Jesus that you may thus be enabled to contemplate that his tory yourself, in its proper point of view; to find it rational and respectable; to be enamoured of the character of Jesus; to recognize in him the greatest and most venerable benefactor of the human race; and to raise the superstructure of your faith above the reach of the disdain of the scorner, or the shafts of the sceptic.

Be not afraid lest this open avowal should be in any degree derogatory to Jesus Christ, or bring your sacred books into contempt. No; the New Testament will, as it should, remain your manual, and retain that credit which it justly possesses, of being in a certain view the fair original of heavenly truths. Nay, I will rather make its worth still much more ob vious and manifest, by vindicating it against its misinterpreta tions, representing Paul, who appears to many a superficial reasoner, as a real sage, and even reconciling those, who have hitherto slighted the New Testament as an unprofitable book, to its excellent contents.

And thus shall our Lord Jesus not be disparaged, but rather defended against all who have undervalued his character, and incontrovertibly represented as the wisest, noblest, and most honourable of mankind. Only you must not believe that his true greatness rests upon a supernatural extraction, and on signs and wonders. You shall rather see in the sequel, what you might long since have remarked, that a man, who of himself, as man, transpierces the darkness of barbarism and vice, and is one of the wisest and most virtuous of men, possesses incomparably more real greatness, than such a one, who, as it were like a machine, is violently conducted and propelled through all the successive steps and passages of his life to his end by a divine energy.

That I and some others tell you openly and frankly all thisand that on the contrary so many of your parsons, of whose enlightened minds, recondite erudition, gifts, and acquirements, you are fully convinced, say nothing about it-ought by no means to surprize you, or excite your suspicion. That we speak, and they hold their tongues, is consistent in both. We both act by the same aphorism in morals: "every one should, according to his conviction, do as much good in the world as he can do." We both do what according to our conviction is good; and we both do therein as much as we can. This can however is determined by a different principle, in which we likewise both agree. It is thus: if the practice of good in the world should bring thee into danger of disability for practising farther good, thou must immediately cease from it, till the danger is over: unless by the annihilation of thy agency, thou shouldest do the world a service, which would far outweigh that loss."

Do you now perceive the difference, why we frankly declare our convictions, and they conceal by reservation a part of theirs? and how we nevertheless both act upon the same just and proper principles ?

Your sagacious priests (I style them so in contradistinction to the great mass of ignorant careless, so sunk in mind and spirit as to be incapable of thinking for themselves upon religion, or lazy, holy, hirelings) mentally reserve many of their convictions, because in their situation they are in the most imminent danger of annihilating their whole agency for good, were they as openly to promulge them as we do: namely, they would raise their congregation like a hornet's nest about their ears, fall into the hands of their superiors, whose office it is to patronize superstition, and at last be silenced and deprived of their employment. Thus they would be prevented from all possibility of being farther active to the benefit of mankind; and this is obviously a case which renders reservation a duty. For the opportunity, which I have in the world to do good by my talents, and endowments is evidently of greater importance than the benefit that I procure the world by opposing a popu lar error; especially as, in the former case, I certainly promote the interests of mankind, whereas in the latter it is uncertain whether my frank contradiction will be adopted, and the world be really benefited by it.

With our Lord the case was entirely different. He saw with certainty, that his sacrifice would attain its object, defeat the prejudice of a temporal Messiah, and thus procure an opening into the hearts of men to saving truth. It was therefore greatness of soul, combined with wisdom, that determined him to venture his life upon it, and to sacrifice himself to the frank avowal of the truth.

Whereas your preachers can not only not foresee this consequence with certainty, but not even with probability—nay, they have reason to expect, that by a precipitate frankness, they will be incapacitated from being farther active for good. Who then can blame their reservation ?*

It is possible that some individuals of the priestly order may act from this principle: but we would just hint to the writer, that one reason which may induce these men to withhold their convictions is the fear lest their patrons and employers should withhold their pay. There is in Bishopsgate Street a tavern, to which a body of Christians resort once a year, to eat a dinner in support of the unity of the godhead: on the last occasion we are informed that a Clergyman of the church of England was observed performing divine service with his knife and fork, in full communion, at the table of heretics. This man, we understand, is fully convinced of the absurd doctrines of the national religion, and yet continues in the pale of the church, under the idea of being indispensable to the good of his flock, but can it be believed, even by charity itself, that a love of ease or of lucre has no influence in preventing him from declaring himself in an open and honourable manner !-Editor.

of saints or sinners. If I wish to be conveyed safely to a dis tant part of the earth, I will place myself in a strong vessel, navigated by skilful men; and I will set out at a favourable time of the year; this is all I can do: I entertain not the slightest expectation, that the laws of nature will be suspended on my account. The vast machine of the world continues to roll on; and, every day, "men and flies" are crushed beneath its wheels.

