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thanks for the admirable sermon which you have done me the honour of presenting to me . You cannot be wholly unprepared to hear , that you * views of the subject are almost in every respect the same with my own . I think , that for the instruction of our
countrymen , the little French work which you mention ought to be translated : such a translation will meet with many readers , and prepare them for the researches which you and I think important . The style of your sermon is
entitled to great praise for perspicuity and vigour : the arrangement of your matter is exact : and the glowing representations of the Deity , which you occasionally introduce , were to my mind most captivating . "
I may be accused ^ of vanity for introducing this quotation . I plead guilty . I am indeed proud of such a commendation from such a judge . And I wish those friends , at whose
request the discourse was published , to know , that however some may undervalue their judgment , they are not alone in the approbation with which they honoured the discourse .
T . BELSHAM . P . S . To shew that my interpretation of the firmament is not quite singular , which indeed every man of learning knows , I will transcribe a part of Mr . Wellbeloved ' s excellent
note . " Instead of firmament some would here read expanse , and understand that term to signify the atmosphere , or , all the space that is above the earth . But the term firmament
is the most literal translation of the original word , and is agreeable to the philosophy of the ancient Hebrews . They appear to have thought that , at a great distance above the earth , which
they supposed to be a plane , and not a sphere , there was a kind of solid plate forming the concave in which the heavenly bodies were fixed : and that above this were large collections of water from . which the earth was
supplied ^ with rain . " The learned writer refers to the history of the deluge , also to Psalm cxlviii . 4 , and to Job xxxviii . 18 , in confirmation of his interpretation .
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The " Evangelical" Spirit not a Protestant Spirit . 713
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a large debt of gratitude" to the Evangelical party in the Church . I cannot , myself * imagine why ; except on the principle avowed by Junius with respect to the king ; that fFilkes deserved support , because he was a thorn in the king ' s side . " " W Ai them , ^ he says , ** remains that Protestant spirit , of which we must take a long farewell if ever Dr . Marsh carries his exterminating designs into execution / ' This design of extermination consists in preventing those from c < creeping and intruding into the fold , " who , under the garb of exclusive saurtity , infringe the discipline and pervert the doctrine of his church . Whatever Q . may say about their € < believing only what the Articles plainly include , " which is
mere assumption , their straining the tenet of man ' s being far gone from original righteousness into radical and total depravity , is one instance , among many , of that Jesuitical subtlety with which they gloss upon the Articles of the Church . What is meant by their Protestant spirit ? Does your correspondent boast their rigid and timid adherence to the letter of the Articles ,
( granting , for the sake of argument , that they interpret them aright , ) as proofs of a spirit of Protestantism ? And does he mean to bring forward a scrupulous and unreasoning pinning of the faith on whatever may happen to
be " plainly included" in this or that article , as conferring the title of " Protestant , " Kar eZoxflv , upon the Evangelical party , above those who , taking their stand on the saving clause , which allows of an ultimate appeal to Scripture , contend , in the words of
Chillingworth , " the Bible , the Bible , the Bible only , is the religion of Protestants" ? What sort of Protestants are they who protest , not against human impositions on the conscience and understanding , but against any
emancipation from them ; — who protest against that accession of scriptural light which , in strict conformity with the spirit of the Articles themselves , has been resorted to as a superior guide by the regular Church of
England ? " Genuine disciples of Cranmer , " indeed , they might be : this was the priest who , in his " zeal for God , " burned Joan Bocher , the Arian , alive at the stake : but the defining the lawful extent of reformation in the corrupted religion of Christ * by the
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" ^^^^^^^^^ HHHUBHB ^^^^^^^^^^ Sir , YOUR Correspondent Q . ( p . 642 ) supposes that " Dissenters pwe
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VOL ,. XVI . 4 Z
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1821, page 713, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2507/page/17/
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