Imatges de pàgina
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His physician, Dr. Saravia, perceiving that he was in deep contemplation, and not inclined to converse, asked him, what where his present thoughts? Mr. H. replied, "that he was meditating on the number and nature of angels,* and their blessed obedience and order, without which, peace could not be in heaven! and Oh! that it might be so on earth!" After which he said, "I have lived to see this world is made up of perturbations, and I have been long preparing to leave it, and gathering comfort for the dreadful hour of making my account with God, which I now apprehend to be near. And though I have, by his grace loved him in my youth, and feared him in mine age, and laboured to have a conscience void of offence to him, and to all men; yet if thon, O Lord, be extreme to mark what I have done amiss, who can abide it? And therefore where I have failed, Lord, shew mercy unto me, for I plead not my righteousness, but the forgiveness of my unrighteousness, for his merits, who died to purchase a pardon for penitent sinners. And since I owe thee a death, Lord, let it not be terrible, and then take thine own time, I submit to it let not mine, O Lord, but let thy will be done!"

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"The subject which engaged Mr. Neok. er's dying thoughts, ought cons' a tly to engage our living ones; since in the prayer, composed and delivered to his disciples, by our Lord and Saviour, the obedience of the angels is proposed as a pattern to be imitated by us, as the Copy, after which we should diligently write,"

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With which expression, he fell into a dangerous slumber; dangerous as to his recovery, yet he recovered, but it was only to speak these few words : "Good doctor, God hath heard my daily petitions; for I am at peace with all men ; and he is at peace with me; and from which blessed assurance, I feel that inward joy, which tle world can neither give nor take away from me." More he would have spoken, but his spirits failed him, and after a short conflict betwixt nature and death, a quiet sigh put a period to his last breath, and so he fell asleep.

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The following is his Epitaph, writ

ten by Sir William Cowper, who erected a monument to his memory, in Borne Church, and acknowledges Mr. Hooker to have been his spiritual father. Though nothing can be spoke worthy his fame,

Or the remembrance of that precious name,

Judicious Hooker, though this cost be spent,

On him that hath a lasting monument
In his own books; yet ought we to express,

If not his worth, yet our respectfulness.

Church ceremonies he maintin'd, then why
Without all ceremony, should he die?
Was it because his life and death should be,
Both equal patterns of humility?
Or that perhaps this only glorious one
Was above all, to ask why had h: none?
Yet he that lay so long obscurely low,
Doth now preferr'd to greater honours go.
Ambitious men, learn'd hence to be more wise;
Humility is the true way to rise;
And God in me this lesson did inspire,

To bid this humble man-" Friend, sit up high

er."

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At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, there is a coal pit, which is an hundred and thirty fathoms (780 feet) in Bp. Horn's Surmins. perpendicular depth, and which is

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

VOL. I. No. 3.

R

worked, at that depth, five miles horizontally, quite acrofs, beneath the Tyne, and under the oppofite county of Durham.

In Durham the coal is fo near to the furface of the earth, that wheels of the carriages lay it open to the day, in fuch a quantity, as to be fufficient for the ufe of the neighbourhood, and to become a valuable branch of income.

At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Staffordshire, and in fome parts of Scotland, the frata are chiefly compofed of ftones fit to be applied to the purposes of building. In Yorkshire, throughout the whole district of Richmond, in Shropshire, and Leicefterflire, and in almost the whole of the northern quarter of the island, the coal approaches in its appearance very nearly to bitumen, which has merely fuffered induration

Parkinson's Organick Remains of a former World.

CANDOUR.

With regard to men's principles, we thould always put the

beit conftruction on dubious cafes, and treat thofe as friends to christianity, who are not avowed and declared enemies. By fo doing, we may perhaps fave a perfon from really apoftatizing; his doubts and prejudices may be overcome; and what was wanting in him may be perfected. But if we fuppofe and treat him as an enemy, we take a ready way to make him one, though he were not fuch before. Belide the addition of a new name, efpecially if it be a name of eminence, to the catalogue of infidels frengthens that party, and weakens the faith of many, who build on authority. "He that is not against us, is on our part."

Bp. Herne.

IGNORANCE.

