waxing more and more terrible, through the whole 28th chapter of Deuteronomy. It is true, that 'punishment is God's strange work ;' but is equally true that he has never governed the world a day, since the fall of Adam, without it. The historical books of the Bible are almost one unbroken record of man's disloyalty and of God's threatenings and punishments. And it is worthy of special remark, that he chastises his friends as well as his enemies, when they forget their proper allegiance.' 'If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.' I say again, therefore, that if family government can be maintained without penal sanctions, it is an anomaly in human legislation; and in divine legislation, too, so far, at least, as this world is concerned. But is there any such delightful anomaly, save in theory and imagination? Aside from the experience of thousands of years, who could soberly believe that the very same fallen and depraved beings, who require so many volumes of penal statutes to govern them after they come of age, can be controlled by a mere reason and moral suasion, during the first third part of their lives? And then, when we come to consult the great arbiter, experience, in regard to this matter, I venture to say, that no hundred, or even ten families, taken at random, in any community, were ever kept in proper subjection, without the aid of rewards and punishments. Let the very few favored parents, (if there are such,) who can govern their household without penalties, or who can make their penalties effectual without ever inflicting them, be thankful to God, who has given them so rare a faculty and such docile children; and let every parent do all he can, by patient instruction, by familiar and affectionate reasoning, by serious expostulation and by solemn appeals to the hearts and consciences of his children; but let no one say, when all those fail, ́ 'I can do more. I have exhausted my abilities and used up my influ If the overflowings of parental love and solicitude; if line upon line and precept upon precept; if the pleadings of natural affection, and if the sanctions of religion-if all these prove ineffectual, I stand acquitted to my own conscience and to God. I can not resort to stripes. Every feeling of my heart revolts at it, and it would do no good, if I should? Let no parent take ground like this, and lay the Hattering unction to his soul,' that he is prepared to meet a ruined and reprobate son at the judgment, till he can prove from the Bible that when all other means fail, there is nothing more for him to do.

ence.

ART. X. Slavery and Literature.

The London Eclectic Review of February, 1839, contains a long article upon American Periodical Literature. That part of it which adverts to the discussions on slavery, I have transcribed as a specimen of the transatlantic criticisms upon that important topic.-Emancipator. "Slavery in America involves one characteristic which inconceivably augments its hideous enormity, and renders its criminality most

heinous. The foundation and strong-hold of man-stealing are in the churches! Whatever may have been its unutterable wickedness in the the West-Indian islands, there it never was baptized with the Redeemer's hallowed name, and its corruptions were not concealed in the garb of religion. That acme of the piratical turpitude was reserved for the professed disciples of Jesus in America, who aver that all men are born free and equal, and possessed of certain inalienable rights, of which by no compact can they divest themselves or their posterity.

"Now it was naturally supposed, that Christian Spectators and Reviews; Biblical Repositories and Repertories, and Theological Reviews and Magazines, as soon as a question of vital importance to practical piety and christian morals' had become the startling topic of discussion, would have girded on the evangelical armour, and under the standard which has been lifted up by the spirit of the Lord, would have encountered that ruthless foe of human rights and human weal, as well as of the kingdom of God, and would have maintained the holy war until victory had been attained by the death of the monster. We should have argued that the descendants of the Puritan pilgrims, as soon as an opportunity was presented to assert the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free,' as responsible creatures at the tribunal of Jehovah, would have rushed to the van of Freedom's embattled hosts, and there have withstood the 'wiles of the devil,' with a moral courage undaunted, and a perseverance steadfast and enduring.

"Alas! some men endeavor to serve both God and Mammon. This has been the case with several of those periodicals; and the friends of the oppressed, with the enemies of slavery, have been in consequence, reviled with a coarseness and virulence as contrary to decorum as it is inimical to the gospel of Christ.

"No characteristic of modern times is more melancholy to the Christian Spectator, than that pusillanimous abandonment of the holy principles and supremacy of revelation, of which many of the American periodicals have on this point, been guilty. There are two circumstances characterizing the traffic of America in the bodies and souls of men, which render their system even more odious than the infamous African slave trade.

