minds with any relish for heavenly objects, with any desire for divine consolations, with any love for genuine piety. I daily urged them to consider that Religion is not seated in the tongue, but in the mind; that it consists not in words, but in deeds; not in the subtlety of speculations, but in purity of heart; not in the affectation of new discoveries, but in the prosecution of a new life. They were frequently reminded, that he alone is a true Theologian, who adds the practical to the theoretical part of Religion, who combines exhortation to duty with the elucidation of doctrine. They were told, also, that this is not to be done merely in a superficial, formal, and customary manner, at the conclusion of a sermon; but that the whole discourse should be so framed, that the soul, fixed in earnest and adoring contemplation of astonishing truths, may feel itself inflamed with a heavenly zeal to regulate the life in a manner becoming the knowledge and the faith of those glorious realities." (Vol. i. pp. XXXV. xxxvi.)

The Second Dissertation is on "Fundamental Articles," and on this important subject the views of our author appear to us to be generally just, wisely discriminating, aud charitable as far as truth allows,-and beyond that, charity towards men who err in essentials, except it be the charity of commiseration, is always either a hollow pretence, or a dan gerous concession. It is true Christian charity, honestly to warn the erring of their danger, and to use all proper means to reclaim them; but it is no charity to allow that men who have renounced all that is distinctive in Christianity, can still remain Christians, can be entitled to the fraternity of the faithful, and retain an unforfeited claim to the same hopes. The one is the charity which pities, urges, and extricates; the other, for fear of disturbing the passions of the party in danger, cries "Peace, when there is no peace." From this Dissertation we give the following extract :

-

"To entitle an article to be considered fundamental, it must be distinguished by the following characters. 1st, It is requisite that it be contained in Scripture; for the Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation.' (2 Tim. iii. 15.) They are the perfect rule of all things necessary to be known, believed, and done, in order to eternal

life. This criterion we lay down, in opposition to Papists, and to Enthusiasts.

"2dly. It is necessary that it be so clearly contained in the sacred volume, that any person, even the most simple and illiterate, provided he give attention, may easily perceive that it is a doctrine of Scripture. The reason of this criterion is, that salvation is intended not merely for the learned, and for those endowed with great perspicacity of mind, but also for children and babes in CHRIST. (1 Cor. i. 26; Matt. xi. 25.) Among articles clearly contained in the Scriptures, however, we must include not only those which they teach in express words, but also those which, to all who apply their minds to the subject, are obviously deducible from them by necessary conse quence. Our LORD and his Apostles very frequently confirmed even fundamental articles of faith by consequences deduced from Scripture. This criterion, too, must not be understood to intimate, that fundamental articles are propounded, wherever they are taught in holy writ, in words thus clear and inbe deemed fundamental, which is extelligible to all; or that nothing is to hibited in any passage in a manner calculated to exercise the industry even of the learned. It has pleased God to reveal the same truth in the Scriptures' at sundry times and in divers manners.' Sometimes he propounds a doctrine, the faith of which is necessary to salvation, so clearly, that no reader that is attentive, and is enlightened by the HOLY but a contentious person can call it in SPIRIT, can be ignorant of it, and none question; and sometimes he so involves the same doctrine in obscurity, that it becomes necessary for the studions to compare the more obscure with the more perspicuous passages. The knowledge of a fundamental article consists not in understanding this or the other passage of the Bible; but in an acquaintance with the truth, which in one pasbut is exhibited in other places in a sage, perhaps, is more obscurely traced, clear, nay, in the clearest possible light. In fine, we do not concur with the Remonstrants, in requiring so high a degree of clearness, as to consider those articles alone fundamental, which are acknowledged and maintained amongst all Christians as of the most unquestionable authority, and which neither are, nor can be controverted. According to this rule, hardly any thing will remain to distinguish the Christian Religion from the Pagan morality, and the Mahome

* Πολυμερώς και πολυτρόπως. Heb. 1. 1.

tan theology. There is much truth in the remark of CLEMENT of Alexandria; No Scripture, I apprehend, is so favourably treated, as to be contradicted by no one.'*

3dly. Another mark of a fundamental article is, that it be of such a nature, that neither faith in CHRIST, nor true repentance, can subsist without it; for, as without faith it is impossible to please GOD, so without holiness no man shall see the LORD. (Heb. xi. 6; xii. 14.) For example; since it is impossible for any one to believe in GoD, unless he know that he is, and that he is faithful in all his sayings, and since it is impossible also for any one to love and serve him, unless he believe that he is the Rewarder of those that seek him,it must be confidently affirmed, that the articles which respect the existence and the veracity of GoD, and also the gracious rewards which he confers on his people, are clearly fundamental. Further, as salvation is unattainable without CHRIST; (Acts iv. 12;) as no grown-up person can be saved through CHRIST, but by faith; (Mark xvi. 16;) and as faith supposes knowledge; (Rom. x. 14;)-the knowledge of CHRIST is necessary to salvation. (John xvii. 3; xx. 31.) Besides, since GOD will honour them only that honour him, (1 Sam. ii. 30,) and he who honours not the Son, honours not the FATHER; and since the SON cannot be rightly hououred, unless he be recongnized as, what he really is, the true GOD, of the same substance with the FATHER, and on that account, of equal dignity with the FATHER; we boldly maintain that the article respecting the true Divinity of CHRIST, is fundamental.

