information of an age of infidelity, thefe doctrines are to be either treacheroully compromifed, openly furrendered, or fecretly difavowed; if, to the fpecious names of liberality of fentiment, the right of private judgment, and freedom of enquiry, the faith of Chrift is to be facrificed, it little imports whether the Epifcopal, the Prefbyterian, or the Independent regimen be the medium of fuch a furrender. We hesitate not to affert, that the Church, from the moment it fhrinks from a diftinct, unequivocal avowal of the doctrine of the eternal Deity of the Redeemer, and the affertion of the Godhead of the three perfons in the Holy Trinity, whatever may be its form of external polity, becomes a cumbrous and lifelefs trunk. A union in difcipline, without a union in fundamental doctrines, would be an agreement in the means, without confent or confpiration in the ends of Chriftianity. For we cannot but be convinced, that the primary injunction of our Lord, to teach all the nations, baptifing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft," founds the doctrine of the Trinity on a bold and prominent rock, at the fect of which the waves of herefy muft for ever foam and beat in vain. Every attempt, therefore, to prefcribe formularies, or confeffions of faith, unconnected with this grand truth, is demonftrably to place Chriftianity on other foundations than Jefus Chrift himfelf has left it, We mean not here, however, any defence of the doctrine of the Trinity; we merely point cut, in our review of the prefent collection of tracts, and as a feasonable hint to other collectors, the duty of rendering an inveftigation of this doctrine, not only an important, but an indifpenfible part of a course of theological tudy. But, notwithstanding this, we fhould not, if we know ourfelves, fuffer any coincidence of opinion to hurry us into indifcriminate or precipitate praife of any work which came under our confideration. But we think we exercise our coolest judgment, in declaring that fo fcriptural, fo able, and fo decifive a tract upon the fubject we have never feen, as Mr. Jones's "Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity." If, in his "Elay on the Church," he is inferior to Hooker, he, on this fubject, at leaft equals Bull or Waterland. In our opinion he has left it more trongly intrenched than either of them. His juxtapofition of texts of Scripture is moft apt and killful; and in Comparing fpiritual things with fpiritual, which, after all, is the only flii and fatisfactory mode of managing the argument, he ftands unrivalled. Nor is his acuteneis in detecting the prevarication and evafion of Dr. Clarke's " Scripture Doc trine" frine" lefs confpicuous; nor do we know any where so ftrong a prefervative against that fubtle and indirect effort to infinuate the doctrines of Arius into the young and unwary mind. We own it to be matter of curious fpeculation with us, what answer the calma felf-poffeffion and prolific refources even of Dr. Clarke himfelf, could have enabled him to return to it, had it been published in his times. We can only with that the attention of the younger ftudents in theology were invariably directed by those who fuperintend their ftudies, to this mafterly tract; and if, after a diligent perufal of it, they should be unable to give a reafon of the faith that is in them, it will be a melancholy proof that there is no truth fo fecure in its own natural strength, or fo fortified by the skill and ability of its defender, as to be impregnable to human fophiftry and perverseness. The neceflity of Chriftians confining their worship of a God under the appropriated and fcriptural defignation of him, is marked in the following striking cenfure of " Pope's univerfal Prayer." "For there is a fashionable notion propagated by most of our moral writers, and readily fubfcribed to by thofe who fay their prayers but feldom, and can never find time to read their Bible, that all who worship any God, worship the fame God; as if we worshipped the three letters of the word God, instead of the Being meant and underflood by it. The Univerfal Prayer of Mr. Alexander Pope was compofed upon this plan; wherein the Supreme Being is addrefied as a common Father of all, under the names, Jehovah, Jove, and Lord. And this humour of confounding things, which ought to be diflinguifhed at the peril of our fouls, and of comprehending believers and idolaters under one and the fame religion, is called a catholic fpirit, that fhews the very exaltation of Chriftian charity. But God, it is to be feared, will require an account of it under another name; and though the poet could fee no difference, but has miflaken Jove or Jupiter for the fame Father of all with the Lord Jehovah; yet the Apoftle has inftructed us better; who, when the Prieft of Jupiter came to offer facrifice, exhorted him very paffionately to turn from thofe vanities unto the living God;" well knowing that he whom the Priest adored under the name of Jupiter, was not the living God, but a creature, a nothing, a vanity. Yet the catholic fpirit of a moralift can difcern no difference; and while it pretends fome zeal for a fort of univerfal religion, common to believers and infidels, betrays a fad indifference for the Chriftian religion in particular." P. 138. As the fhorteft fpecimen we can give of Mr. Jones's method proving and illuftrating his pofition, we fix upon Articles II. and III. with the notes attached to them. 76 John xii. 41. These things faid Efaias, when he SAW HIS (CHRIST'S) GLORY, and fpake of HIM. Jefus is the perfon here fpoke of by St. John; whofe Glory Efaias is declared to have feen upon that occafion, where the prophet affirms of himfelf, that his eyes had feen the Lord of Hofts; Therefore 66 Jefus is the LORD OF HOSTS. III. I am THE "Ifa. xliv. 6. Thus faith the Lord, the King of Ifrael and his Redeemer, the LORD OF HOSTS, 1 am THE FIRST, LAST, and BESIDES ME there is NO GOD. "Rev. xxii. 13. I (Jefus) am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, THE FIRST and THE LAST. "Thefe titles of the firft and the laft are confined to him alone, befides whom there is no God; but Jefus hath affumed thefe titles to himfelf: therefore, Jefus is that God, befides whom there is no other. Or thus-There is no God befides him who is the firft and the laft: but, Jefus is the first and the laft; therefore, befides Jefus there is no other God. « Ifa. xliii. 