All, he says, who are on the side of God will believe in modern miracles; all who are not, that is, the whole Christian world, with very few exceptions, "will start up, "will start up, detected Antichrists, and run shivering off with mows and yells to the ranks of the adversary." And for this special purpose, this notable object of segregating the covertly Infidel Record newspaper, for example, or Evangelical Magazine, from the Jewish Expositor and Morning Watch, and for sending all the piety of this and every other Christian land, our religious laity, our dissenting brethren of all sects, our clergy orthodox and evangelical, but more especially the latter, at whom the whole article tacitly glances, for sending them all as "detected Antichrists, with mows and yells," to the avowed ranks of infidelity, the Jewish Expositor holds that God is to evince the miraculous gifts of tongues, and healing, and casting out devils. And added to this, he says, is another "peculiar reason; namely, "to vindicate the Divine government and interposition." He affirms, that in the religious world "the doctrine of Divine Providence is almost extinct ;" another of those sweeping charges which shew either an utter want of discrimination, or a want of "candid" construction. The religious world is bad enough, but it will not be mended by charges uttered in a spirit like this.

The writer selects for his special displeasure the well-known author of "The Tribute of Sympathy," Mr. Newnham, whom he is pleased to call "a materialist." We have expressed our doubts respecting a few statements in Mr. Newnham's Essays on Superstition, but to call him, on the strength of those essays, 66 a materialist," and to intimate that his writings are a part of the "peculiar reasons why God is to revive miracles, is to our minds a very remarkable way of arriving at a conclusion. We have not the pleasure of a

personal acquaintance with Mr. Newnham, and we never spoke to or saw him; but he has sent various papers to our work with his name; from which, and his other writings, we should have as soon imagined that he is an Esquimaux as a Materialist. He who could write that scriptural and affectionate tractate on Christian sympathy, will know how to forgive the charge and to pray for the accuser.

We need scarcely add, that the Christian Observer, in consequence of its exposition of the cure of Miss Fancourt, comes in for its due share of Neological tendencies. When the writer says, that "the leading periodical of the religious world attempts to put down miraculous manifestations with menace and intimidations, and threatens us with the tokens of its high displeasure, unless we recant our errors ;" we should not, for various reasons, have suspected that he alluded to the Christian Observer, had he not elsewhere named that work, and pointed the application. Our first reason for not so suspecting would have been that we should not have known ourselves under the novel appellation of "the leading journal of the religious world;" for though we have doubtless our circle of friends, it would be the most drivelling vanity to appropriate, amidst our contemporaries, such a title as the above. Indeed, to say the truth, our circulation among this same 66 religious world" has rather been select than diffuse; and perhaps partly so for the very reason that we do not feel it right to minister to its taste for excitement and novelties. Equally unable should we have been to recognise ourselves in the description of "attempting to put down miraculous manifestations." Our object was to shew that there was no "miraculous manifestation' to put down. Equally inapplicable also is the specification of proceeding "with menace and intimidation;" for we keep no "cat in

soak;" and most anxious were we to heal a difference, though we durst not vouch for a miracle. And as for the threatened tokens of "high displeasure," they are a mere invention of our friendly castigator; and who are the "us" that we are alleged to have threatened, we shall not pretend to conjec ture; for as regards the Jewish Expositor we can say with all truth, that we were not even aware, till the paper under consideration was mentioned to us by a friend, that the subject of miracles, or the case of Miss Fancourt, had been alluded to in its pages. The title of "Jewish Expositor" would not have led us to that anticipation. We, however, find no fault with the writer for believing that five hundred persons spoke miraculously after their tongues were cut out; it is a matter of opinion, which neither makes for nor impugns Scripture ;-but he ought not to accuse us of giving countenance to Neological blasphemies, because we believe differently. Does he see no difference between the word of God and the word of man? Would he have us believe Titus Oates, because a Neologist does not believe Moses or the Prophets? The other "peculiar reasons," seem to us equally invalid for proving that God ought to interfere with miracles at the present moment. It is not however necessary to go further into detail, and we fear our readers are heartily tired of this not very profitable or entertaining controversy. Should our Jewish friend, (for such, after all, we unaffectedly consider him, notwithstanding the "cat in soak,") say that we have rather complained of his spirit than "pleaded both sides of the case;" we readily admit it, only reminding him that he did not invite us to "discuss" or "parley," but to listen to his dicta; and our object in return has been to shew that the dicta of the school into which he has entered, are couched in a style of assumption

