within him; whether in the present world, or any world to come. They state the immutable rules, by which spiritual happiness and spiritual misery are severally dispensed to individuals; and, that these rules are everlasting. But I cannot find, that they specify any positive period, either in this life, at death, or in a distant moment of general resurrection, at which the eternal decree of the Almighty so positively establishes the state of the soul, that there shall certainly be no subsequent change-I mean, when they speak of the spiritual condition in its nature, as common to both good and evil. They have sufficiently taught us that the good shall continue good, and be eternally happy in spirituality; but have not taught us that the wicked may not change and turn to God, and goodness, and felicity.

I should not have said so much concerning my personal experience, had not Professor Stuart undertaken to judge between me and my conscience; with which I cannot but hope, although aware of liability to self-deception, that I am somewhat better acquainted than he. Judge not, that ye be not judged.'

He, also, calls upon me to show, that a day of grace, a preached gospel, an offered Mediator, a sanctifying Spirit, and pardoning mercy, are proclaimed in the Scriptures, as proffered to sinners in another world, who have rejected them all in this; and then,' he says, "we may lend him a listening ear.' In other words, he would have me prove what I have not asserted, and then he will give attention to what I do maintain. Let him show, first, that I have anywhere affirmed, that sinners will repent in another world; and then I will either do my best to prove it, or acknowledge my error. He will not be able to do this, so long as my words are these; we do not read any explicit promise, that such conversions shall take place in the world to come.'

I think, however, it would be difficult for Mr Stuart, or any one else, to prove, that the same means of grace, which he delineates as essential to salvation, are not proffered to sinners in the world to come; at least to those, who have not rejected them in this world; if not to those who have.

It would be more difficult for him to show, that other, and more powerful means are not used upon them, in that world; or whether any means at all are necessary, in a state, where the divine presence is blazing in everlasting light, and the spirit of the Highest is searching all things.

Of this one thing there can be no doubt; that if any soul, in any world, be in a fitting condition to receive it, neither 'pardoning mercy,'' a sanctifying spirit,' nor a medium of communion with God, will be withheld.

There are, doubtless, many sinners transferred to the world of souls, to whom the means of salvation have never been proffered in this world. Are they, therefore, excluded from a day of grace,' and from all opportunity of being saved? It is not merely the Athenian, at whose ignorance God winked ;' nor merely the heathen, who has never heard the name of Christ, who is in this predicament. There are those, in christian lands, whose birthright is penury, labor, and exclusion from all opportunities of learning the truth as it is in Jesus; many, whose condition is so near akin to that of the 'beast which perisheth,' that they have it not in their power to embrace the Messiah, and become the citizens of the kingdom of God in Christ. If they have no opportunity for being saved in the world to come, they are dealt with most inequitably. Orthodoxy itself could scarce find, in its heart or its Bible, to deny unto these, an opportunity for salvation in the future world. And if it may be so with them, it may be equally so with others. Admit the principle, that an opportunity for salvation is offered to any in the future world, and you open the door of possibility for all who have not plunged into sin so deep as to be past repentance.

*

Again, What is that, which saves a soul? Is it not, more especially in the Orthodox creed, mere grace? Grace, which seeks, enlightens, convinces, and converts that soul, and saves it by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost,' through the instrumentality of such means, as God, in the gospel of his Son, has provided? It is, ultimately, the free grace of the Divine Being, which saves a soul; and means are of service, only as they lay open a channel through which saving grace enters the heart.

This is no argumentum ad hominem in regard to an Orthodox man. I believe it myself, with all fulness of faith; and, therefore, am the more free to exhibit it, in the present view of the subject. All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.'+ All spiritual life is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is God, himself

* Tit. iii. 5.

+ 2 Cor. v. 18.

Rom. vi. 23.

alone, who, in Christ' is reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.'*

What we call the means of salvation are, I believe, nothing more than provisions made in the present world, by the Supreme Divinity, for opening a way for himself to the soul of man, that secret, invisible inhabitant of a blinding and deafening house of flesh. And, until the human soul becomes conscious of the divine presence, and submits willingly to the operations of divine power, no spiritual birth unto God takes place, and no true salvation is effected in that soul; as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God.'t

6

In this intention, of preparing the way of the Lord' to the soul, the means of salvation, in the present world, are of immense importance; and it often pleases the Most High, through their instrumentality, to save them that believe.' But, in the world to come, it is exceedingly to be doubted, whether the same means employed on earth, or any other means, are requisite, for making the same preparation. In a state, where the light of the Eternal's countenance shall forever shine, and man, a spirit, denuded of the garment of flesh, shall see as he is seen, and know as he is known, it may be, that judgments, convictions, and conversions may take place, without the intervention of such means of salvation, as are operating in this world; possibly, by the direct influence of the Supreme Being alone. But I will not attempt to prove that it certainly is so; because I do not see it so asserted in the record of divine revelation.

