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excelled; and if those points are not dwelt upon with a complacency which too much implies, that they are proofs of being in a state prepared for death. For the sake, however, of the living, praise should be distributed with a careful hand; and the liberality with which it is extended should excite in us a suspicion, that it is not enough to be somewhat handsomely spoken of in a public paper when we die. - We do not wish to confound ourselves with those who are always declaiming against the present generation, as in every respect below the former. We scruple not, however, to say, that a too great disposition to regard the essence of christian charity to consist in saying what is handsome, and delicate, and liberal, even of very questionable characters, forms one feature of the present age; and that, in our opinion, a return to a stricter mode of judging would imply a very honourable elevation of our moral standard.

"Virtue and vice had boundaries in old time

Not to be passed. And she that had renounced

Her sex's honour, was renounced herself By all that prized it.

Men too were nice in honour in those days,

And judged offenders well..

-But now, yes, now,

We are become so candid, and so fair,
So liberal in construction, and so rich,
In christian charity; a good natured age!
That they are safe, sinners of either sex,
Transgress what laws they may."

DEATHS.

Sept. 14. At Geneva, in his twentyseventh year, after a lingering and painful illness, GILBERT ANSLEY, Esq. third son of the late John Ansley, Esq. of Breadstreet.

Lately, at Abbeyleix, Queen's County, Ireland, the Right Honourable Viscount DE VESCI.

Lately, at Kirkby Overblow, in his eightieth year, the Reverend CHARLES COOPER, D. D. Rector of that place, and Prebendary of Durham Cathedral.

Lately, at Abingdon, Berks, in bis thirty-fifth year, JOHN GALLAWAY, Esq. of that place.

Oct. 7, aged seventy-five, the Reverend JOHN BRIGGS, M. A. Chancellor of the Diocese of Chester.

Oct. 20. At his Chambers in the Temple, aged seventy-six, JOHN WYNNE, Esq. a Bencher of the Middle Temple, and brother to Sir William Wyuue, of Doctors' Commons.

Oct. 20, aged forty-two, at Essex-place, Lambeth, JOHN Booсock, Esq. of the Victualling-office.

Qet, 21. At Boughton Malherb, in Kent,

the Reverend ROBERT FOOTE, one of the Prebendaries of Rochester Cathedral, and Rector of Boughton Malherb, and Vicar of Shorne, in that county.

May 30. At Tannab, in the East Indies, WILLIAM SMITH, Esq. Free Merchant of Bombay, and formerly of Lombard-street, London.

Oct. 27. At bis Parsonage-house, in his eighty-third year, the Reverend TIMOTHY BROWN, M. A. Rector of Ardingly, and Vicar of West Hothly, both in Sussex.

Oct. 30. The Reverend SAMUEL AYSCOUGH, F. A. S. Vicar of Cudbam, in Kent, and one of the Librarians of the British Museum.

Nov. 1. At Keynsham, near Presteign, in her seventy-seventh year, the Dowager Countess of OXFORD.

Nov. 5. At Pool, in his eightieth year, JOHN HEMMING, Esq. a Merchant of that place.

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Nov. 9. At St. Andrews's, Edinburgh, JOHN ROTHERAM, M. D. F. R. S. Ed. Professor of Natural Philosophy in that University.

Lately, at Hackwood Park, in Hampshire, the Honourable Miss ANNE ORDE POWLETT, second daughter of Lord Boiton.

Oct. 20. The Reverend Dr. G. A. THOMAS, LL. D. Rector of Wickham, Hants, and one of the Prebends of Litchfield.

Oct. 25. At Eaton, in Norfolk, the Reverend THOMAS TAYLOR, Rector of Bracon Ash, and Perpetual Curate of Cringleford, in that county.

Oct. 26. In his eighty-fourth year, the Reverend JOHN PEELE, Vicar of Tilney, and Rector of Bawsey, in Norfolk, and Upper Minister of St. Peter's Mancroft, Norwich.

