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the body. On these points Mr. Piggott makes the following remarks:

"With high delight he quotes Mr. Locke, as countenancing his theory. I must do Mr. Locke the justice, however, of expressing my sincere conviction, that when he made the declaration concerning the power of God, that if it was his pleasure, he could endow matter with the power of thought, he had no expectation that Deists and Infidels would enrol him in the foremost rank of materialists. He held a firm conviction, that the mind did not perish with the body; but this, of course, is by no means brought forward by our infidels, for reasons sufficiently obvious: it does not strengthen their system. Mr. Locke's speculations had respect to the human mind; and, of course, Mr. Locke, and all writers and commentators on the soul and the Bible, are scarcely noticed by materialists, except in some expression which may be forced into their own service. They would have us pass by him, to attend to one who brings the soul before us in a tangible shape, and discusses its nature and qualities, as part of the corporeal system. This is a great discovery, and will wonderfully simplify our creeds and our practices. We need no longer repair to the temple and to the Bible for our creed, but to the room of a surgical lecturer: we are to take our theology from a system of physiology, and reverently bow to the desk of the philosopher, or rather, the chair of the scorner, instead of the pulpit, and the testimony of God! But this, I suppose, is one of the improvements of the present enlightened day; one of those innovations which commissions philosophy to instruct us in religion, and degrades the Bible from her chair, as no more fit to be a teacher of religion than philosophy!! We are to view man now, it would seem, not as both physical and intellectual, but as merely physical. We are to make an experiment upon his system, and account for every thing from metaphysical and final causes.

"As for the soul, that divinæ particula auræ, it is an error of ages past, now exploded by anatomical experiment! Life, they say, is a mere quality of organized substance, and mind is inseparable from a sound brain, for both depend upon material organs! Life, therefore, is the principle of organization, and intellect of brain! What then, forsooth, are operations of intellect? Why, merely organic impulses. And what is thought? Why, merely affections of the brain! Our desires and motives, therefore, are merely modifications of the brain, and our crimes and virtues are attributable merely to the structure of the brain! The original formation, then, if not the Framer himself, is in fault, and not the individual. And, consequently, crimes being merely disorders of the structure, merely imperfections in the formation, there is no such thing as guilt or criminality; and, consequently, no reward can be hoped for, and no punishment need be apprehended! The transition is easy -creeds are the mere inventions of priestcraft, and a future state of retribution is a downright absurdity, and the object of ridicule and contempt. O excellent discovery! Had it been made a little sooner, what a fraternal hug might have been expected from Voltaire,

and Diderot, and Condorcet, and D'Alembert,

and all the other Atheists and Materialists on the continent! And how might infidelity and profaneness have deluged the land thirty years since, as easily as they now do through Tom Paine, revived by his zealous patron, Carlile." -pp. 19 to 21.

Proceeding in his lectures, Mr. Piggot considers the infidel productions of the day, especially Don Juan, Cain, and the Liberal, as advancing the cause of Antichrist, and the doctrines of the Socinians he contemplates as tending to the same point. The existence of the soul, as distinct from matter, he investigates with much ability, and proves with success; and its consequent immortality he establishes, by adverting to its intrinsic nature, and by making numerous appeals to the language of revelation.

For the necessity of an atonement, through which the pardon of sin is alone attainable, he argues in a masterly manner, and the adequacy of our Lord and Saviour to make it, he establishes upon the most indisputable grounds. Hence, the divinity of his character appears before him in all its importance; and the necessity of divine agency to change the bias of our moral powers is argued with much force, and with considerable acuteness. The following paragraphs will confirm the truths of these observations:

"1. The Holy Ghost exerts a practical influence over the hearts of men, by bringing them into a state of spiritual life. By his quickening power, they are raised from spiritual death to spiritual life; and from indolent self-security to active diligence in working out their salvation. By his power we are so renewed in the spirit of our minds, that a new creation seems to have been made in the very disposition and moulding of our souls; by his influence we become so changed and improved, that we may be said to be born again; 'old things to pass away, and all things to become new. The seed of divine grace is sown in our hearts, and the plant of righteousness springs up from this incorruptible seed, in the image of God; and the Spirit himself, by his sacred influence on the mind, by the holy affections which he excites in the heart, and by the effects be produces in the life and conduct, bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.'

