"THE IDENTITY.

"The absolute subjectivity, whose only attribute is the Good; whose only definition is that which is essentially causative of all possible true being, the ground-the absolute will—the adorable pózporov, which, whatever is assumed as the first, must be presumed as its antecedent; Oeds without an article, and yet not as an adjective. See John i. 18. θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακε πώποτε, as diferenced from ib. 1. καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.

"But that which is essentially causative of all being must be causative of its own-causa sui, avтonárр. Thence

"THE IPSEITY.

"The eternally self-affirmant self-affirmed; the 'I Am in that I Am,' or the 'I shall be that I will to be;' the Father; the relatively subjective, whose attribute is, the Holy One; whose definition is, the essential finific in the form of the infinite; dat sibi fines.

"But the absolute will, the absolute good, in the eternal act of selfaffirmation, the Good as the Holy One, co-eternally begets

"THE ALTERNITY.

"The supreme being; ô övrwę wv; the supreme reason; the Jehovah; the Son; the Word; whose attribute is the True (the truth, the light, the fiat); and whose definition is, the pleroma of being, whose essential poles are unity and distinction; or the essential infinite in the form of the finite ;-lastly, the relatively objective, deitas objectiva in relation to the I Am as the deitas subjectiva; the divine objectivity.

"N.B. The distinctities in the pleroma are the eternal ideas, the subsistential truths; each considered in itself; an infinite in the form of the finite; but all considered as one with the unity, the eternal Son, they are the energies of the finific; πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐκ τοῦ πληρώματος αὐτοῦ ἡμεῖς πάντες ἐλάβομεν. Joh. i. 3, 16.

"But with the relatively subjective and the relatively objective, the great idea needs only for its completion a co-eternal, which is both, that is, relatively objective to the subjective, relatively subjective to the objective. Hence

"THE COMMUNITY.

"The eternal life, which is love; the Spirit; relatively to the Father, the Spirit of Holiness, the Holy Spirit; relatively to the Son, the Spirit of truth, whose attribute is Wisdom; sancta sophia; the Good in the reality of the True, in the form of actual Life.

"Holy! Holy! Holy! ixáoonri poɩ."*

Such is the logical Trinity, or rather the Quaternity of Coleridge, consisting of the Identity-the Ipseity -the Alternity-and the Community! See also the Note to "Aids to Reflection," p. 127, &c.

2. Original sin, according to Coleridge's theology, is simply "following the sin of Adam, as the Pelagians do vainly talk." (Art. ix.) He speaks with horror of "the monstrous fiction of hereditary sin-guilt inherited." Hear his own words in reply to Bishop Jeremy Taylor :

* Confessions, p. 136.

"The corruption of my will may very warrantably be spoken of as a consequence of Adam's fall, even as my birth of Adam's existence, as a consequence, a link in the historic chain of instincts, whereof Adam is the first. But that it is on account of Adam; or that this evil principle was, à priori, inserted or infused into my will by the will of another..... this is nowhere asserted in Scripture, explicitly or by implication. It belongs to the very essence of the doctrine, that in respect of original sin every man is the adequate representative of all men." (Aids, p. 217.)

He admits that man is a fallen creature, and has a corrupt bias in his will, previous to any outward act; but he denies that this corruption is a penal consequence of Adam's transgression, or that the human race has suffered morally and spiritually from his sin.

3. On the subject of Redemption, Coleridge is more than usually explicit. He denies the truth and efficacy of the Atonement of Christ in any proper and literal sense. He explains away as metaphorical all the terms that he meets with in Scripture, applied to the death of Christ, and in their ordinary signification expressing the ideas of:

"1. Sin offerings or sacrificial expiation; (2.) Reconciliation, or atonement, Karaλλayn; (3.) Ransom from slavery, redemption, the buying back again, or being brought back; (4.) Satisfaction of a creditor's claims by a payment of the debt." (Aids, p. 243.)

