Christian Patriotism. bable because it is rational, consistent with the nature of man, and therefore credible, contents himself by closing a long metaphysical argument, with asking why the same God who first created and has now intervened to suspend existence, cannot alter and re-organize? But the question put by C. remains unanswered. It was not what Almighty power could do, but as a reason for his after question he asserts the resurrection of the same man to be improbable, and wants it to be so explained that it may be understood and believed. 2. The next difficulty of C. is, that if the Deity creates him anew from any part of himself, and that part partakes of the conscious identity of his present state of existence, he might also equally well create from the large remainder of himself, many other individual beings, all of whom would have the same consciousness of identity; and that, after all, such new creation would not be a resurrection. I have too good an opinion of the understanding of C., though known to me only by his letter, to suppose that he can be satisfied with the vague and laboured answer of T. P. He had sufficient evidence in nature to have shewn that the future life must be a resurrection of the one man that died, and if that one man was divided it was no longer a resurection; instead of which, as in the former difficulty, he cuts the knot by a reference to the creative power of God; that creative power which increased the widow's oil and multiplied the bread and fish in the hands of Jesus. His argument and illustration go to shew that because God has the pow. -er to multiply individuality with conscious identity to each part, therefore he will not exercise it. 3. C. next asserts, that the resurrection of Jesus, his body never having been by corruption broken up and separated, is not a case in point, ours being a re-creation, but his a resurrection. To this T. P. replies by endeavouring to prove that they are in all points alike; but as his argument contradicts the scriptures which bring only the resurrection of Jesus as an evidence of the divine capability and a manifestation of the divine intention to raise and judge mankind. T. P. appears to me in this also to have failed, and that his scriptural 27 quotations are foreign to the subject, and some of them demand evidence of his having justly applied them, particularly the spirituality, and invisibility of Jesus prior to his ascension. 4. Lastly, C. asserts that the hy pothesis of Dr. Watts, "That each human being may have some stamina vitæ or primæval seeds of life," is but an hypothesis to get rid of a difficulty: whether it be so or not, I will endeayour to examine in my next, should this letter meet with your approbation. I shall then endeavour to shew that the difficulties Cantabrigiensis has brought forward are not insurmountable, and that though the resurrection of the same body does involve in it many absurdities as well as contradictions, yet the resurrection of the man and the preservation of his individual consciousness accords with nature as well as scripture, and though it cannot be demonstrated it may be so explained as to be undertood and believed. CREDO. Tenterden, Dec. 7, 1815. SIR, valuable Repository, accidentally at the 902d page, the name of Mr. Soame Jeuyns met my eye. With your respectable correspondent, Mr. Rutt, I also am old enough to have in perfect recollection the interest excited by the above-mentioned gentleman's view of the inte nal evidence of the Christian religion. The different opinions entertained of the writer are also in my recollection; not a few considering it as a covert attack on Christianity itself. I confess myself to have been strongly tempted, at the time, to entertain this latter opinion. But that patriotism is not a Christian virtue, is one of those positive assertions which appears to me to be totally destitute of proof. It is with pleasure admitted, that there is an almost irresistible charm in a spirit of universal benevolence. Actuated by it we resemble our Creator in his most glorious attribute; in his disinterested, inexhaustible and everlasting goodness: nor do I conceive there to be any thing inconsis tent with this, in a pure and generous love to our country. If ever there was a true patriot, Jesus Christ was that person. His public ministry was principally con 28 Description of the Island of Elba. fined to Jerusalem and Judea. To Jews were his instructions delivered; and for the benefit of his countrymen were his miracles wrought. When they returned all with ingratitude and hatred, he wept over them; nor do we meet with two more pathetic passages in the course of his history, than those which applied to the devoted city he had at the time in view: passages, which the reader cannot but have in recollection. Even after his crucifixion, upon his again meeting his disciples, when he directed them to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, he added those memorable words, beginning at Jerusalem. Yet in perfect consistency with this true patriotism, was also his love to the whole world. The Apostle Paul's patriotism was such that he even wished himself accursed from, or rather in Christ; i. e. that he might, like his Master, die the accursed death of the cross, for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh, could