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Third Edition, with U beautiful iilustratioua on steel. 8b 48 49. 51. 53. 54. ;y Paimedljy ■^.C-Branwhite jiiigTaved qyW .FioJ y^^^,-^^ .^Z:^^ THE MISCELLANEOUS WORKS AND REMAINS REV. ROBERT HALL, A MEMOIR OF HIS LIFE, BY OLINTHUS GREGORY, LL.D., F.R.A.S., AND A CRITICAL ESTIMATE OP HIS CHARACTER AND VVRITINOS, BY JOHN FOSTER, AOTHOB OF • XS8ATII ON DECISION OF CHABACTKH,' KTC. y LONDON: UEXRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1853. IT €3 \Si4s CONTENTS. Page Memoir of the Rev. Robert Hall, by Dr. Gregory • • . 1 Observations on Mr. Hall's Character as a Preacher, by John Foster 65 Christianity consistent WITH A Love OF Freedom . . • .117 Preface 119 Note by the Editor 120 Section I. On the Duty of common Christians in relation to Civil Polity .122 Section II. On the Duty of Ministers in respect to Civil Polity . . • .130 Section III. On the Pretences Mr. Clayton advances in favour of his Principles 138 Section IV. On the Test Act I47 An Apology for THE Freedom OF the Press 157 Advertisement to the Third Edition . . . 1 59 Original Preface Ifil Advertisement to the Ne^r Edition 169 Section I. On the Right of Public Discussion 171 Section II. On Associations • .... 1 78 Section III. On a Reform of Parliament • • . 184 Section IV. On Theories and the Rights of Man 195 10176.3 iv CONTENTS. Section V. Page On Dissenters ••....•••. 205 Section VI. On the Causes of the Present Discontents 216 Review of the Apology fob the Freedom of the Press , . 228 Mr. Hall's Reply 233 Note by the Editor .244 Modern Infidelity Considered 247 Preface 249 Note by the Editor ....... 253 Sermon 25G Note 297 Refleci'Ions on War . . ^ 299 Pretace 301 Sermon 302 Accouu* of the Cambridge Benevolent Society 325 The Sentiments proper to the Present Crisis 329 Advertisement ............... 331 Preface to the Second Edition 332 Sermon 336 The Advantages of Knowledge to the Lower Classes . . 373 Advertisement 375 Sermon , « 376 A Sermon on the Death of Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of Wales 391 Reviews. Foster's Essays 427 Custance on the Constitution 447 Zeal without Innovation 454 Gisborne's Sermons 504 Gregory's Letters 615 Belsham's Memoirs of Lindsey 543 General Index «*^.*t. 506 A BRIEF MEMOIR OF THE KEY. KOBERT HALL, A.M. Robert Hall was born at Arnsby, a village about eight miles from Leicester, on the 2nd of May, 1764. His father was descended from a respectable family of yeomanry in Northumberland, whence he removed to Arnsby in 1753, on being chosen the pastor of a Baptist congregation in that place. Robert, while an infant, was so delicate and feeble, that it was scarcely expected he would reach maturity. Until he was two years of age he could neither walk nor talk. He was carried about in the arms of a nurse, who was kept for him alone, and who was directed to take him close after the plough in the field, and at other times to the sheep-pen, from a persuasion, very prevalent in the midland counties, that the exhalations from newly-ploughed land, and from sheep in the fold, are salubrious and strengthening. Adjacent to his father's dwelling-house was a burial-ground ; and the nurse, a woman of integrity and intelligence, judging from his actions that he was desirous to learn the meaning of the inscriptions on the grave-stones, and of the various figures carved upon them, managed, by the aid of those inscriptions, to teach him the letters of the alphabet, then to group them into syllables and words, and thus, at length, to read and speak. No sooner was his ton^e loosed by this unusual but efficient process, than his advance became constantly marked. Having ac- quired the ability to speak, his constitutional ardour at once 2 MEMOIK OF KOBERT HALL. appeared. He was incessantly asking questions, and became a great and a rapid talker. One day, when he was about three years old, on his expressing disapprobation of some per- son who spoke quickly, his mother reminded him that he spoke very fast ; " iVb," said he, " I only keep at Ur Like many others who were born in villages, he received his first regular instructions (after he left his nurse's arms) at a dame*s school. Dame Scotton had the honour of being his first professional instructor. From her he was transferred to a Mrs. Lyley^ in the same village. While under their care he evinced an extraordinary thirst for knowledge, and became a collector of books. In the summer season, after the school hours were over, he would put his richly prized library, among which was an Entick's Dictionary, into his pinafore, steal into the grave-yard (which, from an early and fixed association, he regarded as his study), lie down upon the grass, spread his books around him, and there remain until the deepening shades of evening compelled him to retire into the house. At about six years of age he was placed, as a day-scholar, under the charge of a Mr. Simmons, of Wigston, a village about four miles from Arnsby. At first, he walked to school in the mornings and home again in the evenings. But the severe pain in his back, from which he suflPered so much through life, had even then begun to distress him ; so that he was often obliged to lie down upon the road, and sometimes his brotlier John and his other schoolfellows carried him, in turn, he repaying them during their labour by relating some amusing story, or detailing some of the interesting results of his reading. On his father's ascertaining his inability to walk so far daily, he took lodgings for him and his brother at the house of a friend in the village : after this arrangement was made they went to Wigston on the Monday mornings, and re- turned to Arnsby on the Saturday afternoons. EARLY INSTEUCTION. 3 The course of instruction at Mr. Simraons's school was not very extensive ; and Robert was not likely to reistrict himself as a student to its limits. On starting from home on the Monday, it was his practice to take with liim two or three books from his father's library, that he might read them in the intervals between the school hours. The books he se- lected were not those of mere amusement, but such as required deep and serious thought. The works of Jonathan Edwards, for example, were among his favourites; and it is an ascer- tained fact, that before he was nine years of age, he had pe- rused and reperused, with intense interest, the treatises of tliat profound and extraordinary thinker, on the ' Affections,' and on the ' Will/ About the same time he read, with a like interest, ' Butler's Analogy.' He used to ascribe his early predilection for this class of studies, in great measure, to his intimate association, in mere childhood, witli a tailor, one of his father's congregation, a very shrewd, well-informed man, and an acute metaphysician. Before he was ten years old, he had written many essays, principally on religious sub- jects ; and often invited his brother and sisters to hear him preach. About this time, too, in one of those anticipatory distributions of a father's property, which I apprehend are^ not unusual with boys, he proposed tijat his brother should liave the cows, sheep, aiid pigs, on their father's death, and leave him " all the books." These juvenile " dividers of the " inheritance" seem to have overlooked their sisters ; unless, indeed, they assigned them the furniture. The incident, how- ever, is mentionetl simply to show what it was that Kobert even then most prized. He remained at Mr. Simmons's school until he was eleven years of age, when this conscientious master informed the father that he was quite unable to keep pace with his pupil, declaring that he had been often obliged to sit up all night to prepare the lessons for the morning ; a practice he could b2 4 MEMOIE OF EGBERT HALL. no longer continue, and must therefore relinquish his favourite scholar. The proofs of extraordinary talent and of devotional feel- ing, which Robert had now for some time exhibited, not only- gratified his excellent parents, but seemed to mark the expe- diency and propriety of devoting him to the sacred office ; but the delicate health of the son, and the narrow means of the father, occasioned some perplexity. Mr. Hall, therefore, took his son to Kettering, in order that he might avail himself of the advice of an influential and valued friend residing there, Mr. Beeby Wallis. Their interview soon led to the choice of a suitable boarding school ; but the pallid and sickly ap- pearance of the boy exciting Mr. Wallis's sympathy, he pre- Tailed upon his father to leave him at his house for a few weeks, in the hope that change of air would improve his health. This gentleman was so greatly astonished at the pre- cocity of talent of his youthful visitor, that he several times requested him to deliver a short address to a select auditory invited for the purpose. The juvenile orator often afterwards adverted to the injury done him by the incongruous elevation - to which he was thus raised. " Mr. Wallis," said he, " was " one whom everybody loved. He belonged to a family in " which probity, candour, and benevolence constituted the " general likeness ; but conceive, Sir, if you can, the egre- *' gious impropriety of setting a boy of eleven to preach to a " company of grave gentlemen, full half of whom wore wigs. " I never call the circumstance to mind but with grief at the " vanity it inspired ; nor, when I think of such mistakes of " good men, am I inclined to question the correctness of " Baxter's language, strong as it is, where he says, * Nor " should men turn preachers as the river Nilus breed frogs " (saith Herodotus), when one half wore^A before the other is *' made, and while it is yet hut plain mudV^* * * Saint's Eest,' Preface to Part II., original edition. AT THE BRISTOL INSTITUTION. Robert's health appearing" much improved from his sliort residence at Kettering-, he was placed by liis father, as a boarder, at the school of the Rev. John Rijland^ in the'^ neighbouring town of Northampton. He remained under Mr. Ry land's care but little more than a year and a half; during which, however, according to his fatlier's testimony, " he made great progress in Latin and Greek ;" while, in his own judgment, the principle of emulation was called into full activity, the habit of composition was brought into useful exercise, the leading principles of abstract science were col- lected, and a thirst for knowledge of every kind acquired. It should also be mentioned here, that it was during the time Robert was Mr. Ryland's pupil, that he heard a sermon preached at Northampton, by Mr. Robins, of Daventry, whose religious instruction, conveyed " in language of the *'most classic purity," at once "impressive and delightful,'* excited his early relish for chaste and elegant composition. From the time he quitted Northampton, until he entered the " Bristol Educa tioa Society," or academy, for the in->^ struction of young men preparing for the ministerial office among the Baptists, he studied divinity, and some collateral subjects, principally under the guidance of Ids father, with occasional hints from his acute metapliysical friend, still re- siding in the same village. Having, in this interval, given satisfactory proofs of his piety, and of a strong predilection for the pastoral office, he was placed at the Bristol Institution, upon Dr. Ward's foundation, in October, 1778jJ)eing then in his fifteenth year. He pursued his studies with great ardour and perseverance ; became an early riser ; and it was re- marked in consequence, that lie was often ready to attend le tutor for the morning lessons, before some of his fellow- .Ttudcnts had commenced their preparation. The system of instruction at Bristol comprehended not merely the learned languages and the rudiments of science, ^^ g MEMOIR OF EOBERT HALL. but a specific course of preparation for the ministerial office, including the habit of public speaking. Essays and theses on appropriate topics were written and delivered, under the direction of the tutors ; religious exercises were carefully attended to ; and the students were appointed, in turn, to speak or preach upon subjects selected by the president. Among the books first put into Mr. Hall's hands to jjrepare ^ him for these exercises, was Gibbon's Rhetoric, which he read with the utmost avidity, and often mentioned in after life, as rekindling the emotion excited by Mr. Robins's preaching, improving his sensibility to the utility as well as beauty of fine writing, and creating an intense solicitude to acquire an elegant as well as a perspicuous style. He was therefore, more active in this department of academical labour than man}- of his compeers. Usually, however, after his written compositions had answered the purpose for which they were prepared, he made no eflTort to preserve them; but either carelessly threw them aside, or distributed them among his associates, if they expressed any desire to possess them. Some of these early productions, therefore, have escaped the corrosions of time. The only one which I have been able to obtain is an essay on * Ambition,' in which there is more of the tumultuary flourish of the orator than he would ever have approved after he reached his twentieth year. Nor was it correct in sentiment. The sole species of excellence recom- mended to be pursued was superiority of intellect ; all moral \\ qualities, as well as actions directed to the promotion of human welfare, being entirely overlooked. Indeed, there is reason to apprehend that at this period of his life, Mr. Hall, notwithstanding the correctness and ex- cellence of his general principles, and the regularity of his devotional habits, had set too high an estimate on merely intellectual attainments, and valued himself, not more perhaps than was natural to youth, yet too much, on the extent of his FIRST SUMMER VACATIOX. 7 mental possessions. No wonder, then, that he should ex- perience salutary niortjification. And thus it happened. He was appointed, agreeably to the arrangements already men- tioned, to deliver an address in the vestry of Broadmead/^ Chapel, on 1 Tim. iv. 10. " Therefore, we both labour and " suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is " the Saviour of all men ; specially of those that believe." After proceeding, for a short time, much to the gratification of his auditory, he suddenly paused, covered his face with his hands, exclaimed, " Oh ! I have lost all my ideas," and sat down, his hands still hiding his face. The failure, however, painful as it was to his tutors, and humiliating to himself, was such as rather augmented than diniinislied their persuasion of what he could accomplisli, if once he acquired self-pos- session. He was therefore, appointed to speak again, on the same subject, at the same place, the ensuing week. This second attempt was accompanied by a second failure, still more painful to witness, and still more grievous to bear. He hastened from the vestry, and on . retiring to his room, ex- claimed, " If this does not humble me, the devil must have "me!" Such were the early efforts of him whose humility afterwards became as conspicuous as his talents, and who, for nearly half a century, excited universal attention and admi- ration by the splendour of his pulpit eloquence. Our student spent the first summer vacation after his entering the Bristol institution, under the paternal roof at Arnsby ; and, in the course of that residence at home, accom- panied his father to some public religious service at Clipstone, a village in Northamptonshire. Mr. Hall, senior, and Mr. Beddome of Bourton, well known by his Hymns, and his truly valuable Sermons, were both engaged to preach. But the latter, being much struck with the appearance, and some of the remarks, of the son of his friend, was exceedingly 8 MEMOIR OF ROBEET HALL. anxious that he sliould preach in the evening, and proposed to relinquish liis own engagement, rather than be disappointed. To this injudicious proposal, after resisting every importunity for some time, he at length yielded ; and entered the pulpit to address an auditory of ministers, many of whom he had been \ accustomed from his infancy to regard with the utmost reve- rence. He selected for his text 1 John i. 5, " God is light, " and in Him is no darkness at all ;" and, it is affirmed, treated this mysterious and awful subject with such metaphysical acumen, and drew from it such an impressive application, as excited the deepest interest. On the arrival of the summer vacation, in 1780, he again visited Arnsby ; and during the period he then remained at home, his father became fully satisfied that his piety was genuine, as well as that his qualifications for the office of a preacher were of a high order. He therefore expressed to many of his friends his desire that he should be " set apart to " the sacred work." Solicitous not to be led aside from a cor- rect judgment by the partiality of a father, he resolved that the church Over which he was pastor should judge of his son's fitness, and recognize their conviction by a solemn act. The members of the church, after cautious and deliberate inquiry, ratified the decision of the anxious parent, and earnestly and '\} unanimously requested " that Robert Hall, jun., might be set *' apart to public employ.*' In little more than a year after Mr. Hall had been thus publicly designated a preacher of the Gospel, having pursued his studies at Bristol with great assiduity and corresponding success, he was appointed to King's College, Aberdeen, on Dr. Ward's foundation. The lamented death of Sir James Mackintosh has left a blank which none can adequately fill, with regard to Mr. Hall's character, habits, and the developement of his intellectual AT ABERDEEN'. 9 powers at this period. On application, however, to an esteemed friend, Professor Paul, he has kindly communicated a few particulars, which I shall give in his own language. *' "What I now trausmit is drawn from the College records, from the recollection of Dr. Jack, Principal of King's College, and formerly for three years a class-fellow of Mr. Hall, and from my own knowledge ; for I also was a cotemporary of Mr. Hall, having commenced my first year's studies when he commenced his fourth. It appears from the album that Mr. Hall entered college in the beginning of November ITSlj, His first year was spent principally under the tuition of Mr. Professor Leslie, in the acquisition of the Greek language; his second, third, and fourth years under that of Mr. Professor Macleod, when he studied ma- thematics, natural philosophy, and moral philosophy. He took his degree in arts (i. e. A.M. degree) on thgJIiJth of March, 1785. Principal Jack says that he attended the Professor of Humanity, Mr. Ogilvie, during the four years he was at college, both for Latin and Natural History ; but as there is no record of the students of the humanity and natural history classes, this fact depends wholly on the Principal's recol- lection. I learn from the same source that Sir James Mackintosh and Mr. Hall, while at college, read a great deal of Greek in private, and that their reputation was high among their fellow-students for their attainments in that language. Principal Jack also bears testimony to Mr. Hall's great success in his mathematical and philosophical studies, and affirms that he was the firei scholar of his class, in the various branches of education taught at college. During one of the sessions the Principal was member of a select literary society, consisting of only eight or ten students, of which society Sir James and Mr. Hall were the dis- tinguished ornaments. None of Mr. Hall's college exercises are now to be found in this place ; but my impressions correspond with tliose of the Principal, that his acquirements were of the very first order : and as Sir James had left college before I entered, having received his A.M. degree 30th March, 1784, there was no one at college in my time who could be at all put in competition with Mr. Hall. But it was not as a scholar alone that Mr. Hall's reputation was great at college. He was considered by all the students as a model of correct and regular deport- ment, of religious and moral habits, of friendly and benevolent af- f'Ctions." To this concise summary, I subjoin the few particulars which 1 gathered from Sir James Mackintosh himself. When these two eminent men first became acquainted, 10 MEMOIK OF ROBERT HALL. Sir James was in his eighteenth year, Mr. Hall about a year older. Sir James described Mr. Hall as attracting notice by a most ingenuous and intelligent countenance, by the liveliness of his manner, and by such indications of mental activity as could not be misinterpreted. His appearance was that of health, yet not of robust health ; and he often suffered from paroxysms of pain, during which he would roll about on the carpet in the utmost agony ; but no sooner had the pain sub- sided than he would resume his part in conversation with as much cheerfulness and vivacity as before he had been thus interrupted. Sir James said he became attached to Mr. Hall, -ilJbecause he could not help it." There wanted many of the supposed constituents of friendship. Their tastes at the com- mencement of their intercourse were widely different ; and upon most of the important topics of inquiry there was no congeniality of sentiment ; yet, fiotwithstanding this, the sub- stratum of their minds seemed of the same cast, and upon this, Sir James thought, the edifice of their mutual regard first rested. Yet he, ere long, became fascinated by his brilliancy and acumen, in love with his cordiality and ardour, and " awe-struck " (I think that was the term employed) by the transparency of his conduct and the purity of his principles. They read together ; they sat together at lecture, if possible ; 1 they walked together. In their joint studies, they read much of Xenqphon and Herodotus, and more of Plato; and so well was all this known, exciting admiration in some, in others envy, that it was not unusual, as they went along, for their class-fellows to point at them and say, " There go Plato and " Herodotus." But the arena in which they met most frequently was that of morals and metaphysics ; furnishing topics of in- cessant disputation. After having sharpened their weapons by reading, they often repaired to the spacious sands upon the sea-shore, and still more frequently to the picturesque scenery on the banks of the Don, above the old town, to discuss with ASSISTANT PASTOK AT BROADMEAD. 11 eagerness the various subjects to which their attention had been directed. There was scarcely an important position in Berkeley's ' Minute Philosopher,' in Butler's ' Analogy,' or in * Edwards on the Will,' over which they had not thus debated with the utmost intensity. Night after night, nay, month after month, for two sessions, they met only to study or to dispute ; yet no unkindly feeling ensued. The process seemed rather, like blows in that of welding iron, to knit them closer together. Sir James said, that his companion as well as himself often contended for victory, yet never, so far as he could then judge, did either make a voluntary sacrifice of truth, or stoop to draw to and fro the serra Xoyo/xax«ac, as is too often the case with ordinary controvertists. From these discussions, and from subsequent meditation upon them, Sir James learnt more as to principles (such, at least, he assured me was his deliberate conviction) than from all the books he ever read. On the other hand, Mr. Hall through life reiterated his persuasion, that his friend possessed an in- tellect more analogous to that of Bacon than any person of modern times ; and that if he had devoted his powerful under- standing to metaphysics, instead of law and politics, he would have thrown an unusual light upon that intricate but valuable region of inquiry. Such was the cordial, reciprocal testimony of these two distinguished men. And, in many respects — latterly, I hope and believe, in all the most essential — it might be truly said of both, " As face answereth to face in a " glass, so does the heart of man to his friend." Shortly after Mr. Hall's return to Aberdeen, in November, 1783, he received an invitation from tlie church at Broadmead to associate himself with Dr. Caleb Evans, as the assistant pastor ; an invitation which he accepted with much doubt and diffidence. After some correspondence, it was arranged that 3Ir. Hall should reside at Bristol in the interval (of nearly six months) between the college sessions of 1784 and 1785, 12 MEMOIR OF ROBERT HALL. and then return to Aberdeen to complete his course. In this important session, from the beginning of November, 1784, to May, 1785, he seems to have devoted himself most sedulously to his studies ; especially the Greek language, with moral and intellectual philosophy, and those other departments of inquiry which are most intimately related to theology. By the time Mr. Hall had thus completed his academical course, his mental powers, originally strong, had attained an extraordinary vigour ; and with the exception of the Hebrew language, of which he then knew nothing, he had become rich in literary, intellectual, and biblical acquisition. On resuming his labours at Broadmead, in conjunction with Dr. Evans, his preaching excited an unusual attention ; the place of worship was often crowded to excess ; and many of the most distinguished men in Bristol, including several clergy- men, were among his occasional auditors. This popularity not only continued, but increased, until he removed to another sphere of action. The brilliancy and force of his eloquence were universally acknowledged, while, in private life, his instructive and fascinating conversation drew equal admiration. Yet it ought not to be concealed (for I simply announce his own deliberate conviction, fre- quently expressed in after-life) that at this time he was very inadequately qualified for the duties of a minister of the Gospel. Considering his early age, twenty-one, it was manifestly unfavourable to the correct developement of his character as a preacher, that in August, 1785, only three months after his quitting Aberdeen, he was appointed classical tutor in the Bristol Academy, on the resignation of Mr. Newton. That additional appointment he held for more than five years, and discharged its duties with marked zeal and activity, and with commensurate success. At this period of his life he was celebrated as a satirist, and ME. ROBINSON. 13 would overwhelm such of his associates as tempted him to the use of those formidable weapons, with wit and raillery, not always playful. Aware, however, that this propensity was calculated to render him unamiable, and to give permanent pain to others (a result which the generosity of his disposition made him anxious to avoid), he endeavoured to impose a restraint upon himself, by writing the Essay on the * Character of Oleander ;' in which he exposes, with just severity, that species of sarcasm to which he believed himself most prone ; and thus, by its publication, gave to others the opportunity, when he slid into this practice, of reproving him in his own language. When Mr. Hall was about twenty-three years of age, he had an opportunity of hearing Mr. Robinson, his predecessor at Cambridge, preach ; and was so fascinated with his manner as to resolve to imitate it. But, after a few trials, he relin- quished the attempt. The circumstance being afterwards alluded to, he observed, " Why, Sir, I was too proud to " remain an imitator. After my second trial, as I was " walking home, I heard one of the congregation say to " another, * Really, Mr. Hall did remind us of Mr. Robin - " son !' That, Sir, was a knock-down blow to my vanity ; " and I at once resolved that if ever I did acquire reputa- " tion, it should be my own reputation, belong to my own " character, and not be that of a likeness. Besides, Sir,* if I " had not been a foolish young man, I should have seen " how ridiculous it was to imitate such a preacher as Mr. " Robinson. He had a musical voice, and was master of all " its intonations ; he had wonderful self-possession, and could " say what he pleased, when he pleased, and how he pleased ; " while ray voice and manner were naturally bad ; and far ** from having self-command, I never entered the pulpit, * Mr. Hall very frequently repeated the word sir iu bis conversation, especially if he became animated. 14 MEMOIR OF ROBERT HALL. '' without omitting to say something that I wished to say, and " saying something that I wished unsaid : and beside all this, " I ought to have known that for me to speak slow was " ruin.''* " Why so ?" " I wonder that you, a student of " philosophy, should ask such a question. You know. Sir, *' that force, or momentum, is conjointly as the body and " velocity ; therefore, as my voice is feeble, what is wanted " in body must be made up in velocity, or there will not be, " cannot be, any impression." This remark, though thrown off hastily, in unreserved con- versation, presents the theory of one important cause of the success of his rapid eloquence. A serious trial now awaited Mr. Hall — a painful misunder- standing between him and his friend and colleague Dr. Evans. It continued not only to disturb the minds of both, but, as might be expected, to create partisans among their respective friends, and indeed to endanger the peace of the church at Broadmead for more than two years. I have read various written papers, and some pamphlets, which relate to this painful affair ; and cannot but conclude that, like many others, it originated in such trifling misconceptions as, in more feli- citous circumstances, neither party would have suffered to disturb his thoughts for an hour. A few hasty expressions, retorted by others both hasty and strong, tempted the Doctor and his friends to accuse Mr. Hall of ingratitude, and a want of deference to his superior in age and station ; he in his turn repelled the accusation in language too natural to a young man glowing with a lofty spirit of independence ; and thus, new charges and fresh recriminations arose. The interposi- tion of friends availed but little ; for their unhallowed passions became ignited too. After many months spent in this un- seemly strife, a meeting between the belligerent parties was held in the presence of two friends of each, at the IMansion House, the Mayor of Bristol being one of the persons chosen PASTOR AT CAMBRIDGE. 15 by Dr. Evans. No beneficial effects resulted from this meet- ing; the individuals who hoped by their interposition to ensure the restoration of amity having- long- before ceased to be impartial judges in the affair. The parties on both sides, who were convened on this occasion, published their respective statements ; from which it appears that one of them thought Mr. Hall justifiable, and censured Dr. Evans; while the other approved of the Doctor's conduct, and condemned tliat of Mr. Hall. It will not, then, be expected, that I should draw from the obscurity which time has cast over them more particulars re- lating to this unhappy collision. Nor, indeed, should I have adverted to it, had it not operated strongly in preparing Mr. Hall for his removal from Bristol. Whatever regret it might occasion him, on subsequent meditation, it excited no self- reproach, nor left any malevolent feeling. On the decease of Dr. Evans, which took place in 1791, his former colleague prepared an inscription for his monument ; and he wrote to his brother-in-law, Mr. Isaac James, in the following terms : — " I think you and all my friends ought now to bury all that ** is past, and renew a connexion with the church, if their " temper will permit you. My friends will most oblige me " by carr}ung it respectfully to the Doctor's family and me- " mory. ' Anger may glance into the bosom of a wise man, " but it rests only in the bosom of fools ;' and our best improve- " ment of the death of this useful servant of God will be to " imitate his excellences and forget his errors." Mr. Hall, who by this time had attained a high reputation as a preacher, was invited, in June or July 1790, to preach at Cambridge for one month ; after which the invitation was renewed for a longer term. In July, the following year, he was invited to take the pastoral charge, and he accepted the important trust. 16 MEMOIR OF EOBEET HALL. In these transactions and their consequences still unfolding, the wisdom and mercy of God are strikingly manifested. There was at this time no man of eminence among the Bap- tists, besides Mr. Hall, who could for a moment have been thought of by the church at Cambridge as a fit successor to Mr. Robinson ; nor was there any Baptist church and con- gregation with which he could become connected, with the same prospect of being useful and happy, according to the views he then entertained. Had Mr. Hall's religious prin- ciples and feelings been such in 1790 and 1791 as they became a few years afterwards, not even his talents would have made them palatable; and a connexion, had it been formed, would soon have been dissolved : on the other hand, had the church been decidedly and entirely Socinianized, he could not conscientiously have become its pastor. The pro- vidential co-relation soon began to show itself. Tlieir loose- ness of sentiment on many points, which even then he thought momentous, led him to enforce them frequently with the utmost energy ; while his known freedom of opinion on other points, which they also had been led to canvass freely, pre- served him from the odium of orthodoxy. Thinking them- selves liberal and unshackled, they could not but congratulate one another that their new pastor, a man of splendid talents, was almost as liberal and unshackled as they were. Then again, their want of devotional seriousness, by the force of contrast, heightened his estimate of the value of true piety ; and this produced an augmented earnestness and fidelity, which they first learnt to tolerate, and afterwards to admire. Thus, by the operation of an incessant action and re-action, continued for years, each party exerted a salutary influence on the other ; and at length both church and pastor became so distinguished for piety, harmony, and aff^ection, that they who had known and lamented their former state, were com- pelled to exclaim, " This hath God wrought.** AT CAMBEIDGE. 17 The death of Mr. Hall's father, which occurred in March. 1791, had indeed tended greatly to bring his mind to the state of serious thought with which he entered upon the pastoral office. Meditating with the deepest veneration upon the unusual excellences of a parent now for ever lost to him, he was led to investigate, with renewed earnestness, the truth as well as value of those high and sacred principles from which his eminent piety and admirable consistency so evi- dently flowed. He called to mind, too, several occasions on which liis father, partly by the force of reason, partly by that of tender expostulation, had exhorted him to abandon the vague and dangerous speculations to which he was prone. Some important changes in Mr. Hall's sentiments resulted from an inquiry conducted under such solemn impressions ; and among these may be mentioned his renunciation of ma- terialism, which he often declared he " buried in his father's " grave." Attentive to the voice of heavenly admonition, thus address- ing him from various quarters, he entered upon his new duties with earnest desires that he might be able " to commend him- " self to every man's conscience in the sight of God." Feeling that to him was consigned the charge of transforming, with God's assistance, a cold and sterile soil into a fruitful field, he determined not to satisfy himself with half measures, but pro- ceeded to expose error, and defend what he regarded as essen- tial truth. The first sermon, therefore, which he delivered at Cambridge, after he had assumed the office of pastor, was on the doctrine of the atonement, and its practical tendencies. Inmiediately after tlie conclusion of the service, one of the congregation, who had followed poor Mr. Robinson througii all his changes of sentiment, went into the vestry, and said, " Mr. Hall, this preachi-ng won't do for us : it will only suit " a congregation of old women." *' Do you mean my sermon, " sir, or the doctrine ?" " Your doctrine:' " Why is it that o 18 MEMOIR OF ROBERT HALL. " the doctrine is fit only for old women ?'* " Because it may *' suit the musings of people tottering upon the brink of the " grave, and who are eagerly seeking comfort." " Thank you, " sir, for your concession. The doctrine will not suit people " of any age, unless it be true ; and if it be true, it is not fitted *• for old women alone, but is equally important at every age." This individual, and three or four other men of influence, with about twenty from the poorer classes, shortly afterwards withdrew from the congregation. Mr. Hall's ministerial labours, at this interesting period of liis life, were blessed with the happiest results, when the benefit seemed likely to be for a while suspended by the in- trusion of violent political discussion. The impression made throughout Europe by the French revolution of 1789 was such that not merely here and there an individual indulged in political speculation, but almost every man threw himself into the vortex of controversy. At such a season Mr. Hall, then under thirty years of age, was not likely to maintain an entire silence. When a man's quiescence was suflficient to render his principles equivocal, he was certainly not one who would make a secret of his opinions. He hesitated not to avow that the grand object of all good government must be to promote the happiness of the governed, to assist every individual in its attainment and se- curity. He regarded a government chiefly anxious about the emoluments of ofl[ice, or aiming to consolidate its own power at home and to aid the efforts of despots abroad, while it neglected the comfort and welfare of individuals in middle or lower life, whose burdens it augmented by a mistaken course, as a government that should be constitutionally opposed by eve^y lawful means. Could it then be matter of surprise that, believing and feeling this, he should exult when " the " empire of darkness and of despotism had been smitten with a '• stroke which sounded through the universe ;" or, when other AT CAMBRIDGE. 19 ministers of the Gospel were signalizing themselves by oppos- ing this view of things, that he should, for a short interval, be drawn aside from pursuits more congenial with his prevail- ing tastes, and, in some important respects, I think, more compatible with his holy calling, and at once endeavour to prove that " Christianity is consistent with a love of freedom," and that true Christianity will prevail most where genuine freedom is most diffused and best understood ? Cordial, however, as was Mr. Hall's attachment to a cause in which he conceived man's best interests to be closely inter- woven, and strong as was his hatred of despotic measures, or what he regarded as such, eitlier at home or abroad, I do not think that even their joint operation would have overcome his repugnance to writing, had it not been for skilful abettors, who first worked upon his feelings, and then extorted from him the promise of preparing a work for the public. Such, if I have not been misinformed, was the origin of his first political pamphlet ; and such, I know, from his own declara- tion, often repeated, was the origin of the eloquent and power- fill * Apology for the Freedom of the Press.' The evening after the event occurred to which he alludes in the ' Apo- logy,' he attended a periodical meeting of a Book-society, constituted principally of members of his own congregation, and of Mr. Simeon's, and usually denominated Alderman Ind^s Cltih, that distinguished ornament of Mr. Simeon's congregation being the treasurer. Every person present ex- pressed himself in terms of the strongest indignation at the insult offered to Mr. Musgrave ; every one thought it highly desirable that some man of talent at Cambridge should advo- cate the principles maintained by the friends of liberty, espe- cially of those who avowed evangelical sentiments, and the necessity for their united activity, in tlie present state of tlie country and of Europe. Mr. Hall spoke as decidedly as any of them with regard to the urgent necessities of the case ; C2 20 .MEMOIR OF no BERT HALL. when they all, having brought him precisely into the position £it which they were aiming, exclaimed, that it was he to whom alone they could look in this exigency. " Alderman Ind, you '' know, sir (said he), was an excellent man ; pure as a *' seraph, and gentle as a lamb. I thought that if he felt " roused, if he could join with the rest in urging me, I might " bring all hesitation to a truce ; and so, in an evil hour, I " yielded to their entreaties. I went home to my lodgings, *• and began to write immediately ; sat up all night ; and, " wonderful for me, kept up the intellectual ferment for " almost a month ; and then the thing was done. I revised *' it a little as it went through the press ; but I have ever *' since regretted that I wrote so hastily and superficially upon ^' some subjects brought forward, which required touching *' with a master-hand, and exploring to their very founda- " tions. So far as I understand the purely political principles " which are advanced in that pamphlet, they are, I believe, " correct : at all events they are mine still. But, I repeat it, *' I yielded in an evil hour ; especially if I had any wish to " obtain permanent reputation as a political writer. Per- *' haps, however, the pamphlet had its use in those perilous '^ times." Such was Mr. Hall's account of this publication. But, whatever might be Mr. Hall's opinion of this work, it does not seem to have been regarded by the public as of little value. Three editions were called for, I believe, within less than six months ; and then, the author not sanctioning a republication, various editions were printed and circulated surreptitiously. Its more splendid and impressive passages were repeatedly quoted in the periodicals of the day, and many of its arguments were cited as perfectly conclusive. It was also widely circulated in America ; and is there still re- garded as having been powerfully influential in diffusing those liberal political, principles which of late have at^quired so marked an ascendency in Britain. AT CAMBEIDGE. 21 Mr. Hall, however, experienced such inconveniences from his political celebrity, as induced him to recede, not from his principles, or from the avowal of them in private, but from the farther advocacy of them in public. It forced upon him the society of men whose conduct and character he could not approve ; it tended to draw him, much more than he could conscientiously justify, from retirement and study ; and thus, ere long, he became of opinion, to adopt his own Mords, " that the Christian ministry is in danger of losing something " of its energy and sanctity, by embarking on the stormy " element of political debate." His elegant oulogium on Dr. Priestley, in his first pamphlet, and the warm terms of admiration in which he used to speak of him in private, tempted many to fancy and to say that he also was a Socinian at heart ; and although his preaching became more and more distinguished by the introduction and energetic application of evangelical truth, he still found himself often so equivocally placed as to render his denial of Socinianism quite imperative. On one of these occasions, Mr. Hall having, in his usual terms, panegyrized. Dr Priestley, a gentleman who held the Doctor's theological opinions, tapping Mr. Hall upon the shoulder with an indelicate freedom from which he recoiled, said, " Ah, sir, we shall have you among us soon, I see." Mr. Hall, startled and offended by the rude tone of exultation in which this was uttered, hastily replied, " Me amongst you, " sir ! me amongst you ! Why, if that were ever the case, " I should deserve to be tied to the tail of the great red " dragon, and whipped round the nethermost regions to all " eternity." Mr. Hall's personal habits, not only at the time of which I am now speaking, but in a certain degree through life, though not precisely those of an absent man, were those of one whose mental occupations kept his thoughts at a distance from various matters of ordinary observance, and made him 22 MEMOm OF BOBERT HALL. regardless of a thousand things which most persons never forget. Thus, on his return from an evening visit, if not watched, he would take a wrong hat or great-coat. If not sought after by some of the congregation, he would mistake the proper evening of a week-day service, having in such cases been so absorbed in study as to lose a day in his reckoning ; for the same reason, he often mistook the day or the hour of an appointment. When on any of his journeys to London he engaged to take up the letters of his friends, it was not unusual, after his return, to find them all in his portmanteau or his great-coat pocket. These, or similar in- stances of forgetfulness, occurred daily ; but, exciting the attention of his affectionate and watchful friends, they seldom exposed him to serious inconvenience. None of these peculiarities sprung from an affectation of singularity ; they simply marked an inattention to things of minor importance. Nor was there united with them a regard- lessness of the proprieties of society, a disdain of such civilities and attentions as were usual in the classes with whom he most associated. He had never aimed to acquire a facility in the manners and habits of genteel life ; but he had a native ease and grace, which was obviously distinguishable from any ac- quired habit. It was a grace that could neither be bought nor borrowed ; on all proper occasions heightened by the dignity which naturally comported with his character and office ; and uniformly blended with that genuine simplicity which often accompanies intellectual greatness, and is always, if I mistake not, an attribute of moral greatness. I had the privilege of becoming first known to Mr. Hall in January, 1797. During that year we dined daily at the same table ; the next year we met almost every morning to read together ; and for some years afterwards scarcely a week passed in which I was not three or four times in his society. When I first became acquainted with him I wa? young, and AT CAMBRIDGE. 