the accomplished barrister was distinguishing himself by his writings, and by his exertions to obtain some important reforms in the British constitution, "The sentiments which he then avowed so decidedly," continued Dr. Paley, "he certainly never afterwards disclaimed; and his sentiments on questions of great public importance ought to have been neither extenuated nor withheld."* But nothing of all this appears in Lord Teignmouth's Memoirs. It is hardly necessary to remind the reader, that the approbation of republican principles is not in the least inconsistent with a full acknowledgment of all the excellencies which really belong to the English constitution, as fitted to secure and promote, in a high degree, the peace, the order, the freedom, and the happiness of this country. To be a true and loyal member of the British community, we are not surely required to believe that its government has touched the very point of perfection; nor are we obliged to assert that other forms or modifications of government may not hereafter be devised, more excellent than all that have preceded, more accommodated to the feelings, and better adapted to the views and wants of people, in a more advanced state of social refinement and moral improvement. In the censure, severe as it is, pronounced by Dr. Paley on the disingenuous concealment, so discreditable to the character of Lord Teignmouth as a biographer, Dr. Parr entirely concurred; and the same censure he extended from the account of the political, to that which is also given of the religious opinions of Sir William Jones. In describing the long and anxious inquiry which preceded conviction, as might be expected, in the case of one of the most upright, as well as enlightened of men; and in tracing the progress of his mind from a state of doubt and difficulty, to that of firm belief in the Jewish and Christian revelations, the narrative is, no doubt, substantially correct, as it is deeply interesting. But when Lord Teignmouth, whose creed is highly orthodox, laboured to make it appear that Sir William Jones adopted the same creed, he must have strangely misconceived, or wilfully misrepresented, the truth. Dr. Parr often asserted in the hearing of the present writer, as from his own knowledge, that so far from ad * Memoirs of Paley, p. 220. mitting the popular views of Christianity, Sir William Jones held those which are commonly distinguished by the name of Unitarianism. That assertion is, indeed, proved, as far as negative proof can go, by the passages from his writings produced by Lord Teignmouth in the "Memoirs." In all these, it is impossible not to remark the total absence of every expression which might imply the admission of such a theological system as that attributed to him by his biographer. Every one of his devotional pieces, and all his observations of a religious kind, proceed upon the principles of what the learned Dr. Lardner calls the ancient Nazarean doctrine, or that of the early Jewish Christians. In some degree, on the authority of these very passages, and still more, on the decisive authority of Dr. Parr,* the * Proofs of the disingenuousness or strange misconception of Lord Teignmouth." The following," says his Lordship, "is a direct and public avowal of Sir Wm. Jones's belief in the divinity of our Saviour;"-no doubt, in the orthodox sense of the word is meant :"The title, Son of God, was often applied, by a bold figure, agree. ably to the Hebrew idiom, to angels, to holy men, and even to all mankind, who are commanded to call God their Father; and, in this large sense, the Apostle to the Romans calls the elect the children of God, and the Messiah, the first-born among many brethren. But the words only-begotten are applied transcendently and incomparably to him alone. His being born of a virgin, alone might fully justify that phrase."-"This quotation affords," as his Lordship adds, "a decisive proof of the belief of Sir Wm. Jones in the sublime (i. e. the orthodox) doctrines of the Christian religion"!! Again— the following expressions, Lord Teignmouth calls a decisive testimony of his reliance on the merits of a Redeemer, i. e. in the orthodox sense of the word!!" Admit me, not weighing my unworthiness, but through thy mercy declared in Christ, into thy heavenly mausions," &c. Again the following expressions are represented by his Lordship as an avowal of Sir Wm. Jones's faith in the godhead of Christ !! "I cannot help believing the divinity (not deity) of the Messiah, from the undisputed authority, and manifest completion, of many prophecies, especially those of Isaiah, in the only person recorded in history to whom they are applicable." Yet a few pages afterwards, in the same work, Sir Wm. Jones styles Moses "the divine legate." If the above are instances of disingenuousness, is not the following something worse ?-Passage as given by Lord, Teignmouth, to shew that Sir Wm. Jones believed the common Trinitarian doctrine. "Nothing can be more evident, than that (to use the words of Sir Wm. Jones) the Indian Triad and that of Plato are infinitely removed from the holiness and the solemnity of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, and that the Trinity of our Church cannot without profaneness be compared with that of the Hindus."