their dealings, abhorred fraud and avarice. In a word, observed all the laws and rules of civil society."-To this may be added what Dr. Stanhope, the translator of Epic tetus's Morals, says of the Stoics: "They are most deservedly admired, for their noble notions of virtue above any other sect, and the brave attempts they have made towards reducing nature to its primitive purity and perfection." But morality was not confined to the Greeks and Romans. Of the Germans, Fleury has this testimony, that "they were naturally great observers of common equity, generously plain and open hearted, chaste, despisers of pleasure and sensual gratification, lovers of justice, hospitality, and alms-giving." So admirable were the heathen virtues esteemed, in the early periods of the Christian church, that many of the fathers and martyrs obtained additional respect, in consequence of its being supposed that they imitated them. Fleury, "appears in many of the glorious' try caused statues to be erected to him." | Cicero also, who appears to have been an enemy to the opinions of the Epicureans, is full of the probity of Epicurus and his disciples, who were remarkable for their friendship to each other. Hume says, Probity and honour were no strangers to Epicurus and his sect."-The same author, speaking of several of the ancients, asks, "Who admires not Socrates; his perpetual serenity and contentment, amidst the greatest poverty and domestic vexations; bis resolute contempt of riches, and magnanimous care of preserving liberty, while he refused all assistance from his friends and disciples, and avoided even the dependence of an obligation? Epictetus had not so much as a door to his little house or hovel; and, therefore, soon lost his iron lamp, the only furniture which he had worth taking. In antiquity (continues Hume) the heroes of philosophy, as well as those of war and patriotism, have a gran-"The bravery of the Roman spirit," says deur and force of sentiment, which astonishes our narrow souls, and is rashly rejected as extravagant and supernatural."Under the tuition of such masters, whose bright examples gave additional weight and As for the gravity of the Greek philoso lustre to the precepts which they inculcated, phers, one may see it in the acts of St. it.. was impossible not to find virtuous citi Polycarp, St. Pionius, priest of Smyrna, zens.. The Greeks and Romans, who lived and in the writings of St. Justin, and St. under these fortunate circumstances, are Clemens Alexandrinus."-If we go farther accordingly described by Fleury, as have back than either the Greeks, the Romans, ing been possessed of dispositions and or the Germans, we shall find that virtue tendencies towards virtue, such as gravity, was respected, because it was essential to patience, obligingness in conversation, the existence of nations. The Egyptians," complaisance, cheerfulness, esteem, affec- who are said to be in possession of memotion, with a true sense of decency and de- rials, which prove their country to have corum, of which they were complete mas- been once the most civilized and flourishing ters." They were likewise particularly of all ancient states, are thus spoken of by remarkable for their hospitality, which Volney: "Ever open to observation, they grew to prescription in families; it was must first have passed from the savage to the principal cement of friendship and cor- the social state, and consequently attained respondence between the cities of Greece that physical and moral knowledge proper and Italy, and afterwards spread over the to civilized man."-The practical effect of whole Roman empire. Nay, so sacred this knowledge was, a strict observance was this practice of hospitality, that they of the laws of morality, in its native simmade it a part of their religion: Jupiter, plicity; and a judicious practice of all that said they, presided over the affair-both is conducive to the preservation of existence, the persons entertained, and the table at to the well-being of the individual and of which they eat, were counted sacred.". his fellow creatures."--When this people Plutarch and others mention that the hea-acted, otherwise, he attributes their defecthens erected temples to honour, piety, hope, chastity, peace, and all the virtues. We have even the concession of St. Augustiti, in favour of those men whom we have been taught to consider barbarians. He says, there were many heathens who were virtuous, and who led lives morally good were true, to their word, just in Dilcounts. 66 tion to what occasions the perversion of alt morality," namely, the introduction of senseless fanaticism, and deplorable superstition." The Persians, disciples of Zoroaster, were remarkable for affection to their parents, whom they supported; for alms-giving to the poor; and for never violating their word. When in doubt as to the justice or injustice of an action, they : 8th Nov. 1813. $ 14 ANSWER TO THE CHURCHMAN., tention, the letter of A. B., inserted in your Register of the 20th inst., and the observations made upon it by a Correspondent, styling himself a Churchman, and which form part of his letter, inserted in your Register of the 27th inst., allow me to offer a few short remarks on this latter document.