plying to a punishment that is to terminate with the present life, the same reflections, which we employ for our consolations under the afflictions of the world? Poignant as they are, they cannot be of great importance in themselves, for they cannot continue long. We are accustomed to say to suffering virtue; "only be patient for a season, and death shall bring thee thy crown." And with the same justice might the sinner sustain himself under the pressure of guilt; "my punishment will end with life, and after death I shall find the salvation of my soul, and share in the inheritance of heaven, as though I had never sinned."

We will not attempt to urge all the arguments which may be offered against this opinion,-we only add further, that it is absolutely opposed to the whole tenour of scripture. There is not a single text, that can fairly be adduced in its support, and pious industry would find it difficult to collect the passages, which without a figure, by various and energetic expressions, peremptorily and unequivocally assert the contrary. The glorious doctrine of the immortality of the soul is scarcely more frequently or more clearly exhibited. And we cannot but wonder and lament that any should so far pervert the oracles of God, as to persuade men to believe, that there is no punishment hereafter; an error, we repeat, most dangerous to the interests of society; for it breaks down the barriers of conscience, and removes those salutary restraints, without which, neither virtue, nor reputation, nor property are secure.

Again; in opposition to another fallacious hope, which is sometimes unguardedly inculcated and most dangerously cherished; let not the impenitent expect his present peace or future acceptance from any sudden preternatural influences of divine grace, imparted in the hour of peril, on the bed of sickness, and least of all in the immediate prospect of death. Let him be assured, as from the truth of God, that all the reliance he can build on such a foundation must prove delusive: for it is a presumptuous hope of what neither the wisdom nor the conpassion of God will grant. Not that we limit the grace of God. But what is meant by the grace of God? Is it not the influence of his pure spirit upon the mind and heart to enlighten darkness, to strengthen weakness, and to help us to will and to do of his good pleasure? But it is granted, not arbitrarily and in uncertain measures, but by established laws, in accordance with natural light, in co-operation with known principles of our nature, maintained as well as appointed by the Lord of nature. It is granted, not in the way of sin, or even of mere expectation, but in the course of active duty; not to supersede our efforts and leave us to indolence, but in answer to prayer and in dili

gent use of opportunity, to aid and quicken us. Because we find in the history of the apostles, that St. Paul was suddenly converted on his way to Damascus, and from a persecutor became the most zealous and successful minister of Christ, some are presumptuous enough to imagine, that the like signal interposition may be wrought for them. They do not reflect, that here was a miraculous appearance of Jesus Christ himself to one, chosen from the whole world to be, not an humble private christian, but the apostle of the Gentiles, to proclaim the message of salvation to the whole earth; the instrument under God by his preaching and his writings of leading many, even unborn and unnumbered generations, to glory. They do not reflect, that the power, which converted him, was the same miraculous agency, that restored sight to the blind, health to the sick, and life to the dead; that it was exerted at a period, when miracles were in the due order and course of divine providence for the first establishment of the christian faith; when such interpositions were needed, and therefore bestowed. But now, when miracles have ceased, and the great objects for which they were designed are accomplished, in the wide extension and the glorious triumphs of christian faith, can any indulge the hope, that the usual course of God's moral government is to be interrupted for their sakes? After in his bounteous mercy he has set before us all the means and encouragements, that can possibly be addressed to rational and accountable creatures, can they expect that any agency will be exerted for them, contrary to that wise and salutary course, of all others best adapted to its end," ordered in all things and sure?" It is sufficient, that the grace of God is promised freely to all who ask it and will improve it, in measures and methods suited to our moral exigencies, and to our character as free and accountable agents. Holiness or virtue from its very nature cannot be forced upon us. It must be our voluntary choice, for otherwise there is no virtue. It must be the growth of time, and can be proved to be real only by trial; by the resistance of evil, and by the abundant fruits of righteousness. The providence of God, it is never to be forgotten, is continually acting for us in the ordinary events of life, setting before us striking events, exciting us to reflection alike by blessings and by chastisement, teaching us solemnly our frailty, our exposure to death, and the vanity of the fairest earthly prospects. Thus it is designed to admonish, to quicken, and to purify. To this great end it is acting every day for even the most abandoned sinner. To him, no less than to the obedient and faithful, the word of God addresses its rebukes, its threat

enings, its encouragements. And the same God, the author of his moral nature, has given him eyes to see, and ears to hear, and understanding to discern, and is ever ready by the influ ences of his pure spirit to assist his humblest effort. But if the sinner long persist in hardening himself against those calls of Providence, those admonitions of the divine word, those suggestions of divine grace,-in the just judgments of heaven, that eye shall be darkened, that he cannot see, that ear shall be closed that he cannot hear; and the soul that has so long been proof against the offers of mercy, the tenderest solicitations of paternal love, shall suffer without remedy. Indeed such is the confirmed hardness of some, who have been favored with the choicest means of religion, that they may be considered as having sealed their doom before they leave the world: their term of probation has closed before their term of life; and God, who has witnessed all their hardness and insensibility amidst his reproofs, has given them over to a reprobate mind. Tremendous is the condition of him, of whom Jehovah has said, as of his impenitent and unfaithful people, "Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone."

