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lies; he is a drunken, lecherous justice of peace for Westminster." (P. 271.)

Not having seen the life of Archbishop Sancroft, very lately published, I am ignorant whether his biographer has quoted the following passage. It forms a curious comment on the proceedings of a Dean and Chapter, to supply the vacancy of a See, after a solemn prayer for divine direction :

"1677, Dec. 29. Conge des Lire went to Canterbury to elect Sandcroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, set up by the Duke of York against London, [Bishop Henchman,] and York put on by the Papists. York doth not care for London, because he shewed himself an enemy to the Papists at the Council Board." (P. 271.)

Good Churchmen have been accustomed to make a comparison, unfavourable to the times when Dr. Owen

was Vice-Chancellor, between Oxford, as an Alma Mater, under the Com-, monwealth and under the Restored Stuart. Such may read, if they please, the following representation by a daily

observer:

"1677. Why doth solid and serious learning decline, and few or none follow it now in the University? Answer, Because of Coffea Houses, where they spend all their time and in entertainments at

their chambers, where their studies and

Coffea Houses are become places for victuallers, also great drinking at taverns and alehouses, spending their time in common chambers, whole afternoons, and thence to the Coffea House." (P. 273.) Wood had remarked, under 1650, (p. 65,) that this year Jacob, a Jew, opened a coffey-house, at the Angel, in the parish of St. Peter, in the East, Oxon. and there it was by some who delighted in noveltie, drank."

N. L. T.

GLEANINGS; OR, SELECTIONS AND
REFLECTIONS MADE IN A COURSE
OF GENERAL READING.

No. CCCLXXXV.
Saying of Fletcher of Saltoune.
I join with your family, (says Pope
in a letter to his friend Blount, Works,

Warburton's edition, VIII. 32,) in giving God thanks for lending us a worthy man somewhat longer. The comforts you receive from their attendance put me in mind of what old Fletcher of Saltoune said one day to me. "Alas, I have nothing to do but to die; I am a poor individual; no creature to wish, or to fear, for my life or death: 'Tis the only reason I have to repent being a single man; now I grow old, I am like a tree without a prop, and without young trees to grow round me, for company and defence."

No. CCCLXXXVI.

Facts illustrating the operation of
Prejudice.

(says Dugald Stewart, Dissert. preWe are told, in the Life of Galileo, fixed to Vol. I. of Supp. to Cyclop. Britan. p. 29, note,) that when the telescope was invented, some individuals carried to so great a length their devotion to Aristotle, that they positively refused to look through that instrument: so averse were they consistent with their favourite creed. to open their eyes to any truths n(Vita del Galileo, Venezia, 1744.) It is amusing to find some other followers of the Stagirite, a very few years afterwards, when they found it impossible any longer to call in question the evidence of sense, asserting that it was from a passage in Aristotle (where he attempts to explain why stars become visible in the tom of a deep well) that the invention day-time, when viewed from the botof the telescope was borrowed. The two facts, when combined together, exhibit a truly characteristical portrait of one of the most fatal weaknesses incident to humanity, and form a moral apologue, daily exemplified on subjects of still nearer and higher interest than the phenomena of the heavens.

( 237 )

REVIEW.

"Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame."-Pope.

ART. I.-The Unitarian Christian's Apology for Seceding from the Communion and Worship of Trinitarian Churches. A Discourse, of which the Substance was delivered

in Lewin's-Mead Chapel, Bristol, on the 6th of January, 1822. By S. C. Fripp, B. A., late of Queen's College, Cambridge. With Notes, and an Appendix. 8vo. pp. 84. Bristol, printed and sold by Parsons and Browne, and sold by Hunter, London. Ic. 6d.

MR.

FRIPP's secession from the Established Church was announced in our Number for January, (p. 63,) and the above is the title of the sermon then described as in preparation for the press. The peculiarity of the case out of which it arises will, no doubt, procure it celebrity, of which it is indeed deserving; for, though it pretends to no originality or display of eloquence or learning, it has the merit (a much higher merit) of being the artless effusion of a mind deeply intent upon Divine truth, and thoroughly imbued with the Evangelical spirit of disinterestedness, purity, frankness and candour. Uprightness of principle and ingenuousness of character are always venerable and lovely; in the profession of religion they are pre-eminently entitled to esteem and admiration; and they who are influenced by these sentiments will receive Mr. Fripp's "good confession" with Christian affection and gratitude.

This respectable clergyman thus describes the course of his theological inquiries :

"Respecting the origin and progress of his present religious sentiments, the narrow limits of a Preface will only allow of his now adverting to the fact, that they have not been taken up lightly or inconsiderately; that, on the contrary, so long as four years ago, a considerable impression was made on his mind, by the perusal of Dr. Carpenter's Letter to the Editor of the Bristol Mirror, written in reference to another letter of a most interesting nature, the production of an excellent person, who not long before had relinquished the doctrines of Unitarianism.

