this Society-to circulate the Bible without note or comment. I rejoice in this principle but it involves another a principle which every Protestant should be forward to avow-that THE BIBLE ITSELF IS ABLE TO MAKE MEN WISE UNTO SALVATION, THROUGH FAITH WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS. I rejoice in this principle too, because it is an article that ties together all the Bible Societies, and Auxiliary Societies, and Branch Societies and Associations in Britain, and Europe, and throughout the world. If you trench upon this sacred principle, my lord, you destroy the blessed charm that binds the whole together. If you trench upon this sacred principle, you overthrow our altars, which we have erected to the God of the Bible. You silence our shouts of praise. We must then descend to our respective settlements with hearts deeply grieved; and inscribe on our Society ICHABOD,' the glory is departed from Britain, the Bible Society is no more*."

We have given the whole passage, because the objection of the Dean depends in part upon the connexion. His words are: "The latter principle, in the connexion in which it has been announced, will be found to amount to this general position, that the mere reading of the Bible is sufficient to supply men with all necessary Christian know ledge, to lead them to saving faith

-to make them wise unto salvation" and he proceeds to attack the sentiment as a perversion of St. Paul's words. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the perversion rests with the Dean: Mr. Wardlaw meant nothing of the sort, nor does the connexion justify auy such hypothesis. Does the Dean mean to insinuate, that either Mr. Wardlaw or the Bible Society supposes the mere reading of the Bible to be sufficient to produce saving faith, whatever be the dispositions

• Kenney, 424.

and state of mind of the person who reads it? that, like the opus operatum of Roman-Catholic baptism, the effect is produced by the mere act of reading? The position of Mr. Wardlaw is, not that the Scriptures must be thus effective on the mind of the reader, but that they" are able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith that is in Christ Jesus:" and till the Dean of Achonry shall deny the position in the plain sense in which it was delivered, without an arbitrary and unwarrantable alteration of the terms of it, we shall continue to hope that it meets with his concurrence; and as to the subject of the Bible Society in general, the author seems to be much of the same mind with our Radical Reformers:-their hostility has at least the merit of being intelligible.

We shall pause no longer upon this chapter of the work, than to notice the way in which the author feels himself authorized to animadvert upon some of his brethren in the Establishment. We have an intimation in the 9th and 45th pages, that Evangelical and Calvinistic were terms of the same import; and some persons of this class are to be found, it seems, at the present day performing the offices, and eating the bread, of the Church of England. The opinion entertained of them by the Dean may be learnt from the following paragraph.

"Such is the constitution-makersuch the moralist-and such the theologian-who now takes a lead amongst our Radical Reformers, in denouncing the established religion, as at enmity with the Bible; and attempting to excite a renewal of the cry of the Puritans of old, for the destruction of the Church of England.

"But do I say, attempting to excite a renewal of such a cry? What are we to understand by the regular monthly publication from the dissenting press, of upwards of thirty thousand cheap magazines, in which all parts of England unenlightened by the Calvinistic preaching

doctrine is grounded entirely upon the prevailing sentiment of the day, and may vary with the varying notions of every successive age. What an intimation is this! that the very founders of our church, as it now exists the very men who raised it from its ruins, and to whom perhaps above all others it is indebted for its stability and welfare-are unworthy to have a place in the ranks of the orthodox-are the patrons of religious dogmas which no friend of the Church of England can consistently maintain, and which lead directly to its subversion!

But we have not yet scanned all the merits of this paragraph. The Dean assumes in it, that the Dissenters, who it seems are labour ing to reproduce the horrors of the Great Rebellion, look with a strong fellow-feeling to the Calvinistic clergy, and act as if they were embarked with them in a common cause. This is an ingenious mode of representing every clergyman, whom he pleases to brand with the Calvinistic heresy, as no better than a disguised Dissenter and a rebel at heart.

