informed persons deny that they are increasing at all, taking the whole country into consideration; for whilst they seem to be gaining in some places, they are losing in others. As to the Universalists, they are more numerous both in New England generally, and in the other portions of the United States. Their number in Massa chusetts may be about the same as that of the Unitarians, It is greater I believe in most of the other States of New England than that of their co-errorists. The same causes which generated Unitarianism also produced Universalism.* ning, on the part of Unitarianism, which was conducted with great ability, and led to a more complete discrimination between the two systems of doctrine, as well as a greater separation of their respective adherents. That controversy lasted about seven years, and was carried on through the medium of the press. Since that time there has not been much regular controversy between the two parties; but the work of separation Du gone on throughout the State of Massachusetts. The result is, that there are now, it is supposed, about one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty churches in that State which are Unitarian, and probably as many as from one hundred to one hundred and twenty ministers. In Boston there are fifteen or sixteen Unitarian churches, and nine or ten orthodox congregational churches, besides five or six flourishing Baptist, three or four Episcopal, and four or five Methodist churches. There are also one or two Roman Catholic churches in that city, and several others apper-universally deny that there will be any future punishtaining to different small sects. Evangelical religion has greatly advanced in that city during the last twenty years. In 1807 there was but one evangelical congregational church in Boston; at present there are nine or ten. And though the Unitarian churches have in-versalists in the United States. I believe that their creased, yet it has not been in an equal proportion. As to the Universalists, they have two or three churches. There are some six or seven Unitarian churches in Maine, and about ten or twelve in Rhode Island and New Hampshire. In Connecticut and Vermont they have not more than five or six in all. So that the entire number of Unitarian ministers in the six New England States does not probably exceed one hundred and forty or one hundred and forty-five; and their churches may be as many as one hundred and fifty or one hundred and sixty. I do not profess to give the precise numbers, not having the means of doing so; but I am quite sure that I do not under-estimate their numbers. In the other twenty States of the Union, (including the new States of Michigan and Arkansas,) there are very few Unitarian ministers and churches. There are, perhaps, as many as five or six in New York, three in Pennsylvania, one in Maryland, one in Virginia, one in South Carolina, one or two in Georgia, one in Louisiana, and a few in the other States. Their entire number in the United States may be estimated at one hundred and fifty ministers, one hundred and seventy congregations or societies, and one hundred and seventy thousand souls, who may be considered as under their instruction and direct influence. It will be seen from the preceding statements that the Unitarian doctrines have most influence in New England, and especially in Massachusetts. In that State a large proportion of the wealth of the capital (Boston) and of the other principal cities is in their hands. They have also the well endowed University of Harvard at Cambridge; and a large proportion of the most distinguished civilians, physicians, and other men of influence, hold their sentiments. At the same time, it is far from being true that they are equal in point of numbers to the orthodox congregationalists, who have, at least, three hundred and forty churches, and about three hundred ministers, in the State of Massachusetts. And if we add to them the Methodist, Baptist, and Episcopal churches, the number will be doubled. The question is often asked, "Are not the Unitarians increasing rapidly in the United States?" To this question I think that a negative answer must be given. I do not deny that they are increasing, but I do not think that their increase is either rapid or proportionate to the increase of the orthodox. Their increase is little more, if any, than the result of the natural increase of that proportion of the population over which they have influence. Indeed, many well I believe that it may be said that the Universalism which prevails in the United States may be described, in general, as being the very lowest species of that error. Few of the believers in that doctrine now hold to the restoration which Winchester and other primi tive Universalists held. Instead of that, they almost ment of any sort, and assert that the only state of punishment is in this life! These are the sentiments of Ballon and others, who are leaders among them. It is not easy to know the exact number of the Un number of ministers is between three hundred and tour hundred, and their congregations are probably from five hundred to six hundred. On the other hand, the orthodox Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Reformed Dutch, Lutherans, German Reformed, and other and smaller sects, may be