be no salvation for fallen man. In the first creation, the world did not resolve to create itself, nor did it help God to create it. In the new creation of the soul, the sinner does not save himself, nor does he resolve to save himself in order to make himself a suitable object for grace to save, nor does he help God to save him. All is of grace; and all is of the Lord. When the Spirit of God takes hold of a sinner, he finds in him no faith, no love, no disposition to turn; and of his mere grace he puts forth his hand and renews him, surmounting all obstacles, and bearing down all opposition.

These brief remarks will be sufficient to bring out the leading features of the new scheme of theology,-a scheme as utterly subversive of every principle of sound philosophy, as it is of every rule of Scriptural interpretation. The first of the two books which heads this article, 'takes the old paths,' and is on the whole an excellent statement of the true doctrine regarding the election of grace.' There are expressions in it which perhaps admit of being altered for the better, but its general soundness will commend it to those who prize the truth of God regarding man's total apostacy, and God's free love in saving whom he will.

The truth is, that if the doctrine of election dishonours the righteousness and the grace of God, as its adversaries maintain, then the whole system of Providential government under which this world is going on must do the same. Every thing in the spiritual, and every thing in the moral, and every thing in the natural world, proclaim a God who acts as a sovereign ruler, dispensing his blessings to whomsoever he will. The thousand differences between soul and soul, between one sinner and another-between one people and another— between one kingdom and another, all declare the purposes of Him who doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven, and the inhabitants of earth.

Why was the one thief saved and the other lost? God willed it so. He was not bound to save the one, and he had power enough to have saved the other, and neither could save himself. What then made the difference? The sovereign grace of God. Why was Paul saved and Judas lost? Was it because the former deserved to be saved, or fitted himself for being saved by believing, and the latter refused to fit himself for being a subject of God's electing grace, and so was lost? No. Neither deserved to be saved, or could fit himself for being so. The one was no more a fitting object for election than the other. Was it because Paul chose Christ, and Judas rejected him? Well, but how was it that Paul chose Christ? Was it not because Christ chose him?

Why was it that Judea was made a land of light, and Egypt remained a region of darkness? Who made the difference? Man or

God? Was God unjust in leaving Egypt in the shadow of death, when he made light to arise on Israel! What had Israel done to deserve a privilege like this?

Why is it that Britain is a land of light, and Africa a land of darkness? Who made the difference? Who sent the gospel to Britain, and withheld it from Africa? Is God unjust in leaving that mighty continent in the hands of Satan, and in delivering from his yoke this small island of the sea?

None have deserved salvation. No man is more fit for it than another. God was not bound to save any. God might have saved all. Yet he has only saved some. Is he unjust in only saving some, when he could have saved all? Objectors say that those who are lost, are lost because they rejected Christ. But did not all equally reject him at first? What made the unbelief of some give way y? Was it because they willed it, or because God put forth his power in them? Surely the latter. Might he not rather have put forth his power in all, and prevented any from rejecting the Saviour? Yet he did not. Why? Because so it seemed good in his sight.

Is it unjust in God to save only a few, when all are equally doomed to die? If not, is there any unjustice in his determining beforehand to save these few, and leave the rest unsaved? They could not save themselves; was it unjust in him to resolve in his infinite wisdom to save them? or was it unjust in him not to resolve to save all? Had all perished, there would have been no injustice with him. How is it possible that there can be injustice in his resolving to save some?

There can be no grace where there is no sovereignty. Deny God's right to choose whom he will, and you deny his right to save whom he will. Deny his right to save whom he will, and you deny that salvation is of grace. If salvation is made to hinge upon any desire or fitness in man, seen or foreseen, grace is at an end.

