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heart. Impossible is it for him to enter into the sufferings of his fellow-creatures. What knows he of suffering? That hope and trustfulness and looking up to God, which in the human mind are sentiments of so much value-these, too, in such a man, could find no place. And would this be a good preparation for a future state?→→ unless, indeed, you suppose such an one contented to remain for ever upon earth, and resign the splendours of the new Jerusalem. But if not content, what preparation will he have had for his mighty change? His egoism and hard-heartedness, and want of confidence and hope, will have produced a species of Atheism, and but little fitted him for the pure enjoyments of the heavenly state. No, mes freres bien aimés, believe me, we are much better under His direction than our own. To Him, then, let us resign ourselves with cheerful trust."

Thus concluded, rather abruptly I thought, a discourse marked by such simple and flowing elegance of thought and diction, that I have seldom felt myself more interested or impressed. No doubt, a voice both sweet and deep contributed greatly to produce this effect; and if to this be added a manner familiar without being inelegant, persuasive and yet dignified, impassioned without being exaggerated, one will cease to wonder at the admiration which M. Cheneviere commands, and at the attention with which he is listened to. One circumstance alone was sufficient to mark the religious party with which he sympathized, and that was the omission of the name of Christ throughout the whole of the sermon; indeed, it can scarcely be called an omission, as the subject did not absolutely demand the introduction of it; but inasmuch as the non-introduction of the name of Jesus is sufficient, in the opinion of some, to almost unchristianize a man, it is very evident to what party M. Cheneviere does not belong. The sermon was followed immediately by a short prayer, and this, again, by the Apostles' Creed, when the whole congregation united in singing the last verse of the lxxxivth Psalm. Then the clergyman, spreading out his hands, gave the beautiful benediction-" The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you! Go in peace, my brethren; and may the Lord bless you and your families!" The scene which followed was only another proof of that insensibility, or appearance of it, which the Swiss display in every situation. Scarcely had the last words fallen from the lips of the preacher, when the people were half out of the church, hurrying away with an apparent thoughtlessness strangely in contrast with the staid and attentive demeanour which had so lately marked them. I, too, joined them, and inquiring when M. Cheneviere would preach again, was informed, on that day fortnight, his health being in a very delicate state.

As the morning was far advanced, I retraced my steps to Geneva, watching the crowds with whom I had lately gone up to worship, and who were now dispersing through the different shady lanes which led to their several homes like diminished streams, sometimes concealed beneath the neatly-trimmed hedges, and then again re-appearing, carrying with them to their homes and families the fertilizing influences of the waters of life. "Pleasant words," says the sacred writer," are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones ;" and I pursued my path in that indolent, musing mood which indicated that mental tranquillity the occupations of the morning had induced. If Nature

now appeared less gay than when I came up to worship, she wore at least a softer and a deeper expression, appearing to my fancy to bear the semblance of that Being whose most lovely attributes had been so eloquently illustrated. A slightly sloping path led me by a different direction to the great city, through, however, the same kind of scenery -hedges marked by the same neatness-turf by the same bright verdure-villas not too good for daily use and habitation, yet adorned with every rural elegance, perfumed by every variety of flower, and surrounded by the hanging willow, the graceful acacia and the elegant birch, all which so abound in the neighbourhood of Geneva. How magnificent, too, the view! Below lay the city, so rich and so varied in its historical memorials, the silvery lake laving its very houses, and stretching away its mighty length far, far into those enchanted spots which Romance and Poetry have for ever consecrated as their own; and bounding this lovely view rose up the Mont Saleve, as if anxious to dispute its honours with the mighty monarch of mountains, whose snowy summit may be seen in the rare clearness of a summer's eve like the occasional revelation of the Being who upreared its stupendous form. Very sweet it was to gaze on such scenes, and I could have lingered a long summer's day amongst them lapped in many a delicious dream. But there was no delay. Nearer and nearer I approached the city; the scene began to change; and the tranquillity of the country now gave place to the noise and bustle of crowded streets. Instead of the quiet congregation, who, like myself, whilst there, appeared to feel the influence of the "genius loci," and so lately pursued their silent path amidst shady lanes, or else conversing in a subdued tone, the gay, the busy and the devout, were mingling and crossing their various paths, decked out in their Sunday finery, and arranging excursions, or discussing the disturbed affairs of their little turbulent republic, or whispering to one another their gay and gallant nothings. How great the contrast ! Was God forgotten within the brief space of one half hour? No. The blessed rains of heaven descend, and Nature soon puts on again her gay and cheerful and careless air; but deep within her bosom she treasures up the streams which rise again in beauty, covering her surface with flowers, and decking many a sweet and solitary spot with loveliness. How many, too, are the virtues which the word of God that slumbers in the heart is destined to awaken! And how many in the gay crowd I gazed upon will carry to their homes, and the dark and solitary spots of life, the influence of the spirit they had imbibed that morning!

