his Father, in these words:"My peace I leave you, my peace I give you." To the establishment or preservation of this peace, the disputation mentioned would, in itself and in its effects, be directly opposed. Second, St. Paul says, "If any one be contentious or fond of disputes, we have no such custom, nor the church of God." We would, therefore, deviate from the principles of God's church and the custom of the saints, as well as prove ourselves unmindful of the Apostle's suggestion, if we became fond of disputes.

Thirdly, because all experience has proved the justice and truth of Tertullian's remarks, in his book on "Prescription," wherein he says, that disputes with heretics weary the weak, create anxiety in the mind of others, and that the only thing we obtain by them is, to have our anger excited by their blasphemy. The rea son assigned by him for this opinion is quite obvious; it is, that heretics despise authority which alone can determine disputes; that they disregard tradition, without which it is impossible to understand rightly that part of revelation which is written; and because they appeal to the Scriptures, which are mute, and cannot therefore decide. In quibus (scripturis) incerta est victoria aut par incerta.

Fourthly, because no general principle, to which the questions to be discussed could be finally referred, can be agreed upon between the parties; for this reason, that the members of the Bible Society do not admit our creed, nor have they any creed of their own. They do not admit our creed, for they accuse the Church of having decreed error, and of having been sunk in idolatry, for upwards of eight hundred years: see the "Book of Homilies." They also have long misunderstood that universal article of the Christian faith, as expressed in the Nicene Creed, amplified in the First Council of Constantinople, and which says, "I believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church," nay, there is reason to apprehend that they have latterly endeavoured, though un conciously, to dissolve the entire re ligion of Christ into a system of Lati tudinarianism, approaching to utter infidelity. They have no creed of their

own; for, from the reports of proceedings which, on a former occasion, took place between you and then, it appears that they maintained errors the most opposite one to the other; and that, being invited to produce a common formula of faith, they were unable to do so. It also appears, that, though some of these men nominally belong to the Established Church, they disregard her discipline and au thority as it is laid down in the ordinance of the King, prefixed to the "Articles of Religion," as it is expressed or implied in the Articles themselves, and as it is recorded in the words of many of their Prelates; they do so by advocating an unlimited right for themselves and others to judge in all matters of religion, regardless of all authority. With such men there can be no common principles to which they could be bound to adhere; or, if there were any, they could be departed from by them as soon as their opinions underwent a change, but in no case would such principles express a form of religious belief binding upon others than those who might subscribe to them. You who are Catholics, professing a clearly defined faith, can never meet men who are thus tossed by every wind of doctrine, upon a footing of equality; they may be worsted in argument, convicted of error, confounded at the exposure of their own contradictions or folly, but they alone can sufferno one is responsible for their errors, no person need blush at their confu sion, no man is a partner in their shame; not so with you. If through error, mistake, ignorance or forgetfulness, you leave an objection unrefuted, or an aspersion not wiped away, such objection or aspersion stands recorded against your church, and the chaste spouse of Christ suffers in your person from the blasphemy of her apostate children.

Fifthly, you are to avoid these disputes, because by entering into them you appear to call in question those truths which are already defined by the Holy Ghost and by us; that is, by the Bishops, the successors of the Apostles. You agree, as it were, to impannel a jury, of I know not what description of persons, to try the question whether Christ is with us teach

ing all days, even to the end of the world; whether the Holy Ghost has, or has not, taught our fathers all truth;-whether we be placed by him to rule the church of God;-whether this church be, or be not, the pillar and ground of truth;-whether those whom we leave bound on earth be bound in heaven, or whether the gates of hell have, or can prevail against the church; whether, again, this church has been buried in idolatry for eight hundred years; whether, in fine, those who refuse to hear her, and who thereby despise Christ and the Father who sent him, are, or are not, as heathens and publicans before God. The truths, Rev. Brethren, which would be thus subjected, as it were, to trial, are clear and incontestible; you yourselves have enforced them by much argument and eloquence; and it is because they are immovable, and because your arguments in support of them are able, convincing and unanswerable, that the members of the Bible Society wish, by inviting you to a renewed discussion, to turn public attention from the palpable folly of their proceedings-from the unspeakable evils which the principles they advocate have entailed upon society; from the frauds and impositions practised by persons connected with them; but, above all, from the contemplation of that worst of all evils, the introduction and justification of Socinianism or infidelity; evils which flow immediately and necessarily from the recognition of an unlimited right in all persons to discard authority, and to abide in religious matters by the single opinion of their own mind. No! Brethren, you have supplied to society at large, ample materials for serious and deep reflection; suffer men to digest them, to reflect upon them, and should error or heresy approach again to our borders, you will know how, and where, and when to repel it, lest it should creep like a cancer among our people.