23 ignorant of nearly every thing but the most rudimental know- ledge of language and science ; of which I possessed just enough to employ as instruments of inquiry. I was eager to acquire information ; but ran some risk of turning my mind to that which was useless, or merely showy, instead of direct- ing its best energy to that which was truly valuable. In such circumstances, to be allowed the friendship and enjoy the advice and assistance of such a man, was among my richest blessings. Scarcely a thought worth preserving, scarcely a principle of action worth reducing to practice, scarcely a source of true enjoyment, but I derived from him, or I was led to receive, or to appreciate more correctly, through liis agency. If, then, for some pages, my name should occur more often in immediate association with that of my beloved and revered friend than may seem consistent with ordinary rules, may I be freed from the charge of egotism ? especially if I assure the reader, that while nothing affords me more pleasure, nothing awakens more gratitude to the Father of Mercies than the retrospect of the intellectual, and higher than intellectual delights, which were then mine, few things more humble me than the conviction that, though I enjoyed them so long, I suffered them to pass away without commen- surate improvement. When I first saw Mr. Hall, I was struck with his well- proportioned athletic figure, the unassuming dignity of his deportment, the winning frankness which marked all that he uttered, and the peculiarities of the most speaking counte- nance I ever contemplated, animated by eyes radiating with the brilliancy imparted to them by benevolence, wit, and intellectual energy. When he spoke, except in the most ordi- nary chit-chat, to which, however, he seldom descended, he seemed not merely to communicate his words, but himself: and I then first learnt the difference between one who feels while he is speaking, and whose communicative features tell 24 MEMOIR OF KOBEBT HALL. you that he does, and one who, after he has spoken long and with apparent earnestness, still does not feel. I then learnt also, that though talents may convey their results to others, and activity may carry on others in its stream, yet there is something distinct in the structure of a great mind which never can be so transferred to another as to become its native / characteristic. Mr. Hall had a buoyancy and playfulness, ' when among his select friends, which were remarkably capti- vating. Among strangers there was a reserve for a short time ; but it was soon shaken off, especially if he found that they were pious or intelligent. The presence of a man who gave himself airs of condescension usually induced him to remain silent or to retire. He could enjoy the society of men of moderate information ; and it was interesting to observe how, by a few apt questions, he would ascertain in what direction their pursuits lay, and then so draw them out as to give them the pleasure of feeling that they were contributing to his stock of that knowledge which they could not but think useful. He was eminently alive to the emotions of pity ; an affection always calculated to inspire attachment, but which in a man of abstract habits is, I fear, very unusual. He was \ generous by nature, as well as upon principle, and in seasons of affliction would remarkably identify himself with those who most needed sympathy. He rather avoided than sought ex- pressions of thankfulness ; and sometimes, when he became oppressed by them, would hastily say, " Thank you, thank " you ; you have said more than enough : remember, God has " sent into the world a more powerful and more noble senti- *' ment than even gratitude." For some years, he made it a rule to pay a pastoral visit to » every member of his church once each quarter. He did the same also with regard to such of his ordinary hearers as he thought willing to receive him as a minister of religion. These were not calls, but visits^ and usually paid on evenings, AT CAMBEIDGE. 25 that he might meet the whole assembled family. Among the lower classes, to make them quite at their ease, he would sit down with them at supper ; and, that this might involve them in no extra expense, he took care they should all know that he preferred a bason of milk. He persuaded the poorer members of his church to form little meetings, for reading, religious conversation, and prayer, going " from house to house." These were held once a fort- night, I think, in the summer time ; once a week during the winter. He made it a point of official duty to attend them frequently ; and regarded them, with the weekly meetings in the vestry, as the best thermometer for ascertaining the reli- gious state of his people. In him all was at the utmost remove from gloom or moroseness. Even the raillery in which he indulged showed his good nature, and was exceedingly playful ; and, notwith- standing the avowed and lamented impetuosity in argument to which he was prone, nothing, so far as I ever saw, but conceit, engrafted upon stupidity, provoked his impatience, and called forth a severity which he scarcely knew how to . ^ restrain.* With regard to disposition, the predominant fea-i^ tures were kindness and cheerfulness. He never deliberately// gave pain to any one, except in those few extreme cases where there appeared a moral necessity of " rebuking sharply" for the good of the offender. His kindness to children, to servants, to the indigent, nay, to animals, was uniformly * The following is an instance of his manner of checking inordinate vanity. A preacher of this character having delivered a sermon in Mr^ Hall's hearing, pressed him, with a disgusting union of self-complacency and indelicacy, to state what he thought of the sermon. Mr. Hall re- mained silent for some time, hoping that his silence would be rightly interpreted ; but this only caused the question to be pressed with greater earnestness. Mr. Hall at length said, " There was one very fine passage, " sir." " I am rejoiced to hear you say so. Pray, sir, which was it ?" ** Why, ar, it was the passage from the pulpit into the vestry." 26 MEMOIU OF ROEERT HALL. manifest. And such was his prevailing cheerfulness, that he seemed to move and breathe in an atmosphere of hilarify ; which, indeed, his countenance always indicated, except when the pain in his back affected his spirits, and caused his imagination to dwell upon the evils of Cambridgeshire scenery. This was, in his case, far from a hypothetical grievance. It seriously diminished his happiness at Cambridge, and at length was the main cause- of his quitting it. In one of my early interviews with him, before I had been a month at that place, he said to me, " What do you think of Cambridge, sir ?" " It is a very interesting place." '' Yes, the place where " Bacon, and Barrow, and Newton studied, and where Jeremy " Taylor was born, cannot but be interesting. But that is " not what I mean ; — what do you say to the scenery, sir?" " Some of the public buildings are very striking, and the " college walks very pleasing ; but " — and there I hesitated. He immediately added : " But there is nothing else to be said. " What do you think of the surrounding country, sir? Does *' not it strike you as very insipid ?" '* No, not precisely so." " Ay, ay ; I had forgotten : you come from a flat country. " Yet you micst love hills : there are no hills here." I re- plied, " Yes, there are ; there are Madingley Hill, and the " Castle Hill, and Gogmagog Hill." This amused him ex- ceedingly; and he said, *' Why, as to Madingley, there is " something in that ; it reminds you of the Cottons, and the " Cottonian Library : but that is not because Madingley is a " high hill, but because Sir Robert Cotton was a great man ; " and even he was not born there. Then, as to your second *' example, do you know that the Castle Hill is the place of " the public executions ? That is no very pleasant associa- " tion, sir. And as to your last example, Gogmagog Hill is *' five miles off; and many who go there are puzzled to say " whether it is natural or artificial. 'T is a dismally flat AT CAMBEIICE. 27 " country, sir ; dismally flat.* Ely is twelve miles distant, " but the road from Cambridge thither scarcely deviates *' twelve inches from the same level, and that 's not very in- " teresting. Before I came to Cambridge, I had read in the " prize poems, and in some other works of fancy, of * the *' banks of the Cam,' of ' the sweetly flowing stream,' and "so on ; but when I arrived here I was sadly disappointed. " When I first saw the river as I passed over King's College " Bridge, I could not help exclaiming, Why, the stream is " standing still to see people drown themselves ! and that, I " am sorry to say, is a permanent feeling with me." I ques- tioned the correctness of this impression ; but he immediately rejoined : " Shocking place for the spirits, sir ! I wish you " may not find it so : it must be the very focus of suicides, " Were you ever at Bristol, sir? There is scenery, scenery *• worth looking upon, and worth thinking of; and so there " is even at Aberdeen, with all its surrounding barrenness. *' The trees on the banks of the Don are as fine as those on " the banks of the Cam : and the river is alive, sir ; it falls " over precipices, and foams and dashes, so as to invigorate " and inspire those who witnes^s it. The Don is a river y sir, " and the Severn is a river; but not even a poet would so ♦ On Mr. Hall's last visit to Cambridge, one of his friends took him out for a morning's ride, and showed him the improvements as to culti- vation, by means of new enclosures, &c. " True," said he ; " but still " there is that odious flatness, that insipid sameness of scenery all around." Then, with a tone of great seriousness, he added, " I always say of my " Cambridge friends, when I witness their contentedness in such a coimtry, " ♦ Herein is the faith and patience of the saints !' My faith and patience '• could not sustain me under it, with the unvarying kindness of my friends " in addition." On another morning ride, his companion said, " Look at these fields, " with the crops of com so smooth and so abundant ; are not tliey pleasant ? «' And do they not excite the idea of plenty ?*' He rejoined, with his usual promptness, " Oh, yes ! and so does a large meal-tub, filled to the ** brim. Hut I was not thinking oi plenty, but of beauty." V 28 MEMOIR OF EOBEET HALL. " designate the Cam, unless by an obvious figure he termed it " the sleeping river." At that period, though he was strong and active, lie often suffered extremely from the pain to which I have before ad- verted, and which was his sad companion through life. On entering his room, I could at once tell whether or not his night had been refreshing ; for, if it had, I found him at the table, the books to be studied ready, and a vacant chair set for me. If his night had been restless, and the pain still con- tinued, I found him lying on the sofa, or more frequently upon three chairs, on which he could obtain an easier posi- tion. At such seasons scarcely ever did a complaint issue from his lips ; but inviting me to take the sofa, our reading commenced. They, however, who knew Mr. Hall, can con- jecture how often, if he became interested, he would raise himself from his chairs, utter a few animated expressions, and then resume the favourite reclining posture. Sometimes, when he was suffering more than usual, he proposed a walk in the fields, where, with the appropriate book as our companion, we could pursue the subject. If he was the preceptor, as was commonly the case in these peripatetic lectures, he soon lost the sense of pain, and nearly as soon escaped from our author, whoever he might be, and expatiated at large upon some train of inquiry or explication which our course of reading had sug- gested. As his thoughts enkindled, both his steps and his words became quicker, until, ere long, it was difficult to say whether the body or the mind were brought most upon the stretch in keeping up with him. This peculiarity I have noticed in a few other men of vigorous intellect and lively imagination. Still farther to illustrate Mr. Hall's character, his turn of thought and expression, I will now bring together a few such incidents and short remarks, occurring between 1796 and 1803, as present themselves most vividly to my mind. AT CAMBEIDGE. 29 It will already have appeared that braeyolence was a pre- ^^ vailing characteristic. When he had aided a poor man to the full extent of his own pecuniary means, he would sometimes apply to one of his affluent friends : " Poor is in great '' distress ; some of his family are ill, and he cannot supply *• proper necessaries. Lend me five shillings for the poor " fellow. I will pay you again in a fortnight, unless in the " mean time you find that the case deserves your help, and " then the donation shall become yours." His disapprobation of avarice bore a natural relation to his own benevolence. Being informed that a rich man in the neighbourhood, who was by no means celebrated for his libe- rality, had attended to a tale of distress without relieving it, he said : " Yes, yes ; he would listen, but without inclining " his head. He may lend a distant ear to the murmuringa " from the vale beneath, but he remains like a mountain " covered with perpetual snow." On another occasion, a person talking to him of one whom they botli knew, and who was very penurious, said : " Poor *' wretch ! you might put his soul into a nut-shell." " Yes, " sir," Mr. Hall replied, " and even then it would creep out "•at a maggot-hole." His love of sincerity in words and actions was constantly > apparent. Once, while he was spending an evening at the house of a friend, a lady who was there on a visit retired, that her little girl of four years old might go to bed. She returned in about half an hour, and said to a lady near her, " She is gone to sleep. I put on my night-cap, and lay down *' by lier, and she soon dropped off." Mr. Hall, who over- heard this, said, ** Excuse me, madam ; do you wish your " child to grow up a liar ?" " O dear, no, sir ! I should be " shocked at such a thing.** " Then bear with me while I *' say you roust never act a lie before her. Children are very 30 memo;e of eobert hall. " quick observers, and soon learn that that which assumes to " be what it is not is a lie, whether acted or spoken." This was uttered with a kindness which precluded offence, yet with a seriousness that could not be forgotten. His dislike to compliments was thus expressed : — " In com- *' pliments two and two do not make four ; and twenty and *' twenty fall very far short of forty. Deal not, then, in that " deceitful arithmetic." It was said in Mr. Hall's hearing, that " compliments were " pleasing truths, and flatteries pleasing untruths." He re- marked : " Neither of them dive pleasing to a man of refiec- " tion, for the falsehoods in this case so nearly assume the " semblance of truth, that one is perplexed to tell which is " actually given ; and no man is pleased with perplexity." "You remember Mr. , sir?" "Yes, very well." " Were you aware of his fondness for brandy-and-water ?" " No." " It was a sad habit ; but it grew out of his love of " story- telling ; and that also is a bad habit, a very bad habit, " for a minister of the Gospel. As he grew old, his animal " spirits flagged, and his stories became defective in vivacity : " he therefore took to brandy-and-water ; weak enough, it is " true, at first, but soon nearly * half-and-half.' Ere long he " indulged the habit in a morning ; and when he came to " Cambridge he would call upon me, and before he had been " with me five minutes, ask for a little brandy-and-water, " which was, of course, to give him artificial spirits to render " him agreeable in his visits to others. I felt great diflSculty, " for he, you know, sir, was much older than I was ; yet, " being persuaded that the ruin of his character, if not of his " peace, was inevitable, unless something was done, I resolved " upon one strong effort for his rescue. So the next time that " he called, and, as usual, said, * Friend Hall, I will thank p* you for a glass of brandy-and-water,' I replied, * Call things AT CAMBBIDGE. 31 " by their right names, and you shall have as much as you " please.* * Why, don't I employ the right name? I ask " for a glass of brandy-and-water/ * That is the current, " but not the appropriate name : ask for a glass of liquid fire " and distilled damnation, and you shall have a gallon.* " Poor man ! he turned pale, and for a moment seemed " struggling with anger. But, knowing that I did not mean " to insult him, he stretched out his hand, and said, ' Brother " Hall, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.* From " that time he ceased to take brandy-and-water." In one of my early interviews with Mr. Hall, I used the word felicity three or four times in rather quick succession. He asked : *' Why do you say felicity, sir ? Happiness is a " better word, more musical and genuine English, coming " from the Saxon." " Not more musical, I think, sir." " Yes, more musical ; and so are words derived from the " Saxon generally. Listen, sir : ' My heart is smitten, and " withered like grass ;' there 's plaintive music. Listen again, " sir : * Under the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice ;' there 's " cheerful music." " Yes ; but rejoice is French." " True, " but all the rest is Saxon, and rejoice is almost out of tune " with the other words. Listen again : ' Thou hast delivered " my eyes from tears, my soul from death, and my feet from " falling ;* all Saxon, sir, except delivered. I could think of " the word tear, sir, till I wept. Then again, for another " noble specimen, and almost all good old Saxon-English : " * Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of " my life ; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.' " Shortly after this 1 was reading the original edition of Doddridge's Pneumatology, and asked Mr. Hall to lend me Kippis's edition, in which the references to other authorities, on the various topics discussed, are greatly increased. He told me that he did not possess Kippis's edition, in a tone 32 MEMOIE OF EOBEKT HALL. which then surprised me a little, as it showed that he did not highly estimate Kippis's authority. I therefore asked, " Was '' not Dr. Kippis a clever man ?" " He might be a very clever " man by nature, for aught I know, but he laid so many books " upon his head that his brains could not move." This was to me, who at that period devoted much more time to reading than to thinking, an admirable lesson. On being asked whether he was an Arminian or a Calvinist, he said — " Neither, sir, but 1 believe I recede farther from " Arminianism than from Calvinism. If a man profess him- '* self a decided Arminian, I infer from it that he is not a *' good logician ; but, sir, it does not interfere with his personal " piety : look at good Mr. Benson, for example. I regard the " question more as metaphysical than religious." A lady who had been speaking of the Supreme Being with great familiarity, but in religious phraseology, having retired, he said — " I wish I knew how to cure that good lady of her *' bad habit. I have tried, but as yet, in vain. It is a great " mistake to affect this kind of familiarity with the King of ** kings, and speak of him as though he were a next-door '' neighbour, from the pretence of love. Mr. Boyle's well- " known habit was infinitely to be commended. And one of " our old divines, I forget which, well remarks that — ' No- " thing but ignorance can be guilty of this boldness ; that " there is no divinity but in a humble fear, no philosophy but " shows itself in silent admiration.' " When two or three gentlemen were discussing the question, whether a man of no religion can be a successful minister of the Gospel, surprise was expressed that Mr. Hall remained silent — " Sir (said he, in reply), I would not deny that a " sermon from a bad man may sometimes do good ; but the '' general question does not admit of an argument. Is it at " all probable, that one who is a willing servant of Satan, AT CAMBEIDGE. 33 " (and that, you know, sir, is the hypothesis you assume), " vriW fight against him with all his might ; and if not, what " success can be rationally expected ? " Mr. Hall did not permit his sedulous cultivation of the mind to draw him aside from the cultivation of the heart. The evidences were, indeed, very strong, that his preparation for ministerial duty was devotional as well as intellectual. Thus, his public services, by a striking gradation, for months and years, evinced an obvious growth in mental power, in literary acquisition, and in the seriousness,' affection, and ardour of a man of piety. His usefulness and his popularity increased ; the church and congregation became considerably augmented; and in 1798 it was found necessary to enlarge the place of worship to accommodate about two hundred more persons. Early in the year 1199? a severe fever, which brought him, in his own apprehension and that of his friends, to the brink of the grave, gave him an opportunity of experiencing the support yielded by the doctrines of the Cross " in the near " views of death and judgment." He " never before felt his " mind so calm and happy." The impression was not only salu- tary, but abiding ; and it again prompted him to the investiga- tion of one or two points, with regard to which he had long felt himself floating in uncertainty. Although he had for some years steadily and earnestly enforced the necessity of divine influence in the transformation of character, and in persever- ance in a course of consistent, holy obedience, yet he spoke of it as " the influence of the spirit of God," and never in express terms as " the influence of the Holy Spirit." The reason 1/ was, that though he fully believed the necessity of spiritual agency in commencing and continuing the spiritual life, he doubted the doctrine of the distinct personality of the Holy Spirit. But about this time he was struck with the fact that, D 34 MEMOm OF ROBERT HALL. whenever in private prayer he was in the most deeply devo- tional frame, "most overwhelmed with the sense that he was " nothing, and God was all in all," he always felt himself in- clined to adopt a trinitarian doxology. This circumstance, occurring frequently, and more frequently meditated upon in a tone of honest and anxious inquiry, issued at length in a persuasion that the Holy Spirit is really and truly God, and not an emanation. It was not, however, until 1800 that he publicly included the personality of the Holy Spirit in his statements of the doctrine of spiritual influence. In attempting to give some idea of the general character and style of Mr. Hall's public services, while I had the privi- lege of hearing him at Cambridge, I feel that I shall neither adequately describe what his preaching really was, nor even do justice to my own conceptions of it. His manner of reading the Scriptures at the beginning of the service was not generally interesting ; nor did the portion read alw::ys bear an obvious reference to the text or subject afterwards brought forward. But when passages of Scripture were quoted in the sermon, they were so delivered as to give to their true meaning the most intelligible prominence and force. — His prayers were remarkable for their simplicity and their devotional feeling. No person could listen to them without being persuaded that he who uttered them was really engaged in prayer, was holding communion with his God and Father ill Christ Jesus. His tones and his countenance throughout these exercises were those of one most deeply imbued with a sense of his unworthiness, and throwing himself at the feet of the Great Eternal, conscious that he could present no claim for a single blessing but the blood of atonement, yet animated by the cheering hope that the voice of that blood would pre- vail. The structure of these prayers never indicated any HIS DELIVEKY. 35 preconceived plan. They were the general effusions of a truly devotional spirit, animated by a vivid recollection of what in his own state, in that of the congregation, of the town and vicinity, needed most ardently to be laid before the Father of Mercies. Thus they were remarkably comprehensive, and furnished a far greater variety on the successive occasions of public worship, than those of any other minister whom I have ever known. The portions which were devoted to interces- sion operated most happily in drawing the affections of his people towards himself; since they showed how completely his Christian sympathy had prepared him to make their respective cases his own. The commencement of his sermons did not excite much expectation in strangers, except they were such as recollected how the mental agitation, produced by diffidence, charac- terised the first sentences of some of the orators of antiquity. He began with hesitation, and often in a very low and feeble"^ tone, coughing frequently, as though he were oppressed by asthmatic obstructions. As he proceeded his manner became easy, graceful, and at length highly impassioned ; his voice also acquired more flexibility, body, and sweetness, and in all his happier and more successful efforts swelled into a stream of the most touching and impressive melody. The farther he advanced, the more spontaneous, natural, and free from labour seemed the progression of thought. He announced the results of the most extensive reading, of the most patient investigation, or of the profoundest thinking, with such unas- suming simplicity, yet set them in such a position of obvious and lucid reality, that the auditors wondered how things so simple and manifest should have escaped them. Throughout his sermons he kept his subject thoroughly in view, and so incessantly brought forward new arguments, or new illustra- tions, to confirm or to explain it, that with him amplification was almost inyariably accumulative in its tendency One D 2 36 MEMOIE OF BOBEET HALL. thought was succeeded by another, and that by another, and another, each more weighty than the preceding, each more calculated to deepen and render permanent the ultimate im- pression. He could at pleasure adopt the unadorned, the ornamental, or the energetic ; and indeed combine them in every diversity of modulation. In his higher flights, what he said of Burke might, with the slightest deduction, be applied to himself, " that his imperial fancy laid all nature under tri- ^ " bute, and collected riches from every scene of the creation, *' and every walk of art ;" and at the same time, that could be affirmed of Mr. Hall which could not be affirmed of Mr. Burke, that he never fatigued and oppressed by gaudy and superfluous imagery. Whenever the subject obviously justified it, he would yield the reins to an eloquence more diffusive and magnificent than the ordinary course of pulpit instruction seemed to require: yet so exquisite was his perception of beauty, and so sound his judgment, that not the coldest taste, provided it were real taste, could ever wish an image omitted which Mr. Hall had introduced. His inexhaustible variety __ augmented the general effect. The same images, the same illustrations, scarcely ever recurred. So ample were his stores, that repetition of every kind was usually avoided; while in his illustrations he would connect and contrast what was disjointed and opposed, or distinctly unfold what was ab- stracted or obscure, in such terms as were generally intelli- gible, not only to the well-informed but to the meanest capa- city. As he advanced to his practical applications all his mental powers were shown in the most palpable but finely- balanced exercise. His mind would, if I may so speak, collect itself and come forth with a luminous activity, proving as he advanced, how vast, and, in some important senses, how next to irresistible those powers were. In such seasons his preach- ing communicated universal animation : his congregation would seem to partake of his spirit, to think and feel as he did, HIS AUDIENCE. 37 to be fully inHuenced by the presence of the objects which he had placed before them, fully actuated by the motives which he had enforced with such energy and pathos. All was doubtless heightened by his singular rapidity of utterance, — by the rhythmical structure of his sentences, cal- culated at once for the transmission of the most momentous truths, for the powers of his voice, and for the convenience of breathing freely at measured intervals, — and more than all, by tlie unequivocal earnestness and sincerity which pervaded the whole, and by the eloquence of his most speaking countenance and penetrating eye. In his sublimer strains, not only was every fiiculty of the soul enkindled and in entire operation, but l^is very features seemed fully to sympathise with the spirit, and to give out, nay, to throw out, thought, and senti- ment, and feeling. From the commencement of his discourse an almost breath- less silence prevailed, deeply impressive and solemnizing from"^ its singular intenseness. Not a sound was heard but that of the preacher's voice — scarcely an eye but was fixed upon him | — not a countenance that he did not watch, and read, and interpret, as he surveyed them again and again with his rapid, ^ ever-excursive glance. As he advanced and increased in animation, five or six of the auditors would be seen to rise and f lean forward over the front of their pews, still keeping their, eyes upon him. Some new or striking sentiment or expres-' sion would, in a few minutes, cause others to rise in like\ manner : shortly afterwards still more, and so on, until, long before the close of the sermon, it often happened that a con- siderable portion of the congregation were seen standing, — i every eye directed to the preacher, yet now and then for a moment glancing from one to the other, thus transmitting and reciprocating thought and feeling : — Mr. Hall himself, though manifestly absorbed in his subject, conscious of the whole, receiving new animation from what he thus witnessed, reflect- 38 MEMOIR OF EOBEPcT HALL. ing it back upon those who were already alive to the inspira- ) tion, until all that were susceptible of thought and emotion seemed wound up to the utmost limit of elevation on earthy — when he would close, and they reluctantly and slowly resume their seats. It would be highly instructive and gratifying to know by what process so finished a preacher, so exquisite and tasteful a writer, as Mr. Hall, prepared his respective compositions for the pulpit and the press. But the reluctance with which he spoke either of himself or of his occupations deprives us of much of this desirable information. At the time when our inter- course was most frequent and unrestrained, I have often been with him while he was preparing for the pulpit, and have occa- sionally ventured to ask him a few questions ; his answers, al- ways frank and elucidatory, however concise, enabled me, by means also of frequent reference to his notes on different ser- mons which I had heard delivered, to form tolerably satisfactory conjectures as to the course pursued. He then stated, as he sincf Has to different friends, that he never proceeded even to think of adopting a specific text, as fitted for a sermon, until -^ the matter it presented stood out in the form of a particular, distinct, and precise topic ; he could then take it up and lay it down as he pleased. He possessed an extraordinary power of abstraction. By its means he could, at pleasure, insulate, ^ nay, in a manner enclose himself, from every thing around him ; and thus pursue his mental operations. It was usual with him to have five or six subjects under simultaneous training ; to either of which he could direct his attention as inclination or necessity required. The grand divisions of 'thought, the heads of a sermon, for example, he would trace out with the most prominent lines of demarcation ; and these for some years supplied all the hints that he neexled to the pulpit, except on extraordinary occasions. To these grand divisions he referred, and upon them suspended all the COMPOSITION. 39 subordinate trains of thought. The latter, again, ap[)ear to have been of two classes, altogether distinct; outline trains of thought, and trains into which much of the detail was interwoven. In the outline train, the whole plan was carried out and completed as to the argument : in that of detail, the illustrations, images, and subordinate proofs were selected and classified ; and in those instances wiiere the force of an argument, or the probable success of a general appli- cation, would mainly depend upon the language, even that was selected and appropriated, sometimes to the precise collo- cation of the words. Of some sermons, no portions whatever* were wrought out thus minutely ; the language employed in preaching being that which spontaneously occurred at the time : of others, this minute attention was paid to the verbal- structure of nearly half: o^ afeiv, the entire train of prepa- ration, almost from the beginning to the end, extended to the ▼ery sentences. Yet the marked peculiarity consisted in this, that the process, even when thus directed to minutiae in his more elaborate efforts, did not require the use of the pen ; at least at the time to which these remarks principally apply. For Mr. Hall had a singular faculty for continuous mental composition, apart from the aid which writing supplies. Words were so disciplined to his use, that the more he thought on any subject, the more closely were the topics of thought associated with appropriate tenns and phrases ; and it was manifest that he had carefully disciplined his mind to this as an independent exercise, probably to avoid the pain and fa- tigue which always attended the process of writing. When- ever he pleased he could thus pursue the consecution to a great extent, in sentences, many of them perfectly formed and elaborately finished, as he went along, and easily called up again by memory, as occasion required ; not, however, in their separate character, as elements of language, but because of their being fully worked into the substance of thought. 10 MEMOIE OF BOBEET HALL. It hence happened that the excellence which other persons often attain as to style, from the use of the pen, in written, visible composition (employing the eye upon words, instead of fixing the memory upon substantial mental product, and, it may be, diminishing the intellectual power by substituting for one of its faculties a mechanical result), he more successfully and uniformly attained by a purely meditative process. In preparing for the press the process was in many respects essentially different. There was, from the outset, a struggle to overcome the reluctance to write, arising from the antici- pation of increased pain, which he knew must be endured so long as he was engaged in the mechanical act ; and at every return to the labour he had a new reluctance to surmount. There was, moreover, the constant eifort to restrain a mind naturally active, ardent, and rapid in all its movements, to a slow progression ; nay, a farther effort, and to a mind so con- stituted a very irksome one, to bring the thoughts back from the ultimate issue to which they were incessantly hastening, and cause them to pass and repass, again and again, by a comparatively sluggish course, the successive links in a long chain. Nor was this all. He had formed for himself, as a writer, an ideal standard of excellence, which could not be reached : his perception of beauty in composition was so delicate and refined, that in regard to his own productions it engendered perhaps a fastidious taste ; and, deep and pre- vailing as M^as his humility, he was not insensible to the value of a high reputation, and therefore cautiously guarded against the risk of diminishing his usefulness among certain classes of readers, by consigning any production to the world that had not been thoroughly subjected to the labor limce. Hence the extreme slowness with which he composed for the press ; writing, improving, rejecting the improvement ; seeking another ; rejecting it ; recasting whole sentences and pages ; often recurring precisely to the original phraseology ; and SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. 41 Still oftener repenting, when it was too late, that he had not done so. All this he lamented as a serious defect, declaring that it gave, in his own view, to his written compositions an air of stiffness and formality, which deprived him of all com- placency in them. And I cannot but think that, notwith- standing the exquisite harmony and beauty which characterize every thing that he has published, they were, even in point of felicity of diction, and the majestic current and force of language, inferior to the " winged words" that escaped from his lips, when " his soul was enlarged" in the discharge of ministerial duty. In the beginning of the year 1799, Mr. Hall had the happiness of renewing personal intercourse with his early friend. Mr. (afterwards Sir James) Mackintosh, being about to deliver a course of Lectures on the Law of Nature and Nations, in Lincoln's Inn Hall, deemed it expedient, for the completion of some of the extensive researches which that important undertaking required, to reside for a few months at Cambridge, that he might consult the more valuable of the college libraries, as well as the public library belonging to the University generally. Another distinguished individual, the late Dr. Samuel Parr, spent several weeks at Cambridge at the same time, for the purpose of visiting some of his old friends, of associating with Mr. Mackintosh, and of becoming personally acquainted with Mr. Hall, whose character he had long known and highly valued. Mr. Hall, pleased to refresh his spirits in the society of his beloved fellow-student, and by no means unwilling to glean something from the stores of so profound a scholar as Dr. Parr, often spent his evenings with these two eminent men, and a few members of the University, who were invited to their select parties, and with whom, from tliat time, he cultivated an intimacy. This circumstance led to the formation of Mr. Hall's most inveterate habit — that of smoking. Previously to this period 42 MEMOm OF EGBERT HALL. he had always censured the practice in the strongest terms ; but, on associating with Dr. Parr, his aversion to what he used to denominate " an odious custom " soon passed away. The Doctor was always enveloped in a dense cloud of smoke, from sunrise until midnight ; and no person could remain in his company long without great inconvenience, unless he learnt to smoke in self-defence. Mr. Hall, therefore, made the attempt, and quickly overcame every obstacle. I well recollect entering his apartment just as he had acquired this happy art ; and, seeing him sit at ease, the smoke rising above his head in lurid, spiral volumes, he inhaling and apparently enjoying its fragrance, I could not suppress my astonishment. " O sir (said he), I am only qualifying my- "self for the society of a Doctor of Divinity; and this " (holding up the pipe) is my test of admission." Mr. Hall's Cambridge friends were divided in their feelings and wishes with regard to this new practice. The majority approved it, from a belief that the narcotic influence of tobacco would mitigate the pain which he had so long en- dured. Others, apprehending that his habit of converting every thing into a source of enjoyment would transform him into an unremitting smoker, and that injury to his health would ensue, ventured to expostulate with him. I belonged to the latter class, and put into his hands Dr. Adam Clarke's pamphlet on * The Use and Abuse of Tobacco,' with a request that he would read it. In a few days he returned it, and at once, as if to preclude discussion, said, " Thank you, *' sir, for Adam Clarke's pamphlet. I can't refute his argu- " ments, and I can't give up smoking." We now approach the time when Mr. Hall acquired a signal extension of celebrity. Many who had hailed the French Revolution of 1789 as an event productive of exten- sive benefit were compelled to admit, after a few years, that the great leaders in that Revolution, and still more their INFIDELITY. 43 followers, committed grievous blunders, and grosser crimes, from the want of higher than political principles to control their actions. Yet, in the false security which some felt, and others insidiously aimed to inspire, it was suspected by but few, that much of our periodical literature had, under the plea of encouraging free discussion, become irreligious in its tendency, and that various unprincipled demagogues in London and the large manufacturing towns not only held up to admi- ration the conduct of the detestable actors in " the Reign of Terror," but were constantly exerting themselves to dissemi- nate democracy and atheism conjointly. Such, however, was the fact. From 1795 to 1799, debating rooms were opened in various parts of the metropolis, in which the most barefaced infidelity was taught, and to which the lower classes were invited, often on Sunday evenings, by a variety of specious allurements. Mr. Hall was no sooner aware of the existence of these sources of evil, and of the mischief they produced, than he began to use the voice of warning, in his private intercourse among his people, and to impress upon such of the young as he feared had received a sceptical bias, that of all fanaticism the fanaticism of infidelity then prevalent was at once the most preposterous and the most destructive. Mr. Hall's persuasion of the continuance and growth of this infidel spirit induced him to preach and publish his celebrated sermon on * Modern Infidelity ;' which was not therefore, as many aflfirmed, a hasty production, written under excited feelings and false alarms, but the deliberate result of a confirmed belief, that the most strenuous efforts were required to repel mischief so awfully and insidiously diffused. Before the publication of this sermon, its author had fully " counted the cost" as to the obloquy which it would bring uiK)n him from various quarters ; but he did not at all antici- pate its extraordinary success, and the corresponding extension of his reputation. As repeated editions were called for, he 44 MEMOm OF EOBEET HALL. yielded his assent with great hesitation, from a fear that the copies would remain unsold ; and he was the last to see, what every one else perceived, that it had carried his celebrity as a profound thinker and eloquent writer far beyond the limits of the denomination to which he was so bright an ornament. From that time Mr. Hall's reputation was placed upon an eminence which it will probably retain so long as purity and elevation of style, deeply philosophical views of the springs and motives of action, and correct theological sentiments, are duly appreciated in the world. Many of the members of the University of Cambridge, including not merely under-graduates, but college fellows \ and tutors, were often seen at the Baptist place of worship. These sometimes amounted to fifty or sixty ; and a few of them attended so constantly upon the afternoon services, that they became almost regarded as regular hearers. Among the latter, some have since become distinguished men, and occupy important stations either in the church or in the public service, as statesmen or senators. The attendance of so many university students upon the services of a dissenting minister, at length began to excite alarm among the " Heads of Houses ;" of whom a meeting was summoned to consider the expediency of interposing some authoritative measure to prevent this irregularity. But Dr. Mansel, then master of the largest college, Trinity, and after- wards Bishop of Bristol, " declared that he could not be a " party in such a measure : he admired and revered Mr. Hall, " both for his talents and for his genuine liberality ; he had " ascertained that his preaching was not that of a partisan, but " of an enlightened minister of Christ ; and that therefore if he " were not the Master of Trinity he should certainly often at- '' tend himself; and that even now he had experienced a severe " struggle before he could make up his mind to relinquish so '' great a benefit." Shortly after this he personally thanked WAE. 45 Mr. Hall, not only for his sermon, but for his general efforts in the Christian cause ; and, through the medium of a com- mon friend, endeavoured to induce him to enter the Established Church. This, I believe, was the only direct attempt to per- suade Mr. Hall to conform. In little more than two years after the publication of the sermon on Modern Infidelity, Mr. Hall again appeared before the public as an author. The transient peace of Amiens was celebrated by a general thanksgiving throughout England on the 1st of June, 1802. In the sermon preached by Mr. Hall on that occasion, he endeavoured first to awaken the gratitude of his auditors by a most touching picture of the horrors of war, from which Europe had just escaped ; and then to apply the gratitude so excited to acts of benevolence. The nation had scarcely tasted the blessings of peace, when a dispute on one of the articles of the treaty of Amiens in- volved us in a fresh war with the French. Bonaparte, then First Consul, aware of the British ascendancy at sea, resolved first to attack our continental dominions. He also seized on the persons and property of the numerous English who had visited France during the brief interval of peace, detaining them as prisoners of war; and then menaced this country with invasion. So strange, and in some respects so atrocious, a commencement of hostilities, had a singular effect in melting down dissension, and diffusing i spirit of almost unexampled unanimity among all classes and ranks of the community. To adopt Mr. Hall's emphatic language : " It was a struggle " for existence, not for empire. It must surely be regarded ' as a happy circumstance that the contest did not take this •' shape at an earlier period, while many were deceived by " certain specious pretences of liberty into a favourable opinion " of our enemy's designs. The popular delusion had passed ; *' the most unexampled prodigies of guilt had dispelled it; " and, after a series of rapine and cruelty, had torn from 46 MEMOIR OF EOBEET HALL. *' every heart the last fibres of mistahen partiality. ^^* At this momentous period Mr. Hall's love of his country was again signally evinced. On the fast-day, 19th October, 1803, he preached at Bristol, where he was then on a visit, a sermon afterwards published—' The Sentiments proper to the Present Crisis,' which had the happiest effect in enkindling the flame of generous, active patriotism. This sermon perhaps excited more general admiration than any of the author's former pro- ductions ; on account of its masterly exposure of prevailing errors, its original and philosophical defence of some mo- mentous truths, and its remarkable appropriateness to the exigencies of the crisis. The last ten pages were thought by many (and by Mr. Pitt among the number) to be fully equal in genuine eloquence to any passage of the same length that can be selected from either ancient or modern orators. During the early months of the year 1803 the pain in Mr. Hall's back increased, both in intenseness and continuity, de- priving him almost always of refreshing sleep, and depressing his spirits to an unusual degree. On one of his visits to Ket- tering, and its neighbourhood, he consulted Dr. Kerr, of Northampton, who recommended him to reside a few miles from Cambridge, and to have recourse to horse exercise. In consequence of this advice, he took a house at Shelford, a village about five miles from Cambridge ; and the frequent and short journeys on horseback which thus became necessary for a season, seemed beneficial. Yet the advantage was not of long continuance. He missed his delightful evenings spent in the society of the intelligent classes of the congregation (of whom there was a much higher proportion than in most con- gregations), and he missed still more the simple, heart-re- freshing remarks of the poor of his flock, whose pious con- verse had always been peculiarly soothing to his mind. It is true he there enjoyed intercourse with two excellent men, * See pp. 366, 367. AFFLICTION. 