FINIS (3)

[85] Vide Smith on the Wealth of Nations, Vol. iii.

[86] Vide the Grammarians and Dialecticians on the Diminutives of the Italian and other languages.

[87] Many more might be added, such as a good fellow, a good companion, a libertine, a little free, a little loose in talk, wild, gay, jovial, being no man’s enemy but his own, &c. &c. &c. &c; above all, having a good heart.

[88] Gal. v. 19-21. Col. iii. 5-9.

[89] Job, xxviii. 28. Psalm, cxi. 10. Prov. i. 7.—ix. 10.

[90] 2 Peter, iii. 10, 11.

[91] Col. i. 13.

[92] It is almost unnecessary to remark, that the word is to be understood in a large sense, as including the Opera, &c.

[93] Geneva—It is worthy of remark, that the play houses have multiplied extremely in Paris since the revolution; and that last winter there were twenty open every night, and all crowded. It should not be left unobserved, and it is seriously submitted to the consideration of those who regard the stage as a school of morals, that the pieces which were best composed, best acted, and most warmly and generally applauded, were such as abounded in touches of delicate sensibility. The people of Paris have never been imagined to be more susceptible, than the generality of mankind, of these emotions, and this is not the particular period when the Parisians have been commonly conceived most under their influence. Vide Journal d’un Voyageur Neutre. The author of the work expresses himself as astonished by the phænomenon, and as unable to account for it.

[94] The author is almost afraid of using the terms, lest they should convey an impression of party feelings, of which he wishes this book to exhibit no traces; but he here means by Democrats and Jacobins, not persons on whom party violence fastens the epithet, but persons who are really and avowedly such.

[95] Lord Bacon.

[96] If any one would read a description of this process, enlivened and enforced by the powers of the most exquisite poetry, let him peruse the middle and latter part of the fifth Book of Cowper’s Task. My warm attachment to the exquisitely natural compositions of this truly Christian poet may perhaps bias my judgment; but the part of the work to which I refer appears to me scarcely surpassed by any thing in our language. The honourable epithet of Christian may justly be assigned to a poet, whose writings, while they fascinate the reader by their manifestly coming from the heart, breathe throughout the spirit of that character of Christianity, with which she was announced to the world; “Glory to God, peace on earth, good will towards men.”

[97] Here again let it be remarked, that faith, where genuine, always supposes repentance, abhorrence of sin, &c.

[98] Heb. xii. 1, 2.

[99] It has been well remarked that the word used, where it is said, that God “was pleased to bruise” and put to grief his only Son for us, is the same word as that wherein it was declared by a voice from Heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

[100] Vide Chap. iii. Where these were shewn to be the elementary principles of the passion of love.

[101] Rom. v. 9. 10.

[102] John xiii. 13-17. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet, &c.

[103] Vide Pascal’s Thoughts on Religion—A book abounding in the deepest views of practical Christianity.

[104] Pope.

[105] The Hell, so called, be it observed, not by way of reproach, but familiarity, by those who frequent it.

[106] Eph. ii.

[107] The Rev. Matthew Babington of Temple Rothley, in Leicestershire, who died lately at Lisbon.

[108] The author must acknowledge himself indebted to Dr. Owen for this illustration.

[109] The author here alludes to what happened within his own knowledge; and he has been assured by others, on whose testimony he can rely, of several similar instances. But to prevent misconstruction as to the incident which mainly gives rise to the remark, he thinks it necessary to declare, that the account, which appeared in some of the news-papers, of an entertainment having been given by Mr. Pitt on the Fast Day, is untrue; and he is glad of the opportunity, which the mention of this subject affords him, of contradicting a statement which he can positively affirm to have been false. This is one of the many instances which should enforce on the readers of news-papers, the duty of not hastily giving credit to reports to the disadvantage of any man, of any party. A person in a public station must often acquiesce under the grossest calumnies; unless he will undertake the vain and endless task of contradicting all the falsehoods which prejudice may conceive, and malignity propagate against him.—The writer may perhaps express himself with the more feeling on this subject; because he has often been, and, indeed, at this very moment is, in the circumstances which he has stated.

[110] I must beg leave to class among the brightest ornaments of the Church of England, this great man, who with his brethren was so shamefully ejected from the church in 1666, in violation of the royal word, as well as of the clear principles of justice. With his controversial pieces I am little acquainted: but his practical writings, in four massy folios, are a treasury of Christian wisdom; and it would be a most valuable service to mankind to revise them, and perhaps to abridge them, so as to render them more suited to the taste of modern readers. This has been already done in the case of his Dying Thoughts, a beautiful little piece, and of his Saints’ Rest. His Life also, written by himself, and in a separate volume, contains much useful matter, and many valuable particulars of the history of the times of Charles I. Cromwell, &c. &c.

