Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

power from which there is no escape. These attributes of the Almighty being in array against him, he sees not in them that excellence which really belongs to them, and which the true Christian discerns in relation to himself, in that covenant of mercy in which they are magnified and made honourable; God being therein at once just, and the justifier of all who believe in Christ.

5. Another, and our concluding inquiry, from the text, will be, How we may become partakers of this heavenly grace. But here another question arises: Do we really wish to become partakers of it? for God does not force us to love him by constraint; but he invites and inclines our will and affections to his service. If we have no desire to love him, we are not to expect that love will spring up in our hearts, as it were by miracle, without the use of those means which are ordained for its birth and nourishment. For there are two things essential for the promotion of this and every other Christian grace. The first is, the secret power of the Holy Spirit; since it is he only who can melt our hard hearts, and controul our stubborn wills; and hence the Apostle in the text prays, that "the Lord would direct the hearts" of the Thessalonians" into the love of God." We need this Divine direction; and this not only in the commencement of our religious course, but in all its succeeding stages; for

at our best estate our affections are liable to stray to inferior and sinful objects. And, in using this prayer, we have the consolation of knowing that it is grounded upon a promise; for it is declared in Scripture, "The Lord will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God." This Divine direction given to the heart is the first requisite; the second is the diligent use of those instruments of spiritual benefit which the Holy Ghost ordinarily employs in his operations upon the soul. Love to God may be pro

moted, in dependance upon the bless.. ing of his Spirit, by the use of such means as have been already alluded to; by secret meditations, for example, on the duty and the unspeakable privilege of loving him. Let us, with this view, especially learn to think of him as a Father, a Redeemer, a Comforter. Let us daily sum up the measures of his good

ness.

Let us dwell upon the blessings connected with our creation, preservation, and above all our redemption. Yes these are mercies sufficient to warm the coldest heart : they only require to be more diligently explored, and more devoutly contemplated. If we love not God, it is not because he does not merit our affections, but because those affections are so bound down to earthly, to perishable, and to sinful objects, that they have lost their proper elevation towards those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Let us then both pray and strive that they may be raised; and, in addition to other means for that purpose, let us constantly endeavour to live a holy life, in the true faith and service of Christ, and the exercise of all the graces of Christian charity; for it is in this soil that the love of God is seen to flourish, watered by the dew of his blessing, and bringing forth abundant fruit to his glory. Amen.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

I AM inclined to think, with Bishop Horsley, (see his Posthumous Notes on the Psalms, Vol. II.) that Merrick found the true solution of the difficulty alluded to by your correspondents in Psalm cv. 28. By an idiom of the oriental languages, the sense of a passive verb is often expressed in Hebrew by a verb active in the third person plural, without any proper nominative, and having for its object what should be the subject of the passive verb. Thus, the expression, in Job xix. 26, “ Af

ter they shall have perforated my skin," is equivalent to "After my skin shall have been perforated." See also Luke xii. 20. The passage may therefore be best translated, "And his words were not disobeyed:" they were obeyed by the elements, though disobeyed by man.

C. L.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

THE sense generally given to Hazael's exclamation, 2 Kings viii. 13, though suitable to the humane feelings of Christians, is quite incongruous with those of a heathen warrior, who, in Elisha's description, would see nothing but what appear ed to him great, and, to use modern language, would cover him with glory, if he could attain power to perform it.

When Hazael came, by Benhadad's order, to consult Elisha relative to his sickness, it is not improbable that Elisha's visit to Damascus was by Divine direction, with an intention of performing the commission given him long before by Elijah, to anoint Hazael king of Syria. (Compare 1 Kings xix. 15, with 2 Kings ix. 1, &c.) Hazael was a wicked aspiring man, and probably at that very time disaffected to his prince, on account of some treatment which be judged unworthy of his merits and rank. When, therefore, Elisha predicted the calamities which he should bring upon Israel, he exclaims, " But how? by what means? Thy servant,-a dog!" (one treated with contempt and neglect!)-" how shall he do this great thing?" It seems to be the language of passion, ambition, and resentment, roused by the latent feeling of some offence, which he does not disclose to Elisha.

