It must be confessed, that the kind of reformation which I have ventured to suggest, regarding doctrine, would be attended with many and great difficulties. To alter a Liturgy and Articles of Faith, which have been established for three centuries, is no light and easy matter. Many other obstacles would stand in the way; but surely the interests of Christianity ought to be paramount to every other consideration.

I entirely expect that my plain, common-sense mode of reasoning, will be treated with the utmost contempt by our Schoolmen, I can imagine such exclamations as the following:-" What consum"mate arrogance! An obscure individual, who has

never been trained in any school of Divinity, presumes to dictate to men of profound learning " and science." But be it remembered, I have not pleaded for the introduction of any new doctrine into the Church; nor even for a formal denial of any old one. old one. I have merely urged the propriety of silence upon subjects which are confessedly beyond the reach of the human intellect.

In this, I cannot but believe I should be supported by the greater part of the Clergy, if they would speak their minds freely. The pious and humble-minded Richard Hooker, speaking of the Supreme Being, says, " He is above and we upon "earth; therefore it behoveth our words to be

66

wary and few.” And again, "Our soundest

"knowledge is to know that we know him not,

65

as indeed he is, neither can we know him; and "our safest eloquence concerning him, is our "silence."

It is for this solemn and reverential silence only, I plead. But this will not be conceded, so long as the Athanasian doctrine is held to be scriptural.

I am far from undervaluing sound learning; it is necessary that our Ministers be learned as well as pious; but it has been justly observed, that learning ought to be the handmaid, not the arbitress of religion: I am sorry to say, she too often assumes the latter office; and therefore I am not singular in the opinion, that, upon the whole, learning has been injurious rather than serviceable to religion. A proof of this seems to be exhibited in the state of religion among us at the present time; for whilst scepticism, it is to be feared, prevails with men of finished education, Christianity has certainly gained ground among those of more limited scholastic learning. It will not be denied that Christianity is the same thing at this day that it was when taught by our Lord and his Apostles. Now, one of the characteristics of our Lord's ministry was expressed in his own words:" The poor have the Gospel preached to "them." These had no learning nor science, and yet it appears that they understood our Lord's preaching perfectly well; and so would the poor

of our own time, if the Gospel were preached to them in its native simplicity.

The remark which a late able writer makes upon prophecy, may be justly applied to the whole system of Christianity. He says, "I believe that

66

men of plain unsophisticated reason find it "perfectly intelligible, and that it is only the "false fastidiousness of an artificial learning " which puts scruples into our perceptions either " of its consistency or its sense*." It is obvious, however, that a Minister in a Christian church ought to have, at least, learning enough to enable him to read the New Testament in its own language, otherwise he must depend upon the jarring and contradictory comments and expositions of his brethren.

Having now delivered my sentiments, I avow myself open to conviction, if it can be shown, from the Holy Scriptures, that I have erred; but I enter my protest against any other kind of authority.

Whether or not the awful subject of this essay has been treated by any other person in the same manner as that which I have pursued, is a matter of which I am in utter ignorance. If so, it will only show that I am not singular in the judgment I have formed. I solemnly declare, that I have

DAVISON'S Discourses on Prophecy, p. 340.

not quoted any one text of Scripture, nor advanced any one argument, that I had ever met with in the writings of any author, the few passages which I have given as quotations only excepted. The whole is the result of an anxious research through the Holy Scriptures, and frequent serious meditation upon the subject. The task was performed during hours of solitude, and in a state of health which seemed to warn me, almost daily, of the approach of an event which to contemplate would be horrible, if I were writing one sentence that I did not entirely believe to be consistent with the Revealed Word.

I now conclude, by quoting a passage from a sermon of that pious Prelate, Bishop Taylor:"He who goes about to speak of the mystery "of the Trinity, and does it by words and names "of man's invention;-talking of essences and

66

66

existences, hypostases and personalities; priority "in co-equalities, and unity in pluralities, may amuse himself and build a tabernacle in his “head, and talk something, he knows not what : "but the good man, who feels the power of the Father, and to whom the Son is become

66

66

wisdom, sanctification, and redemption; in "whose heart the love of the Spirit of God is

66

66

46

shed abroad;-this man, though he understands

nothing of what is unintelligible, yet he alone truly understands the Christian doctrine of the Trinity."

Is it possible for the pen or tongue of man to express a more severe censure upon the Athanasian creed? To Bishop Taylor's Trinity I could subscribe with all my heart; but I do not scruple to affirm, that the kind of Trinity described in this ruin-working creed is altogether unsupported by the Holy Scriptures.

FINIS.