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Mr. Skelton's Farewell Sermon at Aldringham.

on which they stand as between the living and the dead, as a mouth for God in the midst of the people, as those who have to give an account of their stewardship to God who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins, and therefore is fully acquainted with the motive from whence every action springs, whether the same be in his sight evil or good; and according to the words I have read among you for our meditation this afternoon, the apostle Paul was most eminently, and most blessedly favoured to enjoy and realize in his soul's feelings the sweetness, satisfaction and consolation arising from a clear and honest conscience in connexion with filling the office of an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.

MY DEAR BROTHER,-Having been ear- | glorious gospel of the blessed God, and nestly requested by constant readers of the Earthen Vessel, to furnish you with my last discourse in the Aldringham pulpit, for insertion in the Vessel, I have endeavoured to fulfil their request, and leave the full execution of their wish with the Lord, and with you, stating that as the present communication is the effect of remembrance, and not a copy from previously arranged, and written notes, I cannot be responsible for its being a verbatim statement of the original; yet am fully persuaded it contains in substance what was then and there declared in the name of the Lord, and I pray that by the Lord's blessing, it may be rendered useful to the encouragement and stimulation of the Lord's servants, who may be called to endure opposition from those who have a mere name in the churches where the Lord has called them to stand with a face like a flint in the declaration of his whole truth. Let me have a place in your prayers at a throne of grace, as you also have in mine, and believe me,

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Your's in much love, for Christ's sake. WILLIAM SKELTON, S.S. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God." Acts xx. 26, 27.

There is surely something most sweet, satisfactory, and consolatory in the possession of a clear and honest conscience in connexion with whatever matter of business a man may have been, or yet may be engaged in, and this will extend to all grades of society, and to every station in life it may please the Lord to call a man to occupy or fill, from the earthly monarch who fills a throne, to the scavenger who, as another man's servant, is engaged in sweeping the streets, and in a superlative degree, is the truth of this portion seen and felt in the case of those who are constituted and declared to be stewards of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; ambassadors for Christ, messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ, servants of the most high God, and dispensers of the word of life, in that ministry which is committed unto them, as a dispensation of the VOL. IV.-PART XLIV.-Sept. 1848.

Previous to my attempting to discourse in the words before us, let us trace out and consider the circumstances which gave rise to the declaration found in the text; and we find by their connexion the apostle had been by the space of about three years labouring in the word and doctrine among the church at Ephesus, in the course of which time he had not ceased to warn them night and day with tears, for his was a felt religion, and therefore he warned them from a felt sense of his own infirmities, while he mourned over his own felt depravity, and his being a feeling and experimental ministry, he warned them constantly with many tears, while it was his to mourn with them who mourned over their own plague sore within, and to weep with those who wept, from a conscious sense of their proneness to evil, as the subject of their sorrow and grief; but now it had been revealed to him that the will of the Lord was that he should leave them, consequently in the midst of his voyage to Jerusalem, where he determined, if possible, to be on the day of Pentecost, he sends from Miletus, and calls the elders of the church at Ephesus, and makes known to them the poignant feeling, and holy sentiments of his soul, and in his solemn appeal and declaration recapitulates circumstances which had taken place during the period of his ministrations among them, prophecies of things which should take place in their midst after his departure, exhorts them to take

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heed to certain things which should prove | Son, he exultingly exclaimed, by the grace of for the edification and real prosperity of their souls, and be declarative of the glory of Christ, commends them to God and the good word of his grace, and finally prays with them allandall this because of the holy union which had taken place between them and him, for Christ and his truth's sake: and the blessed communion they had together in the unity of the bonds of the gospel of peace; and so, in their parting, there was an holy and a most blessed understanding between them, although they should see each other's face in the flesh no more, on which account they sorrowed the most of all, and in the midst of these things is found the words of my text, Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men; for I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God,' in which words are three things expressed: First: An holy statement and unreserved testimony, 'I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God:'

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Second: That therein and therefore he was pure from the blood of all men.

