I have chosen you and ordained you that ye shall go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name he may give it you. Abstracted from any personal relation, which those words may be supposed to have as more particularly addressed to the disciples of Christ at that period, and age of the Church, in which they were first spoken; they contain this plain and important truth, which is not confined to any period, but in all ages must have the same obvious and determined meaning: that the personal salvation, of every true believer in Jesus, is founded, not in human merit, but in divine favour, not in our choice of Christ, but in his choice of us: for, that it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy or to sum it up, in the full comprehensive words of the Apostle, for of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory for ever and ever. p. 1–5. XXIV. DISCOURSES on Atonement and Sacrifice. (8vo. boards, pp. 443.) By W. MAGEE, D. D. Concluded from page 43 of our Epitome for last Month, &c. TH HE notes to these Discourses form the most considerable part of the volume, and contain criticisms upon many scriptures; (those in particular, which principally support the doctrines taught in the Sermons) and much information from history and commentators, upon the subjects enforced. The sentiments opposed are those maintained by the denomina tion of dissenters, known by the title of Unitarians, and distinguished from the other non-conformists by the appellation of Rational Dis nothing more than good habits; and these habits, the result of man's own unaided and independent exertions, or rather the result of external in. fluences and irresistible impressions. Those usually received, and (as Mr. Wilberforce properly stiles them) peculiar doctrines of Christianity, which declare the corrupted state of human nature, the atonement of the Saviour, and the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit, Mr. B. rejects as utterly inconsistent with truth and scripture: the preponderance of virtue over vice in the world at large, and with a very few, if any, exceptions in every individual in particular, he maintains to be indisputable :-the practice of virtue he pronounces to be the only ground of acceptance with God, without any regard to faith in Christ, to his merits or his sufferings, all which he proscribes as notions unscriptural and absurd :—and, as to the influence of the Holy Spirit being that which prompts to virtue, he finds little difficulty in expunging this likewise from his creed; being fully satisfied, that the Scriptures do not teach 'the existence of any such person as the Holy Spirit, and that there is no ground for the expectation of any supernatural operation on the mind.' The sole incitements to virtue spring, according to Mr. B. from the cir'cumstances in which men are placed, and the impressions to which they ' are exposed:'-' moral and religious 'habits, not being acquired in any different way from other habits of 'mind: that is, according to his reasoning, all being equally the result of a necessary operation-the religious tendency, as well as its opposite, naturally arising out of a certain state of the brain;' and habits growing by the influence of particular impressions, with the same regularity and certainty with which the fruits of the earth are produced and ma 6 the sun, and of the fructifying showers.' senters.' Their opinions are giventured, by the genial influence of in extracts from the works of Dr. Priestley and Mr. Belsham, which are interspersed in the sermons and notes, and controverted by copious arguments. To give our readers a specimen of the subjects discussed, we subjoin the following extract from the appendix. 66 To what then does Christianity amount, on Mr. Belsham's plan to *Rom. xi. 35. "Thus does the advocate for human merit vindicate the independency of human virtue-let us stop for a moment to examine this more fully.Virtue is a system of habits, con. ducing to the greatest ultimate hap'piness and men being the creatures of circumstances, the habits they form, whether good or bad, are the result of the impressions to which they are exposed ;'-or as we have just seen, are the result of a necessary and mechanical operation, and arise out of causes independent of the agent, if such he can be called. -Now it seems necessary to demand of this writer, in what respect his scheme differs from that part of the high doctrines of Calvin, which he most strongly reprobates?