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• truth in the Abbe ' s remark ( p . lx . ) that it is doubtful whether the Thirtynine Articles of the Church of Eng ^ land have the entire assent of one of the many clergymen , who in such
solemn terms declare that assent - but we are happy in knowing that lie is quite mistaken in representing the Dissenters here ( p . lx . ) as making common cause with the Established Church against the Catholics . The Hed Cross Street Resolutions and Petitions have , we hope , before this time , set the Abbe right in this particular . Here , as in other things , he is many years behind in his information . He lias , however , consulted
some recent publications of the Dissenters , and particularly the miscellaneous works of Robert Robinson , published by B . Flower , in 1807 j but in these volumes he finds nothing to
remark upon but the extravagant abuse ( such we allow it to be ) of Boussuet [ Vol . i . p . 194 . ] and the philippic against St . Augustin . * Robin son ' s pen moved too rapidly : he sometimes left his authorities far
behind . He ^ vvas fond of drawing characters , but his colouring is not always true to nature . His faults were , however , partly the result of his French reading : he would have been a much better English writer if he had not been early dazzled by the vitia dulcia , the meretricious ornaments of Gallic
* The Abie's second reference to Robinson ' s works ( Tome iv . pag-e 294 , " ) is erroneous : there is nothing * about Augustin in this place : but elsewhere Robinson does represent the African Father as a knave , drunkard and debauchee . ( See
particularly his Hist , of Baptism , 4 * ° * cn - xxiii ) . Of bis knavery before his conversion , as it is called , there is no doubt ^ and we apprehend that there cannot be much with regard to his drunkenness and debauchery both before and after . Who is ignorant of
the genealogy of Adeodatus , or of the dispute on the word crapula ? We dare not make references , for the life of the Saint is too licentious a picture to be exposed to ev « ery ey 6 . Yet tliere is a worse trait in Ausrustin ' s character than either of the above ; namely , his being * a merciless persecutor : this feature in the Father ' s
bisfory roused Itobinson s indignation , and , if ve do not err , would , on a proper occasion , rouse the AT > be Greg'oire s . From the Carthaginian monk , Calvin drew his system ; no pure source for the doctrines qf grace ; Punica religione fides servata : a sinister compliment to the religion of the Reformed .
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orators , amongst whom we do not scruple to place Saurin . Irritated by Robinson ' s unmeasured reproaches of the Papal Church and its advocates our author says that " it is
difficult to carry calumny and coarseness further than this Robert Robinson has done , who is nevertheless a much-extolled writer amongst the Protestant Dissenters . " It would gratify the quondam Bishop to know how little the
Dissenters care for such men as Robinson , and how willing they would be to consign to oblivion all their own writers who plead their own cause in a manly spirit : but his esteem for them would not increase upon his learning
further that it is not the grossness and iiliberality of any author that lowers him in the estimation of the majority of them , but the very qualities which will ever make the Abbe suspected arid disliked in his own community , that is , a habit of free thinking and
bold writing . Of this habit , the passage we have next to quote is an example . Our worthy friend , Mr . Evans , will find himself complimented at the close of it with the title of Doctor 9 which we
have not yet heard that his alma mater has conferred upon him . " Truth and virtue ouglit to excite equal interest ; bnt in almost all religious societies the zeal of the clergy shews itself more warmly against error than against vice . The minister Saurin demanded why
ecclesiastical bodies are less severe against practical than speculative heresies . Lately , again , Doctor Evans addressed the same reproach to Protestants ;* who notwithstanding- merit it but little . " ( pp . 1 X 1 I > lxiii . )
The Abbe is scarcely aware of the price set upon orthodoxy by the Protestant Dissenters . A fact is stated ( p . Ixvi . ) of which we are not apprized , that
" many Catholic priests are at this day Protestant ministers , some in England , where Protestantism lias made conquests from the emigrant ecclesiastics of France : ' the writer
adds , however , that of these conquests Protestantism " has not much occasion to boast / ' . On what authority is it said , inW same page , that Hume , born a I rotestanr , became a Catholic , and ended
in infidelity ? * " Voyez Sketch , &c . by J ^ Ev ^ n s , a * 13 , Londres . 1801 , page 236 . '
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103 Review . — -Ghregoires Histoiredes Sectes Reliyietues .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1815, page 108, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1757/page/44/
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