culated to assuage the uneasy sensa tions which the address, especially if his tone had corresponded with it, might have excited in foreign govern ments; and to make them rather fancy, that, in the estimation of calm and reasonable men, whatever might be the views of certain fanatics, they had made full as great efforts in the cause of humanity as could fairly be expected from them. He placed in contrast their conduct in coming to the abolition at once, and that of Great Britain, who had deliberated for nearly twenty years before she adopted the measure, in order to shew that we must give time for sound views to be formed among them, before we could expect their abolition laws to be very strictly enforced. But then, as was well remarked by Sir James Mackintosh, his Lordship had entirely overlooked this difference in the two cases, that the moment our legislature decided that the trade was unjust and inhuman, they had proceeded to its abolition; and they had also rendered that abolition an effective measure. In the case of other nations, their governments had proclaimed their conviction, in the face of the world, that the slave trade was unjust and inhuman, the disgrace of Europe and the scourge of Africa; and yet, notwithstanding this, one of them still continued unblushingly to carry it on, under the sanction of law; and others, more especially that of France, while they professed to abolish and to punish the trade, and while they had solemnly and repeatedly pledged their faith for its abolition, nevertheless seemed to connive at its progress, and to shut their eyes to all its enormities. Their conduct, instead of being open, manly, and sincere, appear ed to be mean, shuffling, and evasive. Though bound, by the obligations of common honesty, to fulfil their express and reiterated engagements, they had virtually violated them all, by permitting the most flagrant acts of slave-trading to take place, almost daily, on the part of their subjects, not only without an effort, but apparently without a wish or intention, to restrain and punish them. And it was for such faithless conduct as this, that

an apology was attempted by the Noble Lord. Now it strikes us, as it did Sir J. Mackintosh, that for the slave-traders themselves some defence might be devised; but for statesmen, whose eyes were open to the evils of the practice; who professed that they saw and felt its cruelty and criminality; who admitted themselves bound by all the obligations of good faith, no less than by those of morality and religion, independently of any conventional engagements, to suppress it; and by whose permission alone it could exist, except in a very trifling. degree indeed;-for statesmen thus situated to be contriving in their cabinets how all these admitted evils, how the desolation and misery of Africa, might be perpetuated, to the pecuniary profit of a few miscreants, without compromising themselves with Great Britain; how her reclamations on behalf of humanity might best be eluded, and her just expectations frustrated; and to be descending for this purpose to all the mean and petty arts of subterfuge, prevarication, and falsehood:-there is something in this conduct which degrades them.. even below the wretches for whose sake they thus sacrifice honour, and principle, and conscience. We have felt it to be our duty to say thus much, because we know that the speech of Lord Londonderry (contrary, we are persuaded, to his Lordship's inten- t tion) has done much mischief on the continent, by tranquillizing the fears of the guilty, whether in high or in low. situations; by giving fresh confidence to the speculators in human flesh; and by weakening the efforts and depressing the hopes of abolitionists. We trust that his Lordship will be led to consider how this disastrous effect may best be repaired; and that at least by the vigour of his representations, and the earnestness of his remonstrances, and the unceasing vigilance of his efforts, he may convince the delinquent governments that they have done him injustice in construing what he meant only as conciliating and soothing language, into any want of zeal for the interests of humanity, or any disposition to regard their bad faith as venial.

No. 236.]

For the Christian Observer.

THE CAUSES, USES, AND REMEDIES OF RELIGIOUS DEPRES

SION.

(Concluded from page 406.)

Honsidered the chief causes
Η
AVING, in two former papers,

which so often give rise to distress
ing fears in the minds of sincere
Christians respecting their state
before God, and endeavoured to
shew the wise and merciful ends
for which our Heavenly Father may
see fit to permit such spiritual af-
flictions to befal his children; I
purpose, in conclusion, to point
out some useful remedies for these
painful apprehensions. Nor must
the endeavour to discover and to
apply the proper remedies be view-
ed as inconsistent with the spirit of
the preceding remarks; for though
doubts and fears may be over-ruled
for our ultimate benefit, they are
not in themselves desirable. The
frame of mind after which we
should aspire, is a steady, though
humble, hope of the pardon of
our sins, and our acceptance with
God, through the obedience and
death of our Redeemer ;-a settled
peace of soul, unshaken by the
hourly perturbations of this change-
ful scene; a peace which can with-
stand earthly sorrow and persecu-
tion, and which is destroyed only
by a
sense of conscious guilt.
With a view to the attainment of
such an habitual frame of mind,
I shall consider some of the an-
tidotes to that undue depression
which has been described.

