Mrs. Cappe on the ultimate Perfection and Happiness of Mankind. of character to the sad extremes of profligacy and vice? Alas, shall they all perish for ever? Or where and how must the line of demarcation be drawn? On this subject, reason has but little to depose, and the page of revelation is not explicit. Of this, however, we may rest assured, though it is not for us to know the times and the seasons, that the judge of all the earth will do right. But if we have no data from which to reason accurately, and no explicit declaration from scripture, perhaps from analogy some little information may be derived on this perplexing subject, remembering, however, that in the region of conjecture, even when aided by this borrowed light, we ought always to proceed, if not with timid, yet with wary, cautious steps. If then it is highly probable, as we In corroboration of this suggestion laws of which we have any knowledge, What then is God? How trans- If it be indeed true, that God is every where, at all times present, what a subject of alarm to the impenitently wicked! What a source of trust and confidence and consolation and triumph, to the godly and upright! Surely, Mr. Editor, Unitarians beyond all others, they who profess a purer Christianity, should especially labour to cultivate this devotional spirit; they, whose belief is so simple and sublime; so perfectly Passage of Mr. Rymer's in the Council of the Trinity. consonant to all the grand and strik. ing phenomena they see around them; so wholly unmixed with metaphysical subtleties and scholastic contradictions, should be anxiously solicitous, in humble obedience to the solemn injunctions of their divine Master," to let their light so shine before men," that others seeing their incorruptible integrity, their exemplary piety, their courage in refusing to be conformed to this world, its delusive maxims and its unhallowed, dissipated pursuits, their unbounded Christian benevolence, ever ready to join in every good work and labour of love, should thence be more power fully stimulated to glorify their father who is in heaven!" May we indeed hope to see the happy day when the superior excellence of Unitarian practice shall perfectly harmonize with the superior purity of Unitarian faith? And that the Monthly Repository may have the distinguished honour of contributing towards this glorious result, is the ardent wish of a sincere friend, and constant reader, T appears suitable to your design of connecting Theology and Lite rature, to notice in works, where they might not have been expected, any hints of a theological complexion. With this view I offer you the following passages: Mr. Rymer, Historiographer to King William, who appears to have been well versed in polite literature, but is now chiefly known by his great Collection of the Fadera, wrote on the Antiquity, Power and Decay of Parliaments," in the form of a Letter, published in 1714, a few months after the author's decease. Having described an "artificial mixed sort of government that always has obtained in Europe, and that which all, in some manner or other, with more or less success and perfection, have tended to as the centre and only place of rest," he says, p. 9, "The first writers among us had their imaginations so overborne with the excellency of kingly government, that they fancied in heaven Jupiter to be the King of the Gods. And yet they thought the Common Council so necessary and essential, that 83 Homer represents even Jupiter, upon a great occasion, calling his ev ayogy, his Parliament of the Gods." The author then adds the passage for which I have quoted him: "I have heard Divines observe something of this kind, as figured of God Almighty from those words, Let' us make man. Those words, in the plural number, to them seemed to import, as if God summoned a Parliament of the Trinity, to consult upon that arduous affair. Our Christian Poets have taken the same liberty, and fancied this, as an image of greatness, where could be no accession to the Wisdom and Omnipotence." Mr. Rymer has at least insinuated his doubts of the popular Theology, on a very important point, by this manner of referring to it. He might, I apprehend, have quoted several Christian Poets, who had thus indulged in theological as well as poetical licence. I conjectured at first, that Milton was in his thoughts. Yet on refreshing my recollection, by a reference to Paradise Lost, I find the author, to be no Trinitarian, but what, for distinction, has been denominated a high Arian. I am not aware that throughout ment of what has been called the disthat Poem there is any acknowledgetinct personality of a Holy Spirit, or any thing beyond a subordinate Deity attributed to the Son, the filial Godhead, who goes forth to the work of creation (B. vii.) in paternal glory. stead of introducing a Trinity, sings On the creation of man the poet, in It is a later poet, Young, who, somewhere in his prose works, infers the dignity of man from the whole Trinity having been employed in his creation. Young's theological ideas were indeed so gross, that in the Night Thoughts he describes the Crucifixion as Expended Deity, on human weal; the great truths, which burst the As if a dying God or, as he quaintly sings, an expended Deity had been a novelty to Heathens, who could have referred the Christian poet to their Jupiter's tomb. Well might a theologian of such a wide swallow complain, as Young does at the commencement of the Centaur, that "Socinus, like our infidels, was one of a narrow throat;" thus also discovering the ignorance or injustice too common with the reputed Orthodox, on such subjects. Yet could Young be really ignorant that a Bishop of St. David's, not a Burgess, had recommended, in a Charge to his Clergy, the work of Socinus, de auctoritate sacre scripturæ, as a valuable performance, and that a Clerrgyman had published a translation of the work, dedicated to Queen Caroline, under the title of a Demonstration of the Truth of the Christian Religion. I have now before me the 2nd edition, 1732. Jan. 27, 1816, MONG the Say Papers, in your AVON 493, is an account in one of Mrs. Shepherd's letters, of a Jubilee celebrated at Stockholm in 1717, on the 2nd Centenary of the Reformation, which was considered as commenced by Luther, when "on the eve of All Saints, in 1517, he affixed on the Church adjoining the Castle of Wittemberg his Thesis containing thirty-five Propositions against Indulgencies, challenging any one to oppose them either by writing or public disputation." That this Jubilee was, at least partially, observed in England, appears from a published Sermon, entitled, "The Duty of Reformation. Set forth in a Sermon, preached at St. James's, in the Chapel of his late Royal Highness Prince George of Denmark, on the nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, 1717. On occasion of the Jubilee, kept about this time, by some Protestant Churches, in remembrance of the Reformation begun two hundred years ago. By Anthony William Boehm, Chaplain to his late Royal Highness. London. 