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name: and 2. an infallible indication of irreverence towards God.

"As there is no [adequate] method of communicating [thought] but by words, which, though arbitrary in themselves, are agreed upon as the signs of ideas, no sooner are they employed, but they call up the ideas they are intended to denote. When language is established, there exists a close and inseparable connexion between words and things, insomuch that we cannot pronounce or hear one without thinking of the other. Whenever the term God, for instance, is used, it excites among Christians the idea of the incomprehensible Author of Nature: this idea it may excite with more or less force and impression, but it invariably excites that idea, and no other. Now, to connect the idea of God with what is most frivolous and ridiculous, is to treat it with contempt; and as we can only contemplate [objects] under their ideas, to feel no reverence for the idea of God, is precisely the same thing as to feel a contempt for God. He who thinks of [the name of] God, without being awed by it, cannot pretend to be a fearer of God; but it is impossible to use the name of God lightly and unnecessarily, without being in that predicament. It is evident, beyond all contradiction, that such a man is in the habit of thinking of God without the least reverential emotion. He could not associate the idea of God with levity, buffoonery, and whatsoever is mean and ridiculous, if he had not acquired a most criminal insensibility to his character and to all the awful peculiarities it involves. Suppose a person to be penetrated with a deep contrition for his sins, and a strong apprehension of the wrath of God, which is suspended over him; and are you not [immediately] aware of the impossibility of his using the name of the Being who is the object of all these emotions as a mere expletive? Were a person to pretend to the character of a humble penitent, and at the same time to take the name of God in vain, in the way to which we are now alluding, would you give the smallest credit to his pretensions? How decisive, then, must that indication of irreverence be, which is sufficient to render the very profession of repentance ridiculous?

"But this practice is not only inconsistent with that branch of religion which [constitutes] repentance; it is equally inconsistent with sincere, much more with supreme esteem and veneration. No child could bear to hear the name of a father, whose memory he highly respected and venerated, treated in the manner in which the name of the Supreme Being is introduced. It would be felt and resented as a high degree of rudeness and indignity.

There is, in short, no being, whatever, who is the object of strong emotion, whose distinguishing appellations could be mentioned in this manner without the utmost absurdity and indelicacy. Nothing can be more certain than that the taking the name of God in vain, infallibly indicates a mind in which the reverence of God has no place. But is it possible to conceive a state of mind more opposite to reason and order than this? To acknowledge the ex istence of a Supreme Being, our Maker and Preserver, possessed of incomprehen sible perfections, on whom we are totally dependent throughout every moment of duration, and in every stage of our exist ence, without feeling the profoundest awe and reverence of him, is an impropriety a moral absurdity, which the utmost range of language and conception is inadequate to paint. If we consider the formal ngture of sin as a deliberate transgression the divine law, it resolves itself chiefly into this, that it implies a contempt of in finite majesty, and supreme power and authority. This disposition constitutes the very core and essence of sin. It is not merely the character of the wicked that they contemn God; it enters deeply into the character of wickedness itself; nori there a heavier charge among their com plicated crimes, adduced against the an cient Israelites, than that they lightly esteemed the Rock of their salvation."

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"3. The practice of taking the Lord name in vain, is not only a great indica tion of want of reverence for God, but i calculated to wear out all serious religie from the mind.

"If the most awful terms in religio are rarely or never employed but in con nexion with angry or light' emotions, must be blind indeed, who fails to perceiv the tendency of such a practice to we out all traces of seriousness from th mind. They who are guilty of it, are com tinually taking lessons of impiety; an their progress, it must be confessed, proportioned to what might be expected

4. The criminality of taking th Lord's name in vain, is enhanced by th absence of every reasonable temptation It is not, like many other vices, produc tive of either pleasure or emolument; I is neither adapted to gratify any natura appetite or passion, nor to facilitate the attainment of a single end which a reason able creature can be supposed to have i view. It is properly the superfluity naughtiness, and can only be considered as a sort of peppercorn rent, in acknow ledgment of the Devil's right of supe riority. It is a vice by which no man's reputation is extended, no man's fortune is increased, no man's sensual gratifications aro augmented. If we attempt to

analyse it, and reduce it to its real motive, we find ourselves at a total loss to discover any other than irreligious ostentation; a desire of convincing the world that its perpetrators are not under the restraint of religious fear. But, as this motive is most impious and detestable, so, the practice arising from it is not at all requisite for that purpose; since the who persist in it may safely leave it to persons other parts of their character to exonerate them from the suspicion of their being fearers of God. We beg leave to remind them that they are in no danger of being classed with the pious, either in this world r in that which is to come; and may therefore safely spare themselves the trouble of inscribing the name of their master on their foreheads. They are not so near to the kingdom of God as to be hable to be mistaken for its subjects.'" Vol. v. pp. 334-340.

