Mosheim's Church History, how soon and how much was the religion of Jesus corrupted from its primitive simplicity, And the partial account of the English Baptisis leads me to indulge a better opinion of various sects who have been deemed Heretics!" Much in deed must the religion of Jesus have been corrupted from its primitive simplicity, since other tests of Christian fellowship are imposed than that of acknowledging CHRIST to be the Messian or the Son of God; and surely the writer who makes the declaration contained in the concluding sentence of the above paragraph, niight have indulged more tenderness towards the reputedly heretical advocates of universal restoration. It is a curious phenomenon in the annals of theology, that those who as to their faith take most pains to be right should be generally declared most wrong; and that those who as to practice abound most in the exercise of Christian charity should be pronounced destitute of true piety. But certain it is that without free inquiry and a patient, candid investigation of opposite systems of faith-we the inhabitants of this highly favoured island, might have been at this day" plucking misletoe with the Druid or mixing a little flour and water into the substance of the incomprehensible God!"

My deceased friend, however, was not deterred by the unchristian treatment of his brethren from holding fast what he deemed Scriptural truth. He even pushed his inquiries still further so as to renounce other popular errors and to maintain the glorious doctrines of the Divine Unity, and the unpurchased love of the Supreme Being in the redemption of the world. Blessed be the GOD and FATHER of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ: In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." On doctrines contained in this as well as similar passages of the New Testament, he dwelt with satisfaction and delight. Contrary views are to be found only in creeds and confessions of faith, which with him were in no estimation. Embodying human error

† Ephes. i. 3, 7.

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and consecrating human infirmity, he justly deemed them encumbrances to the progress of truth. And yet, strange to tell, for attaching themselves to the above Scriptural views of the character of the Supreme Being, Dr. Ryland in his Life of Fuller, declares a certain class of General Baptists, (to whom I and my deceased friend have the honour to belong), "to have gone from GENERAL REDEMPTION to no redemption!!" Such are the gross and abominable misrepresentations in which party writers indulge at the expense of truth and to the utter destruction of Christian charity.

It should be added that our venerable brother, whilst he maintained the prime leading doctrines of revelation, did not relinquish the ordinance of Christian Baptism by immersion, but administered it to its only proper objects, those who make a profession of their faith. Having preached for him more than once on those occasions, I have witnessed his administration of it in this place with pleasure. He conducted it with a solemnity which became its importance, making candid allowance for those otherwise minded, and pointing out its happy tendency in promoting the purity of the professors of Christianity.

As the treatment received by this good man from his particular Baptist brethren, on account of difference of sentiment, has been mentioned, it is but justice to add that he was similarly treated by a minister of that class who style themselves Free Grace General Baptists! This Reverend brother from whom better things were to be expected, endeavoured to prevent Mr. Vidler from becoming a member of the respectable GENERAL BODY of Dissenting ministers of the Three Denominations meeting at Red-cross Street. It is with no small pleasure that I now recollect the successful exertions made by me in his behalf on that occasion. An end was soon put to this unwarrantable and odious ebullition of bigotry.

Thus like his great Master, through good report and through evil report, did my friend pursue the even tenor of

In the Second Edition of my Letter to Dr. Hawker, will be found a discussion of the doctrine of GENERAL DEMPTION.

his way, till resting from his labours he was laid in the peaceful tomb. The particulars of his life, and of his last long severe illness, which he bore with exemplary resignation, have been Laid before his congregation by a friend every way capable of rendering justice to his benevolence and piety. I have thought proper to touch only on the leading traits of his character as a minister of Jesus Christ. His love of free inquiry, his endeavour to divest himself of prejudice, and his intrepid avowal of his religious creed, are creditable to his memory. These are essential requisites of ministerial fidelity. Though we agreed in many important articles of faith, yet as to others we were agreed to differ. Friendly and cheerful, he often conversed with freedom on religious topics, but never to the breach of Christian charity. He could bear with those who did not accompany him in all his convictions. And we both heartily acquiesced in the sublime and awful asseveration of Jesus Christ-"Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels."

