Review. The History of Initiation, in three Lectures.

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Review.-Triumphs of Scriptural and Rational Truth.

without ceremony, lays his hands on principles that have long been cherished by a large body of professing Christians, and, if we admit his reasonings and conclusions, pulls the lofty fabric about their ears, with less trouble than Samson carried off the gates of Gaza, and demolished the temple of the Philistines; and like him, burying thousands in the overwhelming ruin. In every place, intrepidity and argument stare us in the face. The language is bold and nervous; uncompromising resolution is visible in every sentence; the defenders of the principles opposed, are arraigned under a presumptive evidence of delinquency, tried, found guilty, sentenced, and dismissed, amidst the complacencies of conquest and the triumphs of victory.

This "triumph of scriptural and rational truth" is presented to the world "In a series of Letters addressed to the President of the Wesleyan conference; to which is added an expostulatory address to that conference as a body;" and the whole is "respectfully dedicated to the clergy and ministers of the gospel of every denomination."

In these letters, and in this address, the two individuals against whom Mr. Tucker has chiefly levelled his artillery, are, the Rev. Richard Watson, and Dr. Adam Clarke; two distinguished ministers in the Wesleyan connexion, who, it is well known, have entertained different opinions on some points of speculative theology. Dr. Clarke has asserted that "the doctrine which cannot stand the test of a rational investigation cannot be true:" and, that 66 'no man either can or should believe a doctrine that contradicts reason, though be may safely credit (in any thing that concerns the nature of God) what is above his reason, and even this may be a reason why he should believe it." Mr. Watson, on the contrary, affirms, with equal confidence, that "the doctrines of the Trinity in Unity, and of the union of two natures in one person in Christ, not only transcend, but contradict human reason." Availing himself of this dissonance, our author draws from it the following conclusion. "Thus are these two fundamental articles of that faith, the orthodoxy of which, it appears, has been consecrated and confirmed by the united suffrages of many ages, placed in jeopardy by the conflicting opinions of these two leading and influential men in the Wesleyan Methodist connexion." p. 6.

On this controverted point, namely, whether it is our duty to believe any thing that "not only transcends, but contradicts human reason," "Mr. Tucker sides with Dr. Clarke, and argues with considerable

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force that to admit any thing to be true, which contradicts human reason, is to banish all ground of rational certainty from the world, and to subject the human mind to shackles from which there can be no way of escaping. Mr. Watson admits, that "there is no passage which expressly asserts that the three divine persons are one God (excepting 1 John v. 7. which is generally given up,) and no passage which in so many words states the union of two natures in one person in Christ." From this admission, in connexion with discarded reason, our author argues as follows. "Hence these important doctrines, about which the Christian world has been literally fighting for so many ages, are, according to Mr. Watson, supported only by the interpretation which human reason puts upon the indirect evidence of scripture, while he confesses that that evidence directly contradicts the testimony and conviction of reason itself. Out of the mouth of his own witness therefore, Mr. Watson has elicited the condemnation of the orthodoxy for which he contends." p. 7.

In Mr. Tucker's first letter, these hostile sentiments of Dr. Clarke and Mr. Watson are further contrasted. This is done with a design to show that both cannot possibly be true, and to obtain ground for arguing, from Mr. Watson's own language, conduct, and principles, that what contradicts reason can never become a legitimate article of belief. Having this in view, our author proceeds as follows:

"Without the testimony of our reason, we can have no infallible evidence of the truth or falsehood of any portion of what has come down to us as a system of divine revelation, as corresponding with or differing from the well-known attributes of the Deity; nor can revelation be understood through any other medium; and if not understood, it cannot be believed.”—p. 7.

"What, I ask, but the judgment of Mr. Watson's reason has induced him to violate his own rule in the rejection of the literal and unreasonable meaning of John vi. 53. "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you," and to assert that it must be taken in a sense that does appear rea• sonable? And yet, if he does not adopt the latter, and by him prohibited mode of interpretation, he must be a rank papist. And by what other authority than that of his discarded reason, does Mr. W. judge and decide that the predestination so literally and pointedly asserted on behalf of "God's elect," in Rom. viii. 33 to 39, and Ephes. i. 5 to 11, must not be thus understood, but some other and more reasonable interpretation put upon these passages? And again, when our Lord literally recommends us to cut off our offending right hand, and to pluck out our offending right eye, as the means of salvation, what authority but that of reason, judging of the doctrine, induces Mr. Watson to depart from the literal and unreasonable meaning of those commands, and to impose upon them a figurative and more reasonable interpretation ?"-p. 8.