HENRY W

CHURCH CREEDS INJURIOUS TO INTEGRITY.

A CHURCH of one creed and of one form, in a nation generally educated, must be a church teeming with hypocrisy. The abomination of a false "assent and consent" must present itself every where. The semblance of religious unity may be secured, but it must be at the cost of moral honesty, and that upon a scale so general as to deteriorate the national character. The great object of solicitude-one church-may be retained; but that church must consist of multitudes who, while subscribers to one creed, will be the holders of many.-British Quarterly Review, No. IV. p. 330.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE TRINITARIAN CONTROVERSY FROM THE ACCESSION OF WILLIAM III. TO THE PASSING OF THE BLASPHEMY ACT.

No. VI.

EARLY in the year 1695, Dr. John Williams, Prebendary of Canterbury, and afterwards Bishop of Chichester, published A Vindication of the Sermons of His Grace, John, Archbishop of Canterbury, and of the Lord Bishop of Worcester's Sermon on the Mysteries of the Christian Faith, from the Exceptions of a late Book, entituled "Considerations on the Explications of the Doctrine of the Trinity;" to which is annexed a Letter from the Lord Bishop of Sarum to the Author of the said Vindication on the same Subject. London, 4to. The imprimatur is dated Nov. 17, 1694, the day immediately preceding that on which Archbishop Tillotson had the apoplectic attack which terminated his life; and the author states, in his Dedication to James Chadwick, Esq., the Archbishop's son-in-law, that the work was undertaken with the sanction, and prepared under the auspices, of his Grace, to whose inspection the manuscript was submitted, although he lived only to read and revise a portion of it. To this Vindication, as the title-page intimates, was subjoined a Letter to the author by Bishop Burnet, dated Feb. 2, 1694-5, in which his Lordship expresses himself with great contempt respecting the Unitarian portion of the controversy. To this Letter the Archbishop not improbably alluded, when he said to Mr. Firmin, "My Lord of Sarum shall humble your writers."

It is a fact well known to those who are acquainted with the ecclesiastical history of the time, that the Sermons which Archbishop Tillotson published, for the purpose of clearing himself from the charge of Socinianism, had just the opposite effect, and tended to confirm the suspicions that had been raised in some minds respecting his unsoundness in the faith. Charles Leslie, a non-juror and virulent polemical writer of that period, made these very Sermons the groundwork of an attack upon the Archbishop, in which his Grace is charged with Socinianism, and something more. The book professes to have been printed in Edinburgh, though the author is said never to have visited Scotland. It bore the following title. The Charge of Socinianism against Dr. Tillotson considered, in an Examination of some Sermons he has lately published on purpose to clear himself from that Imputation, &c. By a True Son of the Church. The author of this unprincipled attack says of his Grace, whom he calls "Dr. Tillotson," and from whom he studiously withholds all recognition of his episcopal dignity:-" His politics are Leviathan, and his religion is Latitudinarian, which is none; that is, nothing that is positive, but against every thing that is positive in other religions; whereby to reduce all religions to an uncertainty, and determinable only by the civil power. He is own'd by the Atheistical wits of all England as their true Primate and Apostle. They glory and rejoice in him, and make their public boasts of him. He leads them not only the length of Socinianism (they are but slender beaux have got so far as that), but to call in question all revelation; to turn Genesis, &c. into a mere romance; to ridicule the whole, as Blount, Gildon, and others of the Doctor's disciples, have done in print."

How different from this is the estimate formed of Tillotson by Dr. Jortin, in the following well-known passage! "Tillotson printed these Sermons on the Divinity of Christ, to vindicate himself from the charge of Socinianism, that is, from an accusation entirely groundless. I have been told that Crellius,* a Socinian, and a descendant from the more celebrated Crellius,† who used, when he came over hither, to visit the Archbishop, and to converse with him, justified him on this head, and declared that Tillotson had often disputed with him in a friendly way upon the subject of the Trinity, and that he was the best reasoner, and had the most to say for himself, of any adversary he had ever encountered."

