Can he hope to expel from his bosom the unholy desires and passions whose sway is so firmly established there; to fix in his soul the spiritual and holy graces and virtues that are so contrary to its corrupt propensities; to change the habits of sin for those of holiness, the ways of ungodliness for those of righteousness. Can he hope to perform a work the difficulty of which is aptly denoted in the 'Ethiopian's changing his skin, and the leopard his spots,' by the unassisted efforts of his own mind; by his own resolutions so changeable; by his own strength so feeble? To him who feels the dominion of unholy passions, and the force of sinful habits, and has experienced the inefficacy of his best resolutions and efforts to subdue and change them, what consolation and encouragement in the confidence which faith inspires, that the grace of a Divine Sanctifier will be sufficient for him, the strength of a Divine Guide made perfect in his weakness. While he who walks only by sight, who trusts for his victory over his sinful passions only to his own efforts, remains subject to their dominion ;-he who walks by faith, who habitually looks for the means of his spiritual triumph to the grace of Christ strengthening him, finds that by this grace he can overcome the world, beat down Satan under his feet, and obtain the glorious liberty of the sons of God." Vol. II. p. 78.

6

On the festival of the ascension, we have an exposition of the 68th Psalm, in its spiritual application to the exaltation of Messiah, to the mercy and grace he bestows, to the extent and glory of his kingdom. "The Christian looking for his Saviour" is another sermon in which a distinguishing feature of the true disciple is prominently displayed. All professing Christians must indeed look for their Saviour's second coming as an article of faith; but it is the privilege of sincere Christians to look for the Saviour with the holiest hopes and liveliest joy; for they look to him to raise their bodies incorruptible, to bring their souls from the place where they shall have awaited the re-union with their glorified bodies, to absolve them publicly from the guilt and punishment of sin, to vindicate their integrity, to proclaim God's acceptance of their good works as evidences of their sincerity and pledges of their qualification for that blessedness to which he will then exalt them.

On Whit-Sunday, the personality of the Holy Ghost is proved from John xiv. whence also we learn his intimate union with the Father and the Son, together evidencing the Trinity in Unity. The title of Comforter is then considered as peculiarly appropriate to the service he was to render the Apostles.

"But, my brethren," continues the bishop, "the Comforter came not only for the Apostles, but for the church and for us its members. That Spirit of truth' then descended upon the church, by whose operations Christ abides with it for ever. Not only the source of that

grace

anthority by which its officers minister in holy things, but of that by which its members are governed and sanctified. As the Spirit of illuminations, by his powerful but incomprehensible operations, he enlightens us to understand the truth of God's Word, and to discern the riches of grace and mercy in Jesus Christ. As the Spirit of quickening power, he awakens the slumbering conscience, and excites in the careless and impenitent a sense of their guilt and danger, and an earnest solicitude for the things that belong to their eternal peace. As the Spirit of sanctification, he purifies our depraved affections, and renews us after the image of him who created us. As the Spirit of consolation, this divine Comforter' refreshes and animates us through every doubt, difficulty, and trial. And as the Spirit of power and might, he enables us successfully to engage in our spiritual warfare; to triumph over the enemies of our salvation; and, finally, to attain the crown of everlasting life.

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Through the merits and intercession of the Redeemer, the grace of this Holy Spirit is given unto all men, in that degree which enables them to work out their salvation. But Christians enjoy his sanctifying and comforting influences through their union with the church, which this spirit governs and sanctifies. Constituted members of Christ's mystical body in baptism, we are entitled, my Christian brethren, to the influences of that Divine Spirit by which this body is animated. are the temples of this Holy Ghost,' and let us not incur the tremendous guilt of resisting and quenching the Spirit of God." Vol. II. p. 128.

We

The fourteen sermons which follow, "relate to the doctrine of the Trinity generally, and particularly to the personality and offices of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, as set forth in the Nicene Creed." We should regret that we had not room for an analysis of this very useful course, could we suppose it possible that our readers were not already satisfied of the injustice of the charge alluded to in Bishop Hobart's Preface, so far at least as it is directed against himself. No one can fail to discover, even in the few extracts we have made, an energy of religious feeling, absolutely incompatible with a temporizing spirit, or superficial character. No one can doubt after having passed his eye over the subjects enumerated in our short syllabus, that to declare "all the counsel of God" to the congregations of which he has the charge, is the conscientious study of the Bishop of New York; and we should not be inclined to suspect the clergy, in his diocese at least, of refusing to follow an example recommended to them by piety and talents which do honour to the church and country of the possessor.

An Inquiry into the Sense in which our Saviour Jesus Christ is declared by St. Paul to be the Son of God: in Two Sermons, preached before the University of Oxford. To which are added, Observations on some Passages in Mr. Belsham's "Translation and Exposition of the Epistles of Paul the Apostle." By JOHN HUME SPRY, M.A. of Oriel College; Minister of Christ Church, Birmingham, and one of the University Select Preachers for the Year 1824. 8vo. 162pp. 4s. Rivingtons. 1824.

WE very much question the expediency of introducing controversial discussions into our churches, even those of our learned bodies, unless it be for a specific important purpose, unattainable in any other way. In our Universities the utmost caution appears to be required in the selection of subjects for the pulpit, as well as of the preachers. Much risk is run whenever topics are chosen on which conflicting arguments and opinions must be stated; more particularly if the arguments of the assumed antagonist be specious, and the opinions liberal. However triumphant may be the victory which is obtained for the cause of truth in pulpit polemics, still it is very rarely that a comprehensive view of a disputed doctrine can be given within the compass of a single sermon; and there is danger of an imputation resting on the preacher, that he has made an ex parte statement, or modelled his adversary according to his own convenience.

