other; since no questions are to be asked; but even if they were asked, would that be a good regulation which would admit Bishop Maltby and shut out Mr. Gurney, who, we verily believe, though he would not subscribe to Captain Gordon's test, is quite as sound in the matter of the Holy Trinity as Captain Gordon, and more so than his lordship? Let, then, the proposed test extend to the whole Bible, and not to one part or tenet of it, however important and essential. Let us not virtually say that any one doctrine or precept of the word of God is unworthy to be an article of faith, provided we adhere to some other. Let us not make irreverent distinctions between one declaration of the Divine word and another. All is to be believed; all is to be made the test of faith; and if the proposers of the new society should decree otherwise, and make only a partial test, be it Socinianism, or be it any thing else, they fall into one of the most awful delusions of the Church of Rome. The Bible, and the whole Bible, is the religion of Protestants; not only the doctrine of the Trinity, fundamental as it is, but all those truths which are connected with it; every jot and tittle; we see not how a Christian society can take narrower ground. But this is in truth the very ground taken by the much-calumniated Bible Society; its members not daring to point out what part of revealed truth they think essential, what unessential, but viewing their members as professed Christians, who, as such, subscribe not to a part, but to the whole; not to man's comment, but to God's word. One line more as respects Socinians themselves: Let no person venture at the proposed meeting to speak on the platform concerning them, who cannot conscientiously assert, that before coming to the meeting, and many days previously, he has prayed and interceded for them on his bended knees in private before his God and Father. A pointed bayonet to stave off heretics is not the only weapon of the Christian soldier. If those who denounce heresy do not wish to confirm the heretic in his sin, and to awaken the sympathies of bystanders on his behalf, let them imitate the conduct of Christ weeping over Jerusalem, rather than the bitter spirit which too often disgraces his professed disciples; and the more fearful the heresy the more need is there for this chastised and tender spirit. The Socinians are exulting at this moment at the unhappy spectacle of unhallowed wrath which has been exhibited by some who ought to have opposed them with far other weapons. We do not augur much wisdom in the intended plan of forming a new society by the Sackville-Street Committee, from the specimen which has just reached us of the new Westminster Bible Society, under the auspices of several of its leading members. Their object, they say, is to uphold Christian principles and practices in Bible Society operations :" but what religious man has any other object? and is it not most uncandid and unfair to insinuate that all the devoted servants of Christ in the land, except their own little party, wish to promote unchristian principles and practices, however mistaken they may suppose them to be as to the particular question about the introduction of tests into Bible Societies? Then, again, they say that theirs is a society "constructed on scriptural principles;" thus begging the very question under discussion; and pronouncing every body but themselves unscriptural; a species of selfsatisfied pharisaism not becoming Christian men. We trust this is not the spirit in which they purpose conducting the intended meeting, making it a vehicle for panegyrie on their own piety, wisdom, and zeal, and a libel on their Christian brethren who differ from them; but who equally think they have " scriptural principle,” and “Christian practice" on their side. Then, again, one of their rules is, that "all persons without distinction shall be encouraged to subscribe "-all persons, Atheists, Deists, and Socinians, not excepted; but only those who subscribe to their manifesto are to be allowed membership. What an unjust and sordid principle is this. Will it be believed, after all the denouncements of Bible Societies for taking heretical money; after all the taunts of Mr. Melvill, for example, at the Naval and Military Bible Society meeting, about receiving the Socinian's guinea, that his friends are deliberately planning the very same thing; that Mr. Drummond, Mr. Howells, Captain Gordon, Mr. Washington Phillips, Mr. Haldane, and the rest of the new Westminster model society, have affixed their signatures to a proposal to " encourage" this very practice. Mr. Melvill actually says that the question, "whether or no the guinea of a Socinian is of equal worth with the guinea of a true believer in circulating the Scriptures involves the whole of the matter." He calls it "blasphemy," for " he can define it by no milder term;" to do precisely what his own friends are now doing, and “ encouraging." It is " platform idolatry;" (we take care to insert the inverted commas, for want of which the Record gravely charged on us the harsh words we adopted as quotations from Sackville Street ;) it is making "a Macbeth's caldron, into which are thrown bits of a Jew, a Turk, a Tartar, and every kind of blasphemer;" with columns more to the same effect. Yet this very Macbeth's caldron is the new society to be; for all persons without distinction, Jews, Turks, and Tartars are to be "encouraged" to subscribe. We only mention these things to shew the utter want of consistency which pervades the whole of the proceedings of the Sackville-street Committee they are excellent at breaking up; but the moment they come to build, they take the very materials they had just reprobated as utterly unfit for a Christian edifice: : they tell us of the Bible Society using Socinian money, and preferring filthy lucre to the blessing of God, and then when they have done all they can to destroy a society which they say, though most unjustly, does so, they build up another on the very same principle; for be it remembered that the objection of Mr. Melvill and his friends goes, not to membership only, but to receiving "a Socinian's guinea," which the very objectors now intend not only to receive, but to encourage.' 