"2. The Holy Ghost exerts his influence by bringing Christians to be humble disciples of the Saviour whose name they bear. He makes them true and faithful disciples of the Lord Christ. They take the attitude of scholars sitting at the feet of their Master, and learning all he teaches them they implicitly submit to the wisdom of Him who is the light of the world; and desire to travel to the king

5. Obedience to Christ is the unfailing consequence of the in-dwelling of the blessed Spirit. The love of Christ constrains his disciples to live to him who died for them, and rose again. The grace of God, which bringeth salvation, teaches all who possess it, to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present evil world. Those who act otherwise are not friends but traitors to the Captain of salvation. His true followers walk in his steps; they depart from iniquity; they aim at his glory; they submit to his will; they are spiritual in their minds; they are exemplary in the practice of social virtues; they fill up the various relations of life, and feel an enlarged benevolence towards all mankind: but their peculiar delight is in those who are the excellent of the earth, and their chief charities are bestowed on those who are of the household of faith: they become more conformed to the image of the Redeemer; and beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, they are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.' Such, then, is the practical influence of the Spirit of God on the heart and conduct of those who are taught and led by him.'"-pp. 308 to 312.

dom of heaven, in the exact path which He | the earth, against which the stream did beat marks out who came from heaven, and is gone vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the to heaven, and who can best inform us the way rain of that house was great,' Luke vi. 47 thither. A Newtonian takes the system of -49. Newton for his own; a Christian learns his system from the Lord Christ. He is his guide in his inquiries and discoveries in the heaven of heavens. If we are rightly instructed by him, we shall acknowledge and feel our depravity by nature, our need of a Redeemer to atone for our guilt, and the necessity of the Holy Spirit to renew our minds and sanctify our hearts. To the Lord Christ we shall look as the object of our worship: on Christ we shall depend as our only foundation and hope for eternity; to his Gospel we shall look for our rule of faith and duty, and from that we shall seek the motives to animate us to walk according to it. The Bible is express in declaring Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.' Impressed with a sense of his own unworthiness, and the Saviour's sufficiency to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, the Christian learning of his divine Master, humbly relies on the mercy of God, through his Saviour's merits, and continues a humble scholar, learning, with gratitude, his will, and meekly following his footsteps. We shall grow in grace, in knowledge, purity, and holiness. But if our progress be but slow, if we are advancing, we must not be discouraged. If we have but a little light, this light will increase more and more unto the perfect day. If we discern but at a distance the glimmering of heaven's light, let us follow it, and it will guide us through all the darksome valleys of earth to the glorious city of habitation, where the Lamb is the light thereof.

"3. If the Spirit of God dwells in us, we shall love the Lord Jesus Christ: Christ will, as it were, dwell in our hearts by faith; his love will be shed abroad in our hearts: we shall avow our attachment to our Master; we shall own him before men, conscious of his own threatening— If any man be ashamed of me or my Gospel, in this perverse generation, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with all his holy angels.' We shall say, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ Jesus my Lord. I esteem all things but dross, for the excellency of Christ Jesus my

Lord.'

4. The Spirit, also, if he dwells within us, will bring us to sit at the feet of Christ, as our master and teacher, willing to receive the law from his mouth, and to follow all his precepts. The love which the Spirit inspires will lead us to keep our Lord's commandments; if it has not this effect, it is ungrateful, perfidious, and ruinous. Why call ye me Lord, Lord,' said the Saviour, and do not the things which I say?' The present character and the future condition of such is thus described: Whose ever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like; he is like a man which built a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock; and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth and doeth not, is like a man that, without a foundation, built a house upon

In arguing on these interesting topics, Mr. Piggott does not pass over in silence the various objections that are advanced by infidelity and its abettors, against the doctrines which each of them he gives a distinct and he defends. These he states, and to specific reply. The practical influence of infidelity and of genuine Christianity he fairly contrasts with each other, and the conclusion to which his observations lead, are too obvious to be misunderstood. On the perpetuity of punishments and rewards in a future state, his reasonings are strong and conclusive. These, he justly contends, must stand or fall together, since the same modes of argumentation that would lead us to believe the former to be limited, cannot fail to leave us without any evidence, that the latter will be eternal.

The Gospel he considers as a system that is of the utmost consequence in referrence to our faith and practice, and as being that which can alone afford consolation in a dying hour. Hence, it becomes as interesting as it is important, having a powerful claim hearts, and extending its influence to upon our understandings and our our hopes and fears.-This work is not profound, but its language is clear, and its arguments are convincing.

