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Dr. Priestley's Treatment at Warwick.

private life quietly and respectably. But by making baptism a test of the fitness for marriage we go much farther, for the party must either submit, or for ever be denied the enjoyment of the "only bliss of paradise which has survived the fall," or be continually exposed to the taunts and scorn of society, for permitting affection to triumph over the injustice of the law. If it rests upon the divine law, surely it should for the benefit of the ignorant be pointed out; or how are the parties wishing to be married to confess the existing impediments to their marriage, which very early in the service they are charged to do? Moreover, does it rest with the clergyman whether he makes these inquiries or not? Because if so, it is making the law the creature of caprice. I ask this, knowing that unbaptized persous have been married without questions being asked. Now was the Lincolnshire clergyman righteous over much, or was the other clergyman to whom I allude negligent of his duty?

But what an apparently shameful prostitution of an ordinance of Christ was exhihited in Lincolnshire on the above occasion-I mean on the bap

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Books, in which it is remarked that "the greater part of the books of Origen and the other Heretics, were continually burnt by the Orthodox party." On this passage some former possessor of my copy has written the following note.

"The illustrious heretic of our times has met with a similar treatment at Birmingham, in 1791, and was personally ill-used at Warwick Assizes in 1792.”

In a passage of Dr. Priestley's Fast Sermon, for 1794, quoted in his Memoirs (12mo. p. 131,) there is a reference to some unkind treatment “at the Assizes at Warwick," I suppose when he sued the county for his loss of property at Birmingham.

I have a particular reason for wishing to ascertain what was the personal ill-usage to which the manu script note refers, and shall thank any of your readers for information.

SIR,

BREVIS.

July 19, 1816.

VERY lately met with the Life of

the late Mr. Dodson, which was published in 1811, from a copy designed for Dr. Kippis's Biographia Britannica.

I know not that a general reader has any right to complain of such a Life as containing scarcely a page interesting to any but the learned profession, to whom the justly reverenced dicta of a great lawyer must be highly valuable. Yet I doubt whether the Life of a dignitary of the long robe ever exhibited a reputation more exclusively legal than that of Judge Foster, who appears never to have recreated himself, like Sir Edmund Coke, in his Forest Laws, by a ramble among Dido's deer.

tism of the lady. Baptism is, at least I Sir Michael Foster, by his nephew, according to the Church service, a Christian ordinance: and if so should not be resorted to without due reflection and consideration. Yet it is scarcely to be supposed that the lady in this case could have duly consi dered the subject. If she had never thought about it, she was not a fit subject to submit to it, in an hour or two; if she had considered it, and approved it, why had she not previously been baptized? If she disapproved it, her religious principle was sacrificed for the sake of her spouse. But if in the above case, notwithstanding appearances, due consideration had been exercised, and every thing was as it ought to be, it is manifest, that the tendency of the anecdote is to make the public believe that a person unbaptized is no Christian, and that therefore baptism is a most important ordinance; though it may be performed nevertheless, without previous thought, in order to remove an obstruction to the performance of what the law positively enjoins on all as a necessary civil compact. J. F.

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But I am rambling from my purpose, which was to propose to animadversion a sentiment of the Biographer which follows his notice of the opinion maintained by Judge Foster in his famous Argument "that the right of impressing mariners for the public service is a prerogative inherent in the crown, grounded upon com

Mr. Dodson on Impressing Seamen.

mon law, and recognized by many acts of parliament."-P. 12.

On this passage Mr. Dodson remarks, "the question touching the legality of pressing mariners for the public service, is a point of the greatest importance; and wise and good men still entertain different sentiments on the subject." I cannot help regretting that so excellent a man as Mr. Dodson, whom I describe from personal knowledge, should have been content to treat so mildly this moral enormity. One who has been taught to consider himself as a free citizen of a free country, whatever be his outward condition, is yet dragged from his home as a criminal, without the pretence of any crime, because he once pursued an industrious life as a mariner, and instead of having acquired property is still dependant on his personal labour for his own, and probably, a family's support; for a regulating officer will scarcely venture to detain a man of property, should such an one be accidentally kidnapped by a pressgang. Such then is the man convicted only of poverty whose case a benevolent Christian, writing more like a lawyer than a gospeller, can treat as a question of mere legal uncertainty, on each side of which wisdom and virtue night be equally divided. Mr. Dodson had the honour to be a Heretic, and, in the contemplation of law, was liable to punishment. What would he have said to a commentator on penal statutes, who had coolly written that "the question touching the prosecution of those who impugn the established creeds, is a point of the greatest importance, and wise and good men still entertain different sentiments on the subject."