Oct. 25. At Bracknell Banks, RearAdmiral ISAAC VAILLANT, aged sixtythree, forty-eight years of which he had served in his Majesty's Navy.

Nov. 2. In his eighty-sixth year, the Reverend WILLIAM RAMSDEN, D. D. Master of the Charter-house.

The same day Mrs ANN MORLAND,Wife of George Morland, whom she survived but three days..

Nov. 3. After a few hours illness, at Stock-house, in Dorsetshire, JOHN BERKE LEY BURLAND, Esq. one of the Representatives in Parliament for Totness.

Nov. 6 At South Lambeth, JOHN DOLLOND, Esq.

Oct. 23. In the eighty-fifth year of his age, the Reverend EDWARD MILLER, VIcar of All-Saints, Northampton.'

Lately, the Reverend JOHN CARTER, Vicar of Myton-upon-Swale, aged seventythree.

Oct. 18. ELIZA, eldest daughter of the late Honourable John Brown, uncle to the Marquis of Sligo.

Oct. 19. At Swaffham, in Norfolk, aged eighty-eight, Mr. WILLIAM STRATTON.

Oct. 21. At Spofforth, Yorkshire, after a long and painful illness, aged twenty-two, GEORGE TRIPP, Esq. late Captain in the twenty-fifth regiment of foot, son of the Reverend Dr. Tripp.

Same day, at Langold, in Yorkshire, JOHN GALLY KNIGHT, Esq. a Justice of the Peace for that County and Nottinghamshire, Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, and formerly M. P. for Aldborough and Boroughbridge.

Oct. 23. At Inverary Castle, the seat of the Duke of Argyle, Sir WILLIAM HART, Knight of the Illustrious Order of St. Stanislaus.

Same day, the Right Honourable Sir DAVID RAE, Bart. of Eskgrove, Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland.

Oct. 24. At Brighton, SAMUEL SHERBOLD, Esq. Banker.

Oct. 25. At Longnor Park, Shropshire, ROBERT CORBETT, Esq.

Oct. 26. At Greenford, Middlesex, the Reverend JOHN MAULE, Rector of that Parish, formerly Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.

Oct. 26. In Jermyn-street, St. James's, Major LAWRENCE PARSONS, of Pembrokeplace, King's County, Ireland, late of the Royal Fuzileers, and brother to Sir L. Parsons, Member of Parliament for the said county.

Oct 29. At Chew Magna, WILLIAM ABRAHAM, Esq. Banker, of Bath.

Lately, at Faversham, in his ninetysecond year, CHARLES WEST, who was thirty-one years Office-keeper at the Royal Powder Mills at Faversham.

On the 3d of May, at Lord William Bentinck's house at Madras, Major ALLAN GRANT, Town-major of that place, and Aid-du-camp to his Lordship.

Lately, at Douglas, in the Isle of Man, in his seventieth year, JOHN M'CAUSLAND, Esq. many years Member of Parliament for the County of Donegal, Ireland.

Nov. 9. At Brecon, aged seventy-four, CHARLES PRICHARD, Esq near fifty years an eminent Practitioner in Physic.

Nov. 10. At Bristol, LOUISA ANN, fifth surviving daughter of Sir Edmond Cradock

Hartopp, Bart. Member of Parliament for the County of Leicester.

Nov. 10. At Lymington, the LADY of Lieutenant-colonel Eton, late of the Life

Guards.

Nov, 11. JOHN BLAYDS, Esq. of Oulton, a Deputy Lieutenant for the County. of York.

Nov. 13. In Lower Seymour-street, the Countess Dowager of SHAFTESBURY.

Same day, at his house, near the Hot Wells, Bristol, aged eighty-one, Dr. PsTER RENAUDER.

Nov. 14. At Nocton, near Lincoln, in his seventy-fifth year, the Right Honourable GEORGE EARL OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, Baron Hobart, of Blickling. His Lordship is succeeded in his titles and estates by his son, Lord Hobart.

