Imatges de pàgina
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they will not succeed is, that the consequence of discussion fairly conducted is the more complete developement of truth. This reason has led other minds to a different conclusion.

But apparently fearing lest his liberality should encourage the heretical Unitarians to greater daring, he concludes with a warning to them and a salvo for the orthodoxy of his own spirit. We quote the passage as a curiosity.

"There is one case, and one only, in which we should wish to see legal penalties put in force against the Unitarians; and this is, when they depart from the course of regular reasming, and have recourse to light and indecent ribaldry in assailing the received doctrines of Christianity. Instances have occurred of late, in which some writers of that party have offended in this respect : we trust that they are not likely to recur. At all events, we are convinced that, notwithstanding the late repeal, the legislature will never be found backward in framing suitable enactments, which may effectually protect from ridicule and insult those sacred truths which are and have been received with reverence and awe by the great body of Christians in all ages and countries."

Is the writer in earnest? Does he contend that the distinction cannot be made between essential and non-essential doctrines and at the same time assuine to distinguish between "regular" and irregular "reasoning" and to hold out the latter as punishable? A conclusive argument against the Trinity must be offensive to a Trinitarian. "Ribaldry" is a vague expression; it may mean only the playfulness of Jortin, or the indecency of Swift, or the scurrility of Warburton. Unitarians are not accounted witty, nor are they chargeable with foul speech. The bitterest invectives against the system of orthodoxy are to be found in writers of the Reviewer's own church.

The Legislature protect the Church from ridicule! Idle. Men will laugh at folly and shake their heads at absurdity, in spite of Acts of Parliament. What enactments, ecclesiastical or civil, could save from ridicule the doctrines of Transubstantiation, of Regeneration by Infant Baptism, of the Infallibility of the Pope and of the validity of Holy Orders!

A Committee of the House of Commons would be curiously employed in

• The italics are not the Reviewer's.

scrutinizing the writings of Unitarians and determining when they reason and when they scoff, when their arguments are regular and when irregular, when their wit is legitimate and when extravagant.

A bigot with penal statutes in his hand is formidable; a bigot, with no other weapon of offence than the pen (the Reviewer must pardon us) is ridiculous.

GLEANINGS; OR, SELECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS MADE IN A COURSE OF GENERAL READING.

No. CCXLVIII.

Death of James 11.

That Prince died in exile at the

palace of St. Germains, Sept. 6, 1701, of a lethargy, as our historians relate. The celebrated Madam Maintenon, in a letter written from the French Court to Philip V. of Spain, grandson of Louis XIVth. gives the following account of the death of James, and the circumstances which preceded his interment. The Religio Medici in the case of human relics must be allowed to be rather equivocal, and a prepared toe or finger of a King would dignify any collection of anatomical curiosities.

"We must not talk of deaths to your Majesty without mentioning one, which, however, you must already have heard of from others, and which must have been as pleasing to heaven, as it proved edifying to all those who witnessed it; I do not mean good and religious persons alone, but even the most profligate about the court have not beheld the King of England at this awful period, without surprise and admiration: during six days his life was entirely despaired of: all around him saw it; he took the sacrament twice, spoke to his son, to his Catholic and Protestant attendants, to our King, to the Queen, in short, to every person he knew; and all that he said evinced a presence of mind, a peaceful serenity, a zeal and fortitude which all were truly charmed in beholding. On his body being opened, the physicians and surgeons all took some particle of it to keep as a relic; his attendants dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, others their chaplets." Memoirs of Lewis the XIVth. written by himself. Translated from the French 1806. ii. 184.

Gleanings.

No. CCXLIX. Spanish Ambition. When Drake took St. Domingo, "in the Town-Hall were to be seen, amongst other things, the King of Spain's arms, and under them a globe of the world, out of which issued an horse with his fore-feet springing for ward, with this inscription, non sufficit orbis, that is, the world sufficeth not. Which was laughed at, and looked upon as an argument of the boundless avarice and ambition of the Spaniards, as if nothing could suffice them."

Camden, An. 1585.

