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March 25, 1834.]
(Ad Populum)
[No. 30. Priced.


CHRISTIAN LIBERTY;


OR,


WHY SHOULD WE BELONG TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND?




BY A LAYMAN.




(Continued.)




He that receiveth you, receiveth Me; and he that receiveth Me, receiveth Him that sent Me.

He that receiveth a prophet, in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man, in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man's reward. Matth. x. 40, 41.


John Evans did not fail to look out in his Bible the texts to which Dr. Spencer had referred him; and he saw clearly that the miraculous powers with which it pleased God to endue the Apostles, were by no means necessarily connected with the commission which those Apostles had previously received from our Lord; the commission, we mean, to teach and baptize all nations.

John was seen again on the next Sunday, at his accustomed place in church. The Dr. preached from the text, Mark xvi. 17, 18; "And these signs shall follow them that believe: in My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

He pointed out to his congregation the beautiful regularity which pervades the works of God; the settled laws, the established order, with which our Maker guides the course of things around us; the certainty with which the stars rise and set, the moon waxes and wanes, the flower follows the bud, and the seed the flower. He reminded his hearers how truly, from the times of the flood, God's promise has been fulfilled; and seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, have not ceased. (Gen. viii. 8.) "And surely," said he, "we see in these things the proofs that God is a God of order; that He would not lightly or without important reasons change the system which He has established, the laws which He has framed. If then we were to hear that the Almighty had on a certain occasion broken through these laws, and violated by miracles the established order of na-