Nov. 17. In Wales, where she had been on a visit, Lady GEORGIANA CANNING, sister to Lord Castlereagh, and niece to Earl Camden.

Oct. 8. At Vicenza, in Italy, aged twenty-three, BERTIE GREATHEED, jun, Esq. of Guy's Cliff, near Warwick, grandson of a sister of the present Duke of An

caster.

Nov. 9. HEATHFIELD LANGLEY, Esq. Barrack Master of Yarmouth, in the Isle of Wight.

Nov. 14. After a lingering illness, PAGET BAYLY, Esq. a Captain in the Navy, and brother to the Earl of Uxbridge.

Nov. 16. At Ebrington, Gloucestershire, HENRY TONGE, Esq. of Devonshire-street, London.

Nov. 16. In his twenty-fourth year, after two months illness, of a rapid decline, WRIGHT EDWARD ATKYNS, Esq. late Captain in the first regiment of Royal Dra goons, of Ketteringham Hall, in Norfolk.

Nov. 19. At Seven Oaks, WILLIAM SHEPPARD, Esq. of Styles Hill, near Frome.

Nov. 20. At an advanced age, the learned and celebrated JACOB BRYANT, Esq. formerly of King's College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B. A. 1740, and M. A. 1744. He was author of the elaborate work on Mythology, and several other valuable works,

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS,

We have been favoured with three letters, the writers of which seem to have assumed, on very insufficient grounds, that a projected work, called the ELECTIC REVIEW, is connected with the Christian Observer. One of them, S.. C., seems to know so little of the principle on which advertisements are inserted in periodical works, as to infer this connection from the circumstance of a hill containing a Prospectus of that review haying been attached to our last number. We can assure him, as well as our other two correspondents, that there is not the smallest ground for their conclusion. A fourth correspondent, who signs himself AN ECLECTIC PHILOSOPHER, enquires whe ther the conductors of the work are members of the Church of England. We presume, if the Prospectus does not satisfy him on this head, that a line addressed to -the Editors will procure him the satisfaction he desires,

If METHODICUs will look to our number for December, 1803, at the bottom of page 774, he will find a regular notice given to our readers of the publication of an Appendir to our Second Volume, containing a Preface, copious Index, &c. &c. price bd., which he may obtain by applying to his bookseller. A similar Appendix for 1804 will be published on the 31st of January next. We shall endeavour to comply with the request of METHODICUs respecting a list of theological books.

We are clearly of opinion, that Mr. M. exercises a sound judgment on the points brought before us by EMILY MORGAN.

We find it necessary to adhere rigidly to our rule of inserting no article in our Obituary, the truth of which we have no means of ascertaining. We should very gladly insert the communication of R. if it came to us properly authenticated.

R. R.'s mind must be of a very fervid cast to consider as “cold,” “the language of the Presbyterian Church," inserted in our last number. It certainly does not appeat to us in the same light. If we could view the transactions to which R. R. refers, as of a dubious tendency, we should deem it right, with him, "to wait patiently the event." It is because we have a clear and decided opinion on the subject that, to use his phrase, we "have manned all our guns and commenced a heavy fire." The following papers will appear when we can find room, viz. O. R.; J. P.; URBANUS; M. T. H.; J. S. C.; A SIMPLE ENQUIRER AFTER TRUTH; B. T. on Sunday Schools, and on Preparation for the Ministry; W. R. on the Council of the Jews at Ageda; and J. VICARIUS C. C. C.; CHARTOPHYLAX; EUGENIO; A PLAIN MAN; and SERENA are ¡under consideration:

F.; PHILARIO; and M. P. are received.

The paper of THEOPHILUS Contains many good things, but we cannot discover its precise object.

The Poetry of EUMENES is certainly of a better quality than we have often had the good fortune to receive. We cannot, however, promise it an early insertion.

Had the paper of ANTI-CALUMNY reached us in time we should gladly have substituted it in place of our own Remarks on the Anti-jacobin Review contained in the present Number. We hope to find room for it in our next.

