in the words of Tucker, should "be ever listening to the subterraneous thumps of the miner's spade and pickaxe.”*

Nothing can be more unjust, than to bring the charge of intolerance and uncharitableness against the opposition which is thus given to what is deemed erroneous in theological sentiment. There may be, indeed, and too often is, intolerance and uncharitableness in opposing errour. When an attempt is made to abridge the personal right of others to form and publish their own opinions, or to suppress a wrong tendency by force, this is intolerance. When the motives of an opponent are suspected, his opinions misconstrued, or when his religious state is pronounced not right, because his belief is not so,--this is uncharitableness. But it is not uncharitable for one to be open, earnest, and decided in opposition to errour, while he concedes that there may be antidotes in the breast of those who hold it, which may render harmless to them, what will be ruinous to others. It was not uncharitable in Augustine to withstand the errours of Pelagius, while, with a magnanimity worthy of all imitation, he allowed him to be egregie Christianus, and could say, after the irritations of a protracted controversy, non solum dileximus, verum etiam diligimus eum. Indeed, that very charity which leads us to love the persons of our fellow men, and to desire their highest welfare, will also lead us to hate and oppose those errours by which we suppose their welfare endangered.

Most cheerfully then can we subscribe to the fearless declaration of Coleridge, that "as far as opinions and not motives,―principles and not men, are concerned, we neither are tolerant, nor wish to be regarded as such." In the same noble spirit he affirms, "As much as I love my fellowmen, so much, and no more, will I be intolerant of their heresies and unbelief; and I will honour and hold forth the right-hand of fellowship, to every individual who is equally intolerant of that which he conceives as such in me."t

Our remarks on this whole subject would be very incomplete, unless we should add, that the interest and effort for evangelical truth, which we have now been vindicating, can be pure and just only when they proceed from an experimental, and not merely theoretical, knowledge of the doctrines of the Gospel. There is a certain kind of interest in these doctrines often manifested by those who have no per*Light of Nature. + The Friend, p. 80, Am. Ed.

sonal experience of their power. Such persons often evince a blind reverence for the doctrines of faith, as handed down from their ancestors, or a bigotted adherence to them as established by their church, or a pharisaical pride of orthodoxy in holding them, or a sublime and philosophical enthusiasm about them, on account of the speculative truth they contain. But the true Christian loves and cherishes the doctrines of the Gospel, because he has had joyful experience of their efficacy in sanctifying the heart, and because he knows they may be in others, as in himself, the seed of a new and divine nature.

Those who are strangers to the power of the Gospel upon their hearts, cannot possess any adequate knowledge of its doctrines for though faith cometh by hearing, yet it is upon faith, as a living foundation stone, that the superstructure of vital knowledge, as of all Christian excellence, must be reared. This inward experience of the truth of the Gospel purges the intellectual eye, and gives it that singleness, without which nothing is rightly discerned, and the whole body is filled with darkness. If then, we would attain to higher and better views of the great system of Christian doctrine, we should first resort to the closet, and seek by prayer and devout contemplation, to taste and enjoy the truths of religion. It is not with the things of God as with human things, that distinct knowledge must go before strong affection; but the reverse. "Divine things," says Pascal, "are infinitely above nature, and God only can place them in the soul. He has designed that they should pass from the heart into the head, and not from the head into the heart; and so, as it is necessary to know human things, in order to love them, it is necessary to love divine things in order to know them.*

But it is most of all necessary that those who would rightly engage in defending the truth, should themselves have deeply felt its power to subdue their selfish and earthly passions. Those only are qualified for a service so important and dangerous, whose whole minds are moulded to a spiritual frame and temper, through the transforming influence of the doctrines of the Gospel. The ambitious, envious,

* "Les vérités divines sont infiniment au-dessus de la nature. Dieu seul peut les mettre dans le coeur. Par cette raison, s'il faut connaitre les choses humaines, pour pouvoir les aimer, il faut aimer les choses divines, pour pouvoir les connaitre."-Pascal.

vindictive, contentious, denunciatory spirit often exhibited by the professed champions of orthodoxy, proves that they themselves are not of the truth, and have no title, therefore, to undertake its defence. There is nothing in the world more incongruous, than for men to be deeply concerned for the defence of a system of doctrine, whose grand design is charity, and yet themselves to be filled with all uncharitableness, burning themselves with unhallowed passions, and enkindling them in others. Against such men there might be urged as pungent an argument of inconsistency, as Paul urged against the Jews, "Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself." Do you indulge in hatred, who are zealous for that religion whose first command and great end is love? Do you, who make your boast of a more pure and uncorrupted Christianity, exhibit less of the dispositions it requires, and more of those it forbids, than other men?