that forbids fair and equal confer. ence. Who can argue with infal libility? who can converse calmly with a cat-o-nine-tails over his head? It is by this oracular dictation, this contempt for the opinions of their fellow-Christians, this self-assumed superiority over "the evangelicals" and "the religious world," and above all those most unfair and uncharitable insinuations, that those who do not take up the new doctrines are hypocrites, Neologians, and men who "sweat down faith to inanition, that the writers of the Morning-Watch party have led away many weak and credulous persons who mistake confident assertion for truth; but in the same proportion they have clouded whatever of real argument they may have on their side, and involved themselves in a mist of paradoxes which well-judging persons scarcely think it worth their while to attempt to dissipate, seeing how little they are likely to gain in the eyes of positive and prejudiced persons by their trouble. The Jewish Expositor has not followed the Morning Watch in all its doctrines; but in following it on the subject of modern miracles it has allowed itself to be quite as dogmatical in its spirit. But to dogmatize is to forbid "parley;" and as ourfashion is to hear both sides of a question and not to reject all "candid inquiry," "discussion," and "amicable investigation," we cannot compete on equal terms with an opponent who sets himself above all such formalities. We do not mean to intimate that the Jewish Expositor does not say some things that are true as well as many that are new; but according to the old adage, the true is not new, and the new is not true. As for the part which is true, "the religious world" will do well to profit from whatever is well founded even in animadver. sions not the most smoothly conveyed; nor will they lament to see expelled from their nominal ranks, whatever is worldly or hypocri

tical; but let not those who are really faithful be alarmed by declamations, and turned aside from sound doctrine by confident assertions. If they are told that their rejection of modern miracles, either Scottish or English, arises from hypocritical and sinister motives; that they must either accede to the opinon of the Jewish Expositor, or "retrograde till they come to the rejection of all" that God has revealed; that in their denial of the new notion of modern miraculous gifts they are not actuated by principle and a love of the truth, but by corrupt and worldly motives, and that their language faithfully interpreted, would be, so says the Jewish Expositor, "Oh we will have faith, in order that our souls may be saved; but we will have the least possible, on which our souls may be saved;" we will have a faith too, which will allow of an accommodation to the world;" we will not commit ourselves among our unbelieving acquaintance, therefore all talk of miracles must be sunk or scouted;"-if, we say, truly religious persons, those who are united to Christ, and live on his fulness, and find heavenly consolation in his word, read these charges so plentifully thrown out against them, let them not be terrified by the mere confidence of words. They are not one step nearer infidelity, because the Jewish Expositor says they are within its focus; they are not of necessity sweating down faith" because the Jewish Expositor holds that they are; they are not " sinking" scouting Divine truth to please their "unbelieving acquaintance," because the Jewish Expositor alleges this against them to their own Master they stand or fall; let them persevere in simplicity and humility in what they believe to be truth and Scripture, undismayed by the hard words of those who lay to their charge things that they know not, and attribute to base motives what they have

or

said or written in the simplicity of their hearts as in the sight of God. Above all, let them not retort; rather being smitten on the one cheek, let them turn the other also; let them trust God with his own truth: if accused of not being spiritually minded because they are not convinced that Port-Glasgow or Hoxton is a theatre of miraculous manifestation, let them prove that they are spiritually minded by far better tests; if they are told that they are miserable stunted religionists, the veriest dunces of the Christian school, because they see no reason to credit the new opinions which have of late been obtruded on the world about prophecy, the Millennium, universal pardon, the person of our Divine Lord, and other solemn topics, let them shew by their whole spirit that "they have been with Jesus," that they understand his blessed doctrine for their soul's health, and that they are waiting for his appearing, with full confidence that "he that shall come will come, and will not tarry."

And here we lay down our pen; and little shall we feel inclined to resume it on a question which is rather jejune and thorny than profitable or pleasant. When any parties in a controversy are determined to have all the reciprocity on one side; to make a difference of speculative opinion a reason for disunion of hearts; to construe a doubt of a modern miracle into personal coarseness," and an offence worthy of being visited, not with counter arguments, but

an infliction of stripes;" when base motives are imputed to lessen the weight of opinions; when the personal piety of opponents is sneered at to deter men from listening to their reasons, and all that has hitherto been accounted wise and holy, is disparaged because it does not run after ensnaring novelties; it may be well to drop fruitless discussion and leave the matter to the progress of time and

the overwhelming power of truth. Do the asserters of the new miracles believe that any man will credit the Port-Glasgow prodigies ten years hence ?

