merciful. He wants no extraneous motive to induce him to pity and relieve our miserable world. No change in God is necessary or desirable, if even it were possible. This is abundantly evident from many parts of the divine word: e. g. Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7. John iii. 16. vi. 39. x. 17. Eph. i. 3-10. 2 Cor. v. 18, 19.

(2.) “This great concern is entirely one of Law and Administrative Wisdom. The great God is, in the unalterable nature of things, and from the necessary volitions of an infinitely perfect mind, the Righteous Ruler of the universe, intellectual as well as physical. Over the latter he rules according to certain fixed principles, some of which he has enabled mortals to discover; and they have called them Laws of nature. Over the universe of intellectual beings, who act from volitions and are governed by motives, he rules also according to certain fixed principles; and these are the Laws of the moral world. Our knowledge of them is derived from himself; partly as he has implanted them in the moral instincts of our mental nature, partly as he has made them discoverable by our reasoning powers, and partly as he has given them clear expression by the voice of revelation.

"The question, whether sinners shall be pardoned, is not one that can be referred to arbitrary will or absolute power. It is a question of law and government, and it is to be solved by the dictates of wisdom, goodness, justice, and consistency. God's disposition to show mercy is original and unchangeable: in this sense nothing is needed to render him propitious. But the way and manner, in which it will be suitable to all the other considerations proper to be taken into the account, that he should show mercy, none but HIMSELF is qualified to determine. To deny this would be manifest folly and impiety. Now we have found, and the design of this volume is to present the evidence on the case, that He has determined, and has given us to know that pardoning and restoring mercy shall be exercised in the way of mediation and expiation.

"From these facts it clearly follows, that a phraseology derived from the administration of government and law is proper and necessary, in all our considerations upon this, the most momentous and interesting of all concerns. God is the Righteous Judge: and God is angry [with the wicked] every day.' But this anger is not a commotion or a mutable passion: it is the calm, dignified, unchangeable, and eternal majesty of the JUDGE; it is bis necessary love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity. In this his rectoral capacity, therefore, the maintenance of law, the enforcement of equity in relation to the unchangeable distinction of right and wrong, is not a matter of neutrality or of

option; and it involves the necessity of marking sin whith a suitable demonstration of its moral evil and of the displeasure with which it is regarded by the Eternal Jehovah; and this is punishment. The execution of such punishment, which having been determined by unerring goodness and wisdom, cannot but be strictly proper, must follow in the regular course of moral antecedents and consequents. The pronulgation of this course is a threatening; and it is rendered proper by a regard equally to the honour of the government and to the benefit of the governed. Threatening and punishment impress justly and necessarily with the idea of the displeasure of the Lawgiver and Judge. Pardon, when, on any consideration, it takes place, brings the true and just idea of a change: but that change, in the great case before us, is not in the mind or character of the Supreme Ruler; but it is in the administration of his government, and in those outward acts by which that administration is indicated. This change is, in the order of moral right, the effect of an adequate cause. This cause lies in the whole Mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus Christ, but most particularly and essentially in his sufferings and death; and these have constituted the

EXPIATION.

"Let it also be remembered that this method of 'grace reigning through righteousness' has not come from any extraneous influence, in its invention, suggestion, or operation. It is the pure and sole emana❤ tion of the FATHER's infinite, eternal, and unchangeable LOVE. It is the exercise of free and sovereign beneficence.