God I am what I am. Such was the character he sustained, and for office he was called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and that by an inward special call by the Holy Ghost, and thereby he was constituted an ambassador for Christ; a divine commission being issued and given unto him, Acts xxii. 15; in the midst of which he was found a steward of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, a dispensation being committed unto him to preach among the gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, such was his office; and very certain I am that no man ever yet was, or ever will be sent by Jehovah to preach his gospel previous to his having been made to receive that gospel into his own heart for himself, in an individual way and manner, whereby he is enabled to declare the things which he hath tasted, and handled, and felt of the good word of life, and where this is blessedly realized, the effects of it are seen in that such are endued with the boldness and courage of a lion, the patience and perseverance of an ox; the aspiration and Thirdly: That he took the Church at soaring of an eagle, and the sympathy and Ephesus, among whom he had been found affection of a man, and in the realization of labouring in the ministry to record, or to these things, the man of God declares in be witnesses to these things, declaring the text, I have not shunned to declare Wherefore, I take you to record this day, unto you the whole counsel of God,' by that I am pure from the blood of all men, for which term he had immediate reference to I have not shunned to declare unto you the the glorious gospel, with all its fulness, the whole counsel of God;' and to these things same including, or embodying the whole proposed for our meditation, I shall add a mind and will of Jehovah, as he has refourth by way of conclusion, and which will vealed the same in that gospel of his dear be to follow the same line of things in my Son; the gospel of his people's salvation, leaving you as a church at Aldringham, as and which to them is made the gospel of the apostle was prompted to, and enabled to peace, the which contains glorious doctrine, take, on his leaving the church at Ephesus. blessed experience, and holy God glorifying First, then, the holy statement and un- practice. And seeing that beyond doubt reserved testimony, I have not shunned to his preaching among them had been in declare unto you the whole counsel of God.' strict accordance with the espistle which, And here I would call your attention to the by divine inspiration, he wrote them a few character and office the apostle sustained years after his departure, and also in perand filled, in that he is declared, by the fect unison with all those other inspired Lord himself, to be a chosen vessel unto epistles he wrote to the various churches in him, an eternally elected one by God the his day, and are left unto us as scriptures Father, an object of the love of God the Son, of truth; he undoubtedly had declared and therefore redeemed by the shedding of unto them the doctrine of free, sovereign, his precious blood, and a regenerated one, eternal grace, as displayed and manifested being quickened by the life giving power of in their behalf, even as they were found inGod the Holy Ghost, when dead in tres-terested in the love and choice of God the passes and sins, and therein and thereby made to pass from a state of spiritual death, and so was enabled to rejoice that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus had made him free from the law of sin and death, and that through this law, he was dead to the law, inasmuch as he was crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,' said he, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, even in that spiritual life I have received, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me; and so having been eternally interested in the choice of God the Father, redeemed by the person and death of God the Son, and called by the grace and power of Jehovah the Spirit into the fellowship of God's dear

Father, according as they were found in Christ, by an eternal union with him in whom eternal life, as the gift of God, was given unto them, inasmuch as they were eternally in him that is true, even in him who is the true God, and their eternal life.

He preached unto them also that in Christ the beloved they were made accepted, that is acceptable unto God, and therefore in him they were viewed by Jehovah with all complacency and delight, in whom he also bare testimony to their having redemption, and that through his blood, the free and full forgiveness of all sins, past, present, and to come: and that according to the riches of Jehovah's grace, wherein he had abounded toward them in all wisdom and prudence, and had made known unto them