safely estimated to have more than eleven thousand ministers, nineteen thousand churches, and one million five hundred thou sand communicants or members. As to the Roman Catholics, I suppose that the number of their priests must, by this time, exceed four hundred. They estimate the number of their people (all members who are grown up) at five hundred and fifty thousand. If the Protestants were to reckon as members of their churches all who attend their ser vices, and are more or less under their instruction, the number would be more than twelve millions! The preceding statements, though of a very general and summary character, are sufficient to convey a tolerably accurate view of the state of religion in the United States. It will be manifest from what has been said, that the progress of error bears but a small proportion to that of truth. Even in New England, if we allow that the Unitarian and Universalist ministers combined exceed three hundred, they are not muce than equal to one-third part of the orthodox Congregational ministers (who exceed one thousand in number,) to say nothing of the Methodists, Calvinistic Baptists, and Episcopal ministers, who are both numerous and evangelical. THE STATE OF JUDEA AT THE COMING OF CHRIST. [From "The Fulness of Time," by the Rev. W. M. Hetherington, A. M., Minister of Torphichen.] THE condition of Judea bore the aspect of impending change. The military spirit roused by the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, and the gallant exploits of the Maccabees, had the effect of altering the character of its government, from its religious nature, under the sway of the high priest, to that of a more secular form under military chiefs, preparatory to the acquisition of regal authority by Herod. The extraordinary diplomatic genius of this ambitious prince enabled him to esta blish himself firmly on the throne of Judah, and to surmount every obstacle and evade every danger that It will be observed that I use the word "Universalism," though not strictly proper, simply for convenience, to express the doctrin that all men will be saved. assailed him. His mixed blood, half Jewish half Idumean, threatened the departure of the sceptre from Judah, especially when his barbarous suspicions caused the death of his own two sons by Mariamne, in whom the Asmonean race might have seemed revived. This was another of those converging lines, guided by no human hand, tending directly to the same point, and indicative of the passing of the sceptre from Judah and the near approach of Him, "to whom was to be the gathering of the people." But not only the ambition and cruelty of Herod, the common course of Roman policy led to the very same result, with inevitable certainty. They had succeeded in overthrowing every powerful monarchy in Europe, Africa, and Asia, about the time when Herod was winning his way to sovereignty; and though they had permitted the smaller kingdoms to retain a seeming independence while engaged in more dangerous contests, they would soon have taught such kingdoms, that while Rome termed them "friends and allies," she considered them as subjects and tributaries. Judea must have sunk into a Roman province even sooner than it did, but for the civil wars of the two triumvirates; and thus Herod was permitted to wear his crown till a short time after the coming of Him, who was in truth, what His murderers styled him in derision, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Even the mental condition of the Hebrew nation gave no equivocal indications of the coming crisis. The intercourse which they had been obliged to maintain with the neighbouring countries, after the Macedonian conquest, had been productive of reciprocal effects upon both Greeks and Jews. To the former it imparted some acquaintance with the great truths of the only revealed word of God, especially the predictions of the prophets, which excited at once their curiosity and their interest. To the latter it communicated a portion of that philosophizing spirit by which the Grecian intellect was so peculiarly distinguished. The consequence was soon beheld, similar in kind, though less in degree, than that which Greece displayed. The people became divided into sects, regarding each other with the bitterest animosity, the more so that their dissensions were of little moment, and could be brought to no satisfactory conclusion. Of these sects, the most prominent were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees were strict adherents to the letter of the Mosaic law, which they had even rendered more burdensome than it originally was, by means of a multitude of traditions, to which equal reverence was given. They believed also in the immortality of the soul, and the existence of angels; but had disfigured the simplicity of the ancient national creed, by the admission of several superstitious ideas peculiar to the Magians and other Oriental philosophers. The Sadducees, on the other hand, partook more of the Grecian spirit. They disregarded tradition, undervalued the prophets, denied the existence of spirits, and of the soul in a separate state, and approached as near the character of Pyrrhonists as it was possible, without altogether relinquishing Judaism. Between these two parties the most violent hostility subsisted, both