"4thly. It cannot be doubted that every article is fundamental, to the denial of which GOD, notwithstanding the grace and benignity of the Gospel, has annexed a threatening of destruction. I say, notwithstanding the grace of the Gospel; for according to the rigour of the law, all culpable ignorance of any truth, which GOD has revealed, is damnable. In conformity to this rule, we conclude that the article relating to the Incarnation of CHRIST is fundamental; for JOHN says, Every spirit that confesseth not that JESUS CHRIST is come in the flesh, is not of GOD.' The reason of this rule is, that no person is saved, in whom any thing is found, for which, notwithstanding the intervention of the Gospel, GOD declares that he excludes men from the kingdom of heaven.

5thly. That also is to be regarded a fundamental article, which the

STROMAT. lib. i.

Scriptures call a foundation ;—whether this be done in express terms, or in words of equal force. Thus the doctrine respecting the LORD JESUS, his person and offices, is denominated by PAUL & foundation. Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is JESUS CHRIST.' (1 Cor. iii. 11.) The meaning is, that no man can teach another fundamental doctriue, separate from the doctrine concerning CHRIST. To this, also, may be referred the following words of our SAVIOUR to PETER, Upon this Rock will I build my church;' (Matt. xvi. 18;) that is, either upon myself, whom thou hast confessed; or upon this doctrine of which thou hast made a profession, by declaring that I am the SON of GOD.

"6thly. It must not be omitted, that if any article is stated as necessary to be known, which cannot be understood unless some other article shall have been previously understood and believed, that other article must also rank among those that are necessary. For example: it is necessary to know that we are saved only by the grace of our LORD JESUS CHRIST; for the Apostle PAUL says, If any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.' (Gal. i. 8, 9.) But this can be neither understood nor believed, unless we know that sin has plunged us into so deep an abyss of misery, that our deliverance surpassed our own power, and even the united exertions of all creatures. Thus, from the necessity of the article respecting our deliverance, we strongly infer the necessity of the article respecting our misery.' (Vol. i. pp. 19-25.)

To the above, WITSIUS liberally adds,

"Those articles which are thus fundamental, ought to be known and believed by every Christian that has reached the years of discretion, by the learned and the unlearned, by the humblest mechanic no less than the Professor of Theology. We concede, however, that, in men whose capacity is slow, whose memory is weak, and to whom only an obscure revelation, or a cold and inefficient ministry, are afforded, GOD tolerates a less distinct and less explicit knowledge, than in persons who, in all those respects, are favoured with superior advantages. It is possible, too, that a man who holds the foundation, may embrace some error inconsistent with a fundamental article; whilst, either from the dulness of his capacity, or from some defect in his education, and from preju

dices early imbibed, he does not perceive it to be an error at all, much less, an error at variance with the foundation. In such circumstances, the error does not the darkness of Popery, the elect, holding the fundamental articles, were saved, though they did not escape a number of prevailing errors, such as the communion of the mass, respecting which our Catechism has justly said that it is a virtual renunciation of the alone sacrifice of JESUS CHRIST, and horrible idolatry." (Vol. i. p. 27.)

exclude from salvation. Thus, amidst

The allusion to the Dutch Remonstrants, in the preceding extract, will have been noticed by our readers. The author refers to EPISCOPIUS, LIMBORCH, and some others of the followers of ARMINIUS, who, driven to the extreme by their Calvinistic opponents, (whose bigotry excluded, both from their own communion and from salvation, all who did not acknowledge their doctrine of the Decrees to be a fundamental point of faith, and pursued them with disgraceful persecutions,) were disposed to consider those doctrines only as fundamental, in admitting which even Arians, and the Socinians of that day, would agree with the Orthodox. "They were men," says DR. WATERLAND, "who made the truth and the importance of the doctrine of the Trinity two distinct questions; admitting the one, and demurring to the other. The design of this middle way, was to reconcile parties, if possible, and to condemn the doctrine of the Socinians, without condemning the men." A principle is often best tried by its practical results; and if EPISCOPIUS were now alive, it would be somewhat amusing to observe the means he would take to apply his comprehending scheme to the Socinians of this day. In his time, the Socinians received the whole New Testament as inspired, and supported their notions by attempts at least at consistent interpretation. Here was, therefore, (great as we think the error of EPISCOPIUS and his followers was,) a common ground on which the Orthodox and the Socinians could meet,the supreme authority of the Scriptures; and the latitude claimed for the latter, by those of the Remonstrant Divines who followed EPISCOPIUS, was the latitude of ample in

