not intend to undervalue the importance of art, or to express a wish that literature should be reduced to the few and rare, although luxuriant products which nature bears without cultivation. But if it be true that art must furnish the instruments with which Nature is to work, it is also true that these instruments will be useless, unless the intellect possess ideas worthy of being expanded and combined; or the imagination be crowded with pictures; or the heart be filled with sentiments, which demand fit phrase to give them utterance. In the Task, Cowper's principal poem, Nature and Art are happily blended, and aid and heighten each other. For rural scenes he had ever an observing eye, and a loving heart. And as we accompany him in his favorite walks, his descriptions seem to us full of truth and reality; and the moral reflections blended with them, are either such as we remember to have entertained, and which we are glad to have revived; or if new, such as will ever henceforth be associated with the like sights and sounds.

There are three striking phenomena in the literary character of Cowper, the healthiness of his writings, contrasted with the insanity which we know to have been for a long time the condition of his mind; the union of a playful humor with the blackest melancholy that ever oppressed human spirits; and the very late period at which his genius developed itself. Each of these circumstances might furnish matter for curious speculation to the philosopher. He commenced author, when he was fifty years of age, a period of life to which few postpone their fame. But the aspirations natural to youth had been, in his case, checked by a painful shyness, which shrunk from all exposure; and they were afterwards purposely and on principle mortified, in obedience to the dictates of a morbid religion. That he was ambitious of true honor, we have from his own lips. "I have," he says, "(what perhaps you little suspect me of) in my nature, an infinite share of ambition. But with it I have, at the same time, as you well know, an equal share of diffidence. To this combination of opposite qualities it has been owing, that, till lately, I stole through life without undertaking anything, yet always wishing to distinguish myself. At last I ventured, ventured too in the only path, that, at so late a period, was yet open to me; and am determined, if God have not determined otherwise, to work my way through the obscurity, that has been so long my portion, into notice. Everything, therefore, that seems to threaten this my favorite purpose with

disappointment, affects me nearly. I suppose that all ambitious minds are in the same predicament. He who seeks distinction must be sensible of disapprobation, exactly in the same proportion as he desires applause. And now, my precious cousin, I have unfolded my heart to you in this particular, without a speck of dissimulation. Some people, and good people too, would blame me." Yes, and he had, doubtless, blamed himself a thousand times. It was only when his nature had succeeded in breaking through the restraints that bound it, that he became a useful and happy man.

We have mentioned as one of the striking phenomena in Cowper's literary character, that his writings should be so healthy, when the mind that produced them was so often clouded and diseased. We find in them everywhere clearness, order, precision, discrimination. He was the farthest possible from mysticism, in his habits of thought, or modes of expression. All his thoughts were distinct and sharply defined. This was indeed the great source of mischief to his mind. The false and insane notions, with which he became possessed, stood before him with a horrible distinctness. Had his mind been of a different habit, he might have escaped from his pursuers, or they would have vanished, lost in clouds. But they held their shape, and would not away.

We can hardly credit the assertion, when we are informed that the humorous ballad of John Gilpin was composed, when the mind of the author was oppressed by the deepest gloom. It would seem as if Nature, tired of a perpetual sadness, took this method to obtain relief, by playing for a time with images, as different as possible from the thoughts that swayed the

mind.

It is as a letter-writer that Cowper's delightful talent is most happily exercised. He sits down, evidently without a subject, not even knowing what the next sentence is to contain; and his letters, for simplicity, elegance, vivacity, and ease, cannot be surpassed. We would willingly enter upon this topic, but the pages we have already filled warn us to forbear.

W. P. L.

ART. IV. Conclusion of the Liverpool Controversy.

IN answer to Mr. McNeile's Discourse, entitled "The Proper Deity of our Lord the only ground of Consistency in the Work of Redemption," we have a Discourse by Mr. Martineau, entitled "The Scheme of Vicarious Redemption inconsistent with itself, and with the Christian idea of Salvation." Acts iv. 12. The Author brings before us a picture of the scene on Mount Calvary and its accompaniments, at the Crucifixion. The ostensible impression, which it leaves upon the mind, is that of manifesting the last degree of moral perfection in the Saviour, an expression of his character, a needful preliminary to his resurrection and ascension, and leading to a development of the spirituality and universality of the Gospel. This, however, is said to be the mere outside aspect of the crucifixion. Beneath this is the deeper meaning of a vicarious Sacrifice. This alleged deeper meaning, Mr. Martineau combats as inconsistent with itself, and inconsistent with the Christian idea of Salvation. The appeals made to nature for analogies between her operations and the vicarious scheme are inconclusive. This scheme is inconsistent likewise with the character of God, and with the work of Christ. These we know are old heads of argument against the Calvinistic Atonement; but Mr. Martineau has presented them with such novelty and depth of thought, such discriminating judgment, and such an eloquent choice of words, that we are ashamed to give our readers only this meagre outline. The scheme of vicarious Suffering is inconsistent with the Scriptures; the language, which is supposed to imply it, does not appear until the Gentile controversy. The Old Testament has not the slightest trace of it. The Jews, so far from thinking that the death of the Messiah was to be a propitiation, thought he could never die at all. Neither does the Saviour in all his Parables and Discourses make any reference to a propitiatory Sacrifice, as the ground of forgiveness. The Apostles, preaching to their countrymen, insist on the resurrection, not upon the crucifixion. When preaching to the Gentiles, they do lay stress upon the death of the Saviour, because that event extended his Messiahship, which before was confined to the Jews. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews thinks to console his countrymen for the abrogation of