But, did the author intend to confine his remark to persons strictly Calvinistic? We suspect the contrary: for he has himself, as we have seen, adopted the terms Evangelical and Calvinistic as of the same import. It is, however, notorious, that many persons are scornfully traduced under the former title, who differ widely from Calvin; and, in point of fact, the name Calvinist is now commonly applied, by those who call them selves orthodox, to numbers who have no relish for the dogmas of Geneva. To the utter confusion of all right-thinking, and by a most preposterous abuse of language, the word now designates every man who professes a religion "more spiritual" than his neighbours. It comprizes therefore in general, unless there be some special reason for a contrary judgment, every clergyman who is pe

culiarly in earnest; or who ab stains from fashionable amusements; or who has a full and attentive audience at his church, when the churches of his neighbours are comparatively thin; or who is exemplary in visiting the sick; or who teaches the doctrines of original sin, and justification by faith; or who lends his aid to Bible or Church Missionary Societies; or who is mild and moderate toward Dissenters, &c. &c. All these are clear and unequivocal marks, unless opposed by some evidence as clear and unequivocal on the other side, of Calvinistic or Evangelical opinions.

Whether it were the intention of Dean Kenney to extend the insinuation contained in the paragraph last cited, to all the persons guilty of the aforesaid peculiarities and obliquities in doctrine or in practice, or to confine it to such as are really Calvinistic, we cannot positively decide. If to the strictly Calvinistic, it comprizes, we believe, a very small number of persons; but, so far as it goes, it deserves the most pointed reprobation. Some of this class resemble Whitgift and his coadjutors, almost as closely in their views of church-discipline, as in their doc trinal opinions; and we verily believe, that, generally speaking, their regard to the Establishment is far more enlightened and quite as sincere as that of their most uncharitable and virulent calumni. ators. If the author meant to include the whole of that body, who, in vulgar parlance, are denominated Calvinistic or Evangelical, his censure is levelled at a very large proportion of his clerical brethren; it reaches every man, who is more spiritual in religion or more strict in practice, than his lax and liberal neighbour; it may possibly include the Dean of Achonry himself. That he did not anticipate such an application of his words, we verily believe; and we should be unwilling thus to

apply them. The object of our remark is simply to shew how vague are such accusations in reference to whole bodies of men; and how unwarrantable it is thus to throw about fire-brands, arrows, and death, without any regard to the persons upon whom they may light, or any concern whether they may not include the innocent and the guilty, in one sweeping conflagration.

We complain of this conduct more particularly, as there seems no occasion for it. The author was not driven to it, either by the nature of his argument, or the paucity of his materials. We almost expect these things in visitation sermons; they are, according to the formula which custom has prescribed on such occasions, matters of course; and being looked for, they are innocent and harmless : but in a work like this, they are not harmless; and so little was the author in want of subjects, that by pursuing his method of quotation, the work might easily have been extended to two or ten volumes. It has already so much outgrown its intended dimensions, that he could not spare us a few pages for his notes.

In delivering our judgment generally, upon the whole of this work, we are sorry that we cannot speak of it as likely to render much service to the interests of order, and piety, and peace. That several of the Calvinistic writers of the sixteenth century gave countenance to principles incompatible with good government; that the Puritans, in their rage against the ceremonies and usages of the church, conducted themselves on many occasions, even from the reign of Queen Mary, with an absolute contempt of almost all that was lovely, and venerable, and of good report; that the same class of men, in conjunction with other religionists, and under the sanction of the Long Parliament, lent CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 226.

their too effectual aid to kindle the flames of rebellion; that in our own times the spirit of fanaticism may be at work, as amongst others, so also, perhaps, among the lower orders of ignorant and hot-beaded religionists; that the prayer of most of our Radical Reformers, whatever be the deity they address, is for the destruction both of church and state; and that it becomes every good man to support our national establishments against all the machinations which are forming for their ruin;-these are positions in which we cordially concur with the author of this volume; and we have no very great objection to the strong language with which they are sometimes brought before us.

