IN Christ Jesus before the world began [that is, in his everlasting purpose and decree]."

It is wisely and kindly ordained by Providence, in whose hands apparent evil is instrumental to good, that the rationality and piety of conscientious men should counteract the consequences to be apprehended from their own speculative systems of prejudice and error. The sober and reflective advocates of a vicarious satisfaction and imputed righteousness exact that the soundness of faith be evidenced by good works, as a tree is known by its fruits. But the Atonement, as understood, has in its principle and tendency an effect derogatory to the glorious attribute of FREE MERCY, assigned to God in the Scriptures, and insensibly subversive of the motives to practical holiness. It places GOD in an unamiable light towards his children; transfers our gratitude and love from the Creato to the Creature, from the author of our salvation to his appointed instrument; supplants the vigi lance and activity of personal righteousness by a vague trust in the imputed righteousness of another; loosens the obligations of morality; graces with triumphal sin the death-car of the murderer and abominable; and holds forth to the fanatical, the ignorant, the thoughtless, and the vicious, a DISPENSATION for immorality and a PREMIUM for crime.

But the prominent feature of the doctrine, in the sense of substitution and satisfaction, is the mystic idolatry which it involves, and the necessary connexion with a denial of the supremacy of "the only true God," and with the "falling away" from the worship of GOD, even THE FATHER; "the GOD and FATHER of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is now a reproach to worship HIM whom CHRIST worshipped.

It was the faith of Moses, that God should in the Messias "raise up a prophet like to himself;"

it was the faith of Peter, that "Jesus of Nazareth was a MAN approved of God by signs and wonders, which God did by him;" it was the faith of Paul, that "there is One God, and one Mediator between God and men, the MAN Christ Jesus." It was the declaration of Christ, that "he was a MAN who had told them the truth which he had heard from GOD." Yet they who represent Christ, as Moses and Peter and Paul represented him, and as he declared himself, are accused of degrading Christ! What shall be thought of degrading GOD?

. Who degrade Christ? They that behold in him a man "in all respects like his brethren," "tempted as they are," and therefore peccable, "yet WITHOUT SIN;""made "made perfect by suffering;" "despising the shame for the glory that was set before him; yielding up his life with assured faith in the promises of God that he should receive it again; and giving to all an example of sinless purity and unfainting obedience to the will of God?-or they who regard him as himself a Divinity or a superangelic Nature, superior to suffering, superior to temptation, InCAPABLE OF SIN; whose sinlessness had therefore no merit, whose devotion had no heroism, whose perseverance unto death was no proof of fortitude, no test of faith; whose resurrection is in itself no demonstration that man will be raised from the grave; whose life and martyrdom, whose actions and sufferings, are too supernatural for example, can awaken no admiration, can excite no sympathy?

Who degrade God? They who believe the assurances of his holy prophets, that, "he will abundantly pardon" those who return unto him; they who see in him pure and perfect benevolence and goodness, and regard his justice as only a modification of his benevolence; they who worship him as Moses and the prophets worshipped him, in the character of the ONE JEHOVAH, who "stretched out the heavens by himself;" as Christ and the Apostles

worshipped him, in the character of "GOD even the FATHER;" the "God and Father of us and of our Lord Jesus;" THE ONLY TRUE GOD; the blessed and ONLY POTENTATE, who ALONE hath immortality; they who adore him as their mighty SAVIOUR and REDEEMER; their merciful and compassionate FATHER, who "saw them when they were afar off;" the sole author and original fountain of all blessings temporal and eternal, all gifts and graces and influences, which HE shed upon us, of his own FREE MERCY in Christ, the Son whom HE had sent to be the Saviour of the world?-or they who see in his justice only vengeance; who deny his glorious attribute of rich unpurchased mercy; who make him gracious on conditions which violate justice by substituting the innocent for the guilty; who transfer their gratitude for the work of redemption from him, "the ONLY SAVIOUR," to him whom he hath sent; from the author to the instrument; who refuse to him supreme homage; who libel his justice, limit his beneficence, divide his unity, contract his power, snatch the very work of creation out of his hands, and leave him amidst the darkness of unapproachable mystery and terror, a God who, of himself, is unable to bless and to save, and who is alone able to curse and to destroy?

If all love and gratitude are to be concentered in the Son of God, which is early inculcated into the tender minds of children, and which must be the case if he interposed between men and God, to avert vengeance and bribe compassion, the heart is shut up from those high and holy consolations which the Scripture teaches us to expect from the "Father of mercies and God of comfort." If the God and Father of his creatures were to retire from the universe, with awful reverence be it spoken, what void would be left in the hearts of the worshippers of Christ?

He that knoweth the hearts of men will distinguish between intellectual and moral error: but whatever contradicts the one-ness and absolute supremacy of JEHOVAH, "with whom there is No GOD," and whatever exalts another to the honours of worship with the "ONE living and true GOD," is apostacy and idolatry: whatever ascribes the redemption of man from sin and deathto any other cause than the free unpurchased grace of THE GOD and FATHER of Christ Jesus, contradicts the attributes of GOD as set forth in the prophets, and the declarations of him who said that "he did not come of himself, but was sent by the FATHER.” They who hold the Bible to be a sealed book, which inspiration only can open, and of which inspiration they claim themselves to be judges, may assign whatever meaning they please to any passages in the sacred volume. But it is the interrogation of our Lord, "Why judge ye not for yourselves that which is right?" The Jews of Berea" searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so;" not by shutting up their understandings and wresting special illuminations from heaven by the importunity of prayer, but by the right application of that reason which their Maker had given them, under the fear of God. They who oppose the clearing of the sacred text from corruption, and the removal of that "hay and stubble" which perverted learning and antiquated error have piled upon the foundations of Christianity, would vainly shackle the freedom of inquiry or retard the spread of the genuine Gospel. The prejudice of habit and the zeal of ignorance must give way before the progress of knowledge. The MYSTERY of THE MASS was supported by the letter of Scripture; was defended by ecclesiastical learning; was assented to by men of erudition, talent, and piety; was undoubtingly received by the

people; but before the progress of knowledge it has disappeared.

Like this "strong delusion," every device of human understanding, which has sown its tares in the gospel field, must be rooted out: The faith which was preached at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, preached at Athens on the hill of Mars, "delivered to the saints," transmitted through the first ages, retained by the people, sophisticated by philosophising converts, and confounded in the Great Apostacy on whose forehead is written MYSTERY, was a faith in the ONE GOD THE FATHER," and the " one mediator" of his grace, "THE MAN Christ Jesus; whom God had raised from the dead." This was the faith of which "CHRIST is the corner: stone, and which is built upon the foundation of APOSTLES and PROPHEts.' Although these "witnesses" may have been "slain and rejoiced over," "the spirit of life from God shall enter into them, and they shall stand upon their feet." Before the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, before the Jew and the Mahometan can "seek to the root of Jesse," the Christian Church must be purified from those errors which veil with darkness the UNITY of GOD; for it is written, "JEHOVAH shall be King over the whole earth, and there shall be ONE JEHOVAH, and HIS NAME ONE." Zech. xiv. 9.