1718." The name Jubilee has been rendered almost contemptible, in this country, by the servile purposes of courtly adulation, to which, not many years ago, it was applied. Otherwise a re ligious Jubilee may be not unworthily celebrated by those who shall survive to the now approaching third Centenary of the Reformation, an event, to be valued not so much for the state of things it immediately produced, as for that which it has occasioned. The door, opened by Luther, to free inquiry in religion, can now no more be shut than the gates of the poet which barred the passage out of Chaos. Notwithstanding a transient obscurity the light will surely shine unto the perfect day. Nor can I forbear to apostrophize the persecutor in the sublime language of the Bard, Fond impious man think'st thou yon sanguine cloud, Rais'd by thy breath, bas quench'd the To-morrow he repairs the golden flood It will probably be the admiration of posterity that modern statesmen should have given themselves credit for having secured the repose of Europe while they have united Tros Rutulusve-Papist, Protestant, and Greek, to restore that spiritual domi nation which had sunk into insignificance under the genius of Napoleon, but which for ages before had continually embroiled the world. Dagon is indeed again set on his pedestal, yet, I trust, his mutilations can never be repaired. MONG the many laudable ef forts now making to decrease what I must take the liberty of calling idolatry, and to increase the number of Unitarian Christians, I have sometimes been a little surprised, that it has not hitherto been thought of sufficient importance to make the road more generally easy for the members of the Established Church. It is well known that great numbers of them are highly dissatisfied with much of what they there meet with-with the Trinity-with their creeds-with the length of their services-and with the frequent repetitions in the same service. Notwithstanding all these solid objections, however, it is equally well known, that but few of them can be prevailed upon to quit "the Church" for "the Meeting-house," where the minister prays, not in a Plans recommended to Unitarian Dissenters. 85 CONGRATULATE you and the friends of uncorrupted Christianity on the proposal for publishing a uniform and complete edition of Dr. Priestley's Theological Works. The editor (our much-respected friend, Mr. Rutt) is richly entitled to the thanks of the Unitarian public. It is evident, from the proposed mode of publication, that the only objects he can have in view in entering upon so laborious an undertaking are the pro P. S. Although we have lately heard nothing of the plan for forming Unitarians into a more compact body, so important an object is, I trust, in progress. Christianity, and of erecting an honourable and lasting monument to the memory of one of the best Christians and greatest philosophers of the age wi Looking forward to this publication with much pleasure (though, I confess, not altogether unmixed with anxiety, lest the expense of the undertaking should prevent many warm friends to the cause from giving it their support) I beg leave particularly * A friend of mine, conversant with the expenses of publishing, tells me that a volume of the same bulk with that proposed for the Works (which will cost the subscribers about 13s. 6d.) could not be sold to the public by a bookseller for less than 18s. 36 Dr. Priestley's Theological Works. ISHAL thank you to give a place in the Repository to my Proposals for publishing Dr. Priestley's Theological Works. I am, of course, unable to ascertain, at present, whether the projected edition will be sufficiently encouraged by subscriptions. I wish, however, whatever may be the result, to leave recorded among your pages an account of the nature and extent of the design. I remain, Sir, Yours, &c. J. T. R. Proposals for publishing by Subscription, in Medium, 8vo., Dr. Priestley's Theological Works. To be edited by J. T. Rutt. It may be fairly presumed that mamy persons, disposed to religious inquiry, especially amongst the now increasing number of Unitarians, will be inclined to encourage an edition of Dr. Priestley's Theological Works, on an economical plan. To accommodate such persons, it is proposed, (under the general title of Theological Works,) to reprint such of Dr. Priestley's publications as are classed, in the Catalogue annexed to his Memoirs, under the following heads:-Metaphysics-Religious Liberty-Ecclesiastical History-Evidences of the Christian Revelation Defences of Unitarianism and Miscellaneous Theology; including his Papers in the Theological Repository, and the Prefaces to his Scientific and Miscellaneous Works, or any incidental passages in them, where he has declared or defended his theological opinions. This enumeration cannot fail to comprehend several repetitions of subjects, first hastily sketched, and afterwards more elaborately detailed. The proposed Editor is, however, desirous of ascertaining whether persons may not he found, to encourage the projected edition, who may wish to possess all these Works of Dr. Priestley, to observe, for themselves, the progress of such a mind, and to discover the first bints of those opinions which subjected their author to so much evil as well as good report. It is designed to accompany the edition with Notes, some of which appear to be required from the lapse of years since Dr. Priestley became known as a theological writer. These notes to be as concise, as the purpose of conveying useful information will permit; and generally employed to notice such inconsistencies or varia tions of opded in publicatione have been avoided in publications which extended through nearly forty years to correct any errors which may be discovered in dates or references, such as the considerate will readily excuse in a writer who was so often urged by the ardour of his mind and an impulse of incumbent duty to a rapid employment of his ready pen-to supply additional authorities, where such can be discovered, and especially to quote the passages from authors whose works have become less accessible than when Dr. Priestley alluded to their opinions. By these notes it is also intended to form a connexion between the author's works, to remark what strictures they at first excited, or the more extended controversies to which they gave occasion. In the arrangement of such an edition, it is proposed to make the contents of each volume succeed in the order of time as nearly as a proper connexion of subjects will allow. The first volume is intended to include the Institutes, which will be preceded by a Life of the Author, compiled, with a particular reference to the projected edition, chiefly on the authorities of his own Memoirs, incidental notices in his Works, the Continuation by Mr. Priestley, and the Memoirs of Mr. Lindsey by the Rev. T. Belsham, on whose approbation and concurrence the proposed Editor is happy |