INDEX OF BOOKS REVIEWED.

For Remarkable Passages in the Criticisms, Extracts, Ecclesiastical
and other Intelligence, see the Indexes at the end of the Volumes,

QUARTERLY

THEOLOGICAL REVIEW.

JUNE, 1825.

66

Litera Sacræ; or the Doctrines of Moral Philosophy and Scriptural Christianity compared, in a Series of Letters. 8vo. pp. 832. Longman. 1825,

9s.

WE may gather from several hints thrown out by the anonymous author of these letters, that he is a member of the Church of England, and moreover a sincere man, pressing forward with laudable zeal towards the high mark of perfectibility, to which he conceives human nature may attain, even in this mortal state. His object in writing partakes of the good feeling involved in the character we have described. A friend, it seems, had been unwillingly disturbed by the specious and daring manner in which sceptical objections had been urged against the authority of that book on which our most hallowed anticipations depend;" and this uneasiness had been increased by the want of unanimity apparent among Christians themselves. With this inducement our author ventures upon the benevolent task of re-establishing his wandering faith on a more certain basis; and prosecutes his design in the present work: "as I know," says he, "of none who exactly speak my sentiments on the subjects upon which you ask for information, I will attempt to express them myself." Of the ability or the weakness, the principles or the prejudices of this friend we know as little as we do of the author himself; but we would suggest, as a hint in the outset, to the latter, and to many other well-meaning champions of the Christian faith, that it is neither judicious nor just, to tax every individual whose mind labours under the lamentable darkness of scepticism, with being the gratuitous wilful promoter of his own ruin-in consequence of a disinclination to subdue the pride of human intellect, and to eradicate that undue sense of its own powers, which is one

of the most formidable obstacles that can be opposed to the reception of Divine truth."

That proud and prejudiced sceptics exist, is a truth as undeniable as that foul exhalations occasionally deform the loveliest scenes of nature; but that there are other men not unwilling to humble their minds before sound, legitimate, and to them conclusive reasoning, is also a truth, which few, who have at all mixed with the more enlightened circles of society, can deny. Many there are who doubt because they cannot be convinced; and some, we fear, have their doubt increased and confirmed by the injudicious treatment of those to whom they have revealed their disquietude-persons who are desirous to receive the truth, and who would cast themselves before their Maker, as (unfortunately for themselves) before an unknown God, with the sincere and humble prayer," Lord, help thou mine unbelief." In our dealings, therefore, with sceptics, let us remember, at least, that there may be these two classes; that in the human mind, to use the words of the very author before us as illustrating our remarks, "from the different lights in which the understanding of men, while clouded in this flesh, must look upon the same subject, there will be different degrees of apprehension and widely different states of knowledge." Had all advocates for Christianity acted under this conviction, we feel confident that so many would not have been cut off from every hope of receiving the truth; complaining with too much reason, that when they sought for argument they were assailed with reproach, and accused of feelings and dispositions which had not a shadow of existence in their bosoms.

We are the more inclined to offer these remarks, because we perceive a little tendency to self-sufficiency in this otherwise respectable writer. We have praised him, because we think him in a very great degree entitled to praise ; but he must excuse us, if, as candid reviewers, we presume to observe that he is occasionally somewhat too positive in opinions upon which the best men are far from agreed. Plunging at once into some of the most subtile mazes of metaphysical enquiry, he there comports himself as if possessed of Ariadne's clue; he reasons with an unbecoming confidence in opposition to a host who might justly be called the giants of their day; and speaks as if he alone, in the nineteenth century, had received certain intimation of the truth, and might be consulted by his doubting friend as an infallible oracle respecting certain holy mysteries, which it is possible the very angels themselves may have desired to look into in vain. Before passing sentence on such men as Newton, Locke, and Paley, he should have recalled to mind the words.

of his friend who spoke of them as possessing "intellectual powers, which were to his as Jupiter to a glow-worm." It may also fairly admit of a doubt, how far the cause of religion is promoted by that indiscriminate rejection of the use of reason, and jealous hostility against the powers of the mind, which are implied in many of the common place recommendations of humility, and prostration of intellect (we do not like the term) with which the pages of some writers so frequently abound.

Our readers would not thank us for entering at large upon an elaborate discussion of the real bearings and proper meaning of pride and humility. Suffice it, therefore, to say, that in our opinion, the humility enjoined by our Saviour, true Christianhumility, is essentially different from that to which we now allude; and partakes of many qualities inseparable from the free use of every mental talent bestowed on us by an Almighty hand, when we were made rational free-agents, and capable of discerning the Deity in his works of nature and of grace. We know not, in fact, a more powerful instrument of which the sneering sceptic may avail himself, than a collection of those phrases which, construe them however favourably, insinuate that enquiry is objectionable." It is reasonable," (says one of our ablest writers,) "to think that as the mind is a nobler workand of a higher order than the body, even more of the wisdom and skill of the Divine architect hath been employed in its structure, and it is by the proper culture of those powers, the seeds of which are implanted in our minds, that we are capable of all those improvements in intellectuals, in taste and morals, which exalt and dignify human nature."

The field of revelation and the noble snbjects connected with it, will, we maintain, when duly cultivated by these powers, produce fruits of finer quality, than such as spring from a confined, and, what may be called, a mere textuary faith. Where in fact shall we find defenders of our creed, by whom the real arguments of infidels are confuted, but amongst Christians of the most enlarged minds and most expanded views. It is a due encouragement of the best powers of the mind, which can alone enable us to proceed satisfactorily in an useful direction, animating our exertions, gratifying that curiosity which it is not only reasonable but praiseworthy to indulge, conducting us upwards to those eminences whence, as from another Pisgah, the eye and heart may wander over the vast and beautiful regions of divine truth.

We shall now proceed to a review of the main objects of the work before us. And first it is asserted, that without the light of revelation, man must naturally be ignorant of the Being and