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" The attempt to apply the apostolic views of faith and justification , in all their extend and frequency , to pur experience , has been unfortunate , because it has led to unnatural , mystical ideas of religion , and among others , the preposterous notion , that the great obstacle to
salvation , in the human heart , is not its bad passions , but some' strange tinwillingness to be saved by the wletGy of God ; and that faith being so exclusively and all-importantphad some mysterious power of appropriating and securing the favour of God to itself . Indeed , faith has been often thought to be nothing else but a willingness to be saved . "—P .
16 . The following paragraph suggests , we think , a valuable hint to a large class of religionists in this country : " You must have reflected how much better and fitter it would have been , in that moment of imaginary or real
conversion , for the subject of it , instead of coming forth to the multitude to tell what the Lord had done for his soul , how much better if he had gone away to his retired closet to pray , and to carry on the secret struggle of the religious life ha his own bosom ; how much better for him who thinks himself to have
been a Christian but for one hour , or one day , in that day , in that hour , to be silent , thoughtful , diffident , anxious . "P . 18 . The preacher in the remainder of the first discourse , guards his hearers against the opposite mistake of supposing Scripture " to have little or no relation to us . " We are much pleased with the following sentences :
" If we are worldly 5 . if we are covetous and sensual ; if we be guided by inclination rather than by duty , we need a conversion ; not less than that which the Pagan experienced . If we are unkind , severe , censorious , or injurious , in
the relations or the intercourse of life ; if we 1 are unfaithful parents , or undutiful children ; iif we are severe masters or faithless servants ; if we are treacherous friendsi Or bad neighbours , or bitter competitors ^ we need a conversion ; we need . a , change greater than merely from Paganism to Christianity /'—P . 19 .
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Iii the second discourse , the author had been speaking of * the superstitious / ear wfyich ^ exiM& iH som e minds of examining * elosefy iiito the character and offices of Christ ; and he plainly shews that these are proper subjects of investigation . We are happy to see the true medium between fanaticism and indifferenee stf well pursued . n > ^ " * * ¦ -
" Let me hear no inore of admiration , of love , and joy , if be \ whojifts taught me peace of mind and true wisdom , who has brought me nrgh to God , and opened for me the path to immortality , if he shall not be admired , and loved , and hailed with raptures akjoy * This is no fanatical nor superstitious emotion ,
but it is the natural , the true and sober homage of human feeling to transcendant worth and loveliness of character , and to unspeakable goodness—goodness not common and earthly , but spiritual , disinterested , divine ; witnessed by toils and sufferings , and sealed in death . "P . 24 *
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Art . VIII . - — A Discourse on Regeneration . By Bernard Whitman , of Waltham . 2 nd Edit . Boston , Bowles and Dearborn , 1828 . This is an intelligent , practical , and rational discourse , on the change which the Christian religion is designed to produce in the minds of men . The preacher first notices some of the
conversions which took place under the preaching of the inspired apostles ; secondly , describes the nature of regeneration as consisting in a change from ignorance to Christian knowledge , from error to Christian truth , and from sin to holiness . The necessity of regeneration arises from these three causes ; the
imperfection of our nature , the imperfection of our educationf and our invincible desire for happiness . He , thirdly , examines the spiritual condition of those born and educated in Christian lands ; and fourthly , answers the questions , " What are the evidences of our regeneration ? What are the scriptural proofs that we are real Christians ?"
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628 Critical Notices .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1828, page 628, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2564/page/44/
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