We believe that the letter which S. G. censures, was written from the motives which he supposes; and we do not believe it likely to produce the mischievous effects which he forebodes.

We thank ANTI-CALVINIST for his friendly remarks, although we are disposed to question their justice. The tenor of the observations into which we have necessarily been led, on reviewing Mr. DAUBENY's Vindiciae Ecclesiae Anglicana, may impose on superficial readers; but, to the candid and intelligent, will furnish no proof of our having departed from our professed neutrality on the peculiar points at issue between Calvinists and Anti-calvinists. It has been our principle, whenever we have 'seen one of the parties misrepresented, which ever it may have been, to endeavour to expose the misrepresentation. This service we are equally bound, and equally disposed, to render to either side. If in consequence of the strictures which justice has constrained us to make on Mr. Daubeny's attack on Calvinists, it should be inferred that we feel a partiality for Calvinistic tenets, we protest against the onclusion. If a contrary conclusion should, at any time, be drawn from our defence of Anti-calvinists against misrepresentations on the part of their opponents, we enter a similar protest against it. Though the cause of truth, and the interests of religion sometimes require us to advert to the points of difference to which we have alluded: to enter on light grounds into the discussion of them, suits neither our inclination nor our plau.

On the 31st of January, 1805, will be published, Price One Shilling, the First Number of the Fourth Volume of the Christian Observer; and prefixed to it, Price Sixpence, an Appendix to the Volume of the present Year : the whole making One Shilling and Sixpence.

THE

CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.

No. 36.

DECEMBER, 1804. [No. 12. VOL. III.

Religious Communications.

CHARACTER AND WRITINGS OF JUSTIN MARTYR.

N our last number we gave some

ed to his friends upon his conversion

Iccount of the life of this celebrate to Christianity, but from the boldness

ed father, conducting him from his conversion to christianity to the fatal period of his martyrdom. We now proceed to give a summary view of his character and writings. He was unquestionably a man of exalted piety and holiness, deeply affected by a concern for the honour of God and the interests of true religion, and ardently desirous of promoting the salvation of men. He had embraced christianity after long and serious examination; having found in this divine revelation, what he had in vain searched after in the various systems of human philosophy, the knowledge of the only true God, and the way to obtain both present and eternal happiness. The influence of christian principles upon his dispositions and conduct is strikingly evident in his life and writings. His love to the souls of men prompted him to receive all who came to him for instruction; and was probably the reason of his persevering in the profession of philosophy, instead of assuming the ecclesiastical character. He thought, perhaps, that his former habits of life might tend to abate the prejudices of other philosophers, and induce them to examine and embrace christianity; and though, in the case of Justin, this expectation proved fallacious, we cannot but approve the motive from which he acted; and we recommend to those who, like him, possess much of human learning, to consecrate it to the service of God, by similar endeayours to gain the wise and the great of this world to the gospel of Christ. How earnestly this learned and pious father was engaged in propagating the truth, appears not only from the pathetic exhortation which we have already stated to have been deliver

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* See the last number, p. 650. CHRIST, OBSERV. No. 36.

and freedom with which he addressed the Roman Emperors and Senate in his Apologies. He told them how much it was their duty to esteem the truth; that his object was not to flatter them, but to persuade them to examine the question impartially, and to determine justly; that if they did not, they would be inexcusable before God, and could not possibly escape his future judgment. In a si-, milar manner he declares, in his conference with Tryphot, that he regarded nothing but the truth, not caring whom he disobliged in this great and important pursuit. Yet all this zeal in the cause of christianity was tempered with the most cordial love to all mankind, and even to his bitterest enemies. From none did he and his brethren suffer greater enmity and opposition than from the Jews: yet he tells Tryphos that they heartily prayed for the Jews, and all other persecutors, that they might repent, and ceasing to blaspheme Christ, might believe in him, and be saved from eternal vengeance at his glorious ap-. pearing; that though the Jews were wont, solemnly to curse them in their synagogues, and to join with any that would persecute them unto death, yet they returned no other answer than this" You are our brethren, we beseech you own and embrace the truth of God." And in his Apology to the Emperor and Senate, he . thus concludes" I have nothing more to add, but that so far as in us lies, we shall endeavour, and heartily pray, that the whole world may be blessed with the knowledge and belief of the truth."

