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    Hanwood , Sir , January 17 , 1819-TT OOKING the other day into JLi Dr . Buchanan ' s * ' Christian Researches , ' I met with a note at the foot of p . 216 , which appears tome to include a confession that the

    Author probably was not aware of when he inserted it . I will give you the note entire , as I think many of your readers may deem it worthy of their attention . " In a nation like ours , overflowing with knowledge , men are not always

    in circumstances to perceive the value of a scriptural liturgy . When Christians are well taught 9 they think they want something better . But the young and the ignorant , who form a great portion of the community , are edified by a little plain instruction frequently

    repeated . A small church or sect may do for a while without a form ; but a national liturgy is that which preserves a relic of the true faith among the people in a large empire , when the priests leave their articles and

    their confessions of faith . Woe to the declining church which hath no gospel liturgy 1 Witness the Presbyterians in the West of England , and some other sects , who are said to have become Arians and Socmians to a man .

    The Puritans of a former age did not ] ive long enough to see the use of an evangelical formulary . " Is it possible more unequivocally to acknowledge that it is the Common Prayer Booh , and not the Bible , which causes men to adhere to what Dr . B .

    terms the true faith ? The Presbyterians of the West had the Bible in their hands , and probably no body of men ever studied it more diligently ; but for want of a human formulary ,

    rendered so dear and venerable by long habit , as to be scarcely , if at ally of le ^ s authority with them than the Scriptures themselves * that Bible taught them to perceive the errors into which they had been led , and

    enabling them to break the strong fetters with which early prejudices had manacled their minds , made them TJnitarimus to a man *

    It is well observed , that " when Christians are well taught , they think they wanr something better . " A welltaught Christian never supposes himself or his church infallible ; but with tlie Scriptures r r his guide , and a

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    heart 'open to conviction , he goes on inquiring , and 6 f course improving both in knowledge and in virtue , to the end of life . Priests , *< who in this spirit of candour and meekness study the Bible , must , " as the Doctor laments that they have done , and foresees that they will do , " leave their

    articles and confessions of faith , and following its plain , obvious and rational doctrines , discard and remove by degrees from the true faith , all the absurdities , corruptions and contradictions which in the dark ages of ignorance and superstition were heaped around it , —and to which habit ,

    interest , and dee ply-rooted prejudice , cause the great body of Christians still pertinaciously to adhere . I felt very much interested in the latter part of Dr . Buchanan ' s volume ,

    and particularly in his chapter " Concerning , the Jews . " The calculations from prophecy , which lie there brings into one view , are certainly very remarkable , and deserve our most

    serious attention . # Daniel , " he says , " foretells that the Christian Church shall be oppressed by persecuting powers for * a time , times , and the dividing of a time ?

    The same period he assigns for the accomplishment of the indignation against the holy people Israel . * One said , How long shall it be to the end of these wonders ? And I heard the

    man clothed in linen , whicb was upon the waters of the river , when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven , and swore by Him that liveth for ever , that it shall be for a

    time , times , and a half ; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people , all these things shall be fulfilled / Dan . xii . 7-

    *• The same form of words is used by John in the Revelation , to express the duration of the Papal and Mahomedan powers . Oppressed by then ? , the Church of Christ was to remain desolate in the wilderness , * for a time f

    times , and half of a time . * Rev . xii . 14 . Every one who is erudite in sacred prophecy , will understand that this great period of Daniel and John commences at the same era , namel y * the rise of the persecuting powers , and that its duration is 1 & 60 years . "

    Dr . B . thus proceeds : " Here then are three great events hastening to their period $ the extinction of Papal

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    288 Mrs . Mary Hughes on a Passage in . Buchanan ' s u Researches"

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1819, page 288, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1772/page/8/