lious man, which has been manifested to the world in the incarnation, sufferings and death, of the Son of God, without having recourse to these imaginary interpositions of the Holy Spirit. "The object then seems to be," continues Dr. Daubeny, " to draw a middle line between that lukewarmness, which is the consequence of Christianity being degraded into a mere system of dry morality, stripped of every motive to engage the religious affections, which constitutes the cold-hearted uninteresting religion of the self-sufficient Unitarian; and that extravagance of conceit and presumption, which an heated imagination has so often grafted upon them. For as the imagination is more susceptible of impression, than the understanding is capable of information; admitting the imagination to form the standard of judgment in this case, the consequence must be, that in proportion as the appeal to sensible proof in religion will be more successful than to rational, the number of imaginary Christians will necessarily exceed that of the rational and well-informed. And when the imagination has once been suffered to take possession of the human mind in religious matters, it supersedes the use both of reason and Scripture. For in proportion as sensible experience is made the standard of judgment in religion, faith, the legitimate offspring of revelation, is destroyed: whilst the private feelings of individuals furnish no possible subject for the test of rational investigation. Whereas, the object of true religion is to establish the hope of the Christian on the firmest foundation. That it may be thus established, it must be raised, not on the loose and shifting ground of sensible impulses and imaginary experiences, but on the firm rock of faith, rendered still more firm by the concurring support of a sound and well-informed understanding. And though the modern Christian, if he be a sober one,, does not expect those extraordinary assistances of the Holy Ghost, by which the first Christians were distinguished; he still understands, with reference to his own condition under the Gospel, what is meant by the love of God shed abroad in his heart;' by adverting to that work of grace, which the Holy Spirit is carrying on within him, purifying his thoughts, disposing his will, rectifying his affections, and thereby preparing him to become that new creature of the Gospel, whose heart and mind are chiefly occupied with the love of God and good ness." P. 15. Having thus shewn in what the communion of the Christian with his God consists, in opposition to the false representation of the joy of the Spirit, which is the favourite theme of the enthusiast; the Archdeacon next adverts to the progress of Unitarianism. deed from one subject to the other, The transition inwe cannot help remarking, is exceedingly natural. Perfectly agreeing with him, that the Unitarian "is no Christian," but that his creed is rather a species of disguised deism, prised at the fact, that a system of or infidelity, we are not at all suropinions, which may be considered as the opposite extreme of enthusiasm, should appear as a contemporary bane of true Christianity. The old proverb, that "extremes meet," is strikingly true in matters lity are always found in the train of of religion. Enthusiasm and infideeach other; however antagonists in principle, they are linked together in unholy league against all genuine religion. They naturally pave the brings religion into disrespect, by way for each other. Enthusiasm exhibiting a caricature of it; and exciting a dread in the minds of many of approaching in any degree to that extravagance which is the object of their ridicule in others, induces them to shut themselves in more securely within the entrenchments of their own reason. Infidelity, whether vainly occupied in substituting its own reveries for the dictates of Revelation,—or in explaining away an acknowledged Revelation, so as to make it square with its own conceits,-fatiguing the spirits of men with unprofitable searchings after a wisdom which is not within their reach, disposes them to seek repose at last in the devotedness of an unreserved credulity, and so to yield themselves willing captives to the suggestions of the imagination as equally authoritative with those of the judgment. It produces, as it were, a vacuum into which religion rushes with too violent a gust. "Having taken occasion to mention that system of dry morality stripped of every motive to engage the religious affections, which constitutes the cold-hearted religion of the self-sufficient Unitarian, it may be expected that I should say at least a short word upon a subject, which, from the increasing confidence of the great champion of this Anti-Christian sect, (in the light at least in which it appears to us,) is now pushing itself into more immediate notice. Considering that so much has already been written, and so ably written, in refutation of this blasphemous heresy, it would be an affront to my hearers, were I to continue long upon such beaten ground. I shall content myself, therefore, with