the dissenters, he was in his sixteenth year sent to the academy at Daventry, then under the care of Dr. Ashworth, and afterwards of Mr. Robins. He there pursued his studies with exemplary diligence; so that, before he had completed his course, he was chosen assistant tutor to Mr. Robins, and afterwards sustained the same office under his successor, Mr. Belsham.

On the resignation of the venerable Micaijah Towgood, in 1782, Mr. K. was invited to succeed him in the pastorship of a dissenting society at Exeter: he accepted the charge, but was not ordained till the year 1785. In addition to the pastoral office, he undertook, in 1799, the work of a tutor; and instituted a small seminary, principally with the view of providing a succession of dissenting ministers. In these employments he persevered with unremitting ardor till his death.

In the summer of 1804, having paid a visit to his friends in Denbighshire, he returned from a short excursion to Chester and Liverpool, on the 22d of August, to Wrexham. Walking out in the evening to the fields which surround the town, he was observed suddenly to fall: medical aid was instantly procured, but with no avail. It was supposed to have been an apoplectic seizure, that in the midst of health and vigor put a period to his laborious life.

Mr. Kenrick was educated in the belief of evangelical principles, which, however, he seems not to have understood. For his biographer, speaking of him at an early period, observes,

"It was then the practice of Mr. Kenrick to regard God as the arbitrary sovereign of the human race, and not as their gracious Father he was then perplexed as to the proper object of his worship, and had a constant fear of incurring the displeasure of one of the three persons in the Trinity, by presenting his addresses to another of them. At a subsequent period, he frequently contrasted with gratitude the doubts and the despondency of his former days, with the serenity and joy arising from his belief in the pure religion of the Gospel."

For a person, who held such unscriptural notions, to renounce them, and adopt those of Socinianism, was scarcely to be regarded as a change for the worse.

From the time of Mr. Kenrick's removal to Exeter, his Rosinanté carried him with accelerated speed, till he had reached the utmost bounds of the Socinian region, and was close to the low wall which separates it from the wilds of infidelity. With Dr. Priestley, his adventurous leader, he thought that at death he should take a long nap,' till the morning of the resurrection, and for perhaps some thousand years have no more existence than his grandmother's cat. Of what choice materials, what finer clay, must the soul of Mr. Kenrick or his biographer be made, (for that it is composed of clay is well known to rational' Christians,) so as to be filled, by such an opinion as this, 'with serenity and joy!' There is nothing in evangelical religion, rightly understood, which will envelope the soul in so deep a gloom: we say, rightly understood; for, whether it be owing to wilful misrepresentation or ignorance, the fact cer

tainly is, that scarcely in twenty years do we meet with one Socinian writer who fairly states its doctrines, or appears to understand them.

Exposition of the sacred Scriptures formed part of Mr. K.'s professional services at Exeter; and the proverb Tam pastor quam ovis* was again verified; for his hearers were so much pleased with his expository labors, that they sent a respectful request to his widow to allow them to be published at their expence.

Each discourse in the three volumes contains an illustration of ten or twelve verses, with a few reflections at the close. A specimen or two will give a sufficient idea of the book.

"Matthew xx. 28.

a ransom for many.

Even as the son of man came to give his life

"To this purpose I devote my time and attention, while I live, and for promoting the same grand and useful design I shall also die, laying down my life as a ransom or deliverance, i. e. the means of deliverance for many for my death, by affording a clear proof of my divine mission, and preparing the way for my resurrection from the dead, and ascension into heaven, will furnish men with the most powerful means for delivering them from subjection to sin, now, and from the fatal consequences of it in another world.

"Matthew xxviii. 19. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

"That is, baptize them, upon the profession of that religion which came from the Father as its author, which was communicated to the world by Jesus Christ, and confirmed by the miraculous gifts of the holy spirit: by this commissison the apostles were authorized to admit proselytes from all nations, from Gentiles as well as Jews. "Luke xxiii. 43. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, to-day thou shalt be with me in paradise.

