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Surely it exceeds all the poffible comprehenfion of a finite understanding; and yet, is it not an object of belief? Doth not the mind acquiefce in the truth of this firft principle of the Deity? It cannot comprehend it; but justly concludes that the thing is real, and submits with faith and reverence. Mr. Williams himself allows that a perfon may believe in the miraculous birth of our Saviour, in the miracles which he wrought, his refurrection from the dead, and his afcenfion into heaven, without committing himfelf to the refuge of mystery and abfurdity; for he grants that a perfon may confider them as ftanding on the fame ground of evidence as the actions of an Alexander or a Cæfar, to be believed on the credit of hiftorians, who had no intereft to deceive, and because the things related were poffible and even probable.' In this cafe (fays our Author) what is there in believing Chriftianity more than believing any hiftorical fact which we clearly comprehend, and has nothing in it that we should deem impoffible?' We are glad that Mr. Williams hath condefcended to make this conceffion to the faith of Chriftians. And yet they will tell him that they do not underftand, nor can they comprehend the miraculous conception of a virgin-nor the afcenfion of a body into heaven, though they firmly believe, i. e. afsent to, the truth and reality of these facts, on the teftimony of credible hiftorians. Nothing more than this modeft affent of the mind is required by divine revelation when it relates facts which human reason cannot account for, and of the mode of their operation it can form no poffible idea.

As Mr. Williams hath divefted Faith of all merit, he alfo confiders what hath been called a previous difpofition to admit certain principles, as a thing of no value. No plaufible argument (fays he) hath been left on the fide of uncharitableness and bigotry, but that which makes a right faith to be the confequence of being well and properly difpofed. It is very true that a man may difpofe himself, i.e. he may warp and bias his mind fo as to make any doctrine or principle fuit it. But all kinds of pre-difpofition and pre-arrangement are injuries to the judgment.'

But though Mr. Williams fpeaks thus fcornfully of a predifpofed habit of mind, yet he allows of its beneficent influence in the following Lecture on the Fear of God. I need not (fays he) be at any great pains, to thofe who are well-difpofed, in fhewing the effects of this principle on the general conduct of a man's life.' The atheiftic libertine might here retort his own language, and, by the moft mortifying of all arguments, the argumentum ad hominem, eafily prove that a well difpofed, is but a mere paffible term, for a biaffed and prejudiced mind;

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and that all kinds of pre-difpofition, &c. are injuries to the judgment.'

The great principle and duties of Chriftianity, though founded on the best reason, yet owe much of their fupport and influence to a virtuous difpofition of mind. A good man would wish them to be true, and a bad man would be interested in seeing them proved to be falfe. Both, it is certain, are under fome bias. But Christianity is not the lefs rational because the prepoffeffions of virtue are on its fide, and those of vice at eternal enmity with it.

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In the ninth lecture, on Univerfal Religion,' our Author makes an apology for the name of Deift, with which,' he informs us, he had been reproached by ignorance.' He affures us, however, that fo far from difliking this nobleft of all appellations, he felt no other regret than that he was not worthy of it. I could,' fays he, look up to Jupiter and Apollo, to Mars and Venus, to Mofes, Chrift, and Mahomed, and not even from my errors and faults be afraid to wear their names : but to be called after the name appropriated to that perfectly wife and perfectly good Being, who animates and bleffes the univerfe, feems to call for a character of understanding and virtue, which is alarming; and though I could rejoice in deferving, I fhould be very cautious in affuming it.' We need make no comment on this paffage: but cannot avoid obferving, that for the indecency of the allufion, and the artful malignity of the infinuation, it hath fcarcely been paralleled fince the days of Julian the Apostate.

