Cheering however as this delightful truth certainly is, yet it is too commonly neglected or despised. Men are unwilling to think themselves so degenerate as represented by the sacred writers, or to believe there is that intrinsic evil in sin which is constantly affirmed. Hence the objections against the spirituality, purity, and extent of the moral law; the substitution and the atonement of Christ; and also against other glorious truths inseparably connected with the redemption of man. But these objections must be considered in my next. Till then, believe me very sincerely,

Yours, &c.

LETTER IV.

Man disobeying,

Disloyal breaks his fealty, and sins
Against the high supremacy or heav'n,
Affecting Godhead, and so losing all,
To expiate his treason hath nought left,
But to destruction, sacred and devote,
He with his whole posterity must die;
Die he or justice must; unless for him
Some other able, and as willing, pay
The rigid satisfaction, death for death.

MILTON.

THAT a condemned rebel should reject a pardon which exempts from sufferings and from death; that he should ungratefully treat with ridicule or with insult the herald who announced the merciful intelligence, and obstinately choose rather to run the risk of escaping deserved ruin by his own projects, than to accept deliverance by the merciful interposition of his prince, is a phenomenon in the criminal world that must excite astonishment, and nonplus credibility.

But what less do those who disregard the righteousness and the atonement of Christ? who represent the scriptures that inculcate the salutary doctrine as absurd, and who presumptuously seek to escape final perdition on the ground of personal worthiness? Few indeed will be found hardy enough to commend the conduct of such a contumacious mortal, though they manifestly act on the same principle. It can scarcely be imagined that those persons to whom Solomon (or rather Solomon's antitype) has reference, were so audacious as to declare in so many words, That they paid no regard either to the reproof or the counsel of God: and yet their conduct is interpretatively exhibited to show that this was the genuine language of their tongues and of their hearts. 'Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets; she crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof; behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my

words unto you-Because I have called, and ye have refused: I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded ; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer: they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.'

I know it has been asked, Is not God infinitely merciful; may he not therefore glorify his name in saving sinners on the ground of mere mercy without the intervention of an atonement? If the reasoning in my last be just, certainly he cannot; and this will appear very evident, if it be considered that mercy has regard

to the object as miserable-not to his guilt, which is the source of his misery.

To pardon sin, as an absolute act of mercy, would be a total neglect of holiness, which is no more possible with God, than it is to put forth acts of power without wisdom. Now, the manifestation of divine holiness, in relation to guilt, can only be the infliction of deserved penalty. As he cannot act powerfully without the exercise of infinite wisdom; so he cannot act mercifully without manifesting his infinite holiness. But to forgive sin, as an act of absolute mercy, would not be an act of holiness; and therefore no such act of absolute mercy is possible with God.'

Besides, if an atonement for sin be not indispensably necessary to forgiveness, the incarnation, the life, the sufferings, and the death of Christ were superfluous: because whatever was requisite to qualify a sinner for the enjoyment of heaven might, on this hypothesis, have been effected by the agency of the Holy Spirit. But,