human speech, and not as if he required any assistance in the work of creation. For as these matters were written by men, God could not be represented as speaking, except agreeably to human conceptions; nor could language be otherwise properly attributed to him. It behoves us to press the Jews with clearer passages in favour of the doctrine of the trinity."

Then we have a number of other testimonies, which it is not necessary for me to read.

My time, it seems, is nearly up.

I shall proceed with the trinity as opportunity offers. If my opponent goes on with the atonement to-morrow evening, I will answer him, and then proceed with the different doctrines on the list without taking further notice of the course he may think fit to pursue; my desire being to lay those subjects before you, with as much clearness as possible; to go forward until I have laid down my views on all those points fairly and fully before you. (Applause.)

SEVENTH NIGHT.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1845.

Mr. Barker was first on the platform this evening. He was received with gentle applause.

On Mr. Cooke's arrival, the plaudits were loud and long continued. This gave rise to a cry of "One for Barker ;' which was responded to, though still without any of the warmth manifested by his opponent's friends.

At seven o'clock, MR. GRANT rose and said :-The time has now come when the discussion should begin, and, as on former occasions, all that I have to request of you now is again to reflect and turn over in your minds the great advantage resulting to all parties from calm, silent attention and observation. If I could, by any thing I could do, repress every mark of approbation or of disapprobation, I would do it. I entreat you by all means to keep calm while the parties are speaking. Any interruption coming from you can be of no service whatsoever. I beg to impress this upon your minds; and I now introduce Mr. Cooke to the meeting.

MR.COOKE:-Mr. Chairman: my Christian Friends,-Mr. Barker proposed at first, the question-What is a Christian;

and what are his principles?—which he was bound to prove from the Holy Scriptures. But instead of that he has brought forward all the stale objections of unbelievers and avowed infidels, to prove that he is a Christian!

Mr. Barker evidently has no wish that I should answer and refute his cavils; for as soon as he has fired off his infidel artillery, he runs away to another subject in order to prevent my replies. But I am not quite so foolish as to follow his wanderings till I see fit to do so. The lead in the discussion, you will remember, is mine. Mr. Barker forgets, or is ignorant of the fact, that a child can ask questions which its parent cannot answer; that a fool may do the same to a philosopher; and that an infidel may offer more objections to divine truth in five minutes, than can be effectually refuted in five hours.

Mr. Barker said that Christ and the Scriptures teach that whatever light a man may have, if he follow it, it will lead him to heaven. True; but utterly foreign to Mr. Barker's case; who has an abundance of light that he will not follow. Christ also said, “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.”

Mr. Barker asserted that the Passover had no reference to God's justice. Was the destruction of the first-born, and of Pharaoh and his host afterwards, a display of God's mercy? If not, the Passover has to do with God's justice; and the blood that protected the Israelites from the sword of the destroying angel, was blood which propitiated and saved from displeasure.

Mr. Barker referred at great length to the differences existing amongst ministers and Christians of every denomination with regard to the important subject of the trinity; as if that variety of sentiment with regard to the mode of the Divine existence invalidated the doctrine itself. But this is a silly sophism. He ought to know, and this assembly will know, that the names he brought forward, multitudinous as they were, present a striking evidence of the fact that the trinity is taught in the Holy Scriptures! for the names he adduced were the names of men who held the doctrine, though they differ in the ways they choose to represent their views of that doctrine. The different terms, however, in which men have expressed their views on the doctrine of the trinity, do not in the least invalidate the question itself, as a scriptural one, but establish it.

Mr. Barker has connected the trinity with all the abominations that disgrace depraved humanity, and in language and manner that must have disgusted every reflecting mind. But after all has proved just as much connexion between them as he can prove between the innocence and holiness of Christ, and

the abandoned wickedness of the Jews and of those who murdered the Saviour.

Mr. Barker argued at great length to prove that justice meant mercy. Let us take a few examples. The Greek word for justice is dike; and it occurs in the following passages :-Acts xxv. 15,-"Festus declared Paul's case unto the king, saying, There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix, about whom, when I was at Jerusalem, and the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him." Did they desire to have mercy against him.

Take another example. Acts xxviii. 3, 4,—“And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live." The word is dike, here rendered "vengeance." Does vengeance mean mercy?

Take another example. 2 Thes. i. 6, 7, 8, 9,--" Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;" was it "mercy" to recompense tribulation?

