the pure Word of God. Dr. Gillies on no occasion shunned to declare the whole counsel of God; but he insisted on the leading doctrines of the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ was the delightful subject of his daily meditations, the frequent subject of his conversation, and the substance of all his sermons. He knew, by sweet experience, and he endeavored to make it known to others, that Christ is all and in all. I have thus endeavored to give you a short sketch of the life and death of my late much respected father in Christ; but I am deeply sensible that I cannot do justice to his character; and a complete delineation of it would far exceed the space allotted to any one article in a periodi cal publication. His principal works, besides that already mentioned, were, Exhortations to the Inhabitants of the South Parish of Glasgow ;'-Historical Collections relating to the Success of the Gospel,'-'Appendix to the Historical Collections;' Life of the Rev. Mr. George Whitfield;'-'Sermon at the Opening of the Synod of Glasgow ;'-'Hebrew Manual, for the Use of Students of that Language;'-'Devotional Exercises on the New Testament ;''Psalms of David, with Notes, devotional and practical, extracted from Dr. Horn's Commentary;'-and 'Milton's Paradise Lost, illustrated by Texts of Scripture.' Evan. Mag. RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS. SIR, COPY OF A LETTER WRITTEN TO AN INFIDEL. March, 1808. I PRESUME you will not think it strange, that I address you on the subject of your rejecting christianity. The subject con. cerns you personally, and fills me with deep anxiety on your account. The circumstance of our former acquaintance, while you were a pupil under my tu ition, may be, even with you, a sufficient apology for this com. munication. Your present sentiments in regard to christianity did not appear, and I trust did not exist, while you resided as a member of my family and I am extremely sorry to have occasion, at this time, to address you as one who has abandoned divine revelation. I was loath to believe, when your intimate ac quaintances informed me, that you questioned the truth of the bible while in college; but of the correctness of their informa tion you convinced me yourself, by an interview at my house, several years since, in company with Mr. S. You, doubtless, recollect, that to caution you, I then said, "that the ground you had taken, if not abandoned, would carry you into the camp of infidelity." The course you took, it appears, you have un. fortunately pursued; and your late conversation at my house, in the hearing of a number, who コ distinctly recollect it, disclosed ulous faith," we had ample rea- In this conversation I exhibit- 66 These observations, which dropped from your lips in the hearing of a number, evidence something, which I am loath to admit; something, which I deeply lament; something, which I would gladly disbelieve, were I not compelled to the contrary I am by the force of truth. aware that men, sometimes, utter themselves unguardedly in the hurry of conversation, and a suitable allowance should be made. But you, sir, repeated your deistical remarks and sentiments with all the appearance of fixed belief; and after I had made solemn appeals to your conscience, referred you to the confessions of dying infidels, and pointed you to the tribunal of God, you unyieldingly insisted upon their truth and correctness. But still, it is possible, and to me probable, that you are not so decidedly established in deistical principles as your own lan. For infiguage then imported. dels, equally bold, in some instances on a death bed or before, have been constrained by the force of conscience to confess that they had been liars, had made false pretensions, had ut. tered themselves in language beyond their belief. Such, through the mystery of iniquity, are often found hasty, bold, and clamor. ous in conversation, in order to still the voice of conscience, and obliterate every impression of truth from their minds. How far this remark applies to you, I am unable to determine. It is painful, extremely painful, for me to have reason to fear, that you are given up of God to blindness of mind and hardness of heart. I am loath to admit that you have arrived to that state of fearless insensibility of conscience, which your language imported at our last interview. Pause, sir, pause, I intreat you, and pen down your own creed, and seriously consider it. A creed, which discards the pre. cious revelation of God as mere delusion; which denies Jesus Christ, the only mediator, and his infinite condescension and love; which contemns the existence and operations of the Holy Ghost in the conviction and sanctification of guilty men; which rejects, as visionary, heav. en, and hell, and all the awful realities of eternity; which denounces frequent and repeated prayer for mercy as an insult to God! And on this creed, according to which you presumptuously attempt to face down christianity and every appear. ance of religion, lay your hand on your heart, and in a serious moment lift your eyes to God, and say, this is my creed. I hope you cannot, I hope you dare not; I presume your own conscience, that monitor of God placed in your bosom, will restrain you. Take up, then, your bible, and read it candidly, and prayer. fully, like a rational and honest You have abilities and man. opportunities to search its contents, to trace its doctrines and precepts, and to examine and weigh the evidences by which its inspiration and truth are sup. ported. Do not stop short at the reading of a few chapters, and pronounce the whole folly and delusion as prejudice would dictate: but read it through, and attentively, and call to your aid the writings of men who, in different ages, have appeared in its defence. The subject, on which I treat is serious, is momentous, is of everlasting im portance to you, as well as oth. ers: and I earnestly request you to consider and treat it accord. ingly now, in season, before it shall be for ever too late. I do not urge you to this because of particular, gratification to myself, though it would certainly afford me pleasure to see you brought to that state of gospel humility and brokenness of heart for sin, which you spoke of at my house with contempt. If brought to it you said " you should despise yourself." I do not urge you to this to relieve the solicitude and anxiety of your christian ac quaintance and connexions, who deeply lament your avowal of such sentiments; though they would doubtless rejoice to behold you a