came to Newby with his wife, to spend the remainder of his days in the place of his nativity.

His mother, who had married again, (and of whom an account will be found in the March Number of the Wesleyan Magazine, for 1817, under the name of Mrs. Catherine Small,) was a devoted Christian woman; and in all her letters to him, strongly insisted on the necessity of personal religion. She was earnest and unremitting in prayer for him, beseeching God for his salvation, and requesting, if it might be so, that before she died he would be permitted to return home. The latter part of her prayer was granted. He came back to Newby a week or two before her death. To the last she believed that her prayers would be wholly answered. In youth she had carefully stored his mind with the principles of truth, and her correspondence with him, when he was far distant from her, kept the subject before him; and, though the seed had produced no fruit in the unfavourable situation in which he had so long lived, she was persuaded that it would not be lost.

About the time of his return to Newby, a Wesleyan chapel was erected in the village, chiefly through the instrumentality of his cousin, Mr. Thomas Johnson, a useful Class-Leader there. Early recollections rendered it easy to persuade him to become a regular hearer of the word preached in it. Gradually his mind yielded to the influence of the truth; and, at length, the Gospel became the power of God to his salvation. His conversion was sound, and followed by evidences of decided spirituality. He remembered all the way by which he had been led for so many years in the wilderness, considered his latter end, and lived the remainder of his life for God and eternity.

About two years before his death, he was much reduced by a paralytic seizure; and though he so far recovered as to be able to walk a little distance from his house, he never regained anything like his former strength. The affliction, however, brought him nearer to the Lord. He felt that he was living on the borders of the eternal world, and endeavoured to preserve a state of mind suitable to his condition. He enjoyed constant peace, and frequently said, "Sudden death will be sudden glory." During the whole of his illness, he was enabled to rejoice in God his Saviour, and frequently broke out in raptures of praise. Extreme weakness caused occasional mental wanderings; but even in these he was repeating passages of Scripture. He often expressed his thankfulness that his mother had accustomed him to the perusal of the Scriptures in his childhood; and that thus so many portions had been treasured in his memory. When unable to read any longer, they came into his mind, he said, " as fresh as ever." To the very close of life his spirit was fervent and happy. Not long before his death, he exclaimed, "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" Truly might it be said of him, that his latter end was peace. JOHN SMALL.

3. Died, April 8th, Mr. Miles D. Bentley, of Hull, aged twenty. He was born at Leyburn, near Richmond, Yorkshire; and, being favoured with pious parents, was, from earliest childhood, trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. When about nine years old, he became much concerned about spiritual things. At that time religious services were held occasionally in his father's house; and while attending these, his sense of sin and danger was so strong, that he could not restrain his feelings, but wept aloud. A short time after

this particular meeting, he found peace with God; and his subsequent conduct gave evidence that he was a new creature in Christ Jesus.

When he had attained his fifteenth year, in the order of Providence, he left home to reside in London. Like too many others, he neglected to join himself at once to the church; delay produced indecision, and his religious experience declined. Though, through persevering grace, he feared God and lived morally, he did not retain that clear sense of acceptance which he had before enjoyed. He attended the public services of religion; but his former enjoyment existed no longer. He subsequently acknowledged the greatness of the error into which he had fallen, and said that he now saw the absolute necessity of union with the people of God, at all times, and in all places, when possibly practicable.

On leaving London, he settled in Hull; but his father, on visiting him, found him so seriously ill, that, believing a change of air would be serviceable to him, proposed that he should return with him. He consented, believing that he would not only find every temporal comfort, but that assistance would be afforded him in seeking the restoration of the blessings which he had once possessed, and the necessity of which he now felt more than ever.

