Christian scheme, is the development of a system of spiritual holiness which, if accepted with an humble and submissive mind, will lead us to the most exalted notions of the Divine Being, and to practical habits of the most consummate purity. I believe that the presumed difficulties in the interpretation of Scripture, so much dwelt upon by the advocates of tradition, are occasioned much more by the vain curiosity, the besetting prejudices, and the unsubdued passions of mankind, than from any real want of clearness in the written record. Taken, according to the plain and obvious interpretation of its language, and commented upon solely by the analogy of Scripture with Scripture, the prophecies of the Old Testament being carefully compared with their fulfilment in the New, I conceive that the Bible must necessarily give out to every earnest enquirer after truth, the orthodox doctrines of the Trinity in unity', of

There can scarcely be a stronger admission on the part of the Unitarians, that the New Testament, if taken in its natural context, and according to the received canon, does

justification and redemption through humble faith in the expiatory merits of Christ, and of sanctification, branching out into all the seve

convey the Trinitarian doctrine, than the shifts which, contrary to all the rules of sound criticism, they are obliged to have recourse to, in order to avoid coming to that conclusion. Thus, in what they have termed their " Improved version of the New Testament," they are reduced to the denial of the authenticity of the first two chapters of Matthew's, and of the first two chapters of Luke's Gospel, whilst of the accuracy of their translation from the original Greek, the following extracts may serve as specimens:"The word was in the beginning, and the word was with God, and the word was a God (thus, they add in a note, Moses is declared to be a God to Pharaoh). All things were done by him, and without him was not any thing done that hath been done." St. John i. 1-3. "He was in the world, and the world was enlightened by him." Ib. v. 10. "And the word was flesh, and full of kindness and truth; he dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only Son, who came from the Father." Ib. v. 16. "God is thy throne for ever and ever." Hebrews i. 8. In these passages we find the direct construction of the original language violated, because, if literally rendered, they would at once assert our Saviour's divinity. Would any thing be gained, in dealing with men who thus shut their eyes against the written word, by pressing them with arguments derived from mere tradition ?

ral duties towards God and man, through the aid of the Holy Spirit. If scriptural students fail of arriving at these sublime truths, it is, I believe, because they will not condescend to take Scripture as they find it; but having previously made up their minds that certain principles must be true, that others, however strongly attested, must be false, they reject large portions of the sacred writings as spurious, and put the most forced and improbable construction upon others, rather than admit that God's ways are not as their ways, nor His thoughts as their thoughts. For the correction of errors of this description, the proper remedy will, I imagine, be found, not in calling in the equivocal and uncertain aid of tradition, and in substituting a bending for an unbending standard. If they deny the authority, or tamper with the letter of the written word, they will not readily submit to the unwritten, however dogmatically vouched as genuine. The real remedy for this proud spirit of unbelief will be best found in inculcating that artless innocence of the moral sense which

our Redeemer enjoins; in subduing the arrogance of a captious understanding, and, in making, if possible, the hunger and thirst of the soul after righteousness predominate over the wanton curiosity of the intellect. Professing these sentiments, it is scarcely necessary for me to repeat, that I do not conceive that one single particle of revelation, in the strict meaning of the term, is conveyed to us by tradition only. It appears to me highly improbable, that any portion of the necessary articles of belief should have been originally allowed to remain extraneous to the written word; and it appears to me certain, that, if ever such portions were left floating in oral tradition only, at all events the record of them is now irredeemably lost.

On the other hand I repeat I am far from wishing to undervalue legitimate tradition. It is at all events a natural and an amiable feeling in those who believe the Holy Scriptures to have been the work of inspired men, to wish to approximate as nearly as possible to the times in which those men lived; to

imbibe their feelings in all their freshness, and to worship God after the selfsame forms in which they worshipped. Much respect, moreover, is due to long-established authority, and more still to those sober ordinances, and that decent discipline, which have been established by the general agreement of Christians, under spiritual pastors and rulers, holding their appointments according to a rule sanctioned by Scripture itself. A mind duly trained to look to the written word for the sole rule of its faith, will ever be ready to conform its practice to institutions which it feels to be in full accordance with what is there enjoined. " Where two or three are met together in my name, there I am in the midst of you," will be a text which will often recur to a person thus disciplined, and he will feel that in resisting the authorities, whom God has set over him, he is rebelling against God, and, as much as in him lies, quenching his Holy Spirit.

If, then, in the course of the preceding remarks, I have appeared to speak depre

1