To conclude—the minister of Jesus Christ, be he Churchman or Dissenter, Trinitarian or Unitarian, who, imploring the blessing of heaven, indulges free inquiry, endeavours to divest his mind of prejudice, and honestly proclaims his convictions, on every proper occasion, sanctioned and emblazoned by a correspondent temper and practice, will receive the final eulogy of the Saviour" Well done good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

"Lo! with a mighty Host HE comes, I see the parted clouds give way,

see the banner of the cross display; Death's conqueror in pomp appearsIn his right hand, a palm he bears, And in his looks-REDEMPTION wears!" "The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seem to die, and their departure is taken for misery, and their going from us to be utter destruction; but they are in peace, for though they be punished in the sight of men,

yet is their hope full of immortality: and having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded, for God proved them and found them worthy of himself.*

September 10, at Cheltenham, having nearly completed his 81st year, RiCHARD REYNOLDS, of Bristol, a highly respected member of the Society of Friends. For a long series of years in the possession of an ample fortune, be made it subservient to the purposes of benevolence. His numerous charities, public and private, rank him among the most eminent philanthropists of the present age. After a gradual decline, he closed a life of great usefulness in the faith and hope of a Christian.

MRS. ELIZABETH Hamilton.—It would be with feelings of sincere sor row, for a private and a public loss, that the lovers of elegant literature heard of the death of one of the most amiable, useful and popular of the female writers of the present age; one who has done honour to her sex and to her country.

Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton was born at Belfast, in Ireland; and the affection for her country, which she constantly expressed, proved that she had a true Irish heart. She was well known to the public as the author of " The Cottagers of Glenburnie," "The Modern Philosophers," "Letters on Female Education," and various other works. She has obtained, in different departments of literature, just celebrity, and has established a reputation that will strengthen and consolidate from the duration of time-that destroyer of all that is false and superficial.

The most popular of her lesser works is the Cottagers of Glenburnie," a lively and humorous picture of the slovenly habits, the indolent winna-be-fashed temper, the baneful content which prevails among some of the lower class of people in Scotland. It is a proof of the great merit of this book, that it has, in spite of the Scottish dialect with which it abounds, been universally read in England and Ireland, as well as in Scotland. It is a faithful represen tation of human nature in general, as well as of local manners and cus

* Wisdom iii, 1, 5.

toms; the maxims of economy and industry, the principles of truth, justice, family affection and religion, which it inculcates by striking examples, and by exquisite strokes of pathos, mixed with humour, are independent of all local peculiarity of manner or language, and operate upon the feelings of every class of readers, in all countries. In Ireland in particular, the history of the Cottagers of Glenburnie" has been read with peculiar avidity; and it has probably done as much good to the Irish as to the Scotch. While the Irish have seized and enjoyed the opportunity it afforded of a good-humoured laugh at their Scotch neighbours, they have secretly seen, through shades of difference, a resemblance to themselves; and are conscious that, changing the names, the tale might be told of them. In this tale, both the difference and the resemblance between Scottish and Hibernian faults or foibles are advantageous to its popularity in Ireland. The difference is sufficient to give an air of novelty that awakens curiosity; while the resemblance fixes attention, and creates a new species of interest. Besides this, the self-love of the Hibernian reader being happily relieved from all apprehension that the lesson was intended for him, his good sense takes and profits by the advice that is offered to another. The humour in this book is peculiarly suited to the Irish, because it is, in every sense of the word, good humour. The satire, if satire it can be called, is benevolent; its object is to mend, and not wound, the heart. Even the Scotch themselves, however national they are supposed to be, can bear" the Cottagers of Glenburnie." Nations, like individuals, can with decent patience endure to be told of their faults, if those faults, instead of being represented as forming their established unchangeable character, are considered as arising, as in fact they usually do arise, from those passing circumstances which characterize rather a certain period of civilization than any particular people. If our national faults are pointed out as indelible stains, inherent in the texture of the character, from which it cannot by art or time be bleached or purified, we are justly provoked and offended; but, if a friend warns us of some little accidental spots, which we had, perhaps, overlooked, and which we can,

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at a moment's notice, efface, we smile, and are grateful.

