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Since, then, we are agreed in principle thus far, the only remaining cause of disagreement must lie in the mode of expression; and this cause we will also remove, by adopting the very words which the Record itself applies to the Dissenters, in its number for October 11, as those which we apply to the whole religious or Evangelical world. We think the views of a large 'body of these our brethren are strangely warped from the 'truth of God, as it regards different important subjects....The 'tone in which civil liberty is spoken of generally in the present day, we conceive to be quite unscriptural.... Does true religion 'flourish most conspicuously in those congregations where the 'members belong to what is called the more respectable classes ' of society, and have considerable weight, influence, and importance in the world? We venture to affirm that it does not. ...The truth is, that practical atheism is at the bottom of much ' of the spirit and doings which are at present abroad in the world, and attract so enthusiastic an admiration. Men have 'thrown from them all respect to the commands and dominion of the Everlasting Father. They will yield no homage to Him, ' and as little as possible to those whom in his providence he has set over them....Self is the grand idol which every unre'newed man sets up in his heart, instead of the God whom he has forsaken; and those movements which attract admiration so universal, are merely the effects of a refined idolatry....The 'idea that there is a close connexion between the spread of what ' is called civil and religious liberty, and the advance and prevalence of pure religion, is unsound, having no foundation in Scripture, or in the past history of mankind.' These remarks are very just; and while the Record applies them to Dissenters, we apply them to the whole religious world. The Record does not mean that the Dissenters do not form a portion of the religious world; for, if so, then it cuts Christendom into three parts, instead of into two-namely, the World, the Evangelical World, and the Dissenters. We insist that many of those whom the Record unceremoniously, schismatically, and with an unauthorized spirit of judgment, cuts off as the World, are as much members of the church, visible and invisible, as that Evangelical body to which the Record applies the term alone: and we believe that it would not be difficult, article by article, to shew that a greater semblance of truth is preserved by the Papacy, detestable apostasy though it be, than by the system called Evangelicalism; into which comparison we have not time, however, now to enter. 'In regard to the evils which prevail in the church, ours is a war of reformation; while our friends of the Morning Watch 'disclaim and laugh to scorn the distinction between the church ' and the world, and denounce war even to extermination against 'the Evangelical or religious world.'

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Since the Record holds out the olive-branch by the expression our friends of the Morning Watch,' we gladly receive it, and shut our eyes to the dagger which glitters under its leaves. We assure the editors that our object is entirely that of 'reformation of the evils which prevail in the church;' and, as for exterminating the 'Evangelical or religious world,' can truly say that we have not the remotest idea of doing so, or conception of what he means by the term.

We are not surprised at the antipathy displayed towards ⚫ ourselves by the partisans of this crusade against Evangelicals. We have always set our face against such attempts to confound 'light and darkness, to promote schism, and offend the little ones ' of our Master's flock. Still less are we disposed to take in evil 'part the abuse which is levelled against the Record, in the last, or any preceding number of the Morning Watch. Our prayer is, that in all our efforts we may be found to fear God, ' and have no other fear.'

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Since the Record has set its face so strenuously against the promotion of schism, it is somewhat remarkable that it should be so anxious to separate into two distinct and irreconcileable parties those who are equally baptized into the visible church of Christ, and consequently equally responsible for the privileges of that state; whom it calls the church and the world: distinctions purely arbitrary, and of modern invention, founded on no scriptural authority, and constituting the very essence of schism. Schism means cutting into parts, and the censure upon us, for refusing to separate into divisions persons whom the word of God does not so separate, is somewhat inconsistent in those who have always set their faces against attempts to promote schism.'

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But while we reck little of the irritation or invectives that ' are levelled against us by those whom we consider to be walking contrary to the commandments of Christ, we would at the same time, in all faithfulness and truth, warn our friends of the Morning Watch to beware of the headlong career which they are pursuing. Let them bethink themselves how near they approach to the verge, if some of them have not already overleaped the bounds, of that awful line of demarcation which separates the true from the false disciple: He that loveth not, 'knoweth not God. They profess to be ardently bent on the study of prophecy: let them then remember the character and 'fate of that servant, who, previous to his Lord's coming, be'gan to smite his fellow-servants.'

So strange is the blindness of men to their own qualities, that we thought we had most studiously avoided 'smiting our fellowservants,' and that by pursuing the course of replying to anonymous articles in journals, rather than to the works of individuals,

we had effectually precluded the possibility of so doing. We thought, also, that the Record was a journal peculiarly distinguished by that mark which separates the true from the false disciple; and that more articles of a purely personal nature were to be found in its columns than in those of any other journal, whether calling itself religious or irreligious; with the exception of a few, such as John Bull, Cobbett, the Age, and others of that class. It was by repelling a most malignant article, levelled against Mr. Irving, in which the writer had greatly overleaped the bounds of that awful line of demarcation,' that we considered ourselves bound to diminish the extent of that mischief which the Record was doing by 'smiting his fellow-servants,' and on which we shall say more presently. 'Above all, we would counsel them to pause in their danger'ous course of doctrinal speculation, more especially as it regards 'the awful mysteries of the Trinity, and also the incarnation of 'the Word. Let their readers especially be on their guard ' against a doctrine which teaches the metaphysical subtleties 'which are brought to support an opinion, than which we know none more painfully revolting-namely, that our adorable Sa'viour, the Eternal Son of God, when he took on him our nature ' and became the spotless Lamb of God, "condescended, through the faculties of the human soul, to commune with every impious, ungodly, and blasphemous chamber of the fallen intel'lect and feeling of men "-(Irving's Discourses, p. 155).'