[111] Let me by no means be understood to censure all the sectaries without discrimination. Many of them, and some who by the unhappy circumstances of the times became objects of notice in a political view, were men of great erudition, deep views of Religion, and unquestionable piety: and though the writings of the puritans are prolix; and according to the fashion of their age, rendered rather perplexed than clear by multiplied divisions and subdivisions; yet they are a mine of wealth, in which any one who will submit to some degree of labour will find himself well rewarded for his pains. In particular the writings of Dr. Owen, Mr. Howe, and Mr. Flavell, well deserve this character: of the first mentioned author, there are two pieces which I would especially recommend to the reader’s perusal, one, on Heavenly Mindedness, abridged by Dr. Mayo; the other, on the Mortification of Sin in Believers. While I have been speaking in terms of such high, and, I trust, such just eulogium of many of the teachers of the Church of England; this may not be an improper place to express the high obligations which we owe to the Dissenters, for many excellent publications. Of this number are Dr. Evans’s Sermons on the Christian Temper; and that most useful book, the Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, by Dr. Doddridge; also, his Life, by Orton, and Letters; and two volumes of Sermons, one on Regeneration, the other on the Power and Grace of Christ: May the writer be permitted to embrace this opportunity of recommending two volumes, published separately, of Sermons, by the late Dr. Witherspoon, President of the College of New Jersey.

[112] Vide Section vi. of the ivth Chapter, where we have expressly and fully treated of this most important truth.

[113] No exceptions have fallen within my own reading, but the writings of Richardson.

[114] It is with pain that the author finds himself compelled to place so great a writer as Dr. Robertson in this class. But, to say nothing of his phlegmatic account of the reformation; a subject which we should have thought likely to excite in any one, who united the character of a Christian Divine with that of an Historian, some warmth of pious gratitude for the good providence of God; to pass over also the ambiguity, in which he leaves his readers as to his opinion of the authenticity of the Mosaic chronology, in his disquisitions on the trade of India; his letters to Mr. Gibbon, lately published, cannot but excite emotions of regret and shame in every sincere Christian. The author hopes, that he has so far explained his sentiments as to render it almost unnecessary to remark, what, however, to prevent misconstruction, he must here declare, that so far from approving, he must be understood decidedly to condemn, a hot, a contentious, much more an abusive manner of opposing or of speaking of the assailants of Christianity. The Apostle’s direction in this respect cannot be too much attended to. “The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” (2 Timothy, ii. 24, 25.)

[115] Mr. Hume.

[116] Vide Dr. A. Smith’s Letter to W. Strahan, Esq.

[117] What is here stated must be acknowledged by all, be their political opinions concerning French events what they may; and it makes no difference in the writer’s view of the subject, whether the state of morals was or was not, quite, or nearly, as bad, before the French revolution.

[118] Soame Jenyns.

[119] Paley’s Evidence.

[120] See especially that great historian, Ferguson, who, in his Essay on Civil Society, endeavours to vindicate the cause of heroism from the censure conveyed by the poet:

[121] Such seems to be the just rendering of the word which our Testament translates, “did not like to retain God in their knowledge.”

[122] It is a gratification to the writer’s personal, as well as public feelings, to pay this tribute of respect to the character of Lord Chief Justice Kenyon.

[123] This is not thrown out rashly, but asserted on the writer’s own knowledge.

[124] “Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God,” (says David) “of that which doth cost me nothing.” 2 Sam. xxiv. 24.

“They,” (the Apostles) “departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus.” Acts v. 41. See also 1 Thess. i. 6.   Heb. x. 34.   James i. 2.   1 Peter iv. 13, 14.

Such are the marks exhibited in Scripture of a true love to God: and though our regard for our common Lord is not put to the same severe test, as that of the Apostles and first Christians was; yet, if the same principle existed in us also, it would surely dispose us to act in the spirit of that conduct; and prompt us rather to be willing to exceed in self denials and labours for Christ’s sake, than to be so forward as we are to complain, whenever we are called upon to perform or to abstain from any thing, though in an instance ever so little contrary to our inclinations.

[125] It may not be amiss to mention a few useful publications of this sort. Walton’s Lives, particularly the last edition by Mr. Zouch; Gilpin’s Lives; the Lives of Bishop Bedell and Bishop Bull; of Archbishop Usher; some extracts from Burnet of the Life of the incomparable Leighton, prefixed to a volume of the latter’s Sermons; Passages of the Life of Lord Rochester, by Burnet; the Life of Sir Matthew Hale; of the excellent Doddridge, by Orton; of Henry, father and son; of Mather; of Halyburton; Hampson’s and Whitehead’s Life of Wesley; Life of Baxter, by himself, &c. &c. &c.

[126] The author is aware, that he may perhaps be censured for conceding this term to the class of persons now in question, since orthodox Christians equally contend for the unity of the Divine Nature: and it perhaps may hardly be a sufficient excuse, that, it not being his object particularly to refute the errors of Unitarianism, he uses the term in its popular sense rather than give needless offence. He thus guards, however, against any false construction being drawn from his use of it.

[127] The author of this treatise has, since its completion, perused a work entitled, Calvinism and Socinianism compared, by A. Fuller, &c; and, without reference to the peculiarities of Calvinism, he is happy to embrace this opportunity of confessing the high obligation which, in common with all the friends of true Religion, he owes to the author of that highly valuable publication for his masterly defence of the doctrines of Christianity, and his acute refutation of the opposite errors.

[128] It is almost superfluous to state, that Sir William Jones is here meant, who, from the testimony borne to his extraordinary talents by Sir John Shore, in his first address to the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, appears to have been a man of most extraordinary genius and astonishing erudition.