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soon after renewed his application; when the primate discoursed with him, and finding that he had attained considerable knowledge in the fundamentals of the Christian religion, asked him if he understood the Irish language, at the same time telling him that he could do little good in those parts without such an acquisition. He acknowledged his ignorance of it, but professed himself ready to undertake the task of learning it if his Grace accounted it a necessary preliminary to his ordination. About a year after, he returned again, and acquainted the primate that he was now able to express himself tolerably in that language, and therefore hoped he might at length be admitted to orders. The primate, thinking that a man of his character, capable of speaking to the people in their own style and tongue, was more likely to be serviceable to the cause than a Latin scholar with out that qualification, complied with his request; nor had he reason to repent of his condescension, since the new clergyman proved a respectable and useful minister, and was very successful in making converts from the Catholics, till the rebellion put a period to his labours.

No. CCLI.

"The Learned Tradesman.”

Mr. William Pate, the friend and correspondent of Dean Swift, was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he regularly took the degree of LL.B. He afterwards became a most eminent woollen-draper, lived over against the Royal Exchange, and was commonly called "the learned tradesman." In 1734, he was one of the Sheriffs of London, and died in 1746. In the churchyard at Lee, in Kent, where he lived for many years, in a delightful house adjoining the rectory of that place in which he died, is the following epitaph to his memory:

Hic jacent reliquiæ
GULIELMI PATE,
Viri

propter ingenii fœcunditatem
et literarum peritiam
haud minus eximii,
quam

ob morum urbanitatem suavitatemque

dilecti ; hunc lapidem

sequenti apophtheginate aureo incisum,
tumulo imponi jussit:
"Epicharmian illud teneto,

"Nervos atque Artus esse Sapientiæ,
66 NON TEMERE CREDERE."

Obiit nono die Decembris

anno ætatis suæ octogesimo
æræ Christiane
M.DCC.XLVI.

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REVIEW.

"Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame.”

ART. I.-Two Essays; one on the Ef-
fects of Christianity, the other on
the Sabbath. By the late John
Simpson. London: Published by
Hunter. 1815. 8vo. pp. 125.
THE writings of the excellent au-
thor of these Essays, were directed
to the illustration of the evidences of
Revealed Religion, and to the deve-
lopement of soine peculiarities in the
language of the books which record
its doctrines and history. Few of our
readers can be ignorant of the services
which he has thus rendered to the
best interests of mankind: nor will
they be ungrateful to "the Editor of
this pamphlet," who "esteems it his
most pleasing and bounden. duty to
comply with the wishes or intentions"
of his deceased father, in laying "be-
fore the public in the same state in
which he found them," the only
papers which Mr. Simpson left behind
him ready for the press.

In the former, the Essayist endea-
vours to shew," that no reasonable
objection can be brought against the
divine authority of the religion of
Jesus, from its not having been more
effectual in reforming the lives of men.”
He begins with concisely illustrating
the natural tendency of the gospel,
which he regards as favourable in a
high degree to good morals and pure
religion. Then he proves, on the
authority of facts, that Christianity has
actually caused great improvements of
this kind, that it has abolished many
savage and inhuman national practices,

and has considerably softened and de

creased the barbarity of others. Its
beneficial influence on public laws,
is not overlooked; nor its success in
spreading the most proper means of
increasing and diffusing these blessings.
The obligations of sound learning to
the gospel, are clearly and forcibly
stated. A summary follows of the
good effects of the Christian doctrine:
and reasons are assigned for ascribing

these to it and to no other cause.
Having thus repelled the objection to

Printed at Leicester, by Combe, and
very neatly.

+ J. W. Simpson, Esq. of Rearsby, Lei-
Rev.

cestershire,

this revelation on account of its having produced no advantageous effects at all, Mr. Simpson next vindicates Christianity from the charge of having fallen short of that degree of efficacy in promoting the virtue and welfare of mankind, which might have been capected that these expectations themselves are from a divine religion. He maintains not reasonable. "They have no proper ground. They originate from igthe faculties of reason and conscience, norance. Even natural religion and have failed of improving the hearts and lives of men so much as we think we might have expected. Yet is it fair to should be rejected, and that our mental conclude from hence, that all religion

faculties

the allegation that the gospel "has are not the gift of God?" To not produced so many, nor such eminently good, effects, as it is naturally fitted to produce," he answers that "moral causes work only by persuasion." A good moral cause may be, and in many instances actually has been perverted, so as to be made the instrument and occasion of bringing about very ill effects." The excellence therefore of Christianity, as “a moral and holiness, may be manifest, though means of bringing men to repentance great numbers will not apply it to its deed the objection supposes; from this proper purpose." This excellence in

