sus Christ, as a satisfaction for sin, the truth of God shines in all its lustre. The penalty of a violated law is diverted from the sinner; and yet it is fully executed, in the bitter agonies of our immaculate Redeemer. In opposition to our views, an argument has been drawn from the history of Adam. The preacher began with premising, that he believed God always acted according to his real meaning in his threatenings; and, then, in order to prove the threatening annexed to the covenant made with Adam was not executed, he observed that it denounced temporal death, to be inflicted on the very day of his transgression. But this, said he, was not inflicted; Adam did not die, till he had lived upwards of nine hundred years. Besides, the penalty was eternal death; God declared that Adam should die eternally. But Adam was saved; and Jesus Christ did not suffer eternal death: consequently, the penalty was executed neither on Adam, nor on the Redeemer.

Such was his argument. He could not but be aware that it would be objected, that, according to this statement, the devil spake the truth, when, in tempting our first parents, he affirmed, in opposition to their understanding of the meaning of the threatening, "Ye shall not surely die." This he could not deny; and to do away the force of an objection, so revolting to the minds of common Christians, he observed, that, to make temptations successful, there must be a mixture of truth with falsehood.-A feeble answer!

Now, in reply to this curious ar gument, it is obvious to remark, that the construction put on the threatening does not accord with the preacher's preliminary observation; for, if God always acts agreeably to the real meaning of his declarations, then it is certain he did not, by his threatening to Adam, mean he should undergo temporal death on the very day of his transgression; because, as Adam's natural life was not destroyed on that day, God did, by his VOL. IV. Ch. Adv.

own conduct, own that this was not his meaning. Nor does it appear that our first parent so understood the threatening; for knowing himself to be the constituted head of a numerous progeny who were to descend from him, he had no reason thus to construe it. But he actually did, in a different sense, die on the very day in which he sinned. He lost the favour of his Maker; he was deprived of spiritual life; the holy Spirit left his soul; he lost the divine image, became corrupt in his moral nature, fell under the dominion of sin, and the power of spiritual death: his natural constitution underwent a great change; the seeds of death were sown in it, and he became a mortal man: he was, moreover, ashamed, fled at the voice of his Maker, and vainly attempted to hide himself from his presence. Besides, sentence of death was pronounced upon him by his offended Sovereign; and he became LEGALLY dead. In this sense, he actually died on the very day of his transgression; and thus Jehovah himself has, by his treatment of the culprit, interpreted the real meaning of his own threatening.

That eternal death was involved in the penalty annexed to the first covenant, and that it is most unequivocally denounced against all impenitent sinners, we assuredly believe. But it is plain the word eternal was not used in the threatening against Adam; and it seems to us, that if it had been as plainly and positively declared that he should surely and personally die eternally, in case of violating the covenant, as it was that he should surely die on the day of his eating the forbidden fruit, his condition would have been hopeless. For we believe that when Jehovah condescends to speak to us in human language, he is to be understood according to the common use of words, and that he always means what he says. His truth is pledged, not only in his predictions, as has been taught by some, but in his threatenings too. In the latter he as really means what he says, as in the former: and in fact 3 K

all threatenings have the nature of predictions. Had, therefore, the original commination been expressed in the terms we have adverted to, the case of Adam would have been remediless. But these awful terms were not employed. The threatening was denounced in such language as to render his salvation consistent with Divine truth; in language corresponding to those schemes of mercy which were about to open their treasures of grace and love on this fallen world. Eternal death is now denounced against every sinner; but surely the meaning of the threaten

which they are really understood by the different parties concerned in them, at the time of making them. Jesus Christ, the great Redeemer, did truly endure, as has been proved, the penalty of the law; and if Adam has been saved, it was through the vicarious sacrifice and satisfaction for sin, made by the promised seed of the woman. Sincerely yours,

race shall certainly die eternally; for then who could be saved? The import obviously is, that every sinner deserves this tremendous punishment; and that all who refuse to rely on the satisfaction for sin made by Jesus Christ, shall most certainly endure eternal misery. The true meaning, then, of the original penalty was, that Adam should surely die on the day of his disobedience in the way explained; but not that he should as certainly die eternally. He became indeed subject to eternal death, just as sinners now are; but his salvation was as consistent with the language of the penalty and its real import, as that of any of his posterity who lie under the same dreadful curse.

From the history of Adam no evidence can be derived, to prove that the penalty of the law has failed in its execution, or that the God of truth has ever acted, in a single instance, contrary to the true meaning of his words. Our first parent actually did die, according to the real import of the threatening; and as he from the first expected to be the progenitor of a numerous posterity, and at the time of his fall had no posterity, we have reason to believe that he did not himself understand by the threatening, that his mortal life was to terminate on the very day of his transgressing the command of his Maker; and both promises and threatenings are obligatory, only in the sense in

Age," a late publication.

TO MY INFANT SON.

