but these are not an outward or mechanical infliction.

3. Admitting the opinion, it would lead to these consequences; that the wicked, emancipated at last from the prison of hell, would be in circumstances the most foreign from holiness and happiness. By the supposition they are delivered as an act of justice; but no provision is made for a change of mind and character. They, therefore, owe nothing to the goodness, mercy, or grace of God. Gratitude can have no place in their feelings. The praises of the blessed to the everlasting love of God, in redemption and salvation, are utterly inapplicable and strange to them. Hell they have left; for heaven they are totally unfit; and where is a state or a place suitable for them?

For these reasons, in addition to many more which will arise from the following parts of the subject, it appears most evident, that the expectation of a release from punishment, on the ground of having endured it, is among the grossest of delusions. Another, and more generally received, hy pothesis is,

II. That all the sufferings of those who leave this world wicked and impenitent, will be nothing more than the kind and merciful chastisements of a gracious Father; intended (and in due time proving effectual) to bring his wandering children back to their duty; and in the mean while cheering them with the pleasures of a sure and steadfast hope.

Only a moderate acquaintance with the language of the inspired writers, is necessary to show that this statement is in direct opposition to all the representations which the volume of truth gives, upon the state of the wicked in the world to come. But endeavour to examine this more in detail.

1. According to this doctrine,

whatever the wicked may suffer in the future state, it is in no respect to be deemed an evil; but it is, on the contrary, a good, a blessing, an exercise of the greatest mercy, kindness, and grace; the highest and most valuable blessing of which, under the circumstances, the parties are capable.

Yes; to them the sufferings of another world are greater blessings than any which they received in this. Here the kind dealings of providence, the bright and glorious dispensation of the gospel, and all the means of knowledge and holiness, of grace and happiness, had failed to answer their end; they had not been powerful enough to reclaim the sinner; they had not been efficacious to bring the wandering child back to his duty, and to the bosom of his heavenly Father. But there, means of grace and conversion will be brought to act upon these happy souls, with that efficacy and success which had been in vain expected from all the methods of mercy and salvation in this life. It follows incontrovertibly, that those are the greater blessings; that the dispensations of divine kindness in hell are more mighty and influential, more gracious and glorious than those which exist upon earth; and that the persons who are enduring this course of parental discipline might justly be addressed in the language of congratulation, “ Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth; for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth."

O what a daring contradiction are these sentiments and this language, to the plain, strong, and uniform declarations of God in his word. There not the slightest hint upon this alleged plan of parental chastisement and corrective mercy in the future world is to be found; but the direct contrary, asserted in terms as strong as

men

any language can supply. Let a few instances be a specimen; and O may the Lord grant that their faithful testimony may be to every reader an effectual means of preservation from the artfully sweet and alluring poison of those who teach that (though live and die contemning the law and authority, the mercy and the gospel of Jehovah) paternal love will still follow them, and will do that for their salvation, even in hell, which it could not, or would not, effect in this world. "If there be among you man or woman, who hearing the words of this curse, shall bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart: the Lord will not spare him, but the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in that book shall lie upon him. God is the righteous judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day. He hateth all the workers of iniquity. He shall destroy them, and not build them up; they are like the chaff, which the wind driveth away. They shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. He that made them will not have mercy on them; he that formed them will show them no favour. Many shall say unto me, Lord, Lord! and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. They shall be cast into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The Son of men shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire, where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched. Ye serpents, ye generations of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. He that believeth not shall not see life; the wrath of God abideth on him. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish. If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; it is to them that perish, foolishness." They are "vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction; who shall utterly perish in their own corruption; for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever; a fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries; the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. They shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; and the smoke thereof ascendeth unto heaven.”

THIS excellent man, celebrated throughout Europe as the author of "A Treatise on Self-Knowledge," was a dissenting minister, and successively pastor of the churches at Dorking, Surrey, and Cheshunt, Herts. His earthly labours closed at the latter vil.. lage, and he was buried in the church-yard of the parish, where a humble head-stone, fast going to decay, marks his grave, by the following inscription.

Here rests all that was mortal
of the late

Reverend, learned, and pious JOHN MASON, M. A. who was a Minister to the Congregation of Protestant Dissenters in this Parish 17 Years.