The specious pretext of concern for the purity of doctrine, under which such fiery zealots commonly act, does not suffice to conceal their real motives. While they profess to contend for the truth, it is obvious to every one, from their whole spirit and manner, that they are contending for themselves, or for the party to which they belong. Did they really desire to defend the truth, they would dwell upon its great and fundamental principles; but they are always insisting upon minute distinctions and technical terms. Had they the interests of truth at heart, they would seek to convince and persuade the adverse party; but they plainly prefer his discomfiture and overthrow. Were they themselves deeply grounded and settled in the belief of the truth, they would evince a serene and composed frame of spirit, not easily ruffled by contradiction; but they are impatient of opposition, and impetuous and violent in all their procedures.

Having already said so much in favour of contending for the truth, when truth is the real object of the contest, we may be allowed to speak freely here against controversies, which only turn upon questions in divinity, while they really spring from selfish passions. Such controversies have ever been, and still are, the greatest bane and reproach of Christianity. Instead of tending to elucidate the doctrines of religion, they render them only more obscure, by hiding them

in the dark mazes of polemical subtelty and equivocation.* Instead of promoting that higher unity of spirit, which Christianity aims to produce, they sever eyen those lower ties of natural love by which society is bound together, and invade the peace of neighbourhoods and families. They bring the sacred mysteries of revelation into so familiar a discussion, that all reverence for them is destroyed, and they cease to afford spiritual nutriment to the soul. In this way they injure the cause they are professedly designed to pro mote, and more than all other things together, bring it to a stand. As the contest proceeds, and the disguises, at first prudently worn, are thrown off, and envy thrusts forth its serpentine head, and hatred its envenomed fang, a scene is often witnessed, at which the enemies of religion rejoice, and its friends hang their heads. In view of the altercations, revilings, and the hundred nameless inhumanities practised by such disputants, one sometimes feels compelled to interpose with the apostolic admonition, if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. What wonder is it, if the Heavenly Dove be frighted away from scenes like these for she hath no gall in her breast, no crooked talons or beak wherewith to strike and contend, and dwells only with the sons of peace.

But these evils would be prevented, if all who concern themselves for the truth should have first taken it to their own bosoms, and have themselves experienced its sanctifying work. Were the true form of doctrine, not merely perceived intellectually, but wrought into their souls, it would expel every unhallowed passion, and produce every Christian grace. They would then no longer be impetuous, boastful, or denunciatory; but in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if peradventure God would give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth. Like Baxter, they would be as ready to die for charity, as for any article of the creed.

Views like these of the important place which the doctrines of Christianity hold, and of the varied duty devolving

*It was said by one who wrote respecting the endless minutiae of the fathers in the Arian and Nestorian controversies, that illis temporibus res ingeniosa fuit esse Christianum,-in those days it was an ingenious and subtle thing to be a Christian. And truly it is no less so in our own day, if one must be able to follow some theological controversialists through all their intricacies and labyrinths, in order to his being a Christian.

upon Christians of the present day with respect to them, have led to the establishment of the LITERARY AND THEOLOGICAL REVIEW. It has appeared to many, that there is an urgent demand for a periodical journal devoted principally to the investigation, dissemination, and defence of the doctrines of the Christian religion.

We are aware that a periodical publication, even though it may be the more dignified Quarterly, is better adapted to subserve the cause of general literature, than to be the vehicle of the graver sort of philosophical or theological discussion. While such discussion must, from its very nature, be abstract and recondite, and requires that those who would understand it, should be versed in speculative reasoning, it is carried by the periodical before the great public. This public, engrossed in secular affairs, is thus erected into a tribunal, and its verdict is solicited on questions requiring the most patient, consecutive thought. The circumstance of being placed at the bar of the busy public must obviously tend to withdraw philosophical and theological writers from the radical investigations demanded by the subjects on which they treat, and to incline them to a more popular and superficial mode of reasoning. This evil cannot probably be wholly prevented. But it is our hope to have a portion of this Review devoted to discussions, as scientific and thorough, as may be consistent with its general circulation and usefulness. We would suggest to the contributors to this portion of our Review, that many of their readers will be educated and professional men, and that many of the great questions on which the public mind is divided, can be settled only by learned biblical and historical research, and the calm and thorough examination of the original principles of the existing divergencies of sentiment.-We shall occasionally furnish translations of such parts of foreign, and especially German, theological literature, as shall seem fitted to advance the cause of truth and theological learning in this country. In connexion with this principal object, it is our design to devote a portion of our Review* to general literature. In short, we hope to furnish as much variety of general matter, as may be consistent with the great object we have in view.

*We have used the word Review in our title, in the wider sense in which it is sometimes taken,-not meaning to imply that our work is designed principally for reviews strictly so called.