where the sun does not set for even months together. Must these people count a week of six years in succession, and then sanctify a Sabbath of another year? Utterly aside from the intentions of the law, which is to keep one period of twenty-four hours in seven days. But how can this sad confusion be avoided on the plan of commencing either at sunsetting or dark? All which confusion might be avoided on what we deem the authorized plan of commencing at twelve.

2. Another objection is, it interferes with necessary business at the close of the week. We are required to remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy, which imposes an obligation to prepare for it, and renders numerous and nameless duties necessary in every department of society. For these duties of preparation we want the ordinary hour of Saturday evening. It does not avail to say, that these can as well be disposed of at an earlier hour.— We presume to say, they generally are not: if they are omitted here, they will crowd with all their care and hurry upon Sabbath morning, and leave the mind very much unprepared for the duties of the sanctuary. Besides, it is by no means convenient to change our employment at noon, or any other hour before the close of the day. So inconvenient at least, that not one in five hundred does it, and this is the objection. We think nothing in these remarks can be construed to encourage that eager sort of toil and drudgery, on Saturday afternoon, or evening, which we have sometimes witnessed; as if people, grudging the loss of a day of rest from their pursuit of the world, were anxious, the last day of the week, to do the work of two days in one. Nothing could be more reprehensible, for it so unfits the mind and the body for the peculiar duties of the Sabbath, that it is as really a transgression of its sanctity as labour on that day itself. The duties we would assign to Saturday evening, are of a totally different class, that is, exclusively duties of preparation. Sanctify yourselves, for to-morrow is the Sabbath. We would crowd no fatiguing business into the close of the week. No journeys; no concourse of people to confuse and agitate the mind, if they could be avoided. The duties we refer to, are exclusively those of preparation.

Further; as citizens of a community, where the civil day begins at midnight, our duty requires us to obey a legal process till that hour, and we must be wanting in some of those duties, as magistrates and citizens, not to conform in this respect, to the laws of our country, i. e. if they do not oppose the laws of God, and we are now going on the supposition that they do not. If a few conscientious individuals keep themselves unspotted from the world in this respect, it cannot be expected that community at large will, until a radical alteration takes place in the constitution of civil government, which is almost hopeless.

3. Our principal objection to this practice, on the score of expediency, remains yet to be mentioned. It takes away the most precious season of reflection and meditation, on the exercises of public worship, that the Lord of the Sabbath has favoured us with, viz. Sabbath Evening. All our hopes of doing good on the Sabbath day, depends upon making deep and lasting impressions on the mind. To have such impressions, there must be a time of reflection. How many valuable impressions; how many deep convictions; how many solemn resolutions; how many heartfelt relentings have vanished-have been as the morning cloud and as the early dew-have proved in vain, and worse than in vain, by hurrying away from the sanctuary and engaging in plans for worldly business-in the social and perfectly innocent circle for conversation and chat-in the gay parties of youthful vanity, or in the tasteful gratifications of a singing school. If people derive improvement from the solemn duties of the sanctuary, they must have the opportunity of seclusion and reflection. The time, therefore, succeeding public worship must be consecrated. Worldly thoughts and business, and words and feelings, must be banished. In other words it must be kept as holy time. Have not all religious people felt so? Have not all sober serious people felt so? When attention to religion has become general, does not universal practice conform to these views? Are not the only assemblies of this season such as are calculated to deepen rather than erase serious impressions? The conference-the lecture-the paternal fireside for catechetical instruction-and if these cannot be had, Retirement. This fact then, shows that it is expedient that the Sabbath should extend into these concluding hours of the day. We have already, we think, shown this to be agreeable to the scriptures. If so, the corresponding hours on Saturday evening are not necessary to make out one seventh part of the time. M. H.

FOR THE PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE.

AN INQUIRY.

REV. EDITOR-I hope that the following difficulties will be solved by some of your correspondents. After some study, and thought upon the subject, I cannot see how the doctrine of "God's eternal decree," can be upheld consistently with the idea of the Almighty's justice, which the tenor of the scriptures gives us.

In the Confession of Faith (chap. iii. sec. 3.) it is declared, "By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and

others foreordained unto everlasting death."* Now, if this decree be immutable, as all the decrees of Jehovah are, and if, as the next section reads, "Their number (the elect) is so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased, or diminished,"t where is the necessity of preaching the gospel, or evangelizing the heathen? Or how can this doctrine be reconciled with the inspired invitations "Come unto me all ye that labour-Ho! every one that thirsteth," &c.? And how will we account for the fall of Satan and other angels from their exalted state of bliss?

