A Series of Discourses on the Proper Deity of the Son of God, and the Primary Design of His Mission. By the Rev. T. East, of Birmingham. 8vo. pp. xv. 440. 1844. London: C. A. Bartlett.

THIS is a truly trenchant work. It is no languid, listless disquisition. It is a weapon of war, unsparingly brandished, flashing light, and dealing death on every side. It has evidently been well forged, and well attempered, long preparing in the skilful armourer's hand, and long under his proof, and now, at length, held forth, keen and trusty, not for display and pastime, but for high encounter and mortal thrust. There is much originality in this volume. The conception, and the language of it, are by no means trite. The author thinks for himself. All comes forth from his mind with its native stamp. There is no adjuration of a master, no servile tracking of another's footsteps, no mean piracy, no flaunting in borrowed stores. The whole is clearly a spontaneous, earnest production of one mind. All is its own. A spiritedness characterises every page. Nothing hangs heavily, or proceeds tortuously. The attention is always sustained. The style, not always faultless, never is wanting in vivacity. This character is supported by quotation, by anecdote, by sarcasm, by appeal. All lives beneath the master's touch.

A certain strength of dealing with the subject soon becomes obvious to his reader. A very daring is seen in drawing his own consequences, and in confounding those of his opponent. He carries out whatever he approves or disapproves in no guarded way. He fearlessly holds his torch, alike to illumine or to consume. We cannot deny that sometimes points are pressed, and arguments are urged by him, to the no small pain of our feelings.

To us, many reasons present themselves, why we should hail the honoured minister who has favoured us with this no common treatise, in this department of Christian polemics.

For we believe, that the faithful expositor of Divine truth, by the living voice, and in the public pastorate, will generally prove the most efficient controvertist. The anchoret dreams in his cell, with the skull and the breviary before him; the good minister of Christ, in his retreat of study and devotion, is better furnished with the heart of man, and the word of inspiration. He emerges thence to explain, and to apply his deeper musings; he leaves a speculative for a practical ground; he marks and conducts the operations of his digested principles among different classes of society, and on various stages of life: he is set for the defence of the Gospel. We, therefore, value his testimony beyond that of any other. And when in fast receding years he bears witness to the "Divine power" of the Redeemer, we receive a species of demonstration in the shape of ripe and manifold experience,

which is above all price. He has acquired a tact in the search, a clearness in the discernment, a relish in the enjoyment, a fidelity in the application of truth, which the mere critic can never know. While the learned solitary deserves all honour for his rescensus and analysis, we have still greater confidence in the learned championship of him who goes in and out among a Christian people, and reads constantly in them, or in their antagonists, the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. Through a laborious career, particularly distinguished as the career of the preacher, has our author been known for the uncompromising promulgation of the orthodox faith.

Another reason is more personal. Mr. East has received a peculiar vocation to create a school of literature and religion for the education of our ministry. It has been his business and his passion for years. He has sacrificed all for it. It is his life. The curriculum, which he has been the means of constituting and publishing, has quickened the ambition, and advanced the standard of every similar institution. Now we delight to see in him the thorough horror of Socinianism. He is not afraid of sound doctrine. He seeks no circuitous, glozing, quivering sentences to avouch that Christ is "the true God and eternal life." He is not ashamed of the archaisms of Puritanism and Nonconformists. There is a directness, a grappling in his statements, which we from our souls approve. Let no one expect much concession. Our author is not so polite a cavalier as some of his contemporaries. He is of a sturdy order. He even goes so far as to intimate that there may be rational Christians, calm inquirers, and amiable men, discoverable out of the ranks of the adherents to the Priestleys and the Belshams: hermeneutics, not quite engrossed in the new version: missions, not utterly swallowed up in the zeal of Unitarianism.

The work avails itself of the best method to crush the "God-denying apostacy." However fairly you represent its sentences, its disciples always disclaim them. The most reproachless resource is, then, to take their own utterances. They have written many a book. Select from prophets of their own. Let their own tongue fall upon themselves. Only then can you know a thousandth part of the blasphemies which their system readily evokes, and has unblushingly inscribed. Their archives have been ransacked by no incurious and indifferent examiner. The secrets are certainly blazed abroad with no very tender delicacy or considerate suppression.