"In answer to the request of the penitent malefactor, Christ promises that he shall be in the same state with himself on that day. In order, therefore, to determine where this man was to be, we have only to consider where Christ was. Now it is evident from the history that Christ died on that day, and was laid in the grave; yet he lay there under the smiles of heaven, and with the certainty of a resurrection. The meaning of Christ then, as illustrated by fact, could be no more than that he should go to the state of the righteous dead, to pious men of former ages, where he should lie in the hope of a resurrection. Agreeably to this notion it has been observed, that according to the opinion of the Jews, paradise was that part of the habitation of the dead which was assigned to righteous and good men. This Jesus might well promise to him, because he discerned in him some promising dispositions, and was convinced, from what he now observed, and from the miraculous knowledge which he had of his character, that the conduct for which he was suffering was to be ascribed rather to the erroneousness of his principles than to the depravity of his heart.

* Like shepherd, like flock.

"John iii. 3. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

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Except a man part with his errors and prejudices, particularly that error which leads so many of the Jews to suppose that the kingdom is to be of a temporal nature, he is not qualified to become my disciple: to see the kingdom of God, is the same thing as being

admitted into it."

The following extract from one of Mr. Kenrick's sermons presents his meaning of the phrase, 'remission of sins.'

"The Gentiles are called sinners, both by Christ, and his apostles. The Children of Israel were selected from the rest of mankind, to enjoy the benefit of a divine revelation, and many religious institutions, in consequence of which they are called a holy nation, and saints. The rest of mankind must of course be denominated unholy and sinners; and he who brought them out of that state, might very properly, in correspondence with the above language, be said to remove their sins, or procure the remission of them. Christ, therefore, who died to establish the truth of the new covenant, which introduced Gentiles, the many, or the great body of mankind, into the state of privilege that the Jews before occupied, says of himself, 'that he shed his blood for many for the remission of sins.' By this covenant every heathen, who believed and embraced the Gospel was entitled to the benefits of divine worship and religious instruction, and what was of principal value, to the hope of eternal life; which were great advantages for moral improvement though they did not absolutely secure it. The moral guilt which he had before contracted was still imputed to him, and his sins, if not repented of and forsaken, would prove his ruin. All that he had acquired by faith in Christ was, the privileges of a Christian, which were no more than what has been just stated.-In Acts xxvi. 18, we have Christ commenting upon his own words, and explaining what he means by remission of sins in our text; not deliverance from the penal effects of sin in a future world, not an immediate qualification for the happiness of heaven, as many suppose; but a lot among the covenanted and privileged people of God, the believing Jews and Gentiles, or as it is here expressed, an inheritance among those which are sanctified.' This is all that the remission of sins, which is the consequence of faith, will procure for men!!

"From what has been said, I conceive it appears, that the death of Christ has no efficacy in removing moral guilt, but that whenever it is spoken of as producing the forgiveness of sin, it relates entirely to restoration to a sanctified or privileged state, which in the language of both the Old and the New Testament, on many occasions, is expressed by the forgiveness of sins. From this subject we may learn what little ground they have for their confidence, who trust entirely for the removal of their past sins, and for final acceptance with God, to the death of Christ; and how little reason for their censure of others, who have not the same dependance. They trust to a ground of sanctification which had no relation but to the first professors of Christianity, except indeed to the case of the apostates,

and to them only in a ceremonial, not in a moral sense. The real ground of forgiveness to Christians, ancient or modern, is repentance for sin, and reformation of conduct: and of acceptance with God, personal righteousness of heart and life. So that all we have to depend upon, is the degree of virtue we have in ourselves, and the mercy of God, who is pleased in his great goodness to accept of imperfect obedience to his laws from his frail creatures, when a more perfect obedience was due."

To every mind which has derived its sentiments of religion from the pure doctrine of Jesus Christ, this extract cannot fail to convey instruction, and to serve as an antidote against Socinianism. For certainly, if a person were to sit down with the express design to to contrive how he could explain away to nothing the invaluable blessings of the Gospel, and bring it into contempt; and how he could most flatly contradict the sacred Scriptures, and set up a system in direct opposition to them, he would follow the very course which Mr. K. has chosen.

