To do something to instruct, but more to undeceive, the timid and admiring student ;to excite him to place more confidence in his own strength, and less in the infallibility of great names;-to help him to emancipate his judgment from the shackles of anthority ;-to reach him to distinguish between shewy language and sound sense; to warn him not to pay himself with words; to shew him, that what may tickle the ear or dazzle the imagination, will. not always inform the judgment;-to dispose him rather to fast on ignorance than to feed himself with error."

Fragment on Government.

JANUARY TO DECEMBER INCLUSIVE.

1817.

VOLUME XII.

HACKNEY:

Printed for the Editor, by George Smallfield.

PUBLISHED BY SHERWOOD, NEELY AND JONES,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

1817.

PREFACE.

ALTHOUGH the Monthly Repository bears a general title, and is devoted to the great interests of Truth and Liberty which belong equally to all Christians and all mankind, it is well known that it is in reality The Unitarian Magazine. No other periodical publication would register the proceedings of the Unitarians, nor, whatever be the disposition of individuals in all sects, would any denomination of Christians, besides the Unitarians, encourage or endure that free discussion of theological questions which characterizes this work. And the experience of Twelve Years, during which the Monthly Repository has been carried on, has, it is presumed, shewn the importance of such a publication to the Unitarian body, and, indeed, its necessity to enable them to co-operate in their various Institutions and Associations for common good.

The Editor will therefore be pardoned, he trusts, for appealing to his brethren, and especially his brethren in the ministry, throughout the kingdom for their support. The sale of the Monthly Repository, though not inconsiderable in itself, is not adequate to the expense, much less to the labour, required to conduct it reputably; still less is it answerable to the number of the British Unitarians, especially when it is considered how large a proportion of them are brought up in literary habits, and are able without inconvenience to indulge their taste for books. The Editor humbly conceives, that the sale of the work might even be doubled, without any extraordinary exertion on the part of the Unitarians; it would be sufficiently increased to silence all apprehensions with regard to its permanent success if only one additional copy were

taken in every Unitarian congregation. He makes this statement with the more confidence, from knowing that of the present sale a great number of copies are taken by individuals in other denominations.

However gratifying the success of the Monthly Repository would be to the Editor personally, he is conscious of higher feelings in this appeal; for he can say, with perfect truth, that whatever loss would be sustained by the Unitarian body in the cessation of the work, he himself would be a gainer by such an event in most of those points that are of importance to one who has numerous drafts upon his time and labour and health.

If the Unitarians generally entertain a fellow-feeling with the Editor, he has said enough; if they do not, he has said too much. He, therefore, commends his readers and his work to the Divine blessing; willing, in humble dependence upon the Power which has the keys of futurity, to try the event of another year.

December 30th, 1817.

Religious History and Character of the late Rev. William Vidler.

[In a Letter from the Rev. R. Wright to

SIR,

the Editor.}

Thealth, for many months, led

HOUGH the state of Mr. Vidler's

me to fear that his dissolution was nigh, I was much affected when the news of that event reached me. We had been long and intimately acquainted; our acquaintance and friendship commenced in peculiar circumstances, which united us the more firmly, and rendered our mutual attachment the stronger and more last ing. Many subjects in theology did we investigate together; our finds were opened to each other without reserve; we took sweet counsel together; our plans and projects for promoting the cause of truth and righteousness, were communicated to each other; and, as much as the distance of our places of residence would admit, for several years we acted in concert, and our labours and exertions were much connected. I shall ever esteem my intimacy with this good man, as one, and not the least, of the manifold blessings which the Almighty, in his bountiful providence, hath bestowed upon me. Now, alas! my beloved friend is no more, his labours are finished, he rests in the tomb, but his works will follow him, his reward is sure. We shall meet again in brighter scenes and happier circumstances, where friendship will be renewed and perfected, and usefulness and happiness no more be interrupted.

My acquaintance with Mr. Vidler commenced in the year 1798. I was then a very low Sabellian, or more properly an Unitarian; but still retaining a few modes of expression which were inconsistent, and in becoming clearly and avowedly an Unitarian, I had only to change a few phrases, not a single idea either re

VOL. III.

B

specting the Trinity or the person of Christ. He was at that time a Trinitarian, but so completely liberal, and so candid in conversation, that I soon discovered that any difference of sentiment that existed between us, would not prevent a pleasing and edifying intimacy. We were both of us Universalists. The doctrine of the final happiness of all men, the Divine character and perfections, providence and government, and dispensations of grace, as well as the whole work and ministrations of Jesus Christ, as connected with this great subject, which seemed to us to involve all the best interests of the universe, then occupied our chief thought and attention; and to its promotion, and the making known its important uses in vindicating the character and ways of God, establishing the truth of Divine revelation, and the moral good of the world, almost the whole of our labours and exertions were directed. This became a solid ground and strong bond of union between us.

In the year 1797, Mr. Vidler began to publish a periodical work, called the Universalists' Miscellany. In the latter part of this year, I sent him a communication, which was the firs of the Ten Letters on Election, since published separately by my friends in Scotland. I was then totally unknown to him. I sent three or four letters, in succession, before he discovered who or what I was. At length learning that I was a minister, and resided in Wisbeach, he wrote to me, requesting 1 would visit him, and spend a few weeks with his congregation, while he went on a journey among his old friends in Sussex.With this invitation I complied.

I arrived at his house on a Saturday morning, and Mr. Vidler set out for Sussex the following Monday morning. The two days we spent together, so far as the public services on the Sunday left us at leisure, were employed