This last paragraph affords a pecimen of that tremendous style of caustic irony in which, when a it occasion presented itself, Mr. Hall was so well able to castigate ither the hypocrisy or the efrontery of vice, to expose the flipyancy of scepticism, or to put lown ignorant pretension. Those who knew the native vehemence of his temper, and at the same ime his talent for sarcasm, his ute perception of the ridiculous, is ready wit, and his keen relish or the fulminations of indignant loquence, could alone appreciate

he restraint and control which the overning principles of his heart

rpetually exerted, so as to proluce an habitual suavity of maners, an abstinence from every hing bordering on splenetic seveity, a kindliness of feeling that ffectually sheathed his powers of arcasm. These were, however, consecrated, not destroyed; like weapons of war hung up in the temple. They were reserved, mong the other instruments of intellectual warfare, for the combat with Infidelity and Vice; and then only, on the rare occasions which justified their use, it was seen how well able he was to handle them. But it was against things, not persons, errors, not individuals,

that he ever declaimed with severity.

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Among the subjects which never failed to call forth the strongest expressions of his antipathy, was Modern Socinianism, which, by its disingenuousness and its pestilent tendency, excited alike cinians he regarded as, in their rehis abhorrence and contempt. Soligious character, the enemies of his Divine Master; and he would have shrunk from all religious from communion with the followfellowship with them, as he would ers of Mohammed. Equally would he have deprecated, however, treating the persons of individuals, on the pretence of their heresy, with insult or rudeness. Courtesy was part of his religion; but, as he deemed that the courtesy due to all men does not extend to their erroneous opinions, he never hesitated to speak of these in unambiguous and adequate terms. We are somewhat anticipating remarks which might seem to belong to a portrait of Mr. Hall's character; but we have wished to point out this material distinction,

as it will enable the reader better forcible manner in which the spirit to appreciate the very striking and forcible manner in which the spirit and tendency of Socinianism are exposed in the fifth sermon of the originally prepared as the last of series; which appears to have been

twelve lectures on the Socinian Controversy, delivered at Leicester in 1823. This sermon is so ad

mirably characteristick of the writer, and appears to have been so carefully prepared, that we cannotrefrain from making somewhat copious extracts; and must then take leave of the volume which has so long and pleasingly detain

ed us.

"Allow me to close these Lectures

by directing your attention to some of the
distinguishing characteristicks of the sys-
dern Unitarianism.
tem designated by the appellation of Mo-

"I. It will occur to the most superficial

observer to remark, that, as far as it differs from the orthodox, it is almost entirely a negative system; consisting in the bold denial of nearly all the doctrines which other denominations are wont to regard as the most vital and the most precious. It snatches from us almost every thing to which our affections have been habituated to cling, without presenting them with a single new object.

"It is a cold negation, a system of renunciation and dissent; imparting that feeling of desolation to the heart, which is inseparable from the extinction of ancient attachments; teaching us no longer to admire, to adore, to trust, or to love-but with a most impaired and attenuated af fection-objects, in the contemplation of which we before deemed it safe, and even obligatory, to lose ourselves in the indulgence of these delightful emotions.

"Under the pretence of simplifying Christianity, it obliterates so many of its discoveries, and retrenches so many of its truths; so little is left to occupy the mind, to fill the imagination, or to touch the heart; that, when the attracting novelty and the heat of disputation are subsided, it speedily consigns its converts to apathy and indifference. He who is wont to expatiate in the wide field of Revelation, surrounded by all that can gratify the sight, or regale the senses, reposing in its green pastures and beside the still, transparent waters, reflecting the azure of the heavens, the lily of the valley, and the cedar of Lebanon, no sooner approaches the confines of Socinianism, than he enters on a dreary and melancholy waste. Whatever is most sweet and attractive in religion,-whatever of the grandeur that elevates, or the solemnity that awes the mind, is inseparably connected with those truths, it is the avowed object of that system to subvert. And since it is not what we deny, but what we believe, that nourishes piety, no wonder it languishes under so meagre and scanty a diet. The littleness and poverty of the Socinian system ultimately ensures its neglect; because it makes no provision for that appetite for the immense and magnificent, which the contemplation of nature inspires and gratifies, and which even reason itself prompts us to anticipate from a revelation in the Eternal Mind.

"By stripping religion of its mysteries, it deprives it of more than half its power. It is an exhausting process, by which it is reduced to its lowest term. It consists in affirming that the writers of the New Testament were not, properly speaking, inspired, nor infallible guides, in divine matters; that Jesus Christ did not die for our sins, nor is the proper object of worship, nor even impeccable; that there is not any provision made in the sanctification of

the Spirit for the aid of spiritual weaknes or the cure of spiritual maladies; that have not an intercessor at the right ha of God; that Christ is not present wit his saints, nor his saints, when they qu the body, present with the Lord; the man is not composed of a material, immaterial principle, but consists mere of organized matter, which is totally de solved at death. To look for elevation moral sentiment from such a series pure negations, would be to gathe grapes of thorns, and figs of thistles,'extract sunbeams from cucumbers.'