The design of the volume is that of popular usefulness. It arrogates no pretension to the higher style of scholarship. In no sense is it profound. But the management of the argument is generally very acute and masterly. We know not any other which can fulfil a more important errand. It should be outspread before all who are fascinated by the imposing air and manner of Socinianism. It lays open that shallow,

conceited, profane, pretext of Christianity. It applies the brand to the bone. We doubt not that its timely perusal will warn many of the gulf into which they might otherwise have fallen.

Our readers will see what is the contents of the book in the following order of subjects. The chapters are entitled discourses, but they have no texts. I. On the Person of Jesus Christ. II. On the Importance of the Inquiry, whether Jesus Christ be a mere Man, or whether He united in his person the Divine with the Human Nature? III. An Examination of some of the Popular Objections which are advanced against the Union of the Divine and Human Natures, in the Person of Jesus Christ. IV. A calm Consideration of the Testimony which the Prophets bore to the Person of Jesus Christ, and the Primary Design of his Mission. V. A calm Consideration of the Testimony which John the Baptist and the Evangelists bore to the Person of Jesus Christ, and the Primary Design of his Mission. VI. A calm Consideration of the Testimony which Jesus Christ bore of himself, and the Primary Design of his Mission. VII. A calm Consideration of the Testimony which the Apostles bore to the Person of Jesus Christ, and the Primary Design of his Mission. VIII. The Witnesses who testified of Christ, raised the Question of his Divinity :-The bearing of this fact in the settlement of the Controversy. IX. The Mission of Jesus Christ, if he were a mere Man, has defeated the grand Design of Providence, which all preceding dispensations were employed to accomplish. X. The Example of Jesus Christ Defective and Pernicious, if He were only a frail Human Being. XI. The Religious Character and Habits of Unitarians, a Conclusive Evidence against the Scriptural Origin of their Belief. XII. On the Degenerating Tendency of Unitarianism.

Here is a large scope; and the outline is not more extensive than the filling up is minute. It is due to the writer to say, that while he affects not erudition, he truly honours it. He dedicates his work to the Author of the "Scriptural Testimony to the Messiah." He thus, at the outset, pays his homage to true critical lore. He follows not that illustrious man, however, in a single step. His path is perfectly dif ferent. We hope the discourses will be widely perused. They must abash the error they refute, were it capable of shame. We foresee that they will be greatly disliked by timid friend and relentless foe. The tyro from Germany will lament their dearth of mysticism and mythos. The importer of American marvels and profundities will bewail the absence of startling terminology and of new lights (new lights which are generally old and wasted snuffs!). But they who love our theology will thank the author that he has spoken out, that he has not trimmed his way, and that he has set such an example of noble zeal and firmness to his brethren.

As a fair specimen of the style and manner of the author, we extract the following section, in which Unitarian sympathy and fellowship

with "virtuous and pious deists," is brought out by Mr. East with characteristic force.

"I will now call the attention of the reader to modern Unitarians, who are admitted, on an authority which they regard as equal, if not superior, to apostolie, to bear a very striking resemblance to avowed infidels; and who are willing to hold the most intimate fellowship with them. The late Dr. Priestley, who knew what unbelievers reject, and what Unitarians admit, says of Jefferson, a late President of America, He is generally considered as an unbeliever; if so, however, he cannot be far from us.' This concession from such a competent judge, establishes the fact, that an unbeliever, who disdainfully rejects the entire scheme of revelation, and a Unitarian believer, are very much alike.

"I would now ask, on the supposition that the apostles were still living on earth, whether any one can imagine that Paul, if writing to Barnabas, would say, in reference to unbelievers, 'they cannot be far from us.' What! in proportion as men recede in belief from the faith of Christ, are they to be considered as approximating to its original purity? Would Paul, if he were upon earth, or any of the apostles, hold fellowship with men of such a cast of character, and attempt to persuade the members of churches to do it? Would he give it as his unqualified opinion, that while rejecting the Gospel of Christ as a cunningly-devised fable; while pouring contempt on the record of inspiration, and on the institutions of the Christian faith; branding Jesus Christ as an impostor, or an enthusiast; and treating with scornful ridicule communion with God, as a source of mental delight, that they 'will finally be partakers in the salvation of the righteous?' Impossible! And yet these are the men to whom modern Unitarians are holding out the hand of (what they call) Christian communion, and of whom they unhesitatingly say, that they know not who has a right to exclude them from taking the Lord's-supper, if they wish it.

