my inquiries is, that the majority of the French Protestants are Arians; not, indeed, that they would profess themselves such, if asked what their opinions are, but, if questioned more closely, they would be found to be so in point of fact. With regard to the Atonement, I have been assured by a very sensible man, that they are, to use his expression, "Arminians in a large sense." Those of the pastors who entertain these sentiments, are a very numerous and an increasing body. The organ of this party is the Revue Protestante, which appears at Paris on the 15th of every month. Of the minority, the greater part may be described as orthodox, i. e. Trinitarians, without being Calvinists. The rest are Calvinists. These are an active, perhaps an increasing body. The organ of the Calvinistic party is the Archives du Christianisme. The prospects of an increase of numbers among the Protestants are exceedingly cheering."

Shuckford's History.-Dr Russell, Episcopal Minister at Leith, is continuing the work of Shuckford on the connexion between sacred and profane history.

Greek War.-Dr Howe, who has resided in Greece during most of the period of its struggle for independence, is about publishing a History of the Greek revolution, from its commencement.

The Sabbath in New-York.-A petition has been lately presented to the Common Council in the city of New York, upwards of ninety feet long, with two tiers of names abreast, praying that means may be taken to effect the closing of the shops on Sunday.

New Periodicals.-Just announced are the following periodicals. Repository and Christian Review, edited by Professors Ripley and Chase, of the Baptist Seminary at Newton. Quarterly.

Magazine of the German Reformed Church, by the Theological Seminary at Gettysburgh. Monthly.

Evangelical Museum-Fayetteville, N. C.

Virginia and North Carolina Preacher.

Western Preacher.

Home Missionary and American Pastor's Journal-New York.

We have received a communication with the signature "S," and regret extremely that it is, by a press of matter, excluded from the present number. It shall appear in our next.

THE

UNITARIAN, ADVOCATE.

VOL. I.

JUNE, 1828.

No. VI.

SOME ERRORS RESPECTING THE METHOD OF PARDON IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT.

IT has been an almost universal opinion that in the government of God, the natural course of Mercy was, in the case of the truest penitence, as completely obstructed, as by obduracy and abandonment in the offender. Indeed, God could only pardon by means of an expedient, provided for the very purpose of enabling him to do so. And yet we cannot, and none will deny, that God is in his own nature placable, disposed to forgive. How now is this? Our Creator has in himself the love which prompts to mercy, and he is also at the same moment a perfectly just being. The purest and strictest rectitude and the mildest and most relenting compassion actually coexist in the divine mind, and yet they cannot both be expressed in the natural way, but only by means of some interposing expedient. God may be merciful in his own nature, he may feel a sincere desire to save the erring and guilty creature; but this desire must not go out in any positive act naturally flowing from it. Can we believe these qualities and affections to be any less right when in action, than before?

We know it will here be said that it was mercy which

led the Creator to provide the atoning sacrifice. If you interpret that phrase, however, as it always is interpreted, the remark is unfounded. The doctrine of atonement, as it is commonly defined, teaches that God punished Jesus for human sins; for every sin which he ever has or ever will remit. If so, unless it be mercy that prompts to punish, no human sin is remitted in mercy. It was justice that went forth to slay the substituted victim. How much less merciful would God have shewn himself, had no such victim been provided, but every human soul been left to perish in its guilt? He is said to have now inflicted suffering equivalent to, nay greater than that which the everlasting torments of all our race would have implied. Here then, God seems quite as unmerciful in saving, as he could have appeared if he had not saved mankind. He has manifested as much wrath in the agony he awakened in the bleeding Saviour, as he would have exhibited in the eternal wailings of a damned world. If all souls had perished hopelessly, their ruin had been no display of compassion. The death on Calvary is declared to be an event equally replete with the proofs of the divine anger. If so, the word mercy may be expunged from the Christian's vocabulary.

But some will say, Christ was not called to endure an equal penalty. Then they are not taught by such instructors as have authority in the orthodoxy of the day. A late writer,* in his sermons on the death of Christ, thus affirms. "His death was to be at least as strong an expression of the divine displeasure, against the sins of all mankind, as their eternal confinement in the

* Rev. S. E. Dwight.

prison of his wrath."

Again he says "Punishment is

the manifestation of displeasure against sin." Now we again entreat to know, how much less mercy had been shown in the world's hopeless perdition, than in the punishment which was at least, as strong an instance of divine wrath? And if the Supreme Being did actually inflict a penalty as great as could be inflicted in the case, or one which proved his displeasure equally, where was the mercy of the sacrifice of Jesus?

Times have not so changed but that the language we shall next quote has too many imitations, in the common phraseology of the present period. Dr Barrow, the eminent theologian and mathematician, has in his sermon on the Passion, these words, "Who should dare to put himself between God and us, or offer to screen mankind

from the divine wrath and vengeance?" "He [Christ] was to labor with the pangs of charity, and through his heart to be pierced with deepest commiseration of our wretched case; he was to pass through the hottest furnace of divine vengeance, and by his blood to quench the wrath of heaven; his grief was to supply the defects of our remorse, and his suffering to countervail the eternal torments due to us." Ser. 2d vol. 313. Compare with this these extracts from Watts's Hymns, a book which furnishes the weekly psalmody of nearly all our churches.

Add to these yet one more. Dr Smalley, a divine whose reputation for orthodoxy is very high among our brethren, says, "Not all the curses of the law, nor even the execution of those curses in the unquenchable flames of hell, gave, or can ever give, equal evidence of the righteousness or wrath of God, as the amazing scenes exhibited in Gethsemane, and on Calvary." Sermon entitled, None but Believers, Sc.

We can imagine all this to be descriptive of what is called "vindictive justice," but not how it is appropriate to represent an act of pure mercy, divine compassion. Indeed, is it not plain, that so far as mercy was concerned in the punishment inflicted on Jesus for sins not his own, that mercy was in the victim's heart, and only there? He commiserated, but Heaven revenged. The Father's wrath was quenched when it was poured upon his Son,quenched in innocent blood. Do these considerations aid us in conceiving what infinite love imports?

It is replied to all this, that to us the punishment inflicted on Jesus was the means of forgiveness, and therefore we may see in that the divine compassion for ourselves. Just as we should feel the kindness of a creditor who consented to let us go free, when he had found one generous enough to pay the whole debt we owed. Or rather, as we should understand the mercy of a king who should capriciously seize an innocent subject, to be executed as a condition to the release of all the criminals in his realm. These criminals, no doubt, have cause to rejoice in their own escape, but can they help glancing a pitying eye at the substitute, or ever be so deceived as to think his unmerited doom any sign of the lenient temper of their prince? Mercy is mercy no longer, when it