before, in the warm, but rather indefinite language of Locke, “absolute liberty, just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty, can be enjoyed throughout the world."

Having proceeded thus far in our plan, the question which remains to be considered is, what are the means which the friends of liberty must use in order to accomplish their object? Now as all the changes which they wish to produce are, as I said before, moral changes; they mnst manifestly be wrought by the influence of truth. If then there is any system of truth that is preeminently calculated to produce them, the friends of liberty are bound with all the zeal they have in their cause, to promote its universal diffusion. The gospel is such a system. It can be shown, I think, from the nature of things. If any one should go to a pagan or a heathen and tell him that his religion is false, and offer to prove his assertion; he would either reply, for the experiment has often been made, "My fathers believed it and I am content to believe as they did," and so put an end to the conference at once; or he would betake himself to such shifts and evasions, as would show that he loved disputation perhaps, but did not love the truth. The difficulty would be to interest him sufficiently. Now the gospel before the eyes of this man takes the veil from eternity, and reveals to him heaven and hell; it tells him what the Son of God has done to redeem him from otherwise inevitable destruction, and declares that "he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned." If any thing can open the mind of this man to conviction; if any thing can excite in him a spirit of earnest inquiry, and urge him to honest and thorough investigation, and fervent prayer, and the diligent use of all the other means which are necessa

equal power to relax the grasp of the oppressor, and breathe energy into his victims. On the one hand, it requires every man to love his fellow man as he loves himself, it forbids him to oppress his brother; on the other, it places all men in all important respects on the same level. To enforce these instructions it brings eternity near, it disperses the mists that rise up from the cold river of death, and discloses the world beyond,-the throne of God, and the rapidly appearing spirits-all undistinguished by the insignia of wealth, or rank, or power, or poverty, or meanness, or servitude; but some springing up in immortal beauty. because filled with immortal joys; and others rising in the deformity of fiends, because they begin to experience their torments. Thus it shows at once that "God is no respecter of persons;" that he makes no distinction amongst men except on the ground of their respective moral characters; and that the estimation in which men are held by him, is of infinitely more consequence, than that in which they are held by any or all other beings. Thus too it presents such views of the unconceivable importance and worth of man, and of all men alike, that those who receive them will not, and cannot see thousands kept in degradation and ignorance to gratify the base passions of any man or number of men.

Facts also show that the gospel is favorable to liberty. The primitive church was formed by the principles of the gospel, and probably no other community was ever so purely democratical. Its early corruption will account for it without any detriment to my argument, that its effects on liberty in the Roman empire were not sufficiently marked to be available for my purpose. But when the Reformation broke forth, banishing the gloom and stupidity of the dark ages, and giving an aspect of life and freshness to the west and north of Europe; " even as we see after the rising of the sun in the morning, the foggy mists to be scattered abroad, the darkened night to be driven away, the smaller stars to lose their brightness, and the heaven to wax clear and beautiful and fair of hue, and men that before seemed blind with drowsy sleep, to awake and shake off their sluggishness at the clear shining of the glittering light"--when Christianity, restored to its primitive simplicity and power, was producing the effects which an old author thus beautifully describes; we find that it was doing much for liberty. We hear Papists continually charging Protestantism with making men insurrectionary and intractable. We bear King James saying, taught by Scottish subjects, "No Bishop, no King;" and in his usual profane and lubberly manner of expression, which I do not choose to copy, "Presbytery and Monarchy can never agree. We see the Low Countries throwing off the yoke of the greatest power in Europe, by one of the most furious and terrible wars that was ever waged. We see Scotland, long a scene of turbulence and anarchy and bloody feuds, gaining at once her civil, religious, and political liberties; reducing herself to order, and laying broad and deep the foundations of her future prosperity and happiness. In England,

we see the Puritans, standing up and standing alone, and resisting with astonishing constancy and patience, for eighty years, all the attempts that were made to destroy the little remains of English liberty; and when they could no longer endure the whole pressure of the enormous power of the crown, or tolerate its encroachments, we see them taking up their arms and putting a speedy end to the contest; and when, strange as it seems, in consequence of the infatuation of the Stuarts, this was not enough, we see them driving the second James from the kingdom, and forever excluding Papists from the throne. Thus the Puritans preserved and secured the liberties of England. For tl.ese men God had reserved this land, for purposes which I doubt not have grand connexions with the welfare of the world. Hither they came. and from them is derived all the liberty, and all the love of liberty, and all the means of continuing liberty, of which this country can boast. Having found, then, that Christianity in its nature is fitted to produce liberty; and having observed that liberty began to exist in Scotland immediately on its introduction; and that liberty in England, which was almost lost, began to be recovered and increased and firmly established in the same connexion; and that it was brought to this country and established here by men who were highly distinguished for their experience of its power: I conclude, with à great deal of confidence, that the liberty of Scotland and England and this country owes its origin to Christianity.

