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the feelings excited in his own mind on the mournful occasion. "I was not aware till last night that any change had taken place in the state of his health, when I was informed that if I wished to see him alive, I must not defer going. On my arrival I found him very ill, but in the full possession of all his faculties. The extreme pain which he suffered did not admit of his saying much, but what he uttered was very pleasing and instructive. In reply to my inquiry what were his views and feelings in the prospect of death, he said, My mind has been much exercised of late in thinking upon the plan of salvation, as revealed in the gospel; and I hope I feel increasingly satisfied with it, not merely or chiefly as a way of deliverance from suffering, but especially as a holy salvation.' After a short conversation respecting the separate state, and our prospects of meeting each other in a better world, he mentioned an article in a recent number of the Eclectic | Review, which had particularly impressed his mind. It was the review of Lawrence and Pring on Materialism, in which the positions of those writers respecting the soul, and its necessary connexion with the organization of the brain, are clearly and satisfactorily combated. When afterwards asked if there was any thing which he particularly desired I would pray for, he replied, that I may not be suffered to sink into a state of insensibility, but that I may be truly aware of my real situation, and feel perfectly resigned to the Divine will respecting me. In taking my leave of him, he held my hand for a considerable time, and with a look of great affection and seriousness said, Grace,

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mercy, and peace be with you!' I have.no doubt it will be a drawback upon your present social enjoyments, to be thus informed of the death of one whom you.so highly esteemed, and whose continuance among us we had so many reasons for desiring; but the pain is mitigated by the unhesitating confidence we have of his present bliss, and our regrets are forbidden by the conviction that it is exclusively on our own account that a single tear can be allowed to fall. I do indeed greatly lament his departure. I did not apprehend that his death could have affected me so sensibly, or that I was so much dependent on the friendship of any man. God grant that the removal of our beloved brother may only be a temporary cessation of that intercourse which has often refreshed and cheered us in this land of death !"

In the disposal of his small property he initated the conduct of his brother, (both of them no doubt influenced by conscientious motives,) bequeathing a considerable portion of it to charitable and religious uses. For the Moravian Brethren, he, as well as his father and brother, had long felt sincere respect, particularly on account of their early and persevering exertions in the missionary cause; and to their Society, for the furtherance of the gospel among the heathen he left Twenty Pounds, to be paid, as well as his other donations, twelve months after his decease; to the Halifax Auxiliary Bible Society, Five Pounds; to the Northern Baptist Education Society, Twenty Pounds, with some valuable books and manuscripts; to the Trustees of the Baptist Meeting-house at Hebden-bridge, Teu Pounds, for liquidating a

debt, with some books for the minister and church; to the London Religious Tract Society, Five Pounds; and a legacy to the Baptist Missionary Society, the amount of which cannot at present be exactly ascertained, as it will arise from part of the residue of his property.

The funeral discourse was delivered by his pastor from Job xiv. 10, a short time after his decease, when a very numerous audience evinced the high esti mation in which his character was held by his neighbours of various denominations. "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his."

E-d. H-1, Oct. 18, 1822.

J. F.

FAITH AND HOPE. THESE terms are often confounded, but they certaiuly must be designed to convey distinct ideas. They may in some things resemble each other, but they are not the same thing. See 1 Cor. xiii. 13.

Some have represented faith as consisting in a persuasion, or confidence, of our personal interest in Christ and all the blessings of his salvation. Of course, these persons, when destitute of the assurance of hope, complain of unbelief, meaning thereby doubts about the safety of their own state. It is plain, however, that this is not that unbelief which is so severely reproved in the word of God. If we take our ideas from thence, we shall be led to consider faith and unbelief as somewhat different from confidence of personal safety and its opposite.

Respecting the assurance of faith, and the assurance of hope,

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(Heb. x. 22. vi. 11,) it may tend to improve our ideas of them if we inquire,

I. Wherein do they agree with or resemble each other?

1. They are both fruits of the Spirit. Rom. xv. 13.

2. Consequently they are both, in their true nature, only to be looked for in the experience and character of a true, christian. Others are unbelievers, and without hope.-There are counterfeits; a faith which is not to the saving of the soul; and a hope which will make ashamed. Hence beware.

3. They equally admit of various degrees; strong, or weak. 4. Both of them will be assaulted by Satan.

5. In their exercise and tendency they both involve a measure of peace and joy; while they exclude boasting, and cherish humility.

