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November 7, Rev. JOHN CUNDILL met his death in a most awful manner. He was passenger on board the Graham Steam Boat from Grimsby to Hull, and the Graham having been laid along-side the United Kingdom Scottish Steam Vessel from London to Edinburgh, to take in the passengers for Hull, the boiler of the Graham burst with a dreadful explosion, by which several persons (some accounts say 8) were killed, amongst whom was the above-named

happy persons destroyed were on. Two or three of the un

at once shattered to atoms; but Mr. Cundill, with others, was blown overboard. On the coroner's inquest, “George Wright, the steward, deposed, that Mr. Cundill was one of the passengers of the Graham. Witness heard him preach on Sunday night, and was speaking to him a few minutes before the accident." "Mr. Richard Garton was a passenger on board the Graham. Saw Mr. Cundill taken out of the water into a boat immediately after the explosion. He was not dead, but died a few minutes after he was taken on board the United Kingdom. He (Cundill) was a long time in the water. He appeared to have died from suffocation. He was swimming, nearly exhausted, when the boat took him up.”—In this manner perished John Cundill, who was well known to some of our readers. He was a native of Lincolnshire, was brought up as a gardener, but being of an inquiring mind and fond of knowledge, took to books and became a General Baptist Minister. In this character he was successively at Soham, Cambridgeshire; Cranbrook, Kent; Saffron Walden, Essex; and latterly at Hull. Disappointments and straightened circumstances had soured his temper, and the few last years of his life were far from happy. He published a pamphlet on his dismissal from Walden, exposing his fancied wrongs. We believe that he always meant to do right, but that a too warm constitutional temperament sometimes obscured his judgment. Let his frailties be now buried in his untimely grave. It is a singular fact that the last time that Mr. Cundill was in London, he narrowly escaped being burnt to death in his bed: one person perished in that manner in the house in which he at that time was lodging. He has left a widow and several children wholly unprovided for.-The signature J. C., p. 70 of this volume and in the preceding volumes of this work, stands for John Cundill. The letters on The Unchangeable Love of God," of which the 1st will be found on the above reference, were not continued, though several were in our hands, because we understood the writer professed to have undergone some change of opinions, and knew not how far the letters sent to us many months ago were agreeable to his latest faith.

10, the Rev. JOHN YATES, of Liverpool, who had been from 1777 to 1823, the respected minister of the large and wealthy congregation of Paradise Street, in that town.

He

was, we believe, a native of Bolton. He received his education at the academy at Warrington, from which so many able Unita rian ministers proceeded. He was blessed with great substance and had a heart to use it liberally, being a subscriber to all Uni tarian institutions and a benefactor in various ways to his own town and neighbourhood. On his retirement from his pastoral charge, occasioned by his years, the congregation presented him with a piece of plate of the value of One Hundred Guineas, as an expression of gratitude for his publie services, and a testimony to his private virtues.

SELECT LIST OF NEW BOOKS.

The Mystery of Godliness. A Sermon preached at Halifax and Evesham. By C. Wellbeloved.

8vo.

The Character of Jesus Christ an Evidence of his Divine Mission. A Sermon. By Robert Aspland. 2nd edition. 12mo. 18.

An Attempt to ascertain the Import of the Title "Son of Man," commonly assumed by our Lord. A Sermon. By Robert Aspland. 2nd edition. 12mo. 18.

Genuine Christianity, or the Unitarian Doctrine Briefly Stated. By A Physician. 12mo. 1s.

Letters on the Church. By an Episcopalian. 8vo. 7s.

Sacred Specimens, selected from the Early English Poets, with Prefatory Verses. By the Rev. John Mitford. 8vo. 8s. 6d.

A Plain Statement of the Evidences of Christianity, divided into Short Chapters, with Questions annexed to each; designed for the Use of Schools, Sunday Schools, and Young Persons. By Francis Knowles. No. I. 2d.

The Trinity no Scripture Doctrine. A Letter to a Clergyman. By B. Mardon, M. A. 12mo. 6d.

A Vindication of the Conduct of the Middleton (Lancashire) Unitarians. By J. R. Beard. 12mo. 6d.

CORRESPONDENCE.

COMMUNICATIONS have been received from B. Also, the papers "On the Duty of Prayer," "Hints to Congregational Musicians,” and "Description of a Village Churchyard."

Guillaume's "Collection of Texts" is designed for insertion in the next volume. We shall be glad to receive from him the other proposed "Collection."

We are pleased with G. B.'s design and hope to be able to make use of his papers in the next volume; but we trust that in compiling them he will remember his own admission of the necessity of brevity. Correct references to the volume and page of The Christian Reformer 'which are in view, are very desirable.

Although several Numbers of THE CHRISTIAN REFORMER have been reprinted, many are very scarce, and some are nearly out of print: Subscribers are therefore advised to make early application for back Numbers and Volumes to complete their sets.

THE

Christian Reformer.

No. CXLIV.]

DECEMBER, 1826.

[Vol. XII.

Genuine Christianity, or the Unitarian Doctrine Briefly Stated, by a Physician.

