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REVP CHRISTMAS EVANS,

Anglesey, North Wales.

Engraved for the Baptist Magazine, from a Miniature in the Museum of the Bristol Academy. PUBLISHED BY J. H. HOLDSWORTH JAN 1, 1822.

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THE friends of the Irish Society having felt much gratified by the accounts which have been published of the Conversion of a MAYNOOTH Scholar, intended for the priesthood, the following Letter, written by him, containing the first journal he has transmitted to the Society, as a "Reader of the Scriptures, and Inspector of the Schools," will be read with much interest,

Journal of Mr. Philip Caffrey.

November 19, 1821. IN taking up my pen to give a detail of the various occurrences, which necessarily presented themselves, during the course of my travels through the walk, in which I was lately constituted Inspector, I cannot but feel a diffidence in writing the present journal, it being the first of the kind that it has come to my province to attempt; but the consciousness of my own weakness is immersed in the shadow of this who has chosen the encouragement, weak things of this world to confound the things that are mighty," and who to open our mouths

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has commanded us 66 wide and he will fill them." And the following consideration affords the greatest stimulus to my exertions, that I am called upon to record the great and glorious works of God, both for the honour and glory of him who performs them, and for the comfort and edification of his elect and faithful servants: for what other consideration can administer such a consoling balm to the true believers in Christ, who confide in no other means but his most precious blood, to cleanse and purify them from every stain of sin, and conduct them to the incorruptible mansions of eternal repose, as the contemplation of his unbounded love to miserable sinners, in brightening the long clouded atmosphere of christian knowledge, and extricating numbers of the poor benighted sons of Adam from the strong delusion, the mental depravity and degradation, in which they have been enveloped, and leading them to the knowledge of him, who is the way, the truth, and the life," whose name is the only one under heaven given to men whereby they may be saved?" How consoling to reflect, that the domination under which the world for a long time silently groaned, and to which it yielded implicit obedience, is drawing near its close, and Christ's kingdom on the eve of its establish

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ment! How exhilarating to reflect, that the times in which the race of man has grovelled in the dark and devious paths of error and infidelity, are shortened for the elect's sake! Numbers of the present day are joyfully obeying the voice of the apostle, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."

I shall now proceed to the minutiæ of my journal; and first, I shall give as minute and circumstantial an account as possible of my encounter with one of the literati of this country, a distinguished classical teacher, who summoned to his assistance all the powers of reason, and artifice of sophistry, and whose arguments came dancing upon me in all the mazes of metaphorical confusion whilst I armed myself in defence with the buckler of truth, and shielded myself from all his subtleties under the unerring banner of the holy scriptures.

Nov. 9, I entered Killalla, where I met with the above-mentioned gentleman, Pat. G-, who, after discovering the business I was upon, assailed me with the utmost virulence, resolutely determined, as it appeared, to support his cause with such pertinacity as would insure him an easy conquest. His first charge was bestowing upon me the appellation of a heretic, to reject the doctrine of the real for having the effrontery and impiety presence of Christ in the Eucharist, a doctrine rendered venerable by its claim to antiquity, being maintained by all ages since its first institution by Christ. I pointed out to him the absurdity of this dogma of belief being held by the primitive Christians, as it would have afforded a sufficient pretext to the pagans of those days to worship their idols, seeing that the host, which it is supposed the Christians then adored, was composed of the same perishable But he materials with those idols. replied, the host is never adored until after the words of consecration, when

towing, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you they are spirit, and they are life." He then frankly acknowledged his sincere belief of the refutation I had given of the doctrine of transubstantiation.

I now descend to my dispute with him, which I expressed my unwillingness to enter into; but he perceiving my reluctancy to discuss this subject, I mean election, and attributing my unwillingness to oppose him in that point, to the consciousness of my inability to defend it, reprobated it with a spirit of the most bitter acrimony, as the most absurd doctrine that ever was held; and said that nothing was so foreign from, or inconsistent with, the justice of God, as that a person could not be saved by the strength of his own free will; and besides that it was entirely repugnant to reason. As for its consistency with reason, I admonished him in the language of the apostle, "to beware lest any man spoiled him, through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." And as for its repugnance to the justice of God, I proved to him that it was in perfect accordance with it. First, from the words of the same apostle,

