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when he is often constrained thus to write and speak under the combined influence of sympathy, friendship, gratitude, and dependence, it would be strange if he were never to express more than he intends, or more, at any rate, than he ought to express How many other causes may lend their influence to brighten the eternal prospects of men, as soon as they are dead, and to obtain the public testimony of serious ministers in favour of their piety, we shall not pretend to decide. The foregoing we believe among the most active and powerful.

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But to return from this digression. We anticipate the agreeable surprise with which some of our readers will learn for the first time from our extracts, that Adams and Jefferson must have been as much distinguished for piety, as for talents and public usefulness; and in turning over the pages of this volume for confirmation, they will look for nothing less than that species of evidence which they have been taught by their Bibles, and their old fashioned religious teachers to regard as essential. They will expect, for instance, the frequent recurrence of such words as faith, hope, penitence, humility, and in the honest simplicity of their minds, will doubtless wish to have more of the Christian experience of the two illustrious individuals, who according to their present eulogists, were so eminently ripe for heaven when they were "caught up" amid the shouts of the jubilee.

But unless other readers are more fortunate than we have been, they will find nothing of this kind to reward their search-nothing about communion with God, deadness to the world, taking up the cross, love to Christ, reliance upon his righteousness and atonement, delight in the scriptures, the sabbath, and the holy ordinances of the gospel. If Adams and Jefferson actually en

joyed and exhibited these and similar evidences of meetness for the kingdom of heaven, we cannot but say that the authors of the present selection have done them great injustice; for they have studiously kept all such evidence out of sight.

It must not be supposed, howerer that these writers have omitted the proofs which they considered as entirely satisfactory, and they have left us to collect them at our leisure. Though we have availed ourselves diligently of the privilege, we are not positive that we have been completely successful. We believe however, that the book contains but two sources of evidence. First, the dying words of the "Sages," and secondly, their patriotic public services. Perhaps too much stress is apt to be laid upon the last words of the dying in every condition of life; and certain it is, that the scriptures make very little account of the manner in which men die, compared with the importance which they attach to "holy living." Still, it must always be interesting to know, how men's thoughts are employed in the immediate prospect of dissolution; and when the soul seems to triumph in anticipation of her deliverance from the body of this death, who can help regarding these dying exercises, as strong proofs, if not the very best that could be given, of preparedness for heaven?

What the all important subjects were, which engrossed the dying thoughts of Adams and Jefferson, and what evidence there is of fervent piety in their last words, will appear from the following extracts. Of Adams it is said, by one of his eulogists, "On the fourth (i. e. of July,) his faculties appeared to sink to eternal rest-nature was about to surrender her office to her God -the cannon of our Jubilee waked the dying patriot to momentary life-he inquired and was told the cause-in the accents of death he

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articulated It is a great and glorious day.' p. 60. By another, "The last words of the venerable Adams were, Independence forever!"" p. 88. "The illustrious Jefferson gave to the world his last declaration, I have done for my country and for all mankind all that I could, and I now resign my soul without fear to my God, my daughter to my country." p. 66. "Death is a debt incurred by all at our birth, and he has lived to little purpose, who when loaded with years and honours, and carrying with him the blessings of posterity and a grateful country, cannot say with our departed friend, (Mr. Jefferson,) I have done my duty on earth, I fear not to meet my Maker.”” p. 326. "Those who surrounded the death-bed of Mr. Jefferson report, that in the few short intervals of delirium that occurred, his mind manifestly relapsed to the age of the Revolution. One of his exclamations was, 'Warn the Committee to be on their guard.' But these intervals were few and short. Reason was almost constantly upon her throne, and the only aspiration he was heard to breathe was the prayer, that he might live to see the fourth of July. When that day came, all that he was heard to whisper was, the repeated ejaculation, Nunc Domine dimittas." p. 424.

We feel ourselves much obliged to the present eulogists for the report, (a faithful one no doubt,) which they have brought to us from the death-beds of Quincy and Monticello; but we are not quite certain that we understand the object of thus recording what fell from the dying lips of the two great men who left the world together on the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence. Was it to prove that they were ripe for heaven, or that their "ruling passion," love of liberty, "was strong in death?" If the latter, the point seems to be established beyond any reasonable VOL. I.-No. V.