"Some years since, the Rev. I. J. Taylor, of Manchester, preached and published a sermon on 'Communion with Unbelievers;' and the text* he selected for the occasion was about as appropriate, as the doctrine of his discourse was in accordance with the practice of the primitive churches. After a few introductory remarks, by which he attempts to parry the force of the prohibitory language of the apostle, he asserts that it has no reference whatever to conscientious differences of belief, or even to conscientious unbelief.' 'It does not appear, then,' he adds, ‘that we can draw any precedent from the apostle's prohibition to the Corinthians, for the regulation of our behaviour towards unbelievers in the present day.' With us, the grand outward distinction among men, is moral character. With all my belief in the intrinsic excellence of the Gospel,-notwithstanding my persuasion that most serious and good persons would, upon inquiry, become Christians, I am no less convinced that there are cases in which men of the most upright minds, and the most unexceptionable moral characters, have never attained to a firm faith in revealed religion.' "After saying that he would not recommend young persons whose views and principles are unformed, to associate with men of very sceptical opinions ;—he adds, as the result of his own experience, 'I know of no one whose society is more improv. ing, or more calculated to make us think closely and earnestly on the subject of religion, than a serious, candid, and moral deist.' 'Morality must still be the ultimate test, by which we judge of a man's sincerity, and determine how far it is proper to admit him into our communion and society, or not.' He then, in a very bold and decided tone, advocates the admission of unbelievers into the most intimate

* 2 Cor. vi. 14-18.

fellowship with them; and as boldly condemns the spirit, as antichristian, which would dare to raise an objection against it.

"The publication of this very feeble, but somewhat extraordinary sermon, occasioned a stir amongst the entire body of Unitarians; a few of them took the alarm, and did dare to enter their protest against it. The Rev. Noah Jones, one of their own ministers, was the first to distinguish himself in the contest; he says, 'I have seen with sorrow, the many instances in which the immense gulf which subsists between the Christian and the unbeliever is apparently annihilated, by the manner in which both characters are equally acknowledged in Unitarian congregations.

"I have no hesitation in admitting to the world, what is sufficiently notorious, that our places of worship are frequented by unbelievers, who not only join in our devotions, and listen with complacency to the discourses of our ministers, but take an active part in the management of the internal concerns of our churches, and are, in some cases, the principal pecuniary supporters of our cause.

"We cannot help the appearance of the deist in our chapels, but we can help claiming fellowship with him as a brother Unitarian, taking him into the very bosom of our churches, and requesting the privilege of his religious instructions. This we can do, and whilst we do it not, we ought not to be surprised that our orthodox opponents question the sincerity of our faith, and condemn us as imbued with the spirit of infidelity.'

"But the efforts of Mr. Jones to cleanse the Unitarian camp from such unholy alliances, instead of meeting with the cordial co-operation of his brethren, excited their displeasure;-they accused him of intolerance,-as wishing to introduce amongst them an antiscriptural principle. I would not wish,' says Mr. Holland, 'unbelievers to withdraw from our religious services, and I cannot see how a pious and moral deist is inconsistent in wishing regularly to join in worship in that place where he will find more of what agrees with his sentiments, and less of what differs from them, than among other bodies of Christians. So far from regarding this as any objection to our views of Christianity, I look upon their accordance with what may be learned from natural religion, as one evidence of their truth. If an antisupernaturalist be a regular attendant on our worship, will he not justly feel himself called on to contribute to the support of the minister, from whom he derives moral and religious instruction; and will he not naturally and properly think himself entitled to exercise his judgment with respect to the qualifications of a religious instructor, and to give his vote on the election of a minister?'

"Another writer says, 'If he,' the unbeliever, be sincere and conscientious, why should we prevent him?' i. e. from holding communion with us. 'Do we not believe that, if virtuous, and true to his convictions, whatever those are, he will be acceptable to his Maker now, and the heir of eternal life hereafter? May he not, very possibly, be our companion in future, and shall we shun him as a disgrace to us in this life? We do not worship our Saviour; then why cannot we join our worship with the worshipper of the same Deity?'

"Where indeed,' says another, who took a leading part in this controversy, 'is this immense gulf which subsists between the Christian and the unbeliever; and which he (Mr. Jones) professes to have seen with horror? If Jehovah dwelleth not in temples made with hands, and heaven is his throne and earth is his footstool,' how arrogant and ridiculous is the attempt to inculcate the idea that the presence of unbelievers in a Unitarian church, is an injustice and a reproach!'

"The editor of the Unitarian periodical,* from which these extracts are taken, when reviewing the controversy, says, 'After this matter is considered in all its

* Monthly Repository.