essor depends upon his exertions, and 'n consequence the reputation of that university is so high, that Englishmen think it necessary to finish their education by passing a year there. They learn shallow metaphysics there, and come back worse than they went, inasmuch as it is better to be empty than flatulent."

[To be continued.]

SIR, Warrington, 8th April, 1817. having long been a desideratum

I beer a dissident mo

have every civil disability, on account of religious sentiment removed from our code of laws, I conceive it to be in cumbent upon each individual to do all in his power towards the accomplishment of such an object. Permit me then to lay my thoughts before the readers of the Repository upon the Ceremony of Matrimony. I am one of those who think this ought to be considered a civil, rather than a religious service. As, however, this change can only be effected by a legislative enactment, of which as yet there seems but little probability, we must be content to be joined in wedlock by the dictum of a minister of the gospel and as the law now stands, this minister must be one of the Established Church. One sect only is exempt from this servile submission. I shall not now notice the many objectionable passages in the prescribed form, which are obnoxious to purity of taste and purity of mind. But as an Unitarian, I do protest against a statute, which allows no alternative, but that the great bulk of our fellowsubjects shall, in such cases, repair to a temple, consecrated for Trinitarian worship, join in a service with a minister ordained to such worship, and at the close of the ceremony receive from him a benediction, which, to say the least, bears the stamp of inconsistency to one who believes his God to be one undivided person. As in the instance of the Slave Trade, we have witnessed the march of mind caused by the laudable perseverance of individuals in a virtuous cause, I think a similar perseverance in each successive session, pursued by the enlightened and indefatigable advocates of civil and religious liberty in the great senate of the nation, would as certainly, and perhaps

VOL. XII.

S G

more speedily, procure for the Dissenters the privilege to be married by their own ministers, as well as the removal of all illiberal restrictions for conscience' sake.

The case referred to by J. F. [XI. 591,] of a clergyman having refused to marry a person, because she had not been baptized, materially enhances the importance of speedily procuring such relief: for I fully agree with J. F. that the number of Anti-baptists is rapidly increasing.

It is nevertheless certain, that the established clergy will defend most strenuously their exclusive right to the performance of this service, so long as it is accompanied by any considerable emoluments. By curtailing the emoluments, we should greatly facilitate the object in view. And such curtailment is completely in our power. The legal fee for the performance of a marriage service is trifling. It has, however, been custoinary with all classes, except the poor, gratuitously to enlarge the fee according to the rank of the parties. Besides which, the happy pair or their attendants are assailed by a whole host of subaltern church officers. The clerk, the ringers, the singers, (and in one instance which I witnessed, the sexton and the sexton's assistant) levy a contribution upon the poor bridegroom's benevolence; thinking, I suppose, that the happy man will at such a moment hesitate not to reward every one attached to the sacred edifice, which has been the instrument of his induction, as J. F. emphatically expresses it, into "the only bliss of paradise which has survived the fall."

Let then the minister of each Dissenting society compose a form of marriage service, and henceforth let every Dissenter be married by his or her own minister, and pay to him, and to him only, such gratuitous fee as they can afford and think proper. And since the existing law requires that the service shall be repeated by a clergyman of the Established Church, the already wedded pair must submit to be again married secundum legem. But let them not pay one iota more than the fees enjoined by law. Thus will the scanty incomes of our own ministers be increased, and when the church finds itself thus deprived of the

SIR, Bath, 10th May, 1817.

E mayor and town clerk of Liverpool appear to be either totally ignorant of the gospel, or disposed to persecute all its rational expositors. If they had had any acquaintance with its true doctrines, they must have known that Unitarianism is its uniform foundation from beginning to the end; or they must have charged Jesus himself with blasphemy, on the same declaration, on which they have urged this accusation against Mr. Wright, For the Lord

Jesus, in his solemn address to the Father, calls him the only true God, and declares himself to be his embas. sador. The apostle Peter also says, Jesus Christ was a man approved of God by many signs and wonders, which God wrought by him in the midst of the Jews, and that God raised him from the dead, whereas God himself can never die: and the apostle Paul declares, that though there be many who are called gods, yet Christians acknowledge only one God, the Father. Besides, persecutors always bring false charges against those who are obnoxious to their displeasure. There were many false witnesses employed against the Lord Jesus himself. Heathen and Popish persecutors have always ignominiously aspersed the victims of their malice. The persecutors of Mr. Wright have followed their example. We should, therefore, in all cases distinguish false hood from truth; and, as Christians, we should judge no man, lest we bring judgment on ourselves, but leave every one to follow the faith which was once delivered to the saints, according to

