the deductions, therefore, which I made before from this point may be reversed. As, from the constitution of our nature, it is impossible we can perform an infinite duty, sin cannot be an infinite evil, deserve an infinite punishment, require an atonement of infinite value, or a Mediator of infinite dignity. The great point that has always been urged in support of the personal deity of Jesus Christ, is the necessity that exists that it should be so in order to his making atonement for sin; but if there is no such necessity, the inference is obvious. I admit that his death answered all the public ends which are ascribed to it in the moderate Calvinistic scheme; that, as the representative of mankind, he offered a satisfaction to public justice; that it was the same in nature, though superior in degree, to the sacrificial institutions of the Mosaic dispensation; being a symbolical and vicarial representation of the consequences and desert of sin, and calculated to excite and promote repentance and faith. At the same time, I will not deny, that I think repentance conveys all the ideas of individual atonement which God requires of man. It implies an acknowledgment that the divine law is holy, just and good that our lives are forfeited to Divine justice; that punishment is our equitable portion; and that in future we desire to honour the great Lawgiver, by a course of exemplary obedience. As those only who thus vindicate the law of God and make it honourable, will be pardoned, while the impenitent will be punished, the honour of the Lawgiver is maintained and magnified, and every purpose which the common doctrine of Atonement proposes is accomplished. : I see sufficient reason for doubting the validity of the principle on which Mr. Fuller's View of the Systems is founded; and as all the grounds on which my former change of sentiments principally rested, have vanished, it is nothing surprising to find the system built thereon, "sink like the baseless fabric of a dream." I have no expectation of seeing any new arguments in support of Trinitarianism, stronger and more irresistible than those; and, though it may cost me your friendship, I must, therefore, despair of ever being able to receive it as the doctrine of revelation. DANIEL HARWOOD. Brief Notes on the Bible. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive; but every man in his own order."-1 Cor. xv. 22, 23. I vines, in discoursing upon the subT is customary with Christian diject of a resurrection, to assume that the whole human race is to be reanimated en masse, but that, however many ages individuals may have slept, they will be unconscious of any interval between their deaths and their springing at once and together into renovated life. It deserves consideration whether this notion be quite unimpeachable. Though the sleep of death be so profound, that, on awakening from it, however protracted, it may appear like an instantaneous transition from one state of existence to another; yet the idea of remaining torpid, say for a few thousand years, till the day appointed for a general resurrection, is a very cheerless and chilling one to a virtuous mind, consoling as it may be to men of an opposite character. to weaken the stimulus to virtue, and May it not have a twofold tendency, subdue the fear of retribution in the minds of the vicious? That the final consummation of this world's affairs is awfully distant, may be rationally inferred from a retrospect of its eventful history, its present state, and the mighty events and purposes still to be accomplished. The world has been nearly 6000 years in arriving, by slow and interrupted pace, at its present imperfect state of civilization. Christianity has effected much good, but how much remains to be effected ;-it has made considerable progress, but what immense regions it has yet to enlighten, and even to penetrate,-need not be dwelt upon; and we cannot even imagine, reasoning from analogy to the past, that its destined effects will be crowded into a very limited period. Nor, in the contemplation of that highly ameliorated condition of the human race which it has an obvious tendency to produce and ultimately establish, can it be reasonably supposed that * Matt. xxiv. 14. VOL. XVII. 21 (the once popular notion of a millenium out of the question) God has appointed the time when the world shall have become most worthy to exist, as that of its impending dissolution. Hence, may we not conclude, or, to speak more modestly, have we not premises that seem to bear us out in the inference, that, in calculating the life of the world, with every allowance for the acceleration of its progress by the march of the human intellect, it should be considered as scarcely yet of age? "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ;"-of a fellow. creature upon his throne of exaltation. Glorious privilege! But why all at once? Space, indeed, is unlimited, and ample enough for such an assemblage; but can human ingenuity devise a reason, can any scriptural one