Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Unitarian Mourner comforted.

but the "still, small voice" of the Deity?

It is a subject far too sublime and mysterious for any mortal to indulge in the vanity of penetrating, or in the expectation of approaching with a chance of arriving at any warranted conclusion upon it: but if there be any one point of view more than another, which his reasoning faculty, humbly and diffidently exercised, contem plates as harmonizing with the known goodness of the Deity, it is there that his reflections upon it naturally terminate and centre: and sure I am, that there can be no presumption in the hope-a confident hope-that our re-union with the friends who have gone before us, may not be deferred to any very remote period. It is the hope that I fondly and devoutly cherish; it is the most cheering that can accompany departing spirits; and great is the consolation I derive from the persuasion, that it is not negatived either by Christ, or by his less enlightened apostles.

BREVIS.

[blocks in formation]

331

forbid us to grieve, nay, it allows, but it sanctifies and soothes our mourning.

I can with pleasure address you, my friend, as one who, I believe, firmly embraces religious principles, and who will be disposed to open your heart in the hour of your lamentation, to their power aud influence. May your consolations, as well as your sorrows, abound. You sorrow not as those who are without hope and without God in the world. No: you look as with adoration, so with confidence and resignation, to the Being who made all things, as your Father in heaven, and you will see and own a paternal hand holding out to you the cup, sion, the bitter but salutary potion. and mingling, with wisdom and compasYou will recollect your Divine Master, and say after him," The cup which my heavenly Father giveth me, shall I not drink it?"

The conduct of Aaron has, on this melancholy occasion, suggested itself to my thoughts as an admirable example of resignation and fortitude under trying cala. mities,-"He held his peace." (Levit. x. 1-3) May you be calm and composed, though borne down with sorrow. You have a hope that will elevate you in the season of dejection. It is hope in a Providence that adjusts all events, and conducts to a happy issue all that appears to us dark and afflicting and unaccounta ble. The ways of Supreme Providence may be unsearchable, and his judgments past finding out, but mercy and truth are the foundations of his throne. "I know,"

are righteous, and that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me." (Psalm cxix. 75.) You look forward with hope to a future state, where all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes, where sorrow and sighing shall cease, where the junction of the righteous shall be renewed under every advantage, and perpetuated with fulness of joy; where fulness of joy, glory and immortality shall richly compensate the transient afflictions of the present mo

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

HE Gentleman's Magazine for memoir of the late Sir Henry Charles Englefield, Bart., F. R. L. and A. S., says, "He was many years one of the vice-presidents of the Society of

late Marquis Townshend, was elected president; a well-deserved, but shortlived honour, his religious sentiments being the alleged barrier to his reelection, the Earl of Aberdeen being chosen in his room. After this, he retired from all active concern in the affairs of the Society."

[ocr errors]

The fact above-stated naturally excites curiosity respecting the circumstances of the case. What were the obnoxious sentiments? Ought any peculiarities of theological opinion to interfere with the election of a learned, accomplished and honourable man to an office in a Society, whose professed object is the investigation of History and Antiquities? And does not such a Society, by refusing to elect a man simply on account of his religious opinions, espouse the cause of opposition to those opinions, and thus pursue an aim totally extraneous to the avowed design of its institution?

An elucidation of this case from any of your correspondents will oblige PHILANDER.

MR.

Daventry Students.

R. BELSHAM requests the favour of the Editor of the Repository to insert the following corrections in the Catalogue of Students educated at Mr. Coward's Institution at Daventry.

The letter (d) is incorrectly prefixed to the names of Joseph Shrimpton, Esq., 1783, and John Yerbury, Esq., 1784, both those gentlemen being still living.

Mr B. adds, with much regret, that the same letter may too justly be prefixed to the name of Thomas Smith, Esq., of Easton Grey, who, to the inexpressible grief of an extensive circle of friends, was attacked with a stroke of apoplexy, on Friday, May

The same memoir mentions in the list of his publications, "A Letter to the Author of the Review of the Case of the Protestant Dissenters," 8vo., 1790.