We have neither time, nor room, nor inclination, to follow Mr. Tucker through the

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Review.-Triumphs of Scriptural and Rational Truth.

laborious process of his argumentation. The preceding paragraphs will shew the ground on which he takes his stand, and furnish fair specimens of his mode of reasoning, and of his dexterity in handling the weapons of the controversial field. On this point his triumph is complete. The reasons assigned by Mr. Watson and others, why reason should be discarded, furnish the most indubitable proofs that we cannot do without its aid; and the efforts that are made to invalidate its testimony, only serve to prove its importance, and our inability to proceed even a single step, unsanctioned by its authority, and unassisted by its dictates.

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thing connected with the possible modes of the Divine subsistence, the physical nature of Christ, and on his incarnate character, and on every thing relating to the nature of the human soul, and its union with the body, similar questions may be proposed; but these, though totally unanswerable by man, can never destroy or even invalidate the facts they were brought to disprove. His own theory is equally liable to bombardment from the same quarter, but nothing decisive can be inferred from hence, that will amount to any thing more than clouds of dust and smoke.

But it is not against Mr. Watson alone On the doctrine of the Trinity, which next that Mr. Tucker lifts his weapon; he brancomes under consideration, Mr. Tucker dishes it over the head of Dr. Clarke with finds an ample field in which to expatiate. fearful menaces, and threatens castigation The doctrine, as it has been called, of the even where he inflicts no wound. On Eternal Sonship of Christ, but which might comparing various passages taken from with more propriety be denominated name- Dr. Clarke's Commentary, and other pubship, he unequivocally explodes, pointing | lications, he has found positions and expresout, with much force of argument and co- sions that seem to militate against each gency of reasoning, the absurdities which other; and on the inferences which he has the supposed fact involves. Against the drawn from the conflicting language, he dogmas of the Athanasian creed he erects deals his blows with an unsparing hand. some formidable batteries, which shatter its outworks; and underneath its citadel he springs his mines. We feel, however, at a loss to comprehend why this is introduced on the present occasion, or why Mr. Watson must be rendered amenable for all the para doxes which it contains. We are not aware that Mr. Watson has ever avowed himself the champion of its intolerant peculiarities, or reiterated the anathemas with which it is guarded. Many embody in their creeds the belief of a Trinity in Unity, to whom the dogmas of this ancient formulary ought not to be imputed. In this part of his work we think the author has by no means been successful.

On the hypostatical union in the person of Christ, Mr. Tucker has advanced many strange positions. In attacking the sentiments of others, he appears more formidable than in furnishing a substitute less assail able. He can demolish with more dexterity than he can build, and with more ease lead his forces to an attack, than establish forti fications that shall be invulnerable. Many a hand might demolish St. Paul's cathedral, which could not form one of its pillars. -During the progress of his work, the author asks numerous questions on many important topics, to which, perhaps, no satisfactory answers can ever be given. This may stagger and confound some of his readers; but he must be well aware, that this foundation will never support a triumphal arch. On every thing connected with Deity, infinity, and eternity, on every

That Mr. Tucker possesses a gigantic mind, no one who reads the publication before us can for a moment doubt. It is equally obvious, that he can discern, with an eagle eye, the vulnerable parts of the doctrines and theories on which he lays his unrelenting grasp. The atmosphere, however, with which he is surrounded, sometimes appears insalubrious; and in proportion as this shall arrest attention, the force of his reasoning, and the object of his publication, will be defeated.