47 both of whom he cordially esteemed, Mr. James Nutter, a ^ valuable member of his church at Cambridge, and the Rev. Thomas Thomason, afterwards one of the East India Com- pany's chaplains at Calcutta. Gratifying, however, as this intercourse was, both to Mr. Hall and his valued neighbours, it still left him too much alone, and too much exposed to all the morbid influences of a disordered body, and of a mind overstrained. Often has he been known to sit close at his reading, or yet more intensely engaged in abstract thought, for more than twelve hours in the day ; so that, when one or both of his kind friends have called upon him, in the hope of drawing him from his solitude, they have found him in such a state of nervous excitement as led them to unite their eftbrts in persuading him to take some mild narcotic, and retire to rest. The painful result may be anticipated. This noble mind lost its equilibrium ; and he who had so long been the theme of universal admiration, now became the subject of as extensive a sympathy. This event occurred in November, 1804. Mr. Hall was placed under the care of Dr. Arnold, of Leicester, whose attention, with the blessing of God, in about two months, restored him both to mental and bodily^ health. During this afflictive suspension of his pastoral duties, his church and congregation gave the most unequivocal proofs that they had caught somewhat of his generous and exalted spirit, and that they were desirous to conduce to liis welfare in temporal things, in acknowledgment of the spiritual bless- ings he had been tiie means of conveying to them. They set on foot a subscription, to which themselves contributed most liberally, and which, by the aid of other friends, became suffi- cient to produce, besides a life-annuity of one hundred pounds, a further sum nearly equal, vested in government securities, the latter to be at his own disposal at death : each sum being properly vested in trustees. 48 MEMOm OF EOBEET HALL. In April, 1805, he resumed his ministerial functions at Cambridge : but, it being deemed inexpedient for him to re- occupy his house at Shelford, he engaged another at Foul- mire, about nine miles from Cambridge. This spot, doubt- less, was unwisely selected ; as his opportunities of social in- tercourse with old and intimate friends were almost entirely cut off, and he was thus left to feed more upon his own thoughts than in any preceding part of his life. Here the evils resulting from solitude, and a return of his old pain with more than its usual severity, ere long^ began to show them- selves. Sleepless nights, habitual exclusion from society, a complete self-absorption, and the incessant struggle between what was due to a church and congregation which had given such signal proofs of affection for him, and what he felt to be necessary for his own preservation, a speedy removal from air and scenery that more and more impaired his health and oppressed his spirits ; these, at about twelve months after his former attack at Shelford, produced a recurrence of the same malady, which again laid him aside from public duty. He soon, however, recovered the complete balance of his mental powers, under the judicious care of the late Dr. Cox, of Fish Ponds, near Bristol. It was regarded as essential to the permanent possession of mental health and vigour, that he should resign the pastoral office at Cambridge ; that he should, for a year at least, seek retirement in a spot selected and cordially approved by himself, abstain from preaching, and, as far as possible, avoid all strong excitement. Thus termi- nated a connexion which had subsisted for fifteen years, and had been of great benefit to Mr. Hall's character ; while, by the Divine blessing upon his labours, it had transformed a society that was rapidly sinking under the influence of cold or disputatious speculators, into a flourishing church and congregation, " bringing forth the fruits of righteousness," and shining in the lustre of a consistent Christian profession. HIS STATE OF MIND. 49 It is pleasing to remark that the attachment on both sides remained undiminished until Mr. Hall's death. Two visitations of so humiliating a calamity within the compass of a year deeply affected Mr. Hall's mind. Happily, however, for himself and for the world, his spirits soon reco- vered their wonted tone ; and the permanent impression on his character was exclusively religious. His own decided persuasion was that, however vivid his convictions of religious truth, and of the necessity of a consistent course of evan gelical obedience had formerly been, and however correct his doctrinal sentiments during the last four or five years, yet that he did not undergo a thorough transformation of charac- ter, a complete renewal of his heart and affections, until the first of these seizures. Be this as it may (and the wonderful revelations of " the great day" can alone remove the doubt), there can be no question that from this period he seemed more to live under the prevailing recollection of his entire depen- dence upon God, that his habits were more devotional than they had ever before been, his exercises more fervent and more elevated. In a letter written to his friend, Mr. Phillips, of Clapham, after his recovery, he thus adverts to his afflictions : ** I cannot look back upon the events which have befallen me, with- out admiration and gratitude. I am a monument of the goodness and of the severity of God. My sufferings have been extreme, and the kind- ness of God, in interposing in my behalf, unspeakable. Pray for me, my dear friend, that I may retain an indelible sense of the mercies received, and that the inconceivable afflictions I have undergone may * work for me the peaceable fruits of righteousness.' I am often afraid lest it should be with me as with the ancient Israelites, who, after they had sung the praises of God, ' soon forgot his works.' O ! that a life so signally redeemed from destruction may be as signally employed in tliat which is alone the true end of life, the service of God. But my heart is * like a deceitful bow,' continually prone to turn aside ; so that nothing but the powerful impulse of divine grace can fix it in a right aim." At this time, I believe, Mr. Hall, under the persuasion to £ 50 MEMOIR OF ROBERT HALL. which I have just alluded, made a solemn dedication of him- self to God, renewing the act annually on the recurrence of his birthday. One of these touching and impressive records, which has been found among his papers, will, I feel assured, be read with deep interest. " An Act op solemn Dedication of myself to God. " Lord, thou that searchest the heart, and triest the reins of the children of men, be thou the witness of what I am now about, in the strength of thy grace, to attempt ; that grace I humbly and earnestly implore, to give validity and effect to that act of solemn engagement of myself to thy service, on which I am about to enter. ' Thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are none of them hid from thee.' * I was born in sin, and in iniquity did my mother conceive me.' I am an apostate, guilty branch of an apostate, guilty root, and my life has been a series of rebellions and transgressions, in which I have walked * according to the course of this world ; according to the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now ivorketh in the children of disobedience.^ How shall I confess my transgressions before thee ; what numbers can reach, what words can adequately express them ! ' My iniquities have increased over my head, and my transgressions have grown up unto Heaven.^ Lord, I esteem it a wonder- ful mercy that I have not long since been cut off in the midst of my sins, and been sent to hell before I had an opportunity or a heart to repent. Being assured from the word of God of thy gracious and merciful nature, and of thy willingness to pardon and accept penitent believing sinners on the ground of the blood and righteousness of thine own adorable Son, * who died, the just for the unjust, to bring them to God,' and that * him that cometh to him he will in nowise cast out,' I do most humbly prostrate myself at the footstool of his cross, and through him enter into thy covenant. I disclaim all right ACT OF DEDICATION 51 to myself from henceforth, to my soul, my body, my time, my health, my reputation, my talents, or anything that belongs to me. I confess myself to be the property of the glorious Redeemer, as one whom I humbly hope he has redeemed by his blood to be part of ' the first fruits of his creatures/ " I do most cheerfully and cordially receive him in all his offices, as my Priest, my Prophet, and my King. I dedicate myself to him, to serve, love, and trust in him as my life and my salvation to my life's end. " I renounce the Devil and all his works, the flesh, and the world, with heartfelt regret that I should have been enslaved by them so long. I do solemnly and deliberately take thee to be my full and satisfying good, and eternal portion in and through thine adorable Son the Redeemer, and by the assist- ance of the blessed Spirit of all grace, the third person in the triune God, whom I take to be my Sanctifier and Comforter to the end of time, and through a happy eternity, praying that the Holy Spirit may deign to take perpetual possession of my heart and fix his abode there. " I do most solemnly devote and give up myself to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, agreeably to ^e terms of the Gospel covenant, and in humble expectation of the blessings it ascertains to sincere believers. I call thee to wit- ness, O God ! the truth and reality of this surrender of all I have, and all I am, to thee ; and conscious of the upspeakable deceitfulness of my heart, I humbly and earnestly implore the influence of thy Spirit to enable me to stand steadfast in this covenant, as well as an interest in the blood of the Son, that I may be forgiven in those instances (alas ! that such an idea should be possible) in which I may in any degiee swerve from it. '*Done this [2d] day of May, 1809, seven o'clock in the evening, Leicester. " Rubert Hall." £2 52 MEMOIR OF ROBERT HALL. Mr. Hall, on his removal from Dr. Cox's, spent some months among his relatives and friends in Leicestershire. At Arnsby he retraced the scenes of his youth, often visited the grave-yard, which would naturally awaken many interesting recollections of his early life, and on these occasions he has more than once been seen kneeling at his father's grave en- gaged in earnest prayer. He afterwards resided for a time at Enderby, a pleasant and sequestered village, five miles -^from Leicester, where, by the united influence of calm retire- ment and gentle spontaneous occupation, he gradually re- gained his bodily health, with great mental tranquillity, and a renewed capacity for usefulness in the church. His friends. Dr. Ryland and Mr. Fuller, persuaded of the benefits that would flow from drawing his attention to a specific object, requested him to investigate the critical peculiarities of some difficult texts in the New Testament, respecting which Dr. Marshman had asked the opinion of his friends in England. This judicious application directed his thoughts to some of his old and favourite inquiries, and produced the most salutary effects. From this he passed to other literary occupations, thence to closer biblical study; and, in due time, when his strength and self-possession were adequately restored to permit the exertion without injury, he returned to the delightful work of " proclaiming the good " tidings of peace." He first .preached in some of the villages around him ; and then, occasionally, to a small congregation assembling at a chapel in Harvey Lane, Leicester, which had several years before been under the care of that eminent man, Dr. Carey, late of Serampore. The congregation had been diminishing for some years, and at this time did not exceed two hundred and fifty ; the church consisted of seventy-six members. After having preached to them a few months, he accepted an invitation to become their stated pastor ; and his ministerial AT LEICE5TEK. 53 labours were soon followed by tokens of good. " The people," said he, in a letter to Dr. Ryland, "are a simple-hearted, " affectionate, praying people, to whom I preach with more " pleasure than to the more refined audience at Cambridge. " AVe have had, through mercy, some small addition, and *' hope for more. Our meetings in general, our prayer meet- " ings in particular, are well attended." With this church he continued connected nearly twenty years. The church and congregation steadily increased during that long interval, and scarcely any thing of moment occurred to interrupt their internal peace. The place of worship, which, when Mr. Hall first settled there, would not conve- niently hold four hundred persons, was enlarged in 1809 for^ the reception of about eight hundred ; and in 1817 a second enlargement rendered it capable of accommodating a thousand^ persons. In 1826, at the close of Mr. Hall's labours there, the place was comfortably filled, and the members of the church, besides those who it is believed had gone to their eternal reward, amounted to nearly three hundred. More than a hundred of those who constituted the evening congre- gation were pious members of the church of England. In the autumn of 1 807 Mr. Hall removed from Enderby to a house in Leicester, which he engaged partly that he might more conveniently associate with the people of his charge, and partly in anticipation of liis marriage, which took place in March, 1808. This event gave great and sincere satisfaction to his old and intimate friends, most of whom had long regretted that one so evidently formed for domestic enjoyments should for so many years have lived without attaining them; and had no doubt, indeed, that an earlier marriage would, by checking his propensity to incessant retirement and mental abstraction, have preserved him from the heavy afiflictions which had befallen him. Mr. Hall's residence at Leicester was not only of longer 54 MEMOIR OF EOBEKT HALT,. continuance than at any other place, but I doubt not that it was the period in which he was most happy, active, and useful. His domestic comfort at once contributed to a more uniform flow of spirits than he had for some time experienced, and greatly to the regularity of his habits. The increase both of attentive hearers, and of the number among them who were admitted to church-fellowship, supplied constant reason for encouragement and thankfulness. Placed in the midst of an extensive sphere of benevolent and sacred influence, Mr. Hall was soon roused to a measure of activity and a diversity of employment to which he had hitherto been a stranger. The Bible Society at Leicester, Missionary Societies there and all around, asked and received his aid ; and these, with the different public services of fre- quent occurrence among orthodox dissenters, gave occasion to the happiest exercise of his varied powers. Nor were these efforts, and this high estimate of their value, confined to the field of activity he thus occupied. He had, on quitting Bristol in 1791, consented to spend a few weeks with his friends there, every two years. He had also made a similar arrangement for visiting Cambridge, where the mem- bers of his former congregation had peculiar claims upon him. Although his invariable dread of notoriety, and his dislike of the bustle of the metropolis, caused his visits there to be " few and far between," yet they occurred sufficiently often to excite almost universally the highest admiration of his singular qualities as a preacher, and to convince many who previously had contemplated the evangelical system of religion with great disrelish, that it was the only foundation of elevated morality, and that its cordial adoption was not necessarily repugnant to genius, learning, and intellectual cultivation. ' Wherever he went, he was called to address overflowing '^ congregations, and commonly of a remarkably mixed charac- ter. Churchmen and dissenters ; men of rank and influence, ■WEITINGS. 55 individuals in lower stations ; men of simple piety, and others ^ of deep theological knowledge ; men who admired Christi-, anity as a beautiful system, and those who received it into the - heart by faith ; men in doubt, others involved in unbelief : — all resorted to the place where he was announced as the preacher. Mr. Hall's writings during his residence at Leicester, though by no means numerous, tended greatly to augment his influence upon society. The first of these was published anonymously in the Eclectic Review, but left no room for hesitation as to its author. It was a critique upon a pamphlet entitled ' Zeal without Inno- vation,' which he undertook at the earnest entreaty of the late Mr. Robinson, of Leicester, " who, in common with all '* the serious clergy in those parts, disapproved the pamphlet " highly." It may suffice for me to remark with regard to this critique, that while it places the controversy between the puritans and their opponents in a flood of light, and exhibits the essential importance of religious liberty to the growth, if not in some cases to the existence, of genuine, devotional Christianity ; it presents a more admirable picture of the cliaracter of the Evangelical Clergy, a more powerful, liberal, and successful defence of their object and conduct, than has been, as yet, accomplished by any other person. The value set by the public upon this disquisition was evinced in the rapid sale of three editions, in a separate pamphlet, independently of its circulation in the Review. Of the sermons published by Mr. Hall during his residence at Leicester, the first was preached in behalf of the Sunday School connected with his own congregation, and appeared under the title of * The Advantages of Knowledge to the Lower Classes.' The two next sermons are of a mucli higher order. One of them, on ' The Discouragements and Supports of the Chris- 56 MEMOIR OF ROBERT HALL. tian Minister,' was addressed to the Rev. James Robertson, on his ordination over the Independent Church at Stretton, Warwickshire ; the other, which portrays the duties, dis- couragements, and support ' of the Christian Missionary,' was addressed to the Rev. Eustace Carey, on his designation as a missionary to India. The sudden and untimely death of the Princess Charlotte of Wales was an event calculated to make the deepest impres- sion upon a mind constituted like Mr. Hall's. He preached three sermons on the occasion, of which many of the auditors affirm, the one published was by no means the best. It, how- ever, by universal acknowledgment, bore the palm above all the numerous valuable sermons that were then published. Besides the various sermons and reviews which he wrote and published during his residence at Leicester, he composed for circulation among the associated Baptist churches in the counties of Northampton, Leicester, and Warwick, two tracts on the Work of the Holy Spirit, and on Hearing the Word ; both deeply imbued with simple evangelical truth, and rich in excellent practical remarks, fitted for the beneficial perusal of all classes. There were also other compositions which he executed with singular felicity. I mean, his biographical sketches. They are, except the rapid but exquisite sketches of Brainerd, Fletcher of Madeley, and Henry Marty n, the delineations of a friend; and, perhaps, in a few particulars, need a slight allowance for the high colouring to which the warmth of friendship tempts us when meditating upon de- parted excellence ; yet they are, on the whole, exact in the resemblance, and finely exemplify the author's varied powers, especially his delicate and accurate discrimination of the de- grees and shades of human character. For several years, about this time, Mr. Hall's thoughts were greatly occupied upon the subject of " Terms of Com- munion." His first publication in reference to it appeared in COMMUNION. 57 1815 : but they who were admitted to his intimacy, will recollect how often, three or four years before its appearance, he advocated a cautious revision of the practice of nearly all churches ; and how successfully he refuted the arguments of those who favoured any narrow system of exclusion. Of the different writers who opposed Mr. Hall on this occasion, Mr. Kinghorn was unquestionably the most acute and learned. His volume should be read, in connexion with Mr. Hall's, by such as wish to view the question in all its bearings. Mr. Hall's part of the controversy is conducted with his characteristic frankness and decision ; and evinces the same clearness, copi- ousness, strength, and majesty of diction, as he uniformly displayed upon every subject to which he bent his mind with all its power. About the same time, or somewhat earlier, he announced his opinion of the disadvantage arising from the presence of others besides the communicants on sacramental occasions. In a short address he explained the customs of the early Christians with regard to the Lord's Supper, and showed that the admission of spectators, who were not members of the church, during the celebration, was comparatively a modern innovation. He pointed out the inconclusiveness of the ordinary arguments, — that spectators often receive benefit from the addresses of the ministers, and that therefore their exclusion was cutting them off from good, and that such exclusion was an infringement of religious liberty. He also stated that the presence of such spectators deprived him of much comfort during the communion service, and that he should r^ard their keeping away as a personal kindness to himself. His address was received with affectionate respect ; and from that time those who had previously remained to witness the administration discontinued the custom. Some time after the conclusion of his part of the contro- versy on "Terms of Communion," he made an effort to 58 MEMOIR OF EOBEET HALL. persuade the church at Harvey Lane to adopt the practice of " mixed communion ;" but, finding that it would disturb the peace which had so long subsisted in the society, he relin- quished his intention, and recommended the formation of a distinct church on the mixed communion principle, its sacra- mental service being held on the morning of the same sabbath on which the "strict communion" church held its corresponding service in the afternoon. The plan was adopted and followed during Mr. Hall's continuance at Leicester, without causing any interruption of the harmony which prevailed among the different classes of worshippers. In the year 1823, the minister oi a unitarian congregation at Leicester having delivered a series of what are usually denominated " Challenge Lectures," in defence of his own opinions, to hear which individuals of other persuasions were publicly invited, Mr. Hall felt it to be his duty to offer a timely antidote to the evil. He therefore preached twelve lectures on the points at issue, and had the happiness to know that they were serviceable in checking the diffusion of Socinian error. His outline of these lectures, as well as fuller notes of two or three, are inserted in the fifth volume of his works. The death of Dr. Ryland in 1825 led to Mr. Hall's invita- tion to take the pastoral office over the church at Broadmead, Bristol, an office which had been long and honourably sustained by that excellent individual. After some months spent in anxious deliberation, in advising with his friends, and seeking counsel from above, from the dread he felt lest he " should " rush into a sphere of action to which he was not called, and " offend God by deserting his proper post," he at length decided to dissolve his long and happy connexion with the church at Leicester. The day of separation, the last sacra- ment sabbath, March 26th, 1826, was a day of anguish to him and them, of which I shall not attempt the description. Suffice it to say, that he went through the ordinary public MODE OF LIFE. 59 duties of the day with tolerable composure ; but at the sacramental service he strove in vain to conceal his emotion. In one of his addresses to the members of the church, on adverting to the pain of separation, he was so much affected that he sat down, covered his face with his hands, and wept ; they sharing in his distress, gave unequivocal signs of the deepest feeling. Mr. Eustace Carey, who was present, con- tinued the devotional part of the service, until Mr. Hall was sufficiently recovered to proceed. At the close of the solem- nity the weeping became again universal, and they parted '' sorrowing most of all that they should see his face no " more." Mr. Hall was in his sixty-second year when he removed to Bristol, the scene of his first continuous labours, and now to become the scene of his closing ministry. Some of the friends of his early life still survived to welcome his return among them ; and many others who had profited by his pulpit ex- ertions on his periodical visits to Bristol, congratulated them- selves that he to whom, under God, they owed so much, had become their pastor. All things indeed, except his infirm state of health, seemed to conspire in promoting his own happiness as well as the prosperity of the church with which he had again connected himself. The course of his life at home, when not interrupted by visitors, was very uniform. He generally rose and took his breakfast about nine o'clock. Breakfast waa immediately succeeded by family worship. At this exercise he went re- gularly through the Scriptures, reading a portion of the Old Testament in the morning and of the New Testament in the evening. In the prayer that succeeded, he was not in the habit of forming his petitions on the passage of Scripture just read, though the prayer was usually of considerable length, and very minute in its appropriation. He adverted specifically to all the persons belonging to his family, present and absent ; never for- 60 MEMOIR OF ROBERT HALL. got the people of his care ; and dwelt on the distinct cases of members of the Church that were under any kind of trial or affliction. After breakfast and worship, he retired into his study, and uniformly spent some time in devotion, afterward generally reading a portion of the Hebrew Bible. The remainder of the morning until dinner, about three o'clock, was spent in reading some work of learning, or of severe thought. After dinner he generally retired to his study, and, if not in so much pain as to prevent it, slept for some time. On Tuesday evenings are held what are termed " the con- " ferences," in the vestry of the Broadmead chapel : they are meetings ordinarily attended by about two hundred persons, at which two of the students belonging to the Bristol Education Society, or one of the students and the president, speak on a passage of Scripture previously selected for the purpose. Mr. Hall always attended on these occasions, and concluded by speaking for about a quarter of an hour, on the subject of the preceding addresses. He also attended the prayer meetings, in the same place, on Thursday evenings ; except once a month, namely, on the Thursday previous to the administration of the Lord's Supper, when he preached. Periodical private fasts, such as those which he observed at Leicester, he continued to observe at Bristol, making them seasons of extraordinary self-examination, prayer, and re- newed dedication to God. He was not in the habit of keep- ing a regular journal, nor, generally speaking, did he approve of it, from a persuasion that it tempted to an artificial tone of expression which did not accord with the actual state of the heart. But on some solemn occasions he made a short note in one of his memorandum-books, containing hints of texts, &c. Thus: "New-year's-day, January 1st, 1826. I have begun the year ■with a sincere resolution, in the strength of di-vine grace, to devote myself wholly and entirely to God : but, knowing my extreme weakness and DECAY OF HIS HEALTH. 61 corruption, I dare place no dependence whatever on my own resolutions. I have, on many occasions, found them unstable as water. I can only cast myself on the mercy of my God, and cry, with the Psalmist, ' Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe.' O thou most holy and merciful Lord God, I beseech Thee to take up thine abode in my heart, and shape me entirely anew. Amen. Amen." The indications of infirm age now rapidly exhibited them- selves, but happily were unaccompanied by a decaying mind, or a querulous spirit. The language of his conduct, and of his heart, corresponded with that of the pious ancient, " Lord, " give me patience now, and ease hereafter I If tempests *' come, they will not last long, but soon will be hushed into an *' eternal calm." His inability to take exercise, on account of the gradual in- crease of his complaint, gave rise, about six years before his death, to another disorder, formidable in its nature, and fatal in its issue. The indications of a plethoric habit became more and more apparent. The malady, thus produced, becoming more and more severe, Mr. Hall, when in London in 1828, was persuaded by his friends to take the advice of an eminent physician ; from which, however, no permanent good resulted. By the summer of 1830, the disorder had increased so se- riously, that his medical friends at Bristol recommended a suspension of his pastoral duties for a few weeks, that he might try the effect of a total change of air and scene. He therefore spent some time at Coleford, in the forest of Dean, in the society of his old and valued friend, the Rev. Isaiah Birt. He also spent a few weeks at Cheltenham. At both these places he preached with his accustomed talent ; and his general appearance, too clearly indicating that the close of his ministerial labours was at hand, gave a deeper impression to his instructions and exhortations. The last service at Broad mead in which Mr. Hall took any part was the church meeting (when only the members of the church are assembled) on Wednesday the 9th of February. 62 MEMOIR OF ROBERT HALL. His closing prayer, on that occasion, is spoken of as most spi- ritual and elevated, exhibiting, in its highest manifestation, the peculiar union of humility, benevolence, and fervour, by which his devotional exercises had very long been characterised. On the next evening, Thursday, the usual monthly sermon, preparatory to the administration of the Lord's Supper, was to have been delivered ; but Mr. Hall's discharge of this duty was prevented by a severe attack of the complaint in his chest, which came on just after he had retired to his study to prepare for that service. This was the commencement of the series of paroxysms which terminated in his dissolution. From this time the paroxysms increased rapidly both in frequency and severity ; and Mr. Hall, in the intervals be- tween their occurrence, was usually so weak and exhausted as seldom to be able to converse with those around him. His expressions, however, insulated and broken as they often were, proved that he was able fully to exercise that trust in God which is the grand principle of religion, and that.thus trusting in him, his soul was kept in peace. No murmuring, no lan- guage of irritability, escaped from his lips. When he first announced his apprehension that he should never again minister among his people, he immediately added, " But I am in God's hands, and I rejoice that I am. I am " God's creature, at his disposal, for life or death ; and that '* is a great mercy." Again, " I have not one anxious thought, either for life or *' death. What I dread most are dark days. But I have had *' none yet ; and I hope I shall not have any." Again, " I fear pain more than death. If I could die " easily, I think I would rather go than stay ; for I have seen " enough of the world, and I have a humble hope." On another occasion, a friend having said to him, " This " God will be our God ;" he replied, " Yes, he will — he will " be our guide even unto death." LAST ILLNESS. (J3 On recovering from one of his severe paroxysms, he adverted to the affectionate attentions of his beloved wife and daughters, as well as his numerous comforts, and exclaimed, " What a " mercy it is to have so many alleviations ! I might have " been deprived of all these comforts — I might have been in " poverty — I might have been the most abject wretch on the " face of the earth." Mrs. Hall, in the course of the morning on which he died, remarking to him that he appeared better, and expressing her hopes that he would recover, he replied, '^ Ah, my dear, let us i- ** hope for the best, and prepare for the worst." He then stated his opinion that this day would be critical. When his medical attendants met in consultation, a little after noon, he seemed rather better ; and Mr. Chandler left him between one and two, reclining on the sofa, leaning on his elbow with as much muscular energy as ever. •* In a very short time," says this gentleman, " and before I had reached home, I was summoned to behold the last agonizing scene of this great and extraordinary man. His difficulty of breathing had suddenly in- creased to a dreadful and final paroxysm. It seems, this last paroxysm came on more gradually than was usual with those which preceded. Mr. Hall finding his breathing becoming much worse, first rose more on his elbow, then raised his body, supporting himself with his hand, till the increasing agitation obliged him to rise completely on the sofa, and to place his feet in hot water — the usual means he resorted to for relief in every paroxysm. Mrs. Hall, observing a fixation of his eyes, and an unu- sual expression on his countenance, and indeed in his whole manner, became alarmed by the sudden impression that he was dying ; and exclaimed in great agitation, 'This can't be dying!' when he replied, ' It is death — it is death — death ! Oh the sufferings of this body !' Mrs. Hall then ask- ing him, ' But are you comfortable in your mind ?' he immediately answered, • Very comfortable — very comfortable :' and exclaimed, * Come, Lord Jesus — Come.' He then hesitated, as if incapable of bringing out the last word ; and one of his daughters, involuntarily as it were, antici- pated him by saying, * Quickly !' on which her departing father gave her a look expressive of the most complacent delight " On entering his room, I found him sitting on the sofa, surrounded by his lamenting family ; with one foot in the hot water, and the other 64 MEMOm OF KOBEKT HALL. spasmodically grasping the edge of the bath ; his frame waving in violent, almost convulsive heavings, sufficiently indicative of the process of disso- lution. I hastened, though despairingly, to administer such stimulants as might possibly avert the threatening termination of life ; and as I sat by his side for this purpose he threw his arm over my shoulders for sup- port, with a look of evident satisfaction that I was near him. He said to me, ' 1 am dying : death is come at last : all will now be useless.' As I pressea apon him draughts of stimulants, he intimated that he would take them if I wished ; but he believed all was useless. On my asking him if he suffered much, he replied, * Dreadfully.' The rapidly increasing gasping soon overpowered his ability to swallow, or to speak except in monosyllables, few in number, which I could not collect ; but, whatever might be the degree of his suffering (and great it must have been), there was no failure of his mental vigour or composure. Indeed, so perfect was his consciousness, that in the midst of these last agonies, he intimated to me very shortly before the close, with his accustomed courteousness, a fear lest he should fatigue me by his pressure ; and when his family, one after another, gave way in despair, he followed them witk. sympathizing looks, as they were obliged to be conveyed from the room. This was his last voluntary movement ; for immediately a general con- vulsion seized him, and he quickly expired." O how inconceivably blessed is the change, when at the moment of utmost agony the soul enters the regions of endless joy ; passes from the land of the dying to the land of the living ; from the society of saints to the blissful presence of the King of Saints, where knowledge, illumination, purity, and love, flow for ever and ever from the Inexhaustible Foun- tain ! Such is the ineffable reward which awaits all the faith-* ful followers of the Lamb. " Father, I will that they also ^' whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they *' may behold my glory." OBSERVATIONS MR. HALL'S CHARACTER AS A PRP^ACHER. By JOHN FOSTER. OBSERVATIONS ON MR. HALL'S CHARACTER AS A PREACHER. The biographical and literary illustrations of Mr. Hall's character and performances, expected from the highly qua- lified Editor of his works, and from the eminent person who has engaged for a part of that tribute to his memory,* may render any formal attempt in addition liable to be regarded as both superfluous and intrusive ; tlie public, besides, have been extensively and very long in possession of their own means of forming that judgment which has pronounced him the first preacher of the age ; and again, so soon after the removal of such a man, while the sentiments of friendship and admiration are finding their natural expression in the language of unrestrained eulog)^, it is hardly permitted to assume a judicial impartiality. From these considerations it has been with very great reluctance that I have consented, in compliance with the wishes of some of Mr. Hall's friends, to attempt a short description of what he was in the special capacity of a preacher; a subject which must indeed be of chief account in any memorial of him ; but may also admit of being taken in some degree separately from the general view of his life, character, and writings. For more reasons than that it must be one cause, added to others, of an imperfect competence to describe him in that capacity, I have to regret the disadvantage of not having been more than very occasionally, perhaps hardly ten times • These observations were written and transmitted to the publishers a considerable time before the lamented and unexpected decease of Sir James Mackintosh. It is, perhaps, worth mentioning, that the writer had felt it a propriety to abstain from any attempt at a comparison between Mr. Hall and the most celebrated English and French preachers, or ancient and modem orators of other classes ; confidently expecting ^besides beiiij^ conscious of deficient qualifications), that this would be a favourite exercise of Sir James's consuuimate critical judgment. f2 68 MR. HALL'S CHARACTER in all, a hearer of Mr. Hall till within the last few years of his life. It appears to be the opinion of all those attendants on his late ministrations, who had also been his hearers in former times (and, from recollection of the few sermons which I heard many years since, my own impression would be the same), that advancing age, together with the severe and almost continual pressure of pain, had produced a sen- sible effect on his preaching, perceptible in an abatement of the energy and splendour of his eloquence. He was less apt to be excited to that intense ardour of emotion and utterance which so often, animating to the extreme emphasis a train of sentiments impressive by their intrinsic force, had held domi- nion over every faculty of thought and feeling in a large assembly. It is not meant, however, that a considerable degree of this ancient fire did not frequently appear glowing and shining again. Within the course of a moderate number of sermons there would be one or more which brought back the preacher of the times long past, to the view of those who had heard him in those times. I have reason to believe, that this representation of his diminished energy should be nearly limited to a very late period, the period when an increased, but reluctant, use of opiates became absolutely necessary, to enable him to endure the pain which he had suffered throughout his life, and when another obscure malady was gradually working towards a fatal termination. For, at a time not more than seven or eight years since, I heard in close succession several sermons delivered in so ardent an excitement of sentiment and manner as I could not conceive it possible for himself or any other orator to have surpassed. Even so lately as within the last four or five years of his life, the recurrence of something approaching to this was not so unfrequent as to cause his friends the painful feeling (sometimes experienced by the hearers of an excellent minister declining into old age) that he was no longer to be regarded as the preacher that he once had been. There was some compensation for the abatement of this character of force and vehemence, supplied by a certain tone of kindness, a milder pathos, more sensibly expressive of benevolence towards his hearers, than the impetuous, the almost imperious energy, so often predominant when an AS A PREACHKR. 69 undepressed vitality of the physical system was auxiliary to * the utii >st excitement of his mind. Thert seems to be an agreement of opinion that a consider- able decline of the power or the activity of his imagination was evident in the latter part of his life. The felicities of figure and allusion of all kinds, sometimes illustrative by close analogy, often gay and humorous, sometimes splendid, less abounded in his conversation. And in his public discourses there appeared to be a much rarer occurrence of those striking imagt'S in wliich a series of thoughts seemed to take fire in passing on, to end in a still more striking figure, with the effect of an explosion. So that, from persons who would occasionally go to hear him with much the same taste and notions as they would carry to a theatrical or mere oratorical exhibition, and caring little about religious truth and instruc- tion, there might be heard complaints of disappointment, expressed in terms of more than hinted depreciation. They had hardly any other idea of eloquence, even that of the pulpit, than that it must be hrillia7it ; and they certainly might happen to hear, at the late period in question, several of his sermons which had not more than a very moderate sliare of this attraction. But even such persons, if disposed to attend his preaching regularly for a few weeks, miglit have been sure to hear some sermons in which the solidity of thought was finely inspirited with the sparkling quality they were requiring. But whatever reduction his imagination may have suflPered from age, and the oppression of disease and pain, it is on all hands admitted that there was no decline in what he valued far more in both himself and others, and what all, except very young or defectively cultivated persons, and inferior poets, must resrard as the higrhest of mental endowments — the intel- lectual power. His wonderful ability for comprehending and^ reasoning ; his quickness of apprehension, his faculty for analyzing a subject to its elements, for seizing on the essential points, ifor going back to principles and forward to con- sequences, and for bringing out into an intelligible and sometimes very obvious form, what appeared obscure or per- plexed, remained unaltered to the last. This noble intellect thus seen with a diminished lustre of imagination, suggested the idea of a lofty eminence raising its form and summit cleax 70 MR. HALL'S CHARACTER and bare toward the sky, losing nothing of its imposing aspect by absence of the wreaths of tinctured clouds which may have invested it at another season. It is to be observed, that imagination had always been a subordinate faculty in his mental constitution. It was never of that prolific power which threw so vast a profusion over the oratory of Jeremy Taylor or of Burke ; or which could tempt him to revel, for the pure luxury of the indulgence, as they appear to liave sometimes done, in the exuberance of imagina- tive genius. As a preacher, none of those contemporaries who have not seen him in the pulpit, or of his readers in another age, will be . able to conceive an adequate idea of Mr. Hall. His personal appearance was in striking conformity to the struc- ture and temper of his mind. A large-built, robust figure, was in perfect keeping with a countenance formed as if oii purpose for the most declared manifestation of internal power, a power impregnable in its own strength, as in a fortress, and constantly, without an effort, in a state for action.