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The chamber where the good man meets his fate,

Is privileg'd beyond the common walk

of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heaven.
Fly ye profane! if not, draw near with awe,
Receive the blessing, and adore the chance
That threw in this Bethesda your disease;
If unrestor'd by this, despair your cure."

Young
His physician, Dr. Saravia, per-
ceiving that he was in deep con-
templation, and not inclined to con-
verse, 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 con-
science void of offence to him,
and to all men; yet if thou, 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 unright-
cousness, 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!"

"The subject which engaged Mr. Hooker's dying thoughts, ought consta itly 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," "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

With which expression, he fell
into a dangerous slumber; danger-
ous as to his recovery, yet he re-
covered, 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 the
world can neither give nor take
away from me." More he would
have spoken, but his spirits failed
him, and after a short conflict be-
twixt nature and death, a quiet
sigh put a period to his last breath,
and so he fell asleep.

The following is his Epitaph, writ-
ten by Sir William Cowper, who
erected a monument to his memo-
ry, in Borne Church, and ac-
knowledges Mr. Hooker to have
Though nothing can be spoke worthy his fame,
been his spiritual father.
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 maint in'd, then why
Without all ceremony, should he die?
Was it because his life and death should be,
Both equal patterns. "humility?

or that perhaps this only glorious one
Was above all, to ask why had he 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."

A faithful abridgment of the books of Ecclesiastical polity, and works of Mr. Hooker, in eight of all his other treatises, with an account of his life; by a divine of the church of England, was pub

lished in London, 1705.

Walton's Lives.

FRAGMENTS.

At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, there is a coal pit, which is an hundred and thirty fathoms (780 feet) in Bp. Horne's Sermons. perpendicular depth, and which is 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 ftrata are chiefly composed of ftones fit to be applied to the purposes of building. In Yorkshire, throughout the whole district of Richmond, in Shropshire, and Leicestershire, 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.

Parkinfon's Organick Remains of a former World.

CANDOUR.

With regard to men's principles, we fhould always put the belt 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. Befide the addition of a new name, especially if it be a name of eminence, to the catalogue of infidels ftrengthens that party, and weakens the faith of many, who build on authority." He that is not against us, is on our part."

IGNORANGE.

"Ig

IT has been afferted, that "' norance is the mother of devotion." It is no fuch thing. It 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 ascertained 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 island, 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 fickness and pain he underwent, he would fay, "Do not be fo concerned for me. Sicknefs is the natural ftate of a chriftian; because by it we are what we ought always to be, in a ftate of fuffering evils, mortified to the pleasures of fenfe, exempt Bp. Horne. from all thofe paffions which work

upon us as long as we live, free from ambition or avarice, and in a conftant expectation of death. And is it not a great happiness, to be by neceffity in the ftate one ought to be in, and to have nothing elfe to do but humbly and peaceably to submit to it?" This is a noble, a juft, a comfortable fpeculation.

INTERESTING ANECDOTE of the
CELEBRATED Bishop Butler.

WHEN his Lordship lay on his dying bed, he called for his chaplain and faid, "Though I have endeavoured to avoid fin and to please God to the utmost of my power, yet, from the conscioufnefs of perpetual infirmities, I am ftill afraid to die." 66 My Lord," faid the chaplain, "You havę

forgotten that Jefus Chrift is a Saviour." "True," was the anfwer, "but how fhall I know he is a Saviour for me?" "My Lord," it is written, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wife caft out." "True," said the Bishop; "and I am furprised, that, though I have read that scripture a thoufand times over, I never felt its virtue till this moment; and now I die happy.

VOLTAIRE.

Montefquieu faid of Voltaire, "Lorfque Voltaire lit un livre, il le fait, puis il ecrit contre ce qui l'a fait." "When Voltaire reads a book, he makes it what he pleases, and then writes against, what he has made it."

Review of New Publications.

Letters to the Rev. THOMAS BELSHAM, on fome important fubjects of theological difcuffion, referred to in bis difcourfe on occafion of the death of the Rev. JOSEPH PRIEST LEY, L. L. D. F. R. S. &c. By JOHN PYE SMITH. Printed by Biggs and Co. London, 1804 131 pp. 8vo.

