To the people committed to his care at Wareham, Teignmouth, and Lyme, "though dead, he yet speaketh," and oh! may they consider and remember that they must meet him (now no longer their pastor and friend) again, even at the judgment-seat of Christ, and, to some, a sure witness against them. May the many impressive sermons preached by

him to the young be revived in their re-
collections; may it lead them to consider
their own mortality, and remind them
that the lesson proclaimed by the death
of their much-esteemed pastor is this,—
"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth,
but the word of the Lord abideth for
ever."
J. C. D.

Sherborne, April 8, 1846.

ON THE VIEWS OF THE LATE REV. JOHN FOSTER RELATIVE TO THE FUTURE PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED.

erring brotherhood of mankind.

He questioned the eternity of future punishment; yet, I must confess, not with that firmness of sentiment and fulness of conviction which we should have expected from a man like him. To me, Foster does not appear to write on this subject as one who finds the ground of his position firm under him. That he had a strong and preponderating bias of feeling for his peculiar views, is sufficiently evident; but his mighty argumentative powers, when called into the field of action, seem cowering down, as if in conscious impotence.

AMONG those highly-gifted and dis- | singular exemption from his fallible and tinguished individuals whom God has raised up to enlighten and bless mankind, Foster stands eminently conspicuous, and, in some respects, perhaps unrivalled. Whilst the writer of this article would most readily admit that there are others far more capable than himself of justly appreciating the excellences of this good and great man, he yields to none in admiration of his genius or veneration for his character. Well, indeed, may I make this affirmation, when to his first published Essays I am indebted for the awakening of my own mind to a class of subjects which have largely contributed to thought and reflection of the deepest interest and importance. In the decline and wane of life I have a most vivid recollection of the rapturous feelings with which the reading of these admirable productions was attended. And I have never found reason to conclude, that there was any manner of extravagance in my early predilections. If judgment has been at all matured and ripened, it is only confirmatory of my first impressions. The mental structure of Foster is, indeed, of gigantic proportions, yet symmetrical an intellectual splendour beaming around it, and its lofty brow crowned with a halo of consecrated glory.

Yet we shall not have far to come to the conclusion of an ancient writer, "I have found an end to all perfection." And I am quite sure Foster would have been the last to claim that for himself which necessarily implied a peculiar and

Nothing like a formal refutation is contemplated of that hypothesis, which this great and good man brought forward by implication rather than in bold and positive relief. A few candid remarks are only designed. A mere thread may be useful in endeavouring to trace a labyrinth.

I have always been delighted in reflecting, that the great palladium of evangelical truth, the doctrine of justification. by faith, came immediately to the mind of Luther from the word of God. Had he, indeed, received his first notion of it from any other source, it would have been supported and substantiated by the same authority; but still, when without any intervening medium, this truth broke full on the soul of that great Reformer from the Bible itself; when God's truth presented itself in God's own light, it very naturally adds to our pleasurable

feeling. But we have not the slightest evidence that the peculiar notions entertained by Foster originated in the examination of the word of God, our only sound infallible guide. No; this was the offspring of his own speculation, leaving, as we fear, scriptural authority too much in abeyance. Not wilfully, not designedly; but unconsciously and unguardedly. And though the speculation itself may be traced up to the most benevolent feelings of a most benevolent heart, yet without the discipline and direction of the word of God, it did but luxuriate into an unfruitful leafiness, which may cast a noxious and blighting shade.

ceive of such a man feeling himself called on to advocate the doctrine of the Atonement; how soon would it have appeared that he was mighty in the Scriptures; that the sword of the Spirit was in his hand; and that there was no resisting the power with which he advocated the truth as it is in Jesus. Instead of this, we have only what very nearly approaches, if it does not quite resolve itself into, mere negatives-a liberty taken with the word of God for which no fallible man can have authority, and the opinions of a few persons liable to mistake and error.

