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absurdity of ten thousand more than infinities.

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According to the doctrine in question, the will must be moved solely and entirely by the motive, or it must move partly of itself. If the will be supposed to be moved solely and entirely by the motive, then it is obvious that the motive, in the direct influence or power it exerts, must be specifically greater than the will which is moved. If this be rejected as inadmissible, and it be allowed that the whole moving force is not in the motive, but that the will moves partly of itself; the whole argument is then conceded. For, that part of the will which is not moved by the influence of motive, must move of itself, i. e. must be self-moved; and thus the great contested point is quietly admitted. If the will is moved partly by motive, and partly by itself; and as the part which moves of itself, not being necessitated to move, may not move at all; we are thus brought to the ridiculous conclusion of a parted volition, or the will acting and refusing to act in one and the same act.

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"The great argument in the necessitarian hypothesis is this,-Nothing can be without a cause; but every thing must be as it is caused to be. I assert,' says President Edwards (page 59,) that nothing ever comes to pass without a cause.' And hence he maintains, that motive is the cause of the act of the will; and that volitions are properly the effects of their motives.' Now, unless the reader's philosophy differs materially from mine, it will teach him, as a self-evident truth, that every cause is sufficient of itself for the production of its proper effect; and that every effect is alone dependent for its production on its proper cause. Now, if this philosophy be true; and if it be also true, what the President states, that motive is the proper cause of volition; it follows as an unavoidable truth, that motive is sufficient to the production of volition, without any other power, and consequently without a power to will; and that volition depends on no agency for its production, but that of motive, and consequently not an agent which wills. And if all this be true, it is likewise true, either that motive is the proper and sole agent of volition, in which case it would cease to be motive: or that that there can be volition without any agent to will; which is absurd."

Referring to the origin of evil, Mr. B. contends that what difficulties soever may conceal it from human penetration, no previous disposition can be introduced as the cause of the first evil volition. "We cannot," says he,

account for that first evil volition on the ground of a previous disposition. Whatever disposition man had before the fall, (supposing man to be the creature in question), he had from the Author of his being; and we know that the Author of his being gave him no disposition but what was consistent with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. A disposition to evil is an evil disposition; and to say, that man had such a disposition before the first evil volition, is equal to saying, that he was evil before he was evil,—that he was sinful before he had any sin."

In page 120, moral and natural necessity undergoes a rigorous examination, and the authority of Professor Edwards is again brought forward, to justify the accuracy of the statements that are given of this important and interesting subject. These positions, which extend to moral inability, are examined with much acuteness; and the consequences drawn from them, are proved to terminate either in fallacy or absurdity. But on this point we must once more introduce the author to the reader.

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"In the manner in which moral necessity is treated in the writings of Calvinistic necessitarians, there is no room left to suppose that it is a sort of necessity somewhat more soft and flexible--no; particular care is taken to have it understood, that it is a necessity as binding, as irresistible, as absolute, as any necessity that can be conceived. President Edwards says, (pages 30 and 31,) Moral necessity may be as absolute as natural necessity.'- When I use this distinction of moral and natural necessity, I would not be understood to suppose, that if any thing comes to pass by the former kind of necessity, the nature of things is not concerned in it as well as in the latter.' So that this moral necessity turns out to be--IN THE NATURE OF THINGS, ABSOLUTE NECESSITY. In which way this is to relieve the difficulty, and to reconcile prohibitions, threatenings, and punishments, with actions infallibly necessary, perhaps the reader's penetration can discover mine cannot.

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“Moral inability is stated by the President (page 34,) to consist in the opposition or want of inclination.' There would be something gained by this account of moral inability, if we were allowed to suppose, that, in some one instance at least, this inclination, or disinclination, was self-produced, or a something it was possible to avoid. But no; the supposition is exploded as contradictory and absurd;-this inclination, or disinclination, is but a link in the indissoluble chain; it is but the necessary effect of motives, and these motives but the necessary effect of something else.”—pp. 121.

more indissolubly united, than pernicious consequences are, with several theological and philosophical systems; and as either the conclusions, or the reasonings which led to them, must be erroneous, we have more reason to suspect the induction, than the simple result.

That every part of this work is invulnerable, we are by no means prepared to assert, and of this the author may perhaps be convinced from other quarters. His views of certainty, when associated with necessity, and his ideas of contingency when viewed in relation to both, we conceive to be susceptible of considerable emendation. But we feel no hesitation in avowing as our opinion, that many of his remarks on President Edwards are full of energy, and that he has advanced arguments in various parts, which will not be speedily overturned.

