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in the din of arms and the clamours of enthusiasm.""

"If ecclesiastical reformation were committed to my hands, I would not copy the example of the French; but the contrary. Not one living wight of the order of Melchisedec, from his grace at Lambeth to the most ignoble curate in the metropolis, should be deprived, by my consent, of his preferment for his life. Even reformation itself would be dearly purchased at the expence of comfort to so many amiable conscientious men and excellent scholars, as may be found undoubtedly in the Church of England.*

The pamphlet thus concludes: "nor could any motive, but that of a strong sense of duty, have impelled me to come forward to the public on this occasion. But there is a season when inactivity were a crime; and public admonition, even at the hazard of personal comforts, rises into an indispensable obligation; to those at least, who are desirous that their master should not be ashamed of them at his second coming. I am expecting with trembling solicitude, amidst the incessant occupations of a literary life, that alarming catastrophe, which the signs of the times indicate, in my mind, to

• Spirit of Christianity, p. 11, note.

× Ibid. p.21, note.

be rapidly approaching; prepared to act or suffer, to live and die, in the service of Christianity; which is no other than the cause of liberty, and the consequent happiness of the human race." "

y "Spirit of Christianity," p. 39.

VOL. II.

1

』『

CHAP. II.

I

Mr. Wakefield's Answer to the " Age of Reason"-Remarks

on the Proceedings against that Work, &c. ***

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MR. WAKEFIELD expressed his attachment to Christianity not only by inculcating its genuine tendencies, but also by displaying its commanding evidence. This appeared on the following occasion.

In 1794 was published "The Age of Reason, being an Investigation of true and fabulous Theology, by Thomas Paine," whose tract in"titled" Common Sense," has connected his name with the American revolution, and whose

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Rights of Man" excited in this country that extraordinary attention which is fresh in the récollection of every reader. 18d

The alarm expressed by Mr. Pitt and his colleagues in administration on the rapid circulation of the latter pamphlet is well known, together with the severe expedients, even to a "vigour beyond the law," which were ocea

sionally adopted to check the progress of a work so obnoxious.

The author had removed to Paris, having been chosen a deputy to the National Convention. Under the bloody tyranny of Robespierre, he was imprisoned for a supposed connection with the party of the Gironde; and, as we learn from an account lately published in America, very narrowly escaped the guillotine.

During that imprisonment he appears to have taken up the subject of theology, and prepared for publication "The Age of Reason."

Any work proceeding from the pen of so conspicuous a writer would be secure of considerable notice; yet his superficial and declamatory manner of treating this subject, and his egregious deficiency even in the elements of Biblical knowledge, have compelled some of his most zealous admirers to admit that he now stepped beyond his province.

Perhaps it may not be unfair to say in the language of Jortin, respecting an opponent of Erasmus, that "Whatsoever motive [Mr. Paine] might have had for his undertaking, he certainly deserved to be blamed for having treated of subjects which he understood not, and that it shews a malignity of mind, and a meanness of spirit in a man, to make those

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persons odious, who are employed in giving instruction to the public on important matters, of which he knows nothing.

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Among various strictures on this pamphlet,

Mr. Wakefield, published, with his usual raAn Examination of

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the Age of Reason," in which he premises what few will venture to deny, "that the former writings of Thomas Paine abound with indications of original conception, and pro

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The following motto from Dr. Middleton, which Mr Wakefield has prefixed to this work, is very apposite, and well illustrates his own practice:

« I persuade myself that the life and faculties of man, at the best but short and limited, cannot be employed more ra- † tionally than in the search of knowledge; and especially of that sort which relates to our duty, and conduces to our happiness. In these inquiries therefore, wherever I perceive any glimmering of truth before me, I readily pursue, and endeavour to trace it to it's source, without any reserve or caution of pushing the discovery too far, or opening too great a glare of it to the public. I look upon the discovery of any thing which is true, as a valuable acquisition to society; which can not possibly hurt or obstruct the good effect of any other truth whatsoever for they all partake of one common essence, and necessarily coincide with each other; and like the drops of rain, which fall separately into the river, mix themselves with the stream, and strengthen the general current."

:

Preface to MIDDLETON'S "Free Inquiry," &c.

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