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for it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Now he quickeneth by the Spirit, then he shall quicken by the word of the first resurrection; as it is written, if the Spirit of him which raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you; ...... and, if children, then heirs, heirs of God and jointheirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. And this is the meaning of the word, in the fiat of Adam's being, Let them have dominion, not let him. Seeing then we look for a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear, for every man which hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as Christ is pure.

ARROWS AGAINST BABYLON.

"Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows; for she hath sinned against the Lord" (Jer. 1. 14).

THE Spirit of truth, who spake expressly, in the days of the Apostles, that in the latter times some should depart from the faith; that in the last days perilous times should come; that evil men and seducers should wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived; that the time should come when men would not endure sound doctrine; that false teachers should privily bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction; and that many should follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth should be evil spoken of;-the same Holy Spirit has, in these our days, again lifted up his voice, to awaken the sleeping church, and call her to go forth to meet her coming Bridegroom; to reveal her bondage in Babylon and urge her to come out from thence, and declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord; to put on her strength and her beautiful garments; and thus become in the hand of the Lord his battle-axe and weapons of war; with assurance of victory, through the blood of the Lamb and the word of his testimony.

Let every one therefore who heareth say, Come; let every one be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, who knows the name of Jesus to be the Lamb of God, and the Lord God Omnipotent: let each individual Christian now gird on the whole armour of God, and contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; holding fast the form of sound words, the true and polished shafts in the quiver of the Mighty One; and thus

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prove himself a gatherer with Christ, in the midst of the many who are now furiously scattering abroad. Spare no arrows, is the command to his soldiers now: and the promises to him that overcometh, are the fruit of the tree, and the crown of life, and the new name, and the morning star, and the walking in white, and the dwelling in the temple, and the sitting on the throne with Him who overcame.

The general acknowledgment, that false doctrines and infidel principles are now more fearfully than ever diffused among the people, is often lightly made and lightly heard; but those only who have made extensive inquiries from house to house among the poor, and had personal communing with the educated classes, respecting the grounds of their confidence towards God and their hopes of future blessedness, can form the least conception of the actual amount of the departure from the faith which exists among those multitudes who still preserve the name and form of godliness, but deny the power; while all must perceive that the great mass of the baptized are in the condition of those of old to whom the Lord sent his prophets, but they did not hear them; and wrote the great things of his law, but they were counted as a strange thing. The cause of all is mainly to be traced to those teachers of lies whom the itching ears of the faithless have heaped up, till in number and character they are like the frogs and the locusts of Egypt; and who, instead of being good ministers of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, have brought the Protestant part of Christendom into a worse confusion than the Papal part presents; and the name by which the Lord has chosen to set forth the state of the Gentile church in the closing years of her apostasy, Babylon the Great," is the only one that can at all express the confussion, the oppression, the darkness, the unholiness, infidelity, and blasphemy, which every where abound in Christendom; and of which, as Britain is the leading power in most things, so is she the strongest hold and most clamorous vindicator.

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Such a charge of general apostasy from the faith is neither to be recklessly made nor recklessly denied: and the most manifest proof of it is found in the many who confess that iniquity abounds, and that evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, and that a separation should be made and a testimony raised, who, nevertheless, from ignorance of the cause of the evil, do, with the best of intentions, only aggravate the mischief. This is most manifest from the number and variety of religious and philanthropic societies now established; all of which aim at doing some part of the work which the church of Christ, the light of the world and the salt of the earth, ought to have done, but are confessedly inadequate to repress the abounding of

infidelity and blasphemy, the encroaches of Popery, and the tide of immorality, oppression, and crime, under which the world groans around us. And why? because they believe not that the present dispensation is rapidly closing in apostasy and judgment, and therefore they seek to ameliorate the system of things, which the Lord has purposed utterly to destroy; instead of calling on the people of God to come out of her, before her final overthrow, and be not partakers of her sins, that they receive not of her plagues.

The following enumeration of some of the leading heads of Apostolic doctrine, contrasted with the errors, heresies, and offences of Christendom (that is, Babylon) at the present day, is presented to the prayerful meditation of the Lord's people who are seeking deliverance from the abounding confusion and barrenness and drought, of what is called the Christian World; that they may, by appealing to the law and to the testimony, not only perceive the evil, but flee from it, and fight against it; and thus not only be themselves quickly delivered, but be fellow-workers with God in the labour of snatching others from the fire, and leading them to the green pastures and the still waters which the Good Shepherd has provided for his sheep, but from which they have so fearfully and systematically departed. The ground-work, or text-book, selected is the Epistle to the Romans, which is the general epistle to the Gentiles, being at once the most full and systematic of all the Epistles, and the least intermixed with any reference to peculiar or private circumstances; and so being of universal and permanent interest in every part of the dispensation.