- -I am at a loss to conceive, how you, Sir, who possess so strong a judgment, and to whom it belongs to determine what is worthy, or not, of being offered to your readers, could give inser tion to a letter replete with misrepresentations, and betraying so much ignorance of the subject it pretends to discuss and defend. In the first place, the Churchman charges A. B. with the liberty he takes with whole civilized nations and celebrated philosophers." It is evident to me, that A. B. applies his remarks solely to France and her philosophers; and with how much justice we can all appreciate, when we recollect that the following inscription stood over the entrance of the Cemeteries: "Death is an eternal sleep." This was done by the followers of the antichristian philosophers, whom the Churchman would fain protect; and certainly,: that nation could not properly be called, enlightened, or civilized, where an in scription of so horrible a nature was order ed and permitted to stand. I shall confine myself to this instance of misrepresentation: now for one or two of ignorance.The Churchman (I am really sorry he should have assumed that name) says: "Now what does A. B. say? Why, he affirms, that people have been saved who never heard, nor ever could possibly hear, of the name of Jesus. He does not simply assert, that the Patriarchs and Jews, who lived under the law, were saved without faith in Christ; but he maintains, that there were many, who lived without the pale of the tabernacle, who escaped eternal reprobation. He even goes so far as to avow that the Magi, that is, the ancient magicians, who dealt with the Devil, obtained the, kingdom of Heaven, &c. &c." In answer to this, it suffices to inform the Churchman, that Job was out of the pale of the tabernacle, and yet he is called, in Holy Writ, a holy man. The Magi were not necromancers, as the Ghurchman ignorantly believes they were the kings of the east, who were led by the miraculous star to the spot where our blessed Saviour had just been born; and there, instead of dealing, with the Devil, they prostrated themselves, and adored him whom they acknowledged he does, briefly, but most truly and justly, upon redemption, justification, and salvation.And most unhappily, indeed, nust that heart be placed who would resist or gainsay any thing that A. B. has so energetically expressed in this little summary. their God. I have the happiness, Sir, I picked out a little assortment of pearls; and · to belong to the most numerous and ancient however (allowing this to be the case) irrereligion of Christians. That religion teach-gularly he may have strung them, their es me, that children who die without bap-value and purity are most conspicuous.: tism, and who, of course, are not Chris- -This is clear, however concise, in his tians, are not to be looked upon as con- happy and appropriate scriptural allusions, demned to eternal damnation. It also as well as in the whole of his excellent epi- · forbids me to pronounce upon the fate of tome in miniature, if I may thus express it, those who never had the means of knowing upon the subject of the divine economy in Christ and the holy mystery of Redemp-revealed and natural religion; touching, as tion. Certainly, Sir, God, whose essence is justice and mercy, may, I hope (without impiety), be expected not to condemn to eternal punishment, those of his creatures who never knew Christ, because they never could know him; but fulfilled to the utmost of their power the duties of social life, and of the religion of nature. As I am not a divine, I hope, Sir, this opinion will be received with indulgence, even by the Churchman.I avail myself of this opportunity, to return my sincere acknowledgments to A. B. for the edification I have derived from his honest and manly defence of our faith.- -Allow me, Sir, also, without intending, however, to give you the least offence, to declare it to you, as my candid opinion, that your inserting the letter, signed by A Churchman, and dated from Oxford, is calculated, to say the least of it, to show how far, although the declared champion of the doctrines of the church, you can carry your impartiality. I am, with great esteem, Sir, your obedient humble servant, A. B. G. Pentonville, 30th Nov. 1813. W. Cobbell, Esq. ANSWER TO CHURCHMAN. SIR,--The furor (to use his own expression, in deference to classical locality, he being an Oxford man) with which your Gorrespondent, a Churchman, attacks, amongst others, your friend A. B. in a wild farrago of his in last Saturday's Register, disgraces that paper.Did the nature of such correspondence admit of the thought, it would seem that the effervescence with which the Churchman was seized, and to which he ran so hastily to give vent, had been set in motion by some bitter personal animosity; and that the rhapsody which he so eagerly breathes forth, at the expense both of his head and his heart, was a vehicle expressly designed to convey the gall of his resentment to the blackest of enemies. For my own part, I cannot sufficiently express my admiration of your Correspondent A. B. He has, to speak figuratively, -But the Churchman, except he step forward and make A. B. and your paper, too, Sir, an amende honorable, must indeed "hide his diminished head."