had added to these waters, till Wales and England, that had been parched and desert, were now among the best instructed nations on the earth. If a system parochial, clerical, compulsory, expensive, had been established, these waters of charity would have ceased to flow-the taxations of the country would have been enlarged the agricultural interests, now gaping for existence beneath too heavy burdens, would have sunk under a new pressure-the wrongs of Dissenters would have been increased-the ecclesiastical powers, already too dominant, would have received fearful augmentation-and au harvest would have been reaped of immediate evil and of abiding woe. Happily, however, the dark, oppressive cloud that blighted and overhung them had passed away, and all was again serenity and sunshine. May no fragments of the threatening masses ever re-appear! But he must entreat, as its needlessness was the best argument opposed to the design, that the friends to the gratuitous, religious, unpersecuting, unsectarian education of the poor, would, by their increasing diligence, give even to that argument accumulated force. Every where let there be established Sunday-schools, combined with week-day evening tuition-or Lancastrian schools for mutual instruction, under the British and Foreign School Society, till an untaught hamlet or alley here or in Ireland should be like an unknown land-and till the little plant of universal education, become the noblest tree, outspreading its undecaying branches, should afford to every Briton, infant or adult, the joy of beholding its blossoms, and sharing its inestimable fruit. According to his former custom, he would first revert to those which were mere pecuniary demands. They included Turnpike Tolls, Assessed Taxes, Poor's Rates, and Mortuary Fees. As to Turnpike Tolls, letters had been received from Hartland in Devonshire, Pinchbeck in the county of Lincoln, and Tremerchion in Wales. All such inquiries should include an extract of the exemption clause in each Turnpike Act. To Pinchbeck he had the satisfaction to reply, that the exemption they wished had been already inserted in the Act, and he hoped that as the bills were renewed, all the provisions unfriendly to Dissenters would disappear; because, to that object the Committee directed constant and needful care. Indeed, Cerberus could not be too wakeful to prevent surprise. Last year a General Turnpike Bill was proposed and postponed. All the old objectionable words were there inserted, but at their application were removed. This Session the measure was revived. The snake was scotched, not slain-and again the objectionable expressions re-appeared. The efforts of the Committee must also revive; they must renew against that evil their Herculean toils, and should so renew them with the hope that better triumphs than those of Hercules would be achieved. In a Church-Rate case from Loughborough, they afforded their advice. For relief from the Assessed Taxes as arising from claims on a minister at Wern in Wales, and for Portland Chapel, Bath, they had taught their friends how to apply: and he repeated publicly the information, that Assessed Taxes were not claimable for any Meeting-house, and that all School-rooms for the poor, and rooms in Academies devoted to ministerial students, were, on account of their charitable appropriation, also exempt from charge. One claim for a Mortuary Fee of ten shillings, was made at Keighley, in Yorkshire, on a poor woman who was left with three orphan children. As it did not appear that the fee had been demanded before the reign of Henry the Eighth, and had been since but occasionally required-the payment was withheld, though the clergyman offered greatly to lessen his demand. The transports of the widow, grateful that persons living so distant, not knowing her, and to her unknown, should step forward to soothe and succour her, afforded to the Committee a pleasant and pure reward. The vexatious subject of the assessment of Chapels at Bath, Chatham, Beverley and Paddington, to Poor's Rates, had renewed anxiety and labour. At Bath some additions to Argyle Chapel, principally for the accommodation of the Sunday scholars whom the members of that munificent congregation endeavoured to instruct, produced a treble assessment to the poor; as if these parochial patriots were fearful the noxious weeds of pauperism should vegetate too slowly, and would therefore, by a tax, forbid the wise instruction and infant piety-which can alone restore to the poor an independent but submissive spirit, and the love of labour, economy, comfort, and of a humble, but a happy home! At Chatham, during several years, the Rev. Mr. Slatterie had resisted, by every fair expedient, an assessment on his chapel which amounted yearly to the vast sum of one hundred pounds, and which now would subtract from the donations of the congregation a yearly sum of sixty pounds! By legal suggestions the Committee had enabled him to profit by some negligence and delay of his opponents, and to avert the payments of two rates which they threatened to enforce, and at which the majority of the parishioners