The eager and inexperienced minds of young men, just at an age when they are most willing to assert their privilege of thinking for themselves, are open to every suggestion of doubt and difficulty. Not yet sufficiently skilled in the detection of sophistry, or arrived at that steadiness of judgment which resolutely rejects a fallacy, the students in our colleges may chance to listen with greater interest to the arguments which are recapitulated as having been used against the truth, than to those which are urged in refutation of them. It is true that " our strong holds of Scripture are not to be surrendered because designing men have represented them to be untenable;" but if it be necessary, as it too often is, to repeat defensive operations because renewed attacks are made; this, it would seem, might be better done at once through the medium of the press. A treatise is far better adapted to all the ends of controversy than a sermon. Unless it be intended to deduce from a critical examination of texts and arguments some striking and practical inferences, which by the aid of eloquence may be brought to bear with greater effect on the spiritual or moral character of the hearers, the pamphlet possesses many essential and obvious

advantages. A stronger proof that this is so, need not be given, than the fact, that when such sermons are afterwards prepared for publication, it is usually done by the addition of notes and appendices which would have been embodied in the substance of a treatise, and in that form have been much more available.

The discourses which have given occasion to these remarks are entirely free from most of the objections which lie against many controversial sermons. They are by the well-known pen of Mr. Spry. We need hardly, therefore, assure our readers that they are temperate, unaffected, and convincing. In our analysis of them we shall be able to shew that they contain a judicious selection of arguments against Unitarian principles.

SERMON I. Acts ix. 20.-And straightway he preached Christ in the Synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

The peculiar circumstances of St. Paul's conversion justify a more than ordinary curiosity respecting his opinion upon the subject of our Saviour's divinity. Proofs are adduced from various writers that this divinity of Christ was a truth known and acknowledged by the more learned and unprejudiced Jews; it is, therefore, the object of Mr. Spry to shew that by St. Paul's declaring Jesus to be the Son of God, the very Christ, the Messiah, in this his first Sermon "he intended to teach that he was a full and equal partaker in the divine nature with God the Father."

We know that the sons of men are partakers in the nature of their fathers; and therefore, when the Apostle speaks of Christ as the Son of God, he doubtless intended us to infer, that as such our Saviour is partaker in the nature of the Father. It is however objected by controversialists that such an inference is inconsistent with the rules of interpretation. Their arguments are that as we have two different accounts of the nature of Christ, one intelligible and established by the testimony of authentic history; the other unintelligible and incapable of proof by similar evidence-we ought to interpret what is obscure in such a manner as is consistent with what is plain and indisputable. As therefore we know that Jesus was a man, partaking of our wants, our pleasures, and our pains, we cannot admit him to be a God.

Such reasoning is in the first place erroneous, as tending to invalidate the fact of his humanity, equally with that of his divinity; in proof of which, the Doceta*, one of the earliest he

* For an account of these heretics see Ittigii de Hæresiarchis Dissert, sect. 2. cap. 10. p. 184, et seq.; Tertull. Edit. Rigalt, p. 718; and for answers to them see Ignatius Epis. ad Smyrnæos, seet. 2. p. 2. and sect. 7. Edit. Pearson and Smith.

retical sects, inferred from the indisputable proof of Christ's divinity, that his appearance in the flesh was a mere optical illusion. Their argument stood thus,-it is clearly proved that Jesus was God partaking of the divine nature and attributes; we cannot therefore admit him to be a man. But the argument is of no weight; for as the objectors admit Scriptural inspiration and authority, they are as much bound to believe the human nature of Christ, because it is plainly recorded that he was the son of man; as the divine nature, because it is not less plainly recorded that he is the Son of God. Since it cannot be shewn that the former expression is always to be understood literally, or the latter always figuratively, the orthodox faith declares him to be both God and man: before, therefore, the position can be fairly denied, on account of its being incomprehensible, it must be proved that the assertion is a contradiction in

terms.

Unable to do this, the impugners of the doctrine deny that the Scriptures are rightly interpreted by its supporters; and it has been accordingly asserted, that the true explanation of St. Paul's writings establishes as a fact "the simple humanity of Christ." To shew that such an assertion is not indisputable, our author proceeds to consider some of the passages in which the Apostle applies the title of the Son of God to Jesus Christ; and to enquire what he really taught on this fundamental question. In Rom. i. 3, 4. St. Paul informs his converts that the tidings he was commissioned by God to deliver were,

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Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead."

In this passage, when the full force of the word "declared" (Opolεvros, see Schleusner) is considered, together with the intimation that this extraordinary person was the Son of God, EV duvaμE, really and effectually, a partaker of the holy and spiritual nature of the divinity, κατα πνευμα ἁγιωσύνης, it seems impossible to frame stronger language indicative of the fundamental truth here asserted in the first sermon the Apostle preached, upon which the whole fabric of his teaching, doctrinal and moral, was to be established. The only answer to this passage has been an attempt, by violating known rules and admitted principles of construction, to invalidate its real meaning. To prove that our interpretation is correct, an appeal is made to the sense attached to it by the primitive fa