-does be not equally with him, reduce all the actions of man under the necessary and irresistible controul of motives, in which he has no choice, and over which he can have no power and does he not, whilst he thus concurs with the Calvinist, differ from himself, by abolishing the very idea of merit, whilst he makes merit the foundation of his system? "Mr. B. indeed, exerts all his ingenuity, as Dr. Priestley had done before, to escape from this resemblance to the Calvinist-the attempt, however, is vain. The Unitarian may fancy, that he has provided a complete salvo for the difficulties of his system, and a clear distinction from that of the Calvinist, by substituting his notion of a purgatory for that of verzal punishment-but here the consequences with which he presses the Calvinist return upon himself-for if it be inconsistent with infinite jus'tice and goodness to doom a being 'to eternal misery, for no other cause, 'but that of not extricating himself * out of the state in which his Creator 'placed him, without any power to 'act or will;'-I would ask, by what principles of reasoning it can be reconciled to the same infinite justice and goodness, to doom to temporary sery, a being placed in circumstances precisely similar; i. e. determined to one certain mode of action, by an indissoluble chain of motives and an irresistible necessity-if the idea of punishment for that which was the result of inevitable necessity, be repugnant to the essential nature of justice, it must be equally so, whether that punishment be of long or short duration:-the quantity of the evil endured, if no evil whatever ought to be inflicted, can make no change in the nature of the case:-the power that prolongs or heightens the punishment, where no punishment was deserved, may be more malignant, but cannot be more unjust.--Thus then, allowing to the Unitarian the fuil benefit of his purgatorial scheme (for which, however, Scripture supplies not the smallest foundation;) he is exposed, equally with the Calvinist, to the charge which he himself brings against the latter, of impeaching the character of his Maker and traducing his works.' — Thus much for the consequences of the two systems. Again, as to the principle of necessity, it is precisely the same; whether the Unitarian endeavour to dignify it by the title of philosophical, or degrade it by that of predestination; or, if Mr. Belsham will still pretend to differ from the follower of Calvin, whom he describes as, equally with himself, pronouncing man a necessary instrument, destitute of self-agency, it can only be in this; that whilst the latter makes man a necessary instrument in the hand of God, his system admits the possibility of rescuing him from this slavish subjection to his Maker, by placing him under the irresistible controul of chance or destiny, or some other equally conceivable power-for to suppose all the actions of men to spring necessarily from motives, and these motives the unavoidable result of external impressions and local circumstances, the Divine Spirit giving no direction in the particular case, and the man having no power either to regulate their operation, or to resist their impulseis to suppose all that the Stoic and the Atheist could desire.-Such is the exalted merit of man, fashioned by the deistical jargon of that which equally disgraces Christianity and philosophy, by assuming their names.-Such are the lights afforded us by the rational Christian: who mends Calvinism by purgatory; secures to man a property in his actions, by rendering him the unresisting slave of motives; and maintains the interests of religion, by subjecting human conduct solely to the mechanical operation of secondary causes." p. 383-387. That we may the more perfectly understand Mr. Belsham's meaning, he supplies us with a specimen of the mode in which a judicious instructor, should endeavour to reclaim a vicious person, desirous of reformation.Having first carefully guarded him against all unscriptural doctrines, such as original sin, atonement, merits of Christ, and the like: having warned him not to expect any supernatural impressions upon his mind, nor to imagine that moral and religious habits are to be acquired in a way different from any other: having pointed his attention particularly to those parts of Scripture which direct him to do justice, to love mercy, &c. having urged him to fix in his mind, just and honourable sentiments of God, as the greatest, wisest, and best of beings'-he proceeds more circumstantially to the case of the offender; and having begun, in due form, with a definition of virtue, as a course of conduct leading to the greatest ultimate happiness, and of vice, as that which leads to misery, he next lays before the sinner, (or in the milder vocabulary of Mr. B. the person oppressed by the tyranny of evil habits,') the exact state of his case- You are deficient in virtuous habits, you wish to form them; you have contracted vicious affections, " you wish to exterminate them-you know the circumstances, in which ་ your vicious habits were originally contracted, and by which they have 'been confirmed. Avoid these cir cumstances, and give the mind a contrary bias. You know what impressions will produce justice, benevolence, &c. Expose your mind re'peatedly and perseveringly to the influence of these impressions, and the affections themselves will gradually rise, and insensibly improve, &c.