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OBITUARY , ,
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Some time « iucey died at Ck > cliermouth , in Cumberland , in the 85 * h year of his age , Mtv Jo £ e J » H Fa u JuJ >» r . Hf was born of Qttaket parents , and educated in tberr pr ititipies . - He was brought up a painter , and -employed in bouse painting ; but soon , without any instructions , or opportunities of observation , became by his
own efforts a very eminent artist , paintingportraits , landscapes and historical pieces , wifh the highest execution and art . He became in early life a sceptic in all jreligion , and was excluded for his opinions from the Society of Friends * His morals were perfect throughout fcis tvhole life ; he lived single , and never had any intercourse with the sex . Such was his
temperance in eating and drinking- * that it perhaps has never been equalled * ,, and such , of course , was his contempt for money , that he has been known not to call for pay for his labour for twenty years . His integrity was such , that the "word of no one in the town commanded
such' implicit confidence . Indeed , perhaps , there never was . a man more free from every tendency to vice . How then it may be asked became this man an unbeliever , who had no vicious infirmity to oppose itself to the morals of
Christianity ? This is not difficult to account for . H « had ciever paid the least attention to the historical testimony in favour of the Christian religion , and having been early taught the doctrines of the Trinity , the atonement , and eternal torments , he considered these as too absurd to deserve
liny notice , and these he considered as the essential doctrines of Christianity , for no other had ever been preached in the place of his residence . The writer of this article has frequently conversed with him on these topics , but be would not listen to different doctrines , nor believe that any other interpretation could be put
on the language of the New Testament . Eternal torments appeared to be his great stumbling block . He was a very acute man , and an accurate observer of human kind . He used to argue thus ( for he acknowledged a God at all times , but seemed not to believe in a future state ) , " All religionists acknowledge that God is the Creator of all things . He is ,
therefore , the Avthor of all the appetites , passions and circumstances of mankiud . The notion of future rewards aud punishments has universally been taken from the idea that it is unjust that there should be one lot hereafter fa * those you call the righteous and the wicked . The justice of God it therefore assumed as a first principle in the argument ; but a Being who
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shall pnnish his creatures , with everlasti ng ^ misery * himself beiog the author of .. their temptations , has oio . justice . , . The argi % inent , therefore , is self-destructive , and it
1 $ not only impossible that the doctrine can be triie ^ but it ? s impossi ble that a book containing it can have any authority . Why then neec ( I look into the History . Miracles ? Again—look at mankind—* their constitutions and circumsxauces
differ essentially , and although there may be some who merit reward and some who merit punishment—surely justice requires that all circumstances should be weighed and that punishment should be equitable . " The only answer that this argument weeras to ad in it of is tbat punishment is exactly thus , described , in general , in the
Scriptures , for it is there aga , io . and agai ^ i declared that men shall be treated according to their deeds , aad' the strong figurative language which . lias , beeu thought to teach eternal- ptmishxrvent , occurs but in four or five places in all tfcpe New Testament , and no one has ever said
that there is no figurative language m tbat volume . However , this extraordinary man was no reader ; he- thought much , but he read no books . He bad never read ojie sceptical work ; he bad never read the Unitarian interpretations of Scripture * and seeded scarcely to believe that there w « re- * such . a class of
Christians , conceiving Ibcir doctrines to be too reasonable to » be ^ entertained by any Christians . L . et no one suppose that religion does not contribute , ta the improvement of morality , because this exemplary man did not ~ se < jm to . want its
aid . There are constitutions which' are in health for nearly a century without the aid of surgery or medicines— -but wiH anyone say that surgery or medicines are not necessary" to others , and that by their means many lives are saved ?
The 'fair inference from the life and opinions of this " excellen t man , is , that the timo is come when the Scriptures must receive a REAsdivAb ' le interpretation , else they wtH be-ecjuaHy v rejected by the virtuous and the ' vicious * Hence , the value of'such men as Hartley , Priestley and others .
Mr . Fawlder w&s universally respected , and treated by all his neighbours in the kindest manner . He never suffered any thing o f persecution , and even the Methodists visited him kindly in his last illness . He died with the utmost calmness , saying—** Well I if there be a future state , I think I have as fair a chance as others /'
Obituary , ,
OBITUARY , ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1817, page 178, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2462/page/50/
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