by means of an anathema or oath of abuse and condemnation, which all the members take; by which they swear that those points of religion are heretical and damnable, which are professed and venerated as sacred by 5,800,000 of the subjects of England, and by 160 millions of her allies, including 2 emperors and 7 kings. Other intolerant nations are content with the candidate for office professing himself of the established religion; this gratuitous curse upon the religion of others, is said to be without parallel. The intolerance of England is the greatest oppression now exhibited by nominal Christianity. It oppresses two-thirds of the whole population with considerable severity, in order to create a monopoly of riches and of learning for the other third; and upon one-fourth of the population it exercises a double portion of oppression. The practical result of the latter is, the most abject helotism, attended with perpetual insurrection and expensive military establishments, and pregnant with future danger to the empire, from the geographical position of the suffering parties."

The great evil, in truth, is the Established Church. The exaltation of one religious sect, by the depression and spoliation of others, is to degrade Christianity into the mere minion of authority-is to lay traps for weak consciences—and to convert the pure religion of the Saviour, into an Ishmael of opposition to man's privileges and human improvement. The inconsistency, too, of the Church of England persecuting the members of the Church of Rome, is great indeed. Mr. Brougham well observed, in the late debate, that, "If he were a Catholic arguing with a Protestant about religion, and the latter was rating him about indulgences, he would pluck out for him a few passages from our Athanasian creed-passages which he would not say, would have enabled him to excite a laugh against the Protestant religion, but which were opposed to common sense, to common arithmetic, and to Christian charity." Yes, and Mr. Brougham might have gone further still, and have shown most clearly, on Royal authority too, that the Common Prayer was only the Mass-Book done into English-that the creeds and ordinances were very similar-that even absolution for crime was the common stigma of both the Churches-that the main distinction between the rivals was, that one is infallible and the other always in the right, and, had he been fond of proverbs, he might have summed up the matter in that most expressive one, "As is the Mother, so is her Daughter."

Punishment of Death. We were much gratified in observing, that, at the last Old Bailey Sessions in London, Mr. Marillier and Mr. Smallfield, both, we believe, Christian Unitarians-the latter individual certainly-objected to taking the juror's oath, on the ground that, in the event of a case occurring, to which the penalty of death was attached, except for murder, they could not conscientiously bring in a verdict of guilty. We rejoice that this practical stand against a punishment, at variance, as we think, with the whole spirit of Christianity, has thus been made. It is an able seconding of Mr. Peel's efforts to amend the criminal laws of this country; and his efforts richly merit the approbation of all, who have at heart, not merely the punishment of crime, but its repression, by the reformation of the criminal.

IN our October Number, we noticed the various English periodical publications, devoted to free inquiry, and the upholding of the Unity of the Supreme Being. We have now great pleasure in directing the attention of our readers to American works conducted with similar objects,—the Christian Examiner, published in Boston, Massachusets, every two months; the Christian Inquirer, weekly, at New-York; and the Christian Register, a weekly newspaper, at Boston. There are many others, we understand; but these are all that have yet come under our notice. We have made arrangements for a regular supply of these interesting and well-conducted works; and shall, from time to time, present our readers with extracts from them. Our present and past Numbers will prove our obligations in this respect already.

Ir is a pleasing circumstance, when those who have laboured long, and ardently, and faithfully, in the cause of human improvement, and of pure and undefiled religion, are enabled to leave a record of their pulpit ministrations, to excite and animate others to zealous efforts for God's truth and man's happiness and salvation. There is a delightful satisfaction in perusing the addresses, which have received their last finish from the hand, which may, in no long time, be stilled in death; and wisdom's warning voice comes with double force, when its utterer is on the confines of an eternal world. Those of our readers who have not yet perused the volume of sermons by our venerable friend, the Rev. T. Belsham, have an ample source of

gratification and instruction in store for them; and they, with those who have enjoyed that pleasure, will rejoice, that it is to be increased, as another volume, we understand, is in the press, and will speedily appear.

