! mind, for having made exertions and endured death to promote their salvation. Nor can I imagine how his sentencing them to their unwelcome misery, should induce them to bow either at or in his name, or to confess him Lord to the glory of God the Father. There is nothing in the text to mark the unwillingness of the homage, or to distinguish it from that spiritual submission which (see Rom. x. 9) entitles to salvation. 1 Tim. ii. 4 and 1 Tim. iv. 10, were not, I believe, either of them adduced by me, but they might have been, without injury to the cause I was advocating. As to the first, I prefer the reading of the Improved Version, God desireth all men to be saved, to that of Macknight, recommended by R. L. for two reasons: 1. Desireth expresses more accurately than commandeth the force of the original verb, and may be substituted in the very passages adduced by Macknight in support of his rendering. 2. It agrees better with the connexion. Paul exhorts to offer prayer for all men, especially for kings and those in authority, because God desires all men to be saved, and Christ gave himself a ransom for all. Those only to whom the gospel was preached were commanded of God to repent, ent, and they were a very small proportion of the rulers and all men whose salvation is prayed for by Christians, and desired (therefore determined) by the Almighty. The other passage must pass for a similar or stronger assertion of the doctrine in question, unless it can be shewn (which I very much doubt) that believers are, or were in the apostolic age, more specially preserved from adversity, danger, and death, than un believers. Three other passages were introduced in the sermon, which, as my friend has not noticed them, I will just mention. Matt. xxviii. 18. The power, authority, or dominion of Christ, is purely spiritual. It is the reign of holy and benignant principles in the heart. Its universality (here asserted) consists, and will be realized, in the unbounded prevalence of goodness and felicity. Rom. v. 12-21. Resurrection and everlasting life are here predicted as universal blessings. Grace," gift of grace," ," "the free gift," are odd " "the Rev. iv. 13. John knew that Christ was to possess unlimited spiritual dominion, and he was favoured with a vision of its realization. The homage paid both to God and Christ is obviously voluntary and grateful; and if it be not strictly universal, language is unmeaning and useless. I hope, Sir, enough has been said to vindicate my quotations from the objections of R. L. As my only object was to reply to his observations, I have taken many things for granted, which, to an oppugner of the doctrine of re. storation, would have required proof. W. J. FOX. SIR, ITS January 14th, 1817. appears to me that Dugald Stewart, in his Estimate of Barrow (XI. 695), has mistaken the meaning of that eminent divine, and accused him of inconsistency where he has really committed none. In the one passage, Barrow considers "inordinate self-love as the main ingredient, and common source of our evil dispositions;" in the other, he observes that "reason prescribes to us a sober regard to our welfare, a self-love, which common sense cannot but allow and approve." Is not this saying, in other words, that mankind, even when their end is to benefit themselves, do not always listen to the dictates of reason and pursue the right means. where is the inconsistency of this assertion? The inconsistency of the conduct every man will allow, even while he practises it. Many of your readers must be conversant with Barrow's Works, and some one of them would, perhaps, oblige me, through the medium of your Repository, by pointing out the inaccuracy complained of, really exists. In the propositions brought forward by the Professor, 1 can perceive nothing contradictory. But if it D.. SIR, Jan. 2, 1817. THOUGH it is perhaps seldom worth while to employ many words in asserting or disclaiming a name, there is one appellative which has been coupled with the name of Christians, that I should be sorry to see grow into frequent use:-I allude to the term Philosophical Christians. If by it nothing more is meant than to describe that part of the Christian world which has received the Christian revelation, not from deference to authority, or in compliance with custom, but as a conviction of the judgment, the result of inquiry carried on with philosophical circumspection, the name can do neither good nor harm. Let the unbeliever shew if he can that he is a better philosopher in rejecting Christianity, than the believer is in receiving it. But if by the term be intended to describe a body of Christians, contradistinguished from all their brethren, by entertaining views of Christian doctrine more consonant with philosophy than those of other Christians, it is a name of bad omen, and one which those who hold the gospel in its simplest form, should least of all men choose for themselves. Christianity has not fared so well in the hands of philosophers, that any of its professors should affect the appellation of philosophical Christians. The interested craft of priests has scarcely done greater disservice to the Christian cause, than the temerity and subtlety of philosophical expounders of the faith. The first great corruption of the religion of Christ was effected by men who were disciples of Plato, and ventured to form an unhallowed combination of the dreams of their master of philosophy, with the doctrine of the great teacher of religion sent from God. For many centuries the philosophy of Aristotle was received in the schools with implicit faith, and it was necessary to interpret