religious and political, threatening to rend the state asunder with civil dissension. To reconcile them was impossible; and the ascendancy of either would have been alike fatal to the integrity of that faith, for the preservation of which alone the nation was called into existence. The sceptical spirit of the Sadducees tended directly to the denial of the sacred and authoritative character of their religious writings; and that exploded, all would have disappeared. The pride of the Pharisees, and their determined adherence to their own absurd and in some respects even impious glosses and traditions, would have been equally destructive to the purity, and, humanly speaking, to the very existence of divine truth, the simplicity of which must have been overwhelmed and lost beneath the huge mass of their corrupt and fantastic and rabbinical fables. This jarring aspect of the Jewish national character was a very significant indication, that they had now nearly completed the purpose for which they had been constituted and preserved as a peculiar people; and were about to be rent asunder, and scattered over the face of the earth, involuntary witnesses to the truth of that new dispensation which had its birth amid the expiring throes of their own. In Greece and Rome, the superstition of the community, and the scepticism of the philosophers, concurred to destroy the forms and creeds of national religion, corrupting at the same time the state of public morals, and thus insuring their entire ruin, mental, moral, and political. The same process was now going on in Judea, and with consequences similar to a certain extent; yet with one very peculiar difference. The religion of Greece and Rome was false, and therefore perished in its hour of doom, together with the nations who embraced it, and whom it had tended to destroy. The religion of Judea was true, and therefore could not perish, notwithstanding the corruption and the dissensions of those who no longer held it in truth and sincerity. Nay more, it preserved them in a state of supernatural vitality, in spite of calamity, oppression, and dispersion, such as would have exterminated any other nation many times over; and thus gave them a more than charmed existence, which even their own suicidal hands could not destroy. It was their fate to learn by terrible experience, and to display to the world, that true religion confers immortality upon a people; but that to hold its principles accompanied with error, and in guilty perversity, will entail the fearful heritage of immortal wretchedness. As the nations of the earth were held in awe by the expectation of some mighty conqueror's appearance, the hopes of the Jews were about the same time awakened by similar anticipations. From their own Talmuds we learn, that the coming of the Messiah was very generally looked for by the Jews of that period; and very many incidental expressions throughout the Evangelists prove the prevalence of that expectation among all classes, though they had formed an erroneous notion respecting the character of the Messiah, "trusting that he would restore the kingdom to Israel." Nor were such expectations confined to politicians or fanatics, in their ambition or their mysticism; they were entertained equally by the devout Simeon, and the prophetess Anna, and others who, like them, were "looking for redemption in Jerusalem." Thus the Gentile world, and the Hebrew nation, were for once possessed by the same spirit, and had their minds filled by the same idea; that One about to be born in Judea should become the Ruler of the world, and of his kingdom there should be no end. One universal feeling of expectation held the heart of the human race in a sort of hushed anxiety, waiting for the manifestation of the Prince and Redeemer; but, biassed alike by ignorance and prejudice, their views were both misdirected, and neither Gentiles nor Jews could recognize the dreaded Sovereign, or the longed-for Saviour, in the Child of Bethlehem, "The light shone in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. This universal blindness, in the midst of universal expectation, can be explained only by the aid of one important principle, with the statement of which we shall close the process of demonstration. While we have attempted to show," that the course along which the world was led, was both exactly suited to its nature, and exquisitely adapted to the gradual development of its powers, -and that it almost necessarily involved consequences such as those described; it by no mear.s or follows, that mankind were fully aware of the path | the words, as in connection with the context, we along which they were travelling, understood its na- shall obtain much instruction, and that also deeply ture, and foresaw its consequences. Indeed the very interesting. reverse was the truth. But while the apparently naI. I observe, that these words teach us this tural course of events bore towards the crisis, without the intention, or even the consciousness of the agents, momentous truth, that when men have long the voice of prophecy from time to time foretold the persisted in sin, and despised the forbearance of approaching catastrophe, and kept alive its expectation. God, the warnings of his providence, and the And this agreement between events and