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    ^ wilfully , and it is to be feared , incurably blind . Mysteries , truly , an objection to the Bible ! wby , it denounces some mysteries cf iniquity , and even them it explains . For instance , it foretels that in the last days perilous times shall come . The Weekl y Register says , and seems to

    rejoice , that they are come . But the Bible shews what will bring on and constitute and aggravate , the peril of the times : and ks description must be perpetually present to the mind of every constant reader of Cobbett ' s political Journal ; such , an agreement is there between the Bible and him ! For men , says this mystery-explaining book , shall be

    1 OA STERS , PROUD , WITHOU T NATURAL AFFECTION , THUCE-BH EAKER S , FALSE ACCUSERS , FIERCE , DKSPZSETRS OF THOSE THAT ARE GOOB , TRAITORS ^ HEADY , HIGH-MINDED . 5 . * ' The Bible is a book for learned historians and profound thinkers' to read . No doubt it is , for it knows no

    distinction of learning and the contrary , great talents and moderate ones . It puts all fcnen on the same level . But thou ignorant , thou impudent contemner of the Scriptures , vho woukPst insinuate , that great learning-and profound thinking- are uece sary to the right understanding- of the Bible , to the right understanding of

    the Proverbs of Solomon , the Psalms of David , our blessed Lord's Sermon on the mount , his Prayer , or the parable of the Prodigal Son . This writer has no doubt confounded the common prnyer book wth the Bible , and been ruminating in his " profound ' reveries upon the thirty-nine Articles and the forged creed

    called after Athanasius . Learned historians . lithis be not , as we suspect , that sort of vulgar language concerning intellectual superiority which has no definite idea attached to it ; if it be not sound without sense , it amounts to this > that before a man reads history , he must be a complete historian , using- the word in the

    author ' s low-lived sense , of one versed in history and not in the ordinary and true sense of historiographer t a writer of history- Profound thinkers These only arc to read . Sir Isaac Newton ' s Principles , Kant ' s Transcendentals , ami the Bible . Af ) d the Bible must be thought of before it is known ; first understood and then learned .

    6 . The perusal of such a book as the B ble , woula not profit the poor : certainly not in the author ' s scuse of profit . It

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    would not lead them to place their hap * piness , where he places it , in merel y am * malpleasures . It would not allow them to curse men , without knowing them ^ to extol them as soon as known , and then

    to cure them again when out of sight . It would not lead them to delight in brawling and quarrelling , cudgel-playing and briusingjcock-flghting , and bull-bait * ing . It would not domesticate them at the alehouse , and make them strangers at their own fire-sides . It would not

    carry them away from their work , over miles of country , to see the horrid spectacle ( acted so ofteQ at Botley and the neighbourhood for the amusement and instruction , it is supposed , or the author ' s children ) of men in health and vigour beating each other over the head with

    clubs , the blood spouting out , fragments of fle-Ji flying in every direction , and out of a dozen persons all except one , the conqueror , having their heads actually broken [ Thus the Bible would not profit the poor ; it would not make them savages or brutes : and if these practices be manly , it would in effect unman them . It would make

    them meek and quiet , and tenderhearted . It would make them constant , kind husbands ; affectionate , attentive , fathers . It would impel them to regular industry , and make the yoke of labour light . It would inspire them with contentment , by shewing that alJ things are wisely arranged by

    the fatherly hand of the Almighty , that nothing is in itself evil , and that in the end all pains and privations will be made up to the patient and virtuous . It would make every interval from labour valuable ^ by filling it up with pleasing and

    useful employment . It would conse - crate the morning and sweeten the repose of night . It would lighten affliction , it would abolish the terrors of the grave . But what of this to the author of the P . R . if the man be a coward ,

    if he dare not fight , or will not swear and curse I In the present times , the poor , who are the property of the country , are valuable only as they are ready to be turned into soldiers , and the whole of a soldier ' s business is , always and every wht ^ re , to hate whomsoever he is told to hate , and to wound and tear and kill and slay , whomsoever he is told to destroy ! 7 . The Priest is the proper expounder of the Bible , and the Cliurch is the or-

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    616 Colbett , the Poor , and the Bible .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1807, page 616, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2386/page/52/