impatience, expresses a wish that of a beast are represented by So

lomon as differing in nothing, except that the former may indulge a hope which the latter has not intellect to realize. Beasts are unable to anticipate death: their present happiness is not in the least interrupted by the dread of it: as they have nothing to fear, so they have nothing to hope for.— They are incapable of moral discernment and improvement; their highest gratifications are sensual, and to render these complete, the author of nature has made every provision in their favour. In the New Testament, death is represented as a sleep, a rest, &c. The terms mortality, corruption, &c. frequently occur: without the resurrection, death is represented as an hopeless state!

death had stepped in at the very dawn of life, and put a period to his rising existence,-" For" then says he, "should I now have laid still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, with kings and counsellors of the earth," &c.—With this agree the words of the psalmist; "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath gooth forth, he returneth to his earth: in that very day his thoughts perish." To the same purpose it is expressed in the book of Ecclesiastes that ❝ the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing:-Their love, and their envy, and their hatred is now perished; therefore, - whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest.” In the book of Job it is declared that man dieth and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the life, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up; so man lieth down and riseth not, till the heavens be no more; they shall not awake, nor be rais. ed out of their sleep." To the same purpose is the language of of such great importance to manking Hezekiah, when restored kind, that the Divine Being thought from the depth of affliction; "I proper to exemplify it in the persaid, I shall not see the Lord, son of Jesus Christ, and indeed even the Lord in the land of the the whole Christian dispensation living: I shall behold man no clearly ascertains this doctrine. more with the inhabitants of the It was the publication of this world. For the grave cannot great truth, that tended so greatly praise thee, death cannot celebrate to moralize the world; by this, thee: they that go down into the pit the early Christians were comfortcannot hope for thy truth:-the ed and established; they endured living, the living, he shall praise every hardship and privation, to thee as I do this day." The which their profession exposed death of a man and the death them with patience and serenity,

66

12th. From the great stress that the scriptures of the New Testament lay upon a future resurrection, it may fairly be inferred, that it is in consequence of this event, that we can hope hereafter to exist. Consciousness without existence is what a child knows to be impossible: and that the existence of the body should be essential to consciousness, is a manifest proof, that perception inheres in a material organization.

The resurrection is a doctrine

hoping to obtain a better resur- he had happily escaped? Can we

rection."

13th. The New Testament plainly declares, that we are all to be judged in the day of the Lord," according to the deeds done in our body, whether they have been good or bad: but a state of consciousness between death and the resurrection must make some alteration in our moral state; unless we suppose it to be entirely an inactive one, which would be a very arbitrary supposition: but that the future judgment should not recognize this state in any degree, is one argument amongst many, in favour of its unconsciousness:-A state in which we know nothing, and do nothing, can involve nothing!

suppose that Lazarus would have left this state without expressing some regret at his being recalled, or at least making some instantaneous report of what he had heard and seen; to all of which, the history affords not the slightest allusion? Can we suppose that our Saviour would have comforted Martha, the sister of Lazarus, with the mere assurance "that her brother should rise again," and that therefore she need not sorrow as one without hope" when he could have relieved her distress more effectually by informing her that the loss of her brother had led to his immediate gain;—that he was not really dead; but that his spirit had escaped from his 14th. The miracles which our body, and taken its flight to the Saviour and his apostles wrought realms of immortality? Or lastly, in raising the dead to life, are in can we suppose that Martha favour of this doctrine; to in- would have consoled herself with stance but one of these, viz. the the simple persuasion that her resurrection of Lazarus, the friend "brother" should "rise again at of Jesus and his disciples. Can the last day" if she had possesssuppose that our Saviour ed the common belief of a con would have recalled the virtuous scious intermediate state? We are Lazarus from the mansions of bliss at a loss to account for every cir. and immortality, to replace him cumstance which this miracle inin a situation which would expose volves, if the common hypothesis him to all the difficulties which be true!

we

[To be concluded in our next.]

