then indeed for the present there must be an end of the business! In such a case those who are left ought, in a re ligious view, to think and act for themselves. "The whole world," says Dr. Hartley, " will never be reformed but by those who are of a truly Catholic spirit."

might be told in the sermon, if perchance it should be preached by a L'abbé Pluche or a Fenelon, that all this pomp and pageantry was nothing, any further than as it served to promote internal sanctity and the religion of the heart but this would not suffice; he would immediately reply-if it be nothing, then it is nothing worth, a needless expence upon the public, and much better omitted. And even in a church of more chaste and sober forms, the pealing organ, the frequent repetitions, the monotonous buz of a general response and the careless gabble of charity children, would tend rather to depress than to exalt his devotion. And on the other hand, bring an un-church, not the clergy as distinct from informed Romanist into a silent meet ing, and, from a total ignorance of their peculiar principles, he would inquire wherefore they were come together?

And yet, might not the Romanist and the Friend, together with some of the intermediate classes, converse together upon the outlines of natural religion and of Christian faith; and if accidentally cast into situations where their particular worship was not to be had, meet together on the Lord's day, depute one as the organ of the congregation to pray with or without a form, read some portions of Scripture, exhort either from a written table or from "the table of the heart," and praise the great Creator and Governor of the universe, through Jesus Christ? Nay, might not those among them who held the perpetuity of the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, unite in eating bread and drinking wine, in commemoration of their common Lord, together with some short and appropriate prayers and thanksgivings; and yet each retain for the present his own peculiar ideas as to the nature of this religious rite? Certainly all this may be done by sober and considerate persons in different parts of the world, not only without offence, but much to their mutual comfort and edification. But if upon any such occasions a Gardiner or a Bonner should unexpectedly enter, thunder out his anathema, tell those of his own community that a ceremonial worship was necessary to their religious improvement, that public prayer cannot be duly celebrated without the priest, nor the sacrament without the mass book, and they were to believe him ;

And to promote this desirable and important end we are called upon as Christians, both in our private and public capacities. Nothing can be more obvious, if we believe Scripture, and, as it hath been well illustrated by many eminent writers, than that the world is carried on for the sake of the church, not this or that particular

the laity, but the church of God, consisting, first, of "the household of faith," emphatically so called, that is, true Christians of every denomination, and secondly, of "the children of God who are scattered abroad, those other sheep who are not of the first fold, the sons and daughters whom God shall bring from afar, from the east and the west, the north and the south, to sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in his kingdom." The Jewish nation also, which, as such, was the ancient and peculiar people of God, the only nation which has any right to plead favouritism, and that not on their own account-which was never entirely cast off, and which is to be finally res stored, must be included in this general idea. It is no enthusiasm to say that in this sense "dominion is founded in grace," and that "the saints shall judge the world" but then this is a spiritual' and not a civil dominion-the dominion of virtue over vice, of truth over error, of simple real religion over superstition, of a spirit of peace and charity over a spirit of bigotry and intolerance: " For the needy shall not always be forgotten, the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever; nor shall the rod of the wicked for ever rest upon the lot of the righteous!" Providence sometimes brings about these events by gradual means, and sometimes He operates more sensibly. There is a period when the church is represented as crying out, "It is time for Thee, O Lord! to work, for they have made void thy law: Arise, O Lord! judge the earth, for thou shalt inherit all nations." In the 24th and 34th chapters of Isaiah we have a description of what

588

Mr. Gilchrist on the Review of his Grammar.

is called "the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion," in language the most awfully sublime, when "The indignation of the Lord shall be upon all nations, and his fury upon their armies; when the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens themselves rolled together as a scroll, as a leaf falleth from the vine, and a falling fig from the fig-tree: When the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall and not rise again: When the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed, and the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem and before his Ancients, gloriously;"figurative expressions, no doubt, in a great measure, which, nevertheless, must have a precise and determinate meaning, though we may possibly mistake in their application.

In the mean time, it behoves both subjects and the rulers of churches and kingdoms to" discern the signs of the times;" the former, to attend chiefly to personal and family reformation, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem," and for a spirit of wisdom and justice in their governors; not to forestal the Divine plans, never to disturb the state, in order to purify the church; to wield no sword in defence of the truth, but "the sword of the spirit ;" and, while they" abide in their several callings," and perform their duty, to leave the rest to time and Providence:-and the latter, to revise obsolete and to change obnoxious laws; not to obstruct reasonable and gradual reformation; never to encourage the horrid and flagitious principle of national enmities and antipathies, (for a heathen could say "Homo sum, nihil humani a me alienum puto"); and ever to act under the impression of this important maxim, that that is likely to prove the most durable government, which hath its foundation in justice and equity, and in the good opinion of the people.

