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    lavish upon heretics , bear a remarkable resemblance , and tlius concludes : ** Wherefore , if you have in you any wisdom or shame , leave off searching the regions of heaven with their fatalities and secrets . 'Tis enough for yon to look before your feet , especially being unlearned , mipolisht ,

    rude and rustic . They to whom is not given power of understanding civil things 9 must of necessity be further disable for disquiry of things divine . Also , if any of you lust after philosophy , imitate Socrates , whose known answer it is , when he was at any time demanded of ceelesHal matters . That

    which is above us is nothing to its * ' I am unwilling to dismiss this interesting dialogue without citing the following passages from the reply of Octavius , as being connected with

    what precedes , and serving to shew how successfully our Roman Nonconformist employs the levelling principles of Christianity against thisaristocratical philosopher .

    " Because my brother broke forth to say how ill he took it * how he did stomach , disdain and grieve , that illiterate poor ignaroes should dispute of coelestial things , let him know that all men , of what age soever , sex or dignity , are begotten capable and able of reason and sense ,, and have , not by fortune but nature , an endowmeet of

    wisdom : and that philosophers themselves , or whosoever by invention of arts have attained famous memory , before by the solertiousness of their mind they got this glory , were in appearance illiterate , half-naked plebeians ; that wealthy men , ever staked unto their riches , do rather consider gold than heaven : and that these our

    poor men have found out wisdom , and delivered all discipline to posterity . Whence it appeareth that wit i * not an escheat of wealth , not com > - passed by study , but proceeding from the very formation of the mind . Nor are we , therefore , to cbafe or grieve , if any man , whosoever he be , do

    search after divine things , form an opinion and publish it , since not the authority of him that argues , but still the truth of the disputation is to be tfequircd- and by how much the speech is the more unskilful , ao tnujch wore illustrious ipthe reason , not varnished with a pomp and grace of ela-

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    auence * but sustained as it ought to be by the rule of right / ' And again : " Then , whereas you say the greatest part of us are poor , this is not our infamy but glory : for as the mind grows dissolute in abundance , so it is confirmed with frugality . Yet who * can be accounted poor who doth not want , who gapes not after the goods of other men , who is rich towards God ? He is the most poor who when he hath much desires more . And I

    will speak as I think : no man can be so poor as be is born . The birds live without a patrimony , the beasts look but for their daily food : yet these are made for us , and if we covet not at all these things , we possess them . Therefore , as he that travels a journey goes best that goes lightest , so iu this

    wayfaring life he is more happy that easily bears his poverty , than he that paats with the burthen of riches * God , who is the ruler of all , and who dearly loves those that be his , doth not despise us , and he is able to give present help , although he seem to forbear . For in adversities he searches

    and tries our resolution , in dangers he weighs our dispositions , even to the last hazard of death he questions the wills of men , being secure that nothing can perish from him , and as gold with fire , so are we approved by hard encounters . What a fair spectacle it is for God , when a

    Christian enters the lists with grief , com * poses an endurance against threats , punishments and torments ! When , with laughter , he insults upon the hurry of death and horror of execution , when he erects his liberty against kings and princes , * yields only to God to whom he belongs !" I need scarcely add , that sentiments similar to those which Minucius Felix ascribes to Caecilius , are some-- •^ W ¦ ' ' ¦ ¦¦¦¦¦—¦¦ •*— ¦¦ ¦ l » ll'H *« II ¦! ¦! ¦« » -. «¦ I . II . - IT X I ¦ «•» ' I . - - I - I- " . 1 "HT II I

    * " libertatem suam adversu ? re * ges et principes erigity jy &c . The book of Daniel furnishes us with a glorious instance of sturdy Nonconformity among- the Jews . " Is it true , O Shadrach ,

    Meshach and Abednego , do not ye serve m ^ r gods > " " Shadrach , Meshach and Abednego answered and said unto the kingj & Nebuchadnezsar , we are not carefm to answer thee in this matter . —Bfe ifr known unto tbee , O King , that we will not « crre thy gods , "

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    The Nonconformist . No . X . SH

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1819, page 311, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1772/page/31/