1

their Law, by representing the death of Christ, as a commutation of it.

"The

The next Lecture in course is by Rev. David James, Doctrine of the Trinity proved as a Consequence from the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ." John xv. 26. He is entitled to assume the Deity of Christ, and consequently a Plurality of Persons in the Godhead, as proved by the preceding Lectures of his colleagues, and proceeding upon this supposition, to show that this Plurality must consist of a Trinity, because a third Person, the Holy Ghost is spoken of in Scripture, as possessing all the characteristics of Deity, in common with the first and the second. But he will not avail himself of this privilege, as he wishes his Discourse to be a complete proof of the great and cardinal Doctrine of the Trinity. He argues, I. That the Moral Character and Unity of God cannot be discovered from the Works of Creation. The frame of the Universe may teach the natural properties, but not the moral attributes of its Author. We could not judge from examining a Cathedral, whether its architect were a good or a bad man. Neither can the Universe prove that it is the work of but one author, and he of infinite goodness, for many perfect plans are the joint products of many minds, agreeing and differing, and the world likewise exhibits marks of an Evil Agency. II. Revelation is necessarily the only full and satisfactory source of information respecting the Divine Being. To this Reason must succumb. III. Revelation then teaches that God is a Spirit, and if it teaches anything about this Spirit which our reason cannot comprehend, we are still bound to receive it. IV. One Jehovah, and Three distinct Agents, possessing Divine Perfections, are presented to our notice throughout the Bible. The Hebrew plural being applied to the Deity in many instances, proves the Plurality of Persons; works of Deity being ascribed to the Father, Son, and Spirit, and only to them, prove this Plurality to be a Trinity. Their separate agency in the redemption of man was agreed upon in a covenant before the creation of the world. The Son and the Spirit consented to become temporarily subordinate to the Father. The Saviour in his humanity often makes an explicit avowal of his voluntary subordination, and, strange to say, this avowal is regarded by the Unitarians, as a confession of inferiority to the Father. There is nothing more unreasonable in the union of God and man in Christ, than in the union between the soul and the body in man. The law of

compensation demands such an atonement as only Deity can offer. The Sanctification of men requires likewise the agency of a person. This is a sketch of Mr. James's Discourse, which seems to us remarkably ingenious and skilful, and showing the sincerity of his own faith; but it does not by any means justify its title.

The Discourse, in answer to this, by Rev. J. H. Thom, is entitled, "The Unscriptural Origin and Ecclesiastical History of the Doctrine of the Trinity." John xiv. 10. Error must be traced to its source to be removed. The strong current of the river bears down all that opposes it; when traced back to the mountain stream, it may be turned aside. If the Doctrine of the Trinity can be proved to be an Ecclesiastical fabrication, its Scriptural Origin is disproved. It may be fully proved that the Jewish Christians never did acknowledge the Deity of Christ. Mr. Thom then traces the Christian Trinity to the Gentile Philosophy, in its triflings with the Platonizing Jews of Alexandria. By slow and successive steps, the early fancy of speculation acquired its present Orthodox form, as the fundaméntal doctrine of Christianity. If it had been revealed, it would have been perfect at once; but it took thirteen centuries to invest the doctrine of the Trinity with its present form. A most ingenious and admirable division is furnished for the Discourse, in the three Creeds of the Church of England, which become more and more Unitarian, according to their respective ages. The first is Unitarian; the second asserts the Deity of Christ, but says nothing of the Deity of the Holy Spirit; the third is Trinitarian. Evidence is adduced that, for the first three hundred years, the Christian writers asserted the Inferiority of Jesus to God, and that it was not till after the year 140, that anything like a derived divinity was ascribed to him. The conflicting opinions, relative to the nature of the Son, called together the Nicene Council, A. D. 325,-when the Creed was drawn up which ascribes to him a derived Deity; but still without any mention of the Deity or personality of the Holy Spirit. This last addition was made by the Council of Constantinople, in 381. From the year 500 to the year 800, those disputes were in agitation, which related to the mystical union of the two Natures in Christ. The result was the Creed called that of Athanasius. Waddington's judgment against this Creed is quoted at length. So much for Ecclesiastical History. As to the Scriptures, it is conceded by all, that God is revealed to