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    among its adherents . As it was in the beginning so it is , and so it seems likely to continue , even in those cases where the widest difference of opinion exists , where the dissidents from the Established Church are cut off from its communion and worship by what appears to be an almost impassible barrier ; even under

    these circumstances all difficulties frequently vanish , and the wall of separation falls down before the magic influence of interest and ambition . A Dissenter has been described , not unaptly , as a being in transitu while he is only in the road to wealth—while the goal is yet to be reached , the temptation to apostacy is not felt to be very strong ; but as soon as he arrives at the destined

    point and becomes the possessor of wealth , the desire of taking his station among the fashionable classes seizes fast hold of his mind ; and , as one great step towards this advancement , he passes aver from the meeting-house to the church . The writer of this Pastoral Letter must have observed the goings on of men to little purpose to have felt

    much surprise , that " the great and honourable of his nation" should so often , Upon coming into England , turn their backs , as he expresses it , upon the church in which they were brought up . To be a Presbyterian in Scotland is one thing , and , as the Scotch very well know , to be a Presbyterian in England is another . A set of associations is

    connected with it m one country very different from those which belong to it in the other , and it is easy to see why it may find favour in the sight of men ' s eyes there t though here it may have no form of beauty or of comeliness that it should be desired . But really , while we feel indignant at the profligate indifference to truth and principle , too often

    manifested by those conforming Dissenters who differ from the Church , not only in little things , but in great ; not only in ceremonies , but in doctrines ; we cannot see why Mr . Irving should be so much astonished or grieved at the going over of a Presbyterian to the Church of England , considering her , as he does , to be " a true Church , the

    bulwark of the Reformation , and worthy of all honour / ' Where is "the man who does not wish to have his interest and his duty run parallel with one another ? And if the Church of England be a true Church , what is there to prevent any one from consulting his advantage and joining in its worship and communion ? ' Among other ways of accounting for

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    this defection from the Presbyterian churches , Mr . Irving insinuates ( p . 13 ) , that the young men who come up from Scotland become "the prey of infidels and Unitarians . " In thus connecting together Unitarians and infidels , did the writer mean to put them both into one and the same class , and to have it thought that Unitarians are a species of infidels ?

    If he did , we ask not , where was his candour as a man , or his charity as a Christian ; but where was his sense of common truth and justice ? Can any man acquainted with the writings of Locke or Larduer ; we beg pardon ; Mr , Irving , who has told us in another publication , that for the best part of his theological knowledge he is indebted to the instructions of Mr . Coleridge , is not likely to have had much acquaintance

    with such plain , unmystical writers as Locke and Lard tier ; but can any man , who knows any thing of the meaning of terms , be really sincere in describing Unitarians as infidels ? We suspect that such a charge is much oftener to be put down to the account of au angry temper than to that of ignorance and misconception . Calling names or the use of opprobrious epithets is one of the commonest modes in which the " odium

    theologicum" exhibits itself ; it is a quality of which Mr . Irving seems to possess no inconsiderable portion , as is evinced in his writings generally , as well as in many parts of this Letter . What must a truly candid and reflecting man , of any party , think of the following passage : " While you preserve , " says he , p . 41 , "the bonds of brotherly love towards all Christians who exhibit a

    canon of orthodox faith and walk according to the good order of the church of Christ , we charge you , in the name of our great head , to separate yourselves from all who deny the doctrine of the Trinity , and the offices of the Father , and of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost , in our redemption ; and to contend against all such , if need be , even unto the death" ? If Mr . Irving imagine that many of his northern brethren become

    the prey , as he calls it , of Unitarians , that they are seduced from their orthodoxy by these wicked heretics ; we can tell him , for his comfort , that his fears , on this subject , are perfectly groundless * No , no , the men of Scotland are too wise in their generation to attach themselves , on coming into England , to ^ a small and unpopular sect , with the exception of a very few , acting under th « strong impulse of conscientious convio

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    Critiea Notice **

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1828, page 266, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2559/page/50/