clude our observations on the work of which we have now given our readers a slight sketch, without remarking, and we hope the genuine modesty of the author will not be offended with the remark, that the world is deeply indebted to him for this production. If the efforts of an individual to rescue his fellow-creatures from the delusions of a system which has its foundations laid on the inversion of the great and eternally important truths of revelation, which so materially affects human happiness, by nourishing the principle that introduced sin into the world, and thereby widening the distance between man and his Maker, and which throws a gloom over futurity, by leaving the mind to the mercy of the most vague conjectures concerning the character of God, (for the God of the Unitarians is not, on their own confession, the great God our Saviour Jesus Christ)-if such efforts are praiseworthy, those of Dr. Smith stand high indeed. It has often been vauntingly said, that Unitarianism wanted nothing but a clear stage, on which to appear, to become triumphant. Whatever disadvantages it may have laboured under in the earlier days of its existence, its advocates can no longer utter this complaint. Of late years particularly, it has had a clear stage on which to exhibit itself, and its abettors have certainly done justice to their respective characters, and played their parts to the very life. But what has been the effect produced on the minds of the spectators?-Has Unitarianism been hailed triumphant? no, verily; but on the contrary, its most strenuous efforts to shine have only served to throw it still farther into the shade; while one work after another is making its appearance, and, by the use of those very means which the word of God itself recommends for the promotion of truth, proving the truth and justice of Dr. Wardlaw's declaration, that UNITARIANISM IS INCAPABLE OF VINDICA TION! An Analytical Investigation of the Scriptural Claims of the Devil: to which is added, An Explanation of the terms, Scheol, Hades, and Gehenna, as employed by the Scripture Writers: in a Series of Lectures delivered at Portsmouth, in the Months of October, November and December, 1820, January, February and March, 1821. By RUSSELL SCOTT, Minister of the High Street Chapel. London, Hunter, 73, St. Paul's Church Yard, 1822; pp. 670, Octavo, pr. 14s. boards. HERE is a volume, comprising six hundred and seventy pages, pretty closely printed, abounding with copious notes, critical and explanatory,—the fruit, as the author would have us believe, of mature study, and of much learned labour,-all directed to the proof of two important points;— First, To shew that there is no such being in existence as THE DEVIL; and Second, That there is no such place of torment reserved for the wicked, as that which is commonly termed HELL. And suppose the points proved, cui bono? what then? The answer to this is surely very easy:-The wicked have much less to fear than is commonly imagined; they may give full swing to their unbridled passions-drink in iniquity as the ox drinketh in water-and say, with the disciples of Epicurus, "Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we die!" We should think these Lectures must have been very popular in Portsmouth during the six months spent in the delivery of them: it would be strange indeed were the fact otherwise. To see a man, professedly a minister of Christ, boldly standing forward from Sabbath to Sabbath, to persuade men that all they have hitherto been taught concerning the reality of these things is a mere delusion, nothing better, in short, than an old wife's fable, must, in the very nature of things, have been, to all the wicked at Portsmouth, like music to the ear of a proficient in the science of harmony. A doctrine which falls in so exactly with the natural depravity of the human heart, and which is so well calculated to liberate the conscience from all needless restraints, could not fail of a favourable acceptance at their hands! sinner has an obvious present interest in finding the doctrine true; and a preacher, with such a theme for his discussion, need not, one should think, be very solicitous about logical accuracy. "The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so; and what will ye do in the end thereof?" What, indeed! "Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die." Every We do not mean, however, to insinuate, that this large volume contains any thing that is new. It is merely a recapitulation of the discoveries that have been made by the Socinian school, during the last century, in the meaning of the Scriptures relative to these and some other subjects. The whole knack of the thing consists in turning plain, literal words into tropes and figures. "By this kind of learning," says a smart writer, these gentlemen "disembowel religion, and present us with a gospel as gay, as hieroglyphical, and as dead as an Egyptian mummy. The gospel, as the Lord Jesus left it, was a word quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword; piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow; discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart that is to say, it was a body of doctrine, animated with grand motives, with the dignity of its author, the horror of its penalties, the united efforts of justice and love displayed in the death of the cross, and in the immediate bestowment of heaven after death. But, by the help of a certain art, called Rhetoric, this body is killed for the sake of being embalmed. Jesus, we are taught to believe, is a metaphorical God-hell an eastern allegory-the devil a prosopopoeia-the atonement is a thing called a metonomy-the