( 576 ) REVIEW. "Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame."-POPE. ART. 1.-A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of London at the Primary Visitation of that Diocese in the year 1814. By William, Lord Bishop of London. 4to. pp. 24. Payne and Foss. 1814. HE Bishop of London's Charge it is in a style of stateliness which al ways approaches and sometimes rises into eloquence but we cannot compliment his lordship or congratulate our readers upon the spirit which it breathes. We have not indeed to accuse the bishop of grossness of language or vulgarity of manner; our complaint is of a more serious nature that, insensible to the character of the times, he asserts claims on behalf of the church and the priesthood which have been long exploded, as inconsistent with common sense, civil liberty, and, above all, evangelical simplicity and truth. The prelate opens his charge with an elegant eulogium upon his predeDr. cessor in the see of London. Randolph was known to be a high churchman, and the following sentence shews that the present bishop inherits the same character: "From the period of his first entrance on the higher departments of the Church ho opposed a determined resistance to the spurious liberality, which in the vain desire of conciliation increases division and multiplies heresy, by palliating the guilt of schism, or by diminishing the number and undervaluing the importance of doctrines essential to Christianity." P. 1. con We suppose that the Bishop here refers to the "liberality" and " ciliation" proposed and certainly exhibited in the Bible Society. Who can help lamenting that a Christian bishop should refer to such an institution in such a manner? "The guilt of schism," too, is a phrase which, unexplained, is little suitable to a Protestant minister. The schism effected by the Reformation constitutes the true glory of that splendid æra. In the course of his panegyric, the Bishop also praises his predecessor for "his endeavour to replace ecclesiastical discipline on its ancient footing, to recover the rights and assert the legitimate authority of the Spiritual Governor." P. 2. This is lofty language. We know not what measures the late Bishop was taking to "replace ecclesiastical discipline on its ancient footing," and to "recover the rights and assert the authority of the whether he Spiritual Governor,” ther he reckoned antiquity of discipline to be posterior to the times of Archbishop Laud, who was an eminent disciplinarian, or whether he only intended to hold a tighter rein over the clergy, and especially that class of them who assume the title of Evangelical; but we confess that we startle at seeing a panegyric on a Christian minister founded upon his being or wishing to be a rigid governor. A considerable proportion of the Charge relates to temporal affairs, parliamentary regulations affecting the Clergy; such as Non-Residence laws (pp. 4-7), Stipendiary Curates' Bill (7-9), repeal of the acts for burying in Woollen (10): nor do we know that this is improper; but we have been a little surprised at the introduction of such matters, amidst others of so much greater and higher concern, and we have amused ourselves for a moment, we hope innocently, in fancying the apostle Paul called up from the dead and hearing, in the Church bearing his name, the passages above marked delivered, by one asserting himself to be his successor, to an audience composed of Christian teachers, and in speculating upon the surprise that would be depicted in that apostle's countenance. There is not much political declamation in the Charge, but the following reflection appears to us to be decidedly erroneous and unjust : "The French Revolution was not an accidental explosion, a burst of momentary passion or frenzy, but a deliberate and premeditated rebellion against authority human and divine: It was the struggle of desperate wickedness to shake off the salutary restraints imposed by religion and law on the worst passions of human na ture." P. 12. How long, as Bishop Gregoire complains (M. Repos. x. 106), is the French Revolution to be misrepresen ted! It was, indeed, a rebellion, for it has been unsuccessful; but surely every Englishman and every Protestant must allow that in its beginning and before its character was altered by foreign interference, it was a rightful resistance to tyranny and superstition. The "glorious Revolution of 1688," in England, was in reality less called for and less justifiable than the late Revolution in France. On this side of the channel it is not yet unsafe to utter this opinion. The passage concerning the Unitarians (pp. 13-16) has been already copied into this volume (pp. 305SOS). The design of it cannot be mistaken, but the bishop is obliged for the sake of common justice to distinguish real from pretended Unitarians and to concede that Unitarians may be conscientious. To readers of discernment the passage is innoxious. The statement which it contains is, however, contrary to historic truth; unbelievers have not joined themselves to the Unitarians; they unite with bishops in misrepresenting them; Mr. Cobbett and Dr. Burgess are coadjutors in their opposition to this sect; it is not merely that Unitarians have too little faith for the one and too much for the other, but that their faith is built upon reason, a foundation which is decried equally by such as reject revealed religion and such as explain revealed religion by