and influence, will be regarded only with abhorrence, and remembered only with shame.

The increasing taste and advantages for the study of biblical criticism and interpretation, and the spirit of inquiry on the subject of religion generally must further they have already furthered the progress of the gospel in its purity and simplicity. The last half century has accomplished wonders in helping to the true understanding and the genuine text of the sacred scriptures; and every year is doing its full share. We feel no little pride in the fact, that our own country has not been backward, but that its scholars have added very valuable contributions to this department of theological learning. Something has even been done towards a new translation of the scriptures, which learned men of almost every Protestant denomination concur in declaring desirable. Three years since, a clergyman of our own denomination* gave the world a new translation of the Book of Job with valuable notes, which has been eagerly welcomed across the water; and he has now added an equally valuable translation of the Psalms, with notes. Probably, should his life and health be spared long enough, he will translate the whole of the Old Testament. Other denominations have been and are constantly helping this great and good work of scriptural interpretation.

All this looks well-well for the cause of truth, and we should therefore rejoice at it. I care not for Unitarianism, unless it be truth. Let us have truth, whatever it costs; be it at the sacrifice of every opinion,

* Rev. Mr. Noyes, of Brookfield, Mass.

however cherished and valued now. Our faith should be held at all times, open to the severest scrutiny. We should be willing to meet and to weigh every objection. If it will not abide this test, and any other, the severest even, then for one I say, we need something better and purer. And I am sure that if men will rightly use the advantages which they now enjoy, divesting their minds of all prejudice, praying for the aid and blessing of God, and seeking for nothing but truth-truth will break upon them in all its unclouded brightness; the gospel will be revived in its purity, and go on conquering and to conquer with its primitive power.

F.

PREVALENT SPIRIT OF FREE INQUIRY ON THE SUBJECT

OF RELIGION.

subjects, could not pass Accordingly, authority seem but slender argu

The human mind, busy in its search after the true and the valuable upon all other by religion, the greatest of all. and prescription have come to ments in behalf of any existing abuses. The errors of past days, the belief of their predecessors, be they more or less remote, find the men of the present unwilling to receive them as matters of inheritance; and they must submit to be handled and scrutinized with very little tenderness on account merely of their alleged origin or antiquity. The field of truth has been and continues to be explored with an earnestness of search,

and an almost sceptical inquisitiveness, which leaves no objection nor difficulty unnoticed. And the result of all this has been beneficial. Mere traditions, indeed, have lost their authority; but truth itself has had its immovable foundations bared to the broad light of day, and the admiring gaze of millions, by the removal of the rubbish which had gathered around them. The spirit of liberal inquiry has in this way exercised itself upon religion, and with the same fearlessness and vastly greater power, than when it lifted the banner of the Reformation and advanced beneath its földs.' That which we call the Reformation, we have learnt was the merest beginning of reform;-it did not enter and penetrate the strong holds of error; it only beat down some of its outposts, and gave a partial liberty to some of its slaves. Even this was a great service to mankind. Much greater ones remained, however, to be rendered, some of which it is the glory of our own day to witness. We have lived to see almost every subject in any way connected with our faith, visited and enlightened by the influence of this spirit of inquiry. The evidences of the gospel revelation have been examined and discussed with great fidelity and thoroughness; the doctrines which it declares, sought after and preached with zeal and plainness; the objections and even the cavils of the unbeliever, met and treated with great patience and candor, and triumphantly answered; and as a result of the whole, Christianity shown to be more and more worthy of man's love and trust. Its various conflicts have only relieved it of many of its corruptions which were like gangrenes upon its vitals; and disabled its unsought allies-the

over-zealous enthusiast who trusted to feeling rather than evidence, and the persecutor who would make faith the result of brute and tyrannical force. In the mean time, branches of evidence hitherto unexplored, have been carefully traced, and new veins of equal richness discovered, still to be worked. Coincidences and correspondences the most minute but frequently the most astonishing, have been designated, collected with great care, and exhibited in the most elaborate and convincing manner. I speak of the internal evidences of our religion, which are every day unfolding themselves in some new and valuable particular, and inviting and rewarding the pains of the fair and honest inquirer.

F.

PLAN OF THE FOUNDER OF CHRISTIANITY.

Plan of the Founder of Christianity, by F. V. Reinhard, S. T. D. Court Preacher at Dresden. Translated from the Fifth German Edition, by Oliver A. Taylor, A. M., Resident Licentiate, Theological Seminary, Andover. New York. Carvill, 1831. pp. 359.

We give this volume our cordial welcome as a valuable contribution to the Evidences of Christianity. We are indebted for its appearance among us, to the labors of a resident student in the Theological Seminary at Andover, who has shown his good judgment in the selection of the work, and his good scholarship in the ability of the translation. The original has been celebrated, among the voluminous writings of its distin

guished author, for its comprehensive views of the spirit of the gospel, its rich historical illustrations, and its clearness and depth of argument. We are not aware that the topic, which Reinhard selected, for the basis of his reasonings, had ever before been treated with the precision and fulness, which he brings to its respective details; although it has since been so often incidentally noticed, that probably not many of the views here presented will be absolutely new to the majority of readers. Still they are discussed at so much length, and with such a degree of ability in the present volume, that we are confident it will be read with interest by the sincere inquirer after christian truth.

The idea at the foundation of Reinhard's reasoning is that the plan devised by Jesus for the good of mankind, was so far above that of the great men of antiquity who had labored for the benefit of the human. race, that it proves him to have been an extraordinary teacher, a messenger sent froin God. This idea is unfolded, under several distinct heads, all of which have a direct bearing on the great conclusion of the argument, and are calculated to throw much light on the history and character of our Saviour.

We will give our readers several extracts as specimens of the work. The following remarks are from the closing part of an interesting comparison of Jesus Christ, with former teachers and philanthropists.

'Hitherto, therefore, we have searched in vain among all the benefactors of the human race to be met with in antiquity, in order to find a man, who thought in as great, noble and benevolent a manner as the founder of Christianity, and succeeded in the attainment of enlarged views and the formation of plans of general utility. The result of our investigations is manifestly this: The human race have at all times had great men, who, whenever circumstances required, and special occasion