"Thy mother bade me weave a lay,
A lay of love for thee;
And I with willing mind obey,
Tho' words but mock the fond excess

Tho' tuneless all it be;

Of love, of hope, of tenderness,

Which thou hast wrought in me; And tho' my harp's degenerate chords Faint echoes yield to powerless words. "O, could my heart, flown to my tongue,` Dissolve itself in sound; Or did my harp, now all unstrung, Then would I strike a chord should chain The mind, and draw forth tears like rain,

With dulcet tones abound;

When I am in the ground;
But thou, should heaven thy life prolong,
May'st value e'en this rugged song.
"But it may be, my boy, thy life

Is in its spring to cease;
It may be, that e'er manhood's strife
Thou'lt find eternal peace;
and ne'er should wish of mine be lent
Were wishes potent, to prevent

Thy happy soul's release;
He metes thy days, thou little one,
Who gave thee life-his will be done!
"And this world many a peril hath,
If thou should'st tarry here,
Toils, cares, and griefs, lie in thy path,

And manhood's rough career
Will dash the gladness from thy brow,
The freshness from thy cheek, and thou,
O'er all thou lov'dst, as earth receives
Perchance, may'st shed the tear,
Them one by one, like autumn's leaves.

"But ever pure may be thy breast,

In grief-in joy, the same; And never may dishonour rest Its cloud upon thy name;

But may'st thou early learn to prize
The plaudits of the good and wise,
Alone as real fame;

Nor let the race absorb thy soul,
But keep thine eye fix'd on the goal.
"Thy mother!-never may her eye
Be damp with tears for thee,
Save for those little ills, which try
Thy tender infancy;

And may'st thou to man's sterner worth,
Join her warm heart-her guileless mirth
-Her frankness-constancy;-

Her love, which time cannot estrange, Which knows no ebb-and knows no change.

"And when at length into thy breast
Death's chilling tremors creep,

O may'st thou sink into its rest,
As to a gentle sleep,

Unreach'd by doubt-unchafed by pain→→→
Leaving behind thee not a stain,

O'er which the good may weep; But with thy spirit plumed, to rise To that pure world beyond the skies!"

TRAVELS IN EUROPE FOR HEALTH IN 1820. BY AN AMERICAN CLERGYMAN, OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA.

Bordeaux, August 2, 1820.

My dear Friend,-My sojourn at Bagnieres, (from which my last was dated), was from the 22d of June to the 26th of July; when I left it for the place at which I now date. I think I have received a real benefit from the water, but imagine I continued the use of it too long, as I began to experience some debilitating effects.

Concerning Bagnieres, I have yet two or three things to add to what my last letter contained. The resort of company there, during my stay, was small, and far short (I was told) of what is usual, during the watering season. For this, two reasons were assigned.-The general pressure of the times, felt by all classes, which compels even the votaries of pleasure to curtail their expenditures; and the coronation of his majesty, George the Fourth, which has been fixed for a day in this month; and which is supposed to have detained almost the whole corps of fashionables, from England, who ordinarily make a large proportion of the summer company at Bagnieres. It is not a little odd, how the events of this world are linked together; and what an effect things, apparently the most distant,

have upon each other. One would think the inhabitants of the little town of Bagnieres, in a remote corner of France, could be but little affected by the inauguration of the king of England to his throne. Yet we find it has actually occasioned a very serious deduction from their gains, for the season; and what other mighty effects, in the history of our world, it may give birth to, time must disclose.

Judging from all I have seen, I would say that the inhabitants of Bagnieres are a very quiet, industrious, and temperate people. During my stay among them, I saw nothing like riot or disturbance in the streets; nor did I notice a single instance of intoxication. The people who come in from the country, on market days, have a homeliness and rudeness of dress and appearance, that indicates either great poverty or deficiency of cultivation, and may be both. They generally wear wooden shoes, which, for clumsiness and inconvenience, exceed any covering for the feet I have yet seen. A block of soft wood, is rudely formed into something like the proper shape-into which a hole is scooped to receive the foot. The sole-about an inch thick, is closely set on the outside, with broad headed nails. The wearer lifts his foot, exactly as if a weight was attached to it; taking care as he pushes his step forward,

that the uncomplying covering does not drop off. On a market morning, when the town is crowded, the clattering noise of their feet, armed with these heavy, iron nailed shoes, on the stone pavement, is not a little astounding to the stranger who hears it for the first time.

