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stitious , the same class is meant , and Cowper is its representative . Whether the second be called the elect or the enthusiastic , the same class is meant , and Newtan is its representative . Whether the third be called the lukewarm or the religious ; the same class is meant , and Heber is its representative . What were these men ? The first , with all his gifts and all his graces , was the most abject
of spiritual slaves . The second , with all his Christianity , was the most despotic of spiritual tyrants . The third , with all his orthodox entanglements , was free , and tried to make others free , with a glorious liberty . And whence this difference , while the faith of the three was , according to the letter , the same P The two first were practical believers in an Interruptive Providence ; the third was ' not .
The evil tendency of such a belief being established by a chain of evidence as interesting as it is complete , it is applied to the explanation of some of the ills under which man is groaning , —the spiritual sufferings and consequent moral perversion of individuals , and the political evils and consequent moral hinderances of society . This last method of testing principles assumed to be
religious , —by applying them largely to the state of society , —has not been used so extensively as it deserves . In the work before us , it is done with admirable success . Mr . Sadler may be ineffably scandalized at the ridicule cast upon his favourite principle of * a self-adjusting , sacred equipoise , by which Nature proportions her numbers to her means of sustentation ; ' but tKose to
whom our author addresses himself , — men of a clear judgment , of feelings and imaginations under their own control , and too fearful of error not to be bold in the cause of truth , '—will fully agree with him in the principle which it is the aim of his book to establish , —that Providence governs man by giving him unvarying principles , natural and moral , whose operation he must modify himself .
To perceive this is the best wisdom , to act upon it is the highest glory of a human being ; arid though but few minds have discerned this truth otherwise than faintly , and still fewer have acted upon it otherwise than fitfully and indolently , yet through it alone has there been happiness in the world . We are ready enough to allow this in whatever relates to the external world , while we hesitate to admit its uniform operation in the world within .
We admit , because we cannot help it , that the whole duty of man as regards his outward condition is to modify the operations of unchanging principles . When we grow our corn , we modify , as it suits our purpose , the influences of principles which we
cannot touch , —those by which roots strike down , and sap rises , and affinities act , so as to produce now a verdant leaf and a juicy stem , and then a hard and golden grain . When we erect our dwellings , we bring various forces to bear upon one another , and obtain our purpose through their counteraction . We avail our ^
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On Mature and Providence to Cornifouhilieb . 249
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JNo . 64 , T
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1832, page 249, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1810/page/33/
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