* That countenance was usually of a cool, unmoved mien, at the beginning of the public service ; and sometimes, when he was not greatly excited by his subject, or was repressed by pain, would not acquire a great degree of temporary expres- sion during the whole discourse. At other times it would kindle into an ardent aspect as he went on, and toward the conclusion become lighted up almost into a glare. But, for myself, I doubt whether I was not quite as much arrested by his appearance in the interval while a short part of the service performed without his assistance, immediately before the sermon, allowed him to sit in silence. With his eyes closed, his features as still as in death, and his head sinking down almost on his chest, he presented an image of entire abstrac- tion. For a moment, perhaps, he would seem to wake to a perception of the scene before him, but instantly relapse into tiie same state. It was interesting to imagine the strong * The portrait to accompany the works, highly elaborated, and true to the general form and lineaments, fails to give exactly that stern, in- tense, and somewhat formidable expression, which the painter, Mr. Hranwhite, was very successful in seizing, in spite of circumstances the most unfavourable for obtaining a likeness. Mr. Hall had an insupera- ble aversion to sit for his portrait. AS A PREACHER. 71 internal agency, which it was certain was then employed on the yet unknown subject about to be unfolded to the auditory. His manner of public prayer, considered as an exercise of tliought, was not exactly what would have been expected from a mind constituted like his. A manner so different in that exercise from its operation in all other employments could hardly have been unintentional : but on what principle it was preferred cannot be known or conjectured. It is to the i7itel' lectual consistence and order of his thoughts in public prayer that I am adverting, in uncertainty how far the opinion of others may have been the same ; as to tlie devotional spirit, there could be but one impression. Tliere was the greatest seriousness and simplicity, the plainest character of genuine piety, humble and prostrate before the Almighty. Both solemnity and good taste forbade indulgence in anything showy or elaborately ingenious in such an employment. But there might have been, without an approach to any such im- propriety, and as it always appeared to me, with great advan- tage, what I may venture to call a more thinking performance of the exercise; a series of ideas more reflectively conceived, and more connected and classed in their order. Many of the conceptions were not, individually, presented in tiiat specific expression which conveys one certain thing to the apprehen- sion ; nor were there, generally speaking, those trains of peti- tionary thought, which would strongly fix, and for a while detain, the attention on each distinctly, in the succession of the subjects of devotional interest. No one, I may presume, will be so mistaken as to imagine, that pieces of discussion, formal developments of doctrine, nice casuistical distinctions, like sections of a theological essay, are meant in pleading that it must be of great advantage for engaging attention, exciting interest, and inducing reflection, that instead of a rapidly discursive succession of ideas, the leader of the devotions should often dwell awhile on one and another important topic, and with a number of accumulated sentiments specifically appropriate to each ; in order that its importance, thus exposed and aggravated, may constrain the auditory to reflect how deeply they are concerned in that one subject of petition. Any one pernicious thing deprecated — a spiritual evil, a vice of the heart or life, an easily besetting 72 MR. HALL'S CHARACTER temptation, a perilous delusion into which men are liable tc fall, or a temporal calamity, — and so, on the other hand, any one of the good gifts implored, — might thus be exposed in magnified and palpable importance before the minds of the people. Will it be objected that this would tend to a practice not consistent either with the comprehensiveness of religion, or with the generality of scope requisite to adapt tlie prayer to the aggregate interests of a very mixed assemblage ; that it would be to confine the attention to a few selected particulars of religion, losing the view of its wide compass ; and to reduce the prayer, which should be for all the people collectively re- gurded, to a set of adaptations to certain supposed individual cases, or small classes, singled out in the congregation, to the exclusion, in effect, of the general body ? I may answer that, in perfect safety from shrinking into such specialty and exclu- siveness, the great element of religion may be resolved into particular subjects and adaptations in public prayer. Parti- cular parts of divine truth and Christian morals may come in view as suggesting matter of distinct and somewhat prolonged petition, conceived in terms that shall constantly and closely recognise the condition of the people. A man well exercised in religion, and well acquainted with the states and characters of men, might recount to himself a greater number of such topics than the longest book in the Bible comprises chapters ; and would see that each of them might beneficially be some- what amplified by thoughts naturally arising upon it ; that one of them would be peculiarly appropriate to one portion of the assembly, another of them adapted to several conditions, and some of them commensurate with the interests of all. In one prayer of moderate length he might comprehend a num- ber of tliese distinguishable topics, thus severally kept in view for a few moments ; and, varying them from time to time, he might bring the concerns which are the business of prayer, in parts, and with special effects, before the minds of the people, instead of giving the course of his thoughts every time to the guidance of entirely accidental and miscellaneous suggestion. i might ask, why should sermons be constructed to fix the attention of a mixed congregation on distinct parts of religion, instead of being, each in succession, vaguely discursive over the whole field ? I would not say that the two exercises are AS A PREACHER. 73 under exactly the same law ; but still, is there a propriety, tliat in a discourse for religious instruction some selected topics should stand forth in marked designation, to work one certain effect on the understanding or the feelings, and no propriety that any corresponding principle should be observed in those prayers wliich may be supposed to request, and with much more tlian a passing momentary interest, such things as that instruction would indicate as most important to be obtained? But besides all this, there is no hazard in affirming, that prayers which do not detain the thoughts on any certain things in particular, take very slight hold of the auditors. Things noted so transiently do not admit of a deliberate attention, and seem as if they did not claim it ; the assembly are not made conscious how much they want what is petitioned for ; and at tlie close would be at a loss to recollect any one part as having awaked a strong consciousness that that is what they have themselves in a special manner to pray for when alone. Such observations are, under small limitation, applicable to Mr. Hairs public prayer. The succession of sentences ap- peared almost casual, or in a connexion too slight to hold the hearer's mind distinctly, for a time, to a certain object. A very large proportion of the series consisted of texts of Scripture ; and, as many of these were figurative, often re- quiring, in order to apprehend their plain sense, an act of thought for which there was not time, the mind was led on with a very defective conception of the exact import of much of the phraseology. He did not avail himself of the por- tion of Scripture he had just read, as a guiding suggestion of subjects for the prayer; and very seldom made it bear any particular relation to what was to follow as the subject of the discourse. One could wish that, with the exception of very peculiar cases, personalities, when they must be introduced, should be as brief as possible in public prayer ; especially such as point to individuals who are present, and whose own feelings, one should think, would earnestly deprecate their being made conspicuous objects of the prolonged attention of the congre- gation. Mr. Hall's consideration for individuals standing officially, or brought incidentally, in association with an as- sembly, often led him to a length and particularity in personal 74 MR. HALL'S CHARACTER references, which one could not help regretting, as an en- croachment on the time and more proper concerns of the exercise, and as a sanction lent by an example of such high authority to a practice which leads the thoughts quite away from the interests in common ; tempting the auditors into an impertinence of imagination about the persons so placed in exhibition, their characters, domestic circumstances, and so forth ; with possibly a silent criticism, not much in harmony with devotion, on some flaw of consistency between tlie terms which the speaker is now employing, and those which he maj'^ be heard, or may have been heard, to use in other times and places respecting the same individuals. In the laudatory tone and epithets into which he inevitably glides (for he never adverts to any faults of the persons thus prominently held in view, with prayer for their correction), it is hardly possible for him, while the matter is kept long under ope- ration, to avoid its changing colour, from that of reverence towards God, into that of compliment to a fellow-mortal and fellow-sinner. If there was a defect of concentration, an indeterminate- ness in the direction of thought, in Mr. Hall's public prayers, the reverse was conspicuous in his preaching. He was infe- "^rior to no preacher of any period in the capital excellence oi having a definite purpose, a distinct assignable subject, in each sermon. Sometimes, indeed, as when intruders had robbed him of all his time for study, or when his spirits had been consumed by a prolonged excess of pain, he was reduced to take the licence of discoursing with less detinite scope, on the common subjects of religion. But he was never pleased with any scheme of a sermon in which he could not, at the outset, say exactly what it was he meant to do. He told his friends that he always felt " he could do nothing with " a text or subject till it resolved and shaped itself into a topic of which he could see the form and outline, and which he could take out both from the extensive system of religious truth, and, substantially, from its connexion with the more imme- diately related parts of that system ; at the same time not failing to indicate that connexion, by a few brief clear re- marks to show the consistency and mutual corroboration of the portions thua taken apart for separate discussion. This method insured to him and his hearers the advantage of an AS A PREACHER. 75 ample variety. Some of them remember instances in wliich he preached, with but a short interval, two sermons on what would have appeared, to common apprehension, but one sub- ject, a very limited section of doctrine, or duty ; yet the sermons went on quite different tracks of thought, presenting separate views of the subject, related to each other only by a general consistency. His survey of the extended field of religion was in the manner of a topographer, who fixes for a while on one separate district, and then on another, finding in each, though it were of very confined dimensions, many curious matters of research, and many interesting objects ; while yet he shall possess the m ide information which keeps the country at large so comprehensively within his view, that he can notice and illustrate, as he proceeds, all the characters of the relation of the parts to one another and to the whole. The preacher uniformly began his sermons in a low voice,^ and with sentences of the utmost plainness both of thought and langnaie. It was not, I believe, in observance of any precept of the rhetoricians, or with any conscious intention, that he did so ; it was simply the manner in which his mind naturally set in for the consideration of an important subject. This perfect plainness of the introduction, quietly delivered in a voice deficient in tone and force, and difificult to be heard at first by a large part of tiie congregation, occasioned surprise and disappointment sometimes to strangers drawn by curiosity to hear "the celebrated orator," in the expectation, perhaps, of his going off' in powerful sallies, flourishes, and fulmina- tions. "Can this be he?" has been the question whispered between some two such expectants, seated together. A short comment on the facts in Scripture history found in connexion with the text, or which had beefi the occasion of the words; or on circumstances in the condition of the primitive church ; or on some ancient or modern error relating to the subject to be proposed ; would give, within the space of five or ten- minutes, the condensed and perspicuous result of much read- ing and study. Sometimes he would go immediately to his subject, after a very few introductory sentences. And the attentive hearer was certain to apprehend what that subject was. It was stated precisely, yet in so simple a manner as to preclude all appearance of elaborate definition. The distribution was always perfectly inartificial, cast in an '6 MR. HALL'S CHARACTER order of the least formality of division that could mark an intelligible succession of parts, very seldom exceeding the number of three or four ; which set forth the elements of the subject in the merest natural form, if I may express it so, of their subsistence. Generally, each of these parts was illustrated in two or three particulars, noted as first, «;econd, and perhaps third. He never attempted, never thought of, those schemes of arrangement in which parts are ingeniously placed in anti- thesis, or in such other disposition as to reflect cross-lights on one another, producing surprise and curious expectation, with a passing glance of thought at the dexterity of the preacher who can work them in their contrasted positions to one ultimate effect. It is not denied that such ingenious and somewhat quaint devices of arrangement have had their advantage, in the hands of men who made them the vehicles of serious and important sentiment, really desirous not to amuse but to a tract and instruct. They catch attention, make the progress and stages of the discourse more sensible by the transitions between points apparently so abruptly asunder, and leave more durable traces in the memory than, it was often complained, could be preserved by Mr. Hall's sermons. But such a mode was entirely foreign to the constitution and action of his mind. He never came on his subject by anything like manoeuvre ; never approached it sideways ; never sought to secure himself resources in particular parts, corners, and adjuncts, against the effects of a failure in the main substance ; never threw out the force of a subject in off-sets ; never expended it in dis- persed varieties. He had it in one full single view before him, the parts lying in natural contiguity as a whole ; and" ad- vanced straight forward in pursuance of a plain leading prin- ciple ; looking to the right and the left just so far as to pre- serve the due breadth of the illustration. This is meant as a description generally applicable to the earlier and middle portions of the discourse, which were often, as regarded in a purely intellectual view, much the most valuable.* It was highly interesting, even as a mere affair * There was a remission of strict connexion of thought towards the conclusion, where he threw himself loose Into a strain of declamation, always earnest, and often fervid. This was of great effect in securing a degree of favour with many, to whom so intellectual a preacher would uot otherwise have been acceptable ; it was this that reconciled persons AS A PKEACIIER. 77 of mental operation, independently of the religious object, to accompany this part of his progress ; from the announcement of his subject (sometimes in the form of a general proposition founded on the text, oftener in a more free exposition), onward through a series of statements, illustrations, and distinctions, till an important doctrine became unfolded to view, full in its explication, and strong in its evidence. In this progress he would take account of any objections which he deemed it of consequence to obviate, meeting them without evasion, with acuteness and exact knowledge, available to the point. Every mode and resource of argument was at his command ; but he was singularly successful in that which is technically deno- minated rediictio ad absurdum. Many a specious notion and cavil was convicted of being not only erroneous, but foolish. He displayed, in a most eminent degree, the rare excellence of a perfect conception and expression of every thought, how- ever rapid the succession. There were no half-formed ideas/ no misty semblances of a meaning, no momentary lapses of intellect into an utterance at hazard, no sentences without a distinct object, and serving merely for the continuity of speak- ing ; every sentiment had at once a palpable shape, and an appropriateness to the immediate purpose. If now and then, which was sehlom, a word, or a part of a sentence, slightly failed to denote precisely the thing he intended, it was curious to observe how perfectly he was aware of it, and how he would instantly throw in an additional clause, which did signify it precisely. Another thing for curious observation was, that sometimes, in the middle of a sentence, or just as it came to an end, there would suddenly occur to him some required point of discrimination, some exception perhaps, or limitation, to the assertion he was in the act of making ; or at another time, a circumstance of reinforcement extraneously suggested, a tran- sient ray, as it were, from a foreign and distant object ; and then he would, at the prompting of the moment, intimate the qualifying reference in a brief parenihesis in the sentence, or of simple piety and little cultivated understanding. Many nrho might follow him with very imperfect apprehension and satisfaction throujjh the preceding parts, could reckon on being warmly interested at the latter end. In that part his utterance acquired a remarkable change of intonation, expressive of his own excited feelings. 78 ME. HALL'S CHARACTER by a reverting glance at the end of it. In these last lines of the description, I have in view the more closely intellectual parts of his public exercises, the parts employed in the ascer- tainment and elucidation of truth. There will be occasion, towards the close of these notices, to attribute some defect of discrimination and caution to other parts or qualities of his sermons. It were superfluous to say that Mr. Hall's powerful reasoning- faculty, and his love and habit of reasoning, went into his preaching ; but I may be allowed to observe, that the ar- gumentative tenour thence prevailing through it, was of a somewhat different modification from the reasoning process exhibited in the composition of some of the most distinguished sermon-writers. To say that he had much, very much, of the essence and effect of reasoning without its forms, will perhaps be considered as unqualified praise. Certainly we have a good riddance in tlie obsoleteness of the cumbrous and barba- rous technicalities of logic in use among schoolmen, and of which traces remain in the works of some of our old divines, especially of the polemic class. But, divested of every sort of technicality, a natural and easy logic (easy, I mean, for the hearers' or readers' apprehension) may pervade a discourse in such manner, that it shall have more of the consistence of a contexture than of an accumulation. The train of thinking may preserve a link of connexion by the dependence of the following thought on the foregoing ; that succeeding thought not only being just in itself and pertinent to the matter in hand, but being so still more specially in virtue of resulting, by obvious deduction, or necessary continuation, from the preceding ; thus at once giving and receiving force by the connexion. It is of great advantage for the strength of a dis- course, when it is so conceived as to require the not unfrequent recurrence of the signs, "for," "because," "if — then," "con- sequently," " so that," and the other familiar logical marks of conjunction and dependence in the series of ideas. This will not be mistaken to mean any thing like a long uninterrupted process, as in a mathematical demonstration, carried on in a rigorous strictness of method, and with a de- pendence of the validity of some one final result on the correctness of each and every movement in the long operation. No lengthened courses of deduction are required or admissible AS A PKEACHER. 79 in popular instruction ; the discourse must, at no distant in- tervals, come to pauses and changes, introducing matters of ai^ument and illustration which are chosen by the preacher for their general pertinence and effectiveness to the subject, rather than by any strict logical rule of continuity ; and he is not required to answer a captious question of a disciple of the schools whether this topic, and tiiis again, be in the most exact line of sequence with the foregoing. It is sufficient that there be an obvious general relation, connecting the suc- cessive portions of the discourse ; so that each in the succession shall take along with it the substantial effect of the preceding But tlirough the extent of each of these portions, the course of thinking might be conducted in a certain order of consecu- tive dependence, which should make the thoughts not merely to coincide, but to verify and authenticate one another while they coincide, in bearing on the proposed object. And such a mode of working them into evidence and application, would give tliem a closer grapple on the mind. There will be testimony to this from the experience of readers conversant with the best examples ; for instance, the sermons of South, which, glaringly censurable as many of them are on very grave accounts, are admirable for this linked succession, this passing to a further idea by consequence from the preceding, and not merely by that principle of relation between them, that they both tend to the same effect. Yet, at the same time, so far is he from exhibiting a cold dry ar- gument, like Clarke in his Sermons, that his ratiocination is abundantly charged with what may be called the matter of passion ; often indeed malicious and fierce, sometimes solemnly impressive ; at all events serving to show that strong argu- ment may be worked in fire as well as in frost.* It has always appeared to me, that Mr. Hall's discourses would have had one more ingredient of excellence, if the rich and strong pro- duction of thought, while pressing, as it always did, with an united impulse toward the point in view, iiad been drawn out in a sequence of more express and palpable dependence and concatenation. The conjunction of the ideas would some- • Among others, I might name Stillingfleet's sermons, as exemplifying this manner of connexion in the series of ideas. If reference were made to ancient eloquence, Demosthenes would be cited as the transcendent example of this excellence. 80 MR. HALL'S CHARACTER times appear to be rather that of contiguity than of impli- cation. The successive sentences would come like separate independent dictates of intellect, the absence of which would indeed have been a loss to the general force, but not a breach of connexion. It must be observed, however, that when special occasions required it, he would bring into exercise the most severe logic in the most explicit form. Many fine ex- amples of this are found in his controversy on Terms of Com- munion. And such would, at times, occur in his sermons. Every cultivated hearer must have been struck with admi- ration of the preacher's mastery of language, a refractory servant to many who have made no small efforts to command it. I know not whether he sometimes painfully felt its de- ficiency and untowardness for his purpose ; but it seemed to answer all his requirements, whether for cutting nice discri- minations, or presenting abstractions in a tangible form, or investing grand subjects with splendour, or imparting a pathetic tone to expostulation, or inflaming the force of invective, or treating common topics without the insipidity of common- place diction. His language in the pulpit was hardly ever colloquial, but neither was it of an artificial cast. It was generally as little bookish as might consist with an uniformly sustained and serious style. Now and then there would be a scholastic term beyond the popular understanding, so familiar to himself, from his study of philosophers and old divines, as to be the first word occurring to him in his rapid delivery. Some conventional phrases which he was in the habit of using (for instance, " to usher in," " to give birth to," &c.), mi^-ht better have been exchanged for plain unfigurative verbs. His language in preaching-, as in conversation, was in one consi- derable point better than in his well-known and elaborately composed sermons, in being more natural and flexible. When he set in reluctantly upon that operose employment, his style was apt to assume a certain processional stateliness of march, a rhetorical rounding of periods, a too frequent inversion of the natural order of the sentence, with a morbid dread of de- grading it to end in a particle or other small-looking word ; a structure in which I doubt whetlier the augmented aj)pearance of strength and dignity be a compensation for the sacrifice of a natural, living, and variable freedom of composition. A remarkable difterence will be perceived between the highly- AS A PEEACHEE. 8l wrought sermons long since published, and the short ones in- serted in the fifth volume, which were written without a thought of the press ; a difference to the advantage of the latter in the grace of simplicity.* Both in his conversation and his public speaking, there was often, besides and beyond the merit of clearness, precision, and brevity, a certain felicity of diction ; something which, had it not been common in his discourse, would have appeared the special good luck of falling without care of selection on the aptest words, cast in elegant combination, and producing an effect of beauty even when there was nothing expressly ornamental. From the pleasure there is in causing and feeling surprise by the exaggeration of what is extraordinary into something absolutely marvellous, persons of Mr. Hall's acquaintance, especially in his earlier life, have taken great licence of fiction in stories of his extemporaneous eloquence. It was not un-^/' common to have an admired sermon asserted to have been thrown off in an emergency on the strength of an hour's pre- vious study. This matter has been set right in Dr. Gregory's curious and interesting note (prefixed to the sermon on Modern Infidelity) describing the preacher's usual manner of prepara- tion, and showing that it was generally made with deliberate care.f But whatever proportion of the discourse was from premeditation, the reader could not distinguish that from what was extemporaneous. There were no periods betraying, by a mechanical utterance, a mere recitation. Every sentence had 80 much the spirit and significance of present immediate think- ing, as to prove it a living dictate of the speaker's mind, whether it came in the way of recollection, or in the fresh production of the moment. And in most of his sermons, the more animated ones especially, a very large proportion of ♦ I may refer also to the reported sermons given in the sixth volume of his works ; as to many of which any observant hearer of Mr. Hall will testify, though he should not have heard those particular sermons, that they very faithfully represent the preacher's extemporaneous diction. t Once, in a conversation with a few friends who had led him to talk of his preaching, and to answer, among other questions, one respecting this supposed and reported extemporaneous production of the most striking parts of^ his sermons in the early period of his ministry, he surprised us by sayicg that most of them, so far from being extemporaneous, had been so deliberately prepared, that the words were selected, and the construo- tioD and order of the sentences adjusted. a 82 MR. HALL'S CHARACTER what he spoke must have been of this immediate origination ; it was impossible that less than this should be the effect of the excited state of a mind so powerful in thinking, so extremely- prompt in the use of that power, and in possession of such copious materials. Some of his discourses were of a calm temperament nearly throughout ; even these, however, never failing to end with a pressing enforcement of the subject. But in a considerable portion of them (a large one, it is said, during all but a late period of his life) he warmed into emotion before he had advanced through what might be called the discussion. The intellectual process, the explications, arguments, and exempli- fications, would then be animated, without being confused, obscured, or too much dilated, by that more vital element which we denominate sentiment ; while striking figures, at intervals, emitted a momentary brightness ; so that the under- standing, the passions, and the imagination of the hearers were all at once brought under command, by a combination of the forces adapted to seize possession of each. The spirit of such discourses would grow into intense fervour, even before they approached the conclusion. The preacher had the great advantage for popular eloquence, of a temperament which permitted and prompted the emanation of his whole soul in public ; not partaking, in the least, of the feeling which, whether of natural reserve or from secluded habits of life, may have had a repressive and cooling effect on some men's public addresses — a feeling as if some of the emotions of piety belonged too intimately and personally to the indivi- dual's own mind alone, or to the communications of a few congenial friends, to be committed to the imperfect sympa- thies of a large promiscuous assembly. When he became "animated with his subject all the recesses of his mind appeared ^'to open; all his emotions, affections, passions, were given 'forth in the most unreserved and unrestrained effusion. In the most admired of his sermons, and invariably in all his preaching, there was one excellence, of a moral kind, in which few eloquent preachers have ever equalled, and none ever did or will surpass him. It was so remarkable and obvious, that the reader (if having been also a hearer of Mr. Hall) will have gone before me when I name — oblivion of self. The preacher appeared wholly absorbed in his subject, AS A PREACHER. 83 given up to its possession, as the single actuating principle' and impulse of the mental achievement which he was as if unconsciously performing : — as if unconsciously ; for it is impossible it could be literally so ; yet his absorption was so evident, there was so clear an absence of every betraying sign of vanity, as to leave no doubt that reflection on himself, the tacit thought, " It is I that am displaying this excellence of speech," was the faintest action of his mind. His auditory were sure that it was in relation to his subject, and not to himself, that he regarded the feelings with which they might hear him. . What a contrast to divers showy and admired orators, whom the reader will remember to have seen in the pulpit elsewhere ! For who has not witnessed, perhaps more times than a few, a pulpit exhibition, which unv/ittingly told that the speaker was in resolute competition with his sacred tlieme for precedence in the favour of his auditory ? Who has not obser\'ed the glimmer of a self-complacent smile, partly reflected as it were on his visage, from the plausible visages confronting liim, and partly lighted from within, by the blandishment of a still warmer admirer ? Who has not seen him swelling witli a tone and air of conscious importance in some specially Jine passage ; prolonging it, holding it up, spreading out another and yet another scarlet fold, with at last a temporary stop to survey the assembly, as challenging their tributary looks of admiration, radiating on himself, or interchanged among sympathetic individuals in the congre- gation ? Such a preacher might have done well to become a hearer for a while ; — if indeed capable of receiving any cor- rective instruction from an example of his reverse ; for there have been instances of preachers actually spoiling themselves still worse in consequence of hearing some of Mr. Hall's eloquent effiisions; assuming, beyond their previous suflfi- ciency of such graces, a vociferous declamation, a forced look of force, and a tumour of verbiage, from unaccountable failure to perceive, or to make a right use of tlie perception, that his sometimes impetuous deliveiy, ardent aspect, and occasionally magnificent diction, were all purely spontaneous from the strong excitement of the subject. Under that excitement, when it was the greatest, he did unconsciously acquire a corresponding elation of attitude and q2 84 MR. HALL'S CHARACTER expression ; w'ould turn, though not with frequent change, toward the different parts of the assembly, and, as almost his only peculiarity of action, would make one step back from his position (which, however, was instantly resumed) at the last word of a climax ; an action which inevitably suggested the idea of the recoil of heavy ordnance.* I mention so inconsiderable a circumstance because I think it has somewhere lately been noticed with a hinted imputation of vanity. But to the feel- ing of his constant hearers, the cool and hypercritical equally with the rest, it was merely one of those effects which emotion always produces in the exterior in one mode or another, and was accidentally become associated with the rising of his excitement to its highest pitch, just at the sentence which decisively clenched an argument, or gave the last strongest emphasis to an enforcement. This action never occurred but when there was a special emphasis in what he said. Thus the entire possession and actuation of his mind by his subject, evident in every way, was especially so by two signs : First, that his delivery was simply and unconsciously governed by his mind. When it was particularly animated, or solemn, or pathetic, or indignant, it was such not by rule, intention, or any thought of rhetorical fitness ; but in involuntary ac- cordance with the strain of the thought and feeling. In this sense he " spake as he was moved ;" and consequently nothing •V in his manner of delivery was either out of the right place, or in it by studied adjustment.^ The other indication of being totally surrendered to the V ♦ In sermons plainly and almost exclusively exegetical, or in which ^bodily disorder repressed his characteristic energy, he would often keep nearly one posture, looking straight forward, during the whole service. At all times his gesture was clear of every trace of art and intention. Indeed he had scarcely anything of what is meant by gesticulation oi action in the schools of oratory. It was what he never thought of for himself, and he despised its artificial exhibition in others, at least in preachers. t I remember, at the distance of many years, with what a vivid feelicg • , of the ludicrous he related an anecdote of a preacher, long since deceased, "of some account in his day and connexion. He would, in preaching, sometimes weep, or seem to weep, when the people wondered why, as not perceiving in what he was saying any cause for such emotion m the exact places where it occurred. After his death, one of his hearers happening to inspect some of his manuscript sermons, exclaimed, " I have found the explanation : we used to wonder at the good Doctor's weeping with so AS A PREACHER. 85 subject, and borne on by its impetus wlien the current became strong, was (in perfect contrast to wliat is described above) the rapid passing by, and passing away, of any striking senti- ment or splendid image. He never detained it in view by reduplications and amplifying phrases, as if he would not let it vanish so soon ; as if he were enamoured of it, and wanted his hearers to be so for his sake ; as if he wished to stand a while conspicuous by its lustre upon him. It glistened or flashed a moment and was gone. The shining points were the more readily thus hastened away, as they intimately belonged to that which was passing. They occurred not as of arbitrary insertion, but with the ap- propriateness of a natural relation. However unexpectedly any brilliant idea might present itself, its impression was true and immediate to the purpoFC. Instead of arresting and di- verting the attention to itself, as a thing standing out, to be separately admired for its own sake, it fell congenially into the train, and augmented without disturbing the effect. The fine passage would, indeed, in many instances, admit of being taken apart, and would in a detached state retain much of its beauty ; but its greatest virtue was in animating the whole combination of sentiments. Mr. Hall's imagination always acted in direct subservience to his intellectual design. A seriousness of spirit and manner was an invariable cha- racteristic of his preaching, whatever were the topic, or occa- sion, or place ; or preceding social intercourse, or temporary mood of his feelings. As his conversation often abounded with wit, in the strictest sense of the term, with the accom- paniment of humour, both frequently playing into satire, in which he was not a little formidable, it has been justly won- dered that nothing of this kind appeared in his sermons. I now wish I had ventured to ask him how this happened ; whether it was that he had determined, on principle, to forbid himself all strokes and sparkles of that amusing faculty, as in every case detrimental to the effect of preaching ; or that no witty turns or fancies did really ever occur to him during that exercise. However the case might be, all the repeaters little reason sometimes, as it seemed. In his sermons there is written here and there in the margins, * Cry here ;' now I verily believe the Doctor sometimes mistook the place, and that was the cause of what appeared so onaccountable." 86 MB. HALL'S CHAEACTER of his wrtty vivacities and severities have forborne, as far as I ever heard, to report any one of them as a sentence of a ser- mon. No more than a single instance is within my own re- collection of any thing devious on this side from his accus- tomed tenour ; it was a most biting sarcasm at the hypocritical cant of those wealthy persons who pretend a concern for the promotion of the Christian cause, but, under the affectation of a pious trust in Providence for that promotion, take good care to hold fast all but some parsimonious driblets of their money. y The absorbing seizure of his faculties by his subject, when it was prosecuted at uninterrupted length, carried him some- times, I suspected, into a peculiar and extraordinary state of mind for a public speaker. It appeared to me not unfre- quently, that his ideas pressed into his view so much in the character of living realities, that he lost all distinct sense of the presence of the congregation ; so that he had for a while no more than a general and almost unconscious recognition Ipf them as listening to him. His look at such times was that of a person so withdrawn to something within, that he is evi- dently taking no notice of what his eyes appear to fall upon. In confirmation that the case was so, I remember instances in which, being asked, after the service, whether he had not been grievously annoyed by an almost incessant and most thought- lessly unrepressed coughing in many parts of the congrega- tion, with other offensive and more voluntary noises, which had destroyed a third part at the least of his sentences for the hearing of a great proportion of the assembly, he said he had not been at all aware there was any such annoyance. It needs not to be observed, to- those who have heard him, how necessary it was rendered by the defect of clear strong sound in his voice, when not forcibly exerted, that no other sounds should interfere. At other times, however, he was in every sense present to his auditory, and spoke to them in pointed address ; especially when a hortatory application at the end made them all feel that he was earnestly desirous to instruct, impress, and per- suade. I may have occasion to advert again, with a some- what different reference, to the circumstance of his mental abstraction. It has been observed that he had the command of ample AS A PREACHER. 87 and various resources for illustration and proof. The depart- ments from which he drew the least, might be the facts and philosophy of the material world. His studies had been di- rected with a strong and habitual preference to the regions of abstraction and metaphysics ; and he furnished a fine example of the advantage which may be derived from such studies to the faculty for theological and moral discussions, by a mind at the same time too full of ardour, sentiment, and piety, to be cooled and dried into an indifierence to every thing but the most disembodied and attenuated speculation. The ad- vantage, as exemplified by liim, of the practice and discipline of dealing with truth in the abstract, where a severe attention is required to apprehend it as a real subsistence, to see and grasp it, if I may so speak, in tangible forms, might be noted as twofold. First (that which has been anticipated in former remarks), the utmost precision in ever}'' thing he uttered. He could express each dictate of thought in perfect freedom from doubt whether it might not be equivocal ; whether it might not be of loose import and vague direction, instead of strictly to the point ; whether it might not involve some latent incon- sistency within itself or in its immediate conjunction with another idea ; whether it were exactly the very thing he in- tended. It was of complete formation in his understanding ; it had its including line and limit, instead of being confused with something else. As it was once happily said by himself of Johnson, " he shone strongly on the angles of a thought." The consequence of his rigorous habits of thinking thus came with eminent value into discourse addressed and intelligible to ordinary good sense, where there was no obvious interven- tion of that refined speculation wiiich was nevertheless con- tributing, in effect, so much to the clearness and strength of its consistence. The quality which might be called philoso- phic or metaphysic in the interior source, became a popular excellence in the result. But, secondly : besides the distinctn«j8s and precision of ^11 the particulars of thought in detail, that exercise of abstract speculation had brought him into possession and mastery of those general principles, in virtue of which these particular sentiments must have their authority. It is not at all neces- sary, in any ordinary course of instruction, to be continually tracing the particular back, for its verification, to the general ; 88 ME. HALL'S CHARACTER but it is a great advantage to be able to do so when it is ne- cessary, as it sometimes will be. He could do this ; he knew from what original truths could be deduced the varieties of sentiment which the speaker utters in unqualified assertion, as not liable to be questioned. Any of them, not self-evident, he could have abstracted into a proximate principle in a gene- ralization, and that again resting on a still deeper or ultimate one. He had seen down to the basis, and therefore was con- fident of the firmness of what he stood upon ; unlike a man who is treading on a surface which he perceives or suspects to be hollow, and is ignorant and fearful of what there may be underneath. Or, to change the figure, he could trace the minor outermost ramifications of truth downwardinto the larger stems ; and those larger into the main trunk and the root. This conscious ability of the preacher, or any other discourser, to sustain upon first principles what he is advancing with the freedom of unhesitating assertion and assumption, will impart an habitual assurance of safety while he is expatiating thus in what may be called the outward, free, and popular exposition of his subject. It is presumed that this representation of the use he made, in sermons, of his power and habits of abstract speculation, may suflftce to prevent a notion, in the minds of any of our readers who may seldom or never have heard him, that he was in a specific sense a philosophical or metaphysical preacher. He did often indeed (and it was a distinguishing excellence equally of his talking, preaching, and writing) point to some general principle, and briefly and plainly show how it autho- rized an opinion. Occasionally, in a more than usually argu- mentative discourse, he would draw out a more extended de- duction. He would also cite from the doctrines of philosophy, with lucid application, some law of the human mind (for in- stance, and especially, that of association). But still it was far more a virtual than a formal result of his abstruser studies that pervaded his preaching. His intimate acquaintance with many of the greatest authors, whom he had studied with a sentiment of reverence, and whose intellectual and religious wealth was largely drawn into his own capacious faculties, contributed to preclude an ostenta- tion of originality. His sermons would make, on cultivated -hearers, a general impression of something new, in the sense AS A PKEACHER. 