despaired of. What new materials have we? Christianity rests externally upon historical evidence, to which no additions of importance have for a long period been made; and internally upon records to which nothing can be added,-which have been so thoroughly searched and sifted, as to admit no hope of making farther discoveries. All that time, research, activity, fervour, and strength of intellect could accomplish, we may conclude, has been accomplished. The sole materials for the solution of the question are before us. They are probably in their purest state; and no farther subsidia can be anticipated. What then is the main object of Christianity? Is it, to furnish a code and exemplar of moral action-to sanction the natural laws of morals-to bring life and immortality to lightto warn the world against the wrath to come-to confirm the antecedent revelation of the origin of evil-to teach us that by the atonement of the Son of God in the nature of man the effects of the Fall are, to a certain extent, obliterated, and that we are once more rendered eligible to the glories of a future state? All, or none, or which of these? Singly, or variously combined, at one period or another, and by writers of great power and authority, these have each been concluded to be the main purpose of the Messiah's commission. The fair inference will be, not that, because more than one purpose has been detected, all are wrong; but that all may be right, though no one of them be the single and exclusive object. They constitute the elements, in fact, of the true theory of the Gospel; and enter, each of them, into the one comprehensive and ultimate aim of revelation-the restoration of man to the favour of his God.

The great fundamental doctrines of the Gospel are, we believe, much more generally admitted and inculcated than is usually supposed. Christians of almost every sect and division, though professing to differ on essential matters, but in reality perhaps differing only in the degree of importance attached to particular points-concur in representing Christ as the head and source of our redemption, the basis and strength of all our reliance and our hopes; and, with some few exceptions, universally acknowledge the belief, that our virtues have not in them that quality which entitles them to reward, and of course, do not and cannot secure the salvation of any man. A full unwavering faith in the Author of our religion, accompanied with abandonment of self-confidence, is almost every where professed, and taught as the peculiar doctrine of Christianity. Some indeed think these doctrines not only undeniable, as they truly are, but so impossible to be misapprehended, that they

will enter upon no defence, and scarcely into any explanation of them; and thus unwisely subject themselves to much miscon→ struction. Whilst others, in an honest but hasty zeal to prevent misapprehension, which they suppose possible enough, may sometimes seem almost to lose sight of the doctrine of Christian faith, in urging the obligations and advantages of virtuous conduct. But a little experience and candour will convince us, that the greater number of those who insist most absolutely upon Faith, so far from intending to depreciate good morals, concur with St. James, and believe that Faith cannot exist without good morals; and, on the other hand, that those who are most urgent in enforcing good morals, do so in obedience to the injunctions of Him, from whom they firmly believe all their spiritual blessings are derived.

We have said thus much in order to set the question more fairly before our readers. To this important "Inquiry" Mr. Lloyd's attention was drawn, he tells us, by the "attempts, which he perceived infidels and fanatics are making to annihilate the practical influence of principle, and to merge the importance of theological tenets into sincerity of belief." That such is the tendency of the age, not merely of infidels and fanatics, the signs and symptoms are too decisive to leave room for doubt. The prevailing desire is manifestly to cast aside all collateral and minor and unessential considerations; and to cut the way through all impediments straight to the root and principles of every question. The progress in the march of real knowledge has, of late, been rapid beyond all precedent. Vast piles of learned rubbish have been swept away before the temple of Truth, and her walls have been scaled with most felicitous audacity. Questions of general interest, moral, judicious, and political, have been fearlessly and successfully traced to their genuine principles, and all attempts to re-mystify them will be labour in vain. Success stimulates to new efforts, and prompts to bolder and more presumptuous views.

As the subject of paramount importance, Theology, beyond all others obscured by contentions and technical phraseology, must, in its turn, undergo the same disencumbering but purifying process. Unhappily it has been approached not only with the same ardour, but with as little respect and reverence. The discussion is taken out of professional hands, and is every day treated with less and less ceremony, not so much from the darings of profanation, as from a prevalent desire to pluck out the "heart of the mystery." The subject manifestly concerns every man, and one person, with equal abilities, thinks himself, suâ Minerva, as competent as another to handle it. The es

sence of every question seems to lie in a nut-shell, or to be reducible to those convenient dimensions. A species of Encyclopædia acquirement makes sciolists by thousands. It is but to trace the outline, and you embrace the whole. It is but to seize the prominent points, and the rest may be disregarded. Thus it is asked, What is the object of religion? And it is answered, To make men virtuous citizens, and ultimately denizens of heaven. It is enough to be assured that immortality awaits us-virtuous conduct must secure the possession of it. To these simple elements, as they are precipitately deemed, is the Christian religion gradually reducing among those who do not yet renounce its hopes, but, bustling in the business and pleasures of life, refuse to give to the momentous subject a larger share of their thoughts than to any other matter of general interest.

