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The prospect as to numbers was highly pleasing, yet they were all very poor people, and could do but little towards the expenses they had thus incurred, duals, in different parts of the kingdom, and Fellowship Funds had already forstepped handsomely ward to assist them. Still a considerable sum was yet wanted, and he hoped the Unitarian public would consider the case, and give it the necessary support. The meeting was also addressed by the Rev. R. Cree, of

Preston, Mr. Duffield, of
Manchester, and the Rev.
G. Harris. In the evening
the Rev. R Cree delivered
a very interesting and appo-
site discourse on Mystery,
Mr. Duffield conducted the
devotional part. After
which the friends departed
to their respective homes,
carrying with them further
motives for a patient conti-
nuance in well doing, and
additional assurances that
their labours shall not fin-
vain
ally be in
in the
Lord.-Month Rep.

POETRY.

[From the Unitarian Miscellany.]

GOD IS GOOD.

GOD is good! Each perfumed flower,

The smiling fields, the dark green wood,
The insect, fluttering for an hour,-

All things proclaim that God is good.

I hear it in the rushing wind;

Hills that have for ages stood,

And clouds, with gold and and silver lined,
Are still repeating, God is good.

Each little till that many a year

Has the same verdant path pursued,

And every bird, in accents clear,

Join in the song that God is good.

The restless main, with haughty roar
Calms each wild wave, and billow rade,

Retreats submissive from the shore,
And swells the chorus, God is good.

Countless hosts of burning stars
Sing his praise with light renew'd;
The rising sun each day declares
In rays of glory, God is good.

The moon that walks in brightness says,
God is good!—and man, endued
With power to speak his Maker's praise,
Should still repeat that God is good.

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The Rev. Daniel Whitby, D. D. Prebendary of Sarum.

DANIEL WHITBY was born, 1638, at Rushden, Northamptonshire. His father was a clergyman of considerable

attainments.

Giving his son a liberal education, be, 1653, was sent to Oxford, and became a Commoner in Trinity Col lege. Patronised by Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, he was made his Chaplain, and Chanter of the Cathedral. In 1673 he was chosed Rector of St. Edmonds, Salisbury; and, 1696, Prebendary of Taunton Regis. He was a great student, and ardent in his study of theology. He employed his talents, at this period, in the exposure of the pretensions of Papacy. Indeed few clergymen were more intent on discharging the duties of their profession. Of a truly Christian spirit, and a lover of peace, he published, 1683, The Protestant Reconciler, bumbly pleading for conde. scension to dissenting brethren in things indifferent and unnecessary, for the sake of peace, and showing how very unreasonable it is to make such things the necessary condition of communion. This excellent work

was burnt by the Bishop of Oxford, and the author was obliged to make retractation. His volume on the Five Points in defence of Arminianism, is a master-piece, and he soon after published his invaluable Commentary on the New Testament. His Last Thoughts, printed after his death, demonstrate his integrity and piety. He died 1726, in the 88th year of his age. His character ranks high as a theologian, and his writings haveenlightened the Christian world. Evans's Sequel to the Sketch.

His Last Thoughts, were prepared by himself for the press, and contain a formal retractation of his former opinions respecting the Trinity. The conclusion to which

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A Letter to the Rev. William Yates, one of the Calcutta Baptist Missionaries.-Original grounds of the Missionary Controversy with Rammohun Roy.

SIR, It is now more than two years since the publi. cation of your Seven Essays, purporting to be "A Defence of some important Scripture Doctrines," in reply to Rammohan Roy's First and Second Appeals to the Christian Public, daring the whole of which period no public notice has been taken of them, either by the advocates or oppo. wents of reputed orthodoxy. It is no part of my present business to inquire into or to explain the causes of this apparent neglect. The formér may have overlooked this expression of your zeal in behalf of their favourite opinions, through circumstances over, which you could have no controul; and the latter may have declined a controversy with you, either because your arguments appeared too weak to need, or too strong to admit of, refutation. As the situation in which I am placed, together with your occasional references to me, may seem to have given you a claim upon my attention, permit me to assure you that my silence hitherto has not proceeded either from contempt or fear. It has not proceeded from the low estimate which I may

be supposed to have formed of the merits of your work; for you appear to me to have come to this controversy better prepared and to have conducted it in a more becoming manner than your fellow-labourers in the same cause. Nor has it proceeded from an unwill. ingness to join issue with you on the important points involved in the Trinitarian Controversy. Of this I cannot give you a more satis. factory proof than by informing you of my inten, tion, as circumstances may enable me and my health, and leisure will permit, to address to you a Series of Letters op the principal subjects which your Essays embrace.