89 of being very different, by eminent superiority, from any com- mon character of preaching ; but the novelty would appear less to consist in absolute origination, than in the admirable power of selection and combination. It was not exhibited in a frequency of singulariy bold prominent inventions, in the manner of the new mountains and islands sometimes suddenly thrown up on tracts of the globe ; but rather in that whole construction of the performance by which the most appropri- ate topics, from whatever quarter, were brought into one array, were made imposing by aggregation, strong by unity of pur- pose, and often bright by felicitous apposition ; in short, were so plastically ordered as to assume much of the character of a creation. It is probable that if his studies had been of slighter tenour, if his reading had been less, or more desultory, if his faculties had been suffered to run more loose, his discourses would have more abounded with ideas starting out, as it were singly, with an aspect like nothing ever seen before. His mental ground was cultivated too industriously and regularly for substantial produce, to leave room for those often beautiful wild flowers which spring spontaneously in a fertile half- wrought soil. His avowed indifference to poetry might be taken as one indication of a mind more adapted to converse with the substantialities of truth, than to raise phantoms of invention. Perhaps the most striking feature of his origin^, ality was seen in his talent (like the chemistry which brings a latent power into manifestation and action) of drawing from some SLclmitted principle a hitherto unthought-of inference, which aftects the whole argument of a question, and leads to a conclusion either new or by a new road. While he availed himself in his sermons of the powers and means of reason, he constantly referred, I believe with an increased explicitness in the more advanced periods of his ministry, to Revelation as the supreme and final authority. A' No preacher, or writer on subjects of divinity, was ever more faithful to the principle that all doctrines professing to be Christian, must, both in their statement and proof, be founded on the Scriptures, whatever further light or corroboration they may admit from independent reason, or from matter of fact. It is understood that it cost him, at an early season of his life, a great effort, with respect to some particular opinions, to subdue his speculative disposition to such an uncompromis- .00 MR. HALL'S CHARACTER ing submission to that authority, as to renounce not only the presumptions which place themselves in contravention to the Scriptures, but all the expedients of a forced or evasive inter- pretation of them. But the submission became absolute and /perpetual ; and in this spirit he maintained throug-h life so assiduous a practice of studying the Bible, that he acquired a remarkable facility for citing from every part of it, in the course of his preaching, the passages most pertinent for evi- dence or enforcement of whatever he was advancing. It would often strike the hearers that probably no texts could have been found in the whole book more exactly to the pur- *^ose. Though he studied the Scriptures critically, he was sparing of learned criticisni in the pulpit ; never resorted to it but when he saw a question of some importance involved in a right or wrong construction or interpretation ; and then with the greatest possible brevity. In some few of the instances he might seem to rest too much of the weight of an argument on the acceptation of a single insulated ex- pression ; for he was not, from his ability to bring a copious induction of texts in proof of a doctrine, the less tenacious of any and every one which he thought could be vindi- cated for an assertion or implication of it by a correct inter- pretation. In his choice of subjects, a prevailing desire to do good directed him most frequently to those, or to select parts and views of those, that present themselves as of chief importance on the common field of Christianity. When he took what appeared an insulated subject, of a peculiar and perhaps some- what curious cast, he would seldom fail, while illustrating it in a manner appropriate to itself, to bring it at last, and by an unforced incidence, to coalesce with or merge in some grand generality or cardinal doctrine of Christian faith. This method contributed to maintain a consistency in the doctrine and tendency of his diversified ministrations. He insisted with the utmost emphasis on the principle that Christianity, instead of being merely a circumstantial modi- fication, or clearer exposition, or augmented sanction, or sup- plemental adjunct of religion, conceived as in its original sub- sistence in the relation between the Creator and a race not involved in moral evil, is an absolutely distinct and peculiar economy, appointed for a race that is in that disastrous con- AS A rREACHER. 91 dition, and constituted upon the essentially altered relation, the relation between man as a depraved guilty being and his Maker. In his judgment, any theory which does not acknow- ledge Christianity in this express character positively rejects it ; with the guilt, to him who dares this rejection, of insult- ing the Almighty, and the calamity of being self-doomed to meet the righteous Judge on an interdicted ground, a fatal ground, therefore, where justice will be apart from mercy. From his conviction of the importance of this principle of the peculiarity of the Christian economy, he brought continually in view the doctrines which constitute its peculiarity. The scheme of mediation ; the Mediator's character, in the various views and lights in which it can be displayed, of dignity and humiliation, of majesty and benignity ; his vicarious sacrifice for the atonement of sin ; were the subjects of his very marked^ and habitual preference. On the last of them he enlarged m such extent and frequency, that, with the same perfect con- viction as himself of its vital and transcendent importance, I sometimes thought there was hardly a due proportion yielded to the correlative subjects — to that extent and peremptoriness of the requirements of the divine law, that condition of the human nature, that actual existence and stupendous amount of guilt, which are the cause that there is a necessity for an atonement. His practice, just noticed, of prosecuting the discussion of particular subjects, while in a manner strictly appropriate to each as a separate theme, yet also with a bearing toward an ultimate combination with some essential principle of Chris- tianity, conduced to keep almost constantly in view the evan- gelical principles, those which are peculiarly characteristic of the mediatorial economy ; for these were very commonly the points to which the various courses of thought running through his different sermons were made to tend, and where they fell in confluence. His system of theological tenets (creed is an ill-favoured term) was strictly orthodox, on the model of what has come to be denominated Moderate Calvinism. With the other con- spicuous points, the doctrine of the Trinity,* the divinity of * An exception is to be made in this article for an opinion at one time held by him, and m one of his letters, I think, named by him Dualism, 92 MR. HALL'S CHAEACTER Christ, the atonement, and justification by faith alone, he held the more distinctively Calvinistic doctrine of predestination ; though I cannot answer for the precise terms in which he would have stated it ; but I presume he would have accepted those employed in the articles of the Church of England. In preaching he very rarely made any express reference to that doctrine, and his recognition of it by implication was too indistinct for toleration from the rigidly Calvinistic hearers of any preacher not privileged by talents and public favour to bear down all censorial pretensions. Under our total ignorance of divine decrees, our ignorance of all but the general purpose of the Almighty in the promul- gation of the Gospel, he considered that men are to be ad- dressed as rational beings, on subjects of which, unless they will practically renounce that property of their nature, they must apprehend the vast importance ; subjects which, as well as appealing to their coolest reason, ought to be of mighty force to press on the conscience and the passions ; to which it were, consequently, the last absurdity to decline summoning that reason, and arousing those passions. He was therefore exempt from all those restrictions, in respect to the mode of presenting and urging the overtures of redemption, which have been imposed on some good men of the Calvinistic faith by a concern for systematic consistency. He took the utmost liberty in this strain of inculcation ; exhorting, inviting, en- treating, expostulating, remonstrating ; in language of nearly the same tenour as that which might be employed by an Ar- minian preacher, with the exception, of course, of that notion of free-will which recurs with such laborious iteration in the preaching of that order, and which was excluded from his faith equally by theological and philosophical reasons. This non- advertence in his sermons to the Calvinistic tenet, was not from any secret consciousness that the belief of it is essentially incongruous with an unrestrained freedom of inculcation ; it was not that he might enjoy a licence for inconsistency through the device of keeping one or two incompatible things out of sight ; but he judged that neither the doctrine itself, nor the process of reasoning to prove the belief of it consistent with but surrendered long before the decline of his life. That opinion was that the Holy Spirit is to be regarded as a divine energy, or agency, in- stead of a personal subsistence. AS A. PBEACHEE. 93 the most unrestricted language of exhortation, could be made a profitable part of popular instruction. He deemed it autho- rity enough for his practice, independently of all abstracted reasoning on the subject, that he had the example of the divinely inspired preachers urging the demands of the Gospel on the unbelievers and the wicked, in the most unmeasured terms of exhortation, the predestinating decrees of heaven set out of the question ; and that in modern experience it is a notorious fact, that those preachers of the Calvinistic school (for one memorable example, Whitfield) who have neverthe- less availed themselves of this freedom to the utmost extent, have been far beyond all comparison more successful in effect- ing the great object of preaching, than those who have, somewhat presumptuously, charged themselves with so much responsibility respecting the unknown determination of the Almighty, that they must not call men indiscriminately to faith and repentance lest they should contravene his sovereign pur- poses — I might say, rather, forfeit the dignity of coinciding with them. Perhaps it would not have been expected from Mr. Hall's great capacity, that he should be habitually indisposed to dwell or expatiate long near the borders of the remoter, darker tracts of the regions of religious contemplation ; such, how- ever, appears to have been the fact. If the cause were in- quired, undoubtedly one thing that withheld or withdrew him was a consideration of usefulness, a preference for what was most adapted to be beneficial to his own religious discipline and to the best interests of others. He was amply informed and warned, by his knowledge of the history of philosophy and theology, of the mischiefs of a restless, presumptuous, inter- minable speculation, a projectionof thought, beyond the limits of ascertainable truth. But there was a cause more radical in his mental constitution. That constitution was not pre- dominantly either imaginative or contemplative ; it was intel- lectual^ in the strictest sense ; in the (perhaps arbitrary) sense, that the matter of his speculations must be what he could distinctly understand, what he could survey in such form and order as to admit of propositions and reasons ; so that the spe- culative process lost its interest with him if carried into a direction, or if exceeding the limit, where it could no longer be subjected to the methods of proof; in other words, where 94 MR. HALL'S CHARACTER it ceased to comprehend and reason, and turned into conjec- ture, sentiment, and fancy. He seemed to have no ambition to stretch out his intellectual domain to an extent which he could not occupy and traverse, with some certainty of his movements and measurements. His sphere was very wide, expanded to one circle beyond another, at each of whicl in succession he left other men behind him, arrested by th^ impassable line ; but he was willing to perceive, and even desirous to verify, his own ultimate boundary ; and when he came to the barrier where it was signified to him, " Thus far, and no further," he stopped, with apparently much less of an impulse than might have been expected in so strong a spirit, to seek an outlet, and attempt an irruption into the dubious realms beyond. With a mind so constituted and governed, he was less given than many other men of genius have been to those visionary modes of thought ; those musings exempt from all regulation ; that impatience of aspiration to reach the vast and remote ; that fascination of the mysterious, captivating by the very circumstance of eluding; that fearful adven- turing on the dark, the unknown, the awful ; *' those thoughts that wander through eternity," which have often been at once the luxury and the pain of imaginative and highly en- dowed spirits, discontented with their assigned lot in this tenebrious world. No doubt, in his case, piety would have interfered to restrain such impatience of curiosity, or auda- city of ambitious thinking, or indignant strife against the confines of our present allotment, as would have risen to a spirit of insubordination to the divine appointment. And possibly there were times when this interference was required ; but still the structure of his faculties, and the manner of em- ploying them to which it determined him, contributed much to exempt him from that passion to go beyond the mortal sphere which would irreligiously murmur at the limitation. JHis acquiescence did not seem at least to cost him a strong effort of repression. This distinction of his intellectual character was obvious in his preaching. He was eminently successful on subjects of an elevated order, which he would expand and illustrate in a manner which sustained them to the high level of their dignity. This carried him near some point of the border of AS A PREACHER. 95 that awful darkness which encompasses, on all sides, our little glimmering field of knowledge ; and then it might be seen how aware he was of his approach, how cautiously, or shall I say instinctively ? he was held aloof, how sure not to abandon the ground of evidence, by a hazardous incursion of conjecture or imagination into the unknown. He would in- dicate how near, and in what direction, lay the shaded frontier ; but dared not, did not seem even tempted, to invade its " majesty of darkness." This procedure, in whatever proportion owing to his intel- lectual temperament, or to the ascendancy of religion, will be pronounced wise for a general practice. If, however, he could have allowed himself in some degree of exception, it would have been gratifying to a portion of his hearers. There are certain mysterious phenomena in the moral eco- nomy of our world, which compel, and will not release, the attention of a thoughtful mind, especially if of a gloomy con- stitutional tendency. Wherever it turns, it still encounters their portentous aspect ; often feels arrested and fixed by them as under some potent spell ; making an effort, still renewed and still unavailing, to escape from the appalling presence of the vision. Now it was conceived, that a strenuous deliberate exertion of a power of thought like his, after he had been so deeply conversant with important and difficult speculations, might perhaps have contributed some- thing to alleviate this oppression. Not, of course, that it should be dreamed that his, or any still stronger human in- telligence, should be able to penetrate with light, the black clouds which overshadow our system. But it was imagined possible for such force of reason to impart somewhat of an extenuating quality to the medium through which they are beheld, and through which they might then be beheld with a less painful and total prostration of spirit. It might have been an invaluable service, it was thought, if his whole strength and resources had been applied to display compre- hensively the nature, the extent, the solidity, of the ground on wiiich faith may rest with a firm confidence in the good- ness of the sovereign Governor, notwithstanding all the strange and awful phenomena of our economy.* * It may be mentioned, in further explanation of the indisposition / noted above, that in spite of the long and often severe persecution of 96 MR. HALL'S CHARACTER This disinclination to adventure into the twilight of spe- culation was shown in respect to subjects of less formidable mystery, of solemn indeed, but rather attractive than over- awing, character. For instance, the mode, the condition, of that conscious existence after death, of which, as a fact, he was so zealous an asserter against the dreary dogma which con- signs the soul to insensibility in the separate state ; if indeed it be any existent state of an intelligence when all we know of its attributes is abolished. It would have been gratifying, and might have been beneficial for serious impression, to see some gleams of his vigorous thought thrown upon the border of that scene of our destiny, so obscure, but at the same time so near, and of transcendent interest ; to see the reserved and scattered intimations of the sacred oracles brought into com- bination, and attempted to be reduced to something approach- ing to the form of a theory ; to see how far any conjectural imaginations could be accompanied by reasons from analogy, and any other principle of probability ; with a citation, per- haps, of certain of the least arbitrary and fanciful of the visions of other inquisitive speculators, commented on as he would have commented. But he did not appear to partake of the intense curiosity with which the inquiries and poetical musings of some pious men have been carried into the subject. He seemed, beyond what might have been expected in relation to a matter which lies across the whole breadth of our pro- spect, and so closely at hand, content to let it remain a terra incognita till the hour that puts an end to conjecture. It will be understood that this is mentioned, not with any meaning of animadversion, but as exemplifying that peculiarity of his mental character by which he appeared disinclined to pursue any inquiries beyond the point where substantial evidence fails. The regret of some of his hearers was, that he should not oftener be willing to exert his whole strength to try whether that point be really fixed where it appears and is assumed to bodily pain, his temperament was cheerful and buoyant. He had a re- markable facility of finding or making sources and occasions of pleasur- able feeling, and averting his mind from gloomy subjects ; insomuch that he appeared to be, even on the mere strength of this temperament, much less subject than might have been expected of so enlarged a capacity of thought, to be invaded by the dark and fearful forms which those subjects can assume^ AS A PREACHER. 97 be. They would have been gratified to see him undertaking sometimes the discussion of subjects, which they would have deprecated any attempt upon by men of ordinaiy ability. While so superior a mental engine, if I may be allowed tlie expression, was in their hands, they wished they could make the most of its powers. I have deferred to the last some additional observations, which I shall attempt with considerable difficulty: partly from a doubt whether I may be able to render them plainly intelligible ; and partly from apprehension that they may not please some of those who most admired Mr. Hall, — of whose talents, however, no man's admiration was higher than mine. The general purport of what I would say is this : that while his preaching was superlatively excellent in many of its qua- lities, it was not, from a defect in certain important ones, the best adapted for salutary efficacy. A short indication of what I would allege would be, that it was too general and theoretic, neglectful too often of the required conditions of application^ the distinctions, exceptions, qualifications ; in other words, of the casuistry in which every subject of a practical nature is involved ; that it presented things too much in unbroken breadth and mass ; that it was apt to exceed, in the most elo- quent parts, the allowed licence of exaggerations ; that it was not kept in due relation to the realities of life ; that, while it was most excellent in the discrimination of topics, senti- ments, arguments, it did not discriminate and individualize human characters ; that therefore it did not maintain an inti- mate commerce with the actual condition of the hearers. It were superfluous to repeat how pre-eminently he dis- played, in the perspicuous and convincing statement, develop- ment, and confirmation of truth, the primary excellence of preaching, as it is of all instruction ; or how earnestly the practical interest of the doctrine, in its general bearing, at least, was often enforced toward the conclusion of his sermons. The defect, which, nevertheless, I am wishing to mark as not excluded by such rare merit, was, that (as a general fact, and with exceptions) his preaching did not bring and keep the people under a closely disciplinary process. It allowed them too much of the privilege of the spectators of a fine and well ordered series of representation, of such a nature that they can H 98 MR. HALL'S CHAEACTER look on at ease from any similar disturbance to that of the king in Hamlet, at the sight of the acted garden scene. A consideration of the whole design of preaching might suggest something approaching to a model of what would seem the most probably calculated to attain its several ends, in combination to one grand purpose. We may regard the preacher as holding a kind of comprehensive jurisdiction over the spiritual and moral condition of the congregation, who are a mingled assemblage of all varieties of that condition. Should not then the best mode of ministration, for beneficial effect, be that which applies itself to this condition, not only either generally in the mass, or as viewed in the two divisions of religious and irreligious, but also with a special recognition of those varieties ? There needs not here be said so self-evident a thing as that the great primary truths, forming, if I may express it so, the constitution of religion, siiould be carefully and amply set forth ; that, in a word, the theory of Christianity as a whole, and in its principal branches, should be kept conspicuous in the people's view. But while the princi])les of which the Christian faith consists are to be often stated and constantly recognised, as the general ground-work of all that belongs to religion, what a large account there is of more special matters on which, and on each of which, it is most important to call men's reason and conscience into exercise. There are the various causes, distinguishable and assignable ones, which frustrate the exhibition of religious truth, and may be so commented on as to show how they frustrate it. There is the sad catalogue of. the perversities and deceits of the heart; there are the distortions and presumptions of prejudice ; the principles which, in disguised form perhaps, and afraid of audacious avowal, but of malignant essence, re-act against the divine authority ; the subterfuges of insincerity ; the various ways in which men evade conviction, falsify in effect the truth to which they assent in terms, or delude themselves in their estimates of their own spirit and conduct. There is the estrangement from reflection, the extreme reluctance to honest self-examination. There is also, in the majority of any large congregation, many of those who make a direct profession of personal religion not excepted, an indistinct apprehension, and a lax application, of the principles and rules of Christian AS A PREACHER. 99 (iiorality. These last, together with the state of men's notions and habits in relation to them, are within the province of the religious instructor ; unless the universally, cogently, and even minutely perceptive character of revelation be a grand impertinence. It is of the utmost importance that things like these should occupy a large space in the ministration. They claim to be made the subject of the preacher's best exertion, to show wiiat they are, by illustrations verified upon the actual state of human beings, and how they interfere with religion in all its doctrines and applications. Any one of these here noted comprehends a whole class of particulars, important enough to be, each of them separately, a matter of the most useful discussion for the longest sermon. And if this be true, the majority of the evangelical teachers of our congregations seem very far from being aware (in respect especially to what belongs to the moral department of the great Christian school) of the extent of either the resources or the duties of their office. But besides the propriety of discoursing on such things formally and at large, there is a valuable use to be made of them in a secondary and more incidental way, by adverting to them, any of them, as the case may suggest, in short and pointed reference, when any lesson of the religious discipline can by means of them be more strongly fastened on men's mind ; on minds which will play loose from its hold if such expedients be not employed to strike and grasp them. Through whatever subject (except the most exclusively speculative) the Christian instructor can direct his course, considerations relating to such matters are, some or other of them, near at hand, to admonish him of something which is to be taken account of, or he is debarred from obtaining possession of the inner man. And therefore it would be well that, instead of passing by these considerations unnoticed, and prosecuting with exclusive attention the pure rationale of his subject, he should admit them to interfere with his progress, should implicate such of them a.-* lie nearest to his track with the train of his oI)8ervations ; sometimes with a short interruption and sus- pension of that train, in order to take in and insist on an accessory consideration which may turn the subject with a more special pointedness on the hearers than would be done ii2 100 ME. HALL'S CHAEACTER by its strictly regular prosecution. He might thus, without losing sight of the general objects of his discourse, give it a particularity, a pressure at critical points, a distinctness of arrest on the attention and conscience. Now Mr. Hall had, both by the cast of his mind and his addiction to prolonged speculative studies, an inaptitude to such a manner of preaching. His subject took the form of an intellectual theme, homogeneous, continuous, and nowhere allowing a diversion from its order, or a breaking up among its topics to turn any of them for a few moments to a peculiar and insulated use ; or admitting the intervention of anything which would bring the progress to a stand. The channel of his thoughts was so straight on, and the current so full and rapid, that there could be no refluxes and eddies. He entered on his subject with a clear prospect over it to the end ; the interest, to himself, of his movement in prosecution of it, was in throwing his mind still forward on the next succeeding part, with a propulsion augmented by each as he passed through it ; and he would have been impatient of anything that should check or turn aside his career. He could not remit and draw in, to stay awhile, so to speak, with some one important observation, to give it individually an aggravated stress, to kindle it into an intense light, deliberately held close to the minds before him, penetrating to the recesses as a trial of the spirit, revealing unsuspected, or but slightly suspected, qualities in the feelings, the motives, the habits ; and indicat- ing unthought -of relations between these and the principles of Christianity, the rules of duty, or the conditions of safety. Still pressing vigorously onward, he could not make a pause to revert unexpectedly on what he had just said ; and by an appeal to the hearers for its truth, or by a brief strong infer- ence from it, render it more impressive than it could be as hastily passing away. He could not abate his movement so as to address them with a pointed interrogation, solemn or familar in a manner as if waiting for a reply ; thus breaking in upon any tendency there might be to their yielding themselves to be carried along in a pleasing reverie of admiration and vague assent ; drawing them into something like a mental dialogue with him on the point, and awaking them to reflect whether they should make, or were making, any application of it to themselves. That extraordinary degree of withdrawment from AS A PREACHEE. 101 recognition of the local scene, when his mind was in its full race, which has been noticed before rather as a circumstance of manner than as affecting the character of his preaching, con- tributed much to what is here attempted to be described, rie did feel, I repeat, a benevolent interest for the congregation, as a general sentiment, and at times it would manifest itself expressly and even pathetically ; but I still deem it a fact, that during a large proportion of his public exercise, and especially in the seasons of highest excitement, the subject itself, in its own absorbing possession of him, was the grand interest. It was by that that he was filled, elated, and borne along, with no more than a very general consciousness of being in communi- cation with an auditory. The train of his thoughts, therefore, swept on at a certain altitude, as it were, in the air, rather than proceeded on a level and in contact with the people, in a series of arresting inculcations and inquisitions. I have said that he did not individualize human characters. While he had a deep insight into the structure of human nature as a species, his preaching would sometimes have suggested the remark that was made on a certain philosopher, that *' he understood man, but not men^* — I say his preach- ing ,\ for a different apprehension was received from his con- versation. He had been acquainted less or more with a very extensive variety of persons, including most of the differences seen in society ; had a remarkably exact remembrance of them ; and showed, by his characteristic descriptions and anecdotes, that he was not a superficial, though he was not a studiously intentional, observer. At all times he was in^' terested by facts, witnessed or related, which exemplified a) common property, or a peculiar modification, of thiis Strang^ nature of ours. It was therefore a cause of wonder, notwith- standing all that was so apparent of his habits of abstraction and generalization, that so many forms of the good and evil of humanity, accumulated within the ample magazine of his materials, should not be brought into service, divested, of course, of the peculiarities that would betray individual por- traiture, and a little idealized into representatives of classes, but still of such genuine living feature, that the people might recognise thera as things in actual existence. Forms of character thus discriminately shaped from matter of fact, would stand forth exposing what human nature is, not merely 102 MR. HALL'S CHAEACTER as a general subject for religious and moral treatment, but also in tliose special modifications to which the discipline should be applied. It may then be applied with a peculiar, and, in the hands of an able man, a striking appropriateness ; it will be seen to be fitted to the part : and there can be no question whether its force and probable eflficacy will be much in proportion to this evidently specific pertinence. By this practice he who is desirous that truth may strike, stands much nearer to his mark, leaving less room for the shaft to pass harmlessly by in a slanting direction, than if he took a general aim from a distance. Let the blended mass of human character be thus resolved into classes, not so small certainly that the address, in order to be appropriate to each, must be frittered into minute and almost trifling particulars, yet so circumscribed that it may bear on each in one definite manner, and many persons will be made to find their own place, and find themselves brought to account, who would remain quite at their ease under a theoretic generality in the administration of the religious and moral jurisdiction ; who might even approve and applaud the very lecture by which they were arraigned and condemned, in perfect impunity from any whisper of the admonition, " Thou art the man." It was to be regretted that the singularly compact conformation, and the speculative and abstract propensity, of Mr. Hall's mind, should so much have precluded his great talents and excel- lent purpose from this resource for augmenting the eflScacy of preaching. It might be anticipated from the nature of the case, and it was verified by observation, that too many of the attendants witnessed some of the brightest displays rather with the feeling of looking at a fine picture than of being confronted by a faithful mirror; and went away equally pleased w^th a preacher that was so admirable, and with themselves for having the intelligence and taste to admire him.* * A little circumstance, told me a day or two after his last sermon, ■which was considered of signal intellectual power, and which I have always regretted that I was prevented hearing, may not improperly be mentioned as somewhat in point to what is attempted in these paragraphs. The subject was the sin and absurdity of covetousness. After the service, one of the hearers observed to another, " An admirable sermon ; yet why was such a sermon preached ? For probably not one person in the con- gregation, though it is not wanting in examples of the vice in question, AS A PREACHER. 103 There was cause for observation on his manner of placing in contrast the two great divisions, the righteous and the wicked, ChriGtians and men of the world. "J'here should be some essential test of the difference ; but then what to do with all those appearances among the professedly better class, which betray so much likeness, after all, to the worse? Nothing can be more perplexing to a thoughtful beholder of men as they are, who, in disregard of all system, must take these signs for what they plainly import ; and what they plainly import is, that whatever be the essentially distinguishing principle of the separation, there are, in numbers whom he may not in a judgment of charity pronounce to be no Christians, many grievous and habitual approximations to those who confessedly are none. At times, the whole subject will almost assume under his view, the appearance of an affair oi^ gradation, from the maximum on one side, and the minimum on the other, di- vided by no wide interval at the point of approach. If he be a public teacher of religion, and in that capacity under a solemn responsibility for the estimates to be entertained of the Chris- tian character, and of themselves, by his hearers, he will have a severe exercise for his caution and discrimination. He may would take the discourse as at all applicable to himself." The preacher had employed his whole force on the love of money as a pure and absolute principle. The person who made the remark meant to say that hardly iny one will acknowledge to be, or indeed is conscious of being, actuated by this pure absolute principle, however tenacious of his money, or insa- tiably grasping at more. No : the passion enslaves and befools him under secondary and more plausible forms. He wishes to have the means of setting his family advantageously forward in the world ; he says so, and thinks so, even though possibly unwilling to do anything for them as yet. It is desirable to have the means of maintaining a respectable station in society. It is gratifying to be looked up to with the deference univer- sally shown to wealth. Perhaps the man has had experience of straitened circumstances in early life, and cannot make too sure against its recur- rence. There is much liability to hazard and losses, and it is prudent to be well provided. It would be a miserable thing to suffer penury in old age. Now, an invective against the love of money, to be practically use- ful would seize and expose it in those modes of its operation, under which it hides or palliates its true quality, and beguiles out of all self- suspicion the most desperate idolater of Mammon. A lecture on cove- tousness, which should concentrate its whole rebuke on the love of money taken abstractedly, might even do mischief; for every hearer who could say he did not so love money, would confidently infer that therefore he vas not guilty of coTetousness. 104 MR. HALL'S CHARACTER overlook, if he will, the unhappy mixture and competition of evil with the good in the better division of actual human cha- racters ; and indulge himself in the pleasure of constructing and setting up an image, not like that visionary one, from whose golden head there was a deterioration of materials down- ward to the baseness of clay, but wholly of gold, the ideal of all the Christian graces and virtues assembled in harmony and perfection. But to what end? Is it that the people, when they recover themselves to consideration, may, with grief on the part of the pious and benevolent, and with malignant pleasure on the part of the profane, adjudge the greater pro- portion of those who have a general acceptance as religious persons, not to be truly such ? Or is it, that persons sincerely intent on religion, actuated in some considerable degree by its spirit, but painfully conscious of a vast disparity to the pattern so splendidly exhibited, should therefore resign them- selves to despondency ? Or what else ? What else ? — unless, after looking up to this consummate pattern, the teacher, taking a descending track of thought, shall exert his best judgment to show, through several degrees cautiously followed downward, how the genuine principle may exist where there is much at variance with it ; insisting at each grade, on the manner in which it is essential for that principle to act, in proof that it is really there notwithstanding the offensive things that keep their place with it ; and solemnly protesting against the fatal propensity to find a ground of safety at the last lowest point at which it may be hoped that the principle may still be not absolutely incompatible with that with which it is in- consistent. It appeared a serious defect in Mr. Hall's preaching, that he practically took on him too little of this responsibility. In temporary oblivion of the rule that theoretic description should keep existing fact so much in view that a right adjustment may be made between them, he would expatiate in eloquent latitude on the Christian character, bright and " full-orbed " in all its perfections, of contempt of the world, victory over temptation, elevated devotion, assimilation to the divine image, zeal for the divine glory, triumphant faith, expansive charity, sanctity of life ; without an intimation, at the time or afterwards, that all this, so sublime if it were realized, so obligatory as the attainment toward which a Christian should AS A PREACHER. 105 be, at whatever distance, aspiring, is yet unhappily to be sub- jected, on belialf of our poor nature, to a cautious discussion of modifications and degrees; especially when the anxious question conies to be. What deficiencies prove a man to be 710 Christian ? Now a hearer, left to some coolness of thought, was tempted to say to himself, What do the people think of this ? — if indeed they do think, if they be not beguiled away from reflection. How does it strike the many persons in this large assembly, who, respectable perhaps as men of the world, make no pretension to what is meant by personal religion ; and how those others who despise or hate it, and would hardly endure to hear any thing about it but for the sake of the eloquence which they think might have been more worthily employed ?* Are they, in imagination, carrying out this brilliant picture for test, or contrast, into the real world, where they have observed and descried, with no little vigi- lance, the culpable tempers, habits, and proceedings, the inconsistencies, weaknesses, and errors, of many whom the preacher himself would be the last man to pronounce alto- gether destitute of piety ? But if they do make this invidious use of the description, will they not with pernicious self- complacency assume, not exactly, perhaps, that tlie whole affair is altogether a fable, but that, unless there be super- emphatically " few that be saved," tiiat if these sadly defective Christians may nevertheless be finally safe, there must, after all, be a standard so much more accommodating to human nature as it is, than that implied in the preacher's repre- sentation, as to allow a confidence that tliey are not even themselves in any formidable danger ; since they only share the faults, they will say, and without making the high pre- tensions, of these professed Christians. Why let them go off with this mischievous assumption ? And how does it strike the persons here, who stand in the recognized accepted class of the religious ? Have they, while hearing this elevated strain, any such thing as reflection oc * I recollect the instance of a gentleman expressing, at the conclusion of the public service, the highest admiration of the preacher, and adding, ♦• What a pity Mr. Hall's great talents had not been destined to the Bar or the House of Commons, where he would have made so capital a ' I" 106 MR. HALL'S CHAEACTER themselves ? Is their conscience lulled by what might seem adapted in all reason to alarm it? Have they no secret monition — are the very serpents themselves that infest a corrupt and but imperfectly renovated nature, so charmed into stillness that there is no consciousness — of many things which this grand exemplar shines but to expose and condemn ? What ! is there no internal voice to accuse them, any of thera, of such things as a proneness to an excessive love of the world, as coldness of devotion, reluctance of duty, insubor- dination to the divine will, lapses into a besetting sin, the indulgence of evil tempers, selfish competition with fellow- mortals, frequent forgetfulness of hereafter? If there be not ; if their admiration of the beautiful image of Christian excellence in the abstract carry them away from all con- sciousness of what is unlike it in themselves, it is quite time to come down to a mode of address that shall turn their thoughts homeward, and bring them into a consideration of what they are virtually doing in admiring such a model ; shall excite them to reflect, if they so admire one and another feature of it, what they should think of this and the other characteristic where the correspondence is to be sought in their own actual condition. It would be well to bring them to the questions of, What is the difference? and. Why such a difference? an-d What would be the right feeling under the self-conviction of such a difference ? Let them not be suffered to regard this bright model merely as the ideal re- presentation of something so unattainable on earth, that they are absolved from any serious consideration whether, and how, they have formed a judgment of what is attainable and must be attained ; what they are really wishing to attain ; what they think they have attained ; why it is no more ; what are the conscious evils yet unsubdued ; what they deem the proportion of those evils to be to the better part ; how they measure that proportion, and ascertain the predominance of the good ; and whether they be disposed to content them- selves with that state of the case. But if, on the contrary, this bright exhibition of the Christian character, instead of playing harmlessly over them like an aurora borealis, has sent its rays deeply into their soul, and is bringing more plainly to their own view the evils lurking there, the sinful propensities, the spiritual dis- AS A PREACHER. 