or a layman, a graduate or under-graduate, had we not been induced, by the fatisfaction which we felt in perufing the work before us, to make fome enquiries after its author, where alone thofe enquiries could receive a fatisfactory anfwer. Mr. Smith, we are informed, is the minifter of a chapel connected with the eftablished church, in Dundee, where he has fignalized himself by exposing the absurdities of a fect of fanatics, who are equally zealous with our own Methodists in exciting popular prejudices against the doctrine and difcipline of the church, eftablished by law. For fuch fervices, he is entitled to the gratitude of every member of the establishment; and to that gratitude he cannot fail to have enhanced his claim by the Effays, of which we are now to make our report to the public. Their chief defign is to illuftrate the fundamental principles of Chriftianity, and to fhow the natural order and dependence of those principles on one another. Of the plan of the work the author gives the following account, which, as far as we have yet an opportunity of judging, appears to be perfectly fair. "It is divided into three parts. The first comprehends thofe articles, which are neceffarily implied in the belief, that Chrif tianity is established by Divine authority. In the fecond part, I intend to state a number of fuch rational and useful rules, as ought ftrictly to be observed in expounding the fcriptures. quack doctors (quacks) often do great injury to the conftitution of their patients by a wrong application of medicine; fo unin formed fpiritual guides frequently do great injury to the fouls of mankind, by a mifapplication of the facred fcriptures. As - In the third part, I intend to illustrate and arrange a number of fuch doctrines of revelation, as are ge nerally admitted by all denominations of proteftants. In order to communicate an accurate knowledge of Christianity to man. kind, it is neceffary not only to ftate the natural order of firk principles, but alfo to explain the manner in which the great doctrines of revelation depend on, and are influenced by, one another." P. 2. The two firft parts of this plan are executed in the volume before us. In a fecond volume, to which the third part is reserved, the author propofes to engross, as he expreffes it, every valuable criticilm that he can difcover to have been made on what he has now published; and, to render the whole as perfect as poffible, he folicits from the friends of truth advice and materials for the illuftration of a fcriptural system of Chriftianity, The The general title of the first part is, "The order and evidences of fuch doctrines as are neceffarily implied in the belief, that Chriftianity is warranted by Divine authority." This, as the reader will obferve, is an extenfive and complicated fubject. The difcuffion of it accordingly occupies nine Effays on 1. The importance, nature, and use of first principles in religion; 2. The being, perfections, and government of God; 5. The difference between inftinet and reafon; man's fuperiority to the other animals; his immortality; his foul and mind; a future ftate; 4. Sin, confcience, and the guilt of mankind; 5. The infufficiency of reafon, and the neceffity of a revelation for finners; the world never was without a revelation; the degeneracy of heathens, and difference between them and Chriftians; 6. The authenticity and ufe of the Scriptures; they are not adulterated, and relate to unquestionable facts; 7. The infpiration f Mofes and of Jefus Chrift eftablished by their miracles and predictions; the miracles of the Egyptian magicians; the inSpiration of the Apostles; 8. The exercife and province of reason in religion; the meaning of the term; the word mystery explained; its various fenfes in the fcripture; 9. The fufficiency of the Scriptures, and chief defign of Christianity. In thefe difquifitions there is much found reafoning, and various obfervations that are eminently valuable; but while we cheerfully acknowledge the merits of the author, truth compels us to add, that he has likewife fallen occafionally into miflakes, which perverfenefs nay employ for the bafeft of purpofes. Nothing can be more juft than what he fays, in the firft Effay, of the neceffity of studying Chriftianity, as every science should be ftudied in a regular and fyftematic order; nor any thing more pertinent than the comparifons, by which he illuftrates this pofition. The diftinction likewife, which occurs in the faine Effay, between the abilities requifite to difcover the principles of natural religion, and the capacity to apprehend them when proposed to the mind, is equally juft*, and of the greatest importance; but, if he comprehend the whole of the following extract among the principles of natural religion, affumed as first truths by Chriftianity, properly fo called, he appears to us to miftake the first purpofe for which a Redeemer was promifed to fallen man. "The being of God, and his goverment of the world; the immortality of the foul, and a future fate of rewards and punish * See Brit. Crit. vol. xxii. pp. 397, 398. ments; ments; the difference between good and evil, and man's guilt in the fight of a righteous God; are admitted as first principles in Christianity, and employed in argumentation, like the propo fitions which have been demonftrated in mathematics." P. 8. That all these are important truths in the fyftem of Chrif tianity is indeed indisputable; but the immortality of the foul, and a future ftate of rewards and punishments, are so far from appearing to us as exhibited in the fcriptures among firft truths, or the truths of what is called natural religion, that they seem to be the last truths, or those which conclude the fyftem of revelation. Mr. Smith has no need to be informed that the Chriftian revelation is an account of the methods employed by Divine wifdom to reftore to the human race what they had forfeited by the fall of their first parents. Of the fall and its confequences nothing can be known but from the fcriptures of the Old and New Tef taments, where we are plainly taught, that it introduced death into the world, and that "as in Adam all die, even fo in Chrift fhall all be made alive." Our bleffed Lord therefore ftyles himself " the refurrection and the life," intimating that he, and he alone, is