:

The main points on which we differ from him have been sufficiently discussed and we shall prolong this article only by a brief review of his argument, and a few plain observations on certain peculiarities in his style, and on the questionable policy of such a publication.

1. The leading proposition, briefly expressed, is this: Calvinistic doctrines are very closely and almost inseparably connected with hostility to church and state.

Proof. Sundry Calvinists, who beheld their brethren persecuted and burnt by papistical rulers, and some of whom narrowly escaped with their own lives, adopted fanguage against their oppressors, which the Scriptures do not authorise, and which no loyal subject can contemplate without abhorrence; their equally Calvinistic brethren (we avail ourselves of the Dean's typographical hint), who adhered to the Church of England, disapproving of their conduct and persevering in their loyalty.

Moreover, the persons most hostile to the hierarchy, in the days of Elizabeth and the following reigns, were Calvinists; as were also the most zealous defenders of the church, till the days of Archbishop

Laud.

Still farther, the rebels and re4 T

And the same principles uniformly lead to the same results*. What are the objects of Jeremy Bentham, Cobbett, &c. those notorious Calvinists ? +

What are the motives of discontented and hostile Dissenters? Calvinistic unquestionably! It is agreed on all hands, that every other class of Dissenters-Socinians, for instance-are friendly to the church! the Calvinists alone being universally disloyal.

We mean nothing invidious by this sort of recapitulation, for the latter part of which in each para. graph the Dean is not responsible. We put the argument in this form, to shew at one view the fallacy of the reasoning: it is defective throughout.

2. A most exceptionable, though doubtless undesigned, tendency of this work, is to familiarize the reader with a light and contemptuous use of scriptural phraseology.

It abounds with phrases of the following description:-"The godly Mr. Whittingham, who so piously recommended this murderous exhortation from Geneva; "Elect reformers;""Elect rebels;" "Elect commons; "Elect Israelites of England; "The Israelites of radical reform;" "Godly ministers;" "The godly maintainers of the Calvinistic system in England;" "Saints of the Independent fac

*Seditious and treasonable practices

seem to be common to meu of all prin

ciples, when enraged against their rulers. The ARMINIAN REMONSTRANTS of the United Provinces would, but for the prudence of the States General, have plunged their country into the horrors of a civil war.-Scott's Synod of Dort, pp. 84, 85.

The Dean, we believe, no where asserts that Jeremy Bentham and his associates are Calvinistic: this part of the work, therefore, can be considered only as irrelevant to the main design. Taking it as a detached dissertation, we should, generally, concur in it.

tion;"" Cromwell the prime saint, and chief of the chosen," &c. &c. The unwarrantable use of such expressions in former times, can plead no apology now: besides, the Puritans were at least serious in the adoption of them; the Dean is not so; and we cannot too strongly enter our protest against this practice. The parish priest is required to read one or more of these words in the services of every Sunday: and who would not wish that, at such times especially, his thoughts should be kept free from light or profane associations.

3. In speaking of the policy of this publication, we are apprehensive that our sentiments will in no wise accord with those of the reverend author.

Bishop Horsley thought it highly important to deprive factious and disorderly persons of the authority of Calvin; and he would doubtless have been glad, if he could, according to his views, have rendered the same service in the case of Knox. Dean Kenney, on the contrary, labours with all his might to give the sanction of these reformers to radical principles. Could his proposition have been fairly made out, it would furnish to the factious an argument of great weight with numbers of our countrymen both in England and Scotland, and add largely to that discontented class whose maxims and practices he so justly condemns.

We must be permitted, likewise, to doubt the utility of this work, on the general ground, that publications, which have an obvious tendency to inflame against each other the subjects of the same sovereign, and especially the members of the same Protestant church, can scarcely be productive of public benefit.

If it were as true, as it is assuredly wide of the truth, that Dissenters as a body have imbibed the treacherous and destructive principles here ascribed to them,