The lectures on Univerfal Toleration' contain little that is worthy of particular notice. The Author rings his changes fo often on liberty and free enquiry, that by repetition his fentiments become tirefome, and in their commonnefs lofe their influence. His compofitions, in general, bear the marks of great hafte; and thefe two lectures, in particular, feem to prove that he wanted much to get to the conclufion. Indeed, we seldom obferve any beginning or middle in Mr. Williams's productions. He appears to be always fomewhere or other about the end. This arifes from a want of a regular fyftematic plan; or a logical correctnefs and economy of thought.

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The following reflections on perfons who pride themselves in having fouls made of fentiment, are very juft, though they might have been introduced as well in any other part of his work, as where we chance to find them. Try a fentimental man, or a fentimental woman, on any of the fubjects which they are diffolving or even dying upon, when reading fome quaint tale, and you will find them wholly deftitute of the genuine and ufeful principles of nature; not in the fituation of

perfons

persons who want to be induced to act juftly and virtuously; but incapable of good impreffions. There are no brutes on earth fo unfeeling as these diffolving, dying people; nor any perfons fo incapable of virtue as thofe who waste their whole lives in reading tales of the virtues of other people. Look on a modern mother, whofe time is spent in reading histories and novels, and enervating her own conftitution and that of her children by the effects of fentiments. Look back into antiquity, and fee the virtuous matrons of Greece and Rome, fulfilling their duties with an active and amiable dignity; teaching their children to think and act so as to contribute largely to the public happinefs, and you will fee the difference between real and pretended knowledge.'

Our modern fentimentalifts are indeed very poor creatures! All their effufions, and all their feelings, are feldom any thing better than evidences of paralytic affections. Though they melt, and languish, and die, on the foft pillow of fentimental tenderness, yet when their charity is tried, their exquisite sensations vanifh in a moment, and benevolence is only a pretty word, that begins in fancy and ends in found!

Our Author's averfion to those sentimental beings, leads him to renew his fatire on them, in his fecond lecture on Modefty; in which, after drawing an admirable and truly characteristic picture of vanity, he obferves, that when religion had credit enough to ferve as a cloke to infirmities and vices, the vain man was always religious, and covered his pretences with it. But now, an undefinable and unintelligible matter called SENTIMENT, is the fubftitute. All that we know of what is commonly called Sentiment, is, that it fupplies the place of wisdom and virtue; and is a rule of life which every man and woman keeps in fome elegant recefs of the mind; that it vibrates like a mufical inftrument, and all the events of life play upon it but being totally different in different perfons, it admits of that wonderful mixture of wisdom and folly, virtue and vice, which we fee around us. There is no virtue refined enough for its regard: and no vice which it will not admit of. In fhort, by fetting afide the ufe of inveftigation, reafon, education, habit, and reflection,-Sentiment becomes the very principle of proAigacy; and, by its ineffable and fupernatural emotions, renders the mind abandoned and worthlels.

Here therefore, if any where, vanity must have a chance of fuccefs. As fentimental virtues exift only in tales, letters, and converfation, where the imagination is at liberty to invent, and no more judgment is requifite than to preferve probability, one would think a vain man, who is effentially a liar, muft find his account in this fentimental commerce. He does-fo as to impofe longer upon men in this way than in any other. The ftrong

ftrong propensities which are formed in good minds by the focial virtues, difpofe men to admire all appearances of them; and to be eafily impofed on by pretenfions to extraordinary degrees of them. They are only perfons of mature judgments and underftandings who steadily difbelieve fupernatural efforts, and fufpect all progidies, and all wonders. Sentimental friends are like friends in mafques, who pafs on each other for angels; but when time, ardour, and the irrefiftible defire of mutual intercourse, bring on a discovery, and pull off the covering, hardly any thing can equal the difappointment; they fly from each other with horrid deteftation, and nothing can exceed the rancour and malignity of thofe feparated, fentimental friends. Indeed, there is not a virtue of importance to fociety, that can long exist or remain uninjured, when affociated with vanity. Truth, both as a quality of the mind, and as a focial virtue, is the first obftacle it must remove. Juftice it can have no idea of, because it feeks its own gratification at all events, and benevolence is eradicated by felfifhnefs.'