wept no tears but those of joy. The congregation at Beverley had not been before assailed. It was a small corporate town, where local antipathies and meie personal dislikes exercise illiberal and ungracious power. There, they had rashly distrained the property of an individual trustee-but, niindful of the place where he first plucked the flowers of spring, and gazed on the blue sky, the Rev. GEORGE COLLISON had manfully resolved to resist every extorsive and illegal act, and with a noble spirit had declared that he would rather "beg from door to door" than allow those measures to prevail. Paddington Chapel was erected at the sole charge of Mr. WILSON. It is one among many noble monuments of Christian bounty. Those monuments were dearer to him than the lofty column and the classic arch; than all the temples that, though in ruins, grace the Acropolis of Athens, or the hills of Rome. In those Pagan temples, the founders had memorials more THE Rev. Dr. EVANS, of Islington, has on the eve of publication the fifth edition of his Golden Centenary, or One Hundred Testimonies in behalf of Candour, Peace and Unanimity, by Divines of the Church of England, of the Kirk of Scotland, and among the Protestant Dissenters; with One Hundred concentrated Sketches of Biography. THE REV. DAVID REES, M.D., who, during his studies at Glasgow, was an occasional preacher in the West of Scotland, has settled with the Society at Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire. THE Rev. J. S. HYNDMAN, formerly a student in Dr. Wardlaw's Theological Academy, is now supplying the congregation at Call-Lane Chapel, Leeds. WE are authorized to announce that the Rev. W. HINCKS, of Exeter, has been chosen pastor of the Unitarian Congregation, Renshaw Street, Liverpool, in the room of the Rev. G. Harris, removed to the New Meeting, Bolton, and that be has signified his acceptance of the appointment. durable than brass. Their grateful, though superstitious, country gave them spontaneous acknowledgments and blessings. To their praise immortal bards sang their lyric strains and elegiac verse. We, strangely niggard, repay kindness with taxation-and so would freeze up the genial ardour of de- On Sunday morning, August 25, the vout munificence ! Thus, though Mr. Rev. S. W. BROWNE, Minister of the Wilson expended six thousand pounds in Chapel in Monkwell Street, preached a the building of that chapel, he is required Sermon, as had been previously announcto pay church rates and parochial claims ed in the public papers, on the occasion for his own house of mercy,-though he of the late suicide in high life. We are never received interest, principal or rent; desired to state that the Sermon was not, and asks and has no recompence but the as has been represented in the Courier, bliss-producing consciousness of a desire" to the memory," but simply on the for the glory of God, and the happiness of man! (To be continued.) awful death, of the late Marquis of LoNDONDERRY. We are allowed to add, that "some details" of this discourse will be prepared for our next number. CORRESPONDENCE. Communications have been received from Messrs. Mardon; W. Evans; and N. Jones; also from G. P. H.; F. K.; Brevis; M. (for Obituary); and T. F. B. Various articles of Intelligence are unavoidably postponed. During the present cessation of public business, we hope to bring up our report of proceedings in Parliament and in the Courts of Law, as far as they relate to questions of religious liberty or general humanity. We trust also that we shall be able to resume our account of Foreign Theological Literature, and to pursue other improvements in the Monthly Repository, which have been hindered by circumstances over which we had no controul. The proffered "Essay on Sacrifices," by the late Rev. H. Turner, will be thankfully accepted. The Inquiry respecting the Rev. C. Wellbeloved's Bible," by A Subscriber, should be addressed to the Author himself, who will, we are sure, give the writer the information that he seeks concerning the progress of that work. Mr. Procter is requested to apply to the Publishers through his bookseller for the MUSIC-SHEET omitted in his number for June; and the same advice is given to any other Subscriber whose number may have been delivered without it. THE Monthly Repository. No. CCI.] SEPTEMBER, 1822. [Vol. XVII. Address of the Eastern Unitarian Society to the Bishop of Norwich, with the Bishop's Answer. N pursuance of a resolution unaniMeeting of the Eastern Unitarian Society, a deputation waited upon the venerable and excellent Bishop of Norwich, to present him an Address, expressive of the gratitude of the Society for his Lordship's long and valuable exertions in favour of religious liberty. The time appointed by his Lordship for receiving the deputation was Tuesday, September 3rd, at 12 o'clock. The members of the Society appointed to discharge this truly gratifying office were, The Rev. T. Madge, the Rev. T. Drummond and Mr. Thomas Martineau, of Norwich; the Rev. - Beynon and Thomas Hurry, Esq., of Yarmouth; Meadows Taylor, Esq., of Diss; George Watson, Esq., of Saxlingham (the