adequate support and countenance; on the contrary, they will exert themselves to improve its present flourishing state. It is an Institution eminently well calculated for the education of the gentleman and the divine. The business of the Lancashire and Cheshire Book and Tract Socity was transacted the following morning. The state of its finances is flourshing, and there is a prospect of its proving very useful in promoting its object-The knowledge of christian truth and the practice of virtue. W. J. MONTHLY RETROSPECT OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS; OR, The Christian's Survey of the Political World. When Greece had obtained that superiority over her neighbours, which has been so much celebrated in the literary world, all the nations around her were held in sovereign contempt. It was for gotten in what abject state this country lay a few centuries before; and it was not anticipated that the descendants of these giants in literature, science and politics, would become the most abject and despicable slaves, unmindful of the fame of their anestors, and incapable of manly exertion, This is no uncommon error, each nation in its turn embraces a similar feeling of contempt for those who are less distinguished, or less favoured by circumstances, calculated to improve our species. In our days it has been gravely discussed, whether the Blacks are not of an inferior race to ourselves; and it has been argued, that natare designed them to be slaves to the Whites; that is, that the God of Nature had distinguished the sons of Adam into two classes, and that one part of the family should inherently possess the right of maltreating the other part at its pleasure. Where, it was contended, are to be found say proofs of inanly intellect under a black skin? Their minds are low and grovelling, and their bodies to be inured to labour only under the lash of the task-master? How could it be otherwise, when all the avenues to knowledge were shut up to them; all the rewards of individual exertion were denied to them? The experience of the last ten years is worth more than folios of controversy. We have seen the Blacks in a different situation. They have broken their chains. They have asserted their rights. They have indeed committed murders and massacres; but in these acts of cruelty and barbarity, they have only followed at a humble distance the example of their White and more civilized brethren, The splendour of a court, the gorgeous parade of the prince; the magnificent address, the pride of rank, the diss play of shews, distinguish the mansions of white royalty: how easily this is to be done, and how fit the sable sovereigns are to vie with their brethren, has been seen in the court of the sovereign of Hayti. There remains another kind of comparison, and in this the sable court does not appear These to be at all inferior to any of those which This reflection may be of use in the present times, when writers are so fond of feeding the pride and vanity of this nation, by displays of the greatness of its dominion, the strength of its navy, the num ber of its towns, the splendour of its wealth, the superiority of its skill in arts and manufactures. A volume has been lately published, in which all these things are brought under the nicest rules of calculation, and in reading the details of our greatness, we cannot but reflect on the message of the prophet to Hezekiah, after he had entertained the embassadors from Babylon. The true question on the situation of states is the use they have made of the advantages they have enjoyed; and here we shall, perhaps, find more cause for humility than pride. Great Brtiain, by the reformation, was placed in a more favourable situation than the Catholic coun 76 Mr. Cogan's illustration of Phil. ii. 6, from Heliodorus. character; yet, strange to tell, these cringing attitudes have been a successful mean of operating on the imaginations of the ignorant a belief of their sanctity. I am happy in the conviction that no pretensions of this, or any other sort, will reconcile the people of France to the restoration of tithes or ecclesiastical domination. There are some particulars in the habits and customs of the French in common life, which an Englishman would hardly tolerate after three apprenticeships. For instance, The habit of spitting up and down their houses and churches, not confined to the gentlemen. The abominable custom of cheapening every article in dealing. Their Voitures, waggon-diligences, and their carriages in general; with all their harness and trappings. Their prodigious saddles, and bridles, and boots. The Cabinets d'aisance; and, in some places, the utter want of them. The streets, without flag causeways The stench of their populous towns, particularly in the South, for want of a cleanly police. The frequent discharge from the windows. The sabots, or wooden shoes. The ceremony at meeting and parting---a little overdone. The perfect abruptness with which domestics, male, or female, enter you chamber on all occasions. Their long meals, and countless dishes. The lean mutton