107 orders of whatever class, with the addition of the moral and practical ones resulting externally, in wiiat manner are they adjusting tliat very serious contrast, so as to maintain a con- fidence that, nevertheless, on the whole the case is safe ? No doubt it must be, by making very large allowances for the sad imperfection of our nature. But would it not be well for the Ctiristian instructor to endeavour to take that some- what liazardous process out of the hands of their self-love, by interfering himself in the adjudication of what may be con- ceded to a fallen nature, on sucli conditions as shall not essen> tially invalidate the demands of religion. As the last observation I would take the liberty to make, I may note the same prevailing inadvertence to the realities of life in Mr. Hall's manner of representing the happiness conferred by religion ; premising, as a thing somewhat of a piece with this particular, that he would sometimes indulge in language hardly consonant to either theory or experience in what it seemed to imply of the facility of entering, by a tran- sition of spirit and action, on the Christian life. I will confess he did appear to me, in reference to this matter, to lose sight too much, when he surrendered himself to the animated cur- rent of his sentiments, of the desperate and obstinate alienation of the human soul from its Creator. It was not that he did not most fully believe this to be the condition of our nature, on the evidence of both Scripture and notorious fact ; or that he did not hold, according to the strictest Calvinistic construc- tion, the doctrine of a necessity of a special divine agency for men's conversion to a new spiritual state ; but that, when his mind was kindled at the attraction and glories of religion, he would forget, for the time, both how lost are those attractions on a corrupt nature, and what a dreadful combination of in- fluences there is to retain it in its aversion. But, to revert to the specific topic, the representation of the happiness of the Christian character. He would describe, with a prolonged effusion of beautiful sentiment and language, the delightful confidence in the divine favour, the harmony and communion of the pious spirit with its God and Saviour, the independence on sublunary things, the su- periority to the cares and distractions of life, the serenity of trust in Providence under the greatest trials or most menacing presages, the cordial invariable acquiescence in 108 MR. HALL'S CHARACTEE the divine dispensations, the victory over the fear of death, the unclouded prospect into eternity. Now it needs not be said that such would be the felicities of a condition exalted to the absolute perfection of Christianity ; or that the religious instructor should point to these elevations as the eminence toward which it is the tendency of religion to carry upward the human spirit, and toward which a Christian is to aspire, however remote his utmost ascent may be from reaching it. He may do well to cite from the memorials of good men, some of the examples most remarkably approach- ing to a practical evidence, that such is the felicity which it is in the nature of religion to impart. And he will have at once to reprove those w^ho, regarding such a privileged ex- istence as something like a visionary scene suspended in the sky, rather than a state partially attainable by mortals, are resting with a dull acquiescence in a poverty of religious enjoyment; and to console and animate those whose earnest aspirations are repressed by the consciousness how little they attain. But if, in describing the happiness of a Christian, he take it at its highest degree, to which the experience of the most devout men has risen only at some favoured seasons (at least if they had much to do with the world's concerns), and spread out the representation in imagery, all formed of the finest elements, omitting to advert in the most express manner as an indispensable part of his business, to the actual state of good men, so beset and overrun with things which deny them to be so happy, it would be inevitable for the supposed cool-minded hearer to have his thoughts once more looking off to matters of fact. He would say to him- self, " It may be taken as certain, that many among the sincere Christians in this assembly are in circumstances which must make them listen to this unqualified repre- sentation with pain or with incredulity. Some of them are harassed, without the possibility of escape, by the state ol their worldly affairs ; perhaps oppressed by disasters under which their fortitude shrinks, or seeing the approach of such as no prudence or effort can avail to prevent ; anxiously awaiting a critical turn of events ; vexed beyond the patience of Job by the untowardness, selfishness, or dishonesty encoun- tered in their transactions. Some are enduring the cares and liardships of poverty ; and thinking how much more easy is AS A PREACHER. 109 the eloquent inculcation, than the reduction to practice, of the precept to * take no thought for the morrow.' Some are dis- tressed by bad dispositions among their nearest kindred ; perhaps by anticipations, grievous in proportion to their piety, of the conduct and ultimate destiny of their children. Some may have come here for an hour who are fixed in the sad situation of witnessing the slow but certain progress of persons, whose life is on all accounts most important to them, in a descent toward the grave. Some are experiencing, while strenuously maintaining, a severe conflict between the good and evil in their own minds. Some may be in mortifying recollection of lapses into which they have been betrayed. Some are of melancholic temperament ; and while striving to keep hold of their faith and hope, are apt to see whatever concerns their welfare in an unfavourable view in every direction, and espe- cially in looking forward to death. Some, of contemplative disposition, are often oppressed, even to a degree of danger to their piety, by the gloom which involves the economy of the world, where moral evil has been predominant through all the course of time. In short, it is probable that the much larger proportion of the religious persons now present are in no con- dition to allow a possibility of their yielding themselves in s}'mpathy with the spirit of this celebration of the happiness of religion. Would it not, then, be a more useful manner of illustrating this subject, to carry it into a trial on the actual circumstances of the Christian life ; to place it, with appro- priate discriminations, by the side of the real situations of good men ; to show that, notwithstanding all, religion can insure a preponderance of happiness ; to demonstrate hoiv it can do so ; to point out the most efficacious means, in each case respectively, and urge their diligent use ; to suggest con- solations for deficient success, with a note of admonition respecting such of its causes as require that reproof be mixed with encouragement ? all the while keeping in view that con- dition of our existence on earth, which renders it inevitable that the happiness created even by religion, for the men most fiiithfully devoted to it, should not be otherwise than greatly incomplete ?" These observations have grown to a length beyond my no MR. HALL'S CHARACTER intention or expectation ; and I should have been better pleased if I could have felt assured, that a far less protracted criticism might suffice for an intelligible description of the nature and operation of certain things, in the character of Mr. Hall's ministration, which I had presumed to think not adapted, in the proportion of its eminent intellectual supe- riority, to practical effect. It is not to be exacted of the greatest talents that they have an equal aptitude to two widely different modes of operation. Nor is any invidious comparison to be made between the respective merits of excelling in the one and in the other. But, indeed, it were impossible to make any comparative esti- mate that should be invidious to Mr. Hall, if the question were of intellect, considered purely as a general element of strength. To attain high excellence in the manner of preaching which I have indicated as what might be a more useful one than his, though it require a clear-sighted faculty disciplined in vigilant and various exercise, is within the competence of a mind of much more limited energy and reach than Mr. Hall's power and range of speculative thought. At the same time it is not to be denied, that such a mode of conduct- ing the ministration, whatever were the talents employed, were they even of the highest order, would demand a much more laborious and complicated process than it cost our great preacher to produce his luminous expositions of Christian doctrine, with those eloquent, but too general, practical applications into which the discussion changed toward the close. Indeed, there is reason to believe that, besides the circumstances which I have noted as indisposing and partly unfitting him to adapt his preaching discriminatively to the states and characters of men as they are, another pre- venting cause was a repugnance to the kind and degree of labour required in such an operation. For some passages found in his writings appear to prove that his conception of the most effective manner of preaching was very considerably different from his general practice.* I repeat, his general * Several paragraphs might be cited from his sermon on the ' Dis- couragements and Supports of the Christian Minister.' I will transcribe two or three sentences. " The epidemic malady of our nature assumes so many shapes, and AS A PREACHER. Ill practice ; for it would be wrong to dismiss these comments without observing that he did, sometimes, discuss and illustrate a topic in a special and continued application to circumstances in the plain reality of men's condition. And when he did so it was with striking and valuable effect. I shall, for instance, never forget the admiration with which I heard a sermon, chiefly addressed to the young, from the text, " For every *' appears under such a variety of symptoms, that these may be considered " as so many distinct diseases, which demand a proportionate variety in " the method of treatment Without descending to such a minute " specification of circumstances as shall make our addresses personal, they " ought unquestionably to be characteristic ; that the conscience of the " audience may feel the hand of the preacher searching it, and every " individual know where to class himself. The preacher who aims at " doing good, will endeavour, above all things, to insulate his hearers, to " place each of them apart, and render it impossible for him to escape by ** losing himself in the crowd. . . . . It is thus the Christian Minister " should endeavour to prepare the tribunal of conscience, and turn the eyes " of every one of his hearers on himself." To the same effect, there are several pages of advice to preachers, in the 'Fragment on Village Preaching.' The value of the whole section will be but partially apprehended from the following extracts. " A notion prevails among some, that to preach the Gospel includes " nothing more than a recital or recapitulation of the peculiar doctrines " of Christianity. If these are firmly believed and zealously embraced, ♦♦ they are ready to believe the work is done, and that all the virtues of the " Christian character will follow by necessary consequence. Hence they " satisfy themselves with recommending holiness in general terms, without " entenng into its particular duties ; and this in such a manner as rather " to predict it as the result of certain opinions, than to enforce it on the "ground of moral obligation The conscience is not likely to be " touched by general declamations on the evil of sin and the beauty of " holiness, without delineation of character He must know little of '* human nature who perceives not the callousness of the human heart, and " the perfect indifierence with which it can contemplate the most alarming " truths when they are presented in a general abstract form. It is not in " this way that religious instruction can be made permanently interesting. " It is when particular vices are displayed as they appear in real life, •* when the arts of self-deception are detected, and the vain excuses by " which a sinner palliates his guilt, evades the conviction of conscience, and " secures a delusive tranquillity : in a word, it is when the heart is forced ♦* to see in itself the original of what is described by the apostle; and, " perceiviug that the secrets of his heart are made manifest, he falls down, ** and confesses that God is among us of a truth. The reproof which ♦' awakened David from his guilty slumber, and made him weep and " tremble, turned not on the general evil of sin, but on the peculiar cir- ** cumstances of aggravation, attending that which he had committed." 112 ME. HALL'S CHAEACTEE thing there is a time." Nothing could exceed the accuracy of delineation and the felicitous management of language with which he marked the circumstances, conjectures, and temptations of real life ; the specific interests, duties, dangers, vices ; the consequences in futurity of early wisdom or folly ; and the inseparable relation of every temporal and moral in- terest to religion ; with an inculcation of which, conceived in faithful appropriateness to the preceding topics, he closed in an effusion of what merited to be irresistible pathos.* Ser- mons of a tenour to class them with this were heard at in- tervals, not so wide but that the number might be somewhat coHsiderable within the space of two or three years. It should be observed, however, that their construction was still not wholly diverse from his general manner. The style of address was not marked by rises and falls ; did not alternate between familiarity and magisterial dignity; was not modified by varying impulses into a strain which, as was said of Chatham's eloquence, was of every kind by turns. It was sustained, un- intermitted, of unrelaxing gravity, in one order of language, and after a short progress from the commencement, con- stantly rapid in delivery. But still those sermons were cast in the best imaginable compromise between, on the one hand, the theoretic speculation and high-pitched rhetoric to which he was addicted, and, on the other, that recognition of what men actually are in situation and character, to which his mind did not so easily descend. They were the sermons which the serious and intelligent hearers regretted that people of every class, in many times the number of the actual congregation, should not have the benefit of hearing ; and which it is now their deep and unavailing regret that he could not be induced to render a lasting, I might say a perennial, source of utility to the public. I cannot be aware whether the opinions, or feelings less definite than opinions, of readers who have had the advantage of hearing Mr. Hall, will coincide with the observations ven- tured in these latter pages. Those who have heard him but * One of the reported sermons in the sixth volume of his works, that on the * Love of God/ is a remarkable example of specific illustration pointedly applied. AS A PEEACHEE. 113 very occasionally, will be incompetent judges of their propriety. I remember that at a time very long since, when I had not heard more perhaps than three or four of his sermons, I did not apprehend the justness, or, indeed, very clearly the import, of a remark on that characteristic of his preaching which I have attempted to describe, when made to me by his warm friend, and most animated admirer. Dr. Ryland ; who said that Mr. Hall's preaching had, with an excellence in some respects unrivalled, the fault of being too genet al^ and he con- trasted it with that of Mr. Hall's father, v/ho had erred on the side of a too minute particularity. But whether these strictures be admitted or questioned, I will confidently take credit with every candid reader for having, as in the character of historian, and disclaiming the futile office of panegyrist, deliberately aimed at a faithful description of this memorable preacher, as he appeared during that latter period of his public ministrations, to which my opportunity of frequent attendance on them has unfortunately been confined. I can hardly think it should be necessary to protest against such a misunderstanding of these latter pages as should take them to imply that Mr. Hall's preaching was not eminently useful, notwithstanding those qualities of it which tended to prevent its being so in full proportion to the mighty force of mind which it displayed. Its beneficial effect is testified by the experience of a multitude of persons, of various orders of character. Intelligent, cultivated, and inquiring young per- sons, some of them favourably inclined to religion, but repelled by the uncouth phraseology and the meanness and trite com- mon-place illustration in which they had unfortunately seen it presented ; some of them under temptations to scepticism ami others to a rejection of some essential principle of Christianity, were attracted and arrested by a lucid and convincing exhi- bition of divine truth. Men of literature and talents, ancT men of the world who were not utterly abandoned to impiety and profligacy, beheld religion set forth with a vigour and a lustre, and with an earnest sincerity infinitely foreign to all mere professional display, which once more showed religion worthy to command, and fitted to elevate the most powerful minds ; which augmented the zeal of the faithful among those superior spirits, and sometimes constrained the others to say, ^ Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.'' Men of' I 114 MR. HALL'S CHAEACTEE sectarian spirit were cheated of a portion of their bigotry, or forced into a consciousness that they ought to be ashamed of it. And, as a good of a more diffusive kind, numbers of people of the common order were held under a habitual impression of the importance of religion ; and the enumeration would, I be- lieve, be very considerable, if it could be made, of individuals indebted to his ministry for those effectual convictions which have resulted in their devotement to God, and their happiness in life and death. It is very possible that the latter part of these observations may be deemed erroneous or exaggerated by some persons, on a mere general presumption that in such pre-eminent excel- lence, so universally acknowledged, there could not be any considerable defects. But at all events, and whatever the just exception may be to an unqualified eulogy, it is exactly by those whose discernment the least permitted them to be undiscriminating in their admiration, that the deepest regret is felt for the departure of that great and enlightened spirit. The crude admiration which can make no distinctions never renders justice to what is really great. The colossal form is seen through a mist, dilated perhaps, but obscured and unde- fined, instead of standing forth conspicuous in its massive solidity and determinate lineaments and dimensions. The less confused apprehension of the object verifies its magnitude while perceiving its clear line of circumscription. The per- sons who could see where Mr. Hall's rare excellence had a limit short of the ideal perfection of a preacher, would, by the same judgment, form the justest and the highest estimate of the offerings which, in his person, reason and genius conse- crated to religion — of the force of evidence with which he maintained its doctrines, of the solemn energy with which he urged its obligations, and of the sublimity with which he dis- played its relations and prospects. By those persons the loss is reflected on with a sentiment peculiar to the event, never experienced before, nor to be expected in any future instance. The removal of any worthy minister, while in full possession and activity of his faculties, is a mournful occurrence ; but there is the consideration that many such remain, and that perhaps an equal may follow where the esteemed instructor is withdrawn. But the feeling in the present instance is of a la 3 altogether irreparable. AS A PREACHER. 115 The cultivated portion of the hearers have a sense of privation partaking of desolateness. An animating influence that per- vaded, and enlarged, and raised their minds, is extinct. While ready to give due honour to all valuable preachers, and know- ing that the lights of religious instruction will still shine with useful lustre, and new ones continually rise, they involuntarily and pensively turn to look at the last fading colours in the distance where the greater luminary is set. CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH A LOVE OF FREEDOM BEING AN ANSWER TO A SERMON, LATELY PUBLISHED, BY THE REV. JOHN CLAYTON. [Published ik 1791.] PREFACE. It may be proper just to remark, that the animadversions I have made on Mr. Clayton's Sermon did not arise from my conviction of there being any thing even of plausibility in his reasonings, but from an apprehension that certain accidental and occasional prejudices might give some degree of weight to one of the weakest defences of a bad cause that was ever undertaken. I have taken up more time in showing that there is no proper connexion between the Unitarian doctrine and the principles of liberty than the subject may seem to require ; but this will not be thought superfluous by those who recol- lect that that idea seems to be the great hinge of Mr. Clayton's discourse, and that it appears amongst the orthodox part of the dissenters to have been productive already of unhappy effects. I bhall only add, that these remarks would have ap- peared much sooner but for severe indisposition, and that I was induced to write them chiefly from a persuasion that they might perhaps, in the present instance, have somewhat of ad- ditional weight as coming from one M'ho is not an Unitaricin* Cambridge, Sept. 17, 1791. NOTE BY THE EDITOR. * Christianity consistent with a Love of Freedom' was written when Mr. Hall was twenty-seven years of age ; and he never would consent to its re-publication. He continued to think the main principles correct and important ; but he regarded the tone of animadversion as severe, sarcastic, and unbecoming. Three or four editions have, however, been printed surreptitiously ; and one of them, which now lies before me, is so complete an imitation of the original edition of 1 79 1, as usually to escape detection. It is printed with an old-fashioned type, and on dingy-coloured paper, to suit its assumed age. But on comparing it closely with the genuine edition, I find that three of the capital letters, on different pages, have too modern and broad a face ; and, on holding up the paper on which it is printed to a strong light, I perceive a water-mark which gives the date 1818 to the paper of a pamphlet which purports to be printed in 1791 ! If any of even the lowest class of booksellers will have recourse to such contemptible forgeries as this, an author is evidently no longer master of his intellectual property, nor can he when he pleases withdraw it from the public eye. This, though one of the earliest productions laid by Mr. Hall before the public, is, with the exception already adverted to, by no means calcu- lated to deteriorate his reputation. It contains some powerful reasoning as well as some splendid passages, and the concluding four or five pages exhibit a fine specimen of that union of severe taste, and lofty genius, and noble sentiment, which is evinced, I think, more frequently in his com- positions than in those of any other modern author. I have no fear of incurring blame for having cancelled throughout the name of the individual against whom Mr. Hall's strictures were levelled. Venerable for his age, and esteemed for his piety, who would now volun- tarily cause him, or those who love him, a pang ?* Royal Military Academy, June 1, 1831. * As the name is now pretty generally known, and the distance of the event removes all personal feelings, there appears no reason why it should be suppressed in the present edition. It is " The Reverend John Clayton," at that time minister of the Weigh House, Eastcheap. — Publisher. CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH A LOVE OF FREEDOxM, &c. &c. This is a period distinguished for extraordinary occurrences, whether we contemplate the world under its larger divisions, or in respect to those smaller communities and parties, into which it is broken and divided. We have lately witnessed, with astonishment and regret, the attempts of a celebrated orator to overthrow the principles of freedom, which he had rendered himself illustrious by defending; as well as to cover with reproach the characters of those by whom, in the earlier part of life, he was most caressed and distinguished. The success of these efforts is pretty generally known, and is such as it might have been expected would have been sufficient to deter from similar attempts. But we now behold a dissenting minister coming forth to the public under the character of a flatterer of power, and an accuser of his brethren. If the splendid eloquence that adorns every part of Mr. Burkf/s celebrated book cannot shelter the author from confutation, and his system from contempt, Mr. Clayton, with talents far inferior, has but little to expect in the same cause. It is not easy to conceive the motives which could impel him to publish his sermon. From his owq account it should seem he was anxious to disabuse the legislature, and to convince them thC^re are many amongst the dissenters who highly dis- approve the sentiments and conduct of the more patriotic part of their brethren. How far he may be qualified from his talents or connexions, as a mouth, to declare the sentiments of any considerable portion of the dissenters, I shall not pre- tend to decide ; but shall candidly confess, there are not want- ing amongst us persons who are ready upon all occasions to oppose those principles on which the very existence of our dissent is founded. Every party will have its apostates of this kind ; it is our consolation, however, that their numbers are comparatively small, that they are generally considered 122 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH as our reproach, and that their conduct is in a great measure the effect of necessity, as they consist almost entirely of per- sons who can only make themselves heard by confusion and discord. If our author wishes to persuade the legislature the friends of arbitrary power are conspicuous for their number or their rank in the dissenting interest, he has most effectually defeated his own intentions, as scarce any thing could give them a meaner opinion of that 'party, in both these respects, Aan this publication of its champion. The sermon he has obtruded upon the public is filled with paradoxes of so sin- gular a complexion, and so feebly supported, that I find it difficult to lay hold of any thing in the form of argument, with sufficient steadiness for the purpose of discussion. I shall endeavour, however, with as much distinctness as I am able, to select the fundamental principles on which the discourse rests, and shall attempt, as I proceed, to demonstrate their falsehood and danger. Our author's favourite maxim is the inconsistency of the Christian profession with political science, and the certain injury its spirit and temper must sustain from every kind of interference with the affairs of government. Political subjects he considers as falling within the peculiar province of the irreligious ; ministers, in particular, he maintains, should ever observe, amidst the concussions of party, an entire neu- trality ; or if at any time they depart from their natural line of conduct, it should only be in defence of the measures of government, in allaying dissensions, and in convincing the people they are incompetent judges of their rights. These are the servile maxims that run through the whole of this extraordinary discourse; and, that I may give a kind of method to the following observations upon them, I shall show in the first place the relation Christianity bears to civil government, and its consistency with political discussion, as conducted either by ordinary Christians or ministers ; in the next place, I shall examine some of the pretences on which the author founds his principles. Section I. On the Duty of common Christians in Relation to Civil Polity, The momentous errors Mr. Clayton has committed ap- A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 123 pear to me to have arisen from an inattention to the proper design of Christianity, and the place and station it was intended to occupy. On this subject I beg the reader's attention to the following remarks : — 1st. Christianity was subsequent to the existence and cre- ation of man. It is an institution intended to improve and ennoble our nature, not by subverting its constitution or its powers, but by giving us a more enlarged view of the designs of Providence, and opening a prospect into eternity. As the existence of man is not to be dated from the publication of Christianity, so neither is that order of things that flows from his relation to the present world altered or impaired by that divine system of religion. Man, under the Christian dispen- sation, is not a new structure erected on the ruin of the for- mer ; he may rather be compared to an ancient fabric restored, when it had fallen into decay, and beautified afresh by the hand of its original founder. Since Christianity has made its appearance in the world, he has continued the same kind of being he was before, fills the same scale in the order of ex- istence, and is distinguished by the same propensities and powers. In short, Christianity is not a reorganization of the prin- ciples of man, but an institution for his improvement. Hence it follows, that whatever rights are founded on the constitu- tion of human nature, cannot be diminished or impaired by the introduction of revealed religion, which occupies itself entirely on the interests of a future world, and takes no share in the concer^.^ of the present in any other light than as it is a state of preparation and trial. Christianity is a discovery of a future life, and acquaints us with the means by which its happiness may be secured ; civil government is altogether an affair of the present state, and is no more than a provision of human skill, designed to ensure freedom and tranquillity during our continuance on this temporary stage of existence. Between institutions so diflferent in their nature and their object, it is plain no real opposition can subsist ; and if ever they are represented in this light, or held inconsistent with each other, it must proceed from an ignorance of their respect- ive genius and functions. Our relation to this world demands the existence of civil government ; our relation to a future renders us dependent on the aid of the Christian institution ; 124 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH SO that in reality there is no kind of contrariety between them, but each may continue without interference in its full opera- tion. Mr. Clayton, however, in support of his absurd and pernicious tenets, always takes care to place civil government and Christianity in opposition, whilst he represents the former as carrying in it somewhat antichristian and profane. Thus he informs us, that civil government is a stage, erected on which, man acts out his character, and shows great depravity of heart. All interference in political parties he styles an alliance with the world, a neglecting to maintain our separa- tion^ and to stand upon our own hallowed ground. There is one way, says he, by which he means to insinuate there is only one, in which you may all interfere in the government of your country, and that is by prayer to God, by ivhom kings reign. These passages imply that the principles of civil polity and religion must be at perpetual variance, as without this supposition, unsupported as it is in fact, they can have no force or meaning. 2nd. Mr. Clayton misleads his reader by not distinguishing the innocent entertainments or social duties of our nature from those acts of piety which fall within the immediate pro- vince of Christianity. The employments of our particular calling, the social ties and endearments of life, the improvement of the mind by liberal inquiry, and the cultivation of science and of art, form, it is true, no part of the Christian system, for they flourished before it was known ; but they are intimately connected with the happiness and dignity of the human race. A Christian should act ever consistent with his profession, but he need not always be attending to the peculiar duties of it. The profession of religion does not oblige us to relinquish any undertaking on account of its being worldly, for we must then go out of the world ; it is sufficient, that every thing in which we engage is of such a nature as will not violate the prm- ciples of virtue, or occupy so much of our time or attention as may interfere with more sacred and important duties. Mr. Clayton observes, Jesus Christ uniformly waived interesting himself in temporal affairs, especially in the con- cerns of the then existing government ; and hence he draws a precedent to regulate the conduct of his followers. That our Saviour did not intermeddle with the policy of nations I am A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 125 as willing as our author to admit ; for the improvement of this, any more than any other science which might be ex- tremely short and defective, formed no part of his mission, and was besides rendered quite unnecessary by that energy of mind which, prompted by curiosity, by our passions and our wants, will ever be abundantly sufficient to perpetuate and refine every civil or human institution. He never intended that his followers, on becoming Christians, should forget they were men, or consider themselves as idle or uninterested spectators on the great theatre of life. The author's selection of proofs is almost always unhappy, but in no instance more than the present, when he attempts to establish his doctrine of the un}awfulness of a Christian interfering in the adminis- tration of government on our Saviour's silence respecting it, a circumstance of itself sufficient to support a quite contrary conclusion ; for if it had been his intention to discountenance the studv of political subjects, he would have furnished us, without doubt, with some general regulations, some stated form of policy, which should for ever preclude the necessity of such discussion ; or, if that were impracticable, have let us into the great secret of living without government ; or, lastly, have supplied its place by a theocracy similar to that of the Jews. Nothing of this has he accomplished, and we may therefore rest assured the political affairs of nations are suffered to remain in their ancient channels, and to be conducted as occasions may arise, by Christians or by others, without dis- tinction. 3rd. The principles of freedom ought, in a more peculiar manner, to be cherished by Christians, because they alone can secure that liberty of conscience, and freedom of inquiry, which is essential to the proper discharge of the duties of their profession. A full toleration of religious opinions, and the protection of all parties in their respective modes of worship, are the natural operations of a free government ; and every thing that tends to check or restrain them, materially affects the interests of religion. Aware of the force of religious belief over the mind of man, of the generous independence it inspires, and of the eagerness with which it is cherished and maintained, it is towards this quarter the arm of despotism first directs its attacks, while through every period the imagi- nary right of ruling the conscience has been the earliest as- 126 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH sumed, and the latest relinquished. Under this conviction, an enlightened Christian, when he turns his attention to poli- tical occurrences, will rejoice in beholding every advance towards freedom in the government of nations, as it forms not only a barrier to the encroachments of tyranny, but a security to the diffusion and establishment of truth. A con- siderable portion of personal freedom may be enjoyed, it is true, under a despotic government, or, in other words, a great part of human actions may be left uncontrolled ; but with this an enlightened mind will never rest satisfied, because it is at best but an indulgence flowing from motives of policy, or the lenity of the prince, which may be at any time with- drawn by the hand that bestowed it. Upon the same prin- ciples, religious toleration may have an accidental and pre- carious existence in states whose policy is the most arbitrary ; but, in such a situation, it seldom lasts long, and can never rest upon a secure and permanent basis, disappearing for the most part along with those temporary views of interest or policy, on which it was founded. The history of every age will attest the truth of this observation. Mr. Clayton, in order to prepare us to digest his principles, tells us in the first page of his discourse, that the gospel dis- pensation is spiritual, the ivorship it enjoins simple and easy, and if liberty of conscience he granted^ all its exterior order may be regarded under every kind of human government. This is very true, but it is saying no more than that the Christian worship may be always carried on, if it is not interrupted ; a point, I presume, no one will contend with him. The question is, can every form of government furnish a security for liberty of conscience ; or, which is the same thing, can the rights of private judgment be safe under a government whose professed principle is, that the subject has no rights at all, but is a vassal dependent on his superior lord. Nor is this a futile or chimerical question ; it is founded upon fact. The state to which it alludes is the condition at present of more than half the nations of Europe ; and if there were no better patriots than this author, it would soon be the condition of them all. The blessings which we estimate highly we are naturally eager to perpetuate, and whoever is acquainted with the value of religious freedom, will not be content to suspend it on the clemency of a prince, the indulgence of ministers, or A LOVE OF FREEDOM, 127 the liberality of bishops, if ever such a thing existed ; he will never think it secure till it has a constitutional basis ; nor even then, till by the general spread of its principles, every individual becomes its guarantee, and every arm ready to be lifteil up in its defence. Forms of policy may change, or they may survive the spirit that produced them ; but when the seeds of knowledge have been once sown, and have taken root in the human mind, they will advance with a steady growth, and even flourish in those alarming scenes of anarchy and confusion, in which the settled order and regular machinery of government are wrecked and disappear. Christianity, we see, then, instead of weakening our attach- ment to the principles of freedom, or withdrawing them from our attention, renders them doubly dear to us, by giving us an interest in them, proportioned to the value of those religious privileges which they secure and protect. Our author endeavours to cast reproach on the advocates for liberty, by attempting to discredit their piety, for which purpose he assures us, to be active in this cause is disreputable, and brings the reality of our religion into just suspicion. Who are the persons, he asks, (hat embark ? Are they the spiritual, humble, and useful teachers, who travail in birth, till Christ be formed in the hearts of their hearers .^ No. They are philosophical opposers of the grand peculiarities of Christianity. It is of little consequence of what descriptions of persons the friends of freedom consist, provided their prin- ciples are just, and their arguments well founded; but here, as in other places, the author displays an utter ignorance of facts. Men wlio know no age but their own, must draw their precedents from it; or, if Mr. Clayton had glanced only towards the history of England, he must have remembered, that in the reigns of Charles the First and Second, the chief friends of freedom were the puritans, of whom many were republicans, and the remainder zealously attached to a limited monarchy. It is to the distinguished exertions of this party we are in a great measure indebted for the preservation of our free and happy constitution. In those distracted and tur- bulent times which preceded the restoration of Charles the Second, the puritans, who to a devotion the most fervent united an eager attachment to the doctrines of grace, as they are commouly called, displayed on every occasion a love of 128 CHEISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH freedom, pushed almost to excess ; whilst the cavaliers, their opponents, who ridiculed all that was serious, and, if they had any religion at all, held sentiments directly repugnant to the tenets of Calvin, were the firm supporters of arbitrary- power. If the unitarians, then, are at present distinguished for their zeal in the cause of freedom, it cannot be imputed to any alliance between their religious and political opi- nions, but to the conduct natural to a minority, who, at- tempting bold innovations, and maintaining sentiments very different from those which are generally held, are sensible they can only shelter themselves from persecution and reproach, and gain an impartial hearing from the public, by throwing down the barriers of prejudice, and claiming an unlimited freedom of thought. 4th. Though Christianity does not assume any immediate direction in the affairs of government, it inculcates those duties, and recommends that spirit, which will ever prompt us to cherish the principles of freedom. It teaches us to check every selfish passion, to consider ourselves as parts of a great community, and to abound in all the fruits of an active bene- volence. The particular operation of this principle will be regulated by circumstances as they arise, but our obligation to cultivate it is clear and indubitable. As this author does not pretend that the nature of a government has no connexion with the felicity of those who are the subjects of it, he cannot without the utmost inconsistence deny, that to watch over the interests of our fellow creatures in this respect is a branch of the great duty of social benevolence. If we are bound to protect a neighbour, or even an enemy, from violence, to give him raiment when he is naked, or food when he is hungry, much more ought we to do our part toward the preservation of a free government ; the only basis on which the enjoyment of these blessings can securely rest. He who breaks the fetters of slavery, and delivers a nation from thraldom, forms, in my opinion, the noblest comment on the great law of love, whilst he distributes the greatest blessing which man can receive from man ; but next to that is the merit of him, who in times like the present, watches over the edifice of public liberty, repairs its foundations, and strengthens its cement, when he beholds it hastening to decay. It is not in the loower of every. one, it is true, to benefit his A LOVE OF FREEDO^f. 129 ag« or country, in this distinguished manner, and accordingly it is nowhere expressly commanded ; but where this ability exists, it is not diminished by our embracing Cliristianity, which consecrates every talent to the public good. On whomsoever distinguished endowments are bestowed, as Chris- tians we ought to rejoice when, instead of being Masted in vain or frivolous pursuits, we behold them employed on objects of the greatest general concern ; amongst which those principles of freedom will ever be reckoned, which deter- mine the destiny of nations, and the collective felicity of the human race. 5th. Our author expresses an ardent desire for the approach of that period when all men will be Christians. I have no doubt that this event will take place, and rejoice in the pro- spect of it ; but whenever it arrives, it will be fatal to Mr. Clayton's favourite principles ; for the professors of Chris- tianity must then become politicians, as the wicked, on whom he at present very politely devolves the business of govern- ment, will be no more : or, perhaps he indulges a hope, that even then, there will be a sufficient number of sinners left to conduct political affairs, especially as wars will then cease, and social life be less frequently disturbed by rapine and injustice. It will still, however, be a great hardship, that a handful of the wicked should rule innumerable multitudes of the just, and cannot fail, according to our present conceptions, to ope- rate as a kind of check on piety and virtue. How Mr. Clayton will settle this point I cannot pretend to say, except he ima- gines men will be able to subsist without any laws or civil regulations, or intends to revive the long-exploded tradition of Papias, respecting the personal reign. Had Christianity been intended only for the benefit of a few, or as the distinction of a small fraternity, there might have been some pretence for setting its profession in oppo- sition to human policy, since it might then have been con- ducted without their interference ; but a religion which is formed for the whole world, and will finally be embraced by all its inhabitants, can never be clogged with any such impediment as would render it repugnant to the social exist- ence of niaiikiud. 