knows all things, but know that men will think differently; therefore he cannot punish them for that which is the very first law of their nature. St. Paul also confirms this doctrine, when he speaks of those who are in after times to fall off from Christianity; and he makes God the author both of their crime and their punishment.-2 Thess. ii. 11-13. “And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie; that they might all be damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks for you to God, because from the beginning he hath chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the spirit, and belief of the truth."-Ephes. i. 5. "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glory, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin." Is this enough, or is it not, to shew that Paul has introduced ridiculous and irrational doctrines of his own, in addition to those of Christ? Christ taught only, and that only in the Gospel of St. John, which I believe to have proceeded from the Alexandrian school, the belief in himself as the son of God, and his resurrection from the dead; to which Paul has added the doctrines of election, reprobation, predestination, and the works of the spirit. The gentleman who signs himself Paulensis, tells me that the Gospel is a superstucture raised upon the laws of Moses. I suppose he means the moral law, because the ceremonial Christ himself especially abolished, though his two disciples Peter and Paul quarrelled about that subject, so that Paul boasts of having resisted openly his colleague. Considering therefore the laws of Moses and of Christ as one moral system, the writer dares me to mention one duty which is omitted; and to this I must answer that not a word is said of friendship, of patriotism, nor of those minor duties which are so fully described in the Proverbs of Solomon and the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach, which, together with the Wisdom of Solomon, contain a much fuller description of the various duties of life than is to be found in the Old and New Testiment besides. : Paulensis considers the truth of revelation and the certainty of our existence, to be positively synonimous; that the one is no more to be disputed than the other and therefore all that he leaves me to do is to betake myself immediately to the defence of Christianity, as if I had spent twenty years to no purpose in convincing myself to the contrary. I once believed in Christianity as firmly as Paulensis, and I believed pretty much upon the same grounds. I remain, &c. Nov. 27, 1811, Welbeck-street, Cavendish-square. W. BURDON. REPLY TO MISS TAYLOR RESPECTING A SONNET. To the Editor of the Freethinking Christians' Magazine. SIR, IN consequence of a discovery made by an intimate friend of mine, of the plagiarism committed by your Correspondent, Frances Taylor, in signing her name at full length to a sonnet long since composed by me, and transmitted to the Poetical Magazine, and likewise to the Lady's Museum, I was induced to grant him my permission to request your insertion of his letter, signed Justus, in the publication wherein the above mentioned sonnet had surreptitiously made its appearance; and you, as Editor of the work, obligingly complied with that request. I had hoped Miss Taylor would have explained the mistake (for such I had construed it on her part), and in that case, should certainly have insisted upon my friend's apologizing for the too great severity of his animadversion: judge then, Mr. Editor, how great must have been my astonishment and contempt, when on the perusal of her reply (contained in your last), instead of the justification of her error, I found she had basely and deliberately sat herself down (if indeed it could have been her), and ransacked the stores of ingenuity and artifice, to aid her in a pitiful and disgraceful falsehood! But, indeed, Mr. Editor, I scarcely believe a lady capable of such shameful duplicity, and think it would be more charitable to attribute the fabrication in your last, to the secret and unhidden interference of some one less friendly to truth, or too interested in obtaining the good graces of Miss Taylor to scruple even at a lie in defence of her veracity and reputation! Would not the most ordinary capacity, Mr. Editor, marvel at the folly and impolicy of one, who, knowing himself not to be the author of a composition, not only sends it for insertion to two popular miscellanies, but, instead of retiring to his hiding place and prudently imitating the silence of Miss Taylor, ridiculously brings himself forward and brands the real author with the stigma of plagiarism? Common sense would scoff at such absurdity! But the sonnet, she says, has been composed these four years! Is it not singular it should have lain dormant such a length of time, and be now so recently snatched from its precious envelope, to be honoured by the notice of your pages. I have long, Sir, been fascinated by the muse of poetry, and the above-named respectable repositories, together with the Gentleman's Magazine, General Chronicle, &c. can testify to such of your readers, who either have already consulted, or may hereafter consult them, whether the muse of Alphonso appeared indeed so poverty-struck as to become a stealer of son nets! But who is this Miss Taylor? What original poetry has she composed, and where to be found! Before the spear of Ithuriel be again applied to treachery and falsehood, allow me, Sir, in this place to introduce my sonnet, after which I shall investigate the luminous and incontrovertible truths which that evil spirit, who counsels only to betray, hath breathed in her ear. Eternity as from the rock of Time I view thy