—Now, I must myself turu to A. B., and inform him, that the only blame I attach to him is, his having disqualified his highly to be respected effusion with doubts of fitness "to 66 meet the public eye," as the Churchman malignly expresses it. I likewise blame Mr. Cobbett, whose judgment is certainly of the first stamp, in allowing this diffident clause of his friend's letter to have been thus unnecessarily inserted.I remain, Sir, your sincere servant, &c. Wm. Cobbelt, Esq. ECCE HOMO. B. W. Mr. COBBETT,-Far be it from me to triumph over a fallen enemy. But as that enemy, like some of our modern warriors, not only refuses to acknowledge he is beaten, but pretends, though driven from the field, that he has been victorious, it occurs to me that he ought not thus to be allowed to triumph with impunity. It was not Observator that called Mr.Fordham into action: it was himself that volunteered in the conflict. My object was Mr. Elton; but that gentleman having, after the perusal of my first letter, prudently declined the contest, I unexpectedly found the gauntlet taken up by the redoubtable Mr. Fordham, who seems to have been sufficiently persuaded, that it was only necessary for him to grasp the pen, and by one bold effort, lay the enemy prostrate at his feet. It no where appears to have entered the noddle of this valorous chieftain, that it was possible he might first become the vanquished foe. This ill-timed confidence in his own strength, at once accounts for his reluctance and wanton manner with which he treats opinions that are now-a-days held sacred in consequence of their antiquity. Such, in deed, is his temerity; such his disregard for every thing esteemed holy, that he discusses these topics with a freedom never before used in matters of religion, and in which I have no desire to imitate him. His attack, in particular, upon the clergy, exceeds all bounds, and cannot be vindi to acknowledge himself defeated, and for the pitiful evasion by which he has attempted to justify his declining further discussion. In your last Register you very clearly exposed the absurdity of the reason which Mr. F. assigned for dropping the correspondence: this renders it unnecessary for me to enter on that topic. As to the offence which he has taken at some of my expressions, I really thought he had more penetration than to have allowed so favor-cated by any man that entertains the least able an opportunity to be lost, which this respect for that body, or any regard for his circumstance gave him, of practically de- own personal safety. It is only the passamonstrating the superiority of the morality ges referred to by Mr. Fordham, which, which he advocates, over that of the hea- he says, afford complete proof of the falsethen. One of the fundamental maxims of hood of this writer's statements, that I Christianity teaches its votaries not to mean to examine. The first of these is the "return railing for railing," but to "bless one which respects the miracle at Cana, those that curse them, and do good to of turning water into wine, and upon which those that despitefully use them, and the author of Ecce Homo has the follow"persecute them." But much as Mr. ing remark :" perhaps indeed, this miFordham admires the theory of the evange- racle was witnessed by the steward alone, lical morality, the practice of it was not with whom it is not impossible Jesus had at all congenial with his feelings; for, in- secret intelligence."-In the account given stead of blessing me for what he considered of this affair in the New Testament, it is my harsh language, he expresses a wish said, that the miracle was performed in that you, Mr. Cobbett, may rail at, and presence of several servants, and, in no❤ censure me. In fact, this testy gentleman, ticing the transaction, our author has like the generality of Christians, leaves the strictly adhered to that account. He ap morality of which he so much boasts, to be pears indeed to have supposed that there practised by the enemies of his religion, might have been collusion in the business; while he assumes the right of "dealing dam- but then he only brings forward this as a nation round the land," and of loading every surmise; he no where asserts it as a fact; one with abuse who presumes to question and that his meaning might not be mista, the correctness of his opinions. He thought ken, he uses the word perhaps" in pre, it no violation of the precepts of his master, ference to any other. Obvious, however, to denounce the author of Ecce Homo a as the author's intention must appear to brute," and "a madman," and to hold every unprejudiced mind, Mr. Fordham him up as destitute of justice and inte- was determined not to understand him; grity; neither did he hesitate to regard and, by a mode of construction peculiar to me as an impudent quack," and to treat himself, and which, I conceived, justified my propositions, which he could not refute, me in considering him perverted in intelwith scorn and ridicule. This may be his lect, he has discovered a positive declara. way of illustrating the passive and forgiv- tion in what, I am persuaded, no man in ing spirit of Christianity; but I must be his senses will find more than a mere con·pardoned for thinking, that no man, be his jecture: yet it is upon this sort of evidence profession of religion what it may, ought that. Mr. F. founds his charge, against to be answered in sentences of horrid Ecce Homo, of falsehood-of being full of words," when he makes use of such lan- falsehoods of the book being perfectly guage. To call it the effect of "holy infamous. "Whether the author of that frenzy," appeared to me the most charita- work was justified in conjecturing matters ble and unexceptionable way of treating in the way he has done, is a question which such