AND REFLECTIONS MADE IN A COURSE OF GENERAL READING. which appears to have given general GLEANINGS; OR, SELECTIONS Now I have mentioned Locke's correspondence, give me leave to add, No. CCCLXXIX. that I shall be much obliged to any of Epitaph on a Quaker Lady, by a your readers for information respecting any letters to or from Locke which are not to be found in his works, the magazines, or public libraries. They would thus very much assist me to execute a favourite project, of which I may, perhaps, soon offer you some farther account. SIR, 66 J. T. RUTT. Lewes, June 2, 1821. OR the insertion of my letter on the difficulties of Unitarianism, I am much obliged to you, and request the following emendations to be made as to three words, two of which I wish erased and one inserted. The New Version has no paraphrase" on the text in Hebrews to which I referred: I therefore wish the words " or paraphrase" to be omitted. Nor have the Editors actually introduced "a gratuitous sentence," but their note requires one: I therefore wish the word requiring to be supplied. Although these inaccuracies have passed uncorrected, my argument respecting the above-mentioned note remains the same, it being the principle of interpretation which that note includes that I have objected to. R. MARTIN. SIR, WE E have heard little or nothing of late of the Geneva Unitarians. I conclude from the silence of the Calvinists here, that the attempt to raise a sect of Swiss Methodists has failed, or at least not succeeded in any great degree. The Bishop of Peterborough, in the debate in the House of Lords, on his 87 Questions, which I hope you will register for us, referred to the example of Geneva as of a Church with a Calvinistic Creed and a "Socinian" Clergy. A correspondent in the newspapers has corrected his Lordship, and asserted that the clergy are Arian, and that no creed but the Scriptures is subscribed. Let us hear more on the subject. CANTAB. * Is this nickname worthy of Dr. Marsh? Clergyman. To the Memory of M. H. By whose Death A tender and attentive Husband, Many, many, sincere Friends, the precious loss. As a Quaker, it were unnecessary to observe, She was Unadorned in her Attire, Inoffensive in her Conversation, and Exemplary in her Conduct: in The Mortifications of that She, in the midst of tempting Affluent Circumstances, Her heart was as far removed from As her Deportment was from Silent and modest in her Religious Sentiments, They were known to the world By a life of Innocence and Benevolence. in An Israelite indeed, Her latter end adorned yet The will of Heaven. As a memorial to As any Religion could bestow, By A Clergyman Of the Church of England. REVIEW. "Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame."-POPE. ART. I.-Dr. Carpenter's Examina- It is a novelty in the history of biblical literature amongst Protestants, at least, that an attempt to improve the translation of the Scriptures should be treated as an offence against religion. All other sects have made the attempt without reproach: the Unitarians alone are stigmatized for not resting contented with King James's translation. There is scarcely a pulpit in the kingdom from which improvements in the rendering of holy writ have not been suggested, and there is no denomination of Christians that does not welcome them when they are favourable to its own peculiarities. What is the loudlyvaunted argument of Granville Sharp and Bishop Middleton in favour of the Deity of Christ, but a new and supposed improved version of certain passages of the New Testament? Worse than idle, then, is the cry against the Unitarians on account of the Improved Version, as if they had fabricated a new Bible. The only fair question is, whether this work answer to its title, and the Unitarians are as eager as any of their opponents to bring it to the test of criticism. Our early Volumes, especially the IIIrd, IVth and Vth, testify a sufficient unwilling * We observe a new translation of the Hebrew Scriptures by Boothroyd is commended by some of the reputed Evangelical publications, although it bears the formidable title of an Improved Version. ness to receive it without examination, and, in fact, Dr. Carpenter's Review of it in Volume IV. pointed out most of the errors and deviations from the tither have hastened with so much title upon which Bishop Magee and rancour. This topic is so familiar to our readers, that we need not dwell upon it. The severest criticism has established the character of the Version as being substantially Archbishop Newcome's, and agreeable in every important particular to Griesbach's amended text. No attack upon it can succeed that shall not overthrow the authority of those two eminent biblical scholars. They are not infallible, nor is the Improved Version perfect; but by their aid the Editors have furnished the English reader with a better guide than before existed to the knowledge of the pure Christian Scriptures. And, notwithstanding the clamour that has been raised against them, they have reason to be satisfied with their success and have encouragement to expect a still further portion of the Divine blessing upon their labours. Dr. Carpenter points out certain deviations by Newcome from the Public Version which he thinks needless : "One of these, which necessarily strikes the attention, is the change of where, into happy. Blessed, when used blessed (panapos) in Matt. v. and elsein reference to human beings, seems always to convey the idea of happiness as resulting from the ordination of Providence; and in some instances the use of happy appears improper, as, perhaps necessarily, implying a present state of A person mind, which blessed does not. may be blessed when he is in deep distress; but he is not happy: and afflictions may be blessings, but they are not happiness. That blessed, in a different sense, is used as the translation of Eλoyos, is no sufficient reason for employing a word which does not convey the force required."