be adduced for postponing the judgment upon one generation, till all successive generations to the end of time have been spent? Paul himself, whatever interpretation be forced upon his occasional language, seems to have had no idea of death proving a state of long insensibility. I am in a strait," he says to the Philippians, "betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better: nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you." This is too plain to be misunderstood. Had he supposed that, die when he would, he must await the universal summons, so intense was his anxiety for the diffusion of the gospel, that such a longing to depart could never have mixed itself with his apostolic zeal in the mission he was fulfilling. If there be any passages in Scripture relied upon as indicating a simultaneous resurrection of the whole race of mankind, I would (waving the Transfiguration) contrast with them our Saviour's well-known allusion to his Father's being designated the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and his deduction from it, that " God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," as intimating pretty significantly not only the foregone resurree * Philipp. i. 23, 24. tion of those patriarchs from their graves, but successive resurrections of departed mortals, in some order for which due provision had been made. Familiar as the passages containing that allusion (in three of the Evangelists) are to the generality of Christians, any particular stress is seldom laid upon them in adverting to the doctrine of a resurrection, with regard to the period of its occurrence; which I cannot help considering as a little singular. I am aware that Christ is called "the first-fruits of them that slept," but could Paul mean other than the first visible fruits? Was it his purpose to unfold by retrospection the state of the dead from the demise of Adam to that of our Saviour? Had he-was it requisite-the key to such a mystery? As in Adam, (I would paraphrase him,) by his transgression, all are subject to death, you must prepare for the common lot of mortality; but, be comforted, in Christ shall all be made alive. He came with a commission to announce in terms the doctrine of a resurrection, to be our first exemplar of it in his person, and so decisively, as ought to quiet the disputations which have agitated Jews and Gentiles upon this most important of all subjects. Our Lord's (and other) splendid anticipations of the final judgment, whether literal or figurative, might be sufficiently answered by the multitudes of quick and dead then remaining to be summoned to their account, although there should have been in the long interval periodical resurrections and decisions upon human conduct. The notion of a long duration of the sleep of death is contradicted by a universal feeling. When a dear and valued friend has departed, how current is the language, He is released from a world of trouble, and is happy! Whatever theory of a general resurrection may be inculcated, and coldly assented to, the heart of man is far from recognizing it, and never ceases to contemplate the felicity in possession of deceased relatives and friends, whose lives were not of a tenor to check such consoling inferences. And what are we to call an universal feeling but the whispered dictate of Nature; what, but the "still, small voice" of the Deity? It is a subject far too sublime and mysterious for any mortal to indulge in the vanity of penetrating, or in the expectation of approaching with a chance of arriving at any warranted conclusion upon it: but if there be any one point of view more than another, which his reasoning faculty, humbly and diffidently exercised, contem plates as harmonizing with the known goodness of the Deity, it is there that his reflections upon it naturally terminate and centre: and sure I am, that there can be no presumption in the hope-a confident hope that our re-union with the friends who have gone before us, may not be deferred to any very remote period. It is the hope that I fondly and devoutly che rish; it is the most cheering that can accompany departing spirits; and great is the consolation I derive from the persuasion, that it is not negatived either by Christ, or by his less enlightened apostles. BREVIS. As I passed through Bilston yesterday, Mr. Basford communicated to me the mournful intelligence of the heavy and unexpected affliction with which you had been visited. I cannot but feel sensibly for you, and affectionately sympathize with you. Your heart, I have no doubt, is torn with an guish, and for some time will be oppressed with deep sorrow. Every one at our Monthly Meeting of Ministers yesterday owned the justness of your grief and entered into your sorrows. They must, -they may be great. Religion does not forbid us to grieve, nay, it allows, but it sauctifies and soothes our mourning. I can with pleasure address you, my friend, as one who, I believe, firmly embe disposed to open your heart in the braces religious