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doubt. They died as they had liv ed, with their hearts set upon the independence and glory of their country; and far be it from us to say that they were unprepared for their last change. We do not know; and it is a question which we do not feel ourselves called upon to discuss. Our business is neither to affirm nor deny, but simply to examine all the evidence in the case which the present volume contains. Possibly other and better proofs might have been adduced, but we can judge only of such as are before us." If there is any

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thing decisive in the foregoing extracts it must be this. "I have done for my country and for all mankind all that I could, and I now resign my soul without fear to my God." I have done my duty on earth, I fear not to meet my Maker." Stronger confidence than this, it must be admitted, a dying man could hardly express. But what does it prove? On what foundation does it rest?-the law or the gospel? By grace," saith an apostle, "are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." "Not of works, lest any man should boast." And again: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost."

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We confess it would have been much more satisfactory to us to have been informed, that notwithstanding all the eminent public services of Adams and Jefferson, they at the close of life explicitly renounced all dependence upon their own doings and merits, and expressed a humble, even though it had been a trembling hope of acceptance, through the atonement and righteousness of Christ. Some whose lives have testified most strongly in favour of their unfeigned and ardent piety have in view of the infinite holiness of God, and

their own sinfulness and omissions of duty, "loathed and abhorred themselves" in the hour of death; and not one of this class, we believe, was ever heard to say when going into the immediate presence of his Judge, "I have done my duty on earth, I fear not to meet him."

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If, from the last words of the two venerated patriots of Quincy and Monticello, as recorded in the present volume, we turn to these nineteen eulogists and ask them what the other strong proofs are, on which they rest the oft repeated assurance, that the departed objects of their splendid panegyric have gone to the "realms of bliss," we are told of their great talents, dent patriotism, and eminent public services. And the specifications are such as these. Adams, while yet a youth, uttered a kind of prophecy, which has since been remarkably fulfilled in the emancipation of our country from a foreign yoke, and in its unexampled prosperity under a free government. Jefferson, if not quite so far and clear sighted at first, was not a whit behind his illustrious compeer, in his early hatred of tyranny and attachment to republican principles. Each was known and honoured in his native state, ere the heavings of the revolution were felt, and each contributed, not a little, to hasten the crisis. Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence. and Adams was its most powerful advocate. Both of them were employed on very important foreign embassies, and both contributed much by their talents and unbending integrity, to raise the character of our country abroad. Both were subsequently raised to the highest honours, which a free and enlightened people had it in their power to bestow: both lived to a great age in dignified retirement, rejoicing to the last hour in the liberties and happiness of this mighty republic, and both left

it together amid ten thousand sounds of jubilant festivity.

These and such as these are the only proofs, which after the most diligent and anxious search, we have been able to find in the volume before us, to sustain the positiveness with which it speaks, in so many places, of the glorious translation of Adams and Jefferson from earth to heaven. If other and scriptural evidence of their piety exists, why was it withheld? Will it be said, that such evidence would have been out of place in these popular funeral orations? Then we answer, it is equally out of place, to use the strong language of assurance in them. The latter must be regarded as entirely gratuitous, in the absence of the former. But as great talents, and love of country, and eminent political services, are thought, by many, to be exceedingly meritorious, or to deserve eternal rewards in the "realms of bliss," we cannot dismiss the present topic without a few additional remarks.

What merit, is there, we ask, in being endowed with distinguished natural abilities? And why is not the man who possesses but two talents, if he improves them faithfully, as deserving of commendation and reward as his neighbour who has five, or ten? We have learned from very ancient and high authority, that each will be judged according to what he hath, and not according to what he hath not.' It would be just as rational, and quite as scriptural to reckon a man's stature, or the colour of his eyes, or the height of his forehead, among his qualifications for heaven, as to lay any stress upon mere native talent, however brilliant, or extraordinary. And after all, how much more patriotic were Adams and Jefferson than they ought to have been? Could they have been less so, with out abusing the confidence reposed

in them by their country? And how much more did they do for her welfare, than it was their duty to do? Which of all their illustrious deeds was supererogatory? Was it drawing up the memorable Declaration of Independence? Was it the thrilling eloquence which carried it through all its readings in the great Council of an injured and indignant people? Situated as they were, could Adams and Jefferson have done less without a positive dereliction of duty? And if not, strong as their claim will ever be upon the gratitude of their country, how could they claim any thing on this score from the hand of their Creator? While therefore we repeat, that we have nothing to affirm, or deny, in regard to the condition of Adams and Jefferson now that they are dwellers in eternity, we say without hesitation, that had their labours for the public weal been a thousand times greater than they were, these could never have laid the foundation of their acceptance with God. If they are saved, it is as the publican was eighteen hundred years ago; and relying wholly on the merits of Christ, they must have felt as he did, that they were miserable sinners.

