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    stowed , at anytime , and in any way , which , to his infinite wisdom shall seem fittest and best ; and surely it is much more agreeable to all our natural ideas of the divine benignity , as well as wisdom , to suppose that he will do so , than to imagine that

    after having trained up his rational offspring in habits of piety and virtue , by the hopes of immortality which he has implanted in them , he should afterwards leave them to perish in the grave , and their memory to be blotted out from the creation . The higher we advance in

    intellectual and moral attainments , the stronger in general is our desire of a future existence beyond the grave ; and this alone seems a very considerable argument in favour of its reality . All the other propensities of our nature have objects suited to their gratification ; we cannot then suppose that " the noblest want which

    nature knows to raise , " the most exalted and animating hope that can enter into the mind of man , that hope which is the main spring of every thing great , good and amiable in the human character , and without

    which we should be but ltttle superior to the brute creation } we cannot , I say , form the supposition that this hope alone should have been destined by the Creator of all things to perish in eternal oblivion *

    The many pleasing analogies of a future state which are furnished by the contemplation of nature cannot but be highly gratifying to the serious and contemplative mind . The wonderful changes which many of the insect tribe are destined to undergo :

    from the state of a crawling , groveling reptile , intent upon nothing but gratifying the sensual appetites , it gradually decays , sickens , and spins itself a tomb , in which it wraps itself up , and remains without the least appearance of motion or animation ; but after a while it bursts the enclosure ,

    and breaks forth with new life and beauty , with powers of action and enjoyment unknown before ; andfrom a crawling- reptile on the earth becomes a winged inhabitant of the air . What a beautiful and striking emblem does this afford of our own revival at

    some future period ! The revivifyin g effect of spring both on the animal and vegetable creation , after the torpor and < U * th ~ like inactivity occasioned by the

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    winter ' s cold , if not a direct argument , ' is surely calculated to suggest a hope that such may be the case with respect to ourselves . The warmth of the spring no sooner returns , than we behold myriads of living creatures starting into activity and enjoyment , which before lay motionless without

    any appearance of life or sensation . The trees which of late had the appearance of dry sticks of wood , now put forth their leaves , are adorned with blossoms a-nd loaded with fruit . Plants and vegetables are every where springing up , of which perhaps a short time before we could hardly have discovered the least traces . Can

    we then behold these glorious instances of the divine wisdom and benignity so strikingly displayed in the renovation of the lower orders of nature , and not be tempted to exclaim in the beautiful and emphatic language of an elegant poet ,

    Shall I be left abandoned in the dust , When fate relenting * lets the flowers revive . ? Shall nature ' s voice toman alone unjust , Bid bim , tboug-h doomed to perish , hope to live ? Is it for this fair virtue oft must strive

    With disappointment , penury and pain ?—No 3 Heaven ' s immortal spring * shall yet arrive , And man ' s majestic beauty bloom attain , Bright thro * uV eternal year of love ' s triumphant reign . _

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    Mr . Hollis on the Qualifications of a Clergyman . 27

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    —¦^^ PB ^— - Sir , Newport , Isle of Wight , In the memoirs of the generous and independent Mr . Hollis , it is related that during his visit to Naples in 1751 , having received information from his steward , that one of the livings in his gift was likely to become vacant , he took occasion to

    express his opinion respecting the qualifications which every clergyman of the Establishment should possess , in order properly to discharge the duties required of him in the pastoral office . These qualifications appearing to me no less reasonable than

    necessary , I am induced to submit to you an extract from one of Mr- Hollis ' s 1 tters . " First , that his morals be irreproachable j secondly , that he be oi a mild and tractable disposition ; thirdly , that he be moderately learned ; fourthly , that he be undoubtedly ; i Whig in its most extensive sens « > that is ,

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1815, page 27, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1756/page/27/