he but effect their conversion. Yet no one will for a moment call in question his unconfined benevolence and charity. Mr. Soame Jenyns's definition of patriotism possibly deluded him. "That patriotism is to oppress all other countries, to advance the imaginary prosperity of our own." But this is a false and wholly unfounded definition. It might be a convenient argument in favour of the slave-trade; but a true patriot, would be ashamed to use it. Assuredly, neither Jesus Christ, nor his apostles, ever interfered in the political regulations of their own, or any other countries. Their commissions did not apply to them. The kingdom of Christ was not of this world. Yet I cannot but consider them as the noblest and most disinterested band of patriots the world erer knew; and that they were equally, in the most important sense of the term, true philanthropists. If a person is an affectionate father of a family, may he not also be a good neighbour? Does neighbourly kindness prevent love to our country? or love to our country, benevolence to all mankind? The first circle may be of very confined diameter: the last, embrace the universe. If in error, in the above statement, I shall be happy in receiving the correction of any of your correspondents. Leaving therefore the discussion of this subject to abler pens, and expressing the most cordial good wishes for the increasing success of your highly useful Repository, I am, &c. SIR, L. H. Nov. 16, 1815. S you occasionally devote your pages to general literature, I am induced to offer you, from an old book, a short extract concerning an island, of which we had scarcely heard, till it became connected with the fortunes of that extraordinary man, who, whether an Emperor or a captive, will be regarded as great indeed, at least, in the world's estimate, compared with any whom the mere accidents of birth have made royal or imperial; for, according to caped a courtly poet,' a plebeian sentiment which once es Pigmies are pigmies still, though perch'd on Alps, And pyramids are pyramids in vales; or, as was said of Grotius, a great man is like a famous statue, to be admired, whether on or off the pedestal. The passage which I propose to offer you is the following, from Memoires of the affairs of France during the reign of the present king, Lewis the XIVth. Done out of French. 18mo. 1675. "1646. Portolongonu, a place situated in the isle of Elb, lying in the Tuscan Sea, between the Continent of Italy and Corsica, which was heretofore usurped from its own lawful Lord by a Captain of the Emperor Charles the Vth, in the year 1548, after that delivered into the possession of his son Philip the IId, and whose successors held it ever since, was now besieged and taken by the French army. In the midst of this island rises a spring, on this account the more admirable, that its waters are observed to hold proportion with the length of the days of the year, in such manner, that when they are at the longest, the stream is able to drive a mill, but when at the shortest 'tis almost dry."-Mem. p. 38. After making due allowance for the propensities of a credulous age there will remain, to have occasioned this statement, some very unusual appear Mrs. Cappe, on the Adaptation of Divine Revelation to the Human Mind. 29 ances respecting this spring, of which perhaps one of your readers, versed in Natural History, can communicate a further account. HYDROPHILUS. with the greatest interest the elaborate work of the excellent Dr. Cogan, and I am induced to send you a few reflections suggested by that work, and by some other recent publications which if not further illustrative of some of the subjects on which they treat, may not perhaps be deemed Slowing paragraph from Ware's wholly irrelevant. What at this hour SIR, OMETIME ago I copied the fol Cumberland Pacquet, dated 21st Feb. 1815, a choice thing for the 19th century. "The Archbishop of Cashel has refused to consecrate (at the instance of Lady Caher) the new Church erected at Caher, in Ireland, on account of its not being built due East and West as the Canon requires; it is a well finished piece of Grecian architecture." I have been puzzled to find out what can be done with the church; but having lately observed that a strong disposition has manifested it self among the natives to resist the tithes, it has occurred to me that it may serve as barracks, that the privileges of the Clergy may be protected by the soldiery. W. D. I to see the British and Foreign School Society warmly advocated by a much respected writer in your liberal Magazine [x. 614.] for I cannot but consider that excellent institution, and its no less illustrious sister, the British and Foreign Bible Society, as the brightest luminaries of the European firmament, at this time in many other respects sufficiently dark and gloomy. This darkness, however, is not to be ascribed to the want of many excellent writers, who have given the most clear, comprehensive and consolatory views of the government and providence of God, and especially of his goodness and parental care as from time to time developed in the writings of the Old and New Testament, and more particularly in their striking adaptation to the mental progress and the peculiar situation and circumstances of the long series of generations