from this minor and internal feud, to the common interests, the common duties, the common dangers of the church to whom they both profess fidelity.

"The first of these, though certainly not without its difficulties, is that, I should conceive, which, if well managed, would most conduce to the popularity of your work, and would most tend to heal the disputes of churchmen, by accustoming them to refer their grievances or their suggestions to a common and unexceptionable tribunal, instead of carrying them, as is now the case, to those particular miscellanies which most favour their preconceived opinions, and where they have, therefore, least chance of having those opinions rectified or moderated. On the second, I will only say that it will require, in future, the exclusion of such letters as that of an early subscriber.' You will, I trust, take these hints as they are intended, not as dictating, which I have no pretensions to do, the line which you are to follow ; but as merely conveying the sentiments of one who is pleased both with the plan of your work and its execution; and who, as he anticipates much good to the church from the establishment of a rallying point for her defenders, is desirous to extend the benefits of such a design to as many of these defenders as possible.

"I do not know what value you will set on my future contributions; and an arduous work in which I have been for some years engaged, leaves me far less time than I could wish for other literary recreations. But, should I be blessed with more leisure than I have lately enjoyed, there are other topics, perhaps, more generally interesting than the Bible Society, and certainly on which our opinions are less likely to differ, on which you may possibly occasionally hear from

"AN ARMINIAN."

"As I do not know that there is any advantage in keeping on my mask behind the scenes, may I request you will send me back my former letter, if you have no further use for it, to 'The Rev. Reginald Heber.""

Hodnet Rectory, June 14, 1819.

CHAPTER XVII.

Critique on Scott's "Force of truth”—Mr. Reginald Heber undertakes to write a life of Jeremy Taylor, and a critical essay on his writings-The Travellers' Club-Inscription to the Memory of the Honourable Frederic S. N. Douglas. 1819.

THE following critique on Scott's "Force of Truth," was written when its author was from home, and, consequently, when he had not access to books of reference. It was a very frequent practice among Mr. Reginald Heber's friends to request him not only to give his opinion on different passages of Scripture, and on controversial books, but to direct their theological studies. On one of these occasions when he was asked with what commentator on the Bible it was advisable to begin a course of religious reading, he answered "read the Bible attentively yourself, without the assistance of any commentator; first form your own opinion, and then examine those of others."

To Miss Dod.

"MY DEAR CHARLOTTE,

1819.

"Several years had elapsed since I last read Mr. Scott's Force of Truth;' and I am glad that my attention has again been called to it, because it is a work which one can hardly read without deriving advantage from the eminent piety and sincerity which pervade it, and the truth of many of the opinions enforced in it. God knows how earnestly I myself desire to be altogether such a one as Mr. Scott is, in strength of faith, purity of heart and life, and devotion of myself to God's will and service; and it is because I regret that his example, and the truths

which he recommends, should be encumbered by any irrelevant or erroneous opinions, that I am the more anxious to point out to you the parts in which I differ from him, and what appear to me the leading and pervading mistakes of his system. To the few points in controversy between us, I have now for many years paid considerable attention, though certainly I have never been so much interested in them, as in those on which the Calvinists and Arminians are agreed in regarding as the 'great power of God to salvation.'

'Excepting incidentally, I have never written or preached on them, because I regard it as the great misfortune of our times, that men have been squabbling and calling names about doctrines not essential, and differences which only exist in words, to the neglect of the real interests of the souls committed to their charge. But the course of my studies has often brought them under my attention; my reading has been extensive among the elder divines of all sects and parties; and though I will not deny that I have been always under some degree of prejudice against the peculiarities of Calvinism, I do not think I have read the works of its advocates with an uncandid or uncharitable spirit. So far I am, perhaps, as well qualified to judge of the question as Mr. Scott was. In one respect there has, indeed, been a difference in our system of inquiry, inasmuch as, though I have always prayed God for the aid of His spirit to guide me generally into all truth, and more especially into the knowledge of whatever truth was necessary or profitable to my salvation and the salvation of others, yet I have not ventured to ask or hope that the Holy Ghost would secure me from all errour, or enable me to decide on topics so abstruse as those of free will, and the final perseverance of the elect. You will, therefore, take my notions on these and such-like points, as the opinion of one sufficiently weak and fallible; and who, though he believes himself right in his conclusions, has looked for no other aid in forming them, than (what I really trust I have received in answer to my worthless prayers) a teachable mind, and grace to use diligently the means of information offered to me.

