We have room for little more. But may we not ask, what advantage is gained by the theory of a double nature? Does it make Jesus a teacher more worthy of our reliance? No. He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God. Jesus says of himself, ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of God. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Ile that is of God heareth God's words. As the Father hath taught me, even so I speak.-All this Unitarians receive, and they feel that Jesus has all the claims of a divine teacher and messenger, and is to be obeyed as implicitly as if he were God himself, personally instructing mankind. What more than divine authority can his doctrines have? Do we gain any thing to our Lord's character by this theory. Surely not. For we look up to him as a sinless being, a spotless example of the highest possible virtue;-can our brethren regard him as more perfect? Are the miracles of Jesus diminished in consequence by those who deny the double nature? What are they on any hypothesis, but works of a divine power, and evidences of a divine commission? Our Lord's miracles were none the less important because God wrought them by him instead of their being wrought by him, being God. The resurrection, judgment, and retributory state are in like manner unaffected by this theory of two natures. It is really a matter quite unimportant whether we adopt or reject it, so far as these are concerned. Accordingly, Trinitarians found its whole importance upon its relation to the death of Jesus, and to divine worship. And even here, can any man deny that he who when he prayeth' says 'Our Father' is addressing the true object? Or will any one pretend that he

who so believeth that Christ died for our sins, as himself to die unto sin and live ever after unto God, has believed in vain ?-Besides, it is allowed by Trinitarians that they cannot define wherein that union consists. If so, can they be sure, after all, that it is such as makes personal oneness? They do not know that it is more than a union without identity, for they do not know at all in what it consists. No matter for the word "union," while we are ignorant of the thing for which it stands. Neither if we use it are we the better, nor if we reject it are we the worse.

RIGHT METHOD OF INQUIRY IN RELIGION.

WHEN we are sufficiently impressed with the importance of having some fixed notions of religious belief, conscience next lays upon us her injunctions in regard to the spirit and temper in which we are to conduct our inquiries. That we may the better retain her dictates in our minds, we shall endeavor to embrace them under three principal ones. A fair and unbiassed state of mind;—a proper sense of our own weakness and liability to error ;—and a firm though modest reliance on our own understanding, as the guide and counsellor given us by God;-comprise perhaps the most important requisites for a right and conscientious course of religious inquiry. A fair and unbiassed state of mind, one of the rarest endowments of a christian character, is also one of the best marks of a strong and well-regulated understanding. It is accompanied and characterized by a supreme regard to truth, as the most desirable of all good. It holds the balance with an unshaken hand, amidst contending opin

ions. Evidence, place itself in which scale it will, is acceptable to it. Such a mind regards any opinion as valuable, and holds it dear, simply because it is true, and not because it was taught in early life, or because it is held by the greater part of society, or by respectable men. It is at any time ready to examine its opinions anew, knowing that truth never alters; and desirous, if any error has been received and cherished as truth, at once to abandon it. Such a mind possesses not that pride of intellect which assures itself of its own infallibility by never changing. It has overcome, if it ever felt that pride of opinion, or that weakness of mind, which cannot face the charge of instability.

We are not dreaming of the perfection of human nature. We do not expect that such an imperfect creature as man is, will ever bring his mind to be absolutely unbiassed, and open to all truth. But it certainly is not too much to require that he should be continually endeavoring to attain to such a state. All men profess a devout attachment to the truth; but how few have the marks of a fair mind. This professed attachment to the truth too often means only an attachment to their own opinions. For how few are they, who do not shrink from having them examined when they imagine there is danger of their being obliged to renounce them. They love to hear their opinions supported; but are glad to escape from seeing them fairly scrutinized.

There are often indeed great allowances to be made for the absence of this christian grace. Unfairness of mind, prejudice and bigotry are more often the children of ignorance than of sin. Allow what we may for others however, for ourselves let us claim no indulgence, but constantly aim to attain to the perfection of this virtue.

From several causes, we are prone to become attached and wedded to our opinions for other reasons than their being true and valuable. In the infancy of our reason

we naturally imbibe and cherish the religious views of our parents, instructers, and others whom we have learned to revere. At a maturer period, we naturally feel a great fondness for opinions and principles which have had undisturbed possession of our minds longer than we can remember. We are also very apt to become attached to opinions which we hold in common with other men. There arises a sympathy in the breasts of those who think alike, which not only places each higher in the estimation of the rest, but strengthens their united conviction of the truth, value, and importance of their common sentiments. Men, who thus have a community of belief, soon come to feel a common interest in defending it. Each one considers himself the champion, not so much of the truth, as of the faith of his party;—he sees the frown that is to meet him if he abandons the common cause; he sees the smile that is to reward him if he adheres to it; and under such influences, where is the room for fairness of mind or openness to the truth? These circumstances are not peculiar to any set of opinions, or to any class of christians. They belong to us all, as imperfect creatures. We have to acknowledge that they who hold to our own views are as liable as any others to this illiberal and party attachment to their own sentiments and to each other. In proportion however as we are sensible of our danger, let us be anxious to guard against it, by constantly aiming to be influenced by a spirit of candor, meekness, and love of the truth in its simplicity.

The next quality of a right spirit for religious inquiry is an humble sense of our weakness and liability to error. Humility and modesty well become such creatures as we are. Being really weak and exposed to error, if we imagine ourselves neither one nor the other, and act on that imagination, we only render ourselves ten-fold more weak and exposed to error than we are naturally; whereas a proper sense of these defects might teach us caution and patience in managing our faculties. Some people apprehend that a too humble estimation of a man's self might sink him into such dejection and utter hopelessness, as would unnerve his stoutest efforts. But a too humble estimation of ourselves we do not ask for; and if nothing more is meant by this expression than a just sense of our native weakness and liability to error, we think it would not produce the dreadful effect. Humility is not despair; and modesty is not the undervaluing one's self. Despair, on the contrary, is commonly the child of disappointed pride; and a disposition to undervalue ourselves savors much more of vanity than of modesty. natural weakness and liability to mistake, at the worst, exist not in that degree that should lead us to abjectness or indifference in regard to the use that we make of our faculties. It must be something else than real humility, and a modest estimation of himself, that can palsy the efforts of any man.

Our

The proper effect of a just sense of our weakness and liability to error is, as we have said, to teach us the necessity of caution and patience in the use we make of our faculties. There may be men of strong minds, who have little feeling of these defects of their own nature, and therefore have little of that carefulness and modesty