to whom they were successively vouchsafed. In this view I have lately perused Mr. Editor, is the state of those countries in respect of religion who do not possess the scriptures? What is the still more deplorable state of those where they are set at nought, or ridiculed, or despised, or miserably obscured and debased by the most bigoted, abject, superstition? Let a great neighbouring nation give the answer. But we will not exact it of them. Alas! it may be read in that total demoralization which has infected all ranks of men among them. We may read it in the frivolous amusements, the ferocious vindictive passions, the never-ceasing round of trifling, seductive dissipation which makes shipwreck of all sober reflection, of every virtuous sentiment and of every patriotic, benevolent or useful pursuit. C. C. On the striking adaptation of the leading objects of divine revelation to the known phenomena of the human mind, as contradistinguished to that the strong presumptive evidence arising from thence, that both have the same great and good Being for their Author. It appears that the following are the great primary outlines of distinction between the human race and the various tribes of inferior animals placed below them. 1. The power of discriminating between virtue and vice, and of making their election accordingly; from whence arises human responsibility. 2nd. In that comprehension of mind which is capable of looking forward beyond the present to the future, and of regulating their actions according to certain, or even highly probable remote consequences. 3rd. In the power of deliberating gious and Moral Improvement of Mankind, preached at Leeds, in June last, by the Rev. Charles Wellbeloved. Longmau and Co. London. * Sce an excellent Sermon on the Reli 30 Mrs. Cappe, on the Adaptation of Divine Revelation to the Human Mind. upon and choosing in respect of two modes of action, which is the wisest the safest or the best, whether in its present or its future cousequences; or, in other words, of the freedom of the will. 4th. In the power of speech, and of inventing or adopting various methods of giving stability and permanence to numerous classes of ideas and discoveries, which would other wise have been merely fugitive, or which at least must have perished with the inventors or their immediate successors; such as the discovery of letters, and of various ingenious machinery, which enable the people of one age to possess as it were by inheritance the moral and mental acquirements of past generations, and thus to begin their career at nearly the same point where that of their predecessors closed. 5thly, and preeminently. The power of discovering and of looking up to the great Source of all these endowments, "in whom we live and move and have our being," whether as discoverable through the medium of his works, or by express revelation from himself; of earnestly deprecating his displeasure; of humbly and devoutly adoring his goodness; of thanking him for all his mercies; and of putting our whole trust and confidence in his parental care. These primary qualities distinctly mark the species, and are equally found to discriminate between the brute creation and man, who is permitted to rule over them, whether in his most highly cultivated and civilized state, or in that of the wild hunter of the forest; for it is abundantly evident that the magnificent structure of virtue and knowledge raised by divine revelation, and by the success ful cultivation of the arts and sciences, and which places the one at such an immeasurable distance from the other, rests equally for its basis on these original superior endowments. In respect of the first of these, namely, the power of discriminating between virtue and vice, and thus of determining our choice, provision is made for its cultivation and improvement in the very frame of nature, by the opposite effects visibly consequent on the two modes of conduct whereever other previous circumstances are at all similar; the one, producing health, peace and tranquillity; the other, disease, inquietude, discontent and remorse; together with the long train of malignant tormenting passions, which render the wicked "like the troubled sea that cannot rest." But as these most important consequences, however demonstrable, cannot produce conviction in the mind unless calmly weighed and duly considered, it would appear highly probable, antecedent to all inquiry into the fact, that some additional aid would be vouchsafed by the great Father of mercies during the early ages of the world, and when such a mental process would be impracticable, for the guide and direction of his feeble, erring children; and as we find that in the Jewish and Christian dispensations, this most desirable aid has actually been afforded, the strongest presumption hence arises that they are what they assume to be, divine revelations. But it is not from the mere proba. bility that our great and merciful Creator, considering the goodness manifested in all the works of his creation, would in some other way supply the unavoidable defects of want of knowledge and experience, the wisdom and fitness of the manner in which this is done, by prohibition and command, is a still stronger presumptive evidence in favour of the reality of such a revelation. When an