THE defign of these eight letters is very important, and their publication very feasonable. The fubjects are altogether controverfial. The manner, in which they are treated, displays a rare combination of excellencies. The author fhows himself poffeffed of qualifications, which we always wish, but often wifh in vain, to find in the difputant. The reader of these letters is not difgufted with any thing conceited, narrow, or grovelling, nor offended with any

yet

thing fupercilious, harsh, or unciv il. 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 fuck

an opponent, but wishing for fuch a friend?

The first letter is thus introduced.
DEAR SIR,

The difcourfe, with a copy of

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 dispasfionate 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 master, 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.”

as

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

Dr. Priestley is dead. May the wrath and rancour of his enemies, for their own lakes, die alfo, and perish for ever. The prayers and wishes, which purest 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 fincere 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 fyf tem, the extravagance of errour, and a mifchievous compound of impiety and idolatry.

Every man, (fays our author in reply) who is at all in the habit of attending to controverted queftions, must have noticed the facility and promptitude of urge ing plaufible objections, in comparison with the fedate impartiality, the ferious 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 mif, representation. I doubt not the corres pondence of your language with your

own conceptions. But I maintain that the caricature which you have sketched is not calvinifm.

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

You, my dear fir, have given us your defcription of calvinifm. But I never yet heard of the calvinist, 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 ourselves, who are

likely to be the best acquainted with our own fentiments, efteem to be true, cording to godliness. fcriptural, and important, a doctrine ac

Such a sketch he gives in his fecond letter. In this be enters upon no proofs. His object is to state a fet of principles. The concife and well arranged statement 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 most serious perufal. After completing his statement 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 barrours, a message of wrath and injustice, of terrour and defpair, the extrava gance of errour, and a mischievous compound of impiety and idolatry. I need not fay that, to myfelf, thefe principles appear reafon, harmony, and moral beauty. the voice of God, and the perfection of But whether, even on your own principles, your defcription is not extrava gantly overftepping the bounds of reafon and juftice, I appeal, my dear fir, to yourself; I appeal to every candid reader. And from a conviction which,! hope I can truly fay, is not the refult of educational prejudice, of dishonest ti midity, 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 falfe

hood; that is the whole queftion at iffüe between us and neither afperfions nor eulogiums will ftand for evidence. As an advocate for calvinifm, I invite, I intreat examination. Let it be strict; let it be rigid; only let it be in the true Spirit of liberal and judicious criti

çilm," and, which is of still more radical importance, in the fpirit of purity and uprightness, a fpirit 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 comparison with the unholy and delufive tendency of the oppofite fcheme. He is not afhamed of acknowledging, that his fyftem fpeaks no peace to the wicked, and fofters no hopes of falvation, except fuch as are connected with the prefent influence of habitual and univerfal bolinefs. This he el 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 expreflion awful, in the folemn approaches of death, should take fhelter in this miferable refuge of lies.

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

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

In the three laft letters, the controversy is treated chiefly on the ground of ecclefiaftical hiftory. In thefe letters he ably exposes the unfairness of Dr. Priestley's reafoning, and brings into view a number of capital mistakes in his publications. We feled the fol lowing as a ftriking example.

The doctor has selected Chryfoftom as the father whole evidence is most ample in fupport of the opinion, that (the apoftle) John first taught the divinity of Chrift. "Chryfoftom" fays Dr. Priestley, "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 themselves 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 it goes. The fentence is exactly thus: "All the reft, like little children, hear indeed, yet do not understand what cakes and childish fports." The omifthey hear, but are captivated with fion of the claufe "all the reft," ('ye αλλοι παντες) does not appear of much confequence. The infertion of it would only have led the reader to inquire for provided a ready anfwer: "All the prethe antecedent; and Dr. Priestley has ceding 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 clause to be any "writers of the New Teftament," or any perfon at all connected with the New Teftament? No, fir, you will find it to be, the effeminate and diffipated spectators of athletick games, and the auditors of musscians and oratorical fophifts."

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

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