II. Let us attend to the distinction between the assurance of faith and the assurance of hope. This will appear if we define them.

Faith is the credit we give to the divine testimony: hope is a pleasing expectation of future good.

Faith is conversant about the truth of what God says: hope has respect to our own interest in Christ and spiritual blessings.

Faith (if we may so speak) asks, May 1 come to Christ? The answer from heaven is, Whosoever will, let him come! Hope asks, Have I come? Have I believed on the Son of God? Is Christ formed in me?

The assurance of faith has to do with the truth of the word of God. The assurance of hope has to compare the characters of God's people, which we find in his word, with our own expe

Hence we

rience and conduct. see there is always the same ground for faith; but we may not always have the same for our hope. To be without the assurance of hope may be the consequence and effect of sin; but it may be duty to doubt, and Conpresumption not to do so. fidence should not exceed evidence. Unless the assurance of faith and of hope be regarded as distinct, every one who is in doubt about his state must be considered as an unbeliever; yet many have enjoyed, and, at least for a season, have lost a good hope. One of these is essential to the being, the other to the comfort of a christian.

D. S.

Sequel to the Warrantable
Grounds for understanding
Scripture figuratively.

IN the Baptist Magazine for November last, an attempt was made to ascertain "the Warrantable Grounds for understand ing Scripture figuratively;" and, in pursuance of this object, it was conceived that there was but one

scriptural warrant for adopting a figurative meaning; namely, the existence of a check to a fi teral interpretation. This general warrant, however, is resolvable into the six following particulars. No. 1.-When, in the connexion of any portion of Scripture, there is a declaration of its figurative import.

No. 2.-When any portion of Scripture is tacitly acknowledged to be figurative, by its being so treated in a contiguous scripture interpretation.

No. 3.-When the literal meaning is inconsistent with wellknown facts.

No. 4. When the literal import of any prophecy, or " dark saying," is at variance with the intelligible portions of scripture.

No. 5.-When there is an identity in the things intended, and a diversity in the imagery employed.

No. 6. When scriptural usage, or plain facts, justify the inference that a word or phrase comprehended, at the time it was adopted, a reference to other meaning besides that which was principally intended.

*

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The first five of these particulars have been already illustrated, with the exception of a necessary addition to No. 4, which particular has only been considered as far as prophecy is concerned. But all the intelligible portions of Scripture may be resorted to, for the purpose of guarding us against a wrong interpretation of what is dark or prophetic. To illustrate this point we may have recourse to Psalm ii. 12, where we read "Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." Now from Acts iv. 25, we learn that the language used in the second Psalm is to be ascribed to David. It was David then who said “ The Lord hath said unto ME, THOU art my SON;" and it was David too who said concerning the same "Blessed are all they that Son, put their trust in HIM." Consequently if this passage be interpreted literally, it will mean, Blessed are all they that put their trust in DAVID. But the plain portions of Scripture furnish a decisive check to this interpretation. For instance, in Jer. xvii. 5, we read, "CURSED be the man that trusteth in man." A curse, therefore, and not a blessing,

* See the Baptist Magazine for Nov. 1822, p. 459-465.

would have been the result of trusting in David.-But God DID have an ONLY SON, of whom it was, with approbation, fore told, "In HIM shall the Gentiles trust," Rom. xv. 12:—and of this same son it is affirmed, that he is "the TRUE GOD and ETERNAL LIFE," 1 John v. 20.We are, therefore, irresistibly led to the Messiah, as the Son of whom David was speaking.

No. 6 more immediately concerns those who have commenced the study of the Original Scriptures, and its grand object is to secure the cast of thought that characterizes any portion of the Sacred Volume.* This sixth particular proceeds on the principle that the very same word that has a double reference in one age, may have only a single reference in the next. Thus, in London, the word Moorfields once meant a place with fields, but now it means a place without fields. The idea of fields, therefore, is vanishing, and the idea of place is about to take sole possession of the word: and future generations will think as little of fields when they speak of Moorfields, as the present inhabitants do of a bridge when they speak of Holborn Bridge. In the same manner the Hebrew word YAD originally signified the hand or instrument of power. But in the application of the same Hebrew word to the tongue, we are presented with an important fact; namely, the facility with which primary ideas are displaced by secondary ones. For though we can trace a reference to the hand when the Hebrew word is applied to the right-HAND side or the

In the Baptist Magazine for April, 1822, the reader may see the mode adopted for ascertaining the cast of thought in Matt. vii. 7, 8.

left-HAND side of a river, yet in the tongue can no object corresponding to the human hand be either traced or conceived. Hence we see that the idea of hand is displaced by the idea of POWER,† of which the hand is only an instrument. On this principle words sometimes cease to be figurative; and, from such a transition of ideas, every vestige of the original meaning may eventually disappear.