It would however be a gross abuse of this general sentiment, to make the application of it of ourselves, to any particular individuals. The general rule is established in the word of God for our warning and exhortation; but judgment belongs to God. He alone knows our situation and character, the good that is mingled with our evil, and the evil, that is mingled with our good. As long as life remains, duty must be performed, whether it be of penitence or praise. The most profligate and abandoned sinner is exhorted to repent, and the command loses nothing of its obligation, because he is on the verge of eternity. Life is the appointed day of grace, and its last moments must not be wasted in despair, because its best strength and opportunities have been abused in sin. Whether a death bed penitence can in any case be accepted, is not for man to declare, for it is not among the promises of God. But of this we may be assured, that to live in sin, with the hope that it will hereafter be forgiven, is presuming against the whole tenour of God's moral government and the most explicit declarations of his word. It is to suppose what is utterly groundless, because it contradicts every just idea of the nature of sin or holiness, that the character can be changed at once; that a few days or hours of weakness and fear, amidst the pains of sickness and in the near prospect of eternity, when religion is our only refuge, and we are penitent by necessity, may blot out the remembrance of a corrupt life: it is to suppose that

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God, who sees the end from the beginning, and surveys at one glance the whole of our past probation, as well as the fleeting present, attaches more importance to the day of our death, and to the feeble services we can render amidst languishing nature and appalling fears, than to the whole tenour of our lives, when we had the will and opportunities of free agents. In fine, it is to cherish a most unchristian, and therefore unreasonable hope, which offends against the dictates alike of natural and of revealed truth, and which will be put to shame amidst the solemnities of a final retribution.

FOR THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLE.

ON ROMANS ix. 3.

"For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh."

This clause has been considered of peculiar difficulty; but this difficulty, I am convinced, would never have appeared, had the import of the original been exactly followed. It arises from two circumstances; one, that the verb nuxouny, translated in the common version, I could wish, is rendered in a wrong mode and tense; and the other, that the words in this clause are, as I conceive, improperly connected together, the first half of it being, as I think, a parenthesis, and the last half being connected in sense, not with this parenthesis,but with the words which precede it in verse 2. Thus; "I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." This, which seems to me the true interpretation, has been pointed out by Gilbert Wakefield, a name dear to every advocate of civil and religious freedom.

But before proceeding further in illustrating this exposition, I will quote what is said respecting the passage by Doctor Doddridge.

Dr. Doddridge, interwoven with his paraphrase, gives a translation in the words which he has printed in italics, as follows;

For methinks, if I may be allowed to express myself so, I could even wish that as Christ subjected himself to the curse, that he might deliver us from it, so I myself likewise, were made an anathema, after the example of Christ; like him exposed to all the execrations of an enraged people, and even to the infamous and accursed death of crucifixion itself, for the sake of my brethren and kinsmen, according to the flesh;

that they might thereby be delivered from the guilt they have brought upon their own heads, and become entitled to the forfeited and rejected blessings of the Messiah's kingdom: so cordial and disinterested a regard have I for my dear nation."

In a note the Doctor observes, that he adopted this manner of translating the passage from Dr. Waterland. "Next to this," he continues, "I should incline to the interpretation given by Dr. Clarke, who supposes the apostle means, that he could be content that Christ should give him up to such calamities as those, to which the Jewish people were doomed for rejecting him; so that if they could all be centered in one person, he could be willing they should unite in him, could he thereby be a means of saving his countrymen. Compare Deut. vii. 26; Josh. vi. 17. and vii. 12.-Grotius understood it of a separation from the Church of Christ, (which is sometimes called by the name of Christ, 1 Cor. xii. 12; Gal. iii. 27.) or of excommunication. Elsner shows very well, as many other commentators have done, how very absurd it would be to suppose he meant, that he could be content to be delivered over to ever. lasting misery for the good of others."

There are some classes of christians who will not thank the Doctor for his last observation, regarding as they do this kind of disinterested benevolence, as the true test of the christian character.

To return then to the explanation which I have before suggested, I conceive that the first part of the passage under consideration, contains an accidental thought, a parenthesis, such as is not unfrequent in the writings of the glowing and fullminded apostle. The verb translated could wish, may mean and does here, I conceive, mean boasted, gloried in, or professed. The passage in connexion with what precedes may be thus rendered.

I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I myself once gloried in being separate from Christ) for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

The following version of the whole period exhibits the combined efforts of several distinguished men :

"I say the truth in Christ, I speak not falsely, my conscience bearing me joint witness in the holy spirit, that I have great sorrow and continued grief in my heart, (for I also was once an alien from Christ *) for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh; who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the

* Bandinel translates "I boasted that I was an alien."