"The kidnapping in Guinea and Congo was directed against strangers, whom color, language and conformation, excited not the smallest human sympathy in the pirates who infested those shores. Reckless of all consequences, and without the fear of God, their avowed object was wealth, by any means through which it could be obtained. But American citizens make a regular business of rearing slaves! They violate the laws of God and man, to increase human beings with whom to traffic; and sell their own children and grand-children with no more solicitude, and often with greater satisfaction, than any other of their 'FREE BORN AMERICAN SLAVES!'

"Ministers of the gospel, church officers, and professing Christians of all the principal denominations, buy, sell, nurture, scourge, and drive slaves, their fellow disciples in nume, members of the same church, without remorse and with impunity; and as has been proved in numberless instances, they literally fulfil the prophet's declaration: Their possessors do feed, but slay the flock, and hold themselves not guilty, and they who sell them say-blessed be the Lord for I am rich, and their own shepherds pity them not.' (Zec. xi, 4, 5.)

In addition to the great iniquity, the American slave-holding profes

sors of religion are now sedulously and constantly employed in distorting the holy scriptures into a justification of slavery; and they aver that the relations of slavery in any form are not legitimate subjects of inquiry and discipline for the church. Now when we consider that slavery abrogates the marriage covenant, and with it all domestic rela tionships; that it prohibits instruction to the colored people, bond and free, excluding them from the Sabbath School, and shutting them out from all practical purposes, from the illumination, and sanctity, and heavenly sympathies of the gospel of the grace of God;' it might have been anticipated that the recognized expounders of scriptural truth in those states where slavery is unknown, would have put forth their energies in one omnipotent struggle against a system whose impiety towards God is only equalled by its cruelty to man.

"Instead, however, of this, the Christian Spectator palliates the wickedness, extenuates the crime, justifies the slave-holders, and denounces the opponents of slave-holding christianity. The Biblical Repertory devotes all the erudition and talent which the Princeton College and Theological Seminary embody, to demonstrate that American slavery is not anti-evangelical in theory, or practically inconsistent with religion, or incompatible with an avowed submission to the laws of Christand of course, that slavery is conformable to the Lord's rule of reciprocal equity.

"The Literary and Theological Review unites with the others, and superadds unmeasured invective and vituperation-proceeding even to menace the anti-slavery ministers and churches with public displeasure. "The Biblical Repository and Christian Review has not exactly participated in these obnoxious measures, but they have sung the lullaby of neutrality, which has been equally pernicious as open war. Their silence has been disgraceful to their conductors, and a curse to their country. If there be any one case in which that divine aphorism, He that is not for me is against me,' holds true, it is surely that of slavery, as it exists and is commended on the republican soil of America.

"The Methodist Magazine has gone far beyond most of its contemporaries, and has developed a spirit of censure and denunciation in references to the advocates of abolition, which has completely propitiated the merchants in 'slaves and the souls of men.'

"The wretched subserviency of the religious press, as is proved by the last number of these miscellanies which we have seen, and especially by the Baltimore Magazine, edited by Mr. Breckinridge, who two years ago edified the British churches with his exemplary courteousness and modesty is not amended, but has recently developed characteristics more objectionable than in anterior years.'

ART. XI. The Reformed Presbyterian.

A friend has just put into our hands the February No. of the above periodica!. From an article in it headed, "Charge of Slander Refuted," it appears, that the editor in his No. for August had taken some notice of a charge which we had formerly brought against him, of reiterating an "oft-repeated slander" against the Associate Church. Although we

have sent the Monitor regularly to the editor, we have not received a single number of his periodical for a whole year. We spoke to his "Reformed agent here, respecting this, a few weeks since, but still no Presbyterian" has come to us according to engagement. Hence the proposal which the editor says he made last August might as well not have been made, so far as we are concerned: And perhaps not a half dozen of persons connected with the Associate Church ever heard of such a proposal.

The proposal was this, that if we or any of our Secession brethren would furnish a statement of what we believed on the subject of Christ's Mediatory dominion, it should be published in the Reformed Presbyterian. This was very kind in Mr. Roney. But would it not have answered as well, to publish what we declare on this subject in our Subordinate Standards; e. g. the Answers to the Question, How doth Christ execute the office of a king, in both the Larger and Shorter Catechisms? or even to publish the brief and distinct statement of the Associate Synod on this subject in a Letter addressed to the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, June, 1830? In this Letter our Synod says:

As God

"We assert, in the plainest terms, that the mediatory kingdom of Christ extends to all persons and things. But we distinguish between his essential and mediatory kingdom. over all and blessed for ever, the right to govern the world essentially, belongs to him, and he can no more cease to be the Supreme Ruler than cease to be the Most High God. And to deny this, is, we think, to detract from the glory of his divinity. But while we maintain for the honor of his Godhead, that his essential administration can neither be transferred nor laid aside for a single moment, we also assert that our Lord Jesus Christ has a dominion over all things as Mediator. Eph. i. 17-22."

