vours, and I receive the promise with gladness, and rely on it with confidence.

I have thus given some account of what my grounds of reliance would be at the last hour. I shall be told, by theologians of a certain class, that they are insufficient. #That does not move me at all. If I think them suffi

cient for myself, and if I can prove them to have been i sufficient for thousands, it is enough. But before I come to the matter of fact, I will state one or two objections to the commonly received doctrine of reliance on the merits of Christ. They are so obvious that they can well be mentioned, without entering on a thorough inquiry into the doctrine itself, which was not intended, because it is not here required.

I will say then, that I cannot perceive a moral tendency in that doctrine. I cannot perceive a moral tendency in any doctrine, which inculcates the idea, that an act of faith at the close of life is to be received as an equivalent for sins without number through the course of it. Nor can I think, that an absolute dependence on what another has done for us will operate as an inducement to do much for ourselves. I will say again, that I cannot see the utility of this doctrine. When connected with the other doctrines, by which it is usually accompanied, it seems to be entirely superfluous, and possessed of no individual influence. They who believe this doctrine, for instance, generally believe that of election. Now if a man be elected to happiness from all eternity, his state is fixed, no reliance on the Saviour's merits can make his condition more blessed and certain; and if he is not among the elect, his state is equally fixed, and no reliance on the Saviour's merits can alter his awful and inevitable destiny. And thus if he be not

sure of his election, his situation must be indeed depior. able. I do not mean to intimate, that the orthodox doctrine of reliance is not often made one of consolation. I do not wish to push the system of others to their consequences. I only desire that justice should be done to my own.

II. And now I will come, in the second place, to the facts, and real state of the case. And here I would express my astonishment, that any one, who has been at all conversant with unitarians, who has lived where they have lived, who has spoken with them in sickness, in casualty, or on the bed of languishing and death, should doubt, for a moment, whether their faith was one of consolation and support. He must have seen with an entirely perverted vision, who has not seen, that misfortune and death had no more terrors for the unitarian than for any other christian, who has not seen, that he can call around him all the best supports of religion and revelation, and can resign his soul with perfect and filial confidence into the hands of his Maker. Indeed, I cannot believe that any one, who questions the consolations of this faith, has ever known a unitarian, or been present at the last moments of a unitarian; and I must regard the charge under consideration as a hasty conclusion, formed by those who were entirely ignorant of the truth, and propagated among those who were quite as ignorant, with the design of making unitarianism appear a hollow system, and bringing it into consequent disrepute.

But I have lived my whole life among unitarians; I am myself a unitarian, and I feel myself competent to speak on this subject, and to speak decidedly. I will therefore assert, that I have never known the

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consolations of my faith to fail. What those consolations are I have already explained. For myself, I can say, that I wish for no better, and know of none other so good. They have been the support of my spirit, and the delight of my heart in every circumstance, and I devoutly trust, that they will be my joy and my strength in the hour of dissolution. And of all the unitarians with whom I have been acquainted, I have never met with one, who at any time deserted his faith, because it was deficient in comfort and heavenly hope. But I have stood by the death-bed side of many a one, who had held that faith firmly through life, and who held it as firmly then, and I did not see that his soul was forsaken. It is true, that I was neither the witness of those extatic raptures, and theatrical exclamations; nor, on the other hand, of those visions of hell and Satan, cries of fear, and fits of despair, which form the burthen of so many of those dismal tracts and biographies which are scattered through the country-and of such exhibitions I am sure I never wish to be the witness-but I was the witness of calm resignation, of christian patience, of manly fortitude; I saw thankfulness for the experience of past mercies, and gratitude for the promise of future joys; I saw deep sorrow and contrition for sin and negligence, but at the same time a confidence in much that was well intended and much that was well performed, and a glad trust in the mercy of Jehovah; I saw hope looking to heaven, and faith leaning on God. This I have seen, repeatedly seen, and so have others without number, who could bear witness with me. And why should it not be seen? It is the natural consequence and effect of an enlightened belief, and a rational christianity, and could only be called in ques

tion by those, who had no opportunities of knowledge, or those who were determined to deceive. But these misrepresentations are not to be feared. They can have but a partial and temporary influence, and will never injure the cause of him, who does but follow the example of his Master, when he commends his departing spirit into the hands of the Father and the God of both.

I will conclude this piece with an extract from the Wisdom of Solomon, which, I can never read without emotion. It consists of the four first verses of the third chapter. I do not quote it for its authority, but for its beauty and appropriateness.

"The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the universe they seemed to die, and their departure is taken for misery, and their going from us to be utter destruction; but they are in peace. For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality." F. G.

Eleventh Letter to the Rev. Dr. Miller. On the Doctrine of Atonement.

SIR,

Among the articles, which you enumerate as constituting the essence of christianity, is the doctrine of atonement. Whatever may be thought of any doctrine called by this name, all christians must allow, that the object, which it is supposed to accomplish, is of the greatest importance. To one, who believes

with confidence and joy in the divine origin and truth of the Gospel dispensation, no subject can be more solemn, none more interesting, than that relating to salvation through Jesus Christ. Whoever believes in him as the Son of God, the Mediator between God and men, and whoever receives the truths of his revelation as the truths of heaven, must believe that the sole purpose of his coming into the world was to redeem men from iniquity, to save them from sin, to reconcile them to God, and procure the divine pardon and favour.

If the subject be viewed at large, as intimately connected with the doctrine of salvation through the agency of Jesus Christ, every sincere believer in him must be impressed with nearly an equal sense of its importance. Every such believer will study the Scriptures earnestly and devoutly to know wherein Christ is a Saviour, or in what salvation through him consists; that is, to know the terms on which Jesus and his apostles have declared, that the sins of men shall be forgiven, and final acceptance with God shall be gained. In the strength of this faith, in the desire of this knowledge, and in the ardour of inquiry, it has not been made to appear, nor can it be made to appear, that unitarians are in any degree behind the orthodox.

They are often charged with denying the doctrine of atonement, and assailed with great warmth by their opponents for this supposed defect of faith, or perverseness of will. The persons, by whom this charge is preferred, no doubt deserve the credit of sincerity and zeal, and their solicitude ought to be considered praiseworthy, when it makes no trespass on the christian virtues of humility and charity. But most unfortunately this trespass has too often been the besetting