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    shop , the family , or the clo , set , seem tcU ; hinfc- « they . were sent into the world merely to hear sermons , and to hear in one day as many as possible . We may justly compare such people to Pharaoh ' s lean kine , which ate much , but for want of proper digestion did not prosper / All , however , that John Newton wrote is not thus excellent , and we must mingle criticism with our praises . He has here and

    tliel e ~^^^ eT ^ iorfS 7 ^ family worship , our author says that we can only consider it as really established in those houses where they have family prayers morning and evening . Also he makes a point of married people praying together in private every day , alternately one for another , and that independent of their secret and individual devotions . Has not he fallen here into an error of the kind he has himself

    blamed ? In speaking of almsgiving , he cannot bring himself to allow of excess , even when it is inconsiderate . He allows only the necessary means of living to be redeemed from charitable purposes , and positively asserts that we ought to refuse the hospitality of a night ' s entertainment to aJViend who could afford to pay his own expenses , in order that we may not defraud the poor . But these exaggerations are not the worst charges we have to bring against him .

    Newton does not content himself with saying that man is exposed to the seductions pr . § 9 tan , _ anjd _ with __ i [ na king practical use of this difficult doctrine ; he completes it by teaching " that * go 6 d angels have , even now-, an immediate interest over us . His language is plain . ' It appears perfectly reasonable to believe that good angels have the will and power to produce salutary impressions upon us , and to encourage us . ' Elsewhere he is still more positive .

    4 We are authorized to "believe that they labour to limit , to overthrow , and thwart the designs of Satan and his angels / We will not here enter upon the interpretation of the passages of Scripture on which this opinion is founded , We will not stop to take notice of its tendency to favour the Romish superstitions ; it is sufficient here to call attention to the part which man has to play according to this doctrine , and the consequent ones appended to it . According to John Newton , man , absolutely incapable of good , ' can claim nothing , as strictly his own , but sin ; * his heart

    is the theatre of a combat between Satan and his evil spirits on one side , and God and good-angels on the other ; he goes owl of this passive state only for the purpose of sinning , and yet he is dependent even there , for he can do nothing else , and he does evil , even as a tree bears fruit . And yet every one of us has the consciousness of voluntary action ; ancl in order to serve the purposes of ambition or avarice , man does exercise an almost absolute empire over his conduct and passions . On the contrary , if he admitted , in his conscience , the doctrine of Newton , he would not

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    292 REMARKS ON THfi RELIGIOUS WRITINGS OF

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 1, 1833, page 292, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2623/page/4/