"It also follows that the terms anger, indignation, wrath, sentence, threatening, punishment, remission, reconciliation, propitiation, and similar expressions, are, under all the circumstances, most proper to be employed, and are the best calculated to produce a just sense of the evil of sin, and many other salutary feelings; yet that we should be careful to understand them as expressing modes of the divine administration, and effects of the divine counsels, but not affections operating upon the Divine Nature, nor changes in it. A creature who is under the guilt and dominion of sin, stands in that position, with respect to the necessary and unchangeable attributes of God, which is fitly expressed by terms denoting the strongest displeasure and abhorrence. A change of state and character, so as to be brought into a new set of relations to the divine attributes, is as fitly expressed by the language of love and approbation. For example: God is jealous and the Lord revengeth, the Lord revengeth and is furious, the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.Who can stand before his indignation?-The Lord is good, a strong

hold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him.' Nahum i. 3-7. And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee; for thou wast angry with me; thine anger is turned away, and thou hast comforted me!' Is. xii. 1. Upon a different application of the same general principle, the varied dispensations of God's righteous providence towards his sincere yet imperfect people are represented by similar expressions, yet all referring to modes and effects of the divine administration. O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away!" Dan ix. 16. Thus sairh thy Lord, Jehovah, even thy God who pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt not drink it any more.' Is. li. 22. Yet we are not warranted to understand such passages as these, as indicating a real change in God; any more than we should be to believe that he is the subject of hope, of fear, of precarious expectation, of wishes, of disappointment, and of regrets, because, in condescension of human infirmity, and to the state of mental culture in the infancy of the human race, the external forms of the divine dispensations are described in language borrowed from those affections in men: e. g. Gen. ii. 19. iii. 22. vi. 6. Deut. xxxii. 19, 27, 29. Is. v. 4, and many other passages.

The change by which a guilty and polluted sinner becomes freed from the sentence of condemnation, pardoned, regarded with complacency, and qualified for the noblest employments and delights, is not in God; but it is in the relations under which the sinner stands towards God, and in the state of his own mind and character consequent upon those altered relations."

The title of the third Discourse, is, ON THE ATONEMENT MADE BY CHRIST. But this will furnish the reader with no correct idea of the subjects treated. It should have been entitled, THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT, as will appear by the following table of its contents;-The divine moral grovenment-The spirit of the moral law-Its grounds and reasons-Nature and distributions of holiness-Nature of sin-Essential principles of happiness-Obligations to obedience-Disobedience Effects of violated obligation-Justice of the divine government-Punishment, natural and positive-Depravity and

guilt of the human race-The conceivable results of the moral condition of man-A compensation and Mediatorial system.

This Discourse gives evidence of a mind accustomed to profound and just thinking. It is replete with sound doctrine; and the truths here presented, are traced to their first principles. Our only objection has already been stated. Every thing is rendered too abstract. Principles of reason are resorted to, rather than the plain unequivocal declarations of Scripture. It may be alleged, indeed, that those with whom our author contends, will not admit our interpretation of the plainest texts which speak of atonement; but will they more readily acquiesce in the conclusions derived from abstract reasoning? But we would not be understood, as expressing dissatisfaction with this able Discourse. It is, upon the whole, truly excellent. But our limits will not admit of making any extracts; and indeed, the principles exhibited, are so connected together, that it must be preserved entire, and read in connexion, in order to see the bearing and force of the argument. But we would earnestly recommend the careful and repeated perusal of this Discourse, to theological students. It contains, undoubtedly, the true principles on which the doctrine of the vicarious sufferings or atonement of Christ, is founded.

On some points, disputed among the orthodox themselves, -the author speaks in a vague and unsatisfactory manner; but these are things of small importance, when compared with the great radical doctrine, which is so ably sustained, in this Discourse.

The fourth and last of these Discourses, is, on the reDEMPTION EFFECTED BY CHRIST. The object of the learned author, here, is to vindicate from the cavils and objections of opposers, those numerous words and phrases, in which allusion is made to pecuniary or commercial transactions. This Discourse is short, and, for the most part, critical.

The words referred to above, are taken up in detail; their import ascertained; and the common objections made to this mode of representing the work of Christ and blessings of salvation, are answered.

The remainder of the volvme-about 100 pages in small type-is occupied with notes and Illustrations, replete with learning and criticism, and calculated to shed light on the points discussed in the preceding Discourses.