I will only say, that we can neither expect, nor fear, that God will change his parental character, or alter his parental principles of government over us, because we change our state of being. He will be found the same, through all states, and all conditions of existence, whereunto we may ever be transferred; 'The Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. His wisdom may be confidently trusted, to bring to pass whatever his love may dictate. And what neither infinite benevolence shall prompt, nor infinite wisdom devise, we may be well content should not take place. But, I doubt not, that, in the world to come, mercy, love, grace, and wisdom, will be unfolded to our perceptions, in ways of divine providence, and laws of the divine government, which are, now, too deep

* 2 Cor. v. 19.

† Rom. viii. 14.

* James i. 17.

for us to fathom; over which clouds and thick darkness hover; and which, to many of our minds, exhibit, in the present, anything but mercy. Be all this as it may, we have the certain assurance of spiritual felicity, so long as we continue in unity with God; and the mere wish to be happy in alienation from our Maker, is, in itself, a sin.

་་

In this letter, I have purposely confined myself to that part of Professor Stuart's dissertation, in which he remarks on the article in the Christian Examiner above named, setting aside the general substance of his entire work. I will trust your goodness to endure whatever burden I may have laid upon your patience, in calling your attention to these observations.

Yours respectfully,

E. S. G.

Sandwich, Aug. 9, 1830.

ART. III.-Paul Clifford. By the AUTHOR of Pelham,' "The Disowned,' and Devereaux.' New York. J. & J. Harper. 1830. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 215, 216.

No one, we think, can read the work before us, without reprobation and disgust; no one, we mean, who is properly impressed with the importance of moral duty and religious obligation, or who feels sensible that the regulations of society, in regard to property, industry, and personal security, are entitled to any respect.

The tendency, if not the design of the work, is to remove the restraints which the laws and institutions of society impose on the bad passions of depraved and dissolute men, by portraying, in brilliant colors, their manners, habits, and modes of lifegiving the charm of energy, courage, and heroism, to the conduct of thieves and highwaymen; and, by throwing into the shade whatever penalty remorse might inflict, or the contempt and detestation of society impose on them, to present, in strong relief, the appearance of a real and satisfying happiness, which needs but little aid from integrity, and suffers comparatively nothing by any compunction of conscience. It is in fact to inculcate, by the most vivid examples, that moral distinctions are quite unessential to personal happiness, and that, in the

most contemptuous and habitual disregard of them, there is found about as much genuine satisfaction, and as strong a claim to admiration and esteem, as in their exact observance.

Nor is this all. These distinctions themselves are scouted at and derided, as mere human inventions. All laws are represented as iniquitous and unjust; the institutions by which they are protected, are treated with sarcastic or open indignity, and the men by whom they are administered, presented, not only as base, corrupt, and infamous, but as made so by the operation of those principles or arrangements of society, on which hitherto we have been taught materially to depend for our security and happiness. In fact, if our author is to be trusted, religion and morals, honor, fidelity, and truth have no natural existence; the institutions, which profess to teach or preserve them, are mere contrivances of chicanery and fraud; the men who administer government, in whatever departments they are found, are most eminently absolved from all regard to any interests but their own, and solely occupied in imposing weights on the subdued spirits of the subject, which it should be with him a point of honor, as well as duty, to throw off; so that, as we are tempted to believe, the most respectable members of the community are felons, of whom, by our author's graduated scale, pickpockets are in the lowest, and highwaymen in the highest rank. There is a charm, a beauty, a nobleness infused into their mode of life, which should draw to it all the choice spirits, the gay, daring, reckless and pleasure-loving members of the community! This is something beyond that satanic school of poetry, of which Byron is the principal master; it is a step or two further in that course of delusive sophistry, which, at its commencement, startled the sober sense of mankind, and prevailed only by the extraordinary genius with which its paradoxes were pursued and defended.

Paul Clifford is a robber, the captain of a band of highwaymen. His associates and companions, when he is moving in the sphere to which he properly belongs, are thieves and robbers; and when he gains admission, as the author extravagantly supposes him to do, into honest society, it is by hypocrisy and deception, by means of an artful concealment, which is all the while a practical falsehood,-of his real character and course of life. All this would be disgusting enough, if it were detailed with accuracy or plausibility; but it is the design of the author to excite a strong and deep interest for his hero, and of course the low