wicked are annihilated-and the virtuous sleep without dreaming, till the heavens are no more." It is precisely upon this principle, that Mr. Scott, in the volume before us, gets rid of the existence of that infernal being called the Devil and Satan, the great adversary of God and man. And, indeed, were it not that his profaneness, in wresting the word of God from its plain and obvious meaning, (2 Pet. iii. 16,) really shocks us, we could be amused with his dexterity in getting over the numerous texts that stare him in the face. Not to multiply instances, (for the subject is too serious to trifle with, and too disgusting to dwell upon,) the reader may take the following specimens. In Heb. ii. 14, Christ is said to have destroyed death, and "him that had the power of it, namely, the Devil;"—that is, says our author, "the term means Heathenism!" The apostle Jude, ver. 9, tells us that Michael, the archangel, disputed with the Devil about the body of Moses;"-here we are gravely informed, that Diabolos, "the devil," means "an opponent to an archangel." Very true, Mr. Scott; we all VOL. VIII. knew that before; but the question to be solved is, "Who, or what is that opponent?" This is putting us off with words, when you should give us things! Again; "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." Here he tells us, it should be, "Your adversary, Diabolos, walketh about," &c. If we ask him, who this Diabolos is? he tells us, that "it is the metaphor of a roaring lion;" p. 168. We did not know before, that metapors walked about, seeking whom they might devour: but if this really be their ferocious and savage disposition, we shall certainly take care to meddle as little with them, from this time forth, as possible! Mr. Scott, however, is not so chicken-hearted; -on the contrary, he admires them of all things. "This simile," says he, "of the roaring lion, applied to the devil, has been considered to be sonorous, sublime, and peculiarly expressive;" p. 169. Good; but if, as he would persuade us, there really is no such being as the Devil, walking about as a roaring lion, seeking to devour mankind, the foundation of this fine, "sonorous, sublime, and expressive simile," has no existence in nature; it rests upon the baseless fabric of a vision ! of ex Really, this is an odd way plaining Scripture; but it is precisely Mr. Russell Scott's method throughout the whole of this volume. Tis, as they say in Ireland, all blarney;-the whole book is a contemptible piece of shallow sophistry, too stupid, we should think, to impose upon any but those who are infatuated enough to wish to impose upon themselves; that is, who wish to be self-deceived, and so plunge headlong into the bottomless pit. We e are fully aware, that it would be to very little purpose to multiply arguments with the view of convincing Mr. Russell Scott, or the gentlemen of the Socinian school, that their whole scheme runs counter to the tenor of divine revelation. Their consciences are not bound by the authority of God speaking to us in his word; on the contrary, they sit as judges upon that word; and if what it teaches be not conformable their preconceived notions of fitness and propriety, they have no hesitation in making it so. There can be no better canon of interpretation than that which is laid down by the late bishop of Carlisle; namely, that "Scripture is to 2. I to be taken in that sense in which theness." He is designated by two He common people who heard it at first took it." It was one of the characteristics of the Messiah's ministry, that to the poor the gospel was preached. The apostles studied great plainnees of speech, both in their preaching and writings, in opposition to the wisdom of the scribe and the disputer of this world. But did the common people ever think of those learned glosses which the gentry of the Socinian school are pleased to put upon the Holy Scriptures? Assuredly not. Let us for a moment apply these remarks to the point in hand. brew names, signifying the adversary and the destroyer; and by two Greek ones, importing the accuser or calumniator, and the evil or wicked one; all pointing forth the opposition conducted by him in the world to the divine goodness manifested in the word of truth, the glorious gospel of salvation, and to all those in whom the truth takes place. Hence we find the apostle John ranking all mankind under two heads; for speaking of himself, and all who held the same truth with him, he says, "We know that we are of God, and the whole world ( 70 πоvnρw xerαι,) lieth in the wicked one." When we open the Bible, we find frequent mention made of a certain great The existence, then, of this malignant genius or spirit, whose history is coeval spirit, is a fact that lies on the very with that of man. He is described to surface of divine revelation, and is interus as being originally of the first order woven with the entire contents of both of created intelligences, but as having the Old and New Testaments. And fallen from his high station, with many surely the man who rejects the whole of the same order or rank who were Bible as a cunningly devised fable, acts under his conduct, by forgetting his a far more honourable and consistent natural state of dependance. "He part than Mr. Scott and his brethren; abode not in the truth," says our Lord, who, while they profess to receive it as John viii. 44; and the apostle Jude, in the rule of their faith and duty, neverreference to the same subject, says, theless reject its plain and obvious "The angels which kept not their first import, by resolving plain and literal estate, but left their own habitation, God facts or doctrines into tropes and