principles, and who will hour of your lamentation, to their power and influence. May your consolations, as well as your sorrows, abound. You sorrow not as those who are without hope and without God in the world. No: you look as with adoration, so with confidence and resignation, to the Being who made all things, as your Father in heaven, and you will see and own a paternal hand holding out to you the cup, and mingling, with wisdom and compassion, the bitter but salutary potion. and say after him, "The cup which my You will recollect your Divine Master, heavenly Father giveth me, shall I not drink it ?" The conduct of Aaron has, on this melancholy occasion, suggested itself to my thoughts as an admirable example of resignation and fortitude under trying cala. mities,-"He held his peace." (Levit. x. 1-3) May you be calm and composed, though borne down with sorrow. You have a hope that will elevate you in the season of dejection. It is hope in a Providence that adjusts all events, and conducts to a happy issue all that appears to us dark and afflicting and unaccounta ble. The ways of Supreme Providence may be unsearchable, and his judgments past finding out, but mercy and truth are the foundations of his that says the Psalmist," that thy judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me." (Psalm cxix. 75.) You look forward with hope to a future state, where all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes, where sorrow and sighing shall cease, where the junction of the righteous shall be renewed under every advantage, and perpetuated with fulness of joy; where fulness of joy, glory and immortality shall richly compensate the transient afflictions of the present moment. sympathy which I can express, after all 1 shall tire you;—and, after all the must still leave you bereaved and mournthe consolations my peu can suggest, I ing. dear to you; yet it is (I know it) a con I cannot renew the life which was solation to us to know that others feel with us and for us. Assure yourself of lation comfort and support you. this comfort. May the God of all conso I am, dear Sir, yours, with esteem, JOSHUA TOULMIN, SIR, THE May 29, 1822. HE Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1822, in an interesting memoir of the late Sir Henry Charles Englefield, Bart., F. R. L. and A. S., says, He was many years one of the vice-presidents of the Society of Antiquaries; and on the death of the late Marquis Townshend, was elected president; a well-deserved, but shortlived honour, his religious sentiments being the alleged barrier to his reelection, the Earl of Aberdeen being chosen in his room. After this, he retired from all active concern in the affairs of the Society." * The fact above-stated naturally excites curiosity respecting the circumstances of the case. What were the obnoxious sentiments? Ought any peculiarities of theological opinion to interfere with the election of a learned, accomplished and honourable man to an office in a Society, whose professed object is the investigation of History and Antiquities? And does not such a Society, by refusing to elect a man simply on account of his religious opinions, espouse the cause of opposition to those opinions, and thus pursue an aim totally extraneous to the avowed design of its institution? The recent loss of one of my earliest and dearest friends will plead my excuse for the discourse I am about addressing to you, and my loss is not merely personal, it is a general loss; it is a loss especially to the denomination of Christians to which we belong, and of which he was a distinguished ornament and minister. You have doubtless heard, and those who had the pleasure of knowing him have heard with deep regret, of the death of the Rev. Edmund Butcher, late of Sidmouth, with whom, for nearly 40 years, I have lived in the most entire and uninterrupted harmony and affection; I therefore feel the separation as of a brother endeared by the recollection of long-known and tried excellencies, of most sincere and faithful attachment. We both lived in the metropolis, and turned our serious the same time; we were associated in the thoughts to the ministry about the An elucidation of this case from any of your correspondents will oblige PHILANDER. Daventry Students. sitory to insert the following correc- The letter (d) is incorrectly prefixed to the names of Joseph Shrimpton, Esq., 1783, and John Yerbury, Esq., 1784, both those gentlemen being still living. Mr B. adds, with much regret, that the same letter may too justly be prefixed to the name of Thomas Smith, Esq., of Easton Grey, who, to the inexpressible grief of an extensive circle of friends, was attacked with a stroke of apoplexy, on Friday, May The same memoir mentions in the list of his publications, "A Letter to the Author of the Review of the Case of the Protestant Dissenters," 8vo., 1790. most endearing manner all the time of our preparatory studies, and we entered and left the academical roof together, and commenced our ministerial career within