him that the miraculous conception of Christ, his pre-existence and atonement for sin, were Scripture doctrines, and had also satisfied him that Christ, as to his divine nature, was co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. He had not gone on to Calvinism, but still firmly believed in the universality of Divine love. His letter expressed warm gratitude to the members of the Committee in general, and to Mr. Aspland in particular, for past kindness, and regret at the dissolution of the acquaintance; and concluded with the prayer that they might all meet in heaven, "where they should all see as with one eye." In conformity with Mr. Webley's request, Mr. Aspland immediately wrote an answer to his letter, which, for the strength of its arguments and the gentleness of its spirit, appears entitled to a place in this Memoir:

To the Rev. S. Webley.

"Hackney, Nov. 20, 1811. "Dear Sir,-Your letter to the Committee of the Unitarian Fund, dated the 15th instant, I have read with very mixed emotions of mind; though, I assure you, with no angry or unfriendly sentiments towards yourself. Before I submit the letter to the Committee, I think it right to address a few thoughts to you on the subject of your change of opinions, which, I am persuaded, you will take in good part and consider with serious attention.

"So far, my dear Sir, from blaming you for your manly avowal of your dissent from the principles of the Unitarian Fund, I applaud your integrity and courage. While our Society is intended for the promotion of what we consider the most glorious, but long-lost, truths of the gospel, we are not so inconsistent as to attempt to remove the fetters of reputed orthodoxy from men's minds, solely to put on our own chains in their stead. Our object is in part accomplished, if we set the human mind upon inquiry, whether inquiry lead to us or from us, and you, I conceive, will ever thank us, even if you retain your new and, as I must think, unscriptural and erroneous notions, for having incited you to think for yourself, and supplied you with the means of forming a rational judgment upon the gospel.

"We shall regret your departure from us, if, indeed, your conscience shall ultimately compel you to depart, because we entirely approve of your character and conduct, and, from your evident and increasing improvement, entertained great hopes of your usefulness in the cause of pure religion; but we shall assuredly never disesteem you for using the liberty, which we are so forward to claim for ourselves, of free inquiry and independent judgment, nor regret the aid which we may have furnished towards your acceptableness and respectability as a religious teacher.

"With regard to ourselves, therefore, you may set your mind at rest; but there are higher obligations which you are under to Truth, and you are, I am persuaded, solicitous that you may not be negligent of these. As a Christian minister, the New Testament is your sole authority for your faith; but how you reconcile to that sacred volume the opinions to which you declare your conversion, I am utterly at a loss to conceive. I have no expectation that a short letter (such only as I have time to write) will produce any great effect upon your mind; yet, let me ask of you, where in the Christian Scriptures you find the divine nature of Christ, and, above all, his co-equality and co-eternity with the Father? You surely know that these terms are not scriptural, that they are merely of human invention, relics of popery; and not only are they not in Scripture, but (which challenges your solemn inquiry) nowhere in Scripture can terms be found which are equivalent to them, or which can signify the ideas which they convey. Now when language cannot be found in the Bible to express opinions, the presumption surely is, that the opinions intended by such language are human and not divine.

"For my part, I cannot open the Scriptures without perceiving the strongest

assertions of the humanity of Christ and the unity of God; and how these primary doctrines of revelation can consist with those which you have adopted, it behoves you seriously to consider: the consistency between them, I will venture boldly to say, cannot be made out but with the help of idle fictions of men, which will serve the hypothesis of Transubstantiation as well as that of the Trinity.

"With your new sentiments, you have, I take for granted, adopted new objects of worship; and can you feel in the worship of Gods many and Lords many' perfect satisfaction in your own mind that you obey the requirement of the Iman Christ Jesus,' which demands the absolute and unequivocal worship of the Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? The questions of the miraculous conception and pre-existence of Christ have, I conjecture, first and principally puzzled you; but you ought to know, that however these are answered no way affects the principles of the Unitarian Fund, which are simply the Unity, sole Worship and unpurchased Love of the Universal Father.

"You say you are still a believer in the universality of Divine love, and yet you avow the strange and unscriptural notion of Christ's being literally a propitiatory sacrifice for sin,' by which you mean, I conclude, that God would not forgive sins without a satisfaction (where, then, is forgiveness?), and that he would not have been propitious or kind but for Jesus Christ (what, then, becomes of his eternal love?). The scheme of the atonement is utterly at war with the gospel declarations of grace being free-of mercy being a gift, not a debt the spontaneous bounty of heaven, not the result of a contract or bargain. Where, my good Sir, does Jesus Christ represent his death as necessary to enable the Father to pardon his own children? In what other light does he ever place it than that of a testimony to truth and righteousness, an instance of obedience to the will of God and a preparation for a resurrection, the grand example of the merciful design of heaven to raise all mortal men to a state of life and immortality?

