possesses an impelling power, it drives its subject from the place of his imagined security; but here its agency ends. No writer or preacher has, to my knowledge, believed, and attempted to prove that the mere exercise of fear can complete the Christian character; no man believes it can form the soul after the divine image, or fit it for heaven. Every Christian considers love to be the great principle that must perfect the convert's state of grace, demonstrate the reality of his change, and prepare him for glory. We have always insisted that "the goodness of God leadeth to repentance." The prodigal mentioned in the parable, did not become a thorough convert, because he was driven from the place where he was by the fear of starvation. Another cause was necessary to induce him to return to his father's house, a sense of his parent's goodness led him on towards the home he had deserted; it was this, which, more than any other cause, produced his repentance, and evinced the genuineness of his moral change. Terror alone may effect an external change; but unless the heart is formed to the love of moral goodness, it has undergone no radical improvement. Terror may make men hypocrites; love makes them saints.

But it may be said, that if fear has a salutary influence in restraining sin, and awakening the sinner, then, the greater the evil that is threatened, the greater will be the moral effect; and hence, those who oppose our belief, pass to the conclusion, that God, to lay the greatest possible restraint upon sin, has threatened the sinner with endless punishment. We shall not stop here, to show how far the idea of eternal misery is a reflection on the Divine character; it is sufficient to observe, while we offer our reasons for the observation, that we consider the above conclusion illogical, and contradictory to all experience. Does it follow, that because an article in medicine is calculated to have a good effect in checking

the progress of a dangerous disease, therefore the greatest possible quantity must be administered to the patient? Human legislators never recognize the principle in question; they do not annex the most severe penalty to every prohibition, nor inflict the greatest punishment for every crime. Nor is this principle acted upon in domestic government; it would be manifestly dangerous, and tend more to the subversion of parental authority, than to the support of it. Let a father threaten his son with the greatest punishment he is able to inflict; let him threaten, that for an act of disobedience, he will take his life by the most torturing, lingering procesa he can devise, and the child, if not too young to reflect at all, will give no credit to the denunciation. The punishment will so far exceed all his ideas of justice, and of parental affection, that he will not be influenced by it, The father will have over-acted his part, and have defeated his own purpose. If he threatens a punishment proportioned to the act of disobedience, or which he declares shall be continued, till it produces submission, he will effect much more than if he took the course just mentioned. When mercy is represented as mixed with judgment, when the end of correction is known to be benevolent; the character of him who inflicts it will be more revered; and besides, in such a case, two powers are brought to act on the mind, while in the other, there could be but one; and what is better, both powers are brought to act at the same time.

The doctrine of interminable misery has been preached during a number of centuries; and we might suppose that a tolerable fair experiment of its power to ter-. rify the guilty had been made. What have been its effects? In many instances, the doctrine has produced great excitement; in some we have reason to believe, it has produced insanity, or the mind has settled into despair. In either of these cases, the subject is completely

disqualified for those mental exercises, which are necessary to an acquaintance with religion. The mind is a chaos. Its powers are inoperative, and its light is extinguished. But what effect does this doctrine produce in religious society, generally? On a majority of those who are accustomed to hear this doctrine announced from the pulpit, it has little or no effect at all. They can sit quietly under it; they can even sleep under it; they can return to their homes, and mix again with the world, without appearing to be agitated, or alarmed by what they have heard. I am not disposed to say that this is stupidity, or carnal security. Such persons think and reflect as much as many others. But, the truth is, the doctrine is considered irreconcileable with the moral attributes of Deity; and if men assent to it, they do not realizingly believe it. It is that fear only, which does not exclude the mercy of God; it is that trembling only, with which joy can mingle, that can effect any useful purpose, or promote any desirable end· Fourthly. We are charged with denying the necessity of faith and regeneration.

If any, who oppose our views, believe this charge to be well founded, they labor under a mistake, which, so far as we are able, we shall consider a duty to rectify. It should be understood, that men may differ in their conceptions of an article of belief, or variously explain a doctrine of christianity, while no one is disposed to disregard the one, or deny the other. Nor is it reasonable to expect, that any order of christians, holding a distinguishing tenet, will controvert or deny the doctrines generally believed by others, unless the theory, that such order or sect advances, and which distinguishes it from others, obviously requires opposition or a denial; and no honest and candid person will ever oppose what others receive as truth, merely for the sake of opposition. The believers in the restoration of all men disagree

with their brethren of other denominations, in relation to several points of doctrine, in which, however, those who disbelieve the doctrine of the restoration, are no nearer agreed among themselves. Possessing the right of private judgment, the exercise of the right involves the interpretation of the scriptures, and the understanding of a doctrine of the scriptures according to our best judgment; and in these respects, we act as all Protestants have acted, since the reformation. While we undertake not to establish a standard for others, we are unwilling to bow to any which they have erected, without a full conviction of its excellence. We know and lament, that it is too much the case, that when a christian, or a denomination of christians dissents from the cummon view of a doctrine, the charge of denying, perhaps of ridiculing it, is often advanced. This practice we consider highly improper: and it will always produce effects injurious to the interests of religion.

But the doctrine that we advocate cannot require a denial of the necessity of faith, repentance and conversion. Believing that all intelligent beings are interested in the favor of God, to whom they stand in the endearing relation of children, we necessarily consider faith in the divine mercy and goodness, not only as a source of that "joy and peace" attributed to the exercise of this grace; but we view it as a powerful incentive to virtue and holiness, as an active, energetic principle, capable of elevating the character of man, while it sanctifies the soul. We receive as correct the scriptural definitions of evangelical faith: "it worketh by love; it purifieth the heart." That faith may exert its legitimate powers, it must contemplate Deity as infinitely amiable, interested in human felicity, and of consequence it must dwell upon its object, till the soul is changed into the image of the glorious Being it surveys. If we have been ignorant of God; if we have entertained dis

positions or feelings towards him, inconsistent with his true character, it will be the work of faith to purge our hearts from these defilements. When we lose sight of our filial relation to our Father in heaven, and our conduct becomes like that of those who "loved strangers" and followed them; when we deserve the humiliating epithet of rebellious or backsliding children, and God invites us in his word, to "think upon our ways;" when he addresses us in this affecting language: "return, for I am married unto you," it will be the work of faith to set before us the truth, which is to induce a ready compliance with the gracious invitation, and its effect will be found in an exulting response to the heavenly call : “lo, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God."

While we entertain and cherish these ideas of faith, we have not, we acknowledge, ever intended to intimate that faith first creates its object, and then acts upon it. The object exists independently of the action of faith. Truth is not formed by our believing; but faith brings truth to our understandings; it presents it to our minds attended with evidence and power, that produce conviction. When we are told of the saving power of faith, and hear the text quoted, which declares, that "he that believeth, shall be saved," our thoughts turn to those truths, the belief in which is to produce our salvation. "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself" and testimony always supposes a truth, or a fact, to illustrate or exhibit which is the design of all testimony. "He that believeth not God, hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave his Son." No man could charge God with falsehood, if some truth had not been proclaimed to him, nor, if this were not the case, would his unbelief be sinful; neither would it be asserted, that "he that believeth not, shall be damned," if the unbeliever was not interested in the great salvation. Accordingly, we are informed, that