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Soon after their arrival at Stamfordham, a village in the Hexham Circuit, he appeared to rally a little. But he lost no time in making known the state of his mind to his father, and expressing his earnest desire for a revived and deepened work of grace. With this, he said, he should be enabled to live to God if he recovered; and should the sickness under which he knew he was labouring, be unto death, he should be prepared for the solemn event. "I want," he said, to be quite ready;" repeating, several times, the words, “ quite ready.” For some time he was painfully exercised with inward temptations. He thought he had not repented deeply enough, long enough, to obtain the mercy of God. His father conversed much with him, and endeavoured to point out to him the freeness of divine mercy, and the way of salvation through the merits of Christ and by faith in him. One afternoon the father and son retired for earnest prayer. They wrestled for the blessing, and not in vain. He was enabled to believe in the Lord Jesus, and was restored to the joy of God's salvation: and from that time he held it fast. He lived casting all his care on Him who cared for him, and especially derived comfort from the declaration, that He upon whom he rested for time and eternity, would not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. His name was again enrolled among the members of the church; and, seeing plainly that he was going the way of all flesh, he began, with greater earnestness and solemnity, to prepare to meet his God. His faith remained unshaken, and his peace uninterrupted, to the last. In the closing hours of life, his weakness was so extreme, that he could only speak in faint whispers; but these expressed his confidence and hope. Unexpectedly, however, he revived to such a degree of strength, as to be able, with a clear voice, to declare his happiness, and to exhort all in the room to live to God. "I am dying," he said; "but Jesus died for me, and I am dying to go to him. The work is done. I am going to heaven. Glory, glory, be to God!" Almost immediately after this, his spirit passed away, and he entered into rest. JONATHAN CADMAN.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

SCRIPTURAL ESSAYS. (No. XI.)

THE PRESENT ADOPTION OF THE BELIEVER, AND THE SPIRIT'S WITNESS TO IT.

(For the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

"FOR ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." (Rom. viii. 15-17.)

(Concluded from page 560.)

PART IV.

THAT the views we have taken of the text are not modern; that, according even to the Romanizing sense of the term, they are not the result of any private interpretation; but, according to the quotations from Bede and Bernard, may be termed "patristic," and brought into Protestantism through Luther, and first suggested to Mr. Wesley by his intercourse with some pious Germans; is obvious. Mr. Wesley, however, did not receive them because they were suggested by the devoted believers who practically called his attention to the subject. To him there was but one great rule of faith, the holy Scriptures. To this standard he brought every doctrine, and accepted or rejected it as it agreed with this, or differed from it. And this is the only proper Christian method. Thus only, by appealing to the law and the testimony, can we "prove all things," so as to "hold fast that which is good."

Thus we learn, from the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, that to the justified by faith the Holy Ghost is given; and from the fourth of the Epistle to the Galatians, that into the hearts of the children of God, because they are so, he sends forth the Spirit of his Son. In the former passage he is said to shed abroad in our hearts the love of God; in the second, to cause us immediately to cry, “Abba, Father." In the passage directly before us, addressing the same class of persons, the adopted children of God, St. Paul tells them that they had not again received the spirit of bondage to fear, but that they had received the Spirit of adoption, whereby they cried, "Abba, Father." He then immediately adds, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God;" thus causing us to call God Father, by testifying to us that he is our Father, the same fact, another aspect of which he had previously stated in other words, by referring to its cause, the love of God. He imparts a sense of the love of God, by showing what, through that love, God had been pleased to become to us,-even our Father: the two passages which appear to have suggested the weighty language of Bishop Pearson, that it is the office of the Holy Ghost to create in our hearts a sense of the paternal love of God toward us. This is what is evidently meant by the testimony of the Spirit. And it is mentioned with no limitations. They who have it, have it because they are sons, and for the purpose of producing the filial confidence and disposition. Just as in the fifth chapter they 2 Y

VOL. II.-FOURTH SERIES.

who are the justified by faith, are they to whom the Holy Ghost is given. And, to complete the parallel, as in the fifth chapter the Apostle describes believers as rejoicing in hope of the glory of God; so here, in the eighth, ́ he alludes to the same fact,-" If children, then heirs."

So that, viewing all these passages in what appears to us to be their natural and obvious meaning, this testimony of adoption given by the Spirit of God to the spirit of the believer, and in consequence of his adoption, comes before us as one of the ordinary works of the Holy Spirit, constituting one of the common privileges of Christian believers, as such. It is one of the offices of the Holy Ghost thus "to assure us of the adoption of sons, to create in us a sense of the paternal love of God toward us, to give us an earnest of our everlasting inheritance."