The tendency of such a doctrine I have had in my course through life many opportunities of marking. Its withering effect on preachers and their congregations I have often deplored. Its result has not been sudden and instantaneous; but silent, slow, and destructive, as "a moth fretting a garment." Foster would have the evil counterbalanced in himself, and form an exception; but it would be the exception and not the rule.

It is but doing justice to that great man, of whose peculiar views in this respect we speak freely, to state, that his noble-minded integrity manifests itself in his mode of treating the subject. A man of less mental power, and of lower moral principle, would have glided with a sinuous and serpentine trail amidst the truths of Scripture, and endeavoured to bind, and force, and twist them to suit his own Of its natural and common tendency purposes; but we find nothing of this in I give a single specimen. One of my Foster. No: he tells us that there is "a honoured and beloved brethren in the force in the expressions of Scripture (i.e., ministry, gone to his everlasting rest, in relation to the future punishment of travelled many years since with a gentlethe lost) that may well make us tremble." man of considerable information, fond of And is it not well for us, then, to tremble, discussion, and the devoted advocate of and to leave the matter where God has Unitarianism and the Winchesterian docleft it? All he expresses is, a hope that trine of universal redemption, forming, it is not presumptuous to modify the perhaps, no unnatural connection. There terms "everlasting" and "for ever." was too, a third person in the coach, a But if we venture to do this, how are we young man from the country. The gentleto deal with similar terms, descriptive of man in question, eager for controversy, the blessedness of the righteous? Are soon commenced his tirade against the we authorised to contract or expand the eternal duration of future punishment. meaning of words in Scripture according | During the argument that followed he to our preconceived notions and preju- was delighted to find in the young man dices? He mentions, indeed, a number, one who most zealously chimed in with not large, but of great piety and intelli- all that he advanced. "Ah, sir! how gence, of ministers of his acquaintance, glad I am to hear you; that's just right." several of whom were dead at the time The universalist, pleased and flattered of his writing, who were disbelievers of with such a ready adoption of his sentithe doctrine of future punishment being ments, quite regarding the young man everlasting. But what does this amount as his protégé, inquired, where he was to as evidence? Where are the scriptural going. "To London," was the reply. proofs, which Foster could not have failed On further questioning him as to the to produce, if such were to be found? Con- | object of his journey, the answer was,

"Well, sir, to tell the truth, I am going there because"-but I will not repeat his coarse language; the fact may be stated in other words; he had seduced a poor girl, and left her a prey to shame, sorrow, and misery; and he was flying to escape the pecuniary consequences of such a transaction. Welcome, indeed, the soporific poison distilled into his ear; delivered from the apprehension of the future, he could say, "Farewell, Remorse." True, we shall be told, that there will be long, long-continued punishment, even though limited in duration; but in that state to which we are all hastening, the mind fixes itself firmly and immovably on our final destiny; scarcely taling into account intermediate suffering. Popery has indeed succeeded in making its purgatorial fires appalling to the sense; but then it accomplishes this object by converting the credulity of superstition into the power of substantiating faith. No other system presenting such means and appurtenances.

or dependence can be placed on the highest intellectual powers, even when accompanied by the most exalted piety, unless under the guidance and direction of Divine Revelation?

It must be remembered, too, that Foster was the subject of that morbid sensitiveness which deepens the colouring and exaggerates the features of objects that are painful. His mind, the apartment of a thousand mirrors, both reflected and enlarged, but here and there with something of distortion. We would not call, in religion, any man "Master," yet there are some with whom we can more safely trust ourselves than others, in forming our views on religious subjects; and I must confess that the cool, argumentative, chastened, sober, and scriptural reasoning of Andrew Fuller on theological points, however inferior in the transcendant qualities of genius, renders him, in my humble opinion, a much safer and more trustworthy guide in the doctrinal parts of religion.

I feel considerably astonished that the result rather than the existence of moral evil, which has always appeared to me the Gordian knot in theology, should have been the great difficulty with Foster. If we lay aside that reverential deference which we owe to God, who giveth no account of his matters, how soon shall we find ourselves bewildered and entangled, yet going more and more astray. Shall we not reason with some plausibility, that from the most perfect good nothing but good could come; and that either God's work must have been imperfect, or that there must have been something as the cause of evil, entirely distinct from and independent of himself? The proper answer to objections taken from the existence of evil to its punishment is supplied by the apostle : "Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?"