And with regard to the second class of facts-I mean those facts the causes of which are less manifest and striking; I believe it would be difficult to point out even any one of these, which an attentive consideration of all the circumstances would not satisfy a candid mind of its immediate connexion with some natural and adequate cause. The argument, on the efficacy of which the advocates for predestination appear chiefly to rely, is drawn from the fact of the sudden conversion of certain individuals from one set of opinions to another. -How else can we explain, say they, a fact which every body allows; namely, that a man shall preach for a whole hour to a crowded assembly, consisting perhaps of 500 people; all so arranged as to hear distinctly every part of the discourse, and listening with the profoundest attention to every sentence of the sermon; and yet, notwithstanding this agreement of circumstances, not more, out of so large a multitude, than one or two shall be converted; that is, shall be persua ded to adopt the opinions of the preacher? This case is confidently appealed to almost every day, as decisive and satisfactory.-Now, to an understanding like mine, accustomed, on all occasions, to look for natural causes, the instance in point involves no difficulty whatever-not even the colour or shadow of an exception to the, general rule. And is it indeed a marvellous thing, that one man shall adopt the opinions of another? Does any thing of this kind ever happen in private company, in courts of justice, or in the House of Commons? And shall men change their views and sentiments in all these places, and yet remain perfectly invulnerable if the scene of discussion happens to be laid in a church or a meeting-house! An accomplished orator, a man who is in complete possession of every avenue that leads to the understanding and to the heart, shall stand up before a numerous congregation, and declaim on the most important and rousing topics-scattering the lightning and the thunders of impassioned eloquence-now, unveiling to the sinner the "sweet fields of Canaan," and its gently-rolling waters"-and now disclosing to his view, in hideous prospect, death, hell, and the judgment to come; and shaking the pale and trembling wretch over a sea of brimstone, whose waves of liquid fire undulate and dash

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amid the infernal rocks ;-and yet, if our orator, with all these arts, with all these engines of persuasion, succeeds in alarming but a single transgressor, why truly his success must be referred immediately to the special influence of the divine spirit!

But it may be demanded, how comes it to pass then that all are not converted, if we exclude spiritual influence, since the same means are evidently employed with respect to all? I reply, precisely because men are differently constituted, and differently educated. And even the same man, we may ob. serve, is, under different circumstances, quite a different being. A recent death in a family, a sudden reduction from wealth to poverty, or a severe illness, commonly affects greatly the individuals concerned, and disposes them to hearken with more seriousness to every thing which comes to them in the shape of advice or consolation.

But here perhaps I shall be reminded, that these occurrences are, in truth, among the very dispensations which a merciful Deity employs to improve the characters of the men in question.-Very good: this is all I contend for. This, in effect, however, is to acknowledge the doctrine of necessity; for it is, virtually, to class the means and instruments of conversion with the settled train of occurrences, and to disavow the authority of predestination or spiritual agency.

Another fact supposed to militate against the doctrine of necessity, is the ordinary succession of our ideas. Persons who have not attended to this subject take it for granted, generally I believe, that this succession is, for the most part, irregular and fortuitous. If such persons, however, will take the trouble to examine with any degree of care the train and connexion of their own thoughts, they will soon find that the succession of their ideas is as much under the controul of physical laws, as any part of matter, even the most familiar to us. The phenomena of dreaming supplies no exception whatever to this representation of things. Dreams, in reality, are nothing but our sleeping thoughts; diversified remarkably, no doubt, by circumstances peculiar to themselves; but still, governed constantly and equally by the operation of

FIXED LAWS.

I conclude, therefore, upon a view of the whole case, that if we apply to the doctrine of predestination the just rules of philosophising, it will appear incontrovertibly, that it is totally void of foundation; and that the doctrine of necessity, as stated and explained in this article, is placed on a firm and immovable basis, and receives additional strength and evidence, in proportion to the accuracy and extensiveness of our research. 1 am, Sir, &c.

Sept. 6, 1812.

ZETA.

But we who are independent on the judgment of any cons gregation, on all charges brought against us by superstitious superiors, protected by the laws of the land, favoured by the liberty of the press, encouraged and summoned by a thousand friends to truth-you might complain of us if we resolved on taciturnity you would justly call us dastards, or sluggards, or traitors to truth, if we, exempt from the peril of destroying our agency, merely for the sake of living at ease, or avoid, ing the scurrility of canting scribblers, or of gaining more by orthodox babble, or on account of our insignificant reputation, should, like such numbers of our ice-cold and selfish philosophers and theologues, betray the cause of truth, by withholding our convictions.

What I have now submitted to the reader, however, has nothing more in view than to settle his notions on certain points, hoping on the one side that the frankness with which I have delivered myself, and shall preserve in what future communications he may expect from me, will not be thought excessive; and on the other side, that from the taciturnity of our intelligent and sagacious clergy, no prejudice may be derived against them.

BARTIMEUS,

CLERICAL LIBERALITY.

To the Editor of the Freethinking Christians' Magazine,

SIR,

A Gentleman of Hackney, who has been blind for several

years, and who belongs to a respectable body of Dissenters, established at that place, was recently in want of a boy, to act as "a guide to his feet, and a light to his path," in his diurnal perambulations through the village. As he usually paid his little attendants liberally for their trouble, he was advised to apply to the master of the Gravel-pit Charity-School, which he accordingly did; and a boy was politely granted him for one day, with an injunction, that, if he wished to retain him longer in his service, he should procure the sanction of the Rev. Doctor W-n, Vicar of the Parish. To this the gentleman assented; but (whether owing to the privation of his visual organs, or to a deficiency of mental light, it may not be easy to determine) he did not foresee, that difference of cast would be considered as a bar to the success of his application. On the following day the gentleman waited on the Reverend Doctor, to solicit an extension of the grant; but, judge of his surprise when he was bluntly told, that "it was truly amazing