And very closely does this agree with the analogy of faith. Christianity is a religion of divine peace and joy. This is the inward kingdom of God, even righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. But we are saved by grace through faith. Therefore it is of faith, that it may be as it were visibly and undeniably-of grace. Great care is taken by holy Scripture, that while we should possess a sacred exultation of spirit in the contemplation of our privileges, all that exultation should be in the Lord, and in him only. "Not of works, lest any man should boast." Boasting is excluded, not by the law of works, but by the law of faith. "To him that worketh not, but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." So that the blessedness which David describeth, is the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works. And thus is his language quoted by the Apostle,―omitting, as not on that occasion germane to his argument, the additional clause, referring to inward sanctification, "In whose spirit there is no guile,”"Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” As our salvation is all of God, so should our joy be. And between this the great doctrine of salvation by grace, through faith in Christ's blood, and not through works of obedience, and that which teaches us that our first joy, producing such blessed results, should have for its object the free mercy of God in pardoning and adopting us, and as its occasion the testimony borne to this very fact by the Holy Spirit, whereby our attention is directed altogether to God himself,-God blotting out our trespasses, accepting us as righteous, and adopting us as children, for his Son's sake, there is the closest agreement. It is not that we are to wait during a long and anxious examination of ourselves, our tempers, works, and words, and being satisfied with the fact of our sanctification, and knowing that of this the Spirit of God must be the Author, and that he would not have been given unto us, had we not become the objects of justifying mercy; and that then, in this inference, the foundation of which is our own works, inward and outward, we may rejoice. Had works been the condition of pardon, this joy, primarily occasioned by works, might have appeared a not inconsistent portion of such a system. But this is not the case; and if the description we have just given of it be correct, then the doctrine of the Spirit's testimony to the fact of our adoption, causing all joy and peace through believing, not only does not disagree with it, but is every way suitable and congruous to it. We become the objects of God's paternal love; and we rejoice in this, because a sense of it is created in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. We look not at ourselves: we look to God, and to his glory shining in the face of Christ; and we behold this because He who caused light to shine out of darkness

hath shined into our hearts, to give us the light of this knowledge. We joy in God through Jesus Christ, as having received reconciliation through his infinitely perfect atonement.

In considering the accordance of the views we have been endeavouring to describe, with those directly or indirectly furnished by other passages of Scripture, were we to adduce all the texts in which we think it is implied, or with which it appears to us to agree, the enumeration would be almost confusing by its extent. For the sake both of brevity and perspicuity, we shall proceed, not by referring to particular texts taken indiscriminately, but by collecting some separate passages into a few leading classes. This, we believe, will open before us the general character of scriptural teaching on this deeply-interesting and important question.

1. This connexion of pardon with its testification to the soul in the economically-regular procedure of the Holy Ghost, as the Spirit of Christ, and as sent forth by him for the actual performance and completion of the work for which he assumed our nature, and is now for us the Lamb in the midst of the throne, will explain how it is that what are in themselves acts of God, and as such confined to the divine mind, become blessings which may as truly be said to be bestowed on us, and received by us, as though they were acts of which our own minds were the immediate subjects. “That they may receive," said Christ to Paul, not only "inheritance among them that are sanctified," but likewise, equally so, and in the very first instance, "forgiveness of sins." And thus, as received by us, do these acts of the divine mind become in ours occasions of joy and thankfulness. It was as "receiving the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls,”—of course, including their justification, as well as their sanctification,—that the believers to whom St. Peter wrote "rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory." We read, therefore, of "receiving the atonement," and thus "joying in God through Jesus Christ ;" and if we take the marginal reading, "reconciliation," for the purpose of our argument, it amounts to the same thing. It is from atonement that reconciliation proceeds. The one is the act of Christ, the other the act of God; and either way, something must be added to make these acts of others substantive blessings to be bestowed on the soul, and received by it. By connecting with them the Spirit's testimony to our adoption, and thus complicating the act with its official declaration, the language appears as beautifully, as forcibly, significant. In human affairs, pardon is not merely the resolution of the supreme governor, the constitutional fountain of mercy, but the formal execution and delivery of the instrument which declares the governor's will, in the immediate reception of which the absolved criminal rejoices, and begins and goes on to use the liberty and other advantages which it has conferred. By all true Protestants, in the very nature of things, justification is regarded as forensic; and thus, in the evangelical constitution, pardon implies an official declaration. What this is, the text comes in to show. The Apostle, therefore, says, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." And thus, also, St. John: "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." And David says, that the man is "blessed, whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered;" employing language which implies the conscious possession of pardon; in fact, he describes both the spirit of bondage, and the Spirit of adoption, illustrating the essential oneness of personal religion under every form of administration: "Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me; my moisture is