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of those who may have but just entered into the scenes of public business. Those sons of vice and corruption ply the minds of the timid youth, who may at first have no small scruples to enter the lists of iniquity, with such variety of argument and art, that they at last consent to resign the government of their hearts, and are induced to engage, with their unworthy advisers, in the pursuits of dissipation and vice. Thus are they led on in the path of iniquity, until they grow up in hardened wickedness; and become, like their first associates, the evil advisers and destroyers of others. For the inspection of those who may have thus grown old in the recruiting service of Satan, we beg leave to quote the following paragraph.

"And let us here speak one word (p. 139) to those seniors in depravity-those men who give to the corruption of acquaintances, who are younger than themselves, their countenance, their agency; and who can initiate them without a sigh in the mysteries of guilt, and care not though a parent's hope should wither and expire under the contagion of their ruffian example. It is only upon their own conversion that we can speak to them the pardon of the gospel. It is only if they themselves are washed, and sanctified, and justified, that we can warrant their personal deliverance from the wrath that is to come. But under all the concealment which rests on the futurities of God's administration, we know that there are degrees of suffering in hell-and that while some are beaten with few stripes, others are beaten with many. And surely, if they who turn many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars for ever and ever, we may be well assured, that they who patronize the cause of iniquity-they who can beckon others to that way which leadeth on to the chambers of death-they who can aid and witness, without a sigh, the extinction of youthful modesty, surely, it may well be said of such, that on them a darker frown will fall from the judgment seat, and through eternity will they have to bear the pains of a fiercer indignation."

After having stated these causes of the origin and progress of dissipation and corruption, our author invites us to look at their usual termination. He does not here mean

by the termination of a life of dissipation, the extinction of existence altogether, but the change which takes place in the rake and the man of dissipation-" when he becomes what the world calls a reformed man, and puts on the decencies of a sober and domestic establishment." This change, our author allows, and we agree with him in sentiment, may take place, and yet the man may "not have become a new creature in Christ Jesus." The direction of his pleasures may be somewhat changed; but this may arise from distaste for his former pursuits produced merely by satiety or bad health, and not in consequence of his having really become a lover of God more than a lover of pleasure. Nay, so far from this being the case, that this very man, who does appear reformed himself, often becomes the abettor and promoter of vice in others. This our author deplores as a sore evil; and we feel ourselves powerfully constrained to join in his lamentation. We therefore most unfeignedly unite with. him in praying

"O! for an arm of strength to demolish this firm and far spread compact of iniquity; and for the power of such piercing and prophetic voice, as might convince our reformed men of the baleful influence they cast behind them on the morals of the succeeding generation." p. 143.

Our author, however, readily allows, that some improvement has recently taken place in the external behaviour of some of the higher ranks in his own country. This he infers from the dismission of that impatience, which used formerly to be exhibited by them for the withdrawment of clergymen, at a certain time, from their feasts, to which they had been invited, as mere guests of ornament to grace the commencement of the entertainment. A clergyman now, Dr. Chalmers seems to think, may remain with more propriety to the end of a feast, to which he may be invited, than he formerly could: but, the Dr.

does not make this concession in favour of the great, without administering a little very wholesome advice to his clerical brethren.

"And if (says he) such an exaction (of withdrawment, at a certain time, from the entertainment) was ever laid by the omnipotence of custom, (p. 143) on a minister of Christianity, it is such an exaction as ought never, never, to be complied with. It is not for him to lend the sanction of his presence to a meeting with which he could not sit to its final termination. It is not for him to stand associated, for a single hour, with an assemblage of men who begin with hypocrisy, and end with downright blackguardism. It is not for him to watch the progress of the coming ribaldry, and to hit the well selected moment when talk, and turbulence, and boisterous merriment, are on the eve of bursting forth upon the company, and carrying them forward to the full acme and uproar of their enjoyment. It is quite in vain to say, that he has only sanctified one part of such an entertainment. He has as good as given his connivance to the whole of it, and left behind him a discharge in full of all its abominations; and, therefore, be they who they may, whether they rank among the proudest aristocracy of our land, or are charioted in splendour along, as the wealthiest of the citizens, it is his part to keep as purely and indignantly aloof from such society as this, as he would from the vilest and most debasing associations of profligacy."

