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believed came within the compass of his pastoral office. In this view of his duty, as a minister, much of his time was occupied in providing for the comforts and necessities of his parishioners; in difficulty, he afforded them advice, in distress, comfort, in want, pecuniary assistance; nor did be think it unsuitable to his character, to point out to the unskilful and im provident the best modes of improving and enjoying the earnings of their industry.

"His sermons, for several years after his settlement at Primrose, were written and composed with much care, and display great vigour of mind and powers of illustration, which, under favourable circumstances, might have been polished to excellence. But being destined to instruct plain people in a country parish, he soon perceived that such sermons were not fitted to produce their full effect upon his audience. His ambition was to be useful rather than admired, and, therefore, he studied to prepare such discourses as the most illiterate might understand; and, latterly, seldom wrote them out. He did not, at any time, make a practice of reading his sermons in the pulpit, which, indeed, his extreme shortness of sight would have rendered very inconvenient; he thought a short outline better for his purpose; and having adjusted the heads, he preached from careful meditation, making the simplicity of the gospel his model. Conscious of the sanctity of the message which he delivered, he studiously avoided every thing mean or colloquial by which it might be degraded. His delivery was not remarkable for grace or elegance, but there was in every sermon so much sound sense and genuine piety, that they never failed to command attention; and some were highly valued for their just observation and reasoning; particularly one on this text, Seek, that ye may excel to the edifying of the church, which he preached at the induction of Mr. Kelloch, of Crichton, and which, when delivered on other occasions, was

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greatly admired. Among the English divines, he particularly admired the

1 Cor. xiv. 12.

writings of Barrow, Tillotson and Hoadley; among our own, those of Charters had much of his esteem; and, as philosophical divines, Butler and Price were his favourites. As an author, he was extremely fastidious, being well aware that no published work can succeed unless of the first excellence. The only composition of his, to which publicity has been given, is the Account of the Parish of Cairnton, printed in the Statistical Account of Scotland, and often quoted with approbation, for its enlightened and solid remarks."

"No one entertained a higher value, or a more ardent love, for civil and religious liberty, than Mr. Fleming. He mentioned to some of his intimate friends, that he felt this disposition strongly from his earliest recollection; and he believed that it was cherished, in a great degree, from hearing, in his infancy, that his great-grandfather had suffered death as a Covenanter, under the arbitrary reign of the Stuarts.+ This feeling increased with his years, and inspired him with a hatred of arbitrary power, which he never failed to reprobate, on every occasion where he saw the slightest desire to stretch the law, at the expense of justice or humanity.

"While Mr. Fleming resided at Primrose, that remarkable event, the French Revolution, was too intimately connected with the principles which he had imbibed, not to excite in him the deepest interest; and when, by the Constitution which the King accepted in 1789, the French nation seemed likely to enjoy a portion of rational liberty, he heartily rejoiced in it; but was indeed mortified that they had not wisdom to retain that constitution, and shocked at the excesses committed by the anarchists during the

"On Preparation for Death: a Sermon preached at Colinton on the 2d February, being the first Sabbath after the interment of the Rev. John Fleming, late Minister of that parish; with a short MeMinister of Corstorphine. Edinburgh. moir of the deceased. By D. Scot, M. D., 1823."

+"While in health, Mr. Fleming used to give an annual dinner to his most intimate friends, in honour of his ances tor."

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Usaid Whether your Lordship's g intention shall ever be realized, like every future event, depends upon contingencies, many of which are beyond the reach of ever may be the event, I trust the kindhuinan foresight or controul. But whatness and generosity of your Lordship's intention shall always be sufficient to keep in my mind a just sense of the obligation, and lead to an independence and propriety of conduct which will shew that your Lordship's favour has not been entirely misplaced.ro od

Mr. Fleming had previously to this been offered two other livings in the Church, which he did not accept. We have reason to believe, that at first he was not very cordially received by his parishioners at Colinton; but the real worth of his character was soon discovered, and during the remainder of his life, he enjoyed their full regard and esteem. He thought that he could never serve God better than when doing good to men, and continued to make himself useful to his parishioners as a friend and adviser in their secular affairs, as well as in religion and morality. Being a scholar by education and taste, and a man of business by habit, he was a fit companion for men in all ranks of

Our cellent friend, MD and from the natural frankness

Gibson, has sent me your Lordship's letter to him, dated 26th of last mouth, The quaintness of compliment is suited

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on Athanasians.

"Quis tulerit Gracchos de Seditione

SIR,

querentes ?"

after his particular friends had each The Charge of Presumption retorted selected a book as a token of remembrance. He died unmarried. In his person he was bulky, rather than muscular; his features were large, and strongly marked; * and his countenance, especially when any friend all the charges made against Unitarianism by Orthodoxy, I addressed him, indicated at once the know not any that comes with so ill a sense and benevolence of the indivi- grace, as that capital one commonly dual. His manner in private society, preferred against her, of not approachthough plain, was manly and engaging the divine oracles in a spirit of ing; he knew what was due to others, comparative humility. Athanasianism as well as to himself, and neither con- is, I will not say, the creed of human ceded nor demanded more. He en- reason, but it is emphatically the creed joyed an equanimity of temper, and a of human reasoning. In ratiocination flow of good spirits, which rendered (such as it is) did it originate, and by him at all times social and cheerful. ratiocination (such as it is) only can it be maintained. Its patrons plead, that Christ is called God in the Scriptures; that the titles and attributes of God are repeatedly assigned to him; that he has, in so many words, identified himself with the Supreme Being, and that St. Paul hesitates not to speak of him as a Op. On the other hand they admit, (how could they indeed deny?) that the Son invariably proclaims his inferiority to the Father; his entire dependence upon him; his absolute impotency without him, and but for him; his ignorance of the "day and hour" of final judgment; his want of authority to dispose of the higher places in his kingdom, &c.; and that St. Paul as categorically affirms that, at the consummation of his mediatorial office, when he is to resign the kingdom into the hands of his heavenly Father, he is to be subject to him that did put all things under him, that God (the Father) may be all in all. Now here is a puzzle undoubtedly, but only to a reasoner. A "prostration of the understanding" would teach, what? that, as Dr. Carpenter says of the doctrines of Liberty and Necessity, they are both true, though he cannot understand how they should be; that the Son is an emanation from the Father, like him God, still deriving his Being from him, the creature of his will, the dependent on his power, one with him only by unlimited and complete subjection, the delegate, not copartner of his jurisdiction, the image, not counterpart of his person, cognizant only of what he is pleased to reveal, powerless beyond what he is pleased to impart, circumscribed as to know

