, and it shows how, and when, we were made meet, as the word implies in the truc etymology of the same -fit, proper, qualified: then it follows, our being made by the Father, is by his eternal love act, before the foundation of the world in choosing us in Christ, Eph. i. 4.; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, verse 5.; accepted us in the beloved, ver. 6.; and in whom we are complete, Col. ii. 10. How these four truths precede our being actual partakers. And these love acts of the Father, made or rendered us fit, proper, and qualified, to be partakers of the inheritance, of which we have now the earnest, as it is written, "In whom also ye trusted, AFTER that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also AFTER that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of your inheritance." Eph. i. 13, 14. And now see what we are partakers of. As we are, or were, made meet by the Father before," we are made partakers of the heavenly calling, and are made partakers of Christ," Heb. iii. 1, 14. And "That we might be partakers of his holiness," Heb. xii. 10.

In conjunction with our meetness, there is given to us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these (in the fulfilment of the same) ye might be partakers of a divine nature, 2 Pet. i. 4.; Christ is the bread of life that came down from heaven, John vi. ; and we are all partakers of that one bread, 1 Cor. x. 17. Christ is our altar, whereof they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle, Heb. xiii. 10. Then are not they that eat (this bread or sacrifice) partakers of the altar? 1 Cor. x. 18. Ponder these things over, VOL. IV.-No. V.

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and as you apprehend them by faith, so you will find yourself a partaker with the saints in light, that is, in the regenerated children of God, who were sometimes darkness, but now light in the Lord, Eph. v. 8. Surely then, by these things we are partakers of the inheritance, for the Lord our God saith, "I am their inheritance, I am their possession," Ezek. xliv. 28. then it follows blessedly the nature of it," Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter i. 3, 5. And they which are called receive the promise of eternal inheritance." Heb. ix. 15. These are inost precious truths to cheer the heart, and make us sing of the mercies of the Lord, for being partakers is an effect of our meetness, and that being the personal love act of our God and Father, the whole is as unchangeable as himself and oath, so then we may say with Paul, "I am persuaded that neither death nor life, &c., shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Rom. viii. 38, 39. Blessed be the Lord our God, Amen. Again, "Giving thanks unto the Father; this we have daily cause to do, for he hath also delivered us from the power of darkness. This sweet mercy though done is not apprehended by all the children that are the recipients of it, in consequence of their walking in darkness and have no shining, Isai. 1. 10.; and therefore many perplex themselves, and consider they are not delivered, but the sub. ject is very plain, if we notice the distinction, the power and darkness It is not said we are delivered from darkness, but from the power of it: and we were completely under that power, before the Lord delivered our souls; but not so now, as the light hath shone in union with life given, and it is the light that maketh manifest our darkness, and the hidden things thereof: so again it is written," Having delivered us from the bondage of corruption, &c." Rom. viii. 21. by the same quickening we are delivered from the bondage, though we feel corruption working day by day; yet we are not in the bondage of it; and sin shall not have the dominion over us. I cannot enlarge, I hope these hints will be profitable, and may the Lord in mercy open them up to your mind, and if so, your IFS will fall before them. Peace, Mercy, and Truth, be with you, Amen. My dear wife unites with me in love to you and dear

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The gracious Lord bless and keep you, and cause his face to shine upon you. As a present to you for a New Year's portion, I refer you to Rom. viii. 28. to the end; 1 Cor. i. 30., 1 John iv. 9, 10. Jude 1. Rev. i. 17, 18. When you have leisure, I shall be glad to hear from you. My love to the lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ, in sincerity and truth. Yours in the precious Lord Jesus,

A. TRIGGS.

EVANGELICAL GEOLOGY.

LETTER IV.

To Dr. Pye Smith, with reference to his Course of Lectures on "Geology and Revelation," now delivering at the Congregational Library, Blomfield Street, Finsbury Circus.

SIR,

We are now arrived at the climacterical crisis of the extraordinary present " course of lectures on Geology and Revelation." Your next Tuesday evening's lecture will form the hinge on which the success of their substantive purpose will turn, and by which their pious character and nature will be decided.

Permit me, Sir, anticipiently, and by way of keeping the sacred point of the matter before the waiting eye of the world, to premonish you of the holy task you have undertaken to perform. You stand engaged to demonstrate, from the Scriptures, the following catalogue of purely evangelical propositions, as laid down in the six preceding lectures.

1. That a chaotic fluid did not prevail and envelope the earth immediately before its preparation for the dwelling of man, and the contemporary living creatures; such a doctrine being contrary to the principles of geological science.

2. That the great heavenly bodies were not created on the fourth day, is generally understood, but antecedently; the former notion being also at variance with the known laws of natural science.

3. That all animal and vegetable life did not proceed from Eden as the centre of creation, but that animals as well as plants were indigeneously created in the peculiar countries and climates in which they are found; the former received opinions being equally contrary to probability and possibility, and to all geological principles.

4. That the flood was not, and could not have been, universal, as usually understood from the Mosaic record.

5. That all animal life was not, and could not have been, destroyed by the deluge; that all human life only suffered that destruction.

6. That pairs of all living creatures having been preserved in the ark, as commonly held, is an idea impossible, and amusingly ridiculous.

7. That accordingly to the universally admitted principles of geology, this globe must have had material existence for countless ages before it was (6,000 years ago) prepared for the habitation of man.

Together with many other propositions equally, but not so prominently, pious.