Out of the whole of this discus

sion on the progress and termination of a life of dissipation there arises, in our author's estimation, a question which is more easily answered by general description than by a direct reply. The question alluded to is this-what is the likeliest way of setting up a barrier against this desolating torrent of corruption, into which there enter so many elements of power and strength that, to the general eye (cursory observation, we suppose, is meant), it looks altogether irresistible? The descriptive answer which is given by our author to this important question, occupies the remaining part of the discourse. The general answer which he gives to this question may be shortly com prised in one sentence:-that personal and family religion appears

to be the only true antidote against the baneful influence of those vices which seem to originate and increase so rapidly in large cities. We think the concluding sentences of this discourse are highly worthy of the notice and serious consideration of all those who are desirous to promote a work of reformation among ourselves.

"Would Christians only be open and intrepid, and carry their religion into their merchandise; and furnish us with a single hundred of such houses in this city, where the care and character of the master formed a guarantee for the sobriety of all his dependents, it would be like the clearing out of a piece of cultivated ground in the midst of a frightful wilderness; and parents would know whither they could repair with confidence for the settlement of their offspring; and we should behold, what is mightily to be desired, a line of broad and visible demarcation between the church and the world; and an interest so precious as the immortality of children, would no longer be left to the play of such fortuitous elements, as operated at random throughout the confused mass of a mingled and indiscriminate society. And thus, the pieties of a father's house might bear to be transplanted even into the scenes of ordinary business; and instead of withering as they do at present, under a contagion which spreads in every direction, and fills up the whole face of the community, they might flourish in that moral region which was occupied by a peculiar people, and which they had reclaimed from a world that lieth in wickedness."

We have been much gratified with the perusal of this discourse. If it be not the best, it is at least one of the best, in the collection. We think that both its composition and sentiments entitle the author to no small degree of commendation.

The seventh discourse, in the collection, may be considered merely a continuation of the subject, discussed in the sixth, under a different title. The title given to this discourse is, "On the Vitiating Influence of the Higher upon the Lower Orders of Society." (Text, Luke xvii. 12.)

To the causes of growing corrup tion mentioned in the sixth discourse, our author adds in this:

1. The bad use which merchants begin now to make of those sacred hours which ought to be devoted to public worship and private communion with God. Many merchants now, instead of remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy, rather employ themselves and the youths they have under them, "in posting and penmanship." This, our author justly maintains, readily prepares those, who are engaged in it, for the practice of all those vices which naturally spring from a neglect of religion and a contempt of the requisitions of God's holy law.

Another source of corruption noticed, in this discourse is, that practice of polite lying which merchants often use with the excise and custom house officers, and with each other. A third-that very common species of etiquette observed by the great, when they desire their servants to tell, at the door, a little lie to an obtrusive visiter. When her ladyship does not wish to appear in consequence of her cap or curls not being properly adjusted, she very readily excuses herself from the disagreeable task of receiving a visiter, in this state, by ordering the servant to utter, at the door, this deliberate falsehood-not at home. On this evil custom, which we certainly most heartily condemn, we think Dr. Chalmers has used too many words.

The particulars now stated seem to comprise the whole of the subject of this discourse. It appears to us, that this discourse is inferior to those which precede it, in the volume: but, notwithstanding, we think that it has merits which entitle it to attention.

The eighth, and last discourse in the volume, treats "On the Love of Money." (Text, Job xxxi. 24-28.

The object of this discourse is evidently to show, that, if we allow money, or even the objects which money procures, to occupy that place in our affections, which is due unto God, we are justly chargeable

with the crime of idolatry, and liable to those punishments, which God's word denounces against a transgression so heinous and abominable.

