hood in assertion; in a word, of all the various means, and contrivances, by which, bad faith, unchecked by learning, and unabashed by shame, is used to mislead the uninformed, and delude the unsuspecting: I trust, also, that I shall stand acquitted of improper seve rity, in the terms in which the charge was originally expressed: and that what the Editors, in the person of the Calm Inquirer, (who is acknowledged as their advocate), have complained of as coarse language, the reader will admit to be nothing more than the language of plain truth; and that he will be disposed to offer for me, the apology that Philip did, for those who are described as being in the habit of calling a spade a spade." P. 719. : Having thus effectually dispatched the subject of the Improved Version, and its apologists, our author enters, with more brevity, on the consideration of St. Matthew and St Luke's introductory chapters, and the testimony of the Ebionites and Marcionites, upon which their authenticity is arraigned. The reply of “ a Calm Inquirer," to the objections formerly urged by him against the credibility of those witnesses, now attracts its due share of his regard and as fine a living subject, as has been ever submitted to the critical anatomist, now exercises the operator's skill. That nnnatural induration of froth and faces, which, in the Unitarian headpiece, supplies the place of brains, is laid open by the dissector's knife. Crudity of apprehension, confusion of intellect, dulness and flippancy, confidence and incoherence, the vainest affectation of learning, and the most pitiable exposure of ignorance, constitute the unnatural, but ludicrous ingredients which are made bare to our ridicule or compassion. We cannot sufficiently regret, that our limits will not admit of our presenting the reader with a full exemplification of the keen and exquisite art, with which the skilful operator has acquitted himself on this occasion. Referring him, for an experimental proof of our assertion, to the part of the work before us, of which we can convey no idea by description, and which we should but mar by partial quotation, we shall present him with one specimen, as well of the strain in which our author is opposed, as of the spirit with which it is rebutted; not that a superior pungency commends it to our notice, but that a convenient brevity fits it for quotation. In an amusing effort of the Calm Inquirer, to reply to the charge of unreasonableness and inconsistency, urged against the Editors for "pronouncing the Ebionite witnesses not credible from their acknowledged mutilation of the sacred text, and upon the other side of the same leaf mentioning them to be witnesses of such repute as ought to be relied upon, in opposition to all the MSS, and all the Versions of the New Testament in the whole world; their equally severe and witty apologist, quoting this passage," "that that is quoting it after the Unitarian fashion, cutting out the part of it on which the whole argument is made to turn, proceeds to observe, "We should make fine work of ancient history, if this Dublin Professor's principle is to be admitted, believe all or none without discrimination. Livy relates that Hannibal crossed the Alps, and beat the Romans at the battie of Canna; and I believe him. The same Livy tells us that an or spoke; but I believe him not." He asks then, "is Livy to be pronounced on one side of the leaf, to be credible, and on the other incredible," and so goes on, to make himself exceedingly merry at the expence of the Dublin Professor," &c, P. 732. Our author, after observing by the way, "that the Dublin Professor carries his principle even farther than "believe all or none." He is so whimsical as to require of those, with whom he is engaged in discussion, to quote all or none, of any passage which they profess to give as his," proceeds in that strain of caustic asperity, which forcibly reminds us of the happiest manner, of the great literary dictator of the last age. "There is a certain merriment, which the wise writer of Eccle siasticus has compared to the crackling of thorns.' It is for the Calm Inquirer to consider, whether his laughter be of this description. Could it have been imagined, that the Unitarians would have put forward, the dullest of their tribe, in their vindication? Yet so it is. Thus we have, not only an utter incapacity to understand a plain argument, but a merry-making in the display of dulness, which though ludricous enough to lead the mind from the speaking of an ox, its favourite topic in this place, to the braying of an inferior animal, yet, when properly considered, can only move our compassion. The severities of this writer, also, are of the same family with his jocularities. The author of the Discour ses on Atonement and Sacrifice must, surely, feel himself deeply wounded, by being reminded, as he is in every second page of this performance, that he is a Dublin Professor,' an Irish Theologian,' and, of course, debarred from breathing that purer intel lectual atmosphere, which has been the happier lot, and readily accounts for the higher endowments of the Calm Inquirer and his associates," &c, P. 734. Our author, never losing sight of the main subject which he has in hand, has no sooner repelled the feeble efforts of his opponents to recover their lost ground; but he seizes the opportunity afforded him by the renewal of the attack, and pushes it to the extremity. To the observations urged by him, on a former occasion, against the testimony of the Ebionites and Marcionites, as affecting the authenticity of St. Matthew and St. Luke's introductory chapters, we find the following objec tion now added, which roots up the foundation of the argument, derived from their evidence. "But, what shall we say, if the entire foundation of the argument, with what the Editors and their Calm Inquirer, have been amusing us, be itself a fiction: and if it shall appear, not only, that the Ebionite Gospel was not a copy of the Gospel of St. Matthew, nor the Marcionite Gospel, a copy of that of St. Luke, but that neither of them professed to be such? What in this case becomes of the fact, of the want of the first chapters of Matthew and Luke, or of any parts of the Gospels, in the books of these antient heretics? Now, upon a full investigation of the testimonies of the Fathers, from whom alone we can derive information, as to what the books of these heretics actually contained, this case seems to be satisfactorily established." P. 755. Admitting the assumption, which the author proceeds to establish by an appeal to those authorities on which his oppoDents rest its decision, we cannot see, by what subterfuge the force of this fundamental objection may be evaded. It must be indeed that strange confusion of ideas, which attends the Unitarians in all their discussions, that will lead any