Images de page
PDF
ePub

ican editors insert a few sentences to correct what may be errone. ous in the article.

It is not surprising that those who do not believe in the atonement of Christ should reject the doctrine of the fall of Adam and its consequences. These main truths of the Holy Scriptures must be received or denied together. But in a most unbecoming employment are those engaged, who undertake to decide by their own powers of reasoning, what is proper, and what improper, to be done by the infinite Jehovah. In such presumption we beg to have no participation.

No other article in this num. ber has received additions worthy of mention, except that of Cow POX, which is described as having pervaded nearly the whole of North America.

(To be continued.)

To the Editors of the Panoplist. [Proposals have been lately issued for the republication of Mr. Fellowes' "Religion without Cant."* The public will undoubtedly be gratified by some account of that extraordinary performance, that they may know what they are about to purchase. In the Christian Observer, vol. 1. page 519, you will find a review of this work, which, if I mistake not, furnishes all the information which can be wished. A republication of this review will give pleasure to one of your readers, and I presume to many. I am, gentlemen, yours, &c. X.]

The work referred to by our respected correspondent, has already made its appearance, not indeed under the riginal title of "Religion without Cant," which would probably have excited alarm in the Christian public, but under the more specious title of "A general View of the Doctrines of Christianity." In the preface, however, the public are advertized, that, "the work is compiled principally from a work of the Rev. Robert Fellowes, entitled "Religion without Cant" The republication, therefore, of the review of the original work, from the Christian Observer, may still be proper

From the Christian Observer.

Religion without Cant; or a Preservative against Lukewarmness and Intolerance, Fanaticism, Superstition, and Impiety. By ROBERT FELLOWES, A. M. of St. Mary Hall, Oxford, Curate of Harbury, Warwickshire. 8vo. 8s. London. White. 1801.

WE have already had occasion to introduce this author to our readers as the writer of a pamphlet, entitled The Anti-Calvinist; wherein he inculcated doctrines diametrically repugnant to the word of God, and to the spirit and letter of the Articles of and useful, in reference to the present compilation, which, though purged of some of the offensive and ridiculous, not to say impious, passages of the original work, retains the essence of its poison. We the more readily comply with the request of X. at the present time, because the republication, either entire, or in a garbled, and disguised form, of works of the general character of Mr. Fellowes' "Religion without Cant," has, in this vicinity, become an affair of concert and system. As the Socinian host in this country seem fond of appearing in the field of religious controversy in the borrowed armour of their brethren in Great Britain, they will not complain, if they are met by us with the same weapons of defence, which have been so ably and successfully employed against the same attacks of their brethren on the other side of the Atlantic. Beside, we think it desirable, that our readers should know in what light this description of Christians, who have but recently made their appearance in this country, are regarded by those in Great Britain, who are engaged in the same general cause with ourselves. Especially do we deem it important that the public should be early apprized of what kind of books, some in and around our capital have compiled and "designed for the edification of families more especially, and recommended to them as a valuable manual for the instruction of Children."

We were sorry to see the name of Mr. Etheridge, from whose press so many wholesome books have issued, prefixed to this insidious work. We presume he must have been deceived by its specious title, as others probably will be. Editors.

our church. The main design of the present work appears to be, that of giving a more particular and labored representation of those doctrines; and of thus filling up those outlines of heterodoxy, which were merely sketched in the former publication.

These two works correspond also in another particular; they both abound in that species of cheap and convenient abuse, which consists in using hard names and coarse epithets, with. out being at the trouble of shewing the applicability of either. In this circumstance, the work now before us rather exceeds its predecessor; and the flowers of Billingsgate (as they are denom. inated by a writer in the Anti. Jacobin Review) which appear. ed to be just budding in the AntiCalvinist, present themselves full blown in this later production. Among the many false doctrines which Mr. Fellowes maintains, there is no one which he is more dogmatical in asserting, than that of the gospel being nothing more than a rule of life. With this doctrine the whole spirit and language of the present publication accords. It is a doctrine which has been raked up from among the dregs of Socinianism; which, if followed through its consequences, would bring us to the very threshold of infidelity; and which, in its simplest form, possesses a direct and positive tendency to paganize Christianity. It is, however, a doctrine which has no chance of being adopted by any persons, who, to a tolerable acquaintance with the sacred Scriptures, add a cordial belief of their truth. Its falsehood will be detected,

without any effort of examina. tion, by all who consider the gospel in that light, in which St. Paul viewed it, when he declared, that "the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation unto every one that believeth."