And in order to prevent, if possible, the turning aside of the point of the following charges from many sections of the great Babylon around us, by appealing to orthodox Articles, and the sermons of several of the leaders of the darkness, who differ as widely from their brethren as the whole mass does from the Apostolic standard, it must be kept in mind, that while in word the Church of England expresses the truth concerning the Incarnation, the Redemption of all mankind by Jesus Christ (which the Church of Scotland has cast out by some recent decisions of the General Assembly), and while several preachers of the present day do in part acknowledge the truth of some of the following heads of doctrine as contained in the Scriptures; still the grand body of the people, and all but the entire body of Dissenters, especially the more exclusive sects, do most stoutly maintain the propositions opposed as under to the Apostolic doctrine; and in very many instances the words and phrases here made use of to set out the error, have been deliberately and repeatedly employed, in writing and preaching and conversation, by the Babylonians themselves, and will doubtless be

recognised by many as the household words of the talkers about religion around them. May the Lord, whose is the battle, give these arrows point, and send them home to many hearts, for their deliverance from Babylon! Amen.

Apostolic Doctrine.

1. The first and foundation truth of "the Gospel of God concerning his Son" is, that He was 66 made of the seed of David, according to the flesh." (Rom. i. 1-3).

On this truth all the mystery of incarnation, redemption, resurrection, fellowship with Christ now and hereafter, depend it is the very test of evil spirits and false teachers; the denial of which is the prelude to swift destruction. (Compare viii. 3; ix. 4, 5; 1 John iv. 1-6; 2 John 710; 2 Pet. ii. 1.)

2. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ contains good news to all the Gentiles, Greeks and barbarians, wise and unwise; who are all commanded to believe or obey the Gospel. (i. 4, 5, 14; xv. 9; xvi. 26).

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3. By spiritual gifts alone can a church be established, the saints perfected, the work of the ministry done, or the body of Christ edified: that without these gifts the church cannot exist at all, much less can she overcome her enemies, and be ready for the coming of her Lord. (i. 11; viii. 9, 15; xii. 6-8 and compare 1 Cor. i. 7; xii. 731, &c. Gal. iii. 2-5; Eph. iv. 7-16 with John vii. 3739, and xiv. 16, &c.)

Babylonian Doctrine.

1. The nature of Christ's flesh was certainly not the same as ours, having none of the properties or temptations in it at all, which men have and are subject to. He suffered by imputation of our sins to him, and we are saved by the imputation of his righteousness to us. But the point is one better let alone, and silence regarding it is the safest and wisest course to hold.

[Let the reader compare Matt. x. 32-39, with 2 John 7-10, and fulfil the command there given at his highest peril.]

2. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot really contain good news to all men, for all men are not finally saved; and therefore the Gospel is only designed to benefit the elect, who alone have an interest in it.

3. Spiritual gifts are not now necessary for the church, though they were at first, because the Apostles were unlearned and ignorant men, and had to establish Christianity: but now the church has other supplies of wisdom and strength; and although her enemies are all the same, if not worse, than at first, she must not look nor pray for spiritual gifts, but denounce all prayer for them, or claims to them, as delusion, fanaticism, and blasphemy.

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Apostolic Doctrine. 4. The Gospel of Christ is

power of God unto salvation to every believer, for in it (or rather in Him, i. e. Christ) the righteousness of God is revealed, first to the Jews, and then to the Gentiles. (i. 16, 17.)

5. God hath revealed himself to man in every age, and by the works of creation his eternal power and Godhead are clearly seen so that all that is evil in the world, and all the enduring wrath that is to come, have arisen from the apostasy of men from the knowledge of God, whether conveyed in the things that are made, or revealed in the person and work of Christ. (i. 19 -21, 28, 32.)

6. The condition of all sinners under the Gospel dispensation is, that the riches of the goodness and long-suffering and forbearance of God are laid upon them, to lead them to repentance; and in the day of the judgment by Jesus Christ, the despisers of all these riches, the impenitent and unbelieving and contentious and disobedient to the truth, shall for their evil-deeds receive condemnation wrath. (ii. 4-11.)

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7. The Jews, who rested in the Law, and made their boast of God, and knew his will,

Babylonian Doctrine.

4. The Gospel is an offer * of love and pardon to him that repents and believes it, but is not in itself a declaration of God's love to men in Christ, or a message of forgiveness to the sinner to induce him to return to God.

5. If God has at any time. been revealed to, or known by, any of his creatures, it is impossible for them to fall away, and be finally lost; for, once in grace always in grace; and those who are finally condemned have never known God's love at all.

6. The condition of some sinners, during this day of grace, is, that God loves them, and Christ died for them only, and is gathering them by the Gospel; but as for the rest, God has not loved them, nor has Christ died for them, but they are passed by and doomed to perish even from eternity; and the judgment to come is only to manifest the distinction between the elect and the reprobate.

7. The Jews never had any real standing with God, nor any real interest in Christ, al

*This word "offer" is not only common to all the Babylonians, but is used by many who are not aware that it is a most unscriptural and erroneous word, conveying a false idea of the Gospel. God does not offer to love any sinner on condition of his believing, any more than he offered to give His Son to die for us, or offered to raise him again. Rejecting an offer could not make God a liar, but the unbeliever does make God a liar. -See 1 John v. 10, 11.

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