Every one has read Franklin's Notes on Judge Foster's Argument, and most I believe have admired the deserved satire they convey on the "idolaters of forms and precedents." But the unjust principle which supports the practice of impressing, and its frequent melancholy consequences, can scarcely be represented with more truth and propriety than in the following passage from a Reply to Mr. Burke's Invective against Mr. Cooper and Mr. Watt, in the House of Commons, April 30, 1792," by Mr. Cooper, formerly of Manchester, distinguished as an acute metaphy.

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sician, and now for many years a judge in the United States. In this Reply, the war is carried with no small success, into the enemy's country. Mr. Burke's Invective having been utterred in a debate on Parliamentary reform, Mr. Cooper shews, in various instances, "how little the interests of the poor are taken care of, and how necessary it is that the voice of the poor man should be heard with attention and respect in the House of He then adds, "A Commons."

still more flagrant instance of cruelty and injustice towards the poor, is the practice of impressing. The labour of the poor man constitutes the whole of his wealth, and his domestic connexions almost the whole of his happiness. But on a sudden, under the dubious authority of a press warrant, he is cut off from his peaceful habitation and domestic society, and forcibly dragged on board the floating prison of a tender: he is compelled to labour in the dreadful service of murdering his fellow-creatures at the command of his superiors, and paid such scanty wages, not as he can earn or deserves, but as the niggardly system of government finance thinks fit to allow. His family meanwhile, who look up to him for comfort and subsistence, ignorant of his misfortune, are anxiously expecting his wonted return; perhaps their homely repast for the night depended on his earnings for the day; but his usual hour of return to his family is gone by, each passing foot step, each noise of distant similarity, is eagerly listened to in vain. Hope still draws out the lengthened evening, till a sleepless night of lamentation and despair succeeds the dreary melancholy hours of successive disappointment and fruitless expectation.'

After reading this description, which must have been often realized, what a sound of unmeaning rant or rather of cruel mockery is the following burst of oratory by Lord Chatham on the equal liberty enjoyed in England: "Every Englishman's

house is his castle. Not that it is surrounded by walls and battlements, it may be only a straw built shed. All the winds of heaven may whistle through it, every element of nature may enter it, but the king cannot, the king dare not."

IGNOTUS.

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SIR.

Dr. Bekker. Letter from the late Rev. W. Vidler to Mr. Rutt.

August 26, 1816. N the Miscellaneous Works of Robert Robinson, edited by Flower, the following passage occurs at page 79, Vol. I. Remarks on Deism. "The learned and pious Dr. Bekker, one of the pastors of Amsterdam, renounced the popular opinion of the power of the devil, and published a book against it. He seemed to doubt also of the eternity of hell torments. He was reputed a Deist, and the consistory, the classes and the synods, proceeded against him, suspended him at first from the communion, and deposed him at last from the office of a

minister."

Will some Correspondent of the Monthly Repository have the goodness to point out where a more particular account of Dr. Bekker, of his book, and of the proceedings instituted against him, may be met with? This will much oblige an Inquirer,

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A. F.

P. S. Perhaps some of the readers of the Monthly Repository who have visited the Netherlands and Germany since the peace, may be able to give an account of Unitarianism in those countries. The Menonite Baptists, a large and increasing sect, are strictly Unitarians, with the addition of (what to British Unitarians would appear) an austere system of church discipline. An account of the present state of the Menonite Baptists could not fail to interest the readers of your Miscellany.

I

SIR, Clapton, August 28, 1816. HAVE found unexpectedly the following letter, written by a friend whom I have just seen committed to his grave, waiting, I doubt not, the resurrection of the just, after having eminently served his generation, in the vigour of his life, and endured with Christian fortitude the sufferings which were allotted to its decline. I read the letter, as you will suppose, with those sensations, which can be well understood by all who had opportunities of appreciating the character of the late Mr. Vidler.