In the preface which Mr. Fellowes has prefixed to his work, there is one passage, which it would be highly improper to pass without some notice. We do not mean that, in which he supposes a connexion between Christian benevolence and a good dinner ; for we believe that the idea of our being feasted into philanthropy will rather awaken the mirth, than offend the feelings of the reader. The passage to which we refer, occurs in the 19th page, where Mr. Fellowes having occasion to mention the act of adul. tery, expresses it, not in such terms as mark the criminality of the deed, but in such as are ordinarily employed to describe it, by the most light minded among the vulgar.

A considerable part of the work which we are considering, is of a polemical cast; and the object of attack appears to be twofold. On some occasions Mr. Fellowes assembles a hideous group of what he calls the fanatics, to whom he ascribes, ad libitum, a plentiful portion of absurdity, which he seriously and triumphantly sets himself to answer. On other occasions he takes a higher aim, and attempts no less than to overthrow some of those doctrines which have been heretofore considered as essential and fundamental parts of Christianity; which have been embraced and maintained by the wisest and best of men; but which Mr. Fellowes happening

to dislike, condemns as false in themselves and immoral in their tendency, and which he, therefore, labors per fas atque per nefas, to discredit and destroy. In his assault on the fanatics, we should feel no difficulty in unreservedly wishing him success, if the weapons which he brandishes were better suited to the hand of a Christian minister; and we should, moreover, be ready to commence hostilities ourselves against the fanatics whom he has described, if we knew where to find them. Where Mr. Fellowes discovered them he has not informed us, and, therefore, we can only wish, that if his chastisement can possibly prove beneficial, it may speedily reach them; although of its benefiting them, we, ourselves, have no expectation, since, from Mr. Fellowes' description, they appear to be among the number of either the incurably idiotic, or the irrecoverably insane. Of this last circumstance our readers will judge, from the few fol. lowing extracts from Mr. Fellowes' account of them :-"The fanatics make even religion itself the foundation of unrighteous. ness." (p. 4.) "They make holiness to consist more in turbulence of sensation, than in rectitude of action." (p. 7.) "They make the delirium of sensation a substitute for integrity of character;" (p. 27.) and yet, strange inconsistency in. deed!"make great pretensions to superior sanctity." (p. 29.) "They throw wide the gates of heaven to the sinner, and shut them against the righteous ;" and "with them salvation depends upon the impulses of feelings." (p. 51.) They ascribe to VOL. II. New Series.

faith a power, superseding the necessity of instruction and the use of inquiry." (p. 97.)"They confine the seat and hab itation of faith, the bounds of its existence, and sphere of its influence, to the sensations, within whose gaseous atmosphere they circumscribe its power, and to whose invisible operations they restrict its evidence." (p. 120.)

66

They feign that man's de. pravity is incurable," and "represent God as angry with us, for no other reason than because we are born." (p. 151.)—They hold that grace "is often withheld from the contrite, and often lavishly accorded to the hypocrite." (p. 189.)-They "confine the agency of grace within the volatile gas of the sensations." (p. 191.)-And, lastly, (to complete the picture) we are assured, that "the fanatic puts the victims of his rage to every torture, which he can con. trive in this world, and then breathes fervent wishes to heaven for their eternal damnation in the next!" (p. 130.)

Of this delineation of fanaticism, we may now take our leave for the present; and proceed to the important task of noticing the attack which Mr. Fellowes has made on what we consider, and what our church has ever held, to be among the essential doctrines of the gospel of Christ.

The doctrine of original or birth sin is pronounced by Mr. Fellowes to be totally false. We pretend not to add to the authorities and arguments by which this doctrine has been, and still may be proved to be true. We shall, therefore, for the present, only trouble Mr. Fellowes with a request, that he will attentively

R.

consider these two practical questions-How can any man, with a pure conscience and an upright mind, declare in the sanctuary, in the presence, and in the administration of the ordinance of God, that "all men are conceived and born in sin," when he himself, at that very moment, is persuaded, that all men are born innocent and upright ?and how can he in that same ordinance, and on his knees before that same God, who seeth the heart and abhorreth iniquity, address a prayer to him, that he would grant to the infant, whom he is about to baptize, "remission of his sins by spiritual regeneration," when he, at the same time, believes, that the infant neither wants such remission, nor is capable of such regeneration?