It has been afferted, that "Ignorance is the mother of devoIt tion." It is no fuch thing. is the mother of fuperftition, of bigotry, of fanaticism, of difaffection, of cruelty, and of rebellion. Thefe are its legitimate children. It has never yet produced any other; and never will to the end of the world. And we may lay this down as an inconteftible truth, that a well informed and intelligent people, more particularly a people well acquainted with the facred writings, will always be more orderly, more decent, more humane, more virtuous, more religious, more obedient to their fuperiors, than a people totally devoid of all inftruction and all education.

Charge of Bp. London. 1803.

It is a fact afcertained by the molt diligent and accurate inqui ries, that in the most enlightened parts of Ireland, not above one third part of the people receive any education at all; and throughout the reft of the ifland, learnt their alphabet. not a twentieth part have ever ibid.

For more than twenty years paft, upward of 300,000 children of the poor have been religiously educated in the various charity and Sunday schools in England. ibid

SUBMISSION.

WHEN Mr. Pafchal obferved any of his friends to be afflicted at feeing the fickaefs and pain he underwent, he would fay, "Do not be fo concerned for me. Sickness is the natural state of a chriftian, becaufe by it we are what we ought always to be, in a ftate of fuffering evils, mortified to the pleafures of fenfe, exempt from all thofe paffions which work

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thing fupercilious, harfh, or uncivil. The writer is in earnest, and unruffled; bold and undaunted, yet modeft; learned, without pedantry; faithful to the cause of truth, without facrificing the cause of love. While he exposes the errors and mifreprefentations of Dr. Priestley and his learned difciple, he refpectfully acknowledges their eminent abilities. Without the leaft degree of petulance, he reproves their unfairness; and notices, with christian meekness, their bitter and extravagant reflections upon what he believed eternal truth. Nothing is defigned to degrade their characters. While he piously laments their errors, he addreffes them in the language of veneration and cordial friendship. How can a candid focinian peruse this author, without dreading fuch

an opponent, but wifhing for fuch a friend?

The first letter is thus introduced.

DEAR SIR,

of

The discourse, with a copy which you have politely favoured me, preached on occafion of the death of your venerable friend, the late Rev. Dr. Priestley, must be viewed by the dispaffionate and candid, as an effufion of the heart truly honourable to your character and your friendship. With feelings fuch as the difciples of Socrates poffeffed when they embalmed the memory of their injured mafter, and with talents which would have been worthy of them, you have paid the tribute of dignified and affectionate refpect to your "guide, philofopher, and friend."

After referring to Dr. Priestley, as one who recommended the feizure of every fair occafion for detecting errour and discovering truth, he fays;

Dr. Priestley is dead. May the wrath and rancour of his enemies, for their own fakes, die alfo, and perifh for ever. The prayers and wishes, which pureft

benevolence has often dictated, for a revolution infinitely defirable in his religious fentiments and feelings, are brought to an awful paufe, and their refult is a problem to be refolved only when" we all stand before the judgment feat of Chrift." But, in the facere fpirit of integrity and candour, to examine his publick character, and to investigate the evidence, the tendency, and the value of his fentiments, is now become a duty more incumbent than ever on the lovers of truth.

The charges against calvinism particularly confidered are thefe; namely; that it is a rigorous, gloomy, horrible, and pernicious fyftem, the extravagance of errour, and a mischievous compound of impiety and idolatry.

Every man, (fays our author in reply) who is at all in the habit of attending to controverted questions, must have noticed the facility and promptitude of urging plaufible objections, in comparison with the fedate impartiality, the serious candour, and the patient labour, which are neceffary for the investigation and establishment of many capital truths.

He applies the remark to Mr. Belfham's picture of calvinifm.

I make no charge of intentional mifreprefentation. I doubt not the correspondence of your language with your own conceptions. But I mantain that the caricature which you have sketched is not calvinifm.

After a few obfervations on the fpecifick part of the charge, he fays;

You, my dear fir, have given us your defcription of calvinifm. But I never yet heard of the calvinift, who wou d adopt your statement as his own creed. Glorying in the doctrines of calvinism, though fubmitting to the appellation only as a matter of ufage, I entreat your attention to what we ourfelves, who are

likely to be the best acquainted with our fcriptural, and important, a doctrine according to godliness.

own fentiments, efteem to be true,

Such a fketch he gives in his fecond letter. In this be enters upon no proofs. His object is to fate a fet of principles. The concife and well arranged flatement here made would fuffer by the quotation of any part. The whole does honour to the author's

understanding and heart, and to the God of truth, and deferves the moft ferious perufal. After completing his ftatement of calviniltick principles, he thus concludes the letter;