LETTERS TO MR. (YOW BISHOP) BURGESS, ON THE TESTIMONY OF THE JEWS TO THE PERSON OF CHRIST.

LETTER VIII.

SIR,

You have heard, that Galileo was confined in the Inquisition for asserting, that the earth moved round its axis; and the variety of observations, which proved the truth of his assertions, as well as the ease with which he solved the appearances in the heavens, failed

of satisfying both the priests and the philosophers of his time. His theory is now adopted in every part of Europe, and taught publicly in Rome by professors, who declare their unfeigned assent and consent to the decrees of the popes, which condemn such sentiments as unscriptural and blas

phemous. This instance of hu- do nothing of himself, that he

man folly prevents me from ex- came not in his own name, nor pecting that the progress of truth to do his own will-but to exeshould at any time be rapid, cute the commands of God. Now though it will overcome at the how can these things be reconcil last. The belief of the divinity ed to truth; if Jesus was at the of Christ is as absurd as any fable same time God? how could he in the heathen mythology. I be ignorant of any thing, if he have proved to you, that neither had lived from all eternity? You Jesus nor his cotemporaries be- invent a fiction, that he was both lieved it: but when I have done God and man. But where does this, and proceed to shew you, Christ speak this language? and that our Saviour himself in the what dependence can we have most explicit terms contradicts upon a person, who puts on two such a notion, I am far from ex- characters, and leaves us to find pecting you readily to submit to out what suits the one, and what him. The hand of power has the other, just as it may answer compelled, and the fascination of his purpose. interest induced the many in eve- Besides how could you make ry age and country, to acquiesce so absurd a division? Could God in the most striking absurdities: lie in the womb of a woman, be add to this the natural indolence born, grow like other children, of man, much more ready to take and at last die on a cross? At upon trust than to examine his the moment of his death could opinions, and we need not be he say, Father, into thy hands I surprized at the prevalence of a commend my spirit? Was his belief, which contradicts the first spirit, that fancied immaterial subprinciples of natural and revealed stance, you suppose resident in religion. man, divided into two sorts, the I might fill this letter, and one human and the other God? twenty more, with passages of Pray what became of the God scripture, in which our Saviour spirit, at that moment? Was he acknowledges in the plainest terms playing the fool with mankind, his inferiority to God. He testi- 'in so awful an hour, commending fied, that there was only one one spirit to the other? How God his father, from whom he shockingly absurd and impious is received every thing-who had this notion of the divinity of sent him to the Jews-to whom Christ? To what strange vagaries he taught his disciples to pray, does it not lead its advocates? and to whom he prayed most Christ, like a pious man, resigned fervently himself. To conceive, his breath to his father's will, that a being should pray to ano- and in the same hopes, which ther for blessings, is absurd, un- every Christian now has, of a less the one was inferior to the restoration to life. other. Our Saviour taught, that When he was restored to life there is no one good but this one did the God spirit again come inGod, who had taught him many to his body? If it did, how could things, but had kept some con- he mock his disciples, by saying, cealed from him; that he could I go to my father and to your fa

con

ther, to my God and to your God? author, how much greater is it, Before his death he spoke of his to eradicate pernicious errors, and going to God: after his resurrec. to promote the cause of truth and tion, his language is the same. virtue! Your abilities qualify you He disappeared from the sight of for an accurate perusal of the his disciples, the same Jesus, with scriptures in the original lanwhom they had conversed, and guages: but your sermon whom they had seen expiring, and vinces me, that you have never now resides in some remote regi- made the subject of the divinity on, waiting the time appointed of Christ a principal object in by his father, when he shall again your researches. Examine them return to the earth, and converse again and by themselves. It will with his fellow creatures. be no disgrace to you to confess Let me intreat you Sir, to con- your mistakes; and let it not be sider attentively these circum- said, that a pen, which might stances, and to examine without have been serviceable to mankind, prejudice, what the scriptures say, should be prostituted in support instead of paying regard to the of a metaphysical system, the reveries of any eccentrical divines. offspring of dark ages, and of a If it is an honour to restore a wicked and interested church. mutilated phrase in an ancient I remain, Sir.

