that this Bible was given us to be our guide; and that God gave nothing which could not be comprehended by man. But to say that three are one is absurd, and therefore he says that this is not the meaning of it.Therefore I will not believe the Holy Ghost to be God, nor the Son to be God. The Socinian will say that is the way to interpret the Scriptures by reason, and we have as good a right to interpret them from reason as any other man.

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"The Athanasian creed gives the universal opinion of the church, that the Father is uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Ghost uncreated-that they existed from all eternity. Now, the Son was born of the Father and if born, must have been created. The Holy Ghost must also have been created, as he came from the Father and the Son. And if so, there must have been a time when they did not exist. If they did not exist, they must have been created; and therefore to assert that they are eternal is absurd, and bangs nonsense. Each has his distinct personality; each has his own essence. How then can they be one Eternal?— How can they be all God? Absurd. The Athanasian creed says that they are three persons, and still only one God! Absurd; extravagant! This is rejected by Arians, Socinians, Presbyterians, and every man following human reason. The creed further says, that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God and of man, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God.' Now, I ask you, did the Divinity absorb the manhood? He could not be at the same time one person and two persons. I have now proved the Trinity opposed to human reason.

"I now come to the Scriptures. Christ says in the fourteenth chapter of St. John, My Father is greater than I. Could any one be greater than he, if he were God? Therefore he is not God. He says in another place-John, v. 31., ' I can do nothing of myself.' If he were God, he could do every thing; therefore, by his own declaration, he is not God. In the seventeenth chapter of St. John, third verse, Christ says, This is life eternal, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.' Christ here talks of the Father as the only true God. If Christ were God, he could not have been sent by the Father, because he could not send the Father, as well as the Fa

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ther send him. Christ and the Holy Ghost must be false Gods, and the Father the only true God. And this conclusion is forced upon us by his own showing, in language adapted to every capacity. In Matt., 19. 17., he says, 'One is good, that is God.' If Christ were God, he would be good; but he says, There is none good but one, that is God.' Therefore Christ cannot be God. The mother of Zebedee's children asked a request of Christ, that they might be permitted to sit on his right hand, and on his left, in his kingdom. But he said, These are not mine to give, but they shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.' Not mine to give! If Christ were as great as the Father, he could give it. Wherefore Christ was not God. This is the fruit of Mr. Stoney's Bible, and my private opinion. I do not claim to be infallible; nor does he. What is his private opinion more than mine? If Scripture contradict itself, what authority has he? I have more, I have the authority of the Church."

In another speech, Mr. Hughes says," I refer you to Luke, 2. 57., Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God avd man.' If God and man, could he be increased in wisdom? God is the centre and fountain and author of grace; therefore he is not God. Again, Mark., 13. 37., 'Of that day and hour no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father.' He was talking of the day of judgment. If God, he must have the same knowledge as the Father. John, 14,, 'As the Father hath given me commandment, so I do.' If God, he could not be commanded; therefore he is not God. Matt., 27. 46., ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' If he were God, he could not be forsaken. The God that created the world, and keeps all things in the most harmonious order, to be forsaken! yet he complains of God's having abandoned him.'

We thank Mr. Hughes for his excellent defence of the Unitarian doctrine. But we would suggest one question for the serious consideration of himself and his Roman Catholic brethren. If the authority of Scripture flatly contradict the authority of the church, which should we obey? Should we believe man in preference to God? Should we hold by the Church, and reject the inspired declaration of the Scripture? Should we take the pretended successors of St. Peter

as our guide, and renounce the guidance of St. Peter's Master-him who "is the way, and the truth, and the life?""Let God be true," saith the Bible," and every man a liar ;" and what is the authority of the Church, but the authority of man?

The reader will ask, what answer did Mr. Stoney, the advocate of Protestantism as by law established, return to these arguments. He quoted a few of the usual texts that have been a thousand times explained, and which at least do not prove the Trinity. But the principal argument on which he relied was, that Mr. Hughes could no more convince "the Socinian" than he could, of the truth of the doctrine of the Trinity, inasmuch as that sect denied his rule of faith-the authority of the church—and would demand a proof of its infallibility, thus reverting still to private judgment. By this argument, while Mr. Stoney effectually answered his opponent, he admitted the weakness of his own doc trine, and acknowledged the superiority of Socinianis to both as he ignorantly miscalls our faith.

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ORIGINAL POETRY.

THE GRAVE IS MINE HOUSE.