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In the first place, we beg the reader to remark the flagrant dishonesty of grounding an accusation against us upon a passage taken from the published works of one of our Correspondents. Had we alluded to any of the letters addressed to the Editor of the Record, and published by him in his journal, as a ground of censure of him, no one will doubt that we should have received most sage "counsel" from him upon the subject. But we come now to more serious subjects; and we tell the Editors of the Record plainly, and in all love, that, unless they are much on their guard, they are on the point of avowing themselves no brethren ' at all, but rank heretics; in danger of losing their own souls, and of destroying the souls of others. The character of their journal has ever been little, petty, and mean. In politics it has taken a lower range of view than any worldly newspaper. If it has not printed reports of crim.-con. cases, it has shewn no backwardness to point out and publish the private tittle-tattle of private persons in their own private houses. It has recommended itself to the notice of families as being purified from the reports of prize-fighting and indecent trials, and therefore as a safe journal for the eyes of children and servants: but the topics it shuns are less pernicious than defamation and heresy; and while the object of every parent and teacher ought to be to inculcate

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admiration for the great and noble qualities of men, and leniency towards the little failings which ever surround the mightiest of our species, the tendency of the Record is to decry and pull down all who take a more exalted view than themselves; to exaggerate their defects, and to make their errors more prominent than their merits. It is in accordance with this feeling that Mr. Irving has been the object of their unceasing vituperation; and on the present occasion they have pursued a course in which their character for learning is irreconcileable with honesty. They ought to know that the question at issue between Mr. Irving and some very ignorant persons is this, "What is the nature of the creature to which the Second Person in Deity united himself so as to form the person of Christ?" The orthodox answer to this is, " Manhood after its fall." The persons who oppose the orthodox view assert, that the creature was not manhood after its fall, but a creature with no one of the properties of manhood, except shape, about it.

In order to express this matter clearly, and to instruct the theological babes in the church, Mr. Irving wrote a work, in which many sentences occur that, taken by themselves, and torn from their context, may be perverted to convey a sense the very opposite of that which Mr. Irving means. One of these the Editor of the Record has selected; so ambiguous as to enable him to escape from a direct charge of falsifying, and yet purposely intended to convey to an ignorant reader a false impression of Mr. Irving's opinion. Whether the sentence which the Editor has quoted above expresses properly or not the fact that our Lord was tempted in all respects like as we are, is the only point which can be fairly brought to issue on the words themselves; but the Editor intends that his readers should believe that Mr. Irving held that our blessed Lord was not a holy and spotless person-yet he reads us a lecture upon smiting the brethren, and proceeds thus:

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And, finally, let us once more admonish our friends of the 'Morning Watch, to "pluck out the beam that is in their own eye," in order that they may see more clearly to pluck out " the mote which is in their brother's eye." Let them also henceforward be more cautious as to the means which they employ to prop up their erroneous opinions. Let them look at the exposure which has recently followed their publication of" seven'teen pages" of authorities from the fathers and others in defence ' of their speculations touching the humanity of our Lord.'

The best excuse for the Editor of the Record is, that he is utterly ignorant of, and incompetent to enter into, the question of" the humanity of our Lord." We shall, however, take his "admonition: "we confess that we have not sufficiently attended to the example of the Apostle in dealing with ignorance, in

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humouring its follies, and in making allowance for its weaknesses. The theological babes of this generation are really very babes, and we shall therefore resort to pap for them once more: they are carnal, moreover, and cannot bear meat, with which we were willing to feed them. It is therefore our intention to recapituseventeen pages of authorities from the Fathers and others;" and, by the help of various notes, comments, and translations-separating the nominative cases from the verbs, pointing out the relatives and antecedents, shewing cases in apposition and cases absolute-we trust to be able to put the subject so before the Editor of the Record, and similar youths, that they shall be fitted to pass from the lowest class of the theological school into the next, in the course of our next two Numbers. In the mean time, they will do well to make themselves conversant with the Rudiments of the Latin Grammar, and some small treatise, such as is used in seminaries for young ladies, on ecclesiastical history. Having gone through this course of salutary instruction, they will be ashamed of the conceit and attempt at imposture which dictated the following passage:

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'Let them recollect how, in their blinded zeal for their own dangerous dogmas, they have put Tertullian to the torture, by uniting sentences not only taken from different and remote parts ' of the same treatise, but altogether from different works of the 'same author; and, after all, how they have failed in making that celebrated father support their own theories.'

Now they know full well that this reference to Tertullian is all fudge. They know they never read the writings of that, or of any other, Father: they know they made their assertion respecting our quotations on the authority of Dr. Thomson: and therefore their pretence to give their own opinion is an imposition upon their readers, inasmuch as they pretend to give judgment after an examination into which they know in their own hearts they have never gone. Let them, therefore, acknowledge" how, in their blinded zeal for their own dangerous dogma," of our Lord not taking our nature, but a new nature, then first created, upon him, they have followed a man whose ignorance is such that he thought the Monothelite heresy, which he professed, took its name from one Monothelus!-who, after writing a tirade, which the Record has never censured, on the subject, concluded his rhapsody by avowing his ignorance of the writings of the Fathers, and whose habitual language shews him, to all who will take the Apostolic rules for their guide, to have no part nor lot in the Gospel of God. Such a guide they have followed, and have exposed themselves accordingly. This same happy guide they further follow, and he has led them deeper into the mire with Hilary:

'Let them remember, that we may close the subject, and not 'multiply instances, how they have not even hesitated to call

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