From the perusal of that letter, the Writer of these lines arose, with a persuasion that a Socinian' might be a good man, though his doctrines were decidedly erroneous; and this persuasion was strengthened, and some doubts as to the purity of the orthodox system of theology arose in his mind, upon comparing the general spirit of an able and eloquent defence (just then published) of the Calvinistic doctrines, by the Rev. E. Vaughan, with the spirit of Dr. C.'s Letter. The consideration of the much-controverted topic of baptismal regeneration, and the possibility that the author might, sooner or later, be called upon to subscribe his solemn and ex animo assent and consent

to all and every thing contained in the Book of Common Prayer; together with some doubts as to the generally-received meaning of certain texts of Scripture; all impelled him to devote a considerable time and attention to the serious examination of the Unitarian controversy. The result will be found in the following pages."-Pref. i. iì.

time to the Unitarian controversy, noTo a person coming for the first thing will appear so strange as the unmeasured abuse that is heaped by polemics of all other denominations upon the Unitarians. This fact seems to have deeply impressed Mr. Fripp's mind, and to have been one of the secondary causes of his conversion. He begins his Discourse with reciting some of the maledictions upon "the sect every where spoken against," that have proceeded from the pens and lips of dignified and mitred churchmen; and very naturally and sensibly remarks,

"Many reflections necessarily crowd into the mind at this melancholy recital. I call it melancholy;-for is it not truly so, that the professed disciples of Him who hath taught us a new commandment of universal love, should so far forget themselves, and be so little solicitous to imitate the example and to imbibe the spirit of their great Lord and Master? When did He give these defenders of the orthodox faith a commission to refuse the name and (as far as this is in their power) the privileges of Christians to those who equally with themselves believe in One God, and in one Mediator between God and men, the MAN Christ Jesus?' When

did the great Head of the Church erpower them to deny Christian commu. nion to any man, who seriously professes faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God? Much more, to denounce, with every epithet which the copious vocabulary of polemic wrath contains, as men deserving the scorn, and contempt, and aversion, and abhorrence of all the world -as blasphemers and Atheists-those whose only PROVED crime is, that they differ from the majority of Christians in understanding the records of their Master's will, the terms of salvation there propounded, and the history of their Saviour's life therein contained?

"Seriously to set about refuting such charges as the above, would, I trust, be considered quite unnecessary by the majority of this audience. But, be that as it may, I beg that it may be understood by all, that we plead NOT GUILTY' to them; that, upon the calmest reflection, we believe ourselves as undeserving of them as any other denomination of professing Christians; and, appealing from the fallible denunciations of our erring brethren, we most gladly commit the vindication of our character unto HIM who judgeth righteously. Still we cannot help feeling, and feeling deeply too, such unmerited attacks upon all that is valuable to us as Christians, as men and as Britons. We are all of us,' (says an eminent writer,) made to shun disgrace, as we are made to shrink from pain, and

poverty and disease. It is an instinct; and, under the direction of reason, instinct is always in the right.'

"How much were it to be wished that certain defenders of orthodoxy would be less sparing of their anathemas, and deal more in arguments! Could my feeble voice be heard, I would earnestly solicit them to imitate-not this or that polemic of great fame, whose intention was to crush where he could not persuade, to defame where he found refutation impracticable-but the great Apostle of the Gentiles; who, when speaking of the of the "enemies of the cross of Christ,' wielded the all-powerful eloquence of a bleeding heart; who disdained to employ threats and invective, or to call to his aid the thunders and lightnings of Mount Sinai, but rather used the mild and persuasive language of tears and expostulations and benevolent prayers. Besides, it might not be unuseful were they to reflect, that, by bending the bow too far, it may break; that by representing a denomination of professed Christians as a hideous compound of all that is vile and base, as even worse than the very worst antireligious' sect; as men irreversibly scaled to everlasting perdition—doubts as to the

truth of such representations may possibly be raised in the minds of some, who might otherwise have goue on contentedly, in an unwavering and implicit assent to whatever they hear from their spiritual guides. Surely, their conviction of the TRUTH of their own cause cannot be so tottering, as to lead them to suppose that the awful and magnificent edifice, reared by prophets and apostles, 'Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone,' can require the puny buttresses of human censures, of misrepresentation and calumny, of haughty disdain and bitter invective. Can the anathemas of councils and the damnatory clauses of creeds give stability to the foundation; or can the lightnings of excommunication reflect glory on the hallowed walls of the Temple of eternAL TRUTH? Vain thought!

It stands, like the cerulian arch we see, MAJESTIC IN ITS OWN SIMPLICITY." Pp. 13-16.