pointing out, in the briefest manner, that train of circumstances which have produced a conviction in my own mind, totally incompatible with the admission of the Unitarian hypothesis." P. 20. Arguing then from the circumstance of St. Paul being divinely commissioned to teach the Gospel, and from his applying the doctrines of the fall of man, and the atonement by Jesus Christ, to the explanation of the Jewish ritual, that, if the Unitarian exposition be correct, an inspired Apostle, and chosen instrument of God, must have either ignorantly or wilfully misrepresented that to be matter of fact which never actually took place,—and lamenting the miserable prostitution of talent to the maintenance of so weak a cause as that of Unitarianism, Dr. Daubeny (in allusion to his most ostensible leader) adds in a tone of dignified and gentle rebuke: "Might I venture to suggest any thing to this bold though by no means conclusive reasoner; it should be, that if he would derive spiritual benefit from the divine word, he must study it on his knees; in humble supplication to the Giver of all true wisdom, that he would open his eyes to see in what different ways the Scriptures bear testimony to God's incarnate Son, as the Redeemer of fallen man; rather than confine his attention to the various speculations of fallible commentators, as their opinions, their differences, and errors, have been successively recorded, For, as it has been excellently observed, there is a devotion al contemplation of holy writ, which is far more precious in the sight of God, far more improving to the heart, and of far more value to the saving of the soul, than all the intellectual lucubrations of the mind, however deeply imbued with the principles of earthly philosophy, however extensively versed in the wisdom of the literary world. For properly to understand the Scriptures, they must be considered as containing a connected system: and their several books as containing different parts of that divine economy, which commenced with the creation and will extend to the consummation of all things. And though these books of Scripture were written by different authors, at different times, and in different styles, and contain many features in common with other human productions, and as such, must in a degree be interpreted like other writings; still, to be properly understood, they must be considered in their general bearing upon that great subject, of which they were intended to be the communicating medium, to arrive at any degree of accurate knowledge of the principles by which the sacred writings may be safely judged. But to acquire such a knowledge requires, it must be remembered, something of more importance to the Christian expositor than mere learning; it requires that most rare, but most valuable of all intellectual attainments, a lowliness of mind, and a modesty of thought; esteeming the judgment of the inspired writers as superior to our own, in all matters belonging to the revelation of the Mosaical law, and the proofs of Christianity as dependant on that preliminary dispensation. It requires, moreover, a sober distrust of the absolute certainty of human philosophy, together with a proportionate doubt with respect to the accuracy of mere logical reasoning, when applied to those mysteries and deep things of God, which are confessedly beyond the reach of the human intellect; accompanied with a general disregard for the changing theories of religious speculation, as an infallible criterion of the doctrines of revelation." P. 23. The arrogant and dogmatical character however of Unitarianism, leave him no room to expect that any attention will be paid to such an appeal. He looks forward only with hope to the time, when "the scales of infidelity shall fall from the eyes of its bold advocate," and he shall be brought to the simplicity of faith. In the mean time, he does not apprehend any real danger to the cause of truth from such attacks. "Icontent myself, therefore, with observ ing, that the ministers of Christ may fearlessly take upon them to maintain, that if atonement for the sins of fallen man by the blood of a redeeming Saviour be not the doctrine which pervades the general tenor of divine Revelation; binding, as it were, by an indissoluble chain, the several parts of it together in uniform consistency; the Bible, of all books that have ever been put into the hands of man, is certainly the most inconsistent and most unintelligible.” P. 28. This is certainly impregnable ground, and the Archdeacon has done well in adverting to it. It appears to us, indeed, almost an irrelevant task, though it is highly gratifying to see with what triumphant skill it has been accomplished, to combat the Unitarians with their own small arms, by debating with them detached texts of Scripture, and exposing the nakedness of that garb of criticism in which their vulgar theology is clothed: the use of such weapons only gratifies the pride of ingenuity in its literary advocates, and still leaves them a ground on which they may carry on their