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pavement of precious stones, lighted up with innumerable lamps, and where, dressed in white robes and wearing jewelled rings and crowns of surpassing brilliancy, they are to indulge through eternity in what would be very properly called on earth the most delicious sensualities."-Pp. 53-56.

Human nature is appealed to in disproof of the scheme of salvation, and the "merit" of moral virtue is explained:

"Christianity makes no difference in the great laws of God's moral government. What you hear about a scheme of salvation, with its complicated and cumbrous machinery, by which a fall was contrived, and then a consultation in Heaven for the recovery of the fallen, and then an atoning sacrifice upon earth to secure forgiveness, and then the arbitrary restoration of a few hundreds of men to God's favour, are mere theological and scholastic inventions, which you may safely leave to those whose taste inclines them to such speculations. I pity the man whose mind is narrowed down to such conceptions of the Universal Father. The great laws of man's moral nature are inflexible. As you sow, you must reap. If you find health in conformity to the great principles of your physical constitution, so will you find moral health and happiness in conformity to the laws of your moral constitution. To be happy, you must be good; and virtue, moral virtue, is sure of its reward. Happiness is not a matter of arbitrary choice or arbitrary appointment, unless our whole nature should be changed. The harvest corresponds with the seed we sow; it is the natural fruit of our own planting. The sources of our misery or our happiness lie within ourselves, and make a part of our moral nature. Health is not an arbitrary gift, a matter of accident or caprice, but is the natural and necessary result of a well-ordered condition of the body, in which every part is in its place, and performs its proper function in perfect harmony with every other part and function. The use of medicine is not to give health; that it cannot do; but its object is to remove obstructions, to heal injuries, to abate an unnatural heat or remove an unnatural coldness, or to quicken or abate or correct a diseased and unnatural action. When this is done, health comes of course, and follows the natural life and action of all the various parts and organs which compose this wonderful and complicated machine. Just so it is with human happiness. It springs of course out of the perfect order and condition of the moral machinery, out of well-regulated affections, passions and sentiments, all performing their proper part and duty, controlled by the just restraints of reason and conscience, and continually prompting to those useful and virtuous actions to which God designed they should lead.

"If I am asked if there is any merit in moral virtue, I answer, the highest merit. Any other principle would at once abrogate the principles of the Divine government, and extinguish the great sanctions of God's moral laws, and render human life a mere lottery, in which there would be many blanks and few prizes, and these prizes themselves assigned, not by the impartial or accidental turning of the wheel, but by the direct appointment and contrivance of the Being who is, above all others, just and impartial. Moral virtue, simple moral goodness, is therefore our being's end and aim. It is in religion all that is comparatively worth any thing, because without it every thing else is worth nothing. In the precepts of Jesus, in his teachings concerning human duty, in his sublime and attractive example, illustrating in so beautiful a manner all the truths which he taught, and confirming the precepts which he inculcated, and, above all, in his disclosure of an immortal existence and an endless progression for the human soul in all that can conduce to its elevation, the expansion of its divine faculties, and the multiplication of its means of improvement and its sources of felicity,— what sublime motives, what powerful aids, what affecting inducements, has he presented to those so happy as to enjoy his teachings, to become virtuous, to avoid vice as we would a moral leprosy, and to press forward to still higher and higher attainments! May God assist our prayers and crown our efforts with triumph!"-Pp. 71–75.

This is powerful, but perhaps of doubtful pulpit taste in parts:

"Under all the diversified forms of external homage or worship which prevailed among the semi-civilized nations of olden times, offerings of lambs, and oxen, and young doves, and bread, and goblets of wine, and oil, and vestments

of gold and silver, were profusely enjoined, because the priests were fond of roast beef and roast lamb, and pigeons, and wine, and gorgeous apparel; but, unless our views of the Divinity are of the lowest character, unless we choose to think that God is only a great man, or, as too many have done and I am afraid even still do, think that the priest is God, or somehow or other a part of the Deity, in which I am sorry to say that they are too much encouraged when the priest undertakes to absolve them from their sins, or shew them the face of God, or give them a part of their God in a sensible form to eat,-it is impossible for us to think that such services or such sacrifices, even though they were piled as high as an Egyptian pyramid, can have the slightest value in the sight of God, beyond the intention with which they are offered and which they express; or that the gorgeous worship of a Cathedral ten times larger than St. Peter's, filled with chanting priests and smoking incense, and echoing and reverberating from every corner the full and solemn tones of the thundering organ, and the united acclamations of the crowds of worshippers, be it as sincere as it may be, can have any more welcome before God than the simple prayer of the meanest pauper child in her wretched hovel, as she lays her shivering head upon her pillow of straw, and recites the only poor doggrel hymn which she has been taught:

'Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep;
If I should die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my soul to take.'