863

Review-The Christian Father's Present to his Children.

Of its practical tendency no doubt can be entertained. We consider its merits to be highly respectable, and, as such, wish it an extensive circulation.

REVIEW.-The Christian Father's Present to his Children. By J. A. James. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 236-216. London. Westley. 1824.

Ir is pleasant to peruse a book that contains common sense. Its author appears before us in a commanding attitude, and frequently claims our confidence for positions that are but partially understood, because conviction has followed those which we can fully comprehend. Of this character are the volumes now before us, and in this light Mr. James, the author, must be introduced to the public.

His work, though comparatively diminutive in point of magnitude, touches on nearly every topic that can be interesting to man, whether we view him as an inhabitant of time, or a probationer for eternity; and, perhaps, scarcely any medium of communication could be more likely to gain the reader's attention, than this which he has chosen. The primary object which Mr. James seems to keep constantly in view is, the instruction of youth, apparently graduating through the riper stages of their minority; but his observations are equally applicable to "children of a larger growth," advancing to periods in which the character of an individual is stamped with some principles which generally accompany it through life.

864

66 as ra

he contends that we might
tionally look for the tenderest hot-
house plant to thrive amidst the ri-
gours of eternal frost," as to expect
religion to grow in a soil of undue se-
verity. The influence of paternal au-
thority should resemble the "pressure
of the atmosphere, be felt without be-
ing seen, and this will make it irre-

sistible."

It is impossible, within the limits allotted to a review of these volumes, to follow the author through the advice, caution, admonition, and warning which he gives to his children, and the children of all whom his preThere is one cepts may concern. chapter, however, on theatrical amusements, from which our attachment to public morals compels us to select the following paragraphs:

"I do not hesitate for a moment to pronounce the THEATRE to be one of the broadest avenues which lead to destruction; fascinat

ing, no doubt, it is, but on that account the

more delusive and the more dangerous. Let a young man once acquire a taste for this species of entertainment, and yield himself up to its gratification, and he is in imminent danger of becoming a lost character, rushing upon his ruin. All the evils that can waste his property, corrupt his morals, blast his reputation, impair his health, imbitter his life, and destroy his soul, lurk in the purlieus of a theatre. Vice, in every form, lives, and moves, and bas its being there. Myriads have cursed the hour when they first exposed themselves to the contamination of the stage. From that fatal evening they date their destruction. Then they threw off the restraints of education, and learnt to disregard the dictates of conscience. Then life of virtue and of vice, was made up for the their decision, hitherto oscillating between a latter. But I will attempt to support by argament and facts these strong assertions.

"The stage cannot be defended as an amuseThese volumes contain twenty-five ment: for the proper end of an amusement is chapters, to which is prefixed an ad- to recreate without fatiguing or impairing the strength and spirits. It should invigorate, not dress to Christian parents on the im- exhaust the bodily and mental powers; should portance and necessity of giving to spread an agreeable serenity over the mind, their children a religious education; and be enjoyed at proper seasons. Is midof instructing them both by precept night the time, or the heated atmosphere of a theatre the place, or the passionate, tempestuand example; and of guarding them ous excitement of a deep tragedy the state of against those arts, which, by render-mind, that comes up to this view of the deing vice fascinating, corrupt their sign of amusement? Certainly not. morals, and strew the paths leading to destruction with flowers. The grounds of his observations are both rational and obvious; and such are their force and application, that many fathers will peruse his strictures with a sigh, and suffer their blushes to betray a consciousness of self-condemnation. Laxity in domestic discipline he considers as injurious to the effects of a religious education; and

But what I wish particularly to insist upon is, the immoral and antichristian tendency of the stage. It is an indubitable fact, that the stage has flourished most in the most corrupt and depraved state of society; and that in proportion as sound morality, industry, and religion advance their influence, the theatre is deserted. It is equally true, that amongst the most passionate admirers, and most constant frequenters of the stage, are to be found the most dissolute and abandoned of mankind. Is it not too manifest to be denied, that piety as instinctively shrinks from the theatre, as human

865

Review-The Christian Father's Present to his Children.