— ALL that is required is, judgment, re♦ solution, time, and perseverance ! ! !' "So far as Mr. Belsham's language is intelligible, his process of conversion amounts to this-he tells the vicious person, that he has contracted bad habits, and he desires him by all means to get rid of them; how far this salutary advice and direction would operate to the reformation of the sinner, they who may have been reclaimed from vicious courses by such means can best say; but, one thing deserves particularly to be remarked, that whilst the mind of the sinner is directed to contemplate the excellence of virtue, to excite its own energies, to expose itself to impressions and the like,-not one word escapes of the propriety of prayer; on the contrary, all supplication for the divine assistance seems to be expressly excluded, and indeed evidently must be so, on Mr. Belsham's principles. For, if goodness be the necessary result of impressions and circumstances, the mechanical effect of particular traces on the brain, derived from the general operation of established and unalterable laws of our constitution; here is no room, in the particular case, for divine interference.-We may, according to Mr. B's principles, indulge in sentiments of complacency to that first cause, the beneficial effects of whose original arrangement we feel in the individual instance, but prayer addressed to the Divine Being can have no rational object.-Prayer, accordingly forms no part of this writer's system in no one line of his work does he recognize it as a Christian duty-indeed, the mention of it has not once escaped him. 6 "It is not then surprising, that we should find Mr. B. endeavouring to diminish the opportunities and inducements to prayer, by contending, that the Christian religion has not prescribed the appointment of a day, for the purposes of divine worship'but he goes farther-he affirms, that Christianity Christianity expressly abolishes every such distinction of days; that under the Christian dispensation 'every day is alike; no one more holy than another, that whatsoever 'employment, or amusement, is lawful or expedient upon any one day of the week, is equally lawful and expedient on any other day,'that consequently a virtuous man is performing his duty to the Supreme Being, as really, and as ac'ceptably, when he is pursuing the proper business of life, or even when enjoying its innocent and decent 'amusements, as when he is offering up direct addresses to him in the closet, or in the temple.'-From these premises he peremptorily concludes, that all distinctions of days should be exploded; that our business, and our amusements should be pursued on every day alike; that the laws which enjoin the observance of the Sabbath are unreasonable and un'just,' he likewise maintains, that the sabbatical spirit naturally leads to uncharitable and censorious feelings that persons who are so very religious on a Sunday, as to make 'regular attendance on the services ' of the church a matter of conscience, are too apt to lay aside religion for the rest of the week;' and that upon the whole, the Sabbath institution is highly injurious to the cause of virtue. To this pernicious institution, our author does not scruple to attribute the decrease of national morality; and he rejoices with a Christian joy, that the late ill advised' proposition for enforcing a stricter observation of the Lord's day,' was wisely rejected by the legislature." p. 389-392. XXV. EXTRACTS from the PENTA The similar passages which are selected from the Greek authors are numerous, and some very remarkable; particularly such as refer to the creation of the world, the formation of man, the flood, the building of Babel, &c. Not less remarkable perhaps are those from the Latin authors; as the fiction of Æneas's descent into hell, when his father Anchises, amongst other mysteries tells him, Principio cœlum, ac terras, camposque liquentes, Lucentemque globum lunæ, Titaniaque astra, Spiritus intus alit: totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet. Inde hominum,'pecudumque genus, vitæque volantum, Et quæ marmoreo fert monstra sub æquore pontus. Æneid. vi. 724. With the like also in the fourth book of the Georgics. The first book of Ovid's Metamorphoses is little else than a paraphrase upon Genesis. What opinion the wisest of the Romans had touching the heathen gods, cannot be better learnt than from Cato; who, being reduced to great extremities in the desert of Libya, was advised by Labienus to consult the oracle of Hammon, being then near unto it: to which Cato made a very remarkable reply, as recorded by Lucan. Estne Dei sedes nisi terra, et pontus, et To account for the knowledge the Greeks had of the divine mysteries, we should recollect that the Egyptians and Chaldæans were ever esteemed by all profane, as well as sacred historians, to have been the most antient of all nations: and we find in Scripture, that it was with these hations the Patriarchs had the greatest intercourse; for Abraham lived sometime with the Chaldeans, and in Egypt, where the children of Israel also with their posterity sojourned for some time. It is no wonder then these two nations should have so early a notion of sacred mysteries, as well as of all other kinds of learning. From Egypt it was that the Greeks took their light. Orpheus, the most antient among them, visited Egypt, and searched into all their records. Next after him, was Pythagoras; who not only travelled into Egypt, but into Chaldæa also; and it was took his notions, as the succeeding from Pythagoras chiefly that Plato poets