66

it however inconclusively. A argues, the inattention or the obstinacy of his physician is not responsible for either patient. Let it not, further, be forgotten that the first preachers of the gos predictions evince the sincerity of the pel foretold its corruptions; which views of Christ and his apostles and the truth of their pretensions. Social science, are manifestly good means of union, government, learning, arts and improving the noblest faculties of men. This is their natural tendency. And it is no sufficient reason for declining to employ them, that they are capable of being perverted to bad purposes, and have been the occasion of innumerable evils. Why then should Christianity be rejected on this account? With what justice or impartiality do we make it answerable for consequences flowing from doctrines and institutions which, in truth, are not Christian?

Review.-Simpson's Two Essays.

But, waving this argument, how can we prove that the religion of Jesus has produced more ill effects than good ones? In ecclesiastical as well as civil history, the baneful consequences of pride, ambition, and other evil pas sions are most dwelt upon. When peace and its attendant blessings prevail, these are not usually thought by historians to be subjects sufficiently interesting to engage the public regard. Now a computation, the truth and exactness of which is beyond the limit of human faculties to ascertain, cannot be a proper ground of human judge ment and action. As to the allegation that a doctrine communicated by God for the best of purposes, can never be the occasion of iniquity in any instance, the principle which this objection assumes, namely, that a divine law or plan for the general good cannot be accompanied with any partial evil, is contradicted by the whole course of nature and Providence. To say that religion is not a restraining motive, because it does not always restrain, is equally absurd as to say, that the civil laws are not a restraining motive Even Lord Bolingbroke has confessed the futility of this charge. Indeed, nothing can be more palpably unjust than to ascribe any consequence to a cause which has the strongest genuine tendency to prevent it. Yet whoever accuses the gospel of producing vice of any kind, adopts this false mode of reasoning. And no argument can be properly drawn from the conduct of the professors of any religion, either for or against the religion itself, unless the conduct naturally flows from its principles.

This is an abstract of Mr. Simpson's Essay on the Effects of Christianity. On a subject so often and so amply discussed, novelty was not to be ex pected. The author's reasoning is distinguished however by perspicuity, elegance, precision, correctness of method, extent of information and unaffected candour. In a small compass he has presented us with the substance of many bulky volumes: and he employs no other weapons against the opponents of the gospel than such as are congenial with its mild and gentle, spirit, which he seems fully to have imbibed. His design and plan re

Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, b. 24. chap. 2.

225

quired him to discuss same objections of unbelievers rather than represent at large "the beneficial effects of Christianity on the temporal concerns of mankind:" these are "proved from history and from facts," in a tract of the late Bishop Porteus which bears that title.

As a specimen of our author's manner, we extract his remarks on a sentence in the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:

"By the industry and zeal of the Europeans, Christianity has been widely diffused to the most distant shores of Asia and Africa, and, by the means of their colonies, has been firmly established from Canada to Chili, in a world unknown to the ancients. Gibbon's Decl. and Fall, &c. Ch. xxv. p. 535.1

"This observation of Mr. Gibbon was made long before the formation of the Bri

The

tish and Foreign Bible Society; an institu-
tion by means of which the Christian Scrip-
tures have been most rapidly and generally
distributed throughout the earth.
very idea of forming a plan for dissemina-
ting those best instructions in pure religion
and good morals that were ever delivered,
to all nations of men, in their own respective
languages, derives its origin from the gospel.
It is the natural effect of that enlargement
of that universal benevolence which is a
of mind which Christianity produces, and
characteristic feature of it. What more
effectual means could have been employed
for the speedy and universal diffusion of
truth, righteousness and piety in the world;
for refining and exalting the human charac-
ter to its highest perfection; and for pro-
moting the purest happiness of mankind in
general, both in the present, and in the
future life?" (39.)

