Wilberforce's Treatise, in which the entire system and bearings of the doctrines called Unitarian,

to the same infirmities, the same ignorance, prejudices, and frailties,""that he was born in low circumstances, having no peculiar advantages of education, or learning, &c."-" The Unitarians maintain, that Jesus and his Apostles were super, naturally instructed as far as was necessary for the execution of their commission, that is, for the revelation and proof of the doctrine of eternal life, and that the favour of God ex. tended to the Gentiles equally with the Jews; and that Jesus, and his Apostles, and others of the primitive believers, were occasionally inspired to foretell future events. But they believe that supernatural inspiration was limited to these cases alone: and that when Jesus or his Apostles deliver opinions upon subjects unconnected with the object of their mission, such opinions, and their reasonings upon them, are to be received with the same attention and caution with those of other persons in similar circumstances, of similar educa. tion, and with similar habits of thinking." (pp. 447. 451.) Here then is an improved view of the case: a manifest progress in the Unitarian system. The supernatural instruction vouchsafed to our Lord was strictly limited to the object of his mission: this object was, exclusively, to make known the doctrine of eternal life, and the admission of the Gentiles to divine favour equally with the Jews: in all matters not con nected with this object, the opinions and reasonings of our Lord are to be esteemed of no greater value than those of any person of similar circumstances and education, he being subject to the same ignorance and prejudices to which the common nature of man is subject: and as he was of low circum. stances and had no peculiar advantages of education or learn. ing, of course it follows upon the whole, that the opinions and reasonings of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, are (except when they relate to the doctrine of a future life and

are exhibited with equal brevity, distinctness, and candour. To Mr. B. is certainly due, the praise

universal retribution) to be treated with as little respect, as those of any person of low origin and circumstances who had received as few advantages of learning or education. I have not carried on the argument as regarding the Apostles, for Mr. Belsham and his associates have long ago disposed of the Epistles. But how much of the Gospels must now follow them as waste paper?-Yet farther, it is not merely the ingnorance and prejudices, to which our Lord was as subject as other men, that we have to guard against in his opinions and reasonings on all topics, save the one above excepted; but we have also to secure ourselves against the consequences of those infirmities and frailties of all descriptions which are incident to human nature, and to which our Lord was not less liable than other human beings. Thus, according to Mr. Belsham, the moral as well as the intellectual imperfections, which render the opinions and reasonings of men, and more particularly of men who have had no peculiar ad. vantages of education or learning, liable to error and exception, alike affect the opinions and reasonings of our blessed Lord; save only on that one subject, to which, Mr. Belsham informs us, his commission was rigidly restricted. As Mr. Belsham's language seems here to cast a reflexion on the moral character of our Lord, it is but justice to Mr. B. to state what he has expressly said upon that point. "The moral character of Christ, through the whole course of his public ministry, as recorded by the Evangelists, is pure and unimpeachable in every particular. Whether this perfection of character in public life, combined with the general declaration of his freedom from sin, establish, or were intended to establish, the fact, that Jesus through the whole course of his private life was completely exempt from all the errors and failings of human nature, is a question of no great intrinsic

of an honest and open avowal of his sentiments. And, in his work, as I doubt not in his life, are exhibited strong traits of talent, combined with amiable and virtuous feeling. The same freedom

moment, and concerning which we have no sufficient data to lead to a satisfactory conclusion." (p. 190.) Here Mr. Belsham admits that we have no actual proof of any sinful acts committed by our Lord in his private life, so that we cannot positively and satisfactorily pronounce any thing upon that head. But it must be observed, that this admission has been made after the recital of certain declarations of scripture, that "he knew no sin;" that he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners;" that he ❝ did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth;" and others of the same import:-although, as these declarations do not relate to the object of Christ's mission as stated by Mr. Belsham, it is difficult to discover to what credit they are entitled upon the principle which he has laid down. In a distant part of his work, however, in which he was suffi ciently removed from the influence of the above testimonies, and when he prepares himself to sum up resolutely the articles of the Unitarian creed, he rises above the weakness into which he had here allowed himself to fall; and (as we have seen in the two preceding pages) affirms of that great Being, who came to redeem the world from sin, that he was subject to the common infirmities and frailties of human nature. It will not now appear surprizing, that Mr. Belsham and his Unitarian associates are so extremely anxious to establish the apocryphal Gospel of the Nazarenes to be the true original Gospel of St. Matthew: for that Gospel, as Jerem. Jones, (a favourite with the Unitarians,) has shewn, in his Method of settling the Canonical Authority of the New Testament, vol. i. p. 376, has left us reason to believe, that " Christ was u sinner, or at least that it is doubtful whether he was so or not," !!!

with which he has treated others, and with which, were he to offer any animadversions on these volumes,* his pen would be directed towards me, I have not scrupled to use with him. If I have misrepresented him, it certainly has not been my intention. His language I confess, has offended me by its arrogance: and perhaps the feeling, which that would naturally excite, may have dictated a mode of reply, not always sufficiently respectful. If any thing like asperity or sarcasm has escaped me, I wish it to be consi

* It is now ten years since the first publication of this work: and, during that time, neither Mr. Belsham nor any of his learned Unitarian fellow labourers, have, as far as I know, fa. voured the public with any observations upon the arguments which it contains. Dr. Priestley, if I recollect rightly, about the year 1790, stated in one of the public prints, that, his History of Early Opinions having remained a long time un answered, if the same silence should be observed during a limited period which he specified, he would consider it as an acknowledgment on the part of the whole Christian world that it was unanswerable. In this I will not presume to fol. low Dr. Priestley's example. It had better become Dr. Priestley to suppose, that his work had not received an an. swer, because it was not deemed of sufficient moment to demand one. It must surely become me to suppose the same of mine. At the same time, I cannot but rejoice, that its reception and circulation have been such as to give good reason to believe, that there is no small portion of the commu nity to whom it appears to contain useful matter: and I shall certainly feel most sincere satisfaction, if it be allowed to continue to work its silent way without the noise and the exasperation of controversy.

dered, as applied to the cause, and to the manner of supporting it, rather than to the writer himself. His opinions, as undermining the best interests of human kind; and his style, like that of all the writers of the same side of the question, as tending to overbear by an imposing confidence of tone, and a familiar and frontless assumption of superiority, can scarcely be received without indignation,* or met without warmth. I do not

* I cannot allow myself to employ the term, which Mr. B. does not scruple to combine with this, on much slighter provocation," contempt." (Review, p. 64.) And yet,-to pass from Mr. Belsham to the entire class of his fellow. labourers, and to speak not of the individual but of the cause at large and of its champions,-what can be more fitly cal culated, to excite even the feeling which that term expresses, than the impotent and arrogant attempts, of a few loquacious sciolists, directed against the sublime and solid truths of Re velation? Bishop Watson, whose tolerant moderation is the subject of general praise, is forced to exclaim, that "it cannot but move one's indignation, to see a smattering in phi losophy, urged as an argument, against the veracity of an Apostle." (Two Apologies, &c. p. 359.)-What shall be said, when the same sort of smattering is employed, to over. turn the whole edifice of Christianity, to subvert the sanc tioned wisdom of ages, and to overwhelm in one shapeless ruin the joint structure of learning and inspiration?-The Dean of Winchester, who is so justly distinguished for the brilliancy of his talents, the richness of his acquirements, and the eloquence and vigour of his style, has described the modern Socinianism, as "consisting of a train of whimsical paradoxes, the mere abortions of the mind! strange without