Thefe, fir, are the principles, which yourself and your late learned friend have reprobated as rigorous and gloomy, and full of borrours, a message of wrath and injuftice, of terrour and defpair, the extrava gance of errour, and a mifchievous compound of impiety and idolatry. I need not say that, to myself, thefe principles appear the voice of God, and the perfection of

reafon, harmony, and moral beauty. But whether, even on your own principles, your defcription is not extravagantly overflepping the bounds of reafon and justice, I appeal, my dear fir, to yourself; I appeal to every candid reader. And from a conviction which, I hope I can truly fay, is not the refult of educational prejudice, of dishonest timidity, or of indolent indifference, I enter a folemn protest against every

particle of your accufations; and, against the whole of your condemnatory charges, I appeal to the RIGHTEOUS AND ETERNAL JUDGE

In letter III. he takes a nearer

view of the fubject, and invites thorough examination. Of calvinifm, he fays;

As for the fact of its truth or falfehood; that is the whole queftion at if. fue between us, and neither afperfions nor eulogiums will ftand for evidence. As an advocate for calvinism, I invite, lintreat examination. Let it be ftrict; let it be rigid; only let it be in the true "Spirit of liberal and judicious criti

cifm," and, which is of ftill more radical importance, in the fpirit of purity and uprightness, a spirit influenced by the love of God and holiness, a fpirit of humility, and a fpirit of prayer. From fuch an examination we have nothing

to fear.

He elucidates the ftrict purity of the calviniftick fyftem in comparifon with the unholy and delufive tendency of the oppofite fcheme. He is not afhamed of acknowledging, that his fyltem fpeaks no peace to the wicked, and folters no hopes of falvation, except fuch as are connected with the prefent influence of habitual and univerfal holiness. This he e teems no fmall part of its purity and glory.

Speaking of that fictitious benevolence, to which focinianifm facrifices the holinefs, truth, and goodness of Deity, he has this pathetick reference to Dr. Priestley's expiring moments.

It grieves me to the heart to reflect that fuch a man as Dr. Priestley, a man, whofe fplendid talents and rare endow ments formed a ground of accountablenefs beyond expreffion awful, in the folemn approaches of death, fhould take shelter in this miferable refuge of

lies.

In letter IV. he examines three charges against calvinifm; impiety, idolatry, and mischievous tendency. Some parts of this examination are excellent.

In letter V. he further vindicates calvinifm from misreprefentation. In the courfe of the letter he notices Dr. Priestley's fhocking cenfure of St. Paul's writings.

In the three laft letters, the controverfy is treated chiefly on the ground of ecclefiaftical hiftory. In thefe letters he ably expofes the unfairnefs of Dr. Priestley's reafoning, and brings into view a number of capital mistakes in his publications. We select the following as a ftriking example.

The doctor has selected Chryfoftom as the father whose evidence is most am

ple in fupport of the opinion, that (the apoftle) John firft taught the divinity of Chrift. "Chryfoftom fays Dr. Prieftley, "reprefents all the preceding writers of the New Teftament, as children; who heard, but did not understand things, and who were bufy about cheese-cakes and childish sports; but John," he says, taught what the angels themfelves did not know before he declared it." At the bottom of the page, Dr. Priestley faithfully tranfcribes the Greek of this paffage; and no one can fay, that his tranflation is materially unfair. fo far as

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goes. The fentence is exactly thus: "All the reft, like little children, hear indeed, yet do not understand what they hear, but are captivated with cakes and childish fports." The omif fion of the claufe "all the reft," (067€ anno Tavre) does not appear of much confequence. The infertion of it would only have led the reader to inquire for the antecedent; and Dr. Pricttley has provided a ready anfwer: "All the preceding writers of the New Teftament." Do me the favour, my dear fir, to take down the volume of Chryfoftom, and turn to the paffage. Will you find the antecedent to this relative claufe to be any "writers of the New Testament,” or any perfon at all connected with the New Teftament? No, fir, will find it

you

to be, the effeminate ond diffipated spellators of athletick games, and the auditors of muficians and oratorical fophifts."

Though our author candidly acquits Dr. Priestley of "intertional mifreprefentation," yet he thinks himself warranted to fay, "that implicit reliance connot be fofer

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