plained? Chiefly, we think, because a distrust had been successfully awakened with regard to the character and intentions of the Committee of the Bible Society. The rapid spread and the violence of the feeling engendered by what purported to be a discovery of mal-practices, indicated that that feeling partook of the character of epidemic alarm. A committee guilty, as was alleged, of 'disingenuousness,' 'contumacy,'' ambiguity,' and dexterous evasion and concealment,-in league with Arians, Socinians, and Neologists all over the world,-and themselves tinctured with heresy,-who had been acting in secret contrariety to their own laws and the obligations of common morality,were arraigned or circulating the Apocrypha, merely as a first count of the long indictment; and they stood the trial upon this issue. They obtained a verdict in their favour; but has this satisfied the conspirators who instigated the prosecution? Not in the least. Their aim has been, from the first, steadily and consistently pursued. Their motives, we do not presume to scrutinize. They may think they are doing God service; and they may too, in entertaining this self-flattering persuasion, be under a strong delusion from the Enemy of God and man. However this may be, we can describe their conduct in no other way, than as a system of disingenuous, unscrupulous, and malignant hostility against the Bible Society as an Institution, and all the parties concerned in its management; a hostility which can have no other rational end than to overturn the Institution; and which, in seeking that end, regards personal detraction and falsehood as legitimate means, and is reckless of all private or public consequences.

If we are asked, who the parties are to whom we allude, we need but refer to their published documents and their accredited organs. The Edinburgh Bible Society continues to put forth, in the shape of Reports of its own proceedings, the most foul and false attacks upon the proceedings of the Earl-street Committee; presenting, perhaps, the first instance of a religious society converting its reports into libels, and making its annual meetings an occasion for blowing up the flame of controversy. The Sackville-street junta are now recognized and welcomed as an affiliated branch of the George-street Society; and the Record Newspaper is the official organ of the united factions, and the channel through which private spleen and party bigotry may find unrestrained vent. In its columns, we have occasionally recognized the well-remembered hand of some old acquaintance, and have met with falsehoods of twelve and fifteen years' standing*, strangely intermixed with the mintage of the day. Be

* In a recent attack upon this Journal, the Editor (or his corre◄

sides these main forms of attack, sundry. pamphleteers are keeping up a loose running fire upon the Bible Society, the vehemence of their language being proportioned to the staleness and shallowness of their arguments. The frightful extravagance to which some of these writers have proceeded, is a curious but melancholy phenomenon of the times. We must preserve a few of these beauties of controversy as specimens.

Let but the attitude in which the Society has been placed by the decision of the last Anniversary Meeting be impartially viewed, and it will be found to be that of apostacy from the faith, and of hostility to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. With one hand it may now be seen wielding the deadly weapons of infidelity, asserting that "there is no common declaration of faith' while with the other it carries the mask of delusive profession,' &c. Washington Philips.

When pecuniary contributions are to be raised, it wears the garb of religion, and presents itself in the character and name of Him who went about doing good. But when the tribute of prayer and the acknowledgement of His Truth is required, the garb is laid aside, and it stands confessed a prayerless and faithless Institution.' Ibid.

6

We urge them', (our brethren) to stem the current ere it become irresistible, and sweep into promiscuous ruin the fabric of Christianity.' -Ibid.

Wo be to such miserable, pitiable, base, and sinful subserviency as this!' (The tolerance of a Socinian in a committee of a Bible Society.) 'Peter's denial was nothing to this. He denied his Lord through fear of his life. We are called upon to deny Him through what? Through a bugbear-the fear of offending His most systematic enemies, and breaking up a union with them.' Monitor's Letter to the Friends and Subscribers.

spondent) has taken the trouble of going back fifteen years, in order, it may be supposed, with the more safety to cull from the Review some cases which may be fitted to his purpose. One of these, we give as an illustration of the honesty of this Newspaper critic. About fifteen years ago, a respectable clergyman (against whom we have since had repeated opportunities of shewing that we harbour no resentment) was induced to insinuate against our Journal a charge of sedition, on the strength of a few garbled expressions taken from an article furnished by the learned Historian of India. The charge was warmly and indignantly repelled as either "weak or wicked." Our Newspaper assailant prints between inverted commas, the words "weak or wicked man," as if used by the Reviewer; thus making him to apply expressions to character, which were just, and justifiable, only in reference to a particular act.

