laws and political restrictions on religious grounds shall be for ever abolished; when an invidious and limited toleration shall give way to universal religious liberty; and when all without distinction shall be entitled by law to the possession of those civil and political privileges, which are the birthright of Britons." (3d Resolution, p. 32.) This is the grand consummation. And when Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics, are admitted to equal rule and sway in this Christian nation; when the minarets of Mahommed shall rise beside the spires of our Churches; and the tower of Jaggernaut vie with the dome of St. Paul's; when the auspicious moment, so ardently longed for by that distinguished Apostle of civil and religious liberty, and all its attendant immoralities, John Wilkes, shall arrive, and the crescent shall shine as brightly in our metropolis as the cross; then will the Socinians be satisfied, and the grand work of that Society, which is to unite all hearts without reconciling opinions, will be accomplished. Tum magnum exitium (quod Dii prius omen in ipsum That such is specifically the object of the Bible Society itself we mean not to insinuate; but the documents, which the Unitarian Society has thought proper to publish, justify us in considering them as the legitimate descendants of those Socinians, whose epistle to the ambassador from Morocco to Charles II. has been preserved by Leslie; and we defy the most subtle of their advocates to point out a single article in the profession of faith set forth by them at the King's Head Tavern, August 20, 1813, (see 2d Resol. p. 34.) which a Mahommedan would hesitate to admit; or to shew any position in the first Resolution then passed, which may not be employed to defend the national rights of such a man to take his religion from the Koran, to profess it, and to act upon it. How man can have derived a right from the Almighty Creator to form his own religious opinions, we leave the sages of the Unitarian Fund to explain; but if such be admitted to be the case, if it be "the right of every man to form his own re、 ligious opinions, to profess them among his neighbours and fellow creatures, and to act upon them in the exercises of divine worship," (1st. Resol. p. 34.) then, as to the matter of right, the Christian, the Jew, the Turk, the worshipper of the Lama, of Buddha, nay even of Satan himself, for he has not been without his worshippers, all stand on the same footing; and "All penal statutes, whether they enact fine or imprisonment, or positive bodily suffering, or whether they declare civil disabilities, exclusion, and privation, on the ground solely of such opinion, profession, and worship, are manifest invasions of natural right, and equally repugnant to the Christian Religion, and to the spirit of the British Constitution." (Resol. ut supra.) That That the object of these enlightened persons is to hasten this antichristian project we learn from their sixth resolution, in which they declare that they trust "The period is advancing, and that they would willingly hasten its arrival, when not only Christians of every description, but also their countrymen at large, shall be alike free to profess and defend their opinions, and all equally partake in the civil rights of Britons." (6th Resol. p. 35.) We would ask any man of common sense and reflection, does he believe that persons, who have such objects professedly in view, would become warm and active supporters of the Bible Society, unless they conceived that it might be made instrumental to their accomplishment? The answer must be obvious. We proceed to shew what additional proof the Editor has brought forward, that they do ardently and zealously support it. "The Socinians," says he, "continue with increased zeal to eulogize the Bible Society, to flock to its associations, and to give it their unqualified support. The Editors of A NEW DIRECTORY FOR NON-CONFORMIST CHURCHES,' evidently a Socinian publication, printed for Johnson, 1812, were at that period so well aware of the tendency of the Bible, and the Lancasterian Societies, which they consider as closely connected, that at the termination of their seventh chapter, setting forth the motives for using Scripture forms. of worship, they cannot conclude,' they say, this part of their work, without expressing their satisfaction in the wonderful success of these two recent institutions; and rejoicing also in the animated and successful defences of both, by clergy and laity of all denominations, against the bigotted, but feeble attempts of those who are afraid to trust the Bible by itself, lest it should betray the readers into error!' and they assign this as the reason of their rejoicing, that they cannot but hence encourage the cheerful hope that Scriptural worship, and Scriptural religion, will rapidly gain ground, and thus the prophecy be fulfilled, Jer. xxxii. 39. I will give them one heart and one way,' i.e. the way of indifference to all the articles of faith, or to express it in one word, the way of Deism*. "At a more recent period, Mr. Aspland, in his PLEA FOR UNITARIAN DISSENTERS addressed to the Editor, in consequence of the investigation which is here continued, has in the strongest terms avowed the attachment of the whole Socinian Body to the Bible Society; and lest the circumstance, that many have withheld their "It is mentioned as one of the devices of Weishaupt, by Professor Robinson in his PROOFS OF A CONSPIRACY, p. 215, that he employs the Christian Religion, which he thinks a falsehood, as the means of inviting Christians of every denomination, and gradually. cajoling them, by clearing up their Christian doubts in succession, till he lands them in Deism." names names from its muster-roll should be misconstrued, he lets out the secret that policy has laid restraint upon their inclination-that their very attachment makes them absentees-operates upon many of them (to use his own words) to abstain from the pleasure, and deny themselves the honour of being amongst its most public and zealous promoters, lest their appearing publicly in its cause should furnish its enemies with a new topic of invective, and a convenient handle of reproach; and lest the odium so industriously heaped upon them should be also made to bear on an Institution, as abhorrent to some of the Members of the Church as Socinianism itself.' (Plea, p. 24, 5.) and in another place, (p. 37.) he very candidly states this as the ground of their attachment; that the spirit of the Bible Society is a virtual concession to their plea,' (viz. that if they dis sent from the greater part of the Christian world in points of Faith, they are one with it in the reception and the observance of the rules of moral duty ;) and therefore they cordially hail it as an earnest of the speedy approach of the