It may also be useful to consider, how far it is consistent with that morality, for the interests of which Mr. Fellowes professes so much zeal, that he should instruct the children of his parish in a catechism, which affirms, that we are born in sin, the children of wrath," when he thinks, and publicly declares, that such an affirmation is a falsehood; and not merely that it is a falsehood, but that it is such an one as is of the very worst moral tendency.

Mr. Fellowes talks much of the dishonesty and falsehood of the fanatics. But is he not apprehensive, that if any one of them, who retains any portion of his wits, should read the work before us, and compare some passages of it with others in the Common Prayer Book, he would find materials for a severe and irresistible retaliation?

Mr. Fellowes has discovered,

that the Ninth Article of our church is not very favorable to his sentiments on the subject of original sin; and he even confesses that it in some degree sanctions this doctrine; but adds, that this article admits of an explanation that will entirely do away the mischievousness of the doctrine." He also says. (p. 33.) "Though the doctrine should be more expressly authorized by the Articles than it appears to me to be, yet it cannot well be called the doctrine of the church of England, when it is not the doctrine of the majority of the members, who compose that church." Again, "When we wish to ascertain the true doctrine and belief of the church of England, we are not to inquire so much what was the doctrine and belief of its clergy in past ages, as what is the doctrine and belief of the clergy, or the church, at the present day. That which was the doctrine and belief of the clergy in past ages, was the doctrine and belief of the church in their time; and that which is the doctrine and belief of the clergy in this age, is the doctrine and belief of the church in our time."-Again, "As the majority of the living members, and particularly the most learned, upright, and judicious members of the church of England, constitute the church of En. gland, they may, without for

*We were taught just before, that the clergy at large constitute the church of England. Now we are told, that the majority of the living members, and parjudicious members of the church of Engticularly the most learned, upright, and land, constitute that church! If the latter of these contradictory opinions be admitted, it will be necessary for a conscientious candidate for ordination, who wishes to subscribe the Articles in the sense

mally repealing any of the articles, put any construction upon them which they think best, and that construction is the legal doctrine of the church in their time; and in that sense, and according to that construction, the articles may and ought to be subscribed; and he, who thus subscribes them, maintains what it is so necessary to maintain, an unity of doctrine with the majority of his brethren; and is, consequently, a better friend to the church of England, than he who may subscribe the articles in a sense more agreeable to the letter, but more adverse to the general construction of the clergy: and consequently, to the received doctrine of the church." . We really think that Mr. Fellowes can scarcely for a moment suppose, that such absurdities will impose upon any man of common sense, or that such dishonest sophistication will be acceptable to any man of common honesty. In a note at the bottom of p. 131, Mr. Fellowes says, that governments should be taught "to labor to prevent these hell-born fiends, (the fanatics and atheists) from spreading theirvenom among the people; and this," he adds, "can only be done by compelling the ministers of the Establishment to teach NOTHING BUT THAT PURE MORALITY WHICH CHRIST TAUGHT, WITHOUT ANY CANT OR ANY MYSTERY." Now is Mr. Fel

which, according to these rules, is the only legal one, to take an actual survey of the kingdom, and to poll all the existing individuals who profess to be members of the church of England; at the same time, taking with him a pair of intellectual and moral balances, nicely adjusted, in order to ascertain the compar ative learning, uprightness, and judic iousness of these same living members of

the church.

lowes sure that this expedient would avail? Is he certain that no better, no honester means can be devised for converting atheists and fanatics, and for re-. straining the propagation of their principles, than that of compelling the ministers of the establishment to abstain wholly from teaching those mysteries of Christianity which they have solemnly engaged, and are expressly ordained to inculcate? That cant should be discouraged, we allow; although we could wish that the repression of it among the ministers of the establishment were effected rather by their own good sense and discretion, than by the operation of political coercion. But when the suppression of those mysteries, which, though unfathomable to our understanding, are, nevertheless, fit objects of our faith; such as "the Trinity of persons in the undivided godhead, the incarnation of the second person, the expiation of sin by the Redeemer's sufferings and death, the efficacy of his intercession, and the mysterious commerce of the believer's soul with the divine Spirit"-when a compelled suppres sion of these mysteries is proposed, as a panacea for the moral disorders produced by fanatics and atheists, we must beg leave to question the judgment and skill of the prescriber. And whatever Mr. Fellowes may say or think, our hearts desire and prayer to God is, that the clergy of the establishment, of whom we are taught "to account, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God,” may have "utterance given unto them, that they may open their

« PrécédentContinuer »