figures. hath reserved in everlasting chains Alas! for them; they little think how under darkness, unto the judgment of actively they are employed "in doing the great day;" ver. 6. Of the character the work" of this great adversary of God of this angelic chief, and of his influence, and man. It is said, "For this purpose authority and power in the affairs of the Son of God was manifested, that he this world, the Scriptures abound with might destroy the works of the Devil" intimations. We see him but too suc- 1 John iii. 8. Accordingly, when the cessfully tempting our first parents to hour of his awful sufferings was at hand, sin, Gen. iii. and the apostle Paul we find him saying, "Now is the judgpoints our attention to his subtilty in ment of this world; now shall the prince thus beguiling them, and puts us upon of this world be cast out: and I, if I be our guard against being seduced in a lifted up from the earth, will draw all similar manner; 2 Cor. xi. 3. He is men unto me;"-alluding, as we are described as a liar, yea, the father of informed, to his death upon the cross; that crime; and thus he is exhibited as John xii. 31-33. Hence, we learn, the author of every false exhibition of that the doctrine of the cross, or "Christ the Deity, John viii. 44. He is said to crucified," is the doctrine of his kingdom, have been a murderer from the beginning, the grand incentive in drawing sinners and intimations are given of his influence to Christ, or "translating them from the over Cain in slaying his brother Abel; kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of 1 John iii. 12. The various designations God's dear Son." This doctrine gives given to this spirit in the Scriptures, the highest display of the divine glory, are descriptive of the nature and extent in connection with the salvation of the of his influence. He is called "the god guilty. This doctrine, therefore, is that of this world—the prince of the power against which the adversary is engaged of the air-the spirit of the world-the in carrying on a continual opposition spirit of error." He and his associates and in order to do it more effectually, it are denominated "the rulers of the is done in an indirect manner; for he darkness of this world;" while his do- opposes the glory of God and the happiminion is termed "the power of darkness of man, under the specious pretext of maintaining and promoting them! our fears were excited, lest our imparIn this way he never had more efficient tial justice should compel us to underallies among the professors of religion take the unpleasant task of censure. than the Socinians! As he is really The confessed importance of the subworshipped wherever his sentiments, jects, the intricacy of the arguments in corrupting revelation, are received and which some of them have been involvadmired; so the marked oppositioned, and their direct and extensive bearwhich they invariably betray to the doc-ings upon the whole scheme of divine trine of the cross-to the divine dignity truth, compelled us to participate in of the Saviour's character-the vicarious feelings similar to those of the Israelites, nature of his sufferings, and the riches when they beheld a stripling, of a ruddy of sovereign grace therein manifested, and fair countenance, stepping forward points them out as his most devoted to meet in combat the champion of the servants, and as being unremittingly Philistines. But as we advanced in our engaged with himself in opposing the perusal of the book, our tremor and perglory of God, and the eternal happiness turbation began to subside, and we were of their fellow-creatures. Upon the obliged to acknowledge, that, however whole, while the Scriptures forbid us to feeble the hand, the weapons employed be surprised at the existence of such were divine. teachers and such sentiments, those who read their Bible with attention may derive from the fact itself a corroborating evidence of all that it teaches respecting this awful subject;-the existence of the Devil, and his power in destroying the souls of men. The points brought before the reader in these dialogues are election, the sinner's inability to perform his duty, Christian perseverance, and the relation in which a believer stands to the law of God. Under each of these heads, there will be found, some very sensible and judicious remarks. The author's views of divine truth, appear to us strictly Plain Dialogues, designed to relieve from evangelical;-equally distant from the various difficulties connected with the awfully dangerous principles of lawless Doctrines of Election, the inability of antinomianism on the one hand, and Sinners to perform Spiritual Acts, self-righteousness on the other. Christian Perseverance, and the Law of cannot be concealed that some profesGod in its relation to the Believer; and sors of religion, who glory in their warm to correct some popular Abuses of those attachment to the doctrines of soveSubjects. By J. SHOVELLER. Lon-reign grace, represent those doctrines don: Printed for the Author, and sold by W. Jones, Lovell's Court, Paternoster Row. 72 pages, 12mo. price one shilling. THE author of this little work being, we believe, a young man, has shown a considerable degree of temerity in daring to publish from the press, his sentiments upon doctrines of such unquestionable importance, and respecting which so many controversies have been agitated. It certainly would require some fortitude of mind to step forward as a remover of difficulties on these topics, and a corrector of popular abuses. We do not, however, mean to blame him on this head. Wisdom is not confined to grey hairs. He cannot be too valiant for the truth