conduct. Having thought it pro-I shall not pretend to decide. Such as, are per to advance thus much on the behaviour of Mr. Fordham, it remains for me tooffer a few remarks on what he has said respecting Ecce Homo. In undertaking this, however, I do not wish it to be understood that it is my intention to justify the author of that work in all that he has written, or in the fearless 66 inclined to enter upon the discussion of this point, will find the reasons which he as signs for his incredulity in the following extract; The incredulous, less easily persuaded than the poor half-intoxicated villagers, do not observe in this transmuta tion of water into wine, a motive for being convinced of the divine power of Jesus.. keeps." In the New Testament, Jesus is They remark, that in the operation he em- said to have associated with publicans and ployed water in order to make his wine; a sinners; with toll-bar keepers and tax-gacircumstance which may give room to sus therers, who were then the offscourings of pect that he made only a composition, of society and to have constantly had a numwhich he, like many others, might have ber of women following him, several of the secret. There was, in fact, no more whom had previously led very debauched power necessary to create wine, and fill the lives. In Matthew's gospel we are inpitchers without putting water into them, formed that Jesus" took our infirmities, than to make an actual transmutation of and bore our griefs." A similar expression water into wine. At least, by acting in is used in the epistle to the Hebrews, where this manner, he would have removed the it is added, that he was in all points suspicion of having made only a mixture." tempted like unto us,"I wonder much p. 84. From the able manner in which Mr. Fordham did not endeavour to refute you refuted Mr. Fordham's charge as to the (which he could easily have attempted) the abominable propensity," said to have inference drawn from these passages unfabeen imputed by Ecce Homo to Jesus vourable to Christ, by referring to the an Christ, I think it only necessary to say upon cient moralists, against whom it is never that point, that Mr. F's proposition con- objected that they kept improper company, tains in itself a complete refutation of the though it must be evident, that they had charge; for I defy him to produce one in- the same propensities as other men. But stance where the unnatural propensity' perhaps Mr. F. thought that this mode of and an inordinate affection for the fair refutation might prove fatal to the opinions sex" ever predominated in the same indi- held by the Unitarians, of which he is a vidual. He will, no doubt, say, that he staunch supporter. They deny the divine never intended to advance such an absur. nature of Jesus; they assert that he was a dity. Neither will. I hold the author of mere man; and that he came into the world Ecce Homo, any more than Mr. Fordham, through the same carnat means by which to be so stupid as to confound the indul other children are propagated. It may suit gence of two passions so very opposite. the views of people who hold such opinions, Mr. Fordham's remaining charge against and who at the same time wish to be conEcce Homo is couched in the following sidered Christians, to profess great regard words" He represents Jesus as a libidi- for the purity of Christ's character; but nous and debauched character, without pro- they must not reason upon this, because they ducing a single fact, or even the shadow of are perfectly aware that, by stripping him a fact." By this statement it is evident, of those attributes by which alone he could that Mr. F. wished it to be believed that resist the powerful temptations of the flesh, the author of Ecce Homo represented Jesus they expose him to all the attacks which to be a perfect libertine. For my part, Ecce Homo, and other unchristian writers however, I see no reason for holding such are in the constant practice of making an opinjon-It may be said of many a man, against Christ. It is indeed ridiculous to perhaps of Mr. Fordham himself, in the hear the Unitarians talking, and that loudprecise words of Ecce Homo, that he en-ly too, about the "dishonesty" of the tertains a", weakness, for the fair sex,' or writer of Ecce Homo, Among all his that the ladies are his foible." But were faults, and they are not a few, he cannot I to go so far as to infer, from this circum.be charged with dealing in half measures; stance, that he was a libidinous and de- while his opponents, who pretend to be the bauched character," I am certain he would only true believers, and are unceasingly be the first to complain of the unwarranta clamouring about the want of toleration, ble liberty which I had taken: he might have not only sapped the very foundations answer me, that as well may I consider him of Christianity, but would be the most ina drunkard because he sometimes indulges tolerant of all sectarians, if they possessed in a glass of wine, or as deserving hell-fire the same powers which the legislature has for an occasional slip of the tougue, because thought proper to confer on the established the scriptures denounce that punishment church, upon all swearers and upon all liars. The author of Ecoe Homo appears to have formed his notions of Christ's moral character •pon the antiquated and exploded maxim, 10 Nov. 1813. Thaty 10-man is known by the company he Your's, respectfully, OBSERVATOR. |