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not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought necessary to salvation;" but in the Athanasian Creed she is with the Roman Catholic, for there she defines what doctrines are indispensable, thereby forsaking her trust in the Scriptures, and assuming the same kind of authority assumed by the Pope. So with all who take upon themselves to lay down for others essential doctrines.

Unless we carry out the great Protestant principle of trusting every earnest and devout man to learn of Christ himself, unless we believe that every faithful disciple will find an all-sufficient teacher in his divine Master, I see no alternative but a return to the Church of Rome. For if certain sectarian opinions be indispensable to salvation, who shall determine what these are? Surely not any individual teachernot any ordinary denomination-not the Baptists or Independents, or even the Church of England, which is but the elder daughter in the family of Dissent; surely we should look to that Church of the Ages, as she has been called, by the side of which all other visible churches are but as children, and which, not only by her hoary head and wonderful history, but also by her visible majesty and the extent of her rule, would seem to have the strongest claim to our reverence. It appears to me, therefore, that we must either follow the exhortation of the apostle and "judge one another no more, but judge rather that we put no stumbling-block, or occasion to fall in our brother's way," or else we must assent to the principle laid down by Dr. Newman, who says, "From

the very first the rule has been as a matter of fact for the Church to teach the truth, and then appeal to Scripture in vindication." He adds, "It may startle those who are but little acquainted with the popular writings of the day, (the 4th century); yet I believe the most accurate consideration of the subject will lead us to acquiesce in the statement as a general truth, that the doctrines in question, (the doctrines of the Trinity, &c.,) have never been learned merely from Scripture."*

With regard to the comprehensive nature of Divine Love and Providence, we go one step further, and believe that beyond the boundaries of Christendom there are some not far from the kingdom of Heaven. But this also not a few of the most distinguished members of your own Church have acknowledged. "I believe,” (says Southey), "that men will be judged by their actions and intentions, not their creed. I am a Christian; and so will Turk, Jew, and Gentile be in Heaven, if they have lived well according to the light that was in them." And hear one, who though now no longer of the English Church, was one of her most zealous and efficient ministers, when he uttered these words: "Doubtless among the darkest people of the earth, God had servants and witnesses, yea, seers and prophets. In the midst of an idolatrous people Enoch walked with God. Noah preached 120 years. Job was a seer among the Midianites, and his friends had the knowledge of God. of a people who worshipped idols

Abraham was called out

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on the other side

* Arians of the Fourth Century, p. 55. Wilson's Concessions of Trinitarians, p. 52.

the flood.' Melchisedech was priest of the Most High God, in Salem. Visions were sent of God to Abimelech, king of Gerar, and to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Jethro was priest of Midian, and a counsellor of Moses. Balaam was a prophet in the far East. Jonah preached repentance in Nineveh. Visions and voices were revealed to the kings of Babylon. The Gentile world was full of tokens of the divine power and Godhead, love and goodness; proselytes came forth from it out of Ethiopia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and all regions of the earth, into the courts of Jerusalem; and at the coming of the name of Christ, it was instinct with the first motions of a higher life. Everywhere the apostles found souls 'that were ordained,' that is, disposed, 'to eternal life.' What do all these revealed testimonies prove, but that God has an election in nature as well as in grace; that His tender love has been working by inscrutable ways from the beginning, reaching mightily from end to end, and sweetly disposing all things;' that He has mercy for all the creatures of His hand?.... And if He raise up saints in Midian or Samaria, or send prophets to Horeb or seers to Jezreel, where is our charity that we should again tie the hands that were pierced, by the bonds of our theology?”*†

*Manning's Sermons, vol. iv., p. 64 and 82.

With the whole Catholic Church we may affirm, that no ignorance of truth is a personal sin before God, except that ignorance which springs from personal sin. The measures of truth possessed by, or presented to, individuals are so extensively determined by external states and circumstances over which they have no control, that multitudes never are brought face to face with the full orb of faith. Birth, nation, religious community, education or

You state that the armour of the controversialist is one to which you are unaccustomed. Such is also my own case. I have always felt that Christ has called us to a warfare of another kind, in which all faithful and devout Christians may join. But with great deference may I be allowed to express my strong feeling, that you have one disqualification far more important than any want of dialectic skill, viz., the. want of a right understanding and a due appreciation of our religious position. Hence, notwithstanding your kind intentions and devoutly earnest motives, you have, as I shall have occasion to point out, done us in some instances serious injustice. Your portrait of us is often one which we should not know, if you

the want of education, faithfulness or unfaithfulness in parents and pastors, changes and contingencies of life, and the whole world of intricate and inconceivable agencies, which mould and dispose the lot of individuals,-all these determine with infinite variety the measures of truth proposed to each. And we know that "if there be first a willing mind, a man is accepted according to that he hath, not according to that he hath not."

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There may be an ignorance wholly without personal sin even in the presence of the full faith of Christ. Such is the state of unknown multitudes, who have been trained from childhood to regard certain errors with religious love, and certain truths with religious fear. This is what theologians call prejudice," in its pure etymological sense-a judgment foregone, formed for us by others or by events; and this prejudice has always been held to excuse the error. And does not the same principle apply to every Christian sect according to its measure, and to every individual born into it? And, lastly, shall we not all, on all sides, have need to shelter ourselves under this law of tender and pitiful compassion at that great day when the members of Christ's Church, now miserably torn asunder, shall stand in the light where all truth is seen without a shadow? -Manning's Sermons, vol. iv., pp. 75—78.

did not write the name beneath. You do, indeed, regard yourself as having, in some measure, passed through our experience; but when you thought there was Scriptural testimony in favor of Unitarianism, was not your prayer, "Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil?" You say, "Apparent Scriptural contradictions staggered me; for I found to my cost the Tempter could assail us as he assailed our Master, saying, 'It is written.' The battle raged over the whole field of revealed truth, though chiefly around the central fact of our holy faith, the divinity of the Son of God." Would you think I had done justice to your Treatise, if, instead of reading with a prayerful trust in the spirit of truth, I were to regard the arguments you adduce as so many whispers of Satan? You regard us as tempest-tossed on a dreary sea of doubt and unbelief; we seem to ourselves to have landed in a Christian faith which satisfies the mind and the heart, and opens to us boundless progress in faith, hope, and charity; and not only do we regard the Catholic spirit we cherish as most favorable to the discovery of divine truth, but as also having this inestimable advantage, that it enables us to rejoice in "the free air, the cheerful light, the goodly prospects, and the celestial beauty of the Church universal."

In respect to a true understanding of our position, I cannot help feeling that your Treatise forms a strong contrast to one entitled "Theological Essays" and recently addressed to Unitarians by the Rev. F. Maurice. According to the writer of the "Essays," if we do not comprehend the whole truth with regard

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