Having cleared his way to the subject, the preacher proceeds to describe the right dispositions of a seeker of Christian truth, and to detail some of the arguments for the doctrines of the unity and essential mercifulness of the Supreme Being, and the delegated and ministerial authority and work of Jesus Christ. In this course he is led to answer popular objections, Throughout, he avails himself of the works of well-known Unitarian writers.

In a note, p. 55, Mr. Fripp, who appears to be conversant with the German language, remarks that our Lord's phrase, "I and the Father are one," (v soμey,) is literally, "are one thing," and is thus correctly rendered in Luther's German translation, "Ich und der Vater sind eins,” i. e. “I and the Father are of one mind, or unanimous." He adds, further, in the Appendix,

"I take this opportunity of noticing the circumstance, (which to some of my readers may possibly be new,) that Luther's translation is, in some other im portant cases, closer to the original than our public version. For instance, in that very interesting passage, (Exod. iii. 14,) where Moses asks by what name he is to describe the GREAT ETERNAL to his countrymen, God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM.' Thus it is translated in our common version. Luther's is, more correctly, as follows: I will be what I will be.' (Ich werde seyn der ich seyn werde.) i. e. The Eternal, Immutable. It so happens, however, that our translators have

Review.--Fripp's Unitarian Christian's Apology.

rendered John viii. 58, thus: Before Abraham was, I AM. (Eyw ε.) From this verbal parallelism, occasioned by the inaccurate translation of these two texts, many a plausible argument has been constructed in favour of the eternity and immutability of Christ Jesus our Lord. That the mere English reader should draw such a conclusion, is not to be wondered at: but that grave and learned divines should have fought, vi et unguibus, in defence of an argument, which rests entirely on a mistranslation, is indeed astonishing. To a reader of the Septuagint, as well as of Luther's version, the supposed allusion of our Lord to the words in Exodus, must appear groundless. (The LXX. translate Exodus iii. 14, thus: εyw sip & Ny: "I am He that exists THE BEING. That John viii. 58 ought to be rendered, Before Abraham was [born] I am HE,' or I was He,' is, I think, evident. For the expression yw tuus, is the same that is thus rendered in this very chapter twice: ver. 24: If ye believe not that I am HE, ye shall die in your sins: ver. 28: Then shall ye know that I am HE;' i. e. the Messiah: "He who was to come. (Compare also John iv. 26, ix. 9, xviii. 5; Luke xxi. 8; Matt. xxiv. 5; Mark xiii. 6; Matt. xiv. 27; Mark vi. 50; John vi. 20.)

"To prove the utter impropriety of kya tuus being rendered (in the 50th verse) I am,' let us translate those very words, as they stand in the 24th verse, in the same manner: When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know (ÖTI ɛyw ɛ) that I AM, AND THAT I DO NOTHING OF MYSELF. What! He who is the self-existent Jehovah,-doth HE, verily, do nothing of HIMSELF ? But Christ Jesus does incontestably assert this of HIMSELF, (and not of his human nature, as is erroneously affirmed); and in the very same breath too with which he utters those words (eyw )

I AM,' which are supposed to assert his eternity and immutability. This expression must, therefore, refer to his Messiahship, not to his supposed eternity and Godhead. As God's Christ, he did nothing of himself,' nothing without the Father: as God Almighty, he could not but do all things of himself, else he were less than God. But he himself (ver. 40) assured the Jews that he was a man who told them the truth which he had

heard of God.' And is he not the true

and faithful witness,' who was born that he might bear witness unto the truth'?

"As the great appointed, promised and expected Messiah, he doubtless preexisted before Abraham was born and Abraham saw him with the eye of faith, which realizes things to come,' and sees

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239

'Him that is invisible.' He pre-existed, as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world:' 'fore-ordained then, though manifest in these last times for us.'

"The implacable enemies of our Lord flew into a paroxysm of rage at his declaration, and, armed with malice and religious hatred, strove to overwhelm their meek and lowly Messiah in a whirlwind of stones. This was just what might be expected from cold-hearted, proud bigots of their stamp. Had they not already stigmatized him as a Sabbath-breaker, a Samaritan, (or heretic,) a demoniac, because Christ had performed a miracle of mercy on the Sabbathday? And could these stanch defenders of the dignity of Abraham, brook any expression of the lowly Prophet of Nazareth, which implied that a greater than Abraham is here'? No, surely. The Messiah did not answer their proud, exclusive, earthly expectations: hence their cusations of blasphemy. But, is it at all blind animosity and their vehement aeprobable that they understood Christ's declaration aright? Was there no wilful misunderstanding on their part? Did malignant hearts were boiling, send up the turbulent passions with which their no intoxicating fumes to mantle their cooler reason'? Shall we say that Christ, who was so cautious in declaring his friends and disciples, and who, nevertheMessiahship, even to his most intimate less, assured them that he spoke to them plainly, though to others in parables, that he revealed to these miscreants, (it is an orthodox expression, and the Bishop of St. David's tracts will supply the proper meaning,) the great, astonishing, amaz ing secret, that He, Jesus of Nazareth, was, under the guise of a man, no less than the ineffable Jehovah-the great Eternal, who filleth heaven and earth with his immensity-to whom an atom is a world, and a world an atom'? Unbelieving Jews may so profess to understand Christ's words, and look about for stones wherewithal to crush their Messiah ;for my part, I am content to be able to say, with honest Nathaniel, Rabbi! Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel!'"-Pp. 73-76.

