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    Observations on one of Foster ' s Essays . 315

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    The next circumstance I shall notice is v this , that Mr * F . very liberally supposes the minds of those , for whose enmity to his system he attempts to give an account , are in a pevvtrted state ; whilst at the same time , the tendency of the Essay is to include all- Whose sentiments are not

    Evangelical or Epistolical . The title says , " Men of Taste /' but the Essay says , men of perverted minds ; that is such as have no taste or judgment . And here lies the sophism . Now Sir , I contend that this is not fair play . To use a common phrase , it is lashing another over my back , so that I am to feel every stroke which is avowedly intended for him . Whatever Mr , F . may think ; as I do not think that the mind of every one who does not believe Evangelical ( Epi stall--cal ) Christianity is perverted , but am inclined to give credit to some of them at least , for a little common sense and common honesty , I proceed to observe , that pure

    Christianity does not CQ meet with a disposition in' such men to shrink from any of its peculiarities / ' It is not pure christi- - anity to which they object , but that heterogeneous mixtpre ,--that spurious breed s half-monster , half-man , from whichpure Christianity differs as much as the sun from a candle . * , * The repugnance of men of taste or judgment is not to what is QC purely divine /* but to what is purely human ,-

    and so plainly human , that it were as easy to xnake the poles of the earth meet , as to make these two repulsive powers cordially embrace each other . It is true that the man of taste feels all that " disgust against the system" which Mr . F . describes , and the reason is because it is a disgust * ing object . He truly feels as if he tc observed an angel divested of his radiance and confined in a human form , " to which , > lr . V . might have added ; horns and a cloven foot have been also owen .

    Ariiongst other reasons assigned by Mr , F . for the rejection of Kvangelical Christianity by Men of Taste , is " the peculiarity of language in which it is expressed - *' Willingly do wfc admit the truth of this , and allow that Mr . F . cannot do a greater service to Christianity than by abolishing * these barbarous terms . But I -apprehend that he is not aware of the extent to which he may be led , after he has performed the Herculean labour of cleansing this Augsean stable : the road being cleared , the path at once lies open to pure , to rational Christianity . In fact , I conceive Mr . F , will find , that Evangelical Christianity consists m this very " peculiarity of terms ; ' and that this shell being bj-okeny the kernel will be found but small * By

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1807, page 315, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2381/page/27/