predictions, suggestions of his Spirit, have filled up the this unanimity in the expectations of Gentiles and of measure of their iniquity, then God may withJews,-pointed out and proved the harmony subsisting between the foreknowledge and the ruling provi- draw the influences of his Spirit, sooner dence of God. It proved the exact identity between later, and deliver them up to a reprobate mind, what is called the natural course of events, and the without giving any intimation of the awful judgwise pre-arrangements of Providence; and the inability ment of heaven which is about to overwhelm them. of man to discover, comprehend, or control either. If Such was the guilt, and such the doom, of the init had even been possible for some mind of profound habitants of the cities of the plain. Their guilt will political and moral sagacity to have foreseen the ruin of all existing institutions and creeds, because of the appear to be great, and their doom to be just, if we consider their wickedness, in reference to the cirprevalence of that destroying principle, sin, there is no reason to imagine that such a mind could have con- cumstances of their case, the age in which they lived, ceived the idea of the glorious recovery of man by the the temporal comforts bestowed on them, and even infusion of a new principle of life and holiness. Hence the religious advantages they enjoyed. The deluge it was that all misunderstood the language of prophecy, was then a recent event; its desolate effects were and entertained mistaken notions respecting the chathat when He came into that world which was made by Him, it "knew Him not," and his own people "re racter and condition of " Him that was to come;" so ceived him not." probably still visible in many places; eye-witnesses of its ravages, or, at least, if we consider the period to which human life was then extended, numbers who had heard of them from eye-witnesses, were still to be met with, and yet the solemn and af THE AWFUL DANGER OF RESISTING THE SPIRIT: fecting lessons which had been taught by such an A DISCOURSE. BY THE LATE REV. ANDREW BULLOCK, A.M., Minister of Tulliallan. "The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar."-GEN. xix. 23. GOD, the Judge of all the earth, does in all things act rightly. While the face of the Lord is against those that do evil to cut off their remembrance from the earth, he redeemeth the soul of his servants, and proves a shield and a buckler to all those that fear his name. This truth is strikingly illustrated in the narrative of which our text forms a part. The angels who were sent from heaven to destroy Sodom, were also commissioned to save Lot; and this commission was to be executed first. "Haste thee," said the heavenly messengers to the patriarch, "haste thee, escape to Zoar, for we cannot do any thing till thou be come thither." The Lord knoweth them that are his, and while he knoweth how to reserve the wicked to the day of judgment, to be punished, he also knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation. Our text informs us, that "the sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar." We must not consider these words as merely informing us of the particular time when Lot reached a place of safety. The knowledge of such an event is not in the least degree instructive, and can scarcely be called interesting. We should have lost but little though it had never been mentioned. And yet this is all the information which, at first sight, the verse seems to convey. We should, however, remember that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and, therefore, is not merely intelligible, but is, moreover, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness. If we carefully examine awful visitation, were either forgotten or disre- warning them of the awful consequences by which | and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness it must be followed, in exhorting them to break of God is meant to lead us to repentance. If off their crimes by repentance, to cease to do evil such has been our conduct and character, not only and learn to do well. Neither his example, how- may he, and that most justly, cast us away from ever, nor his admonitions were attended with any his presence, and take his Holy Spirit from us, effects, or able to impress them with a sense of and leave us in a state of judicial hardness, with their guilt and danger. They were all without the curse hanging over our heads; but he may do exception wicked, and sinners before the Lord so in an hour when we think not, without apprisexceedingly. It was now time for the Lord to ing us of his purpose, without addressing to us any work; since his law was made void, and his fear intimation of the danger to which we lie exposed. cast off, it was time to show that verily there was And we must not imagine that nothing but a a God in heaven who hated sin,-that verily there lengthened course of open and aggravated sin can was a God that judged in the earth, who had power thus render us the objects of his signal but rightto punish sinners. Besides, it was necessary that eous displeasure. The offensiveness of our conGod should not only testify his displeasure against duct in the sight of God does not consist in the sin, but should also show himself strong in the number and greatness