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REVIEW. " Still pleas'd to praise, yet not afraid to blame." — Pope.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Art . \*—Hi $ tbire des Sectes Religieusesj &c . i . e . History of the Religious Sects , which have sprung up , undergone changes or become
extinct in the four quarters of the globe , from the commencement of the last century to the present period . By M . Gregoire , formerly Bishop of Blois , Member of the Institute , &c . &c . Paris . 2 Vols . 8 vo .
1814 . The Abbe Gregoire is well known by his various ' publications , and is deservedly esteemed as the advocate of the Negroes , and the friend of civil
atid religious liberty . The present publication which has just arrived in this country , will fully sustain the author ' s reputation . It has the usual defects of the French manner of
writing and compiling , and contains many errors , the unavoidable consequence of describing distant sects , the knowledge of which is derived through the medium of foreign languages : but at the same time it communicates much important information , sets many known facts and circumstances in a
new and interesting light , and abounds with pleasing sentiments and just reflections . Our design in taking up these volumes is to extract or give the substance of passages which will be likely to be acceptable to our readers : for tlje sake of utility , our extracts will be made in English .
A notice on a blank leaf opposite to the title-page informs us that the work was printed in 1810 , but was seized by order of the Minister of Police : it was restored to the author in June , 1814 , after the late Revolution ; a happy revolution , we would hope , with regard to literature and morals , if not also to religion .
In an advertisement the Abbe Gregoire corrects an error into which he acknowledges himself to have fallen in the body of the Work , where he represents a publication of Mr . Mouliuie ' s , entitled , The Milk of the Word , as tainted with Socinianism * He
continues to think the passage to which he referred v ^ ry faulty , but says that the plan of a discourse on the Divinity of Christ , preached in 1810 , which Mr Moulinie has communicated to him is entirely satisfactory .
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Although the Parisian Police seized the History , yet fifty copies got into circulation abroad , and the work was translated into the" Ecclesiastical Ar chives , a German publication , bv Staudlin and Tzschirner . The Advertisement contains also a
pleasing reflection or two upon Christian charity . The Abbe says , and who does not wish that he may say truly , " The Catholic Church , which shuts its bosom to all errors , opens it to all the erring , when she can do them good . "
Then follows a Preliminary Dis course , on the subject and plan of the work . The author remarks ( p , ii . ) that the character of the French Revolution has been barbarized [ denature ] for the sake of calumniating its principle . He
exposes a party whom he calls Obscu * rans , whose double object is despotism and impiety , who seek to muzzle men by ignorance , and attempt to place the ragings of tyranny and the ravings of superstition 1 under the guardianship of fyeaven . These he distinguishes from the German Protestants who
have obtained the same name and who are also called by their co-religionists , Neolognes , or the partizans of the New Explication ; alluding , we suppose , to Kant , Eichhorn , &c . In his account of the politico-religious Ohscurans , lie says , seriously ,
u Amongst institutions resembling * this , we may rank the festival of the restoratiou of Charles II . who subjected the English to the arbitrary power of a contemptible prince , and whose court was a sink of libertinism and impiety . " ( P . iii . )
How much longer shall we display our oaken boughs and chaunt our thanksgivings on the 29 th of May , and render ourselves an object of derision to our continental neig hbours ,
whose superstition and slavery we so complacently pity ? The following is tjie Abbe Gre goire ' s explanation of the theological system of the celebrated German religious philosopher , Kant : " Kant considers that the doctrine of Jesus Chriat is an object of adoration , l >« bethinks that men have made of hlI " , " object of idolatry by the adoration of w person . " The Trinity represents God to b" »> ab
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Review. " Still Pleas'd To Praise, Yet Not Afraid To Blame." — Pope.
REVIEW . " Still pleas'd to praise , yet not afraid to blame . " — Pope .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1815, page 106, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1757/page/42/
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