terpretation. In the present day, even that portion of common ground is taken away; the inspiration of the Apostles is denied; that of our LOKD questioned; and whatever in the New Testament will not melt down into the mass, is boldly rejected from

the crucible of Socinian criticism. Where now would EPISCOPIUS draw the line between truths necessary, and truths non-necessary? It is, however, to be remarked, that EPISCOPIUS was himself, and so was LIMBORCH, a firm and devout believer in the doctrine of the Trinity, and an able defender of it; that it is laid

down in the Remonstrants' Confession, in full and strong terms;* and that any inference from this incautious liberality of EPISCOPIUS, and some other Remonstrants, towards the Socinians, unfavourable to their or to his orthodoxy, is without foundation. We make this remark, because MR. FRASER, the Translator of these Dissertations, who has appended to them numerous notes, some of which are instructive and valuable, has in the seventh of them so expressed sion as to this point upon the mind himself as to leave a doubtful impresof the reader. The opinions of the Remonstrants are to be taken from their Confession, and their early Divines, such as the learned and truly evangelical ARMINIUS, and many others. What some of the later Divines, taking the name of Remonstrants or Arminians, became, is much less relevant to "Arminianism," than the sentiments of the Dutch and English Antinomians would be to Calvinism: but the Translator has obviously little information on these subjects, or his candour would not have suffered him to state, in the same note, that "the Arminian system, it is well known, is just a modification of the errors of Pelagianism." We are not sure that we precisely understand the force of this Scotticism,

southern idiom it would mean a modification, and scarcely one; that is, that Arminianism is nearly the same thing as Pelagianism, and that in the "Arminian system" Pelagianism has scarcely undergone any change. It is not however necessary to settle the degree, since Arminianism is neither a modification of Pelagianism, nor

identical with it. It is essentially different; and that MR. FRASER Would have known, had he read either the Remonstrants' Confession, the works of the early Remonstrant Divines, or even the article on Arminianism in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, though drawn up by a Calvinist. (To be continued.)

Essays on various Subjects of Ecclesiastical History and Antiquity, by the REV. JAMES TOWNLEY, D. D. pp. 168. 5s. -The subjects here discussed are thus stated in the "Contents: "-"On the Ancient Zabii, or Ante-Mosaic Idolaters: On the Onolatria, or Worship of the Ass: On the Character of Mary Magdalene: On the Ancient Christian Vigilia: On the Sortes Sanctorum of the Ancient Christians: On the Ancient Christian Agape: On the use of the terms ICHTHUS' and' PISCICULI' by the Ancient Christians: On the Congregation and College De Propagandâ Fide, or celebrated Catholic Missionary Institution: On the Prohibitory and Expurgatory Indexes of the Romish Church: On the Progressive Diffusion of the Gospel." It will be seen by this enumeration, that some of the matters investigated and explained are curious, others instructive, and the last important. They show the usual research of the excellent Author, and to the general reader will convey information which he may not previously have obtained. The Account of the Ante-Mosaic Idolaters has already appeared in our Magazine; and will have impressed our Readers with a favourable opinion of DR. ToWNLEY'S learning and industry. The last Essay is on a very interesting subject, which we think capable of larger illustration than the Author has given it; though we agree with him as to the difficulty of ascertaining, with precision, the state of true religion in the middle ages, and in countries with which the inquiring part of Europe has had but little intercourse. Whether real Christianity has been always gaining ground in the world since its first promulgation, on the

whole, or whether in some periods its vital influence has not suffered great decays, and become nearly extinct, is the question which the Author briefly examines. He inclines to the notion of its constant, though slow growth and extension, amidst every corruption. We think the truth is, that in the decline of the Church many thousands of the poorer Christians retained their simplicity for a longer period than might be concluded from the face of Ecclesiastical History; but that in reality there did come a great "falling away" in the middle ages, and an almost entire, though certainly not entire,extinction of the spirit of the Gospel. Where the Scriptures were not, and where the christian priest became a sacrificer, and no longer a preacher, there could be little true Christianity in any place. During four or five centuries previous to the Reformation, we think, therefore, that the Author would find it difficult to make out his position. That event was in truth a revival,—“life from the dead."

The Difficulties of Infidelity: By the REV. G. S. FABER, B. D. 8vo. 7s.

WILLIAM BAYNES and SONS' General Catalogue of Books for 1824-5. Part I. English Divinity. Is.

A Selection of Tracts and Observations on 1 John v. 7. Part I. By the BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S. 8vo. 5s.

Strictures on the Plymouth Antinomians. By JOSEPH COTTLE. (Second edition, enlarged.) pp. 214. 5s. Among the various corruptions of the Christian Faith, none, perhaps, is more offensive in itself, or more deleterious in its consequences, than Antinomianism. It more immediately than any other converts the food of evangelical truth into poi2 P