did from Orpheus: so that the nearer they were to the original, the better always were their copies. "I am well aware, my Lord, that I have overlooked many places in the Pentateuch, which might have been inserted with similar passages from Greek or Latin Authors: but I am less anxious on this head, flattering myself that any such oversight may act as a spur to the young student, not only to supply the deficiencies, but to proceed through other books of the sacred writings, (which an ill state of health obliges me, not without reluctance, to decline) and hoping at the same time, that while he is endeavouring to make himself master of the Greek and Latin authors, he will pay an equal attention to the inspired writers: in short, that he will search the Scriptures; as they contain a greater fund of learning strictly so called, and require greater abilities, and a greater share of knowledge to understand all the parts of them, than any one book that ever was published in the world. Every page and almost every line of the Sacred Writings cannot fail of filling a reader of true taste and judgment with inexpressible pleasure and delight. The study of the Scriptures is indeed like the study of nature; the closer and more curious we are in our inquiries into either, the greater cause we shall find for wonder, praise, and adoration. N "It is observed by Mr. Addison, that the antient Jews, without considering them as inspired writers, have transmitted to us many hymns and odes, which excel those that are delivered down to us by the Greeks and Romans, in the poetry, as much as in the subject to which it is consecrated. Where shall we find the Deity described with such pomp and solem. nity as in the writings of the inspired. penmen? Whenever they speak of the Majesty of Heaven, they do it in such terms as sufficiently testify they were at that time more than men. To illustrate the manifest superiority of the sacred writers over every other writer whatever, it will be sufficient to quote only one instance in each of these particulars, namely, the Sublime, the Narrative, and the Pathetic. How sublime is the description David gives in the 18th Psalm, which he composed and sung, as we are informed by the Sacred History, 2 Samuel xxii. 1. in remembrance that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul! The earth 'trembled and quaked, the very foun⚫dations also of the hills shook, and • were removed, because he was wroth. There went a smoke out in his presence, and a consuming fire out of his mouth, so that coals were 'kindled at it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down, and it was dark under his feet. He rode upon the cherubims, and did fly; he came flying upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him with dark water, and thick clouds to cover him. At the brightness of his presence his clouds removed, hailstones, and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered out of heaven, and the Highest gave his thunder; hailstones, and coals of fire. He sent out his arrows, and scattered them; he cast forth his lightnings and destroyed them. The springs of water were seen, and the foundations of the round world were discovered at thy chiding, O Lord, at the blasting of the breath of thy ⚫ displeasure.' I have never met with any passage in either Greek or Latin author, that could be placed in competition with the abova sublime description. The wrath of Neptune, and the ef fects of it, though finely expressed in the following lines, will scarcely admit of a comparison. αυταρ ενερθε Ποσειδάων ετίναξε Γαιαν απειρεσίην, ορέων τ' αιπινα καρηνα. Παντες δ' εσσείοντο πόδες πολυπίδακε Ιδης, Και κορυφαι, Τρώων τε πολις, και νηες Οικία δε θνητοισι και αθανατοισι φανει περ. "But the sublimity of language is not the only beauty of the Scriptures; the narrative part will be found inexpressibly elegant, though delivered with all the air of simplicity imaginable. The creation of the work was such a subject, as any uninspired writer would have dressed up in all the pomp and grandeur that the art of elocution could devise: yet, in the sacred page, we find only one plain description of that great and important event, God said, Let there be light, and there was light; Let there be earth, and it was so.' "The Sacred Writings are full of this majestic simplicity and unaffected grandeur; and in the historical part no where is it more conspicuous, than where Joseph, making himself known to his brethren, expresses the tender concern of a dutiful child in the plainest, yet most pathetic language, I am Joseph;-Doth my father yet live? What a scope is here left for the imagination Every word is important and interesting, and each deserves a pause of contemplation. If we compare the following passage with the above, the inferiority of the Greek poet will be obvious at first sight, Οδυσσενς" Odyss. xvi. 204. "It is in these delicate strokes of nature, that one, among many, of Shakespear's great excellencies consists. When Macduff is informed that his wife, children, and servants were all slaughtered, he exclaims My wife kill'd too? He has no children.-All my pretty Macbeth, Act iv. Sc, 3." |