130 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH Section II. On the Duty of Ministers in Respect to Civil Polity. Mr. Clayton is extremely severe upon those of his brethren, who, forsaking the quiet duties of their profession as he styles them, have dared to interfere in public affairs. This he con- siders a most flagrant offence, an alarming departure from their proper province ; and in the fulness of his rage he heaps upon them every epithet which contempt or indignation can suggest ; calls them meddling, convivial, political ministers, devoid of all seriousness and dignity. It is rather extraor- dinary, this severe correction should be administered by a man who is, at that moment, guilty of the offence he is chastising ; reproaches political preachers in a political sermon ; ridicules theories of government, and at the same time advances one of his own, a most wretched one indeed, but delivered in a tone the most arrogant and decisive. It is not political discussion then, it seems, that has ruffled the gentle serenity of our author's temper ; for he too, we see, can bend, when it pleases him, from his spiritual elevation, and let fall his oracular responses on the duty of subjects and of kings. But the persons on whom he denounces his anathemas have presumed to adopt a system of politics inconsistent with his own, and it is less his piety than his pride that is shocked and offended. Instead of submitting to be moulded by any adept in cringes, and posture-master of servility, they have dared to assume the bold and natural port of freemen. It will be unnecessary to say much on the duty of ministers, in respect to political affairs, as many of the reflections which this subject would suggest have been already advanced under a former head. A few considerations, however, present them- selves here, to which I shall beg the reader's attention. The duties of the ministerial character, it will on all hands be confessed, are of a nature the most sacred and important. To them should be directed the first and chief attention of every person who sustains it, and whatever is found to inter- fere with these momentous engagements, should be relin- quished as criminal and improper. But th^re is no profession which occupies the mind so fully as not to leave many inter- vals of leisure, in which objects that lie out of its immediate A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 131 province will have a share of our attention ; and I see not why these periods of recess may not be employed with as much dignity and advantage, in acquiring an acquaintance with the principles of government, as wasted in frivolous amusements, or an inactive indolence. Mr. Clayton, with his usual confidence, lays it down as a maxim, that the science of politics cannot be cultivated without a neglect of ministerial duties ; and one would almost be tempted to suppose he had published his sermon as a confirmation of this remark ; for a more striking example of political ignorance in a teacher of religion, has scarcely ever been exhibited. As far, therefore, as the preacher himself is concerned, the observation will be admitted in its full force ; but he has surely no right to make his own weakness the standard of another's strength. Political science, as far as it falls under our present con- templation, may be considered in two points of view. It may either intend a discussion of the great objects for which go- vernments are formed, or it may intend a consideration of the means which may be employed, and the particular contrivances that may be fallen upon to accomplish those objects. For example, in vindicating the revolution of France, two distinct methods may be pursued with equal propriety and success. It may be defended upx,.* its principles against the friends of arbitrary power, by displaying the value of freedom, the equal rights of mankind, the folly and injustice of those regal or aristocratic pretensions by which those rights were invaded ; accordingly, in this light it has been justified with the utmost success. Or it may be defended upon its expedienls, by ex- hibiting the elements of government which it has composed, the laws it has enacted, and the tendency of both to extend and perpetuate that liberty which is its ultimate object. But though each of these modes of discussion fall within the pro- vince of politics, it is obvious the degree of inquiry, of know- ledge, and of labour they require, diffiBrs widely. The first is a path which has been often and successfully trod, turns upon principles which are common to all times and places, and which demand little else to enforce conviction, than calm and dispassionate attention. The latter method, involving a ques- tion of expediency, not of right, would lead into a vast field of detail, would require a thorough acquaintance with the sittiation of persons and of things, as well as long and inti- k2 132 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH mate acquaintance with human affairs. There are but few ministers who have capacity or leisure to become great prac- tical politicians. To explore the intricacies of commercial science, to penetrate the refinements of negociation, to deter- mine with certainty and precision the balance of power, are undertakings, it will be confessed, which lie very remote from the ministerial department ; but the principles of government, as it is a contrivance for securing the freedom and happiness of men, may be acquired with great ease. These principles our ancestors understood well, and it would be no small shame if, in an age which boasts so much light and improvement as the present, they were less familiar to us. There is no class of men to whom this species of knowledge is so requisite, on several accounts, as dissenting ministers. The jealous policy of the establishment forbids our youth admission into the celebrated seats of learning ; our own seminaries, at least till lately, were almost entirely confined to candidates for the ministry ; and as on both these accounts, amongst us, the intellectual improvement of our religious teachers rises superior to that of private Christians, in a greater degree than in the national church, the influence of their opinions is wider in proportion. Disclaiming, as they do, all pretensions to dominion, their public character, their professional leisure, the habits of study and composition which they acquire, concur to point them out as the natural guardians, in some measure, of our liberties and rights. Besides, as they are appointed to teach the whole compass of social duty, the mutual obligations of rulers and subjects will of necessity fall under their notice ; and they cannot explain or enforce the reasons of submission, without displaying the proper end of government, and the expectations we may naturally form from it ; which, when accurately done, will lead into the very depths of political science. There is another reason, however, distinct from any I have yet mentioned, flowing from the nature of an established religion, why dissenting ministers, above all men, should be well skilled in the principles of freedom. Wherever, as in England, religion is established by law with splendid emolu- ments and dignities annexed to its profession, the clergy, who are candidates for these distinctions, will ever be prone to exalt the prerogative, not only in order to strengthen the arm A LOVE OF FKEEDOM. iSS on wliich they lean, but that they may the more successfully ingratiate themselves in the favour of the prince, by flattering tliose ambitious views and passions which are too readily en- tertained by persons possessed of supreme power. The boasted alliance between church and state,on which so many encomiums have been lavished, seems to have been little more than a compact between the priest and the magistrate, to betray the liberties of mankind, both civil and religious. To this the clergy, on their part at least, have continued steady, shunning inquir}^, fearful of change, blind to the corruptions of govern- ment, skilful to discern the signs of the times, and eager to improve every opportunity, and to employ all their art and eloquence to extend the prerogative and smooth the approaches of arbitrary power. Individuals are illustrious exceptions to this censure ; it however applies to the body, to none more than to those whose exalted rank and extensive influence determine its complexion and spirit. In this situation, the leaders of that church, in their fatal attempt to recommend and embellish a slavish system of principles, will, I trust, be ever carefully watched and opposed by those who hold a similar station amongst the dissenters ; that, at all events, there may remain one asylum i.o which insulted freedom may retire unmolested. These considerations are sufficient to justify every dissenting minister in well-timed exertions for the public cause, and from them we may learn what opinion to entertain of Mr. Clayton's weak and malignant invectives. From the general strain of his discourse, it would be natural to conclude he was an enemy to every interference of ministers on political occasions ; but this is not the case. Ministers^ says he, may interfere as peace-makers, and by proper methods should counteract the spirit of faction raised by persons who seem born to vex the state. After having taught them to remain in a quiet neutrality, he invests them all at once with the high character of arbiters between the contending parties, without considering that an office of so much delicacy would demand a most intimate acquaintance with the pretensions of both. Ministers, it should seem, instead of declining political interference, are to become such adepts in the science of government, as to distinguish with precision the complaints of an oppressed party from the clamours of a faction^ to hold the balance betv/een the ruler 134 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH and the subject with a steady hand, and to point out on every occasion^ and counteract the persons ivlio are horn to vex the state. If any should demand by what means they are to furnish themselves for such extraordinaiy undertakings, he will learn that it is not by political investigation or inquiry this profound skill is to be attained, but by a studied inatten- tion and neglect ; of which this author, it must be confessed, has given his disciples a most edifying example in his first essay. There is something miraculous in these endowments. This battle is not to the strong, nor these riches to men of understanding. Our author goes a step farther, for when he is in the humour for concessions no man can be more liberal. So far as revolutions., says he, are parts of God's plan of government., a Christian is not to hinder such changes in states as promise an increase of happiness to mankind. But no where in the New Testament can a Christian find coun- tenance in becoming a forward active man in regenerating the civil constitutions of nations. A Christian is not to oppose revolutions, as far as they are parts of God's plan of government. The direction which oracles afford has ever been complained of for its obscurity ; and this of Mr. Clayton, though no doubt it is fraught with the profoundest wisdom, would have been more useful, had it furnished some criterion to distinguish those transactions which are parts of God's plan of government. We have hitherto imagined the ele- ments of nature, and the whole agency of man, are compre- hended within the system of Divine Providence ; but, as in this sense every thing becomes a part of the divine plan, it cannot be his meaning. Perhaps he means to confine the phrase of God's plan of government to that portion of human agency which is consistent with the divine will and promises, or, as he says, with an increase of happiness to mankind. If this should be his intention, the sentiment is just, but utterly subversive of the purpose for which it is introduced, as it concurs with the principle of all reformers in leaving us no other direction in these cases than reason and experience, determined in their exertions by a regard to the general happiness of mankind. On this basis the wildest projectors profess to erect their improvements. On this principle, too, do the dissenters proceed, when they call for a repeal of the test act, when they lament the unequal representation of par- A LO^-E OF FEEEDOM. 135 liament, when they wish to see a period to ministerial corrup- tion, and to tlie encroachments of an hierarchy equally servile and oppressive ; and thus, by one unlucky concession, this author has admitted the ground-work of reform in its fullest extent, and has demolished the whole fabric he was so eager to rear. He must not be offended if principles thus corrupt, and thus feebly supported, should meet with the contempt they deserve, but must seek his consolation in his own adage, as the correction of folly is certainly a part of God*s plan of governinent. The reader can be at no loss to determine whom the author intends by a busy active man in regenerating the civil coiistitutions of nations. The occasion of the sermon, and complexion of its sentiments, concur in directing us to Dr. Priestley, a person whom the author seems to regard with a more tlian odium theologicum^ with a rancour exceeding the measure even of his profession. The religious tenets of Dr. Priestley appear to me erroneous in the extreme ; but I should be sorry to suffer any difference of sentiment to diminish my sensibility to virtue, or my admiration of genius. From him the poisoned arrow will fall pointless. His enlightened and active mind, his unwearied assiduity, the extent of his researches, the light he iuis poured into almost every depart- ment of science, will be the admiration of that period, when the greater part of those who have favoured, or those who have opposed him, will be alike forgotten. Distinguished merit will ever rise superior to oppression, and will draw lustre from reproach. 7 he vapours which gather round the rising sun, and follow it m its course, seldom fail at the close of it to form a magnificent theatre for its reception, and to invest with variegated tints, and with a softened effulgence, the luminary which they cannot hide.* It is a pity, however, our autlior, in reproaching characters 80 illustrious, was not a little more attentive to facts ; for unfortunately for him. Dr. Priestley has not in any instance displayed that disaffection to government with which he has been ciiarged so wantonly. In his Lectures on History, and his Essay on Civil Government, which of all his publications fall most properly within the sphere of politics, he has * Whether or not the beautiful passage in the text was suggested by a floating va^e recollection of the following lines of Pope, or were an tvowed imitation of them, cannot now be determined. But be this q& it 136 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH delineated the British constitution with great accuracy, and has expressed his warm admiration of it as the best system of policy the sagacity of man has been able to contrive. In his Familiar Letters to the Inhabitants of Birmingham, a much later work, where the seeds of that implacable dislike were scattered which produced the late riots, he has renewed that declaration, and has informed us, that he has been pleasantly ridiculed by his friends as being an unitarian in religion, and a trinitarian in politics. He has lamented, indeed, in common with every enlightened citizen, the existence of certain cor- ruptions, which, being gradually introduced into the constitu- tion, have greatly impaired its vigour ; but in this he has had the honour of being followed by the prime minister himself, who began his career by proposing a reform in parliament, merely to court popularity it is true, at a time when it would not have been so safe for him to insult the friends of freedom after having betrayed their interest, as he has since found it. Dr. Priestley has, moreover, defended with great ability and success the principles of our dissent, exposing, as the very nature of the undertaking demands, the folly and injustice of all clerical usurpations ; and on this account, if on no other, he is entitled to the gratitude of his brethren. In addition to this catalogue of crimes, he has ventured to express his satis- faction on the liberation of France ; an event which, pro- mising a firmer establishment to liberty than any recorded in the annals of the world, is contemplated by the friends of arbitrary power throughout every kingdom of Europe with the utmost concern. These are the demerits of Dr. Priestley, for which this political astrologist and sacred calculator of nativities pronounces upon him that he is horn to vex the state. The best apology candour can suggest, will be to hope Mr. may, I think it will be readily admitted that the rhythm and harmony of the passage in prose are decidedly superior to those in the lines of the poet:— " Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue, But, like a shadow, prove the substance true : For envied wit, like Sol eclips'd, makes known Th' opposing body's grossness, not its own. When first that sun too powerful beams displays, It draws up vapours which obscure its rays : But e'en those clouds at last adorn its way, Reflect new glories, and augment the day." — Ed. A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 137 Clayton has never read Dr. Priestley's political works ; a con* jecture somewhat confirmed from his disclaiming all attention to political theories, and from the extreme ignorance he dis- plays through the whole of his discourse on political topics. Still it is to be wished he would have condescended to under- stand what he means to confute, if it had been only to save himself the trouble and disgrace of this publication. The manner in which he speaks of the Birmingham riots, and the cause to which he traces them, are too remarkable to pass unnoticed. When led^ says he, speaking of the sufferers, by officious zeal^from the quiet duties of their profession into the Senator's province : unhallowed boisterous passions in others, like their own^ God may permit to chastise them. For my own part I was some time before I could develope this extraordinary pas- sage ; but I now find the darkness in which it is veiled is no more than that mystic sublimity which has always tinctured the language of those who are appointed to interpret the counsels of heavens. I would not have Mr. Clayton deal too freely in these visions, lest the fire and i^^-imination of the prophet should put out the reason of the man, a caution the more necessary in the present instance, as it glimmers so feebly already in se- veral parts of his discourse, that its extinction would not be at all extraordinary. "We are, no doubt, much obliged to him for letting us into a secret we could never have learnt any other way. We thank him heartily for informing us that the Birmingham riots were a judgment ; and, as we would wish to be grateful for such an important communication, we would whisper in his ear in return, that he should be particularly careful not to suffer this itch of prophesying to grow upon him, men being extremely apt, in this degenerate age, to mis- take a prophet for a madman, and to lodge them in the same place of confinement. The best use he could make of his mantle would be to bequeath it to the use of posterity, as for the want of it I am afraid they will be in danger of falling into some very unhappy mistakes. To their unenlightened eyes it will appear a reproach, that in the eighteenth century, an age that boasts its science and improvement, the first philosopher in Europe, of a character unblemished, and of manners the most mild and gentle, should be torn from his family, and 138 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH obliged to flee an outcast and a fugitive from the murderous hands of a frantic rabble ; but when they learn that there were not wanting teachers of religion, who secretly triumphed in these barbarities, they will pause for a moment, and ima- gine they are reading the history of Goths or of Vandals. Erroneous as such a judgment must appear in the eyes of Mr. Clayton, nothing but a ray of his supernatural light could enable us to form a juster decision. Dr. Priestley and his frieids are not the first that have suffered in a public cause ; and when we recollect, that those who have sustained similar, disasters have been generally conspicuous for a superior sanc- tity of character, what but an acquaintance with the counsels of heaven can enable us to distinguish between these two classes of sufferers, and, whilst one are the favourites of God, to discern in the other the objects of his vengeance ? When we contemplate this extraordinary endowment, we are no longer surprised at the superiority he assumes through the whole of his discourse, nor at that air of confusion and dis- order which appears in it ; both of which we impute to his dwelling so much in the insufferable light, and amidst the coruscations and flashes of the divine glory ; a sublime but perilous situation, described with great force and beauty by Mr. Gray : " He passed the flaming bounds of place and time : The living throne, the sapphire blaze, Where angels tremble while they gaze, He saw ; but blasted with excess of light, Closed his eyes iu endless night." Section III. On the Pretences Mr. Clayton advances in favour of his Principles, Having endeavoured to justify the well-timed exertions of Christians and of ministers, in the cause of freedom, it may not be improper to examine a little more particularly under what pretences Mr. Clayton presumes to condemn this conduct. 1st. The first that naturally presents itself, is drawn from those passages of Scripture in which the design of civil go- vernment is explained, and the duty of submission to civil A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 139 authority is enforced. That on which the greatest stress is laid, is found in the thirteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. " Let every soul be subject to the higher powers ; " for there is no power but of God : the powers which be, are " ordained of God. Whoever therefore resisteth the power, " resisteth the ordinance of God : and they that resist, shall re- " ceive unto themselves damnation. The Ruler is the Minister " of God to thee for good. But if thou doest that which is " evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain. Where- " fore ye must be subject, not only for wrath, but conscience* " sake." This passage, which, from the time of Sir Robert Filmer to the present day, has been the stronghold of the doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance, will admit of an easy solution, by attending to the nature of Christianity, and the circumstances of its professors, during the period in which it was written. The extraordinary privileges and dignity conferred by the Gospel on believers, must have af- fected the minds of the first Christians, just emerging from the shades of ignorance, and awakened to new hopes, with singular force. Feeling an elevation to which they were strangers before, and looking down upon the world around them as the va-ssals of sin and Satan, they might be easily tempted to imagine the restraint of laws could not extend to persons so highly privileged, and that it was ignominious in the free men of Jesus Christ to submit to the yoke of idola- trous rulers. Natural to their situation bjs these sentiments might be, none could be conceived more detrimental to the credit and propagation of a rising religion, or more likely to draw down upon its professors the whole weight of the Roman empire, with which they were in no condition to con- tend. In this situation, it was proper for the apostle to re- mind Christians, their religion did not interfere with the rights of princes, or diminish their obligation to attend to those salutary regulations which are established for the pro- tection of innocence and the punishment of the guilty. That this only was the intention of the writer, may be inferred from the considerations he adduces to strengthen his advice. He does not draw his arguments for submission from anything peculiar to the Christian si/stem, as he must have done, had he intended to oppose that religion to the natural rights of mankind, but from the utility and necessity of civil restraints. 140 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH " The Ruler is the Minister of God to thee for good," is the reason he urges for submission. Civil government, as if he had said, is a salutary institution, appointed to restrain and punish outrage and injustice, but exhibiting to the quiet and inoffensive nothing of which they need to be afraid. " If " thou doest that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the " sword in vain." He is an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Christians were not to consider themselves privileged above their fellow-citizens, as their religion con- ferred upon them no civil immunities, but left them subject to all the ties and restraints, whatever they were, which could be justly imposed by the civil power on any other part of mankind. The limits of every duty must be determined by its reasons, and the only ones assigned here^ or that can be assigned for submission to civil authority, are its tendency to do good; wherever therefore this shall cease to be the case, submission becomes absurd, having no longer any rational view. But at what time this evil shall be judged to have arrived, or what remedy it may be proper to apply, Christianity does not de- cide, but leaves to be determined by an appeal to natural reason and right. By one of the strangest misconceptions in the world, when we are taught that Christianity does not bestow upon us any new rights, it has been thought to strip us of our old; which is just the same as it would be to con- clude, because it did not first furnish us with hands or feet, it obliges us to cut them off. Under every form of government, that civil order which affords protection to property, and tranquillity to individuals, must be obeyed ; and I have no doubt, that before the revolu- tion in France, they who are now its warmest admirers, had they lived there, would have yielded a quiet submission to its laws, as being conscious the social compact can only be con- sidered as dissolved by an expression of the general will. In the mean time, they would have continued firm in avowing the principles of freedom, and by the diffusion of political knowledge, have endeavoured to train and prepare the minds of their fellow-citizens for accomplishing a change so desir- able. It is not necessary to enter into a particular examination of the other texts adduced by Mr. Clayton m support of his sen- A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 141 timents, as this in Romans is by much the most to his purpose, and the remarks that liave been made upon it may, with very little alteration, be applied to the rest. He refers us to the second chapter of the first Epistle of Peter. " Submit your- " selves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake ; whether " it be to the king as supreme, or unto governors, as unto them " that are sent by him, for the punishment of evil doers, and for "the praise of them that do well." Here it is sufficient to remark, all that can be inferred from this passage is, that Christians are not to hold themselves exempt from the obliga- tion of obedi*»nce on account of their religion, but are to respect legislation as far as it is found productive of benefit in social life. With still less propriety, he urges the first of Timothy, where, in the second chapter, we are " exhorted to supplica- " tions, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks for all men, " for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead " a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty," I am unacquainted with any who refuse a compliance with this apostolical admonition, except the nonjurors * may be reck- oned of this class, whose political sentiments are of a piece with our author's. Whilst he pleads with so much eagerness for the duty of passive obedience, we are not, however, to suppose, he wishes to extend it to all mankind. He admits, that society^ under the wisest regulations, will degenerate, and there will be periods when associated bodies must be resolved again into their Jirst principles. All resistance to authority, every revolu- tion, is not in his own opinion criminal ; it is Christians only, who are never to have a share in these transactions, never to assert their rights. With what diflTerent sentiments did the apostle of the Gentiles contemplate his character, when dis- daining to accept a clandestine dismission from an unjust im- prisonment, he felt a glow of indignant pride burn upon his cheek, and exclaimed with a Roman energy, "I was free «* born !" 2nd. Another reason which this author assigns for a blind deference to civil authority is, that Christianity is distinct from • There are now no " nonjurors ;" the people once so called have for many years prayed for the king. — Ed. 142 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH and independent of human legislation. This principle no protestant dissenter will be inclined to question, but, instead of lending any support to the system of passive obedience, it will overturn it from its foundation ; for if religion be really distinct from, and independent of, human legislation, it cannot afford any standard to ascertain its limits ; as the moment it is applied to this purpose, it ceases to be a thing distinct and in- dependent. For example, it is not doubted that a Christian may lawfully engage in trade or commerce ; but if it be asked why his profession does not interfere with such an undertaking, the proper reply will be, religion is a thing distinct and inde- pendent. Should it be again inquired, why a Christian may become a trader, yet must not commit a theft, we should answer, that this latter action is not a thing distinct, or inde- pendent of religion, but falls immediately under its cognizance, as a violation of its laws. Thus it appears, that whatever por- tion of human conduct is really independent of religion, is lawful for that very reason, and can then only become criminal or improper, when it is suffered to intrench upon more sacred or important duties. The truth is, between two institutions, such as civil government and religion, which have a separate origin and end, no opposition can subsist, but in the brain of a distempered enthusiast. The author's text confutes his doctrine, for had our Saviour annihilated our rights, he would have become a judge and divider over us, in the worst sense, if that could be said to be divided which is taken away. When any two institutions are affirmed to be distinct and independent, it can only mean, they do not interfere ; but that must be a genius of no common size, who can infer from religion not interfering with the rights of mankind, that they cease to be, or that the patrimony, over which our Lord declined to exercise any authority, he has scattered and destroyed. 3rd. Similar to the last I have considered, is that pretence for excluding Christians from any concern in political affairs, taken from the conduct of our Saviour. Mr. Clayton tells us, that Christ uniformly waived interesting himself in the concerns of the then existing government ; and to the same purpose he afterwards remarks, he always declined the func- tions of a civil magistrate. The most careless reader will remark, the whole weight of A LO\-E OF FREEDOM. 143 this argument rests upon a supposition, that it is unlawful for a Christian to sustain any other character in civil life, than that in which our Saviour literally appeared ; a notion as extravagant as was ever nourished in the brain of the wildest fanatic. Upon this principle, he must have gone through such a succession of offices, and engaged in such an endless variety of undertakings, that in place of thirty -three years, he needed to have lived thirty-three centuries. On this ground the profession of physic is unlawful for a Christian, because our Lord never set up a dispensary ; and that of Law, because he never pleaded at the bar. Next to the weakness of advanc- ing such absurdity, is that of confuting it. 4th. The author, in proof of his political tenets, appeals to the devotional feelings of his hearers. '* I ask you," says he, " who make conscience of entering into your closets, and " shutting your doors, and praying to your Father which seeth " in secret ; what subjects interest you most then ? Are not " factious passions hushed ; the undue heat you felt in political " disputation remembered with sorrow ? " He must be at a great loss for argument, who will have recourse to such loose and flimsy declamation. TThen engaged in devout admiration of the Supreme Being, every other object will be lost in the comparison ; but this, though the noblest employment of the mind, was never intended to shut out all other concerns. The affections which unite us to the world have a large demand upon us, and must succeed in their turn. If every- thing is to be deemed criminal that does not interest the atten- tion in the very moment of worship, political concerns are not the only ones to be abandoned, but every undertaking of a temporal nature, all labour and ingenuity must cease. Science herself must shroud her light. These are notions rather to be laughed at than confuted, for their extravagance will correct itself. Every attempt that has been made to rear religion on the ruins of nature, or to render it subversive of the economy of life, has hitherto proved unsuccessful, whilst the institu- tions that have flowed from it are now scarcely regarded in any other light than as humiliating monuments of human weakness and folly. The natural vigour of the mind, when it has once been opened by knowledge, and turned towards great and in- teresting objects, will always overpower the illusions of fana- ticism; or, could Mr. Clayton's principles be carried into 144 CHEISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH effect, we should soon behold men returning again to the state of savages, and a more than monkish barbarity and ignorance would overspread the earth. That abstraction from the world it is his purpose to recommend, is in truth as inconsistent with the nature of religion, as with the state and condition of man ; for Christianity does not propose to take us out of the world, but to preserve us from the pollutions which are in it. It is easy to brand a passion for liberty with the odious epithet of faction ; no two things, however, can be more opposite. Faction is a combination of a few to oppress the liberties of many ; the love of freedom is the impulse of an enlightened and presiding spirit, ever intent upon the welfare of the community, or body to which it belongs, and ready to give the alarm, when it beholds any unlawful conspiracy formed, whether it be of rulers or of subjects, with a design to oppress it. Every Tory upholds a faction ; every Whig, as far as he is sincere and well informed, is a friend to the equal liberties of mankind. Absurd as the preacher's appeal must appear, on such an occasion, to the devout feelings of his hearers, we have no need to decline it. In those solemn moments, factious passions cannot indeed be too much hushed, but that warmth which animates the patriot, which glowed in the breast of a Sidney or a Hampden, was never chilled, or diminished, we may venture to affirm, in its nearest ap- proaches to the uncreated splendour ; and if it mingled with their devotion at all, could not fail to infuse into it a fresh force and vigour, by drawing them into a closer assimilation to that great Being, who appears under the character of the avenger of the oppressed, and the friend and protector of the human race. 5th. Lastly, the author endeavours to discredit the prin- ciples of freedom, by holding them up as intimately con- nected with the unitarian heresy. " We are not to be sur- " prised," he says, " if men who vacate the rule of faith in " Jesus Christ, should be defective in deference and in obedient " regards to men who are raised to offices of superior influence, *' for the purposes of civil order and public good." The persons he has in view are the unitarians, and that my reader may be in full possession of this most curious argument, it may be proper to inform him, that an unitarian is a person who believes Jesus Christ had no existence till he appeared A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 145 on our earth, whilst a trinitarian maintains, that he existed with the Father from all eternity. What possible connexion can he discern between these opinions and the subject of government? In order to determine whether the supreme power should be vested in king, lords, and commons, as in England, in an assembly of nobles, as in Venice, or in a house of repre- sentatives, as in America or France, must we first decide upon the person of Christ ? I should imagine we might as well apply to astronomy first, to learn whether the earth flattens at the poles. He explains what he means by vacating the rule of faith in Christ, when he charges the unitarians with a partial denial at least, of the inspiration of the Scripture, par- ticularly the Epistles of St. Paul. But however clear the inspiration of the Scriptures may be, as no one pleads for the inspiration of civil governors, the deference which is due to the first, as coming from God, can be no reason for an un- limited submission to the latter. Yet this is Mr. Clayton's argument, and it runs thus. Every opposition to Scripture is criminal, because it is inspired, and therefore every re- sistance to temporal rulers* is criminal, though they are not inspired. The number of passages in Paul's Epistles which treat of civil government is small ; the principal of them have been examined, and whether they are inspired or not, has not the remotest relation to the question before us. The inspiration of an author adds weight to his sentiments, but makes no alteration in his meaning ; and unless Mr. Clayton can show that Paul inculcates unlimited submission, the belief of his inspiration can yield no advantage to his cause. Amongst those parties of Christians who have maintained the inspira- tion of the Scriptures in its utmost extent, tlie number of such as have inferred from them the doctrine of passive obedience has been extremely small ; it is, therefore, ridi- culous to impute the rejection of this tenet by unitarians to a disbelief of plenary inspiration. It behoves Mr. Clayton to point out, if he is able, any one of the unitarians who ever imagined that Paul means to recommend unlimited obedience ; for till that is the case, it is plain their political opinions cannot have arisen from any contempt of that apostle's authority. L 146 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH As there is no foundation in the nature of things for ima- gining any alliance between heretical tenets and the principles of freedom, this notion is equally void of support from fact or history. AVere the Socinian sentiments, in particular, pro- ductive of any peculiar impatience under the restraints of government, this effect could not fail of having made its ap- pearance on their first rise in Poland, while their influence was fresh and vigorous ; but nothing of this nature occurred, nor was any such reproach cast upon them. That sect in England which has been always most conspicuous for the love of freedom, has for the most part held sentiments at the greatest remove from Socinianism that can be imagined. The seeds of those political principles which broke out with such vigour in the reign of Charles the First, and have since given rise to the denomination of whigs, were sown in the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth by the hand of the puritans, amongst whom the unitarian doctrine was then utterly un- known. The dissenters descended from those illustrious ancestors, and inheriting their spirit, have been foremost in defence of liberty, not only, or chiefly, of late, since the spread of the Socinian doctrine, but before that system had gained any footing amongst us. The knowledge and study of the Scriptures, far from favour- ing the pretensions of despotism, have almost ever diminished it, and been attended with a proportional increase of freedom. The union of Protestant princes preserved the liberties of the Germanic body when they were in danger of being over- whelmed by the victorious arm of Charles the Fifth ; yet a veneration for the Scriptures, at a time when they had almost fallen into oblivion, and an appeal to their decisions in all points, was the grand characteristic of the new religion. If we look into Turkey, we shall find the least of that impatience under restraints which Mr. Clayton laments, of any place in the world, though Paul and his epistles are not much studied there. There are not wanting reasons, which at first view, might induce us to conclude unitarianism was less favourable to the love of freedom than almost any other system of religious belief. If any party of Christians were ever free from the least tincture of enthusiasm, it is the unitarian ; yet that pas- sion lias by every philosopher been judged friendly to liberty, A LOVE OF FREEDOM. I47 and to its inftuence, though perhaps improperly, some of its most distinguished exertions have been ascribed. Hume and Bo- lingbroke, who were atheists, leaned towards arbitrary power. Owen, Howe, Milton, Baxter, some of the most devout and venerable characters that ever appeared, were warmly attached to liberty, and held sentiments on the subject of government as free and unfettered as Dr. Priestley. Thus every pretence for confounding the attachment to freedom with the sentiments of a religious party, is most abundantly confuted both from reason and from fact. The zeal unitarians have displayed in defence of civil and religious liberty, is the spirit natural to a minority, who are well aware they are viewed by the ecclesi- astical powers with an unparalleled malignity and rancour. Let the dissenters at large remember they too are a minority, a great minority, and that they must look for their security from the same quarter, not from the compliments of bishops, or presents from maids of honour.