truths of Christianity. (See Wetstein's Notes on this passage, and 1 Tim. iv. 7.)

"I forbear to mention other meanings which the word anointing might be used to express.

are sufficient for our purpose.

These

"The term Holy One, in such a relation as it holds to the other words in the present sentence, may denote either God, or Christ, or some other being.

"Ye know all things, literally expresses the meaning, ye have the attribute of omniscience. Besides this meaning, it may signify, ye are fully acquainted with all the objects of human knowledge; or, ye know every truth connected with Christianity; or, ye have all knowledge necessary to form your faith, and direct your conduct; or the proposition may require some other limitation: for all things is one of those terms, the meaning of which is continually to be restrained and modified by a regard to the subject present to the mind of the writer.

"This statement may afford some imperfect notion of the various senses which the words before us may be used to express......It must be remembered, that this passage has been adduced merely by way of illustration; and that if it were necessary, an indefinite number of similar examples might be quoted."

But it is not only in detached passages regarded by themselves that Mr. Blanco White would maintain the sense to be thus obscure. He would have

it believed, that in many cases, no number of such passages, brought ever so skilfully to bear on one another, can suffice to clear this obscurity up, or to bring out a precise and definite meaning. In the Letters on Heterodoxy and Orthodoxy, he appeals thus to his imaginary correspondent:

"You must frequently have observed the hopelessness of the attempts which are constantly made to establish various points of Christian doctrine, by logical arguments, founded on detached texts of Scripture. You must have seen regular collections of passages, selected with the utmost patience, and arranged into classes with the greatest ingenuity ......Most works on controversial divinity, are attempts of this kind, to draw some abstract proposition, as the unquestionable result of the various expressions of Scripture upon the given subject. You cannot but have observed, moreover, how short all such attempts fall of the intended object; how very seldom any one is convinced by such works, unless, by a predisposition of the will, he reads them in order fully to become, or to continue, of the same opinion."

The foregoing analysis may afford some notion, though certainly an inadequate one, of the line of argument which has conducted Mr. Blanco White up to this point. We now are brought at once to his conclusion, viz. that since the sense of Scripture respecting those points on which the Christian world is divided into orthodox and heterodox, must thus ever be obscure and ambiguous, the circum

stance of our having arrived at one belief or at another respecting it, cannot be of that paramount importance which is usually supposed; in other words, that the common opinion, which identifies what are called orthodox opinions with the scriptural notion of saving Faith, cannot be a correct one.

"If saving Faith implies orthodoxy, i. e. acquiescence in a certain collection of abstract deductions from the Scriptures, as logically true, or properly inferred from the language of Scripture, and no higher or more certain means to attain this object have been given to men by God, than their individual logical powers: the discovery of saving Faith has an infinite number of chances against it, in respect to each individual. Could this be the plan of the All-wise and All-good for the salvation of His creatures ?"

And again :

"I repeat it with the most heartfelt confidence: a just and merciful God, when making the greatest display of His love to mankind......God, the Author and Fountain of the blessings prepared for all mankind in the Gospel, must not be supposed to have made them dependant on doctrines so intricate, so incapable of being proposed in clear and uncontradictory language, so entirely unconnected with the sources of moral certainty."-Her. and Orth. p. 26. In this summary manner, does Mr. Blanco White dispose of that whole portion of divine revelation which relates to the mysteries of the world to come, and brings before us the invisible Object of our

Faith. If considered by itself, he says, it is so ambiguous, that we that we can never ascertain which, among its many possible meanings, is the real one: and if, to escape the doubts thus suggested, we seek certainty in the authorized interpretations, a short reflection must convince us, that unless these interpretations rest on infallible authority, all the certainty which they can afford us must be founded on self-delusion. Hence, that it is inconsistent with God's goodness to suppose, that on these matters He should require of us any one belief in preference to any other; that all of us may abide fearlessly by the result of our separate judgments; and that the conclusion at which each arrives will be, as far as he is concerned, the true one.

Such is the conclusion which he deduces from what he considers the grand principle of Protestantism, the recognition of the text of Scripture as the sole infallible guide in matters of religion. And from this conclusion, he maintains that we have no possibility of escape, except by going all lengths with the advocates of the opposite system, and submitting implicitly to the Romanist figment, of a standing infallible judge of religious controversies. Between these two extreme opinions,—absolute Latitudinarianism on the one hand, and on the other, unreserved submission to all the dogmata of Trent, Mr. Blanco White would persuade Protestants that no middle ground is open to them, that any middle position they may attempt to take up, must be altogether untenable and self-contra

dictory; and that no other account can be given of the fact, that so many able men have imagined such a position tenable, except the omnipotence of party prejudice. This dilemma will doubtless appear to many persons so excessively absurd, as to be altogether unworthy of serious notice. Mr. Blanco White himself, indeed, seems half conscious that such will be the case, and that on this question, his speculations will be thought deserving of no other answer than a strong expression of disapprobation. "I know," he says, painting to himself the indignation he shall excite, as if the fault were in those who felt it, and not in its object, "I know that few will attempt the mental examination necessary for the acknowledgment of (what I have stated). A storm of feeling will arise at the view of the preceding argument; and impassioned questions, whether Christianity is a dream,-whether Christ could leave us in such a state of uncertainty, -whether there is no difference between truth and error,-&c. &c. will bring the enquiry to an end." Nor would there be need to bring it to any other end, were all the class of persons calling themselves Protestants so confirmed and settled in their views, as, like those thus spoken of, to perceive intuitively, and reject indignantly, the specious errors to which they are invited.

But as it is not the fortune of all persons bred up in our communion to have imbibed views of this settled and confirmed character, especially with regard to the authority of our national establish