warfare of missiles. We would have this ground altogether removed. We would not have it conceded that cri. ticism is any foundation for building up theological truth. The "sic cogitavit" of a Thomas Belsham, or of a Jeremy Bentham, a par nobile fratrum, is not to be admitted as a preliminary in religious inquiry. The very novelty of any speculation in matters of faith, as we have seen it somewhere remarked, is the strongest argument in itself, that such speculation is unsound. Some weight surely is to be attributed to the catholic tradition of the Christian Church, (that Church with which Christ promised to be always, even unto the end,) as a depository of the faith, contemporary with, and auxili ary to, the Scriptures themselves; so that any doctrine which that Catholic Church has never acknowledged, however it may profess to be elicited from the Scriptures, or how ever specious may be the criticism on which it is founded, were that REMEMBRANCER, No. 69. un. criticism even tenfold more answerable than that of the Belsham sect, ought at once to be rejected, as not savouring of the things which be of God. We pass on to the conclusion of the Charge in which the Archdeacon comments on the increasing influence of Popery, and the consequent danger to a Protestant establishment. The increase of Papists in this country in the course of the last half century, he states to have been, from much under one hundred thousand, to upwards of half a million-a fact, which certainly ought to render us scrupulously cautious how we extend the power of annoyance to so formidable a legion of a foreign and jealous Church. It shews indeed great activity on the part of the "proselyting priesthood" of the Romish Church, and that activity calls for a corresponding exertion on our part. It becomes accordingly, the cler gy especially, to be "on the alert." The circumstance which the Archdeacon notices, in reference to the pretended claims to exclusive catholicism on the part of that communion, ought to be strongly insisted upon in such times as these-namely "the original independence of the British Church, as a regularly constituted branch of the Universal Church of Christ."-This is a very important fact, not only as an answer to the charge of heresy and schism brought against us by the Romanists, but as establishing a broad line of distinction between our case with respect to the Church of Rome, and that of the Dissenters with respect to ourselves. We have only discontinued that communion which we could no longer maintain, and stood aloof in our integral capacity-they, the Dissenters, have broken off themselves as a fragment from our body, and set up an independence to which they had no previous claim; and they consequently have no authority for the functions of their ministers. It is with the Papists, however, that 4 B the argument of the Archdeacon is alone concerned in this place;-he proceeds accordingly to insist on the duty of the clergy," to make themselves fully acquainted with those reasons, which justified the Church, to which they have the honour to belong, in withholding all further communion with the Church of Rome, and however the government may act with regard to the extension of civil rights to its members, still "as Churchmen, strenuously to defend the ground. on which they have been honourably placed:" at all events, by their faithfulness in their stewardship, approving themselves "us sound divines, and honest men." He thus emphatically sums up his admonition : "Acting upon this conscientious principle, whether our talents be moderate or distinguished, our acquirements great or small, we shall have the satisfaction to think that we have discharged our duty in that station in which the Providence of God has placed us: a satisfaction which will encourage us to trust, in humble dependance on the divine blessing, that whether we still preserve our civil advantages and possessions, or are doomed to fall again into a state of destitution and distress; whether we continue to enjoy that pro vision and independence, which a gracious Providence has now for a length of time Vouchsafed to us; or like the prophets of old, are hidden by fifty in a cave, and fed with bread and water;' to trust, I repeat, that we shall always maintain the same principles, and profess the same doctrines; and thereby convince a gainsaying world, that our attachment to our Church does not depend on its legal establishment, but on its own intrinsic excellence, its scriptu ral integrity, the purity of its worship, and its apostolical constitution; connected with its conformity, in all essential respects, to the best models of primitive and uncorrupted Christianity. "Thus faithful to our engagements, we need be under no apprehension of our candlestick being removed. And though present appearances in the Christian world minister abundant cause for exertion, still, under a gracious Providence, they minister none for despondency. For so long as the faith once delivered to the saints' shall be found stationary in our Church, we may rest assured, on