amiles of heaven, and the exclusive favour of the Almighty Ruler of the world. On the contrary, instead of the sunshine of joy, lo, disappointment and disgrace; instead of happiness and plenty, lo, scarcity and general distress and calamity, staring us in the face! instead of order, harmony and peace, behold the demons of discord let loose upon the world, wading through rivers of blood, with pestilence and famine in their train, accompanied by death in all its frightful shapes of terror and dis may. Bible Society. By Herbert ART. III. A Letter to Herbert reign Bible Society. By Ed "How long shall we continue to feel the conflicts and commotions, which, like a volcano or an earthquake, convulse and agitate the globe? Shall Europe be a scene of perpetual hostility The British and Foreign Bible and carnage, of fluctuating and uncertain conquest, of reciprocal plunder and Society, whether we regard its partition? Shall the earth be deluged with the blood of its children, merely constitution or its object, is de to gratify the lust of an unbounded ra- serving, we think, of the patronpacity, or the restless rage of a domineering ambition? When, O cruel and relentless War! when wilt thou cease to disturb and depopulate the world? When will thy reeking sword return into its scabbard, satiated with blood? When, O, thou enemy of the human race! shall the widow and the orphan cease to deplore the husband and the father slain? When shall we be able to say, Hitherto shalt thou go and no further here shall thy ravages be stayed!"-Pp. 439-444. age of Christians of all denomina. tions. Even from the received translation of the Scriptures, though, in the opinion of able and candid judges, it sometimes requires to be corrected, the seri ous, unprejudiced reader may deduce the principles of faith and conduct. We know many per. sons who, by the divine blessing "truth as it is in Je Some of the Sermons are parti- on their examination of it, have the simple cularly designed for the young; been led to an acquaintance with and in many of them there are such counsels for youth as every parent would wish to submit to the study of his offspring: in addition to this recommendation, the liveliness of the preacher's style is well adapted to the taste of the youthful reader. ART. II. An Inquiry into the Con sus," and however earnest are our wishes for a revisal of the authorized version, we cannot conscientiously decline our humble co. operation with the efforts that are making to give the most extensive circulation possible, to a volume which, in every translation, contains the words of eternal life, and which, together with a very large body of our countrymen, we would embrace all occasions of recognizing as the religion of Protestants. It might well be imagined, nor have we been disappointed in the hope, that this institution would Society against its willing adver experience zealous and general sary. support. There was also reason to apprehend that from a certain quarter it would meet with opposition: and we are sorry to confess that we have, for months, looked forward to its finding an active opponent in Dr. Marsh. The Margaret Professor's pamph let contains nine sections. In the first he endeavours to shew the usefulness and the necessity of churchmen's distributing the prayer-book together with the Bible to churchmen, and, moreover, to esFew of our readers, we pre- tablish the fact that some memsume, are ignorant that in Decem- bers of the church justify the ber last an auxiliary Bible society omission of the fiturgy in the diswas formed at Cambridge. On tribution of the Bible. The se the design being announced, the cond section he employs in an atMargaret Professor addressed to tempt to prove that his arguments the members of the senate a paper, against such a distribution of the in which he called upon them, as Scriptures alone by churchmen, friends of the church of England, are not inconsistent with the prin to withhold their countenance ciples and the spirit of Protesfrom any such attempt, and to tantism. In the third he examaid exclusively the well-known as ines the question by a reference sociation in Bartlett's buildings. to the practice of the reformers Not contented with having gone and the case of the reformation. thus far, he circulated, on the eve He points out, in the fourth, the of the meeting, a hand-bill (of analogy, on the one hand,, be which he now avows himself the tween the Bible Society and Lan. author,) sufficiently distinguished caster's system of education, on from the preceding by the circum- the other, between the association stances of its being anonymous in Bartlett's buildings and that and drawn up in the plural number. To the latter publication alone Dr. Clarke adverted in his speech at the Town Hall, and, with the most commendable delicacy, refrained from alluding to that which bore the Professor's signature: such was his desire of avoiding whatever might be construed into a personal attack. which styles itself the National Society. The fifth is a narrative of some memorable facts in English history, and is designed to evince that a disregard of the liturgy will lead to the downfall of church and state. In the sixth we have an application of these facts to the present subject. A remedy is proposed, in the seventh, for the In the "Inquiry, &c." on