Parker does say all these things, and many others equally conclusive, in proving his comparative ignorance of the book of God.* We hope, before he asperses the Bible farther, that he will condescend to read it with more care.

We have dwelt long on Mr. Parker's representations of the Bible, because this is a vitally essential point. So long as men are willing to receive the Bible, and to interpret it honestly, there is hope. But when they have cast off its authority, and come to deride and blaspheme it, it is of small importance what else they believe or reject. We will proceed, however, though with the utmost brevity, to exhibit our author's views on several other points.

a

Of course, he regards our Saviour as nothing more than a man, though he admits that the apostles taught his Divinity. His words are: "With the apostles Jesus has become in part Deified; his personality confounded with the infinite God." P. 373. He calls him "a mortal man," "feeble brother," ""the son of man as we are, the son of God like ourselves." He was not only liable to mistakes and errors, but was actually chargeable with them. "I do not know that he (Jesus) did not teach some errors, I care not if he did." "It is easy to show, if we have the exact words of Jesus, that he was mistaken on some points; in the interpretation of the Old Testament, in the doctrine of demons, and in the celebrated prediction of his second coming, and the end of the world, within a few years. If Christianity rests on his authority, and that alone, it falls when the foundation falls; and that stands at the mercy of a school-boy." P. 249. Again: "If we may take the word of the gospels, Jesus was mistaken in his interpretation of the Old Testament. But if he did suppose that the writers of the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Prophecies, spoke of him; if he applied their poetic figures to himself; it is yet but a trifling mistake, affecting a man's head, not his heart." "Sometimes Christ is said to be an enthusiast, who hoped that he should be a king on the earth, and that his disciples should sit on twelve thrones, and judge the restored tribes. Certainly a strong case, very strong, may be made out from the Evangelists, to favor this charge. But what then? Even if the fact were admitted, and

* Pp. 140, 217, 294, 400, 295. Miscellanies, Pp. 188, 204.

Sermon on the Relation of Jesus to his Age, and the Ages. P. 14,

the dull Evangelists have not thrust their own fancies into his mouth, it does not militate with his morality and religion. How many a saint has been mistaken in such matters?" P. 257.

But in the judgment of Mr. Parker, our Saviour was chargeable with something worse than mere mistakes; and is asserted to be,though we shudder to write it, a sinner. "Christ bears HIS OWN SINS! not another's." P. 432. "He needed to work out his

Moses, and Jesus, and John,

own salvation, as we also must do." and Paul, have gained their salvation, by being real men."* Such phraseology implies that Christ needed a salvation; and of course was a sinner, as really as Moses, or John, or Paul.

Mr. Parker further insists, that our Saviour was not the Messiah predicted by the ancient prophets; and that no such Messiah has ever come, or ever will. "He was not the Messiah of the prophets' foretelling. The farthest from it possible. The Jews are right, when they say that their predicted Messiah has not come." "Jesus was slow to accept the name of the Messiah. He forbids his disciples to speak of his Messiahship; proclaims it only at Samaria; lets John Baptist draw his own inference, whether or not he must look for another; thinks that Simon Peter could only find it out by inspiration." "Was it not that he knew. he was not the Messiah of the prophets; and so never formally assumed the title; but, knowing that he was the true and only deliverer, a thousand times greater than their impossible Messiah, he suffered the name to be affixed to him, and made the most of the popular idea? Or was he himself mistaken? It concerns us little." P. 327. So it is of small concern, whether Jesus was deluded as to his Messiahship, or whether, knowing he was not the Messiah, he was willing to connive at the ignorance and prejudices of his followers, and artfully turn them to his own advantage!

Mr. Parker believes, not only that we "all may be what Christ was;" but that, in the progress of our being, we shall rise far above what he was while here in the flesh. "The time will come, when each one of us shall have more mind, and heart, and soul, than Christ on earth." "I cannot doubt that many a man, who not long ago left his body here, now far surpasses the radiant manliness which Jesus won and wore.' ." Yea, more than this; our author indulges the belief, that greater and holier personages

Miscellanies, Pp. 22, 190. † Sermon on Immortal Life, Pp. 25, 28.

than the Lord Jesus Christ may yet arise here in the world. "He (Jesus) has not exhausted the fulness of God, so that he can create none greater." "That God has yet greater men in

store, I doubt not." +

Mr. Parker holds to a sort of necessarianism, at least, so far as religion is concerned. Speaking of Fetichism and Polytheism, he says: "Each of these forms represents a truth, or it could not be embraced; a great truth, or it would not prevail so widely; yes, all of truth the man could receive, at the time he embraced it." P. 99. Again: "Each religious doctrine has sometimes stood for a truth. It was devised to help pious hearts; and has imperfectly accomplished its purpose. It was natural and indispensable, in its time and place. It could not have been, but as it was." P. 102. Mr. Parker should not blame those pious souls now, who receive the Bible, and who even accept the Calvinistic doctrines. In their present state of development, these are the very doctrines for them,—yes, the only ones possible. The following passages exhibit our author's view of sin. "Sin is a point which mistaken men pass through in their development." P. 436. Accordingly, he says, that true religion "asks no pardon for its sins, but gladly serves out the time." P. 452. "How many men seem wicked from our point of view, who are not so from their own? How many become infamous, through no fault of theirs, the victims of circumstances, born into crime, of low and corrupt parents, whom former circumstances made corrupt? Such men cannot be sinners before God! I doubt not that many a soul rises up from the dungeon and the gallows, yes, from dens of infamy amongst men, clean and beautiful before God!"‡

We have not space to cite our author's teachings in regard to the Church, the Sabbath, the ministry, and the ordinances. They are well known to be in keeping with the infidelity of the rest of his system.

He thinks that the sacraments may be useful to weak Christians, but are not needful for men.

"Behold the child, by nature's kindly law,
Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw."

* Miscellanies, P. 163.

† Sermon on the Relation of Jesus to his Age, and the Ages, P. 17. Sermon on Immortal Life, P. 20.

In his first edition, this couplet of Pope was applied to the Christian sacraments. They are the "rattle" and the "straw," which are well enough for infancy, but are quite beneath the serious concern of men. In his last edition, the lines are omitted, not because he doubts the propriety of his former application of them, but because they were misunderstood.

With regard to the future state, he believes in the immortality of the soul, but not in the resurrection of the body. He thinks that we come to our knowledge of immortality, as to that of the Divine existence, by intuition. Still many stand in doubt of the doctrine, "because they cannot help it; not because they will, but because they must." Strange, that any should be under a necessity of doubt, with respect to the intuitions of their own minds!

Whether all men will be happy immediately after death, Mr. Parker is not certain. But if any are not happy, their sufferings will be but temporary. Nor are these to be considered at all in the light of a punishment, but rather as a necessary medicine, administered for their good. "I know," says he, "that suffering is the best part of sin; the medicine to heal it with."

Mr. Parker doubts whether, in the other life, we shall have any remembrance of what passed in this, more than we now have of what was transacted before we were born. Still, he very inconsistently presumes that we shall recognize each other in that world, and renew former acquaintance and friendship. "Shall we know our friends again? For my part, I cannot doubt it." But how know them, when we shall have lost all trace and remembrance of what took place here on the earth?

It is needless to pursue the opinions of Mr. Parker further. As remarked at the first, it is no part of our design to go into a refutation of these opinions; but merely to disclose them; that our readers may have the means of knowing what sort of religion, or rather irreligion, is floating about in this community, and for conflict with which, those who are set for the defence of the gospel should be ever girded.

With a few additional remarks of a more general character, our notice of this abominable publication will close.

Like most of the opponents of evangelical religion, Mr. Parker seldom, if ever, represents it fairly. He works up the most revolting and frightful caricatures, and holds them up in derision and scorn, as the popular theology of the present day. In proof

of this, we might quote long pages, perhaps chapters; but we have not room.

"In our pulpits," says Mr. Parker, "we hear but little of the great doctrines of Jesus; the worth of the soul; the value of the present moment; the brotherhood of all men, and their equality before God; the necessity of obeying that perfect law God has written on the soul; the consequences which follow necessarily from disobeying; the blessed results now, and forever, that arise from obedience; the all-importance of a divine life; the power of the soul to receive the Holy Ghost," &c.* Under the droppings of what sanctuaries, we should like to know, has our author been. accustomed to sit? These are the very topics most insisted on by evangelical preachers of the gospel, the sum and substance of their ministrations.

Those Christians who believe in the sovereignty of God, are described in the following terms: "God is painted by them in the most awful colors of the Old Testament. The flesh quivers while we read, and the soul recoils upon itself with suppressed breath, and ghastly face, and sickening heart. The grim, awful King of the world, God hates sin, though he created it; and man, though he made him to fall, with a perfect hatred. A Creditor, he exacts the uttermost farthing. A King, upheld by his fury, the smallest offence is high treason, the greatest of crimes. His code is Draconian. He that offends in one point, is guilty of all. Good were it for that man if he had never been born. Extremest vengeance awaits him." Of this same class of Christians, it is further said: They "make God dark and awful; a king, not a father; jealous, selfish, vindictive. He is the Draco of the universe. He is the author of sin, but its cruel avenger; more cruel than Odin or Belus." Of this system of belief, it is also said: "Fear of hell is the bloody knout, with which it scourges reluc tant flesh across the finite world, and whips it smarting into heaven at last. It paves hell with children's bones, and has a personal devil in the world to harry the land, and lure or compel men to eternal woe. Its God is diabolical." "You know the followers of this system," says our author, " as soon as you see them. The rose has faded out of their cheeks; their mouths are drooping and sad; their whole appearance says, Alas, my fellow worm! There

* Miscellanies, P. 11.