those who have separated from us--the Papists on the one hand, and the Dissenters on the other; while the Church has wisely and providentially chosen a path midway between these two extremes of error.

Did the Papists separate from you, or you from them, and both from the Apostles?

"VII. Because there are no professedly Christian communities in a state of separation from the Church in this country, which have not fallen into grievous doctrinal errors, detrimental to the growth of piety, and subversive of religious truth. Either they limit the mercy of God to a small portion of mankind, or they assign to human nature a moral and religious capability, which is not warranted by the Scriptures of truth. Heresy or religious error arises from the presumption and vain confidence of such as follow out their own preconceived notions, instead of taking an authoritative standard of truth as their guide. Now, the Bible ALONE is the religion of Churchmen, and God has graciously condescended to give to man this infallible rule, to direct his faith and practice. To it implicit obedience should be yielded; and no man has a right, natural or acquired, to make a religion for himself."

Do you leave out the Prayer Book then; and do you all agree about Is not Gorham a heretic, a schismatic, or do you agree to differ, and cherish schisms? But we must "go to Church,"

it?

"VIII. Because the Church of England is the greatest bulwark against Popery in the world. Its Articles and Homilies yield to no uninspired compositions in their firm and decided protest against the errors of Rome. The supremacy of the Sovereign is almost of itself a sufficient guarantee that the withering curse of Papal influence will never again overspread these realms."

Who provides the swarms of new priests, but your Church, with all her homilies?

"IX. Because it is the established religion of the country; and it is sinful to separate from a Church established by law, unless it can be proved from Holy Scripture that its principles are opposed to the will of God. And this cannot be with the Church of England, which is emphatically, in reference to this country, the Church of the first-born," and is based on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone."

But it is proved from Scripture that a National Church is not a Christian institution.

"Nor is its connexion with the State contrary to the spirit of Christianity, or to the dictates of God's word. On the other hand, it is evident, not only that such connexion is scripturally lawful and religiously expedient, but also that it is the duty of the State to provide for the spiritual instruction of the people, and for the performance of religious worship among them."

Why not quote the passages?

"X. Because, while other religious bodies are, from their own confession, in a state of progressive declension, the Church of England is arising to a sense of its pre-eminent position in the kingdom and in the world; is reviving in Christian purity and truth: and the ministrations of the clergy are increasing in usefulness and efficiency. That most impor

tant of all ministerial duties pastoral visitation-which is so much neglected among others as to be almost forgotten, is revived and carried out much more extensively in the Establishment."

No doubt the Church is beginning to find out her position; and we hope she will soon rectify it.

Having briefly enumerated some of the reasons for the advice given, each of which would require a large treatise fully to discuss, permit me to add-Go then to Church. Attend the house of God regularly and constantly. Whenever that sacred dwelling-place of the Most High is open for divine worship, let your presence there be an example to others, and a source of spiritual advancement to yourself. And let your voice be heard during the service, in singing the praises of your Maker; and in the responses, acknowledging his mercies, imploring the forgiveness of your sins, and the assistance of God's Holy Spirit to enable you henceforth to walk in newness of life. Let the spirit of the Psalmist constantly animate you: 'One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his TEMPLE.”* There God has declared he delights to record his name, and to his faithful worshippers will impart all the blessings of his salvation, 'ever world without end.""

W. G.

W. G. has evidently been all along thinging of the "Temple of Jerusalem, not one stone of which is now left upon another, but all is overturned: may his newly adopted Church take warning in time; that as the Jewish temple was overthrown, to make way for a spiritual Israel; so the Episcopalian body, may purify itself, and become a Church of true spiritual worshippers and no longer an amalgamation of the world and the Church; the "form of godliness" as a national cloak, without "the power thereof." We are sorry for Dr. Molesworth, that he can find nothing better to recommend.

Ps. xxvii. 4.

IV.

SCEPTICS' RELIGION.

Under this department, sceptical objections, and systems or principles advocated as hostile to Christianity, are dispassionately considered.

THE REV. ROBERT NARES, A.M., ON THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST.

As the best and safest refutation of objections, is the exhibition of the truth, we propose here to conclude our reply to the mistaken objections against Christianity, contained in the "Autobiography of an Atheist," by a few considerations on the real nature of Christianity, as exhibited in the life of Christ himself. Whilst our own views on this subject, the real nature of the gospel, are presented in various forms under the first department, we here avail ourselves of the excellent suggestions contained in the introductory part of a work entitled

"The Veracity of the Evangelists Demonstrated; by a comparative view of their histories.'

If our extracts serve no other purpose than to call attention to this admirable manual of spiritual criticism and moral argument, it will do great good. We commend the work especially to students and teachers of the word of life.

"To write a life of Christ cannot be necessary. Several of acknowledged excellence already exist; they are in the hands of the pious in general; and they must all be drawn from the same divine source, the gospels. But it has appeared to me that some general reflections, of considerable importance, may still be made upon those sacred histories; tending to throw light upon the whole, and upon particular parts. To these reflections therefore I hasten, without fatiguing the reader with the form of a regular exordium. For considerations on this subject, the religious will no more require an apology, than the impious and the thoughtless will admit of any.

"The more we reflect upon the gospel history, taken altogether, in its various features and peculiarities, the more firmly we must feel convinced that it cannot possibly be the history of a mere man; nor can have been produced by the common powers of human nature. The principal character, Jesus Christ, is a personage who has no prototype or resemblance in the history of the world. He could not possibly have any; for a

By the Rev. Robert Nares, A.M. C. F. Rivington, St. Paul's Church-yard.