a few weeks of each other-we have endeavoured to support and encourage each other for nearly thirty-five years in which we have been engaged in our Master's vineyard. And that he has not been an idle or unsuccessful labourer, his various works will bear testimony: his exertions in the pulpit, his productions from the press, all prove that he had the sacred cause in which he emheart, and to this object all his ample barked with so much ardour, truly at powers were devoted. Such characters, my friends, if I may so say, are no one's private property; they belong to the public; they have devoted them selves to the service of God and their fellow-men, as it relates to their best and eternal concerns, and we cannot but take a warm interest in all that relates to them: of such men we may say, that they are "greatly beloved." The dear friend and the beloved minister we lament, was willing to spend and to be spent in the service of his brethren; he has honourably worn out life in that service; he has been found faithful unto death. Those Christian societies which were so happy as to enjoy the superior blessing of his ministerial labours, know with what diligence, affection and zeal he engaged in this best of causes. His own mind was humble and unassuming as that of a child, and his candour almost unequalled. All who heard him bore witness to his eloquence, all who read his writings must see what was the vigour of his understanding. It was with the utmost modesty he spoke of any of his own productions, and this not out of affectation, for no one was more free from this failing. In him every one who knew him has lost a brother; one who was always approachable, with whom you felt you might be familiar, as far as good manners would allow you to be, and so much of mildness and kindness did there appear in his disposition, that no mind of any common delicacy could presume to encroach on such goodness and benevolence. In argument, there was the utmost fairness; for it was not victory but truth that was his aim and object. Of his strict and impartial love of truth, his whole life bore witness. Our first knowledge of each other arose from our meeting together at Salters' Hall, as delighted hearers of the Rev. Hugh Worthington, who at that time was afternoon preacher in that place to a numerous and flourishing congregation; our young minds were captivated by his uncommon eloquence, and we were two out of eight or ten whose hearts glowed to emulate his usefulness, and whom he encouraged and assisted to enter the ministry. Mr. Worthington's sentiments are well known to have been what is denominated Arian, as our own were at that time, and though some may deny the claim of such to be called Unitarian, certain it is we have the same object of worship, and that One alone. In these sentiments my friend continued to a late period of life. He has himself given a very interesting account of the change which took place in his views respecting the person of Christ; but as he was not backward to avow this change, so neither was he ashamed that, for the space of nearly 50 years, or perhaps more, he had been of a different opinion, and that after many years of very close application to the subject, and fearless investigation of truth; so that at last it was but as the small dust of the balance that finally altered his views; though, after the scale began to turn, it is to be supposed arguments would have increasing weight, as is generally the case when we change our views of any religious sentiment. Nor, when his own views were altered, did he turn round on his former friends, and ridicule and triumph over sentiments he had, till a late period of life, firmly believed, because his friends did not change their views as he had done. He knew what had passed in his own mind, and by what gradual steps he had been led to see things in another light, and esteemed himself not less fallible now than he had formerly been. He had a just idea of the fallibility of human judgment, when he saw wise and good men differing, at various periods of their lives, on the most weighty and important subjects. Our friend strongly condemned the sneers and sarcasms which are so often cast by disputants at each other. In Mr. Butcher's sermon, preached at Bridgewater in 1809, when he publicly avowed his change of sentiment, he says, "I have always been so far a Unitarian as to consider the God of our Lord Jesus Christ as the only object of religious worship, and I still think that merely a belief in the preexistence and the miraculous conception of Jesus, ought not to deprive any one of that honourable appellation; the liberty in religious matters which I claim for myself, I most cheerfully and unreservedly allow to all other followers of Christ." The change which took place in a mind so truly candid and liberal, could make no alteration in our friendly regards to each other; the taunt, the jeer, were unknown in our intercourse and correspondence; we loved each other with the sincerest affection, and |