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    and duodecimos , frod wiU soon , 99 in France , miscarry of half sheets t Poor Job Orton ! why should I not record a jest of his , ( perhaps the « dly one beaver made , ) emblematic as it is of the living and the ieaTniBg-of the good old tinie& ?

    The Rev . Job Oiton was a Dissenting minister in the middle of the Jast century , and had grown heavy and gouty by sitting long at dinner and at his studies . He could only get down stairs at last by spreading the folio volumes of Caryl ' s Commentaries upon Job on the steps ,

    and sliding down them . Surprised owe day in his descent , he exclaimed , ' You hare often heard of Caryl upon Job , now you « ee Job upon Caryl . ' This same quaint-witted , gouty old gentleman seems to have been one of those * superior happy spirits' who slid through life on

    the rollers of learning , enjoying the good things of the world and laughing a . t them , and turning his infirmities to a livelier account thati his patriarchal namesake . Reader , didst thou ever hear either of Job Orton or of Caryl on Job ? I dare say not . Yet the one did not therefore

    slide down his theological staircase the less p leasantly , nor did the other compile his Commentaries in vain \ For myself , I should like to browze on folios , and have to deal chiefly with authors that I have scarcely strength to lift , that are as solid as they are heavy , and if dull arc fall of jpatter / V-II 291 ^ 892 .

    Our " Plajn-Speaker" verifies his title by his remarks on ' * Jtichard Baxter : " " When Baxter , the celebrated controver&hl divine and Nonponforjnist rnini . iter , in the rejgn of Charles II ., went lo preach at Kidderminster , he regularly

    every Sunday insisted from the pulpit that baptism was necessary to salvation , and roundly asserted that hell was paved with infants' skulls . This roused the indignation of the poor women of Kidderminster so much , that they were inclined to pelt their pneachetr as he passcxl ajoug the street * . His ^ 3 ) , fcpw&var , > ya » a * rniri ajj

    great as theirs , ^ ntf fys fc ^ i g d hjs eloquence greater ; wi he poured out » wch torrents of text ? upop them , and such authorities from grave councils and pious divines that the poor women wero defeated , and forced , with tears in their eyes , to surrender their natural feelings and unenlightened convictions to the

    proofs from reason and Scripture , which l did not know how tq answer . Yet these untutore d , unsophisticated dictates in " ^ a > * Wtinptive affect )^ , bflve ft tUejr turn triunaphe ^ l Q ^ e r fill vhe pr ^ e Soff ^ fl ^^ nw * -

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    . There may be some exaggeration in this statement - but the substance of it is ^( Iniitted by fea ^ ter himself . He says , in his " Life and Times , " One of thoa , e folios with which the " Plain

    Sp ^ ker" i ? in love , Lib . i . p . 24 , referring to the commencement of h 3 s ministry at Kidderminster , — Whilst I was thus employed between outward labours and inward trials , Satan stirr'd up a little inconsiderable rage of wicked iuen against me . The town

    having been formerly eminent for vanity , had yearly u show , in whicb they brought forth the painted forms of giants , and such-like foolery to walk about the streets with ; and though I said nothiug against them , as being not simply evil , yet on every one of

    those days of riot , the rabble of the more vicious sort bad still some spleen to vent against me as one part of their game . And once all the ignorant rout were raging mad against me for preaching the doctrine of original sin to them , and telling them that infants , before regeneration , had so miich

    guilt anxi corruption , as made them loathsonie in the eyes of God : whereupon they vented it abroad in . the country ? tUat I pveached that God hated or loathed infants 5 so that they railed at me as I passed through the streets . The nextLord ' s-day I cleared aud confirmed it , and shewed them that if this were not true , their infants

    had no need of Christ , of baptism , or of renewing by the Holy Ghpst . And I askt them whether they durst say that their children uere saved without

    a Saviour , and were no Christians , and why they baptized them , with much more to that purpose , and afterward they were ashamed and as mute as fishes . " Really , the ** ignorant rout" shewed some sign of true grace . Richard

    must have resorted to some very nice distinctions to justify himself ip complaining of being reported to say that God hated or loathed infants . Elsewhere , the < 4 Piain Speaker " does honour to the talents and cha-4 t

    racter of Baxter . Eloquence" is not , perhaps , the right word as applied to hie loose , unfinished style ; but for earnestness , and , as was proved by the event , for impressivenestj , no writer scarcely can be compared with him . It will readily be conceived that we wjree in the author ' s eulogjum

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    < dnev 4 Q 4 v $ of Job Orion % $ c . 383

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1826, page 383, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2550/page/3/