It is finished. All that depended upon him was finished before he died, and some time before he died he enjoyed calmness of mind: the wrath of God was not therefore poured out upon him on the cross, nor was the atonement or satisfaction made by his death.

We may look at this matter in another point of view. On the popular scheme, all the efficacy of Christ's death depends upon his divinity; but upon the same scheme, it was impossible that he should suffer: the Deity is unchangeable and impassible; and even if a God could have suffered, all suffering must have been light to him; omnipotence is equal to itself and could easily have borne what omnipotence could inflict. But in whatever strains the pseudo-orthodox may sing of a bleeding and dying God, they will not soberly reason in favour of so Pagan a notion; and therefore, according to them it was only the man Christ Jesus that suffered and died, and if that death and those sufferings made the atonement and gave the satisfaction, the whole work was accomplished by the much-vilified human nature. It is pleaded, I am aware, that the union of the divinity with the humanity, stamped an infinite value upon the sufferings of the latter; but how idle to talk of an union between two natures, of which one was agonized and torn in pieces, and the other was at its ease and absolutely incapable of a painful sensation!

The popular preachers and poets sometimes talk and write as if it were the blood of Christ (physically so) which satisfied and appeased the wrath of God. There is no arguing against metaphors considered in any other light than a metaphor, however, this may be pronounced a foul and abominable supposition.

From the actual death of Christ, the advocates of the doctrine of satisfaction will probably flee to the agony in the garden; for we have seen that Christ did not die under the wrath of God, and that before he died all that depended upon him was finished: but if the atonement were made in the garden, it was made without death and without blood.* On this supposition, Christ might suffer, but he did not

'Luke's language [ch. xxii. 44,] is “his 'sweat was as it were great drops of blood."

die, for us: a living man made the satisfaction, and, for aught that appears, he might have continued to live and his work been complete. And it behoves the popular teachers to determine what was the nature of Christ's sufferings in the garden? Was he op pressed by the consciousness of imputed guilt: then with what propriety can it be said that he knew no sin, since the propriety and efficacy of his punishment must have consisted in his knowledge or consciousness of sin? Was he overwhelmed with the wrath of God: then God was angry with him; and who was it at the same time that sent an angel to strengthen him? Consider the sufferer in the garden as God as well as man, and what a scene of contradiction rises up to view! A divine person praying, trembling, sinking! Oppressed by God, imploring the sympathy of the apostles, comforted by an angel!

The writer to the Hebrews supposes that Christ's sufferings consisted in the fear of death: * let those who defend the common scheme of atonement explain how this fear was possible to one who was conscious of all the strength of deity, and also how the shrinking from death is consistent with the benevolence of Christ, if he knew both that no suffering could exceed or equal his infinite power, and at the same time that upon his suffering and death depended the salvation of the human race, or a great part of them, from everlasting torments?

If the atonement were made neither by his death nor his agony singly, it would be difficult to prove that it was made by them both together; especially since there is no necessary connexion between them, but on the contrary they form two distinct scenes in our Lord's history, marked by obviously different states of mind.

Taking atonement in the sense of reconciliation, the true scriptural sense, the idea of redemption or salvation is clear. Mankind were alienated from God by wicked works, Jesus Christ brought them back to their heavenly Father by his example and commandment of all righteousness. Vice and iniquity wrought in reflecting minds a sense of guilt and fear, Jesus Christ banished despair and inspired hope by

* Heb. v. 7.

his revelation of the fatherly character of the Supreme Being and his promises of boundless mercy. But, above all, death seemed to the eye of sense and natural reason as an all-subduing, eternally-victorious foe, Jesus Christ by his doctrine, and especially by his resurrection, shewed that the king of terrors was vanquished, and brought life and immortality to light. In the divine plans, death was the consequence of sin, and immortality was the consequence of Christ's righteous submission to death. Through sin, the human race lay under the sentence of mortality, but through the divine mercy, made known and administered by "the mediator of the better covenant," the sentence and curse were removed, a general acquittal was proclaimed and " everlasting righteousness was brought in. "The wages of sin is death," but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord."

THE

EPISCOPUS.

