ill-founded and extravagant. Nay, the opinions formed on the fteps which have been hitherto taken, are not the most judicious. Experiments may be to the public as fallacious as fables: they often occafion as many errors, and are always expected to prove too much. If the Inftitution in Margaret-Street were only to prove, that a liturgy may be drawn up, on principles which all mankind acknowledge, and may be ufed without offence, even to fectaries and bigots, it would deferve confideration and refpect. A bishop quitting his diocese, and attended by both Houfes of Parliament, in the fame experiment, might have given it more eclat, but not more certainty. In the prefent cafe, it is a difcovery made by a private man, at some rifque, and at fome expence. It holds up to the world a fact which hath at all times been deemed incredible ;-the importance of which to morals and policy may be understood, when men raise their thoughts from the elementary to the intellectual world; and the benefits which may be enjoyed in future by perfons who might not have undergone the apprehenfions, anxieties, and inconveniencies by which it hath been afcertained.

That good men of all nations and all religions :—that believers in Mofes, Chrift, and Mahomet, Free-thinkers, Deifts, and even Atheists, who acknowledge beneficent principles in nature, may unite in a form of public worship, on all the great and most important truths of piety and morality, can no more be a queftion: for it is demonftrated; not by the arts of logic, or the declamations of oratory in books, but by a stated, public service, to which any man may have recourfe for fatisfaction.'

Mr. Williams proceeds to ftate the ufe of his discovery for the benefit of preachers and politicians. The principal ufe arifes from the freedom of communication, which, as he obferves, conftitutes the bonds by which all affociations, all clubs, and all parties, are held together.' In the illuftration of this profound remark, the Author hath thrown out hints which feem to mean fomething; but we acknowledge ourselves unable to get to the bottom of them. And in truth they must be very deep!-quite out of common reach, fince feveral perfons,' he informs us, eminent for their knowledge in the prefent science of politics, have not understood him.'

For our parts, we fee nothing very extraordinary in this Gentleman's experiments or difcoveries. Whether it be, that our thoughts are not yet raifed from the elementary to the intellectual world,' or that we have yet fome little predilection remaining for Chriftianity, or from whatever caule it may arife, we prefume not to determine; but we must acknowledge, that we cannot fee the great utility of this project (confeffedly a Uto pian one) of uniting the moft heterogenous parties, from the orthodox believer down to the fpeculative Atheist. No plan of

worship, however vague, equivocal, or comprehenfive, can afford a link to join fuch hoftile extremes: or provide them with a loop or hinge to hang their doubts on,' while they repair, in all the naked nefs of pure nature, to offer their united facrifices at the fame altar, and make their refponfes to the fame priest. It is contrary to the nature of man-it is contrary to the exprefs defignation both of the Jewifh and Chriftian religion and notwithstanding our Author's experiments and difcoveries, we are at length fully convinced, after mature obfervation, that his project is a trial of mere curiofity, and chiefly affects as a novelty.

Mr. Williams's capital miftake lies in fuppofing, that what holds good in fociety at large, holds equally good in a religious community; and that nothing ought to bound the one which doth not limit the other: but he concludes too haftily, from premises that will be granted by very few, whether believers or infidels.

In the fupport of civil life, the moft oppofite profeffions of religion may be united for the common good by univerfal principles. Here, even the Atheist may be a useful member. He may be fuch on the ground of felf-love. Society hath no farther claims on him, than it may poffibly be for his own intereft to obey. The laws of civil life ought then to be as comprehenfive as the good of fociety will admit: and Government acts a wife, as well as a benevolent part, when it applies all its members to the best use, and makes even the most diffimilar profeffions adminifter to the general welfare and peace of the community. Thefe maxims of policy were unknown to, or even unheeded by our forefathers. They imagined, that toleration, inftead of leffening, would encreafe diffentions in the ftate :-that good fubjects, and good churchmen meant the fame thing, and could not be difunited without the ruin of both characters. To preferve their alliance, the Act of Uniformity was paffed. A fair trial was made of this project. We know how it fucceeded.

As to Mr. Williams's project-which he hath now extended, by a fingular act of grace, to the utmost extreme of infidelity, we do not, on the moft ferious reflection we can form of it, fee its abfolute neceffity, or even its fingular utility, on the broad ground of civil polity. The ftate hath faved all the trouble; and by mutual indulgence, dependence, and obligation, allowed and ftrengthened by Government, all the ends of political life are fufficiently fecured and provided for: Now thefe, we apprehend, are Mr. Williams's fole objects.

Religion, that derives its capital motives from the Omnifcience of the Deity, and ends not in a momentary glow of admiration, excited by a view of the works of nature, but looks

forwards

forwards to a future ftate, can be no part of an inftitution which includes Atheists in the number of its votaries.

Mr. Williams acknowledges, that it is not material to his purpose, whether the Atheift exclude the word, God, from his religious dialect, and afcribe all we fee to nature, neceffity, or chance it is the character only of neceffity, of chance, or of the deified forms of human imagination, which can affect us.'

