The National Register. — London, England, 1816-01-28 00:00:00

VIE NATIONAL -I.E.GISTER, JAN. 2S. SUNDAY ADMONITIONS. To TUE EIUTOR OF 'I,IIE A ATIONAL REGISTER, Sta—lF your readers would spare me ten minutes of a Sun flay, :porning, I would beg leave to address to them, cla':ming indulgence for the title I assume, a few serious observations which naturally suggest "themselves on an important subject , and which I will pursue in a popular manner, - uzi,ler the hope that to those who may trot at the moment avail themselves of professional admonition, I may suggest some useful observations• 1 am, Sir, with great regard and esteem, your obedient servant' THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. THERE ate two descriptions of men in the world with whom all discussions of this sort are entitled to peculiar attention. The one Comprises men of business and pleasure, immeised in the fleeting concerns of this life, money-Making and thc pur suit of woikUy gratifications; the other, men of reading and reflection, whose dispositions lead them to approve, and often to practice, the benevolent precepts which their understand ings undervalue, the sublimest doctrines of our reii..tioti. They form to themselves a rational system, which they consider as at least equivalent to all the purposes of revelation', and piuue themselves on being free from the trammels of prejudice and superstition, which, in their fudgatent, have ensnared the un detstatnling of the firm believer. With respect to the first, it will be necessary merely to fix their attention on the subject, and perhaps the unassuming clfice of friendly admonition, and a simple exposition of the grounds on which we may. consisteotly surrender all doubts, way not be unattended with ta. salutary erect. To such how forcibly may we rpply the language of the sublime Isaiah—" wherefore do you labour fn. that which satisfleth not? or spend money for that which is not bread? Walken diligently unto me, itui cat tbat which is good, and let your soul light itself fatness." (Lut as to men, of cultiv,ated minds and literary attainments,; as ow feebleatguments might 'ail. to. produce any influence on their opintops, we can 94yliameni, its t,be. striking language of the same bolo . monitor , t ha t t h e. si g ht of the seers should be coyered—(oe that seeing they see not, and bearing they do. not understand)* ; while, the volnineof !Lay Writ is opened to the unlearned. Ikit I would bespeak the attention, of such person,s by a few passages selected , from a writer, whose authority, as one of the most accomplished mathematicians of his. age, they will not be disposed to undervalue, and Will) delivers himself with a )t.ce and energy of language, which, as Cicero says, leaves it,illgs on 1* rprort e y.—" It requires nOg,reat elevation of soul, says this 94,ipizabLet philosopher, to observe that nothing in Phis worbl, productive;of true cookent. 'Mt our pleasures are vain and fugitive, Our troublekiAnunlerable and . perpetual ; awl tha.t atter all. d ead) . ‘vdlieh'tbr i e4,t4s 9s . at, every p 0,4 Wl* u, the sou of a fi.sv years, p9rhaps ,a s, put us into the lagr.44r.cf4ll4tiOn, of happiness, Misery, o,r anoilnlation. Be tween us no barrier is interposed htit life, and the most brittle thing inu.ature. We have hepea doubt of! the most ahilgliting itousequence, anti which, to entertain, may well be esteemed a seal misfortune. Ile then who doubts, and seeks not to be re ()lye& is equally u nhappy. and unjust to himself."--Ile must confess " who has sent me into thus world, I know not, nor what tam myself—l am under au astonishing and awful igno rance of all these things; I know not what my body is, what my. senses or my soul; this very part of me which thinks what speak, which reflects upon every thing else, and upon itself, yet is as mucha st ranger to its own nature as the dullest think I carry about me. I -behold there- fi ightful sraces of the universe wHiih illicit I, am eneompassed, and I find myself Chained to One little corner of the east extent without un del standpug why I am placed on this oi b iven rather than any other, and 'why the moments of time g we to live were assigned at such a point, rather than any other, 9f the whole eternitii before and after. And , f rom all this, I gonClude that I ought to pass the days of my life without cplisiderithi what is. hereafter to . befall tne and that I have, • , • nothin,; to do but to follow my own inclinatiens. without on* fear or disquietude." And what more striking answer can be given to this than by inspired wisdom itself: " That God has set the world in our hearts as a perpettral riddle, which our boasted rea son .will for ever he unabie to solve.