[blocks in formation]

The recent loss of one of my earliest and dearest friends will plead my excuse for the discourse I am about addressing to you, and my loss is not merely personal, it is a general loss; it is a loss especially to the denomination of Christians to which we belong, and of which he was a distinguished ornament and minister. You have doubtless heard, and those who had the pleasure of knowing him have heard with deep regret, of the death of the Rev. Edmund Butcher, late of Sidmouth, with whom, for nearly 40 years, I have lived in the most entire and uninterrupted harmony and affection; I therefore feel the separation as of a brother endeared by the recollection of long-known and tried excellencies, of most sincere and faithful attachment. We both lived in the metropolis, and turned our serious thoughts to the ministry about the most endearing manner all the time same time; we were associated in the of our preparatory studies, and we entered and left the academical roof together, and commenced our ministerial career within a few weeks of

each other-we have endeavoured to support and encourage each other for nearly thirty-five years in which we have been engaged in our Master's vineyard. And that he has not been various works will bear testimony: his an idle or unsuccessful labourer, his exertions in the pulpit, his productions from the press, all prove that he had the sacred cause in which he emheart, and to this object all his ample barked with so much ardour, truly at powers were devoted. Such characters, my friends, if I may so say, are no one's private property; they belong to the public; they have devoted them

Extracts from a Sermon on the Death of the Rev. E. Butcher.

selves to the service of God and their fellow-men, as it relates to their best and eternal concerns, and we cannot but take a warm interest in all that relates to them: of such men we may say, that they are "greatly beloved." The dear friend and the beloved minister we lament, was willing to spend and to be spent in the service of his brethren; he has honourably worn out life in that service; he has been found faithful unto death. Those Christian societies which were so happy as to enjoy the superior blessing of his ministerial labours, know with what diligence, affection and zeal he engaged in this best of causes. His own mind was humble and unassuming as that of a child, and his candour almost unequalled. All who heard him bore witness to his eloquence, all who read his writings must see what was the vigour of his understanding. It was with the utmost modesty he spoke of any of his own productions, and this not out of affectation, for no one was more free from this failing. In him every one who knew him has lost a brother; one who was always approachable, with whom you felt you might be familiar, as far as good manners would allow you to be, and so much of mildness and kindness did there appear in his disposition, that no mind of any common delicacy could presume to encroach on such goodness and benevolence. In argument, there was the utmost fairness; for it was not victory but truth that was his aim and object. Of his strict and impartial love of truth, his whole life bore witness. Our first knowledge of each other arose from our meeting together at Salters' Hall, as delighted hearers of the Rev. Hugh Worthington, who at that time was afternoon preacher in that place to a numerous and flourishing congregation; our young minds were captivated by his uncommon eloquence, and we were two out of eight or ten whose hearts glowed to emulate his usefulness, and whom he encouraged and assisted to enter the ministry. Mr. Worthington's sentiments are well known to have been what is denominated Arian, as our own were at that time, and though some may deny the claim of such to be called Unitarian, certain it is we have the same object of worship, and that One alone.

