Inconsistencies of Writers on Future Punishment.

strictly applicable in many cases, and especially to the plans and operations of divine wisdom, in nature and providence, of which we are not competent judges; yet, is not to be urged by itself, in this particular case, since, as we have before endeavoured to illustrate, and as it hath been often shewn from reason and scripture, the Deity in the exercise of this attribute, acts by known and established rules, and "will do nothing by his right of sovereignty, but what is unquestionably agreeable with the other perfections of his nature."*

Further remarks might be made upon those passages of Dr. Young, which the reader's judgment will supply and, upon the whole, we have reason to conclude, that the admired author was ashamed of the popular system of future punishment, and adopted this method of secretly exposing it, apprehending, perhaps, that the times in which he lived, were not ripe enough for a more open confession. How far this was consistent with Christian simplicity, is a question which we do not now enter into; but, surely, had he firmly believed it, he would never have taken such pains, in reality, if not in appearance, to demonstrate the contrary, and, in immortal strains, to perpetuate the glaring defects of his own system!

If this be thought a hasty and unwarrantable conclusion, let the poet speak for himself, in other parts of his great work, the "Night Thoughts,' one specimen of which shall here suffice.

"Who, without pain's advice, would e'er be good?

Who, without death, but would be good in

vain?

467

the contrary is far more probable, There is evidently a climar here employed-pain and death, not the threat only, but the infliction-for we experience them both-these, save; that is they are instruments in the divine hand, for the most important and salutary purposes. But, they do not save, all: therefore, a wise and gracious Creator, who originally designed his rational offspring for happiness and for himself, must have other means, salutary and medicina!, in future worlds, to accomplish his benevolent purposes; and in this view, Gehenna, or the punishments of the invisible state, will be instrumental, under the same divine direction, of producing those necessary moral qualifications, and that alteration of character, in another period of exist ence, which the former failed of accomplishing in the present.

But whatever were the real sentiments of this great writer, of one thing we may be certain: that, as all the attributes of the Deity, are coeval with his Being, and cannot be sepa rated from it; so, they will continue to be exercised throughout everlasting ages. As he has been from all eternity, infinitely wise, powerful, holy, just, and benevolent; so, he will be to all eternity the same, in every part and period of his universal dominion. "If I ascend up to heaven, thou art there!" of this, there can be no doubt: but, are heaven and earth alone the spheres of thy divine activity? by no means. "If I make my bed in hell," or, in the invisible state of punishment, "behold thou art there also!" Thou art there, as an avenger of the impious, as a punisher of the incorrigible transgressor. But, in what sense, great God! art thou an avenger, or a punisher? Is it to seal them up under a sentence of misery, commensurate with thine own existence, without any possibility of restitution and recovery? Are they prevented from repenting, by an act of thy sovereign will, or wilt thou never accept of their repentance? Hast thou appointed them to be monuments of thine infinite power, trophies of thine everlasting vengeance, or, perpetual arguments of happiness to the saints in glory? Where were then, the exercise of thy mercy and benevulence, which thou hast taught us to

J. in Reply to the Writer of the Obituary of Dr. Powell.

consider, as well as thy holiness and justice, as over all thy works? Where were then the exercise of thy longsuffering, which, with respect to some of thy creatures, hath been in this world scarcely experienced? Hast thou not sent thy well-beloved Son into the world, the second Adam, the Lord from heaven," to restore the ruins of the first, "to seek and to save, that which was lost?" And

shall his original intentions, and thine A

through him, be finally frustrated? Hath not thine holy apostle assured us, that "not as is the original offence, so is the free gift?" O Lord! all things are possible with thee! We commit the condemned criminal, as well as the accepted saiut, into thine, hands, fully persuaded, that though thou wilt reward us infinitely beyond our deserts, thou wilt punish us only in proportion to our demerits: that "thou wilt be justified when thou speakest, and overcome when thou art judged!" Rom. iii. 4.

J. in Reply to the Writer of the Obituary of Dr. Powell.

reformed from without with a vengeance." We have the opinion of Algernon Sydney, "in his Discourses on Government," that nothing but abuses and corruption can make a people wish for change: he remarks that the inhabitants of a country never wish for, nor will exert themselves to procure any great change in the government so long as it is conducted with tolerable equity and moderation; but all history gives proof that courts will always become more and more corrupt, unless they are constantly checked by the influence and control of the people.