In

the Modern Philosophers," where the spirit of system and party interfered with the design of the work, it was difficult to preserve throughout the tone of good-humoured raillery and candour: this could scarcely have been accomplished by any talents or prudence, had not the habitual temper and real disposition of the writer been candid and benevolent. Though this work is a professed satire upon a system, yet it avoids all satire of individuals; and it shews none of that cynical contempt of the human race which some satirists seem to feel, or affect, in order to give poignancy to their wit.

Our author has none of that misanthropy which derides the infirmities of human nature, and which laughs while it cauterizes. There appears always some adequate object for any pain that she inflicts: it is done with a steady view to future good, and with a humane and tender, as well as with a skilful and courageous hand.

The object of "the Modern Philosophers" was to expose those whose theory and practice differ; to point out the difficulty of applying high-flown principles to the ordinary, but necessary, concerns of human life; and to shew the danger of trusting every man to become his own moralist and legislator. When this novel first appeared, it was, perhaps, more read, and more admired, than any of Mrs. Hamilton's works: the name and character of Brigettina Botheram passed into every company, and became a standing jest

proverbial point in conversation. The ridicule answered its purpose; it reduced to measure and reason those who, in the novelty and zeal of system, had overleaped the bounds of common sense.

"The Modern Philosophers,"" the Cottagers of Glenburnie," and "the Letters of the Hindoo Rajah," the first book, we believe, that our author published, have all been highly and steadily approved by the public. These works, alike in principle and in benevolence of design, yet with each a different grace of style and invention, have established Mrs. Hamilton's character as an original, agreeable and successful writer of fiction. But her claims to literary reputation, as a useful, philosophic, moral gious author, are of a

higher sort, and rest upon works of a more solid and durable nature; upon her works on education, especially her "Letters on Female Education.' In these she not only shews that she has studied the history of the human mind, and that she has made herself. acquainted with what has been written on this subject by the best moral and metaphysical writers, but she adds new value to their knowledge by rendering it practically useful. She has thrown open to all classes of readers those metaphysical discoveries or observations, which had been confined chiefly to the learned. To a sort of knowledge, which had been considered more as a matter of curiosity than of use, she has given real value and actual currency: she has shewn how the knowledge of metaphysics can be made serviceable to the art of education; she has shewn, for instance, how the doctrine of the association of ideas may be applied, in carly education, to the formation of the habits of temper, and of the principles of taste and morals; she has considered how all that metaphysicians know of sensation, abstraction, &c. can be applied to the cultivation of the judgment and the imaginations of children. No matter how little is actually ascertained on these subjects: she has done much in wakening the attention of parents, and of mothers especially, to future inquiry; she has done much by directing their inquiries rightly; much by exciting them to reflect upon their own minds, and to observe what passes in the minds of their children. She has opened a new field of investigation to women, a field fitted to their domestic habits, to their duties as mothers, and to their business as preceptors of youth; to whom it belongs to give the minds of children those first impressions and ideas, which remain the longest, and which influence them often the most powerfully, through the whole course of life. In recommending to her own sex the study of metaphysics, as far as it relates to education, Mrs. Hamilton has been judiciously careful to avoid all that can lead to that species of "vain debate," of which there is no end. She, knowing the limits of the human understanding, does not attempt to go beyond them into that which can be at best but a dispute about terms. She does not aim at making women expert in the "wordy war;" nor does

she teach them to astonish the u-, learned by their acquaintance with the various vocabularies of metaphysical system-makers.