Sixthly, you should not dispute with these men in the manner proposed, because there is no tribunal on the earth competent to try the issue between you. The errors maintained by the members of the Bible Society regard either the primary articles of the Christian faith or truths already defined by the Church. Both these

causa

classes of truths are immovably and definitively settled; God or his church, or rather both, have spoken; and as St. Augustine said to the Pelagians, "The cause is concluded, I wish the error would at length cease,' finita est, utinam aliquando finiretur error. There can be no new hearing, no new trial. The Church at Trent invited the heretics of the 16th century (those who broached or renewed the errors which are now revived) to plead their own cause before the Council; these blind and obstinate men refused to do so, but their cause was examined fully and dispassionatelysentence at length was passed, and the matter set at rest for ever. Causa finita est. It can never be revived: it hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to our fathers so to determine: there can be no rehearing of the case; there is no higher tribunal constituted by God, no one or many to whom a new issue could be directed for trial; "Whosoever does not hear the Church, let him be as an heathen and a publican." Those who are cut off on account of their obstinacy may complain, but there is no remedy for them but in submission; the Church may soothe, may explain; she may relax or alter her discipline to favour their weakness or to assist them to return; but the one faith she cannot alter; it is as simple, as immutable, as God himself! You, Rev. Brethren, have often and well proved these truths; one argument alone is sufficient, "Going," says the Redeemer to his Apostles, and, in their persons, to those who lawfully succeed to them, "Going, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, commanding them to observe whatsoever I have given you in command, and lo! I am with you till the end of the world." It is the worst of heresy, and a virtual apostacy from the Christian religion, to assert that there ever was, or will be wanting, a body of men assisted immediately by Christ, and employed without interruption or intermission in administering the Sacraments of God, teaching his commandments, and ruling throughout the world his one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. It is the worst of heresy, and a virtual apostacy from the Christian religion, to assert that

the gates of hell have ever prevailed against this Church, that is, that the pastors and people who compose it have ever, at any period, even for a single hour, professed error! You, therefore, cannot enter into a disputation which would seem to imply that the opposite of what is here stated is even remotely possible!

Lastly, you should not contend, as it is proposed, with men, over whom a triumph could be productive of no permanent advantage; as individuals they may be learned and respectable, but as religionists they are deserving only of your unmixed pity. They profess to be seeking for truth-this can only be found in the Catholic Church; and the faith that believes in it, as there propounded, is a gift of God-to be obtained, not by disputation, but by humility, alms-deeds and prayer. The judgment of man is too slow, and too unsettled-the objects of its investigation are too mysterious and too far removed-it may reason interminably and dispute, but it can never determine; authority alone can decide. "By the sun alone of the Church," as Jerome observes, all the streams or rivulets of error can be dried up." To ascertain the existence of this Church-for the infidel, signs and tongues may be necessary; for a Christian the grace of his baptism, and the creed which he has learned at his mother's breast, is quite sufficient and to such at least as are born and educated in these countries, it must be quite obvious, if they be humble, pious, dispassionate, and not maddened with enthusiasm, that no sect or denomination of Christians existing in it (the Catholics alone excepted) have not separated themselves from the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church at a certain time, and for causes but too well ascertained; and as to the consequences of such a separation, it is not mine, whilst addressing you, to state them, or to give expression to that deep affliction which the consideration of them excites within me. I once was moved by such reflections, and by the love I bear to my brethren who are in error, (for whom like the Apostle, I would willingly, for a time, be even an Anathema, or separated from Christ,) to suggest, through an eminent individual, not to a society, not to ladies and gen

tlemen, but to one of the highest states in the realm, a proposal for seeking to bind up that which has been broken; to heal that which is infirm, and to bring back that which has strayed; but the spirit which was once sent to seduce Achab, has been permitted to seduce many in this empire, and the term of his seduction has not yet expired; perhaps it will yet terminate; if it should, the means of conciliation and peace are at hand; if not, it is our duty to adore the counsels of that God, whose judgments are inscrutable, and whose ways cannot be investigated.

Praying the Almighty God, Rev. Brethren, that he may keep our minds and hearts united in his love, and in the love of one another,

I remain your truly affectionate and humble servant in Jesus Christ.

↑ J. DOYLE.

Given at Edenderry, on my Visitation, this 28th day of August, 1825.