We shall next attend to Mr. Simpson's thoughts "on the nature and obligation of the patriarchal, the Jewish and the Christian Sabbath." He appeals to Gen. ii. 2, 3, as a positive law given to the first parents of our race; with the view of determining

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the fixed periods of time at which mankind should statedly join together" in divine worship. Against this "positive evidence" it would be irrational to place the conjecture that Moses might have inserted the above order for sanctifying the seventh day, when he wrote the book of Genesis, as a reason for his giving a similar command to the Israelites; especially as

+ This reference is incorrect: at least, so far as concerns the chapter, which should be xv, the first paragraph. REV.

226

Review-Simpson's Two Essays.

"he seems evidently to have formed his narrative in 'general according to the series of events." From other considerations also we may fairly infer that he has recorded the precept in the just order of transactions, and at the period of the history in which it was given.

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In our author's judgment, "there can be no doubt, when we consider the general piety of the patriarchs, but that they obeyed the command to worship God every seventh day." It is true, the history "does not specify any particular instance of this," but the conciseness of the narratives of transactions in the earliest ages may easily be explained. Oral tradition would first be employed. Afterwards, when either hieroglyphical or alphabetical writing came into use, an insertion of particular instances of what was a regular practice would naturally be omitted. In subsequent parts of the Jewish annals, and for a very long period, there is no mention or intimation of the Sabbath. For a much longer space their sacred books are silent concerning the observance of the rite of circumcision, which unquestionably, continued to be practised. But "though there is no express account" of the regular appropriation of the seventh day to divine worship in the patriarchal ages, there are many passages that allude to, and imply such a custom. Such, in the opinion of some learned men, are Gen. iv. 3, and Job i. 6. ii. 1. Universal attention was paid in those early times to weeks of seven days and Mr. Simpson thence infers the high probability of men's having habitually met for social worship on every seventh day." He is aware, indeed, that to the foregoing arguments may be objected what is said, (Nehem. ix. 13, 14.) "From Sinai thou madest known unto them thy holy sabbath." The Hebrew term here rendered to make known, he therefore translates as follows; didst manifest to them in a peculiar manner." And in this sense be also understands Exod. xvi. 29. "The Lord hath given you the Sabbath," and Ezek. xx. 12. Thus Christ says

* Mr. Simpson refers here to Kennicott's Dissert. p. 156, ed. 2. The reference should have been to Kennicolt's Two Dissert. &c. otherwise the Dissert. &c. may be confounded with those on the state of the Hebrew text.

REV.

(John vii. 22) "that Moses gave them circumcision, though this rite was first instltuted in the time of Abraham, Gen. xvii. 10." To this reasoning Mr. S. subjoins a review of the arguments by which he attempts to establish the existence of the patriarchal sabbath.

"The Hebrew Sabbath at the fall of Manna," is the subject to which he now proceeds. Express notice of " the actual observance of a seventh day's sabbath," occurs for the first time in Exod. xvi. 22, &c.

"It appears, however," says Mr. S. " to be mentioned as a well-known institution." This inference he deduces from the context.

Following the order of the history, he next treats of "the Jewish sabbath commanded at Mount Sinai.-Exod. xx. 8-11."; with which Deut. v. 12

15. must be compared. On this article of the decalogue he observes, that, "though it is a ritual law, yet it is one of those ten select commandments which were first delivered by Jehovah himself, to all the people of Israel assembled together in the most solemn manner;" that "it is the only ritual ordinance in these tables;" that "there are, however, ritual circumstances peculiar to the law for a weekly Sabbath as promulgated at this time;" and that it was a special sign of the covenant between Jehovah and the Israelites. Hence it is noticed with singular distinction in the Mosaic law, is

introduced with the emphatical word, remember, and, in its nature and tendency, was a direct and powerful means of promoting the principal designs of the Jewish dispensation; it being a memorial that the true God was the creator of all things, a mark of his having selected the posterity of Jacob for his own people, and, at once, a preservative from idolatry, and an instrument "of cherishing and improv ing the knowledge, love and practice of pure religion and virtue, both in individuals and in the community."

The most interesting section of this Essay, is devoted to the consideration of "the Christian Sabbath, or the Lord's day appointed by Christ and his apostles." Here Mr. S. makes some preliminary remarks, intended to Jesus, "as the great Messiah of God, prepare his readers for admitting that asserted his claim to a dominion over the sabbath." For the truth of this

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