He ceased from his Labours,
and was called to receive his Reward,
February 10th, 1763,
aged 58.

"Be ye followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

JOHN SHUTE, VISCOUNT BARRINGTON. 1678-1734. Amongst the little band of noblemen who attached themselves to the despised cause of nonconformity, Lord Barrington merits distinguished notice, as a strenuous advocate of religious liberty, a wise and successful statesman, and a learned and consistent Christian.

He was the son of Benjamin Shute and his wife, who was daughter of the Rev. Joseph Caryl, the celebrated nonconformist expositor of Job. He devoted himself to the legal profession; and before he had attained his twenty-fourth year, he was employed by the English government to visit Scotland, and to engage the Presbyterians of that country to favour the union of the two kingdoms; in which delicate business he so happily succeeded as to command the homage of his rivals, and to secure his eventual advancement to the peerage. Dean Swift confessed that he was reckoned the shrewdest head in England.

Lord Barrington, in his prosperity, was, however, not ashamed of his religious connexions; for though his catholic spirit induced him occasionally to worship in the Church of England, yet he was in avowed fellowship with the Independent Church at New Court, then under the pastoral care of the Rev. Thomas Bradbury; and he also published, from time to time, pamphlets in defence of his brethren the Dissenters.

During the angry controversy at Salters' Hall, Lord Barrington left Mr. Bradbury's ministry, and united himself to the Society at Pinner's Hall, under the care of Dr. Jeremiah Hunt, where he attended when in London.

with the dissenting congregation in that village, under the care of the Rev. Thomas Jeffries, a young minister of distinguished acuteness and learning.

At this rural spot his Lordship entertained many distinguished scholars and eminent Christians, in whose society he loved to indulge in critical conversations on the sacred Scriptures. A copy of the Greek Testament was always laid upon his table after dinner, to facilitate such discussions.

The Miscellanea Sacra, in two volumes octavo, has placed his Lordship in the highest class of noble authors, and secured him an honourable name even on the roll of professed biblical critics.

The late venerable Bishop of Durham was a son of Lord Barrington. His Lordship died in 1734; and he lies buried in the parish church of Shrivenham, Berks, where a monument was following inscription. erected to his memory, with the

Parliaments of King George the First;
Berwick-upon-Tweed, in

and died December 14, 1734,
in the 56th Year of his Age;

leaving, by Aune his Wife, Daughter and

Co-heiress of Sir William Daines,

six Sons and three Daughters.

He took the name of BARRINGTON

pursuant to the Settlement of his Relation, Francis Barrington, of Tofts, in the County of Essex, Esq. and inherited the Estate he had in that Neighbourhood,

dow, Essex, he worshipped also

in the County of Berks, Esq.

THE REV. WILLIAM HOLMAN.

are

1670-1730.

It rarely occurs, in this busy age, that dissenting ministers find leisure to prosecute studies which not immediately connected with their professional duties. Mr. Holman, however, lived in a retired town, and in quiet times, and therefore devoted the leisure of

twenty years to collecting, with great industry and success, every curious fact or document illustrative of the antiquities of Essex; and thus he accumulated a mass of information, which laid the foundation of the voluminous work of Morant, who has been rather sparing of those acknowledgments which were due to his great predecessor. He, however, mentions Mr. Holman as indefatigable in the work, having visited every parish. "By comparing his extracts with the records in some of the public offices," he adds, "I have found him quite correct and faithful."

Gough, in his British Topography, bears the same testimony to Holman, and tells that he was a dissenting minister at Halstead; which fact, the clerical feelings of Morant probably led him to conceal. Holman never published his papers; but they were, by agreement, made over to Mr. Sal mon, after his decease, of which Morant was a party. Mr. Salmon sent forth his feeble work in numbers, under the following title:"The History and Antiquities of Essex, from the Collections of Thomas Jekyll, Esq. of Bocking, and from the papers of Mr. Ouseley, of Springfield, and Mr. Holman, of Halstead." 1740. But as Salmon died in 1742, the work was discontinued, and the valuable MSS. of Holman were scattered.

