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CRITICAL NOTICES.
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A rt > IV . —Tlie Life of Hugo Grotius ; with brief Minutes of the Civil , Ecclesiastical and Literary History of the Netherlands . By Charles Butler , Esq . London . 1826 . We must confess , that with all our respect for Mr . Butler , and admiration of the spirit of Christian charity displayed in every thing he writes , we do not
see that such books as this on Grotius , and a preceding volume on Erasmus , are of much service , or possess much interest . If he designed to give us , in the form of an interesting manual , a rapid outline of the characters of these great men ,, some other mode should surely be pursued than that of tacking together
dry abstracts of common biographical works which are in every body ' s hands . What is wanted , for sucli a purpose as these , books should answer , if they are of any use at all , is rather the spirit , the philosophy of the lives and works of their heroes , than a technical series of dates and events commencing A . D . 800 , and duly deduced to A . D . 1815 .
We shall content ourselves with selecting a few of Mr . Butler ' s occasional thoughts on topics of interest . In giving an account of the formularies , confessions of faith , &c , of different churches , he observes , " That the Roman Catholic Church
should propound a formulary of her faith , enlarge this formulary from time to time , as further interpretation is wanted , and enforce acquiescence in it by spiritual censures , is consistent with her principles . Whether such a pretension can be
avowed , without inconsistency , by any Protestant Church , has been a subject of much discussion . In point of fact , however , no Protestant Church is without her formulary , or abstains from enforcing it by temporal provisions and spiritual censures . To enforce their formularies
by civil penalties is inconsistent with the principles of every Christian church . All churches , however , have so enforced , and have blamed others for so enforcing them /' After an enumeration of the symbolic books and creeds of all other sects , the Unitarian will , perhaps , be very well satisfied to read—/' The Unitarians have no symbolic
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book . " But Mr . Butler adds , ( why he selects this book in particular we do not exactly see , ) " To Dr . Lanjuer ' s ' Letter on the Logos' they shew universal respect . " He speaks freely , and as such a man ( who is proscribed by Protestants for the peculiar uncharitableness of his church ) may be supposed to speak , of the bigotry and tyranny of the Calvinist
party against the Remonstrants at the Synod of Dort . Let our evangelic no popery men recollect that Protestant divines there held , that " if a person obstinately refused to submit to the just decisions of the church , he might be proceeded against in two ways ; the magistrate might coerce him , and the church might publicly excommunicate him , as a violator of the law of God . **
Mr . Butler calls John Hales , of Eaton , " the founder of that splendid school , the school of English divines , who were afterwards called Latitudinarians . " An appendix contains some account of the different projects for the reunion or * Christians , particularly those attempted by Bossuet , Leibnitz , Molanus , &c With all Mr . Butler ' s zeal in the cause
of religious charity we do not see how he can seriously expect that a union , which should answer any purpose , can ever be effected between real Protestants and real Roman Catholics . We will state what Mr . Butler throws out as a sort of project ; but does he really think that any dogmatic church , whether she call herself of England or of Rome , can
ever , as a church , meet another on such ground as he lays down , without one or the other , if not both , in fact , abandoning their churchship altogether ? The grand practical . stumbling block of discipline and church authority he passes by altogether . The result of such an union as Mr . Butler ' s would throw on one side all the objects of agreement at which
former negociators were striving , and amount to nothing more than what perhaps may some time or another be arrived at , namely , an union of rival opinions , in the spirit of Christian charity , not an abolition of those differences of opinion which it would be useless to conceal . Sectarian divisions , and the peculiar convictions which occasion them , would and must remain the same ; per-
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( 440 )
Critical Notices.
CRITICAL NOTICES .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1827, page 440, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1797/page/48/
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