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' our fathers, who knew little or nothing of this and had no marks 'of possessing it; nor the Reformers; nor the saints and martyrs 'later than the third century?" I have given thee rest on this 'question. They might still have regeneration and remission, 'and the grace of both sacraments: but God is leading us of this age back to fountains of which our fathers never drank; which 'were open to them indeed as to the first Christians, but the 'way unto them was not known. Neither say unto me, And 'what art thou, who presumest to pass beyond the Luthers and 'the Calvins?' I am a minister of Christ, as well as they; and 'as near to God as they; to whom his book is as free as to them; and I seek to occupy the work of my day and generation, as they also did. Let us not trouble ourselves with such irrelevant ' matters, but proceed, book in hand, and the Spirit of truth in 'our heart, to open what the baptism with the Holy Ghost is, having opened already what it is not.' pp. 28-30.

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Oh how I tremble for the present unprepared state of the 'church, so uninstructed in things supernatural, so taught to 'surrender its faith upon the shew of things miraculous! The 'doctrine which is constantly taught in the schools, Shew me 'a miracle, and I must reason or think no more, but only listen ' and believe,' hath prepared the church for Satan's workings 'whenever it pleaseth him to appear. The more need that men 'do instantly betake themselves from all such doctors to the 'great Teacher, who giveth, as the test for trying persons supernaturally gifted, to know their fruits, that is, their good words 'and works a test which requireth our own conscience to be 'clear, and our own life to be sanctified by the continued in'dwelling of the Spirit of love and truth: without whom I believe 'it is not possible to discern between the workings of an unclean 'and a clean spirit in the men whom they have possessed.'.p. 103. 'Truly it doth mightily increase the guilt of a man to be in'troduced into this region of superhuman power of Divine 'inworking, and still to resist and rebel against God. But yet it is ' possible, in order to shew that of that region also Christ is the only Lord, and that spiritual persons are dependent for their 'salvation as entirely upon Jesus, as they were before they re'ceived their spiritual baptism. Solemnly therefore do I coun'sel those who have not been baptized with the Holy Ghost, 'to seek first the indwelling of Jesus, that they may abide in 'him, and that his words may abide in them, before they seek 'the indwelling of the Father. Most solemnly also do I counsel 'those who have received power from on high, to be only the more jealous over their allegiance and obedience unto Jesus: for though God in that region is the same gracious God as in every other, yet there also will he suffer no name to be exalted 'but the name of Jesus; and no will to be done but His, who is

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the Lord of all.' [Hence the propriety of "every spirit confessing that Jesus is the Lord."] p. 106.

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'And if any one be seeking gifts for the mere pride and power ' and notoriety of possessing them, I entreat them to desist, lest 'they receive that which will be sure to prove in their hands for a bane and a curse: but if any one, for the prosperity of their own souls in holiness, for the edification of the church in unity, and for the manifestation of the power of the Father, Son, and 'Holy Ghost, shall pray for such a distribution of the Holy Ghost as may seem to the great Lord most meet to their place in the body, it shall not on any wise be refused. And he need not be afraid that God will send, in its stead, an evil fruit of 'enthusiasm, fanaticism, or diabolical delusion. But let him 'keep his heart and mind in Christ Jesus, otherwise he will wander into some form of error, and use his gift for some end of 'evil. That which he received as a true gift of the Spirit, may 'become an instrument of the flesh, and end in the most abomi'nable and foul prostitution of the spirit to sensuality. This aris'eth from forgetting our responsibility to Christ, and yielding ourselves to the gift, or else using it for other ends than the edification of the whole body.' p. 114,

How delightful and profitable it is, to take up the plain and simple conclusion of the author:-'I do bless our Lord and Saviour, that, when opening our liberty to apply for the Holy Ghost, he did it in such language as neither the ingenuity of 'the sophist nor the profanity of the blasphemer can turn aside : "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the 'Holy Ghost [good gifts] to them that ask him?" I need no ' other warrant to ask for the Holy Ghost in all his functions. 'He that doth, is an unbeliever; and, by God's grace, I will not cease to pray, and to teach, and to believe, till he make the church of which I am pastor to come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I do beseech ' every faithful and enlightened minister to persevere in the same course; and exhort the people, whose ministers oppose this 'work, to meet and pray for the increase and edification of the churches to which they belong.' p. 116.

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II. Facts connected with recent Manifestations of Spiritual Gifts. By the Rev. Edward Irving. [“Fraser's Magazine" for March, January, and April, 1832.]

These narratives of actual occurrences, interspersed of course with controversial statements, very appropriately were submitted to the public through the medium of a popular magazine; the liberal newspapers and the religious periodicals excluding all

communications illustrative of, or favourable to, Mr. Irving's opinions and proceedings. They are prefaced by an introductory note from Mr.Irving to the Editor, which we give, for the purpose of shewing the object of the communication.

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Your urgent request, that I would permit you to publish 'through your magazine some authentic account from my own 'pen of the work of the Spirit in my church and elsewhere, in 'order to stay, if possible, the torrent of blasphemy which is 'sweeping through the land, and give reasonable and religious 'people the means of making up a judgment upon so important a matter, has at length prevailed with me; and I sit down 'faithfully to narrate what hath come under my own eye, or been brought to my knowledge from the most certain and 'authentic sources. For, while it is a great point of duty not to cast pearls before swine, nor to give that which is holy to the 'dogs; it is so also, to "sow beside all waters," and especially 'to make known the work of the Lord among other classes, now 'that the religious world are violently rejecting it. These two 'duties I shall endeavour to unite in this narrative, by [presenting the subject in an historical form, with only so much of 'doctrine intermingled as is necessary for the right exposition ' of the matter.'

