Book was yet to bear fruit as we come nearer to 'the time of the end.' Article XXVIII, with an evident view to this doctrine, says that the body of Christ is not only received but given, taken, and eaten.' John vi is assumed to refer to the Lord's Supper, and so there is an eating of the flesh of Christ after an efficacious and mysterious manner. On some other questions Knox is more rational. Though far from denying a ritual or always a moral change in baptism, he yet accounts for baptism being called regeneration, from the circumstance that all who sought baptism in primitive times were supposed to be genuine believers. So we may say in faith that all who are baptised are regenerate. He commends confession because of the good it does in promoting the religious life in much the same way as a Methodist class meeting. He was a great admirer of Cudworth, John Smith, and the whole of that school of theologians. He quoted with approbation the words of Whichcot that 'A man is not at all settled or confirmed in true religion until his religion is the self-same thing with the reason of the mind.' To think and to love are the same. Though an admirer of William Law, he strongly condemned Law's principle that the Gospel was to deliver us from 'the rational man in us.' 2 He recommended a friend to read the Marquis De Renty who was Wesley's favourite among Roman Catholic saints, but to add to his subdued and mortified spirit the luminous and cheerful temper of the Cambridge Platonists.3 Another theological writer, who died young, promised much more than he actually performed. This was Thomas Rennell, son of the Dean of Winchester of the same name. He published anonymously in 1811, Animadversions on the Unitarian Translation or Improved version of the New Testament,' in which he pointed out forced translations and passages perverted from their natural meaning. In 1816 he was chosen 'Christian Advocate' in the University of Cambridge, and in this capacity undertook the refutation of the theories of M. Bichat on the development of life.5 The scientific writers 1 Vol. ii, p. 190. 8 Vol i, p. 132. 2 Vol i, p. 340. 5 The book is called 'Remarks on Scepticism,' especially as it whom Rennell criticised may neither have been irreligious nor atheistic, but he regarded them as 'putting laws of nature, vital forces, energies of the mind, in the place of the will and the wisdom of God.' While the old philosophers found God everywhere, the modern men of science found Him nowhere. The devout student in his contemplative survey of nature, sees overwhelming evidence of a creating and superintending Providence. Others ascribe all to secondary causes, but Nature is merely a convenient expression for the uniform action of the Almighty Cause. The French philosophers and their followers in this country make it a substitute for God. They suppose life to be dependent on organisation, and so annihilate the doctrine of the soul's immortality, making man nothing different from the grass on which he treads. These physiologists defined life as an assemblage of those functions which resist death, ideas they called changes impressed upon the substance of the brain by the impact of bodies external to its tissue. Some even ascribed the power of thought to the medullary matter. But it is not matter which influences the brain, it is thought. They are independent of each other, though the connection between them is close. Thought, therefore, is not annihilated with the dissolution of the bodily frame. A plant has simply the principle of life, an animal has volition as well as life, man has life, volition, and soul or understanding. Another of Rennell's works as Christian Advocate was called 'Proofs of Inspiration on the Grounds of the Distinctions between the New Testament and the Apocryphal Volume.' This had reference to a volume published by William Hone. Hone did not in this publicly avow that he had any object in view, but the universal inference was that he meant the Canonical books had no more authority than the Apocryphal. answer to the views of M. Bichat, Sir T. C. Morgan, and Mr Laurence. Called on the title page The Apocryphal New Testament,' being all the Gospels, Epistles, and other pieces now extant, attributed in the first four centuries to Jesus Christ, His Apostles and their companions. CHAPTER V EVIDENCES THE eighteenth century was the time of the evidence writers. There are many books on this subject belonging to the early part of this century which may he noticed, not for any originality of argument, but for their historical interest. Some of these are in the form of Prize Essays or endowed Lectures. The earliest are the Burnet Essays, which owe their origin to the munificence of Alexander Burnet, a merchant in Aberdeen, who left money for two essays every forty years. The thesis was, The Being, Wisdom and Goodness of God, in the first place independent of Revelation, and in the second place from Revelation.' In 1815, the successful writers were Dr William Laurence Browne, Principal of Marischal College, and John Bird Sumner, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. The former argued from the position, said to be admitted both by Theist and Atheist, that something must have existed from eternity. It follows then that either there is a Creator or an eternal world. It is proved that the world is not eternal, first as to its form, and secondly as to its matter. There is no contradiction in supposing the first never to have existed, and as for the second, if primitive matter was necessary, it must always have remained in a rude state. This is called the metaphysical proof of the Being of God. Then follows a refutation of the theories of some of the ancient philosophers, with such as those of Spinoza and Toland among the moderns, who are treated as simply Atheists. Arguments for the Being of God are founded on the fact that man possesses moral and intellectual faculties, on universal consent, and the than six thousand years, the age assigned to it by Moses. The Essayist supplies the curious information that the writings of Hume, which had done great mischief, are now seldom perused, and will soon be forgotten. The divine Wisdom and Goodness were defended by meeting objections from the existence of evil in the natural world. It is admitted that it is beyond the capacity of man to explain why evil should exist at all, yet we may consider that there is a perfection which is absolute, and another which is relative. Thus evil may be natural, moral or metaphysical. It may be merely privation. There may be a necessity in finite things that good cannot exist without evil. Omnipotence itself cannot impart perfection to created beings. From this necessary defect we may better understand how natural and moral evil are not inconsistent with divine Wisdom and Goodness. When a created being has free agency, there is a possibility of corruption. Scripture solves difficulties which reason cannot solve. Even never-ending punishment may be founded in God's moral government, and so compatible with wisdom and goodness. Sumner's Essay was called 'Records of Creation.' The argument avowedly rests on the credibility of the Mosaic record of creation. Nature cries aloud that there is a God, and yet to the sages of antiquity she spoke in vain. Natural theology can but show the probability of that being true which Revelation declares. What reason could not discover has been revealed. Three suppositions are possible concerning creation. Either the world must have existed from eternity the same, or it was formed by chance at some unassigned period out of pre-existent material; or it was created by an Omnipotent and Intelligent Being. The first is set aside as identifying God with the world. The second is refuted by the evidence of design. Nothing is left to chance. The doctrine of final causes is founded on 'universal experience.' The world is evidently the work of an intelligent Creator. It is probable that He would leave some record of His work. This we have in Genesis. The account of the flood is confirmed by many ancient authors. The record of creation was probably made to Adam, and by him handed. CHAPTER V EVIDENCES THE eighteenth century was the time of the evidence writers. There are many books on this subject belonging to the early part of this century which may he noticed, not for any originality of argument, but for their historical interest. Some of these are in the form of Prize Essays or endowed Lectures. The earliest are the Burnet Essays, which owe their origin to the munificence of Alexander Burnet, a merchant in Aberdeen, who left money for two essays every forty years. The thesis was, 'The Being, Wisdom and Goodness of God, in the first place independent of Revelation, and in the second place from Revelation.' In 1815, the successful writers were Dr William Laurence Browne, Principal of Marischal College, and John Bird Sumner, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. ་ The former argued from the position, said to be admitted both by Theist and Atheist, that something must have existed from eternity. It follows then that either there is a Creator or an eternal world. It is proved that the world is not eternal, first as to its form, and secondly as to its matter. There is no contradiction in supposing the first never to have existed, and as for the second, if primitive matter was necessary, it must always have remained in a rude state. This is called the metaphysical proof of the Being of God. Then follows a refutation of the theories of some of the ancient philosophers, with such as those of Spinoza and Toland among the moderns, who are treated as simply Atheists. Arguments for the Being of God are founded on the fact that man possesses moral and intellectual faculties, on universal consent, and the |