the apprehended evil: and this remeother hand, this intelligent writer dy is stated to consist in church. is animadverted on by name; a men transferring their patronage treatment of which he naturally from the Bible Society to that complains. The public, how with which it has been contrasted ever, will the less regret it when by Dr. Marsh. In the eighth sec. they find that Dr. Clarke has tion the Professor examines Mr. hence been induced to employ his Vansittart's objections to this meapen in a vindication of the Bible sure, and, in the ninth, details the reasons why he would cheer- he is not inattentive to the laws fully unite with Dissenters in a of argument: while his censures society the sole object of which are delivered with an air of plea should be the circulation of the santry and humour, they are inScriptures in foreign countries. termixed with many examples of We learn that the "Inquiry, &c." sound and conclusive reasoning. made its appearance on Monday, It is satisfactory to be informed January 27th, at four o'clock by Dr. Clarke that the Premier P. M. and that the same evening wrote to the Margaret Professor, Dr. Clarke's reply was finished, in acknowledgment of an appli. and the next morning was deliver- cation to him from that gentle ed to the printer. man, and declared his unequivo cal approbation of the new soci ety. He complains, in a note to the advertisement, of his name hav. ing been used without his permis- As a specimen of Dr. C.'s mansion by the Margaret Professor. ner, we transcribe a few sentenIn the advertisement itself he ces from p. 9, &c. states facts and enters into reason. ings which shew that the members of the imagined rival societies, may with perfect consistency support both and he informs his readers that having "fashioned his REPLY as nearly as he could to suit the complexion of the INQUIRY,' it was necessary to bla zon the pages in a similar manner with CAPITAL LETTERS and Italics,* otherwise an insignificant observation might sometimes pass off unheeded." In the compass of thirteen pages the writer of this letter has replied to whatever is of most consequence in the Inquiry, either as it respects the principle and ten. dency of the Bible Society or any personal differences between the Professor and himself. While he reproves his opponent for his hasty conclusions and ungenerous surmises, for his self-complacent and self-important language, and for some inaccuracies of composition, "Professing a zeal for the Liturgy, your seem to disparage the Bible, urging arguments founded on its inability to alone, it is weak, but when in company support itself; maintaining that when strong. Where is the Protestant that can agree with you in such opinions? After being accustomed from our tenderest years to regard the Bible with reverence, to open that sacred volume with mingled sentiments of awe and of gratitude, as containing all that is necessary for our salvation, shall a precept of youth that the Bible, when alone, is go forth to be inculcated in the minds incomplete and imperfect? Cease, I beseech you, from observations, which reoften sworn to renounce. mind us of the "Heresy" we have so ing in them, will soon call for more Your persistpowerful reprehension than mine: Voices thundering out of Sion, will proclaim the independence and inviolability of the Bible. Under this persuasion, and this conviction, I have written to you; but my appeal is to my country. Although I am well aware that every church has its Cardinals, of all men I was least prepared to expect any thing resembling them in you." Dr. C. however, has not super. seded the necessity of our noticing particular parts of the "Inquiry, &c." On this undertak. ing we shall accordingly enter; citing the obnoxious passages in * In this publication, as in his Sermon at St. Paul's and in his Vindication, &c. Professor M. has freely availed him self of these emphatics of the Press. Rev. the order in which we find them, and hoping, in this manner, to ceive of the views of others agreeconvince our readers that the ably to feelings the reality of Margaret Professor's hostility to which his own experience attests? the Bible Society, is dictated by He is guilty of a departure from political rather than by religious the rules of fair reasoning and of liberal manners. By assuming considerations. 66 P. 5. What better safe-guard [against that the advocates of the Bible the delusions of false interpretation of Society are a party," he begs the Bible] can we offer than the book of the question, and makes a rash and Common Prayer, which contains the doctrines of the Bible, according to its unjust estimate of their motives. true exposition?" In a country the majority of Now, without inquiring whether whose inhabitants are avowedly the book of Common Prayer be Christians and Protestants it is intelligible to all, we must be something new to see the friends permitted to observe that, at best, of the circulation of the Bible it can do no more than enable without note or comment repre men to know, what are the doc sented as a party, and especially trines of the Bible, according to when they are known to consist of the creeds &c. of the Church of Eng- almost every description of perland. The Bible itself it cannot sons in church and state. assist them to understand, because it does not contain any scriptural arguments and illustrations; being a volume, partly of devotional forms, partly of ecclesiastical directions and articles and in a very small degree of elementary instruction. Dr Marsh would have instanced more pertinently in the Abridgement of Pearson on the creed, or in Secker's lectures on the catechism. His statement places the matter on the mere foot. ing of human authority; with the substitution of the mass-book for the common-prayer, it is perfectly convertible to the service of any the generality of his Protestant Romish priest. 