Natural Theology. No. III. On the eye. (Continued from p. 104.) He that formed the eye, shall he not see? HE ancient philosophers had very imperfect notions of the manner in which vision is effected. They simply knew, in general, that the eyes were the instruments of it. Imperfect, however, as were their ideas on the subject, the wisdom and foresight manifested in the operation, and in the structure of the organ, did not escape their observation. They admired the position of the eye, in the most elevated part of the head, whence, like a centinel, it could overlook a multitude of objects with a single glance. They admired its extreme mobility and the case with which it could be turned in every possible direction, and thus, as it were, multiply itself by the variety of its sensations. They admired the suppleness of the lids, ready at all times to cover the eyes as with a veil, to protect them from the impression of too vivid light or the attack of exterior objects, or to aid the power of sleep over the whole frame. But these and other observations of the same kind, relate only to neighbouring circumstances; the intimate mechanism of vision they had not thought of penetrating. It is now completely ascertained, as we

have seen, that every eye is a true optical instrument, on the ground of which light delineates, or paints in miniature, the portrait of every object situated in the presence of the spectator. Of all the subjects of observation with which nature every where abounds, it may justly be said of this organ, that there is none which more forcibly exhibits in its structure the marks of infinite intelligence.

Having in our last given a description of the eye and of its several parts, we shall now endeavour to account for the manner in which vision is achieved. From all the points of any object that presents itself to the eye, there proceed rays that diverge in every direction, but of these rays those only that enter the eye through the pupil have any effect in producing vision. By means of these a complete image of the object is formed on the bottom of the eye; but the image made or painted on the retina is reversed, in consequence of the circumstance that the rays proceeding from points situated on different sides of the middle point, cross one another on passing through the pupil. How this is effected may be seen by taking the eye of an ox recently killed, and stripping it of its sclerotica behind. If in this state the eye be placed in a hole made in the window-shutter of a dark room, with the corner outwards, we shall see in the transparent membranes of the opposite part distinct images of the exterior objects.

This truth admitted, viz. that the instant an object is before the eye, that object has its portrait on the bottom or back of the organ; it should seem that vision required no farther illustration, but that we may be led to suppose that our eyes are already trained, and that the mere presence of objects is sufficient for the impressions made on the retina and transmitted by the optic nerve to the brain, to enable the mind to represent those objects to itself precisely as they are, and in the places where they are. It will however, upon reflection, be quite evident that something more is necessary, considering that the image which is painted on the retina is a simple surface figured and coloured, without relief, and is moreover the result merely of the action which the extremities of the rays that touch it exert on the organ,

and has no connexion of itself with the opposite extremities, where the body which is the object of vision is situated. Philosophers have hence been led to suspect that there existed some intermediate agent, serving to connect, the impressions produced by the rays which bodies send to the eye, with the modifications of those bodies themselves. They imagine that touch, or the sense of feeling is in some way or other instrumental in instructing the eye and enabling us to correct the errors into which we should be led by this organ when left to itself. This has been explained after the following manner, by M. Condillac, in his Traité des Sensations."

Our first lessons are derived from the various motions which the hand makes that has its own image in the bottom of the eye. While in turns it approaches nearer to or withdraws farther from this organ, it teaches us to refer to a greater or less distance to one place than to another, the impression that is produced on the retina, from the knowledge we have of the position of the hand, and of the direction and extent of every movement, which it makes. While one hand passes over the other, it conveys, in a manner, over its surface, the colour of which the impression is in the eye; it circumscribes this colour within its limits, and excites in the mind the representation of a body shaped in such a manner. Afterwards when we touch different objects the hand directs the eye over the several parts of each of them, and renders the arrangement and respective positions sensible to it. It acts incessantly with regard to the eye, by means of the rays of light, as if it held one extremity of a stick, of which the other end touched the bottom of the eye, and guided this stick in succession over every part of the object. It seems even to inform the eye that the point it touches is the extremity of the ray which strikes that organ; and thus while it runs over the surface of the object, it seems to pronounce its true form. When once the eyes are instructed, the experience they have acquired enables them to do without the help of touch, and the presence alone of objects occasions the return of the same sensations when the rays proceeding from those objects make similar impressious on the organ,

VOL. X,

At the same time that the sense of feeling instructs the eye with regard to the images of objects, it exercises it also in the art of estimating their position in space, their size, and their distance; and when this distance exceeds that to which the motion of the hand extends, we supply the defect by another exercise, which consists in approaching towards the object till we touch it, and then receding from it again; and by the extent of these contrary movements we ascertain its distance with a degree of accuracy quite sufficient for all common purposes. When the object exceeds the compass of our ordinary movements, the proportions we are accustomed to remark serve as rules by which to apply to more remote objects the impressions that are made upon us; but as the distance increases, circumstances become less favourable to such applications, and beyond a certain limit objects present themselves more or less under a deceitful appearance, and we are led into that kind of errors called optical delusions.

