sents itself to my imagination, that were I possessed of the sanctified talents of a Hervey, I could not adequately represent the wisdom, power, and goodness of Jehovah, in his wonderful creating work; yet even this must give way to the more extraordinary one of redeeming lost sinners, by means so wonderful, that even angels are desiring to look into it, unable to fathom this abyss of love. May your powers and faculties be in some measure employed from day to day after this angelic manner! I make no doubt you have acquired much nautical knowledge in your voyage, and that you understand the compass in particular; and I sincerely wish you may spiritualize this most useful branch of art, by learning to shape your course aright towards the haven of eternal rest, steering clear of youthful lusts and sin in general. I daily pray that you may be enabled to cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart, that you may determine to know nothing but Jesus and him crucified; this you will find true wisdom, present and eternal advantage. Salvation is a matter of inconceivable importance. What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his soul? You are no longer under my eye; but consider, you are under God's: let me also entreat you to consider that wisdom, or Christ, or real religion, is the principal thing: nothing can be compared with it; but for this I must have sunk under various troubles in life, and fallen a prey to Satan, but the Lord was my helper, refuge, and present deliverer. O consider, let me consider how great was his goodness, mercy, pity, love, power, truth, and faithfulness. May your father's God be your God, and guide even unto death! Happiness is found in him, and him only-a reconciled Father in Christ Jesus-a Father, O how endearing a relation!— How tenderly do my bowels yearn over my son, separated from his brethren; and if I a poor sinful creature am thus affected, how much more so the pure and holy God, who assures us in his word, that as a father pitieth his son that serveth him, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Great has been his goodness to you in particular, in the capacity and mental endowments given you, literary advantages, means of grace and bringing up, journey, and, I trust, voyage mercies. O, love the Lord therefore, and regard these and many more as the purchase of Emmanuel's precious blood. FROM THE SONG OF DAVID.—BY CHRISTOPHER SMART. FEB. 1822. From whose right arm, beneath whose eyes, Commence, and reign, and end. The world, the clustering spheres he made, The multitudinous abyss, Where secrecy remains in bliss, And Wisdom hides her skill. Tell them, I AM, Jehovah said At once above, beneath, around, K 1 REVIEW OF BOOKS. The Scripture Testimony to the Messiah; an Inquiry concerning the Person of Christ. By John Pye Smith, D. D. London, Holdsworth, 2 Vols. Pp. 472 and 810. THE importance of the subject of the present work must press strongly on every serious mind; and when the situation of the author, as theological tutor, in a seminary expressly designed for the preparation of students for the ministry, is taken into consideration, every devoted Christian must feel deeply interested in the question, how far the work he has undertaken is executed agreeably to the word of God. We are happy to state that on this ground there is no further occasion for anxiety. Dr. Smith has entered upon his labours with right views, and correct principles, and extensive knowledge, and has produced a work well deserving a place in the library of every theological student. His performance is divided into four Books. The first consists of Preliminary Considerations; the second treats on the Information to be obtained concerning the person of the Messiah from the prophetic descriptions of the Old Testament: these two Books occupy the first volume. The third Book considers the Information to be obtained concerning the person of the CHRIST, from the narratives of the evangelical history, and from our Lord's own assertions and intimations; and the fourth states the doctrine taught by the Apostles in their inspired ministry on this subject. The work then closes with five Appendices and four distinct Indices. It is obvious that a production of this nature must necessarily require far more room to convey an adequate idea of its character than our limits will allow; and we are therefore necessarily compelled to pass over a number of extracts, with which we should gladly have enriched our pages, as well as confirmed our sentiments. In the preliminary considerations, after having noticed the evidence proper to this inquiry, and the interpretation of Scripture, the author proceeds to animadvert on the errors and faults which writers on each side have committed with relation to this controversy, and on the importance of a right state of the mind and affections, to the determination of this important subject. In fact, this state of the mind and affections appears to us almost all in all in the present question. We would not disgrace our pages with any thing harsh or intolerant; but as a matter of fact, we are compelled to state, that we have never met with an instance of the humble, and teachable, and serious inquirer, being induced to adopt Socinian sentiments; but in every case which has come within our view, it has been the rash and the hasty, and the novice in religious matters, who puffed up with the pride of intellectual attainments, has fallen into this fatal snare. distinguishing failings of the Unitarian It has appeared to me, that one of the theology, is a propensity to generalize too soon and to conclude too hastily, both in criticism and in argumentation. It seems the habit of its advocates to assume a few of the broadest facts in the scheme of Christianity, which are obvious to the most rapid glance and, with a sweeping hand, they either crush down all the rest, and leave them unregarded; or they force them into an unnatural and disfiguring subordination to the favourite assumptions. Unlike the cautious and patient spirit of true philosophy, which is always open to the collection and the careful estimation of facts, and which regards nothing as more hostile to its objects than a precipitate and foreclosing generalization; the Unitarian spirit rather resembles that of the old scholasti cism, which spurned laborious investigation and slow induction, and would force all nature into its ranks of predicaments and predicables. This may be one reason, among others, why these notions meet with so ready an acceptance in young minds, inexperienced, flirty, and ambitious, halflearned, and ill-disciplined. Here is a theology, easily acquired, discarding mysteries, treading down difficulties, and answering the pleas of the orthodox with summary contempt: a theology complimentary to the pride of those who deem themselves endowed with superior discernment; and which, in practice, is not ungenerously rigid against any favourite passion or little foible that is decently compatible with the world's code of morals.