+ The Editors of the British Critic say (October, 1816, p. 392) that the creations of

man without a fault was never seen, and he had none. If there had been faults in his character, an honest historian would have recorded them, as Moses told his own; and the Evangelists those of themselves, and their brethren, even when most disgraceful to them. But they could not entirely have concealed the faults of their Master, even with the utmost desire to do it, had there been any in his character. They would have been traced in the circumstances of the narrative; they would have been elicited from the facts themselves, however studiously suppressed or palliated by the historians. Ambition, for instance, would have appeared in his conduct; or pride; or the love of worldly glory; or cruelty, or violence of temper. Whatever, in short, marks the character of a public man, through his public actions, could not wholly have been hidden: and if some more secret vices had been studiously suppressed, the virulence of those adversaries, who made crimes even of his miracles, and prophetic speeches, could not have failed to trace them out, and to urge them strongly against them.

"But he was without fault: and this is the more certain, because his proper historians have never directly said it. They have written the most simple of all narratives. They have not even attempted to draw his character, or to venture an opinion of their own upon it.

"They have apologized for nothing; they have merely told what their Master said and did, on such occasions as they thought proper to record; and have left their readers to discern his character in the facts. They have acted most wisely in so doing. They have thus avoided everything that could give a suspicious appearance to their history; all partizanship; all pleading of a cause. But observe, that this very thing is what was never done by any other historians in the world. It is then at least a reason for distinguishing the Evangelists from all other writers :* and this is no small matter.

But the history of a man without a fault, or even the suspicion of an infirmity, is as remote from the experience of mankind, as any thing that is most miraculous. Of those who have been celebrated for any famous acts or works, the general history has been, that some great qualities have been counter-balanced by faults equally great; or by infirmities which make us blush for our common nature. It would be an irksome enquiry to pursue, but the exceptions to this assertion could not be numerous, nor probably any; except such as arose from the imperfectness of our accounts. The examples, on the other hand, are many, striking, and

well known.

CHAP. I." THE CHARACTER OF JESUS CHRIST COULD NOT HAVE

BEEN INVENTED.

Shakespeare have no prototype in nature. This is a mistake, for they have all their foundation in the human character. Titania is a jealous and capricious wife; Caliban a gross and brutal wretch, but who might be a man, if the poet had not chosen to feign otherwise. But besides, the merit of Shakespeare's supernatural fictions is, that they fall in with the general ideas of men, applied to such subjects. Every one feels that they have a kind of truth, though feigned. But the character of Jesus contradicts every common or previous idea of men, concerning the probable demeanour of so exalted a human being.

* We may except perhaps some other sacred writers; but that rather corroborates than weakens the pretensions of these.

"But I proceed further, and say, with the utmost conviction of the truth of the assertion, that, supposing the most ardent desire to impose upon the world the picture of a man without a fault, such a character as that of Jesus Christ, could not have been drawn from fancy or invention by any person or persons who ever lived in this world, before that character had actually appeared. The reason for this is so plain and certain, that I cannot conceive it to admit even of a cavil. It is simply this: that the ideas or principles, upon which that character is formed, did not then exist in the world. Humility, meekness, forgiveness of injuries, universal benevolence were not, anywhere, at that time, esteemed as virtues, or as exalted features of character. No man whoever lived, in any country of the world, would have proposed patience under insults, as a part of an illustrious character; or would have thought of uniting mild forbearance with powers superior to human nature, and an origin derived from heaven. Dignity of character indeed we see in the evangelical picture of our Saviour, the simplest yet sublimest dignity; but it is a dignity totally unmixed with pride; consequently it was a species of dignity never before seen on earth. It was a species of dignity which could not possibly have been conceived, since it arose from circumstances, in which a mere man could not possibly have stood; from an inherent and intrinsic elevation, depending neither upon the accidents of life, nor the opinions of men; but upon something extraneous, even to human nature itself.

"Such a character could not, I say, have been imagined, for the circumstances which produced it were wholly inconceivable. The people of Israel, though they expected their Messiah at that time, expected only a mortal, a descendant of David: or if some among them, from those various prophecies, which certainly intimate a higher character, had expected God incarnate,* how was the imagination of man to form such a union for itself? Few persons, I believe, will venture to deny, that if they had imagined such a personage, they would have figured to themselves a very different being from the mild and humble Jesus; born in a low situation of life, though of the predicted royal origin; living obscurely for the greater part of his time; and, even in the period of his public celebrity, without a regular home, or any ostensible means of daily support.

"The Jews, more especially, could not have had such a conception; since it is demonstrable that their ideas ran wholly upon power, and splendour, and conquest; deliverance from the Roman yoke; and indeed, no less than universal dominion over other nations. A Messiah, formed by Jewish imaginations, would undoubtedly have been a mighty general, a conqueror and a king. On whose arms, if not sufficiently potent by human strength, would have been seconded by miraculous agency. Their ideas would infallibly have recurred to the sword of God and of Gideon, or the irresistable progress of Joshua; except that they would have extended their hero's victories upon a more magnificent scale, making the whole world their theatre, instead of the confined and inconsiderable territory of Canaan. The indications of this disposition may be traced even in the chosen twelve; but most remarkably when, after the resurrection

* "The Lord himself shall suddenly come to his temple.”—Mal. iii. 1.