Again, in section 5th, we read that God predestinated the elect "out of his mere free grace, and love, without any foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions or causes moving him thereunto." How does this accord with the declaration in the first chapter of the first epistle general of Peter, where the apostle salutes the churches as "elect according to the foreknowledge (xara #goyvaσiv) of God the Father?”

TYRO.

Till something more full and satisfactory shall be furnished, perhaps Tyro may be edified by a careful perusal of the following remarks, taken from the works of the learned and excellent ROBERT LEIGHTON, D.D. some time Bishop of Dunblane, and afterwards Archbishop of Glasgow (Scotland).

We copy from Jerment's edition, 1806, London: vol. iv. p. 271, 272, &c.

"One thing we may confidently assert, that all those things which the great Creator produces in different periods of time, were perfectly known to him, and, as it were, present with him from eternity; and every thing that happens, throughout the several ages of the world, proceeds in the same order, and the same precise manner, as the Eternal Mind at first intended it should. That none of his counsels can be disappointed or rendered ineffectual, or in the least changed or altered by any event whatsoever: Known to God are all his works,' says the apostle in the council of Jerusalem; and the son of Sirach, 'God sees from everlasting to everlasting, and nothing is wonderful in his sight.' Nothing is new or unexpected to him; nothing can come to pass that he has not foreseen; and his first thoughts are so wise, that they admit no second ones that can be supposed wiser. And this stability, and immutability of the divine decrees,' is asserted even by the Roman philosopher: 'It is necessary,' says he, that the same things be always pleasing to him, who can never be pleased but with what is best.'

"Every artist, to be sure, as you also well know, works according to some pattern, which is the immediate object of his mind; and this pattern, in the allwise Creator, must necessarily be entirely perfect, and every way complete. And, if this is what Plato intended by his ideas, which not a few, and these by no means unlearned, think very likely; his own scholar, the great Stagyrite, and your favourite philosopher, had, surely, no reason, so often, and so bitterly, to inveigh against them. Be this as it may, all that acknowledge God to be the author of this wonderful fabric, and all these things in it, which succeed one another in their turns, cannot possibly doubt, that he has brought, and

* Rom. ix. 22, 23. Eph. i. 5, 6.

2 Tim. ii. 19. John. xii. 18.

continues to bring them all about, according to that most perfect pattern_subsisting in his eternal councils; and these things, that we call casual, are all unalterably fixed and determined to him. For according to that of the philosopher, Where there is most wisdom, there is least chance,' and therefore, surely, where there is infinite wisdom, there is nothing left to chance at all.

"This maxim, concerning the eternal councils of the supreme Sovereign of the world, besides that it every where shines clearly in the books of the sacred scriptures, is also, in itself, so evident and consistent with reason, that we meet with it in almost all the works of the philosophers, and often, also, in those of the poets. Nor does it appear, that they mean any thing else, at least, for the most part, by the term fate; though you may meet with some things in their works, which, I own, sound a little harsh, and can scarcely be sufficiently softened by any, even the most favourable interpretation.

"But, whatever else may seem to be comprehended under the term fate, whether taken in the mathematical or physical sense, as some are pleased to distinguish it, must, at last, of necessity be resolved into the appointment and good pleasure of the supreme Governor of the world. If even the blundering astrologers and fortune-tellers acknowledge, that the wise man has dominion over the stars; how much more evident is it, that all these things, and all their 'power and influence, are subject and subservient to the decrees of the all-wise God? Whence the saying of the Hebrews, there is no planet to Israel.'

"And according as all these things in the heavens above, and the earth beneath, are daily regulated and directed by the eternal King; in the same precise manner were they all from eternity ordered and disposed by him, who 'worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will,' who is more ancient than the sea and the mountains, or even the heavens themselves.

