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    and held up for odium , as peculiarly stained with the characteristics of the predicted apostncy S but that they ate scattered though ia different proportions , over the whole of nominal Christendom . We turn from mutual accusation to inquiry after * be portion of the evil which we way have

    shared , and endeavour to correct it . What Presbyterian does not blush at the stern liatred of his forefathers to Rome , as the on ! y Antichrist ? What Churchman should not he ashamed of such a paltry excuse for depriving his Catholic fellow-subject of

    tivil rights ? Our attention is drawn from men to systems 5 to religious tyranny , mystery , idolatry , fraud , persecution ; they alone are held up to hatred , opposition , condemnation , and destruction . —May they perish , and forever ! '—P . 23 .

    The Hud . Lect . is « On Churchof-Englandisui , " a compound term , more expressive than elegant , borrowed from Mr . Jeremv Bent ham . The text at the head of this Lecture announces the preacher ' s design ; Acts xix . 15 : Jesus I know * and Paul I

    know ; but who are ye ? By an induct ion of particulars , the characteristics of Antichrist , above enumerated , are here pointed out as adhering to the Church of England . Of its conbtitution , the Lecturer says , in figurative language ,

    It is a massy and imposing 1 edifice , not modelled , indeed , ^ ith Gr ecian simplicity , liutshooting up , like its own Gothic buildings , into towers and pinnacles of various dignity , all of aspiring- formthough while their heads are in the clouds , thei

    r foundations press heavily upon the earth , and their shade throws gloom and chilliness around on monuments of death 5 and all is overtopped by the lofty spire of archie piscopal eminence ; where sometunes , to finish the resemblance , lias been seen only a vane , veering- to every breeze « i political direction . *'—P . 44

    With great candour , Mr . Fox pronounces ( p . 47 ) a warm eulogium on the Liturgy of our National Church . He allows , however , that much of it may have descended from a very early « J ? e of Christianit y . He might , we "link , have spoken more strongly . JJ | e real « praise is due to the Roman iissaj . Jhose wllo first compiled , or Mi x * revised , the English Book of Common-Prayer ; ' says Dr . Geddes , * pAS ^* « i ° W Roi P a » Catholics , that tin 1 >> ll - ie matter-contained ¦ in

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    did little more than translate from the Latin Original . Let me # dd , that , wherever they abandon this Original , there is , if I mistake not , a want of dignity in their composition , that immediately betrays the innovation . "

    . The conclusion of this Lecture is a description of the majesty of England , and an apostrophe to her , and is , perhaps , the finest specimen that can be extracted of the peculiarities of Mi \ Fox ' s eloquence :

    < c To conclude : designingmen , even ia the present day , have dared to represent dissent from the Church as synonymous with disaffection to the State . It is a foul calumny . The sternest and sturdiest protest against the one , may coexist with the most enthusiastic devotion to the other .

    England was great and glorious while her religion was Popery . She then reared her head above the nations , outstripped them all in the career of improvement , and soared above them towards the heaven of liberty . The great charter of her freedom was then wrested f 10 m unwilling * power ; commerce and manufactures were raisins

    hei citizens , burgesses and merchants , to wtralth and intelligence , and placing them side by side with her barons ; while , from contending- elements , arose tlie harmony of representative government . She was great

    while that change , called Reformation , was proceeding , or retarded , or subsidinginto fixedness , through successive reigns . She then began to wave her flag of sovereignty over the sea ; her laws were

    framed in wisdom : and her literatureframed in wisdom ; and her literature , splendid in genius , profound in learning * , and mighty in originality , advanced with giant step . She was g 1 eat at that tremendous period when the crown was trampled

    in the dust , a regal head fell on the scaffold , and Cromwell sat on an ungatnishecl throne . Episcopacy was not her religion then . The Church of Eng-land fled to the wilderness : the in it re was crushed under

    sectarian feety and the crosier snapped asunder by unconsecrated hands : yet then she was great ; not a nation but cringed for her friendship , arid trembled at her frown . Was there persecution , oppression or insult , on the Continent , —she lifted her voice of thunder , arid Europe ' s hills were moved ; her mountains quaked arid trembled to their foundations . And while

    Episcopacy has been Church-of-Englandbetter witness than King Edward the Sixth , who to the Cornish rebels confesses it was no other than the old mass-book done into English , all but some few words that were expunged . "

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    Review ¦ •*—Fox ' s Lectures . 753

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1819, page 753, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1779/page/37/