"That Mr. Scott has expected more than this seems to me the lurking root of the errours into which he has fallen. He

CRITIQUE ON SCOTT'S "FORCE OF TRUTH."

505 reasons throughout his work, particularly in the conclusion, to this effect: I have examined these doctrines carefully; I have prayed diligently to God the Holy Ghost to show me the truth; I believe He has heard my prayers; and, therefore, I am sure that all which I have written is true.' He professes, indeed, (in p. 64 and 80,) to make a distinction between doctrines absolutely necessary, and those which are peculiar to Calvinists. But, on the other hand, he tells us that the system of true Christianity is 'incomplete without them,' (p. 62.) He tells us (p. 71.) that he has been led to adopt a system, (which in p. 72. he explains to be every doctrine of the despised system of Calvin,') 'under the guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit; and, therefore, it is plain that he has expected as a right, and as the promised return to his faithful prayers, not only the sanctifying and purifying graces of the Holy Ghost, not only grace to perceive the things which were absolutely necessary to his salvation-but power to determine between the opposite arguments of Calvin and Episcopius.

"Now this arises from a misconception of the promises made to prayer, and an inattention to what passes within and around us. It is, indeed, as certain as God is true, that whatever He has authorised us to ask of Him, He will grant to our faithful prayers through Jesus Christ. But when we ask for more than He has promised, we ask for what we have no right to expect; we presume beyond His offered mercy; and so far from being bound by His promise to hear our prayer, it is well for us if He does not send chastisement or blindness instead of the prosperity or knowledge for which we are over-anxious. But it is certain that God has only promised us necessary things; and all the passages in Scripture which Mr. Scott quotes (p. 75. 77., &c.) are understood by all parties as referring to necessary things only. Thus, if a child asks bread of his father, a good parent will not give him a stone; but if he asks for a fine coat, for a costly toy or an unnecessary (to him, perhaps, an unwholesome) dainty, his father will refuse his request, and possibly punish him for making it; and if I should pray to be made a bishop or an expert mathematician, I should fall under the same censure. like manner, in spiritual gifts, placed as we are in the lowest VOL. I.-64

In

rank of spiritual beings, and sentenced for the present to 'see through a glass darkly,' it is plain that the promises of the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him,' of being 'guided into all truth,' and having by the same Spirit a right judgment in all things, must be limited to such aids and particulars as may ensure our salvation through Jesus Christ; and that we may as well ask for the wings of an angel, as freedom from errour in whatever doctrinal point may chance to attract our attention. Were it otherwise, there could be no such thing as difference of opinion among those who are really God's children, while it is plain that such difference exists among men who are likely to have prayed for the help of the Holy Ghost as earnestly, (though with somewhat different expectations of the manner in which their prayers were to be heard,) as Mr. Scott himself. Nor can we decide under how many or how great circumstances of errour God may allow His children to remain, or how small a measure of light is sufficient, in His hands, to bring them to Him.

"Many of the leading doctrines of popery are, to all appearances, subversive of some of the plainest and most essential articles of the Christian faith; yet I cannot read the lives of Bellarmine, Charles Borromeo, Vincent de St. Paul, Fenelon, and Pascal, without feeling that they were holy and humble men, incessant in prayer, and devoted to God and to their inquiries after truth; or without a painful consciousness that, with all the clearer views of God's dispensations which I believe myself to possess, I should be happy beyond my hopes, and certainly beyond my deserts, to sit at the feet of the meanest among them in Heaven. Nor dare we, as I conceive, deny that men like these, however grievously mistaken in some points, were under the guidance and teaching of that Spirit from whose inspiration only such virtues as theirs could proceed.

"Notwithstanding, therefore, Mr. Scott's prayers and sincerity, he may be in errour of the most pernicious kind, though God in His mercy may, through mists and darkness, conduct him to Himself. And how much or how little of his views of religion is erroneous, must be proved by argument and the test of the Holy Scriptures, not by the sincerity of his conviction,