W. H.

P. S. In your last Number, [p. 224,] you inserted Root instead of Booth, Boston.

SIR,

June 1st, 1817. HE subject of registration of places for Dissenting worship, is one that interests most materially every class and denomination of Protestant Dissenters; and each class will find subject of alarm, in the detail of the investigation of the case of Mr. John Wright, before the Quarter Sessions, at Liverpool. The point more particularly requiring the serious consideration of the larger body of Dissenters, is that which was very strenuously maintained by the supporters of the information, respecting such places as are registered" being set apart" for religious worship. The cause of Dissent has owed so much in its rise and progress, in most parts of the kingdom, to the exercise of religious worship in a room or in apartments of a dwelling-house; and this plan is now so much more generally in practice among those who preach in villages, or visit them for the purpose of assisting in religious worship in places where no particular building is devoted to that purpose, that it becomes a matter for serious consideration whether legal objections can be maintained successfully against

such practices-if they can, it will seem, that one of the Rev. Mr. Raffles' congregation, in his zeal, by legal modes, to suppress a meeting of persons espousing sentiments opposed to those of his class, has been drawing down more michief on his own party than they will thank him for; and it is to be hoped, this will induce the whole party to shew, that in future they have their zeal exercised only under the direction of knowledge. But my object in troubling you with these lines is, to request of some of your legal friends, to consider the subject and give such information upon it, as will satisfy the friends (and practisers) of freedom of religious worship, of their security in persevering in their plaus,

of Hastings, to do penance during one year, for every man whom he knew he had slain there, and during forty days for every man whom he knew he had struck, and if he was ignorant of the number whom he had slain or struck, to do penance, at the discretion of the Bishop of the Diocese, one day in every week as long as he lived; without even excepting those, who, they say in the preamble to these very canous, did of right owe military service to William Duke of Normandy. But an alternative was granted by the church to these delinquents, which may explain the motive of the seeming humanity of the canons; the penances might be redeemed with perpetual alms, by building or endowing a church. There is one of these canons, however, which for the benefit of mankind, one could wish were received by all nations. It is the sixth, which says, Let those who fought only for hopes of a reward know, that they ought to do penance as for murder.

A Prayer from Arnobius. Da veniam, Rex Supreme, tuos persequentibus famulos; et quod tue benignitatis est proprium, fugientibus ignosce tui nominis et religionis cultum. Non est mirum si ignoraris; majoris est admirationis si sciaris.

Forgive, Almighty Power, the persecutors of thy servants; and in the peculiar benevolence of thy nature, pardon those men whose unhappiness it is to be strangers to thy name and worship. That they should be ignorant of thy Divine nature, is less the subject of wonder, than that any finite being should presume to know Thee aright.

ART. I.

UNITARIAN CONTROVERSY IN
SCOTLAND.

[Concluded from p. 269.] Discourses on the Principal Points of the Socinian Controversy. By Ralph Wardlaw.

A Vindication of Unitarianism, in Reply to Mr. Wardlaw's Discourses on the Socinian Controversy. By James Yates, M. A.

Unitarianism Incapable of Vindication: A Reply to the Rev. James Yutes's Vindication of Unitarianism. By Ralph Wardlaw.

A Sequel to A Vindication of Unitarianism, in Reply to Mr. Wardlaw's Treatise, entitled, Unitarianism Incapable of Vindication. By the Author of the Vindication.

UNITA

TNITARIANS revere the Scriptures; but they do not hold the English translation sacred: Unitarians revere the Scriptures; but they know that every syllable of the received text is not an exact transcript of the original record; they are therefore anxious to distinguish what is genuine from what is spurious, and in this investigation they prove their willingness to follow the best guides, and to adhere rigidly to those rules by which all agree, that questions of this sort ought to be decided. Unitarians revere the Scriptures; but they prefer those in terpretations of doubtful and difficult passages, which agree with natural, and harmonize with the clear and uniform tenour of revealed, religion, to those which contradict both. Unitarians revere the Scriptures; but they wish to shew their reverence by deducing their religious opinions entirely from a pure text, aided by liberal and enlightened criticism: not by assuming an hypothesis, and endeavouring to establish it on the corruptions which the lapse of time has introduced into the Sacred Records, and the obscurities which have arisen from ancient manners, usages and phrases. Yet Mr. Wardlaw uniformly speaks as though