He ridicules the notion of one man's sin being imputed to another, or one person's righteousness being available for the justification of another. (Aids, pp. 249, 250.) In short, he eliminates the idea of propitiation altogether from the work of Christ, and thus identifies redemption with regeneration, and justification with sanctification. Here we see the seminal principle of the chief error of the Maurice and Jowett school.

4. Reason or Conscience is with Coleridge,

"The sole fountain of certainty." (Confessions, p. 194.) "Reason is one with the absolute will, (In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God,) and therefore for man the certain representative of the will of God." (Confess., p. 115.)

5. Hence it follows that Reason, in the transcendental sense, is superior to Revelation; and Coleridge has not hesitated to enunciate this conclusion :—

"There is a light," he says, "higher than all, even the Word that was in the beginning;-the Light, of which light itself is but the shechinah and cloudy tabernacle;-the Word that is light for every man, and life for as many as give heed to it. If between this Word and the written Letter I shall any where seem to myself to find a discrepance, I will not conclude that such there actually is. ... but seek as I may, be thankful for what I have-and wait." (Confess., p. 10.) Hence he gives the following criterion of the Inspiration of Scripture :

"Whatever finds me bears witness for itself that it has proceeded from a Holy Spirit, even from the same Spirit, which remaining in itself, yet regenerateth all other powers, and in all ages, entering into holy souls, maketh them friends of God, and prophets." (Confess., p. 11.)

A reader of the Bible is on this principle bound to receive and "recognize as the Revealed Word what he finds therein coincident with his pre-established convictions." (Confess., p. 64.) In all cases where Reason stumbles at Revelation, he is to "decide for himself, and not fear for the result." (Confess., p. 65.)

No spiritually-taught Christian can, we think, have read the above extracts without the painful conviction that Coleridge was venturing out of his own sphere when writing upon such subjects as these. He will probably be reminded of that searching statement of the apostle Paul: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. ii. 14) This is especially the case when the philosophic poet enters into a sort of religious co-partnership with the seraphic Leighton, and professes to expound the evangelical sentiments of that heavenly-minded author. What confusion of thought do we witness in that strange medley! Thus, in his comment on Aphorism VI., on Sanctification, he advises the imperfect Christian to" render the words sanctification of the Spirit, or the sanctifying influences of the Spirit, by purity in life and action from a pure principle." (Aids, p. 43.)

Again, when Leighton speaks of "a righteousness that is not in the Christian, but upon him-he is clothed with it," his philosophical partner and interpreter exclaims, with great naïveté, "This, Reader! is the controverted doctrine so warmly asserted and so bitterly decried under the name of 'imputed righteousness.' Our learned Archbishop, you see, adopts it. That Leighton attached a definite sense to the words above quoted, it would be uncandid to doubt; and the general spirit of his writings leads me to presume that it was compatible with the eternal distinction between things and persons, and therefore opposed to modern Calvinism. But what it was, I have not (I own) been able to discover." (Aids, p. 80.) May we not perceive, in this remark, the truth of our Blessed Lord's words: "Lord of heaven and earth, Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." (Matt. xi. 25.)

Here we must lay down our pen. If, as we trust, there is good ground to believe that he adopted more scriptural views towards the close of his life (though we are not aware that he ever made any public retractation), we rejoice to indulge the charitable hope that, after all, he died a true believer in the atonement of Christ. But still we do not for a moment uphold such a guide as Coleridge as a sound exponent of evangelical doctrine. We cannot forbear to warn the student of theology, in danger of being fasci

nated by the charms of poetical imagery, or arrested by the idea of philosophical profoundness, that if he were implicitly to follow such a leader, he would place himself out of the pale of the church of England, and of every orthodox Christian communion; and would run the risk of finding himself one day fast aground on the shores of hopeless Rationalism, or driven to take refuge in Romish anility and superstition,-that last asylum and resting-place of a storm-tossed and bewildered understanding.

