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    rians have actually mistaken the import of the language of the Scriptures . * In such prescriptive reasoning there can be no strength , especially when we oppose to it the result of a pnre and careful examination of the sacred

    volume « Some of the grossest errors may boast of considerable arid even hoar antiquity : and the advocates of Transufostantiation itself , appeal to the words of our Lord , as recorded by his evangelists and apostles .

    The select preacher does not discriminate between the principle of belief in / acts , and that of belief in opinions ; between historical assent , or the reception of testimony , and verbal interpretation . In the present ease , the only point at issue between

    Unitarian Christians and their opponents , -5 s the sense of Scripture which , we maintain , must be determined by Scripture itself , and not by creed 3 and catechisms . We admit no

    hypothesis , and certainly not the Socinian , the specific feature of which is so wild and visionary that we doubt , whether in this country it has a single advocate , —Pp . 32 , 33 . By Dr . Spry , Unitarian Christians

    are represented as ** a powerful and busy sect . " Its advocates he pronounces to be " neither deficient in

    ; zeal nor in controversial ability . " their * appeal to the pride of human intellect has at all times been powerful in mischief ; and its deadly influence has perhaps never been greater than at present /'—P . 33 .

    There is no argument , as Dr . Spry should be aware , in sentences like these . ^ A fact , we trust , it is , that Unitarian Christians have some zeal for what they consider as scriptural truth : for religious virtue they feel , we persuade ourselves , a yet warmer

    zeal . The power by which they are desifous of being characterized , is the power of virtue and of truth : without this , their controversial ability , he it what it may , will not long avail them ; however , they are at least satisfied ,

    that they have nothing to fear from either the theological knowledge or the reasoning talents of 4 € one of the select preachers before the University of Oxford for the year 1824 . " N . ( To be continued . )

    * Pp . 30 , 31 .

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    298 Revieiv . —Bruce s Sermons on the Study 4 > f the Bible *

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    Art . 11 . —Sermons on the Stud y of the Bible , &c . By Win . Bruce , D . D ., &c .

    ( Concluded from p . 227 . ) SER . VIII . "On the Intercession of Christ , " is extremely unsatisfactory . Dr . Bruce does not explain what he means by the phrase , though he opens the discourse with the sween .

    ing assertion , " The intercession of Christ is foretold by Isaiah , and occurs every where in the Gospels and Epistles" ( p . 154 ) . The office of intercessor ascribed to Christ may imply no more than that by virtue oi his life and doctrine , his death , and resurrection , he has been our benefactor in

    relation to his and our heavenly Father . Our Lord represented to the unbelieving * Jews , ( John v . 45 , ) that Moses was their accuser before the Father , meaning plainly , that the predictions of Moses concerning , himself condemned their unbelief f and in the same manner Christ is the advocate

    of his disciples by means of the gospel * which pronounces and ensures their acquittal from the sentence of death and the punishment of sin . The text of this Sermon , Boon . viii . 34 , suggests this explanation . " On Predestination , Election and

    Reprobation , " Ser . IX ., Dr . Bruce h very clear and scriptural , and has our entire concurrence . He quotes , in order to oppose , the Assembly ' s Catechism , and other works of Calvinistic divines . His rules for interpreting the

    Epistles are judicious and highly important , and , let us add , these alone have guided us in our remarks upon those topics on which we have the misfortune to differ from the worthy preacher .

    Dr . Bruce argues boldly and ably , Ser . X ., against the doctrine of " Original Sin . ' * He builds his argument on the solid foundation of the silence of our Lord . " With respect to Adam , or the consequences of his transgression , he says not a single word . We

    may , therefore , refuse to treat it as an essential article of faith— J > ( p . 191 )* He proceeds , however , to inquire into the doctrine of the epistles on this subject , arid adopts the scheme of interpretation of Dr . John Taylor and other biblical critics of the same school . He examines some expressions of Calvin and other masters of

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1825, page 298, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2536/page/42/