Such jugglers' tricks she despised; but she has not, on the other hand, been deceived or overawed by those who would represent the study of the human mind as a study that leads to no practical purpose, and that is unfit and unsafe for her sex. Had Mrs. Hamilton set ladies on metaphysic ground merely to shew their paces, she would have made herself and them ridiculous and troublesome; but she has shewn how they may, by slow and certain steps, advance to a useful object. The dark, intricate and dangerous labyrinth, she has converted into a clear, straight, practicable road; a road not only prac ticable, but pleasant, and not only pleasant but, what is of far more consequence to women, safe.

Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton is well known to be not only a moral, but a pious, writer; and in all her writing, as in all her conversation, religion ap pears in the most engaging point of view. Her religion was sincere, cheerful and tolerant; joining, in the hap piest manner, faith, hope and charity. All who had the happiness to know this amiable woman will, with one accord, bear testimony to the truth of that feeling of affection which her benevolence, kindness and cheerfulness of temper inspired. She thought so little of herself, so much of others, that it was impossible she could, superior as she was, excite envy. every body at case in her company, is good humour and good spirits with themselves. So far from being a restraint on the young and lively, she encouraged, by her sympathy, their openness and gaiety. She never flat tered, but she always formed the most favourable opinion, that truth and good sense would permit, of every individual who came near her; therefore all, instead of fearing and shunning her penetration, loved and courted her society.

She put

Her loss will be long regretted by her private friends; her memory will long live in public estimation.

Much as Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton has served and honoured the cause of female literature by her writings, she has done still higher and more essential benefit to that cause by her life, by set

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DOMESTIC.

RELIGIOUS.

Manchester College, York.

THE REV. WILLIAM SHEPHERD, of Gateacre, has offered a prize of five guineas for the best classical scholar in this Institution, in the ensuing session. The merits of the candidates to be decided on at the examination at the close of the session.

Manchester, August 21, 1816.

The following sums have been received on account of this Institution.

Collection at Chesterfield Cha

pel, by the Rev. R. W. Wallace.

Rev. Israel Worsley, Plymouth (Annual).

Mr. T. Holt, Liverpool, An. W. Ridge, Esq. Chichester, do. Mr. W. Bayley, Chichester, do. Hinton Castle, Esq. Clifton, do. Mr. Richmond, Temple, London. do.

11 10

1

7

0

0

1

G. W. WOOD, Treasurer. Manchester, September 6, 1816.

The thirtieth Annual Meeting of Trustecs of Manchester College, York, was held at Cross Street Chapel Rooms, in Manchester, on Friday August 30, 1816, Abraham Crompton, of Lune Villa, near Lancaster, Esq. in the chair.

The proceedings of the Committee during the past year were read over, and confirmed, and the Treasurer's Accounts were laid before the Meeting, approved of, and passed.

Benjamin Gaskell, Esq. M. P. of Thorns House, Yorkshire, was re-elected President, and James Touchet, Esq. of Manchester, Joseph Strutt, Esq. of Derby, Peter Martineau, Esq. of Canonbury, and Daniel Gaskell, Esq. of Lupsett, were reelected Vice Presidents. Mr. George William Wood, of Manchester, was re-chosen Treasurer, and Mr. Edward Baxter, Mr. Jonathan Brookes, and Mr. William Duckworth, of Manchester, and tite Rev. Joseph Ashton, of Duckinfield, were added to the Committee, to supply the places of the Gentlemen ineligible from nonattendance.

The number of Students in the College during the last session was reported to have been 21, viz. 11 Lay-students, and 10 intended for the ministry; of the latter Mr. Mardon and Mr. Morris have finally left the College, and Mr. Mardon is settled with the Unitarian Congregation at Glasgow, as successor to the Rev. James Yates.

Thirteen Divinity Students and seventeen Lay-Students are expected in the College next session.

When the business of the meeting was closed, the chair was taken by Isaac Harrop, Esq. of Altringham; and the thanks of the meeting were unanimously vcted to Abraham Crompton, Esq. for his services as Chairman.

The Trustees and friends of the College afterwards dined together at the Spread Eagle Inn; Nathaniel Philips, Esq. of the Dales, in the chair. The attendance was not so numerous as on former occasions, but the day was spent with much hilarity