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SPAIN. The celebrated palace of the Escurial was on fire, when a courier left it, on the 21st of November last; and great fears were entertained that the whole of the wooden part of the structure would be consumed. This palace was built by Philip II. in the form of a gridiron; that being the instrument, it is said, on which St. Lawrence suffered martyrdom-To him the palace was dedicated, because on the anniversary of his martyrdom the Spaniards gained the decisive battle of St. Quentin. The convent here is 740 feet by 580; and the palace forms the handle of the imaginary gridiron. There are many excellent paintings in the palace, and it also contains the tombs of the kings of Spain.-We know of no melioration which has taken place lately in the political state of this self-destroying country.

PORTUGAL. A formal ratification has been exchanged of the treaty between Portugal and her late dependencies in South America: and it is said that a treaty of commerce between Portugal and the Brazils is also likely soon to be mutually agreed on.

ROME. The Pope, it is reported, has recovered from his late dangerous illness; and new persecutions of the poor Jews have lately been organized at Rome. They are confined to a particular part of the city, and both men and women are compelled to wear a discriminating badge.

GREECE. We have no news from Greece.

ASIA.

We have nothing to report from this quarter of the globe, the substance of which we have not heretofore stated.

AFRICA.

The British are prosecuting their expeditions into the interior of this great continent, and are making some important discoveries. It is affirmed that the slave trade is still carried on, perhaps as extensively as ever; and that none of the powers except the Netherlands, with whom Britain has made treaties for its suppression, act with good faith in regard to this nefarious business-this opprobrium of the civilized and Christianized world. We regret to observe that a considerable number of deaths have lately occurred among the missionaries of Sierra Leone. There has been some sickness, likewise, in the American colony at Liberia. Yet, on the whole, the colony is prosperous-Missionary and Sabbath schools are established.-It is also stated that a large tract of healthful country, extending far into the interior, has lately been obtained from the natives, in a manner entirely satisfactory to them.

AMERICA.

Another new republick, it appears, has been organized in Upper Peru. Its independence was formally declared in August last.

War we believe is likely to be formally declared, if it has not already been declared, by Don Pedro I. emperor of the Brazils, against the Republick of Buenos Ayres. The emperor has reinforced his garrison at Monte Video with two thousand troops, and has the command of the river La Plata, by a squadron under the command of a Captain Taylor.

UNITED STATES.-Various measures of national importance are before Congress; but none of them seem as yet to have reached maturity. The session hitherto ap. pears to have been a quiet one. The Creek treaty business is not yet settled. The parties, it appears, are irreconcilably opposed to each other. A communication on the subject, from the President, is expected shortly. Neither have the commissioners, heretofore nominated, to meet the Congress of American nations at Panama, received a confirmation of their appointment from the Senate-A decision, however, on that subject, is expected to take place in a few days.

The Influenza is, at present, prevalent in various parts of our country, and will probably become general. In a number of instances, it is a severe disease; rarely however is it mortal; and in the great majority of cases it is scarcely more afflictive than a common cold. Of all the nations of the earth, the American people have probably the fewest causes of just complaint-O that our gratitude to God were more corres pondent to the favours with which he is pleased to distinguish us!

ERRATA IN OUR LAST NUMBER.

Page 29, 1st col. 12th line from bot. dele to.

30, 2d do. 13th do. from top, between the words in the, insert nearly.

THE

CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.

MARCH, 1826.

Religious Communications.

LECTURES ON THE SHORTER CATE

sence of his God; and vainly at

CHISM OF THE WESTMINSTER AS- tempted to hide himself among the

SEMBLY OF DIVINES-ADDRESSED

TO YOUTH.

LECTURE XVIII.

(Continued from p. 52.) Let us now consider, in the next answer of our catechism, the lamentable and appalling consequences of man's apostacy from God—“ All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever."

Awful, indeed, my young friends, is the description here given, of the condition to which mankind are reduced by the fall. But since the description is as just as it is awful, let us attend to it carefully; let us consider it most seriously. It is by such attention and consideration, that we shall be most likely to escape ultimately, from the misery of that estate into which sin has brought us.