upon earth, if his zeal be according to knowledge, and his valour tempered with the meekness of wisdom. We confess that, in taking up the pamphlet, and scanning the title page, It in a light which is highly unfavourable to human exertions. Thus SEEK TRUTH is represented in the Dialogue on Election, as saying, "If I am elected I shall be saved; if not elected I shall certainly be lost. What is the good then of exhorting men to seek their own salvation? Is it not taking the work out of God's hands?" In reply to this, FAITHFUL appeals not to the secret decree of God, but to his revealed will, as the rule of human conduct, and firmly maintains that the means of salvation are involved in the divine decree, as inseparable from the end. That the sinner's inability to repent and believe, and to love God, lying solely in the wicked disposition of his mind, constitutes the very ground of his criminality and condemnation, is clearly proved, p. 16-18, and again, 23-35. On the duty of sinners to repent and believe the gospel, he remarks, "If it were not our obligation before conversion, to repent of our sins and believe the gospel, then of course it was 252 REVIEW OF LAWSON'S EXPOSITION OF THE PROVERBS. not our sin that we lived in impenitence | p. 67, it is said: "Were it not for the and unbelief; and if so, we have no corruption of our sinful nature, neither cause to thank God for the pardon of the devil nor the world could draw as to that impenitence and unbelief, because sin." On this principle, may it not be they were no sins." Under the head of asked, "How did sin enter into our perseverance he combats the opinion world? Was the nature of our first avowed by some, "that sin can do the parents sinful and corrupted before the believer no harm;" and also the strange serpent deceived our mother Eve?" doctrine of imputed sanctification." Upon the whole, however, we approve The former, he says, "is quite a perver- and recommend these "Plain Dialogues" sion of the sacred word;" and respecting to all those who feel difficulties on the the latter, he remarks, that men "might subjects of which they treat, and the as well talk of imputed resurrection, be- hints we have dropped, are only thrown cause Christ says, I am the resurrec-out in order to suggest to the author the tion and the life.' The book closes with propriety of revising these points for a a few notes and extracts corroborative second edition, which we hope will of the author's opinions. speedily be called for by a discerning public. We must not, as reviewers, forget our responsibility, not only to the author, but to the public, and especially to our own consciences, and to God. It is but seldom, indeed, that we dare bestow indiscriminate commendation, or confer our praise upon every part of a work, which, notwithstanding, taken as a whole, we can sincerely and heartily recommend. In several parts of the work, might is used for may, (see Pref. p. 3 and 4, also in page 5, 6, &c.) Sometimes how is used as a substantive, instead of some such phrase as 'the manner in which." In some places, as in p. 23, line 4, the author says, "This is why men cannot come to Christ," instead of " the cause, or reason, why." But we suppose this In the work now before us, we do not is done intentionally, in order to accomthink that Seek Truth has given suffi-modate the dialogue to the provincial cient force and point to the objections produced; but that, in most cases, he appears more like an ally than an opponent; and yet there is a remark made by him, p. 16, that God "will never condemn me for what I cannot help," which is not so directly met and answered as is desirable. At p. 21, where the same point is referred to, Faithful admits, that unconverted men are most assuredly unable to pray, repent, believe, and turn to God; nor is the solution at p. 33 satisfactory, where we are referred to Ezek. xxxvii. 4: "O ye dry 66 bones hear the word of the Lord." This is a point of infinite importance. It is the pivot on which the glory of God turns in the salvation and condemnation of sinners. The sinner will never admit, that the cause of his condemnation rests exclusively with himself, until he is driven from this strong hold. His mouth must be stopped, or he must be judged out of his own lips. But we ask Mr. Shoveller, is this effectually done by telling him that he is most assuredly unable to believe, p. 21, &c. and that yet he must certainly perish, if he does not do that which he is most assuredly unable to do? We request him to revise this part of his pamphlet. In the quotation from Ralph Erskine, idiom of the county; for we are confident the author knows better; and we would advise him either to alter them in his next edition or give an explanatory note to prevent his being misunderstood. His views of divine truth are so fully in unison with our own, and we have derived so much pleasure from his present production, that we shall long to meet him again, and hail him as a fellow labourer in the vineyard. Exposition of the Book of Proverbs. By the late REV. GEORGE LAWSON, D.D. Professor of Divinity to the Associate Synod, Selkirk. In 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 450 each vol. Edinburgh, David Brown; and London, Ogle, Duncan, and Co. 1821, pr. 12s. bds. THE author of these posthumous volumes is well known to the religious public by numerous writings which were issued from the press during his life time, and which have been well received both in Scotland and England. Independent, however, of his publications, his name and character are deservedly known and respected as Theological Professor, in the Associate Synod of Selkirk; an institution which |