10. "It is not the Bible itself, but the perversion of it, the wresting of the Scriptures (as St. Peter expresses it) by the unlearned and unstable,' with which [whom] England now swarms, whence the danger proceeds." And again, 11. Have the persons to whom Bibles are gratuitously distributed either the leisure or the inclination or the ability to weigh the arguments for religious opinions?" Assuredly, with all our respect for the Professor's talents and attainments, we are astonished at such reasonings. We believe that readers, will consider them as 7. "Such are grounds [viz. the princi- more than "savouring of popery", ples of Protestantism] on which a (8). The principle and the tenchurchman Dr. Clarke, in his speech dency of this argument, instead of at Cambridge,] justifies the distribution lying concealed from public of the Bible alone, or unaccompanied with the Liturgy: and they deserve par- view" (ib.), are plain enough even ticular examination, not as being the to "the unlearned." These are sentiments of an individual, but as being the sentiments of a party." Why does the Margaret Pro fessor introduce a word so offensive as "party?" Does he con the common-places of Bossuet and of other celebrated Romanists, when they combat the reformed, when their aim is to evince the necessity of an infallible guide and judge, and to justify the prohibi- advantage can the cause of Reli tion of vernacular translations of ligion derive from a nominal uni the Scriptures. 12. "If you ask a churchman why it is right to kneel at the altar, when he receives the sacrament [the bread and wine in the Lord's supper: for "sacrament" is an unscriptural term), he will answer, that it is an act of reverence, due from every Christian to the institutor of that holy rite, at whose name, it is declared in Scripture, that every knee should bow.'" 66 formity? Professor Marsh has done nothing more in the above statement than, renewed his concession that the Bible alone is insufficient for conducting men to an acquaintance with the doc trines, &c. of the English hierarchy. 17. "-it requires no examination to discover, what Latimer and Ridley, what Cranmer and Hooper, what our great Reformers would have said, could Divinity in an English university would they have foreseen, that a Professor of be publicly censured by churchmen and clergymen, within the precincts of that of a book which they composed, and university, for urging the distribution which contains the doctrines for which If the answer can satisfy the Margaret Professor, it is well; we believe that he has laboured hard," as he himself reminds us (9), to promote the study of the Bible;" though in this specimen of his interpretation of it he is sadly unsuccessful. The words they died." which he quotes, from the receiv. With our author's good leave, ed translation of Philipp. ii. 10, the "Professor of Divinity" has ought to have been rendered in not been censured for simply the name of Jesus. Conformably urging the distribution" of the with the original, Ev Tw ovoμari, liturgy, which his clerical oppo2.5. A., they are so rendered in nents are as ready as himself to the Syriac, &c. To "how the circulate among their parishionknee in the name of Jesus," is to ers, but for urging the distribution worship in his name: it is an ac. of it as necessary to accompany knowledgement that he is Media-, the Bible. This is the actual tor and Lord, "to the glory of case, on which "our great RE God the Father." The eleventh FORMERS," we presume, would verse, contrasted with the phrase, have passed the same judgment as ology in Rom. xiv, 11, fixes the Dr. Clarke. Warmly as they were meaning of the clause beyond all attached to a book which they reasonable doubt. composed," they never even ap 16, 17.“ Since we know by expe Peared to place it on a level with the sacred volume. rience that the study of the Bible does not lead all men to the same conclusions, or there would not be so many Protes tants who differ from the established church, may it not be said without reproach that churchmen should not content themselves with the distribution of the Bible alone?" This argument would be less glaringly inconclusive did church men agree in one interpretation of the articles and catechism contain. ed in the Common Prayer. What 19. "Without denying the validity [purity] of those other sources, such as tradition and the decrees of councils,, they could never have secured to the Bible such an interpretation as they themselves believed to be true. For this purpose it was previously necessary to divest it of the glosses, which perverted its real meaning. But did they stop here, and leave the Bible without any interpretation? No." A personal interpretation of the Scriptures, and an imagined expo |