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    le gislator , governor and judg-e , having- the th reefold power , legislative , judiciary and executive ; notwithstanding-, he rejects not the word person , which « the young theologians ( Protestant ) are shocked at . ' Kant regards the questions about eternal punishments as childish , though he" denies not

    fte doctrine . « He distinguishes ethical or- rational from historic faith , and appears to make little account of this latter . The Christian religion is true , inasmuch as it is purely ethical or moral . Seiler , professor at Erlang" , adopting this idea , reasons fprocedej froin the morality of Christianity to its dogmas .

    _ ....... . . u Baptism is a sort of initiation for transmitting" to posterity the ethical part of Christianity , the communion preserves the practical part , but the communion of the Eucharist given to the dying , is , says he .

    an opium for laying conscience to sleep , "In a work printed in 1806 , at Konigsberg * , Wannowski , reformed minister , thus unfolded , whilst he approved , the religious doctrine of Kant , who has turned the heads even of many Catholics . " ( pp . vi .

    —V 1 U . J Amongst some strange opinions which the Abbe states , as having risen in the eighteenth century , and fallen by their own extravagance , he

    places ( pp . xvn , xviii . ) the notion of " the morality of brutes , which the So ^ cinians have believed capable of sin . The last work upon this subject is perhaps a dissertation , very erudite , which appeared in 1788 at Wittemberg . * " --We regret that the author has not referred

    to the Socinian writer or writers who have maintained this singular hypothesis . Does he allude solely to the work described in the note , and mean that that is the production of a Socinian pen ? Often enough have the misnamed Socinians been charged with Smiting the evil of sin ; it is a novelty to see them charged with extendingit even to the irrational creation 1

    On this subject the ci-devant Bishop is probabl y as ill-informed , as on that ° * " the Ulagdonian controversy , between the curate of Blagdon , near Bristol , and Miss Hannah More , "

    winch , he says ( p . xxiii . *) relates to " the reform of the Athanasian Creed . " The low state of France , with regard ™ religion , is feelingly described in the ollo wing passage , worthy of a Christen bishop :

    " V ~ oycz £ te Peccati ? et Pcenis Bru rum , ln 4 tO ) Wittinbergen . 1788 . ' '

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    u On- account of their importance , I would nave added to the History of New Sects that of Contemporary Controversies , had I not been diverted from the purpose by the consideration that in reality few people read works on religious subjects , and that the number is daily lessening * of those that know how to read . Should this

    retrograde course be continued , France Ecclesiastical will soon find herself on the confines of barbarism . The ecJat of military talents may give to a nation a momentary preponderance $ but real strength , true g * lory and happiness , are children , of peace

    and of the sciences , of which peace favour * the progress . In the system of knowledge every thing * is connected ; a slate which g-oes behind with regard to any branches necessarily enfeebles itself , descends to a political inferiority in the scale of nations and even hazards its internal tranquillity . "

    ( pp . , xxvi . ) The Abbe does not spare the philosophers when he thinks them deserving of chastisement 5 but he shews himself superior to the vulgar

    prejudices and hatreds of his order , and can praise a philosopher and denounce a tyrant and expose a sycophantic priest to contempt . What Protestant bishop would like to own the passage that follows ?

    u ought to feel obliged to men for the g * ood which they do , without too nicely scrutinizing their motives : thus , we should thank the courageous writers who have stripped baseness naked and pursued crime even to the foot of the throne and into the

    sanctuary : they have unmasked the sacrilegious conspiracy of potentates , and of prelates so often accomplices in tyranny , and so plainly disowned by religion , in whose name they have sanctioned abuses of which they shared the benefits . " From the time of Louis XI V " . the

    bishops , the candidates for the mitre , and those who coveted rich benefices in order to devour the patrimony of the poor , were almost ail flatterers and sycophants . We have not heard that a sing \ le court preacher ever alleged the celebrated discourse of Samuel , for the sake of inculcating- upon the heads of nations their duties . One of the vilest

    toadeaters ( Jlagoj-neursJ was Boux , Bishop of Perigueux ; if his example had many imitators , his eloquence , at least , is not more seducing * than that of so many Funeral Orations , of which none had for their object to proclaim retired virtue , but all

    to celebrate the merits of the Most High and Mighty Princes , who were , far the most part , a-plague to the world . Truth , the daughter of Time , has done justice to the panegyrists and the jheroes . " ( Pp . xxx , xxxi . ) We apprehend that there is some

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    Review . —Gregoires Histoire des Sectes Religieuses . 107

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1815, page 107, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1757/page/43/