The sentence in the Report, thus wilfully and abominably misrepresented, runs as follows. To the infirmities of the human mind it may be attributed, that there is no common declaration of faith on the great fundamentals of truth, to which they can all in common sub'scribe.'

I must utterly protest against the disposition of measuring the good which the Bible Society is doing, by the amount of its income, or the number of Bibles distributed. . . . . . Let this question be deeply and duly considered,-Whether the admission of Socinians into the Society, and the neglect of united prayer, may not frequently make all the difference of distributing the Bible with a curse instead of a blessing; so that, while vast multitudes of the copies are distributing, it is only that they may prove a savour of death unto death? Does this thought make us shudder? What then, if distributing a far less number in a more acceptable spirit and manner, almost every copy should prove a savour of life unto life?' Thelwall.

Many are, no doubt, surprised at observing the violent struggle maintained by the Committee to retain Socinians as members and governors of their Society; but they do not reflect that if the efforts succeed that are now making to put an end to this enormity, and to expel those from having a share in the direction of a Bible Society, who trample on the doctrine of the Bible, and whose avowed object it is to destroy every idea of its inspiration, then it will inevitably follow, that, without exception, every one of the kindred institutions of Earl Street on the Continent, consisting of a large majority of Freethinkers, who have neither the glory of God nor the good of men at heart, must be struck off at one blow. And thus, what has hitherto constituted the main pillar on which rested the fame of Earl Street, and furnished occasion for glorying in their Annual Reports and those of their Scottish auxiliaries, will in one hour be destroyed. Twentysecond Report of the Edinb. Bible Society, p. 60.

We have transcribed these passages with no design of commenting upon the violent spirit they breathe, or the gross untruths they imbody, but as they disclose both the object of the party, and the means by which they are seeking to accomplish it. But the total dissolution of the Bible Society, under the pretence of purifying it, is not all that is aimed at. The venerable Author of the Letter of Sexagenarius, referring to the fanatical spirit that is now urging certain ill-trained theologians' into the most romantic and pernicious eccentricities, goes on to say: 'Should the contagion spread much further, that dark ' and portentous day may arrive, on which preachers, journalists, ' and agitators, in circles more limited, will be organised into boards of surmising and condemnatory criticism, where con'spiracies will be formed, and sentences pronounced, against 'whomsoever they may choose as victims. We may then ' reckon on the establishment of a Protestant Propaganda, and 'the composition of a Protestant Index Expurgatorius; the 'whole having, if not as its deep-laid design, yet, as its uniform ' tendency and frequent effect, the reducing of a publisher's 'honest trade, the blurring of an editor's rising fame, the ob'structing of a Society's all-important operations; and these 'things aggravated by no obscure reference to the claim of a

'Divine commission. Fancy is not employing her pencil here. The scheme is concerted; the machinery is at work; the mischief is begun.'-Does any reader doubt it? Let him read the following proposed plan of clerical opposition to the pro'gress of Neologism in England'; copied from the Jewish Expositor for June last, a periodical now happily defunct. The plan purports to be the suggestion of a valued correspondent who writes from the Continent.

