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up the following creed, which they acknowledge as their belief.

"There is one God, but no Trinity of persons in the Godhead. That the Son is inferior to the Father, and in the work of creation was used as a subordinate agent. That the principal excellency of the man Jesus Christ, consisted in his being filled with the Divine Spirit. They deny the propitiatory nature of the atonement of Christ, and hold that he suffered only for our example, to shew us how we are to crucify the flesh, that is, to eradicate our natural propensities and affections. They believe that none of those who died before Christ went to heaven, but that a number of them went with him to that blessed place, after his resurrection.

"They believe that the plan of salvation was not developed, nor perfect holiness required of those who then professed religion. But that Christ has come a second time, without sin unto salvation,' in the person of a female; and now the plan of salvation is perfectly revealed and understood by all Shakers; perfect holiness is now required and attainable, and the example of Christ is to be literally followed.-Hence they will not permit the members of their church to marry, nor those who are married, when they unite with them, to live together as husband and wife. They believe they are the children of the resurrection, and must neither marry nor be given in marriage, but be as the angels of heaven.

"They deny the doctrine of God's deerees, and of justification through faith on the merits of Christ; but believe, when they confess their sins to their ministry and are absolved, they then live perfectly holy and free from every taint of sin. They believe the day of judgment commenced when Christ appeared the second time in the person of Anna Lee, and that it is still progressing. That her spirit diffused on the ministry enables them to judge, acquit or condemn, and that they confer a portion of that same spirit on all that they account worthy of eternal life, which lives in, and continually governs them.

"They say the resurrection is past, and will never be a resurrection of the body. They believe that judgment,

begun in this world, will be continued until all the souls of the wicked, who departed this life ignorant of the gospel, as it is held by the Shakers, have an offer of it, and if they become Shakers, they shall be saved; if not, they shall be made eternally miserable. They believe the Bible is of no use now, farther than to prove the introduction of their new dispensation. It is the old heavens which have passed away. They deny the charge of worshiping Anna Lee. They trace the origin of their denomination from the French Jumpers.

"Though they disavow worshiping Anna Lee, yet in their hymns they address their parents and their mother. It is my opinion they worship her as much as they worship Jesus of Nazareth."

Such, Mr. Editor, are the Shakers, and a stranger compound of contrarieties cannot be found amongst the professors of Christianity. The account is evidently drawn up by a Calvinist minister, whose woeful lack of charity is conspicuous on the occasion. "I wept," (says he,)" at the awful disappointment they must experience when they enter the eternal world— when their sandy foundation shall be swept away, their hopes fall, and they be for ever undone!" This is a rash and precipitate judgment: Charity, which thinketh and hopeth all things, would indulge something more favourable respecting even the poor Shakers, both as to this life and as to the life to come. Granting either Trinitarianism or Unitarianism to be false, the head and the heart will be set right in a better world. Punishment awaits inveterate and unrepented vice, whilst involuntary error claims the pity and will receive the forgiveness of the righteous as well as the merciful Judge of the Universe! Happiness must finally embrace the creation of God.

JOHN EVANS.

Marquis of Hastings' Speech at the last Examination in the College of Fort William.

[The Noble Marquis having resigned his post of Governor-General of India, is said to be on his way to England, and Lord Amherst is gone out to suc

ceed him. We believe that the administration of the Marquis has been just, liberal and beneficent, worthy of himself and of his country. All his public speeches that we have seen have been constitutional, (for the principles at least of the British Constitution may be established, and are, we trust, recognized in the colonies,) philanthropic and Christian. Certainly, the following conclusion of an address at the Public Disputation in the College of Fort William, held August 23, 1822, merits all these epithets. As a farewell speech it is admirable, and we earnestly hope that Lord Amherst, and the future Governors-General of our vast oriental possessions will manifest the same spirit and act upon the same principles as the Marquis of Hastings. ED.]

S this is, probably, the last occa

could I venture to suppose that my inculcations had any share in exciting this generous tone! I have endeavoured to infuse the sentiment: but I am too sensible that a more potent instigation has produced the conduct. General information is now so widely spread among our countrymen, that there are few who, even in their very early days, cannot discriminate what constitutes real glory, from the pageantry of factitious and transient elevation. They feel that dignity consists not in a demeanour which exacts a sullen, stupid submission from the multitude, but in a courtesy which banishes apprehension, yet exercises sway, because it plights protection. They comprehend that to inspire confidence is to assert pre-eminence ; because he who dispels alarm from another is the superior. They know that the observance and enforcement