-P. 293, Note. "There is one word of frequent occarrence in the Epistles, which is, I think, unhappily rendered by Newcome, whom the Improved Version in this case follows throughout. I refer to xapis, grace, favour. According to Mr. Rennel, (Animadv., p. 48,) to the word grace, when used in theological writing, the general consent of our nation has attached the idea of the favourable influence of God on the human mind, or the effect of that influence. If this had been the extent of the common theological import of the word, I suspect that Newcome would not have left the usual mode of expression. Still it does not appear that favour does, or ever can, express the frequent force of xapis; and I decidedly prefer reverting to the word grace, leaving it to the theologian to ascertain its import. In the religious application of the term, I understand xapis to denote the favour and mercy offered to us in the Gospel, the gracious benignity and favour from which it proceeds, and the various blessings we derive from it and grace, in my judg. ment, much better expresses all this than favour."-P. 294, Note. With his customary frankness, Dr. Carpenter expresses his dissent from most of the notes of the Improved Version on the Introduction of St. Luke's Gospel, and from some of those on the Introduction to St. Matthew's. He thus explains his views of the famous chronological difficulty: "I quite agree with Mr. Belsham in rejecting the hypothesis, that St. Luke reckoned from the time when Tiberius assumed the proconsular government in conjunction with Augustus. I have repeatedly considered the arguments of Lardner, with a perfect willingness to receive his opinion; but I can see nothing amounting to proof, that St. Luke employed a date, which, to say the least, was extremely unusual at that period, and of which no clear instance is adduced. The hypothesis is necessary to reconcile the date assigned by St. Luke to the commencement of John's Ministry, with the statements of the Introductory His. tory prefixed to St. Matthew's Gospel; but not with those of St. Luke's own Introduction. If this be taken independently of the former, (and to me it appears that they cannot be reconciled in some other respects,) the chronological difficulty vanishes at once. And when any one gives up the genuineness of the Introduction to St. Matthew, he has no ground to employ it to invalidate the Introduction of St. Luke. "Taking St. Luke's Gospel alone, (considering it, for instance, as the most excellent Theophilus' naturally would, an independent history,) the case stands thus: The Baptist began his Mi nistry in the 15th year of Tiberius, which commenced Aug. 19, A. U. 781. If we place the Baptism of our Lord in the following January or February, A. U. 782, (which is the earliest date we can assume,) and suppose that he was not yet thirty one years of age, (as St. Luke's words, ch. iii. 23, appear clearly to imply,) we must place his birth in A. U. 751. "Now there is nothing in St. Luke's' Introduction inconsistent with this. All that the statement in ch. i. 5, requires us to admit, is, that the heavenly message to Zacharias occurred in Herod's reign. If Herod, as is most probable, died in March, A. U. 750, St. Luke's Introduction renders it necessary to place our Lord's birth before the middle of A. U. 751.-INDEPENDENTLY of the Introduction to St. Matthew, there is no chronological difficulty whatever in St. Luke's Introduction."-Pp. 299, 300, Note. One Chapter of the Examination (Chap. IX.) is "On the Beneficial Tendency of Unitarianism," which (as our author fully shews) encourages and rewards the sound exercise of the understanding in matters of religion, presents One Object of Religious Worship, One Object of the highest affections of the heart, throws no impediment in the way of the great practical principles of the Gospel or of Christian liberality and affection, and shines forth resplendently in respect to the Character and Dispensations of the Great Father of all. Dr. Carpenter would, we think, confer a great benefit upon the Unitarian cause if he would suffer this chapter to be printed in the form of a pamphlet for the use of our Tract Societies. It speaks at once to the understanding and the feelings, and is a beautiful example of the piety which it vindicates and enforces. An Appendix to the volume contains a specification of the unnoticed departures of the Improved Version from the text of Newcome's revision, remarks on Bishop Magee's strictures on certain Unitarian interpretations of Scripture, observations on the use made by Bishop Magee of the Unitarian reviewer's statements respecting the variation of the Improved Version from Griesbach's text, and on the system adopted with regard to the Greek text by recent critics, an original Letter from Dr. Priestley to Dr. Estlin, and a notice of the late Mr. Bretland. We close the volume, of which we "I. As it is a matter of the very highest importance in the study of religion, to be fully satisfied that there is a real connexion between happiness and the knowledge and love of God, I have commenced these remarks by explaining the nature of this connexion. I have here endeavoured to shew, that the object of a true religion, must be to present to the minds of men such a view of the character of their great Governor, as may not only enable them to comprehend the principles of his government, but may also attract their affections into a conformity with them. "II. I have made some observations on the mode in which natural religion exhibits the Divine character, and in which it appeals to the human understanding and feelings. And here I have remarked the great advantage which a general principle of morality possesses in its appeals to minds constituted like ours, when it comes forth to us in the shape of an intelligible and palpable action, beyond what it possesses in its abstract form. "III. I have attempted to shew that Christianity possesses this advantage in the highest degree; that its facts are nothing more than the abstract principles of natural religion, embodied in perspicuity and efficiency; and that these facts not only give a lively representation of the perfect character of God, but also contain in themselves the strength of the most irresistible moral arguments that one man could address to another on any human interests. "IV. I have endeavoured to analyze some of the causes of the general indif ference to or rejection of real Christianity, and to point out the sources of the multiplied mistakes which are made with regard to its nature. I have here made some observations on the indisposition of the human mind to attend to an