of our sins, considered solely protection of righteousness, and interpose in behalf in themselves, but in their number and greatness, of his Church, which, as then existing in the considered in relation to the means of grace, the family of Abraham, in the near neighbourhood of spiritual advantages which we have enjoyed, and these ungodly men, was in danger of being either the facilities afforded us of forsaking sin and cultioverwhelmed by their violence, or corrupted by vating holiness, and the effects which, in consethe contagion of their example. Angels were quence, have been produced on our actions and accordingly dispatched from heaven to destroy our life. these cities. But, previously to the infliction of vengeance, Lot was directed solemnly to warn his sons-in-law, a warning which could not but be known to the other inhabitants of the place,-that · destruction was at hand. This warning, like others which had preceded it, was unheeded and despised, and it was never repeated. Lot, early in the morning, under the guidance of the angels, withdrew from the city, and he went in silence. He did not raise his voice in the streets, as he passed along, to sound a final alarm in the ears of his friends, to tell them that though the moment of their ruin was rapidly advancing, deliverance was still possible, and escape yet in their power; he did not shake the dust of their city off his feet as a parting testimony against them, in the hope that a warning uttered in such circumstances, with his loins girt, his shoes on his feet, his staff in his hand, and he and his family actually departing, conducted by the two mysterious strangers, must carry home conviction to those whom other intimations had failed to impress. No. The iniquity of these sinners had now reached its height. The last warning was already given, and the wrath of Omnipotence was about to be revealed. And not only had Lot given his last warning, but no farther warning was to be given by any other person, no additional intimation of impending ruin was to be vouchsafed from any quarter whatever. Nature pursued its wonted course, in the wonted manner. The evening set in, the night passed away, and the morning came as usual. Lot left the city early, and we are told in our text that the sun was risen when he entered Zoar. Yes, the sun arose, and the morning which ushered in destruction to the place dawned as it had done on other mornings before, unattended by a single circumstance which was uncommon or alarming. Now, let us remember that God may act in a similar manner to us, if we still continue to despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, It is very possible that there may be some here present, who are not chargeable with the commission of any presumptuous flagrant sins, and who have maintained a fair and irreproachable character in the opinion of the world, who are yet more offensive in the sight of God than others who have committed the very sins from which they have abstained. And why? because the individuals to whom I am alluding may have never been exposed to as strong temptation, because they may have possessed superior moral and religious advantages, and because, notwithstanding these advantages, they have made no progress in the knowledge of divine truth, and in the practice of that holiness, without which they shall never see God. They who have richly enjoyed the means of grace, and with whom the Spirit of God has long, and frequently, and earnestly, striven to convince them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, should lay it to heart that this striving is not to continue always. "For as the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God, so that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned." God may punish us for our impenitence by placing us at a distance from the means of grace, and by removing us from the society of those pious friends, whose counsels, if they were not effectual in exciting us to struggle for an entrance at the strait gate, were sufficient to deter us from running, with the eagerness of others, along the broad road that leadeth to destruction. Or, as more generally is the case, he may allow all things apparently to remain as they were, he may continue to us the example and the exhortations of pious friends, opportunities of reading the Word, and of attending on the preaching of the Gospel, and a full and regular enjoyment of the outward means of grace, and he may, at the same time, allow our souls to remain unaffected and unimproved by them all. He may, in the one case, never awaken us to a sense of the privileges which we have lost, and, in the other case, never bring us to perceive that we are reaping no benefit from their continued advantages, that the Bible is to us a sealed book,-the preaching of the Word an unknown sound, and prayer is a lifeless form. The kingdom of heaven, we are told, cometh not with observation; aye, my friends, and it is also true that it goeth away without observation. When our Lord, in the Gospel, healed the child that was possessed of a devil, the foul spirit cried and rent him sore, and left him as dead, before coming out of him. But it is not so with the Holy Spirit; that great agent in enlightening, and reproving, and warning men, may finally and for ever withdraw