This reckless course too surely tends to the deterioration, if not the destruction of religious influence-a tendency (directed not only by infidels and fanatics, but by the general spirit of the times) which Mr. Lloyd sees distinctly, and with good reason deplores. He perceives its hostility to the reception of doctrinal, and therefore of all influential religion; and, with the full conviction of its vast importance operating strongly on his own mind, he sets himself seriously to shew the necessity of religious belief, not merely in generals, but in particular tenets. This determined opposition to prevailing error is worthy of one who knows how to value his high commission, and is resolved to acquit himself of it to the best of his judgment;—but in the present instance, we fear that an unattainable object is contemplated a state of things to which perhaps there is no return, and certainly no immediate return. Mr. Lloyd's views, pure and evangelical as they are, are compatible only with great simplicity of manners. Ours is a restless and ambitious stage of society, each set and class and rank labouring to climb up into the one above it, and aping its fooleries. Fashion predominates. Display and pretension, servility and adulation, sweep before them the humbler and calmer and nobler principles of action. Rigour and inflexibility relative to religious tenets are deemed an evidence of rustic naiveté, and almost of niaiserie. Scarcely will our own language supply expressions of equivalent levity. If ever society retrace its steps, disappointment and vexation of spirit must point the way-conviction of the vapidness and vanity of those pursuits which engross so large a portion of the public mind. Let the signal of retreat once sound, and the views and counsels and motives of the Gospel will powerfully precipitate the returning career; but till that crisis

arrive, however vigorous and well-directed be the efforts of those who labour to enforce them, they will fail of their deserved effect. They are not calculated to meet the existing exigency, and in fact scarcely make any impression. Severity is repelled by levity, and ridicule baffled by scorn. The brain is absorbed in the acquisition of wealth and influence, and the better feelings in the pursuits of temporal enjoyment.

Insensibility to moral considerations is but a barren field for spiritual exertions. Mr. Lloyd, however, enters fearlessly upon his task. He neither truckles nor temporizes; but resolutely sets forth the principles of the Gospel; and taxes his ingenuity, and exhausts his powerful declamation, in pointing its claims, and enforcing its motives: The reader must look for no consecutive tracing up of the subject of his inquiry. He will find no assemblage of particulars, and deduction of principles, but a strong declaration of the author's own settled convictions-the result and sum of meditation-somewhat embittered by horror of the aberrations of sectaries.

"It appears," says Mr. Lloyd, "that to teach and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in its full extent and comprehension, embraces every part of the Christian religion, not only its internal, but external evidences, a defence of its outworks as well as a critical examination into the sense of scripture." Again, to the question, "What is it to preach Christ, in a more direct and circumscribed manner?" he answers, "In this more limited statement of the truths included in the promulgation of the gospel, I comprehend whatever God has, in his infinite wisdom and condescension, been pleased to reveal of the divine and human nature of Christ, and of his mediatorial character and offices."

In a still more definite sense, however, to preach Christ is to preach the Atonement. Our author exhibits this as the one great event, which not only secures the justification of the sinner, but constitutes the most constraining motive of obedience. The whole doctrine of revelation gathers round this central point. The whole economy of the universe is referrible to it; every duty is traceable to this source; and all and every part of our conduct is to be generated, regulated and sanctioned by this one high and awful consideration. Mr. Lloyd's lofty and forcible language shrinks before his attempts to describe the magnitude of his conceptions on this absorbing topic.

"What argument can be so affecting, or make such a triumphant appeal to the heart as that simple, but sublime declaration, God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,' We

may contemplate the divine glory in the firmament above us, and its numberless orbs of light; or as it is displayed in the diversified productions of the earth, and more especially in its diurnal and annual revolutions, by which we enjoy the constant succession of day and night, and the harmonious vicissitudes of the seasons: these, and other phenomena of nature, proclaim with a powerful though silent eloquence the majesty and goodness of our great Creator. But these bright manifestations of his perfections are eclipsed by the greater work of redemption,-by the transcendant gift of his only Son,-by His mysterious assumption of the body prepared for Him, and by His voluntary oblation of it for us men, and our salvation. This is that wonderful and inestimable gift that comprehends all other gifts; it lies at the foundation of our temporal no less than of our spiritual blessings. The primary doctrine of forgiveness, through the seed of the woman, is that original promise which rises like the morning light upon a benighted and guilty world; and all the subsequent dispensations of the gospel are but the gradual evolution of this prophetic promise, which expands daily into a more luminous fulfilment. How admirably suited is such a proclamation of free and unmerited mercy to operate upon the ingenuous part of human nature, and to become the source of that heavenly hope, which purifies, whilst it consoles the mind. Standing at the foot of the cross, and looking to Him who died thereon, with the eye of penitential faith, a flood of light, above the brightness of the sun, has often illuminated the gloom of despondency, and tranquillized the tumults of the soul. This light is not that cold speculative light which amuses only the understanding; it is the light of life, a light that vivifies, invigorates, and warms the affections, and at the same time enriches the soul with the lovely fruits of righteousness and true holiness. The black Ethiopian may look long enough at the visible sun and not be changed; but he who thus looks to the Sun of righteousness shall be enlightened and transformed into that divine image, which has been so awfully defaced by the fall. For what is the gospel but the gracious interposition of celestial mercy for the deliverance of fallen man! It is mercy coming down from the throne of righteousness in the person of our Redeemer, that she may brighten the prospects, and revive the dejected spirit of the humble penitent. When all around him is dark and tempestuous, she opens to him a refuge from the storm; safe and secure, he hears the thunders only at a distance, and lifts up his eye to heaven, radiant with hope, and glistening with gratitude. The gospel is emphatically the glory of sinners, not of the innocent, but of the guilty. Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance; He came to seek and to save that which was lost, and requires only a serious sense of our need of mercy, and an earnest application for it, that we may obtain it. Indeed the cross of Christ exhibits such an assemblage of all that is sublime and lovely in moral excellence,-such unsullied holiness, such inexorable justice, combined with such an unfathomable depth of divine love, that it tends far above all other subjects in the scriptures,