canons of Councils and Convocations and by Acts of Parliament. On what does the Bishop of London rest his strange assertions? How has he made his notable discovery? The charge, as far as it regards the Unitariaus, is singularly ridiculous; but the wildest accusations may, if uncontradicted, tend to establish a persuasion of guilt, and therefore we rejoice that Mr. Belsham has, as we shall hereafter see, answered his lordship, we dare say to his satisfaction. In several places the Bishop sounds the alarm of the danger of the Church. "The Enemy" is the phrase by which Dissenters are designated. "The evil" he says, (p. 18) "to be reasonably apprehended is a gradual diminution of attachment to the national church," Whether this be an evil is matter of opinion, but of the fact there not only may be reasonable apprehension, there can be no doubt. The proof stares every one in the face; meeting-houses and chapels are rising up into view daily throughout every part of the kingdom; by whom are these erected and filled?-Recollecting and apparently lamenting Lord Sidmouth's memorable defeat by a phalanx of sects, his lordship discovers a formidable alliance between the Nonconformists for the subversion of the Establishment; such is the object, he alledges (p. 18)" of that promiscuous multitude of confederated sectaries who have imbibed the spirit of malignant dissent, which in the prosecution of hostilities against the established faith forgets its attachment to a particular creed." Where is this body of mo lignants to be found? We know but of one feeling of malignity which is common to nearly all the sects, including the sect established by law, and that is a feeling of malignity against the Unitarians; although we must be so just to the soi-disant orthodox Dissenters as to say, that we believe, that they love religious liberty next to orthodoxy, and that if any bigoted statesman should renew the attempt to put fetters upon conscience, they would cordially join even with Unitarians, in asserting with a voice that would make itself heard, Nolumus leges Christi mutari ! We do not blame the Bishop for recommending to his clergy (pp. 21, 22) the patronage of the falsely-called National Schools, falsely so called because the Common Prayer Book excludes from them above one half of the population of the empire; education is so great a blessing, that in any form and with any restrictions, its promotion is an object near to the heart of every philanthropist : nor shall we animadvert upon the oratorical representation of the importance and dignity of the Clergy of the Church of England, in the concluding sentence of the Charge, where it is said that the "high interests" of reli- ' gion have been" confided by the Redeemer, as a precious deposit, to their especial protection and care;" this may pass for eloquence: but there is an invidious alternative proposed in the sentence preceding, which we cannot avoid saying that Dissenting teachers do not feel themselves condemned to accept; they are not in their own estimation or in the liberal judgment of the community at large divided into "corrupt or illiterate in 578 Review.-Morgan's Life of Price. structors;" their self-denying labours and their personal virtues attest, they humbly think, the purity of their Morgan's Memoirs of Dr. Price. (Concluded from P. 508.) THAT the writer of this volume motives; and as for learning, although T they wish they had more, they cannot admit that as a body they have been signally deficient, whilst they run over the revered names of their Howe and Bates and Baxter, their Chandler and Benson and Lardner, their Watts and Doddridge, their Taylor and Farmer and Kippis and Price and Priestley and Cappe. - Most true is it, as the Bishop observes (p. 19) that "the complexion of the times has, in a few years, undergone a material change, the course of events has given a powerful impulse to the energies of the human mind, a mighty mass of intellect is working with incessant and increasing activity," but vain is it to look to "the Clergy"-" to give a proper direction to this general movement, and to controul its irregularities and excesses!" They have long ceased to lead, and have with difficulty followed, the public mind. They still pretend to Holy Orders, to a divine commission, and to the possession of the Holy Ghost, which men of all other professions and classes have agreed to consider as the claim of superstition; they adhere to articles of faith which the members of their church have for the most part renounced; and they repeat nearly once a month a creed which the laity of their communion reject with abhorrence. A wise counsellor would advise them, not to aspire to the direction of the mighty intellect of the age, but to forbear to oppose it, lest they should be overthrown in the shock, and as far as possible to follow in its train. He would exhort them, especially, to set up no pretensions which they cannot make good, that a conviction of one imposition may not beget a suspicion of others. He would conjure them, as they value their reputation, and even their political being, to conciliate and not to provoke, to court and not to defy, to promote inquiry instead of clinging to ancient errors, to bend before the spirit of reform instead of resisting it, to magnify virtue and to abate in their valuation of ceremony, and above all things to put on charity which is the bond of perfectness. engaged in his design