-P. 52. human opinion, the thirst for applause, self-confidence, and very frequently a great degree of known and cherished pride: while it is in only a few instances, compared with the general course, that those feelings are corrected and outweighed by humility and piety. Such motives and principles are not barely unsuited, not simply unfavourable, but they are positively and strongly inimical, to the acquisition of divine knowledge. The temper of mind which it requires in its votaries, is the absolute reverse of them all; a temper of which the reverential fear of God, an implicit subjection to his authority, lowliness of spirit, and self-renunciation, are essential constituents. The Those who are superior to gross vices reason of the case plainly shows that thus may be lying in the rivetted fetters of men- it must be; for the knowledge which has tal sin. Ingenious persons, addicted to God and spiritual things for its immediate reading and inquiry, but little attentive to object, and which is God's especial and the moral state of their affections, are in transcendent gift, can never be received no small danger of conceiving promptly acight but in the spirit of dependence and but rashly, and concluding boldly but very humility; the spirit which comports with erroneously, on religious subjects. They the relations of creature and Creator, subare unwilling to concede that the doctrines ject and Sovereign, offender and Judge, of the Gospel require, for their discovery," less than nothing" and boundless Suand their reception, any thing more than speculative research. With respect even to intellectual exercises, a readiness to believe ourselves in possession of all the information requisite as data, and a confident fearlessness in regard to the conclusions which we draw, perhaps without much labour or patience, mark that pride of intellect which is often the parent of error, but is never a cordial friend to truth. If we take up our sentiments without humility, and maintain them without seriousness, they will bring us little good if even they be true; but the greater probabilty is, that they will be erroneous. Upon these principles it is not difficult to account for a fact, which has appeared a paradox to some, and has been a cause of stumbling to not a few. This is, that so many eminent persons in science and literature have either openly espoused the Unitarian system, or have been evidently inclined to it. Let not the serious, but inexperienced inquirer permit his judgment to be biassed, or his feelings to be dazzled, by this circumstance. Genius, high talent, and extraordinary attainment, are benefits of the same class with rank, riches, and power: each of them is a favour from heaven, involving a greater responsibility, and capable of being applied to noble uses; but history and experience show that each of these blessings is, in the majority of cases, perverted, so far as the moral and religious character of the possessor is concerned. The motives, which most generally are the remote causes, from which the exertions arise which earn worldly cele brity, are curiosity, the love of gratifying a favourite passion, a jealous sensibility to preme. The testimony of God in his word (on this point) is unequivocal.-Pp. 72–75. We feel that these remarks are deserving of the most careful perusal; but we apprehend that Dr. S. has, in a following page, very much over-rated the number and the consequence of the unbelieving party. It is (he says) the melancholy truth, that a very large proportion (I fear I may say a majority, notwithstanding some splendid exceptions) of those who have of late years cultivated the mathematical and physical sciences to the highest refinement, have been, with respect to divine philosophy, ignorant and audacious infidels.-P. 76. Now we are not sure that we clearly comprehend Dr. Smith's meaning in this passage; but if he intends to assert that the majority of eminent mathematicians and philosophers of the present day, are supporters of the Socinian or Deistical system, we are sure he will be happy to hear that we are decidedly of a different opinion. Deism and Socinianism are little known in either of our Universities. In Cambridge especially, notwithstanding all the subtlety of Jebb, the eloquence of Robinson, and the audacity of Frend, Socinianism is scarcely heard of; and yet, with all submission to the philosophers of our northern metropolis, and with due deference to the admirers of foreign philosophy and mathematics, we do really doubt whether the mathematical, if not the physical, sciences, are any where cultivated to a greater extent. As far as our information goes, even on their favourite subjects, Socinians and Deists are, generally speaking, second-rate men-men who owe their supposed superiority more to confident assertion and unauthorized assumption, than to any real attainments in erudition; and we think the complete and entire subversion of the critical pretensions of Wakefield and Priestley, and Belsham and Carpenter, which these volumes evince, affords no small confirmation of the truth of our opinion. From these preliminary considerations Dr. S. proceeds to the critical examination of all the principal passages of Scripture relating to the Messiah, beginning with the prophetical declarations of the Old Testament, and proceeding to the