Your Essays are published in the name of the body of Baptist Missionaries in Calcutta, and thus carry with them all the weight and influence which it is in the power of that body to bestow. It would have perhaps been better if their name had been altogether suppressed and your own substituted in its place. I shall afterwards have occasion to notice the particular feason assigned for this course, but at present I refer only to the general aspect which it has upon the subject. Bo

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dies of men frequently say as well as do things which the same men,as individuals, would be either ashamed or afraid to say and do; and the opinions which persons deliver in a collective capa. city will commonly be found to command greater defereuce from the majority of mankind, than should be accorded to their intrinsic merits, or than would be accorded to the opinions of the same persons taken sepa. rately and singly. For these

and similar reasons it is desirable to divest controversy of all such adventitious weights-to place truth on the basis of its own proper evidence to make every man responsible only for his own opinions and reason. ings and, if his opinions are erroneous or his reasonings fallacious, to prevent bim from eluding the exposure they merit by taking refuge under the name of a religious body, with which he happens to stand connected. While, therefore, I could wish that the Title-page had

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son;" and although your name is not given, yet it is so well known to those who interest themselves in the subject, that I make no a pology for the mode of ad. dress which I have adopted, and for framing my lan guage in the same way as if it had been formally an. nounced.

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It is not solely, nor even chiefly on your own account that I take the liberty of thus publicly addressing you. The doubts respect. ing the Trinity which you and I once entertained in common, have, it would appear, been dissipated from the minds of both, and, if I may judge from the zeal which you display in your Defence," have tended to Confirm you more than ever in a belief of that doctrine which they have led me entirely to reject. I cannot be expected to applaud, and it does not belong to me to condemn you, for the conclusion to which you have come. But, the reclaimed doubter is commonly found to be a very deter mined believer, and I should therefore betray great ignorance of buman nature if I were to hope to make much impression on you by exhibiting the evidence of more scriptural views and a more rational faith than those which you at present main tain and defend. Nor is it

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the love of controversy which induces me to meet you in the field of argument which you have chosen. have no ambition to distinguish myself as an expert disputant, and if I had, the consciousness of my own inferiority in the qualifications necessary to ensure success and the recollection of our former intimacy would be sufficient motives either to retire from the struggle of opinions altogether or, at least, to seek for another opponent. Besides, while I am fully convinced of the great advantages resulting to the public at large from the free investigation of popular opinions, I am not unconscious of the danger to which those immediately engaged in the investigation are exposed, of losing the true spirit of Christianity in their search after its genuine doctrinesa loss which the certain discovery of them will not compensate. It is, therefore, neither the hope of your individual conviction, nor the love of controversy which forms my principal motive in addressing you. That motive, I hope, is the love of truth, the value bich I place upon religion, the desire which I feel to see Christianity triumph over the mistakes of its friends not less than the opposition of its enemies.

In your Essays I discover unquestionable proofs of that learning, acumen, and piety employed against Unitarianism, for which I had previously known you to be distinguished, but I also discover equally unques tionable proofs of great and unaccountable ignorance of some of the subjects which you treat, strong and undeserved prejudice against your opponents, and the most injurious misrepresentations both of their principles and characters. I might console myself with the reflection that your charges and mis-statements have not received a wider circulation than the book in which they are contained; but the fact is that you are not singular in making them, The same or similar charges and mis-statements found in almost every Trinitarian publication, whether occasional or periodical, are frequently delivered with imposing solemnity from the pulpit by the organs both of Episcopacy and Dissent, and are generally regarded as true because they are not publicly denied and seldom even privately contra❤ dicted. Regarding, therefore, the cause of Unitarianism as that of pure Christianity—a cause sometimes perhaps not uninjured by the mistakes and imperfections of its friends, but constitut

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