The first ingredient of this misery, mentioned in the answer we consider, is the loss of communion with God-a loss and a misery indeed! Before the fall, Adam had the most delightful intimacy, the most pure and sublime intercourse, with his Maker, in the uninterrupted enjoyment of his gracious presence. Of this he was instantly and totally deprived, by the fall. He feared and fled from the preVOL. IV. Ch. Adv.

trees of the garden. From that unhappy hour till the present, man in his natural state, has no desire after communion with his Creator. Indeed, on the ground of the covenant of works violated by sin, he is not permitted to approach his God: and though a new way of approach is opened, through the covenant of grace and the mediation of Christ, yet such is the awful and inveterate aversion of man's unrenewed heart, to all intercourse with a holy God, that he constantly refuses it. The very recollection of the Divine presence is avoided, as much as possible. Hence the Psalmist's character of the wicked-"God is not in all his thoughts." Now, this disinclination to communion with God, is equally the misery and the guilt of man. It is sensible nearness to God, and holy intercourse with him, which constitutes the happiness of heaven, and the highest pleasure of every saint on earth. But to all this, every unsanctified sinner is a total stranger-Thus does the delirium of sin render him hostile even to his own felicity.

The next ingredient of the misery induced by sin, which we are called to notice, is-"the wrath and curse of God." God is said in Scripture, to be "angry with the wicked every day." It is also declared, that "his wrath is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men;

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that "he who believeth not is condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on him." It is more over "written, cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law, to do them." This is indeed very fearful language. Yet let us remember, that it is the very language of the unerring oracles of God; and that it describes the infinitely miserable state of every sinner, till he is reconciled to God by Jesus Christ. Every such sinner, careless and gay as we often see him, goes from day to day under the curse of God's broken law, and with the Divine wrath abiding on him; and bound over, to suffer the full penalty of his transgressions in his own person, so long as he continues to reject the offered Surety. The next clause of the Catechism tells us, that we are "made liable to all the miseries of this life." These miseries are numerous and grievous, but too obvious to need to be dwelt on. Alas! who can tell what anguish of mind, and what torments of body, any individual of our guilty race may suffer, during his mortal existence! All mental agony, all sicknesses and diseases, all famines and pestilences, all war and devastation, all poverty and privation, all the convulsions of nature which precipitate thousands to instant and inevitable death"When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep,

Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep"

All these are the effects of sin. It is sin which has produced all this misery. But for sin, it would never have been permitted to exist under the government of a just and gracious God. Such, indeed, has been the misery produced by sin, even while life continues, that the man may be accounted fortunate, who does not suffer more than the pains of death, before he diesDeath itself, with two exceptions only, has been, or will be, the lot of

all the descendants of Adam, till those shall be changed who are alive at the sound of the last trumpet. Yet, to the wicked, all the iniseries of this life, and the death of the body itself, are but the beginning of sorrows. After death they "the suffer, says the catechism, pains of hell forever." In what these pains will consist, we cannot fully tell. The loss of all happiness and all hope; exclusion from God-total and final; the horrors of a guilty conscience; the keenest remorse and cutting self reproach, will, no doubt, constitute the chief ingredients. The punishment of hell is represented in Scripture, by the subjects of it being cast into a prison-into the bottomless pit; into outer darkness, where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth; into a lake of fire and brimstone, where the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever-by the worm that never dies, and the fire that never shall be quenched; by the second death; and by the blackness of darkness. forever. These we are, no doubt, to consider as figurative expressions; but, my young friends, they On the are figures full of horror. question-whether there will be material fire, or any thing that is material, in future punishment? I do not think that the Scripture representations are decisive. Let us only be careful not to flatter ourselves, in the sentiments we adopt on this point, that the sufferings of lost souls will receive any abatement, by construing as figurative the language of inspiration; for beyond a question, the sufferings of the soul itself are in their nature the most intolerable of all.

What relates to the duration of future punishment, we have no reason to believe is figurative or hyperbolical-The punishment is certainly represented in scripture, as strictly endless-literally eternal. This is so evidently the doctrine of scripture, that all attempts to ex

fuge, and such only, is the Lord Jesus Christ-"Knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men” to hasten their flight to him. To him therefore-0 to him-betake yourselves, without farther delay! United to him, you will be safe from the floods of interminable perdition, that will certainly overwhelm all who die in that state of sin and misery, in which we are placed by the primitive apostacy. Grant, O most merciful God! grant that none who now receive this warning, may neglect the great salvation, till the door of mercy be forever shut! Amen.