The pen clings to our hands, while we take one dip more, and that dip shall not be in gall. We respectfully and affectionately submit to our brethren who have taken up novel opinions (they say they are not novel, and we therefore here use the word only for specification, not irritation), whether respecting modern miracles or some other serious questions, that it is they who have removed from the mass of their brethren, not their brethren from them; that they would therefore promote the cause of truth and charity by presenting themselves before their fellowChristians rather as "candid inquirers," than as assailants; that they may well pardon some natural expressions of astonishment, and it may be of displeasure, on the other side; and that they should ́not allow themselves, on account of the reception which their peculiar opinions have met with from "the religious world," to rend the mantle of the Redeemer, and weaken that compact front which as Christian men we ought to present to the common enemy of souls. It is not merely because some pious brethren have embraced certain novelties of opinion that we feel distressed; but because they have allowed themselves in the separation to denounce all who go in the old way, and to make a schism where, amidst minor discrepancies, there ought to be, and we trust is, one great central point of mutual attraction, even Him who is the Head over all things to his church, and in whom we should stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the Gospel. It is not merely that a man has an opinion about a miracle, or a point of prophecy; but we see splitting asunder on every side in unkindly divisions those

who, notwithstanding such difference, should be united together. We see the action and re-action of these animosities (we wish we could apply a milder term) upon our religious and charitable institutions ; we see warm partizans assembling, not to hear what God is doing for the world, but what brother shall say to vex brother; one society claiming an invidious preference over another, on the ground of some speculative view of prophecy, instead of mutually provoking each other to love and to good works; in short-But we forbear to say more, lest the next dip should contract gall; only let us all lay to heart whose we are, and whom we serve, in honour preferring one another, and in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves.

Modern Fanaticism unveiled. 1 vol. 5s. London. 1831.

We took up this little publication almost casually after laying down the Jewish Expositor, to our remarks on which it forms an appropriate sequel. The author, in his strictures on what he calls "modern fanaticism," discusses certain notions which have gone abroad on "Assurance," "Miracles," "Pardon," " Prophecy," and the person of our blessed Lord. The remarks on these several topics well deserve serious perusal; but we shall confine ourselves to the chapter on miracles, from which we shall offer a lengthened extract relative to the New-Testament evidence on the subject. The workby whom written, we know notissues from a dissenting press; the same press that lately gave us "The natural History of Enthusiasm," which we mention, not only for the purpose of recommending that valuable and interesting work, but of thanking and congratulating the dissenting body generally, for

their steady and scriptural opposition to the strange novelties which have been obtruded upon the Church of Scotland, and are finding their way into a few corners of the Church of England. How it is that the great mass of Dissenters have kept aloof from these vagaries which have been hitherto confined chiefly to members-very few, indeed, comparatively, but still almost exclusively members of the two established churches of the land, we shall not at present stop to investigate, though the problem were not difficult of solution. All that is necessary in passing is to disclaim the not very flattering, and we do not for a moment believe true, or even probable, inference so liberally drawn in some recent dissenting publications, that all established churches are in their dotage. Our only reason for alluding to this not very wise or charitable conclusion, is to warn the members of established churches to take heed how they advance to that senile period; and to add, that, so far as our own church is concerned, the obtruders and upholders, lay and clerical, of strange fantasies have been usually those who have not had a solid theological training. How few comparatively of the well educated sons of religious parents, especially clergymen, of whatever school, have gone after such fancies; whereas no sooner does a weak wellmeaning young man of family or fortune leave juvenile dissipations, and plunge with more zeal than knowledge into the church, or an officer who had begun to serve his country well as a stormer of forts or mounter of breaches, foist himself into the ranks of theological polemics, than we are in alarm lest he should be led away with plausible novelties, and this notwithstanding his being really a man of true piety; for there is no promise in Scripture that a good man may not be weak. No student makes so many wonderful disco

veries in law as he who is no lawyer; or in politics, as he who is no statesman; or in gunnery, as he who is no engineer. A judge smiles at a clergyman who attempts to preach law in an assize sermon ; and though the cases are not wholly parallel, as the word of God ought to be every man's study, and even the most illiterate may understand it to his soul's health, yet in an age when miracles, as we think, have ceased, and God is pleased to bless the ordinary use of means, it is astounding to us to hear young ladies transmute the Bible on the strength of three months' acquaintance with Hebrew, or a divine in deacon's orders preaching all the intricacies of the Millennium and Personal reign, with no better staple of biblical lore, than some half dozen sermons, speeches, and magazine speculations. Tastingwithout drink ing deep is the cause of much of this frothy divinity-would that frothiness were all. Let the student, with much humility and prayer, have deeply studied for at least-the very least-twenty years, the sacred oracles, and some goodly number of the best treatises of the great masters on all sides; and he will then be better entitled to be heard-but then he will not be in much danger of following the evanescent bubbles of the day.

But our present topic is only modern miracles; for though the other speculations alluded to in "Modern Fanaticism unveiled," demand refutation, they are not of such pressing importance in our own church at the particular moment in which we write, as the alleged revival of miracles. The Jewish Expositor, for example, which takes up the latter, has not espoused the former; and therefore we shall hasten to the spot where the present incursion is made, by presenting to our readers the extract which we promised. On the other subjects we might recommend several valuable publications, if any of our readers