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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), November 1817, Edition 1 of 1, Page 665, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      its enchantments in the desert of life for wayward fortune to dissipate . Above all , let us learn to look on our species not as speculators , but as men , not regarding it from a philosophical elevation , as a problem we are to solve , but as a brotherhood to which we are allied , all of whose

      circumstances belong in part to us , and in whose joys and sorrows we are partakers . T . N . T .

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      Inner Temple , Sir , November 12 , 1817 . CORRESPONDENT , in the last A Number of the Monthly Repository , [ p . 601 , ] has given , no doubt

      unintentionally , a false view of the work entitled " Ef * 0 eo $ , E /^ Mscn rr ; or an attempt to shew how far the Philosophical Notion of a Plurality of Worlds is consistent , or not so , with

      the language of the Holy Scriptures , " and written by Dr . Nares . Instead of being unfavourable to the received opinions upon that subject , the design of the writer is to reconcile the modern

      discoveries with certain expressions of Scripture . If your Correspondent will turn to a little book , lately published on the same subject , entitled , " Plurality of Worlds , or Letters , Notes and Memoranda , Philosophical and Critical , " occasioned by the bombastic effusion of Dr . Chalmers , he

      will find that the opinion of Dr . Nares is viewed in connexion with Dr . Chalmers and mauy other writers on the same side . This latter book is certainly a very singular performance , and worthy the perusal of every one who wishes to discuss the subject . It is written with much ability ,

      considerable learning and ingenuity , but altogether opposed to the general and received opinion . Whatever may be thought of the argument or the opinions of this writer , it is evident , that Dr . Chalmers , great as his admirers jmagine him to be , appears very little in the hands of this writer , and what

      « naore astonishing , it comes from one ° f the same party , a champion of orthodoxy , SENEX .

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      will , I trust , have much influence in exciting that spirit of inquiry , which alone leads to the acquisition of truth . There is , however , an apparent inconsistency in my friend Dr .

      Carpenter ' s letter , which , I am sure he will pardon me for pointing out , and which he will be as ready as he is able to explain . In one paragraph he has , I think , very properly reprobated my friend Dr . Stock ' s conviction , that he

      had adopted his new opinions ** under the special guidance of divine illumination ; " but in the succeeding paragraph he says , ** 1 do not presume to set bounds to the agencv or influence of G od . / believe that the Father of our

      spirits does afford aid to his frail children in ways which philosophy cannot yet explain , to strengthen , to console , and to guide : but , I know no proof that he at present communicates truth by supernatural means II" Now I would ask , what difference does there

      seem to be between being ** under the special guidance of divine illumination , " and being strengthened , consoled and guided by some inexplicable influence of the Father of our spirits ? I should imagine that Dr . Stock does not suppose that truth itself had been

      communicated to his mind , during the unhappy process which he describes , but that , agreeably to Dr . Carpenter ' s hypothesis , he had been in some unaccountable way , guided by the Spirit of God to the right understanding of the truth already communicated in the Scriptures . Has

      then Dr . Stock professed to have received more extraordinary influence than Dr . Carpenter allows ? It appears to me , therefore , equally in cum bent on both my friends to shew when and where such supernatural aid has been unequivocally afforded , since the days of the apostles . Dr . Stock , with

      the assistance of his new and my old friends , will , I know , be ready enough to produce instances , without number , of special guidance and of divine illumination ; but what is the evidence , what are the proofs of the reality of such influences , and what is the test

      and criterion , by which they can be distinguished from the operations of the natural powers of man > Dr . Carpenter I strongly suspect will be much at a loss to find out any facts to justify his belief ,, which will not

      Untitled Article

      Observations on Dr . Carpenters Letter to Dr . Stock . 665

      Untitled Article

      . Sir , Liverpool , Nov . 13 , 181 7-T \ R . Carpenter ' s excellent remarks MuF ' -on Dr . Stock's letter , which were toteerted in the last number of the Monthly Repository [ pp . 688—591 , ]

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      VOL . XII . 4 R

  • Citation
    • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1817, page 665, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2470/page/25/