ly agrees with their own Opinions, and that they must endeavour to suppress every opinion contrary to their own, as if the latter could not bear the test of inquiry and examination. On the con. trary, a lover of truth and freedom, without relinquish ing his own opinions or the right to defend them, will afford every facility in his power to the temperate discussion of opinions the most opposed to them, convinced that in this way truth will be most effectually clicited. By printing Rammohun Roy's Second Appeal, therefore, instead of laying yourself open to the charge of heresy, you showed that you had a firm confidence in the truth of your own religious system; and by since declining to print his other works on the same subject you show that you have lost that confidence.*

The other ground of suspicion is still more extra

The Proprietors of the Baptist Mission Press have Jately discovered a method of quieting the scruples of their ultra-orthodox friends. In an Advertisement of date April 20, 1824, after notifying that "Books and Pamphlets in the various languages of Europe and Asia continue to be print. ed" at their Press, it is added "the Proprietors do not bold themselves responsible for the Sentiments of any Work issued

ordinary viz, that one who i was formerly engaged with you in Missionary work had.: lately declared his belief in similar sentiments. Why were not our accusers sa tisfied with the assurance that this individual was Dot then, and for a considerable period had not been, engag ed with you in Missionary werk? Why were they not satisfied with the burning zeal which you bad displayed against him by ex- › pelling him from Christian communion without ventur ing even to surmise any thing against his moral character, without inquir ing into the grounds of those. religious opinions which be › professed to hold, without endeavouring to bring him back to the only saving faith, and without affording him an opportunity to defend him. self against all that ignor-1 ance and malice might suggest? Why were they not t satisfied with the public insults which he received

from their Press unless they are themselves the Editors." If this is to be considered as an invitation to Unitarians to give their custom again to the Baptist Mission Press, they' can only lament with the Pro prietors of that Press that it is, now too late. The Calcutta Baptist Missionaries have taught Unitarians to print, however imperfectly, for them

selves.

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of the pulpit, you preached, not to the congregation assembled for religious instruction, but at him and against him as pointedly as if you had mentioned him by name? Sure. ly these considerations should have taught them to put a lenient construction upon every other part of your conduct, and above all should have prevented them from accusing you of beterodoxy merely on account of a petty sermon with the writing, preaching, printing, or publishing of which you had not the remotest connection.

Having thas shown how futile were the grounds on which your conduct and your creed were impeached, I need not say much to convince you that your Seven Essays were scarcely called for in order to vindicate either the one or the other. Knowing, indeed, the necessity under which you were placed, I can only recur to the language of condolence; and certainly all the circumstances of the case are

was a body of Christian Missionaries consisting of five or six individuals in no degree inferior to any equal number of their pro fessional brethren in talents and learning, piety, zeal, and orthodoxy. Some per Sons, whether weakly or maliciously does not appear, affected on the most absurd and unreasonable grounds, to doubt their possession of the last mentioned virtue. A deficiency in any of the other virtues or excellencies might have been pardoned, or the charge of such a deficiency might bave been overlooked. But a deficiency in orthodoxy was neither to be lightly forgiven, nor the charge of such a deficiency to be lightly regarded. What then was to be done? It was not enough to give the most solemn as surances and protestations of orthodoxy in private, nor to preach and pray with all their might against the heterodox in public. It was not enough henceforth to seal "the Mission Press" against heresy, and contumeliously to expel heretics from their communion. No. Assurances and protestations, preachings and prayings, sealings and excommunications were very good, in their own times and places, but something mote was required in the present case. Their punishment

must be as notorious as their crime. They had been guilty of taking heretical money for printing a beretical book, and they are required to disgorge the one by writing, printing, and publishing a reply to the other. They had been guil. ty of once regarding as a Christian brother an individual who bad since proved himself to be a beretic, and they are required pabficly to renounce him and to oppose his principles. He who had once doubted is required to declare that he doubts no longer; and if he had ever thought that he perceived a peg in the system of orthodoxy giving way, while that of heterodoxy was proportionally strengthened, he is now required to see all firmness and compactness in the one, all weakness and instability in the other. I bave heard before of a people being priest-ridden yourself and brethren afford a melancholy example of a priesthood people-ridden,

3. The next reason by which you have been influenced to engage in the Missionary Controversy with Rammohun Roy is as formally, although not so explicitly, stated as the two preceding; and it is the more deserving of notice as it lays open a secret spring which would seem

to have been at work since the commencement of the dispute and to have exercised an improper influence upon others who have not, like you, had the ingenuousness to acknowledge it.