The Supper of the Lord, with an Appendix on Transubstantiation. By John W. Knott, Vicar of St. Saviour's, Leeds, and Fellow of Brazenose College, Oxford. One Vol. small 8vo. London:

J. & C. Mozley. 1858.

THIS little work, besides its intrinsic merit, derives a further interest from the position of its author. It is a way-mark in a gradual progress from the mists of a Tractarian theology, into the clear and full light of Gospel truth. Mr. Knott, the writer's father, is a layman well known and highly esteemed among evangelical churchmen for his labours in connection with the Irish Church Missions to the Roman Catholics, and, more recently, for his efforts as Secretary of the Committee of Layman for the defence of the just claims of the Church against an active crusade for spoliation and demolition, conducted by "The Society for the Liberation," professedly, "of religion from State Controul," but, in reality, for the liberation "of the State from the controul of religious obligations." The son, however, during his university course, was led to join the Tractarian party, and, from his talent and earnestness, seemed to have gained, in no small measure, the esteem and confidence of its leaders. Accordingly, when Dr. Pusey's model church, St. Saviour's, at Leeds, was vacant (a second time), by the secession of its incumbent to the church of Rome, Mr. Knott was selected by the Doctor, as the most eligible successor, to fill up the perilous and uneasy void which had been made. But a deeper influence seems to have been at work in the mind of the young disciple of Anglo-Catholicity than any school of mere formalism, however imposing in its ritual, or sentimental and refined in its colouring, could ever satisfy. Several small tracts, published in succession, were marked by a gradual but sensible progress out of the dim moonlight of a sacramental theology into the clearer sunshine of Gospel truth. In the work now before us, the happy process of this recovery seems almost complete. There are traces, indeed, of the route by which the writer has travelled, and the spiritual

discipline through which he has passed; and it is enriched by a deep vein of reverential thought, which could hardly have been gained without this chequered experience. But the green withes of semi-Romish theology, by which the vicar of St. Saviour's was once apparently fettered, seem now, under the power of the Holy Spirit's teaching, to have dropped from his arms. The publication has therefore been received by the chief Tractarian organs with a burst of disappointment and indignation, not unmixed with bitterness. They deplore in it a grievous apostacy from the standard of Catholic orthodoxy, and the return of Mr. Knott, like a relapsed heretic, to the despised camp of Evangelical religion.

We should be sorry, however, to give the impression that this little treatise derives its chief value from the light it throws on the spiritual progress of its author. It deserves careful perusal for its own sake. Traces of that mistiness which forms a constant character of the school from which he is newly escaped, still attach themselves to its style and arrangement; and we miss that lucidus ordo, that clear grouping of kindred thoughts, which make the reader conscious of a master's hand, and of being guided, with a steady progress, over a well-defined landscape of truth. In other respects, it combines excellencies of a high order-sound doctrine, deep thought, earnest feeling, width of reading, and fertility of appropriate illustration. It is written with the tone of a person whose heart is thoroughly at home among the sacred and lofty truths with which he deals, and whose great desire is to impress his readers with a vivid sense of the rich mercy and grace which the Supper of the Lord is designed to convey to the soul of every real believer.

There has been one redeeming feature, we conceive, in the Tractarian movement, which, if Evangelical Christians would lay it more to heart, would be a partial compensation for its many and great evils. Its leading writers have made an earnest appeal for a tone of deeper reverence in dealing with the doctrines and duties of the Christian faith. The want of such reverence is one of the most frequent and most painful defects in the usual and popular forms of Evangelical piety. Satire itself, however calumnious, finds its interest served less effectually by pure falsehoods than by exaggerations of truth. It can scarcely be denied that, sometimes even in the pulpit, and more frequently on the platform and in the social circle, evangelical religion has lain open to the reproach of an air of unholy familiarity in dealing with the most momentous and solemn themes. An evil of this kind, besides the direct mischief it involves, must lead the way to a dangerous reaction and recoil. Sensitive and thoughtful minds will not expect to find sacred truth united with flippancy, claptrap, and religious volubility. They will turn away from sound doctrine, when debased by such unworthy companions, to seek their creed from sources,