which service has been paid; and inflicts the punishment deserved as a sanction necessary for the support of the law. If a reward be given where none has been deserved, or more than is due, in each case there is an act of bounty in him who rewards. If the punishment incurred be remitted, the indulgence is that to which the offender could urge no claim; it is as much an undeserved boon as the first creation. The same is true both with respect to our natural and spiritual condition. A creature cannot claim a reward from him to whose bounty he owes every thing. An offending creature cannot free himself from the ill consequences which are by nature attendant on his offence: if mercy were not to prevail, ruin must ensue in our present condition as well as our future one. act of grace, according to Scripture, has been passed upon us by the intervention of a mediator (as almost all the blessings of the present life come to us by the means of others,) and is communicated to us upon the reasonable condition of accepting the benefit and acknowledging the benefactor. But as there can be no motive to avoid sin, if after all it shall be attended with impunity; the Almighty limits his mercy by his justice, and grants it only on such restrictions as may secure the good conduct of the offender in future. "When the wicked man turneth away from the wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and

The

right, he shall save his soul alive"." Which change of conduct is required by the Gospel as the indispensable condition, without which the sinner cannot become an object of the mercy offered by it. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand"," was our Saviour's first preaching: and what is repentance but a thorough reformation of life? That a return to evil conduct invalidates the mercy already granted, appears by that awful sanction of all the laws of God, the appointment of a judgment to come. The Psalmist declares his mercy with this limitation: "Unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; for thou renderest to every man according to his works. And the Christian law allows no hope of any other rule, by which mercy will be granted at the great day of account.

8 "

There are no data, from which the method of dealing with men above represented can be proved to be unreasonable it is exactly suited to our condition in this world, and agrees entirely with the constitution of it. For by the indiscriminate subjection of every individual to the same laws of nature, either for good or ill, the Great Creator shews the exactness of his impartiality to all the creatures whom he hath made; and by the certainty with which mischief follows the breach of the laws of nature, which he hath ordained, he proves his determination to have that done which he ap6. Ezek. xviii. 27. 7 Matt. iv. 17.

8 Psalm lxii. 12.

points. But in this determination he interposes mercy, by providing medicines to heal even those sicknesses, which are brought on by the violation of his laws, and the misuse of the good things which he hath provided. If we cease our misconduct, our health is restored; but if a change of conduct do not follow, the benefit will be lost, and by repeated excesses all remedies become ineffectual, and immature death, our final extinction in this world, must ensue. Revelation finds man in this state, which it does not change; but supplies what is wanting in knowledge, in motive, and in means to conduct him to the spiritual end, which it professes to have in view. A book displaying before us so interesting a state of things, and giving so consistent a view of our present situation and future destination as this, is not to be refuted by general assertions and abusive epithets.

The revelation contained in Scripture consists of two parts; the Mosaic dispensation and the Christian delivered at very distant periods from each other, though closely connected and having the same great end in view during many ages. The truth of each of these is established by sufficient evidence of its own, independently of the other. But as the Christian bears testimony to the truth of the Mosaic, and appeals to it as adding authority to its own pretensions; if this latter could be disproved, the other would not maintain its ground. Those therefore, who wish to reject the Christian religion, have di

rected their efforts particularly against the Old Testament. This book from its antiquity, peculiar nature and language, contains many more points of difficult solution than the New. But even if we were unable now to solve any one of those difficulties (which is far from being the case,) the cause of unbelief would not be advanced one step; for there is no truth, however clearly proved, against which some plausible objection cannot be raised by persons so disposed, except perhaps the conclusions of abstract science. As long as the direct evidence remains unimpeached, the general question stands where it did. Those claim to themselves the credit of a reach of thought superior to their fellows upon very insufficient grounds, who discover distortions unknown to others, because they pore over minute parts with a microscopic eye, which cannot take in the relation of the several parts to each other and comprehend the design and effect of the whole. In their zeal to find flaws, they are blind to the evident manifestation of Divine Providence in every part of the ancient history, as well as the present state, of that singular people, who were the immediate objects of the first dispensation; as well as to the improvement in religion and morals produced by it.

9 See the Mercies of the Mosaic Law, among the anti-infidel tracts of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge.Michaelis on the Laws of Moses, Art. Revenger of Blood, Polygamy, &c.

They do not observe the still greater improvement in these points effected by the Christian dispensation, nor the connection of the two with each other; the one as the preparation, the other as the consummation and completion; and therefore preposterously urge objections against the former, because all the perfection of the latter is not found in it.

The nature of many of the objections by which Scripture is assailed and the temper with which they are urged, at least in the present day, seem to shew they have their origin in an unfounded assumption of the sufficiency of human nature to procure its own happiness; and an unwillingness to submit to the humiliation and controul to which the Scripture view of our situation subjects us. They cannot allow man to be a degraded and offending creature, having no refuge from misery but in the merits of a Redeemer and the mercy of a Creator. For it cannot be granted that any one has discovered a defect in the evidence, pointed out any real inconsistency of the parts with each other, or any representation of the plan or proceedings of Providence unworthy of the majesty of the Supreme Being, except from passages ill understood, and by inferences hastily and incorrectly drawn: some of which misapprehensions it is our present endeavour to remove.