from “no motive of self-interest or ambition;" that he has been" anxious only to render justice to the memory of a friend," may without difficulty be admitted. In the pretensions of the work before us, in its style and manner, there are no traces of ostentation. The author seems to be intent on his subject: his language is unadorned, even to carelessness, and exhibits no superfluous epithets, but indicates a strong and active mind rather than the habit of literary composition, the talents of the man of business more than the accomplishments of the scholar. Making no display, moreover, of his uncle's private correspondence, he determines not to gratify an idle curiosity by the indiscriminate publication of letters which had been written in the confidence of friendship." This, we are aware, is not the practice or the sentiment of many of our contemporaries. We live in an age whose taste for telling and hearing some new thing" has been pampered and quickened by the wanton, if not, in many instances, the mercenary, disclosure of epistles which the receiver had, unsuspectingly, entrusted to the custody of his escrutoire, and which were designed, exclusively, for the eye of fidelity and affection. We cannot but approve of the biographer's forbearance in a matter of such delicacy; though perhaps he has carried it to an extreme point, and afforded some of his readers cause to exclaim, In vitium ducit culpæ fuga! 66 Yet while we bestow on Mr. Morgan's performance our humble praise, in respect of its freedom from parade and affectation, we shall, with the same explicitness, state objections to it, of another kind: these have not been lightly conceived; they shall not be invidiously urged-and hence we hope that they will be interpreted with candour and weighed with deliberation. If biography is often too copious aid minute, it may sometimes, however, be accused of scantiness. This charge it incurs when it fails of giving a com plete picture of the person whom it undertakes to delineate. Here, we are of opinion, these memoirs of Dr. Price have deservedly been censured. To the object of recording the life and labours of such a man a larger volume might with propriety have been devoted. Not that we are ungrateful to Mr. Morgan for what he has, communicated concerning his honoured relative, but that we wish he had communicated more. Surely a fuller account of Dr. Price's writings might have been presented to the world with signal pertinency and advantage. The biographer, we believe, has not even enumerated them perfectly: at least, we recollect that, some years before the American Revolution, his uncle published a sermon on the privileges of Britons. A short analaysis also of the several works of this author, would have been appropriate, interesting and useful: and to some of them, in particular, the habits and attainments of Mr. M. must have qualified him, in more than an ordinary degree, for rendering this act of justice. The life of a literary man is, for the most part, divided and marked by his publications. He therefore who frames a narrative of it, if he be diligent and skilful, will intermingle with biography a reasonable portion of criticism: he will lay before his readers an outline of sentiments, trains of argument, deductions, &c. and will thus assist them in judging of the complexion, the progress and the operations of the writer's mind. Dr. Price obtained no vulgar reputation as a writer on metaphysics, on chances and annuities, on politics and political economy, and on the evidences, doctrines and duties of revelation. But the information with which Mr. M. has favoured us concerning his relative's productions in these several departments of science and learning, is extremely meagre. His Treatise on Morals, for example, able and ingenious as it must be pronounced even by those who lament its abstruseness and dissent from many of its conclusions, and though acknowledged by Mr. M. to convey, in the third edition, the author's" maturest thoughts on one of the most important subjects that can exercise the human mind," gives occasion to only a few sentences in the Memoirs. We know not that it would have been a violation of propriety if the biographer had added a concise abridgment of a work so original and vigorous. Granting, nevertheless, that this would have been an unreasonable digression, still what could forbid him to point out the characteristic object, to sketch the leading features, of the volume, to shew in what respects, and on what considerations, Dr. P. differs from former metaphysicians? These re marks apply with equal force to his discussion, in another work, of the doctrines of materialism and philosophical necessity, as maintained by his friend Dr. Priestley. From Mr. Morgan's pen we yet more strongly expected a succinct and clear description of his uncle's la bours in rendering the doctrine of chances available to purposes of great utility, personal, domestic and public. Nor was the expectation irrational. Memoirs of Dr. Price, which are almost silent on the specific nature of those studies and calculations that have spread his fame throughout Europe, correspond not with their title. In vain will the biographer allege that in another of his works we may perhaps meet with what we cannot find in this. The very matter of our complaint, is its absence here, in pages where it ought to have been inserted, and which, for such an end, might have been conveniently