"These things we are warranted and safe to believe; but what perverseness, or rather madness, is it to endeavour to break into the sacred repositories of heaven, and pretend to accommodate those secrets of the divine kingdom to the measures and methods of our weak capacities! To say the truth, I acknowledge that I am astonished, and greatly at a loss, when I hear learned men, and professors of theology, talking presumptuously about the order of the divine decrees, and when I read such things in their works. Paul, considering this awful subject, as an immense sea, was astonished at it, and viewing the vast abyss, started back, and cried out with a loud voice, O! the depth,' &c. Nor is there much more sobriety or moderation in the many notions that are enter tained, and the disputes that are commonly raised about reconciling these divine decrees, with the liberty and free-will of man.

"It is indeed true, that neither religion, nor right reason, will suffer the actions and designs of men, and consequently, even the very motions of the will, to be exempted from the empire of the counsel and good pleasure of God. Even the books of the heathens are filled with most express testimonies of the most absolute sovereignty of God, even with regard to these. The sentiments of Homer are well known; and with him agrees the tragic poet Euripides, 'O! Jupiter,' says he, why are we wretched mortals called wise? For we de pend entirely upon thee, and we do whatever thou intendest we should.'

6

"And it would be easy to bring together a vast collection of such sayings, but these are sufficient for our present purpose.

"They always seemed to me to act a very ridiculous part, who contend, that the effect of the divine decree is absolutely irreconcilable with human liberty; because the natural and necessary liberty of a rational creature is to act or choose from a rational motive, or spontaneously and of purpose; but who sees not, that, on the supposition of the most absolute decree, this liberty is not taken away, but rather established and confirmed? For the decree is, that such an one shall make choice of, or do some particular thing freely. And, whoever pretends to deny, that whatever is done or chosen, whether good or indifferent, is so done or chosen, or, at least, may be so, espouses an absurdity. But, in a word, the great difficulty in all this dispute is, that with regard to the origin of evil. Some distinguish, and justly, the substance of the action, as you call it, or that which is physical in the action, from the morality of it. This is of some , VOL. II.-Presb. Mag. 2 S

weight, but whether it takes away the whole difficulty, I will not pretend to say. Believe me, young gentlemen, it is an abyss-it is an abyss never to be perfectly sounded by any plummet of human understanding. Should any one say, I am not to be blamed, but Jove and fate,' he will not get off so, but may be nonplussed by turning his own wit against him; the servant of Zeno, the Stoic philosopher, being catched in an act of theft, either with a design to ridicule his master's doctrine, or to avail himself of it, in order to evade punishment, said, 'It was my fate to be a thief;-and to be punished for it, said Zeno.' Wherefore, if you will take my advice, withdraw your minds from a curious search into this mystery, and turn them directly to the study of piety, and a due reverence to the awful majesty of God. Think and speak of God and his secrets with fear and trembling, but dispute very little about them; and, if you would not undo yourselves, beware of disputing with him; if you transgress in any thing, blame yourselves; if you do any good, or repent of evil, offer thanksgiving to God. This is what I earnestly recommend to you; in this I acquiesce myself; and to this, when much tossed and distressed with doubt and difficulties, I had recourse as to a safe harbour. If any of you think proper, he may apply to men of greater learning; but let him take care, he meet not with such as have more forwardness and presumption.""

In his third letter, the author treats of the guilt and depravity of man by nature. This malignant and fatal disease he traces up to its original source, by showing that, as Adam stood, in the covenant made with him in Paradise, as the federal head and representative of all his natural descendants, we sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression. From the apostacy of the great progenitor of the human race, proceeded that moral pestilence, which has diffused its deadly influence over the whole world, and not suffered a single individual to escape its fearful ravages. Hence we are by nature totally depraved; being dead in sin, and utterly destitute of any remains of spiritual life.

To this statement an objection is made. If all are totally depraved, how happens it that we see such degrees of wickedness in the world? In replying to this objection, the author does not pretend to deny the fact. He expressly admits, "that there is a vast disparity as to moral turpitude between the actions of individuals. Some men, in a comparative view, may be properly denominated virtuous, and others completely vicious."

"But," he adds, "the concession I have made does not in the least militate against the doctrine of universal and equal depravity: because every perceptible gradation of excellence arises, I presume, not from one man being less corrupt than another, but from the interposition of God, operating by natural causes, with a view to subserve his own glory in the government of a world entirely under the dominion of sin. Every Christian may with propriety say, If I have not, like David, committed murder and adultery; nor with Peter, denied the Lord that bought me, it is not because my nature is less depraved, but because I have been either kept out of the way of temptation, or preserved from falling by it."-Page 106.