the Christian Scriptures, when they were interpreted at all, in consistency with the precepts of that philosophy. From the æra of the formation to the present day it has been but too plain, that the two great - divisions of the Protestant Church have each its philosophical hypothesis, with which their system of theology must be made to accord. The followers of Calvin and Arminius have shaped their religious creed respectively in conformity with their notions of the nature of the human will, and the laws which they have assigned to the human mind. Both have their philosophy of the mind, and their religious views differ as their philosophy differs. It is honourable to the creed of the Unitarian, and presumptive of its truth, that it is distinguished inguished fro from the more popular forms of faith, by indifference to every hypothesis of the powers and laws of the human mind. It asks no aid, it professes no alliance with any metaphysical speculation. The facts upon which it is built remain the same, the great events to which it points are equally the objects of hope or fear, whether the soul of man be material or immaterial, whethe will determine itself or be determined by causes out of itself, whether the moral nature of man result from his intellectual nature alone, or depend upon a distinct faculty, a moral sense. All that he believes as a Christian is well-attested historical fact; all that he as a Christian expects beyond the grave he expects solely on the ground of well attested facts. His faith has no necessary connection with any hypothesis of the human mind, which men have laboured either to establish or to explode; it can exist either with them or without them: it requires only that man possess a moral nature, and be a fit subject of a moral government; and that he is such a creature is matter of daily experience, a fact which demands no confirmation, and which fears no diminution of proof from any philosophical hypothesis whatsoever. It has, however, happened that many believe, and more affect to believe, that there is an intimate, and almost necessary connection between the Unitarian faith and certain metaphysical doctrines, those particularly of materialism and philosophical necessity. This will not appear surprising when it is recollected, that these words have always carried dread and odium with them; and that Dr. Priestley, who pursued fearlessly, wherever he thought the traces of truth were visible, was led by his inquiries to embrace the unpopular side in metaphysics, as well as in theology. It is also true, that many of his theological followers, more probably than of any other class of Christians, have . ! 36 On the Right of Dissenting Ministers to Vote at a County Election. determine. The Christian, and more than all others, the Unitarian Christian, may, if he will, be a spectator of the field without mingling in the strife. SIR, L. Dover, Jan. 10, 1817. N reading the letter signed A. F. to the York application, in your last Number, (Vol. XI. p. 715,) I was led to the conclusion that your Correspondent was either not brought up in the true Unitarian school or that he was not much acquainted with the old General Baptist body. embraced the Doctor's philosophical reasoning, in the consciousness or in is It has not unfrequently been acknowledged that the Unitarian society in its infancy was nursed in the cradle of the General Baptist connection, that its missionaries are and have been with scarcely an exception, General Baptist ministers, that the General Baptists have not only preached and otherwise promoted Unitarian principles, but have and do many of them contribute to its funds, and that even those societies which hold with what is called strict communion, are in the habit of inviting and receiving Unitarian ministers, (and those too who reject adult Baptism) into their families, societies and pulpits. If this which has so often been admitted by respectable Pædobaptist Unitarians be true, and if with the knowledge of these circumstances, A. F. shali adhere to his former resolution, will not his conduct savour of something unknown to the enlightened, liberal and highly respectable body to which he professes to belong? М. В. P. S. A. F. is referred to an article which appeared in the Repository for June, 1815, Vol. X. p. 320. I SIR, Plymouth, Nov. 1816. but few privileges to be watchful over those few. Actuated by this principle, I went a short time since to proffer my vote for a county member in the character of a Dissenting minister who receives the rent of a freehold estate. My vote was rejected as I expected it would be; but I gained what I went for, a perfect knowledge こ of the ground on which it was rejected, which I beg to state to your readers, that we may, if possible, recover a right, which certainly has been unjustly taken from us. The assessor, upon the vote being presented to him as doubtful, referred to the cases of committees of the House of Commons in which the votes of Dissenting ministers had been refused on the presumed ground, I conceive, that their freeholds are not freeholds for life. It seems to have been taken for granted, that our congregations can turn us out of them at pleasure. Several persons, both ministers and others, were examined who gave it as their opinion that no where did a power exist that could dispossess us; but the assessor, although he was evidently of the opinion that my vote ought to have been taken, and expressed to me in a handsome manner his regret that he reject it, decided upon the precedents which he found already established. It is well known that precedents do not give law, and