broken into distinct chapters. Previously to a perusal of the Memoirs, every well-informed person knows that Dr. Price was the author of some tracts on politics. Little however is said by his nephew respecting their contents--little indeed in proportion to their magnitude and value. The venerable man of whom we are speaking, ranks among the most eloquent and disinterested advocates of both civil and religious liberty, among the most decided foes of all invasions of the rights of conscience. We should not have been sorry if these pages had exhibited him more prominently in this light--had unfolded more largely his generous principles of government. Nor would Mr. M. have incurred our censure had he left on record an ampler notice of his relation's Dissertations and Sermons. Both merit it: for they will continue to be read with delight and improvement by men of various classes and sentiments; and they minister to the noblest purposes of human life, to objects before which 580 Review. Morgan's Life of Price. mortal interests sink into insignificance, or rather which confer on those interests all the rational importance that they possess. As a Christian preacher, we particularly admired Dr. Price. The subjects, the style and the delivery of his sermons, were uncommouly attractive. We wish that the writer of his life had at least endeavoured to express in adequate terms the fascinations (such we found them) of his simple yet fervent addresses to the understandings and the feelings of his hearers. It has been our fortune to attend on some fine speakers, on some orators of great celebrity: but to eloquence so natural and resistless as his we have never listened. If his political reputation added considerably to the number of his auditors, his congregations were secured, however, by other and far superior motives. The composition of these Memoirs frequently betrays heedlessness, and therefore a want of respect for the public taste. When Mr. Morgan informs us (p. 22) that Dr. Price's "hearers [audience] were equally thin" both on Newington Green and in Poor Jewry Lane when he says that the great end which this excellent man always had in view was "to instill into the minds of his congregations the necessity of a virtuous course" (p. 186), these and many such examples of inadvertence make us sensible of the strict relation between precision and clear ness, between inaccuracy and obscurity, of style. A very caustic temper is often discernible in the Memoirs: and, on several occasions, the biographer does not write in the mild and humble spirit which characterised the honoured subject of his volume. Passages of this description will be quoted in the sequel of our Review: we now proceed to the more agreeable employment of extracting anecdotes and observations by which our readers may be gratified and instructed; and these we shall produce in the order of their meeting-house in the Old Jewry. Here he seemed to acquire considerable popularity; but Dr. Chandler, for reasons best known to himself, advised him to be less energetic in his manner, and to deliver his discourses rebuke had its natural effect on the mild with more diffidence and modesty. This and unassuming temper of Mr. Price. To avoid an extreme into which he was in no danger of falling, he ran into the opposite extreme of a cold and lifeless delivery, which, by rendering him less popular with the congregation, disposed them to feel less regret when their minister had no further occasion for his services." Pp. 11, 12. The zeal of the Rev. S. Price for the Trinity. His nephew being asked by him, nity of Jesus Christ, he very ingenuously "whether he believed in the proper divi answered in the negative, if by proper divinity was meant the equality of Jesus Christ with God. On which his uncle with some vehemence exclaimed, that he had rather see him transformed into a pig, than that he should have been brought up to be a dissenting minister without believ ing in the Trinity." Pp. 13, 14. We confess, we should have hesitated to admit these two communications had not Mr. Morgan derived his knowledge of the occurrences of his relation's earlier years either from conversation with Dr. Price or from the uotes which he had prepared for the purpose of writing his life. Separately from the instruction which the above anecdotes, in effect, contain, they who study the diversities of human character will be assisted by them in their favourite pursuit. Interview of Mr. Hume with some of his opponents. This writer "had been so little accustomed to civility from his theological adversaries, that his admiration was naturally excited by the lications. Dr. Douglas (the late bishop of least appearance of it in any of their pubSalisbury), Dr. Adams and Mr. Price, were splendid exceptions to this rudeness and bigotry. Having been opposed by these divines with the candour and respect which were due to his abilities, and which it is shameful should ever be wanting in any controversy, he was desirous of meeting them all together, in order to spend a few hours in familiar conversation with them.Accordingly, they all dined by invitation at Mr. Cadell's in the Strand; and, as might be expected, passed their time in the utmost harmony and good humour. In a subsequent interview with Mr. Price, when Mr. Hume visited him at his house at Newington Green, he candidly acknowledged that on one point Mr. Price had succeeded • Principal Campbell was another. |