Imatges de pàgina
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in relation to his creatures, than what he is in himself. The human faculties can never comprehend the Deity: the corruptible must put on the incorruptible; the ever-surviving soul inhabit one of

those many mansions; then, and only then, may a beam, emanating from the Godhead, disclose what the Godhead is."" -P. 65.

From the time of Dr. Fordyce's death, which took place at Bath, Oct. 1, 1796, in the 76th year of his age, his widow continued to reside in that city, until her own decease, in the beginning of the year 1823. Her biographer would have consulted her reputation by suppressing the latter part of the volume; for who cares to know her squabbles with domestics, her quarrels and reconciliations with relatives, her notes of bavardage, her aigre-doux compliments, her vers de société, anglicè bad verses, and her railings at Roman Catholics? But,

let it be added, that, with all her self

importance and irritability, she was truly benevolent, and was loved by

her own circle of friends.

The following anecdote is charac

teristic:

"She was particularly intimate with the late Dr. Parry and his family; and used to relate, with conscious and visible delight, an anecdote of the present enterprising navigator, Capt. Parry (whom Heaven preserve!). When a child, he had accompanied some of the females of his family in a morning visit; and to amuse him, she ordered a servant to take him a rocking-horse which she happened to have. The boy continued very quiet, and fearing he might be at some mischief, they took a peep at him; when, instead of the rocking horse, he was mounted across a terrestrial globe which stood in

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the room, and turning it round and round with all his little might. "You rogue,' said Mrs. Fordyce, what are you doing? that is not a horse.' 'No,' replied he; but papa says it is a world; and here it goes: and I will go round and round till I come to the end of it.' But you may go round and round, and still go round, and never come to the end of it, because it has no end.' The boy was mute for an instant, then hollaing (hallooing) out, I'm off again, then; and if it has no end, I'll go as far as I can.' 'If that boy lives,' said Mrs. Fordyce, in the true spirit of her knowledge in physiognomy, and as it would seem in prophecy, he will be a sailor and a navigator, and come to great honour; for the spirit of inves

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and Ireland; showing how that Event has impoverished and degraded the main Body of the People in those Countries. In a Series of Letters addressed to all sensible and just Englishmen. By William Cobbett. 12mo. Nos. 1 and 2. 3d. each. Clement, Fleet Street.

MR. COBBETT has changed once

more, and is now, in appearance, the hearty advocate of the Roman Catholic Church, at which, as well as most other churches, he has been laughing the greater part of his life. We are not informed that he has openly, and as a religious act, admitted into the bosom of the Carenounced Protestantism, and been

tholic Church.

Let the Catholics

plume themselves upon him as much as they may, nothing is farther from his thoughts than submitting to be a convert. He is too wise to hamper himself with rules and obligations, and too unmanageable to be bound by the discipline of any religious profession. He is a political sportsman. He must be in pursuit of game, and if one species cannot be put up, he starts aside after another. With his acknowledged mental power, he is a man of but one idea and one passion : the idea, the passion of the moment swallows up every other. He cannot live without popularity, and he always strikes at the favour of great masses of people. He knows how to gain, but not how to keep, the favour of large bodies. Hence he turns from one set of folks to another, and with a rapidity which makes common observers dizzy. Now, he is the friend and champion of the Irish Catholics

they consist of millions, they are discontented, and not without reason,

and they are ready to hail any English voice which can make itself heard in their favour. How long Mr. Cobbett will retain his present character, and what will be his next metamorphosis, will depend upon the course of events; but we would advise the Catholics not to set their hearts too much upon him, lest before the echo of his praises dies away in their chapels, they find him in another and a hostile shape.

