us. quency, I think it necessary, in my own justification, to reprint the offensive letter or tract, under your cover, that the public may be enabled to decide between If to advise my poor neighbours, who have every variety of doctrine preached to them, to stick to their Bibles, to read them with diligence and attention, and to judge for themselves in the important concern of religion, be to lead them to Deism, then am I culpable; for this advice have I given them. In doing this, I have been guided by a wish to protect them at the same time from Infidelity aud the fashionable errors in religion. I hope and trust that I am as far removed from the former as you are, or can be; and had I, with my opinions, and the high value I entertain for the Christian religion, written any thing that had a tendency to impede its progress, it would be to me a cause of the most sincere and lasting regret; and I should justly deserve your censure and execration, and that of every good and virtuous man. I assure you I place a high value upon the good opinion of such, though I should be sorry to obtain it by means rendering me, in my own estimation, unworthy of it. "The good character I have maintained in the world, (for I will not be guilty of the affectation of professing that I have no such character,) has, I believe, been awarded me by some, in a great measure, in consequence of my regular attendance upon the ordinances of the Established Church. The small still voice of couscience has at all times whispered to me, that, instead of deserving the praise of others for this, I have merited their censure. Could they have read my heart, they would have discovered that, instead of discharging my duty with Christian candour and sincerity, I was (in part at least) acting with disingenuousness, not to say duplicity and deceit; and this not only towards man, but towards God: instead of serving him in spirit and in truth-instead of endeavouring, by honesty and plain dealing, to obtain his favour, my conscience has told me that, by attending a worship of which I disapproved, under the plausible excuse of setting a good example, and keeping up a decent appearance, I was courting the unsatisfying approbation and countenance of the world, and rendering myself un worthy of these, which I felt I enjoyed, in some measure, in consequence of a false estimation of my character."-Pp. 9-11. Having treated the supposition of himself having taken the advice of the Archdeacon in his theological dif ficulties, and having come to the conclusion that no honest Christian minister could have advised religious duplicity, he puts, in a note, the following case: "Instead of a layman coming to you, as Ordinary, for spiritual advice, suppose a minister under your pastoral care should have applied to you, and stated that, as he could find no such God as God the Holy Ghost mentioned in the Bible, he could not conscientiously continue his ministration in the Church-would you have advised him to consult the Articles, the Creeds, or the Homilies, or to stick to the Bible and follow the dictates of his conscience? "This is not altogether an imaginary statement. The Rev. Mr. Baring, a member of one of the most wealthy private families in the kingdom, has lately resigued his living in the Church on this He has made many convery account. verts to his opinions, who, except rejecting the divinity and personality of the Holy Ghost, retain, I believe, the other doctrines of the Established Church. The same spirit of free inquiry may perhaps lead him and others to the conclusion, that God the Father is alone God; and that the Mediator between God and man cannot in any sense be God himself; or that the God and Father of Jesus Christ cannot be Jesus Christ himself. If we are to dispense with the plain rules of grammar, of arithmetic, and of common sense, in explaining the Holy Scriptures, they will become a mere dead letter."Pp. 15, 16. This well-instructed layman asserts the supremacy of the Scriptures. He says (p. 69) that Jesus Christ is by his doctrine" the same yesterday, toamong day and for ever," but that " men, Jesus Christ is continually changing." For proof of this, he refers to the Peterborough Questions, which, he adds, have been called "cobwebs for catching Calvinists," but which might, he thinks, be more properly denominated "patent machines for the manufacture of hypocrites, by wholesale, upon a new and improved principle." Capt. Thrush's Letter before-menThe Appendix contains, besides tioned, a reprint of the following pamphlet: "Remarks on the Athanasian Creed; on a Sermon preached at the Parish Church of Deal, Oct. 15, 1752; and on a Pamphlet, lately published, with the title, Some Short Review.-Capt. Thrush's Letter to the Archdeacon of Cleveland. and Plain Arguments from Scripture, evidently proving the Divinity of our Saviour.' In a Letter addressed to the Rev. Mr. Randolph, Rector of Deal. By a Lady." This female production was occasioned by the suspension of the Curate of St. George's Chapel, Deal, Dr. Nicholas Carter, by his rector, Mr. Randolph, for omitting to read the Athanasian Creed in his chapel. The Sermon alluded to in the Lady's title-page, was published by Dr. Carter, from Matthew xxiii. 8-10, Against the Athanasian Creed. Of this conscientious divine, Dr. Herring, the Archbishop of Canterbury, says in a letter to William Duncombe, Esq., dated Nov. 5, 1755, "Your friend Dr. Carter is grievously teazed by folks who call them selves orthodox. I abhor every tendency to the Trinity controversy; the manner in which it is always managed is the disgrace and ruin of Christianity." Dr. Carter's name appears very suitably in our list of the Petitioning Clergy, in 1772. (Mon. Repos. XVII. 16, col. 1.) He is celebrated in our biographical histories as the father of the learned Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, and to this lady the Letter here republished has been commonly attributed. Her biographer and relation, Mr. Montague Pennington, denies that she was the author, but admits that he knows not who was his theological bias may have disinclined him to give its full weight to the evidence of its having proceeded from her pen. On this disputed point, which some of our correspondents may enable us to clear up, Capt. Thrush says, "The copy from which I reprint this letter was in the possession of the late Duke of Grafton at the time of his death, and was marked in (I believe) the handwriting of that nobleman as the production of Mrs. Carter. Her memoir, so far from throwing any light on the subject, does not in any way allude to this letter. Of her ability to write such a letter no one can doubt; and that her religious opinions were not orthodox is to be inferred from her never once, in her Notes on the New Testament, offering the slightest remarks on those texts which are generally brought forward as decisive proofs of the doctrine of the Trinity: all So entitled in Letsome's Preacher's Assistant, 8vo. 1753. Appendix, p. 283. 