SIR,

Stockton-on-Tees, Sept. 8, 1825. I gives me and my friends in this place great pleasure to learn, from the last number of the Repository, that an Unitarian interest is on the eve of being established in a neigbouring town. There are but two Unitarian congregations in the county of Durham, one at Stockton, and the other at Sunderland, both of which are small. The members of the former (and especially one who is now no more, but whose praise is, and will long remain, in the church in which he was a very distinguished ornament) have often regretted that circumstances have hitherto been unfavourable to the introduction of Unitarianism into other towns in the county.

We are a little surprised that your Durham correspondent, and his Unitarian friends, after long regretting that some place has not hitherto been appropriated to Unitarian worship, should not have sought the co-operation of the Unitarians at Stockton, or at least of that very judicious advocate of our cause, the Rev. Mr. Turner, of Newcastle. If Philo-Unitas is earnestly desirous of seeing his wishes accomplished, I beg to offer my humble services, and to assure him, that

Mr. E. Cogan on Bishop Burgess's Uncharitableness. Exactly to the

point.

G. B. W. on the Papers of Philadelphus. An acute and sensible writer. How will the logical skill of Philadelphus enable him to elude the corner into which his mild opponent has here fastened him with several pins? The high, solemn and rational strain, which marks the last half of this communication, expresses, though in a far better manner, several sentiments, which I have occasionally tried to urge upon your letter-writer, "The Unitarian."

Ancient Use of the Word Worship. A good point of criticism is here made to bear on a subject, which, as much as any other that can be named, contributes to retaining the belief of the Trinity in the popular mind. Let worship be exchanged in our translation for reverence, Lord for Sir or Master, and a few more such terms be replaced in a similar manner, whenever it is strictly and grammatically proper so to do, and what a mighty subsidiary aid would be torn away from the imaginations of the vulgar in favour of orthodoxy, to which she has now no sort of right, even if she be identical with the truth itself! A vast majority, I fear, even of the most candid Trinitarians, who possess learning and intelligence, are guilty of no little subterfuge, in slily permitting the accidental influence of such mistranslations to exert an unwarrantable effect over their ignorant followers.

་་

A Calvinist has my full sympathy in his remarks on the Satiric Fragment. But without pretending to the adequate character of that equitable censor," who, a Calvinist says, is wanting in the pages of the Repository, I must aver, that his expostulations with Mr. Worsley do not appear to be well-founded. If moral inability signify nothing more than disinclination, why persist in using a term so constantly liable to be misapprehended and misused by carping adversaries? Be assured, this Calvinist deceives himself. A great portion of his party mean much more by moral inability than disinclination, notwithstanding a few of them, when pushed up to consequences, or desirous of defending a favourite system by mere verbal inge

nuity, contrive to explain away its offensive peculiarities. No. There is something congenial with the Calvinistic system in the sterner literal notion of moral inability, which its advocates at large inculcate. It is of a piece with all those other huge, unnatural, astounding doctrines, at which reason stands aghast, but which the general desire after " aliquid immensum et infinitum," causes to be quietly swallowed down by a childish faith and a dazzled imagination. Like the doctrines of the Trinity and orthodox atonement, there is an imposing mystery and magnitude in the thing. There is a sweet consciousness of distinction, and a sweeter sense of sanctified merit, in being able to prevail upon one's mind to yield assent to impossible propositions, which the world in general refuse to receive. Disinclination, forsooth! If all evangelical preachers would but use this very smooth, soft and inoffensive term, and would only tell their sinful hearers, that they have no inclination to serve God, &c., wherein would they differ from Arminians and Unitarians? If Dr. J. P. Smith's authority is to be relied on, it was by such conceivable, such insidious explanations, that the Ostervalds and the later Turretins frittered away the whole rough forin of ancient Calvinism, and reduced the centre of Europe to a hideous moral darkness exactly proportioned to the clearness with which religious subjects are contemplated.

Εξετασης on the Unitarian Scheme of Atonement. I will contribute my feeble answers to this Inquirer according to the order of his interrogatories.

1. Unitarians regard the death of Christ as an evil, ordained or permitted to bring about, by its indirect effects, an infinitely greater good. Hence, there is no "injustice" in this disposition of Providence, on the long scale, particularly when we remember the "joy which was set before" Christ, and the vast preponderating rewards which he himself obtained for his obedience. Whereas, this writer allows, and with propriety too, that the orthodox view of Christ's death is "directly opposed to all ideas of justice." Moreover, is there not a difference, not only in “degree," but in essence, between God's