1. In some instances, the doubts CHRIST, OBSERV. No. 236.

and fears under consideration are closely connected with a persuasion that such symptoms are incompatible with a state of safety before God: and hence they tend to perpetuate themselves; while they intercept those rays of flow from a just perception and hope and comfort which would

application of the scriptural indications of piety. Some Christians have so distressed their minds with a mistaken theory that a conscious certainty of the safety of their state is necessary to salvation, that, if every other evidence of repentance and conversion and faith and sanctification were present, and this supposed one were absent, they would consider that circumstance alone as a proof that their sins remained unpardoned. Taking the occasionally triumphant expressions of some eminent scriptural character as the ordinary standard of the Christian's experience, they argue, that, if their own hearts were in a right state, their sensations and language would be exactly similar. But surely this is greatly to misapprehend the subject; for no where are we instructed in Scripture that enjoyment is necessary to safety, or that the love of God towards us is to be ascertained through the medium of our variable emotions. It is true, that our frame of mind is in one view an important subject for consideration in our daily self-examination-namely, in order to discover what are our general habits, and what the peculiar sins and imperfections against which we need especially to guard. None but the

3 R

Antinomian can inveigh against a vigilant scrutiny into the spirit of our minds and the cast of our character; but it is quite unscriptural to ground our confidence on miere sensations-except, indeed, so far as our sensations may be a test of the sensibility of our conscience; being affected by the discovery of the evidences of remaining sin on the one hand, or of a state of grace and progressive sanctification on the other. The Scriptures exhibit to us the most eminent believers as subject to deep spiritual distress, as well as occasionally partakers of high enjoyments; and they no where intimate that confidence of safety is the lot of all God's servants, or of any of them at all times. We must expect many afflictions while we remain in the present world; they are necessary for the advancement of our faith and patience and why should not that particular species of affliction which arises from distressing apprehensions respecting our spiritual state, be one of the means thus appointed for our maturation in the Divine life? Indeed, as we have already seen, there are various practical benefits which may be elicited from the particular affliction in question; and benefits which, humanly speaking, could not be equally secured by any other process of spiritual discipline. We have therefore no reason to conclude, either from the evidence of facts or from the testimony of Scripture, that the full assurance of faith and hope is at all times, or at any time, essential to a state of salvation. As was before remarked, the most exalted characters mentioned in the sacred records were not wholly exempted from spiritual apprehensions. And even were the fact otherwise, the cases of a few remarkable individuals, who lived in extraordinary times, and were exposed to peculiar trials and persecutions, ought not to be adduced as illustrative of the lowest standard by which to

judge of the ordinary tenor of God's dispensations towards his servants. At periods of unusual difficulty, when the faith and perseverance of those who worshipped the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, were liable to the shock of almost overwhelming perils, it might appear good to the all-wise Disposer to support his persecuted servants by open and miraculous manifestations of his power in their behalf; or, where He might not see this to be necessary, at least to infuse into their minds such peculiar assurances of his favour as would cause them" to glory in tribulations," and to hold fast their hope amidst the depressing circumstances to which they were exposed. Nor is there any thing absolutely to exclude equally decisive, though not miraculous, exhibitions of his goodness in the present day; for there is no narrow limit fixed in Scripture to the elevation to which the faith, the hope, and the triumph of the Christian may rise. But it surely does not follow, that where, for wise reasons, such a settled confidence is not bestowed-as it is not in a large proportion of instances among the most humble and faithful disciples of Christthere is no sufficient evidence of conversion to God. It becomes the dejected Christian, therefore, to examine whether his depression may not have originated, at least in part, from false views of what is necessary to constitute a state of safety; and whether he is not looking, as the evidence of his acceptance with God, rather to those enjoyments which may or may not be vouchsafed, than to the scripturally appointed tests of regeneration and faith.

There are some persons who mistake the confidence to which we have adverted, for that "witness of the Spirit with our spirit that we are sons of God," which is more than once alluded to in the sacred writings. They look for an