would be in the time of peril. But how unmeaning the terms, if no atonement is admitted! What is the advocacy of Christ "the Teacher," Christ "the Exemplar ?" Suppose that a king should send an officer of state to proclaim his clemency to a number of rebels, and having set before them the benefits of subordination and good government, they should repent: does this officer become their advocate and intercessor by what he has done? Or, in other words, does the fact that he has been on an embassy constitute the great reason why they should be forgiven? Surely not. But, if he had paid a ransom for these men from his own resources, and had a place at court to see that their pardon, whenever they applied, was signed and sealed, he might well be called their advocate and intercessor. But it will be said in reply, Christ is our Mediator, because he was the internuntius between God and man. True, when he was on earth; but now that his work on earth has ceased, of course, according to this system, his Mediatorship has expired! But our views of the Mediatorship of Christ are more in consonance with those of the Bible, which represents that "he ever liv

46 How the Father is greater than Christ.

eth" for this purpose, and that he will not cease to administer between God and man, till the end:--when he will give up the mediatorial kingdom, and no such distinction will any more be known between God as Lawgiver and Christ as Mediator, but the purposes of redemption being accomplished, God, the undistinguished Deity, will fill every relation to the universe, and be "All in All." We observe here, that our views of the mediatorship render it easy to explain every passage which speaks of the inferiority of Christ to God. So that when he says, "The Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do;" and, “I can do nothing without the Father," we are warranted by the context to understand him as saying, that their will and purposes are inseparable, and not that he is an inferior being. 'You say,' addressing the Jews, 'that I speak these things in my own name, and dishonor God; I hereby profess my subjection to God in the work in which I am engaged, and own him as my superior in the kingdom of grace.' Would a mere man have dared to say, 'My Father is greater than I? There is not a passage in the Bible respecting Christ which

The Unitarian at the Sacrament. 47

we cannot easily explain, retaining our present views of him; every thing is obvious and natural on the supposition of his two natures; but rejecting his deity, we are troubled on every side with passages which speak of a pre-existent nature, divine attributes, and the atoning efficacy of his blocd. Amongst conflicting systems of philosophy, men choose that which explains the greatest number of existing pheAs philosophers, then, we embrace

nomena.

the Evangelical System.

We have often asked, with what feelings our friends of this religious persuasion celebrate the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper? With their views of Christ, it would be to us a mere matter of sentiment, provided we could keep out of mind the awful significancy of the symbols. We should prefer that the minister would dispense with these symbols, and read those parts of the Saviour's history which present the moral beauty of his character. would be interesting, if he would bring before us his pure precepts, and let us spend the time of Communion in meditating upon some one of them, to make it the rule of our life till the next Sacramental season. All this we might

Or, it

48

The Unitarian at the Sacrament.

C

and should be willing to do "in remembrance" of Him, if we had their views of Christ. But oh! that blood! that blood! The awful consciousness of a mysterious meaning in it which we did not believe, but which ever and anon would wake up in the soul, would fill us with agony. And that broken body! Oh! there is something here, we should say, more than precept and example. This blood,' a voice would whisper, was shed for many, for the remission of sins.' This ordinance, so impressive and sublime from its very simplicity, must be something more than to remind us of a Martyr to the cause of truth. And then passages of corroborating import would come into the mind; how that "he died for us, that we might not perish, but have everlasting life;" that "he delivered us from the wrath to come;" that in him "we have redemption through his blood," and there would be a constant effort during the whole service to persuade conscience that these passages were all 'figurative.' Thus the communion season would always be anticipated with feelings of no pleasant nature, till we had seared ourselves against the love of Christ.-Gladly would we be excused from

The Unitarian at the Sacrament. 49

bringing forward a passage in the book before us relating to this subject. We wonder that it could have been written; but we should suppose that it would remove every remaining doubt in the mind of a serious inquirer respecting the ability of this system, to satisfy the soul. The writer is speaking of the opportunity which the Communion scason affords for contemplative worship.

'Many persons, I am aware, find it difficult so to control their minds as to render these silent

moments profitable. But to such persons the very difficulty becomes a useful discipline, and the occasion should be valued for the sake of it. To aid them in the use of it, and to prevent its running to waste in miserable listlessness and idle rovings of the mind, it might be well that they should have with them some suitable little book of meditations and reflections, which they may quietly consult in their seats, as guides to thought and devotion."

What a secret is here betrayed respecting the feelings of communicants under this system! But is it strange, when we consider that the Sacrament with them must of necessity be a disproportionate and overacted representation of the "Teacher?"

It has been a great object with some minis