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thor's arguments in behalf of the Catholic Church; they being arguments to those only whom no answers, much less ours, will reach. The reader may still wish for a specimen, and we will give him one from Letter I. ¶ 23 (Mr. Cobbett numbers by paragraphs, not by pages):

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"But, there is still a dilemma for these revilers of the Catholic religion. We swear" (the italics and capitals are These Letters, which are only the the author's)" on the four Evangelists! commencement of a projected work, And these, mind, we get from the POPE are in the writer's usual style; En- and a Council of the Catholic Church. glish, forcible, vulgar, droll, violent So that, if the POPE be Antichrist,' that and abusive. He means, he says, to is to say, if those who have taught us to shew" that the Reformation, as it abuse and abhor the Catholics; if those be not the falsest and most malignant is called, was engendered in beastly lust, brought forth in hypocrisy and wretches that ever breathed, here are we perfidy, and cherished and fed by swearing upon a book handed down to us by Antichrist'! And, as if the inplunder, devastation, and by rivers of consistencies and absurdities springing innocent English and Irish blood; and out of this Protestant calumny were to that as to its more remote consequences, have no end, that Christianity,' which they are, some of them, now before the judges say, is part and parcel of the us in that misery, that beggary, that law of the land;' that Christianity is no nakedness, that hunger, that everlast- other than what is taught in this same ing wrangle and spite, which now stare NEW TESTAMENT. Take the New Tesus in the face and stun our ears at tament away, and there is not a particle every turn, and which the Refor- of this part and parcel' left. What is mation' has given us in exchange for part and parcel of the law of the land our situation; what a figure does this the ease and happiness and harmony make, with a dozen of persons in gaol and Christian charity, enjoyed so for offending against it; what a figure abundantly, and for so many ages, by does it make, if we adopt the abuse and our Catholic forefathers." This is falsehood of the revilers of the Catholic the calm statement of the historian's Church! What a figure does that part object, and from this we may judge and parcel' make, if we follow our teachhow far faith may be given to his ers; if we follow JOSHUA WATSON'S narrative. He says afterwards, with Society; if we follow every brawler from great naïveté, in the midst of one of every tub in the country, and say that his most stormy passages, We must the POPE (from whom we got the part and parcel') is Antichrist' and the scarlet whore'!"

keep ourselves cool.

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It is amusing to see Cobbett explaining very minutely, and withal very gravely, the meaning of the words monk, friar, nun, hermit and pope. The plough-boys" " and " weaver boys" for whom he wrote his Grammar, may thank him for carrying on their education a little farther by this essay at a Dictionary.

Few Protestants will care to rescue the character of Henry the Eighth from this writer's wrath; but few Catholics, we hope, will derive pleasure from the brutal manner in which he treats the name of Anne Boleyn. -Cranmer's inconsistencies are too broad a mark for scorn and insult.

We have no design, and, to speak honestly, no wish, to answer the au

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"Enough! Aye, and much more than enough," the writer goes on to say, and so say we. Contemptible as is this play upon words, the author will not, we fear, fail of his end. He writes for the thousands of Irishmen that are sore from ill-usage, and he will inflame their bigotry and exasperate their resentments. Oppres→ sion makes wise men mad," or the Catholic Association, both English and Irish, would never have adopted such an advocate. Could they have kept themselves cool, they would have regarded Christianity as of more value than any one form in which it is professed, and have consequently shunned the fellowship of a scorner, who, we

verily believe, contemplates by crying up the Roman Catholic Church, the crying down of the Christian religion, which his favourite Paine has no doubt taught him to consider assailable chiefly through the corruptions of Popery.

ART. IV.—The General Baptists. A Sermon, preached before the Annual Assembly of General Baptists, at the Chapel in Worship Street, London, June 8th, 1824. By Richard Wright. 12mo. pp. 24. Eaton, and Fox and Co. 1824. 8d.

HIS is an affectionate address by

mination, from Psalm xlv. 16. He shews, 1, What the fathers of the General Baptist interest were: 2, What the children must be and do to be instead of the fathers: and, 3, What must be done to prepare the children to be instead of the fathers. He claims as Baptists some of the first Reform

ers:

"The first Unitarians who appeared in England after the commencement of the Reformation were Baptists; and they were the first Protestants who suffered martyrdom in this country under a Protestant government, and through the influence of Protestant ecclesiastics :-they were also the last who were appointed to death for their religion. The last person burnt alive, under the charge of heresy, was an Unitarian Baptist, Edward Wightman, who was burnt at Litchfield on the 11th of April, 1611; and the last person actually tried for heresy, Edward Elwall, was also a Unitarian Baptist."-P. II.

The preacher exults in the liberality of the ancient General Baptists, among whoin Emlyn and Whiston received the right hand of fellowship when driven out of all other churches.