It has been said by the friends of Mr. Kenrick that "he did think for himself." The reader of these volumes will not doubt the truth of their assertion. He did indeed think for himself, and would not allow even God to think for him: for he might safely have adopted as a motto, My ways are not thy ways, nor my thoughts as thy thoughts.'

From what has been said, it will be seen, that this is a Socinian commentary, written by a sensible and well informed man, the necessities of whose creed, however, suggest such laws of interpretation as, if applied to the classics, would render them utterly unintelligible. The examples surely require no other remark, than that if such principles be the real doctrines of the Bible, it is the most obscure and ill contrived book in the world; it is calculated to convey, in almost every page, erroneous notions, and has in fact conveyed them wherever it has been read; it must therefore forfeit all claims to divine origin, and be considered as the disgrace of even human literature.

We should add, that the work is destitute of any merits that could render it serviceable to those who are satisfied with the plain meaning of Scripture, and have no wish to see it perverted into some kind of conformity with the Socinian creed.

SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND CONVERSION OF THE LATE DR. GOOD.

A volume has lately been published in England, entitled "Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Character, literary, professional, and religious, of the late John Mason Good, M. D. F. R. S. F. R. S. L. &c. &c. By Olinthus Gregory, LL. D., Professor of Mathematics in the Royal Military Academy." From a Review of this volume in the Eclectic for June last, we extract the following sketch of the life and conversion of Dr. Good.

"DR. GOOD occupied a prominent place among his literary and professional compeers. His works (extending to two quarto and

many octavo volumes) are singularly laborious and diversified; comprising, Medical Literature, Poetical Translation, Natural History, and Biblical Criticism and Philology. His leading faculty was that of acquisition, which he possessed in a remarkable measure. His diligence was as extraordinary as were his versatility of talent and his powers of retention. His philological attainments, if not profound, were singularly extensive. The exuberant stores of his knowledge were methodized and connected together in his mind by principles of philosophical arrangement. The range of his acquisitions, and his readiness in applying them, might entitle him to the denomination of a living cyclopedia.

"With the mathematical sciences he was almost entirely unacquainted; but, making this exception, there was scarcely a region of human knowledge which he had not entered, and but few indeed into which he had not made considerable advances; and wherever he found an entrance, there he retained a permanent possession; for, to the last, he never forgot what he once knew.

"In short, had he published nothing but his Translation of Lucretius, he would have acquired a high character for free, varied, and elegant versification, for exalted acquisitions as a philosopher and as a linguist, and for singular felicity in the choice and exhibition of materials in a rich store of critical and tasteful illustration. Had he published nothing but his Translation of the Book of Job, he would have obtained an eminent station among Hebrew scholars and the promoters of biblical criticism. And, had he published nothing but his Study of Medicine, his name would, in the opinion of one of his ablest professional correspondents, have gone down to posterity, associated with the science of medicine itself, as one of its most skilful practitioners, and one of its most learned promoters. I know not how to name another individual who has arrived at equal eminence in three such totally distinct departments of mental application. Let this be duly weighed in connexion with the marked inadequacy of his early education (notwithstanding its peculiar advantages in some respects) to form either a scientific and skilful medical practitioner, or an excellent scholar; and there cannot but result a high estimate of the original powers with which he was endowed, and of the inextinguishable ardor with which, through life, he augmented their energy, and enlarged their sphere of action."

Dr. Good has left behind him, a Translation of the. Book of Psalms, with a Dissertation and critical Notes, and also of the Book of Proverbs.

"On comparing the Dissertation and Notes which accompany this Translation of the Psalms, with those which are published with Dr. Good's Translation of the Book of Job, we perceive a great difference, not in point of talent, but in reference to the simple exhibition of devout sentiment. In the former (the last mentioned,) there is much learning, much research, and some display; in the latter also, the learning and research are equally evident; but they are evinced in the results, not in the effort of the author, whose intellect seems absorbed, while his devotion is enkindled by the holy inspira