"No, let us not for a moment think so humbly of that Great Being who is from everlasting to everlasting, creating, sustaining, providing for, blessing a universe, in all its infinitely varied forms of life and being, as to suppose that he requires our services on his own account, or that he is

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When thousand worlds are round.'"-Pp. 31-34.

There is a curious Note appended to the discourse, on which we cannot forbear a comment. It is Note II.

"I have been so much struck with some remarks in a recent letter from a friend, whose superior in intelligence and sound practical wisdom I do not know, that I subjoin them.

"My profession of belief, which I mention because you seem to enter into my views on these subjects, is

"I believe with Jesus Christ. This is different, to my apprehension, from any of the forms hitherto assumed by Christianity. Who takes up the New Testament to see what Jesus Christ believed? The object is only to see what was believed concerning him.'

"These observations certainly suggest much matter for reflection."

It is, we doubt not, somewhat fascinating to people of superior "intelligence" to strike out some notion of Christianity different from any hitherto found. But "sound practical wisdom" does not always characterize such idiosynocracies of intellect. Now, what is this new profession of Christian faith, communicated by Mr. Colman's unknown correspondent? "I believe with Jesus Christ." Do you really? If Jesus Christ believed the Jewish doctrine of demoniacal possession, do you therefore believe it? If Jesus Christ had not supernatural knowledge of astronomy or geology, and so believed with Moses in the seven-days' cosmogony, and with David in the "going forth of the sun from the end of the heaven, and his circuit to the ends of it," and with Job in the "firmament which is strong and like a molten mirror,”do you therefore believe with Jesus, and shew your superior religious intelligence by discrediting Newton and Lyell?

We like not these dashing fancies and crude theories. We want something more masculine in theology. And we are confident that this rage for "Bubbles from the Brunnen" will soon subside before the "sound practical wisdom" of our national character. We are satisfied, at any rate, to adopt the apostolic confession-"I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." If we affect varieties

of expression, we may find them scripturally: πιςένω αυτῷ, ἐἰς ἄυλον, ἐν αὐτῷ, en' avle,-I believe him, believe on him, in him, and also into or on to him, if that could enlarge or improve our meaning. And this believing him in his capacity as Christ, may enable us to believe with him under that same obvious limitation, while the unscriptural idea of believing absolutely with him might soon peril our belief in him as Christ at all.

E. H. H.

A Discourse on the Necessity of providing an Enlightened Education for the Christian Ministry; with some Observations on the Comparative Merits of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and other Places of Collegiate Instruction. By Edmund Kell, M. A. 8vo. Pp. 30. London-Simpkin, Marshall and Co.

MR. KELL availed himself of the occasion of preaching, at Worship Street, a sermon on behalf of the old General Baptist Academy, to discourse on the important subject of our academical institutions for the training of ministers. The sermon is now published, and offers many weighty thoughts, and contains much useful information.

Mr. Kell first establishes, by very conclusive reasoning, founded on the principle of the division of labour, the necessity of a regularly-educated ministry for our well-informed and refined congregations. He concedes, with becoming candour, their proper merit to those engaged in the ministry, who, though they have not enjoyed the advantages of academical training, devote themselves to their task with zeal and piety.