11. 66 NO SAVIOUR *. 2 Pet. iii. 11. 66 IV. I even I am the LORD, and BESIDES ME there is OUR LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. It is Jefus Chrift, then, is our Saviour; or, as he is called, John iv. 42, the Saviour of the World. But unless he were God, even the Lord Jehovah, as well as man, he could not be a Saviour; because the Lord has declared, there is no Saviour, befide himself. therefore rightly obferved by the Apoftle, Phil. ii. 9, that God, in dignifying the man Chrift with the name of JESUS, hath given him a name above every name, even that of a Saviour, which is his own name, and fuch as can belong to no other." P. 158. For a moft able and fatisfactory folution of the Arian ob jections, founded upon 1 Cor. xi. 24, we refer our readers to Article XXV. page 170, and upon Mark xiii. 32, to Article XXXVII. page 178. In Article XLIV. Mr. Jones, in confidering jointly 2 Peter i. 4, and Heb. iii. 14, argues moft ftrongly for the doctrine "The argument drawn from this text will be equally convincing, which ever way it be taken-Jefus Chrift is a Saviour, therefore he is Jehovah, the Lord-Jefus Chrift is Jehovah, therefore The beft obfervations I have ever met with upon he is the Saviour. the name Jehovah, and its application to the fecond Perfon of the Trinity, are to be found in a Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity from the Exceptions of a pamphlet entitled an Effay on Spiritby the learned Dr. T. Randolph, Prefident of C. C. C. in Oxford; which I would defire the reader to confult, from p. 61 to 71 of Pt. L." of of the confubftantiality of the Son with the Father; and as fome writers of the established church have called this an invention of Popery, he addreffes to fuch objectors (p. 184.) one of the most awful and penetrating reproofs we ever recollect to have feen: "Admonet et magna teftatur voce!" Our attention has been fo fixed by the excellence and importance of this last-mentioned tract, that our limits will not permit us to do more than mention, that in Mr. Jones's Prefervative against the Publications of modern Socinians," we find very juft views and ftatements of Socinianifin. This fyftem, as now refined and fublimated by Dr. Priestley, Meffrs. Lindfey, Evans, &c. &c. confills merely of a train of whimfical paradoxes, which are in truth (as we recollect once to have heard obferved) mere abortions of the mind! strange without originality, dull without fobriety, flippant without wit, and contagious without allurement. Nothing, perhaps, but its fingular and almoft invariable combination with the factious principles of a political party, could have prevented it from tranfmigrating quietly into profeffed Deifm, or dying away by its own exility and decay. We could almoft lament that its mortal wound fhould have been inflicted by a Jones or a Horfley : Nunquam animam talem dextrâ hac !" It would have been our wish to have commented upon fome others of the excellent tracts which are contained in Let it be rememthis volume*, but we must now defist. bered, however, that we have been confidering a whole fyftem and course of study; that we have been endeavour ing, as far as in us lies, to recall men to thofe principles which can alone fecure them from the intellectual diftemperature of the age. We are powerfully perfuaded that an early and careful perufal of thefe excellent tracts will impart to younger minds an enlargement of views, a maturity of conception, and a steadiness of judgment, which will render them impregnable to that contemptible fophiftry which is unfortu *These are, Norris's conclufion of his Account of Reafon and Faith; Reflections on the Growth of Heathenifm; Ten fmall Pieces extracted from the pofthumous Papers of the late Bishop Horne; and, lastly, Bishop Jeremy Taylor's moral Demonftration of Chrif tianity, and Leflie's fhort Method with Jews, The fmall pofthumous Tracts of Bishop Horne contain many valuable fuggeftions. nately nately rendered fignificant by the ftupendous mifchief it has effected. An attention to the valuable matter contained in thefe volumes, will create in real ftudents a falutary difguft for that petulance and pertnefs of fpirit, that train of indolent and fuperficial reasoning, and that mischievous affectation of forming general rules upon falfe and fcanty premises, which are the leading features in modern literature. From thefe treatifes they will defcend into the theological plain, ena bled to make the first grand diftinction, ὥς ̓ εὖ γινώσκειν ἢ μὲν θεὸν δὲ καὶ ἄνδρα, and in political action or investigation, to difcriminate a dif honeft, artificial, and plaufible theory, from thofe tried and approved maxims which are the refult of a patient induction of well authenticated facts. BRITISH CATALOGUE. POETRY. ART. 15. Poems, confifting of Elegies, Sonnets, Odes, Canzonets, and the Pleajures of Solitude; by P. Courtier. Law. 1796. 12mo. 116 pp. 55. This is a young, but far from an inelegant poet, witnefs the follow ing fonnet to love : "For ever muft this heart with forrow bleed, Nor know one happy moment of repofe? Then cease to tempt me, with thy fyren strain, And direft gall is mingled with the draught. ART. |