333

In these sentiments my friend continued to a late period of life. He has himself given a very interesting account of the change which took place in his views respecting the person of Christ; but as he was not backward to avow this change, so neither was he ashamed that, for the space of nearly 50 years, or perhaps more, he had been of a different opinion, and that after many years of very close application to the subject, and fearless investigation of truth; so that at last it was but as the small dust of the balance that finally altered his views; though, after the scale began to turn, it is to be supposed arguments would have increasing weight, as is generally the case when we change our views of any religious sentiment. Nor, when his own views were altered, did he turn round on his former friends, and ridicule and triumph over sentiments he had, till a late period of life, firmly believed, because his friends did not change their views as he had done. He knew what had passed in his own mind, and by what gradual steps he had been led to see things in another light, and esteemed himself not less fallible now than he had formerly been. He had a just idea of the fallibility of human judgment, when he saw wise and good men differing, at various periods of their lives, on the most weighty and important subjects. Our friend strongly condemned the sneers and sarcasms which are so often cast by disputants at each other. In Mr. Butcher's sermon, preached at Bridgewater in 1809, when he publicly avowed his change of sentiment, he says, "I have always been so far a Unitarian as to consider the God of our Lord Jesus Christ as the only object of religious worship, and I still think that merely a belief in the preexistence and the miraculous conception of Jesus, ought not to deprive any one of that honourable appellation; the liberty in religious matters which I claim for myself, I most cheerfully and unreservedly allow to all other followers of Christ."

The change which took place in a mind so truly candid and liberal, could make no alteration in our friendly regards to each other; the taunt, the jeer, were unknown in our intercourse and correspondence; we loved each other with the sincerest affection, and

in the recollection of such departed first assertor of Liberty of Conscience

worth I feel a satisfaction in paying this feeble tribute to the recollection of a friendship which has lasted to the close of life, and which I trust will be renewed in that eternal world where friends meet never to part.

SIR,

I WROTE my short rem, ak, pot

John xxi. 15, (pp. 287, 288,) not as a biblical scholar, which I am not, but from a simple consideration of the Greek in itself considered; and I do not know that I have any thing farther to say which would deserve the attention of your correspondent, except it be to remark, that if the Evangelist intended the emphasis to fall upon the pronoun, he ought to have written Eus, in order to prevent ambiguity. If the writers of the New Testament were not very nice as to the distinction between the enclitic and the emphatic form of the pronoun, yet they did not, I apprehend, neglect this distinction so as to render their meaning obscure and uncertain. In our Evangelist we read, ει ὁ κόσμος ύμας μισες, γινώσκετε ότι εμε πρωτον ύμων μεμισηκε. This is as it ought to be; though here the sense could not have been inistaken, even had the enclitic been employed. The Greek, however, would have been at variance with the writer's meaning, as the proper interpretation of his words would have been, "know that it hated me before you hated me." And I cannot help concluding, that when he wrote αγαπᾷς με πλειον T8TWV; his meaning was, "Lovest thou me more than these love me?" E. COGAN.

[blocks in formation]

in England, without restriction and on its true grounds, yet remains to be settled. For years I have been making inquiries and collections in order to its solution, but at present I confess myself unable to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. The claims of individuals to the high distinction,

Above all Greek, above all Roman fame, can be determined only by a comparison of dates. There are several names for whom the honour is asserted, viz. Milton, Owen, Roger Williams, and John Goodwin; to whom perhaps may be added John Hales and Jeremiah White. But there is a sect of whom little is known who professed the principle of Liberty of Conscience in its purity, I refer to the Levellers, the admirable exposition of whose system is contained in your VIth Vol. pp. 23-28 and 88-92. Even before these and before the time of the eminent writers just specified, there were publications feeling their way to the glorious object, some of them written by men derided as mystics and fanatics. The speech in Parliament. in the time of Henry VIII., recorded in your XIth Vol. pp. 698-700, would seem to shew that the true notion of freedom of conscience and the Reformation were nearly coeval. Some of your correspondents, learned in theology, and especially in pamphlet-history, may perhaps assist the inquiries of

CANTABRIGIENSIS.

Quarterly Review on Bishop of St. David's Vindication of 1 John v. 7. IN our first number for the present

N IN from the pen of a learned and able

(pp. inserted

correspondent, a review of Bishop Burgess's new publication on behalf of the Three Witnesses' text. We rejoice to see that the bishop's tract has been examined and discussed in periodical works that circulate amongst Trinitarians, and especially in The Christian Remembrancer and the Quarterly Review. The critique in this latter journal is by the hand of a master. It agrees generally with the argument of our own reviewer, and it clears up in a decisive manner the difficulty as to Walafrid Strabo. This part of

Quarterly Review on Bishop of St. David's Vindication of 1 John v. 7. 335

[blocks in formation]

It is now time to consider the positive evidence brought forward by the Bishop of St. David's, in favour of the verse, during his second period.