that no measures can be more inconsistent than those of committees of the House of Commons. And I was afterwards instructed, that in order to set these precedents aside, which for the present are imperious, nothing is wanting but a mandamus from the Court of King's Bench to restore a minister who has been put out of his pulpit by the congregation or the trustees acting for the congregation. If any such case has ever occurred, I should be personally obliged to some one of your readers who will furnish the particulars of it to your Repository, and my brother ministers who would find a pleasure in exercising their elective franchise would I conceive be also obliged. If any instance has ever been known of a decision of a court of justice expelling a man from the right of such a freehold who held it vi et armis against the consent of a congregation or of trustees it ought also in justice to be known; but in either of these cases the particular bearings of the case should be stated. If the present contention between the minister of Wolverhampton and his congregation should be carried into a court of justice, I appreit will set us right at once; if I am rightly informed of the case I think the minister will hold, and our life estate will be apparent; THE writers of the histories which names of Matthew, WAS lately discoursing with some gentlemen upon the office of Sheriff of the proud city of London and populous county of Middlesex, and expressed a degree of surprise, in reference to the analogous provision for other less populous districts, that there should be one Sheriff only. They caught at the expression, and observed that there were two. Not so, I said, the law recognised but one Sheriff, though the office was executed by two persons. No matter, they replied in a breath, don't we know that there are two, substantively and numerically two? No assumed infallibility can away with facts; and the law must talk nonsense, if it hold your language. I bowed, and proceeded; the law, whatever you may presume to insinuate, is supreme, and requires implicit faith in its dictates. It propounds that Mr. Bridges is Sheriff, that Mr. Kerby is Sheriff, 2 and yet that there are not two Sheriffs, but one Sheriff. This is the technical faith, however incomprehensible, of which all are deemed cognisant, and, whoever would impugn it, without doubt he shall fail everlastingly. Fortunately for my argument, the gentlemen happened to be sound orthodox men, and, after looking at each other, turned the conversation. J. D. B. C. REFLECTIONS MADE IN A COURSE OF GENERAL READING. of mind. When he was at Rome he used to bow to coach-horses; because, said he, were it not for the poor beasts, these great people would have men and even philosophers to draw their coaches. No. CCXCIV. A Recipe of Mr. Boyle's. The following cure for a dysentery is copied verbatim from the works of Mr. Boyle: "Take the thigh-bone of a hanged GLEANINGS; OR, SELECTIONS AND man, (perhaps another may serve, but this was still made use of) calcine it to whiteness, and having purged the patient with an antimonial medicine, give him one dram of this white powder for one dose, in some good cordial, whether conserve or liquor." No. CCXC. Galileo. Galileo, whom Milton calls "the Tuscan Artist," in allusion to his telescope, was imprisoned in the Inquisition for six years and put to the torture for saying that the carth moved. The moment he was set at liberty, he looked up to the sky and down to the ground, and, stamping with his foot on the earth, in a contemplative mood, said, still it moves. No. CCXCI. Invention and Discovery. The object of invention is to produce something which had no existence before; that of discovery, to bring to light something which did exist, but which was concealed from common observation. Otto Guerricke invented the air-pump, Sanctorius invented the thermometer, and Newton and Gregory invented the reflecting telescope: Galileo discovered the solar spots, and Servetus and Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood. Improvements in the arts are inventions; facts brought to light by means of observation are discoveries. author. No. CCXCIII. Gravina. Gravina was an Italian divine and He missed a cardinal's hat through his satyrical and severe turn No. CCXCV. Preparation for Subscription. A. 1534, April 13. The conimissioners sat at Lambeth, to administer the oath of succession to the crown, upon the heirs of queen Ann, to the clergy, and chiefly those of London, that had not yet sworn; who all took it, not one excepted. And a certain Doctor, Vicar of Croyden, that it seems made some boggle before, went up with the rest; of whom Sir Thomas More, who then stood by, made an observation, how, as he past, he went to my lord's buttery-hatch, and called for drink, and drank valde familiariter; whether, saith he sarcastically, it were for gladness or dryness, or quod ille notus erat pontifici. Memorials of Bishop Cranmer. No. CCXCVI. Curious Public House Licence. "In Bishop Waynfleet's Register at Winchester, is a licence to John Cal-. cot, host of the Checker-inn, Lambeth, (dated 1455,) to have an oratory in his house, and a chaplain for the use of his family and guests, as long as it shall continue decent and reputable, and well adapted for the celebra-. tion of divine service, (decens, honestum. ct divino cultui aptum et dispositum)." The Environs of London, p. 317. Most probably this indulgence was very seldom solicited by a publican in. former days, and fruitless would be the search for a precedent of such licence granted on an application from the master of a modern hotel. 1 |