edges no faith," says he, "as of the operation of his Spirit, that is not active or obedient: but the principle of all obedience to God, and beneficence to man, is love; therefore faith cannot work, unless it is associated with love. Love to God, produces obedience to his will; love to man worketh no ill; but, on the contrary, every act of kindness. Faith which does not work by love, is either circumcision or uncircumcision, or whatever its possessor may please to call it: it is, however, nothing that will stand him in stead, when God comes to take away his soul—It availeth nothing. This humble, holy, operative, obedient love, is the grand touchstone of all human creeds, and confessions of faith. Faith, without this, has neither soul nor operation: in the language of the apostle James, it is dead, and can perform no function of the spiritual life, no more than a dead man can perform the duties of animal or civil life."

If I remark in conclusion, we have this admirable and really inestimable love, we will keep the commandments of God, 1 John, v. 3 ; if we wish to do our duty towards God and man, or fulfill the "Law and the Prophets," we must have this love, Matthew, xxii. 35-40; and, finally, "if we would enter into life," we must keep the commandments, or, in other words, obey the moral law, which can only be done by having the love to God and man in our hearts, 1 John, v. 6; v. 14.* I shall here close my re

Texts, like those in Romans, iii. 20; iii. 28; iv. 2; iv. 4-6; xi. 6; Galatians, iii. 10, etc.-as I have already shown, are not at all antagonistic to the advocacy of good works as essential to the life and happiness of the Christian, but allowing the utmost latitude to their import, they can only imply that the Christian can be saved exclusively through the instrumentality

searches upon this grand and most weighty theme, in the witty and significant words of the poet Young, in his Eighth Night:

"No man e'er found a happy life by chance;

Or yawn'd it into being, with a wish;
Or, with the snout of groveling appetite,
E'er smelt it out, and grubb'd it from the dirt.
An art it is, and must be learn'd; and learn'd
With unremitting effort, or be lost;

And leave us perfect blockheads, in our bliss.
The clouds may drop down titles and estates;
Wealth may seek us; but wisdom must be sought;
Sought before all; but-how unlike all else

We seek on earth! 'tis never sought in vain."

of the Gospel, without the observance of any statutory Jewish laws, even the moral law, falling under that category, not excepted, as the Christian religion has its own laws, the obedience to which, is amply adequate to meet the social wants and ensure the spiritual well-being of the believer.

BOOK II.

A CRITICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE DOGMA OF THE TRINITY, AND OF THE INCARNATION OF THE SON OF GOD.

Wer seinen Gott glaubt in der Wiege, am Krentze, oder im Grabe zu finden, ist ein Thor und lästert Gott.

INTRODUCTION.

WHEN religion has truth for its basis, while it professes to reverence and obey the Divine laws, it honors God, and when it is thus competent to ameliorate the moral and mental condition of mankind, by rendering it more useful and consequently more happy, it deserves our profound regard as well as most zealous support. Religion, thus qualified, is clearly from God, and, therefore, must prove an inestimable blessing to its possessors, who will not be tardy in recognizing and appreciating the distinguished benefits which it confers upon the sincere believer. But when, instead of a religion thus commendably characterized, "the commandments of men" are obtruded upon the religious sentiments of the devout and humble worshipper, the act must justly be deemed sacrilegious, and the impudence that is bold or base enough to commit it, no less execrable than it is abominable. Any hinderance to human freedom, in the investigation of truth, or the use of private judgment,

on a subject as momentous as that of religion, thwarts normal development; unjustifiably interferes with the wise and beneficent designs of Providence, and, while it robs man of his highest prerogative-conscientious conviction, based upon independent, individual research, makes him the victim of priestly arrogance, which is as destructive of self-respect as it is subversive of the foundation upon which human efficiency and true happiness must ultimately

rest.

No doctrine, involving so many and such grave fallacies, as does the doctrine of the Trinity, has done more to divert the minds of men from the true standpoint of a genuine religious life; to mystify and disappoint their purest and holiest aspirations; or to debase them more effectually to a state of abject spiritual servitude, than the famous and most grotesque doctrine of the Christian Trinity: emphatically the Alpha and the Omega of the holy, catholic, Churchorthodoxy !

This doctrine, fraught with so much evil in its consequences to the religious integrity and well-being of mankind, should be no longer deemed entitled to Christian forbearance or even courtesy. For it is not only a strictly human production, but, besides, a production based upon fallacious principles, and being thus vitiated already in its birth, it must sooner or later, in the language ascribed to the eminent Jewish rabbi, Gamaliel, in the Acts of the Apostles, v. 38, “come to naught.”

In ages comparatively rude as well as ignorant and superstitious, this doctrine which, in spite of Euclid and common sense, lays down the remarkable axiom that one is three and three are one, doubtless seemed less glaringly

absurd and repulsive than it does at present, nevertheless -owing to the incongruous ideas and false logic which so strikingly distinguish its random teaching, it must always have been extremely distasteful to every unsophisticated mind. The credibility of Trinitarianism of to-day, is disputed in proportion to its evident unreasonableness and decidedly detrimental influence upon the progress of evangelical religion; for, happily, the times have altered, and human knowledge has attained to greater expansion, while ―at the same time, its principles have acquired a more solid and philosophical basis.

From this it will not be difficult to perceive, that Trinitarianism is no longer adapted to an era in which science illumines the path of inquiry, and when both the Scriptures and human creeds are rigidly subjected to laws of exegesis, which are in accordance with sound principles of hermeneutics; an era, in which the individual boldly ventures to assert his inherent right to adapt his faith to his honest convictions, in opposition both to priestly pretensions and regal coercion: a right which is inviolable because it is inalienable, and which can be, therefore, no longer either ignored or repudiated; an era in which, finally, the juridical formula, expressed in the words, "The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," must be alike the sacred watchword of the Christian and the scholar.

Granting the truth of the foregoing propositions, the stickler for Trinitarianism may be supposed to bemoan the departing glory of his idolatrous creed in something like the following elegiac strains: "It seems nevertheless to be a pity to question the pretensions of so venerable and wide-spread a creed to a validity, supposed to be at once