We live, how noble is the gift

Of Life, with all its pleasures flowing!
We die, and o'er the proudest grave

The Summer's humble grass is growing.

Rank, riches, power, the praise of men,
Though hard to earn and seldom given,—

Drop, like the Prophet's mantle, when
The Spirit seeks its native heaven.

Then why should man, child of a day,
With eager heart and straining eye,
Toil after treasures that decay,
And hopes that dazzle, as they die?

GEO.' HILL..

REVIEW.

The Philosophy of Death and the Future Life. pp. 96.Hedderwick and Son, Glasgow. 1839.

THIS little volume consists of two Discourses, by the Rev. O. Dewey, on Erroneous Views of Death, and the Voices of the Dead; and two Discourses by Dr. Chan ning, on Immortality and the Future Life. They present the most rational, scriptural, instructive, and consoling views of that solemn event which terminates the earthly history of every human being, and will be found most valuable as "an offering of sympathy and consolation to those who sorrow for the loss of cherished friends,-or who, from increasing years and infirmities, are led to the contemplation of their own removal from this transitory scene."

In general the mind is fixed on death as the greatest evil that befals humanity: we look on the hour of dissolution as that in which are concentrated all the agonies to which the mind can be subjected, all the pains which the body can endure: we regard the grave as a cold, lonely, miserable dungeon in which the departed is imnured. The future, over which the Deity has in his wisdom drawn a veil, we fill with objects of terror and wretchedness. We have not so far overcome the power of prejudice and superstition as faithfully to receive the revelation that our Saviour has made of death, and to regard it simply as a transition from one state of existence to another, a passage through which the spirit en ters into a purer sphere of enjoyment, or a wider field of retribution.

Again, the views that are commonly entertained of Immortality are any thing but spiritual; they are essentially "of the earth, earthy;" they do not consist in the cherishing of those pious and benevolent feelings which harmonize with the character of God and of his wellbeloved Son, and which alone can capacitate us for the bliss of Heaven. To those who have been led, by the loss of dear friends, to meditate on death and eternity, we earnestly recommend the volume before us; it is impossible to read it without having our sorrow for departed ones purified, and our faith in a future life strengthened and confirmed. To all who may peruse it, it must be profitable, as it inculcates those views of our destiny which rob death of its sting, and which powerfully tend

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to the cultivation of holiness here, as the only preparation for happiness hereafter.

The following extract is the conclusion of the second discourse, and is full of fervent eloquence and Christian faith.

Can I leave these meditations, my brethren, without paying homage to that religion which has brought life and immortality to light; without calling to mind that simple and touching acknowledgement of the great Apostle, "I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Ah! how desolate must be the affections of a people that spurn this truth and trust! I have wandered among the tombs of such a people; I have wandered through that far-famed cemetery, that overlooks from its mournful brow, the gay and crowded metropolis of France; but among the many inscriptions upon these tombs, I read scarcely one I read,—to state so striking a fact with numerical exact. ness-I read not more than four or five inscriptions in the whole Pere La Chaise, which made any consoling reference to a future life. I read on those cold marble tombs, the lamentations of bereavement, in every affecting variety of phrase. On the tomb of youth, it was written that its broken-hearted parents, who spent their days in tears and their nights in anguish, had laid down here their treasure and their hope." On the proud mausoleum where friendship, companionship, love had deposited their holy relics, it was constantly written, "Her husband inconsolable ;" "His diconsolate wife;" "A brother left alone and unhappy," has raised this monument; but seldom-so seldom that scarcely ever-did the mournful record close with a word of hope: scarcely at all was it to be read amidst the marble silence of that world of the dead, that there is a life beyond; and that surviving friends hope for a blessed meeting again, where death comes

no more.

Oh, death!—dark hour to hopeless unbelief! hour to which, in that creed of despair, no hour shall succeed! being's last hour! to whose appaling darkness, even the shadows of an avenging retribution were brightness and relief-death! what art thou to the Christian's assurance ? Great hour of answer to life's prayer-great hour that shall break asunder the bond of life's mystery-hour of release from life's burden-hour of re-union with the loved and lost-what mighty hopes hasten to their fulfilment in thee! What longings, what aspirations breathed in the still night, beneath the silent stars-what dread emotions of curiosity-what deep meditations of joy-what hallowed imaginings of never-experienced purity and bliss-what possibilities shadowing forth unspeakable realities to the soul, all verge to their consummation in thee -Oh, death! the Christian's death!