[ocr errors][merged small]

he endeavoured to maintain the settled composure of his countenance till he could do it no longer: "And the man of God wept !" E. M. B.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. If ever there was a conclusive rcfutation of Socinianism, it is conveyed in the new translation and exposition of St. Paul's Epistles, lately published by Mr. Belsham. Never surely did a more unfortunate champion come forward in defence of an unfortunate cause. The very means which he employs to support his novel interpretations,-novel, it is to be hoped, to most readers, though the result of thirty years' meditation in the writer,-carry absurdity and contradiction so glaringly on their front, that every sober reader must stand amazed at the perverseness of a system built on assumptions so palpably inadmissible, and arguments so grossly erroneous. To follow the writer through all his mistakes or misrepresentations, would require a notice of every text in dispute between Unitarians and orthodox Christians; and a review of the whole subject, almost as long as Mr. Belsham's own four volumes of exposition. I however request the insertion of a few remarks; in urging which I gladly avail myself of an excellent paper in the last Number of the Quarterly Review, to which I would refer those of your readers who wish for a more extended notice.

The doctrine of original sin, and, as a necessary consequence, that of an atonement for it, are so plainly and so fully brought forward in every chapter of the Epistles, that it would seem impossible even for Socinian

* I use the word orthodox as explained by Mr. Belsham himself, and not very courteously, where he says; "The Epistles of Paul, as they are usually interpreted, doxy, or rather of that enormous combiare regarded as the strong holds of ortho

nation of errors which assumes the name." Vol. I. p. viii.

artifice to get rid either of the one or the other. Yet this must be done, or the whole Humanitarian scheme falls to the ground. Accordingly Mr. Belsham has laboured most strenuously to invalidate these two obnoxious articles of the vulgar creed. It will be sufficient to adduce a few brief specimens of the methods which he adopts to gain this end; and the meanest understanding will be able to determine what must be the merit of a cause which can be supported only by means like these.

And, first, the Unitarian expositor begins with boldly denying St. Paul himself to be a sound interpreter, or an accurate reasoner; and this in language most unceremonious and offensive. To the truth of this charge, let the following instances, among innumerable others in Mr. Belsham's annotations, testify.

"Such is the train of the Apostle's reasoning, the defect of which need not be pointed out." Vol. I. p. 112.

"His argument, if it prove any thing, proves, &c." p. 125.

"In every light in which I can view this argument, it appears to me irrelevant and inconclusive." II. p. 105.

"Such is the nature of the Apostle's argument, which, to say the truth, is of no great weight." IV. p. 196.

"He has introduced a confusion of ideas, which makes it difficult to unravel the sense." On Rom. v. 12, &c.

"Had the Apostle been a correct writer, the antithesis would have stood in this form." Ibid.

"This mode of reasoning is evidently inconclusive, and in the present enlightened age is altogether discarded." Vol. IV.

"The design of the writer is sufficiently obvious; so likewise is the weakness and inconclusiveness of his argument." Ibid.

The humble reader of the word of God, as the Quarterly Reviewer justly remarks, may well feel ap

palled and disgusted at beholding "the great Apostle of the Gentiles thus rebuked and reprimanded for ignorance and incapacity, by the minister of Essex-street chapel."

The following may serve as examples of the forced and unnatural expositions to which the Unitarian is reduced in the plainest passages, in order to maintain any resemblance to consistency.

Romans viii. 26, 27.-Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

In explaining these two verses, Mr. Belsham, after mistranslating TO TνEvμa, This Spirit, tells us that the spirit here intended is the spi rit, before described, of hope, patience, and resignation, which are the leading virtues of the Christian character; and that the Apostle, "by a figure not unusual to him, personifies the Christian virtues, and represents them as interceding with God, for those who are at a loss to know what to ask themselves: thus the spirit is said to help our infirmities." From which we learn, that a man's affections and virtues may be divided from himself; that, being so divided, they intercede for him, and that too" with groanings which cannot be uttered;" and, moreover, passing to the next clause, that "God knows the mind" of our purified affections. A singular species of personification is this, in which we have the affections of the mind made a distinct object from the mind, and then a separate and distinct mind attributed to them! Can this, and such like interpretations, be called the simple meaning of the words of that Book whose pages were written for "the wayfaring man?"

Again, on another passage, after

informing us, "that the blood of Christ purifies the conscience from dead works, and from voluntary acts of sin; and that, being offered in the heavenly sanctuary, it released the Jews from the sin of transgressing the old covenant, obtained the pardon of the transgression," &c. Mr. Belsham affirms, "All that the writer really means is, that the Mosaic dispensation being ended by the death of Christ, all who believe are now released from the obligation of the ceremonial law." If this be not a near approximation to contradiction, the common principles of language are strangely altered. Again; if the Bible declares that Christ is worshipped by the angels (Heb.i.6), Mr. Belsham assures us, that " by a bold and sublime figure, the former prophets are summoned to do homage to him." If we read, that "at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow," we are taught that this means only, that "the doctrine of Jesus reveals a future judgment." If we find Christ addressed with, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth," &c. we learn, that "the immutability of God is here declared, as a pledge of the immortality of the kingdom of Christ." And, as a final resource, when even this bold and licentious style of interpretation will not admit of any but a Trinitarian sense in a passage, Mr. Belsham calmly decides the stubborn fact to be "a figure." By this means he invariably and conveniently disposes of Christ's sacrifice; of the Holy Spirit of Christ's headship of the church; the principalities and powers in the heavenly places; Christ's ascension; Christ's being in the form of God, and other kindred facts and doctrines.