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"II. From hence we naturally rema the close affinity between the Unitaria system and Deism. Aware of the offen which is usually taken at observations this sort, I would much rather wave then were the suppression of so important circumstance compatible with doing ja tice to the subject. Deism, as distinguis ed from Atheism, embraces almost ever thing which the Unitarians profess to b lieve. The Deist professes to believe in future state of rewards and pnnishment

the Unitarian does no more. The chi difference is, that the Deist derives conviction on the subject from the prin ples of natural religion; the Unitari from the fact of Christ's resurrectionBoth arrive at the same point, thoug they reach it by different routes. Ba maintain the same creed, though on di ferent grounds: so that, allowing the D ist to be fully settled and confirmed in persuasion of a future world, it is not easy to perceive what advantage the Un tarian possesses over him. If the prop of a future state, upon Christian prin ples, be acknowledged more clear convincing than is attainable merely the light of nature, yet, as the operati of opinion is measured by the strength the persuasion with which it is embrace and not by the intrinsic force of evidenc the Deist who cherishes a firm expect tion of a life to come, has the same tives for resisting temptation, and patien ly continuing in well doing, as the Unit rian. He has learned the same lesso though under a different master, and substantially of the same religion.

"The points in which they coincide much more numerous, and more impor ant, than those in which they differ. their ideas of human nature, as bein what it always was, in opposition to th doctrine of the fall; in their rejection the Trinity, and of all supernatural my teries; in their belief of the intrinsic ef cacy of repentance, and the superfluity an atonement; in their denial of spiritua aids, or internal grace; in their notions o the person of Christ; and finally, in the lofty confidence in the sufficiency of rea son as a guide in the affairs of religion

nd its authority to reject doctrines on the round of antecedent improbability;—in these momentous articles they concur. the Deist boldly rejects the claims of evelation in toto, the Unitarian, by deny g its plenary inspiration, by assuming he fallibility of the apostles, and even of Christ himself, and by resolving its most ublime and mysterious truths into metahors and allegory, treads close in his teps. It is the same soul which animates he two systems, though residing in differat bodies; it is the same metal transased into distinct moulds."

*

III. A third feature in the Unitarian ystem is, the unfavourable influence it exrts on the spirit of devotion. It appears > have little or no connexion with the region of the heart. Of all high and raised ffections to God proudly ignorant, love to hrist, involving that ardent attachment hich enthrones him in the soul, and suborinates to him every created object, it sysmatically explodes, under the pretence fits being either enthusiastic or imposble.... The devotional feelings inalcated in the Bible, are intimately and separably interwoven with humility and ratitude-the humility and gratitude of penitent and redeemed sinner. That he bo is forgiven much will love much, is he decision of our Lord; while he to hom little is forgiven will love little. at the perpetual tendency of the Socian system extenuates the evil of sin, nd the magnitude of the danger to which exposes the sinner, and is calculated to eaken, beyond expression, the force of be motives [they supply].

"By asserting the intrinsic efficacy of pertance, to the exclusion of the merits f the Redemer, it makes every man his wn Saviour; it directs his attention to imself, as the source to which he ascribes be removal of guilt, and the renovation of ope; nor will it permit him to adopt, in By obvious and intelligible sense, the apturous language of the redeemed, "To fim who loved us, and washed us from Har sins in his own blood." Taught to onsider the Lord Jesus Christ in no other fight than as the most perfect example ind the most enlightened of teachers, and believing that he has already bestowed all the benefits he is empowered to bestow, it is in vain to look for that consecration of the heart to his love, and of all the faculties of body and mind to his service, which may reasonably be expected from him who looks upon himself as a trophy of his power, and as the purchase of his blood. Not viewing himself as at any time exposed to condemnation, you must not expect him to celebrate, with elevated emotion, the riches of divine grace; much less that he

Ch. Adv.-VOL. X.

should be transported with gratitude to God for the inestimable love evinced in the gift of his Son; when he considers it a high attainment to have learned that this Son is a mere man, on a level with himself. The unhappy disciple of this system is necessarily separated and cut off from the objects most adapted to touch the springs of religious sensibility. He knows nothing of a transition from death unto life;' nothing of the anxieties of a wounded and awakened conscience, followed by 'joy and peace in believing; nothing of that 'love of Christ which passeth knowledge;' nothing of the refreshing aids and consolations of that Holy Spirit whose existence he denies, whose agency he ridicules; nothing of that ineffable communion of spirit with God and the Redeemer, the true element of life and peace; nothing of the earnests and foretastes of that heaven which his system covers with a dense and impenetrable veil.