noiseless waves majestic roll; And all its glitt'ring splendours charm no more, Here with the most unparalleled effrontery, Miss Taylor (or I would still believe, her valiant knight-errant) enters into the absurd and truly ridiculous detail of the manner in which, and the spot where, her muse caught its inspiration. It was, Sir, amid hanging cliffs, romantic woods, and foaming cataracts!" A cascade rushing impetuously over huge fragments of rock, and rapidly descending into the sea, which that moment reflected the rays of the moon, gave rise to the ideas contained in that sonnet." What a sublime and beautiful depicturation! As,, however, all is not gold that glitters, let us analyze it carefully, and see whether this rapturous bombast be not, as I shrewdly suspect it is, " full of sound and fury, meaning nothing." Indeed, there scarcely needs any comment, and Miss Taylor deserves my acknowledgment for having put more than the requisite weapons in my hands for refuting the flimsy arguments she has made use of. I shall not, however, like her, be content with bold unsubstantiated assertion, but proceed to investigation. The first and second lines of the sonnet, as they stood in the original copy, and as Miss Taylor has transplanted into her surreptitious one, run thusEternity! as from the rock of Time, I view thy noiseless waves majestic roll. Noiseless waves! how likely to be suggested by thundering waterfalls! Can a "cascade, rushing impetuously over huge fragments of rocks," and tumbling with deafening sound to * Miss Taylor, has here substituted" stillness" for "silence."-ALPHONSO. the sea, convey to the mind a just conception of a vast, a noiseless, an interminable ocean? How can the moon, shedding its tranquil (not tranquillizing) beams on its surface, remind us, as in the seventh line, of Hope bending like a seraph from the skies, and restoring security to the perturbed bosom? Does not the torrent dash and roar though lightened by its rays? Where then is the coincidence? But I will not insult your understanding or that of your readers, Mr. Editor; nor will I longer demean myself by giving an air of consequence to a lie, engendered by meanness, and supported by impudence! Your readers are to judge for themselves-let their verdict be impartial! I have not, it is true, the privilege of appealing to the feelings of your correspondents; I am no "unlettered female" to urge that appeal, under apprehension that the flimsy texture of my arguments should be too easily seen through (unable to stand of their own force). In short, far from being intimidated by the seeming threat of sending her" gentleman" to confront me, and ratify her pretensions to my sonnet, I hereby solemnly engage myself to meet him or any other person at the office of the printer of this Magazine, or whatever place and time herself may appoint, for the purpose of personally receiving the proof she so confidently talks of possessing. I remain, &c. ORIGINAL POETRY. RECOLLECTIONS OF CHILDHOOD. ALPHONSO. THO' doom'd by Fate to leave the rustic cot, And Mem'ry paints again those scenes anew ; Where oft at eve, beside the glassy brook, I've seen with anxious eye the minnows glide, And try'd t'entice them with the baited hook, Or watch'd their course along the bank's green side. For sportive childhood, rear'd in Nature's lap, Let no reverse of fortune, or mishap, Assail its breast or plant a sorrow there. Too soon, alas! the friendly mist dispers'd, Too soon, unveil'd, life's rugged path appears; But tho' of fortune and of friends bereft, Tell me that heavenly consolation's left, That God above will prove the orphan's friend. M. W. A BRIEF STATEMENT OF CERTAIN PUBLIC TRANSACTIONS THAT TOOK PLACE IN THE YEAR 1808, RELATIVE TO THE CHURCH OF GOD, DENOMINATED FREETHINKING CHRISTIANS, TO DISTINGUISH THEM FROM THE UNTHINK ING CHRISTIANS OF THE PRESENT DAY. -One murder made a villain, Millions a saint: when priests were privileged To the Editor of the Freethinking Christians' Magazine. SIR, HAVING lately seen the Reverend John Evans's corrected work, which professes to give an account of all the different denominations of Christians for 1811, I looked with eager-. ness to see what statement he had given of the Freethinking Christians, thinking it impossible but some notice, however unjust or partial it might be, would have been taken of them, especially as he had announced in his title page and advertisements the addition of an insignificant sect called Shakers; but, to my very great astonishment, not one word could I discover respecting the Freethinking Christians. Now, Sir, as I know Mr. E. is in possession of the fact that there is such a denomination of Christians, he having sent to their place of meeting for a Statement, which they published of their persecution in the year 1808, I think it a duty I owe to him, to the Freethinking Christians, and to the public at large, to call upon him to state his reasons for not giving an account of them in a book, which professes to inform us of all the different denominations of Christians; and if he fails to do this, I conceive there is no epithet which is applicable to impostors, but what is most truly applicable to him. I can only imagine two reasons which could operate on his mind; first, that he has persuaded himself that Mr. Aspland's insinuation in the Monthly Repository for 1808 is true, that they are not Christians, but only a debating club; or secondly, that he knows their principles and practices are consonant to genuine Christianity, and that if they were once seen they could not fail of being admired by every rational man; and of course that such men would see and despise the priestcraft of dissenting VOL. II. H |