infant, allured by the brilliancy of a lighted taper, stretches out his hand to grasp the flame, a prudent parent would not merely prevent his doing it at the moment, but would guard against similar attempts in future, not indeed by endeavouring to convince him of the fatal consequences of the experiment deduced from the nature of the destructive element, but by an express prohibition on pain of his highest displeasure; and it is a striking fact, that on this very principle, the positive commands of the decalogue are founded. Again, it is remarkable that the Jewish and Christian dispensations pay particular attention to the improvement and expansion of that faculty of the human mind which forms the second line of demarcation, and upon which so much of the respectability, virtue and happiness of the character depends; namely, to the power of looking forward beyond pre Mrs. Cappe, on the Adaptation of Divine Revelation to the Human Mind. 31 sent enjoyments or privations to future consequences and of acting accordingly. The young man it is true, sees, or may see, that if he is not sober, provident and industrious whilst he is able to labour, that poverty and wretchedness will be his portion when he is helpless and old: the husbandman knows assuredly that if he does not cultivate his land and sow his seed, he can have no harvest. These things are so plain and obvious that they need not the additional light of revelation to demonstrate them more clearly. But there are a great variety of other obligations and duties dependent upon the higher advancement and perfection of this faculty in all its various relations and bearings, which although equally important in their final results are not equally obvious; and it might therefore be expected from a divine revelation, that especial attention would be paid to its progressive ex. tension and improvement, and we find accordingly that this has actually been done throughout the whole series of the Jewish and Christian dispensations. The promise of a son to Abraham, the medium of his future eminent distinction, was not fulfilled until great old age: the inheritance of the promised land was not obtained by his descendants until many successive generations had passed away. Now it is evident that the slow ful filment of these interesting promises would have a powerful tendency to widen the distinction between man and the inferior animals, who act merely from the present impulse: to gain him the constant habit of looking up to God as the spring of all his hopes, the great source of all his blessings, whether past, present, or to come; and to enable him to form more just and exalted sentiments of that great Being, with whom "one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as but one day." It is true that after the Israelites were put in possession of the promised land, national and sometimes individual rewards and punishments, generally followed immediately as the fruits of obedience or rebellion; but this was absolutely necessary as an example to the neighbouring nations, as well as a repeated proof to themselves, of the moral government of God which was the leading object of their selection; it merely formed an exception for a very important purpose, and does not invalidate the general argument. On the same merciful and benevolent principle, that of teaching and inuring a rude, ignorant people to look beyond the present to the future, were the solemu denuuciations all along delivered by holy men and prophets; and for the further cultivation of this important intellectual process, were the promises, at first very obscure, and afterwards more explicitly given through a long series of ages, of the future advent of that illustrious personage, who was destined in the counsels of divine wisdom, when the world should be sufficiently prepared for his reception, "to put away sin, and to bring in everlasting righteousness." And when at length this new dispensation did actually take place, a similar gracious and wise plan of distant remuneration or punishment was not only strictly adhered to, but is car ried much farther, the sanction being principally placed in a future unseen world, the great interests of which may require, and not unfrequently do actually require, a partial, or even a complete sacrifice of the interests of the present. But as in this dispensation, unlike the former, complete conviction of the fulfilmont of the promises could not be obtained by experience, the everlasting barriers that separate this world from the future were mercifully thrown open. A brother of the human race, of the most consummate wisdom, of perfect virtue, wholly devoted to the will of his heavenly father, is called to enter upon his public career of unceasing beneficence under circumstances which would not merely subject him to all the various evils of extreme poverty, but to the con-. tumely, the contempt and reproach of his deluded, infatuated countrymen. He was to be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;" and after having endured every species of ignominy, suffering and contempt, that malice could invent, or cruelty inflict, the whole was to terminate in a lingering, and excruciatingly painful death. Of this fatal termination he was himself fully apprized from the very first of his public ministry, which |