life does from the point of a sword or the draught of poison! Have not all those | who have professed the most elevated piety and morality, borne an unvarying and uniform testimony against the stage? Even the more virtuous pagans condemned this amusement, as injurious to morals and the interests of nations. Plato, Livy, Xenophon, Cicero, Solon, Cato, Seneca, Tacitus, the most venerable men of antiquity; the brightest constellation of virtue and talents which ever appeared upon the hemisphere of philosophy, have all denounced the theatre as a most abundant source of moral pollution, and assured us that both Greece and Rome had their ruin accelerated by a fatal passion for these corrupting entertainments, William Prynne, a satirical and pungent writer, who suffered many cruelties for his admirable productions in the time of Charles I., has made a catalogue of authorities against the stage, which contains every name of eminence in the heathen and Christian worlds: it comprehends the united testimony of the Jewish and Christian churches; the deliberate acts of fifty-four ancient and modern, general, national, provincial councils and synods, both of the Western and Eastern churches; the condemnatory sentence of seventy-one ancient fathers, and one hundred and fifty modern Popish and Protestant authors; the hostile endeavours of philosophers and even poets; with the legislative enactments of a great number of Pagan and Christian states, nations, magistrates, emperors, and princes."

“ Now must not this be regarded in the light of very strong presumptive evidence of the immoral tendency of the stage? Does it not approach as near as can be to the general nion of the whole moral world?..

866

seen such a favourite with the public on the stage? Besides, how saturated are both tragedies and comedies with irreverent appeals to heaven, profane swearing, and all the arts of equivocation, and falsehood, and deception! What lascivious allusions are made; what impure passages are repeated! What a fatal influence must this have upon the delicacy of female modesty. Think too of a young man coming at the hour of midnight from such a scene, with his passions inflamed by every thing he has seen and every thing he has heard; and then having to pass through ranks of wretched creatures waiting to ensnare him, and rob him of his virtue; does it not require extraordinary strength of principle to resist the attack!

"I admit that modern plays are in some measure purified from that excessive grossness which polluted the performances of our more ancient dramatists. But who knows not that vice is more mischievous in some circles of society, in proportion as it is more refined. The arch equivoque and double entendre of moderm plays, are well understood and applied by a licentious audience; and the buzz of approbation, which is heard through the whole assembly, furnishes abundant proof that the effect is not lost.' Little will go down with the public in the shape of comedy, farce, or opera, but what is pretty highly seasoned with indelicate allusions. Hence it is that even the newspaper critics, whose morality is, in general, not of the most saintly character, so often mention the too barefaced indecencies of new plays. Dramatic writers know very well how to cater for the public taste. opi-"How many sentiments are continually uttered on the stage, how many indelicate allu، But let us examine the average character of sions are made, which no man, who had any those productions which are represented on the regard to the virtue of his sons, or the feelings stage. If we go to Tragedy, we shall find that of bis daughters, would allow to be uttered at pride, ambition, revenge, suicide, the passion-his table. Are not whole passages repeatedly ate love of fame and glory, all of which Christianity is intended to extirpate from the human bosom, are inculcated by the most popular plays in this department of the drama. It is true, gross cruelty, murder, and that lawless pride, ambition, and revenge, which trample on all the rights and interests of mankind, are reprobated; but I would ask, who needs to see vice acted in order to hate it? or will its being acted for our amusement be likely to increase our hatred of it upon right principles? As to Comedy, this is a thousand times more polluting than tragedy. Love and intrigue; prodigality dressed in the garb of generosity; profaneness dignified with the name of fashionable spirit; and even seduction and adultery; these are the usual materials which the comic muse combines and adorns, to please and instruct her votaries. This department of the drama is unmixed pollution. How often is some profligate rake introduced to the spectators, furnished with a few traits of frankness and generosity, to interest them by his vicious career; and who so far reconciles them all to his crimes, as to tolerate his atrocities for the sake of his open-hearted, good-humoured virtues. Who can wonder that young women should be prepared by such stuff for any intrigue with a bold and wily adventurer; or that young men should be encouraged to play the good-natured, heroic rake, which they have No. 69.-VOL. VI.

|

recited, which no modest man would allow to be read before his family? Nothing but the countenance of numbers could induce many females to sit and listen to what they hear at the theatre. Were any man to be in the habit of quoting in company the words which are in constant iteration at the playhouse, would he not be regarded as a person most dangerous to the virtue of others? And yet these nauseating exhibitions are heard with pleasure, when they are heard with the multitude. Can this be friendly to modesty, to virtue, to piety? Must there not be au insensible corrosion going on under such an influence, upon the fine polish of female excellence, and upon the principle of the other sex? Is this avoiding the appearance of evil? Is it in accordance with that morality which makes an unchaste feeling to be sin, and that injunction which commands us to watch the heart with all diligence?"

