race :-of mercy, not such as the infirmity of man's wordy wisdom loves to describe, vague and indefinite, but such as sets forth the character of Jehovah in all its glory and perfection ;-mercy, not dis arming, but satisfying, the unyielding justice of the Lord God Almighty;-mercy, at once displaying the infinite compassion of the heavenly Father, and enhancing the awfulness of his sanctity, and the integrity of his attributes. The rebel stood exposed, in all his enmity and all his helplessness, to the just award of the Supreme Tribunal, to the terrible inflictions of God's almightiness. He could offer no atonement; repentance, even were it the pledge of future submission, could not obliterate the past; but even this was wanting; man could not-for man would not-repent; the carnal mind is enmity against God. But in man's extremity, the counsels of infinite mercy devised an effectual remedy; a perfect righteousness became the substitute and the imputation of our obedience; faith in a crucified Saviour became the connecting work of a renewed allegiance, and the sanctifying principle of a new and entire subjection.

ence, and laid down the great scheme of substitution and pacification. When we speak of man's rebellion, we call up a train of events and associations, which baffles human power and skill adequately to feel and to describe. All that is weak in motive, and aggravated in ingratitude, combine to stamp on this awful transaction, a peculiar and hateful character. Every feeling of present enjoy ment, every reasonable anticipation, every right affection, united to press on the first rebel, the folly and the deep guiltiness of his disobedience. All the bright and beautiful array of nature that surrounded him; all the personal and moral advantages lavished on him by his bounteous Maker; all the sentiments of piety graven on his untainted heart, and glowing in his fresh and unfallen spirit;-all these failed before a temptation so slight and obvious, that the first breathing of prayer would have scattered the film that gave to the seducer's lie the faint semblance of truth. And have the disobedience and rebellion been diminished, either in their malignity or their guilt by the lapse of years? Is the hatred cherished by the human heart to all that is good and gracious, less intense now than it was when first sin came into the world and death by sin? Alas! no;--the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Every living man is, by nature and by choice, the enemy of God; he abhors the purity of his law; he rejects the glory of his grace; and he shrinks in unutterable horror and aversion from the sovereignty of his dominion, and the righteousness of his judgment. Nothing, then, could have prevented the whole history of man from being limited to the brief narrative of revolt and destruction, nothing, save the counsels of God. And those were, f from eternity, purposes of mercy to a wilful and wayward

Such, in a general view, being the facts which the doctrines of the cross include, it remains, that we touch with even greater brevity, on the principles from which they may be said to emanate. These we may reduce to three. First, -The inviolable supremacy of the Divine dominion.-It was impossible that this should be assailed without compelling the Almighty to vindicate his challenged authority. To rebel against Him was not merely to break through the fences of an imposed power, but to outrage essential justice, and to scorn and reject a perfect goodness. There is a character of supremacy and entireness pertaining to the rule of Jehovah, that

and brought nigh those who were afar off. The light of God's countenance shone brightly on those who lay in darkness and the shadow of death, and the glad tidings of salvation reached those who were in spiritual bondage. All who have enjoyed the favour of God, whether the saints of the Old Dispensation, or those of the New Covenant, possessed it only through faith in Christ crucified. A second effect of the sacrifice of the cross, is the restoration of the divine image. This, lost in Adam, is restored in Christ. By his obedience unto death, we are made partakers of the divine nature, and changed into the image of the heavenly. Holiness to the Lord is graven on the Christian's armour; it is the device of his banner, and the principle of his warfare. The Holy Spirit reigns in his affections, and his thoughts, words, and acts, savour of the purity of his renewed nature. The old man, indeed, struggles desperately desperately for his usurped throne, and calls up a host of dire and treacherous passions to aid him in his rebellion, but God has reclaimed his own dominion, and his enemies shall finally be dispossessed. A third consequence of the death of Christ is the introduction of a new system of divine government-the mediatorial reign. The Messiah reigns. On his vesture and on his thigh a name is written, King of kings, and Lord of lords. God reigns by his Son, our prophet, priest, and king, our teacher, intercessor, ruler. Our knowledge of heavenly truth is from his word, set home by the Holy Ghost; our access to a throne of grace is through our great High Priest, and we are the subjects of his blessed law of liberty and love. All these are the inestimable effects of Christ's death on the cross. III. What, then, should be the feelings which the contemplation of this great work should produce? Contrition for our dark and obsti

nate rebellion against our God and king: Humility in the consciousness of our manifold infirmities, and our constant dependance on strength from above: Reliance on that grace and power which have done such wondrous acts in our behalf: Gratitude to that unspeakable goodness which has thus remembered us in our low estate: Admiration of the unfathomable counsels which ordained and wrought out a work so vast and glorious: Love to our precious Saviour, our redeeming, sanctifying, and glorifying God. Can it be, that surrounded by these mighty agencies, these stupendous changes, these awful mysteries of judgment and mercy, we can be negligent and at ease, identifying ourselves with earthly things, and living for an imaginary and deceptive good? Let us compare these majestic and immortal realities with the passing shadows of a perishing world; let us raise our thoughts to heaven, and the wonders of a throne of grace; let us look abroad on the eternal prospects unfolded in the word of God; and we shall, if our hearts be not embruted by carnal attachments, feel how deep and degrading is the folly of neglecting an everlasting interest for the contemptible vanities, and the destructive affections of a sensual heart and a dying world.

We preach Christ crucified; by whom we are crucified unto the world, and the world unto us. May the God of all grace send into our hearts the love of Him who first loved us. May we be more than conquerors in our great conflict, through Him who gave himself for us.