I will tell you what I think ought to be done against rationalism. 1. Form a little association of three, four, or more staunch men, clergy and laity of the Church of England, in each diocese, who conscientiously devote themselves to the Lord, to withstand infidelity in every shape. II. That this association publish no report, and consider themselves as responsible to none but the Lord himself. III. That they meet at stated periods, as may be agreed upon. IV. That between the times of meeting, each member endeavour to procure the latest catalogues of theological books selling in London, mark all commentaries, expositions, doctrinal works, &c., and either himself give the character of the author, or at least ask the other members, do they know it, at the next meeting. V. That those who have the means, opportunity, &c., read the books, and apply earnestly to the study, for the object of controversy. VI. If it be possible, get either a gazette or a small periodical going, for the express purpose of exposing the doctrines and devices of Rationalism, and shewing how they stand opposed to the doctrines of our Church. VII. That all keep a watchful look out as to sermons, translations, &c., coming out in England, at the universities, and elsewhere. VIII. If a rationalist work appear, by a member of an English university, that the Association immediately present a denunciation to the bishop of the diocese, and to the chancellor of the university to which the delinquent belongs: the denunciation to be signed by all the members of the Association in that diocese. (This business of signing a denunciation, to which all who will become members of the Association should oblige or bind themselves, would keep out the undecided.) IX. If the bishop or university take no notice, then go further, to the archbishop of the province, king, &c.; and if all fail, then publish the whole matter, with all the names affixed. This mode would soon shew what the Church of England has to hope or to fear from its shepherds in this dread crisis, and would shew the danger in its fullest extent.'

The plan deserves consideration; but where are the men?'

Where are they? We should most naturally look for them at Rome or Madrid. In the days of the Star-chamber, they abounded in England. But can the proposers of the plan be even now at any loss for coadjutors? Have they not already 'a gazette and a small periodical' ready to their hand? And who so proper to be the superior of this secret order, as the Rev. Thomas Boys, Ex-editor of the Jewish Expositor, and Hebrew and Theological Tutor to the Jewish Society? For

his Vice, there is the Rev. A. S. Thelwall, late of Amsterdam, his coadjutor and double, who is acquainted with all particulars'. And as Associates, we may name the Editor of the Record, his correspondent, T. P. P., Henry Drummond, Esq., the Rev. Washington Philips, and, if they can but be brought over to Episcopacy, Robert and Alexander Haldane. But why do we speak of the plan as merely in petto? The machinery is at work, and the mischief begun'; and the first victim selected is Mr. Greenfield, the Editor of the Comprehensive Bible, and the recently appointed superintendant of the Translating department of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

The Comprehensive Bible was first published in the year 1826. For three or four years, the publication was universally regarded as one which did the highest credit to both the Editor and the Publisher. Not an objection was heard against any part of its contents. With scarcely a single exception, not a whisper was breathed against the value and unexceptionable tendency of the notes, or the unimpeachable competency and orthodoxy of its Editor. But mark the fact. No sooner is the Editor of the Comprehensive Bible appointed by the Earl Street Committee to an official situation in connexion with the Bible Society, than, at once, the full cry of neologism is raised against him; and the Comprehensive Bible, which orthodox clergymen had been unsuspectingly using in their studies and pulpits, and recommending to their flocks, is discovered to be a mass of insidious error.

The Rev. Mr. Boys, the jure divino censor-general of modern theology, commenced the attack in the Christian Review,a' small periodical' which has since sunk beneath his mortiferous pen. He was followed by a reverend correspondent of the Record Newspaper, of whom it is but justice, however, to say, that he appears to be a man of very different spirit: he had the candour to speak of the supposed neological tendency of the passages objected to, as 'undesigned', and to term the publication that in many respects valuable work'. To Mr. Gipps's Letter, there appeared in the same Newspaper, a full reply from a third party, entirely unconnected with either the publisher of the Bible, or with the Bible Society. From this letter, we must transcribe a paragraph or two, which will sufficiently illustrate the nature of the criticisms which called it forth.

It is much to be regretted that Mr. Gipps should have given his extracts so partially; and it is, therefore, due to your readers to state, that from an examination I have made, a complete refutation of the accusations has been elicited; and since the notes in the Comprehensive Bible are, in general, accompanied by reference to authorities, and are often in the very words of the most celebrated divines, I cannot but