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not cast a reproach upon good works, and incur the peril of causing them to be neglected? And further, Is not the language of the text in

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o any one who can support this claim, then indeed it shall be rendered 8 to him again." But such a boast would be wholly arrogant and futile. There remains then but one alter-seeming opposition to another denative. Free pardon is provided; not " to him, who worketh;" that is, not to any man either as having perfectly kept the Divine law, or as having any claim in virtue even of an imperfect obedience; but " to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly." We must come as 66 ungodly," casting ourselves wholly on the mercy of God in Christ, and trusting alone to his sacrifice by a true and lively faith. The Gospel does not appeal to us as righteous, or, to use the expression in the text, as "working" it appeals to us as sinners: it provides redemption and justification for sinners, for all who, whatever may have been their past conduct, truly turn unto God through Jesus Christ. It excludes none but those who by their continued impenitence exclude themselves. Its language is," Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat; yea come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." The Saviour demands no previous qualification but that we should feel the burden of our sins, and deeply lament them, and desire to forsake them. Thus approaching with a penitential reliance on his atonement, those sins, though many, are forgiven us, we are justified by faith, we obtain peace with God, we become heirs to everlast sing dife song sd

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1th Such are the plain declarations of the holy Scriptures concerning the justification of a sinner before God; but we must not close our remarks without alluding, in the fourth b place, to some difficulties which may seem to arise from the subject. It may be asked, Is there -not some danger in this representabtion? Mayaot menabuse the grace of God 36 If we are justified by believing, and not by workingrodowe

claration of the same Apostle, where he says, "Work out your own salvation;" and to the whole strain of the Old and New Testaments, in which holiness of heart and life is most earnestly enjoined, and this at the eternal peril of our souls in case of disobedience? These seeming difficulties will be easily removed if we keep in mind that the Apostle in the text is not undervaluing any good work, but only shewing that no human works are so good as to be meritorious in the sight of God, our best obedience being imperfect. Who could be more anxious to inculcate every good word and work than St. Paul? And he did so at the very t time that he shews the exclusion of good works from the office of justifying, and assigns that office to faith only. For what is justifying faith; the faith mentioned in the text? It is not a simple assent; it is not calling ourselves Christians; it is not a bold confidence that our sins are pardoned; but it is such a reliance on the atonement of Christ for pardon and acceptance with God, as is accompanied by sorrow for sin, a desire to obey God's laws, tenderness of conscience, a love of holiness, and newness of heart and life The sinner comes as "ungodly" for pardon and justification, on the ground only of his Saviour's death and merits; and ungodly he remains to the end of life, in the sense of being still a frail and sinful creature, who can lay no claim to the merit of perfectly obeying the laws of God: but he is not ungodly in the sense of continuing a deliberate and wilful transgressor indeed he was no longer such when, guided by the influences of the Holy Spirit, he first came to Christ for justification, for had he continued such, he would still have remained at a distance, uBOBcerned about his immortal interests,

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and heedless of God's commands. The desire that brought him to his Saviour was accompanied by repentance and humility; the faith that united him to his Saviour was the fruitful parent of holiness and good works. Till this justifying faith was wrought in his soul, he had neither the inclination nor the power to do the will of God: he was in a state of alienation and rebellion; but no sooner did he truly believe than he became a new creature in Christ Jesus. At the very time when he rejected the boastful conceit that he could so work, as on the footing of perfect obedience to deserve an eternal reward, and when he was led in self-abasement to cast himself wholly on the mercy of God in Christ, he began for the first time truly "to work out his salvation with fear and trembling; for it was God that worked in him to will and to do of his good pleasure." From love, from gratitude, from a holy change of principle and

disposition, he began to live no longer to himself, but to him who loved him, and gave himself for him. His faith was proved by his works; and without this practical test, in vain would he have hoped that he possessed that justifying grace. Thus, then, the seeming difficulty ceases. Is the law of God made void by the doctrine of free pardon and justification through faith in virtue of the sacrifice of Christ? No: it is established by that wholesome and comfortable doctrine, as our Article so justly calls it. It is shewn that the sinner may be pardoned; that the gate of mercy is opened to all who seek for entrance into the city of spiritual refuge; while it is rendered equally clear, that no warrant is held out to the unchristian and impious inference, Let us continue in sin that grace may abound. "God forbid; for how shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"

MISCELLANEOUS.

NEGRO SLAVERY.-No. VIII. INSURRECTIONS OF SLAVES IN THE

NIDAD-DOMINICA
-DEMERARA.

JAMAICA

rious characters, ringleaders in a plot against the White and free Coloured People, have been apprehended and

WEST INDIES.—ST. LUCIA-TRI- brought into town. Last night was fixed for the commencement of their brigandage. The plot being blown, and every one on the alert, we hope the meditated disturbance will be prevented; but we fear some severe examples will be necessary, and a considerable time elapse, ere tranquillity and discipline be established in the minds of the Negroes. So much for philanthropic speeches, producing misery and bloodshed in place of peace and good order."