"His character, in two particulars, was well expressed in his own words, -that he was a Presbyterian in his religion, and a Republican in his politics. He thought with Milton, that the trappings of a monarchy were sufficient to set up an ordinary commonwealth; a sentiment to which he was fond of recurring, and which was frequently the occasion of a good-humoured banter among his friends. But while his affection to the Presbyterian Church was not of an exclusive or bigoted description, so his republican principles were not adopted from passion, or a restless impatience of superiors, but on a conviction of their truth and utility, and because he thought that this form of government was best adapted to the general wel fare, and gave a freer scope to the exertions of merit. He entertained a high veneration for the characters of Washington and Fox. He thought, truly, that the fame which the former had acquired, as the founder of the independence and freedom of America, was far greater than the laurels which accompany the mere victories of a successful general. He revered the memory of the latter, as the universal friend of humanity, and the firm and fearless champion of British liberty.

*"At the desire of some friends, he sat for his picture to Watson, about ten years ago. It is in the possession of David Wardlaw, Esq., and a good engraving has been executed from it, by Mr. Young, of London."

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them substitute a new nomenclature for the fundamental articles of the faith, and many of them compel every candidate for the ministry within the pale of their respective sects, to subscribe as a sine quâ non of admission into it, a creed drawn up in unscriptural language, while their Bibles are just then suffered to sleep on their shelves, as books of remote appeal, of occasional referénce!!! Othe mote in a brother's eye, the beam in our own!

SIR,

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1. CLERICUS.

High Holborn.

in his an ob

ledge, finite as to authority. But this degree of "docility" does not suit our theologians. No. The Logos God, and not all that God himself is!" exclaim our logicians. This can never be. The Father and the Son they must be then two persons, ceo. There can be no degrees in infinite. The aroyavaja ryg EEŋs and the diŋ itself must be com mensurate. The yapaкTyp Tas voor Taσews and the crack of which it is the xapartmp, must be in every re spect identical. The being a Cip,TM must be the being og Op. But if the Son be an equal person with the Fa ther, q. e. d. all that is sacriority is Y Hinton thy correspondent, Mrinferiority, though that inferiority is expressly predicated of the Son injection of mine to a paper of his on terms, must be, somehow or other, explained away. Accordingly, one of our dialectricians qualifies it by the supplementary phrase "as touching his manhood?" another refers it to his mediatorial office: a third discovers that when the Son says "he does not know," he means, that he is not pleased to disclose what he does know: a fourth, that when the Son interdicts petition to himself, and says that even upon the occasion of an address to his Father, his intercession were a work of supererogation, for that as believers on him their petitions to God would be granted as a matter of course; he only intends to say, that they are not in future to put impertinent questions to him, for that prayer, direct and ultimate prayer, is always to be offered to the Son as well as to the Father, and that instead of making use of his name only, or presuming on its mediety in their behalf, they are to prefer one petition after another by the half hour together to him alone, and kar' soxy, as if he were the sole or supreme dispenser of spiritual and temporal blessings to his disciples. Now all this may be very sound and conclusive reasoning; but reasoning it is, and that as latitudinarian as possible, in the teeth of as catégorical averment as ever fell from the lips of inspiration. And are these then the men who talk of "questioning rather than learning"? In good truth are they, though in pursuance and "confirmation strong" of their unique adherence to the litera scripta of holy writ, its ipsissima verba, many of

the Origin of Evil, admits, (p. 529,) that on his theory it is impossible "any created intelligence can exist without some portion of evil," even in heaven itself; that not only all creation, but that all happiness is necessarily inseparable from evil.” This reasoning may be allowed to be conclusive as to this world. But how can it apply to a future state, to “a new world," of which we know no thing, but which we are assured will be altogether different from the present? The argument from what God can do, and what he cannot do, is scarcely becoming such frail and ignorant creatures as we are, for the least flaw in our conception and argument destroys our conclusion. "We know but in part, we see through a glass darkly." Can any Christian so safely and confidently rely on the soundness of his metaphysical abstractions and conclusions, as to place them in oppos sition to the plain language of scripture? What may be true of this state may not be true of the future; and what may apply justly to man here, who is a bundle of passions, feelings, and affections, of low, earthy origin and tendency, may not apply to a "spiritual body," clothed with immortality. No one will hesitate to admit that all created beings, however perfect and exalted, must ever remain finite and at an immeasurable distance from the peerless glory and excellence of their Creator. But the question is not whether man will ever possess infinity and absolute perfection, but whether the Deity can place

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