by the inward teaching of his Spirit in their hearts the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, that is his sovereign electing love, which he had eternally purposed in himself, and in the declaration of these things of God on the behalf of his church, he shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God in the matter of reprobation too, to the eternal exclusion of all and every son and daughter of Adam, who are not in Christ, and therein establishing Jehovah's sovereign right as the great Almighty potter, who has power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour, while he made known unto them in the declaration of the whole counsel of God that the church elect in Christ had obtained an inheritance, they being predestinated to eternal life, to heaven, and everlasting bliss, according to his own purpose, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will; and surely as concerning the almighty, all-glorious person of Christ, the apostle in his ministrations set him forth as him who filleth all in all, who being raised from the dead and entered into his glory in their behalf, he having finished redemption's work which was given unto him to do, is set down at Jehovah's right hand in heavenly places, far above all principalities and powers, and might, and dominion of a delegated kind, possessing a name far above every name that is named, not only in this world, but in the world to come, and all this in behalf of his body the church; and having all things put under his feet in his mediatorial kingdom and glory, the apostle, by the Holy Ghost, declared him in his preaching, to be head over all things, the world, sin, satan, death, hell, and the grave, to and for the church; now this was the glorious doctrine the apostle fully and fearlessly declared in his ministry among the Ephesians, to whom he immediately addressed the words in the text, 'I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God!'

Again, in connexion with a testimony concerning this glorious doctrine, the apostle declared unto them that blessed experience which is ever associated with, and realized in the reception of this truth in the heart and soul, by the inward witnessing of the Holy Ghost, whereby the Lord's living family are made to know in their experience that they are quickened together with Christ, that they are raised up together with him, and are made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and to know (soul feelingly) that they are saved by grace, through faith, and that not of themselves, it is the gift of God; and oh, blessed experience! the same being realized by the teaching power and operation of the Holy Ghost in the reception of the truth in the love of it, to be enabled to rejoice that though once afar off from God by wicked works, yet now in Christ Jesus, we are made nigh unto him by the blood of Christ, and this was also a grand and glorious

theme and subject connected with the ministry of the apostle in declaring the whole counsel of God, that through Christ, Gentiles and Jews, as being interested in Jehovah's electing love and sovereign choice have access by one spirit unto the Father; so that poor gentile sinners are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and are built upon the one same foundation with the apostles and prophets, which is a covenant Jehovah himself, Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone, in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, and oh, blessed experience! to be enabled to rejoice that in him we also are among them that are builded for an habitation of God through the Spirit, by whose indwelling it is we are an habitation of God, seeing that according to the unity of the divine essence, and the inseparable communion existing among the Three Divine Persons in the one undivided essence of Jehovah, where the Spirit takes up his abode, there Father, Son, and Holy Ghost reside and dwell; and that these things formed a prominent part in the ministry of the apostle among the Ephe sians, is proved throughout the whole second chapter of his epistle to them.

Again, in the declaration of the whole counsel of God among them, the apostle had been wont to insist on an holy practice; for doctrine, experience, and practice are inseparably connected in the gospel of the ever blessed God, so that were one is found in the hearts of God's living family, the other necessarily exists. Thus, for instance, where and when the love of God is shed abroad in the heart, by the Holy Ghost, this produces that experience in the which we feel that we love God, because he hath first loved us; and when and where the soul is brought into and under the constraining influence of that love, even the love of Christ, there flows out, or is brought forth, through the power of the Spirit, an holy gospel practice, evidencing that there is a divine reality in the work of God in the soul, and proving the words of Christ to be true, wherein he hath said,' Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit; and herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be (manifestively) my disciples; or that your light is made so to shine before men, that they beholding your good works, may glorify, not you, but your Father which is in heaven.' And so we find the apostle, in the course of his ministry, declaring against all the works of the flesh, against fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness, which is idolatry; exhorting that it be not once named among them as becometh saints; neither filthiness nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which is not convenient, but rather giving of thanks, bearing testimony in an appeal to their own judgment and knowledge, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an