"Add to this, the company which is generally attracted to the theatre. I do not say that all who frequent the theatre are immoral; but I do affirm, that the most polluting and polluted characters of the town are sure to be there. Is it not a fact, that a person who would not wish to have his eyes and ears shocked with sights and sounds of indecency, must keep at a distance from the avenues of the stage? for these are ever crowded with the loosest cha3 I

racters of both sexes. Sir John Hawkins, in his Life of Johnson, has a remark which strikingly illustrates and confirms what I have now advanced. Although it is said of plays that they teach morality, and of the stage that it is the mirror of human life, these assertions have no foundation in truth, but are mere declamation: on the contrary, a playhouse, and the region about it, are the hotbeds of vice. How else comes it to pass, that no sooner is a theatre opened in any part of the kingdom, than it becomes surrounded by houses of ill fame? Of this truth, the neighbourhood of the place I am now speaking of (Goodman's Fields Theatre) has had experience; one parish alone, adjacent thereunto, having, to my knowledge, expended the sum of £1300 in prosecutions, for the purpose of removing those inhabitants, whom, for instruction in the science of human life, the playhouse had drawn thither.'

"To send young people therefore to the playhouse to form their manners, is to expect they will learn truth from liars, virtue from profligates, and modesty from harlots."

"But, my dear children, I have not only arguments to bring in proof of the immoral tendency of the stage, but I have facts. It is useless to contend against these. I am distressed, while I write, to think of the once promising young men, who, tomy certain knowledge, have been utterly ruined by resorting to this scene of polluting amusement. I am not allowed to disclose the details, or I could a tale unfold that would shock every right feeling in your bearts.

"It was but a few days since, that a venerable and holy man, now the deacon of a Christian church, said to me :- Sir, the theatre had nearly brought me to the gallows. There I found associates who introduced me to every crime. When likely to be prevented, by want of money, from going to meet them at the theatre, I robbed my father, to gain a shilling admission to the gallery.'

"Take warning then, and have nothing to do with the theatre. Avoid it as one of the

avenues to the broad road which leadeth to destruction."-Vol. II. pp. 31 to 44.

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This is a fair specimen of the author's mode of thinking, and of the nervous manner in which he expresses his thoughts. The length of the quotation furnishes its own apology, and supersedes the necessity of all further recommendation.

trades, be established under a respectable firm. An association of this kind was formed about two hundred years since, between Beaumont and Fletcher, whose names and compositions have floated down to us on the stream of time, in the utmost harmony; and what congeniality of sentiment or genius has thus joined together, let not criticism presume to put asunder.

But although relief may be thus granted to necessitous authors who labour under embarrassed circumstances, we do not mean to insinuate that partnerships always imply poverty. In commerce, the reverse of this appears, in the character of our most respectable mercantile establishments, especially in the Honourable East India Company, the fame of which is known throughout the whole civilized world; and in theology, the sermons of Edmonson and Treffry, should we hazard the intimation, would hurl us from the critic's chair.

These discourses are twelve in number. The first is by Mr. Edmonson; the second by Mr. Treffry; and in this manner the volume is filled with the alternate productions of their pens. The subjects, though distinct in their peculiar bearings, partake in the general outline of one common character, the substance of which is expressed in the titlepage, and unfolded in detail through the subsequent pages.

Acts v. 3-4., is entitled "The PerThe first discourse, founded on sonality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost." These points Mr. Edmonson proves, by the application of personal pronouns to the Holy Spirit, by the inspired writers-by the intellectual properties and personal feelings ascribed to the Holy Ghost-by the works he performs the messengers he sends--and by the impossibility of reconciling with common sense many passages in the New Testament, Ghost" implies nothing more than on a supposition that the term "Holy mere energy or power. The author then proceeds to establish the fact, that this Holy Spirit is God. This he It is not often that authors enter into infers from the titles which he bearspartnership; but when the capital of the divine attributes ascribed to him one is too diminutive to furnish a pro--the works which he performs-the per assortment, we see no more reason why the art and mystery of bookmaking, may not, like many other

--

REVIEW. Sermons on the Nature and
Offices of the Holy Ghost. By J.
Edmonson, A.M. and R. Treffry.
12mo. pp. 304. London. Kershaw.

1824.

equality with Father and Son which he sustains-the unpardonable sin that may be committed against him

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