assistant the magistrate can have. A government cannot exist without religion; and to render religion, like government, respectable, it ought to have a public establishment. Now that christianity, the present established church of England, or the people, should lose any advantage, temporal or spiritual, by the abolition or the expunging of the Athanasian creed from our otherwise most excellent Liturgy, there would be just the same reason to lament, the nine Muses would have to weep, if all the poetry, including sacred dramas, Miss Hannah ever wrote, were burnt.— The church can spare it; and Mrs. H. may order herself to be wrapped in it as a winding sheet. A most reverend Archbishop, perhaps Tillotson, said, "I wish we were well rid of it." But as long as it stands in its present place, I will, as I always have done, continue to read it in obedience to authority. And what turpitude can there be to me in reading the Athanasian creed, when the immaculate Mrs. H. More, in her " Ștrictures on Female Education,' tells the British ladies, that there are among the excellent moral songs of Horace, some "famous" loose, I had almost said bawdy "odes," which she has often perused, and does still read; but though these, she says, "ought not to be read by females, "or to be even named or referred to," she takes care to tell the ladies, for the men may have long ago forgot them, that such "famous odes" exist.

It is very possible that Mrs. More herself may consider the reality, as well as the locality of the future punishment, that is hell, as an abstract

idea. Men of learning, certainly have no doubt respecting the certainty of future rewards and punishments. They, however, I believe, differ from Mrs. More respecting the degree of it. We have no communication with the other world. The dead return not to relate to us the affairs of the invisible state. From the various lot of man in this life, as well as from revelation, the chief end of Christ's advent, our faith is strong respecting the future existence; and that men will be rewarded and punished, is our glorious hope. But that the most wicked shall be everlastingly punished, that is to say, a punishment without end, is totally inconsistent with the divine perfections. The scriptures say, eis aiona, for ages. The punishment is no doubt terrible, and sufficient to deter the most obdurate. But Mrs. More is too bloody and tyrannical. She is for everlasting torments, torments beyond the heat of any pyrometer the human imagination can conceive, and she is ready to cast all into that furnace who do not agree with her in modes and opinion. Because she breaks her egg at the small end, she condemns those who break it on the round; and me, because I am indifferent at which end I break it, who am determined to get the food out of the shell any way, even by a Cæsarian operation, I have no doubt she would wish

"Grill'd, roasted, carbonaded, fricasse'd."

But let the human race" rejoice evermore ;" the power of man extends not beyond the grave.

Inquisitions and star-chambers may light the faggot and consume the body, but they can do no more. Tyrannical persons, like H. More, by iniquity, may succeed in ejecting an honest person from all the comforts of human life, and deprive him of his integrity and respect amongst men. But it is God alone who can act on the immortal spirit. It is only by the intervention of the body, that the greatest tyrant can act on a human soul; and this, increased to a certain degree of violence, breaks the connection between soul and body, and sets the soul free when he thinks to overload it. But the soul is not visible to be frightened with his frown; it is not extended to be shut up in his dungeon; it is not palpable to be loaded with fetters; it is not combustible to be burnt at the stake; it is not divisible to be mangled on the wheels, It is God only who can act on the soul, He needs not the odour of flowers, nor the savour of meats, nor any other aids of matter, to furnish it with agreeable sensations. He needs not the use of chains, dungeons, suffocating damps, sulphur, fire, to afflict it with pain. It is he, O soul of man, who can leave thee in thy natural darkness, to wander in ignorance, a prey to all the tortures that accompany doubt; but it is he also who can advance thy understanding to the sublimest height. It is he who can strike the tyrant with unutterable horror; it is he who can excite in the soul those ineffable delights, for which we have no name, and which we cannot now conceive.

:

With great affectation of liberality, Mrs. More rejoiceth that the tyranny of the spiritual Procrustes (p. 115) is annihilated, and that men for their opinions are not now applied to this bed, and to be shortened or lengthened to its size. Her hypocrisy has long been noticed. With all this parade, she has prepared a " bed of trial" for the unfortunate Curate of Blagdon, spread the Athanasian creed on her couch, measured him on it, and, if we can believe her, and she deserves but little credit for she can deliberately invent and propagate falsehoods, finding the Curate not long enough, reported a "secret accusation" to the Bishop. The Curate, however, has at length laid Miss Hannah on her back, on the couch of reason and argument.

In p. 128, the definition given of religion, that

"It is not an opinion, nor a sentiment, nor an act or "performance; but a habit, a disposition, a temper; not a "name, but a nature; it is turning the whole mind to God;" is not a true one. Religion is a rule of conduct looking to God.

"No one surely will impute to bigotry or enthusiasm, "the lamenting, or even remonstrating against such des"perate negligence; nor can it be deemed illiberal to en

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quire, Whether even a still greater evil does not exist? "I mean, Whether pernicious principles are not as stre"nuously inculcated as those of real virtue and happiness

are discountenanced? Whether young men are not ex"pressly taught to take custom and fashion as the ultimate "and exclusive standard by which to try their principles and "to weigh their actions? Whether some idol of false ho"nour be not consecrated and set up for them to worship?

Whether, even among the better sort, reputation be not "held out as a motive of sufficient energy to produce vir"tue, in a world where yet the greatest vices are every day "practised openly, without at all obstructing the reception of "those who practise them into the best company? Whether "resentment be not ennobled; and pride, and many other "passions, erected into honourable virtues-virtues not less "repugnant to the genius and spirit of Christianity than "obvious and gross vices? Will it be thought impertinent "to enquire if the awful doctrines of a perpetually present Deity, and a future righteous judgment, are early im"pressed and lastingly engraven on the hearts and con"sciences of our high-born youth?”

To practise literally all the virtues and graces, and to obey the precepts of christianity, is more than any human creature hitherto atchieved. Whoever attempts it, is likely to be a victim to knavery. To turn the other cheek when the one is smitten, for the pleasure of fresh blows and insults; to part with the coat as well as the cloak; to live altogether unspotted from the world, may be talked about and preached, but none practise. The Bishop of Bangor did not act so; nor did H. More, when Mr. Bere wrote to her respecting the extravagancies of her schoolmaster, recollect, our religion recommended such precepts as doing good for evil. Indeed the Bishop banged his opponent, and H. More" privately accused," with a view to ruin the Curate's character, and starve his body. I mean not to speak against early religious education. I approve of it; but I deny, that vicious and pernicious principles are taught, unless it be by non-descripts, and those of real virtue and happiness discountenanced. The wicked