66 Then, again, what can be more unfair than to encourage people to subscribe to a Bible Society, and to give them no voice in its management, no check upon the disposal of the funds, no vote in the election of its committee, not even conferring on them the right of attending the annual meeting or receiving the annual Report. The legislature has just abolished this very principle in the case of self-elected vestries; the whole nation acknowledges its injustice in the affairs of a free country, where the representation of property is the best and only human check against fraud and mismanagement; and we have ourselves again and again, years ago, and long before recent Vestry-Bills or Reform-Bills were thought of, shewn its inexpediency in the case even of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which, by merely encouraging subscriptions while it withholds membership and representation, is very likely to fall to pieces as soon as the legislature withdraws its aid. Yet this is the time that Mr. Drummond (we name him as being the Treasurer) and his friends have chosen for introducing the rotten-borough system into voluntary charitable associations. In the venerable corporation just alluded to, there might be some argument for it; for the proceedings of a Missionary Society involve many matters of deliberative detail, and the whole bench of bishops, and other high authorities, are guarantees for the institution: but the objects of a Bible Society are so simple and well-defined, that no act of religious uniformity is necessary among its agents; and as for the matter of guarantee, Mr. Haldane, and the other gentlemen who have been so lavish in their charges of corruption and every evil work on the Earl-street Committee, in appointing whom every subscriber of a guinea has a voice, cannot wonder if the world are not prepared to give themselves power, and the management of funds over which every person contributing to the amount required for membership shall not have a share of salutary controul. The whole plan, in short, is so anomalous, that it could only have been generated by a desire to subvert the Bible Society, and to form another which every man foresees is to be under the management of the new and active sect, who are running wild about the revival of miracles and every other delusion. Those simple-minded, unsuspecting persons, who have hitherto gone with the Sackville-street Committee from the purest motives, will, we are sure, be the first to lament the evil when it is too late to avert it; just as they do in the case of the Jews' Society and the Reformation Society, which have well-nigh lost the confidence of the public-we mean the sound and religious part of the public-by the unhappy influence which persons holding the notions above alluded to have gained in their proceedings. We say it with pain; but we think that the time is come to speak out honestly and boldly in the matter, before all our religious institutions shall be swallowed up in the vortex of strife or fanaticism. The sober-minded and judicious servants of Christ in all our societies will thank us for the warning. Some of the officers of the Reformation Society-we speak only of matters of document and notoriety-have publicly advertised their resignation, not being able to stem the torrent of fanaticism in their councils; and the Jews' Society has discarded Mr. Wolff, and renounced the Jewish Expositor. These things indicate a salutary reaction; and we trust that, by the blessing of God, it will proceed, till peace shall be again within the walls of our religious institutions, and Christians learn to love one another. Our words, strong as they have been, are not contrary to this feeling: they, in truth, spring from it; for, to use the words of a valued friend and correspondent, whose Christian temper and exemplary piety adorn his high station in the church of Christ, "If any thing grieves one's spirit more than another in these troublous times, it is the cruel attack on that last refuge of kindly feeling and Christian charity, the Bible Society." ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. The Anti-Slavery Reporter has reached us so late (not till after this sheet was made up), that we can only refer our readers, and in particular our clerical readers, to its contents. They are specially important in regard to the proceedings of our Church Societies in the West Indies. BRITISH AND FOREIGN SCHOOL SOCIETY. We rejoice to learn from the annexed paper, that scriptural education is extending itself throughout the world. Who can read, without delight, of Bible schools in Madeira and Terceira (see especially the interesting circumstances which gave rise to the latter); of five new Chinese girls' schools opened in Malacca; of sixty Greek Testaments wanted for schools in Magnesia, and Scriptural Lessons for seventeen schools for Greek children in a few towns in Turkey? Truly this hath God wrought; and we do cherish hopes, bright hopes, even yet for the world, amidst all the present perplexities of nations. OBITUARY. MR. WILLIAM GREENFIELD. WITH much concern we record the lamented decease, at the early age of thirtytwo years, of Mr. Greenfield, the superintendent of the editorial department of the British and Foreign Bible Society. This remarkable young man, a second Professor Lee, had, like the respected individual to whom we have compared him, risen by his extraordinary powers as a linguist, from a humble station in life, working with his hands for the supply of his daily wants, to a most honourable and responsible office as a translator of the Holy Scriptures; and had he been spared a few years longer, he might probably have occupied as conspicuous a station in the public eye, as even the eminent self-taught scholar whom we have just mentioned, whose early narrative, as published by the present Bishop of Salisbury in 1814, is still vivid in the recollection of all who perused it, and adds much to the satisfaction with which his friends witness his present justly merited academical and ecclesiastical honours. We had no personal acquaintance with Mr. Greenfield, nor did he belong to our communion; but from what we have learned of his character, we think it our duty to record a brief tribute of respect to his memory, more especially on account of the unjust and cruel persecution with which he has been assailed, and which we are informed embittered his last days, and too probably hastened his early removal from a world of strife to a brighter scene, where those who die in the Lord "rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." The only references to his name in our volumes during the short time he has been known to the public, are in our notice of his pamphlets on the Mahratta and the Negro English versions of the New Testament (Christian Observer, 1830, p. 116 and p. 652), and the allusion to him in our last Number. Whether he ever saw these last remarks we know not; but it is consoling to us that they should have appeared in our pages before his lamented decease. Mr. Greenfield was born in London in the year 1799. His father, who had been employed, on account of his Christian character, as a foremast man on board the ship Duff, in her second missionary voyage, was unhappily drowned on a subsequent voyage in another vessel; and the subject of this notice thus became an orphan when he had scarcely reached his third year. His mother, who was a pious woman, having relations in the north, removed from London to the neighbourhood of Roxburghshire, where she obtained her livelihood in service, and her child was placed under the care of a relation, who dwelt in the vicinity of her employer's residence. Here the child was treated as one of the family, and had the advantage of the same education as his young relatives. At the age of ten, his mother finding him altogether averse to an agricultural life, and judging that the metropolis was the only place likely to afford him subsistence in any other manner, determined on quitting her situation and accompanying him to London, where she entered the service of another family, while her son, after various trials, was, through the kindness of the late venerable Dr. Waugh, bound apprentice to a respectable bookbinder, in whose family strict Christian discipline was uniformly maintained. In the interval between his removal to London, and the date of this engagement, the lad was taken care of by his two maternal uncles, young men, who having devoted themselves to God, were desirous of reading his word in the languages in which it was originally written; and while thus employed, their nephew, who always shewed a most inquisitive spirit, and an ardent desire for information, expressed his wish to be taught the Hebrew language. This desire, so far as their slender means afforded, was gratified; and to this circumstance, trifling as it appeared at the time, was Mr. Greenfield indebted, as a means, under the blessing of God, for his future advancement in his literary pursuits. The further promotion of his literary character, under the evident blessing of God, was strikingly remarkable. happened, that in the house in which his master occupied workshops, there dwelt a Jewish Rabbi, who was in the frequent habit of urging among the apprentices and journeymen his objections against the advent of the Messiah, the Christian interpretation of the prophecies connected with that subject, and the whole of the Christian dispensation. With this man, young Greenfield held frequent disputations, as he subsequently did with many other Jews; and being pressed closely on the ground of defectiveness in our authorized version of the Old Testament, he offered to give up his opinions, if upon being thoroughly taught the Hebrew language by his opponent, he should find his instructor's assertion founded in truth. The Jew took him at his word; and being a most diligent student, he soon became so well versed in the language as to surpass his teacher; and though the result of his labour was subversive of the argument adduced by the learned Rabbi, he yet became so much attached to his pupil as ever afterwards to express his high sense of his moral worth and extraordinary talents. These discussions were always conducted by Mr. Greenfield with good temper, and displayed great shrewdness as well as an intimate acquaintance