%— l'he primary and lii•s -torical evidences cannot fail to have excited our superficial en quiries ; but it may be remarked, that the more we spied kW . exainine them as .Logicians, the more irresistil4y q shell fnol their dcbth and solidity. 1 spe ik, at present, merely of their historical weight; hut all those who have sincerely felt the benign influence of conviction on the mind, are apprized o ‘ the peculiarities, by which the doctrines progressively- win .our atii!ction, and establish our faith. They are sensible, that the highest assurances we can receive await a certain progress of sentiment, to which, as we advance by . continued meditation and persevering study, every sentence In Holy Writ beet:ties pregnant with admonition, and the mind i cheered. by the light from above irradiating, - in a thoti. and ditferent direct Ons; it ir young man, when he does not feel that immediate and po.- feet cony iction. wlnch be sometimes conceives the transcendent importance of the subject demands, without suspecting that he has not pursued it far enough, may, unfortunately, be left des titute of that assurance, which is the result of a- matured and comprehensive view of a moat difficult •question ; and eternal happiness play be given up, when offered as an easy purchase tier a few years' enjoyment of an anxious, precarious and, at best, checqucred existence. Several years of my life leave been de voted to the study of evidence, and ov, fob I bglipvc to be warranted by what I, conceive to be theouly legitimate mode of reasoning on such subjecta--a,nd I would ask all those who ark not firm-believers, in. the truth of Revelation, and who are con eersant with the mode of examining questions of fact, and tliat. species of reasoning on which we ground all our determination in life, to, answer this interrogation : It the whole system of revealed religion is founded on impostures, consisting, as it doers, of innumerable detached circumstances proved by the tes timony of different persons, at various times and places, is there a shadow of probability that its adversaries should have been unable to contradict the principal witnesses, or falsify the na l , - rativ ., e in some leading particulars, by adducing persons of credit to relate circumstances equally, within. their knowledge, or by appealing to admitted and unausweitable faeta ? If we look to the. Evangelical History we fuid it'embra,ces a considerable cx te of time, and. involves an. inani:e var,ety of circumstances, as proof connected with and dependent on each other, but affOrding the widest scope to detect. and confound, if it had been attempted, a most barefaced and incredible falshood. The stronge=st incitements, by which human nature is actuated in pursuit of discovery, have animated its adversaries ; and they have been furnished with ample means to facilitate detection. Yet, after the most unparallcded, severity of criticism that history affords, no one circumstance of any importance has ever been disproved, nor has the credibility of any one of the principal witnesses ever been shaken. —What can the legician. or the man of business reply ? Perhaps he may say : " Granting there is all this proof, and it is as powesfUl as you rein view, 'Ass bave we nut dentonstrattoo—an undeniable certainty ; Om nipotence has the power to communicate it, 414 on such a subject, why should a possibility of doubt or cavil he stit*rveli to remain ?—This argument may be most satisfactorily refuted. but as the topic, however trite, is interesting in the extreme, without enlarging the boundary of the present communication, I shall reserve it tor my next. • Isaiah, 29 chap. v. 11,12—Nat. 13 chap. v. 13. t Pascal Thoughts on Re4gion, 64-c. chap. 1. sl:ceLes. chap. 3, v. It. The Manufacturers of Manchester have had a meeting ; which it was reAo;ved, that Lord Clancarty, the British Minister at the German Diet, should, through the medium of the Car. vernment, he instiocted to watch over the comi l ietcial interests,. of this country, to, endeavour to prevent the imposition o 4 heavy duties on the circulation °tour manufactuies, and to use the iukipencewhicn he possesses, as the representative of this country, in. the. Diet, with the various. States, soas to aeCtlie43 great-a pot teiQii of commercial frecdot poasible. , , - iittesiewetajOr' I r (1