One of the chief controversies of the present day (as we remarked at the outset) is respecting the WILL of God,-as to whether his will or man's is the controlling power in the universe, and the procuring cause of salvation to souls. The supremacy of God's will over individual persons and events is questioned. Things are made to turn upon man's will, not on God's. Man's will, not God's, is to decide what individuals are to enter heaven. Man's pen, and not God's, is to write the names of the saved ones in the Lamb's book of life! Much zeal is shown for the freedom of man's will, little jealousy seems to be felt for the freedom of God's will. Men insist that it is unjust and tyrannical in God to control their wills, yet see nothing unjust, nothing proud, nothing Satanic in attempting to fetter and direct the will of God. Man it seems cannot have his own foolish will gratified, unless the all-wise God will consent to relinquish His! Such are some of the stages in the march of atheism. Such are

the preparations making in these last days by the wily usurper, dethroning the eternal Jehovah.

for

Men may call these speculations. They may condemn them as unprofitable. To the law and to the testimony! Of such speculations the Bible is full. There man is a helpless worm, and salvation, from first to last, is of the Lord. God's will, and not man's, is the law of the universe. If then we are to maintain the gospel,-if we are to hold fast grace, if we are to preserve Jehovah's honour, we must grasp these truths with no feeble hand. For if there be no such Being as a supreme pre-determining Jehovah, then the universe will soon be chaos; and if there be no such a thing as free electing love, every minister of Christ may close his lips, and every sinner upon earth sit down in mute despair.

ART. IV.—1. Incidents of Travels in Yucatan. By JOHN L. STEPHENS. In two vols. London, 1843.

2. Maritime Discovery, and Christian Missions, considered in their mutual relations. By JOHN CAMPBELL. London.

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THE author of Maritime Discovery and Christian Missions,' is bitterly indignant at the worldliness, and irreligion, and cruelty which have characterized, as he thinks, all Protestant, and pre-eminently, all British intercourse with foreign nations and barbarous tribes. Pointing, for instance, to the continents of Africa, India, and America,' Dr Campbell exclaims, the Christianity imparted was that of European ecclesiastical establishments. She walked hand in hand with the civil power, in the paths of invasion, victory, and conquest. The glittering sword and the roaring cannon proclaimed her approach. The erection of the house of prayer, and the fort of war were cotemporary operations.' Growing still more vehement, however, in the denunciation of his native country in regard to all her efforts on behalf of those heathen lands that had been subjected to her rule, he affirms, conquest and thraldom were the first steps to conversion. Gunpowder and the gospel were carried in the same pocket. The alternative of proselytism was the gibbet.' Yet as if even all this were under the truth, and too mild, he adds, the salvation of men was clearly no part of the object of the British monarch, in prosecuting his maritime discoveries. He left this to the missionary spirit of the faithful among his people.' And now, • the work of missions is happily wrested from the hands of blood and rapine.'

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This is coarse and acrimonious misrepresentation.*

The worst

At a recent meeting of the Scottish Ladies' Association for promoting Female Education in India, over which the Marquis of Bute presided, a speech was deliver

of it, however, is not that it is uncalled for, and exaggerated,-we avoid saying spiteful and false. What renders it peculiarly and unpardonably offensive-thoroughly base, is, that it is introduced with a view of contrasting the efforts made by Britain and Protestantism for the propagation of Divine truth, with the zeal evinced for the same ends, and in the same circumstances, by Spanish and Portuguese sovereigns, under the influence of the Popish priesthood. For, let us hear, in the first place, Dr Campbell's eulogy of Henry, the Portuguese monarch. Henry of Portugal, according to the age in which he lived, and the circumstances in which he was placed, was a true Christian. No grand master of the order of Christ ever possessed so much of the spirit of Christ. The propagation of the gospel was the sublime object of all his enterprizes. The prime supporters, too, of this prince, were the ministers of religion. While all were indifferent, the clergy rose in a body, and, inspired with an ardent zeal for the diffusion of what they deemed the gospel, promoted their prince's object.' This is bold enough,—even for a Jesuit. But panegyric must swell into apotheosis. This prince was clearly raised up of heaven for the performance of the exalted part assigned to him. And when the gospel of Christ shall have subdued the earth, a regenerated world shall exhibit the consummation of the work begun by Henry, Duke of Visco!' But great as is Henry Duke of Visco, there are others not a whit behind-such as John II., and Emanuel. Of the former, we have this significant notice, a prince greatly desirous to enlarge his kingdom, and propagate the knowledge of the Christian faith.' And Emanuel of Portugal,' we learn, was not to be deterred from an enterprise from which he anticipated so much wealth and glory, and extension to the kingdom of Christ. The spread of Christianity was a ruling element in all his maritime discoveries. Our author lastly reaches Columbus, and now his Popish raptures can ascend no higher. His journal attests the missionary aspect of the expedition, and the evangelical character of the principles which impelled him; "for," says he, "you have deter