idolator, nor drunkard, hath any inherit- links in a chain, or as cause and effect, and ance in the kingdom of Christ, (though are as a three-fold cord which cannot be such may talk largely about it) consequent- broken. ly living and dying as such, they cannot The apostle had not shunned to declare possibly enter into the kingdom of heavenly unto them the whole counsel of God in a glory; but contrariwise, must inevitably three-fold way and manner; first, accordand eternally be found in the torments of ing to the testimony of the written and inthe damned; for because of this thing, spired word of God; second, in accordance cometh the wrath of God on the children of with the teaching of the Holy Ghost in his disobedience and in his ministry, the own soul; and third, in being enabled to apostle was found exhorting the church not live out that gospel which he was engaged in to be partakers with them, but reminding preaching with his mouth, so he preached them of their having been sometimes dark- the gospel with his feet and his hands, as ness, but now they were light in the Lord, well as made proclamation of it with his he exhorts them to walk as children of the tongue, for it was in his heart as a fire shut light, proving what is acceptable unto the up in his bones; and as I have oftentimes Lord, by and in the fruit of the Spirit, which expressed in this pulpit, a man may as is in all goodness, and righteousness, and easily expect to shut up a living coal of fire truth, and surely neither of these things in the midst of a barrel of gunpowder, as were ever yet found dwelling in our cor- to shut up the gospel of the grace of God in rupt flesh, for that is corrupt with its the heart where it has been received by the deceitful lusts, and depraved deeds; but unctuous power of the Lord, the Spirit; the fruit of the Spirit is made to abound in and, saith the apostle, "I have not shunned the new man, the inner man, the hidden to declare the same unto you notwithstandman of the heart, and through the grace ing all the opposition which has been maniand power of the Spirit, this is brought fested against it." The Lord having blessforth in a real, holy, and heavenly conver-edly kept and preserved me from fearing sation and walk, to the praise of that grace and power, which produceth such fruit, and bringeth it forth to open view in the sight of God, of angels, of devils, and of men, whereby it is abundantly proved that the church, as Jehovah's workmanship, being created in Christ Jesus unto good works, even such good works as he before (that is eternally) ordained they should walk in, are made to walk in them as he is pleased to work all their works in them by his Spirit; all things were insisted upon and declared in the ministry of the apostle, as evidently appears by the testimony contained in the three last chapters of the epistles to the Ephesians, and without these things there can be no open manifestation of a work of God in the soul; for by their fruit shall ye know them.' And those who are born of the Spirit being translated from the kingdom of darkness and satan, into the kingdom of God's dear Son, were made to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, and are workers together with God, even as the water-mill wheel works with the stream of water, which, acting upon it, produces its revolutions, and causes the machinery to be set in motion, whereby a certain effect as a work, is the result; the same being declarative of the power by the which such effects are made to exist: and confidently persuaded I am, that wherever the glorious doctrine and truths of the gospel are received into the heart by the anointing power of the blessed Spirit, there will be a realized enjoyment and experience of the blessed things contained in those truths, and through and by the same power whereby these truths are revealed unto, and brought into the soul, there will be a manifestation of the same in the life, walk, and conversation of such who are led into all truth by the blessed Spirit of our God; these things are inseparably connected as

the frowns of those, who being permitted,
can kill the body; neither have I shunned
to declare the whole counsel of God for the
purpose of ingratiatingmyself into theflesh-
ly esteem and approbation of my fellow men,
or of you, by a keeping in the back ground
those things which in their declaration are
calculated to call forth the enmity of the
carnal mind, and by which reservation, the
smiles of such as are at ease in Zion are
oftentimes obtained; but by manifestation
of the truth, I have commended myself to
every man's conscience in the sight of God,
and therefore he could well say if our gos-
pel be hid, it is hid to them who are lost;
and would to God that every man standing
in the ministry were enabled, on his leav
ing the people among whom he has labored
therein, be the circumstances occasioning
such removal what they may, to make such
a solemn statement and bear such an une-
quivocal and positive testimony as found in
my text; I have not shunned to declare unto
you the whole counsel of God.
[To be certainly concluded in our next. Neces-
sity compels us to defer it.]

Mr. John Foreman's Charge
TO MR. JOHN BUNYAN M'CURE, AT HIS
ORDINATION, AT HADLOW, JULY 10, 1848.
IN our last, we gave a brief outline of the
morning's service in connection with the
above interesting occasion: The following
is furnished by an esteemed brother in the
ministry, and which is calculated to be
generally useful:-

"In the afternoon brother Foreman gave the charge to the pastor, in which he shewed himself a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, and also an able minister of the New Testament. His manner was fatherly and faithful, and the address full of choice

matter and good counsel. The following | everlasting, and ordered in all things and are a few brief extracts.

