can be more ingenious than his mode of accounting for the apposition of the masculine adjective and the neuter avεua: 'Exèivos τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς αληθείας. It would have saved him some labour had he happened to recollect here his golden maxim, that grammatical correctness in the sacred writings is a circumstance little to be relied on."

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"Throughout the whole of the sacred pages, particularly those of the New Testament, it will be found clearly to appear, that there is a constant, influent operation, proceeding from the LORD JESUs, by which his humble, teachable disciples, in all ages, should be infallibly led into all necessary truth; but, surely, that man's mind must be most miserably darkened by education or prejudice, who, by any combination of ideas, can for a moment conceive of the Holy Spirit, as a person, out of, and distinet from, both the Father and the Son.

"When, subsequent to his resurrection, our blessed Lord commissioned his disciples to go forth and preach the Gospel to all nations, it is said in the Scripture, that he "breathed" on them, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." Duly reflecting on this circumstance, will it for a moment be inferred, that a person distinct from himself accompanied such breathing? Rather, will it not appear more consonant with truth and sound reason, that on such occasion, a Divine afflatus, virtue, or operation, was imparted to the disciples, whereby they would be qualified (feeling first, its benign influence on their own hearts) to preach the Gospel, with due effect and acceptance, in the conversion of sinners; by the aid and agency of which, their memories would be perpetually refreshed; their interior faculties invigorated; so as they might in all respects be competent, punctually and faithfully to discharge that high commission, which had been confided to them by their Divine "Master and Lord" and on which the peace, the safety, the eternal welfare of the whole world stood so intimately connected." P. vii.

If, because the term "Holy Ghost," be sometimes employed to signify the operation of an agent as well as the agent itself, "we must annul the agent altogether," it will follow that Christ himself was only a quality or energy, for the Scripture abounds with such expressions as these: "PUT YE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST." (Rom. xiii. 14.) "If any man be IN CHRIST, he is a new creature." (2. Cor. v. 17.) But let us hear our author's method of disposing of the anomalous concord.

"With all this mass of evidence to the contrary, still the Holy Spirit is a person, in the disordered vision of too many, from whom better things might be reasonably expected. One of the strongest arguments advanced in support of this notion, is, that the Holy Spirit is occasionally designated by the masculine pronoun he; HE shall lead you into all truth" "HE shall take of the things of Christ, and shew

them unto you," with others of a similar construction. These are supposed to be evidence, which nothing can possibly invalidate; which, with the assistance of articles and homilies, all of them, "the work of men's hands," tend most effectually to blind the understanding, and keep it hoodwinked and subservient to a phantom called faith*

"Let us for a moment endeavour to shew the futility of these arguments, by directing our attention to certain objects, or subjects in nature; in which we shall find the same kind of phraseology daily resorted, even by persons of an opposite opinion, without a possibility thing like personality being inferred from it.

"For example, in speaking of the Solar Orb, nothing is more common than to say, HE rises and sets; that HE is above or below the horizon. So, also, of the Moon, nothing is more familiar to the ear than the remark, that SHE is in such a quarter, as to HER relative position to the earth, of which SHE is the attendant Satellite; but surely, no man in his right mind would ever dream of connecting any idea of personality with either of these luminaries, each distinguished by its peculiar sexuality." P. xii.

Now there is just this difference between the forms of speech here instanced, and the case which they are intended to illustrate. The former are usual modes of parlance; the latter is perfectly isolated and extraordinary. Were our language susceptible of that nicety of concord which exists in the Greek, we might feel, as well as see, the prodigious anomaly of this construction. Speaking of the Sun and Moon, we may always correctly employ the sexual or neuter pronoun, because these words have not, in reality, a gender: but the word veμa is absolutely, actually, essentially neuter, and therefore cannot be forced into concord with a masculine adjective, without a direct violation of the most elementary principles of grammar. That this is at all accounted for by what has been just quoted, we cannot bring ourselves to believe: and as little by what follows.

"All our ideas (says a modern writer) proceed primarily from the senses," that is, it may be supposed from the impression of external objects on the mind, and yet nothing is, in general more fallacious than such evidence, however highly it may be esteemed, in the developement of truth. Let us then endeavour to elevate our minds into a region more exalted than the senses, namely into heavenly light, and we shall not fail to discover, why, in reference to Divine subjects, a mode of phraseology, similar to that used in natural subjects, is so constantly

* Established precedents are maxims sanctioned by law, and as such, have their authority; but, says Bishop Watson, "we do not admit them in philosophy, or theology; for we do not allow that there are infallible interpretations of the Bible, which is our statute book. On the contrary, we maintain, that Fathers, Churches, and Councils have erred in their interpretations of this book, in their decisions concerning particular points of faith. This we must, as Protestants, ever maintain, or we cannot justify our having emancipated ourselves from the bondage of the Church of Rome."

exhibited in the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit, for example, is therein denominated the Spirit of Truth," which Truth having respect, more particularly to the understanding, or the intellectual principle of the human mind is designated as masculine; Truth, in such an aspect, being really and absolutely such; for as the Lord Jesus is the very Divine Truth itself, as the Word made flesh,' and his Church in its collective form the recipient of that truth; therefore Jesus is called the bridegroom and husband; and the Church, by the same rule, 'the Bride, the Lamb's wife.'