May we be made kings and priests unto God through Him who washed us from our sins in His own blood. May it be our blessed portion to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, and for ever to praise Him who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification.

D'ISRAELI'S SECOND SERIES OF CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE.

(To the Editors.)

ALLOW me to call the attention of your readers to the above work, which has just issued from the press, and is professedly devoted to subjects of general literature; but which contains one paper which, the editor himself admits, might rather enter into the history of religion," and which, for his own reputation, I wish he had left out, as I conceive that its facts are most wilfully perverted to answer the low purposes of party, and to furnish flippant superficial declaimers, with something further to say against Dissenters. The article to which I refer, is entitled "Pearl Bibles and Six thousand Errata"-and is, I fear, intended to reproach the integrity and good faith of those who are usually called "the Sectaries"-and to hold up to contempt, as unlearned and ignorant men, the members of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. From the general tone of this paper, I should judge Mr. D'Israeli is no great friend to the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, for he considers, that the increase of " Sectarian fanaticism," was discoverable in the commencement of Charles the First's reign, by "an unusual demand for Bibles." This position has been maintained respecting our own times, by certain grave and learned personages, whose opinions, in this instance, I will not venture to controvert, but will, for the sake of argument, admit the appalling fact, that Bibles and Sectarians multiply in the same ratio. But to return to the paper before me, it appears, that the extensive demand for Bibles, at the period referred to, induced various trading booksellers

tures with the utmost haste, and consequently with many gross blunders, and shameful omissions. The following anecdotes Mr. D'I. gives to illustrate these facts.

"The learned Usher, one day hastening to preach at Paul's Cross, entered the shop of one of the stationers, as booksellers were then called, and enquiring for a Bible of the London edition, when he came to look for his text, to his astonishment and his horror, he discovered that the verse was omitted in the Bible! This gave the first occasion of complaint to the King, of the insufferable negligence and incapacity of the London press; and, says the manuscript writer of this anecdote, first bred that great contest which followed, between the University of Cambridge and the London stationers, about the right of printing Bibles.

"Field printed, in 1653, what was called the PEARL BIBLE; alluding, I suppose, to that diminutive type in printing, for it could not derive its name from its worth. It is a twenty-fours; but to contract the mighty BOOK into this dwarfishness, all the original Hebrew text prefixed to the Psalms, explaining the occasion and the subject of their composition, is wholly expunged. This Pearl Bible, which may be inspected among the great collection of our English Bibles at the British Museum, is set off by many notable errata, of which these are noticed:

"Romans vi. 13.-Neither yield ye your members as instruments of righteousness unto sinfor unrighteousness.

"First Corinthians vi. 9.Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God? for, shall not inherit.'

"This erratum served as the foundation of a dangerous doctrine; for many libertines urged the text from this corrupt Bible, against the reproofs of a divine.”

It is not with these facts I quarrel, but with the unjust insinuations which they are employed to support. "These errata unquestionably were in great part voluntary commissions, interpolated passages, and meanings forged for certain purposes; sometimes to sanction the new creed of some half-hatched sect, and sometimes with an intention to destroy all scriptural authority by a confusion or an omission of texts-the whole was left open to the option or the malignity of the editors, who, probably, like certain ingenious wine-merchants, contrived to accommodate "the waters of life" to their customers' peculiar taste."

Now, where does Mr. D'Israeli find any evidence to support this gravest of all charges, the wilful corrupting of " the waters of life?" Is there any ground for his insinuations in the following fact which he records:

"A large impression of Dutch printed English Bibles were burnt by order of the Assembly of Divines, for these three errors :

" "Gen. xxxvi. 24.-This is that ass that found rulers in the wilderness for mule.'

“Ruth iv. 13.-The Lord gave her corruption-for conception."

"Luke xxi. 28.-Look up, and lift up your hands, for your condemnation draweth nigh-for redemption."

I presume the members of that Assembly were truly sectarian, in his sense of the word, and yet here they display sufficient vigilance, in consigning a whole edition to the flames for only three errors! No; the majority of the assembly were sober Presbyterians; it was the fanatical Independents who were wealthy and wicked enough to do this!

Field was a great forger! and it is said, that he received a present of £1500. from the Independents to corrupt a text in Acts vi. 3. to sanction the right of the people to appoint their own pastors. The corruption was the easiest possible; it was only to put a ye instead of a we; so that the right in Field's Bible emanated from

the people, not from the apostles.

Now for the proof! Let your gentle sectarian readers tranquillize their agitated nerves. Mr. D'Israeli is certainly a learned man-he is deeply read in all ancient lore-he has extracted his "curiosities" from ponderous folios

rare tracts-and unpublished manuscripts, both at the British Museum and elsewhere. He very industriously pens down every little fact worth keeping, so that, if evidence is to be found, he is the man to produce it, and here it is

"The only account I recollect of this extraordinary state of our Bible, is a happy allusion in a line of Butler :

"Religion spawned a various rout Of petulant capricious sects, THE MAGGOTS OF CORRUPTED TEXTS!!''

Thus Mr. D'I. trifles with historical truth, and attempts to support the gravest and most awful of charges, with hear-say stories and poetic scraps.

But has Mr. D'I. never heard of "Errata," in Bibles published since those sectarian times? In his pursuit of literary curiosities, has he never seen Bibles with a "CUM PRIVILEGIO" in their title pages, and bearing the imprimatur of a learned University, disfigured with blunders as gross, and omissions as mischievous as any sectarian Bible ever printed? Did he never read of the Oxford edition of 1769, printed under the vigilant superintendence of the late Rev. Dr. Blayney, which, after the uncommon pains taken to make it the standard edition for accuracy, was