reasoner to conclude, that because the disputed chapters are rejected by any description of heretics, or because they are discarded from the Gospels of the Ebionites or Marcionites, that they therefore form no part of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke. But for the security of another charge urged against these heretics, and which renders their immediate testimony against these chapters wholly inadmissible, we are compelled to explain ourselves more fully upon this head. When it is therefore asserted that the Ebionites and Marcionites, did not publish copies of St. Matthew and St. Luke, we understand, and admit, the assertion to the letter. The case appears to be clearly made out by our author, and it renders his argument decisive. But we by no means understand by the assertion, that they did not publish editions of St. Matthew and St. Luke, though corrupted and interpolated, to promote their particular views. This point, which is claimed or conceded by the Unitarians, is not denied by their learned opponent; and indeed its establishment appears necessary to the validity of his previous objections to the testimony of the here. ties, as mutilators of the sacred text of Scripture. For we profess ourselves unable to see how this charge can be substantiated, unless they made Scripture the foundation of their sophisticated text. Whether we suppose that they took, as their basis, some apocryphal work, which possessed much coincident matter with the canonical Scriptures; or that they extracted from the inspired text, or from some common document, as much much as they possessed in common with the genuine Gospels, the charge appears to us to be equally untenable. Granting the point, from which we reason as a postulate; that they did not publish copies of the evangelists, nor profess to publish editions of their gospels; the charge of mutilating their text cannot, as far as we perceive, be easily made good. On taking the reverse of the question, and supposing that they incorporated in their spurious scriptures, the substance of the genuine Gospels, so as to make them the basis of their apocryphal works, the verification of the fact, that they rejected any part of the authentic Scripture, is then a substantiation of the charge, that they mutilated and corrupted the inspired word. This view of the subject might be easily shewn, to be most consonant to the accounts which the ancients have transmitted of the Ebionite and Marcionite Gospels *, and the history of their compilers, did our limits permit us to enter into the discussion. The distinction on which we have insisted, being admitted, the original charge urged against those heretics remains unaffected, by the new light which is now thrown on the subject; and their testimony against the disputed chapters, is still wholly inadmissible, "from their acknowledged mutilation of the sacred text." Having thus exposed the futility of the external testimony adduced against the introductory chapters of the Evangelists, and very briefly considered the internal, urged against St. Matthew, our author defers the consideration of that urged against St. Luke to a more convenient opportunity; announcing it to be his intention" to present his animadversions on the Unitarians, and their New Version, in one collective form, and in a separate tract, when he shall have it in his power to enter more fully into the subject." On this subject we have but one sentiment to express, which we rather venture to utter as a hope, than presume to offer as counsel, that the Deau of Cork will not suffer his valuable time to be engrossed by a subject beneath his powers and attainments. In the assurances which we have received, that the controversy on the Atonement is laid at rest beyond the chance of further agitation; that there exists not in the country which had the ho nour to give him birth, a single Unitarian congregation; we have abundant evidence of the triumphant success of a cause, in which he has laboured single-handed. A still higher field lies open to * Such is plainly the account which St. Iræneus and Tertullian give of Marcion's Gospel: S. Iren. uti supr. cap. xxvii.; p. 106.--Id quod est secundum Lucam Evangelium circumcidens, et omnia quæ sunt de generatione Domini auferens-non Evangelium sed particulam Evangelii tradens, &c. Vid. Tert. Supr. p. 294. n. §. his exertions. Public expectation is impatient for the discus sion upon the prophecies of Daniel; the perilous situation of that Church, of which he is so zealous and powerful a defender, must, ere long, call him to discharge the duties of a more elevated but laborious station; and in whatever situation he is placed, he must be an effective labourer. It is idle, indeed, to talk of the claims of any person to preferment, where the right of patronage is acknowledged. But we rely too im plicitly on the good sense and discernment of those who hold the distribution of those honours in their hands, to doubt, that they will long suffer themselves to be reproached by the eminent services of the individual before us. Yet, should these sanguine expectations be prolonged, there are other considerations, in which, the Dean of Cork must find, -has found, his remuneration. We speak not of any exultation which may arise from the success of the cause in which he has engaged; that he has rooted up a noxious weed from his native Jand, which sheds its influence, and scatters its seeds, in a soil which is more genial. We allude not merely to the sensations which must kindle in his heart, when he reflects, that at his intercession, the pestilence has passed away, which menaced a land which is dear to him. But there is a feeling which the world and its interests can neither give nor take away; that exquisite indescribable sensation, which can even lull the pang pierces the heart of disappointed exertion-the inward congratulation of having acquitted ourselves conscientiously in the most sacred of trusts-and in this feeling, (we speak not from conjecture) the Dean of Cork has found his remuneration. that ART. VIII. Sermon of the Dean of Christ Church, preached at St. Paul's, on Thursday, June 1, 1815, before the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 8vo. Rivingtons. 1816. THE benefits which have now for nearly one hundred and twenty years been resulting from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, have operated in various ways. The grand and original design being the propagation of the Gospel, both abroad and at home, it has exerted its humble, but we trust successful endeavours, in turning many of our foreign brethren from darkness to light, and instructing them in the knowledge of the only true God; while within the precincts of its own immediate sphere it has been no less active in preserv ing the faith pure and undefiled, by being a principal instrument |