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    by one of our ablest writers , which from beginning to end may be pointed out as breathing Christian benevolence towards all , of whatever party they may be , who " love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity . " " That which I hope and believe for myself , " says Dr . Hutton , " I hope and believe for all my Christian brethren , even for those who differ most widely from me . I deem them in error certainly , in gross error , in error

    which it is of material importance to the interests of Christianity and of the Christian world to remove : but I do not , therefore , doubt their safety : I do not question their final acceptance with the Father . God forbid . I know , and my heart would be narrow indeed if it did not rejoice to know , thai there are many burning and shining lights among them , many who are well prepared to meet the bridegroom , who are watching for the cry ,

    < c Behold , he Cometh ! " whose lamps , ready trimmed , send up a bright and cheerful blaze , of whose oil it would be well if we could borrow . They may be in error : but what then ? They are in charity , the love of God dwelleth richly hi them ; the law of Jesus is written on their hearts . God forbid I should presume to try by my petty scales of orthodoxy or heterodoxy , call them which you please , those who have been weighed in the balance of the sanctuary and not found wanting . " *

    The author of " The Balance of Criminality , " though his praise is qualified , is evidently inclined to concede to Socinians the practice o £ moral duties . But is there no difficulty arising out of the nature of man in the observance of these ? Are worldly considerations sufficient , in themselves , to support the Socinian in scenes and through trials which break down the virtue of other men ? Is there no such thing as self-denial among them ? No such thing as acting in contradiction to the ways of the world ? Mr .

    Taylor well knows there is . He must be aware that the dictates of a worldly spirit are the last counsels a Unitarian listens to , in the simple act of remaining a Unitarian . His principles are no passports to honours or fame . He may be nevertheless in many respects a worldly being , and it is not our object to infer his superiority to the influence of lower motives ,

    because we may find him acting independently of them in some instances . But , if we find him , substantially and through various scenes of difficulty , a character distinguished for sincerity , consistency , and superiority to the temptations of life , then , upon Mr . Taylor ' s own hypothesis , we should pronounce him to be a religious being , because our conviction would be that he is led by a higher spirit than the spirit of the world .

    " But he does not see the Saviour ' s Deity . " No ; and therefore , because on a careful , sober and religious consideration of the question , he is persuaded that this is not ( as Trinitarians state it ) a Christian doctrine , they must be blind to the actual evidence of facts , and refuse to admit that his good deeds can be done from any other than a low and worldly motive . Real faith , in which , however , we include a great deal more than Mr . Taylor does , is indeed a matter of unspeakable importance : and while we

    are heaping censures upon bodies of men for admitting or not admitting a few ideas more or less which cannot be the subject of any specific acts , our time would be better employed in seriously considering the general unfaithfulness which pervades all . There are , indeed , particular faults into which each particular party is liable to fall , but these are as nothing to that common inconsistency which might be charged , with few exceptions , upon the whole body of professing Christians , and which , it is to be feared , finds a

    * Hut ton ' s Sermon on the Divine Omniscience .

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    242 Review . —Taylor * t Balance of Criminality .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1828, page 242, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2559/page/26/