Undoubtedly words, in themselves, are of little confequence. It is the ideas they excite that are principally to be attended to. Now, we aik, What idea the moft fpeculative and metaphyfical Atheist can be fuppofed to affociate with the word, CHANCE? Or on what ground it can be imagined he should pay any adoration to the character of Chance? Or what effect the contemplation of it can poffibly have in improving his mind and morals? How, we afk, can the Atheift, who afcribes the productions of the univerfe, and all the operations of nature, to Chance, regard this original cause, as an object of delight, gratitude, and virtuous refolutions,' (as Mr. Williams expreffes himself) or with any intention to act, in his little fphere, in fome degree, according to the great principle he hath been contemplating ?-To adore Chance-to be grateful to Chance, are folecifms fhocking to common sense, and which cannot be reconciled, even by the ingenuity of Mr. Williams. Perhaps he may tell us, that we do not understand him: but, in our view, nothing can throw a ftronger ridicule on his all-comprehenfive inftitution, than by fuppofing a number of perfons affembled in Margaret-Street, to join in devotion and thanksgiving-fome to God-fome to Nature- a third clafs to Neceffity, and a fourth to Chance :-fome to a Principle allperfect and all-wife: and others, to a Being whofe works they imagine are not always as they might be: and are not ordered according to their ideas of perfect wifdom and goodness.' Yet Mr. Williams is ready to accommodate them all and does not fee any good reafon why thofe fceptics, who are ready to find fault with the ways of God, fhould not yet adore him: for, putting himself in their fituation, and fuppofing that he had imbibed their principles, yet (fays he) as it is wonderful that things fhould be as well as they are, and that in the fum of existence, there fhould be fo much happiness as to make it defirable-this would claim my refpectful attention-and this attention would be all the religion of which I fhould be capable.

"Now this is worshipful fociety," as Shakespeare, the true "priest of nature," humoroufly fings:where folks may adore God, or adore without a God: where they may afcend on Pla tonic pinions to the * το καλον

"The first good, first perfect, and first fair:”.

* See Williams's Motto.

or reafon § downwards till they doubt of his goodness and perfection, and then fink devotion into refpectful attention.' We have thus, without rafhnefs, and on the grounds of obfervation and experience, given our free fentiments on the Inftitution in Margaret-Street:' and if we were inclined to appeal to any authority to countenance our freedom, it should be to Mr. Williams himfelf, who tells us, that all thoughts, wrong as well as right, fhould be freely communicated.'-We hope, our freedom hath been tempered with moderation and decency though if we were inclined to be abufive, we might plead his example to give a fanction to calumny: for he fays, without fcruple or referve, that preaching keeps up an order of men who are under a neceffity of diffembling their failings and faults, and, confequently, of tainting their own minds, and those of their hearers, with hypocrify:-a vice almost inSeparable from an affembly under the direction of a priest, whether called religious, moral, or sentimental.'

The clergy were first indebted to the politeness of Mr. Hume for this reflection on the character of their order. Mr. Williams bears his teftimony to the juftness of the reflection. This muft give it double credit; for having been of the order himfelf-and still not fatisfied (he tells us) out of his employment,' he must be a competent judge of the vice which naturally taints the mind of a priest.

As we have now done juftice to our impartiality, we proceed to discharge another obligation; and that is, to do justice to the fingular merit of this lively and moft ingenious Moralift. His Lectures have afforded us uncommon entertainment: for wild as fome of this Gentleman's notions are, and deficient as his difcourfes may be in point of logical arrangement, yet peculiar beauties are fcattered through almost every page of his work. He is entitled to this acknowledgment: and we could not refuse it, without doing manifeft injuftice to his abilities, We do not fay, that the excellencies of thefe Lectures will atone for their errors and defects; but this we must say, that thefe excellencies are fo various and ftriking, that they must appear in fpite of every thing that tends to obfcure them.

The Lectures are in number forty-fix. They are, in general, prefaced with a text of Scripture: though fome few are introduced with a motto from the moral writings of the Ethnic fages. This was confiftent enough with his plan, which excludes the prefcriptive authority of revelation; and the ruling principle of which, is, to adopt a maxim, not from its mode of recommendation, but from its intrinfic excellence, founded on common nature, and which, of confequence, would be as much a

truth in the mouth of a Heathen as in the mouth of an Apoftle. -His apology for omitting fometimes a text of Scripture by way of a motto to his difcourfe, forms a part of his introduction to the fourth Lecture, on the Knowledge of the Deity.'

Thofe perfons' (fays he) who are skilled in the mysteries of verbal criticifm and mythological interpretation; who can write pages on a Greek particle, and deduce doctrines from the equivocations of a Hebrew word, should never address an audience but from a text, as they do fufficient honour to themselves, and to their facred oracles, by dwelling on fyllables and letters, and spending years in explaining and preaching on what was fpoken in a few hours. But the perfon who hath the defire and ambition of producing moral effects in the minds of his hearers, after the manner of thofe Philofophers, and thofe Apoftles, who led the antient world to knowledge and virtue, by alluding to paffages in their works, may betray fo much of his defign as to defeat it, or fubject himself to a kind of ridicule which might prevent his fuccefs.'

This paffage is not happy for its perfpicuity :-but it is frequently the custom with the firft fpirits of human nature' (to ufe Mr. Williams's expreffion) to mean more than meets the ear. But we Reviewers are often in a hurry, and if we cannot catch a meaning as we run on, we cannot afford time to turn back, and trace it out through any intricate or doubtful paths. Nevertheless, Mr. Williams knows where he is, and what he is about; and he informs us, that these confiderations will induce him often to addrefs his audience, without the inconvenient, and fometimes abfurd cuftom, of prefixing a text of Scripture.' Those of my hearers' (continues he) who are intelligent and candid, will remember these things as my reafons: those who are otherwife, will reprefent me with the fame juftice, and the fame truth, as they do in regard to opinions and doctrines which they declare me at enmity with, becaufe I never mention them. My views are not to be promoted by contentions and quarrels, though it be very poffible my intereft may. I regard furious men, even under religious pretences, as wild beafts: and nothing but neceffity fhall ever throw me in their way.'

Mr. Williams begins his feries of Lectures with a difcourfe on public worship. It is a defultory, but an ingenious and fpirited effay. He doth not reafon according to the forms of logic; nor doth he declaim according to the rules of the pulpit; but he frequently doth better than the mere man of logic, or the mere man of the pulpit is capable of doing.-We know, we fhall please all Readers of tafte and candour by the following extract.