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    may be compared with Patey—in extracting from his predecessors their most valuable materials , arranging them in a simple and easy method , and recorrnneodkiediein by singular force and clearness of style . In so important a labour . Dr . Whately has engaged , BOt only m the volume now before us , but also in his works on Logic and Rhetoric . To the consideration of every subject which engages his attention , Whately , like Paiey , brings a vigorous and unsophisticated intellect , and in consequence he resembles

    Paleyalsotn being a reformer . Old errors he discards , lingering prejudices and misconceptions he explodes , and lays dowa and vindicates principles which would ,-we submit , if duty pursued , lead him much nearer to pure Christianity than we have any reason to think he has gone . His work on the Writings of St . Paul consists of nine essays . 1 . On the Love of Truth . 2 . On the Difficulties and the Value of St . Saul's Writings

    generally . 3 . On Election . 4 . On Perseverance and Assurance . 5 . On the Abolition of the Mosaic Law . 6 . On Imputed Righteousness . 7 . On apparent Contradictions in Scripture . & . On the Mode of conveying Moral Precepts in the New Testament . 9 . On the Influence of the Holy Spirit . The essay on Truth contains , as befits such a subject , many verities which those who seek in reading for novelties rather than sound advice might disparage as truisms . One , and * that a novel position , however , stands at the

    head of these unquestionable statements , which appears to us to require no little modification , and which , like some other injudicious modes of defending Christianity , endeavours to extol the religion of Jesus at the expense of the principles of Heathen sages . Dr . Whately remarks correctly , that the religion of each state among the Greeks and Romans was maintained as a matter of policy , rather than on the ground of its being true . Even Socrates , the wisest of the Heathen , declares it to be the part of a good man

    to conform to the religious institutions of his country , omkting entirely to state that his acquiescence should be the result of inquiry , evidence * and conviction : and great , we allow to Dr . Whately , is the honour due to Christianity , that it claimed the homage of the understanding as the truth , " set forth and recommended by evidence that demanded and not declined investigation . In this respect Christianity presents a striking contrast witfy the

    spirit of the Heathen systems , and we wish we could add that Christian-professors w . ere alike contradistinguished in this particular from the Heathen teachers and legislators ; but the fact is , that in the majority of cases he is esteemed most by Christian teachers who inquires the least ; and the person who sets himself to investigate the evidence of prevalent doctrines , is suspected and avoided as unsound in the faith and actuated by dangerous principles . Maintaining , then , witJh Dr . Whately that such was the spirit of the

    influential men in ancient times respecting religion , we yet may ask if he is warranted in asserting that * ' their minds were estranged from the love of truth , " and that they were habitually indifferent to it" ? General assertions of this nature are always injudicious , for they expose the Christian advocate to serious reprisals . They ate as unjust as injudicious . It requires but little acquaintance with the writings of the worthies of Greece ant } Rome to expose their falsity . We are ready tp grant that the p hilosophers did not teach as true any system of reli g ion , but in this they were actuated by a love of truthnot an aversion to it . How could they teach that as true

    , which they knew was devoid of adequate evidence ? To be silent in such a case , was a certain indication of a love of truth . But they recommended the observance of th £ prevalent religion on the ground of its maintenance being essential to the well-being of me state . That the reason alleged was

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    Wkatetys Essays on the Writing * of St . Paul . 527

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 527, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/7/