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    Untitled Article

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    MISCELLANEOUS COMMUl^DATiaNS.

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    Untitled Article

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    Untitled Article

    To the Editor of the Monthly Repository .

    sin , Lopdon , May 4 , 18 OS . The objections of the sceptic to die authority and excellency of the Christian religion , have been often represented , and in many

    instances , no doubt , justly , as the effect of prejudice . But are there not prejudices in favour of Christianity , or lather against , the religion of nature * equally groundless and unreasonable ? And do

    we not sometimes find men -of no small note , labouring to defend the cause of supernatural revelation , with arguments as weak and contemptible as any that have ever been advanced against it bv the unbeliever ?

    I am led to this reflection by a very carious passage in the Lectures on . the gospel of St . Matthew , by Dr . Porteus , the present bisliop of London ; in which he hesitates not to assert roundly , that natural reason or philosophy

    can never keep men Jtonctt , when they have any temptation to the contrary ; or in other words , that there can be no virtue at all , except among Christians ! After describing the atrocious conduct of Pilate , in the condemnation of Je < -

    sus , vol . 2- p . 281—2 , he adds" Could any thing like this have happened in this country ? We all know , that it is impossible . We all know , that no dangers , no threats , no fears , either of <~ # sar , or of the people , cotfld ever indu 6 c a British judge , to condemn to death , a man whom he ,. in his conscience , believed to be innocent . And

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    what is it that produces this difference between a homan and a British judge ? It is this : that the former had no other principle to govern his conduct but natural reason , or what would now be called philosophy ; which , though it

    would sometimes point out to him { he path of duty , vet could never inspire him with fortitude enough to persevere in it in critical and dangerous circumstances ; in opposition to the . frowns of a tyrant , or the clamours of a multitude . Whereas the" British judge , in addition

    to his natural sentiments of right * a . iid wrong , and the' dictates of the moral sense , has the principle of religion * also to influence his heart ; he has the unerring and inflexible rules of evangelical rectitude to guide him ; he has that

    which will vanquish every other fear the fear of God , before his fyes . He knows that he himself must one day stand before the judge of all ; and that consideration keeps him Jirm to bis duty , be the dangers that surround him ever so formidable und tremendpus . "

    Is the good bibhop then prepared to maintain that the heathens had no religion—ihat though tlxey had some ideas of right and wroijg in theory , yet they paid no re * card to them in oractice . —that the

    Greeks and Romans , when they devised the legal forms of civi ( i and criminal process , had not tht ? public safety in . view * or if they had , that this princip le , was . iusiiilicient to teach them that an

    innocent man ought not to be qanged ? He knows that they had solemn judicial proceedings , judges , advocatrs , pleadings , and appeals heaven by oath ; vvijl he theg fa } ll us what the $ e . tbin ^ gieanr ^ \ £ they wvre not ihtendecl to protect

    Miscellaneous Commul^Datians.

    MISCELLANEOUS COMMUl ^ DATiaNS .

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    ( 465 )

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    VOL . III . $ Q

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    Mil . STURCq , OX A PASSAGE IN THE BISHOP OJ * IONDOK ' s SE 1 U MONS , AGAINST NATUftAL REASON .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1808, page 465, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2396/page/9/