"Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' "And he declares the distinct personality of the Holy Ghost, by promising to send him as "Another Comforter.' "And by saying, "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.' "In declining, therefore, (which I now do with unfeigned regret,) to act upon your committee and in withdrawing my self from the Library, I solemnly declare that I would not have adopted these mea sures, if I did not consider them as indispensably requisite to the maintenance of that veneration which I owe to my Redeemer, and to the Holy Spirit of God, as well as to the Father; to one holy and undivided Trinity. Deeming it, also, peculiarly incumbent upon me, in the relation I bear to many of the members of this institution, and in the regard which I feel for the welfare of all, thus explicitly to declare my sentiments, "I am, Gentlemen, "With my best wishes, &c. ROBERT GRAY. "Rectory, Bishop-Wearmouth, 8th Feb. 1819." On which the following Remarks have been published: "Remarks on the Rev. Dr. Gray's Protest on the subject of the Tablet in Memory of Mr. G. W. Meadley. "To the Subscribers to the Sunderland Library. "Although the Tablet which has been the unfortunate cause of so much angry and unchristian debate expressly guards against the most remote allusion to either the religion or politics of the late Mr. Meadley, yet since the Rev. Dr. Gray has been pleased to place in an equally conspicuous station his solemn Protest against it, on the ground, that the deceased has published opinions which are in direct opposition to what our Saviour has plainly taught,' it becomes the duty of some of Mr. M.'s friends to repeat the creed which he has explicitly given as his own, and which all who knew his strict integrity, will not doubt to have been actually his, in p. 12, of his Letter to the Bishop of St. David's. "The existence of one God, by whom all things were created; the Divine Mission, Death, and consequent Resurrection of Christ; the Divine Authority of his Precepts, revealed in the Gospel; and the hope of Immortality in the Resurrection of the Dead.' "It is true he states, in the same Letter, pp. 10 and 12, that the separate existence and divinity of Three Persons in One God,' does not appear to him to be explicitly revealed in Scripture; and that he believes in the atoneinent only as signifying the means and method of reconciliation of mankind to God through faith in Christ and obedience to his precepts. But these opinions,' he would have been well able to shew, are by no means in direct opposition' to the texts which Dr. Gray has quoted, all of which he as firmly believed as the Doctor; only he read them in connexion with the accompanying passages, and not in the insulated way in which the Doctor has given them to his readers. 6 "For instance, he believed as firmly as the Doctor, that Jesus and his Father are one,' (John x. 30,) not one and the same intelligent agent, but, one in unity of design and purpose. This can surely be doubted by none who attentively consider the context. After having, in the former part of the chapter, likened himself to a good shepherd, ready, in case of danger from robbers, to sacrifice even his life for his flock, he says, my Father, who gave me them, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand: I and my Father are one.' The Jews, indeed, attending, like Dr. Gray, only to these last words, took up stones to stone him, because he, being a man, made himself God. Now, if this had really been his meaning, what would have been more natural for him than to admit the inference? But instead of this, what is his reply? Is it not written in your law, I have said, ye are gods?' 'If those be called gods to whom the word of God came, say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, 'thou blasphemest,' because he said, 'I am the Son of God?' If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works, that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him.' But as if with a view to render his meaning in these words perfectly clear, he explains it in the most solemn and interesting manner in that inimitable prayer for his disciples, and for all his followers to the end of the world (see John xvii. 11 and 20): 'Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. Neither pray I for these alone, but for all those who shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they all may be when the Rev. Dr. Gray, the successor Mr. Stephenson has since lished his speech; and, subsequ three Sermons which he has pre in Bishop-Wearmouth Church, Atonement, the Divinity of Chri the Deity and Personality of the Spirit. And Dr. Gray, notwitik ing that the alteration propos himself was adopted, has since up in the Library-room the for protest: Copy of Dr. Gray's Protest age "To Dr. Pemberton "MY DEAR SIR, "I shall be obliged to you, af perused the accompanying lett will take the proper measures for placed in the Library, and allowed there one month. "I remain, my dear Si "Yours, very tim "Rectory, Feb. 8, 1819. "To the President and Mer Sunderland Subscription 1 "GENTLEMEN, "At the anniversary meet 2d of February, I so far asse proposed alteration in the inse the tablet, (which in my opinio it less objectionable,) as to say should be adopted, I would no protest which I intended to d extracts which I read at the me the names of those gentlemen Matt. xxv. 34, where the kingdom is said to be prepared for the blessed from the foundation of the world;' in John xvii. 24, where God is said to have loved Christ from the foundation of the world; in Ephes. i. 4, where the faithful are said to have been chosen in him from the foundation of the world;' in 1 Peter i. 30, where Christ is said to have been foreordained from the foundation of the world' But Dr. Gray himself has helped us to the true key to all these passages, by quoting from Rev. xiii. 8, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world' This must have been only in the Divine decree or parpose; for the Lamb was not actually slain till at least 4035 years after. 6 "The next class of texts is said to contain declarations in favour of the doctrine of atonement. If Dr Gray takes this word in its original meaning of at-one-ment, reconciliation of sinful men, who were at eamily with God by wicked works, to a state of acceptance with him through repentance, faith and better obedience, Mr. M. would have had no other dispute with the Doctor, as to its use, than that, in its modern and more usual signification, it means an equivalent price paid to God to reconcile Him to man; an idea which, though expressly taught in the Articles of the Church of England, is no where to be found in the New Testament. On the contrary, the whole gospel scheme is a scheme of mercy, proposed from God by Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiatory, or mercy-seat, to declare unto his people, being penitent, the remission of their sins. And in this sense he was properly said to save his people from their sins: all such as believe in bim are freed from the effect of them. God having sent him to preach remission upon repentance, such as accepted this condition were saved, taken out of the daager they were in, and put into a safe state; and, if they lived as they ought for the future, they were to be finally happy. Now Jesus, being the person by whom all this was to be accomplished, was said to save them from their sins by taking them away, just as he took (away) their infirmities, and bore (off) their sicknesses, as Matthew (viii. 17) explains Isaiah liii. 4, by quoting this prophecy in illustration of our Saviour's miracles of healing. "Dr. Gray next quotes one of the most figurative passages in a highly figurative and obscure discourse delivered by our Lord to a set of persons, who, having experienced his bounty in having been miaculously fed, continued to follow him with narrow and selfish views, and whom he wishes to draw to the pursuit of that food which perisheth not, or that divine doctrine which he came from God to teach. In a similar manner, in his discourse with the woman of Samaria, he had called his doctrine water, (in allusion to the object of her visit to the well;) and he cautions his disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, by which he expressly gives them to understand that he meant, not bread, but the doctrine of these unrighteous teachers. In this verse there are two figures, first bread and then flesh; the first representing the doctrine which he was sent to preach; the second his life, which he was to lay down for the life of the world, in the execution of his divine commission to bring life and immortality to light. It would carry me beyond the limits of a short paper such as this, to go through the whole of this very figurative discourse; but it may be observed that, in explaining it afterwards to his disciples, he says, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life;' i. e. My meaning has been entirely spiritual, and it is only the spiri tual meaning of the figurative expressions which I have employed that can be of any effect to lead you to eternal life. To eat my flesh literally would be of no use to you; it is the word that I speak to you, my doctrine, that is the true spirit and meaning of what I have been describing. It is this alone on which men can live in a spiritual and proper sense.' With regard to the two texts quoted to prove the distinct personal existence of the Holy Spirit, the present writer has nothing to add to what is already so well said by Mr. Meadley, concerning the commonly supposed form of baptism, (Matt. xxviii. 