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The pamphlet concludes with a judicious summary view of the evidence for the truth of Unitarianism, from Scripture and Ecclesiastical History," which we have seen with much pleasure extracted into a provincial newspaper, and which, with some additions and perhaps a few slight corrections, would form a valuable tract for our Unitarian Book Societies. May we recommend to Mr. Fripp

this easy labour on behalf of the cause to which he has publicly and solemnly devoted himself?

ART. II.-Letters from the Illinois, 1820, 1821. Containing an Account of the English Settlement at Albion and its Vicinity, and a Refutation of various Misrepresentations, those more particularly of Mr. Cobbett. By Richard Flower. With a Letter from Mr. Birkbeck; and Notes by Benjamin Flower. 8vo. pp. 76. Ridgeway. Ridgeway. 1822.

2s. 6d.

TWO

WO of these Letters were communicated by the Editor to our Repository; (Vol. XV. Nos. for August and October, 1820;) they are here re-published as an introduction to two others of considerable length, and of a more recent date from Mr. Richard Flower. To these are added a Letter from Mr. Birkbeck. And Mr. B. Flower has put a Preface and Notes to the publication, with a view chiefly to refute the unwarrantable and cruel charges of Mr. Cobbett.

The Illinois settlement has attracted considerable notice in England, and various reports of it have been published by travellers, from ocular inspection or from rumours picked up in the vicinity. Some of these representations give rather a gloomy picture of this agricultural retreat; but Mr. Richard Flower shews that they are generally untrue and sometimes contradictory; and in naming this gentleman we feel ourselves intitled to say, that the most unqualified confidence may be placed in all his statements and descriptions. Speaking of English visitors, he says,

"One of these travellers visited us when the snows were melting, and the rains descending: he reports us to be dwelling upon the swamps of the Wabash; and our lands to be so wet that they are unfit for either cattle or sheep to thrive on; and on that account unsuitable for the purposes of an English farmer.

"Another passed through our country in an unparalleled drought; and reported us to be in a sad situation for want of water. There was some degree of truth in this, but a very partial degree, owing to his not stating the circumstances of the case. Our town is situated very high, and till we had experienced some drought

we knew not that we should want to dig deep for water, and of course could not provide for an exigency that was not known to exist. Dig deep,' I have said; but one hundred feet is thought, by a western American to be a vast and dan

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gerous enterprise; we have, however, with us Englishmen who have been far into the bowels of the earth in England, and have no sort of fear of there not being abundance of water in Albion; already have we experienced the benefit of these exertions; but while our dryweather traveller was reporting our inconveniences, he should have stated it was an unusual season which pervaded the whole of the western country: that Kentucky and Ohio were worse than the Illinois; and that in Indiana, in the best watered districts, springs, rivulets and wells were exhausted. Such an instance has never before occurred during the memory of the oldest inhabitants. The willingly give a false account) has stated, same person (who I know would not that so short was the water, that we were obliged to send our cattle into Indiana. That our herds were in Indiana is very true, but that they were sent there ou account of want of water, is equally untrue. We have in Indiana, about twelve miles distant, some high ground in the midst of low land, subject to be overflowed; on this low ground grows extraordinary height; the tender shoots the most luxuriant cane, springing to an of which, affording excellent food for cattle, we send them in the winter season, with the exception of milch cows and working oxen, to fatten. Our cus

tom is somewhat similar to that of the farmers of the upland districts in England, who send their stock into the feus of Lincolnshire, to fatten on coleseed and superabundant grass. So we dispose of our herds when the winter draws to a close. To this may be added, that the cane in the low river bottoms, growing

naturally, is the most luxuriant pasturage for summer feeding and as we only pay the expense of the herdsman, the food either there or in the cane costing nothing, and the herdsman living there, we leave our herds; so it was true that they were in the cane, but were not sent there on account of the want of water, When this person reported that there was shortness of water amongst us, he should have added, that fine wells were no rarity in the vicinity of Albion; that he drank as fine water from our well as he ever tasted in his life; and that from the grounds of Richard and George Flower, Albion, and even a part of Wanborough were supplied.

"It will, therefore, appear that this person, as well as many others, told the

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