"We would say, All hail! to every faithful teacher of the gospel, who, by the might of the spirit which impels him, by the force of persevering application or natural genius, has qualified himself to become a useful preacher, nay, in some cases, a burning and a shining light.' In the same way as, in pursuits purely literary, we gratefully welcome among the most distinguished philosophers, Ferguson, from the tending of sheep on the mountain's side, or among our finest bards, Burns, from following the plough, though none would recommend such occupations as the most suitable preparation for the astronomer or the poet. These are but exceptions, honoured exceptions, to a general rule; and we shall always find that the circumstances of each case will point out the particular instance in favour of which the usual training may be dispensed with. It may also be remarked, that no persons will plead more strongly for the regular education of the ministry than those gifted individuals themselves, who in their own experience have often found how greatly the want of such instruction has shackled their power and impaired their usefulness."-Pp. 11, 12.

In reviewing the characteristics of Oxford and Cambridge, Mr. Kell of course strongly censures their demand of subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles (the former University on the entrance of the pupil, the latter previous to his taking a degree). Too truly does he remark, that their exclusiveness renders" our Universities a by-word of bigotry to the scholars of every other country, and a sorrow to every true lover of our own." (P. 13.)

He also censures the substitution in the two Universities of the Tutorial for the Professorial system of instruction," which has degraded these once celebrated seats of science from the rank of Universities to that of a mere collection of private schools." (P. 14.) This opinion, he shews, is confirmed by that of many eminent men practically conversant with the workings of the University system. But Mr. Kell points out one cause of the decline of learning in the Universities, which even University reformers have failed to notice, viz. "the absence of that healthful spirit of competition, arising from the free commingling of men of all sects and parties, which, like a bracing wind sweeping through their courts, would have purified their atmosphere, and, more than any thing else, have effectually prevented any flagrant perversion of the objects of a University."

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Before quitting the precincts of the Universities, Mr. Kell does not fail to allude to the Popish tendencies which have recently developed themselves in both Universities; and he ascribes the retrograde theological movement of many of the young men educated there to the mental incapacity of modern College tutors, which disables them from "discriminating between the respective provinces of philosophy and religion." Our author then passes on to the academies supported by the Non-subscribing Dissenters of England, and makes the obvious defects of the national seats of learning the ground-work of his appeal in behalf of freer and better academical institutions.

The efforts made by the first race of Nonconformists to sustain, both amongst their ministers and the more wealthy laity, a high tone of scholarship, are deserving of our warmest admiration. Mr. Kell has alluded slightly to this topic. He names only Dr. Doddridge, one of a long line of Christian scholars and confessors. By an error of the press (p. 21), Butler and Secker and Jeremiah Jones, who were pupils of Mr. Samuel Jones, of Tewkesbury, are named as pupils of Dr. Doddridge. Mr. Kell might have named Mr. Woodhouse, of Sheriffhales (amongst whose pupils were the Earl of Oxford and Lord Bolingbroke); Mr. Warren, of Taunton; Mr. Charles Morton, of Newington Green (the tutor of De Foe); Mr. Doolittle, of Islington (the instructor of Matthew Henry); Mr. Henry Frankland, of Rathmill, &c.; Mr. Shuttlewood, of Welford; Mr. Coningham, of Manchester; Dr. Charles Owen, of Warrington; Dr. Latham, of Findern, &c.

The General Baptist Academy was founded in 1794, and its successive theological Tutors have been Mr. S. Freeman, Dr. John Evans, Mr. J. Gilchrist and Mr. Mardon. For literary and scientific instruction the pupils resort to University College, an institution to which Mr. Kell awards well-merited praise. Of his Alma Mater Mr. Kell thus speaks:

"Manchester New College was founded in the year 1786, three years after the close of Warrington Academy, and for many years enjoyed for its theological tutor the eloquent Dr. Barnes, called the Apollos of his age. The celebrated Dr. Dalton was also among its teachers. In the year 1803, it was removed to York, that it might be under the able and judicious guidance of the Rev. C. Wellbeloved; but in 1840, it was brought back to Manchester. The number of students is usually between twenty and thirty, of whom about twelve are bringing up for the ministry. The College is now affiliated with the University of London, and the students, after undergoing the regular examinations, participate in the advantages of its degrees. It possesses a sufficient number of Professors to give completeness to its course of instruction; and perhaps no higher encomium can be passed on its literary character than to mention, that for thirty-five years it has benefited by the services of the Rev. John Kenrick, whose learned and useful labours have long placed him among the first scholars of our country."