"I grant the word sacrifice is used of the death of Christ, as it is of the almsgivings of the churches, but, in the one case as well as the other, is, I am persuaded, after a careful examination, merely figurative. A vicarious or substitutive sacrifice the death of Christ could not be without being wholly dissimilar to the sacrifices of the law, not one of which was of that description; besides that it is in itself absurd and impossible, as well as repugnant to the express declarations of Scripture, that one being should morally represent another, and that the innocent should be punished for the guilty.

"You believe, I presume, that Christ was God, and that the real Christ died to satisfy divine justice; but let me seriously ask, Did God die? If he did, welcome Paganism! and let Wedmore, which is memorable in history as the scene of the baptism under the great Alfred of an army of Danes, be again signalized by a return to the heathen mythology. If he did not, then either Christ did not die or Christ who died is not God. You may distinguish between the natures of Christ, but where do you learn from Scripture that he has more natures than one? You will probably, agreeably to the fashion of the times, allot him two natures; but you might just as well, as far as Scripture is concerned, ascribe to him two hundred or two hundred thousand. This is an awkward device to get rid of the clear, decisive testimony of the New Testament concerning the Son of Man.

"Your new theory amounts to nothing at all, if God did not die; if it were a mere man that died, a man is then wholly competent to the work of salvation, and the divinity of Christ is useless. But the union of the divine nature with the human stamped an infinite value upon Christ's suffering.' There was no union, if the divine nature suffered not when the human was torn in pieces. "Ah! my friend, there is surely in this system, which you seem inclined to adopt, a forgetfulness, if not a distrust, of the Father of all, of Christ as well as us. Why should not his appointment and approbation of Christ be

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accounted all-sufficient both for the honour of Jesus and for the efficacy of his mission? It is not enough, then, according to the apostolic doctrine, that 'God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, and was always with him as he went about doing good!'-You may not, indeed, go all lengths with the believers in the divinity of Christ; but you cannot, in my view, consistently stop short of the horrid nonsense of God Almighty dying, in order to make God Almighty good and kind.

"Believe me, good Sir, I do not state these things thus strongly in order to harass your mind, but merely to warn you of the tendency and consequences of your new faith, of which I would fain persuade myself you are not fully aware. If, indeed, you see all these consequences, and can look at them and the Scriptures at the same time with an undaunted face, I shall admire your courage, whatever I may think of your creed.

"You seem to intimate a belief that you have been led in your inquiries by the Holy Spirit. That you have not been guided by an evil spirit I am fully prepared to admit; but I must demur to your statement of divine influences when I see you adopting sentiments so offensive (as I cannot but deem them) to the clearly revealed will of God. Divine teachings, you know, are claimed by men of almost all sentiments, and claimed most eagerly by the greatest fanatics, by the followers of Joanna Southcott more than by Calvinists, and by them more than by you;-this assumption, therefore, goes no way in a controversy; the only proper question is, what is the doctrine of Jesus? His word is spirit; he teaches me that God is One; that he himself is not God, but man; and that God is a Father, and always acts a fatherly part towards all his children: and if an angel from heaven were, in spite of these divine teachings, to preach to me the Trinity, the deity of Christ, and the incapacity or unwillingness of the Almighty to pardon sin without full satisfaction, I should, as I valued my soul, hold his doctrine accursed.

"That the exercises of your mind have been very painful I am well persuaded; the operation of putting out an eye cannot take place without extreme anguish; and will you pardon me for saying that I consider you as having been employed of late in extinguishing the light of your mind. You, no doubt, think you have been, on the contrary, brought out of darkness. Be it so :let the Scriptures, then, determine between us; but, as we differ about their judgment on the points in controversy, let us refer our cause to the Judge of all the earth, who will do right and make truth manifest; in the mean time, not judging one another, nor claiming any dominion over faith, but helping each other's joy.-You will not, I trust, consider my remarks as angrily made or harshly enforced; you request to hear from me, and I give you, as a Christian friend and brother, my free thoughts. If they are good, treasure them up; if bad, reject them; but, at any rate, consider them before you determine upon their value.

"When you have thought over my letter, give me your answer; in which I shall be obliged to you to state whether the congregation at Wedmore have changed with you, or whether your new opinions will affect the connection between you? If you have declared your Trinitarian principles to the church, it would, perhaps, be candid to let them hear this letter.

"As to the future, you need not be under anxiety; for, besides the protection of a good Providence, which you have, in common with all the children of men, your new creed will make you more popular than you could have been with your old one, and, if not at Wedmore, yet elsewhere, will procure you warm friends and zealous patrons.

"My recommendation would scarcely be of service to you with Trinitarians, but if in any thing I can serve you, I shall be happy to testify that, notwithstanding your desertion of the faith which I glory in, I am your well-wisher and Christian friend and brother,

(Signed)

"ROBERT ASPLAND. "N. B. I intended to write a short letter, but have been insensibly drawn on