Lisbon to attack them, they returned in great hafte to Cad z. An embargo has been laid on all veffels at Calais. Sir Richard Strachan has blockaded the mouth of the Seine, and by it excluded Hayre, Rouen, and Paris, from all communication with the lea. 5. The accounts from Conftantinople state the deftruction of 400 houses in that city by fire. Oglu, the rebellious Pacha of Widden, on the 21st of January, had poffeffed himself of feveral important pofts. After a desperate battle near Niffa, in which he was victorious, he marched against Philippoli, and compelled the Pacha of Romelia,who oppofed him, to take fhelter in the woods. Albania and Maudonia have joined in the revolt, and confident with victory the infurgent armies now menace the capital. He has loudly declared himself the Protector of the Greeks difperfed over Turkey in Europe, and that the object of his miffion is to re-eftablish Liberty on the ruins of Defpotifin. He is faid, without a hearing, to have dismiffed the Minifter ient by the Grand Senior, defiring him to tell his matter that he would treat with him only on the ruins of the Seraglio of Conttantinople. after several examinations before the Privy Council, were committed to the Tower, and will fhortly, it is Huppefe, be tried at Maidstone. Government has rolved to feize all neutral ships bound to French ports. 9. The Diffenters of Birmingham had a meeting on Tuekday, when it was determined not to contribute tọ the voluntary fub.cription. On the 19th of Feb. the City of Mentz was formally installed a ́department of France. The citizens of Hamburgh have granted the French four millions of livres, and Bremen the fame fum, for which they will obtain various commercial advantages. c. A motion was made on the 5th inft. by Sir L. Parions in the Irish Houfe of Commons, for an inquiry into the fate of that country, and the adoption of conciliatory meafures; but, like all the attempts of the like nature, was negatived by a great majority, 19 being for, and 156 againit it. 11. By letters from Italy it appears that the French have tripped the Pope of his dominions, and inftituted a Republic with the appellations of the ancient Roman Magiftrates. Adrianople, at the head of 200,000 men. He carries ail before him, and threatens deftruction to the Turkish Empire. 12. Letters from Sealin, of the 6. By letters from Brest we are in- 15th of Feb. represent the rebel, Pafsoformed, that on Feb. 16, the Ven-wan Oglu, as on his march towards geur, a new fhip of 140 guns, the Largeft ever built, with 12 other ships of the line, left that port for the Road, all armed, and their crews compleat. Gun-boats upon the Swedish plan are building, and the greatest activity is displayed in every department. 13. A letter from Mantua, of the 17th of Feb. informs us, that the French garrifon of that fortrefs having received no pay for five months, 7. The American Papers are filled affembled and declared to the Gowith debates upon the fituation of the vernor, that unless the arrears due to United States; much uneasiness is thein were paid, they would immeexpreffed leaft the prefent mifunder-diately return to France. General ftanding with France fhould involve them in a war with that country, and every precaution is taking to prepare for fuch an event. 8. Yesterday morning the perfons arrested upon a charge of treafon, Miollis raised 400,000 livres by a forced loan upon the inhabitants to fatisfy their demands, which fum was foon after repaid to the lenders by the Cifalpine Directory. 14. A fubfcription has been open ed ed at Waterford, in Ireland, for the purpose of railing a fund to leffen the burthen of the poorer defcription of houfe-keepers, on whom foldiers are quartered, in that city. 15. By the Hamburgh mail which arrived yesterday we have intelligence of the death of Stanislaus Poniatousky, the late King of Poland. On the morning of his death he was apparently in good health, but was immediately after breakfast feized with a fit of appoplexy, which carried him off. 16. Accounts have been received from Sir R. Strachan's fquadron, cruizing off Ifle Marçou, ftating that an embargo has been laid upon veffels of every defcription in all the ports along the coaft of the Channel, for the purpofe of procuring feamen to facilitate the expedition against this country. Mr. Erskine has been retained as counsel for Mr. O'Conner. 20. The King in council, has given his confent to an act, to enable the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to detain perfons fufpected to be guilty of high treafon or fedition, without bringing them to trial. 