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    To penetrate the Shilling gloom ; Ah j what avails that Britain now , With sculptur'd laurel decks his brow , Aud hangs the votive verse on his unscious tomb ! West .

    Tho reader must excuse these digressive remarks suggested by the introduction of the Reviewer . Further particulars may be learned from my two preceding- papers , and from the Memoir of Milton , prefixed to on erin . ion of the Paradise Lost , rmban edition of the Paradise

    Lostpub-, lished by the writer of this article in 1804 , with an abridgment of the notes of Bishop Newton , for the use of the rising- generation . The history of the great poet , at all times interesting , cannot fail of arresting " the attention and of penetrating * the

    heart . The evidence of the authenticity of the Treatise on the Christian Doctrine , derives ample confirmation from the resemblance of its language and opinions to the printed works of Milton , of which some striking specimens are given in the notes .

    The Critic then proceeds to the internal evidence of the authenticity of the work , accompanied with singular remarks on the spirit of the production . " Of his theology the world has had a tolerably copious prelibation in his Paradise Lost and

    other writings , not sufficient , however , to relieve us from uncertainty as to hia opinions on many important points . It now appears beyond all question , that his doctrinal divinity was very far from being of a fanatical or puritanic cast . It is further satisfactory to find that when he approached the solemn task of

    search-1 Ilg the Scriptures for himself , age att ( l religion had well nigh * purged ° ff the base fires' of the puritanical temper . This is the more remarkable when we recollect how deeply Muton is known to have drank into Iiat re

    8 pmt . His other prose writings ^ a min e in which this terrific fiream ^ perpetually exploding , not Ilierc ' y in the form of invective but ^ etimes ( even of imprecation . The uil of

    ^ discharge it , however , Is in . lls ' realise on Reform , which it will ^ remembered he closes with this ^^ eudous but magnificent denunjj > u : ' But they the contrary , that y llc 1 U ) pairing- and diminution of

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    the true faith , by the distresses and servitude of their country , aspire to high dignity , rate arid promotion , hereafter a shameful end in this life ( which God grant them ) shall be

    thrown eternally into the darkest and deepest gulf of hell ; where , under the despiteful controul , the trample and spurn of all the other damned , ( that in the anguish of their torture shall have no other ease than to

    exercise a raving and bestial tyranny over them as their slaves and negroes , ) they shall remain in that plight for ever , the basest , the lowermost , the most dejected , the most under-foot and down-trodden vassals of perdition V »

    Who can peruse this without thinking of the remark of Johnson— " Such is his malignity that hell grows darker at his frown" ? " We cannot , however , " adds the Reviewer , tc forbear pausing a moment to remark that all this , hot

    and fearful as it is , is nothing to a fiery paroxysm of Owen , the great oracle of the Puritans . The above , as it occurs in a popular treatise , might perhaps pass for a burst of vehement rhetoric adapted to the morbid taste of the times . But what

    shall we say to a yell of execration in a sober theological commentary ? In his exposition of the exxxth Psalm , Owen is speaking not of great national delinquents and traitors , nor of impious blasphemers and apostates , but of persons whom he considers as having deceived themselves with

    erroneous views of God ' s forgiveness ., or with an imperfect belief in it , and who remain in that condition till their death , and in his address to these

    persons he actually calls oa angels and archangels and all the company of the saints to curse them , and joins himself in the deep and universal chorus of damnation : c If you resolve to

    continue in the neglect of this salvation , and shall do so accordingly — then cursed be you with all the curses that are written in the law , and all the curses that are denounced against the despisers of the gospel ! Yea , be you anathema maranatha , cursed in this

    world always until the corning of the Lord , and when the Lord cometh be ye cursed from his presence into everlasting destruction ! Yea , curse them , all ye holy angels of God , as the obstinate enemies of your king and

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    drawn from the Notice of Periodical Publications . 727

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1826, page 727, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2555/page/27/