:

example. St. John thus addresses the Christians to whom he was writing, in his first Epistle, ii. 20:'Ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and know all things.'

"If we consider these words in themselves merely, we shall perceive how uncertain is their signification, and how many different meanings they may be used to express. The first clause, ' Ye have an anointing from the Holy One,' may signify,

"1. Through the favour of God, ye have become Christians or believers in Christ; anointing being a ceremony of consecration, and Christians being considered as consecrated and set apart from the rest of mankind.

"2. Or it may mean, Ye have been truly sanctified in heart and life; a figure borrowed from outward consecration being used to denote inward holiness.

"3. Or, Ye have been endued with miraculous powers: consecrated as prophets and teachers in the Christian community.

"4. Or, Ye have been well instructed in the truths of Christianity. (See Wetstein's Notes on this passage, and on 1st Tim. iv. 7.)

"I forbear to mention other meanings, which the word anointing might be used to express. These are sufficient for our purpose.

"The term Holy One, in such a relation as it holds to the other words in the present sentence, may denote either God, or Christ, or some other being.

"Ye know all things, literally expresses the meaning, ye have the attribute of omniscience. Beside this meaning, it may signify, ye are fully acquainted with all the objects of human knowledge; or, ye know every truth connected with Christianity; or, ye have all the knowledge necessary to form your faith and direct your conduct; or

the proposition may require some other limitation; for all things, is one of those terms the meaning of which is continually to be restrained and modified by a regard to the subject present to the mind of the writer.

"This statement may afford some imperfect notion of the various senses which the words before us may be used to express; and of the uncertainty that must exist about their meaning, when they are regarded without reference to those considerations by which it ought to be determined. I say, imperfect, because we have really kept one very important consideration in mind, that they were written by an Apostle to a Christian community. Putting this out of view, it would not be easy to fix the limit of their possible meanings. It must be remembered that this passage has been adduced merely by way of illustration; and that, if it were necessary, an indefinite number of similar examples might be quoted."

It is absolutely necessary to stop in this selection, by doing violence to the feeling of delight and admiration which invites the selector to proceed, as he turns page after page. Let no sincere Christian deceive himself into a persuasion, that he has done justice to the question between the Unitarians and the Orthodox till he has impartially studied Professor Norton's REASONS. This praise, however, is not meant to be exclusive on the contrary, I am of opinion, that, in many cases, it would be difficult to decide whether that work, or Mr. Yates's VINDICATION, mentioned in my Preface, would be preferable.

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APPENDIX III.

Passages of Scripture which have been alleged to prove the former Existence of an apostolical Creed, explained.

MANY of my readers will require no apology for a rather long quotation from the CONFESSIONAL of Archdeacon Blackburne; a book which is now seldom in the hands of theological students, though the ability and learning it displays against the abuse of ecclesiastical power will, at all times, deserve the praise of every lover of spiritual freedom. I shall take also the liberty of inserting the paragraph which leads to the subject of this Appendix.

"I cannot leave this view of the connexion between these two prelates, Tillotson and Burnet, without a short reflection on these trimming methods in matters of religion. When were they ever known to succeed? And where were they ever known to conciliate the mind of any one of those unreasonable zealots to whose humour they were accommodated? We of this generation have lived to see how greatly Archbishop Tillotson was mistaken, in thinking to win over the high churchmen of those days by his healing expedients. His gentle, lenitive spirit was to their bigotry what oil is to the fire. Bishop Burnet's friendship for the Archbishop carried him into these measures, contrary to his natural bent, and in mere complaisance to the Archbishop's apprehensions of a storm, which he dreaded above all other things. And I remember to have heard some old men rejoice, that Burnet was kept down by Tillotson's influence from pushing the refor* I believe the edition of the Confessional I am using (1766) is the carliest.

mation of the church to an extremity that might have endangered the government itself. Some of these men, however, might have remembered, that, when the Archbishop was no longer at hand to temper Burnet's impetuosity, the latter had prudence sufficient to balance his courage, and to keep him from attempting what he had sense enough to perceive was impracticable. But, after all, what has been the consequence of Tillotson's gentleness and Burnet's complaisance for the times? Even this; these two eminent lights of the English Church could not have been more opposed while they lived, or more abused and vilified since they died, had they firmly and vigorously promoted, at all adventures, the reformation in the Church of England, which they were both of them deeply conscious she very much wanted. But, after all, if what Bishop Burnet has offered under all these disadvantages will not justify the Church of England in requiring subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles, we may venture to conclude, without any just imputation of temerity, that this service will hardly be more effectually performed by men of another stamp, who may probably engage in it with more alacrity and less circumspection. What the good Bishop has said on this behalf (on Subscription) we now propose to consider.

"His Lordship begins with stating the seeming impropriety of making such a collection of tenets the standard of the doctrine of a Church that (according to his Lordship) is deservedly valued by reason of her moderation. This (says the Bishop) seems to be a departing from the simplicity of the first ages, which yet we set up for a pattern.'*

"This objected impropriety (which, by the way, his * Introduction, p. 1.

H

Lordship exceedingly strengthens and illustrates by an induction of particulars) he rather endeavours to palliate and excuse, or, as he terms it, explain, than to deny or confute. He gives us an historical recital of the practice of former times, to shew that our Church acts after a precedent of long standing. To this no other answer is necessary, than that this was the practice of times which were not remarkable either for their moderation or simplicity, and of whose example the Church of England cannot avail herself, consistently with her pretensions to these two amiable qualities.*

"But it seems this practice was originally the practice of the Apostles; a consideration which will not only authorize our imitation, but strongly imply the utility and edification of the thing itself.

"There was a form (says his Lordship) settled very early in most churches. This St. Paul, in one place, calls The form of doctrine that was delivered; in another place, The form of sound words, which those, who were fixed by the Apostles in particular churches, had received from them. These words of his do import a standard or fixed formulary, by which all doctrines were to be examined.'†

"The passages here referred to are Rom. vi. 17 ; 1st Tim. iv. 6, to which are added, in the margin, 1st Tim. vi. 3; 2nd Tim. i. 13; and the Greek words in these several passages, which are supposed to signify this standard or fixed formulary, run thus :-Tunes διδαχης-Υποτυπωσις ὑγιαινοντων λογων - Λογοι πιστεως, και καλης

*To illustrate this truth, Dr. Mosheim's Compendious View of Ecclesiastical History may be consulted, from the time of Constantine downwards; and with greater advantage, in Dr. Maclaine's English translation lately published.—Note in the “ Confessional.”

Introduction, p. 2.