Edinburgh Continental Society-We understand that a meeting of this institution was held in the AssemblyRooms, George-Street, Edinburgh, on Wednesday the 21st March. The Report was read, we believe, by Mr. Robert Haldane. The Rev. W. J. Bakewell, the Minister of the Unitarian Chapel in Edinburgh, then attempted to address the meeting, but was informed by the Chairman, that he could not be heard till the close of the proceedings of the day. When the business of the meeting was concluded, Mr. Bakewell was very politely called on by the Chairman, to go forward to the platform, when any remarks he had to offer would be heard. Mr. Bakewell then, as we learn, stated his views on the subject of propagating Calvinism on the Continent of Europe-affirmed that he had never heard such illiberality manifested any where, as in the speeches which had been delivered in that meeting-nor such palpable mis-statements of facts, adduced to excite unhallowed zeal,-that, if they were in want of objects on which to exercise their philanthropy, they needed only to go to Glasgow, and the West of Scotland generally, where they would find numbers destitute even of sufficient food; and they would be much better employed, in thus clothing the naked, and feeding the hungry, than in expending money to carry the Gospel to those who did not require it, as they were already its possessors, and in a much-purer form than they could impart it. Mr. Bakewell was listened to, we hear, with great attention and occasional approbation, with the exception of a little disturbance in the early part of his speech, but which was immediately silenced by the Chairman, who said that the true and real state of religion on the Continent, was what they should all be desirous of ascertaining. Can it be true, that Mr. Haldane expressed his astonishment, that a person holding Mr. Bakewell's sentiments, should be allowed to tread the hallowed ground on which stood the servants of God? We hope, for Mr. Haldane's own sake, that of such bigotry he would be ashamed. We shall be glad to be furnished with further particulars of this meeting.

CHRISTIAN PIONEER.

No. 9.

MAY, 1827.

Vol. I.

On the Language of Scripture.

THE Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of the Unitarians. We receive it as the rule of our faith, and the guide of our conduct. Our opponents uncharitably accuse us of slighting, mutilating, and wresting the Scriptures. But those who are acquainted with our principles, acknowledge, that we reverence the Sacred Records, diligently study them, and endeavour to substantiate our doctrines by the words of Christ and his Apostles. Some of our doctrinal opponents have had the candour to discern, and the fortitude to avow, the fair and dispassionate manner in which Unitarians conduct their part of the controversy. "I must own," observes the pious Archbishop Tillotson, "that generally, the Unitarians are a pattern of the fair way of disputing, and of debating matters of religion without heat and unseemly reflections upon their adversaries. They generally argue matters with that temper and gravity, and with that freedom from passion and transport, which becomes a serious and weighty argument: and for the most part, they agree clearly and closely, with extraordinary guard and caution, with great dexterity and decency, and yet with smartness and subtilty enough; with a very gentle heat and few hard words." (Yates's Vindication of Unitarianism exemplifies the truth of these candid remarks.)

We are called in scorn, rational Christians. We do not object to the appellation. Reason is the distinguishing prerogative of man. The Scriptures exhort us freely to exercise our understanding. Reason enables us to judge of the truth of the revelations which God has made by Moses, the Prophets, Jesus, and the Apostles; and reason guides our interpretation of the language of Scripture. By its friendly aid, difficulties disappear, obscurities are cleared, apparent contradictions are reconciled, and order, consistency, and harmony are manifested.

We preface the remarks we intend to make on the language of Scripture, with the following rules, or maxims of

interpretation. 1st, God cannot have revealed in the Scriptures any doctrine which contradicts the dictates of reason.-God speaks to rational beings. We are called upon to judge what he says. "Why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?" Luke xii. 57. Protestants make this irresistible appeal in their controversy with the Roman Catholics, and then firmly withstand their obstinate reference to the words of Christ in support of the doctrine of transubstantiation. But Trinitarian Protestants in their arguments with Unitarians, desert the principle which gives them so much advantage over the Catholic. They throw down their impenetrable armour, shift their ground, and take the soft and slippery station which the Catholics occupy. The argument which they use against transubstantiation, that every man has as great evidence that transubstantiation is false, as any man can pretend to have that God hath revealed any doctrine so irrational; and that no argument is sufficient to prove a doctrine or revelation to be from God, which is not clearer and stronger than the difficulties and objections against it, is denominated carnal reasoning in their defence of the contradictory doctrine of the Trinity-a doctrine which human creeds have explicitly declared, but of which the Scriptures have certainly not given any clear revelation. It is a doctrine derived from heathen philosophy, and supported from Scripture only by far-fetched inferences.

2d, All obscure, difficult, and figurative passages ought to be interpreted by those which are plain and easy to be understood.-In writings of great antiquity, the language of which has ceased to be spoken, many obscurities may be expected, arising from false readings, peculiar idioms, phrases, figures, allusions, &c. Great attention must be paid to the design and connection. This is more especially necessary in the Epistles, the common divisions of which into chapters and verses, ought to be disregarded. "But if a Bible was printed as it should be," observes Locke, "I doubt not but several parties would complain of it as an innovation, and a dangerous change in the publishing of those holy books. And indeed, those who are for maintaining their opinions, and the systems of parties by sound of words, with a neglect of the true sense of Scripture, would have reason to make and foment the outcry. They would most of them be immediately disarmed of their great magazine of artillery, wherewith they defend