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it to amount to no more than a public declaration made by the ordainers of their satisfaction in the qualifications, and as to the fituess of the parties concerned for what they undertake." In a "True and Brief Account of the Protestant Dissenters in England," appended to the above sermon, we are informed, that the "examination and ordination are managed according to the rules laid down in the Directory, published by the Westminster Assembly, about the year 1644."

A sermon lies before me, likewise, preached at a public ordination by C. Bassnett, of Liverpool; but as the notions of the preacher are not materially different from the two preceding, I do not think it necessary to make any extracts.

Hitherto, it is evident, that ordination was regarded as an indispensable introduction to the gospel ministry; nor was any person allowed to be settled as minister with any congregation, or to administer the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper, without the investiture of ordination. There were, indeed, conflicting opinions concerning the grounds of the authority and efficacy of the institution, but divines still retained the power of examining qualifications, requiring a profession of faith, and the authority of ordaining; and it appears to me, that the power and authority, in virtue of which they pretended to do such things, was the circumstance which, in reality, chiefly recommended the practice.

I am sorry that I am not able to mark the gradual progress of more liberal sentiments by a regular series of extracts from ordination sermons to the present time; but, perhaps, if I had the means of doing so, it would not be deemed very necessary, as, from the nature of the case and the specimens already given, the course of subsequent opinions may be easily conceived and traced without such aid.

By an extract from an ordination service, in 1770, (on which occasion Dr. Enfield preached,) from the address, on the nature of ordination, by the Rev. Richard Godwin, it will ap

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pear very manifestly at once, that, though the meagre form of ordination and the name were retained, it was nothing more than a compliance with custom, and a prudent yielding to oldfashioned prejudices; for which, indeed, reasons were given, (as may be for any thing,) but very insufficient reasons :

"Great pains" (p. 41)" have been taken to shew, that ordination is of divine authority, and to prove its obligation from Scripture. But concerning the subject, considered in this light, I shall not speak absolutely; only that this argument is attended with some difficulty, and does not appear to all with equal evidence.

"Allow me here to indulge some latitude, and consider ordination, at this time, as a voluntary act of public worship, usually performed soon after a person has devoted himself to the Christian ministry, and accepted of an invitation from a Christian society, to settle with them as their stated minister."

By one extract from the ordination service of the Rev. David Jardine, it will be seen how rational Christians have disavowed the essentially constituent parts of Presbyterian ordination:

"We" (p. 41) "assume no authority over Christian churches or ministers, nor have we the vanity to think that we can communicate any ministerial gifts or graces to them. These we believe to be the effects of the blessing of God on the use of the means of spiritual improvement which he has afforded them; and when a church or society of Christians has chosen such a person for their pastor, and he accepted their invitation, nothing more is necessary to constitute the relation between them."

It will now, Sir, remain for me to consider the reasons which have been urged for continuing this harmless. species of ordination-for retaining the name, when the thing is so essentially changed. But this I am under the necessity of reserving to another communication.

RURIS COLONUS.

REVIEW.

“Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame.”—Pope.

ART. I.-Three Additional Letters addressed to the Ven. and Rev. Francis Wrangham, &c. By C. Wellbeloved.

(Concluded from p. 168.)

ciency, and I have detected you in adding to the errors by which you have been yourself misled, errors of your own, adapted still farther to mislead others." -P. 15.