with the Bible. So tender was his conscience, and so careful was he to avoid arguments that might It not be conclusive, that whenever he found himself not sufficiently acquaintd with the subject, or foiled in dispute, he applied to his friend and spiritual adviser, Dr. Waugh, whom he used to visit three times a week both for spiritual instruction, and for such assistance in his studies and his arguments with the Rabbi, as Dr. Waugh's rich treasury of knowledge, and his serviceable library, could furnish. Dr. Waugh, however, like the Jewish instructor, soon found himself surpassed as a linguist by his pupil: "Hoot, mon; ye ken depths o' criticism that I na meedle with; ye are gone over me." So fully satisfied was his venerable pastor, after adequate inquiry and probation, of the truly Christian character as well as mere theological attainments of this pious and amiable youth, that he admitted him at the early age of about sixteen as a communicant in the church over which he presided, and of which Mr. Greenfield continued a beloved and honoured member, till the decease of the fostering friend whom he has so soon followed to his heavenly rest. Having attained to great advancement in the knowledge of the Hebrew, during the study of which he compiled a complete lexicon of that language, he next applied himself with equal diligence to the study of Chaldee, and some other of the cognate dialects. At this time he laboured very hard at his trade, working from six in the morning to eight in the evening in the summer, and from seven to nine in the winter; after which, he used to devote himself at home to sacred Hebrew literature, of which he was passionately fond. His next object was the attainment of Greek and Latin, which he effected in class with several other young men connected with him in business, and in Sunday schools, in which they with himself officiated as diligent gratuitous teachers; and the extraordinary facility with which he acquired a knowledge of these languages, and the perfect ease with which he overcame difficulties, to others almost insurmountable, are stated to have been truly astonishing. From Latin he went to French; and from this time forward he thought nothing of turning his attention to a strange tongue, and setting himself to acquire a knowledge of it. During two or three years after the expiration of his apprenticeship he worked at his trade as a journeyman; but he did not in the slightest degree neglect his business for his favourite studies, which were, nevertheless, pursued with unabated ardour, till Mr. Bagster, the much-respected publisher of Pater-noster Row becoming acquainted with his extraordinary talents and acquirements, prevailed on him to relinquish his trade, and found him employment more worthy of his endowments, and which afforded ample means of gratifying his literary appetite. CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 359. Before, however, engaging his services, Mr. Bagster wrote to Dr. Waugh, and received a letter in praise of Mr. Greenfield, couched in terms that fixed his entire confidence in him as a Christian of sound principles, and a Hebrew scholar of extraordinary ability; and never, he adds, was his confidence shaken or his hopes disappointed. "This superior young man," says his employer," has accomplished much in his short career; but when it is placed in comparison with what he was preparing to do, and towards which he had treasured up materials, I sigh deeply at the thought that the head and hand can be no more employed for the good of man and the church of Christ." Of the numerous works which engaged his attention we cannot now give a detail. That which excited the greatest public attention, was the Comprehensive Bible; a work of prodigious labour and research, at once exhibiting his varied talent and profound erudition. Of this book we shall not now speak, nor of the calumnies that were raised by misguided men to cry it down, by charging upon it and its pious and orthodox editor, not merely mistakes, or errors, or injudicious passages, to which all books and men are liable; but deliberate, systematic, Neology, and even positive blasphemy and infidelity. We leave the writers to their own reflections on their conduct towards a man who, we are credibly informed, highly adorned his Christian profession, and the meekness of whose character was strikingly displayed in never having controversially replied to any of the invectives cast upon himself or his works. In reference to Mr. Greenfield's connexion with the Bible Society, the following testimonial will afford most satisfactory testimony to his devotedness to the cause in which he was employed, as well as to his general character. Resolutions passed by the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, November 21, 1831. "That, feeling very deeply the greatness of the loss sustained by the Society in the death of its late Superintendant of the Editorial Department, this Committee yet desire to meet that loss in a becoming spirit of submission to the will of Him who ordereth all things in perfect, though inscrutable wisdom. "That this Committee, before they record their sense of the distinguished talents of their deceased friend, desire to express their devout conviction, that the gifts of intellect with which he was endowed, proceeded from Him who is the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,' and the consolation they derive from the reflection that those gifts, from their first possession, have been consecrated to the