Christ becomes really present there. I answered, that the heathens did the same; they never adored the idol until they had consecrated it, and then worshipped that God which they believed to enter the idol, or which was forced to enter it by right of dedication, as is handed down to us by three fathers of the primitive church, Arnobius, Lactantius, and Minutius Felix. Thus he might see how unhappy he was in his belief of this doctrine, which, if he read more extensively, he might discover to have been first coined under Innocent the Third, in the second council of Lateran. He resumed, There is nothing more manifest than that Christ speaks literally of his flesh and blood, when he says, "Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life." But I showed him that Christ could not be understood to speak of a corporal eating by the mouth of the body, but of a spiritual eating by faith; for many reprobates, according to the very doctrine of the church of Rome, eat and drink corporally, and yet will not inherit eternal life; so that Christ can in no measure be understood of a corporal eating in this text, as your own Cardinal Cajetan ingenuously confesses in his comment upon it.To eat the flesh of Christ," he| says, "is a thing common to those who eat worthily, and to those who eat unworthily; but that which Christ here speaks of is not common to both; for he does not say, he that eateth unworthily or drinketh unworthily, but he that eateth and drinketh. So then, he does not mean 66 a corporal eating and drinking, but eating and drinking by faith of the passion and death of Christ. Our Lord says, He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never thirst; consequently it is by a spiritual eating we satisfy the hunger, and quench the thirst we have after Christ, and not by a corporal." I then adduced to him the words of St. Augustine, which struck him very sensibly, "To eat the flesh of Christ is a figure, teaching us to partake of Christ's passion, and to imprint on our memory, with delight and profit, that Christ suffered for us." I then came directly to the passage in St. John, where Christ says, The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world;" showing that when the Jews understood him in a corporal sense, he reproved them for their gross and carnal notions, and fleshly hearts, and corrected their mistake in the text fol

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According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." By grace ye are saved," says St. Paul," and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." I then poured down on him the combined authority of the following texts: First of that apostle whom he considered the pillar of that church of which he was a member;-" a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them who stum ble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed." 1 Pet. ii. 8. "And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, to show in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth." Exod. ix. 16. "The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil." Prov. xvi. 4. "That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath." Job xxi. 30. "And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (for the

without price."--And will not your friends, said he mildly, persecuto you for your change? That, I replied, gives me no concern, knowing that the hairs of our heads are numbered, and that not one of them can perish without the knowledge and permission of God. Besides, I count it a happiness to suffer persecution for justice sake, know

self should first suffer, and then enter into his glory. And I take it as a sign that I am not a bastard, and that "God has not appointed me to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ;" by whom we are encouraged to be faithful unto death, and then he will give us a crown of life. And though persecuted in this life, yet the magic hand of hope sketches scenes of flattering brightness to dissipate the gloominess of the present ones; and that hope is, that "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then I shall appear with him in glory.' Here I left him most sensibly affected, and I hope, effectually convinced, after minutely penning down all the passages of scripture I quoted to him.

children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."* Romans ix. 10-13. Here I asked him, what bad action did that child yet un-ing it was necessary that Christ himborn commit, that he should be hated of God? only that the purpose of God according to election might stand; and are we poor wretches to pry into the unsearchable ways of Omnipotence? We were all lost by original sin, and it is only out of his infinite love and unbounded mercy that he saves any of us. I then described his mortal state, and showed him his own weakness and nothingness. "Nay, but, O man! who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" I then admonished him to awake from the fatal lethargy, in which he securely slumbered; to look unto Christ as the only atonement and effectual propitiation for sin; to believe that his blood cleanseth from every stain of sin; and, that " by one offering he hath perfected for ever those that are sanctified." I explained to him, as far as I was able, the happiness of having such an advocate with the Father as Christ, who invites all that labour and are heavy laden, and that he will refresh them. I entreated him to flee from the wrath to come; to shake off that iron yoke of tyranny and despotism under which he groaned; to turn sincerely to God, "by whose grace we are justified freely, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus" and to obey, with alacrity, the exhilarating voice of the prophet, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money: come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and

* Dr. Doddridge says, in his Family Expositor upon this verse, "It is certain the apostle does not here speak of the eternal state of Jacob and Esau, (whatever some may think deducible from what he says,) nor does he indeed so much speak of their persons, as of their posterity; since it is plain that both the prophecies, which he quotes in support of his argument refers to that posterity. Gen. xxv. 23, Mal. i. 2, 3.”

EDITOR.

Nov. 10, I visited a school in a place called Summer-hill, where an instance of God's power and love manifested itself in the person of a young man, by name Mullany, whom I fortuitously met with in the school. I requested of him, being unacquainted with the country, to direct me on my way. He was bred a Roman Catholic. I found him very susceptible of instruction; which I pressed upon him with all the earnestness I was master of. I asked him if he was conscious to himself of being in a state of salvation. He replied, that he was taught to believe so by his priests, whom he considered the only authority in such matters, by complying with the injunctions they imposed, and performing the penances enjoined on him. I pointed out to him, that by the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified; and that if he depended on his own works for salvation, then Christ was dead in vain. He asked me, with the utmost docility, what was necessary for him. I told him to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that he would be saved. I pointed out to him the answer which our Lord himself made when asked, What shall we do to work the works of God? "Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." I endeavoured to explain to him the efficacy and sufficiency of the one offering of our Lord, and that we are sanc

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