Now, Sir, the portentous development of Tuesday evening next must disclose to us what powers of lingual ingenuity you possess for the perfecting of this work of love, and of what malleable material you can exhibit the holy language to be composed, that it can, under your adroit hand, be hammered out into the shape of all and every one of the above scriptural tenets.

We were glad to find you last evening acknowledge that one fearful geological interpretative resource had been abandoned as no longer tenable-the making the word "day" (Gen. i. 5.) to import a time of indefinitely extended

duration. For this abandonment we are thankful, and we trust that position will never be occupied by geologists again. Geologian like, however, you no sooner extricate yourself from out one pit than you fall into another, and in sewing up one conscious rent you fearfully make ten others of equal infidelity; for while you acknowledge that the word " day" cannot be otherwise explained than as interpreted by God himself (Exod. xx. 13.) you immediately set yourself in hostile array to declare the true meaning of the beginning (Gen. i. 1.) to be contrary to that interpretation of it given us by our Saviour Jesus Christ himself, and his inspired evangelists.

The Son of God, in interpreting his own word (and I suppose Dr. Smith will admit that the Savicur of men could rightly interpret his own revelation), immediately connects our first parents and their marriage union with "the beginning of the creation" (Mark x. 6.); but Dr. Pye Smith will not have these two things consecutively united, though " joined together" of God himself: he will, as by the principles of geology bound to do," put them asunder." We can only say that we would not ourselves be engaged in such a purpose for thousands of worlds-we feel a trembling awe and speechless amazement at the thought,

These engagements, however, are not very strange to Dr. Pye Smith. He can, in his elaborate compilation of a scriptural and biblico-critical “ Testimony to the Messiah," at once rend the Song of Solomon from the sacred volume, and deny its having any pretensions to inspiration or divine authority. He can affirm, (according to Mr. Babbage's natural-sense principle, the only principle on which the inspired volume is to be received or rejected!) that this Song, though emphatically called by the Holy Spirit, on account of iti exceeding glory, "The Song of Songs," does not contain a sentence, or a single word, possessing the nature of a rule, in reference to facts, or doctrines, or precepts, or any thing at all of a religious kind. He can challenge all the Christian world "to find in it either a doctrine for faith, a precept for obedience, a warning for admonition, or a promise for consolation." And as to any mystical content and interpretation, with reference to the union between the eternal Bridegroom and his Bride, the Church, and the "Secret places of the stairs," involved in that union and communion, as known and enjoyed by the Bride, unto her eternal salvation, that the Doctor wholly explodes, averring, agreeably to the said natural-sense principle, that "it is a part of the glory of genuine revelation to have no mysteries, as the heathen had, into which only select persons were to be initiated." There is one, nevertheless, who hath said (and all his true ministers and disciples know the meaning of the words,) "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but unto them that are without in parables, that seeing, they might see and not perceive, and hearing they might hear and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them." -" I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight."-Mark iv. 12, 13. Matt. xi. 25.

The same anti-mystery natural sense principle also compels the Doctor, in the above work, to deciare his disbelief that the pre-eminent prophecy, “ A

virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel," had any direct prophetic reference to the Son of God, who was to be manifest in the flesh; or that the name "Emmanuel" was to be essentially applied to the Redeemer of men; but that both fact and title were applied by the evangelists to the Messiah by assimilation only; the specific prophecy having been fulfilled, immediately after its divine promulgation, in the born son of the newmarried wife of the prophet, or of the Jewish king, and in the name given unto him as descriptive of the then existing circumstances. We cannot (as we have before observed) here detail refutation: we only exhibit principle. We know these scepticisms have existed among graceless men: but we never heard of their having been held, published, still retained, and disseminated by any minister or private Christian, that had any pretensions to having been "taught of God."

Dr. Pye Smith also, in the publication above alluded to, though expressly standing engaged to adduce all the principal testimonies to the Messiah, both from the Old and New Testaments, wholly omits, from some undecipherable reason, to notice the 53d chapter of Isaiah. Whether the world will ever he favoured with his motives in leaving such an hiatus, we cannot pretend to divine.

Last evening Dr. Pye Smith presented us for our edification, and for the greater strenghtening and confirming our faith in the volume of divine revelation, with the gratuitous projection of a probability, that Moses was not the writer of the whole Book of Genesis, but a compiler only of previously existing, and differently styled productions of ante diluvian and post-diluvian patriarchs, ascending from Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Noah, &c., up through Enoch and Seth, to Adam.

One would really be inclined to fall back into the necessity of a natural conclusion, that Dr. Pye Smith must have received some extensive contraband importations of Neological improbabilities and impossibilities from kind and respected friends in Germany. If he has, contraband they certainly are, for they never have received, nor ever will receive, the broad seal of the King of kings.

Pause we but for a moment, and reflect on the view given us through this "hole in the wall" into the interior of the evangelical chambers! In these principles are to be cradled, and in this religious element are to breathe, companies of dissentient Nazarites, designed to figure in a future supra-evangelical ministry! When they shall be sent out to the execution of their extra pious calling, and the perfect book of life shall have been put into their hands, as the foundation and source of their principles and preachings, they are first to tear out of it the Song of Songs." Next, they are to make various significant marginal notifications! One must be affixed to Isaiah vii.; another perhaps to Isaiah liii., others to Matthew xi. 25.; Mark iv. 12. Let not either the teacher, however, or the taught, despise that irreversible word and purpose which close the eternal volume, and which applies equally to its whole contents" For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things,. God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and