* To abandon principles which the best and most enlightened men have in all ages held sacred, which the dissenters in par- ticular have rendered themselves illustrious by defending, which have been sealed and consecrated by the blood of our ancestors, for no other reason than that the unitarians chance to maintain them, would be a weakness of which a child might be ashamed ! Whoever may think fit to take up the gauntlet in the Socinian controversy will have my warmest good wishes ; but let us not employ those arms against each other which were given us for our common defence. Section IV. On the Test Act. Amidst all the wild eccentricities which, abounding in every part of this extraordinary publication, naturally diminish our wonder at anything such a writer may advance, I confess I am surprised at his declaring his wish for the continuance of * Some of my readers perhaps need to be informed that I here allude to Mr. Martin, who, for similar services to those Mr. Clayton is now per- fi)rming, has been considerably caressed by certain bishops, who have condescended to notice and to visit him. I think we do not read that Judas had any acquaintance with the high priests till he came to transact jttsmeM with them. l2 148 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH the Test Act. This law, enacted in the latter end of the reign of Charles the Second, to secure the nation from popery, when it stood upon the brink of that precipice, is continued now that the danger no longer exists which first occasioned it, for the express purpose of preserving the church from the inroads of dissenters. That church, it must be remembered, existed for ages before it received any such protection ; yet it is now the vogue to magnify its importance to that degree, that one would imagine it was its sole prop, whose removal would draw the whole fabric after it, or at least make it totter to its base. Whether these apprehensions were really entertained by the clergy who gave the signal for the commencement of hostilities on a late occasion, or whether they were only im- pelled by that illiberal tincture and fixed antipathy to all who differ from them, which hath ever marked their character, may be doubted ; but to behold a dissenting minister joining with them in an unnatural warfare against his brethren, is a phenomenon so curious, that it prompts us to inquire into its cause. Let us hear his reasons. He and many others were convinced, he tells us, " that some of the persons who applied " for the repeal were influenced by enmity against the doctrinal " articles of the established church, and they could not sacrifice " their pious regard to truth, though in a church they had se- " parated from, to the policy of men, who, with respect to God " our Saviour, only consult how they may cast him down from " his excellency." When we hear the clergy exclaim that their church is in danger, we pretty well understand what they mean ; they speak broad, as Mr. Burke says, and intend no more than that its emoluments are endangered ; but when a serious dissenter expresses his pious regard to the doctrines of the church, it is the truth of those articles he must be supposed to have in view. Let us consider for a moment what advan- tage the Test Act is capable of yielding them. All those who qualify for civil offices, by a submission to this law, con- sist of two classes of people ; they are either persons who are attached to the articles of the church, from whom, therefore, no danger could accrue ; or they are persons Avho have signi- fied their assent to doctrines which they inwardly disapprove, and who have qualified themselves for trust by a solemn act of religious deception. It is this latter class alone, it should be remembered, whom the Test Act can at all influence, and A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 149 tlius the only security this celebrated law can afford the articles of the church, is founded in a flagrant violation of truth in the persons who become their guarantees. Every attempt that has been made to uphold religion by the civil arm, has re- flected disgrace upon its authors ; but of all that are recorded in the history of the world, perhaps this is the most absurd in its principle, and the least effectual in its operation. For the truth of sacred mysteries in religion, it appeals to the cor- ruptest principles of the human heart, and to those ojily ; for no one can be tempted by the Test Act to profess an attach- ment to the doctrines of the church, till he has been already allured by the dignity or emolument of a civil office. By compelling all who exercise any function in the state from the person who aspires to its highest distinctions, to those who fill the meanest offices in it, to profess that concurrence in re- ligious opinions which is known never to exist, it is adapted, beyond any other human invention, to spread amongst all orders of men a contempt for sacred institutions, to enthrone hypocrisy, and reduce deception to a system ! The truth of any set of opinions can only be perceived by evidence; but what evidence can any one derive from the mere mechanical action of receiving bread and wine at the hands of a parish priest ? He who believes them already needs not to be ini- tiated by any such ceremony ; and by what magic touch those simple elements are to convert the unbeliever, our author, who is master of so many secrets, has not condescended to explain. He will not pretend to impute the first spread of these doctrines in the infancy of the Christian religion, or their revival at tiie Reformation, to any such means, since he imagines he can trace them in the New Testament. It is strange if that evidence which was powerful enough to intro- duce them where they were unknown, is not sufficient to up- hold them where they are already professed and believed. At least, the Test Act, it must be confessed, has yielded them no advantage, for they have been controverted with more acri- mony, and admitted by a smaller number of persons, since that law was enacted, than in any period preceding. Were the removal of this test to overthrow the establish- ment itself, a consequence at the same time in the highest degree improbable, the articles of the churci), if tliey are true, would remain unendangered, their evidence would continue 150 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH uniiftpaired, an appeal to the inspired writings from which they prpfess to be derived would be open, the liberty of dis- cussion Would be admitted in as great an extent as at present ; this difference only would occur, that an attachment to them would no longer be suspected of flowing from corrupt and sinister motives. They would cease to be with the clergy the ladder of promotion, the cant of the pulpit, the ridicule of the schools. The futility of this or any other law, as a secu- rity to religious doctrines, may be discerned from this single reflection, that in the national church its own articles have, for a length of time, been either treated with contempt, or maintained with little sincerity and no zeal ; whilst amongst the dissenters, where they have had no such aids, they have found a congenial soil, and continue to flourish with vigour. On the political complexion of this test, as it does not fall so properly within my present view, I shall content myself with remarking, that harmless as it may appear at first sight, it carries in it the seeds of all the persecutions and calamities which have ever been sustained on a religious account. It proscribes not an individual who has been convicted of a crime, but a whole party, as unfit to be trusted by the com- munity to which they belong; and if this stigma can be justly fixed on any set of men, it ought not to stop here, or anywhere, short of the actual excision of those who are thus considered as rotten and incurable members of the political body. In annexing to religious speculation the idea of political default, the principle of this law would justify every excess of severity and rigour. If we are the persons it supposes, its indulgence is weak and contemptible ; if we are of a different description, the nature of its pretensions is so extraordinary as to occasion serious alarm, and call aloud for its repeal. Mr. Clayton, indeed, calls this, and similar laws, a restraint very prudently imposed upon those who dissent from the es- tablished religion.* This restraint, however, is no less than a political annihilation, debarring them, though their talents were ever so splendid, from mingling in the counsels, or pos- sessing any share in the administration of their country. With that natural relish for absurdity which characterizes this author, he imagines they have justly incurred this evil for dissenting from an erroneous religion, • Page 6. A LOVE OF FEEEDOM. 151 He tells us, in the course of his sermon,* that the grand "principle of separation from the church lies in the un- " worldly nature of our Saviour's kingdom." This reason for separation implies, that any attempt to blend worldly interests or policy with the constitution of a church is improper ; but how could this be done more effectually than by rendering the profession of its articles a preliminary step to every kind of civil pre-eminence ? Yet this abuse, which in his own es- timation is so enormous as to form the great basis of separa- tion, he wishes to perpetuate; and all things considered, hopes "that which is at rest will not be disturbed." In* another part of his discourse,! he asks what temporalities has the church of Christ to expect ? It is the mother of harlots, which says, " I sit a queen, and shall see no sorrow." Would any one imagine this was the language of a man, who, in pleading for a Test Act, has rested the support of his creed on those very temporalities he affects so much to disdain, and has committed his religion to the arms of that mother of harlots to be reared and nourished ! When speaking of the Test Act in the seventh page of his discourse, he thus ex- presses himself: *' Surely *he cross of Christ ought not to be " insulted by persons eager to press into the temple of " Mammon.'* Who could treat it with more poignant severity than is couched in this declaration ? yet this is the language of a person who desires its continuance. In truth, his repre- sentations on this subject are pregnant with such contradic- tions, and rise above each other in so singular a gradation of absurdity, as will not be easily coriceived, and perhaps hath scarce ever been equalled. At the very outset of his sermon, he declares, " Whenever the Gospel is secularized it is de- ** based and misrepresented, and in proportion to the quantity *' of foreign infusions is the efficacy of this saving health di- " niinisheii." But human ingenuity would be at a loss to contrive a method of secularizing the Gospel more completely, than by rendering it the common passport of all who aspire to civil distinctions. I am really weary of exposing the wild and extravagant incoherence of such a reasoner. From a man who, professing to be the apologist of his party, betrays its interests, and exhibits its most illustrious members ♦ Page 35. t I*ag<^ 26. ]52 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH to reproach ; who, himsolf a dissenter, applauds the penalties which the hierarchy has inflicted as a '^prudent restraint ;" who, with the utmost poignance, censures a law which he solemnly invokes the legislature to perpetuate ; and proposes to secure the truths of religion, by the " profanation of its "sacraments,"* by " debasing the Gospel,'* and "insulting " the cross ;" anything may be expected but consistence and decency. When such an author assures us he was not im- pelled by vanity to publish, f we may easily give him credit; but he should remember, though it may be a virtue to subdue vanity, it is base to extinguish shame. The tear which, he tells us, started from the eyes of his audience, we will hope, for their honour, was an effusion of regret, natural to his friends, on hearing him deliver sentiments which they con- sidered as a disgrace to himself, and a calumny on his brethren. His affecting to pour contempt upon Dr. Price, whose talents and character were revered by all parties, and to hold him up as the corrupter of the dissenters, will not fail to awaken the indignation of every generous mind. Whether they were greater friends to their country, whose pride and oppression scattered the flames of discord across the Atlantic, poured desolation into the colonies, dismembered the empire, and involved us in millions of debt ; or the man, who, with a warning voice, endeavoured to avert those calamities ; posterity will decide. He gives us a pompous enumeration J of the piety, learn- ing, and talents of a large body of his brethren who concur with him in a disapprobation of the theological and political tenets of the unitarians. The weakness of mingling them together has been shown already; but if these great and eminent men, whom the world never heard of before, possess that zeal for their religion they pretend, let them meet their opponents on the open field of controversy, where they may display their talents and prowess to somewhat more advantage than in skulking behind a consecrated altar. There are many particulars, in the address and sermon, of an extraordinary complexion, which I have not noticed at all, as it was not my intention to follow the author step by step, but rather to collect his scattered representations into some » Page 8. t Page P. X Ibid, A LOVE OF FREEDOM. 153 leading points of view. For the same reason, I make no re- marks on his barbarous imagery ; or his style, everywhere incoherent and incorrect, sometimes indecent, which cannot fail of disgusting every reader of taste. In a rude daubing peculiar to himself, where, in ridicule of Dr. Priestley, he has grouped together difmeigner, a ship, and cargo of drugs, he has unfortunately sketched his own likeness, except in the circumstance of the ship, with tolerable accuracy ; for, with- out the apology of having been shipped into England, he is certainly ai foreigner in his native tongue, and his publication will be allowed to be a drug. Had he known to apply the remark with which his ad- dress commences, on the utility of accommodating instruction to the exigence of times, he would have been aware that this is not a season for drawing off the eyes of mankind from poli- tical objects. They were, in fact, never turned towards them with equal ardour, and we may venture to affirm they will long continue to take that direction. An attention to the political aspect of the world is not now the fruit of an idle curiosity, or the amusement of a dissipated and frivolous mind, but is awakened and kept alive by occurrences as various as they are extraordinary. There are times when the moral world seems to stand still ; there are others when it seems impelled towards its goal with an accelerated force. The present is a period more interesting, perhaps, than any which has been known in the whole flight of time. The scenes of Providence thicken upon us so fast, and are shifted with so strange a mpidity, as if the great drama of the world were drawing to a close.* Events have taken place of late, and revolutions have been effected, which, had they been foretold a very few years ago, would have been viewed as visionary and extravagant ; and their influence is yet far from being spent. Europe never presented such a spectacle before, and it is worthy of being contemplated with the profoundest attention by all its inhabitants. The empire of darkness and of despotism lias been smitten with a stroke which has sounded through the universe. When we see whole kingdoms, after • Thi« glowing picture, as accurately descriptive of recent events as of those it waa intended to portray, might tempt us almost to fancy that, after the revolution of a cycle of forty years, time had brought us back to the same state of things. — £o. 154 CHRISTIANITY CONSISTENT WITH reposing for centuries on the lap of their rulers, start from their slumber, the dignity of man rising up from depression, and tyrants trembling on their thrones, who can remain en- tirely indifferent, or fail to turn his eye towards a theatre so august and extraordinary ! These are a kind of throes and struggles of nature, to which it would be a sullenness to refuse our sympathy. Old foundations are breaking up ; new edifices are rearing. Institutions which have been long held in vene- ration as the most sublime refinements of human wisdom and policy, which age hath cemented and confirmed, which power hath supported, which eloquence hath conspired to embellish, and opulence to enrich, are falling fast into decay. New prospects are opening on every side of such amazing variety and extent as to stretch farther than the eye of the most en- lightened observer can reach. Some beneficial effects appear to have taken place already, sufficient to nourish our most sanguine hope of benefits much more extensive. The mischief and folly of wars begin to be understood, and that mild and liberal system of policy adopted which has ever, indeed, been the object of prayer to the humane and the devout, but has hitherto remained utterly unknown in the cabinets of princes. As the mind naturally yields to the impression of objects which it contemplates often, we need not wonder, if, amidst events so extraordinary, the human character itself should appear to be altering and im- proving apace. That fond attachment to ancient institutions, and blind submission to opinions already received, which has ever checked the growth of improvement, and drawn on the greatest benefactors of mankind danger or neglect, is giving way to a spirit of bold and fearless investigation. Man seems to be becoming more erect and independent. He leans more on himself, less on his fellow-creatures. He begins to feel a consciousness in a higher degree of personal dignity, and is less enamoured of artificial distinctions. There is some hope of our beholding that simplicity and energy of character which marks his natural state, blended with the humanity, the elegance, and improvement of polished society. The events which have already taken place, and the further changes they forbode, will open to the contemplative of every character innumerable sources of reflection. To the philo- sopher they present many new and extraordinary facts, where A LOVE OF FREEDOM 155 his penetration will find ample scope in attempting to discover their cause, and to predict their effects. He will have an op- portunity of viewing mankind in an interesting situation, and of tracing the progress of opinion through channels it has rarely flowed in before. The politician will feel his attention powerfully awakened on seeing new maxims of policy intro- duced, new institutions established, and such a total alteration in the ideas of a great part of the world, as will oblige him to study the art of government as it were afresli. The devout mind will behold in these momentous changes the finger of God, and, discerning in them the dawn of that glorious period in which wars will cease, and anti-Christian tyranny shall fidl, will adore that unerring wisdom whose secret operation never fails to conduct all human affairs to their proper issue, and impels the great actors on that troubled theatre to fulfil, when they least intend it, the counsels of heaven and the pre- dictions of its prophets. AN APOLOGY FOR THE FEEEDOM OF THE PEESS. AND FOB GENERAL LIBERTY: TO WF'^H ARE PREFIXED, REMARKS ON BISHOP HORSLEY'S SERMON, Preached on the 30th January, 1 793. fPUBLISHED IN 1793.] ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION. Since this pamphlet was first published, the principles it aims to support have received confirmation from such a train of disastrous events, that it might have been hoped we should have learned those lessons from misfortunes which reason had failed to impress. Uninstructed by our calamities, we still persist in an impious attack on the liberties of France, and are eager to take our part in the great drama of crimes which is acting on the continent of Europe. Meantime the violence and injustice of the internal administration keeps pace with our iniquities abroad. Liberty and truth are silenced. An unrelenting system of persecution prevails. The cruel and humiliating sentence passed upon Mr. Muir and Mr. Palmer, men of unblemished morals and of the purest patriotism, the outrages committed on Dr. Priestley, and his intended removal to America, are events wl.Ich will mark the latter end of the eighteenth century with indelible reproach. But what has liberty to expect from a minister, who has the audacity to assert the king's right to land as many foreign troops as he pleases, without the previous consent of Parliament ? If this doctrine be true, the boasted equilibrium of the constitution, all the barriers which the wisdom of our ancestors have op- posed to the encroachments of arbitrary power, are idle, in- effectual precautions. For we have only to suppose for a moment, an inclination in the royal breast to overturn our liberties, and of what avail is the nicest internal arrangement against a foreign force ? Our constitution, on this principle, is the absurdest system that was ever conceived ; pretending liberty for its object, yet providing no security against the great antagonist and destroyer of liberty, the employment of military power by the chief magistrate. Let a foreign army be introduced into this or any other country, and quartered upon the subject without his consent, and what is there want- ing, if such were the design of the prince, te* complete the subjection of that country ? Will armed foreigners be over- aw«i by written laws or unwritten customs, by the legal 160 APOLOGY FOR limitations of power, the paper lines of demarcation ? But Mr. Pitt contends that though the sovereign may land foreign troops at his pleasure, he cannot subsist them without the aid of parliament. He may overrun his dominions with a mer- cenary army, it seems, but after he has subdued his subjects, he is compelled to have recourse to them for supplies. What a happy contrivance ! Unfortunately, however, it is found that princes with the unlimited command of armies have hit upon a nearer and more efficacious method of raising supplies than by an act of parliament. But it is needless any farther to expose the effrontery, or detect the sophistry, of this shameless apostate. The character of Pitt is written in sunbeams. A veteran in frauds while in the bloom of youth, betraying first, and then persecuting, his earliest friends and connexions, falsifying every promise, and violating every political engage- ment, ever making the fairest professions a prelude to the darkest actions, punishing with the utmost rigour the publisher of the identical paper he himself had circulated,* are traits in the conduct of Pitt which entitle him to a fatal pre-eminence in guilt. The qualities of this man balance in an extraordi- nary manner, and sustain each other : the influence of his station, the extent of his enormities, invest him with a kind of splendour, and the contempt we feel for his meanness and duplicity is lost in the dread of his machinations, and the ab- horrence of his crimes. Too long has he insulted the patience of his countrymen ; nor ought we, when we observe the indif- ference with which the iniquities of Pitt's administration are viewed, to reproach the Romans for tamely submitting to the tyranny of Caligula or Domitian. We had fondly hoped a mild philosophy was about to dif- fuse over the globe the triumph of liberty and peace. But, alas ! these hopes are fled. The continent presents little but one wide picture of desolation, misery, and crimes : on the earth distress of nations and perplexity, men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. That the seeds of public convulsion are sown in every * Mr. Holt, a printer, at Newark, is now imprisoned in Newgate for two years for reprinting, verbatim, An Address to the People on Reform, which was sanctioned for certain, and probably written, by the Duke olf Richmond and Mr. Pitt. THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. 161 country of Europe (our own not excepted) it were vain to deny; seeds which, without the wisest precautions and the most conciliating councils, will break out, it is to be feared, in the overthrow of all governments. How this catastrophe may be averted, or how, should that be impossible, its evils may be mitigated and diminished, demands the deepest con- sideration of every European statesman. The ordinary routine of ministerial cliicanery is quite unequal to the task. A philo- sophic comprehension of mind, which, leaving the beaten road of politics, shall adapt itself to new situations, and profit by the vicissitudes of opinion, equally removed from an attach- ment to antiquated forms and useless innovations ; capable of rising above the emergency of the moment to the most remote consequences of a transaction ; combining the past, the present, and the future, and knowing how to defend with firmness, or concede with dignity ; these are the qualities which the situation of Europe renders indispensable. It would be a mocker)*^ of our present ministry to ask whether they possess those qualities. With respect to the foll/>»ving Apoloj?y for the Freedom of the Press, the author begs leave to claim the reader's indul- gence to its numerous imperfections, and hopes he will re- collect, as an excuse for the warmth of his expressions, it is an eulogium on a dead friend. ORIGINAL PREFACE. The accidental detention of the following pamphlet in the press longer than was expected, gave me an opportunity before it was published, of seeing Bishop II orsley's Sermon, preached before the House of Lords, on the 30th of January ; and as its contents are relevant to my subject, a few remarks upon it may not be improper. His Lordship sets out with a severe censure of that freedom of dispute^ on matters of such high importance oi tJie origin (f government, and the authority of sovereigns^ in wluch he laments it has been the folly of this 162 APOLOGY FOE country for several years past to indulge. If his Lordship has not inquired into those subjects himself, he can with little propriety pretend to decide in so imperious and peremptory a manner ; unless it be a privilege of his office to dogmatise without examination, or he has discovered some nearer road to truth than that of reasoning and argument. It seems a favourite point with a certain description of men, to stop the progress of inquiry, and throw mankind back into the dark- ness of the middle ages, from a persuasion, that ignorance will augment their power, as objects look largest in a mist. There is, in reality, no other foundation for that alarm which the Bishop expresses. Whatever is not comprehended under revelation, falls under the inspection of reason ; and since from the whole course of providence, it is evident that all political events, and all the revolutions of government, are effected by the instrumentality of men, there is no room for supposing them too sacred to be submitted to the human facul- ties. The more minds there are employed in tracing their principles and effects, the greater probability will there be of the science of civil policy, as well as every other, attaining to perfection. Bishop Horsley, determined to preserve the character of an original, presents us with a new set of political principles, and endeavours to place the exploded doctrine of passive obe- dience and non-resistance upon a new foundation. By a curious distinction between the ground of authority and of obedience, he rests the former on human compact, the latter on divine obligation. It is easy to understand^ he says, that the principle of the private citizen's submission must he quite a distinct thi7ig from the principle of the sovereign's public title. And for this plain reason : The principle of submis- sion, to hind the conscience of every individual, must he some- thing universally known. He then proceeds to inform us, that the kingly title in England is founded on the act of settlement ; but that as thousands and tens of thousands of the people have never heard of that act, the principle which compels their allegiance must be something distinct from it, with which they may all be acquainted. In this reasoning, he evidently confounds the obligation of an individual to submit to the existing authority, with that of the community collectively considered. For any particular number of per- THE FBEEDOM OF THE PBESS. 163 sons to set themselves by force to oppose the established practice of a state, is a plain violation of the laws of mora- lity, as it would be productive of the utmost disorder ; and no government could stand, were it permitted to individuals to counteract the general will, of which, in ordinary cases, legal usages are the interpreter. In the worst state of politi- cal society, if a people have not sufficient wisdom or courage to correct its evils and assert their liberty, the attempt of in- dividuals to force improvements upon them is a presumption which merits the severest punishment. Social order would be inevitably dissolved, if every man declined a practical acquiescence in that political regulation which he did not personally approve. The duty of submission is, in this ligiit, founded on principles which hold under every government, and are plain and obvious. But the principle which attaches a people to their allegiance, collectively considered, must exactly coincide with the title to authority ; as must be evident from the very meaning of the term authority, whicii, as dis- tinguished from force, signifies a right to demand obedience. Authority and obedience are correlative terms, and conse- quently in all respects corre^'pond, and are commensurate with each other. The divine right, his Lordship says, of the first magistrate in every polity to the citizen's obedience^ is not of that sort which it were high treason to claim for the sovereign of this country. It is a right which in no country can be denied, without the highest of all treasons. The denial of it were treason against the paramount authority of God. To invest any human power with these high epitliets is ridiculous, at least, if not impious. The right of a prince to the obedience of his subjects, wherever it exists, may be called divine, be- cause we know the Divine Being is tlie patron of justice and order ; but in that sense tiie authority of a petty constable is equally divine ; nor can the term be applied with any greater ])ropriety to supreme than to subordinate magisti-ates. As to •• submission being among the general rules which proceed from the will of God, and have been impressed upon the con- science of every man by the original constitution of the world" nothing more is comprehended under this pomp of words, than that submission is, for the most part, a duty — a sublime and in- teresting discovery I The minds of princes are seldom of th« M 2 164 APOLOGY FOR firmest texture ; and they who fill their heads with the mag- nificent chimera of divine right, prepare a victim where tiiey intend a god. Some species of government is essential to the well-being of mankind ; submission to some species of govern- ment is consequently a duty ; but what kind of government shall be appointed, and to what limits submission shall extend, are mere human questions, to be adjusted by mere human reason and contrivance. As the natural consequence of divine right, his Lordship proceeds to inculcate the doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance, in the most unqualified terms ; assuming it as a principle to be acted upon under governments the most oppres- sive, in which he endeavours to shelter himself under the authority of Paul. The apostolic exhortation, as addressed to a few individuals, and adapted to the local circumstances of Christians at that period, admits an easy solution ; but to imagine it prescribes the duty of the Roman empire, and is intended to subject millions to the capricious tyranny of one man, is a reflection as well on the character of Paul as on Christianity itself. On principles of reason, the only way to determine the agreement of any thing with the will of God, is to consider its influence on the happiness of society ; so that, in tliis view, the question of passive obedience is reduced to a simple issue : Is it best for the human race that every tyrant and usurper be submitted to without check or control ? It ought likewise to be remembered, that if the doctrine of passive obedience be true, princes should be taught it, and instructed, that to whatever excesses of cruelty and caprice they proceed, they may expect no resistance on the part of the people. If this maxim appear to be conducive to general good, we may fairly presume it concurs with the will of the Deity ; but if it appear pregnant with the most mischievous consequences, it must disclaim such support. From the known perfection of God, we conclude he wills the happiness of mankind ; and that though lie condescends not to interpose miraculously, that kind of civil polity is most pleasing in his eye which is productive of the greatest felicity. On a comparison of free with arbitrary governments, we perceive the former are distinguished from the latter, by im- narting a much greater share of happiness to those who live THE FEEEDOM OP THE PEESS. 155 under them ; and this in a manner too uniform to be im))uted to chance or secret causes. He who wills the end must will the means which ascertain it. His Lordship endeavours to diminish the dread of despotic government, by observina:, that in its worst state it is attended with more good than ill, and that the end of government^ under all its abuses, is ge/ie- rally answered by it. Admitting this to be true, it is at best but a consolation proper to be applied where there is no remedy, and affords no reason why we should not mitigate political as well as otiier evils, when it lies in our power. AVe endeavour to correct the diseases of the eye, or of any other organ, though the malady be not such as renders it useless. Tiie doctrine of passive obedience is so repugnant to the genuine feelings of human nature, that it can never be com- pletely acted on : a secret dread that popular vengeance will aw:ike, and nature assert her rights, imposes a restraint which the most determined despotism is not able to shake off. The rude reason of the multitude may be perplexed, but tiie sen- timents of the heart are not easily perverted. In adjusting the different parts of his theory, the learned Bishop appears a good deal embarrassed. It will be readily admitted, he says (p. 9), that of all sovereigns, none reign by 80 fair and just a title as those ivho derive their claim from some such public act {as the act of settlement) of the nation which they govern. That there are different degrees injustice, and even in divine right (which his Lordship declares all sovereigns possess), is a very singular idea. Common minds would be ready to imagine, however various the modes of injustice may he, justice were a thing absolute and invariable ; nor would they conceive how a divine right, a right the denial of which is high treason against the authority of God, can be iDcreased by the act of a nation. But this is not all. It is no pist inference (he tells us) that the obligation upon the pri- vate citizen to submit himself to the authority tlius raised, arises wholly from the act of the people conferring it, or from fheir compact with the person on whom it is conferred. But if the sovereign derives his claim from this act of the nation, how comes it that the obligation of the people to sub- mit to his claim does not spring from the same act? Because in all these cases, he affirms, the act of the people is only the 166 APOLOGY FOB means ivhich Providence employs to advance the new sove- reign to his station. In the hand of the Supreme Being the whole agency of men may be considered as an instrument; but to make it appear that the right of dominion is indepen- dent of the people, men must be shown to be instruments in political affairs in a more absolute sense than ordinary. A divine interposition of a more immediate kind must be shown, or the mere consideration of God's being the original source of all power will be a weak reason for absolute submission. Anarchy may have power as well as despotism, and is equally a link in the great cliain of causes and effects. It is not a little extraordinary that Bishop Horsley, the apologist of tyranny, the patron of passive obedience, should affect to admire the British constitution, whose freedom was attained by a palpable violation of the principles for which he contends. He will not say the Barons at Runnemede acted on his maxims in extorting the Magna Charta from King John, or in demanding its confirmation from Henry the Third. If he approves of their conduct he gives up his cause, and is compelled, at least, to confess the principles of passive obe- dience were not true at that time ; if he disapproves of their conduct, he must, to be consistent, reprobate the restraints which it imposed on kingly power. The limitations of mo- narchy, Avhich his Lordship pretends to applaud, were effected by resistance ; the freedom of the British constitution flowed from a departure from passive obedience, and was therefore stained with high treason against the authority of God. To these conclusions he must inevitably come, unless he can point ,out something peculiar to the spot of Runnemede, or to the reign of King John, w^hich confines the exception tu the general doctrine of submission to that particular time and place. With whatever colours the advocates of passive obe- dience may varnish their theories, they must of necessity be enemies to the British constitution. Its spirit they detest ; its corruptions they cherish ; and if at present they affect a zeal for its preservation, it is only because they despair of any form of government being erected in its stead which will give equal permanence to abuses. Afraid to destroy it at once, they take a malignant pleasure in seeing it waste by degrees under the pressure of internal malady. Whatever bears the semblance of reasoning, m Bishop run FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. 167 Horsley's discourse, will be found, I trust, to have received a satisfactory answer; but to animadvert with a becoming severity on the temper it displays, is a less easy task. To render him the justice he deserves in that respect would de- mand all the fierceness of his character. We owe him an acknowledgment for the frankness with which he avows his decided preference of the clergy of France to dissenters in England ; — a sentiment we have often sus- pected, but have seldom had the satisfaction of seeing openly professed before. No?ie, he asserts, at this season, are more entitled to our offices of love, than those with whom the difference is wide in points of doctrine, discipline, and external rites ; those vener- able exiles^ the prelates and clergy of the fallen church of France. Far be it from me to intercept the compassion ot the humane from the unhappy of any nation, tongue, or people : but the extreme tenderness he professes for the fallen church of France is well contrasted by his malignity towards dissenters. Bishop Horsley is a man of sense ; and though doctrine, discipline, and external rites, comprehend the whole of Christianity, his tender, sympathetic heart is superior to prejudice, and never fails to recognize in a persecutor a friend and a brother. Admirable consistency in a Protestant Bishop, to lament over the fall of that antichrist whose overthrow is represented by unerring inspiration as an event the most splendid and happy ! It is a shrewd presumption against the utility of religious establishments, that they too often become seats of intolerance, instigators to persecution, nurseries of Bonners and of Horsleys. His Lordship closes his invective against dissenters, and Dr. Priestley in particular, by presenting a prayer in the spirit of an indictment. We are happy to hear of his Lordship's prayers, and are obliged to him for remembering us in them ; but should be more sanguine in our expectation of benefit, if we were not informed, the prayers of the righteous only avail much. Miserable me?i, he tells us, we are in the gall of bit- terness, and in the bond of iniquity . With respect to the first, we must have plenty of that article, since he has distilled his own ; and if the bonds of iniquity are not added, it is only because they are not within the reach of his mighty malice* It is time to turn from this disgusting picture of sanctimo- 168 APOLOGY FOU THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. nious hypocrisy and priestly insolence, to address a word to the reader on the following pamphlet. The political senti- ments of Dr. Horsley are in truth of too little consequence in themselves to engage a moment's curiosity, and deserve atten- tion only as they indicate the spirit of the times. The freedom with which I have pointed out the abuses of government will be little relished by the pusillanimous and the interested, but is, I am certain, of that nature which it is the duty of the people of England never to relinquish, or sutler to be im- paired by any human force or contrivance. In the present crisis of things, the danger to liberty is extreme, and it is requisite to address a warning voice to the nation, that may disturb its slumbers, if it cannot heal its lethargy. When we look at the distraction and misery of a neighbouring country, we behold a scene that is enough to make the most hardy republican tremble at the idea of a revolution. Nothing but an obstinate adherenct to abuses can ever push the people of England to that fatal extremity. But if the state of things conti- nues to grow worse and worse, if the friends of reform, the true friends of their country, continue to be overwhelmed by calumny and persecution, the confusion will probably be dread- ful, the misery extreme, and the calamities that await us too great for human calculation. What must be the guilt of those men who can calmly con- template the approach of anarchy or despotism, and rather choose to behold the ruin of their country than resign the smallest pittance of private emolument and advantage ! To reconcile the disaifected, to remove discontents, to allay ani- mosities, and open a prospect of increasing happiness and free- dom, is yet in our power. But if a contrary course be taken, the sun of Great Britain is set for ever, her glory departed, and her history added to the catalogue of the mighty empires which exhibit the instability of all human grandeur, of em- pires which, after they rose by virtue to be the admiration of the world, sunk by corruption into obscurity and contempt. If any thing sliall then remain of her boasted constitution, it will display magnificence in disorder, majestic desolation, Babylon in ruins, where, in the midst of broken arches and fallen columns, posterity will trace the monuments onl^ of our ancient freedom ! ADVERTISEMENT TO THE NEW EDITION. As the following pamphlet has been long out of print, the reader will naturally expect some reason should be assigned for its republication. I might satisfy myself with safely affirm- ing that I have no alternative left but either to publish it myself, or permit it to be done by others, since the copyright has long since expired ; and I have been under the necessity of claiming as a favour what 1 could not insist upon as a right. In addition to this, a most erroneous inference has been drawn from my suffering it to fall into neglect. It has been often insinuated that my political principles have undei'gone a revolution, and that I have renounced the opinions which it was the object of this pamphlet to establish. I must beg leave, however, to assert, that fashionable as such changes have been, and sanctioned by many conspicuous examples, I am not am- bitious of the honour attached to this species of conversion, from a conviction that he who has once been the advocate of freeflom and of reform, will find it much easier to change his conduct than his principles — to worship the golden image, than to believe in the divinity of the idol. A reluctance to appear as a political writer, an opinion, whether well or ill founded, that the Christian ministry is in danger of losing something of its energy and sanctity, by embarking on the stormy element of political debate, were the motives that de- termined me, and which, had I not already engagai, would probiibly have effectually deterred me from writing upon po- litics. These scruples have given way to feelings still stronger, to my extreme aversion to be classed with political apostates, and to the suspicion of being deterred from the honest avowal of my sentiments on subjects of great moment, by hopes ami fears to which through every period of my life I have been a total stranger. The eflect of increasing years has been to augment, if possible, my attachment to the principles of civil and religious liberty, and to the cause of reform as inseparably combined with their preservation ; and few things would give 170 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE NEW EDITION. me more uneasiness than to have it supposed I could ever become hostile or indifferent to these objects. Tfie alterations in the present edition are nearly all of minor importance ; they chiefly consist of sliglit literary corrections, which very rarely affect the sense. It was not my wish or intention to impair the identity o^ the performance. There is in several parts an acrnnony and vehemence in the language which the candid reader will put to the account of juvenile ardour ; and which, should it be deemed excessive, he will perceive could not be corrected without producing a new composition. One passage in the preface, delineating the character of the late Bishop Horsley, is omitted. On mature reflection, it appeared to the writer not quite consistent either with the spirit of Christianity, or with the reverence due to departed genius. For the severity with which he has treated the political character of Mr. Pitt, he is not disposed to apo- logize, because he feels the fullest conviction that the policy, foreign and domestic, of that celebrated statesman, has in- flicted a more incurable wound on the constitution, and en- tailed more permanent and irreparable calamities on the nation, than that of any other minister in the annals of British history. A simple reflection will be sufficient to evince the unparalleled magnitude of his apostacy, which is, that the memory of the Son of Lord Chatham, the vehement opposer of the American War, the champion of Reform, and the idol of the people, has become the rallying point of toryism, the type and symbol of whatever is most illiberal in principle and intolerant in practice. 1821. AN APOLOGY. Section I. On the Right of Public Discussion. SoLOx, the celebrated legislator of Athens, we are told, enacted a law for the capital punishment of every citizen who should continue neuter when parties ran high in that repub- lic. He considered, it should seem, the declining to take a decided part on great and critical occasions, an indication of such a culpable indifference to the interests of the common- wealth as could be expiated only by death. While we blame the rigour of this law, we must confess the principle on which it was founded is just and solid. In a political contest, relating to particular men or measures, a well-wisher to his country may be permitted to remain silent ; but when the great interests of a nation are at stake, it becomes every man to act with firmness and vigour. I consider tiie present as a season of this nature, and shall therefore make no apology for laying before the public tiie reflections it has suggested. The most capital advantage an enlightened people can enjoy, is the liberty of discussing every subject which can fall within the compass of the human mind ; while this re- mains fretnlom will flourish ; but should it be lost or impaired, its principles will neither be well understood nor long re- tained. To render the magistrate a judge of truth, and engage his authority in the suppression of opinions, shows an inattention to the nature and design of political society. When a nation forms a government, it is not wisdom, but power which they place in the hand of the magistrate ; from whence it follows, his concern is only with those objects which power can operate upon. On this account the admi- nistration of justice, the protection of property, and the defence of every member of the community from violence and outrage, fall naturally within the province of the civil ruler, for these may all be accomplished by power ; but an attempt to distinguish truth from error, and to countenance 172 ON THE RIGHT OF one set of opinions to the prejudice of another, is to apply power in a manner mischievous and absurd. To comprehend the reasons on which the right of public discussion is founded, it is requisite to remark the difference between sentiment and conduct. The behaviour of men in society will be influenced by motives drawn from the prospect of good and evil : here then is the proper department of government, as it is capable of applying that good and evil by which actions are deter- mined. Truth, on the contrary, is quite of a different nature, being supported only by evidence, and as, when this is repre- sented, we cannot withhold our assent, so where this is want- ing, no power or authority can command it. However some may affect to dread controversy, it can never be of ultimate di.