Having given this brief account of the manner, or supposed manner of vision, we shall proceed to observe, that we cannot contemplate the structure and uses of this organ without admiration of the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of the Creator, especially when we consider the prodigious exactness, and exquisite skill employed in every part, administering to this noble and necessary organ. To pass over the arteries and veins, and other parts that are common to the rest of the body, let us reflect on its several muscles, which are placed, so as to be adapted not only to every possible motion of the eye, but cach is endowed with such an exact degree of strength, as to cause the most perfect equilibration, by which all contortions of the eye are prevented, and it can with the utmost readiness apply itself to every object. Again, the tu nics or coats are so admirably seated, and of so firm a texture, as to fit every place, to answer every occasion, and to be proof against all common inconveniences and annoyances. In the humours also, we find all the requisite clearness and transparency, for an easy admission of the rays of light, well placed for refracting them, and formed, by the nicest laws of optics, to collect the wandering rays into a

point. To this may be added the structure of the darkened cell, in which these curious humours lie, and into which the glories of the heavens and the earth are brought and exquisitely pictured, which cell is perfectly adapted, by means of its texture, aperture and colour to guard off from without, all useless and noxious rays, and within it is extremely well coated with a dark tegument, that it may not reflect, dissipate, or any way confuse or disturb the beneficial rays. According to Descartes, this blackness is intended to obscure the rays which are reflected from the bottom of the eye to its forc-part, and which would otherwise be thrown back again upon the bottom, and thus occasion a confused vision. Another reason has been assigned for this colour, viz. that the superfluous rays which proceed from lateral objects may be absorbed. Hence illuminated objects are best seen from a dark station, because the rays proceeding from them are not obliterated by circumambient light.

It has been observed by the honourable Mr. Boyle and by others who have discoursed on the wisdom and goodness of the Almighty from the structure of the human frame, that as we are under the necessity of using optic glasses, so nature, meaning by the term, the God of nature, has made a far more complete provision in the eyes of animals, to shut out too much, and to admit sufficient light, by the dilatation and contraction of the pupil; and it may be farther noted that these pupils are in different animals of different forms according to their peculiar occasions. In some, particularly in man, it is round, that being the most proper figure for the position of our eyes, and the uses we make of them on all occasions. In some animals it is oblong, and large, as in the cow, sheep, horse, &c. which is an admirable provision for such creatures to see the better laterally, and thereby avoid those things that might offend thein. In other animals the figure of the pupil is erect, and also capable of opening wide and shutting up close. The latter of which serves to exclude the brighter light of day, and the former to take in the more faint rays

inly scattered about in the night, which is an admirable provision for those animals, as the cat, squirrel,

&c. that have occasion to watch and way-lay their prey both by day and night, and to look upwards and downwards in the act of climbing after their food or to avoid danger.

With respect to the means adapted! to the protection of this curious organ we may quote the words of Cicero De naturá Deorum. 66 The eyelids," says this philosopher, "which are the coverings of the eyes, are soft to the touch that they may not hurt the sight, and are fitted both for veiling and opening the pupils with the greatest celerity. They are defended by the eye-lashes, as by a palisade which prevents any thing from falling into them while the eyes are open; and closing together in sleep, the eye is at rest under their covering. They are likewise most admirably placed under shelter, and are guarded on all sides by more prominent parts. The upper eye-lids covered by the eyebrows are screened from the perspiration falling down from the forehead; the under eye-lids are defended by the cheek-bones which rise higher than their surface." It is remarkable also, that the hairs of the eye-lashes grow only to a certain length, and never stand in need of cutting like the hair on the head again, their points stand completely out of the way: those in the upper lid bend upwards, while those in the lower lid decline downwards. From these circumstances, we may learn how critically exact the great Author of Nature has been in even the least and most trivial conveniences belonging to every part of the animal frame. Did our plan admit of figures we would farther shew the curious structure and lodgment of the muscle which is used in opening the eye-lids, and of another, or circucular one, used in closing them, and we would gladly point out the nice apparatus of glands that keep the eye moist, and serve for tears, and other circumstances which anatomists have noticed with wonder and delight.

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