Unitarian criticisms have, also, very often, the weighty collateral recommendation of neutralizing or annihilating some consideration which might otherwise give serious alarm to the conscience. The most awful and awakening passages of Scripture are pretended to have had all their application to men and circumstances no longer existing; and the heart-melting tenderness of the evangelical promises is often evaporated to a poor and unaffecting residue.

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It is also a fact which deserves the most serious and monitory reflection, that the ignorant statements, the unsound arguments, the loose declamation, the unjust imputations, and even the virulent spirit, which have too often been employed on the side of truth, (thus inflicting deep wounds on that sacred cause, and conferring the most signal advantages on the opposite errors,) have had an extensive effect in urging to the inviting retreats of Unitarianism, those who have not been fortified with accurate knowledge

• How did Christ and his apostles feel the condition of infatuated and impenitent sinners! How did they denounce the condemnation of the unbelieving and ungodly, the terrors of the Lord, the wrath of God revealed from heaven, the fearful looking for of judgment, and the fiery indignation! With what holy earnestness and commiseration, with what tenderness and deep concern did they warn, rebuke, exhort, and entreat men ! "How," they cried, "shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation!" But, alas, what a contrast do the best and greatest of Unitarians exhibit, if the following passage may be taken as evidence!

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"The firm faith that you and I have, that even the wicked, after a state of wholesome discipline, (and that not more severe than will be necessary,) will be raised, in due time, to a state of happiness, greatly diminishes our concern on their account." Dr. Priestley to Mr. Lindsey, in Mr. Belsham's Memoirs of Mr. Lindsey, p. 537.

of doctrines and evidences, or whose evangelical piety has not been strong enough to rise above injustice and unkindness.

It may be asked, whether that can be true, or, if true, whether it can be of any high importance in religion, which requires so much toilsome research and heavy criticism, for its explication and establishment; and whether it can be requisite to the faith and happiness of plain Christians, to believe doctrines thus circumstanced.

We reply, that the necessity of these laborious discussions is put upon us by those who misunderstand, or who oppose, what we deem sacred truth; that the adducing of scripture evidence, and the study of scripture doctrines, are in perfect coincidence with the daily habits of all sincere Christians, even in the lowest ranks of life; that it is but a small part of such persons that have the unhappiness of being plunged into the turbid waters of controversy; that the truths here vindicated lie so plainly and so exten. sively upon the surface of revelation, as to have produced this remarkable fact, that the generality of serious Christians, from the very earliest times, (of whose devotional exercises we possess any documents,) have admitted those doctrines as the wellknown truth of heaven, and have infused them into the whole constitution of their secret piety and their practical religion; and finally, that, to a very large extent, and among all ranks and conditions of society, experience has proved that where the holy Scriptures, in any intelligible form, have engaged the serious attention of untutored men, their usual operation has

been to produce the deepest impression of the truth, excellence, and practical efficacy of those very doctrines which Unitarians renounce.

The feeling of deficiency and need, which is the first developement of the religious spirit in the human mind; its unconquerable aspiring after an unknown good, a good invisible, spiritual, eternal, infinite; produce a conviction impossible to be surmounted, that the restoration of our fallen nature to purity and happiness can only be effected by its reunion to God: and another feeling, inseparably consequent, is the sense, the desire, the hope, that this reunion is actually attained by a mysterious condescension of the Deity to bind the nature of man for ever to himself. For proof of the existence of this principle in man, I can only appeal to the consciousness of any person who has endeavoured to think closely, and to urge deeply the efforts of self-inquiry; and who has taken pains to analyze and classify the operations of his own mind. Let us call this principle what we may, a natural tendency, a moral instinct, or a necessary inclination; it constitutes an original fact in the history of our species; it is as surely drawn out, when it meets with the appropriate circumstances, as a seed is made to germinate when it obtains its proper place and temperature and moisture; and it is as impossible to extirpate it as it is to destroy the desire of happiness. When the rational and consciously sinful creature has thus opened its susceptibilities and exerted its longings for the supreme good, it can find no rest till it hears the voice of eternal mercy announcing a REDEEMING GOD, made flesh, and dwelling among us.

"He that sitteth upon the throne saith, BEHOLD, "I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW. And he saith, WRITE,

FOR THESE WORDS ARE TRUE AND FAITHFUL. And "he said to me, IT IS DONE: I AM THE ALPHA AND 66 THE OMEGA, THE BEGINNING AND THE END: UNTO 66 HIM THAT THIRSTETH I WILL GIVE OF THE FOUNTAIN "OF THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY: HE THAT OVERCOMETH SHALL INHERIT THESE THINGS, AND I WILL 66 BE HIS GOD, AND HE SHALL BE MY SON."

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As we cannot too highly estimate the value of divine truth, in its most correct forms of acquisition and elucidation, so it becomes us to be proportionately solicitous that we adorn our profession of attachment to it, with all in our tempers and conduct that is pure and lovely, upright and honourable, contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, and uniting the simplicity of holiness with the meekness of wisdom.

APPENDIXES.

APPENDIX I.

MOSHEIM ON THE SOURCE OF PREJUDICES AGAINST CHRISTIAN

DOCTRINES.

The following passage is taken from the (Sämtliche Heilige Reden, &c.) Sermons on Important Truths of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ, by the late Dr. John Laurence Mosheim, Chancellor of the University of Gottingen; 3 vols. Hamburg, 1765; vol. i. p. 167.

'ALL men agree in this, that their powers of reason are not equal to the comprehension of every thing. It is universally admitted, that it would be but a mean token of wisdom for a man to say, ' This or that statement is not true, for I do not see how it can be.' No man, in the matters of ordinary life, would hold him a man of sense who should venture to say, 'There are no clocks or watches; for I do not know how such pieces of art can be made.' One might ask him, whether he knows how the sun promotes the growth of plants; and whether, if this be above his comprehension, he therefore denies the fact. What right have we to expect that truth should be found, without any mixture of obscurity, in the things of religion and man's eternal interest?

"Yet are not clearly revealed truths brought into doubt, because the manner of their being true is not known? Is not such reasoning as this employed by many; 'This or that doctrine is not true, because, when I take counsel with my understanding upon it, my ignorance is discovered?'-There are persons who deny the mystery of the TRINITY, and the truths connected with it. What has betrayed them into their lamentable errors? Is it not, that they overlook that clear dictate of reason which I have been stating? The foundation of all their errors is their laying down this rule for themselves; 'I must interpret those passages of Scripture which are supposed to assert that doctrine, in some other way than the obvious meaning of