The next reply to the Considerations was by the Rev. John Howe, and was entitled, A View of that Part of the late " Considerations" address'd to H. H. about the Trinity, which concerns the "Sober Enquiry" on that Subject: in a Letter to a Friend. This Letter is written with some degree of sprightliness, and with apparent good temper; and Mr. Howe endeavours to shew that he has not been quite fairly Idealt with by the Considerator. In other respects, it contains little that is worthy of notice, except the allusions which the writer incidentally makes to his anonymous opponent, and the high estimate which he forms of his talents and attainments. "The author," says Mr. Howe, "is pleas'd to give me the honour of a name, a lank, unvocal one. It is so contrived, that one may easily guess whom he means, but the reason of his doing so I cannot guess; it is because he knew, himself, what he would have others believe. But I suppose he as well knew his own name. If he knew not the former, he ran the hazard of injuring either the supposed author, or the true, or both. I could, I believe, make as shrewd a guess at his name, and express it as plainly; but I think it not civil to do so, because I apprehend he hath some reason to conceal it, whereof I think he hath a right to be the judge. But I will not prescribe to him rules of civility, of which that he is a great judge, I will not allow myself to doubt." A little further on, Mr. Howe says, "For himself, I discern and readily acknowledge in him those excellent accomplishments, for which I most heartily wish him an advocate in a better cause." He styles the author of the Considerations "my learned antagonist;" "the very sagacious author, of whose abilities, and industry together, I really have that opinion, as to count him the most likely to confute this hypothesis of all the modern Anti-Trinitarians ;" and "this very ingenious writer, so well acquainted with the gust and relish of intellectual delight." Having occasion, towards the close of his Letter, to allude to the author of Animadversions on a Postscript to the Defence of Dr. Sherlock against the Calm Discourse of the Sober Enquirer, as also on the Letter to a Friend concerning that Postscript, he says, "Who this is I will not pretend to guess, only I guess him not to be the same with the Considerator, for this, besides other reasons, that he calls the author of the 'Considerations' a great man; and I scarce think he would call himself so." Alluding again, in the Advertisement, to the author of A Letter to the Clergy of both Universities, he says, "I leave him to compound that difference with his abler Considerator."

* Samuel Crellius.

↑ John Crellius.

"Mr. H-w."

It would hence appear, that the author of the Considerations was deemed a person of some note, independently of what may be inferred from the general tenor of his controversial writings; and as Mr. Howe was able to "make a shrewd guess at his name," it is much to be regretted that his sense of civility restrained him from so doing, for this single conjecture would have been of more value, in our day, than all his own abortive attempts to prove "the possibility of a Trinity in the Godhead." Was it Sir Isaac Newton? Was it John Locke? It has been suspected that both these great men took part in the Trinitarian controversy of their day; but in the absence of direct evidence, it is useless to speculate upon a subject involved in so much uncertainty. It was during the year 1695, that Mr. Locke published his admirable work, entitled, The Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures; but it appeared without his name, and his most intimate friends were not let into the secret that he was the author. He was reluctant, indeed, to prefix his name to any thing of a controversial character, whether on the subject of religion or politics. Many tracts on matters of passing interest were attributed to him, which he never acknowledged, yet some of which he undoubtedly wrote. In a letter to his friend Mr. Molyneux, dated July 2, 1695, he says, "With my Treatise on Education, I believe you will receive another little one concerning Interest and Coinage. It is one of the fatherless children which the world lay at my door; but, whoever be the author, I shall be glad to know your opinion of it." In a subsequent letter, written on the 20th of November in the same year, and addressed to the same individual, he says, in allusion to this work, " However you are pleased to make me a compliment, in making me the author of a book you think well of, yet you may be sure I do not own it to be mine till you see my name to it."

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We know, from more sources than one, that Mr. Locke, in the winter of the year 1694, devoted himself with great earnestness and assiduity to the study of Christian theology. There is still among his manuscripts a book, with the title Adversaria Theologica, which was begun in that year, and in which the arguments for and against the doctrines of the Trinity and the Supreme Deity of Jesus Christ are ranged in opposite columns. His biographer, Lord King, (Vol. II. p. 186,) says of these arguments, which he presents to the reader " as specimens," that “ they may be considered also as indications of his opinions;" and that those opinions were Antitrinitarian, no one can doubt who merely glances at the specimens produced by his Lordship.

But this is not the only proof that Mr. Locke's mind was actively engaged in the study of those questions which then formed the leading topics of religious controversy. In a letter to his friend Philip à Limborch, dated May 10, 1695, he says,-"This winter I have been seriously considering in what consists Christian faith, and I have endeavoured to deduce it from the sources of the Sacred Scriptures, separated from any opinions and orthodoxies of sects and systems. From a careful and diligent perusal of the New Testament, the nature of the new covenant and the doctrine of the gospel appear to my apprehension clearer than noon-day. I am, indeed, most firmly persuaded, that a sincere inquirer into the gospel cannot remain in doubt as to what is the Christian faith. My thoughts I have thrown on paper,

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