-The same passage as written by Sir William himself. "The Indian Triad and that of Plato are infinitely removed from the holiness and the solemnity of writer thinks himself warranted in placing Sir William Jones amongst the members of the anti-trinitarian and anti-calvinistic schools of Christian philosophers; and of adding his illustrious name to those of Newton, Locke, and Milton, of Clarke, Tucker,† Hartley, and Law.‡ CHILDREN'S HYMN. O How shall lisping tongues like ours, The concert of our voices raise! The pealing thunder rolling round, that doctrine, which pious Christians have deduced from texts in the Gospel; though other Christians, as pious, openly profess their dissent from it. Each sect must be justified by its own faith and good intentions. This only I mean to inculcate, that the Trinity of our Church cannot without profaneness be compared with that of the Hindus."-Jones's Works, Vol. II. pp. 9, 41, 235, 236, 237. + Author of "The Light of Nature Pursued.' Bishop of Carlisle. DR. CHANNING'S MAN THE IMAGE OF GOD." ANOTHER discourse of Dr. Channing's has just reached us, on the above subject.* It has all the writer's peculiarities, some of which all admire. Boldness is one of its characters. There are in every page "thoughts that the whole is pervaded by the spirit of a noble and generous Christian philosophy. breathe; If the preacher sometimes treads upon the verge of "mysticism," as he himself seems to be aware, he knows how to retreat in time, and the danger which the reader begins to suspect serves only to increase the interest which he feels in the eloquent author. The following is a truly fine passage : "I anticipate from some an objection to this discourse, drawn, as they will say, from experience. I may be told, that I have talked of the godlike capacities of human nature, and have spoken of man as a divinity; and where, it will be asked, are the warrants of this high estimation of our race? I may be told that I dream, and that I have peopled the world with the creatures of my lonely imagination. What is it only in dreams that beauty and loveliness have beamed on me from the human countenance, that I have heard tones of kindness, which have thrilled through my heart, that I have found sympathy in suffering, and a sacred joy in friendship? Are all the great and good men of past ages only dreams? Are such names as Moses, Socrates, Paul, Alfred, Milton, only the fictions of my disturbed slumbers? Are the great deeds of history, the discoveries of philosophy, the creations of genius, only visions? Oh! no. I do not dream when I speak of the divine capacities of human nature. It was a real page in which I read of patriots and martyrs, of Fenelon and Howard, of Hampden and Washington. And tell me not that these were prodigies, miracles, immeasurably separated from their race; for their very reverence, which has treasured up and hallowed their memories, the very senti *This is reprinted in London, and entitled, "A Discourse delivered at the Ordination of the Rev. Frederick A. Farley, as Pastor of the Westminster Congregational Society, in Providence, Rhode Island, September 10, 1828." ments of admiration and love with which their names are now heard, shew that the principles of their greatness are diffused through all your breasts. The germs of sublime virtue are scattered liberally on our earth. How often have I seen in the obscurity of domestic life, a strength of love, of endurance, of pious trust, of virtuous resolution, which in a public sphere would have attracted public homage! I cannot but pity the man who recognises nothing godlike in his own nature. I see the marks of God in the heavens and the earth: but how much more in a liberal intellect, in magnanimity, in unconquerable rectitude, in a philanthropy which forgives every wrong, and which never despairs of the cause of Christ and human virtue! I do and I must reverence human nature. Neither the sneers of a worldly scepticism, nor the groans of a gloomy theology, disturb my faith in its godlike powers and tendencies. I know how it is despised, how it has been oppressed, how civil and religious establishments have for ages conspired to crush it. I know its history. I shut my eyes on none of its weaknesses and crimes. I understand the proofs by which despotism demonstrates that man is a wild beast, in want of a master, and only safe in chains. But injured, trampled on, and scorned as our nature is, I still turn to it with intense sympathy and strong hope. The signatures of its origin and its end are impressed too deeply to be ever wholly effaced. I bless it for its kind affections, for its strong and tender love. I honour it for its struggles against oppression, for its growth and progress under the weight of so many chains and prejudices, for its achievements in science and art, and still more for its examples of heroic and saintly virtue. Thess are marks of a divine origin and the pledges of a celestial inheritance; and I thank God that my own lot is bound up with that of the human race." There are two editions of Dr. Channing's collected tracts republished in this country, one at Liverpool, the other at London, of which we may take some notice hereafter |