AFTER having considered the late insurrection in Demerara, we now turn to the other insurrections which, it is alleged, have been produced in the West Indies by the agitation, in this country, of the question of Slavery.

I. The first insurrection by which the public mind was disturbed was thus announced in the newspapers of the 4th October, 1823:

"Castries, St. Lucia, August, 1823. "Since the account of Mr. Buxton's motion reached this island, the conduct of many of the Negroes has caused much alarm. Three notoCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 268.

Of this formidable plot we have heard not one syllable since it was first announced. We trust, however, that the details connected with it will be called for by Parliament. Of St. Lucia less is 2 G.

known in this country than of any of our other islands. With two facts only, connected with that colony, are we acquainted, and these have greatly increased our desire to know more of its institutions. One is, that a fine is exacted, and paid into the king's treasury, on every act of manumission which takes place there; another, that some years ago a Negro, who was found guilty of running away, had both his ears cut off close to his head by the order and in the presence of a gentleman high in office there. The death alone of that gentleman prevented a motion for a parliamentary inquiry into this transaction. The mutilated Negro, who had escaped from the island, was actually in this country, prepared to exhibit the most incontrovertible proof of the mutilation when the news of the death of the perpetrator of it arrived. So much for St. Lucia.

II. In the newspapers of the 24th January, 1824, was announced an insurrection at Trinidad. The following is an extract from the letter which conveyed this information:-" About ten days since an intended rising amongst the Negroes in the valley of Diego Martin was fortunately discovered, and twenty-three of the principals taken and sent to confinement. The time appointed by them for the purpose was the night of the 1st inst. (Nov. 1, 1823); and although the plot was discovered, yet it was deemed necessary to be on the alert that night." "I question much if any of the twenty-three Negroes taken will be executed. I remember a similar occurrence in 1805," (was this also owing to the interference of a set of people at home, who would rejoice in the ruin of us all?")— "when four suffered, and several had their ears cropped. One of these said ear-less gentlemen was taken up as a principal in the late affair." Here then we have a very fair good plot, as good a plot as ever was hatched. It served its purpose: it spread terror and dismay for two

or three days in Trinidad; and it added to the fears of the timid and irresolute in England. But our newspapers, though they took pains to sound the trumpet of alarm, have not given us any information as to the result of the plot and the fate of the conspirators. We propose tó supply this deficiency.

An inquiry was forthwith instituted by the Government of Trinidad into the nature and extent of this formidable conspiracy; when it clearly appeared that the whole was a mere hoax, and that there was not even the shadow of proof of any evil intention on the part of the twenty-three Slaves who had been apprehended, or of any other Slaves in the island. But how, in this dilemma, was the dignity of the White aristocracy to be saved from ridicule? This was a problem not easily solved. The course actually adopted was to bring the prisoners before the Governor, Sir R. Woodford; who, after giving them a solemn admonition on the duty of subordination, dismissed them to their homes, only exacting from two of then, who, it is said, had been heard to mutter something about that hated word freedom, a promise (their parole d'honneur is the expression employed in two different letters) that they would remain for six months within the local limits of the plantations to which they belonged. Thus has ended the Trinidad plot.

In some respects, indeed, an insurrection in Trinidad is less to be apprehended than in any other of our Slave Colonies. The free population bears to the slave population the proportion of 18 to 22; besides which, the Spanish laws, which prevail in this island, are more favourable to the protection and wellbeing of the Slaves, than the Slave Codes of the British Colonies in general. On the other hand, there have been exhibited of late strong symptoms of a disposition on the part of the local authorities to depart from the salutary spirit of

Spanish legislation. Mr. Stephen, in his admirable delineation of Colonial Bondage, as it exists in point of law (p. 115), has adverted, with his usual force, to an official notification by Sir Ralph Woodford, Governor of Trinidad (which appeared in the London newspapers of the 6th October, 1823), of his having ordered two Negro Slaves to be punished, one with 75 and the other with 100 lashes, for a complaint against their master, which, he says, on investigation proved to be groundless. These tremendous punishments Sir Ralph directs to be inflicted in the presence of deputations of ten slaves from each of the neighbouring estates, for the express purpose of deterring them from like offences. This is in the very spirit of the slave system of Demerara. Sir Ralph deemed it necessary to order that surgeons should attend to watch the application of that West-Indian knout-the cart-whip. We concur with Mr. Stephen in deeming the Governor to be scarcely justifiable in thus awfully adding to the terrors which must always oppose an appeal by the slave from his master to the magistrate. The danger is, without doubt, even in Trinidad, infinitely greater, that cruel and fatal oppressious should be unpunished and unrestrained from the want of a complainant or a witness, than that masters should suffer by the groundless accusations of their slaves. "Sir Ralph," Mr. Stephen observes, "should have recollected that it was impossible so to discourage complaints that are false, without intimidating the poor slaves from bringing forward such as are true. It is probable that a great majority of the Negroes who witnessed these tremendous and solemn floggings believed the sufferers to be innocent, and their story true; and to them at least, if not to all, the practical lesson obviously was-Beware how you complain."