of 6 lb. per quarter; and the leanness of the meat in general. Cards and billiards all day long, for want of better employment. The paucity and extreme barrenness of journals, from a restrained press. The immense standing army, and the increasing number of priests. The two last items are somewhat out of catalogue; but they deserve a place somewhere. There are also a few circumstances English. and habits in which they excel the Their drinking no healths, and their temperance in general. Neatness in their linen, of every description. Their great propriety of manners, ranks, but most remarkable in the and general politeness; including all lowest. condition of their unmutilated horses, The good treatment and excellent of every sort. health of the women. The activity and consequent good The superior condition of the labouring class; and, as a set-off against some political grievances, exemption from tithes, poor-rates; and, in coinparison, from taxes. MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. was SIR, Higham Hill, Feb 1, 1815. OOKING the other day into the Evangelical Magazine, I struck with the following passage in the Review of Dr. Williams's Essay on the Equity of the Divine Government and the Sovereignty of Divine Grace. "Interminable misery is the natural and spontaneous effect of sin, unless God should interfere by a sovereign act to cut off the entail; which he is in no respect whatever bound to do If in any instance he do so interfere, he acts as a munificent sovereign: if he decline so to interfere, he acts in equity, he does no wrong to any." On this paragraph I immediately wrote the following observations, which if you conceive them to be worth inserting in your Repository, are very much at your service. Interminable misery is the natural and spontaneous effect of sin." As this is by no means a self-evident truth, I am at liberty to call it in question. I then deny that there are any data from which this conclusion can be drawn. It has, however, been said that sin is an infinite evil, because it is committed against an infinite Being, and therefore deserves a punishment infinite in duration. this I reply, that it is at least as reasonable to measure the evil of sin by the attributes of the being who commits it as by those of the being against whom it is committed. I will thereforc venture to confront this axiom with another. Sin is not an infinite evil, because it is committed by a finite being, and therefore does not Το deserve interminable punishment. But leaving these axioms to their fate, I proceed to observe that as sin, according to the Calvinistic hypothesis, is the necessary result of a nature totally corrupt, with which corrupt nature, we certainly did not endow ourselves, it does not deserve interminable misery; and were interminable misery to follow it, it must be by an arbitrary appointment, the injustice and cruelty of which would be commensurate to the suffering inflicted. Nor would the wretch who should be doomed to sustain this eternity of woe, be disposed to think his sentence a whit more equitable, when reminded, that he “sinned in Adam and fell with him in his first transgression." But we are told that "if God in any instance remit the punishment he acts as a munificent Sovereign; if he decline so to interpose he acts in equity, he does no wrong to any." No wrong? Does he sustain no wrong who is brought into existence with a nature radically depraved, and then made eternally miserable for being such? It may not be out of place to state here, that according to Dr. Williams's system, as represented by the reviewer, all the divine dispensations are the results of two great moral faculties in the Supreme Governor, equity and sovereignty. With what propriety sovereignty can be represented as a moral faculty I am altogether unable to comprehend. Goodness I can understand, and unless my memory fails me, the Assembly's Catechism taught me when a child that God possesses this attribute in an infinite degree. Premising that I mean no reflection either on the understanding or the sincerity of Dr. Williams, I must be permitted to remark, that infinite goodness will be wisely kept out of sight by those who contend that the greater part of mankind will suffer eternally for that which they could not help, and over which they possess no controul. For it might unfortunately be asked, How comes it to pass that equity should so triumph over benevolence, how comes it to pass that a Being who is acknowledged to be infinitely good should treat the majority of his human offspring as he would do were he infiaitely malevolent, and doom them to as much misery as the grand enemy of the human race is supposed to wish them? When I had read the paragraph on which I have been animadverting, I thought the Dr. had proceeded far enough, but the Reviewer wishes that he had proceeded still farther, and stated "the scriptural doctrine of the punishment of sin as not merely negative, but as including also positive infliction on the score of retributive justice." The reviewer, it seems, is not satisfied with