Assion have for addressing of equity is imposed on them, not by

the members of the College, I must indulge a concluding observation on the nature and effects of the institution. To those who have doubted its utility, (singular as it may seem, I have heard there are some,) I will not urge the theoretical remark, that if an individual be prone to sloth or dissipation, he must be more likely to give way to idleness when there are no facilitations to industry, or peril of public exposure; but I will rest the argument upon the rapid succession of young men, who, after rigid and impartial examination, have been declared competent to the service of the state by their acquirements in the necessary languages: not to dry official tasks alone. We have a proud consciousness that our functionaries have the capacity not merely of discharging adequately their engagements to their employers, but that they possess also the means of rendering incalculable services to the native inhabitants, by readily communicating explanation, instruction or advice. The ability, however, to do this would be of little value, were the disposition wanting. It has not been wanting. With exultation I have learned from all quarters, the kind, the humane, the fostering spirit manifested towards the Natives by the young men whom the College has sent forth to public trusts. What a triumph it would be to my heart,

their oath of office alone, but by the eternal obligation which the Almighty has attached to power in rendering man responsible for its due application. In short, they condense the notions of duty, of justice, of magnanimity and of laudable pride, into the image of home. They ask themselves, What is becoming our country, so decorated with trophies, so rich in science, so ennobled by liberty, towards a dependent, unenlightened popula tion? The answer will be unvarying. To use the words of a poet, "As if an angel spake, I hear the solemn sound." It is an angel's voice within us, when conscience breathes a sublime dictate to our souls. In the case before us, she prescribes the extension of gentle, cheering, parental encouragement to the millions whom Providence has arrayed beneath our rule. Wonderful and unexampled rule! Let it never be forgotten how that supremacy has been constructed. Benefit to the governed has been the simple but efficacious cement of our power. As long as the comforts and the gratitude of the Indian people shall testify that we persevere in that principle, so long may Heaven uphold the domination of Britain here:-no longer!

TH

Three Original Letters of WILLIAM PENN'S to RICHARD BAXTER. HESE letters, copied from the originals in Dr. Williams's Library, relate to a public disputation between Penn and Baxter. They will be rendered more intelligible to the reader, by the following account of the controversy given by Mr. Clarkson in his Life of Penn, I. 158-161:

"In the year 1675 we find him still living at Rickmansworth, where, as well as in other places, he became eminent as a minister of the gospel. In his own neighbourhood, indeed, he had converted many; and from this cause, as well as from a desire which others of his own Society had to live near him, the country about Rickmansworth began to abound with Quakers. This latter circumstance occasioned him, oddly enough, to be brought forward again as a public disputant; for the celebrated Richard Baxter, who was then passing that way, when he saw so many of the inhabitants of this description, began to be alarmed for their situation. He considered them as little better than lost people, and was, therefore, desirous of preaching to them, in order, to use his own words, that they might once hear what was to be said for their recovery. This coming to the ears of William Penn, he wrote to Baxter, and one letter followed another, til at length it was mutually agreed, that they should hold a public controversy on some of the more essential articles of the Quaker faith. What these were I could never learn. It is certain, however, that the parties met, and that they met at Rickmansworth. It is known also, that the controversy began at ten in the morning and lasted till five in the afternoon, and that the disputants addressed themselves, each in turn, to two rooms filled with people, among whom were counted one lord, two knights, and four conformable ministers, that is, clergymen of the Established Church.

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the other hand, spoke of it with some confidence; for, in a letter which he addressed to Richard Baxter soon afterwards, he stated, that if he had taken advantage of him, he could have rendered him more ridiculous than he feared his principles of love would have borne. From the same letter we have reason to think that the meet

ing was not a well-conducted one; for William Penn says, that if he should be informed, when Richard Baxter's occasions would permit a debate more methodically, and like true disputation, (which he judged more suitable before the same audience,) he would endeavour to comply, though he was not without weighty affairs almost continually on his hands, to furnish him with an excuse.'

"This letter, and the public dispute preceding it, gave rise to a correspondence between the parties, in which three or four other letters were exchanged. Of the contents of those written by Richard Baxter I can find nothing, except what may be inferred from those which are extant of William Penn. I shall, therefore, pass both of them over, observing only, that William Penn's last letter manifested a spirit of forgiveness, which exalted his character, and a spirit, by which it was apparent that, whatever he might think of the doctrine or temper of his opponent, he believed in the soundness of his heart. The conclusion of it was this: in which dear love of God, Richard Baxter, I do forgive thee, and desire thy good and felicity. And when I read thy letter, the many severities therein could not deter me from saying that I could freely give thee an apartment in my house, and liberty therein; that I could visit, and yet discourse thee in much tender fove, notwithstanding this hard entertainment from thee. I am, without harder words,

"Thy sincere and loving Friend,
"WILLIAM PENN.'"

The letters now printed, it is believed for the first time, shew that the first conference was succeeded by a second, and that the irritation produced on the former occasion was mollified on the latter. The temper of both disputants appears to have been exhibited little to their advan

tage in the dispute. The concluding letter, however, manifests the "spirit of forgiveness," which the biographer applauds in William Penn: it is probable that the letter which he quotes, as well as this, was written after the second disputation.

LETTER I.

"RICHARD BAxter,

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Though thou hast reprobated the Quakers and their religion with what envy and artifice thou art capable of, accompanied with the indecent carriage of thy landlord, (a manifest breach of those laws of conference thou wert so precise in making,) and that this entertainment is doubtless argument enough of an infirm cause, and of as virulent and imperious a behaviour, yet the spirit of Christianity in us inclines us to offer thee another meeting, both to shew that we are not afraid of our cause, or thy abilities, and to prevent those tedious harangues, and almost unpardonable evasions and perversions thou wert guilty of, and which we were obstructed from discovering in any quick returns, least we should be clamoured against as interrupters and violaters of those rules mutually agreed upon; we desire, therefore, another meeting, and that it may be on the 7th instant, about eight in the morning. The matters we offer to debate, are,

"1. Concerning the true and false ministry.

