was no other than the dead sea, the lake Asphaltates. Possibly Leviathan, "by whose neesings a light doth shine; whose eyes are like the eyelids of the morning; out of whose mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out, out of whose nostrils goeth smoke as out of a seething pot, or cauldron; whose breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth," was nothing else than a volcano. Probably, too, the "fish" that swallowed Jonah, was a subterranean river. Supposing that, could sceptics laugh at his history? Jonah goes on board a small coasting vessel; the sea was tempestuous, by means of a violent wind. The mariners thought the Deity was angry; Jonah thought so too; he even pretended to know, that for his sake the great tempest was upon them, and he besought them to cast him into the sea, adding, SO shall the sea be calm unto you." The mariners used every effort to put him on shore; not succeeding, they complied with his request, with great reluctance, affording him, most likely, some means of floating, and most earnestly entreating Jehovah, that he would not lay innocent blood to their charge. The Tyrian inhabitants of the coast carried on a fishing trade, and served Jerusalem and other interior parts with fish, and had sluices and ponds for the supply of their trade. Into one of these, a subterranean river, the mouth of which was a fishery, a great swell of water carried Jonah, and retiring, left him ashore "at the bottom of the mountains,' in a marsh, where "weeds were wrapped about his head," there, "in the belly of hell" he composed that prayer which is written in the second chapter, and which expresses confidence in God, in a state of apparent despair. The third day, a great swell of water, a messenger of Jehovah, in answer to the prayer of his servant, set Jonah afloat again, carried him out to sea, from the dismal cavern where he had been confined, and a friendly wave threw him on shore. He was the only man that escaped with his life, out of such a grave, and it was with great propriety and beauty that Jesus resembled his resurrection to the return of Jonah to light and life. All this is not impossible. The whole is in agreement with the history. The Hebrew word rendered fish, signifies also a fishery; and there is a high proba bility that subterranean waters fell into the ocean on this

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coast that the inhabitants guarded the mouths of such waters with gratings or sluices to prevent the return of such fish as were carried up the stream by the tide; and, considering the genius of the people, nothing is more likely than that they should give to the stream itself, either for some real, or supposed likeness, the name of a fish→→ a small stream, the name of a small fish; a large stream, the name of a large fish; for the assimilating of water to fishes, is analogous to the likening of mountains to animals, or parts of the earth to parts of the human body.

ROBERT ROBINSON.

We have much pleasure in presenting our readers with the following letter, extracted from the Jersey News, and from the initials we conclude it is by that strenuous and untiring friend of religious freedom, Captain James Gifford, R.N.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEWS.

SIR,-It is probable that many of your readers may take an interest in being made acquainted with the religious opinions of the late Duke of Sussex, justly held in such high estimation by the British nation. It appears to have been the custom of the Duke to mark every passage which he thought worthy of attention, and the following marginal notes in his own hand-writing were found attached to the preface of a work entitled Hay's Religio Philosophi, purchased at the sale of the books of his Royal Highness. The marginal notes are placed within brackets-thus [ ]. I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

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Myrtle Cottage. I. G. "Leave the Gospel with every man-the excellence of its doctrine will defend it." [Good.] "It is to be trusted with the laity as well as with the clergy; for it makes no distinction between them." [Good and true.] "No human authority, though dignified with the name of primitive, can add the least weight to it." [I believe this to be correct.] "It is better defended by appeals to reason than to human authority." [Good.] By his stripes we are healed. Thus it pleased God in the wonderful dispensations of his Providence (having before prepared men by a very general notion of the expiation of sin by sacrifice,) in this instance to make the only man that ever was without sin, to atone for the sins of mankind." [This is the doctrine of atonement.] "Creeds are human compositions, and therefore of no authority; they are no further to be attended to than they are warranted by Scripture, which is the sole rule of faith." [I agree with the author.] "They may be proposed, but cannot be imposed." [Mark.] "Of their agreement with Scripture every man must

judge for himself: he can have no other opinion than his own, others cannot think for him, nor he for them." [This I completely accede to.] "The tenets which principally distinguish the Christian Religion from all others, and of which men could have no idea or conception of by the light of Nature, relate-1st, to the Deity; 2nd, to the union of Christ with the Deity; 3rd, to a resurrection and judgment preceding a future state As to the first, God, whose nature is incomprehensible, has been pleased to reveal to us that there are three persons in the Godhead: not three distinct qualities or attributes, but three distinct intelligent agents." [This I call at once dogma, and above our comprehension. If they be intelligent agents, they must have free, independent wills of their own, and what becomes, then, of the Unity of Deity?]

"They are often expressly mentioned together in Scripture." [I do not admit this.] The whole tenor of Scripture implies that they are distinct; and the Scriptures would be unintelligible if they are not conceived to be so: and that all nations should conceive them to be so, was the intention of Christ, when he ordered them to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. [I doubt.] He is begotten, not made. [In what consists the difference.] That is, he is of the same essence with the Father, from whom he derives his existence; and the expression (begotten) is used to convey that idea to us; for in our conception everything that is begotten is of the same nature with that which >begot it, but nothing that is made is of the same nature with that which made it. [This explanation neither satisfies me, nor does it carry conviction to my mind.] The explanation (begotten) is not used to convey any idea of this divine generation, that is known to God alone. Man is ignorant of the manner of his own generation, or that of any animal, or vegetable, and it would be the most blasphemous presumption, in so inconsiderable a creature of the universe to attempt to explain that of the Son of God. [Therefore you ought not to attempt it.] It is sufficient for Christians to believe that there are three persons in one Godhead.' [This is the author's opinion, but not so with any reflecting mind, for we cannot be called upon to believe that which we do not understand, and which after all is only handed down to us by tradition.] "If we cannot tell how the soul is united to the body, much less can we tell how the body and soul of Jesus was united to the Deity. I think the clearest explanation that is to be found of this abstruse point, is in the Athanasian Creed, viz.: That our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man, God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man of the substance of his mother born in the world. Perfect God and perfect Man of a reasonable soul and human flesh, subsisting equal to his Father as touching his Godhea, and superior to the Father as touching his Manhood. Who, although he be God and Man, yet he is not two but one Christ. One not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking the Manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For as the reasonable soul

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and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ," [Really, this is such a jargon of undigested thought, and such a mixture of inconsistency, that I cannot accept the explanation.] The Athanasian Creed is justly blameable for setting up a human composition as the standard of Salvation, and for inquiring implicit belief of the tenets contained in it under the penalty of damnation. [No human being has the power of damnation, it is horrible to think of it.] "Though the Son is of the same substance or essence, yet he is subordinate to the Father, who is greater. This is expressly said in scripture, and is implied through the whole tenor of it; therefore, when the Athanasian Creed says he is equal to the Father as touching his Godhead, it it must be understood only, that he is equally of the same divine nature, not equal in authority, for He in everything does the will of the Father, not my will, says He, but thine be done." [That in my opinion, sets the question at rest, and which ought no more to be discussed in this world.] "The expressions, therefore, in the Athanasian Creed, that none of the persons is before or after the other, none greater or less than the other, but their glory equal is scarcely reconcilable with Scripture; or to reconcile it must be understood with great limitations." [I for one do conscientiously think that the less we trouble ourselves about Creeds, and more especially with that denominated the Athanasian Creed, the better for us.]

man.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS, THE FUGITIVE SLAVE. BUT little is yet known in this country respecting this remarkable A few years ago he was suffering under the horrors of hopeless slavery, in Maryland, United States. Happily for him, and probably for his suffering fellow-slaves, he escaped from his cruel bondage to the Free States of America, where he remained in obscurity for a year or two, working at any employment he could procure, exposed only to the contempt and indignity with which independent and republican America, even in its free States, treats that portion of its population, however well educated and refined they may be, whose misfortune it is to have any colour in their skin. After a time, on a casual attendance upon an Antislavery meeting, Douglass ventured to make himself known to some members of an Abolition Society. The abolitionists found him to be a young man of unusual ability, of sound judgment, serious, of excellent character, and with a degree of cultivation of mind quite extraordinary for the opportunities he had while in the slave state, where teaching slaves to read and even giving them Bibles, subject the offenders to severe penalties! The American Anti-Slavery Society having ascertained that, in addittion to the dependence that could be placed upon all of Frederick Douglass's statements, he had a remarkable facility of expressing himself with fluency, and correctness, employed him as a lecturer upon slavery, the evils of which he was able to expose from per

sonal experience. His lectures occasioned much excitement in the free states, and much indignation when his statements had gone southward, in the slave states from whence he had escaped. Doubts having been circulated as to the truth of the apalling revelations he made, he resolved to publish a narrative of his life, giving the names of the masters under whom he lived, and dates and events which would at once prove the correctness of his account, and suppressing only some names and circumstances connected with his escape, which, if known, would have involved some of his benefactors in difficulties, and have diminished the facility of escape of other slaves by similar means. Wendell Phillips, Esq., an eminent barrister of Massachusets, and an active abolitionist, to whom Douglass showed his narative in MS., advised him not to publish it, as it would probaly lead to successful efforts for his being re-taken, and returned to slavery; a fugitive slave not being safe even in the free states, their laws compelling them to give up such runaways if claimed by their owners. Douglass, however, with that courage which has distinguished him throughout his career, printed the narrative, and most rapid was its sale in America. Prudence, however, as well as other powerful motives, decided him upon taking the occasion of the excitement produced by the wide dissemination of his narrative, to leave America for awhile, and visit Great Britain. In accordance with this intention he sailed in the Cambria, government steamer, from Boston, last August, in company with Mr. Buffum, a highly respectable man, an abolitionist, and with the Hutchesons, a remarkable family of singers, consisting of four brothers and one sister, who have been performing in Liverpool, and occasioning much interest by the originality of their music and their anti-slavery songs. The party arrived in Liverpool, August 28th, and Douglass immediately repaired to Dublin, where, as well as in Cork and at Belfast (where he at present is), he has been lecturing to thronged assemblies.

The papers contained an account of a fracas on board the Cambria when Douglass came to England. The passengers having ascertained what a remarkable man they had with them, expressed a desire to hear him give some history of himself and of slavery, and the captain saw no reason for objecting to their wishes. Notice having been given of what was to take place, that the passengers might attend or absent themselves as they wished, Douglass began to speak, but he had not proceeded far, before he was interrupted by two American gentlemen from the slave states, accusing him of falsehood. Douglass, to prove his statements, began to read the laws of the slave states; the Americans, however, would not allow him to proceed, and threatened to throw him overboard. An Irish gentleman assured them that any attempt at violence would be a dangerous expedient for their own safety. The disturbance rose so high, that Captain Judkins was at length compelled to declare he would put in irons any one who ventured upon an act of aggression. The abolitionists in Massacusets have been voting resolucions of thanks to Captain

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