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    highly valuable information . In a note * he speaks of Dr . Priestley ' s History of the Corruptions of Christianity , and his History of Early Opinions concerning Jesus Christ , as works which are not indeed wholly free

    from mistakes , bat which contain more correct and comprehensive views of the opinions of the ancient Christian church , and of the progress of error , than are elsewhere to be found : and this sentiment we quote with the greatest pleasure , because it is the sentiment of a capable judge , and

    because we conscientiously and deliberately think that its justness will continue to be attested , and will finally be established , by time and investigation . Before we dismiss our author ' s reasoning on the Fathers , we shall produce his comment on one or two clauses in Tertullian :

    " The words of Tertullian cited by Bishop Bull , in the passage given in your note , p . 46 , are not , as you represent them , a formula ; and if the learned prelate means by his * cemmttnem Jidem ex * ponens ait , to say that the Presbyter of Carthage cjesigned they should be so

    understood , he is far from correct . Tertullian speaks , indeed , more than once of a rule of faith ( regula fidei ) , but he means \> y that the substance of the faith , not any form of words ; nor is any such form to be found in his writings , or in any of so early a date . Little was known of Creeds before the council of Nice ; after

    that , not a couucil was held , whatever its object , or however small a number of bishops assembled , but it ended with a new creed , graced with a due portion of anathemas . If any very ancient creed is

    to be found , it is one given by Paul : ' If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus , and believe in thine heart , that God hath raised him from the dead , thou shalt be saved ' This is our

    confession ; thus we believe ; and are therefore surely justified when we allege antiquity in our favour . "—Pp . 149 * 150 . With his accustomed correctness , Mr . Wellbeloved intimates , that even this declaration , scriptural , simple and

    comprehensive as it is , was not employed in apostolic times , as a creed . Of that age It was the creed that Jesud is the Christ . Would that none other had afterwards been prescribed and adopted ! We must not wonder that the Arch-* Pp . 146 , 147 .

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    deacon of Cleveland appm y ^ s of the canon applied by Mr . Graiiyille Sharp , Bishop Burgess , &c * , to the Greek article in Eph . v . 5 , &c , ^ that last adad weakest subterfuge of modern Ortfao * doxy !

    The fallacy of these rules /* say » Mr . Wellbeloved , in reply , ** has been m ^ st satisfactorily proved by a very acute though perhaps not sufficiently grave writer , styling himself Gregory Blunt , * in six more letters to Grauvilte Sharp ; by the Rev . Calvtn Winstanley , in a vindication

    of certain passages in the common English version , &c , and by a critic in the Monthly Review , N . S . Vol . 62 and 67 , who , in his remarks on the publications of Bishop Middleton , and Mav Veysie , has proved himself a master in his art . " —Pp , 151 , 152 .

    We shallnow copy the concludingsentences of these " Three Letters /' both for the true dignity of style , and excellence of spirit , which they uianLfest , and with the view of preparing our readers for those " Additional " tetters , from the same pen , t ©;\ frhich we shall next invite their attention -.

    " If" says Miv Wellbeloved , in vindicating the doctrines you have so bitterly opposed , and the characters you Jxave so wrongfully aspersed , them Jj # s been any thing in my manner needlessly harsh # nd offensive ; if I have been betrayed into any thing unbecoming a scholar and a

    Christian , I here avow my sincere regret , and tender a willing apology . And if I have in any instance , misapprehended your words , and attributed to them a meaning which they will not bear , ox which you did not design them to express , or if I have fallen into errors of

    any other kind , I require only to be convinced , in order publicly to acknowledge and correct them . In such case , only , am I disposed again to notice the sub * jectf of these letters . I have bo fondness for controversy , nor any wis } i $ o acquire , by practice , ' polemical d ( e , xt £ rity / The character of a controversialist I have now

    * Who was the author of that most able and convincing tract ? ° 13 a question which must interest many scholars and theologians still mare than the inquiry , Wha wrote the E * k& > y B ( % < r j ? v . jxi ? j Dr .

    Wordsworth , possibly ,, may have heard the conjecture , that % h $ c S * £ wore Letters * proceededl from fchfc penof a late most estimable divine of the Established Church , who declined mm ® of Us greatest honours and emoluments , '

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    K ) 0 Review . r-r-Wellbeloi 3 e&& Letters to Arekietcm W * 4 * ghtm ?

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1825, page 100, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2533/page/36/