We trust that the papers necessary to elucidate the above trans

action will be called for in Parlia

ment.

But this is not all. The White population of Trinidad have afforded us a recent opportunity to judge of their spirit. At a meeting of the White proprietors of the quarter of Tacarigua, on the 20th of September 1823, it was unanimously resolved, "That to deprive the master of the power of inflicting corporeal punishment on any slave, whether male or female, would subvert the discipline of every estate in the colony, without answering one beneficial end;" and that "they consider the abolition of Sunday markets as tending in no way to the promotion of religion." The resolutions in another quarter, that of North Naparema, are equally strong; and they contain, moreover, this singular proposition, that " any attempt to instil into their minds religious instruction, or education beyond what they now possess (so long as Slaves are property), would not, in the opinion of the undersigned, tend to render their situation more pleasant, but be, in fact, incompatible with the existence of Slavery."

It is a remarkable circumstance, and most highly to the honour of the free Black and Coloured population of Trinidad, that though possessing about one half of the Slaves and other property in the island, not one of them could be found to sign these iniquitous resolutions. They were invited to sign them; but they unanimously refused to do so. They refused, one and all, to be parties to any act which should serve to intercept the benevolence of the British Government in its way to their Slaves. They themselves indeed have been made to feel, and are now feeling, the effect of that spirit which unhappily animates the greater part of the White Colonists in the West Indies. We allude to their contempt for the Coloured population, and their determination to exclude it from all participation in the rights and pri

vileges of British subjects. The free People of Colour have, how ever, at length made their case known to his Majesty, who, we doubt not, will grant them the redress to which they are so unquestionable entitled.

The as that of almost all the other colonies. The White people of Barbadoes seem to entertain no scruples whatever about uniting to commit the most violent outrages on the public peace :-they raze to the ground a house dedicated to the worship of Almighty God: they seek the life of the exemplary and unoffending individual who officiated in it, and force him into exile: they follow up these criminal proceedings by sending emissaries to different islands to excite the White population there to imitate their example: and, to crown all, they openly denounce vengeance on every person who shall dare to take a single step to bring the perpetrators of the above outrages to justice; and to these offenders, should they be brought to trial, they openly and unblushingly promise complete immunity, even at the expense of the perjury of the jurors appointed to try them.

III. The next case of alleged insurrection, which we have to notice is one which exists as yet only in apprehension. A letter from Dominica, dated Dec. 7th, 1823, appeared in The Courier of the 3d February last, giving a most alarming view of the general state of insubordination among the Slaves, but specifying no overt act of violence. The whole account wears a most suspicious air. But even if the writer's apprehensions were realised, it would only be what has occurred in Dominica over and over again; for this is the very island in which Governor Ainslie offered a reward for bringing in insurgent men, women, and children, dead or alive. It was also in this island that the conduct of the Governor who succeeded him was indicted by the Grand Jury of the island as a nuisance, and denounced by the Assembly as calculated to disturb the public peace, because he prosecuted several masters for cruelty to their Slaves. And it is this island, moreover, which, with a population of about 900 Whites, men, women, and children, has been the foremost in talking of throwing off their allegiance, if the British Parliament shall dare to interfere with their sacred right of cartwhipping their Slaves.

IV. A fourth case, that of Barbadoes, as it was an insurrection of the Whites, and not of the Blacks, we shall not think it necessary to dwell upon at present, further than to remark, that it proves incontestibly the extraordinary power of combination, or rather of conspiracy, for purposes of crime, existing among the White population of this island; which population, be it remember ed, is about four times as large, in proportion to the Slave population,

Now is it, under such circumstances, any breach of charity to suppose, if these White men can go such lengths in crime to serve their supposed interests, or to gratify their inflamed passions, that they may as little hesitate to combine for the fabrication of a Negro plot, even though at some cost of Negro blood, if it should appear to them necessary with a view to the attainment of the same objects? Let us therefore be on our guard against Barbadoes, recollecting also that it may be just possible that the spirit and conduct of the Barbadians may have their admirers and imitators in other islands. We trust that Parliament will speedily call for information respecting this Barbadoes insurrection.

V. We now proceed to consider the disturbances that have taken place in Jamaica; the last, though not the least, of the colonies claiming our attention on this score.

1. The first intimation of any rel cent disturbance in this island is contained in a letter dated Kingston, Oct. 12, 1823, and is to the follow

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