Chairman of the Meeting); J. L. Marsh, Esq., and Mr. Edward Taylor, the Treasurer and Secretary of the Society. They were received with that kindness and cordiality which so strongly mark the Bishop's character, and the following Address was read by Mr. Madge: To Henry Lord Bishop of Norwich. MY LORD, In consequence of a resolution unanimously adopted at the last Annual Meeting of the Eastern Unitarian Society, held at Diss, we beg leave to tender to your Lordship the thanks of that body of Christians, for your Lordship's uniform attachment and marked devotion to the cause of religious liberty. Dissenting, as we conscientiously do, from the Established Church, of which your Lordship is so distinguished a member,-distinguished, may we add, not less for your learning and piety, than for your benevolence and liberality,-we feel how deeply important to us is the liberty of acting agreeably to our religious convictions, how much of our peace and comfort and happiness is involved in the ex3 x VOL. XVII. ercise of this liberty, and how greatly ship, not only for the courtesy and kindness which on all occasions have charac terized your general conduct, but for the open and public and persevering manner ed the common rights of Christians. in which you have advocated and defend ever much we may differ from your LordTo that name and to those rights, howship and your Lordship from us, we are sure you will not refuse to admit our. claim. We therefore take the opportunity, while conveying to your Lordship our high sense of the value of your labours in behalf of Christian charity, of testifying our entire agreement and cordial sympathy with the avowed opinions of your Lordship upon the nature and with you in reprobating every enactment extent of religious liberty. We unite which renders a man's condition in civil society worse than it otherwise would be, on account of his religious opinions. We agree with your Lordship, that liberty and not toleration is the claim of conscience; and further, that Christianity would be a great gainer, and the cause of justice and humanity be essentially promoted, by the total repeal of every law which would inflict, or which has a tendency to inflict, upon the sincere professor of any religious opinions, either pain or penalty, obloquy or reproach. To do as we would be done by, whether it relates to matters of faith or to matters of practice, to our inward belief or to our outward avowal, appears to us to be the Christian rule of right, and to have been the uniform measure of your Lordship's conduct. Considering, therefore, your Lordship's high station, and what is more, your Lordship's high character, and knowing as we do, the value of their influence upon the great cause to which they have been so steadily and powerfully dedicated, we trust that your Lordship will allow us to offer to you, on behalf of the Christian Society which we represent, our most sincere, respectful and grateful acknowledgments. And permit us also to express our anxious hope, that long as your life has been, it may be still further and happily lengthened, and that you may yet live to witness the complete tri Having always considered the favourable opinion of wise and good men as the best reward which, on this side of the grave, an honest individual can receive, for doing what he deems to be his duty upon all occasions, I cannot but be highly gratified by the approbation of so respectable a body of my fellow-christians as those are, an address from whom has been this moment read to me. most certainly a very sincere, though a very humble friend to the cause of Religious Liberty, and have uniformly been so from the first moment I was capable of I am distinguishing" Quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid ntile, quid non." In early life, an attentive perusal of the immortal works of Locke and Hoadly, and particularly the arguments of the former in behalf of Toleration, and of the latter on the expediency of repealing the Test and Corporation Acts, deeply impressed upon my mind this important truth, that every penalty, every disability, every restriction, every inconvenience even, to which any good Civil subject is exposed, merely on the score of his Religion, is, in its degree, persecution; because, as the great Lord Mansfield justly observed, "" conscience is not controulable by human laws nor amenable to human tribunals," actions, not opinions, being the province of the magistrate. Such is, as it seems to me, the clear voice of reason; and revelation, I am sure, confirms this voice, when it enjoins persons in authority to "restrain" with the civil sword "evil doers," and still more decidedly, when it warmly expostulates with those who are fond of interfering in matters of conscience: "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth." Let us all then be content to leave our fellow-christians to stand or fall by the judgment of our common Lord and Mas ter, to whom both we and they must hereafter give an account: and, in the mean time, should we, upon reflection, regard it as a duty to convert others to our own peculiar opinions, let us never cease to remember that reason and argument are the only weapons of spiritual warfare, and even in the use of these, we shall do well constantly to bear in mind, that revealed religion was graciously "God is a spirit, and they that wor ship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." John iv. 24. Fragment of a Dialogue. RINITARIAN. I do not attempt any explication of the doctrine, any or affect to understand it. Unitarian.