argument which opposes any favourite inclination; on the opposition of Christianity to the prevailing current of the human charac ter; and on the bad effects arising from the common practice of deriving our notions of religion rather from the compo sitions of men than from the Bible. Infidels are not in general acquainted, through the Bible itself, with the system of revelation; and, therefore, they are inaccessible to that evidence for it which arises out of the discovery that its doctrinal facts all tally exactly with the character which its precepts inculcate. I have here also illustrated this coinci dence between the doctrines and the precepts of the Bible in several particulars. If the Christian character is the character of true and immortal happiness, the system must be true which necessarily leads to that character. "V. I have endeavoured to shew the need that men have of some system of spiritual renovation; and I have inferred from the preceding argument, that no such system could be really efficient, unless it resembled Christianity in its structure and mode of enforcement. "VI. I have shewn the connexion between the external and internal evidence for revelation," After reading the above summary, who would expect to find the author an advocate for the system of modern reputed orthodoxy, and an asserter of some of its most unintelligible and anti-scriptural doctrines, in their gross est form? That this is the case the following quotations sufficiently shew: "God became man, and dwelt among us. He himself encountered the terrors of guilt, and bore its punishment; and called on his careless creatures to consider and understand the evil of sin, by contemplating even its undeserved effects on a being of perfect purity, who was over all, God blessed for ever."-P. 40. Again, "That God in human nature should himself become the victim, is a scheme which, indeed, outstrips all anticipation and baffles the utmost stretch of our minds, when we labour to form an idea of perfect benevolence and perfect holiness; but yet it is the only scheme which can fully meet the double object of strongly attracting our love to God, and, at the same time, of deeply convincing us of the danger and baseness and ingra titude of sin."-P. 67. Again, he speaks of the "self-sacrificing benevolence" of God to men; and of self-sacrificing solicitude on the part of God for their welfare.”— Pp. 46, 72. Again, "The identity of the Judge and the victim dispels the misty ideas of blind vindictiveness with which this scheme may sometimes have been perversely enveloped; and he approaches God with the humble yet confident assurance that he will favourably receive all who come to him in the name of Christ."-P. 76. But enough; we had thought the day was gone by when men of sense and learning would roundly assert, that God suffered and died; but, it seems, we were mistaken; the present writer appears to be a person both of sense and learning, as well as of piety and no mean talent; on this account we have taken more notice of his book than we should otherwise have done; and we hope he will reconsider the system which he has adopted. We think his leading error has been what he himself avows, p. 60: In order to understand the facts of revelation we must form a system to ourselves," &c. On the contrary, we think, that in order to discover truth, it is necessary we should divest ourselves as much as possible of all systems of doctrines and preconceived opinions. If Mr. E. will but compare one part of his book with another, closely scrutinize his own reasoning, and determine to retain no words with which he cannot connect distinct ideas, we are persuaded he will find that to give up some part of his present views is unavoidable; he must either become more or less rational. Can he deliberately think that the doctrine of a dying, “ a self-sacrificing God,” is “ nothing more than an abstract principle of natural religion, embodied in perspicuity and efficiency"? Do not nature and reason revolt at the idea of a suffering and dying God? Can the least shadow of such an absurdity be found in the Scriptures? He is probably a young man; he has already some good ideas; he seems incapable of receiving as true what he perceives to be at variance with reason, and with what the light of nature teaches; let him but follow these principles fully out, and he will think no more of a "self-sacrificing" God, nor longer retain many notions which he at present cherishes. R. ART. III-A Enquiry into the Origin of Christmas-day: shewing that this and the other Festivals of the Christian Church are Continuations of the Heathen Feasts of Antiquity. Together with Remarks on the celebrated number Three, which has been made Sacred by Pagan Superstition. By Israel Worsley. 12mo. pp. 66. Hunter, and Eaton. HE Christianity of the New Tes TH tament consists in spiritual worship and moral excellence; not in the observance of fasts and festivals, a blind assent to unintelligible dogmas, and a superstitious regard to useless ceremonies. Very different are the systems established by worldly policy and power, which have long usurped the venerable name, and been substituted in the place of the pure and undefiled religion taught by Jesus and his apostles. The able writer of the pamphlet before us, shews that such systems symbolize much more with the superstitious and idolatrous notions and practices of the ancient Heathen, than with the rational and heavenly doctrines of the Christ and his divinelycommissioned messengers, or the practice of the primitive Christians; and that, not only many ceremonies, observed by the Established sect, are of Heathen origin, but also, the Trinity and vicarious punishment, so far from belonging to genuine Christianity, are the proper doctrines of Paganism. We cannot better describe what occasioned the writing of this sensible and useful tract, than by quoting the notice prefixed to it: "The Author of these pages, a minister to a Dissenting congregation, found some individuals of it partial to the observance of Christmas-day; not from a superstitious regard to the day, but because it is a leisure day, and may be made useful by the services of religion. He felt from conviction a repugnance to giving to this day a solemnity and an importance which belong exclusively to |