The ninth chapter is replete with luminous observations. It takes a comprehensive survey of many important points, and contains arguments, the force of which an antagonist will find it more easy to evade, than to repel. By those, whose theological and philosophical views on these abstruse The animadversions on this work points are congenial with his own, his which we have already made, will fully book will be hailed as an important communicate our opinion of its merits; acquisition, adding a new line of bat- and the specimens we have given, teries to their ancient fortifications, or will enable the reader to form his as introducing a powerful reinforce- own. It appears to have been writment to defend the garrison; while, ten in an amiable spirit; and it furwith those whose territories are assail-nishes another evidence, that nothing ed, he will be regarded as a disturber but weak arguments require hard of the public peace, who merits a severe chastisement.

In the survey which he has taken of predestination, his friends will probably regret, that he has not noticed the passive-power hypothesis of the late Dr. Williams, whose theory many of its advocates most strenuously defend. This would have been the more desirable, as they represent moral evil, when introduced into the world, to be nothing more than a mere negation of moral good, which required no positive cause to call it into existence.

With the author, we are fully satisfied, that no hypothesis ought to be contemplated, abstracted from those inevitable effects and consequences to which it leads. An argument may be specious, that is unsound; and it frequently happens, that the fallacy which cannot be detected in the process, may be discovered in the final result. Inevitable consequences emanate from the essence of theory, and it is only by combining them together, that we can form an accurate judgment of the whole. No links in a chain of reasoning, employed to connect the premises and the conclusion together, can be

words.

The language in which the author's sentiments are expressed, is nervous and energetic; and his sentences generally terminate with that point, where climax and conviction ought to meet. Through many of the subtleties of metaphysics he occasionally conducts us, without decorating his expressions with that forbidding garb, which the rival sciences sometimes proudly wear. The distinguishing characteristics of this work are, clearness of conception, acuteness of investigation, perspicuity of reasoning, and pointedness of conclusion. Works of this description but rarely offer themselves to the inspection of a reviewer.

Review.-Lectures on some important branches of Practical Religion. By Thomas Raffles, A. M. pp. 329, 7s. boards.-Longman; Baldwin; Whittaker; Hurst; Robinson; Knibb; Suttaby; Darton; Westley; Hatchard; Holdsworth; Seeley: London. 1820. IN the examination of the work before us, we are not called upon, either to enter the regions of speculative the

logy, or to tread the thorny paths of | ly, that of enlightening the public metaphysics. The title which it bears mind with the rays of ethical knowexpresses its character; it professes to ledge, drawn from sources which have aim at practical utility; and every lec- not been polluted by the Bible. Of ture proves, that the author has not the effects resulting from this enlightbeen deceived in the name by which ened system, these visionary theorists his production is distinguished. give to the world an imposing account; but its practical tendency may be seen without disguise, in the melancholy facts, which Mr. Raffles states in the following paragraphs.—

This volume contains ten lectures, on the following subjects:-1. The influence of Christianity on the temporal condition of mankind. 2. On propriety of conduct in public worship. 3. On the government of the tongue. 4. The influence of Christianity on the dress of its professors. 5. The young Christian's duty to his unconverted relatives. 6. On the imprudent way of discharging sacred duties. 7. The due proportion of Christian benevolence. 8. The duty of believers to marry only in the Lord. 9. The influence of religion in affliction. 10. How may each Christian best glorify God? These titles are connected with the several passages of scripture on which the lectures were respectively founded, and they appear to have been selected for the occasions with much discrimination of judgment.

In the preface the author informs us, through what period of time these lectures were delivered, and what his inducements were to publish them to the world. It contains nothing to excite much expectation; and that reader who estimates the contents of the volume by the manner in which it is introduced to his notice, will form but a very incorrect idea of its merit. We think the work entitled to a better introduction.