Our author makes some distinction between the idolatry which we practise when we make wealth solely the object of our worship; and that, which is performed, when we pay our religious reverence to those objects which wealth is capable of procuring. He says, in regard to this distinction, "he, who makes a god of his pleasure, renders to this idol the homage of his senses. who makes a god of his wealth, renders to this idol the homage of his mind; and he (the one that worships his gold) therefore, of the two, is the more hopeless and determined idolater." We shall not wait, however, to examine the justice of this distinction-perhaps it may be founded in truth.

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Of the general sentiments contained in this last discourse, we most readily and cheerfully express our approbation. The discussion is conducted with very considerable ability and success; and, therefore, impresses us with no mean idea of the author's powers of discrimination, and of his skill and readiness in composition. The paragraph with which it concludes, appears to us eloquent.

"Death will soon break up every swelling enterprise of ambition, and put upon it a most cruel and degrading mockery. And it is, indeed, an affecting sight, to behold the workings of this world's infatuation among so many of our fellow mortals nearing and nearing every day to eternity, and yet, instead of taking heed to that which is before them, mistaking their temporary vehicle for their abiding home, and spending all their time and all their thought upon its accommodations. It is all the doing of our great adversary, thus to invest the trifles of a day in such characters of greatness and durability; and it is, indeed, one of the most formidable of his wiles. And whatever may be the instrument of reclaiming men from this delusion, it certainly is not any argument either about the shortness of life, or the certainty and awfulness of its approaching termination. On this point man is capable

of a stout-hearted resistance, even to ocular demonstration; nor do we know a more striking evidence of the bereavement which must have past upon the human faculties, than to see how, in despite of arithmetic-how, in despite of manifold experience-how, in despite of all his gathering wrinkles, and all his growing infirmities-how, in despite of the ever-lessening distance between him and his sepulchre, and of all the tokens of preparation for the onset of the last messenger, (enemy) with which, in shape of weakness, and breathlessness, and dimness of eyes, he is visited; will the feeble and asthmatic man still shake his silver locks in all the glee and transport of which he is capable, when he hears of his gainful adventures, and his new accumulations. Nor can we tell how near he must get to his grave, or how far on he must advance in the process of dying, ere gain cease to delight, and the idol of wealth cease to be dear to him. But when we see that the topic is trade and its profits, which lights up his faded eye with the glow of its chiefest ecstasy, we are as much satisfied that he leaves the world with all his treasure there, and all the desires of his heart there, as if acting what is told of the miser's death-bed, he made his bills and his parchment of security the companions of his bosom, and the last movements of his life were a fearful, tenacious, determined grasp, of what to him formed the all for which life was valuable."

Upon the whole, we conclude, that this volume, notwithstanding a few defects, is entitled to a very large portion of approbation. It teaches, as we believe, a sound religion and a pure morality, through the medium of an eloquence far from being unattractive: and, therefore, it will give us no small degree of pleasure to see it widely and extensively circulated among all ranks and denominations of people in this western district of the Christian world.

T. G. M.I.

Review of Dr. Gray on "THE MEDIATORIAL REIGN OF THE SON OF God."

(Continued from page 397.) Argument III. stands thus; "1. Christ offers eternal salvation to all who hear his gospel." True, on condition of their repentance, or of VOL. I.

their believing.

But he offers to

save no man who shall continue in unbelief, on the condition of his thus remaining in unbelief. "2. But it is a violation of the law of God, which Jesus Christ perfectly obeyed, for a man to offer as a gift that which does not belong to him," to bestow. True; and therefore we infer that Jesus Christ has ability to bestow the gift of eternal salvation on all who believe. But our author infers, "3. Therefore Jesus Christ is able to bestow eternal salvation on all who hear the gospel." We cannot see how this follows, unless they believe, for the gospel offer, however generally published, and to be published in the hearing of all mankind says, "he that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." This is what God offers to do, and certainly will do; and yet this is the gospel offer from the lips of our blessed Redeemer himself." There is certainly," we admit, "no justice in offering to bestow what does not belong to ane. There is certainly no mercy in promising salvation, if he has not the power of giving it ;" and hence we might argue, that Christ would guard his offers by all proper conditions; and promise nothing but what he will perform.

Argument IV. is founded on this proposition, that "Jesus Christ commands all who hear the gospel to trust in him for salvation;" and surely all ought to believe that he will save men on the terms offered in the gospel, and trust in him for the fulfilment of his promises. It is agreed, that it would have been a violation of the moral law, for Jesus Christ to have commanded the exercise of this trust, had he been unable to save any whom he promised to save; and hence we infer, not that Jesus is morally able to confer salvation on all who hear the gospel; but upon all who so believe in his truth, as to trust in him for salvation. His terms are stated: "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 3 G

thou shalt be saved." On these terms he commands all to receive salvation, and he is able to confer salvation on all who thus receive it; and on none else, without changing the terms of salvation.

Argument V. is built on these premises, that Christ is able to save all to whom his gospel is preached; and that the gospel has been preached to many who have not believed, and are not saved; and who were not elected. This Christ has not said, but we are sure that he is ABLE to save all who come unto God by him, and all who ever will come. As for any ability to perform the voluntary, gracious work of saving sinners, without willing to do it, we know not that it exists. That the gospel has been, and will be preached to thousands, to whom it will for ever be a savour of death unto death, cannot be denied. Our author from these premises adduces three conclusions.

"3. Therefore Jesus Christ is able to save persons who were not elected, and are not saved.

"4. Therefore the imputability of Christ's righteousness, that is, its capacity of procuring salvation, does not depend in any manner, nor in any degree, upon the electing decree of the Father, nor on the covenant relation, established between him and the promised travail of his soul from all eternity; for if its imputability depends upon his relation to the elect, it would be incapable of being imputed to any who are not elected, but it is capable of being imputed to those who are not elected.

"5. Therefore the righteousness of Jesus Christ, in its penal part, does not consist of an amount of suffering, exactly proportioned to the guilt of the elect, and consequently capable of saving them, but incapable of saving any others; for it has been demonstrated, that the righteousness of Jesus is capable of saving some who are not saved, and, therefore, were not elected. q. e. d." p. 86.

These conclusions may indeed be deduced from the false premises to which they are attached; but we deem the whole unscriptural, with the exception of the statement, that the gospel has been preached to many who were not elected. If

Christ is able to save persons who were not elected, then he can save those whom the Father hath not given to him; and if he could save persons not given to him by the Father, he could save them in some other character than that of Mediator between God and men. It would follow also, that he might perform the work of a Mediator without the Father's consent, for some, and that he might take this honour to himself; which would contradict Hebrews v. 4, 5, and vii. 28. "And no one taketh this honour," of offering a sacrifice for sin, "but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So Christ also glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee. But the word of the oath-maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore."

Again, neither the Father, nor the Son, has chosen to save the nonelect, and Christ could not, therefore, save them, unless he should go beyond, and even contrary to, his Father's will, and act without his own consent. It must, therefore, be a strange ability, which is attributed to Christ of saving persons who were not elected; an ability to perform a voluntary work without volition, to disobey, or at least go beyond, the will of the Godhead, and to do, what he is immutably determined never to do.

The assertion being neither proved nor admitted, that the righteousness of Christ is capable of being imputed to those who are not elected, the inference derived from it, that the imputability of Christ's righteousness does not depend in any manner, nor in any degree, upon the electing decree of the Father, nor on the covenant relation, established between him and the promised travail of his soul, is of no force. If, however, the imputability of Christ's righteousness does not depend on the fact of his having obeyed in the room and stead of all who shall enjoy the imputation of it, then it may be im

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