20,) in his Letters, I. p. 10; II. p. 31. With regard to Christ's promise of a Comforter, (John xvii. 26,) he would first intreat you to consider carefully the appeal of St. Paul to the Corinthians, (1 Epist. ii. 10,) What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him, even so knoweth no may the things of God, except the Spirit of God; that is, as no man knoweth his thoughts and intentions but the man himself, so none knoweth the designs of God but God himself. Under this guidance, he humbly presumes to believe that the Holy Spirit of God is not a distinct being, but truly and properly God himself, acting, in this instance, by the mighty power which fell on the apostles on the day of Pentecost, at the intercession of the Lord Jesus; and, in short, under whatever character represented, whether as a witness to the Son, as a guide to truth, or a comforter in the day of temptation and trial, is of the essence of God the Father Almighty. Whether it be wisdom, knowledge, faith, prophecy, miracles, the gifts of healing, or divers kinds of tongues, it is the same God which worketh all in all. "In offering these imperfect observations, in lieu of what Mr. Meadley himself, if he had had the opportunity, would have done with much more force and propriety, the writer hopes that no expression has dropped from his pen either unbecoming in itself, or disrespectful to the Reverend Author of the Protest. At least he is sure that nothing was farther from his intention, Ile presumes not to question Dr. Gray's right to put what sense may appear to him the true one upon the texts which he has quoted but as he has charged Mr. Meadley with holding opinions directly opposite to them, it has been the wish of the present writer to shew that this is not necessarily the case, because Dr. Gray has said so. SIR, AS V. F. Warrington, March 16, 1819. S the subject of the Catholic Claims is again exciting the public attention, and as, in consequence, the enemies of civil and religious liberty are again labouring in their accustomed style of falsehood, calumny and abuse, to vilify and slander the principles and intentions of the Catholics, representing them as desirous of extended liberty, only that they may eventually attain an ascendancy in the affairs of the Church and the State, and that one of their established rules is, that faith may not be kept with heretics, I have great pleasure in bearing my willing testi-, mony in favour of a numerous class of Christians, who have long been persecuted with a degree of bigotry discreditable to their opponents, and inconsistent with that increase of religious knowledge which is the ho nour of the age in which we live. I trust, however, the time draws near wheu all deprivations of civil rights, on account of religious sentiment, and every shade of religious intole rance, will for ever cease, and when Christians of every sect will consider that it is "Bold arrogance to snatch from heaven lies whose private characters do hoI am acquainted with many Cathonour to their Christian profession, and whose candour and liberality may well put to the blush the arrogant pretensions, the wilful misrepresentations, and the illiberal, unchristian reflections of many Protestants, who make a boast that theirs is the only evangelical creed. In proof of my opinion, permit me to request the insertion in your Repository, of two notes which passed between the Catholic Priest of this will see, by an interchange of books. town and myself, occasioned, as you They were dictated solely from motives of friendship, without the slightest view to their meeting the public eye. Having been advised by several of my friends, and particularly by one, a zealous and enlightened advocate of civil and religious liberty, (Mr. William Gaskell,) now, alas! no more, (see Obituary, p. 194,) to insert them in your Repository; and hoping that they may not be wholly useless in removing mistaken prejudices, I have obtained the consent of my Catholic friend to their being made public. And he farther declares, that the sentiments he has expressed are likewise the sentiments of the general body of Catholics. An insertion in your next Number, if it suit your convenience, will oblige, HOLBROOK GASKELL. "Mr. Holbrook Gaskell desires his respects to Mr. Molineux. He is much obliged by the perusal of the Catholic's which he believes will be of considerable Manual, (by the Rev. John Fletcher,) use, in removing many existing and uning the opinions, the discipline and the founded prejudices in Protestants, regard practices of the Catholics. However H. G. may differ in sentiment, on most of the doctrines of the Catholics, he wishes them full toleration, and a relief from all