21. Accounts received at the Hague from China, of the 7th of last June, mention great difturbances to have taken place in that empire. The rebels have made themselves matters of 6 towns of the first, and 37 of the fecond and third orders. They have alfo furrounded, and cut off a confiderable force, which the Emperor had fent against them, to prevent, if poffible, the revolution with which the empire is threatened. 22. The Houfe of Lords have fentenced the Editor and Printer of the 17. By the Paris Journals which | Morning Chronicle each to pay a fine arrived yesterday we have intelligence of sol. and be three months impriof hoftilities having commenced be- foned, for having published a libel in tween the French and Swifs troops. that Paper upon that honourable Three battles have been fought, each House. of which has terminated in favour of 23. By Paris Papers of the 18th the French. Several towns have in inft. it appears that the Swifs Canconfèquence been taken, and Buren tons, after a very obftinate refiftance, given up to pillage for having violated have at laft fubmitted to the French the rules of war in the perfons of fome army. French prisoners. 24. By Paris Papers we learn that 18. In the Cifalpine Republic, ho-the French have feized at Bourdeaux nourable mention has been made of a on all the English, Irish, and Ameplan which propofes, that all property, rican merchants; fealed up all their given by credulous citizens to religi-property, and fent them 30 miles up ous establishments, fhould be applied the country. &c. to the fupport of workmen who are General Berthier has demanded cut of employment, and fathers of from the Court of Naples 40,000 families, the infirm, the indigent, measures of corn, 20,000 head of cattle, and the releafe of all the citi19. Dublin was thrown on Satur-zens confined on account of political day last in a state of the utmost con- opinions. It is faid that he is march. fufion, owing to a confpiracy faid ing an army to fupport the demand. to be formed for making an infurrec- 25. By letters from Raftadt we tion in that city, and effecting a re-learn, that on the 9th inft. the Deputies volution in Ireland; and various agreed to the ceffion of the whole left perfons have been arrefted upon that bank of the Rhine, under certain.copcharge. ditions, to the French. THE Univerfalist's Mifcellany For APRIL, 1798. DEAR SIR, ELECTION. · [Continued from page 59.] EST any obfervations I have made, or may in future ing adopted, by the opposers of the Universal Restoration in general, or that part of them who maintain Calvinian election in particular, fhould by any reader be construed into perfonal difrefpect, or want of Chriftian charity, I beg leave to obferve, once for all, that it is not men, but what I think to be their errors, that I oppofé; not from prejudice, or enmity, but from real love, deeming their mistakes prejudicial to their happiness, and an obftacle to their usefulness. I wish to inculcate the greateft liberality of fentiment, judging it confiftent with the ftricteft adherence to what appears to us to be the truth, and long for the time when all ferious profeffors of the Gospel, laying afide the creeds of their particular parties, fhall cordially unite in a free and impartial examination of the oracles of God, in efteeming each other, not for an affent to particular dogmas; but for their integrity, virtue, and benevolence: then, and not till then, will truth and righteousness univerfally triumph. Among the oppofers of the Universal Restoration, and advocates for Calvinian election, there are many perfons whose piety commands our refpect and love, as men of grace and virtue I esteem and love them; but whatever refpect we owe their perfons, we certainly owe none to what, on the most careful examinations, appear to be their errors. Calvinian election and reprobation, connected with the VOL. II. doctrine doctrine of the endless existence of fin and mifery, appear to me to fuppofe two oppofite principles to exist in the Deity, eternal love, and eternal hatred, operating in quite different ways, producing diametrically oppofite effects, and leading to ends as contrary to each other, as heaven and hell, as an eternity of perfect felicity, and an eternity of inexpreffible fufferings. Inconceivably wide as thefe extremes are, if the rigid Calvinistic fyftem be true, they are both to be traced back to that eternal mind, the infinite fource of all exiftence, who, it is fuppofed, by his divine decrees, conftitutions, and government, has arranged all caufes, connected