It

From the President, to whom these letters are addressed, it is not probable that any reply will ever be elicited, nor is it likely that the Wesleyan conference will deign to notice the concluding expostulation. may not, however, on this account be without its influence through silent operation. With a formidable inspector marching in the rear of their proceedings, they may learn a lesson of caution, and weigh with due deliberation the effects of their measures, before they introduce any innovations, or enforce with coercion any thing that is not founded on the most unquestionable authority of the word of God.

Events of recent occurrence in various quarters, are monitors that should not be disregarded. They furnish indications of volcanic ground, and many have viewed them as prognostics of a crisis we are unwilling to anticipate. While the results were lodged in futurity, few were disposed to predict that resistance would have the hardihood to defy authority. If this had

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·Review.-Three Phrenological Essays.

been foreseen, we feel persuaded that power would have chosen a less thorny path, and investigation would have turned her face towards another quarter. But although what is past cannot be recalled, those who are interested in the portentous issue should not forget, that what has already happened may again take place, and that the same causes, still at work, may prqduce similar effects; or, operating on a more gigantic scale, may lead to a catastrophe more formidable in its nature, and more disastrous in its consequences.

In this little work, the truth of phrenology is assumed with nearly as much confidence as if it had already taken its station among the sciences, by the universal consent of mankind. Connected with this assumption, it "claims to itself the dignity of being that system which exhibits a true knowledge of the human mind. Viewed as a science, it embraces an acquaintance with the mental powers, their combinations, and the laws regulating their action: as an art, the practice of ascertaining, by examination of the head, the powers of the mind, and the means of improving the physical or material constitution of the brain, and of the nervous system." Preface.-These, it must be confessed, are bold pretensions, in which it is to be apprehended that the organ of presumption is more developed than that of modesty.

In the first of these Essays, the author moralizes upon the phrenological organs, and, with a little dexterity, contrives to arrange them under the banners of Chris- | tianity, which we soon find is a system of phrenology, only without the name. No one, perhaps, will doubt that the faculties which he enumerates, may reasonably be supposed to operate as he has described, though we are rather at a loss to comprehend what advantage can be derived from the quaint and forensic terms by which they are designated. Still less can we discover the connexion which is presumed to subsist between the mental faculty and the external organ of development; and, for aught we perceive to the contrary, his book would have been equally intelligible and instructive, if Phrenology had never been born, To identify, therefore, the faculties

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of the mind, and the manner in which they operate in relation to Christianity, with the phrenological system, we can only view as an attempt purely gratuitous.

The Second Essay proceeds much upon the same assumptions as the first. The effects resulting from the operation of Christian principles upon the mental faculties we can easily comprehend, except so far as they are obscured by the nomenclature of Gall and Spurzheim.

The Third Essay certainly ranks the highest in our estimation. It contains many nice, yet judicious, marks of discrimination between the influence of genuine religion on the mind, and mere animal excitement. Outward devotion is justly delineated by its appropriate characteristics, which reach not the heart, nor arise from propriety of motive or purity of principle: while that which emanates from the legitimate source of all excellence supplies a power and an incentive to action, which can no otherwise be obtained. The former results from the operation of the mere animal faculties; but the latter calls into activity all the higher energies of the soul. In this view, making due allowance for the terms of designation, this essay may be perused with much advantage by all who wish to know wherein real religion differs from that which is nominal; and who are anxious to cherish a warmth of true religious feelings, without degenerating into enthusiasm and fanaticism.

Throughout the whole we have uniformly observed, that the author has carefully avoided the dangerous undertaking of assigning cause and effect for the phenomena of mental faculty and organic development. He merely notices the organs as indications of inward propensities, and turns immediately to the moral advantages that may be gathered from this discovered association. Without attempting either to defend the phrenological system, or to treat it with contempt, it appears to have suffered no small injury from the zeal of its injudicious advocates; who, not satisfied with having pointed out the organic indications which they think they have discovered, proceed from these associations to trace the relation of cause and effect. These attempts have subjected their system to many severe remarks, which its most ardent admirers have never yet been able fairly to repel; and doubt, indecision, and scepticism have followed as natural consequences.

As containing three essays, which trace a relation between the mental faculties, moral action, and the influence of religious principle, this little volume is certainly entitled

Review. On the Rise and Progress of Mortal Diseases.