pains, penalties and disabilities, on account of their religious belief. "Observing that the writer of the Manual persists in styling Unitarians Socinians, which term they disavow, and in whose belief they do not fully coincide; and as he makes a marked distinction between these Socinians and Protestants, speaking of them as unbelievers and rejecters of revelation, (see pp. 57 and 89 of the Introduction, and 84 and 96 of the Exposition,) H. G. has taken the liberty to send Mr. Molineux a learned and clear statement of the Unitarian doctrine, (Dr. Carpenter's Unitarianism the Doctrine of the Gospel,) attempting to prove that it is conformable with the doctrines contained in the gospel. "Mr. Molineux will have the goodness to give the work an attentive and impartial perusal, when, it is hoped, that whether the arguments are or are not to him convincing, he will be sufficiently candid to allow, that, as the Unitarians most fully believe in the divine mission of Jesus Christ, they are decidedly Christians, Though H. G. believes that many of the Catholic doctrines are not what were taught by Christ and his apostles, he most cheerfully concedes to the Catholics the term Christians, a term to which he believes every man to be entitled, who acknowledges a faith in the divine mission of Jesus Christ. " November 27, 1818." that the common translations are made to teach, or, at least, favour, the doctrine of the proper divinity of the Son. "Mr. M. is sorry that his friend, the Author of the Manual, should seem to cherish so illiberal an idea, as that which denies the right of Unitarians to be considered Christians; the more so, as he is aware, that abuse and illiberality are weapons generally employed, where the legitimate ones of reason and argument are wanting. It is, however, hoped, that he only means to say that, in his opinion, Unitarianism is not Christian doctrine, which is just what Dr. C. asserts of the Trinity, in the second line of p. 80. "If Mr. M. must differ from Mr. H. G. in any point, he is happy to find that they are perfectly agreed in charity, the very essence of Christianity. He is anxious to declare, that he shall ever bail the person who, adhering to that rule, admits the code of Divine revelation, and professes sentiments which, in the sincere conviction of his own mind, he believes to be in unison with its contents, as a Christian, as a brother in Christ Jesus. "Mr. Molineux is happy in this occasion of expressing his gratitude to Mr. Holbrook Gaskell, for the pleasure afforded him in the perusal of the learned and ingenious Dr. Carpenter. Mr. M. had indeed previously just glanced the work over, but at the time had not the leisure to consider the arguments as much as he wished. He feels no hesitation to confess that, in his opinion, formed after mature deliberation, Unitarians appear to have as much reason for their belief, as any sect of Protestantism has or can have. Indeed, the Doctor proves this in the most satisfactory manner, even from the interna! evidence of the Scriptures, as every person, capable of following him in his refined argumentation, must acknowledge. Mr. M., however, thinks himself free to acknowledge, that the general impression made on his mind, by the perusal, is confirmatory of the Catholic rule of faith, viz. that Scripture is not of private interpretation. This, as Mr. H. Gaskell is without doubt aware, is the essential difference between a Catholic and a Protestant, of whatever denomination. In favour of the former a powerful argumentum ad hominem might be drawn from the fact, that Dr. C. candidly owns in many places, one of which may be seen in Note, p. 59, January 14, 1819." SIR, H1 AVING occasion lately to consult Mr. G. Dyer's book on Subscription to Articles of Faith, I was somewhat disappointed at not finding a full account of the Articles to be subscribed at our Universities. There is an extract from the Oxford Statutes, "delivered to every gentleman at the time of his matriculation," in your last Volume [XIII. 735]; but this expresses merely the demand of subscription, and not the matter to be subscribed. I should therefore be obliged to any of your Correspondents who will inform me what obligations a young man comes under at Cambridge on matriculation; and what is the amount of subscription at both Cambridge and Oxford? I will candidly confess that my object is to ascertain how far a Dissenter, and particularly an Unitarian, can conscientiously enter his son in either of our Universities. While I am writing, permit me also to inquire what are the oaths taken by the clergy, at their ordination or their induction into benefices; whether there be any difference in these oaths, as respects College-livings and others; and whether Bonds of Resignation be still in use? A FATHER. |