ed by James Johnstone, Esq., of Alva, in which there occurred a passage which gives no little countenance to Dr Campbell's charge. The Society,' said this gentleman, was an object worthy of all their support-worthy of it as a national object for it was considered as a great apology for conquest-an apology for the acquirement of territory and power. Nay, in the Divine course of providence, the very permission of the ravages of war was justified in consideration of the advancement of human nature in the masses, and the diffusion of a knowledge of the Divine will, and the knowledge of that revelation by which salvation was made known. That was the mission given to every conquering Christian nation.' We cannot admit that the passage is eminently clear. In all likelihood it was meant to be ambiguous and hazy. But assuredly all the meaning it has, is just to this effect, that Lord Ellenborough's late policy in India will allow of a very fair vindication, provided only the Scottish Ladies' Association for promoting Female Education in India do follow in his train for the advancement of human nature in the masses,'

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mined to send me to take means for their conversion to the holy Catholic faith." The object of Columbus was to spread the knowledge of God, and exalt the Spanish nation.' Zeal for propagating the Christian faith being the great argument used, twelve ecclesiastics were appointed to accompany Columbus as missionaries, and they were well supplied with all that was necessary to their objcct. The queen gave them from her own chapels the ornaments

and vestments to be used in all ceremonies.'

The conclusion to be raised upon all this elaborate detail, from which we have taken these quotations, is, that the world is under far greater obligations to the Spanish continent, than to the British isles, and that any thing done by Protestants for Christianity, is not to be printed in the same volume with what the priest and emissaries of Rome have achieved. Indeed, by the end, we find Dr Campbell bold enough to say, that he is at a loss whether to yield the palm of beneficial service to the reformer of Germany, or the discoverer of America,-and, upon the whole, we think it apparent that he would rather have dispensed with Luther than Columbus.

Against such views-views so erroneous, untenable, and indecent, we do not feel that there is the least occasion for our protesting at any length; and, of course, with the individual who has opened up a line of historical contrast so perverse, we would never for a moment think of holding argument. It cannot be any disparagement to the smart author of Maritime Discoveries,' to say that Francis Guicciardini has studied the Papacy more thoroughly in all its principles, and knew it more extensively in its actings. The Italian was not only a learned historian-he was besides a senator of Florence, and privy councillor to Pope Leo X. He accordingly saw deep into the mystery of iniquity-even though he guaged it more as a patriot and philosopher, than as a Christian. And what is the report of this intelligent eye-witness? By such steps the popes becoming unmindful of the salvation of souls and the Divine commands, applied their minds wholly to this world's greatness, and abusing their high authority by making it instrumental only to the acquisition of secular power, displayed themselves as princes of nations, rather than dispensers of Divine things. Love towards God and man was no longer their care-but armies and wars took up their thoughts, and they performed Divine offices with hands steeped in blood.' This was written at the commencement of the sixteenth century, and at the very time when Popery was moving in Spain and Portugal to their greatest conquests. It no doubt gives, therefore, a most veritable idea of the design contemplated in all her exertions by this tremendous despotism, and of the means by which she thought to reach her ends.

Most providentially, however, at the very time that the vicious