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"be the motives of discontent to a truly moral being!--but if the contrary, and the motives "for discontent proportionally strong, how with"out guilt and absurdity appeal to them as judges and arbiters! He alone is entitled to "a share in the government of all, who has "learnt to govern himself—there is but one pos"sible ground of a right to freedom, viz. to under"stand and revere its duties."

As specimens of his political writings I select the following, and leave party men to criticise them-Coleridge being of no party, but guided, as will sufficiently appear to those who have read his works with attention, solely by philosophical principles, from which he never swerved. Nor did he desire the praise of men, merely because they were in power; still less that of the multitude. For this reason, I repeat, these fragments are given, as illustrative of Coleridge's political views, and to shew how easily the harmony of the constitutional balance may be disturbed by party zeal. His opinions were often misunderstood even sometimes by kindly-disposed individuals, when theirs were not founded on certain data, because their principles were not derived from permanent sources. The doctrine of expediency was one he highly censured, and it had existed long enough to prove to him that it was worthless. What one set of well-intentioned men may effect, and which for a time may have pro

duced good, another set of men by the same doctrine, i. e. of expediency may effect, and then produce incalculable mischief, and, therefore, Coleridge thought there was neither guide nor safety, but in the permanent and uncontrovertible truths of the sacred writings, so that the extent of this utility will depend on faith in these truths, and with these truths, his name must live or perish. But some part of Coleridge's writings requiring too much effort of thought to be at once thoroughly understood, may therefore have been found distasteful, and consequently have exposed his name to ridicule, in some cases even to contempt; but the application Coleridge has made of these truths to the duties and various circumstances of life will surely be found an inestimable blessing. They were truly his rock of support, and formed the basis of the building he was endeavouring to raise.

In the year 1807, he wrote those weekly Essays of the Friend, which were published about this time, and thus gave to the world some of his rich intellectual stores. The following letter, which he addressed to Mr. Cottle, will shew the progress of his mind from Socinian to Trinitarian belief at that period of his life :— "Bristol, 1807.

"DEAR COTTLE,

"To pursue our last conversation. Chris"tians expect no outward or sensible miracles

VOL. I.

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"from prayer. Its effects, and its fruitions are spiritual, and accompanied, says that true Divine, Archbishop Leighton, not by reasons and arguments but by an inexpressible kind of evidence, which they only know who have it.'

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"Tothis I would add, that even those who, "like me I fear, have not attained it, may yet presume it. First, because reason itself, or "rather mere human nature, in any dispassion"ate moment, feels the necessity of religion, but "if this be not true there is no religion, no religation, or binding over again; nothing added "to reason, and therefore Socinianism (misnamed "Unitarianism) is not only not Christianity, it is "not even religion, it does not religate; does not "bind anew. The first outward and sensible re"sult of prayer, is, a penitent resolution, joined "with a consciousness of weakness in effecting

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it, yea even a dread, too well grounded, lest "by breaking and falsifying it, the soul should "add guilt to guilt; by the very means it has "taken to escape from guilt; so pitiable is the "state of unregenerate man.

"Are you familiar with Leighton's Works? "He resigned his archbishoprick, and retired to "voluntary poverty on account of the persecu"tion of the Presbyterians, saying, 'I should not "dare to introduce Christianity itself with such "cruelties, how much less for a surplice, and the "name of a bishop.' If there could be an inter

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"mediate space between inspired, and uninspired writings, that space would be occupied by Leighton. No show of learning, no appearance, or ostentatious display of eloquence; and yet both may be shown in him, conspicuously "and holily. There is in him something that "must be felt, even as the scriptures must be "felt.*

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"You ask me my views of the Trinity. I "accept the doctrine, not as deduced from hu"man reason, in its grovelling capacity for comprehending spiritual things, but as the clear "revelation of Scripture. But perhaps it may "be said, the Socinians do not admit this doc"trine as being taught in the Bible. I know enough of their shifts and quibbles, with their

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dexterity at explaining away all they dislike, "(and that is not a little) but though beguiled "once by them, I happily, for my own peace "of mind, escaped from their sophistries, and

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now, hesitate not to affirm, that Socinians would "lose all character for honesty, if they were to

explain their neighbour's will with the same "latitude of interpretation, which they do the Scriptures.

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* The following exquisite image on Leighton was found in one of Coleridge's note books, and is also inserted in his Literary Remains:-" Next to the inspired Scriptures, yea, and as the vibra"tion of that once struck hour remaining on the air, stands Arch"bishop Leighton's commentary on the first epistle of Peter."

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"I have in my head some floating ideas on the Logos, which I hope, hereafter, to mould into "a consistent form; but it is a gross perversion "of the truth, in Socinians, to declare that we "believe in Three Gods, and they know it to be "false. They might, with equal justice, affirm 'that we believe in three suns. The meanest peasant, who has acquired the first rudiments "of Christianity, would shrink back from a "thought so monstrous. Still the Trinity has its "difficulties. It would be strange if otherwise. "A Revelation that revealed nothing, not within "the grasp of human reason!-no religation, no binding over again, as before said: but these "difficulties are shadows, contrasted with the substantive, and insurmountable obstacles with "which they contend who admit the Divine authority of Scripture, with the superlative excel"lence of Christ, and yet undertake to prove that "these Scriptures teach, and that Christ taught, "his own pure humanity!

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"If Jesus Christ was merely a Man,-if he "was not God as well as Man, be it considered, "he could not have been even a good man. There "is no medium. The SAVIOUR in that case was absolutely a deceiver! one, transcendently un"righteous! in advancing pretensions to mira"cles, by the 'Finger of God,' which he never performed; and by asserting claims, (as a man) "in the most aggravated sense, blasphemous!

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