no pains to accomplish so desirable an object, and was often employed in offices of mediation. Here he shone-his candour and kindness gaining the confidence of each; his mildness disarming those that were offended; and his wisdom and influence procuring mutual concession, frequently mutual reconciliation: whilst where he did not see this result, he never lost the good will of either party. He mourned over the divisions of the world and the church, and the strife of individuals; and lamented the evils he could not cure.

"He was a man of trust, and never divulged a secret confided to him. His general prudence prevented this, his great delicacy, and his great care as to what he said, so that his friends were under no apprehensions in opening their minds to him, or making him acquainted with their affairs; for they felt assured that, even if he saw their imperfection or imprudence, he would bury it in his breast, and not discover their concerns. This added greatly to the value of his character, and made his friends feel more easy in his society.

"His delicacy was partly the result of all his other qualities, and partly an original faculty given him by God. But it spread a charm, and a glow, and a glory round all his other excellencies. It led him to weigh his words, and measure his expressions; to consult the feelings of all with whom he had to do. It gave him an instinctive perception of what was proper, and led him to the truest politeness, without thinking of its rules. Thus all who were honoured with his acquaintance loved him, and loved him the more the longer and the more they knew him. After more than four years eating at his table, daily and friendly intercourse with him, in all circumstances and in all frames; after habits of daily and interesting conversation on all subjects, and intercourse of all kinds; after seeing him in the retirement of domestic life and the privacy of his own family, in the most common and the most trying circumstances, my esteem for him increased, my confidence in him, and my affection for him. I have received innumerable proofs of his regard; I owe him much for the influence, silent and powerful, of his society, his spirit, and example. I feel poorer in the most precious article this world contains since he left it; and I feel assured that he is now near the throne of God, and singing the praises of redeeming love.

"His life was chequered and varied. He rose to wealth and influence by the peculiar providence and blessing of God. He had trials in his affairs and connexions of the most painful

kind. He had many sorrows, rising from his keen sensibility to these trials, and partly from his concern respecting his eternal interests. But his principles were unshaken, though his frames varied; his friends never had fears for him, whatever he might have for himself. His affliction prevented his expressing much on his death-bed, but what he said shewed that all was well: and now he has entered into the joy of his Lord.

"The loss of such a man is a public calamity. Every good institution will feel it more or less; for to all of them he was a benefactor. He was one of the few distinguished men of the last generation, who helped to introduce that liberal and princely spirit into religious and benevolent affairs that is now diffusing itself through the nation, and is pregnant with so many mercies to mankind, and is probably the harbinger of the latter day. Happily the cause of Christ depends not on individuals, nor on man, but on Christ himself: and he has the residue of the Spirit, and can raise up instruments to accomplish his purposes, or accomplish them, without their agency!"

For ourselves, we can truly say that every view which we have obtained of the interesting character whom we have thus introduced to the contemplation of our readers, whether from our own observation, or the testimony of those who knew him best, has only tended to deepen our veneration of his virtues, and our regret for his loss. Such examples of ardent piety, of inflexible integrity, of diffusive benevolence, combined with deep commercial speculations and extensive mercantile engagements, are indeed of rare occurrence, and when they do occur, every care should be taken to preserve the record and perpetuate the memory of their worth; as well for the instruction and encouragement of those who occupy the same station of difficulty and of danger, as for the honour of him who made them to differ. We write no panegyric, we pronounce no eulogy: "By the grace of God, they were what they were."

33

The Free Agency of Man compatible with the Divine Decrees.

THE object of the present paper is to illustrate and establish the proposition, that the free agency of man is a doctrine perfectly compatible with the decrees of God—and that the proof of the one doctrine by no means impairs the validity of the other. That God is in himself, in the highest possible sense of the term, a free agent; and that his own decrees can have no influence, in any way, to diminish or impede the exercise of his free agency, is, we presume, a principle universally acknowledged by those who admit the being of a God: and with the free agency of angels, or the inhabitants of other worlds, supposing other worlds to be inhabited by intelligent creatures, like our own, we have nothing to do. Our sole business, at present, is with ourselves; and so indeed, in such inquiries as these, it always ought to be: nor should we ever presume to meddle with the manner of the Divine administration, with regard to other beings, till our destiny becomes linked in with theirs; or God commits, in some way, the responsibility of their government to us. And we shall find the question intricate enough, as it regards ourselves, without plunging into difficulties with which we have no concern; and perplexing ourselves with parts of the Creator's ways, far removed from the scene we occupy, and that department of his boundless administration under which it is our lot to live. We shall endeavour, then, throughout the whole of the ensuing discussion, to confine our subject within the limits we have thus laid down: and, as the basis of our observations, beg leave to call the attention of our readers to the two following passages of Scripture. Ephes. i. 11—13. "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation." Acts, ii. 23. "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." And we unite these two passages as the foundation of that train of thought which the present paper is to embrace, because, together, they not only necessarily involve the question to be discussed, but they furnish an ample illustration of the principle, both as it respects those who receive, and those who reject the Saviour. Here, the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God-the