Dr. Rawlinson bought, at a sale in London, a large mass of these papers, comprising sixty quarto

volumes, which contain surveys and descriptions of near twice as many parishes, for £10.

These the Doctor bequeathed to the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Other manuscripts of Mr. Holman are in the British Museum, and the rest are dispersed in private hands.

He died in 1730, and was buried near the vestry door of the meeting-house, Halstead, and against the adjacent wall is a plain tablet, with the following inscription.

Near this Stone lieth the Body of

the Rev. WILLIAM HOLMAN, who was near 30 Years Pastor of the Church of Protestant Dissenters in this Town,

and was near 20 Years in writing
the Antiquities of Essex.
He died November 4, 1730,
aged 60 Years.

་་་་་་་་་་་་

ON THE ADVANTAGES RESULTING FROM THE PRINCIPLES OF PROTESTANT DISSENT.

IF the sentiments we maintain be accordant with truth, we may feel assured, that to defend and propagate them in the spirit of candour, is to confer a benefit on our fellow-creatures; for though all truth is not equally important and beneficial, yet is every truth in its degree valuable, and error is always noxious. Nor is it to be forgotten, that no truth or error ever stands alone-one mistake always involves many others, and every truth contributes to illustrate and confirm various other truths with which it stands connected. And in the present advanced state of knowledge, both truth and error have become so moulded into systems, that almost every truth or error, however insignificant they may appear in themselves, are component parts of a system, so that they derive an importance from their associations, which they do not abstractedly possess. The firm, yet candid

advocate of truth, is therefore a benefactor of his species. And in opposition to those who maintain that error is either altogether innocent, or worthy of but very slight blame, it may with safety be affirmed, that a very large proportion indeed of the disorders and sufferings of human society have their origin in the prevalence of false, and therefore pernicious, principles. The errors against which the fathers of Protestant dissent bore testimony, that subjected them to loss and suffering, and against which we their descendants continue to protest in more tranquil circumstances, yet not without sustaining some disadvantages from our sentiments, are not among those that have been least injurious to human happiness. Priestly domination, and the employment of the secular power of states in the affairs of religion, have furnished but too many of the dark pages of the history of mankind. And the principles on which they have been founded and justified, are at least as injurious as they are erroneous. And if the progress of scientific knowledge stands so intimately connected, as we know it does, with the welfare of society, it cannot need to be proved, that the prevalence of correct views, in morals and religion, must have a still more powerful influence on human happiness. These are subjects on which men must think, and on which some sentiments will prevail-men will not therefore labour under the mischiefs of simple ignorance, but of positive error, on these all-important and influential matters. Nor is it difficult to perceive, that in such a case, ignorance may be a less evil than erfor, inasmuch as the former may be but a negative, the latter must be an active mischief. The God of truth has made it our duty to search for truth with diligence and uprightN. S. No. 25.

ness, and having discovered it, to maintain it with modesty indeed, yet with a constancy that shall yield to nothing but the conviction that we have been mistaken. To this duty, Protestant Dissenters have been true, to their temporal disadvantage; but greatly to the good of the nation, the church, and it may be of the whole world.

In the first place, they are the hereditary, and, from their position, the natural advocates of liberty of conscience, of freedom of opinion, and of discussion in matters of religion, of the right of practising, as our opinions shall dictate, and of propagating those opinions, and extending those practices among our fellow-men, by all the means that are in harmony with the genius of the Gospel, and consistent with the peace and welfare of society. Our very existence, as a separate religious community, protected by the laws of the land, depends upon the recognition of these great principles by the Supreme Legislature, and stands as a guarantee of both the civil and religious liberties of Britain. England can never be enslaved while Protestant Dissenters continue to enjoy toleration; and the attempt to deprive them of that more than birthright, would but illustrate the energy of affection, with which an enlightened Christian people regard the rights of conscience and of man. If to this it should be replied, that these principles are now universally recognized; nay, more, that the dignified ecclesiastics of the Anglican Episcopal Church are the warm and eloquent eulogists of toleration; and that now the advocate of persecution is not to be found in the land, or that, if such an individual exists, he dare not for shame avow his hateful sentiments-should all this be acknowledged as a correct representation of the present state of Ꭰ