-I did not expect one, or suppose the other; but, is it very unreasonable to require consistency in an opponent ? T.-I am aware of no inconsistency in referring to God what He has not given me a capacity to comprehend. He, no doubt, U-He! Who? U.-You do, it seems, admit that there is one only God; but represent that God to consist of three persons! How, therefore, can you permit your self to speak of the Deity as He or Him? Does not consistency require the use of They or Them, when dis coursing of such a threefold Deity? You, Trinitarians, would have us be lieve that "Let us make man" was an address by one person of the Mys tery to the others. Upon your own principles, therefore, and upon such an authority, ought you not to use the plural pronoun; and ought it not, upon your hypothesis, to have been used in a famous passage, thus-"God is three spirits, and they that worship Them must worship Them in spirit and in truth"? T.-It is not so in the Bible. Would you presume to vary the language of revelation? Ü-Heaven forbid! But, why it not so? is T. I receive the word of God as it EETING by accident, a few above Version, the Introduction of St. John's Gospel, to the 14th verse, as it may amuse some of your readers, and as a part of it seems to be not reconcileable with the translator's considering the Word there mentioned as, strictly speaking, a person. "In the beginninge was the Worde, and the Worde was with God: God was the Word. The same was in the beginninge with God. All thinges were made by it, without it was made nothinge that was made. In it was life, and the life was the lighte of menne; and the light shineth in darknesse, and the darkness comprehended it not. "There was sente from God a man whose name was John. The same came as a witness, to beare witness of M days since, with an old English can fight, that all men thrugh him translation of the Bible, bearing the date of 1553, I was led to examine some parts of it; and particularly the passage in 1 John v. 7, respecting the three witnesses. It appears to be Tindal's translation, although it has not his name. What, indeed, is called Cranmer's Bible, appears to have been only this translation of Tindal's, revised and corrected by the Archbishop, and afterwards by Tonstal and Heath, Bishops of Durham and Rochester; but these versions appear to have been at that time promiscuously used in churches. The Psalter in the Common Prayer-Book is taken verbatim from Tindal's. The chapters are not divided into verses, but into short paragraphs. Respecting the words above referred to, I found the following printed in a different and much smaller character or type from the rest of the chapter : 66 (For there are three which beare recorde in heaven, the Father, ye Word and the Holy Gost, and these thre ar one:)" and, as I have done, put in a parenthe. sis; an intimation, I conclude, that the translator considered the passage as at least doubtful, if not spurious. This is the more valuable as the translation was made in the infancy of the Reformation. Query: Does Wickliff's translation make the same distinction ? Church is invariably translated congregation. In 1 Tim. iii. 6, 7, Devil is translated evil speaker. In 1 Cor. xiii., charity is translated love throughout. This is the rendering of the Improved Version. Allow me to give you, from the but was sente to beare witness of ye He was not the light: might beleve. lighte. That light was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the worlde. He was in the worlde, and the worlde was made by him; and the world knewe him not. his own received him not. But as "He came among his owne, and manie as received him, to them gave he power to be the sonnes of God: even them that beleved on his name: which were borne, not of bloode nor of the will of the fleshe, nor yet of the will of men, but of God. "And the same Woord became fleshe and dwelt among us and we saw the glory of it, as the glory of ye only begotte Sonne of the Father, full of grace and truth." I have strictly adhered to the spelling, and have only to observe farther, that the same Greek verb in the above which is translated made in the 3rd verse, and born in the 13th, is applied in our Saviour's conversation with Nicodemus to the New Birth, John iii. 3. How will the 14 verses of the 1st chapter read, as applicable to the new moral creation of the world by Christ Jesus in righteousness and true holiness ! “Behold, I make all things new." Rev. xxi. 5. SIR, L. HOLDEN. Penzance. 211, 212,) you were so good as to admit a paper of mine relating to the remission of sins: according to an intimation I then gave, I will now, with N your number for April last, (pp. |