AN OCCASIONAL READER. P.S. The above was written before An Occasional Reader had read the ingenious letter of Homily (p.456–460). There are only some slight shades of difference between Homily and himself as to controversial discourse and controversial preaching.

SIR,

Newington Green, October 8th, 1816. RELY on your candour for the insertion of the following remarks, occasioned by the notice of Philosophic Etymology in your last Number (p. 538-544). That notice is not more severe but less candid and sufficient than I expected. The writer of it has remarked, indeed, that if the book "should not have a fair and impartial trial, the author will have principally himself to blame. Mr. Gilchrist's peculiar manner has made it impossible that his work should be tried dispassionately by many of those who are qualified to sit in judgment upon it."

It is generally understood, I believe, that judges ought to be peculiarly dispassionate whether they could justify themselves, in conducting an unfair trial and pronouncing angrily an unjust sentence by saying it was impossible to be dispassionate, may admit of doubt. It were unreasonable indeed to exact extreme virtue from the gravest judges or most learned doctors; and therefore I "principally blame myself for not having a fair and impartial trial." Had I written as libellously of law and lawyers, as of our learning and the learned, of schools and schoolmen, it is probable that my condign punishment would have been far more afflictive, and that ridicule and hisses would have pursued me to Newgate.

I wish not to offer any remarks on the notice of my work considered as a review: the real merits or demerits of the book are still before the judges: your contributor has (prudently perhaps) left them to the sagacity of my readers. The capital, I may say sole offence, preferred in the indictment, or set forth in the sentence pronounced upon me, is, " arrogant contempt of all who have gone before me or who stand beside me." On this charge I wish, both in respect for the public and in justice to myself, to solicit a patient and candid hearing.

I acknowledge that there is much bitter contemptuousness in my writings. I acknowledge such contemptuousness to be very wrong and very reprehensible, and promise that I shall carefully weed it out of my publications whenever (if ever) any of them shall pass through my hands into a second edition. Had I been fortunate enough to study deeply the doctrines of a certain

Projected Edition of Dr. Priestley's Theological Works.

masterly dissector of human nature and human society before commencing authorship, my compositions would have been untinctured with that rude, audacious disdain, which is one of their discriminative features. I ought not indeed to have vailed or cloaked my contemptuous feelings a la mode, but I ought to have suppressed and subdued them as workings of that untaught vicious nature, in renouncing and mortifying which consists the moralist's victory over himself. The contempt which I have so plentifully displayed did not originate in but was sanctioned by an error of judgment, which error was only rendered more obstinate by such rebukes as those grounded on Philosophic Etymology. Commonplace criticism and stale satire are, to persons of original thinking, offensive for insipidness rather than sourness, and, instead of diminishing, increase the acidity of contemptuous feeling. I have however derived much profitable reflection and feeling from my present reprover; and I can sincerely assure him (though he despaired of me) that arrogance, contempt (especially if forced or affected), and angry vanity, &c. are become so odious in my sight, that I hope never to be guilty of them any more. Contemptuousness is one of the spurious offspring of pride; vet even pride ought to make elevated minds despise it: any person can look or speak scornfully, but every person cannot think clearly or reason powerfully.

Having frankly confessed my guilt, it cannot be unreasonable to remonstrate against the injustice of some of the charges brought against me. I am accused of "contempt of all who have gone before me." Others have charged me with extravagant admiration of some who have gone before me. Surely my antagonists ought not to blow cold and hot upon me thus with the same mouth of crimination. Will my worthy admonisher assert that I have shown contempt towards Shakspeare, Bacon, Hobbes, Wilkins, Tucker, Locke and Horne Tooke? It may be said that these did not stand in my way, and therefore I had no temptation to wish to thrust them aside or knock them down: but I beg to say that they were all great masters in the science of words and ideas, and are the best teachers in our language of Philosophic Etymology or Rational Grammar.

