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mally repealing any of the articles, put any construction upon them which they think best, and that construction is the legal doctrine of the church in their time; and in that sense, and according to that construction, the articles may and ought to be subscribed; and he, who thus subscribes them, maintains what it is so necessary to maintain, an unity of doctrine with the majority of his brethren; and is, consequently, a better friend to the church of England, than he who may subscribe the articles in a sense more agreeable to the letter, but more adverse to the general construction of the clergy: and consequently, to the received doctrine of the church." We really think that Mr. Fellowes can scarcely for a moment suppose, that such absurdities will impose upon any man of common sense, or that such dishonest sophistication will be acceptable to any man of common honesty. In a note at the bottom of p. 131, Mr. Fellowes says, that governments should be taught "to labor to prevent these hell-born fiends, (the fanatics and atheists) from spreading theirvenom among the people; and this," he adds, "can only be done by compelling the ministers of the Establishment to teach NOTHING BUT

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lowes sure that this expedient would avail? Is he certain that no better, no honester means can be devised for converting atheists and fanatics, and for restraining the propagation of their principles, than that of compelling the ministers of the establishment to abstain wholly from teaching those mysteries of Christianity which they have solemnly engaged, and are expressly ordained to inculcate ? cant should be discouraged, we allow; although we could wish that the repression of it among the ministers of the establishment were effected rather by their own good sense and discretion, than by the operation of political coercion. But when the suppres sion of those mysteries, which, though unfathomable to our un derstanding, are, nevertheless, fit objects of our faith; such as "the Trinity of persons in the undivided godhead, the incarna tion of the second person, the expiation of sin by the Redeemer's sufferings and death, the efficacy of his intercession, and the mysterious commerce of the be liever's soul with the divine Spir it"-when a compelled suppres sion of these mysteries is proposed, as a panacea for the moral disorders produced by fanatics and atheists, we must beg leave to question the judgment and skill of the prescriber. And whatever Mr. Fellowes may say or think, our hearts desire and prayer to God is, that the clergy of the establishment, of whom we are taught "to account, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God," may have 66 utterance given unto them, that they may open their

mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel."

It is a curious fact, and a striking instance of the inconsistency which attends all attempts to evade the force of plain truth, and to quibble away the dictates of common sense, that although Mr. Fellowes would allow, and even persuade govern. ment to bind the ministers of religion, by an act of rigorous compulsion, to teach nothing but morality; he, nevertheless, deems it inconsistent with rational liberty, that these same ministers should be bound, by their own voluntary and most solemn engage. ments, to teach no doctrines repugnant to those which are contained in the confession, to whose truth they have subscribed their assent.

'But with instances of inconsistency and self contradiction, the present publication abounds. In one place we are taught, that in the first verse of the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the He. brews, the word faith means "those things which are reveal. ed by God, but are invisible to our perceptions." (p. 104.) Fortunately, however, for truth, Mr. Fellowes afterwards changes his opinion, and quotes this very verse as referring to the act of faith in the mind of the believer. In p. 112 he tells us, that "the ceremonial laws of the Mosaic dispensation were intended merely to preserve unbroken the barrier between Jew and gentile." And yet, in the very same page (as if impatient to contra dict himself) he declares, that "the Redeemer was, indeed, seen through the rites of the Mo. saic dispensation." Again, in p. 208, he says, that grace, mod.

erates the rigor of the law, and mitigates its penalties; and yet he asserts in the same page, nay, in the same period, that grace es. tablishes the law; and moreover speaks in p. 210, of the moral law being "perfected by the sove. reign excellence of Christian charity." Again, in p. 179, apostrophizing the Christian, he says, "It is only by personal acts of sin, hardening into hab. its of sin, that thou becomest a transgressor, subject to the wrath of God;" and yet in p. 220, he declares that "the moment we have violated any one duty of truth, justice, and humanity, or any one saying of the perfect law of Christ, that moment we are polluted with guilt; and, with out repentance, obnoxious to punishment."

Of Mr Fellowes' opinions on the subject of regeneration, it is unnecessary to say more, than that he maintains that regeneration is "only another name for repentance confirmed;" and that he believes, that "there are some persons who need no repent

ance."