"Observing the same consistency of language, the Scriptures, we find, universally preserve the analogy of corresponding ideas, and in so doing not unfrequently apply to truth, the strongly marked epithet of man; whilst the affection, or the love of truth, assumes the appearance of being feminine; no doubt, in reference to that soft, tender susceptibility, and pure affection, which is the peculiar characteristic of the female breast, whilst standing in the pristine order and beauty of its formation.

"To elucidate this position, man, as the most potent and sagacious of all created beings, is represented, and truly so, as most eminently formed for deeds of valour and enterprize, and distinguished for wisdom, discrimination, and contemplation; but the woman for love, beauty, softness of affection, pliability, and sweet attractive grace;' which two principles of the male and female mind, when in Divine order, are evidently intended by the great Creator, to be so reciprocal in their operation, so intimately conjoined and incorporated, as to form and constitute an inseparable one." P. xvi.

Now it happens, unfortunately enough for this theory, that Wisdom, or the Intellectual Principle is feminine in both the languages of Scripture, and is personified as a female in the first chapter of the Proverbs. Therefore the fanciful structure here erected, which, if sound, would be easily levelled, is, in truth, faulty at its very foundation, and, by consequence, falls to the ground.

Our object here is not to prove the generally received Trinity of the Christian Church; that has been done abundantly elsewhere. We shall therefore hardly feel ourselves called on to demonstrate the personality of the Holy Spirit, having, we think, clearly shewn that Dr. Churchill's battery against some outworks of this doctrine has altogether failed to touch them. Dr. Churchill should have overthrown Jones of Nayland; and then he would have had clear ground to build on.

The importance of the subject, rather than the merit of the work, has induced us already to comment at some length; but we cannot conclude our observations without soliciting the attention of the public mind, especially that of persons who are disposed to publish their opinions on abstruse points of ScripG

VOL. III. No. V.

ture, to the principle which we explained at the outset that nothing is so detrimental to the particular and universal interests of Religion, as the attempt to bring within the compass of the human intellect what is evidently above it, and placed beyond the contact of those instruments with which we investigate all truth. Mystery does not suit the Socinian; therefore he annuls the Deity of the Son and Holy Ghost. Mystery is. equally unacceptable to Dr. Churchill; therefore he annuls their personality. The Scriptures declare that God is One; therefore the Socinian denies that he is one in three persons: the same Scriptures declare Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to be God; therefore the doctor denies that they are persons at all. How much more agreeable to reason is his conduct who believes, not because the subject can be comprehended, but because Scripture is proved to be true, and the doctrine proved to be there! All the texts which the Socinian quotes for the unity of the Godhead, are doubtless there; and we believe the Unity all which Dr. Churchill cites on the other side are there; and we believe the Trinity. We pretend not to explain or understand. We cannot but believe in both; and if we use the word "person," or any other, to convey the idea, it is not because the idea is definite, but because we cannot express that which we do not understand.

:

Formularies of Faith put forth by Authority during the Reign of Henry VIII; viz. Articles about Religion, 1536. The Institution of a Christian Man, 1537. A necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man, 1543. 8vo. Pp. 388. Oxford, at the

THIS Volume deserves to be received by the public as a very valuable monument of ecclesiastical history. Its use and application may, however, be various, according to the hands into which it may chance to fall; for we are sorry to observe, that the history of the Reformation of religion in this country does not appear to be reduced, even yet, to any standard of certainty. What the early Reformers really meant or did not mean,what they did or did not maintain,-remains, to this moment, matter of dispute with some; and, as in all partial references to ancient writings in support of particular opinions, the art of selection seems to be so well understood, as to lead to very different ostensible results. The truly unbiassed and impartial

reader, critic, or historian, can have no security but in the power afforded him of consulting for himself the original records in their utmost fulness and integrity. Though it may not be universally known, yet it must, we think, be very generally so, that, as the Bible is to all who call themselves by the name of Christ, the authority to which they very confidently appeal,-let their sentiments and opinions on religious topics be ever so discordant,-so the Articles, Homilies, and ancient Formularies of our own Church are continually cited by persons at variance on points of the first importance, as bearing testimony on the part of our early Reformers to their respective but different opinions. How then is the public at large to decide upon such differences? Garbled extracts are, on both sides, disputed; and the works cited, perhaps, so far from being in every body's hands, or easily to be seen, may be particularly secluded from the public on account of their rarity; or, what is even worse, may be extant, by means of the press, under different forms, being either imperfect copies of the originals, or imperfect copies of copies, tending only to breed confusion, and multiply disputes.

These considerations may help us properly to appreciate the labours of Dr. Lloyd, in preparing for the behoof and advantage of the public such a volume as he has here presented to the world. His residence at Oxford, and connection with the Bodleian Library and Clarendon Press, all concur, indeed, to place in his hands a power to serve the public in this way, which few, comparatively, possess. The press cannot, we are confident, in these days be better employed than in transmitting to posterity the most perfect copies that can be taken of original and rare productions, especially such as, in times of less care and attention, may have been imperfectly transcribed, or misrepresented by historians of different degrees of credit.

All that is here said applies, in the highest degree, to the work before us. It is a reprint of ancient Formularies, the originals of which are not of easy access, and which have been variously printed, and not rightly understood by historians of no small name. It is a reprint of ancient Formularies, which, while certain writers have been anxious to refer to them for principles of early Protestantism, others have denounced as plainly and decidedly Papistical. The truth, upon perusal of the whole, will, we shall not hesitate to say, be found between. They are partly Papistical and partly Protestant; but, at all events, as the learned Editor rightly observes in his Preface, of no absolute authority either way, as being, at the best, documents of an anterior date, to the full and formal renunciation