589

My Reviewer has intimated that I think it an act of condescension on my part to instruct my kind-insinuating that I vainly look down with disdain from some fancied eminence on all men. But I will not yield to him or any other in respect for common men and common sense. I have found at least a considerable portion of the dif ferent classes of society philosophers in their own way; and I always respect thinking beings whether they think rightly or wrongly, with me or against me. I would rather converse a whole day with the plainest ploughman concerning the important science of husbandry, than a single hour with soine learned doctors concerning grammar, etymology, rhetoric or logic. It is more blessed to give than to receive: I think it a privilege to communicate instruction. I have (as already acknowledged) expressed much contempt for some who have gone before me and some who stand beside me: but when it is considered that Johnson's Dictionary and Murray's Grammar, &c. are adopted as standards of the English language, will not those who have attended to the philosophy of language admit that there was much temptation in my way? And if I have attempted to undervalue some popular works as much as they are usually overvalued, it should be remem bered, that if a rod or rule has been bent to one side, it must be as much bent to the other to bring it straight. JAMES GILCHRIST.

SIR,

October 11th, 1816. to call the atAVING presumed in a former

tention of your readers to the appre hended failure of the Proposal for a New Edition of Dr. Priestley's Theo logical Works, and to suggest a few imperfect hints with a view of promoting the design, I am happy to observe in your present Number [p. 521] that the observations then made have called forth an abler pen to advocate the same cause. Sensible of my own incompetence to render any important service to such a design, I did, however, indulge the expectation that an appeal (however imperfect) in its behalf, would not be altogether in vain : that expectation has not been disappointed, nor am I willing to abandon the hope that the projected plan may yet be placed beyond the probability of failure."

590

Projected Edition of Dr. Priestley's Theological Works.

The appeal to "the sons of respect able and wealthy laymen" so suitably made, and so forcibly urged, will not fail, it may humbly be presumed, to meet with immediate and deserved attention on their part: and I am sure your worthy Correspondent will forgive me for extending that appeal to "laymen of easy fortunes who have families to provide for, and whose benevolent hearts deeply commiserate the sad condition of the poor around them;" and even to those who, "amid the daily toils for their subsistence, find time to ruminate on the grand truths of religion, and whose minds are often more enlightened on these subjects than many of those who are favoured with a higher place in the scale of society."

It is most probable the number of volumes printed in a year will not exceed three; upon which calculation the expense of taking in the Works (after the first subscription) will not exceed seven-pence halfpenny per week, a sum which few individuals or families desirous of possessing them, might not spare by a little attention to economy, which would be abundantly compensated by the acquisition of so great a treasure. Instances are not rare among the more popular sects, in which persons of very limited circumstances contrive to take in Commentaries, Histories, Magazines, &c. by such means, and thus set an example well worthy of imitation in the present in

stance.

I gladly take occasion in this place to express my warm concurrence with your worthy Correspondent in his eu logy on Dr. Priestley's excellencies, and "the effect that would arise from a perusal of his Works." The remarks in the quotation at the bottom of page 523, will not surprise any persons who have observed the air of superiority so frequently assumed by orthodox writers over their heretical opponents, and the disingenuous mode of crying down the reputation of Unitarians as men and as Christians, to prevent their works from being read-whether from a pious alarm at the danger that might accrue to their cause I shall not presume to determine.

Involved as the Christian world has been in error for ages, it is a subject for congratulation that a spirit of inquiry has gone forth, and the work of refor mation is gradually advancing. Truth

will eventually prevail, and scatter all
the clouds of darkness. The labours
of Priestley have contributed in no small
degree to enlighten mankind: it re-
mains only that those who know their
value, and are disposed to encourage
the proposed undertaking, should with-
out delay signify their intention, and
thus contribute to perpetuate those
Works, which will be a lasting monu-
ment to the name of their author.
J. CORDELL.

I

SIR, Hackney, Sept. 18, 1816. REGRET in common with other admirers of the Theological Works of Dr. Priestley, that so little encouragement has been given to the proposed re-publication of them by the very able and respectable Editor, who has announced his readiness to devote his best care to the work, if indemnified against the cost of publishing: at the same time I am not disposed to consider the want of numbers to the list of subscribers as a proof of indifference to the writings of Dr. Priestley, or as shewing that a re-publication is not wanted: many persons are in my situation, they have already several of the books and wish to have others (now out of print) but cannot afford to purchase the whole, and consequently do not subscribe to a complete edition; I wish therefore, through the medium of the Reposi tory, to submit to the Editor the pro priety of either receiving subscriptions for the work separately, or binding subscribers of two guineas each, to take such only of the books as they may want, and shall make choice of at the time of subscribing. If this plan be adopted, I have hope it will be found that one subscriber will take one half, and another the other half, and that by this means the required sum for defraying the charges of publishing will be obtained. Should this suggestion be acted upon, I think it would be useful to publish a list of the Works, with their respective prices affixed. T. H.

Baptism requisite to Marriage.