Mr. Kell intimates (p. 28) that the difficulty of young men in prosecuting their studies for the ministry amongst us has been of late increased "by the diversion of a portion of the funds, which formerly supported the Divinity students of Manchester New College, to the establishment of additional Professorial chairs.” And in a note he contrasts the expenditure of 1836 and 1845, and shews that there was an excess in the former over the latter year of expenditure, as relates to College exhibitions of Divinity students, of £264; while the excess of the expenditure of 1845 over 1836, as regards the salaries of the Professors, was £534. But we have never heard of any student, properly qualified and desirous of pursuing his studies at Manchester New College, being rejected in consequence of deficient funds. It sometimes happens that students come to Manchester supported by other funds, such as the Hackney Education Fund, the Holt Trust, &c. Latterly there have been Divinity students on the foundation whose parents reside in Manchester, for whom the institution has not had to provide board and lodging. The increase of salaries is great, and that increase became absolutely necessary when the College was affiliated to the London University, and

had to extend its curriculum of instruction. The increased expenditure was, however, met by a very liberal increase of the Lancashire subscriptions. The entire subscription list of the current year amounts to £1197. 19s. 6d. Of this sum Lancashire and Cheshire contribute £796. 16s. 6d. ; and, with the exception of the Liverpool subscribers, all the contributors in the two counties can conveniently enough send their sons to the College. We mention these facts and figures to guard Mr. Kell's readers from the possible error of supposing that the Manchester Committee had been unduly taxing the Unitarian public to support a College, the advantages of which were confined to their own district.

Should a second edition of this excellent sermon be called for by the public, Mr. Kell will be enabled to modify his statement, and also to add that, by the munificent bequest of a merchant of Manchester recently deceased, there is the prospect of a free and unsectarian academical institution arising in Manchester, which may possibly altogether relieve the trustees of Manchester New College from the burthen of sustaining the literary and scientific departments of their institution.

We think it important to put this statement forth at the present time, as, independently of Mr. Kell's pamphlet, we know that the subject of their academical institutions is now occupying the attention of some of the Non-subscribing Dissenters of England. So strongly do we feel the heavy debt of gratitude due from the Unitarians of this country to Manchester College, and to the wise and good men who have successively presided over its several departments, that we should regret any word, however slight, that disparages its claims, and any course of action that may endanger the permanence of an institution which has educated some of the most intelligent and patriotic of our laity, and supplied our pulpits with able and high-minded ministers, such as now fill some of our pulpits in the Metropolis, at Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and other important stations.

A Brief Refutation of the Misstatements of the late Rev. Robert Hall, M.A. THIS brief and judicious tract is put forth by the Southern Unitarian Society as an antidote to the poisonous bigotry of a tract, recently extensively circulated, taken from the late Robert Hall's disgraceful review of Mr. Belsham's Life of Lindsey, entitled, "A Discourse on the Spirit and Tendency of Socinianism." The Committee of the Southern Unitarian Society rightly judge that no calumny against their religious principles ought to be treated with silent contempt. Being defamed, they entreat a hearing; and we think no orthodox person, accustomed to hear Unitarian Christianity reviled, can read this little and very cheap tract without being surprised and instructed.

The Moral Power of the Christian Church: a Sermon preached before the Kent General Baptist Association, at Headcorn, July 14, 1846. By Rev. John Lettis Short. 12mo. Pp. 16.

THIS sermon commends itself to our approbation by its wholesome tone of thought and its honest earnestness of spirit. The preacher does not underrate the terrible evils of society, or the regenerating power of a pure and practical exhibition of the gospel.

The Evangelical Alliance: what it is, and what it ought to be. 8vo. Pp. 24. Aylott and Jones.

THE author of this pamphlet objects to the defective basis of the Alliance, alleging, truly enough, that its nine points altogether omit the moral element of Evangelical religion. "A man may be a persecutor for religious opinionmay be a slave-holder, a slave-lasher, or a slave-preacher-may be every thing, in temper and daily life, which the gospel absolutely condemns, and yet, in all good faith, may sign every article of the basis which the Alliance has put forth." (P.6.) In the same spirit the writer points out other defects and incon

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