the author of eternal life, which is every where represented, not as natural to fallen man, or as a debt, of which he has an inherent right to claim the payment, but as "the gift of God through Jefus Chrift our Lord." In perfect harmony with this, and indeed with common fenfe, St. Paul exprefsly declares, that "the bleffed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords only hath immortality in himfelf;" the mortality or immortality of every created being depending on the good pleasure of the Creator. To the moral arguments, which are ufually urged for a future ftate of rewards and punishments, we willingly allow all the force which they poffefs; but what that force is, we must collect, not from the fyftems of natural religion, which have been written by philofophers enlightened by the gofpel, but from the fentiments of fuch philo fophers as Cicero and Socrates, who in powers of natural reafoning were not inferior to any philofopher of the prefent day. To the inference from the immateriality of the foul to its natural immortality, we can allow no force what. ever; fince nothing, which has not in itself the principle of existence, can have in itself the principle of perpetual existence. We recommend therefore to Mr. Smith a very attentive review of his whole Effay on human nature. It difplays indeed much ingenuity, and contains feveral important truths; truths; but in our opinion it contains likewise several important mistakes; and we are perfuaded, that on a deliberate review, the reflecting author will difcover an effential difference between inftinct and mechanifm, and find fome reason to doubt whether reason and appetite belong to different fouls in the fame man. For much that is in the Effay on the being, perfections, and government of God, the author acknowledges his ob ligation to Dr. Paley; but he has the merit of having borrowed from his original with great judgment, and compreffed within narrow limits much reafoning, without diminihing its force or obfcuring its perfpicuity. He is however unquestionably mistaken, when he fays (p. 21), that "there cannot be any quality in the effect, which does not exift in the efficient caufe;" unless, in this affertion, he employs the word quality to denote fomething very different from what it ufually fignifies in the language of common life, as well as in the language of natural philofophers. He admits the creation of matter, of which therefore the Supreme Being is the efficient caufe; but folidity, divifibility, figure, and inertia, are qualities of matter, though they furely exift not in the Supreme Being. This miftake is the more extraordinary, as Mr. Smith diftinguifhes with accuracy between phyfical and efficient caules, and treats of the relation between caufe and effect in a manner that is juft, and, in Scotland, peculiarly feasonable. There can indeed be no power or perfection in the effect which is not in the efficient caufe; but every quality is not a power or perfection, for folidity, divifibility. figure, and inertia are obvioufly imperfections, when contrafted with penetrability, indivifibility, immenfity, and activity, or the powers of thinking and willing. In the fourth Effay, although it is a very good one, we could not help fometimes wifhing for greater precifion and accuracy of language. Several things are faid of the origin and authority of confcience, which, in one fenfe, are just, and, in another, at beft doubtful; and to us it appears an indifputable truth, that, though Chriftianity is the religion of finners, and no man is without fin, yet, if there were a man without fin, there is nothing in the nature of our holy religion to hinder that man from being a Chriftian. If it be true, that immortality, or eternal life, is the gift of God to the highest angel in heaven (and nothing is more evident than this truth appears to us), furely eternal life might be the gift of God, through Jefus Chrift, to a man of finlefs perfection; and fuch a man would, in that cafe, lofe his per fection fection and become a finner, were he to claim eternal life on any other terms; whether as the inherent right of his nature, or as the reward due to his virtuous deeds. On the five remaining Effays of the firft part of this volume we have very few remarks to make. We have read them with great fatisfaction, and recommend them with confidence to every one who wishes to become acquainted with the evidences of the Divine origin of our holy religion, as well as with the great object of the Chriftian revelation. Of the author's definition of a miracle, we cannot indeed approve; and objections may certainly be made to his opinion of the miracles performed, in the presence of Mofes and Aaron, by the magicians of Egypt; but that opinion is iugeniously fupported, and may be received without injury to the cause of revelation. It fprings indeed from the de finition which is here given of a miracle." It is effentially neceffary," fays Mr. Sinith (p. 96)," in order to conftitute any work a miracle, that it be fuch as none but God can perform. This is the circumflance, which renders miracles a decifive evidence of a divine miffion. They are God's feal, which cannot be imitated by any creature." If this be indeed true, the miracles of the magicians were certainly performed by God, for they were ftriking imitations of the miracles of Mofes; but how can man know what works are fuch as none but God can perform? It has been well obferved of fome of the agents in Paradise Loft, that they were powers, "of which the leaft could wield "Thofe elements, and arm him with the force "Of all their region; "which only the controul of Omnipotence refrains from laying creation wafte, and filling the vast expanfe of fpace with ruin and confufion." Except the ingle act of creation, it is difficult to conceive any work, to the performance of which fuch powers are not equal; and therefore, if the circumftance, which renders miracles a divine evidence of a divine miffion, were that they are fuch works as none but God can perform, it feems to us utterly impoffible, that of miracles mankind could form any juft judgment, or draw from a wonderful event any other inference, than that it is beyond the reach of human power. Whether it be beyond the reach of all created power, we * See Johnfon's Life of Milton. |