historical, epistolary, and prophetical Scriptures of the New. Of these passages he invariably gives a new translation, and fairly encounters the leading objections, critical difficulties, and false glosses of the Socinian teachers. We are happy to observe how little Dr. S.'s translation varies in the majority of instances from the authorized version; and it is worthy of notice, that almost every variation is in favour of the doctrine of the deity of Christ: thus at once overturning all the vain pretensions which the older school of Socinians advanced, that a re-translation of the Scriptures would produce results favourable to their hypothesis. Every impartial scholar must feel that the more sedulously sound and legitimate criticism is pursued, the more decisive is the testimony in favour of this all-important doctrine of the proper godhead of Jesus Christ. On some points of criticism we do not quite accord with Dr. Smith; and we have sometimes felt that he has attached too much weight and importance to the objections of his opponents. Possibly, however, we should not have felt this so strongly, had we merely consulted the work as a book of reference, for which it is especially adapted, and not perused the whole of it in continuous succession. Perhaps also our judgment on this point may have been somewhat influenced by the conviction we have long since felt, that all the resources of criticism, and all the various lines of objection, are but a species of outwork with which the real fortress of Socinianism is rather masked than defended. To speak in plainer terms, it appears to us, that the real cause of Socinianism is the want of scriptural knowledge, and that the eagerness with which its votaries flee to critical researches is little more than an attempt to evade the conclusions of common sense. No plain man, with his Bible in his hand, and regarding that Bible as the Word of God, falls into this heresy: it cannot stand before scriptural light. So long as the inquiry is about a single text, or a few insulated passages, a new translation, or a various reading, or a critical gloss, or a felicitous conjecture, or some one of the endless and ever-varying resources of black inspiration, may elude the force of argument; but let the Bible be read as a whole, chapter by chapter, and paragraph by paragraph, and the conclusion inevitably is, that Jesus Christ the Son of David is truly God. Yet, in saying this, we wish not to be understood as considering Dr. Smith's critical labours of small importance. often happens, that the humble student and the firm believer in the general doctrine, is exercised with doubts as to particular passages and occasional difficulties. explanation and the solution of these must ever be deserving of se It The rious attention; and we are happy in having another excellent and standard work to which we may refer any of our friends or readers who are perplexed with such objections. In the next edition, and we hope a new edition will soon be required, we would suggest that some alteration in the mode of introducing objections may be advisable. We hear far too much of the "Calm Inquirer," who has very little claim to the soothing appellation which he has adopted; and the perpetual reference, indeed, to this mischievous writer, has given to Dr. S.'s publication more of the appearance of an answer than its originality and extent render expedient. Add to which, we cannot help indulging the hope, that this work will live when the Calm Inquiry is forgotten; and we should be sorry that Dr. S.'s labours should for one moment retard the approach of that oblivion which is already pressing hard upon the heels of Mr. Belsham's lucubrations. We would suggest also the removal of the seventh chapter of the second Book from its present situation. The inquiry into the expect ation of the Jews with respect to the Messiah in the period between the closing of the Old Testament and the dissolution of their national establishment, though highly interesting, is not, properly and strictly speaking, any part of the information to be obtained from the prophetic descriptions. It is, doubtless, a connecting link between the second and third books of the Inquiry; but it is not properly a part of either; it is too valuable to be omitted, but is at present certainly misplaced. We cannot take our leave of the author without expressing our high ideas of the sound piety and the extensive information and the useful tendency of his labours. The summing up of his arguments is peculiarly excellent; and however we may differ with him as to minor points, we cannot but express our gratification at such a man occupying the important station in which he is placed, and expressing our earnest desires that he may be instrumental in forming and preparing the minds of many rising ministers, who may, like himself, contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Remarks on a Pamphlet entitled, a Speech delivered in the House of Lords, June 14, 1821, by Herbert Lord Bishop of Peterborough, in Answer to a Petition presented to the House of Lords, respecting his Examination Questions. By the Petitioner. London, Hatchards, 1821. Pp. 66. The Wrongs of the Clergy of the Diocese of Peterborough stated and illustrated by the Rev. T. S Grimshawe, M. A. London, Seeley, 1822. Pp. 44. IT is with feelings of great regret that we are compelled to resume the subject of the Peterborough Questions. It was fully expected, among all men of sober minds and dispassionate reflection, as Mr. Grimshawe justly remarks, that deference to public opinion, and a regard to the peace of the Church, would necessarily lead his Lordship to abandon so impolitic and so oppressive a proceeding. Some, indeed, who were more thoroughly acquainted with his Lordship's character, did not place any great stress upon the motives which Mr. G. has assigned; but even they, observing how completely the Bishop was deserted in the House of Peers; the total silence of ALL HIS BRETHREN; the cold neglect of ALL HIS PATRONS; the regret expressed by one of His Majesty's Ministers; the decided language of the leading men among those who act independent of any party, as well as of those |