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    contradiction . Reason has the right and the duty to examine ( avaK ^ tvetv is the expression of the Apostle Paul ) what is offered to it as revelation . It will hot , indeed , pretend to comprehend perfectly what is above human sense—it will hold itself bound to receive much that surpasses its power of comprehension ; but it neither may nor can receive what is opposed to its own inherent laws . That which endures the test it receives into itself , not

    because it is founded upon an exterior revelation , ( for then the door would be open for superstition and enthusiasm to come in , ) but because it corresponds with the seeds that exist in itself , and with the receptive power which God has given it , and satisfies the highest wants of human nature . Thus then the true rationalist is in fact the only true supranaturalist . The true rationalist acknowledges the supranatural essence and source of religion , but he examines , constructs , and forms it in himself , in conformity with his own

    rational nature ( subjectu rationalistische in metaphysical phrase ) . " The Reviewer adds , " That which is named rationalism purposely , but falsely , by the zealots for the faith of authority of the present day , in order to bring into bad repute the highest and noblest power in man , that will have not only the spiritual sight to be in us , but aiso the supranatural light , and rejects a revelation coming to it from without , " I subjoin an extract from a more

    recent publication , because , in connexion with the foregoing , it seems to furnish a clue by which it is not difficult to trace the steps of progression from rationalism to what may be called ultra-rationalism . Dr . JSchultess , not being able to be present at the third Centennial Reformation Festival in Berne , dedicated to his brethren , " De uno pianissimo plenissimoque argurnento pro Divinitate discipline ac personae Jesu lucubrationem , judiciis fraternis cunctorum ecclesise patrise ministrorum subjectam . " His argument

    is built upon a proposition which will be given most satisfactorily in his own words . *< Si quod ponitur verbum , necesse est hominibus cum Deo societas orationis , sin orationis etiam rationis et intelligentiae ; ita ut homines , quodcunque verbum Dei ad ipsos factum sit , facultate nativa , i . e . ab summo parente ingenerata , quoad ejus oporteat percipiant ejusque divinitatem igmoscant , i . e . credant . " The import appears to be this ; that if a word of

    God is given to men , there must be a language of communication between God and men , and if a language a reason also , and an intelligence w hich is mutual . So that whatever word of God is communicated to men , by a natural faculty implanted in them by the Supreme Parent , they may be able to perceive and understand all that it concerns them to know , and to recognize the divine origin in the truth revealed , i . e . to believe . What this faculty is , is farther thus explained : " We may distinguish with certainty the human and the divine reason in ourselves and others ; for as mortals , children of Adam , we possess the ratio humana , 0 ^ % i *« 7 , ) but as besides the fathers of our flesh we have a heavenly Father , the Father of our spirits , ( twv orvn ; - /*« Ta ?^) we have a double origin , and even as Christ , ( John iii . 3 , 6 , i . 1 , 12 , 13 ; James i . 18 ; Rom . i . 3 , 4 , ) we also have a divine reason . " The time is not come for a complete and dispassionate history of the religious opinions of the present day in Protestant Germany . The most cheering view of the whole is , that beneath every colour and shade of opinion there is a deep ground of heartfelt conviction , that , whether the sources of religion be sought in reason , feeling , or faith , in a light within , or a light coming

    irom without , an interior or exterior revelation , it has objective truth , and is a great reality that it comes immediately from the omnipresent God , in whom we live , and think , and feel , and that it is the sole guide to the great end of our being , to constant and still progressive virtue , and to a holy and happy immortality . J . M .

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    54 S Conversion of a Catholic Priest .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1830, page 548, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2587/page/44/