But notwithstanding of this plain and explicit declaration, the editor of the Reformed Presbyterian makes an attempt to prove, that we confine the Mediator's authority to the church, according to what is stated in Reformation Principles Exhibited, and which we have pronounced a slander. However, his proofs, which he has adduced in refutation of this charge of slander, do most unequivocally snbstantiate it, as they expressly show that Seceders do not, and never did maintain that Christ's mediatorial authority was confined to the church. But we have not time nor room at present for any lengthened discussion of this matter. Only we would say, that although Seceders believe in Christ's mediatorial headship over the nations, yea, over all things, yet it is very probable, that none of them believe in it, in the same sense in which Mr. Roney does. For if we understand him, he makes the Mediator to be head of the Chinese Empire, in the same sense in which he is head of the Church, "which is his body."

In this connection we may also state, that a communication has just been handed to us, subscribed, Veritas et Pax, whose object it is to convict us of a mistake in having said in our April No., that the Reformed Presbyterian Synod had refused to correct certain misstatements of which the Associate Synod had made complaint, and also, that the disclaimer of the latter Synod had not been deemed sufficient.

Our Synod first made this disclaimer in a letter addressed to the Reformed Synod, June 1826, giving at the same time a brief statement of our principles on the several points of our profession, which had been misrepresented. In reply to that letter the Reformed Synod did indeed say, as quoted by Veritas et Pax, that they would "gladly correct any misapprehensions into which they had fallen," &c. This, however, was not done. Our Synod again sent them another letter containing a further statement and illustration of our views on the points in dispute.

Still the correction was not made. After this another letter was sent repeating in brief and distinct statements what we believed, and what we did not believe, in relation to the matters in controversy. But still the correction was not made. At length, after six years from the receipt of our first disclaimer, and in reply to a long letter, the Reformed Synod sent us the following Resolution, which is also cited by Veritas et Pax:

"Resolved, that the committee of foreign correspondence be directed to inform the Associate Synod, that if furnished with a brief and distinct statement of the views entertained by Seceders, on the points in question, such statement shall be embodied in the next edition of our Narrative."

It now seems that Reformed Presbyterians consider themselves justifiable in continuing to embody in their Narrative misrepresentations of the principles of Seceders, at least until the misrepresented party, notwithstanding all the disclaimers and assertory statements they have already made, shall give to their accusers another "brief and distinct statement of their views on the points in question." Whether justice, then, will ever be done us by our Reformed brethren, is made to depend on several contingencies;-will our Synod ever make the proposed statement? if so, will the Reformed brethren consider it sufficiently brief and distinct? and if so, will there ever be another edition of their Narrative, in which to embody it? But enough at present. We may afterwards canvass these matters more fully.

Let our readers judge then how much we were mistaken in saying, "such correction, however, was refused to be made. The disclaimer of the Associate Synod was not deemed sufficient." Nothing but want of room prevents us from giving Veritas et Pax entire.

ceases.

ART, XII. Transfer of the Religious Monitor.

With the present number our connection with the Religious Monitor When Mr. Webster transferred to us his interest in the Monitor, Nov. 1835, he reserved to himself the privilege of resuming it at the end of the present volume, if he should see proper so to do. This privilege he chooses to exercise. We accordingly re-assign to him the Monitor with all its dues. The next No. will be published at Philadelphia. For further particulars we refer the reader to the Advertisement on the cover. There are two or three communications on hand, which will be transmitted to Mr. Webster. In parting with our patrons, we trust we shall not cease to commend them to God and the word of his grace. We thank them kindly for the patronage they have bestowed on us, and for their evident disposition to overlook the defects of the Monitor while under our control. And in now parting with them, it is matter of consolation to us, to think that they may have received some spiritual benefit from our labors.