Crime & punishment > Life and farewell address of Peter Aug. Heaman, who was executed at Leith, on the 9th of January last, for the crimes of piracy and murder

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demand perfect obedience from imperfect
creatures." Their views of sin are conse¬
quently inadequate and false; and they at¬
tempt to satisfy their consciences by means of
some religious ceremonies, or moral obser¬
vances. “And what means the Mahometan
by his lustrations, the Brahmin by his aus*
terities, the Socinian by his boasted humanity,
the nominal Christian by his assiduous atten¬
dance on the Lord’s Supper, and other reli¬
gious services ? What do they intend but to
obtain justification for themselves before God.
“ We conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the works of the law.” “ He that be-
lieveth on me hath everlasting life.” These
divine aphorisms are equally rejected by them
all. To give all the glory of our justification
to God, is a character peculiar to his own re¬
ligion ; to exalt the merit of man, in one shape
or other, forms a part of every false religion
in the world.”
At the end of a second long Conversation
with F. Heaman, in which the remedy for
guilt, provided by God, was pointed out, he
declared that his mind was more “ lightened’’
than it had ever been before. He said, em¬
phatically, that this was good news indeed.
Being now aroused to attend to the doctrine