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Alas, what has been, and what is still the condition of society where Christianity is unknown! What scenes of horror, violence, and crime, do the records of Paganism furnish! To sketch the dismal character, and depict the unnumbered miseries of heathen nations, both in ancient and in modern times, with the deep lines and strong colouring of truth, the painter should dip his pencil in the elements of vice and wretchedness, and become a student in the school of hell. How else shall he describe those schemes of villany-those workings of revenge

those arts of treachery-those fires of lust-those sensual indulgences— those obscene and execrable rites-those cruel impositions, and self-inflicted tortures, which have contributed to render the earth like Sodom for pollution, and Golgotha for human blood! Yet all this, and much more, must enter into the hideous composition, in drawing the portrait of the heathen world. The Lacedæmonians, whose character stands the fairest, perhaps, of any of the nations of antiquity, encouraged theft amongst their children, in order to make them crafty and deceitful. To steal was no crime, so long as they had the art to conceal it; but to be detected in the act, was deemed the greatest disgrace, and subjected them to the severest punishment, for the want of dexterity which it betrayed. No wonder that a character formed by the inculcation of such principles in early life, should have been marked by perfidy, cruelty, and pride. of the grossest indecency were not Presuming on the destruction of the only tolerated, but received the sancBible, these professed friends of hu- tion of the legislature, and every thing manity and virtue, warmly recommend like modesty retired from their public the religion of nature, and the Age of games. They did not hesitate to murReason in its stead. In our own day der their infants when weak or deformwe have seen the strenuous efforts ed; and other parts of Greece particiwhich have been made, to give as ex-pated with them in the crime: while tensive a circulation as possible, to publications of a similar tendency, and under nearly the same pretence; name

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It has been a favourite topic with infidels, 'to vilify the sacred writings, and to represent the book of God, as containing a history of debauchery, assassination, and murder; and as tending to corrupt and to brutalize mankind." Such was the language of one, whose bones have lately been torn from the slumbers of the grave, and imported into this country from America, by one of his restless coadjutors.

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the inhuman practice, from which every feeling in our nature recoils, was vindicated and enforced by Aristotle and

Plato,-names on which the advocates of natural religion love to dwell-with arguments that only tend to shew how brutalized is the most cultivated mind, without the influence of some better principles than those which depraved and corrupted human nature can supply. If such were the enormities of Lacedæmon, and such the sentiments of the philosophers of Greece, we need wonder at nothing that appals us in the barbarities of savage tribes!

which proceeding from the central orb, diffuses cheering light and genial warmth through all the system. Hence, the sun became the object of their supreme reverence, and to that glorious orb they consecrated their highest honours. Observing the force and destructive property of fire, they applied this principle to the rites of their worship, and erected a hollow brazen image, of enormous size, and having heated it intensely, fathers tore their "If we pass from Greece to Rome, shrieking infants, and their smiling we shall obtain but little relief from babes, from the mother's breast, and the disgusting scene.—Rome, the seat cast them, without a tear, into the fiery of philosophy, and the haunt of the furnace of its womb. Such an idol as Muses, did not blush to destroy her this existed, under a different name, female offspring. Romulus made it in almost every heathen land. It was obligatory on parents to preserve none the Moloch of the Ammonites-the of that sex, except the eldest. And Bel of Babylon-the Saturn of Greece even their male children, when de- and Italy; whilst Britain, in the days formed, might be destroyed, after hav- of her Druidism, presented similar saing been shewn to five of the nearest crifices to a similar monster in her conneighbours. From a passage in Ter-secrated groves, and feasted on the rence, noticed by Bishop Warburton flesh of human victims as most deliciin his Divine Legation of Moses, it ous food. appears that the horrid practice was common, even with their most benevolent and virtuous citizens, in that writer's day.

"Such too was the inhumanity of the Romans to their slaves, that it was no uncommon thing for masters to banish the sick, the decrepit, and the infirm, to an island in the Tiber, where they were left by these enlightened savages, these polished barbarians, to expire: nay, it is even related by credible historians, that some were such monsters, as actually to cast them into their fish-ponds, when they were past labour, that the fish by devouring them might be the more delicious. Crimes the most horrid and unnatural were committed amongst the most civilized of the heathen world without remorse, and vindicated with a shameless and unblushing countenance. The religious rites performed in the temples of Venus, were scenes of lewdness, debauchery, and whoredom, not to be described: while it is notorious, that human sacrifices have been offered to appease the imaginary anger of their ferocious and sanguinary deities, in every age and country of the heathen world. The prevailing sentiment upon which the earliest rites of idolatry were founded, seems to have been, that the material universe, or frame of nature, is an intelligent and independent being, animated by the solar fire,