Another example of a change of meaning may be furnished by the Hebrew Preposition that is used to express interiority. In this sense the word is employed when it is said of any object that it was burned IN the fire. But the fire in this case was viewed in a double aspect. It was the place IN which the object was burned; and it was also the instrument WITH which it was burned. In such a case it was easy for the idea of interiority to vanish, and for the idea of instrumentality to take sole possession; and then, and not till then, would a man be said to be slain IN a sword, or as we should express it, WITH a sword, the Hebrew preposition being used where interiority was impossible.--Again, the same Hebrew preposition conveyed the idea of interiority AMONG several objects. Hence, when idolaters are contemplated as swearing in the presence of surrounding deities, they may be said to swear AMONG the gods. But as no godlike objects were ever seen on such occasions, the idea of interiority would soon give way to a less definite idea connected with solemn swearing: and thus the preposition, which in its primitive acceptation ex

+ See Prov. xviii. 21, where we read, "Death and life are in the POWER of the tongue."

pressed interiority, was also used | lose sight of that inferior protection which is afforded by the wings of the feathered tribes. In fact, the cast of thought may be thus expressed: As the hen affords protection by her wings, so Jehovah affords protection by the diversified agency which he employs. Thus then there is such a twofold reference as to constitute a figurative expression; and this circumstance being ascertained, it follows, of course, as specified in No. 6, that a figurative interpretation is to be adopted. Moreover, scriptural usage will show that the Hebrew word

when men were said to swear BY one God; and this idiom is also adopted in the Greek Testament. From the preceding observations we may see the necessity of caution in applying to any word those ideas which are furnished by tracing its Etymology. For be who decides by Etymology without consulting the usage adopted by the sacred Writers, decides without scriptural evidence; and he who infers from Etymology what such usage contradicts, actually decides contrary to scriptural evidence.

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It is by no means true, how-used for trust is also a figurative ever, that words always lose the expression. Its original literal ideas which they first conveyed; meaning is exemplified by a man and hence arises the necessity of who takes shelter IN* a rock, discrimination, in assigning to Deut. xxxii. 37- by the wild words their proper portion of goats which seek a retreat ON meaning. It would be wrong to the high hills, Ps. civ. 18—and attempt a figurative interpreta- by those of the feathered race tion of a word, till we have good which run INTO the shady regrounds for inferring that it is a treat formed by the wings of the figurative word, and still further parent bird, Ps. lvii. 1-or which that it did not cease to be figura- enjoy repose and security tive when it was used in the pas- UNDER such sheltering, wings, sage in question. Thus No. 6 Ps. xci. 4. The abstract noun,† may induce us to collect the the reader may perceive, involves scattered rays of Scripture, and the same idea as the verb: and to concentrate them into a body hence in Isai. xxv. 4, we read, of light, in which words and "Thou hast been a REFUGE phrases may have their minuter from the storm;" and in Ps. features clearly distinguished. xciv. 22, we read, "My God is my rock of refuge," or my sheltering

As an instance in which the figurative meaning of words can be readily recognised, we may select Ruth ii. 12, where Boaz thus addresses Ruth: "The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee by the Lord God of Israel, under whose WINGS thou art come TRUST." Here the word wings is so evidently figurative, that nothing need be said to demonstrate it. In short, DIVINE PROTECTION is obviously intended; and yet the mind cannot

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*The diversity of refuge may account for the different prepositions that follow the Hebrew word for trusting; and the same circumstance too may affect the corresponding Greek words, not only in the Septuagint, but also in the New Testament.

+ In all the instances of trust or refuge here selected from the Old Testament, a modification of the Hebrew verb chasah occurs; and the abstract noun is composed of a fragment of the word MAH (what or that which) and of the essential part of the verb in question. Thus MACHSEH means the object of trust, or that which is trusted in,

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