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But first, there is the ministration of the Covenant of works made with Adam, which is now of no use but to show man his condition. In the hand of the Spirit it comes like a friend at midnight, while we are asleep, and breaks in our windows to awake us, that we may escape from our house, which is on fire. And for this reason, (that is, its utility to convince) the believer loves the law; and the minister finds it very useful, to show up, by way of contrast, the blessings of the covenant of grace.

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'Secondly, there is the covenant made with Abraham, which also has its peculiar ministry, and that, like itself, is natural and conditional. Its tenure was obedience by Abraham's seed, who on that ground were to hold and enjoy the land of Canaan; but disobeying were to die-were to be driven off their land, and their house left to them desolate; which death and desolation was not eternal, but temporal, as implied in the saying of our Lord, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.' And though the Jews said that the ways of the Lord were not equal; yet it is plain this was false, for if they had not walked contrary to him, he would not have walked contrary to them. And this Covenant though only natural, yet being typical and figurative, is highly useful to point out the blessings of the covenant of life.

"Thirdly there is the new covenant as spoken of in Heb. viii. And here the speaker pressed on our brother carefully to distinguish the covenants as laid down in the letter of truth. And then he went on to say that this new covenant was founded on better promises than either of the above, and that it stood upon the righteousness and blood of the Lord Jesus, who also was its surety, so that it could in no wise fail or be broken. And the ministration of this covenant is simply to tell out its truths to the people; to declare the love, the righteousness, the mercy, the power, and the faithfulness of God in this covenant, to make known how he remits sins, clears the guilty, and justifies the sinner that believeth in Jesus, and to testify that it is

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sure, while the covenant itself shews who the persons are that are interested therein, and what things it contains; and by a knowledge thereof all errors are detected, and salvation found to be entirely by grace. Its promise is that of a new heart; and a new birth in any person is the fulfilment of that promise: and the child breathes, cries, eats, walks, and talks because he lives. The second is the knowledge of the Lord as a holy and just God; and from this knowledge arises a feeling sense of sinnership. The third, 'I will be their God, and they shall be my people.' And fourth, 'Their sins will I remember no more."

"The nature of this ministration is diffusive; not to receive, but to bestow; not to gather in, but to deal out, as it is written, Go stand in the temple, and speak all the words of this life.' Go tell, how God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself-tell, how he has taken away the obstruction between man and God-how Christ has removed sin. Go as an ambassador for God, and carry his word, which is the gospel. The mind of God is the matter of thought, thought the matter of word; and by the word of the gospel is the mind of God made known. And this is the tale the minister has to tell out. He has to tell that God hath put sin away; not that sin is removed out of old nature, for this will remain, and be as much opposed to the holiness of God as ever, but the life, the essence, the power is slain; so that now nothing is to be seen round about the throne of God but a rainbow, the sure token that God will be angry no more for ever.

"This ministration is to preach Christ to the people-the necessity-the power, the wisdom-the love-the greatness-the preciousness-and the plenitude of Christ. It is to tell of his benevolence and all-sufficiency; and that in him being treasured up all the fulness of God, it is the privilege of poor sinners to draw out of that fulness, and receive grace for grace; and that he having fulfilled all conditions, has all power, fulness, right and authority.

"The plan of his ministration I shall show by three several instances: viz., the prodigal, the man among thieves, and the publican in the temple. In each of which we find that the plan is not to have mercy upon the best, the whole, or the most righteous, but the worst, the wounded, and the self-condemned. And the gospel of this ministration is found in all the books of the Bible, and is the everlasting gospel by and through which we are given to know that we have eternal life, and to enjoy fellowship with God.

"This ministry then, my brother, is a great ministry; a rich, a diffusive, a quickening ministry. It is both a righteous ministry, and a ministry of righteousness. And here is a difference; the law is a righteous ministry, but not a ministration of righteousness, but of condemnation only.

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