"Facts, on this subject, concur with theory: for no sooner is a minister of the Gospel transformed into a Socinian, than he relinquishes the practice of extempore prayer, and has recourse to a written form. We are far from condemning the use of forms, where they are adopted from a conscientious preference; nor can we doubt that many members of the establishment, whose habits have combined with them the most devout associations and feelings, find them useful helps to piety. But, that those who have never used them before, should find them necessary the moment they have embraced a particular system; that they should feel, as some of the most eminent have confessed, an absolute incapacity from that time, of praying without the aid of a book, affords a portentous indication of the spirit of that system. To be smitten dumb and silent in the presence of that heavenly Father whom they approached before with filial freedom and confidence; to be unable or indisposed to utter a word without artificial aids, where they were wont to pour out all their hearts; evinces the visitation of a new spirit, but most assuredly not that Spirit whereby we cry, Abba, Father.' Correct, elegant, spiritless-replete with acknowledgments of the general goodness of God, the bounties of his providence, and his benign interposition in the arrangements of society, and the success of the arts and sciences which embellish and adorn the present state-seldom will you hear any mention of the forgiveness of sins, of the love of the Saviour; few or no acknowledgments of the blessings of redemption. An earthly, unsanctified tincture pervades their devotions, calculated to remind you of any thing rather than of a penitent pleading for mercy,

20

with groans that cannot be uttered.'"Vol. v. pp. 31-43.

We must content ourselves with merely indicating the remaining heads of this fine discourse.

"IV. A remarkable feature in the system of Modern Unitarianism, pregnant with more mischief and danger than any of those just mentioned, is, the fatalism and materialism with which, since Dr. Priestley's time, it is almost universally associated.

"V. Another feature in the system, is the tame submission to human authority, which seems to distinguish above all other persons, those who compose the class styled Modern Unitarians.

"VI. The last feature which I shall mention in the system of the Socinians, is, their zeal for proselytism'. . . . difficult to be accounted for on their principles.'' -Vol. v. pp. 43—46; 22.

SEEING DARKLY.

"For now we see through a glass darkly."-1 Cor. xiii. 12.

Invisible God of all grace,

Though darkness and clouds intervene, Thou fillest all time and all space,

A Saviour belov'd though unseen.
The stars their fix'd courses pursue,
With seasons and times in their train;
And earth, still replenish'd anew,

Shall yield us abundance again.
We know not events that may come-

To-morrow is hid from our sight-
Here have we no permanent home,

Each moment but urges our flight. Uncertain our road to decide,

Unable to conquer the way, Thine eye is our guardian and guide, Thine arm is our strength and our stay. We look to the kingdom on high, And dimly behold it in part; But faith on the promise can fly, And hope has the substance at heart.

Oh, fear not, the Saviour hath said,

I go to prepare you a place: No war can your mansions invade, No ages their glory deface.

The world and its forms pass away,

Its princes and kingdoms must fall: As dreams are dispersed by the day,

So time shall demolish them all."
But God shall forever abide,

Eternity never can end;
And who from his love can divide

The soul he esteems as his friend?

The struggles of life shall be passedThe day of affliction shall closeThe foe shall be vanquish'd at last

The pilgrim shall sweetly repose. The wintry storms shall be gone

The beauties of spring shall appearAnd time, as its changes move on, May bring us a happy new year. Oh, ye who salvation await,

Yet tarry with patience awhile. The billows within shall abate,

Your gloom shall be changed to a smil Time's circles must shortly conclude, And life everlasting begin, Where sorrow can never intrude,

Nor pleasure be poisoned with sin.

No mists shall the beauties disguise

No distance the prospect obscureNo doubts or delusions shall rise,

But glory seen perfect and sure. Then face unto face you shall meet, The King in his beauty behold, And share in the rapture complete, That never on earth can be told.

We know not how bless'd we shall be,
No tongue can the fulness explain-
No vision the splendor can see-

Then faith shall reality prove,
No bosom that glory sustain.

And Hope its long'd object possess,
And Charity heighten her love,
'Midst endless and pure loveliness.
Evangel. M

Miscellaneous.

THE MORAL OF RURAL LIFE.

ESSAY II.

The ascendancy of Rural Objects over the Affections.

"Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

The reign of Solomon was associated in the mind of the Hebrews

with every thing peaceful at splendid. The nation was delive ed from the wars waged by his pr genitor. He who has left maxin for the government of kings, whic have stood the test of ages, mu have known how to rule. Intern improvement and foreign traff were objects which drew the a tention of this sagacious monarch

the

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