On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
a without fathom or bound . Like % Glacier , from the mountain ' s top , it \ et on , accumulating- as it feJI , and So * io one work of ruin materials to nder the next more wide and dreadful . It it retched from the old world to the new , wraDDioff both continents in its flames , and roierinff the earth as with a fiery deluge o deso lation - -Pp . WO , 171 . '
The Lecturer admits the right of resistance to aggression or tyranny , " D but this , he contends , is not war . Defensive war is a solicism . —A license to attack is essential to war . "
Pp . 208 , 209 * To encourage tlie hope of the ultimate abolition of war , the author says , " Two facts are cheering . 1 . Peace
now scarcely differs more from war , than modern warfare does from ancient . — 2 . The tendencies of society have been , and are , to limit war , and consequently to abolish it ultimately . "
Pp . 181 and 183 . The more common pretexts of war are examined , ( pp . 184—187 , ) and as they come under review , they make us blush for human nature . In conclusion , Christianity is represented as incompatible with war , and
its universal diffusion and influence , guaranteed by prophecy , is argued upon as tantamount to the abolition of the nefarious practice * An Appendix to this Lecture is devoted to the examination of Paley's Chapter on War in his Moral Philolophy , and here the author displays
ffreat acuteness . He is somewhat heretical on the subject of the * ' Jewish wars . 1 ' " Their example , " he says , ( P- 1 99 » ) ** justifies massacre , or it
noes not justify war . " He adds , { i The power that should attempt to repeat the frightful scenes of the conquest of Canaan , would soon be blotted out of the map of the world , by
an universal combination of civilized states . ' True , but it may be asserted with equal justice , that the nation that should now practise the atrocities of which the Canaanites were guilty , would be justly treated as the enemy of all mankind . Their human
sacri"Leg , not to mention other crimes , were more abominable than the slavetrade against which there is now a confederacy of all Christian states . Mn U ,, s ground we rest , and we think ' ' ' ledefence of their destruction . W „ llual sentence of his paragraph
Untitled Article
on this subject , the author dismisse the " objector" rather cavalierly c If it be said that the Deity would not command what was morally wrong , the objector is referred to the command for Abraham to sacrifice
his son ; and if this does not satisfy him , he may , if he so please , consult Dr + Gedde&y Let him consult Dr . Geddes , who treats the injunction io destroy the Canaanites as a patriotic fraud ; but let him consult , on the ottier side , for the justification of Ins objection , Mr . Good ' s remarks upon this notion in his valuable Memoirs
of the learned translator ( Svo . 1808 , pp . S 68—473 ); the late Bishop of LandafFs Apology for the Bible , in reply to the * ' Age of Reason- , " and Jameson ' s Dissertation , in an
Appendix to his Exposition of the Pentateuch , Folio , pp . 775 — 779 , which was esteemed satisfactory by the late Mr . Lindsey , and was , we believe at his instance , reprinted as one of the tracts of the Unitarian Society .
This Lecture has of necessity a political complexion ; but though the author exercises in it his wonted mental courage , he has not laid himself open to any other animadversion
than that of the critic . We write this after Lord Castlereaglfs new Bills have been proposed to Parliament . Mr . Fox praises an historical character , not often the subject of eulogy :
" What a fine contrast to Yorkists , Lancasterians , Stuarts , Bourbons , and all the rest who ' wade through slaughter to a throne , * was Richard Cromwell ! He was advised < o takeoff a seditious ; leader , and secure his father ' s e ) ev&Uon for
himself . * No , said he , * I will not purchase authority at the price of one man ^ s blood . '"—P . 185 . The Vllth and last Lecture is " On Human Perfectibility . " All that the
author means by this is " a state of very high improvement , of knowledge , liberty , peace , virtue and felicity , to which man will be , in the latter days , conducted 1 >\ Christianity . " And
the expectation of this is undoubtedly justified by reason and Scripture . Mr . Fox separates from his theory the notion of 4 < organic perfectibility , the triumph of mind over matter , " which was entertained by the system-builders , who , a few years ago , maintained " Human Perfectibility ; " but we
Untitled Article
Review * *—Fox ' s Lectures . v 7 & 7 f'
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1819, page 757, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1779/page/41/
-