"2. Concerning the true and false

church.

"3. Concerning the sufficiency of the light within all men to eternal salvation, and what else it shall please thee to add.

"And to render this desired conference more distinct and intelligible, with respect to a particular discussion of things, we offer this method,

"1. That some one of the aforementioned particulars be thoroughly debated before any other be insisted

on.

"2. That two or three on each side shall have liberty to speak, but so as but one only at a time.

"3. That there shall be as strict and close keeping to the matter in hand as may well be, to prevent impertinent preachment and trifling excur

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66 I have received a letter from thee of the 10th inst. just now, being the 11th, and about six at night. In the first place, it looks like a design, I mean not to meet me, (though it be to offer a meeting, such an one as it is,) for by the date it was, for ought I know, a night and almost half a day that had not read thy Principles of a coming less than two miles. A man Love, and heard thee dispute, would think that this letter lay Rickmansworth, by order, till I should charitable. The beginning of this unbe gone to London, but I am more yet enough; of what? Raillery, slanhappy epistle tells me if I have not Yes, too much, had R. B. pleased; ders, interruptions, dirty reflections? but of reason, good language, order and personal civility, little or none fell from R. B., I affirm: well, but my

to another meeting, shall be no cover vain ostentation of my forwardness to my shame. I thought I had been shameless; there's hopes of me, I see. But, R. B., why ashamed? For thy senseless, headless, taleless talk, I profess I was more than ashamed, for

John Faldo, an Independent minister, published in 1673, a work in 8vo., entitled "Quakerism no, Christianity," to the second edition of which was prefixed a commendatory epistle by R. Baxter and twenty other Divines. ED.

I was grieved: has my last kind letter had no better success? I perceive the scurvy of the mind is thy distemper, I fear its incurable. I would say I had rather be Socrates at the day of judgment than R. Baxter, but that he would tell me that I am nearer akin to Heathens than to Christians; and the truth is, than such merely nominal ones I desire to be. In the next

place, be pleased to know that I came late from London the last seventh night, and am upon appointment at London this week. So that time, once mine, is irrecoverably gone till the next 6th day at soonest, vulgarly Friday. I am also to attend upon the Parliament, as I was all the last sessions, on the behalf of many poor and lamentable sufferers for pure conscience; insomuch as not receiving any reply to my last, had I not gone so early, my wife and part of my family had come up with me for this session and term.*

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However, I shall never refuse a day (in my power) to Richard Baxter, but to use his terms, not at his time and rates. I shall discourse on either of the points mentioned the other night, or if he will I shall undertake to prove R. B. a perverter, traducer and forger; a charge black, but it shall stain me if I dont make it good, so little is he man of true love; next, I shall choose short argumentation; 3dly, that at the conclusion each of us may have time to sum up his sense in a conscientious manner, by way of repetition and recommendation to the people; 4thly, I utterly refuse the limitation of time; let the conference end with the matter, or by consent upon the place. I am not so flush of 'my time, nor so ill-disposed of that I should leave London, my conscientious employment for the relief of poor sufferers, several appointments not in my power to undo, (to say nothing of my own worldly concerns that are great,) to ride down to Charlewood, but for two hours' talk with R. B. Besides, I cant confine myself precisely to an hour, as those that are accustomed to notes and hour glasses. I refuse not my neighbour's

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"R. BAXTER,

into my hands at our parting, I have "The paper it pleased thee to put at last got time to peruse, and I will since my many occasions would give assure thee, it is not two whole days leave to consider it. The civility and kindness I received from thee at our conference have prevailed with me to overlook the asperity of it, though, if I

speak for myself, I am not apt to exact the uttermost farthing, or make the worst use of man's infirmities. The truth is, there appeared matter of great advantage against a man that had ever been author of any Defence of the Principles of Love. Yet it so happens that the objections, over and above the mode of making and managing them, are very light; and, if I mistake not, (I am sure I would not,) more than three-fourths is granted; so that I could not see any ground for that severity from the person most of all concerned, much less from an unprovoked stranger. But that which heightened my wonder was to see thy name to a late Epistle recommendamuch to rate at us for sharpness. I tory of J. Faldo's book, that seem so hope thou wilt not be displeased with this freedom.

"Herewith I return thy paper, and this in answer to what is material in thy objections. That by the Spirit's being the rule I understood what the apostle did when he said, that as they are the sons of God. And if I many as are led by the Spirit of God am to be censured that I write not more philosophically, the apostle must keep me company. I did not mean that all instruments or means were always excluded, only that under the gospel especially, the Spirit, by the holy inspirings of it, in a more immeThis is scarcely intelligible, but it is diate manner than formerly, was emiaccording to the MS. ED.

nently the rule of the saints.

As

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