DR. WATTS'S TRINITARIAN PARADOXES; COLLECTED FROM HIS PSALMS AND HYMNS.

SIR,

To the Editor of the Monthly Repository.

Digberwort, Wilts, popular compositions, instead of April 6, 1808. the word of God. Having colNo books, I believe, have more lected together the most particugenerally found their way into the lar expressions of the doctor, on habitations of the poor, than the Trinity, the satisfaction of "Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress," Christ, &c. I found, upon exa"Hervey's Meditations," "The mination, that the substance of Assembly's Catechism," and "Dr. my creed would be contained in Watts's Psalms and Hymns-;" these last, in particular, are in almost every poor person's hands, and I know it to be a fact, that their authority is by some ac. counted nearly equal to that of the Bible. Impressed with this idea, I had the curiosity lately to make a certain experiment: i. e. to try what sort of a creed should I form, if I grounded it on these

the following articles, and they may, I think, like your friend Laicus's late communication, be justly denominated "Trinitarian Paradoxes."

Before, however, I give you these paradoxical articles, it is proper to premise, that it is far from being my intention to derogate from the merits of Dr. Watts, as a divine or scholar: I am as

• M. Repos. vol. ii. p. 532.

ready as any one to allow him the character of a learned, pious, and useful man, and to admire the beauty of the greater part of his poetical compositions; but, like other great men, he had his blemishes, which, though but few, in comparison with his excellencies, were nevertheless of such a magnitude that it is much to be IV. Christ is not only equal regretted, by every friend to rational religion, that he should with the Father, but in some rehave retained them so long; and spects vastly superior to him. quenched his tha, after he became convinced 'Twas Christ that " of better things, he did not live Father's flaming sword" (p. 357), long enough to accomplish what "Calm'd his frowning face" (p. he so much wished, viz. a com- 385), brought him to "smile plete revisal of his Psalms and again" (p. 396), and prevailed Hymns: what a proof it would have been of the strength of his mind; what service to the cause of pure Christianity; and what a prevention of those absurd notions which his Psalms and Hymns, in their present state, have contributed so much to perpetuate among the lower classes of society! But here is the proposed creed.

Compare page 241 with 257, &c. &c.

III. The Lord our Maker is "the highest God" (p. 350), or "God most high" (p. 196). Hle is far above all his creatures (p. yet there is one of hu360), “ man race," i. e. a creature, that claims "a full equality with him.” (P. 350.)

N.B. To prevent confusion by a multiplicity of figures, I have only referred to the pages in Burder's edition, by which any psalm or hymn may easily be found.

1. Our Maker is our God alone; "No other God beside him is to be owned or adored” (page 104), yet there are two other persons or beings to be owned, viz. the Son and Spirit, each of whom is God, and a proper object of adoration!

"Thus God the Father, God the Son, And God the Spirit, we adore

(P. 436.) See, also, the Doxologies at large. II. God is a "Holy One," and yet a "Sacred Three,” i. e. he is indivisible, but yet divided!!

on him to lay his fury by." The Father's name is VENGEANCE (p. 385), but Christ is "the dearest of all the names above" (p. 405).

V. God, who is an immutable spirit, " condescended to be born," and came to be suckled” (p. "The Mighty 389 and 238). Maker" of the worlds, and the ever-living Jehovah, not only suffered stripes and wounds, but was actually crucified, uttered his "last groans," and died!! The helper of the distressed was once in "deep distress" himself (p. 95 and 306).

"When God, the mighty Maker, died For man, the creature's sin."

(P. 326.) "The eternal God comes down and bleeds,

To nourish dying worms." (P. 430.)

See also pages 238, 306, 323, 333, 338, 339, 384, 432, &c.

VI. He who is God over all, and an underived Being, has, nevertheless, a God over him, and a Father to whom he prays! (P. 62, 125, 266, 371.)

VII. Jehovah is a

"forgiving