the word of her divine founder, that the gates of hell shall never prevail' against her. At "And though we, my Brethren, may look with grateful pride, on the advantages which our own Church has derived from the wis dom, piety, and zeal of our Reformers, in that purer worship, and sounder faith which we have long possessed; still, we must consider these, as benefits vouchsafed by a gracious Providence to this favoured country; and to be continued to it no longer than its inhabitants shall have grace to use them to their divinely intended purpose. For the day may come, and, from the aspect of the present times, sooner perhaps than we are disposed to think, when the question may be- Where is now the Church of England?'” There are some additional observations contained in notes:-partly confirming what has been advanced in the Charge itself, by the testimony of other writers, but chiefly extending the former remarks on the subject of the Unitarian controversy. In these the Archdeacon permits himself a freer strain of remark than he could consistently employ in the body of the Charge itself, and exposes, with some degree of sarcastic indignation, the perverse ingenuity of the Unitarian in evading the unanswerable argument for the Atonement derived from the close correspondence between the old and the new dispensations; as exhibited, particularly, in the Epistle to the Hebrews. There is one assertion, however, which appears to us rather incautious-as the least concession of such a nature will be immediately turned by the enemy to his own advantage. It is, that St. Paul "was certainly more a popular than a strictly logical writer." Evidently Dr. Daubeny does not mean to grant that St. Paul was not a logical writer -as sufficiently appears from the illustration of his meaning conveyed in the latter part of his sentence, that "he (St. Paul) established the point he had to carry, more by the adduction of pertinent illustration, than by the force of logical precision" which implies that he only employs one mode of argument more commonly than another. At the same time he is always "strictly logical," that is, if his argument were reduced to regular form, it would always be found to be correct. We object then to the expression as meaning more than Dr. Daubeny intends by it. It must not be forgotten that we have to deal with an adversary with whom "words are things," and various readings are doctrines-and who will eagerly seize on such a concession as that to which we allude, as the appropriate prey of his morbid appetite for criticism. MISCELLANEOUS. Two Prologues by Wiclif, taken from a new Edition of Wiclif's Translation of the New Testament, by the Rev. Henry Hervey Baber, M.A. to which they are printed, for the first Time, from the original MS. on Vellum, in the Possession of the Rev. J. T. Barrett, D.D. PROLOG i. SEYNT austyn seith in the secunde book of cristen doctryne in the ende, what ever thing ony man fyndith in ony sience out of holi writ, if the thing founden is veyn, it is dampned in holi writ; and whanne the thing founden is profitable, it is founde in holi writ. And whanne ony man schal fynde alle thingis in holi writ which he lerned profitabli in ony other sciencis, mych plenteuouslier he schal fynde ther tho thingis profitable that ben not lernede in ony maner other sciencis: not but oonli in the wondirful hignesse and wondirful mekenesse of holi scripturis. Also in the thridde book of cristen doctryne austyn seith thus, Be thou ware that thou take not figuratyf spech to the lettir, for herto perteyneth the aposlis word seiynge, the lettir sleeth truly the spirit that is goostli: undirstonding makith to lyve, for whan thing seide bi figuriis takun as seid propirli to the lettir, it is undirstonden fleischly, no deeth of soule is seid more covenabli, thanne whanne undirstondynge that is excellent in the soule than beestis, is suget to the fleisch in suyng the lettir, that is, turnyng to fleischli lustis. also a propir spech in holi writ schal not be taken as figuratif. whatever thing in goddis word, that is holi writ, mai not be referrid propirli to honest thingis or virtues, nether to the truthe of feith, knowe thou that it is figuratif spech. honest of thewis perteyneth for to love god, and thi neigbore: truthe of feith perteyneth to knowe god and thi neigbore, truli to eche man is his hope and his owne consciens, as he felith himsilf to profite to the knowing and lovynge of god and of thi negbore. Holi writ comaundith no thing but charite, nethir blameth ony thing no but coveitise, and bi this maner holi writ enfourmeth the condiciouns of men. holi writ affermeth not, no but gevith all feith bi thingis passid, present, and to comynge. bifor tellynge of thingis to comyng, schewynge is of thingis presente, but alle thes thingis perteynen for to nurische the same charite, and to strengthe it, and to overcome and quenche coveitise. Also figuratif spech is where ever the wordis maken allegorie, that is, goostli undirstonding perteynynge to feith; or wwhan wordis maken derknesse or |