His ideas respecting the oper ations of divine grace, and the efficacy of prayer, may be collected from the following quota. tions.-"Though devotion excite the most agreeable sensations, these sensations ought not to beesteemed supernatural calls or mir, aculous experiences; for they proceed from natural causes, and are generated by the moral organiza. tion of man, &c.". "Prayer is a help to holiness; and when fervent and sincere, procures a refreshing supply of those wholesome moral energies, those spiritual gifts, which, by whatever name they may be expressed, are cer

tainly ultimately derived from the Father of Spirits; not by any immediate and miraculous interposition of his power, but through the channel of that moral order of things which he established, and the moral constitution of man, which he ordain. ed." (p. 187.)—"Grace operates by general laws." (p. 190.)

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One temptation combatted and vanquished, brings strength to resist a stronger; till, by degrees, the habit is formed, and the fiercest assaults of the adversary are derided." (p. 202.) For these opinions on the subject of grace, Mr. Fellowes indeed prepares his readers, by telling them in a preceding page, that "most of the promises of grace, which occur in the Scriptures, are restrained to the apostolical age:" and by stating, as a mere probability, that, "the expressions, Ask and shall have, &c. you Luke xi. 9-13, have a relation to the faithful in all future ages.' Mr. Fellowes' views of this subject admit still farther illustration, from a sentiment which he expresses, in his 231st page, where he says, "Reason and conscience are the great antago. nists with which God has provided us to combat temptation. Would we but carefully cultivate our rational faculties, and our natural sense of right and wrong, and which are so capable of improvement, no temptation would be able to bring us into subjection." Here we are told, in the former part of this passage, that "reason and conscience" are the great antagonists, with which we are to combat temptation; and, in the latter part of it, that

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❝our rational faculties and natural sense of right and wrong,' are sufficient antagonists. We very much doubt, whether St. Paul was of Mr. Fellowes' opinion. That apostle speaks, on one occasion, of our resisting the tempter, stedfast in the faith; and, on another occasion, when enumerating the defensive as well as the offensive instruments of Christian warfare, he directs, that above all, we should take the shield of faith, wherewith, says he, "ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked;" he also mentions "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Ephes. chap. vi. ver. 16, 17.

But we are not certain that Mr. Fellowes will admit St. Paul's authority, in opposition to his own. We cannot indeed conceive how Mr. Fellowes can believe the inspiration of that apostle, since he not only retails the ridiculous notion, "that St. Paul being bred a pharisee, spake in the 9th chapter to the Romans, and is there to be interpreted, ex mente Pharicæorum, according to the doctrines of the pharisees concerning fate, which they had borrowed from the Stoics ;" but also says, concerning his Epistles in general, that the matter of them is, perhaps, in some degree, tinctured with the rab binical philosophy; and he moreover insinuates, that there is a coincidence between the effect of prejudice on the mind of St. Paul, and the odor which an empty cask retains of its former contents! (p. 13.)

The subject which has occasioned the preceding observations may safely be dismissed with this one remark. When St. Paul,

under the pressure of that temptation, which he denominated 66 a thorn in the flesh," prayed for divine relief, God did not tell him that his reason and conscience, or his rational faculties and natural sense of right and wrong, were the great and sufficient antagonists, with which he might repel the temptation. No-the language of God to the apostle was, MY GRACE is sufficient for thee.

us."

It will appear to many of our readers a strange, and it is certainly an expressive fact, that in attentively reading through this book, consisting of 400 pages, and intended to give a correct and comprehensive view of the religion of Christ, we have not met with a single syllable concerning "the exceeding great love of our Master and only Savior Jesus Christ, in dying for How any man could write a thick octavo volume on the avowed subject of Christianity, and so completely abstract his thoughts from the most prominent, most precious, and most influential of its truths; how he could speak of the pardon of sin, the gifts of grace, and the hopes of glory, and yet abstain from expatiating with pious gratitude and lively joy on that "precious blood shedding," by which that pardon, those gifts, and those hopes are "obtained to us"-- these are questions which we are wholly unqualified to solve. That such things may be, we learn from the work before us; and the discovery pains no less than it surprises us. We forbear to draw any inferences from the fact; and leave our readers to determine, what that religion must be, which is accompanied by such an insen.