interminable misery as the consequence of sin. What farther his imagination has destined for mankind I am not able to divine nor anxious to be informed. But that retributive justice should demand the infliction alluded to is a paradox which the human intellect must ever despair of being able to solve. Strange that system should so blind the understanding of men in other respects intelligent that the very terms which they employ to express their dogmas should carry their refutation with them! It is certainly as impolitic to name justice in this matter as it is wise not to to say too much of the attribute of goodness. What must be the definition of justice by which it can be shewn to be just, that a creature, who, born with a corrupt nature must inevitably fall into sin, should be rendered eternally miserable by the Being who made him what he is; or by what definition of justice can it be proved, that God would have been unjust either to us or to himself, had the infinite satisfaction of Jesus Christ been accepted in behalf of all mankind? I know it has been said that the torments of the damned are to be an eternal monument of the immaculate holiness of the Divine Nature. This is changing the ground, but not to my mind, changing it for the better. The Deity is thus represented as giving birth to a race of impure beings, that their eternal sufferings may be a demonstration of his purity. And a matchless demonstration it undoubtedly is. Who would have thought that infinite holiness should not be distinguishable in its operation from infinite malevolence, or that the moral perfection of God should be the grand source of misery to his creatures! If I have committed an error in wandering from verbal criticism to controversial theology, I will endeavour to make some amends by returning to my proper department. I am not aware that the following passages 64 New Theological Publications. there a reason why the landlord should not diminish his rents, and is not the interest of the consumer to be considered as well as that of the grower? The question was tried in a part of Wiltshire in an extraordinary manner, when a meeting was holden to petition the legislature on the subject, and the landholders who called it, very injudiciously introduced into their petition the interest of the tradesman, the manufacturer and the labourer, which very early in the debate appeared to be untenable ground, and the interests of the growers was only retained. But even with this emendation the landholders' point was not carried, for one, who seemed to have entered more deeply into the question than the others, put some close questions on the increase of rents relatively to the price of labour, which proved clearly that more things were to be taken into consideration than the landholders imagined, and several of great property declaring themselves adverse to the petition, the meeting broke up to the entire confusion of those who had called it. In fact, the real interest of no one class in the community is to be sacrificed to the emolument of another. The growers of corn have possessed great advantages, but it does not follow that they are to remain for ever the same. They must expect in common with the others good and bad years, and it will be for the interest of the proprietors of land to let the whole community participate in the advantages to be expected from peace. NEW THEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. An Examination of the supposed Scripture Proof of the Doctrines of the Trinity, and of the Deity of Jesus Christ: With an Answer to the principal Objections of Trinitarians to the Unitarian Doctrine and its Professors. By the same. 12mo. 2s. [This Pamphlet is a separate publication of the Appendix to the Plain View.] A Vindication of the General Baptists, from some Aspersions cast upon them in the Letters published by the Rev. Joseph Ivimey, respecting the Catholic Claims: An Address at the General Baptist MeetingHouse, Portsmouth. By A Member (Not a Minister). 12mo. A Practical Illustration of the Christian System, shewing its Reasonableness and Moral Excellence; chiefly designed for the Consideration of Young People, and intended as a Preservative from Scepticism, Indifference and Credulity. By the Rev. T. Finch, Minister of Salem Chapel, Lynn. 8vo. The Scripture Account of the Attributes and Worship of God, and of the Character and Offices of Jesus Christ. By Hopton Haynes, with a Biographical Sketch of the Author, 4th edition 12mo. 5s. A Sermon, on the Use of Reason in Religion, Preached at George's Meeting, Exeter, Dec. 18th 1814. By James Manning, 8vo. 1s. A Letter to the Bishop of St. David's, on some extraordinary Passages in a charge delivered to the Clergy of his Diocese, in Sept. 1813. By A Lay Seceder. 8vo. 1s. The Progress of Intellectual, Moral and Religions Improvement---a Discourse before the Unitarian Society, at Essex Street Chapel, March 31. 1814 with an Appendix containing a Summary Review of the Bishop of St. David's Memorial, By Thomas Belsham. 8vo. 5s. Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God. A Discourse before the Southern Unitarian Society. By James Gilchrist, 12mo. ERRATA AND ADDENDA IN VOL. IX. P. 771. col. ii. line 2, for " Petminster" read Pitminster. 776, Note. At the end, add---Geddes was afterwards so dissatisfied with the term skip-offering that he wished another to be substituted for it. Memoirs of him by Good. 344, 355 (Note). 778. col. i. line 20, from the top, after the word "modest" place a note of admiration. 780. col. ii. line 2, from the top, for "Zenophon" read Xenophon. 784. col. ii. line 16, from the bottom, for "precision" read precision. 787. col. i. line 21, from the top, place the inverted commas before the words, The Christian Hebrews, &c. TH peut désirer plus de chaleur et d'imagination, en offriroient peut-être davantage, si elle ecrivoit dans un autre pays." Archives Litteraires de l'Europe. Paris, No. 30. June 1806. Most of your readers will, I am persuaded, disapprove the historian's assumption of male superiority in his au dessus du sexe, and demur to the critic's exceptions, at the expence of our country. R. B. On two Natures in the Person of Christ. T was gravely said by some of the "That the schoolmen were the astronomers which did feign eccentricities and epicycles and such engines of orbs, to save the phenomena, though they knew there were no such things: and in like manner, that the schoolmen had framed a number of subtile and intricate axioms and theorems to save the practice of the church." The distinction of two natures in the person of Christ was invented to save the doctrine of his deity, being one of those subtleties, by means of which the same propositions may be affirmed and denied at pleasure. It will be always found, however, that such subtle distinctions rest on equivocal terms, and that we have only to detect the equivocation of the terms, to prove the absurdity of the meaning, or the absence of all meaning. SIR, Jan. 29, 1815. THERE are, I believe, scarcely any biographers of Lady Jane Grey who have not quoted the interesting description of her talents and occupations by Ascham, in his ScholeMaster, 8vo. 1743 (p. 37). I lately read another tribute to her memory, which I have never seen quoted, though well-worthy of accompanying her affecting story, especially as offered by one who was an enemy to her Protestant faith. The writer to whom I refer is the learned jesuit, Father Orleans. In his Histoire des Revolutions D' Angleterre, Lib. 8. 4to. ii. 450, describ-prelates at the Council of Trent, ing the political intrigues of Northumberland, he adds, “La plus grande opposition qu'il y trouva, fut de la part de sa belle-fille. Jeanne Gray, qui servit d'actrice à la nouvelle scene que TAngleterre douna à l'Europe en cette occasion, refusa long-temps le personage que son beau-pere la pressa de representer. Toute jeune qu'elle etoit elle etoit solide, et voyoit bien le ridicule du role qu'elle alloit jouer. D'ailleurs elle avoit l'esprit philosophique, et naturellement moderé, aimant mieux etre particuliere in repos, que Reine dans le tumulte. A la religion prés, c'etoit une femme accomplie, ayant meme, au dessus du sexe, assez de connoissance des bonnes lettres pour faire un bonnette homme scavant. Elle se défendit autant qu'elle pût du mauvais pas qu'on lui fit faire. Sa famille l'y obligea. Elle se laissa proclamer Reine dans la Capitale et aux environs, et en receut les honneurs de si bonne grace, que l'on ne pouvoit s'empecher de souhaiter qu'elle y eut plus de droit." Now I am quoting the language of our neighbours, I hope not soon again to become our enemies, give me leave to close this paper with a short character, by one of their critics, of an English poetess, who has long adorned, and I trust may yet much longer adorn, that private station, the nurse of talent and the guard of virtue, which the transient Queen Jane wisely preferred to royalty. The anthor of Des Romans, et des Femmes Anglaises qui cultivent les Lettres, says, "Parmi les femmes poëtes Anglaises qui sont nos contemporaines, la première place est due, sans doute, à Mistriss B-d, qui joint une connoissance approfondie de l'art et une tendance trés morale à une veritable talent. Ses ouvrages, où l'on The terms Nature and Person are employed equivocally by Trinitarians: at one time they argue that there are three persons in one nature; at another that there are two natures in one person. In the one instance, the nature is the whole that comprehends the parts called persons. Each of the ternis is made to extend and contract, so as to be both the greater and the lesser; both that which comprehends and that which is comprehended; or in other words, both contents and container, the whole and parts of the whole. There are three persons (it is said) in the divine nature, or in the one God; and again, there are two natures in the oue person of Christ. Now as a whole must be greater than any one of its parts, the person of Jesus must be not only greater than that part called the human nature, but also that part called the divine, for it is supposed to comprehend both, or to consist of both. |