In that part of the narrative which refers to women speaking,' the following brief but salutary rebuke is introduced: Nothing more fully shews me what a letter-killed state the church is come into, than the way in which the whole work ' of God has been resisted upon the strength of that single pre'cept, that "women should keep silence," which no church 'till now hath interpreted in the letter since the world began. 'But, indeed, there is no longer a church interpreting the word of God by the Spirit; but a number of intellects hammering away at the letter of a book. The Roman-Catholic use of the 'Scriptures is nothing so frightful as the use which Protestants ' are now making of them.'

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To the following description of the subject-matter of the utterances (as far as they can be described), we would add our humble testimony; commending it to the attention of those who, with the Rev. Wm. Harness and others, have found the simplicity of the words spoken to be "foolishness and a stumblingblock."

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Such depths of doctrine, such openings of truth, such eagleglances into the mind of God, such purity of love, such earn'estness of exhortation, and, in one word, such heavenly exalta'tion of spirit, heard I never from man's lips, as I have heard 'from those speaking in this manner' (unknown tongue, &c.) by the Holy Ghost. And the same of those prophesying;-the

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heavenly holiness, the blessed unity, the living and life-giving spirit of their discourse, passeth all understanding. I knew it not to be of man, by that which stumbled so many, because there ⚫ were none of the peculiarities of a system-none of the specu⚫lations of the age-none of the idiosyncrasies of the person in it. It was after no kind but the catholic kind of God-it is living water-it is marrow and fatness. And the man who feels it not to be so, may be a sound-minded man, orthodox, evangelical, eloquent, argumentative, or any thing else, but he lack'eth one thing, and that the chief thing, viz. spiritual discern'ment-the unction of the Holy One-the mind of Christ. Of this I have no doubt, and without any qualification I do express it. I say not therefore that he is not a Christian; but that he is not spiritual, I do unhesitatingly say. He is like the 'Corinthians, of whom Paul speaks thus; "And I, brethren, 'could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able; for ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" (1 Cor. iii. 1-3.)'

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III. A Brief Account of a Visit to some of the Brethren in the West of Scotland; with Remarks on certain Doctrines, &c.

This is a pamphlet full of facts and texts; submitted to the inquiring part of the Christian church some time before the excitement and the extravagance of the "world, religious" and profane, gave forth their clamorous denunciations of the general doctrine and the individual cases of the Spirit's work. We decline interfering with the simple narrative or scriptural arguments of this book, by partial extracts.

IV. The Testimony of Facts concerning the Continuation of Miracles in the Church.

A pamphlet like the one last-mentioned, with facts for arguments; compiled by an Elder of the Church of Scotland, whose adherence to the truth and sympathy with its advocates have led to his separation from that fast-liberalizing church. The following prefatory remark will shew the author's object and method Even were it the fact that miracles had ceased since 'the Apostolic age, we could never allow this to contradict the express declarations of God; any more than we can allow the awful fact that a great multitude of the human race continue * in unbelief, and perish in their sins, to be any proof that this 'is according to the will of God; who has commanded all men 'to be holy as he is holy; who has sworn by himself, that "He 'has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but that they

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'should turn to him and live;" that "he would not that any 'should perish;" that "he would have all to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth." But as this assumption' (of the cessation of miracles, &c.) is a stumbling-block to ' many, hindering them from coming with simplicity of heart to ask what does the word of the Lord testify concerning these things, and from considering and pleading the promises of Him 'who cannot lie, and who has never left any to be confounded 'who trusted to his words; I desire to lay before my readers a 'few facts, vouched by the most unquestionable authority, 'which cannot fail to convince every one, not determined to ' reject all evidence, that the authentic history of the Church gives as little countenance as the word of God does, to the assertion that the gifts of the Spirit were limited to the days of the Apostles; but, on the contrary, that the Lord has never 'ceased to manifest his presence in his church, from time to time, by working mighty works, beyond the power of man.' p. 4.

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All well-informed readers are familiar with most of the selections from ancient writers, in testimony of the continued gifts; and, amongst others of a similar nature, that from Athenagoras (A. D. 180), which we repeat for the purpose of correcting the view (still" argued upon" by some writers in the Investigator, and by others whom we respect) that "prophesying is limited to prediction of events." This narrowing of the meaning and restricting of the gift of prophecy, is an outrage upon common sense and Scripture propriety, which must be met and resisted.

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The Spirit of prophecy gives his assent to our prayer; for the Holy Spirit pours out prophetical words in those on whom he operates. I call them prophets who, being out of themselves and 'their own thoughts, did utter forth whatsoever by the impelling power of the Spirit he wrought in them; whilst the Divine Operator served himself of them or their organs, even as men do of a trumpet, blowing through it. Thus have we prophets for witnesses and affirmers of our faith; and is it not 'equal, and worthy of human reason, O ye emperors, to yield up our faith to the Divine Spirit, who moves the mouths of the prophets as his instruments? We exhort you, therefore, to cease from human persuasions.-Apology for the Christians.'

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We wish our limits permitted the extract from the Appendix in refutation of the "extravagant notion" which with a daring wresting of text from context makes" that which is perfect" to have long since "come!" but we have only room to recommend this tract to all inquirers, and particularly to those unable to obtain the more elaborate work of the Rev. Thos. Boys, on this historical branch of the subject, noticed in our last Number.

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