"Nor must we omit the horrid and brutal conduct of the most polished heathen nations, in their sanguinary wars, and towards their unhappy prisoners. War is a cursed plant, which Christianity will one day tear up by its roots, and cast, with every foul and deadly weed which has defiled this garden of the Lord, into the abyss from whence its seeds were drawn. But, whilst it yet continues to infuse its poison in the cup of man, Christianity distils some drops of mercy to mingle with the bitter draught. It is to her influence alone, that the wounded captive is indebted for any alleviation of his misery, or respect to his misfortunes. Go to the Assembly at Athens-Athens, termed the learned city-the eye of Greece-the school of the world-and hear the decree, that the thumb of the right hand of every prisoner taken in battle should be cut off-and see the Spartans, in revenge, putting every Athenian prisoner to death, save Adamantus, by whom the inhuman decree had been opposed. See vanquished warriors, and the bravest men, loaded with chains, and dragged through the streets of Rome at the insulting victor's chariot wheels, and then turned naked and defenceless to fight with beasts of prey, that the delicate spectacle of men torn in pieces might feast the eyes of the ladies of the imperial court."-pp. 4.

Contrasted with these scenes of bru- | blossomed as the rose,-the vision of the tality and horror, Mr. R. thus intro- prophet was suddenly accomplished, duces to our view the condition of man- and the song of angels realized-there kind, where the principles of genuine was on earth peace, and good will to religion have influenced legislators in men.”—pp. 15. forming the laws of nations.

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In the same lecture, the author delineates the influence of Christianity on

Christianity has abolished the worship of impure, vindictive, and sangui-social intercourse, on domestic life, and nary deities. It has substituted for on the individual who is made the the monstrous and unnatural systems happy subject of its saving power. of idolatry, the adoration and service On each of these topics he argues, with of One infinitely amiable and righteous commanding eloquence, that the reliBeing. It has abolished those cruel gion which we profess, imparts princiand inhuman practices, sanctioned by ples of equity and benevolence to the the laws of Paganism, and consecrat- human mind, and communicates a ed by the names of her most renowned character of mildness to the interphilosophers and noblest chiefs. It course of man with man ;-that it has meliorated the condition of so- transforms the habitation of poverty, ciety, by diffusing a principle of jus- filth, and discord, into the abode of tice and a feeling of benevolence comfort, neatness, and peace ;--that it through all its ranks. Beneath its secures to the individual, that property auspices, literature and the arts have which he had been accustomed to flourished. It has reared a thousand spend in sinful excesses, promotes his salutary institutions; and innumerable health, guards his reputation, and furtrees of knowledge and of life wave in nishes a prospect of glory, and an asits breeze, and spread their luxuriant surance of its possession beyond the branches to its beams. It has im- grave. On each of these points, the parted a character of equity and mild-reasonings of the author are strong and ness to the laws; and persons and property, which once had no defence against the inroads of oppression and the grasp of power, are guarded by authority which all must respect, and the violation of which is instantly avenged. False and degrading systems of religion, which held the human mind in chains for ages, have let go their hold: hoary with age, bloated with blood, and foul with pollution, they have rapidly retired, and sought an asylum in darker regions and in grosser soils; whilst the immortal mind, arousing from the sleep that had oppressed it, hailed the messenger of peace, whose voice awoke the slumberer, and whose hand had scattered round his dwelling the sweets of liberty and the light of day. When Christianity appeared, and commenced her march of mercy over the continent of Europe, the nations, then sunk in barbarism, ceased to sacrifice human victims-to wear the skins of their enemies for apparel-to murder the aged and infirm-to impale men alive to devour the hearts of their captives-to commit suicide from principle-and to cast their prisoners and offspring to the flame; whilst people who could not be approached because of their ferocity, became gentle and mild. The wilderness and the solitary place was glad, the desert rejoiced and

convincing; and the impression which they make, acquires an additional power, from his appeal to those principles of which every person may behold the effects. In several instances the domestic and social virtues are pointedly contrasted with the opposing vices; and in this judicious arrangement of thought, the talents of the writer are not less conspicuous, than in those appropriate illustrations which his paragraphs exhibit in pleasing variety, and striking antithesis.

(To be concluded in our next.)

On the Descent of Christ into Hell.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE IMPERIAL
MAGAZINE.

SIR,
HAVING perused the observations of
three of your correspondents, inserted
in the 7th Number, Vol. I. of your
valuable literary repository, on the
subject of" The Descent of Christ into
Hell;" I beg leave to submit to you
a few remarks on those observations:
and also to offer some suggestions on
the same subject.

In making such remarks, I shall begin with the last of those your correspondents, as to the order in which you have placed their communications, and end with the first.

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