THIS is the title of a pamphlet, the second edition of which is just published.*

A remarkable circumstance in the history of English Unitarianism is the number of laymen who have stood publicly forward as its advocates. Milton may now be appealed to as one of the ablest opponents, on scriptural grounds, of the doctrine of the Trinity. Sir Isaac Newton's "Letters to Le Clerc" on two of the disputed texts in the controversy, rendered great service to the Unitarian cause: his unpublished writings in the keeping of the Portsmouth family, will probably, if they ever see the light, be of still greater service. Locke in his Commentary on Paul's Epistles and his "Reasonableness of Christianity" has taken Unitarian ground, and he is thought to have been the author of some of the old Unitarian Tracts. And, as the "Physician" before us observes, (p. 4, note,) Milton, Newton and Locke is indeed a triad for whose sentiments no Englishman need blush."

After these immortal laymen, whose names are their country's glory, came Hopton Haynes, the Master of the Mint, whose work on the "Attributes," designed to establish by a critical examination of the Scriptures the sole Deity of the Father, is still accounted one of the best books in its department of the controversy that the Unitarians possess.

Here let us not overlook the simple-hearted, intrepid Edward Elwall, whose Trial on the charge of Unitarianism, or as it was called in his day Blasphemy, is a popular tract, and who has left several pamphlets asserting and defending extreme Unitarianism, which manifest great integrity of purpose, much sagacity and fearless courage.

Mr. Amory, the author of the singular romance entitled "John Buncle," is another Unitarian advocate, who has

* Printed at Falmouth and sold by James Philp: sold also at London, by R. Hunter. 12mo. 1s.

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made many

familiar with the doctrine who would not have learned it from graver writers.

In the same list is to be placed Mr. Michael Dodson, the celebrated lawyer, whose "Notes on Isaiah" are a valuable addition to an Unitarian library.

The "Welsh Freeholder," the late Mr. David Jones, the Chancery Barrister, contributed many valuable publications to the Unitarian cause.

It is less known that the late Duke of Grafton wrote one pamphlet at least of an Unitarian complexion, and he left behind him for the use of his family a printed, but not published, exposition of his faith.

Many laymen of the present day have been in one period of their lives Unitarian writers, such as Sir Benjamin Hobhouse; the truly respectable gentleman who writes under the denomination of "Another Barrister;" the learned and eloquent author of the "Appeal to Scripture and Tradition" on behalf of the Unitarian Faith; Mr. Cooper, formerly of Manchester, now of America, one of whose wellargued Essays was inserted in the Christian Reformer, Vol. V. pp. 82, 104, 172; Mr. Thomas Foster, who has suffered disownment by the Quakers for re-asserting the doctrines of William Penn; Captain Gifford, of the army; Mr. (late Captain) Thrush, of the Royal Navy; and now, not to mention many others, the " Physician," the title of whose publication stands at the head of this article.*

This writer in a brief but satisfactory manner discusses the whole Unitarian question, and for perspicuity, correctness, good temper, scriptural knowledge and suitableness to the times and the present state of the controversy, we know of few cheap publications better fitted for the hands of young persons and inquirers.

The Physician" is frank and decided, while he is courteous. He says truly, p. 10, "The Unitarian asserts without fear of contradiction, that there is not a single plain scripture authority, be it precept or example, to justify our addressing real religious worship to any other name but that of God the Father only. And such is the practice of the Unitarian chapel, harmonizing therein with the Scrip

* Unitarianism has not been without its female advocates, amongst whom stand pre-eminent the late Mrs. Barbauld and the late Mrs. Cappe, of whose names any denomination might boast. The time will come wheir other writers of the same sex may be put on record as the defenders by their pens of pure Christianity.

tures, and with the recorded customs of the first Christians. Here alone, amidst so many temples professedly Christian, the Father of Jesus Christ is honoured as the only true God."

On the "orthodox" quibble of two natures in Christ, by which the sense of the plainest scriptures is evaded, the "Physician" says, with great spirit,

"In reply to this curious distinction, it would be quite sufficient to observe that it is quite gratuitous: Christ never explained his own words in this way, and who shall presume so to explain them for him? But the truth is, that his words will not bear such an interpretation without the greatest violence. There is nothing in the language of Christ's assertions to suggest to us that they are true only in a certain qualified and peculiar sense; they are made absolutely, and if they are not true absolutely, I know not what can be said of them but that they are absolutely false. To perceive the force of this, let us suppose it asserted that Christ never died, never was crucified, never was buried, never rose again. Who would not allow that such assertions would be false, and unfit to be uttered? Yet they might be justified by the same sort of saving clause which is so easily admitted in defence of orthodoxy. These things, it might be said, are spoken of Christ in reference to his Divine nature only; and certainly, with that limitation, they might be spoken truly enough. But if such limitation were not expressed, then those assertions would be false; not more false, however, than would be that other unqualified assertion which Jesus really made, 'Of that day and hour knoweth not the Son, if at that same time, possessing the omniscience of Deity, he knew them perfectly well. Declarations made with such mental reservations are no more than equivocation and deceit.". Pp. 11, 12.

There is no point on which the Calvinists are more assured of a triumph over the Unitarians, than the death of Christ; and yet the death of Christ is an utter impossibility on the supposition of his essential deity. Hear this able reasoner:

"As it is allowed that God cannot suffer, to say that Christ was God and yet did suffer, is another contradiction; a thing not at all above reason, but plainly contrary to it. For what avails that trite reply, that he did not suffer as God? If God suffered at all, whether in the assumed nature of man or any other form, still he suffered, and the assertion that he cannot suffer is falsified. But let me ask what suffering the scene of crucifixion could inflict on a mind whose presence, if he then possessed the Divine perfections, was throughout the universe, diffusing bliss and receiving adoration? If a petty insect inflicts its minute

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