believer in Christ, and a stable friend of the christian religion. I do not urge you on account of your happiness and usefulness in this life, though it is an unquestionable truth, that the christian in the present world is incomparably more happy in himself, and more useful to others than the infidel. But I urge you, sir, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of your own everlasting salvation. The soul is valuable; its life is precious; it is of more worth than thousands of worlds. Consider the providential kind. nesses, which have attended you from the morning of your life; consider the christian light and privileges, which have waited upon you in ripening years; and then suffer me to beseech you by the tender mercies of God, that you no longer reject and despise the holy gospel. Shall I point you to the bed of dying infidels, and place before you the bitter remorse, the agonizing fear, the awful despair which often seize them, at the close of a life spent in open hostility to Christ and his word! Look forward, sir, and only admit the possibility, that there may be a judgment when sinners shall be found on the left hand-that there may be a place of punishment designed for the wicked, where despisers of the gospel shall wonder and perish; and see if your reason, judgment, conscience, and safety, do not unite their voice with the command of God, and call on you to search the scriptures, embrace their truths, and receive with meekness the word of life, that your soul may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. I have little more to say on the subject, though my earnest solicitude, I trust, will remain. In what manner you will receive this letter, and what effect it will have on your mind, it is not within the province of human foresight to determine. But this will be regulated according to the government of that infinite God, "in whom we live, move, and have our being." If, how. ever, the Lord, in sovereign mercy, should render it influen tial in bringing you to the conviction and cordial reception of the truth as it is in Jesus, I am persuaded you will never think it either untimely or unkind, but seasonable and friendly. But if otherwise, if your present views of the subject should continue, if your sentiments of christiani. ty, and your feelings toward its friends and advocates should remain as they were at our last interview; it is not difficult to foresee how you will treat the present communication and its author. Fora spirit of infidelity, which has acquired an uncommon boldness, is completely prepared to consider a real friend, as the worst enemy; to call seriousness and plainness, superstition and abuse; to denounce love and faithfulness to the souls of men, as weakness and enthusiasm. To the Editors of the Panoplist. GENTLEMEN, If you think the following observations on the evil of sin, worthy of a place in your useful publication, you will be pleased to insert them. THE Divinity of Christ is questioned, by some, on the ground that the evil of sin is not so great as to require that He should be any thing more than a creature, in order to accomplish all the ends, for which he came into the world. Hence it must be an inquiry of no small importance, whether sin be an infinite evil. The following observations may assist, in forming an opinion on the subject, viz. 1. Sin derives some degree of aggravation from the considera. tion of the infinitely high and glorious character of Him, against whom it is committed. It will generally be allowed, that an offence committed against a superi. or is more criminal, than the same thing would have been, had it been done against an equal; that it is more criminal, for instance, in a child to insult his father, than to insult one of his inferiors in the same manner. There was a greater degree of turpitude, in mocking the Lord Jesus and spitting upon him, than there would have been in doing the same thing to one of his disci. ples. So, also, it must be more criminal to disobey God, than to disobey the commands of civil rulers. On this principle, Peter and John, when forbidden by the Jewish high priest and rulers to speak any more in the name of Jesus, replied, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." It must be more criminal for us to prize our own honor and interest above those of our Maker, than to prize them above the honor and interest of a fellow mortal. These views of things naturally result from the apprehensions we all have, of superiority in the divine Being to any and all crea, tures. Hence it must follow, that the higher conceptions we have of God, of the greatness of his being, and the glory and worth of his character, the greater evil will there appear to be in sin. This being so, it must follow, that, as our conceptions of the glory, the worth, and excellence of the divine character, increase, the evil of sin will, in our view, also increase. And, as the pow. ers of our minds, and our knowledge increase, the more highly shall we necessarily think of the glorious God. But the time never will, nor can come, when the divine character will cease to rise in the views of creatures; more especially, in the views of those, who are monuments of his saving mercy. Of course, the time can never come, when all the evil and malignity of sin will be discovered by creatures. As the whole worth of the divine character can never be seen or comprehended; no more will the whole demerit, the whole evil, and turpitude of sin. When it is said, that sin is an infinite evil, what more can be meant, than that its evil is so great, that the whole of it will never be seen and comprehended by creatures? And what impropriety can there be, in speaking of it as an infi. nite evil, when it is manifest, that no created mind can ever arrive at a perfect knowledge and comprehension, of all the evil there is in it? But, 2. If we estimate the evil of sin by the natural evil it tends to produce, and which it would in fact produce, were not its effects restrained and overruled by a superior power, we must un. questionably consider it as an infinite evil. Sin, if not restrained and overruled by a superior power, would necessarily disturb the peace, and destroy the comforts of creatures. Could it appear there was no power to restrain and prevent the natural effects of sin, all confidence in God must, at once, cease. If the ground of confidence in him be taken away, the foundation of all comfort is, also, taken away. Restraints are taken off from creatures-and the right. eous, so long as any such remain, |