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There is one topic more of considerable importance, which had reserved for a prominent place in this article; but which our restricted limits, will now compel us to dispose of, in two or three short paragraphs. We allude to the recognitions of a particular providence, which abound in the present "selection," and which we have not often had the pleasure to meet with in similar productions. They are such as the following. "Does there not seem to have been an especial providence in his death!" (that of Mr. J.) p. 7. "Surely the finger of Providence is visibly stretched forth in this long series of singular and unparallelled combinations of destiny." p. 51.

"May we not believe, that an all-seeing Providence as a mark of approbation of their well spent lives, has been mercifully pleased to grant their last prayer-" That they might be spared till the fourth of July." p. 22. "Let no cold calculating philosophy attempt to ascribe such an unheard of coincidence to natural causes." Query: must it not have been miraculous? "Let not the tongue of infidelity tax us with superstition when we consider this event as a special dispensation." p. 96. "In this splendid coincidence of words, what candid and enlightened mind, what grateful and ingenuous heart, hesitates to acknowledge one omniscient and benignant Providence?" p. 187. "Could they have chosen the day of their death, it would have been the one decreed by Providence." p. 257. It seems then, that the doctrine of Divine decrees is not held exclusively by ignorant fanatics!

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Thus, fellow citizens, have our illustrious countrymen been miraculously gathered to their fathers." p. 60.

Such is the general strain in which these writers speak of the providence of God in the removal of Adams and Jefferson. Whatever may be their views of the general doctrine of a superintending provi dence, extending to the minutest circumstances and events of every man's life, in one thing they seem to be perfectly agreed. Here was the dignus vindice nodus, and accordingly God interposed.

And so far as we can gather from the selection before us, their belief in a particular providence, rests in this case upon two grounds. First, that Adams and Jefferson were very great men, and therefore worthy of such a distinction: but secondly and chiefly, that they both died on the same day, and that day the fourth of July, and most of all, the great day of our political Jubilee. But we have yet to learn that either reason or scripture

makes any distinction in these respects, between the high and the low, the king and the beggar; or between the greatest and the smallest events; the fall of an empire and that of a "sparrow."

The absurdity of recognising the providence of God in great events, and on remarkable occasions only, might easily be pointed out, did time and space permit. Suffice it to say, that every great event is the result of numberless trains of antecedents and consequents, or is made up, so to speak, of innumerable small events, where their combined influence is brought to bear at once upon some important point. Now to say, that God ordered the American Revolution, for example, and yet had no particular agency in the countless millions of events and steps which led to it, is no less absurd than to affirm that he created the world in the aggregate, but did not create the elements and atoms of which it is composed. And what sound philosophy teaches, the Bible abundantly confirms. According to scripture, God is everywhere, and his efficiency, guided by his infinite wisdom, is always in opera

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"In him we live and move and have our being." "Even the hairs of our head are all numbered." His providence was just as much concerned in keeping alive till that time the most obscure individual, who died on the fourth of last July, and then taking him away, as it was in the preservation, and removal of Adams and Jefferson. But here a wide and interesting field opens before us, which we cannot at present enter, though we shall hope to avail ourselves of some future opportunity to return and explore it. In the mean time, let all our readers reflect upon the emptiness of human glory, and posthumous eulogy, and seek for that honour which cometh from God only.

The Death of Christ; being the substance of several Sermons delivered in Park Street Church, Boston, in the month of January. 1826. By S. EDWARDS DWIGHT, Boston. Crocker & Brewster, No. 50 Cornhill. 1826.

THE subject of the Atonement made by Christ has recently awakened a deep sensation of interest among all classes of Christians in our country. Those who embrace the doctrine, that a proper atonement or expiation was made by the death of Jesus, have been roused up to a defence of this sentiment, by the bold and animated opposition which has been made against it

while those who have been engaged in making this opposition, seem not disposed to yield in the contest, nor to abate the force of the assaults which they make upon their opponents.

It is indeed a matter of deep interest, whether the doctrine in question be admitted or rejected; one of much deeper interest than its opponents seem willing to acknowledge. If there is any one truth, which is fundamental in the Christian system of doctrine, if there is any one thing, which constitutes a ground why Christianity should be regarded as a religion peculiar and distinct from all others; it is the atonement made for the sins of the world by the death of Christ. Leaving every form and species of polytheism out of the account, (because the difference between worshipping a plurality of gods and one God is so palpable and striking that all men at once discern it,) we may say with truth, that Christianity in many of the doctrines which it teaches, and of the duties which it prescribes, does not differ in any important respect from several other systems of religion. Modern Judaism, Mohammedism, and Theism, agree in

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