with them their effects, and guides all caufes and effects to their ultimate ends, conducts those who are chofen to the highest bliss, those who are not chosen, to the lowest hell, there eternally to remain. I know not how fuch an hypothefis can be fupported, without fuppofing two original principles in God, as oppofite to each other as the final ends, to which, by a combination of circumftances, they will ultimately bring the elect and nonelect. The fyftem of the moderate Calvinift does not much mend the matter, it brings us, on the whole, to the fame point for though the latter does not, in the fame direct way, place all the fteps which lead down to endless mifery upon the bafis of the Divine decrees, and chain them to the throne of God, as completely as he does all the fteps by which the elect ascend to eternal felicity, still he fuppofes the eternal punishment of the wicked to take place, because God had not fufficient love to them to induce him to make provision for their falvation, and to employ those means for their recovery, which, had he employed them, would have effected it; but not loving them, he paffed them by, and left them to their fate. The former would lead us to an active principle of hatred, or wrath, in Jehovah, which decrees and arranges all the circumstances leading to endless mifery; the latter to an indifference in God about the happinefs of his creatures, which caufes his paffing them by, without providing deliverance for them, an apathy of mind, which fo benumbs his infinite love, that, without the leaft emotion, he can fee them fink into the deepest mifery, and remain therein to all eternity, without taking a fingle ftep for their recovery. Both the one and the other fuppofes that God will fuffer sin and mifery, which are so oppofite to his holiness, love, and blesfedness, to remain as long as himself exifts. When I think of God, in the light in which the Calviniftic fyftem brings him before me, I cannot get rid of the Heathen Heathen Janus, with his two faces, looking different ways: for that fyftem reprefents the Most High as if he had two faces, one for the elect, another for the non-elect; the one beaming with all the tenderness of paternal affection, glòwing with complacential delight, covered with everlasting fmiles, which nothing can ruffle; the other full of aufterity, flaming with wrath, covered with everlasting frowns, which nothing can ever smooth; the one diffufing happiness inexpreffible and eternal; the other darting upon its unhappy objects nothing but indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguilh, equally unutterable and endless. The two principles of the Manichecs, acting feparately and independent of each other, the one producing nothing but good, the other nothing but evil; or even the notion of a self-exiftent and omnipotent devil, as the ground of the eternal existence of fin and misery would be tolerable and rational, in comparison of afcribing to the one God, who is love, who is invariably the fame throughout all his works, ways, and difpenfations, towards all his creatures, fuch oppofite difpofitions and conduct. It would be more easy to suppose the pureft fountain should fend forth fweet and bitter waters, than to suppose, that the infinite fountain of love, the unbounded ocean of blessedness, fhould fend forth unceafing rivers of grace and pleasure upon fome, and never-failing torrents of wrath and mifery upon others; that it should swallow up in its amazing depths all the fins and forrows of a part of the creatures it hath produced, that they might bafk in fupreme felicity to endless ages; and at the fame time preferve in exiftence the reft of its creatures, and keep alive in them all the fins they have ever committed, in order to overwhelm them with unbounded floods of vengeance, that they might plunge deeper, and still deeper, in mifery, to all endless eternity. I confefs my foul fickens at fuch horrid descriptions, and am apprehenfive many who have fickened at them, have turned for relief to mere deism, or, perhaps, even atheifin; but I turn to the glorious displays which the Eternal hath graciously afforded us of himfelf, his defigns, works, and ways, in the Holy Scriptures, from which I learn, with inexpreffible fatisfaction, that all the works and ways of God originated in love, and will terminate in the complete happiness of the whole creation. Perhaps no part of the sacred writings has been more frequently brought forward in fupport of that view of election, which I am attempting to explode, than Rom. chap. ix. in particular O2 |