I am persuaded that I shall bring no discredit on my friend's memory, by requesting you to preserve his letter. Though scarcely more than a written message and little designed by him for the public eye, I cannot allow myself to conceal this truly honourable testi

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mony to his continued desire of moral and intellectual improvement, and his just views of the serious purposes to which both should be conscientiously applied.

It may, perhaps, be regretted, with reference to his personal gratification, that Mr. Vidler, in earlier life, had not been introduced to those literary advantages which he could have so well improved. Yet I confess, that, for the sake of the cause, of which he was an able advocate, I feel no such regret. He would probably have been a profoundly learned divine, and in that character, deservedly esteemed, yet he might never have become the instructive and impressive preacher, such as I have often listened to him. Nor would he then have left to his contemporaries, and, as I trust, to other generations, that valuable bequest, an encouraging example of what may be attained by great good will to man's highest interests, actuating a vigorous mind to an unceasing occupation of common advantages. I remain, Sir, Your's,

"DEAR SIR,

J. T. RUTT.

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"And any other Latin books fit for a young
student in that language.
bably smile, but I really do not think
You will pro-
myself too old to learn any thing that
depends on mental application. You know
I cannot afford to buy books: I have more
leisure than I ever had in my life, and wish to
use it so, as to give a good account of it, both
to God and the congregation that I serve.

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Gleanings.

"Any part of the above list which could be procured would much oblige me; only let me have enough.

"I will return the books I now have next Sunday, by my youngest son.

"I am, Dear Sir, "With unfeigned respect and gratitude, "Your friend and servant, "WILLIAM VIDLER.

"West-Ham, August 19, 1811. "P.S. My son will take back any books which you may have gotten ready to go. "Mr. J. T. Rutt, Goswell Street."

GLEANINGS; OR, SELECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS MADE IN A COURSE

OF GENERAL READING.

No. CCLXXVII. Greatness in Death.

Though sinking under the accumulated pressure of advancing age, as well as of disease and infirmity, Maria Theresa (Empress of Germany) retained the possession of all her faculties nearly to the last moments of her life. Religion and resignation smoothed its close. Only a short time before she breathed her last, having apparently fallen into a sort of insensibility and her eyes being closed, one of the ladies near her person, in reply to an inquiry made respecting the state of the Empress, answered that her Majesty seemed to be asleep. No, replied she, I could sleep if I would indulge repose; but I am sensible of the near approach of death, and I will not allow myself to be surprized by him in my sleep. I wish to meet my dis

solution awake.

Wraxall's Hist. Memoirs, I. 364, 5.

No. CCLXXVIII. The King's View of the Sacrament. Towards the end of the month of January, 1805, at a time when he (the present King Geo. III.) was much occupied in preparations for the Installation of the Knights of the Garter, destined to take place on the ap proaching twenty-third of April; and while conversing on the subject with some persons of high rank, at Windsor; one of them, a nobleman deservedly distinguished by his favour, said, "Sir, are not the new knights now meant to be installed, obliged to take the sacrament before the ceremony?" Nothing could assuredly have been further from his idea or intention, than to have asked the question in a manner capable of implying any levity or irreverence. Nevertheless, his Majesty

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instantly changed countenance; and assuming a severe look, after a moment or two of pause, "No," replied he," that religious institution is not to be mixed with our profane ceremonies. Even at the time of my coronation, I was very unwilling to take the sacra ment. But, when they told me that it was indispensible and that I must receive it; before I approached the communion table, I took off the bauble from my head. The sacrament, my lord, is not to be profaned by our gothic institutions." The severity of the king's manner while he pronounced these words impressed all present, and suspended for a short time the conThe Same, 1.384-386.

versation.

No. CCLXXIX.
Early Quakers Unitarians.-The
Athenian Mercury.

Whether the early Quakers were Unitarians is a purely historical ques. tion:- Unitarianism is neither the better nor the worse for the determi nation of it: nor needs the opinion of the founders of Quakerism to influ ence the present Quakers. The old Quakers had simplicity and sense and a love of liberty, but none of these, any more than their religious principels, are hereditary.

Abundant facts may be produced to shew that the Quakers of a century ago were accounted and described as Unitarians. Some of these have been produced in our volumes; we shall bring forward another proof.

In that most singular periodical work, the Athenian Mercury, published by J. Dunton, 1691, in folio, each Number containing a folio half sheet, there is, Vol. III. No. 23, the following question [The object of the work is to resolve all the most nice and curious questions proposed by the ingenious]:

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Suppose a Jew, a Mahometan, a Church of England man, an Anabaptist, a Quaker and a Muggletonian, all living together in one house peaceably and according to their own principles:-may they not all expect happiness after this life?" The Athenian Club, who undertook to answer all questions, were they high as heaven or deep as hell, manifest their temper, by the first clause of their oracular response, viz. "It's pity the Querist did not put in an Alicist too to have made it up a perfect number." They then proceed

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sense."

Gleanings.

to say that the question is already answered by the Church of England! which anathematizes all who say in the affirmative. The Scriptures, too, they allege positively damn Jews, and Mahometans and also Muggle tonians, who they add are known by nothing but "hating the Bible, some blasphemy and a great deal of nonThey then pronounce sentence on the Quakers, in form following: "For the Quakers:-We are sure that many, or most of 'em have held very dangerous and detestable opinions. They generally speak contemptibly of the Bible, and will by no means allow it to be God's word: they have turned it into an odd sort of a jejune allegory, even the highest and most sacred truths therein contained, and have spoken not very honorably of our Saviour, and almost generally deny the Trinity, and many, if not all, embrace the other Socinian dream of the soul's sleeping till the resurrection. Besides, they use neither of the Sacraments, and if our most authentic accounts do not impose upon us, were at their first appearance in England, commonly acted by a worse spirit than what they pretend to. These 'tis hard to hope well of, nor can we see how with any manner of propriety they can be called Christians. But if there be any of 'em who have left their first principles, and are degenerated into Christianity, (we ask pardon for the harshness of the expression) and grown more religious, as well as more mannerly, there may be more hopes of 'em."

This judgment on the Quakers was evidently not prompted by passion merely, for if Socinian had been applied to them as a term of reproach because they were disliked on other accounts, it would also have been branded on the forehead of the "Anabaptists," whom no Church of England oracle ever spared; but there is some sort of candour in the determination concerning these once fearful heretics: e. g. "For the Anabaptist, it's certain both from Popish and Protestant writers, and even eye-witnesses themselves, that there never was a fiercer or more dangerous enemy to all order both sacred and humane, than he was at his first appearance in Germany: but we hope he's now grown better, and that our soil has a little mended his crab-stock. For we

must own according to their present writings, there are not many articles of common Christianity, if any, which our English Anabaptists disown, besides that of infant baptism, wherein some great men of the Church of God have erred together_with_them." The Athenians may probably refer to Bp. Jere. Taylor, whose Liberty of Prophesying wears an Anabaptist" face. Other parts of their work will scarcely allow us to suppose that in

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great men of the Church of God," they include John Milton, who was tainted with the heresy of the "Anabaptists."

The Athenian Mercury is very amusing, as an exhibition of the inquiries, the doubts, the wit and the mirth of our great grandfathers, who in spite of their broad brimmed hats, their doublets and hose, were much the sort of folks that we now are. The greatest difference between them and us consists in the bolder and more dignified spirit of civil and religious liberty that, through their exertions, we have acquired. We may smile at their questions, but they led to ques tions of more moment. A Corre spondent in the Mercury gravely asks, What was the sex of Balaam's ass? and is solemnly answered by proofs from the history that it was a she-ass. Another inquires, how infants, and aged and deformed persons shall arise at the day of judgment? and the unhesitating answer is that all shall arise of the age of thirty or thirty three, our Saviour's age at his resurrection!

No. CCLXXX.. Alcoran.

It has long been a question agitated among the Mahometans, and with great heat, whether the Alcoran was created or increated? Those who said it was created, seemed to others to diminish and lessen its authority: but they defended themselves many ways; among which one is, that 'tis the express saying of God, We have put the Alcoran; now that which is put is created. Others took the opposite side of the question. They took the safest side who adhering to the words of the Alcoran, said, that it was put, or sent down, and were silent about its creation.

Reeland, of the Mahometan Religion, in Four Treatises, &c. 8vo. 1712. p. 24.

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