It will be seen by and by whether liberty has ever existed any where else or not. where else or not. But at present I see another reason for considering pure Christianity as the parent of liberty. The love of freedom is indeed innate in man, but something more is necessary to qualify

him to be free. This Christianity produces, and in this sense she is the parent of freedom. Now if we spread out the world before us like a map, and look carefully over it, we shall discover that wherever pure Christianity is found, there also is found, not freedom perhaps, but always the materials of a free state. It is unnecessary to speak here of the countries which have just been mentioned. But the Waldenses always possessed such a character as qualified them to be free. The Protestants of France, who were massacred with infernal cruelty, and driven into exile in consequence of the revocation of the edict of Nantz, and who, on account of their situation, could never indeed be free, were yet always qualified to be freemen. Sober, intelligent, moral, industrious, skilful in business, they carried away with them the manufactures and the virtue of the land of their birth, and enriched with both those of their adoption. In the Protestant states of Gerinany, where the influence of Christianity is less considerable, a tendency to the same state of things is said to be very perceptible; the Protestants being far in advance of their Catholic neighbors in every thing which belongs to the character of freemen.

Now I do not hesitate to say, on the other hand, that the materials of a free state have no where existed, except in connexion with pure Christianity. Of course I mean to affirm, that no nations have ever been free except in the same connexion. In the cities of Greece and in Rome, there undoubtedly was freedom in a certain sense, but in no such sense as any sober and rational man attaches to the word at the present day. Athens contained about 20,000 inhabitants.* There was no law, and of course no order,

*There appears to be a mistake here: the population of Athens was much greater,-ED.

no security of person or property, no domestic happiness: but there was idleness, dissipation, profligacy, vice and crime, almost, if not altogether, unparallelled, Their greatest and wisest men were in nearly every case either banished or put to death. An agrarian law was in continual operation-300 of the wealthiest citizens being required to defray all the expenditures of the state. The populace were thus left at liberty to spend their time in attending the great games, performing religious celebrations, visiting the theatres, seeing shows, and, above all, listening to their orators. The whole state of things is well described when Athens is called "a great mad-house," and the only good thing that can be said of her citizens is that they displayed the energies of mad-men. It was the best of all possible places for a demagogue, and almost the worst for any quieter and better man. In Rome there was more law, and less freedom. But not to pursue the subject further, for I have not time to do it, I venture to say that no person, who is qualified to judge, will assert that the citizens of Athens, or of Rome, or of any other ancient republic, were capable of enjoying rational liberty on an extended scale, or indeed on any. this is admitted, I know not from what quarter of the world, or from what period of its history, those who would controvert my position would bring their facts. I consider it then as established, that rational liberty has never existed except in connexion with pure Christianity. I have one thing more to say. If Christianity produces freedom, it does also preserve it. It has long been a political maxim, that the first step of a nation is to conquest, that conquest brings wealth, wealth produces luxury, luxury corruption, and corruption ruin;-and this maxim has long held good; for the path of

If

time is strewed with the wrecks of

nations, of whose history it is a correct epitome. But England has long possessed unexampled power and wealth, without discovering any symptoms of decay. The Radicals in that country cannot bring discredit on the cause, which, if it were possible, they would disgrace; while the considerate friends of reform the great body of the wise and good in the nation--pushing forward their designs on constitutional principles steadily, and with continually increasing power, will, must, ultimately succeed;--and by rendering the government more free, will extend its foundations, increase its symmetry, and consolidate its strength. This striking peculiarity in the history of England, I consider myself authorized, by what has been said, to attribute to the influence of Christianity.

Now then if Christianity is preeminently adapted to destroy every species of oppression, to remove all the great obstructions to the progress of liberty; if Christianity and Christianity alone does produce, and foster, and perpetuate liberty; then most certainly the friends of liberty, if they are acting zealously and wisely, are united in great efforts to promote the universal diffusion of the gospel. But in truth they are not united on this plan, nor indeed on any other plan, for exerting a moral influence on the world. They seem not to be aware, that the sentence by which man is doomed to eat bread in the sweat of his brow, is so followed out in the scheme of providence, that no greater or more important good can be obtained except at the expence of a commensurate amount of effort. In free countries they are doing something. But in all others, the friends of liberty as such, seem to consider it as their course to wait for some favorable, but, so far as they are concerned, purely fortuitous concurrence of events, when they may take arms

and endeavor by force, as they did in France and in Spain, to give freedom to a people so thoroughly debased, that till they have undergone a moral revolution, they never can be free. Thus the cause of liberty is left by its friends, either to stand still, or to move forward of itself in spite of the systematic and vast opposition which it has to encounter. Events of the greatest magnitude are left to be produced without their proper causes. But we shall not leave our noble cause at this pass. If we turn to Christians— to men who love the gospel, and who derive their estimate of the importance of man and his mortal life from this source, we shall find them prosecuting a system of operations for the improvement of the human race that is truly grand and wonderful. We shall find that wherever on the face of the whole earth, Christians exist, there also exist little associations, comprising altogether millions of men, and women, and children, for the purpose of collecting and forwarding to great societies, the means of accomplishing their grand designs. These last are at work in this country, in India, and most of the countries of Europe: raising up and sending forth missionaries into every climate and to every species of wretched men, to spend their lives in labouring to introduce amongst them knowledge, and virtue, and freedom, and happiness, by establishing schools and preaching the everlasting gospel; translating as fast as possible into every language, and printing and circulating every year hundreds of thousands of Bibles, and millions of evangelical tracts; striving as I trust with resistless force to break the chains of the African, and raise him to the highest dignity of manhood; enfolding the poor soldier and sailor in the arms of brotherly love, and seeking to win them to the paths of virtue; and endeav

oring to reclaim the inmates of prisons and all other victims of vice. When I see the extent to which these efforts are carried, and the number of hearts and hands employed in them; I see that a mighty struggle is making in behalf of degraded and suffering humanity. When I consider the course of events, and find that progress is making,-that this glorious struggle is every year more extended, more powerful, and more efficacious, and when at the same time I consider the promises of God; I am persuaded that it will issue in complete success. And having found that liberty attends in the train of our religion, I am equal ly and on the same grounds per suaded that she will become universal. I see too that the man who haughtily stands aloof and regards it with contempt, is in danger of being found guilty of despising the blessed and merciful work of God; and on the contrary that every person, however insignificant, who is heartily engaged in it, has cause to bless God for the spirit he possesses. Especially do I see that the members of the society which is assembled here to night, have cause solemnly and humbly to praise God, for having brought them into a relation to it so honorable and responsible as that which they sustain.

My Brethren, I have but one word to address to you. You have seen the result of a comparison of confessedly the noblest cause which unrenewed men are prosecuting, with that in which you are embarked. You are soon to be engaged in it more actively. Be looking abroad on our miserable world and into eternity, and to the cross of Christ, and filling yourselves with his spirit. Be girding up your loins, and taking to yourselves the whole armour of God. And when you go forth to fight your short bat

tle for God and man, may He go with you and prosper you; and when you are called off from the contest, may He receive you to himself and to his blessedness.

To the Editor of the Christian Spectator.

E. M., a correspondent in your last number, agrees with me in the opinion, that Edwards "does not hold the doctrine of Physical Depravity," but supposes the method pursued by me to prove this point, is not warranted by Edwards's language. In offering a few remarks further on this subject, I would premise, that imperfect and incorrect notions of Edwards's views of our representation in Adam, are the principal source of disagreement respecting his opinions. His philosophical views on this subject are so diverse from those which commonly prevail-so foreign to all the ordinary conceptions of the human mind, that we are apt to let them glide from our thoughts, and to substitute our own, in the interpretation of his language.

Edwards then held the doctrine, that one being may, in the estimate of God and of truth, act in the act of another being. He did maintain that God in imputing sin to men proceeds not in every instance, on the principle of strict identity, but on the principle of his own sovereign constitution. His doctrine may be thus illustrated. I am not strictly the same identical being which I was many years ago, the substance of my body, perhaps of my soul, having often changed; yet by God's sovereign constitution, I am even now held responsible for acts done many years ago, just as if the strictest identity had been preserved, in both body and soul. Thus, not strict identity in re, but a constituted identity, is the principle of the divine procedure. So, though Adam's posterity are not in