Should the General Baptists attend to Mr. Wright's excellent advice, they would probably recover from their present depressed condition..

The perpetuity of baptism is, it would appear, a question amongst the Baptists of the present day. Mr. Wright lays down the following grounds on which he is satisfied of the perpetual obligation of the rite:

“1. Baptism, as spoken of in the New Testament, was practised by divine authority; it was appointed by Jesus Christ, and administered by the apostles as a

VOL. XX.

H

gospel ordinance. This can hardly be disputed.

2. Paul baptized, though baptism was not mentioned in his divine mission. This proves, that, under the gospel dispensation, a divine mission is not necessary to authorize a person to baptize.

3. As, in the apostolic age, baptism was administered by the authority and command of Jesus Christ, and no intimation can be found in the New Testament that it was to be discontinued after that age, there can be no scripture autho rity for its discontinuance.

4. It is undeniable that the primitive churches continued to baptize after the death of all the apostles; and whatever changes baptism might undergo, it cer

other, by the whole body of professed Christians, for many ages after the apos

tles.

"5. I know of no clear proof that the

perpetuity of baptism was questioned during the first three centuries after the Christian era, nor indeed until quite modern times.

"6. Christianity is as much a personal religion now as it was in the days of the tians at the present time, than they were apostles. Men are no more born Chriswhile their parents remained Jews or Heathens; for no one can be a Christian without understanding Christianity, and no one is born with the knowledge of it,

7. I know of no moral or religious purpose which baptism was calculated to it is not equally well calculated to answer answer in the times of the apostles, which in the present day.”—Pp. 21, 22.

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These arguments appear to us to be less conclusive than those which we have been accustomed to in the writings of the worthy preacher.What is baptism but washing? This determines to what dispensation of religion it belongs. See Heb. ix. 10. It is disputed that washing was ever a gospel ordinance.” The cere mony being dropped in the explanation of the mission of Paul, (the only apostle to the Gentiles,) is deemed good proof of this. The general apostolic commission on which the Baptists rely, limits itself to the age of the apostles, the age of miracles.That baptism was not universal in the church, is probable from some passages of scripture, and from the history of Constantine and others. A Baptist should be cautious of the argument from antiquity and immemorial usage: here is Mr. Belsham's

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R. SMETHURST'S proposition

controvertible. No one feeling the sentiments and acting upon the principles of the gospel, can approve slavery, or forbear taking every measure that to him appears prudent for its final abolition. West-India and American slavery is an evil sui generis: it began in robbery, it has been continued by cruelty, and it is secure only in the ignorance and vice of its wretched subjects.

We rejoice to see our young ministers ardent in their opposition to such a system of iniquity, which merits all their indignant eloquence.

Mr. Smethurst argues from the golden rule of our Saviour, Matt. vii. 12, All things whatsoever, &c., that as God is the common Father, all mankind are brethren and equal, and that therefore justice is the same with regard to blacks and whites, and that benevolence is due to all.

We cordially recommend this Sermon to the reader: the argument is sound, and there are several fine passages, bursts of noble Christian feeling.

The preacher dedicates his Sermon to his friend and predecessor at More

ton, Mr. Cooper, who is so honourably distinguished in the contest relating to Negro-slavery.

ART. VI.-Christ Crucified. A Sermon, delivered at the Opening of the Unitarian Meeting-House, Todmorden, in the Afternoon of WhitSunday, June 6, 1824. By Wm. Stevens. 12mo. pp. 28. Fox and Co. 8d.

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Na very common topic, Mr. Stevens presents us with a Sermon which exhibits many features of originality. It was delivered at the opening of one of those Chapels in Lancashire which have been reared by the united labours of persons in humble life for the worship of God in simplicity and purity, and is therefore properly controversial. The preacher

Paul was different from the "Christ crucified" of Trinitarians, or the doctrine would not have been a "stumbling-block to the Jews" or "foolishness to the Greeks." He contends that Unitarians alone preach "Christ crucified;" it being the boast of their opponents that, in their system, only one of two natures in Christ was put to death. He points out difficulty upon difficulty, contradiction upon contradiction, in what is styled the "Orthodox" scheme, and proves that the direct evidence of scripture, and all the just conclusions of human reason, are in favour of Unitarianism. But whilst he asserts the supreme glory of the Father, he maintains the due honour of Jesus as the Messiah.