367 these texts are passed over in perfect silence, as much so as if they had no place in the sacred volume. "As the learned historian of Mrs. of trivial moment, has taken no notice Carter, who has mentioned many things of this letter, certainly no inconsequential one to the subject of the memoir, and merely alluded to the circumstance of Dr. Carter's suspension, it affords some ground to suppose that either Mrs. Carter or her sister, afterwards Mrs. Pennington, the mother of the reverend biographer, had written this letter; the lady last mentioned, it is to be remarked, had written on controversial subjects (see p. 6 of Mrs. Carter's Memoir). Either of these ladies, no doubt, was qualified to few women; and it is very natural to write this letter, which is the case with suppose that they would both feel a wish to humble Mr. Randolph, the ungenerous enemy of their beloved father. That the family regarded Mr. Randolph in that light is evident from Dr. Carter's Letter to that gentleman, prefixed to a Sermon which he preached at St. George's Chapel, in Deal, August 9th, 1752. probability that one of these ladies wrote this letter is strengthened by the perusal of Mrs. Carter's Memoir, where, among The that lady's correspondents and friends at that period, we find no one mentioned at all likely to write such a letter. As Mrs. Carter (it is to be presumed) had left no letters or documents concerning this letter, of so much consequence to her and her family, her silence conveys a suspicion that, if not the writer of it, she was not in ignorance on the subject. This supposition receives strength from the Mrs. Carter was living upon terms of consideration that soon after this period friendship and intimacy with the highest dignitaries of the Church. The air of episcopal palaces has a wonderful effect in suppressing inquiries after religious truth. I by no means say this to cast any imputation upon Mrs. Carter, whom I consider as a kind of superior being, whose character cannot be affected either by praise or censure from my pen. But I think myself justified in making the remark, as it applies to characters in whose society the relations of Mrs. Carter would not be sorry to see her placed. Dr. Porteus, afterwards Bishop of London, Dr. Yorke, afterwards Bishop of Ely, and Dr. Percy, subsequently (I believe) elevated to the prelacy, were among the clergy petitioning Parliament for relief in the article of subscription; but, after breathing the air of episcopal palaces, they deserted the cause in which they had before embarked."-Note, pp. 5—7. Whoever was the author of this ART. IV.-The Wisdom and Goodness THE reavements. In the following passage, the author appears to us to take a just view both of human nature and the Divine dis>pensations: "Men, as frail beings, naturally contract in their journey through this world, certain habits and opinions which, though not always absolutely wicked, are neither wise, nor pure, nor liberal, nor just. And, at a certain period of life, the mind becomes so stationary and contracted, as almost to preclude the possibility of enlargement; and the habits are so fixed, that scarcely any means are sufficient to rectify or remove them. The whole history of man is decisive evidence of this truth. It is quite proverbial to say, that use is second nature, that custom is a tyrant; we need only reflection and observation to perceive that habit is indeed invincible. But death, by withdrawing the aged, not only removes their infirmities, but also their prejudices, their ignorance and their faults; and younger minds, more pure, docile and ardent, profit by their errors and discoveries, and make those moral and intellectual attainments and improvements of which their fathers formed no conception. Death not only removes prejudiced individuals from the world, but, by its apprehended approach, frequently removes an individual's prejudices from himself. And, a man awakstances, may have new feelings and see ing from the sleep of death, in new circumthings in a very different light, as, in the morning, the intemperate look back with regret on the last night's excess. This reasoning supports the pleasing idea, that the world is, and will continue to be, improving: a fact as grateful to man as it is honourable to the moral government of God."—Pp. 20, 21. The following reflection, which apProves itself equally to reason and piety, is happily expressed: "All things are so fitly adjusted, so nicely balanced in due weight and measure, by the Divine Architect, that, were the fear of death stronger than it is, it would produce settled gloom and melancholy, and destroy cheerfulness and all the innocent pleasures of life. If it were less awful and impressive, it would cease to produce that attention and those moral effects which now conduce so much to knowledge, virtue and happiness. Or, if we had no doubts and fears, if our faith were stronger and our hopes brighter, if we had clearer views of the glory and felicity of heaven-our minds would be so fixed and absorbed by the blissful scene, that we should undervalue our present existence; this world and its affairs would cease to influence us, and its most important duties and labours would be neglected; the moral economy of life would be at an end, and all those active energies which now so much conduce to the well-being of society, could not exist. How great is the wisdom and goodness of God! What a provision for happiness, by which the good man can enjoy both this world and the next! The light shineth,' but not so brightly as to oppress our vision, or to prevent, in many instances, both doubts and fears, which serve to increase our vigilance and inquiry; yet the light of life is sufficiently strong to excite ardent hope and strong desire, and to bear every wish above." Pp. 31, 32. 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