As it respects religion, Bag. nieres is a very barren region. Among the inhabitants, I did not hear of one Protestant. There is a chapel, and but one, in the town. It is large, and appeared to be amply provided with a corps of priests, who performed frequent service through the week, as well as on the Sabbath. The congregation that attended, appeared thin for the population of the place. A few evenings before my departure, I witnessed a publick fete, or spectacle, that was new to me. It took place directly in front of the chamber I occupied, at the head of the publick square, which furnished abundance of room. A large post, ten or twelve feet high, split into fibres, and filled thick with dry faggots, was set upright in the ground. A bundle of fagots was tied on the top. The whole was very combustible. Just at dark, when a large crowd were collected around, a cavalcade of priests, in their canonicals, issued from the church, bearing wax candles in full blaze. With slow pace, they marched several times round the post, singing some kind of a hymn. At length one of them applied his candle to the faggots, and the whole troop decamped with a very hasty retreat. In a few seconds, the whole combustible erection was in a flame, and the surrounding multitude, who had maintained perfect silence, became a shouting, huzzaing mob. As soon as it was all burned down, and nothing remained but the fiery stump, an universal scramble took place, who should possess themselves of this precious fragment. As it was pretty firmly fixed in the earth, and all above

ground was a fiery coal, it was a work of some time, and no small squabble among the competitors, before it could be uprooted and borne off in triumph by a victorto whom it certainly was a very costly prize, from the burns sustained in getting possession of it. The whole scene seemed to furnish vast enjoyment to the multitude who partook of it. Alas! for the state of mind, which could receive enjoyment from such folly. And alas! for the degradation to which the professed ministers of God, let themselves down, in lending their services, and prostituting the ordinances of their religion, to such a purpose. I learned it was a fete in honour of some saint-But a queer saint he must be, who would count himself honoured by such a fete. The remnant of the burnt stump was supposed to have become impregnated with precious efficacy for a variety of purposes; which rendered it the object of such fierce contention among the crowd, who should gain possession of it. During the exhibition, I was forcibly reminded of the tragic scenes of burning heretics, for which the church of Rome has rendered herself so famous. I had no doubt but it was a memorial of something of this kind, and could hardly help thinking that the saint (I forget his name, as he is not within my very limited acquaintance with this reverend fraternity) must have acquired his saintship, in part at least, by his meritorious services in scorching heretics.

Bagnieres is the only place where I have been treated with the least disrespect on account of my religion; though my standing, in this respect, has been generally known; and here the ground of complaint has been very small, and of a kind only to awaken pity, while it provoked a smile. The chambermaid, who acted in the capacity of cook and waited on the table, rendered her whole services under manifest indications of re

luctance and terror, lest she might contract some pollution. At first, her disobliging manner, with shrugs and shudderings, surprised me, being so totally different from the studied respect and sycophancy of the whole serving tribe every where else. I was not long in surmising the cause yet the application of a little of that precious article, which answers so many valuable purposes, though it produced a degree of conciliation, failed to overcome entirely the repugnance which at first was so strongly marked. Religious prejudices take the fastest hold of the mind, and are the most difficult to overcome; which furnishes a strong admonition to take heed how we indulge them in ourselves, or foster them in others. The individual whom we view under a mistake that endangers his salvation, ought to be regarded as in the first class of the unhappy, for whom we should feel double compassionwhom we ought to treat with special tenderness, that by offices of love we may win him over to the truth. It would be well if Protestants always acted thus, instead of return ing hatred for hatred, and contempt for contempt.

Having concluded to remove to this place, I took passage in a voiture de return, for Agen, going by the way of Tarbs and Anch. The voiture is a species of hack carriage, owned by individuals, to be met with frequently in the south of France. They take passengers for a stipulated sum to any quarter, and return empty, or with such way passengers as they may be able to pick up. Meeting with one of them on its return to the place which you wish to go, you may often obtain a passage in it for less money and with greater comfort than in the publick stage, where you are liable to be crowded, and sometimes with very unpleasant company. To guard against imposition, I wrote an article, in which Monsieur, the owner of the carriage, obligated him

self for 30 francs to convey Win his voiture to Agen, travelling by the best routes, stopping at the best inns, and in all things consulting the comfort of his said passenger. At signing, the owner of the voiture put into my hands two dollars, as confirmation of the agreement and security for its faithful performance, for which he received a receipt. Such is the way in which a matter of this kind is usually managed here. I was two nights and part of three days performing this journey, which proved a very uninteresting one, as I was without all society, except that of the driver. Many towns and a great variety of country fell under my notice. But my curiosity has become somewhat blunted, and both town and country have ceased to awaken the interest I formely felt. The harvest had been some time over, and the inhabitants were generally busy in thrashing and cleaning their grain. In these operations I perceived much to corroborate the remark I have often made, that the French people are very far back in the business of agriculture. Their thrashing was generally performed in the open air, on earthen floors. I have seen eight or ten persons, men and women, in mixed company, some with rude flails, and others with long poles, beating out the wheat on the ground by the road side. In cleaning their grain, the nearest approximation to a fan which I saw, was two men exciting the wind by a large cloth, moved quickly between them. Some used the shovel, to toss the grain from one part of the floor to another. Others riddled it before the wind, when it blew sufficiently strong. I was told of a fan, lately brought to Toulouse, as a new invention; the owner of which carted it from one farm to another, and for hire, assisted in cleaning the grain. It pained me to see so much of the drudgery performed by women. Surely civilization is wanting where