ignorances, and to endue us with the grace of Thy Holy Spirit, to amend our lives according to thy Holy Word."

The words Spirit and Holy Spirit are here employed in the same sense in which they are used in scripture, and give us by no means the idea of a Deity, or any person distinct from God himself, but merely of the powers or gifts conferred by him. We may, perhaps, be told, that the Spirit here mentioned is something different from the Holy Ghost: we are even told, that the very expression Holy Ghost is not always to be understood in the same sense,an admission of the fact, that there are passages in which it cannot by possibility be interpreted to signify a person, much less a deity. Thus are the Trinitarians themselves driven to acknowledge that there are several texts concerning the Holy Ghost which they cannot reconcile to their system; and in order to obviate the difficulty that presses on them, they teach us that the word sometimes means one thing, sometimes another, without informing us how we may distinguish between the two. What pains have been taken, how much labour bestowed, what industry exerted, what ability employed to mystify a subject which was in itself so plain, clear, and intelligible!

CHAPTER V.

ON THE ATONEMENT.

ANOTHER Stumbling-block in the way of unbelievers is the orthodox doctrine of Atonement. That the Almighty cannot forgive the sins of men without a satisfaction to his justice, and that this satisfaction is to be obtained,-not by the punishment of the offenders,-not by the sufferings only of the innocent, but by the death of God himself, expiring on the cross, is a supposition so repugnant to our feelings, so derogatory to the character of the Deity, that it is astonishing that it should even have ever entered the mind of a human being, much more, that it should have been entertained by learned, sober, and pious men. What should we think of a prince who could not grant a criminal his life unless his justice was satisfied by cutting off his own hand, or by the death of his son? The Atonement of the Arians softens, but does not remove the objection; it does not shock us with the idea of the sufferings of the Deity, and whatever might be the sufferings of the Logos, he might receive adequate

compensation for them. But still, the idea of vicarious punishment, and satisfaction made for sin by the innocent to atone divine justice, is one so totally irreconcileable with our ideas of right and wrong, and with the attributes of God, that it is impossible to admit a system of which it forms a part.

It must be remembered, that the chief part of the Jewish worship consisted of oblations made to God; and we find the term sacrifice applied not only to things so offered, but, in a figurative manner, to any thing performed with a view to the service of God. In this sense of the word, as Christ laid down his life in obedience to God for the benefit of mankind, his death may well be called a sacrifice. A similar use of the term frequently occurs in the New Testament; for instance, in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, xii. 1: "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy," &c. In this sense the death of Christ might very properly be called a sacrifice.

Phil. iv. 18: “I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God." This sacrifice was only a sum of money sent to St. Paul in his necessities.

The same observations will apply to the word Redemption, which, in the original, signifies deliverance in general, and does not imply that any particular price was paid to obtain that deliverance; but to understand the system of redemption contained in the Gospel, we must trace the matter to its source.

Death was the punishment threatened in case of Adam's disobedience; and after he had tasted the forbidden fruit, the sentence passed upon him was, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread until thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." What can any one understand, but that Adam was to be no more; that his being was to be extinguished, and his existence totally annihilated? There are, however, some outrageous divines who are not satisfied with that, but who insist that, by death is to be understood an eternal existence in a place of torment and everlasting misery, and that, in consequence of this fatal apple, all mankind would have been doomed to everlasting torments, had not Jesus Christ come into the world to save a few orthodox believers from this miserable state. A French author observes somewhere, "Si dieu a fait l'homme à son image, l'homme le lui a bien rendu." This supposition at one stroke divests the Almighty of all his attributes except his power, of which it represents him as making the most cruel and tyrannical exertion; for such a condemnation of mankind à priori to eternal misery, in spite of any thing in their power to avoid it, is as irreconcilable to his justice and equity as to his goodness and mercy. I do not believe eternal death is mentioned in Scripture; but if it is, it certainly requires a peculiarly orthodox brain to construe what obviously means an eternal cessation of being into an everlasting existence in misery.-Jortin, Law, Locke, and the most

rational expounders, understand this passage in its real and only admissible sense, that Adam, in consequence of his disobedience, became mortal, and lost his claim to immortality both for himself and his posterity.

Adam being rendered mortal, it follows that his descendants must be likewise mortal, as naturally as that a colt is the progeny of a horse. Nor can there be the least impeachment of the Divine justice on this account. Life is the free gift of the Creator, and, whether it be long or short, we ought to be grateful for it.

But though God was under no obligation to bestow immortality on man, or to extend his being beyond this transitory life, yet he was graciously pleased to afford him the means of being restored to that immortality which had been forfeited by the transgression of Adam; and for this purpose Christ was sent into the world, to bring life and immortality to light through the Gospel, that is, to announce to mankind the certainty of a future state, and to teach them how they might secure to themselves a happy immortality, by repentance and a virtuous life. Those who are of opinion that all these things were already sufficiently taught by the law of nature, have puzzled themselves with several mysterious doctrines which are held out as essential to salvation, independently of moral duties, and the most extravagant notions of the merit of faith have been propagated through the Christian world. I have already explained, that faith is only valuable as a