plain it away, I never could consider in any other light, than as utterly impotent, empty, and nugatory. Both in the Old Testament and in the New, the happiness of the righteous, and the misery of the wicked, are, as it were, weighed against each other, and declared, in point of duration, to be equal; so that you must deny or admit both. -Here is the proof-Dan xii. 2. "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting life, and some to shame, and everlasting contempt." Mat. xxv. 46. "And these shafl go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." In this last passage, our translators, to vary the language, have called the punishment of the wicked everlasting, and the life of the righteous eternal. But in the original there is no such variation -Precisely the same word is used in both cases-Literally it is "These shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Here you perceive, the word of God has contrasted the future states of the righteous and the wicked, and declared that, as to their duration, they are equal.None doubt that the rewards of the righteous will be endless; and none, therefore, ought to doubt, that the punishment of the wicked will be endless likewise. Receive this solemn, awful truth, my young friends, and hold it fast. That the disbelief of it has an injurious practical tendency, there can be no reasonable question. If the belief of endless punishment is insufficient ful-nature of the atonement, are all imly to restrain the guilty, what must be the effect, when each individual is left to reduce it to such limits as his own self-flattery, and inadequate sense of guilt, may dictate? Surely it cannot be the calculation of any rational mind, to seek relief from fear, in any refuge but that which will yield a full security against the wrath to come." Such a re

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The following letters, apparently written by one minister of the gospel at the request, or for the benefit of another, have been put into our hands for publication. They relate to a fundamental doctrine of revealed truth-the doctrine of atonement. We give them a ready insertion in our miscellany; because we believe that the diffusion of correct notions on this all important subject, is called for by the circumstances of the religious publick in our country. The author, it will be perceived, while he is at issue with those who hold what has been called an indefinite atonement, states that he has no controversy with those who maintain what has been denominated a general atonement. For ourselves, we believe that correct ideas on the

portant; and that those who hold such ideas, and yet maintain that the atonement is general, do not really extend it, more than is done by the writer of these letters. Yet if any whose sentiments on the nature of the atonement are correct, shall be inclined to state the reasons, why they prefer to represent it as being general rather than defi

nite, our pages shall be open for their communications.

No. I.

Dear Brother-The doctrine of the atonement made by our blessed and Divine Lord, is, you well know, of unspeakable importance. It lies at the foundation of a sinner's hope of salvation. Had no atonement been provided, darkness must forever have shrouded our guilty world; no ray of light from heaven would have cheered our hearts; the whole race of fallen man must have sunk beyond recovery, under the tremendous curse of a violated law. But infinite mercy beheld our ruined and helpless condition; it pitied our misery, and determined on the salvation of sinners, by a method at once safe for them, and glorious to God.

As this method was devised, so it was revealed, by infinite wisdom; and consequently nothing in relation to its true nature and blessed effects can be known, but what the sacred scriptures have taught. To the scriptures, then, must be our appeal in every dispute on this allimportant subject. What they teach it behoves us carefully to inquire and cordially to believe; always remembering that philosophical speculations on matters of pure revelation, are apt to mislead. If Jehovah is pleased to conceal any thing from us, it is vain for man to attempt to discover it." Secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed, belong unto us and to our children for ever." Two theories on the subject of the atonement are advocated by members of the Presbyterian church. The one is the definite, the other the indefinite scheme. The advocates of the former have been denominated The Old School, and the advocates of the latter The New

School.

In the course of the letters which

I am writing to you, my design is, to institute a comparison between the two theories-A short statement of each will facilitate the accomplishment of this design.

The friends of the definite plan believe, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in execution of his engagements with his eternal Father in the covenant of redemption, came into the world in the fulness of time; that having assumed our nature into a personal union with his Divine nature, he appeared in the world as the Saviour of sinful men. They believe that the immaculate Redeemer was made under the law, and consequently subject to its penal demands, as well as to its preceptive requisitions; that he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; and that the whole of his sufferings, from the beginning to the close of his spotless life, constituted that allsufficient sacrifice which he offered for sin. They believe that Jesus Christ, as the substitute of his people, was charged with their sins, and bore the punishment of them, and thus made a full and complete satisfaction to Divine justice for all who shall ever believe on him; and that this atonement will eventually be applied to all for whom, in the intention of the Divine Redeemer, it was made: or, in other words, to all to whom the wise and holy God has, in his adorable sovereignty, been pleased to decree its application.

They believe, moreover, that, in making an atonement or satisfaction for the sins of all who were given to him by the Father to be redeemed, the Lord Jesus Christ did offer a sacrifice or make an atonement, sufficient, in its intrinsick value, to expiate the sins of the whole world; that this infinite worth necessarily arose from the nature of his work, and the infinite dignity of his Divine person; and that, if it had been the pleasure of God to apply it to every individual, the whole

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