he maintains, is not only inconsistent with the divine benevolence, but directly contradictory to the plainest principles of justice. That all will rise again after death, he admits to have been taught by Christ: and he likewise admits, that "the wicked will be raised to suffering." But, since God would act unjustly in inflicting "eternal misery for temporary crimes; the sufferings of the wicked can be but remedial, and will terminate in a complete purification from moral disorder, and in their ultimate restoration to virtue and happiness;"* or, as he elsewhere expresses it, "Moral evil must be expelled by the application of natural evil;" and if not fully effected in this life," the process must be carried on by the severer sufferings of a future retribu-tion."-Thus the doctrine of a purgatory stands immoveably fixed on the basis of the Divine justice: and the antithesis between eternal misery and temporary crimes, is made to complete the demonstration of the Unitarian; by which, he is not only enabled, to communicate "confidence" and "tranquillity" to the " enlightened and virtuous believer;" but, he might have also added, a hardened and fearless security to the impenitent offender: and without this, he contends, "the God of nature must be viewed as frowning over

* Review, &c. p. 12-16.

+ pp. 41, 42.

See beside the above references, p. 154. § p. 21.

his works, and like a merciless tyrant, dooming his helpless creatures to eternal misery," &c.*Whoever desires to see this curious specimen of reasoning fully examined and exposed, will find ample satisfaction in Mr. Walker's Letter to Mr. Belsham: p. 40-42.

Having thus softened down the article of judicial retribution, and lightened guilt of most of its terrors, as well as of much of its deformity, (there being, as he contends, "a preponderance of virtue, even in characters contaminated with the grossest vice;") he naturally proceeds to depreciate the value of the atonement by Christ. -The notion of his death, as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of men, Mr. B. totally rejects: and the doctrine of redemption through his blood, he holds to be an entire mistake, founded in the misunderstanding of certain phrases peculiar to the Jews: and finally for the full establishment of his opinions, he refers us to Dr. J. Taylor; the amount of whose reasoning on this head, " in his admirable§ Key," as Mr. B. finds convenient to call it, has been already examined at

* P. 20.

‡ pp. 17, 18. 105, 106.

+ pp. 14, 38, 39, 40. 42.

§ In a periodical publication, distinguished for the uprightness and talent with which it is conducted, there is to be found a series of valuable letters, upon the subject of the work above alluded to: and in the conclusion, the writer observes as

large, in the foregoing work, especially vol. i. pp. 181-188. 199-201. 322-333.

The merits and the sufferings of Christ having, in the scheme of this writer, no connexion with the acceptance of man; the notion of his divine nature, and even that of his pre-existence, are discarded as wild chimeras. Jesus Christ he considers, “as a man in all respects like to his brethren:" and he seems particularly anxious, that the opinions of the Unitarian should not be confounded with those of Socinus; who, he says, whilst he properly maintains, " that Jesus had no existence before his birth, yet admits the

follows, upon this "admirable Key."-" The key of this author is not, I am persuaded, the legitimate one. I should rather be tempted to resemble it to some of those false keys, vulgarly called picklocks.-The web of the key, to speak technically, is, in those ingenious instruments cut to as slender a form as is consistent with the strength necessary for turning the bolt, in order that the chance of the impediment from the wards may be as little as possible. But the lock, with which this theological adventurer had to do, was of such a peculiar construction, as to resist every effort to open it, except with the true key. The Doctor gave some desperate wrenches, and doubtless imagined that he had effected his purpose when he found the key turn in his hand. But it has been discovered by others, that he did no more than break it in the lock, and the bolt, for any thing which he has done to remove it, remains where it was before."-Christ. Observ. vol. vi. p. 504.—The figure undoubtedly conveys no unjust idea of the work, which it is so much the fashion with Socinian writers, and with good reason, to extol.

unscriptural and most incredible notion, that since his resurrection, he has been advanced to the government of the universe*". The father of Socinianism, had but half accomplished the work of degrading the Son of God, whilst he allowed him a superiority over the human kind after death. Mr. B. with strict consistency, completes the system; and boldly contends, that as he differed in no respect from man in his mode of coming into the world, so can he have no dominion or superiority over him in the world of spirits. That he " is indeed now alive, and employed in offices the most honourable and benevolent," he does not attempt to deny: but, since" we are totally ignorant of the place where he resides, and of the occupations in which he is engaged," he maintains, that "there can be no proper foundation for religious addresses to him, nor of gratitude for favours now received, nor yet of confidence in his future interposition in our behalf." Thus, because we are ignorant of the place and occupations of the Son of God, is all intercourse between man and his Redeemer at an end! Thus says Mr. Belsham. And so far is he from considering our blessed Lord as an object of religious address, that he can look on him only as the "most excellent of human characters, the most eminent of all the

་

* P. 74.

+ p. 85.

prophets of God;" whose " memory he reveres, whose "doctrine he embraces," in whose " promises he confides," and to whose "authority he bows."*

To what then does christianity amount, on Mr. B's. plan? To nothing more than good habits; and these habits, the result of man's own unaided and independent exertions, or rather the result of external influences and irresistible impressions. Those usually received, and (as Mr. Wilberforce properly styles them) peculiar doctrines of christianity, which declare the corrupted state of human nature, the atonement of the Saviour, and the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit, our author rejects as utterly inconsistent with truth and scripture. The preponderance of virtue over vice in the world at large, and with a very few, if any, exceptions, in every individual in particular, he maintains to be indisputable. The practice of virtue, he pronounces to be the only ground of acceptance with God, without any regard to faith in Christ, to his merits or his sufferings, all which he proscribes as notions unscriptural and absurd: || and as to the influence of the holy spirit being that which prompts to virtue, he finds little difficulty in expunging this likewise from his creed, being fully satisfied,

*

pp. 84, 85.

pp. 13, 14. 38, 39.

† p. 170-175. + p. 170.

pp. 104, 105. 172, 173.