advancement of Biblical Literature-their late friend having been almost exclusively devoted 4 Y to the important work of editing the Holy Scriptures, or works intimately connected with them, during the whole of his short, but laborious career. "That this Committee remember with gratitude and astonishment that in the nineteen months during which Mr. Greenfield had been engaged in the service of the Society, his varied talents had been brought into exercise in no less than twelve European, five Asiatic, one African, and three American languages; and that, since the commencement of his engagement, he had acquired a considerable degree of skill in the following languages, with which he had previously been wholly unacquainted: the Peruvian, Negro-English, Chippeway, and Berber That this Committee believe that they are fully justified in extending to all other works in which he had been engaged as editor the following honourable testimonial, borne by their librarian, T. P. Platt, Esq. on the completion of the printing of the Modern Greek Psalter : "Mr. Greenfield, in carrying this work through the press, has uniformly exhibited, 666 "That this Committee feel it a duty to record their persuasion that nothing has occurred during his brief connexion with the Society to invalidate those satisfactory assurances of the unexceptionable, moral, and religious character of Mr. Greenfield which were received at the time of his appointment; while in the transaction of business he has uniformly conducted himself with such skill, diligence, and urbanity, as fully to realize the expectations that the Committee had entertained. "That this Committee desire to convey to his widow and fatherless children an assurance of their most sincere sympathy under their painful bereavement, while they at the same time commend them to Him who hath said in his Holy Word, 'A Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of the widow, is God in his holy habitation;' and express their hope that by the power of the Holy Spirit they may seek their consolation through faith in Christ Jesus who is 'over all God blessed for ever.'” Mr. Greenfield expired on the 5th of November of a brain fever, during the delirium of which, we are informed, connecting his mental with his bodily suffer • I. Sound learning and critical judgings, and pressing his hand on the seat of ment. "II. A constant perception of the duty of faithful adherence to the very letter of the Sacred Original. III. Minute and unwearied diligence, extending itself to the accurate marking of every supplemental word in troduced in the translation, and to the careful arrangement of stops and accents.' "That this Committee cannot suffer to pass wholly unnoticed, some of the extraofficial labours of Mr. Greenfield. They remember, with delight, that it was his valuable defence of the Mahratta Version of the New Testament, against the criticisms advanced in the Asiatic Journal for September, 1829, that first brought him under the notice of the Committee. Of the Mahratta language, he had had no previous knowledge, nor yet of some of the other languages referred to in the work; and when it is stated, that the pamphlet appeared within five weeks of his directing his attention to the subject, no stronger proof could be afforded of the remarkable talent with which he was endowed for acquiring languages. His reply to various strictures on the Surinam or Negro-English Version was another memorial of his diligence as well as of his good will to the Society. While, more recently, his observations, which have appeared in the Asiatic Journal, in reply to the criticisms of Col. Vans Kennedy on his defence of the Mahratta Version, may be appealed to as confirming the opinion entertained of his high talents and sound learning; while a posthumous memorial has yet to appear in the same journal, through the kindness of the Editor, in which a defence of the Arabic Version will be found. pain, he frequently exclaimed: "that they were piercing him through and through; that he was not a Neologian," with much more that indicated how much distress of mind he had experienced from this unfounded charge. We should not advert to the circumstance, but for the sake of thus recording his latest testimony to the abhorrence he ever entertained towards those unscriptural sentiments which had been so unjustly charged upon him. His dying breath, even in his unconscious state, fully attested what he had already said in a letter which he addressed to the editor of the Record newspaper. "To the charge that I hold Infidel, Neologian, or Socinian sentiments, Í plead not guilty; and declare that I utterly abominate and reject, from my inmost soul, all and every one of these dogmas. I believe the Scriptures to have been written by the authors, and at the periods, universally ascribed to them; that they have been preserved entire and uncorrupted to the present time; that they contain a true relation of matters of fact, both natural and supernatural, ordinary and miraculous; that they are Divinely inspired Writings, being written by holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; and that, being the word of God, they are the only rule of faith and obedience. I believe that there are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and that these three are the one, true, and eternal God, the same in essence, and equal in power and glory; in the fall of man, the total corruption of his nature, and his consequent lost and guilty state; in the Deity, incarnation, and atonement |