counsel of his own will-which, whatever interpretation may be put upon them, are only different modes of expressing his purpose or decree, are distinctly named; independently of which, neither the Jews could have murdered the Messiah, nor the Ephesians have welcomed him by faith. Whatever the nature of that connexion may be, there is evidently recognised by the Apostles, Peter and Paul, a real and necessary connexion between the murderous deed of the Jews, and the Divine counsel, in the one instance; and the faith of the Ephesians, and the counsel of his will, in the other: and yet the deed of the Jews is justly represented as a horrible crime, involving the most aggravated guilt on the part of its perpetrators, which could not have been the case if they had not been, in the proper sense of the term, moral agents, and, strictly speaking, free in what they did; while faith in Christ, it must be admitted on all hands, is not the mechanical movement of a being reduced by the necessary operation of certain fixed and determinate laws to the condition of a mere automaton, but the voluntary act of an intelligent creature, and the noblest exercise of his free agency. We are well aware of the misconstruction and abuse to which so distinct and ample a declaration as this, which at the outset of the argument we deem it necessary to make, is liable; and shall endeavour more fully to guard the propositions we have thus laid down, hereafter. For the present, let it suffice to observe, that by the voluntary act of an intelligent creature, is meant an act done with the full consent of the will;—and no man believes in Christ against his will;—while, unquestionably, the noblest act of which man, as a free agent, is capable, is to receive Christ as he is offered in the Gospel, in the exercise of a faith which involves the entire subjection of his will to this divinely appointed method of salvation.

Now, it does appear to us that the case is clearly made out by the texts which we have referred to; and that minds less vain and curious than ours would be fully satisfied with the Divine declaration on the subject, and for the unravelling of all that is mysterious and intricate connected with it, would patiently wait the disclosures of that day when the light of eternity will be thrown alike upon the scenes of Providence, the pages of revelation, and the dispensations of God, and we shall study them with a mind braced up to nobler efforts of thought, and expanded to a wider grasp of comprehension.

But vain man is not so easily satisfied: the testimony of God, and the promise of future information, are not enough to quiet his anxieties, or repress his curiosity. He must know

the why and the wherefore of every doctrine, and understand the mode and manner of every truth submitted to his observation, and presented to his faith and often, in his daring pursuit of forbidden knowledge, he passes beyond the limits which the Creator has thrown around the powers of a finite mind; plunges into the secret things that belong alone to God; and is justly punished for his awful temerity, by the vexation and disappointment that attend his inquiries, or the fatal influence which its own speculative propensity is permitted to exercise over the best interests of the spirit that indulges it. It not unfrequently happens that a man loses the spirituality of his mind in the labyrinths of metaphysical disquisition, and returns with the wreath of victory upon his brow as a theological disputant, but dreadfully wounded in his peace, and mangled in his character as a disciple of Christ. The heat of polemical discussion, and the glow of ardent piety, agree not well together; and he is the best Christian, and the happiest man, who is most contented with the simple declarations of Holy Writ, and least agitated by the desire of knowing what God has not condescended to reveal, or the human mind is inadequate to comprehend.

We said that there were limits to the powers of the human mind; and no one can dispute it, who admits that there is any difference between the finite and the infinite; for this is that very difference,-the finite has limits, the infinite is unlimited. However vast may be the capacities of a created mind, and however extensive the field of observation and of knowledge in which it is permitted to expatiate, yet still there must be limits to its powers and to its range; and all beyond those limits is infinite. It may, indeed, be a question with some, whether the question now before us comes within those limits, or can be fully apprehended by the powers of the human mind, at least in their present state of degradation and confinement. Nevertheless, it is a most interesting and important subject of inquiry: consequences of the utmost moment, deeply affecting other essential doctrines in the Christian system, are dependent upon it; and much that is of a practical tendency may be connected with its discussion. We are willing, therefore, with much deference to the opinions of others who may differ from us on this point, to state what we conceive to be the testimony of Scripture concerning it; and to point out those important practical results, without a due consideration of which, the discussion of such a subject would be worse than trifling.

The Divine decrees are the eternal purpose, will, or plan of