I am quite aware, as indeed who is not, that the present system of choosing representatives to serve in parliament is very faulty and productive of much disorder, as your Correspondent, T. S. ironically infers, page 395; yet these abuses might no doubt be removed, and perhaps all the difficulties remedied by another plan of collecting the votes: but I am afraid that the lovers of, and gainers by corruption, amongst whom I certainly do not include T. S. are glad to perpetuate these evils, as a preventative against a more complete representation of the people, as these election excesses are brought forward as shewing the evil dispositions of the people; but I believe that very many of the vices of the governed, are caused by the selfishness and consequent misrule of the governors.

T. S. observes, p. 394, 5, that your Correspondents and yourself, Mr. Editor, are calmly though strenuously employed in the investigation and diffusion of useful knowledge; but can any one suppose, that we should at this time be freely writing, or you, Sir, publishing our religious and political opinions, if it had not been for such patriotic men as Pym, Russell, Hamp den and Sydney, who struggled in the cause of freedom and paved the way for us! How is it in Spain and Portugal and yet we are informed that Mr. Gibbon, who had been friendly to freedom before the French Revolution, doubted after that event whether so great an innovation as the

* A work that I earnestly recommend every person to read, as one of the very best treatises that was ever written upon this subject.

469

removal of the Inquisition in Spain would be a safe and wise political experiment. But if I understand your Correspondent, T. S. rightly, he seems to hint that a kind of passive obedience is most becoming to the wise and virtuous, and that it is not advisable for them to exert themselves to restrain bad government, or indeed any great evil; for he remarks, p. 229, "It seems to be the plan of Providence to restrain and check one class of crimes and delinquents by the counteraction of another;" but might not such a principle as this lead us into a state of the most dangerous apathy if carried to its full extent? The excesses of the French Revolution appear to have had in many respects the same effects upon the liberties of the present generation, as the fanatical excesses of the Puritans had upon the religion and morals of the English people in that day: in both instances a re-action has been produced and a strong disposition to run into the opposite extreme; for after the period which has been ironically called the reign of the saints, followed in quick succession the reign of the sinners: but I have always thought that a very great proportion of the crimes, that were committed by the French, are to be ascribed to the sanguinary manifestoes of the sur rounding despots, and their entrance into France at the head of immense armies, which turned the nation into a great military camp, and excited the most violent animosities amongst men of all parties; and in the end, turned their attention from the love of liberty to that of ambition and conquest.

And thus, in the present day, after the dreadful siruggle of the French for liberty, has followed a time remarkable for high monarchical declarations, in which the divine right of kings has again been openly avowed and acted upon. And even in this land of comparative freedom, I think many per sons attend the Established Church who are not at all attached to its principles, and do not believe in its doctrines, because they fear that if they attended a Dissenting place of worship, they would be ranked amongst the disaffected and jacobinical. To conclude, Sir, although no person can more regret than 1, the excesses which have been commited by bad men under the assumed barr

470

Mr. Rutt on his projected Edition of Dr. Priestley's Works.

ners of civil and religious liberty, yet I cannot respect freedom or religion the less, because ambition, knavery and hypocrisy have used these sacred

names as cloaks to cover their own designs.

J.

P. S. Since writing my last letter, I have read the extracts from "Old field's Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland," in the Supplement to the Monthly Magazine for Jaly, which I would recommend to every person who wishes to learn the true state of our representation, and has not an opportunity of seeing the valuable original.

I

SIR,

Clapton, Aug. 4, 1816. OBSERVE, at page 386 of your last Number, a letter from a gentleman who was first known to me as one of the earliest encouragers of my projected Edition of Dr. Priestley's Theological Works. On Mr. Cordell's concluding proposal, the result of great good will to my design, it does not become me to make any remark, except that he is correct in stating that I intend to proceed with the undertaking, if two Indred subscriptions can be procured. I now think it proper to add, that no copies will be printed, except for subscribers. Thus their copies will not be depreciated, as they might apprehend, by a number being reserved for sale.

So far as I can ascertain their amount, the subscriptions already received do not exceed sixty. Of reported subscribers, who have not yet paid their subscriptions, there appears to be about the same number. Should those subscriptions he paid, and eighty more be added to them, by November next, so as to complete the number of two hundred subscriptions, which is now scarcely to be expected, I purpose, immediately, to put the first volume to the press, and to bring out the edition with all the accuracy and dispatch in my power.

Should it appear by November next, which will complete one year since I first proposed the subject, in your work, that the subscriptions have not amounted to two hundred, I shall think myself justified, to the promoters of the undertaking, in abandoning it, and will immediately return their subscriptions. Their names, by your leave, I shall, in that case, record in your pages,

as a justification of my project, and from respect to those who would have united with me, to offer that tribute to Dr. Priestley's memory, which has always been considered as paid by the publication of a correct edition of an author's works.