If the

All this Mr. Wellbeloved, most asT may be desirable that we now look back upon the polemical dissuredly, has effected. Never, in our cussion, of which the "Three Addi- complete. Yet the writer of these own judgment, was triumph more tional Letters" form a part. The Letters contends for no personal vicobject of Archdeacon Wrangham, in tory, but simply for the cause of his "Charges" of 1822 and 1823, scriptural though obnoxious truth; appears to have been, not so much an illustration or defence of the received far rather have discussed with the and we are persuaded that he would doctrine of the Trinity, as the de- Archdeacon of Cleveland the sense of struction of the credit of some of the controverted most celebrated advocates of Unita- Volume, than have found himself compassages in the Sacred rianism; against passages in whose pelled to employ his pen chiefly in writings he brought, or rather repeated, accusations, which, could they tion." In estimating our author's demolishing the "work of criminabe substantiated, would seriously af- polemical labours and merits, it must fect the moral character of the au- be recollected that the nature of his thors, and which are calculated to in- replies has been what the substance flame the prejudices of many of his and the style of his opponent's two readers. Was such an attempt, from such a quarter, to pass without no- present discussion has not principally "Charges" made essential. tice, and without rebuke? "The sages in the healing art have laid it cism and interpretation of the Scripor even greatly turned on the critidown as a maxim, Nullum capitis vultures, it is because the venerable dig. nus contemnendum: the sage in hunitary has, for the most part, resorted man life might with equal truth esto other ground. tablish the position, that no attack on moral character, is to be slighted." This remark, may occasionally be as applicable to "bodies of men," as it always is to individuals; and it is eminently so to religious bodies. Mr. Wellbeloved, therefore, has obeyed the dictates of a correct judgment, and of generous feelings, in proposing it as his chief design, to repel the dignitary's misrepresentations. This was the unpleasant but unavoidable task in which our author engaged. His own language to his opponent, is,

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That" high-seasoning of controversy," "of which Bishop Horsley was so enamoured, and which, it must be charms for men who feel that religion admitted, he profusely used, has no ought to be vindicated in the spirit of religion. There is a majesty in Divine Truth, (and as such we regard severally our theological sentiments,) which ill accords with railing, with banter, with sarcasm, or with any thing like the sallies of malignant wit and humour. An argument cannot be answered by a sneer: nor should a play on words be introduced, with the view of diverting our attention from groundless statements and feeble reasonings. It cannot gratify us to animadvert on these practices in Archideacon Wrangham, on his unbecoming spirit and language as a controversialist. From a clergyman of his station

* Tracts in Controversy with Priestley, (1812,) p. 323.

and character we should have expected better things. We should with difficulty have believed that he could so violate all the common laws of courtesy and decorum. Unacquainted with him in any of the intercourses of priyate and social life, (strangers even to his person,) we, nevertheless, are not ignorant that in these he exhibits kind and polished manners. In academical and in literary reputation he deservedly stands high: and in some of his former writings-nor least in those of his translations from Milton's Latin Odes, &c., which adorn the pages of the life of our sublime poet by Dr. C. Symmons-we have warmly admired the elegance of his taste and style. Even for traces of that elegance we search in vain through his Archidiaconal Charges. It will soon come in our way to inquire, by what singular fatality he and not a few other dignified ecclesiastics lose their accustomed urbanity, the moment they touch the weapons of theological warfare; how it happens that they then divest themselves of the ability of writing purely and chastely, handsomely and politely. Such an effect, we believe, must be resolved into general but powerful causes.

Amidst much that might have awakened strong personal indignation, Archdeacon Wrangham's opponent has maintained an exemplary forbearance, nor clothed his arguments and remonstrances in language, of which he has need to be ashamed. That insult and injury should be spoken of in exactly the same terms and manner in which we speak of the favours bestowed on us, is more than can be looked for from human nature; more than Christianity itself requires. It became incumbent on Mr. Wellbeloved to reprove his antagouist for many a rash and wrongful assertion. The reproof is administered, however, with dignity and with firmness: the sword which this gentleman draws in his honourable combat, is a keen and admirably tempered weapon, and no "rustic cudgel;" forced to contend, he contends law fully, nor makes use of arms which the rules of civilized warfare have long since stigmatized. Of the rank

Gibbon's Miscellaneous Works, 8vo. IV. 605.

and office and reputation of the Archdeacon of Cleveland he never loses sight: and, compelled, as he is, to censure in strong and decided terms, he censures with deep regret.