Such then is a brief specimen of the means by which modern Unitarianism maintains its peculiar creed, and strives to shake our belief in the essential doctrines of Christianity. It begins with trampling on the authority of an Apostle, in the very doctrines he was appointed to CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 271.

reveal, explain, and defend: it concludes with overturning every established principle of logic, grammar, criticism, and common sense. "Here," remarks the Quarterly Reviewer, "is the result of the spirit of self-will and self-sufficiency in religion-give it time and space enough. It has already taught its votary to deny the authority, and despise the reasonings, of the very men commissioned by God to disseminate the truth. It has already assumed that their knowledge may be false, their reasoning fallacious, What shall and their belief wrong. be the end of these things? What may be the end of this widely spread spirit, as far as worldly interests are concerned, He only knows who controuls the operations of evil as he sees fit, or allows them to work out their own destruction in the ruin of much that is fair, and lovely, and amiable, for purposes of which even here we may partly understand the wisdom and the goodness. But the present effects of this spirit on those who are under its domination; the pride, the unlovely vanity, and the darker passions which follow in its train; these are clearly to be understood by all who will understand; and they must at once excite the warmest pity for the condition of those who suffer under their operation, and the most lively dread, lest our condition should resemble theirs."

[blocks in formation]

theory and practice of their high and holy office. The result, as might be expected, is, that the majority of clergymen enter upon their sacred function with but a very small portion of theological erudition, and in almost utter unacquaintance with the practical duties of a Christian minister.

These defects have been often noticed, and various remedies for them have been suggested. In many instances the clerical friends and tutors of young men about to take orders, endeavour to initiate them in the practical duties of their fu ture profession; and of late some private establishments have been opened expressly with a view to this object, particularly those of Dr. Burrow at Epping, and Mr. Kempthorne at Gloucester. But the object is of too important a nature, and too general an interest, to be left to the management and discretion of individuals, however highly qualified. Some uniform and public system, under the sanction of authority, should be instituted, in order to obtain an adequate cure for the evil. A plan of this nature has lately been suggested by the author of a Letter to Mr. Peel: but it appears to be open to several objections; particularly in making clerical students in our universities ab initio a distinct and exclusive body of persons. It must, indeed, with grief be admitted, that the existing discipline of the universities is not sufficiently favourable to the attainment of that elevated character for devotion and piety which ought to distinguish every candidate for the ministry of the Gospel. But the utility, in after-life, of the clerical candidate, would probably be much diminished by a complete separation of him, during the period of his academical course, from the habits and society of his fellows. He would lose the advantage of an acquaintance with their habits and modes of thinking; and those feelings of affection towards the clergy and their office which it is highly desirable

the laity should be induced to feel, would be blunted by the suspicion that their interests were exclusive of, and at variance with, those of others. A clergyman should enjoy the education of a gentleman and a scholar; and there are certainly no establishments at present existing, or likely to be formed, in which he will meet with such facilities, for obtaining this advantage, as are presented to him by our two universities. With all their defects, then, as to discipline-defects which we can only hope and pray may be remedied by those learned bodies themselves the most eligible plan seems to be, that clerical students should proceed through the usual academical career, at the established seats of learning. This career is generally completed, or might be so, by the age of twenty-one, or at most twenty-two; so that a considerable interval usually elapses before taking orders: and this interval may be occupied in an exclusive attention to theological studies and clerical habits. The question for consideration is, upon what system, and in what scene, shall those pursuits be followed?

Strype, in his Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer, mentions, that that eminent prelate "hoped that from these ruins (the dissolved monasteries) there would be new foundations in every cathedral erected to be nurseries of learning, for the use of the whole diocese." And he adds, that the Archbishop "laboured with the King that in these new foundations," namely, the new bishoprics and colleges of prebendaries, founded in the year 1539, "there should be readers of Divinity, Greek, and Hebrew, and students trained up in religion and learning; from whence, as a nursery, the bishops should supply their dioceses with honest and able ministers; and so every bishop should have a college of clergymen under his eye, to be preferred according to their merits." A plan analogous to this of Cranmer, appears to be

« ZurückWeiter »