"There can hardly be a doubt," observes the Bishop, “that the seventh verse was extant in Greek in the copies of Walafrid Strabo; and none at all of its existence in the time of the writer of the Prologue to the Canonical Epistles.' Walafrid Strabo, who lived in the ninth century, wrote a comment on the verse and on the Prologue to the Epistles. He could not, therefore, be ignorant either of the defects, which the author of the Prologue imputes to the Latin copies of his day, or of the integrity of the Greek, as asserted by him; and he directs his readers to correct the errors of the Latin by the Greek."

These observations on the testimony of Walafrid Strabo are founded, we believe, on a statement of Archdeacon Travis, in his letters to Mr. Gibbon; to which statement we must request our readers' attention. The subject is curious, and we have hopes of throwing some light upon it.

"The Glossa Ordinaria," says the Archdeacon," the work of Walafrid Strabo, was composed in the ninth century. This performance has been distinguished by the highest approba tion of the learned, in every age since its appearance in the world. Even M. Simon confesses that no comment on the Scriptures is of equal authority with this exposition. In this work the text in question is not only found in the Epistle of St. John, but is commented upon, in the notes, with admirable force and perspicuity.

"In his preface to this valuable Commentary, Walafrid Strabo lays down the following rules, as means whereby to discover and correct any errors that might subsist in the transcripts of his times, either of the Old or of the New Testament. Nota, quod ubicunque in libris Veteris Testamenti mendositas reperitur, recurrendum est ad volumina Hebræorum; quia Vetus Testamentum primo in lingua Hæbraica scriptum est. Si vero in libris Novi Testamenti, revertendum (1. recurrendum) est ad volumina

Græcorum; quia Novum Testamentum primo in lingua Græca scriptum est, præter Evangelium Matthæi, et Epistolam Pauli ad Hebræos.

"If, Sir, it shall be allowed that this celebrated Commentator followed, in his own practice, the rules which he has thus prescribed to others, (which will hardly be doubted,) the Greek MSS. which directed him to . insert this verse in his text and commentary must, in all probability, have been more ancient than any now known to exist. He flourished about A. D. 840. Some, at least, of the Greek MSS. which were used by him, cannot well be supposed to have been less than 300 or 400 years old; the latter of which dates carries them up to A.D. 440. But the MOST ANCIENT Greek MS. which is now known to exist, is the Alexandrian; for which, however, Wetstein, who seems to have considered the question with great attention, claims no higher an antiquity than the close of the fifth century, or about A. D. 490. If this mode of reasoning, then, be not (and it seems that it is not) fallacious, the text and the commentary of Walafrid Strabo stand upon the foundation of Greek MSS. which are more ancient, in point of time, and therefore which ought to be more respected in point of testimony, than any possessed by the present age."-Letters to Gibbon, pp. 21-24, Ed. 2d.

Thus far the Archdeacon: secure, as usual, in his premises, and intrepid in his conclusions. Mr. Porson has shewn, by a pretty copious induction of particulars, that the positions of this zealous advocate are not always to be trusted without examination; and we have now before us an instance which the Professor might have added to his list. It is well known to the learned in these matters, and may easily be ascertained by those who will take the trouble to inquire, that the title of Walafrid Strabo to be considered as the author of the Glossa Ordinaria is, to use Mr. Porson's phrase, exceedingly questionable;" and that still more questionable" is his right to the Commentary on the Prologue to the "Canonical Epistles." Our present intention, however, is to prove that Walafrid Strabo CERTAINLY WAS NOT the author of the sentence quoted in the preceding state

66

[ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinuar »