vinistic, from their conformity to the Calvinistic confessions of faith, he can affirm as truly as Dr. G. that the gospel which he preaches he neither received of man, neither was taught it, as he thinks, but by the written revelation of Jesus Christ. Yet we widely differ on several important points, on which both cannot be right. Our author's unreasonable hue and cry against systems, metaphysics, philosophy, and confessions of faith, are trivial things, when compared with several errors which are inculcated in this volume, and which, while they do not, in our judgment, prove the writer of them to be unrenewed, and unworthy of the Christian ministry, would, if received and followed to their legitimate consequences, banish justice and Christianity from the world.

For mastery it is not in our heart to strive, on the present occasion, but we would wish to rectify the judgment of the author, and expose his errors to those who may be fascinated by his style, while they 66 Iseem to be struck with a certain undefined apprehensiveness of consequences," lest they should be "led into conclusions injurious to evangelical truth." p. 4.

Commencing his arguments in military style, our author determines to secure to himself in the

beginning some "central. point, post and citadel in the Christian field," p. 20. That the mediatorial Son of God offers salvation to sin. ners, and commands them to accept of it, he deems such a central position. "This I say is the first principle of gospel truth known to man! Till I know this, I know nothing." p. 25. Where now are the words of God to support this position? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved: Come unto me, and I will give you rest. These are his proofs: but in our judgment they do not establish his citadel. The word offers is not contained in them; and even if they

offer salvation to the sinners to whom they are revealed, they express no offers to those who have never heard these gracious declarations. It is true, that these passages contain two commands to all sinners who hear them; which they are bound upon the authority of God to obey. All who hear are commanded to believe and to come to Christ. These duties would be binding on them were no promises of salvation annexed. These commands are to be uttered in the name of God, by his ministers, indiscriminately to all to whom they have the opportunity of preaching the gospel. Every man who is made acquainted with the divine testimony ought to believe each and every proposition contained in it; and every man who hears the voice of the Son of man ought to come to him, in the exercise of faith, love, submission and universal obedience, because he is the lawful sovereign of mankind, and Lord of the universe. Our obligations to obey him, depend not on his mediatorial character, office, or promises, but upon his right as the mighty God, and God with us, to command us, as the creatures of his power, and the active, voluntary, intelligent subjects of his moral government. As the true God, Christ is entitled to that belief of every statement of his revelation which he requires; and he would be entitled to our faith in his testimony on every subject, had he never provided salvation for any of our fallen race.

But to the commands, believe and come unto me, Christ has graciously annexed promises; which ali should duly consider. He promises to save ALL WHO BELIEVE; and to give rest to ALL WHO COME UNTO HIM. Now we seriously ask, Do these two passages contain an unconditional offer to save every individual of the human race? In our view, and we should think, in the judgment of every candid examiner of the scriptures, they contain sim

accepting it. Christ says he will save me, if I am willing to be saved by him. This is enough of an offer of salvation. He tells me, that he will save me, if I will come to him, look to him, believe on him, trust in him; and a more gracious offer than this cannot be desired by any reasonable being. Even the wicked cannot say that they wish Christ to save them against their will, and before they consent to look to him, with intention of being saved by his merits. The very warning which we utter, that he who believeth not shall be damned, is evidence that salvation is offered to sinners on the terms of faith and repentance.

It would be well to ascertain the meaning of the term offers. If it means the same as promises, then Christ promises to save none but believers, but if it means a proposition of the terms of salvation, in this connexion, then, the gospel makes a public exhibition of those terms, which all men ought to understand, in such words as these: "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved: look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters: incline your ear and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David: seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon: repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." These terms of salvation Jesus offers to, or brings before, all sinners, to whom his gospel is published.

There are passages in the Bible in which God declares, unequivoVOL. I.

cally, what are some of his eternal purposes, and what works he will accomplish. Such, for instance, are the declarations, "thy people shall be willing, in the day of thy power; a new spirit will I put within thee; a new heart will I give thee; I will write my law in their heart; and, all which the Father giveth me, shall come to me;" but when any offer of salvation is made, it always consists of some general command, which the authority of the Almighty renders obligatory on all men to whom it is made known, and of some promise following the command, in which God binds himself to bestow salvation on all who sustain a described character, or comply with the terms of offered life. The passages just cited verify this remark. To sinners, Jesus saith, believe, come ye to the waters, incline your ear, hear, seek the Lord, forsake your wicked ways, return unto the Lord, repent, and be baptized. If they do these things, he assures them that they shall be pardoned, accepted, sanctified and glorified, through the righteousness of Jesus, and the gracious operations of his Spirit. If they do these things, he reminds them, moreover, that it is because the Holy Spirit has worked in them to will and to do, so that they became willing, in the day of his power; and if they have been thus regenerated, it is because they were ransomed from the curse by the obedience and sufferings of Christ for them; and if Christ thus redeemed them, and gave them his Holy Spirit, it was for this ultimate reason, that God the Father, in his electing love, gave them to his elected Messiah, that he might fulfil his covenant engagements, in delivering them from all the miserable consequences of the apostacy, to the glory of the eternal Godhead.

If sinners obey not the gospel, they are assured that all their moral actions proceed from themselves; that they are regulated by

2 S

their own choice; that they have resisted the strivings of God's Spirit against their sinful propensities; and that they shall abide under that wrath of God, which will make them finally as miserable as they shall be individually criminal.

Every sinner may learn from the gospel, that Ir he will accept of Christ as his prophet, priest and king, God will give him "the unspeakable gift;" IF he is willing to be saved, with the scriptural salvation, he shall be saved; IF he will come to Christ, with consent to be his, Christ will for no consideration of guilt, misery, rebellion, or any thing else, cast him out. What more can the vilest sinner need to know, in order that he may exclaim, "this is the gospel ""This is good news. And it is the only news to me, which merits the name of good. This is the very gospel. If I come to Jesus and by faith place myself under his authority, God pardons all my sins, and I begin a new life of holiness and new obedience leading to immortality; none shall ever pluck me out of his hand, but he will raise me up at the last day and fill me with all the fulness of God. But if I should neglect or despise the offer, and disobey the command which bade me be happy, then this will be Jehovah's vindication of his own moral government at the last day, that I voluntarily and with my eyes open chose death rather than life." p. 26.

To have proved any thing to his purpose, in Chap. I. Dr. Gray should have shown, from the Bible, that Christ offers to bestow redemption, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification, (for all these are parts of the scriptural salvation,) on all those persons who never will believe, repent, come to him, and consent to accept of life everlasting through the merits of the atonement by Jesus Christ. He ought to have cited some such words as these; "I offer to save you, sin

ners, if you persist in unbelief, and do despite for ever to the Spirit of grace:" but such offers of salvation are not to be found in the holy scrip

tures.

p.

Chapter II. teaches, that after Christ had finished his atonement he commissioned his ministers, to go, and teach all nations, &c. Matt. xxviii. 18-20. Very true. It also states, as Jesus asserts that all power in heaven and in earth was given to him by his Father, so it was given to him as his mediatorial reward for having satisfied for human transgression, and as a mediatorial means of administering his grace." p. 32. "It is then the plain revealed doctrine of the scriptures, that in consequence of the satisfaction which he rendered to the divine law, the Son of God is inaugurated by his Father to the moral lieutenancy, the mediatorial sovereignty, of heaven and earth." 33. If it was intended, that all power in heaven and earth was not given to Christ to be exercised in his mediatorial character as king of saints, until "after he had accomplished the work which the Father had given him to do," we deny the doctrine, for he "was set up," or appointed to the mediatorial sovereignty over the universe, "from everlasting, from the beginning;" and so set up that he could say, even before a body was prepared for him, "by me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment; that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance." Prov. viii. 15-23. As Mediator he made the world, and without him was not any thing made that was made. John i. 3. Before the world was, in the counsels of eternity, this was the decree, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee:"-" yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." Psal. ii. throughout. From everlasting, he was "the

brightness of the Father's glory, || and the express image of his person, -upholding all things by the word of his power." 99 But he humbled himself, for a season, and when he had purged our sins, he returned to his original mediatorial glory, from the scene of his mediatorial humiliation, and sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, crowned with glory and honour,highly exalted with a name which is above every name, and so much more exalted in his state than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. Philip. ii. 8, Heb. i. 3, and ii. 9. This mediatorial glory was originally conferred in consideration of the consent of the Son to the covenant of redemption, saying, Lo! I come: I delight to do thy will. The Lord hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Isa. 1. 5, 6. It was a REWARD, by anticipation, even as his present exaltation as governor and judge in his character of God-man, is a reward for having actually become "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." In the same manner the ancient saints were saved in consideration of the atonement, which Christ had covenanted to make; as we, who now believe, are saved by a retrospective view of a work completed.

This mediatorial reign of the Son of God extends, since the bringing in of everlasting righteousness, to holy angels, to Satan and his fallen angels, and to every individual of the human family. So teaches the present chapter; and we add, that it always did and always will, extend to all creatures, in all worlds; for ever since Christ was set up in the divine counsels as mediator, he has been, and will be, head over all things, to his church. He is essentially, in his own divine na

ture, and by covenant, in his official character as Saviour of his people, King of kings, and Lord of lords; God over all, blessed for ever.

The nature of the reign of Messiah is adapted to the subjects of it, and his designs concerning them. He must reign, till he has subdued all enemies, either by his sceptre of love, or his iron rod. He reigns over the rebel angels to their destruction; and the holy angels for the perpetuation of their holiness and bliss. "Even the damned will not be able to say that they were unjustly or too severely dealt with." To this assertion we most cordially assent; and invite the serious attention of all who deny the deity of Christ, to the closing paragraph of this chapter. "Unquestionably there are many who are deceiving themselves with the fond opinion, that as they believe in God and Providence, in the distinction between virtue and vice, and in a future state of rewards and punishments, they have religion enough, and are in as fair a road to heaven But if it shall appear as any men. that the actual government of this world is in the hands of Jesus Christ; that it is with him that men have to do, and to him that they will have to account; it will follow that the unbeliever in Christ might as well be an Atheist." E. S. E.

(To be continued.)

NO FICTION:

A Narrative founded on recent and interesting Facts. In 2 vols. 12mo. First American, from the third London edition. Boston-published by S. T. Armstrong, and Crocker & Brewster.

We have reason to congratulate our readers and the Christian public generally, on the appearance, from the American press, of the above interesting little volumes. They are deservedly held in high estimation, by our transatlantic