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    unnecessary . In one word , when the gospel speaks of God , it is to shew us , that the essence of his nature is love , and the object of his government , the happiness of his rational creatures ; which happiness is to be pursued and acquired by ourselves , in the course of a pious and good life , and to be perfected hereafter In a state of progressive knowledge and confirmed virtue .

    " Here is nothing abstruse , unless when it is made so by the perverse subtlety of disputatious polemics ; and yet when we regard what is thus revealed , as having the undoubted stamp of a divine authority , it does more to satisfy the understanding , to purify the morals , and to console the hearts of rational beings , than all the treasures of Greek and Roman

    philosophy . "—Pp . 442 , 443 . For some time , we have been g < mscious of having transgressed our bounds , but we cannot refrain from the quotation of another passage from this Sermon , oxTthe corruption of the gospel :

    " Thus it is that the enemies of the gospel are furnished with arguments against its truth ; and that the very men , who profit by it as ah instrument of ambition , laugh at the simplicity of those who believe it . They have reason to laugh : for it would be simplicity indeed to believe , that the motley and incoherent thing , which such men consider as

    Christianity , could ever have proceeded from the God of order and the prince of peace —a thing which instigates one nation to pray and fight against another , both of them boasting of the name of Christian ; a thing which teaches us to curse instead of blessing ; or , if that be too much for an open avowal , to disguise a curse in the form of a blessing , the better to

    impose upon our own conscience . This is the disgrace of Christianity , but not Christianity itself , and this it is that retards . its influence in humanizing the heart , and producing the fruits of righteousness and , peace . It is made a kingdom of this world , contrary to the express declaration and intention of its author .

    It is embraced in this view by the wise and the prudent : whilst those who receive it as babes , who love it for its simplicity , who seek it from no weapon of carnal warfare , but find in it the spirit of power , ^ the spirit of wisdom , and of a soun < l 'inind , are borne down by the

    maxims of worldly wisdom , and regarded as very silly , at least , if not something worse . But in the midst of all this contempt and discouragement , the Christian is consoled by the assurance , tfcat better views are even now beginning to prevail ,

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    and that the evils of this ill-assorted mixture of religious with political institutions , which are already beginning to be felt and understood , will eventually find a remedy in a more enlightened state of public opinion . "—Pp . 449—451 . One sentence of the Sermon ( p . 454 ) would have been better omitted ; it

    bears two senses , and -in one senses though it forms a truism , raises an involuntary smile : The number of babes is daily increasing . ' We close this volume as we part with a friend , pleased that we have met and hoping to meet again .

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    - Art . II . —A Plain Statement and Scriptural Defence of the Leading Doctrines of Unitarianism ; to tohich are added , Remarks on the Canonical Authority of the Books of the New Testament , and a Candid Review of the Tewt of the Improved Version , in a Letter to a Friend . By Robert Wallace , Minister of a Congregation of Protestant Dissenters in Chesterfield .

    Chesterfield : printed and sold by T . Woodhead : sold , in London , by Longman and Co . ^ and by Sherwood and Co . 1819 . Svo . Pp . 128 . THE author of this pamphlet would have better consulted the accommodation of his readers , had he distributed the matter of it into four or five

    letters . In his statement , defence , remarks , and review , we meet , however , with that information , good sense and candour which may well compensate for some disadvantages of arrangement .

    After a short epistolary introduction , he represents the peculiar doctrines of Unitarians , and describes the several classes of Christians who are known under that denomination . We shall not stop to examine the historical or theological accuracy of every

    part of his catalogue : it is m the main correct ; and the Unitarianism of Mr : Wallace himself evidently consists in a belief ' * in the sole , entire , and incommunicable divinity of God / ' and in the simple , unreserved humanity of Jesus Christ .

    We have next a compendium of the scriptural proof that there is only one God . Jtfaving adduced , for this position , texts % & clearness and strength of which would seem to be resistless , the writer adds :

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    44 Review . Wallace ' s Plain Statement of the Doctrines of Unitarianism .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1820, page 44, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2484/page/44/