We wish to see the discourse widely circulated. There is a familiarity in some of the phrases and illustrations, occasioned probably by the character of the audience. These can scarcely lessen the value of the discourse in the estimation of any reader, and may recommend it to the majority of the readers of controversial divinity, for whose instruction and edification it is well adapted.

OBITUARY.

1824. July 16, at Bridport, at the advanced age of 83, Mr. WILLIAM FOWLER, a respectable member of the Unitarian congregation in that place, a man not less remarkable for the energies of his mind than the excellence of his character. Born of pious and industrious parents, in the parish of Burstock, Dorset, he received an education adapted to the situation in life for which he was designed, as a manufacturing tradesman. His early years were spent in habits of sobriety and diligence, so as to secure the esteem and confidence of those with whom he was connected; at the same time sedulously improving every favourable opportunity for the cultivation of his mind. With these suitable qualifications he engaged in business for himself, and by the aid of an excellent wife, peculiarly suited to his taste and circumstances, his indefatigable exertions were crowned with signal success. For many successive years the sun of prosperity smiled on his laudable efforts, and he had the happiness to see a numerous family training up with promising talents and amiable dispositions. During this period, though deeply engaged in commercial pursuits, he by no means relaxed in his endeavours after mental and literary attainments; so that his mind, possessed of considerable natural powers, acquired a rich fund of various and extensive knowledge, which manifested itself not only in his general interesting conversation, but also in his written correspondence on a variety of occasions. As a striking proof of the high estimation in which his talents and knowledge were held, when Government stood in need of information on some particular branch of trade and manufacture, his opinion was solicited and duly appreciated by a Committee of the Commons' House of Parliament. A considerable portion of his life thus passed on in honourable exertion and enviable prosperity, beloved by his nearest connexions, and highly esteemed by his neighbours and the pub. lic. But as uninterrupted enjoyment is seldom the lot of even the most deserving of mortals, this bright and pleasant scene was at length obscured by the dark clouds of adversity which began to arise and thicken around him. By a long series of grievous domestic afflictions, and various pecuniary disappointments and losses, his fortitude was painfully tried; and at length to these were added those severe bodily pains and sufferings which greatly embittered his declining years, and which

fully justified him in adopting the mournful lamentation of the suffering Patriarch, "I am made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me." Yet amidst all these trying scenes he was never entirely destitute of seasonable support, nor even of real and substantial enjoyment. Happily for him, his mental faculties, almost to the last, retained much of their wonted vigour, so that he was frequently capable of amusing himself by reading and writing, and derived much consolation from the sympathy of his friends, and more particularly of an affectionate and beloved daughter, who most cheerfully devoted all the hours she could spare from the necessary attention to a numerous family, to soothe his pains and to beguile the tedious hours of his long confinement. He acknowledged himself also greatly refreshed and comforted, by the frequent visits and interesting conversation of his beloved friend and pastor the Rev. T. Howe, who by his rational scriptural views of religion, and by his peculiarly amiable and endearing manner, was admirably qualified to administer support and consolation in seasons of affliction. But his principal anchor, amidst the billows of adversity, was a firm and powerful conviction of the uner. ring wisdom and perfect benevolence of the Divine government, united with a well-grounded and unshaken confidence in the declarations and promises of the gospel, to the evidences and truths of which he had paid particular and habitual attention. Though the writer of this feeble but sincere tribúte of respect to the memory of his esteemed friend, was by change of residence deprived of frequent personal intercourse with him for several of the concluding years of his life, yet the following communication from Mr. Howe's successor in the pastoral office, which he is permitted to transcribe, enables him to state some interesting particulars of the latter days of Mr. Fowler's life.-"During the three years of my acquaintance with Mr. Fowler he was almost constantly in a state of suffering, either bodily or mental. Sometimes, of course, there were intervals of comparative ease, but in general he was subject to acute and long continued pains. In such circumstances it was to be expected, that the conversational powers for which, I believe, he was through life remarkable, would be impaired; and one who, like myself, did not enjoy the advantage of his friendship at an earlier period,

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