Perhaps among the whole race of superior intelligences, no man ever formed more elevated and comprehensive views of the Divine benevolence than John Foster. To the imaginings of his commanding intellect, this loveliest perfection of the Deity expanded itself in all its diversified forms of compassion, longsuffering, and mercy. But there was another view he felt himself constrained to take there was a guilty, lost, and miserable world, which could not be excluded from the field of vision. He saw the whole rational "creation groaning and travailing together in pain, even until now." His soul yearned over their final destiny. To ease the pain, amounting to torment in his sensitive nature, he ventured, not daringly and presumptuously, but for the relief of bitter anguish, to travel out of the record, to decide without sufficiently consulting the authority of THE Book, and that on a purely theological There is much we know not now that question, which only the inspired word we shall know hereafter. The present can determine. His motives angels would economy is manifestly so ordered by God, applaud; his conclusions may be excused, that we are to walk by faith, not by sight. but cannot be justified. Alas! what trust | He never acts without a reason; yet,

for the present, often conceals the reasons of his proceedings from us. Surely we ought to say, adopting the sentiment of our Divine Lord, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.”

The hope I have indulged in making this communication is, that on such a subject we may proceed with guarded caution, that it may be scripturally, de

liberately, and prayerfully weighed by all, especially by those who are training for the ministry of the gospel. May they feel their great responsibility, and suffer no human authority to cast its fascination over the mind: a result against which none would bear a stronger and more decided testimony than the eminently great and good John Foster. D. S.

THE SOCIAL TEST;

OR, THE BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY ON HUMAN SOCIETY, AN
EVIDENCE OF ITS DIVINE CHARACTER.

and an infinitely higher object. Civiliza-
tion moves only in the circle of the
present world, and can have no higher
end than the improvement of society as
it is here constituted and with reference
to present advantage. But in the design
of the gospel the amelioration of civil
society must be a secondary object.
Christianity is the religion of immor-
tality its principal element is eternity;
its chief glories will be displayed when
the earth and all that appertains to the
interests of time shall be no more.
it is surely no inconsiderable argument
in its favour, that it has "the promise
of the life that now is, as well as of that
which is to come," that while it moves
on to its final destination, it scatters un-
numbered blessings in its way.

But

THE subject before us is confessedly one of great importance. It brings the system of the gospel to the test of experience; and it will either refute or strengthen the infidel objection against it as a visionary scheme of perfectibility. Christianity addresses us in the language of high and singular pretensions. It claims to be the great restorer of human nature; and while it bears a striking and peculiar relation to another life, it condescends to guide and purify the present. These pretensions have been tried. For nearly two thousand years the gospel has been operating upon a very large portion of individual and social existence. This majestic tree has risen in strength and loftiness, and has covered many nations with its branches. Succeeding generations have plucked its fruit and what is the general testimony? | moral state of the world, when Chris"Do we gather figs of thistles, or grapes of thorns?" A tree is known by its produce. We are very willing that the character of our religion should be investigated according to this principle.

A preliminary inquiry here presents itself, which deserves at least to be noticed; which is, How far the amelioration of our civil and social condition enters into the design of Christianity? It certainly does not stand in the same relation to the social state with civilization. It has a different origin; the one arises out of human necessity, the other flows from Divine mercy. It has a loftier range,

A glance at the religious, social, and

tianity began her beneficent career, will prepare us to appreciate her actual achievements. It was degraded and oppressed in all its political institutions and social relations by gross idolatry and an imperious and cruel philosophy. Idolatry has preserved through more than fifty centuries one uniform unchangeable character. In every age and under all circumstances it has debased the mind, perverted the conscience, obliterated all moral distinctions, and even enjoined the most detestable vices. The great source of all virtue is the moral character of the Deity; and its only law, his will, im