sibility as can be perseveringly silent on such a subject. Mr. Fellowes has indeed once used the phrase, " atonement of Christ." What he means by the phrase the reader will judge, from considering it in connexion with the passage in which it occurs. His words are these: "How many particular acts of obedience or of disobedience will cause us, through the mercy of God operating in the atonement of Christ, to appear just in his divine presence on the one hand, or will occasion our exclusion from his favor on the other, we cannot ascertain, nor does it become us to inquire." (p. 348.) This is certainly an extraordinary sentence. The idea of determining our justification before God by exact arithmetical calcu. lation, is so absurd, that Mr. Fellowes might have spared himself the trouble of discouraging its adoption, by pronouncing its impracticability.

The notion

also of acts of disobedience caus. ing us to appear just in the divine presence, is perfectly nov. el, and can only be paralleled by the declaration which Mr. Fellowes makes in his 277th page, where he asserts, that the belief that there is no God is the fundamental principle of natural religion, on which all its truth depends, and all its importance rests!

To refute all the errors of this publication, and to mark all its defects, would be a task, no oth erwise to be accomplished, than by writing a book at least twice as large as the one before us. Indeed many of Mr. Fellowes sentiments and expressions are so palpably inconsistent with all which the orthodox members of

the Christian church have agreed to receive as true, that a child of ten years old, who understood the Catechism would be able to detect the false doctrines of this modern reformer; who, big with the imaginary importance of his plan, and confident of his abilities to accomplish it, antici. pates the gratitude of the Christian world, for attempting to overthrow the doctrines, and explain away the truths, which the Christian world, properly so call. ed, has, for more than two hundred years, agreed in embracing and united to maintain.

The man who speaks of Jesus Christ as a man sent from God (p. 139.); who represents repentance as restoring us to God's favor, (p. 167.) as saving the soul, (p. 179.) and as expiating offences, (p. 212.) and thus ascribes to it the offices which be long only to Christ, as our atonement and intercessor; who talks of men remaining suspended in a sort of middle state, between impenitency and repentance (p. 178.); who adopts the strict papistical interpretation of St. Peter's declaration concerning charity, in the 8th verse of his fourth chapter (p. 209.); who supposes pernicious tenets on religious subjects to be identified with the physical organization of an infant's brain (p. 248.); who repeatedly denominates sins little, trivial, transient, and venial; and, lastly, who speaks of men deserving admission into the courts of the mansions above (p. 275.); such a man may raise a smile by his absurdities, or excite compassion for his errors; but he is in no dan ger of making converts, or obtaining patrons, except among

those who are either strangers or enemies to the established doctrines of the protestant church.

It would have argued a becoming modesty in Mr. Fellowes to have read more before he began to write; or, (if the propensity to become an author proved irresistible) to have written with that diffidence which would have suited his very imperfect comprehension of the subjects which he undertook to discuss. Dogmatical presumption is displeasing, even in an old man of the highest attainments and soundest judgment; but in a young man of moderate abilities and confined reading, it is very disgusting. It is curious to observe, that while Mr. Fellowes disdains to bend before (what he calls) the colossal authority of Hooker; he writes as though he expected that his readers should "bend in passive humiliation” before the (we will not say pigmy, but we may certainly say) not very gigantic authority of the curate of Harbury.

To the cant of affected piety, we have perhaps an aversion as real, though, we trust, not so fierce and uncharitable, as that which is professed by Mr. Fellowes. But there are other species of cant, which are scarcely less rcpugnant to our taste, or less revolting to our principles. Such, for instance, is the cant of paganism, which prates without meaning, and almost without end, about moral economy, moral organization, moral order, pleasurable influences, simple volition, universal system, &c. &c. &c. Such too is the cant of adulation, of which Mr. Fellowes has given some instances in the 201st, 286th, and 392d pages,

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