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After witnessing" you say (p. 87, 88,)" the spirited man. ner in which he (Rammohun Roy) disdained the epithet that bad been applied to him by the Editor of the Friend of India-the appeal that he made to prove his right to the title of a Christi. an-the condescension of the Editor of that work to answer, him on his own terms-the frequent intercourse that he held with Christians of various de nominations and the conces sjons that he would occasion ally make in favour of some eyangelical truths, we were prepared to expect something from his pen in defence of Christianity far beyond what he has furnished; and now consider ourselves no longer justified in keeping silence, under the hope that he might, be brought 'to the acknowledg.. ment of the mystery of God and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.' (Col. ii. 2)."

The plain meaning of this is that you had formed certain expectations respec ting Rammohan Roy-that these expectations have not been realized and that the severity of the disappointment has led you, by the publication of your Seven Essays, to break that silence respecting him and his writings which you had

excite

bitberto maintained. What were your expectations res-. pecting Rammohun Roy and what were the grounds of them? Did he hopes which he afterwards. deceitfully frustrated; or did you form undue expectations for which you were justly punished in their disappointment? And in either case did your disappointmeut justify that "interfe. rence" in the controversy with him for which it is al Jeged? These are inquiries" to which I shall endeavour to reply...

There can be little doubt as to the nature of your expectations, although you have not very distinctly avowed them. Misquoting' as well as misapplying the language of Paul,* you de

It is curious to observe the shifts to which Trinitarians are reduced in order to accommodate the strictly Unitarian language of Paul and of the sacred writers in general. to their own preconceived sys tem. The text which Mr Yates has quoted above (Col. ii. 2) according to the authorized version reads thus: "the mys. tery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom," &c. The original words of the Received Text, if any weight be due to the rules which Gran ville Sharp, Bishop Middleton, and other Trinitarian writers have laid down respecting the Greek article, should be thus translated: "the mystery of God even the Father, and of Christ in whom," &c. accord.

scribe the hope which you felt yourself compelled to relinquish to be the hope that he might be brought

to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ;'" i, e. as you would interpret these words, to the acknowledg ment of the mystery of a Triune and Incarnate Deity.' If, as you believe, there is but one God and Christ is God, if there are three pers sons in this one God, and two natures in one of these three persons, then it will be readi ly admitted that your cou rage in attempting to con. vince him of this complication of mysteries was at least equal to the difficulty of the task. But if your expec ing to which the Father alone ia styled God, to the direct exclusion of Christ, Again, Gri. esbach's text, rejecting the in termediate terms on the autho rity of manuscripts, reads thus: "the mystery of God in whom,"&c. Now Mr. Yates, ing stead of adopting any one of these three versious or readings has arbitrarily formed a text altogether sui generis, which reads thus: the mystery of God and of Christ in whom," &c. by which he means to express his opinion that there is some mysterions union of na ture between God and Christ.

In order to express this opi nion he not only misquotes the words, but also misrepresents the meaning of the apostle Paul. Paul was peculiarly

$ation of making him a convert ever rose very high, it must have been when the intensity of your zeal made you forget the slough of despond" which lay before you.

From the statement you give of the grounds on which your expectations were formed, it does not appear that you can justly blame Rammohan Roy for having intentionally excited them, or for the disappointment which you have subsequently experienced. The first circumstance you mention is "the spirited manner in which he disdained the epithet that had

the apostle of the Gentiles, and the mystery of which he here speaks was not a metaphysical and unintelligible no、 tion respecting the Divine nature, but the mystery which

in the former ages was hid but now is manifested" - the mystery "that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs" with the believing Jews, "and of the same body and partakers of his promises in Christ by the gospel." Hitherto the blessings of Divine Revelation had been confined to the Jews, and although it had been frequently intimated in the writings of the old Testament that in the times of the Messiah these blessings would be extended to men of all nations, yet this was so contrary to the national pride and pre. judice of the Jews, that they either would not or could not understand it. It therefore

been applied to him by the Editor of the Friend of India." Dr. Marshman "in language consonant with the meekness of wisdom?? had called Rammohun Roy a heathen; and Rammohun Roy justly considering this as a term of reproach pro tested against its applica tion to himself. There are, it is believed, only two cases in which this term bas been employed to describe religious character. The word heathen, or rather the Hebrew word of which it is a translation, was first used by the Jews to denote all the nations of the earth except themselves; and it is remained to -1 to-them a mysterya a secret, a thing hidden, until It was made plain and clear by its actual accomplishment through the preaching of the apostle Paul. Most Christians of the present day are not con

less it contain something mysterious, . e. something enigs matical or incomprehensible. They seem to think with Fa ther Possevini 666 tot esse in Scriptura sacramenta, quot literæ; tot mysteria, quot puncta; tot arcana, quot apices. But the religion which Christ and his apostles preach. ed was a very plain and intel. ligible one, and had no mysteries but what, in their hands, ceased to be such. For the scriptural meaning of the word mystery see Campbell's Ninth Dissertation, Part I. prefixed to his Translation of the Font Gospels,