WOOD'S LECTURES ON THE EVIDENCES AND DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY.
MR. WOOD was originally a Calvinistic minister, and for eight years preached the " comfortable doctrine of predestination," after the straightest sect. Towards the close of this period, he began to entertain doubts of the dogmas he was called upon to enforce in the pulpit; and the task soon became so irksome to him. that
he resolved to retreat into the calmer latitude of the Established Church. With this view, application was made to the proper authorities, and every facility was afforded to the applicant. But " a reasonable delay was required," and this delay lost Episcopacy an able son. Setting himself to a revisal of his religious opi- nions, Mr. Wools became convinced, by a careful study of the Scriptures, of the human origin of the Trinitarian mystery, and finally settled in Unitarianism, and in the ministership of' Stam- ford Street Chapel. The contents of the volume before us were delivered in that pulpit; and they embody a sharp attack upon the minister's old creed, and an eloquent defence of his new. The first Lecture contains a brief allusion to himself, and to the opinions entertained of Unitarians ; and a defence of the ge- neral truth of the Christian revelation, grounded chiefly on the nature of the theology and ethics of the Scriptures, and the early success of Christianity. The second Lecture maintains the unity of God, and of course the Scriptural untruth of the Trinity ; up- holding the former by many texts of the New Testament, by the discourses and actions of Christ, and by the sermons of the Apostolic preachers ; endeavouring to trace the origin of the latter to the compound speculations of the Eastern, Jewish, and Grecian schools. The third discourse treats of the way of salva- tion; the teacher's view of which may be gathered from his text,— " He bath showed thee, 0 man, what is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to lore mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ?" Micah, vi. 8. He also, from this, and other texts of the Old Testament, enforces the opinion that the Levitical ceremonials were merely expiations for ritual, and not atonements for moral offences; and hence endeavours to cut away the ground from those who see in the burnt offerings of the Mosaic law a type of the Gospel propitiatory sacrifice by the death of the Saviour. The text of the fourth sermon is, " Ye shall know them by their fruits :" its subject is the moral influences of the Unitarian and Athanasian opinions, and the respective results which spring from them : the conclusion, after a series of powerful pictures, is of course in favour of the teacher's faith tried by the high test of the inspired text. Into the controversial parts of the Lectures this is not the place to enter; the person who would decide between Unity and Trinity, must find higher guides than a weekly journalist. As a work of divinity, the Lectures display more of skill than of learn- ing; they show a considerable acquaintance with the Scriptures, and modern theological authors ; but Mr. WOOD appears to draw
at second-hand from the Fathers and the writers of the earlier ages. As we have said formerly, very little originality of argu- ment, or of view, can be expected on such a subject as divinity, which has occupied minds of the greatest depth and acuteness for eighteen hundred years : but there is no lack of novelty in these discourses, where illustrations can be drawn from existing circum- stances; and this, perhaps, is the utmost any one can attain. In a literary sense, the mind of the author is quick rather than searching ; and hence his views, though never one-sided, are sometimes superficial. His composition, if deficient in nerve, never wants power ; and his style, though generally inclining to the rhetorical, often rises into eloquence. Of these, a quotation from the last sermon will afford an example. The following passage is the conclusion of an argument, whose scope is to show the scepticism which the Trinitarian dogmatism induces, by the
necessity it imposes of believing an incomprehensible mystery, and the long-delayed and even now but partial dissemination of its doctrines, whose belief is yet held to be esSential to the salva- tion of mankind.
SCEPTICISM RESULTING FROM TRINITARIANISM.
Our religion as by law and fashion established, is fast ceasing to retain the respect of thinking men. They pay the same outward reverence. to It which their predecessors ages since paid to the declining Pagan superstition, and they exert a similar influence on the belief of the common people. On public occa- sions they affect to treat with respect the religious institutions of their country, but their secret contempt is but awkwardly concealed. And thus, with a con- siderable increase of pious profession, we have a corresponding increase of irreligiun—at least we have the elements of scepticism rife the land : on the part of many of the intelligent, a formal profession of faith in the established creed, with an almost avowed Infidelity—on the part of the unthinking, a blind, bigoted adherence to established opinions,:or a shrewd sus- picion that the religion which their superiors so little respect they cannot very heartily believe. Is any proof asked of this? It may be found in our popular literature. Our poetry, our novels, our reviews, our works on scieuce, our critical theology, abound in the scepticism of which I speak. In all, the esta- blished religion meets with wordy honour but with slight respect. The doubts and questionings of received mysteries, the bitter sarcasms against vulgar seal, the bursts of natural indignation respecting some of the sterner articles of the popular creed, which are scattered through these works, bespeak iu the writers unsettled, sceptical thoughts, and in their approving readers a responsive sym- pathy. Many noble minds are thus led to abandon the faith of common men, without light to guide them to a truet faith. They have detected the false, the absurd, but have not found the true, the wise. Perplexity and doubt settle like a thick mist about their hearts, whose best emotions are fettered by that dreary hopelessness which the wisest heathens never escaped, and which no thuughtfal, upright mind, has ever yet been delivered from, except by the re - demption of true religion. Would that every heart which is struggling in sober meditation against the bondage of a hard and narrow creed, were persuaded to
give serious attention to the religion of Jesus Christ. We ask them not to receive our opinions. We do not threaten their souls with the wrath of God and everlasting perdition if they reject them. We only crave their candid, serious examination of the religion of the New Testament. We are persuaded that if they give this, they will perceive how grossly that religion has been mis- represented in the systems of human invention which have falsely assumed its authority. In these, truly, there is enough to drive any generous, feeling, con- siderate person, to utter unbelief; and I believe, in my soul, that their unrea- sonable tenets do crowd the ranks of Infidelity with honourable minds.
It is generally admitted by all Protestants, that the great cause which gave rise to the mad Atheism of the French Revolution, was the monstrous absurdity of the established religion as it existed in France at the close of the seven- teenth century. Tliat faith might contain articles more puerile, but none more shocking than that we are all plunged in impurity and guilt and condemnation, through the silly curiosity or vanity of our first mother ; that an immense ma- jority of the Inman race will he consigned to the fires of hell, and that no effort of their own can rescue these from their fearful pollution, their horrible doom ; that to save the remaining small elect number, God became a human infant, and closed a brief life of suffering by a cruel death, and that this elect number have the merits of this sacrifice laid to their account, and are thus justified before the Eternal Father and the wide universe. There are many who teach and preach these dogmas in their undisguised deformity. A larger number shroud thorn in more decent language, strive to hide their most obnoxious features, and would protest vehemently against my statement of them. But it is no new remark, FE is one known to many a stanch polemic, that, disguhe the principles of Cal- vinism as we may, or name them as we will, their true, unexaggerated character, is such as I have represented. If perplexed minds would turn from these prin- ciples to the religion of Jesus, they would see how simple, how pure, how true a faith it is, how honourable to God, how merciful to man!
As an able defence and popular exposition of Unitarianism, and as a series of eloquent discourses, this volume can be safely recom- mended. In any other point of view, every reader must of course decide fur himself.
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