My expectations of success in this project were always moderate. Experience has still further restrained them. must now leave the question to be determined by the Unitarians, and shall never be likely to regret, whatever may be the result, that I have connected my name with such an attempt. I remain, Sir, your's,

J. T. RUTT. P.S. A young friend who, though a lawyer, has not, like Blackstone, bid farewell to his muse, and who is much more conversant with Shakspeare thair myself, has referred me to a passage in As You Like It, from which Watts ap pears to have taken a hint for the lines which I quoted (p. 391). It is in the 2d Scene of the 3d Act, where Orlando in a soliloquy exclaims:

"O Rosalind! these trees shall be my books,

And in their barks my thoughts I'll

Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree,
The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.”

My friend's conjecture is strength-
ened by this verse of Watts, which
immediately follows that I quoted:
"The swains shall wonder when they
read,

Inscrib'd on all the grove;
That heav'n itself came down and bled,
To win a mortal's love."

The Reviewer (p. 405) has, perhaps, understood too generally the difficulties occurring to Dissenters, on attempting to place their sons at public schools, Unless my memory serves me very ill, there were no inquiries but of a literary kind, when I entered St. Paul's School in 1771. I observe in Knight's Life of Colet (p. 364), among the founder's statutes, that he bade the children learne first above all the catechizon in Englishe but this rule I apprehend had been long neglected, as well as that which enjoined the reading specially Cristen autors, that wrote theire wisdome with

Mr. Belsham's Notes on the Epistics of Paul.-Gleanings.

clean and chaste Laten. In the 6th and 7th classes, which were those I passed through, we indeed repeated the Church catechism, in Greek, as a school exercise; and thus the children of Nonconformists were frequently uttering falsehoods, though in a dead language, about supposed benefits from pretended godfathers and godmothers.

There are other dificulties, not peculiar to Dissenters, but which must, I think, occur to any parent, educated in a public school, who has since acquired a conviction that moral habits are of more value than classical attain

I
for the press, Notes by himself on the
Epistles of Paul. As one of the many

HAVE been informed that Mr.
Belsham has, in a state of readiness

admirers of his most excellent works illustrative of the meaning of the writers

471

proceeding from his lips, was not without effect in the great work of the abo lition of the slave trade.

The Monthly Magazine Correspondent, who signs himself T. H. S. and dates Nottingham, June 20, 1816, explains himself as follows:

If instead of the silly castles in the air which principally cover the earthenware in present use, there were a wise saying or an immutable truth on every plate and tea-cup and saucer; what a fund of sententious wisdom might be introduced into every family, particu larly the middle and lower classes of society. What admirable topics for conversation would thus be introduced, and what useful and early associations Would be formed!-It seems to me that this system of communicating moral instruction, would be much suthrough the medium of tracts.” perior to that of communicating it

REFLECTIONS MADE IN A COURSE
OF GENERAL READING.

of the New Testament, especially with GLEANINGS; OR, SELECTIONS AND reference to the doctrines about which Christians are so much divided in opihion, I most sincerely hope that, if my information is. correct, he will be induced to add to the important services which he has already rendered to the good cause which he advocates, by publishing them for the benefit of the public.

Such a work is a great desideratum. It would form a valuable addition to the late excellent Mr. Kenrick's "Il

lustrations of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles" and coming from the masterly pen of Mr. Belshamn, it would be purchased and read with avidity Mr. Belsham will, I trust, favour the public with information on the subject, through the medium of your valuable Repository.

A

D.D.

New Mode of Diffusing Knowledge. CORRESPONDENT in the Monthly Magazine (Aug. 1816), suggests a new, but not extravagant mode, of disseminating useful and important truths. It may be applied to other articles of manufacture besides earthenware, and to other articles of earthenware besides those which he specifies. The watch-seal with the engraving of the negro in the attitude of supplicating mercy, with the words, "Am I not a man and a brother!"

No. CCLXVIII. Improvements in Moral and Political Science.

"It is chiefly in judging of questions coming home to their business and bosoms, that casual associations lead mankind astray; and of such associations how incalculable is the number oppressive forms of government, and arising from false systems of religion, absurd plaus of education! The conand mathematical discoveries of former sequence is, that while the physical the historian, like masses of pure and ages present thuselves to the hand of native gold, the truths which we are here in quest of may be compared to iron, which, although at once the most nccessary and the most widely diffused of all the metais, commonly requires a discriminating eye to detect its existence, and a tedious as well as nice process to extract it from the ore.

To the same circumstance it is owing, that improvements in Moral and in Political Science do not strike the imagination with nearly so great force as the discoveries of the Mathematician or of the Chemist. When an inveterate prejudice is destroyed by extirpating the casual associations on which it was grafted, how powerful is