Let persons whose habits of mind and life render them unbiassed judges of the spirit and style of this controversy, take up the tracts which compose it, and pronounce their opinion. A few persons such as we have described, may surely be found; some who not merely are strangers to the external situation and the previous writings of the combatants, but whose decision will not be made under the influence of ecclesiastical or theological attachments. Let men of this character say, whether from the pages of Mr. Wellbeloved's sets of Letters they have not received ample and valuable instruction, communicated in a language and tone suited to its high importance; while in the Charges and Appendixes and Notes of Archdeacon Wrangham they view more of invective than of reasoning, and the almost perpetual attempt to disguise weakness of proof and a scanty knowledge

in many instances an absolute ignorance-of scriptural exposition and criticism, under ill-placed sarcasms and pompous flourishes.

Properly speaking, the controversy before us is not local: Mr. Wellbe loved's labours in it must have caused it to be public. Remote as is the district where it originated, and has been waged, still it presents itself to the world; nor does only one province of the kingdom, however extensive and considerable may be that province, feel an interest in the refutation of false accusations, when men of high character are the subjects of them, and in an abstract of powerful reasoning, on a topic of primary and acknowledged moment. The reader of the "Three Letters,” and of the "Three Additional Letters," will receive from them no superficial knowledge of the history and the state of the discussion, which has long been carried on by Unitarian Christians and their opponents.

That such a discussion should exist, and even be zealously pursued at this period of time, and in this quarter of the globe, may, at first view, strike us with astonishment, not to say, with perplexity and mortification. In our

own part of the United Kingdom, at least, the theological and the learned world are nearly unanimous in rejecting the doctrine of Transubstantiation. Yet Transubstantiation has more direct evidence in its favour than either the Athanasian or any other system of the Trinity. From the words, "This is my body," and from many expressions in the sixth chapter of John's Gospel, the Romanist may derive arguments for the conversion of the elements in the eucharist, that are far more plausible than any which the Trinitarian employs for his characteristic tenet. Transubstantiation is not, like the Trinity, a matter of inference: nor is it placed merely on the ground of church-authority. Its advocates declare that it is taught literally and expressly and they err in their interpretation, solely because they will not expound Scripture by itself; because they will not distinguish between the declaration of a fact and the statement of a resemblance. Trinitarianism possesses not even those specious attestations which Transubstantiation finds in genuine Scripture, when judged of exclusively by its appearance and its sound, by detached sentences, and by single clauses. What is it then which upholds the belief and the profession of Trinitarianism? The principal support of the doctrine will be seen in the services and forms of the Established Church: with these it is thoroughly incorporated; and to defend the Trinity, is therefore, in the opinion of most men, the same thing as to defend the ecclesiastical constitution. We may repeatedly enter even those houses of Protestant Dissenting worship, in which reputed Orthodoxy is strenuously inculcated, and yet may not hear such invocations of " Three Persons," separately and jointly, as occur in the Litany of the Church of England. Human nature remaining what it is, a vast body of individuals have an interest in maintaining the truth of the articles to which they have subscribed, and the purity of the worship that they statedly conduct.

As we glance at the theological controversies in this country, from the Revolution down to the present times, we shall be persuaded that the great questions concerning the person and pre-existence of Christ," have

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been more agitated towards the end of the eighteenth and at the beginning of the nineteenth century than in any former division of the period of which we speak. The subject was not altogether forgotten during the reign of William and Mary: it is remarkable, nevertheless, that the discussion which then arose respecting it, was chiefly between a celebrated real and a no less celebrated modal Trinitarian; between Dr. William Sherlock and Dr. Robert South. An æra at which penal laws are enacted against the supposed oppugners of religious truth, is not, in general, likely to be the æra of argument and investigation: and neither civil nor ecclesiastical liberty was so well understood or exercised even at the Revolution, and for many years afterwards, as not to receive dreadful wounds from those who professed to be the assertors and the friends of freedom. While Anne swayed the British sceptre, the disputes between the theologians of the day, were rather on schism-on conformity and occasional conformity-than on points of doctrine. One very memorable exception there, undoubtedly, was, in the case of "honest Will. Whiston," whose expulsion from the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics, in the University of Cambridge, on the ground of his Antitrinitarian heresy, took place on October 30, 1710, and who, in the following year, was, on the same account, embroiled with the convocation. In the subsequent reign, this learned and excellent man engaged in a controversy with the Earl of Nottingham, † "concerning the eternity of the Son of God, and of the Holy Ghost." Contemporary with Whiston was the Rev. Thomas Emlyn, who suffered imprisonment for his assertion of the Supreme Deity of God the Father, and was a most able champion of that primary tenet of natural and of revealed religion. In the year 1719-20, which, in other respects, was a conspicuous though no honourable period in British history, violent disputes about the doctrine of the Trinity arose in the metropolis, and in the West of England: these convulsed

*Mou. Repos. XX. 39.

+ Whiston's Memoirs, pp. 248, 249, and the Catal. of R. and N. Authors, article, Daniel Finch, &c.

the Protestant Dissenters, still more than the members of the Established Church; and it was on occasion of the famous decision of a body of Nonconformist ministers, of their resolution by a small majority, not to subscribe to the first article of the Church of England, that Sir Joseph Jekyll declared, "the Bible had carried it by four." Only a short time before this stormy season, the great name of CLARKE had powerfully awakened public attention to the "Scripture doctrine of the Trinity." His work, so entitled, is still read; the writings of such a man being composed of no perishable materials, and possessing more than a temporary interest. But the controversy which it occasioned, almost ceases to be remembered; though it made a strong impression upon a number of the clergy, and the Dissenting ministers of a former generation. Several, indeed, of the dignitaries, and some even of the prelates, in the reign of George the Second, appear to have been by no means fond either of lofty ecclesiastical claims or of those views of the Trinity which are stated in human creeds. A large and most respectable class of men, followed Dr. S. Clarke-not, perhaps, in all his religious tenets, but certainly -in his manner of investigating the sense of the Scriptures, and of submitting to the world the result of the investigation. They resembled him, too, in that sobriety of mind, and vigour of understanding, and genuine candour and catholicism of spirit, which are yet more valuable than all the treasures of the profoundest and amplest erudition. Who that can estimate the characters and writings of such individuals as Jackson, (of Rossington,) Sykes, Jortin, the Bishops Clayton and Hoadly, and of others who were formed in the same school, and who laboured in the same field, but must lament that they have left so few successors? By these sons and ministers and guardians of the Episcopal Church her reputation was sustained and extended; while, in a different sphere, Lardner and Lord Barrington were either illustrating and supporting the evidences of our common Christianity, or jointly discussing "the doctrines of the New Testament, with regard to the person and preexistence of Christ." The masterly

and, we must think, unanswerable
"Letter on the Logos," was drawn up
in 1730, though it was not published
until a considerable time afterwards :
the more generally and the more at-
tentively it is read, the higher will be
the value placed on its learning, its
arguments and its temper.

In looking back on the theological debates of the last age, we shall discover that, although the Trinitarian controversy was kept alive, other questions occupied, nevertheless, a larger portion of the public mind. The more prominent controversies were the Protestant, the Deistical and the Bungorian. At the same time, the inquiry which respected the object of worship and "the person of Christ," did not fail to associate itself, in a great degree, with vindications of the rights of conscience, with fearless statements and irrefragable proofs of the sufficiency of Scripture, and of the unlawfulness of subscription to human articles of faith. The intimate alliance between doctrinal truth and an opposition to ecclesiastical and priestly claims, was especially developed in the several cases of Whiston and of Emlyn, and in those proceedings, at Salters' Hall, and at Exeter, with which we cannot refrain from connecting in a particular manner, the names of Peirce and Hallet.

The politics (so we are compelled to style them) of the State and those of the Established Church, are inseparably related to each other, and bear, with hardly any variation, the same character. Scarcely had George the Third ascended the throne, when it became evident that the court cherished a strong prepossession in favour of those high maxims of government, which the once formidable efforts of the Pretenders had placed in a sort of abeyance. The new reign excited some hopes, Its comand some apprehensions, that seemed to have been dormant. mencement was dark and inauspicious, and presented scenes, over which the enlightened historian would gladly draw the veil, did not a faithful regard to the interests of his country and of posterity forbid his silence. The first memorable event connected with theology, and with ecclesiastical discipline, was the defeat of the petitioning clergy, and among in 1772. A number of the ministers of the Church of England,

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