certain the English "recent translation" to which Milton has referred. Respecting Rom. ix. 5, Iho is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen," which the Translation (1591) renders God over all, blessed for ever, and describes in the margin as a most manifest testimonie of the Godhead and Divinitie of Christ," I cannot easily do justice to the author's argument without quoting the passage entire : "In the first place, Hilary and Cyprian do not read the word God in this passage, nor do some of the other Fathers, if we may believe the authority of Erasmus; who has also shewn that the difference of punctuation may raise a doubt with regard to the true meaning of the pas sage, namely, whether the clause in question should not rather be understood of the Father than of the Son. But waving these objections, and supposing that the words are spoken of the Son, they have nothing to do with his essence, but only intimate that divine honour is communicated to the Son by the Father, and particularly that he is called God; which has been already fully shewn by other arguments. [See p. 32.] But, they rejoin, the same words which were spoken of the Father, Rom. i. 25, More than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen, are here repeated of the Son; therefore the Son is equal to the Father If there be any force in this reasoning, it will rather prove that the Son is greater than the Father; for according to the ninth chapter, he is over all, which however, they remind us, ought to be understood in the same sense as John iii, 31, 32, He that cometh from above, is above all; he that cometh from heaven is above all. In these words even the divine nature [of Christ] is clearly implied, and yet what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth, which language affirms that he came not of himself, but was sent from the Father, and was obedient to him. It will be answered, that it is only his mediatorial character which is intended. But he never could have become a Mediator, nor could he have been sent from God, or have been obedient to him, unless he had been inferior to God and the Father as to his nature. Therefore, also, after he shall have laid aside his functions as Mediator, whatever may be his greatness, or whatever it may previously have been, he must be subject to God and the Father. Hence he is to be accounted above all, with this reservation, that he is always to be excepted who did put all things under him, 1 Cor. xv. 27, and who consequently is above him under whom he has put all things." On "1 Tim. iii. 16, God was manifest in the flesh," Milton remarks, from Erasmus, that "the word God does not appear in a considerable number of the early copies." Yet he thinks" it will be clear, when the context is duly examined, that the whole passage must be understood of God the Father, in conjunction with the Son. For it is not Christ who is the great mystery of godliness, but God the Father in Christ, as appears from Col. ii. 2, and 2 Cor. v. 18, 19." In this view, concluding that "God the Father" was "in Christ through the medium of all those offices of reconciliation which the apostle enumerates," he thus comments on the passage: "God was manifest in the flesh, namely, in the Son, his own image; in any other way he was invisible: nor did Christ come to manifest himself, but his Father; John xiv. 9, Justified in the Spirit. And who should be thereby justified, if not the Father? Seen of angels, inasmuch as they desire to look into this mystery, 1 Pet. i. 12. Freached unto the Gentiles, that is, the Father in Christ. Believed on in the world. And to whom is faith so applicable as to the Father through Christ? Received up into glory, namely, he who was in the Son from the beginning, after reconciliation had been made, returned with the Son into glory, or was received into that supreme glory which he had obtained in the Son." Here the views and language of Milton appear scarcely worthy of his subject. He, however, concludes from the whole, that they who would "establish that the Son is God," (a term of which he has sufficiently discovered his very qualified meaning,)" will in vain attempt to prove from this passage that he is the Supreme God and one with the Father." 66 On Titus ii. 13, The glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ," Milton does not "deny that Christ is the great God, in the sense" which he has so often explained, as not " supreme or essentially one with the Father.". Yet he thinks that "here the glory of God the Father may be intended, with which Christ is to be invested on his second advent, Matt. xvi. 27, as Ambrose understands the passage from the analogy of scripture. For the whole force of the proof depends upon the definitive article, which may be inserted or omitted before the two nouns in the Greek without affecting the sense, or the article prefixed to one may be common to both." Many of your readers cannot fail here to recollect the discussion on this subject, a few years since, which was introduced by Mr. Granville Sharp, and to which his great biblical knowledge and his exemplary Christian piety gave no small reputation. Dr. Sumner