1. It is to be remembered Mr. G. M. is a thorough man of business, and knows what the meaning and result of putting his name to a paper is. He knows that if he wrote a check for a thousand pounds it would be paid, though he may have meant to write but a hundred. He knows also, that, in legal documents, his name commits him to the contents of the paper. His intelligence as a man of business in every way is of the very highest order. Probably, few merchants in Bristol are superior to him in this, if equal. Several of the other signers are also men of business, who know what a signature means.
2. One of the questions eighteen years ago, among us, was, " Does the Church make the Spirit, or the Spirit make the Church?" That is, "Has that which man calls, or which calls itself the Church, the sanction and power of the Holy Ghost? or is that only which the Holy Ghost indwelling makes the habitation of God, to be reckoned as the Church?"
I beg it may be distinctly observed, that the paper of the Ten makes no allusion whatever to Mr, Newton's recantation; whether that was good for anything, or, to those conversant with the facts of the case, worse than nothing—need not be touched upon. The paper of the Ten makes no allusion whatever to it.
If I take the paper as a picture of Bethesda's spiritual state, how lamentable is it? A cry is' heard at the gate. " Three are come, charged with being connected with delusion, jesuitism, blasphemy." "Peace! Peace (is the governor's answer)! bring them in, and hush your hard words, watchman. Bring them in, even if you have to yield your place to them." Alas! that paper tells of a fallen sunken state. It tells of untruthfulness, a shuffling system, and a deceptive spirit's presence. God has gone down in their consciences as the sun that is set. The veil, grown thick, hides the living Christ from their faith. The Holy Ghost is not owned as being in the company. Circumstances absorb the mind-the world enters, and the flesh; and Satan is forgotten as the gliding serpent; and faith and vital union with Christ in the heavens are all as the by-gone tale of yesterday. The Church is no longer that which has vital fellowship with Christ, and is able to shut out evil; but bus sunk down into a company of men with a certain profession of faith and practice; but the spiritual responsibilities and associations are all denied: it is nothing more than a mere evangelical alliance. Do I say this haughtily? Nay; with deep sorrow of heart. Time was once when Bethesda was Nazarite in character, and decried by the world and by Dissenters; and I gloried in fellowship with her reproach. Now, alas! with shorn locks and eyes put out, it labors for the Philistines, and my heart is grieved. I see nothing now to prevent its becoming the hold of every evil thing, unless God in His mercy may yet hear. I would see it restored, but my heart fears that the opposite of the Plymouth tale will now be told there. Feeble as the faith was at Plymouth, there was a little faith when a man of God went in and blew the alarm. The congregation has been rescued there, and the very name of Ebrington-Street ceased to be named upon the remnant left in the evil: they are moved to a smaller room in Compton-Street, while Ebrington-Street is honored as the scene of the testimony of an ex-clergyman who preaches salvation by Christ. I fear lest the opposite of this awaits Bethesda. I say the opposite; but the Lord show mercy, if it be possible.