from the sinner, who has long disregarded, and grieved, and resisted, and despised him, unattended by tumult or by pain, without giving the man any violent, or distinct, or even perceptible notice, of his departure. As he resembles the dove in the winged mildness with which he descends and acts upon the human heart, may he not also, my friends, resemble the dove in the gentleness and silence in which he gradually departs from the sinner by whom he has been unkindly received or injuriously treated? It is surely an alarming consideration, that a man may have heard the last sermon by which his conscience shall be touched, and received the last warning which the Spirit shall give him, and have the wrath of God hanging over his guilty head, and be as a vessel fitted to receive that wrath, and yet be perfectly unconscious of his awful condition. God, in righteous judgment, withholds from him every intimation of his swiftly advancing destruction, and no suspicion ever arises in his own breast, by which he might be led to implore mercy, or to seek for shelter. II. I observe, that not only may God give to sinners no intimation of their approaching ruin, after they have offended him, and long grieved and despised his Holy Spirit, but farther, that this interval between the last warning and utter destruction, is often to wicked men the period of their profoundest security, and during which they are least apprehensive of danger. This was the case with the inhabitants of the city in which Lot dwelt. Never were men more safe in their own estimation than were they in the hours which immediately preceded their ruin. Not one individual formed a plan, or made an effort, or expressed a wish to escape, because none ever entertained the slightest apprehension of danger. When Lot went and spoke to his sons-in-law, saying, Up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city," the friendly intimation was made light of, and treated with contempt, and an air of ridicule; the good old man "seemed as one that mocked to his sons-in-law." Many a bargain would they and their fellow-citizens that day conclude, many a purchase would they make, many a scheme both of lawful industry and unlawful pleasure, would they plan, while they said in their hearts, "to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant." Or, if the consciences of any of them should be visited with alarm, if their hearts should misgive when they awoke in the night, and reflected on their crimes, or pondered on the solemn words of the patriarch, and the possibility of his prediction being fulfilled, their uneasy apprehensions would vanish away with the cheerful return of the morning light. That morning, which was the last that they were to behold, was not ushered in by earthquakes, or tempest, or whirlwind, fit forerunners of what was to come; the sky did not lour, the early dawn was not overcast with clouds of portentous gloom. At the approach of that great and terrible day, the sun was not darkened, nor the moon turned into blood; "the sun," we are told, "was risen upon the earth, when Lot entered into Zoar." Not only had the great luminary of heaven ascended above the horizon, at the expected time and place, and changed night into day; not only was he risen, as on other mornings, but he was risen upon the earth, so that he could be distinctly seen and felt, both enlightening the earth with his rays, and warming the surface of the ground with his heat. From the expression employed, it appears that the morning was one of more than usual serenity and splendour. How gay must have been the spectacle of such a morning, in such a climate, and on such a soil! for all the plain was well watered everywhere, even as the garden of the Lord. How charming to survey the rich mantle of many colours with which nature had clad the region, and to contemplate the various forms of animal life which browsed in the fields, or moved through the air, and filled it with their music! How delightful to the eyes even of these ungodly men, to look upon the morning sun gilding, with his beams, so beautiful a prospect! How interesting to Lot must have been the sight of four cities in the midst of the landscape! How solemn for him to reflect, that every step he took in his road to Zoar, was bringing him the nearer to a place of safety, as it was accelerating the destruction which was to overwhelm their guilty population, and was lessening the number which separated them from the wrath of heaven! Ah! how ill fitted was such a calm and peaceful scene, to introduce the one which was next! How ill did such a morning harmonize with the long, and black, and dark night with which it was to be followed! One should have thought that the season of midnight, when silent gloom overspreads the earth, and deep sleep falleth on man, would have been the hour in which destruction was to come. Who would have dreaded its approach, in the brightness of early morning, the very hour and emblem of security, and cheerfulness, and joy? But at that very time, when there was nothing whatever in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the surrounding air, to give the men of the place the slightest intimation of the coming event, when the very possibility of it was not even in their most distant thoughts, when the shades of the |