"and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished"-who shall receive justice-" with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." The word rendered "punished,” is dikē, who shall receive justice. I ask, is it mercy that is here represented as punishing men with everlasting destruction.

The word dikaios is an adjective; and the following are examples of its meaning. Matthew xx., beginning at the 3rd verse-" And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the market-place, and said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard: and whatsoever is right I will give you and they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. About the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive." The word "right," is here dikaios, just.This refers, you perceive, to the wages which a master gives to his servant. Is it merciful to give the servant his wages? There are, it is true, some who confound mercy with justice. It appears Mr. Barker does. I have heard of some who, when they pay their workmen's wages for their hard labour, call that wages "charity," or mercy: but the honest

labourer does not call it "charity," or mercy; and he will not admit that it is mercy, or "charity." He calls it "justice;" and so will all mankind who have not lost either their reason or their moral principle!

The word dikaiōs is an adverb; and the following is an example of its meaning. Luke xxiii. 39, 40, 41,-" And one of the malefactors which were hanged, railed on him, saying; If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering, rebuked him, saying, Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly ;”dikaios" for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing amiss." Does the word dikaios mean merciful? Was the expiring thief when suffering for his crimes against the laws of his country,-suffering and expiring because of mercy?

Take another example. Micah vi., 1,-"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly,"-dikaios-" and to love mercy," here justice and mercy are placed in palpable contra-distinction, "and to walk humbly with thy God?"

The reasoning of Mr. Barker would go to prove that there is no such thing as justice in existence;—no justice in manno justice in human governments-no justice in God. Such reasoning is trifling in the extreme, and scarcely deserves a reply. However, just to expose his weakness and folly, in confounding God's justice with his mercy, take the following passages:

Genesis xviii., 25,-"That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?"

Deut. xxxii., 4,—“He is the rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he."

Job xxiv., 12, and following verses.-"Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment. Who hath given him a charge over the earth? or who hath disposed the whole world? If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again into dust. If now thou hast understanding, hear this: hearken to the voice of my words. Shall even he that hateth right govern? and wilt thou condemn him that is most just? "

Psalm lxxxix., 14,—“ Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face." Zephaniah iii., 5,-"The just Lord is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame."

Rev. xv., 3,-" And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints."

Rev. xix., 2,-"For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever,"

Nothing can more clearly prove the distinction between justice and mercy, and nothing more completely overthrow Mr. Barker's argument.

While Mr. Barker would exclude justice from the Divine nature, his mode of arguing excludes equity from the Divine government. He makes sin a trifle; and the Divine government distinguished by the indulgence of a weak-minded parent; not the holy and equitable administration of a righteous Judge. The claims of law and justice, on his scheme, are disregarded and set aside; and man is left to infer that sin is not so serious an evil as is represented; but that either God's law is too stringent to be just, or his threatenings too severe to be inflicted.

In the face of this evidence, what becomes of Mr. Barker's attempt to reconcile Romans iii., 26, to his theory? What becomes of his attempt to show that dikaioos, just, means elecinos, merciful? His representation, too, of Dr. Clarke's interpretation of this passage is partial and false. I will read you Dr. Clarke's own words on verse 26:- "To manifest now, his infinite mercy; and to manifest it in such a way that he might still appear to be the JUST God, and yet the JUSTIFIER, the pardoner of him who believeth in Jesus. Here we learn that God designed to give the most evident displays both of his justice and mercy. Of his justice, in requiring a sacrifice, and absolutely refusing to give salvation to a lost world in any other way; and of his mercy, in providing the sacrifice which justice required. Thus, because Jesus was an atonement, a ransom price, for the sin of the world, therefore God can, consistently with his justice, pardon every soul that believeth in Jesus. This is the full discovery of God's righteousness; of his wonderful method of magnifying his law, and making it honourable, of showing the infinite purity of his justice, and of saving a lost world."

Thus Dr. Clarke translates dikaioos, just, not merciful. After this exposure of Mr. Barker's misrepresentation, will any one believe him again? (Hissing and laughter.)

While Mr. Barker's theory of non-satisfaction excludes justice from God's nature and administration, it excludes also all efficacy from the sacrifice of Christ. For who was the victim? A pious young man, he tells us. And, forsooth, this pious