period, when all mankind's concern,' according to the poet, will be that which, in the judg ment of an Apostle, is greater than faith,' namely CHARITY. Not the charity however of the Apostle, which amongst its other characteristics bears this distinctive mark, that it rejoices in the truth,' but modern charity, which first changes the truth into a lie,' and then by a general compromise discards it altogether from its affections-the speculative love in short of the whole human race, combined with practical ferocity against individuals, and enmity against God." (P. 39.) The accumulated testimony, by which the Editor has already shewn that this eagerness on the part of the Socinians to join and support the Society is encouraged rather than checked by its great advocates and managers, must, we should suppose, have forced conviction even upon the most determined of its adherents: but new evidence is now produced in support of this charge; and if there should be a single Member of the Church, who hesitates to withdraw from the Society because his mind is not satisfied on this point, let him cousider the language of Dean Milner, as quoted by the Editor from Dr. Marsh, (p. 42, 43;) the "decisive but horrid fact" mentioned by Mr. Clapham in his sermon preached before the Lord Bp. of Chester at his Primary Visitation; (p. 45.) and the additional information on the subject of the Uxbridge Mecting, and Mr. Clarke's conduct, given, p. 46, 47. But we shall perhaps be reminded that several Churchmeu eminent for rank, talents, and zeal for the holy Faith which they profess, still continue members of the Society, still attend its meetings, still publicly advocate its cause, aud recommend it to those who may be supposed to look up to their opinion and au thority as worthy of all honour. Our unfeigned respect for the general character and dignified station of such individuals, must induce us to account for this portentous and lamentable fact, for such we shall always consider it, by supposing that they still remain unconvinced of the true character and tendency of the Institution, which they continue to dignify by their attachment to it. Earuestly do we intreat them once more to reconsider the evidence, which this volume contains. We hope that we shall not be thought deficient in proper deference if we express our belief, that such a revision might possibly yet convince them that they have been deceived. Aud as we cannot for a moment suppose, that they will hesitate to renounce an error with the same manliness, with which they have hitherto maintained their own opinion; so we trust that, under Providence, the friends of the Establishment may yet be relieved from the sorrow and humiliation which they feel, when beholding those, who in other respects may be ranked with its warmest defenders as well as its brightest ornaments, still leagued, through the delusions of this no longer equivocal Association, with the deadliest foes not only of our own Church but of Christianity itself; with those who scruple not to rob the great "author and finisher of our faith" of his honour, and even to question the truth of the Father himself, by rejecting the testimony which he has given of his Son. In note h. p. 52, the Editor has given some important particulars respecting the still spreading ramifications of the Society among the poor. "At the period when this volume was published," says he, "Bible Associations were the lowest department to which the ramifications of the Bible Society had been extended, but in the beginning of the last winter the provisions of the 9th article of those un ostentatious, yet very efficient departments of the confederacy, (see p. 350.) were put in operation, and the splitting system, (see p. ibid. note i.) commenced by the subdivision of the Association districts into square, street, lane, and alley Bible Committees; the most celebrated of which was a Square Committee at the west end cf the town, announced to the public under the patronage of a vene. rable Prelate, whose name, doubtless, without his consent or privity, was thus indecently brought forward to lure the servants of the neighbourhood to the Meeting, who were all specially solicited to attend." (P. 52.) It appears indeed that the agents of the Society, though their activity is undimished, have for some time changed the sphere of their operations. They have obtained from the great and wealthy all they want from them, and their assiduities are now, in a great measure, devoted to those in a humbler station; who, divided divided and subdivided into superintending and subordinate con. federacies, are leagued in one common bond of union with the avowed enemies of the established Church, for the furtherance of that grand plan of levelling and confusion, by which, under the specious pretext of restoring to every man an assumed natural right of worshipping his Creator according to the dictates of his own conscience, the very foundations of all religious truth as well as social happiness are to be removed. The Bible Society, as the Editor has well observed, when "Critically analyzed is, as far as the confederacy extends, the virtual removal of all tests, and is spreading rapidly that religious indifference through the land, which will prepare the way for their legislative abrogation, and thus open those floodgates throught which misbelief and unbelief, as the succeeding waves of one mighty torrent, will rush, with an impetuosity to be no more restrained, to the overwhelming of the true faith of the Gospel," P. 55. We here again take our leave of the Editor, congratulating him upon the effect which his labours have already produced; for that they have in many instances checked the progress of this Society, and in very many awakened those, who had unwarily lent it their aid, to a true sense of the mischief it is effecting, we have good reason to know. Under the calumny and misrepresentation, which must ever attend those, who dare to oppose the torrent of misguided public opinion, this will be his best consola tion: and when the hour of cool reflection returns, and the many well meaning persons, who still continue in the ranks of the Society, shake off their delusion, we trust that they will be the first to appreciate and acknowledge the services of those, whose warning voice was raised to undeceive them; and whom they have, in many cases, too precipitantly counted their enemies, because they told them the truth. ART. IV. Hebrew Melodies. By Lord Byron. 4s. 6d. 8vo. Murray. 1815. WE had just laid down the humorous account of the apostacy of Edmund Curl, and of his subsequent circumcision, when Lord Byron's Hebrew Melodies presented themselves to our view. That worthy bookseller, after having libelled all mankind, is represented by his biographer, no less a man than Swift himself, to |