Such are the leading features in the character of this great man, so far as

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against Marcion, and another against all the heresies which had then appeared in the christian church; but neither of these is extant. An Exposition, also, of the Revelations, by this father, is lost. Some other books have been obtruded upon the world under his name, and are included in the collection of his works; such as the Expositio Fidei, Questiones et Responsa ad Orthodoxos, Questiones Græcanicæ ad Christianos, Questiones V. ad Græcos: but these are undoubtedly productions of a later age, when christianity was fully establish ed in the world, and the Arian controversy had begun to disturb the church. The Epistle to Diognetus, and that to Zena and Serenus, are generally considered as of doubtful origin. The former contains a general account of the christian religion, in answer to the inquiries of a philosopher who wished to become acquainted with it. The latter treats usefully of the principal points of christian morality.

The opinions of Justin were, in general, perfectly consistent with what are usually termed the orthodox doctrines. In his Dialogue with Trypho* he

his piety is concerned. With respect to his natural endowments, and his acquired learning and abilities, more especially as they appear in his writings, something remains to be said. He was evidently possessed both of considerable genius and of sound judgment. These talents he had carefully cultivated and improved by the diligent study and pursuit of human learning and philosophy; so that, according to the testimony of Photius, he had arrived at the very height, and abounded in every kind, of knowledge. His learning, however, as might naturally be expected from his birth and education, was chiefly confined to the writings of the Heathen philosophers. Of the Hebrew language, like many of the early fathers, he knew but little; as appears from some inaccuracies which are to be met with in his dialogue with Trypho. But with this exception, his great abilities and learning are plainly discernible in his writings which are yet extant (to say nothing of those which are lost), and which, as Eusebius observes, remain as monuments of his singular endowments;-of a mind studiously conversant about divine things, and richly fraught with excellent and explains and defends, against the obuseful knowledge. These are all in- jections of the Jew, the doctrine of our tended either to defend christianity Lord's divinity, in a clear and decisive against both the Jews and Gentiles, or manner; considering it as plainly reto oppose that common religion and vealed both in the Old and New Testa-> those profane and absurd rites of wor- ment. In his first Apology †, also, he ship which then governed the world; expressly acknowledges the Catholic or to prescribe rules for the ordi- doctrine of the Trinity, telling the nary conduct of the christian life. Emperor, in explanation of the comThe catalogue which Eusebius has mon charge against christians, of Agiven of the works of this father theism, that they did not, indeed, comprises his two Apologies; two worship the gods commonly so called, books addressed to the Greeks, in but that they worshipped and adored which he discusses at large many of the true God and his Son, and the the questions which were usually agi- prophetic Spirit, honouring them in tated between the Pagans and Chris- word and in truth. This learned fatians; a book concerning the mother strongly inculcates in his writings narchy of God, which he confirms, not only by the authority of the holy scriptures, but also from the testimonies of Pagan writers; another book, entitled Psaltes; and another, con taining some short notes concerning the soul. Lastly, the historian mentions the dialogue with Trypho, and adds, that several others of his works were then extant amongst many of the christian brethren. Of the writings enumerated by Eusebius, the book en titled Psaltes, and that respecting the soul are lost; the others yet remain. St. Jerome mentions a work of Justin

the necessity of the enlightening influence of divine grace, to enable any one to understand the truth. He explains, also in his first Apology, his views concerning regeneration, and the forgiveness of past sins through Jesus Christ, which he seems to connect with baptism, in common with most of the early fathers. In the Dia. logue with Trypho, he states the doctrine of justification in the same manner as we find it in the Epistle to

*p. 63.
p. 159, 160.

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+

† p. 139.
#p. 62.

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