refers in a note to Mr. Sharp's "Remarks on the Uses of the Definitive Article," and adds the names of his coadjutors, Dr. Wordsworth, Mr. Boyd and Bishop Middleton. Yet the learned and generally fair and liberal translator appears not to have recollected on this occasion the trite maxim, audi alteram partem, for there is no mention whatever of the "Six Letters to Granville Sharp, by Gregory Blunt." On this subject, and on the precarious and insecure dependence upon such niceties of criticism, Milton offers the following important considerations : Surely what is proposed to us as an object of belief, especially in a matter involving a primary article of faith, ought not to be an inference forced and extorted from passages relating to an entirely different subject, in which the readings are sometimes various, and the sense doubtful, nor hunted out by careful research from among articles and particles, nor elicited by dint of ingenuity, like the answers of an oracle, from sentences of dark or equivocal meaning, but should be susceptible of abundant proof from the clearest sources. For it is in this that the superiority of the gospel to the law consists; this, and this alone, is consistent with its open simplicity; this is that true light and clearness which we had been taught to expect would be its characteristic." A reader, desirous of scriptural knowledge, can scarcely bear in mind, from Milton's Treatise, any considerations more worthy of his attention than those I have just quoted, and which he proceeds to apply in the further investigation of his important subject. But I have reached, if not exceeded, the due limits of a letter, and must defer to another occasion our author's remarks on a few more passages which had been perverted, according to his maturest judgment, by orthodox comments professing to be Christian, yet too often enforced by Antichristian restraints on the rights of con science. J. T. RUTT. An April Day. [From the United States' Literary Gazette.] Seed-time and harvest, has returned again, I love the season well When forest glades are teeming with bright forms, From the earth's loosened mould The sapling draws its sustenance, and thrives: The softly-warbled song Comes through the pleasant woods, and coloured wings And when bright sunset fills The silver woods with light, the green slope throws In the blue lake the sky o'erreaching far Inverted in the tide Stand the gray rocks, and trembling shadows throw, Sweet April!-many a thought Is wedded unto thee, as hearts are wed; SIR, H. W. L. Longfell on Calvinistic Hell THE following is taken from an old book (pp. 20-22, 24-26) entitled "Christian Thoughts for every Day of the Month, with a Prayer: wherein is represented the Nature of unfeigned Repentance and of perfect Love towards God." Printed in 1692, at the Bible in Chancery Lane. "What a horrour should we have of hell if we could hear the lamentable screechings of the damned! They sigh, they groan, they houl like savage beasts in the midst of flames. They accuse themselves of their sins ; they bewail them; but 'tis too late. Their tears serve but to : make those fires more fierce in which they ever burn, but never consume. Never to see God; to burn in fire of which ours is but a faint shadow; to endure all sorts of evils at the same time, without any comfort, without any abatement or intermission to have devils and furies always in our sight, and rage and despair always in our heart. When a damned creature, shedding but one drop each age, shall have wept tears enough to make up all the rivers and brooks and seas that are in the world, he shall have advanced no nearer towards an end of his sufferings after so many millions of years than if he had begun just now to suffer. And when he shall have begun as often as there are sands on the sea-shore, atoms in the air, and leaves in woods and forests, all this at last must be counted for nothing." INTELLIGENCE. Account of Laying the Foundation of the Second Unitarian Church at New York, U. S. [From the New-York Christian Inquirer.] ON Thursday, November 24th last, agreeably to public notice, the corner-stone of the Second Congregational Unitarian Church, corner of Prince and Mercer Streets, in this city, was laid in the presence of six or seven hundred persons, who had assembled to witness the ceremonies. The throne of grace was addressed in a very appropriate and fervent manner by the Rev. William Ware, Pastor of the First Congregational Church, after which the corner-stone was laid, enclosing a brass plate with the following inscription: The Second Congregational Unitarian Church in the City of New York; This Stone laid with Religious Ceremonies, To us there is one God, the Father; and one Lord, Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. viii. 6. When the stone was laid, the Rev. Mr. Ware addressed the assembly in an animated and impressive manner, and to the sentiments delivered on the occasion, every sincere and liberal Christian will cheerfully add his hearty amen. The day was uncommonly pleasant for the season, and every thing conspired to render the scene peculiarly interesting, and the aspirations |