it were an indisputable and undisputed truth, that Unitarians never respect the Scriptures, but when the Scriptures seem to favour their preconceived opinions: that they make reason their God, and Scripture its throne; that whenever any difficult passage comes in their way, they observe no sort of ceremony; they make the shortest work imaginable of it: without reason or pretence of reason they say "Oh, the text is certainly wrong here: this will not comport with the system; this must be an interpolation!" and then by the aid of Griesbach, the Improved Version and the most latitudinarian and licentious principles," the grand peculiarities of the gospel, all that gives it vitality and soul, are made to disappear. Then an alarm is sounded against "the pride of philosophy, misnamed theology, whose only object is to pervert the Scriptures from their obvious and simple meaning" (Pref. to Unit. Incap. of Vind.), against the wickedness which endeavours" to make the common people jealous and distrustful of that translation of the Bible in which they have been accustomed to confide:" (ibid.) against a most dangerous and faithless set of personages called "Unitarian geogra phers," who "endeavour by the discovery of false readings, false renderings, and false interpretations, to lay down a map of the way to heaven, entirely different from the one which is there so distinctly delineated." (Pref., &c.) Next when a syllable must not be breathed against the authorities to which Unitarians appeal, bursts forth" indignant disdain of that provoking yet pitiful disingenuousness, which is for ever, in the case of the uninformed, vaunting of the authority of Griesbach; making its incessant appeal, in terms of unqualified generality, and in tones of triumphant confidence, to the text of Griesbach, as if no one could reasonably pretend to know any thing of apostolic doctrine, unless he were familiar with Griesbach; as if the whole texture of the New Testament,

warp and woof, had, on this subject at least, been thoroughly changed by him; as if Scripture and Scripture's laws lay hid in night,' till God said, Let Griesbach be, and all was light.'" (Unit. Incap. of Vind. pp. 39, 34.) And last of all is assumed a louder and deeper, and more threatening tone: "To wrest the Scriptures is, in the highest degree, dishonouring to their Divine Author. It is doing to him what is felt and revealed by a fellow-creature, as one of the grossest of insults. By wilfully perverting from its true meaning, (that is, from the meaning which we are sensible the spirit of truth intended it to convey,) any passage of the word of God; or by applying it to a purpose which it was not designed to serve, we are guilty, not of a slight and venial fault, but of a crime of deep and aggravated enormity; a crime, the very thought of which should make us tremble. It is nothing less, than imputing to the Author of truth, sentiments contrary to what he meant to express; making the God of immutable veracity a liar; attempting to impress the seal of heaven on falsehood and forgery. This is high treason against the Divine Majesty." (Discourses, pp. 36, 37.)

*

Why is all this? Why are Unitarians thus incessantly charged with perverting the Scriptures, and menaced with the fury of the Divine wrath for this heinous crime? Their language is " Prove that a text is a genuine part of Scripture; prove that the interpretation you propose is most consistent with the terms in which the passage is expressed, and with the clear and uniform tenour of Scrip

It is true this passage is not expressly applied to Unitarians, but one can hardly help suspecting Mr. Wardlaw designed that his hearers should apply it to them: for he appears always to take it for granted that Unitarians alone can pervert the Scriptures. Trinitarians are in no danger of incurring the guilt the idea of the probability of it seems never to enter their minds. "I am precluded," says Mr. Wardlaw, (Unit. Incap. of Vind. p. 38,) " from the use of points of admiration; but the intelligent reader, I should fancy, will be disposed to supply a triad of them, when he finds Mr. Yates censuring Trinitarians for their nonadherence to those severe and unaccommodating rules of interpretation which he has laid down. This from a Unitarian! Mr.

ture, and we will admit its truth, however difficult or mysterious it may be." "Let me but know clearly, that God has signified his mind and will; and then, let the subject be ever so unfathomable by me, I will receive and believe it; because no better reason can possibly be given for any thing, than that God hath said it." (Lindsey.) The language of Trinitarians is "This is the word of God, and if this be not the meaning of it, all Scripture is fallacious and absurd. If the Bible do not contain such and such doctrines,—the doctrines of the Trinity and Atonement, for example, we will burn it!"-Which language indicates the greater reverence of the Scriptures?

The very principle on which the system of Trinitarianism is founded; that without which it cannot stand a single instant, and which Mr. Wardlaw himself calls the principle of Trinitarian interpretation, namely, that the second person in the Trinity was so united to the man Christ Jesus as to form but one person, retaining the Divine in conjunction with the human nature, appears to us to imply a greater practical contempt of the Scriptures than is to be paralleled in the whole history of Unitarianism. It places an hypothesis, previously assumed as true, above the revelation which it affects to explain; it fills the mind with a theory, which must prevent it from attaining the truth, should the truth, (which the most staunch believer in the Trinity must allow is possible) be contrary to the theory; it uniformly, and as a matter of course, brings the text to the system, not the

Yates must excuse me, but I really could not read the charge without a smile!"This self-complacency would be very amusing, if one could avoid pitying the person, who in reply to the evidence adduced of his having grossly mis-stated the opinions of awhole body of Christians,deems it sufficient, with an air which shews that he is upon the very best terms with himself, to repeat his calumny. "Truly, the laxity of their views respecting the plenary inspiration and universal authority of the Scriptures, is a matter of such flagrant and lamentable notoriety, that I feel no anxiety to defend myself on this head from the charge of misrepresentation, to any who are at all acquainted with their writings." Incap, of Vind, p. 23.

Unit.