We would gladly tranfcribe more from this masterly, difcourfe but we have already proceeded to our utmost limits in the extracts which we have made from thefe volumes; and muft conclude our remarks by obferving, that the moral lectures contain many valuable obfervations; and that however we difapprove of his theological principles, we cannot help acknowledging the elegance and fpirit of the Writer.

ART. 11. Archaeologia: or, Mifcellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity. Published by the Society of Antiquaries of London. Vol. V. 11. 18. Boards. White, &c. 1779.

HIS learned body hath already favoured the world with

THIS feveral curious and entertaining publications. The pre

fent volume confifts of forty-four numbers; fome account of which we fhall lay before our readers, according to our ufual method.

The book now before us opens with, Obfervations on the Hiftory of St. George, the Patron Saint of England. The anniverfary of this reputed faint, is the day appointed by ftatute for electing the officers of this refpectable fociety; it feemed, therefore, very pertinent, that a differtation fhould be exhibited on the fubject; efpecially, as fome evil-minded perfons had advanced pofitions tending to the annihilation of this faint. Mr. Pegge, well known in this line of erudition, generously stands up in defence of St. George, in oppofition to Dr. Pettingal, and the late Mr. Byrom. Dr. Pettingal, about the year 1760, wrote a Differtation on the original of the Equeftrian Figure on the George, &c. in which he concludes, that there are no fufficient grounds to believe there ever was [and was there ever

fuch

fuch an infidel as Dr. P.?] fuch a perfon as St. George; and he farther labours to prove, that the infignia of our most noble English Order, the George and Garter, are to be refolved into an emblematical, or rather a telefmatical apparatus. Mr. Pegge acknowledges the ingenuity and erudition with which this is attempted, but he endeavours to fhew that there is fufficient evidence to induce a belief both of the reality of the perfonal exiftence of St. George, and of his martyrdom, which is all that he contends for; as to the ftory about the Dragon, &c. it may go, for what he cares, to the old Dragon himself.

Mr. Byrom*, the other infidel adverfary, for whose memory Mr. Pegge expreffes the higheft regard, has delivered, as usual, his fentiments on the fubject, in a metrical garb. He infinuates, that the inftitution of the Moft Noble Order of the Garter was at first founded in error and mistake, and that, fince that time, we have all been involved in a misnomer. He apprehends, that the names of Gregory and George have been confounded, that Pope Gregory the Great, who fent Auguftine, the monk, to convert the Anglo-Saxons, was received as their patron, as the Irish have St. Patrick, the Scotch St. Andrew, &c. but that, in a courfe of years, the name was corrupted into George. Mr. Pegge appears to have fufficiently confuted this hypothefis; he acknowledges, that St. George is only to be regarded as a military faint; and he imagines, that the English, during the time of their crufades in the Eaft, heard much of his fame, and brought accounts of him to England, where he was at length felected by our King Edward the Third, as the patron of the Noble Order. On the whole, Mr. Pegge affumes, that whether St. George be a real or an imaginary faint, he, and not St. Gregory, was undoubtedly understood at the time of the inftitution, as likewife ever fince, to be the patron of the Order of the Garter.

In the firft number of the fourth volume of this work, Mr. Strange attacked an opinion which had prevailed, that few traces of Roman antiquities are to be met with in the principality of Wales. Having before examined Brecknockshire +, he now proceeds to give an account of fome remains of Roman and other antiquities in Monmouthshire, which, though not ftrictly in Wales, adjoins to the former county. His differtation is long, but ingenious and learned, though rather dry and uninteresting to the generality of readers, who will be wearied in attending to etymologies and conjectures concerning ancient places; but the true antiquary views these things with a differ

For an account of Byrom's Mifcellanies, Vide Review for O.

1773, P. 24.

+ Vide Review for Oct. 1777, p. 260.

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