an adversary is in distress, when he answers any thing, in such words, as will equally answer every thing. From the books of foreigners I learn, that attraction and repulsion are not in such estimation as they were fifty years ago. And at home, the ingenious Mr. George Adams, who has been a student and practitioner in Natural Philosophy for more than twenty years, has found it necessary to adopt the new agency of nature, and has made his use of it through the whole course of a large work, which may be considered as an Encyclopædia in Natural Philosophy, taking a larger circuit than has yet been attempted by any writer upon the science. Other ingenious men may in time (as I am confident they will) follow his example; till it shall be no longer thought an honour to Dr. Horne that he renounced this Philosophy, but that he did not renounce it.

If the reader will not be displeased with me I will tell him a secret, which he may use as a key to decypher some things not commonly understood. Between that philosophy which maintains the agency of the heavens upon the earth, and the religion revealed to us in the Bible, there is a relation, which renders them both more credible. By a person with the Christian religion in his mind, this philosophy is more easily. received; and if any one sees that this philosophy is true in nature, he will not long retain his objections, against Christianity: but here is the difficulty; he will never begin, who resolves never to go on. But of any reasonable person, whose mind is still at liberty, let us ask, why it should be thought a thing incredible, that the creation of God should confirm the revelation of God? By which I would be understood to meanthat the world which we see should be a counterpart to the world of which we have heard, and in which we

believe? Many in this age see the force of that argument in favour of Christianity, which is drawn from the analogy between the kingdom of Nature and the kingdom of Grace, and admire it above all other things. Dr. Horne in particular had such an opinion of it, and conceived such hopes from it, that he used to say, and did say it late in life, that if Priestley should ever become a believer in the doctrine of the Trinity, it would be from the Hutchinsonian philosophy. To such a declaration as this, which the reader may depend upon, I can add nothing better, or more to the purpose, than a passage from one of his manuscripts, concerning the religious use that may be made of Mr. Hutchinson's writings; and I am persuaded he persevered, to the day of his death, in the opinion there delivered. The passage is as follows:

"Cardinal Bellarmine wrote a small treatise, intitled, De ascensione mentis in Deum per scalas, rerum creatarum, which he valued more than any of his works, and read it over continually with great pleasure, as he says in the preface to it. A work of that kind may be done in a far better and more complete manner, by the key Mr. Hutchinson has given, than has ever yet been done, and the natural and spiritual world made to tally in all particulars. Such a work would be of standing use and service to the Church, and be a key to Nature and the SS. teaching all men to draw the intended instruction from both. For this purpose, the S S. should be read over, and the texts classed under their respective heads; and in reading other books, all just applications of natural images should be extracted from them, particularly where there are any good divisions off an image into its parts and heads, as much will depend on method and regularity. For

the blessing of God on such an undertaking, without which all will be in vain, the Fountain of allwisdom and Father of lights is humbly and fervently: to be implored, to enlighten the understanding, and purify the heart, that it may be counted worthy, through the merits of the dear Redeemer, to understand the mysteries of the new creation shadowed by the old, and explained in the S S. of eternal truth, and be enabled to declare it to the people unadulterated with any private imaginations, to the glory of God, the edification of the church, and his own salvation."

On the other hand, there are in this age philosophical opinions, in which infidelity triumphs: and certain it is they have too plain an affinity to the atheistical doctrines of Epicurus and Democritus, if they are not the same thing; and therefore such an evil-minded wit as Voltaire caught at them with eagerness. He foresaw how, with a little of his management, they might be turned against all religion, and lead to the abolition of all divine worship: he therefore strained every nerve to magnify and recommend them: his industry in this respect was wonderful; and we find, by fatal experience, how far it has answered his purpose. The philosophers of France have now seated themselves upon the clouds, from whence they look down with contempt upon every degree of Christian belief;-considering even Newton himself as an example of the weakness of human nature for believing the Scripture! Where will this end.

There is another report against the name of our good Bishop, which wants explanation. The learned adversary of the amiable Bishop Hurd, and of the Reverend Mr. Curtis of Birmingham, and the friend of Dr. Priestley, a judge of all men and of all things,

took occasion, soon after the death of Bishop Horne, to give us his character of him, in a note to a book he was then publishing; in which note many things are said well, and like a scholar: but there is one thing which, though well said, is not just to the Bishop's memory; who is there reported to have diffused a colouring of elegance over the wild, but not unlovely, visions of enthusiasm *. Where could the gentleman

The Socinian notion of enthusiasm being a curiosity which deserves to be known, I shall give it to the reader in this place. I have a book before me, published by a Mr. En in the year 1772: a man, who seems no natural fool, but has made himself much worse than one through a conceit of superior Christian wisdom. He delivers it to us as a doctrine of the orthodox, that "if our be lief were not attended with some difficulties to our reason, there would be no merit in our believing ;" and then adds, “such men I shall not scruple to call enthusiasts; and to argue the case with them, would be trying to convince the poor straw-crowned monarch of Bethlehem--who is a king, because he knows he is a king." This gentleman tells his mind fairly and plainly; for which we are obliged to him: but now let us try by his rule, the faith of our Father Abraham. He believed in his old age, that his seed should be as the stars of heaven, from a wife that was barren; and this is the belief which was accounted to him for righteousness. Here the reason and experience of all mankind were contrary: against hope he believed in hope here were not only difficulties to reason, but an actual impossibility to reason. The promise might have been given before, while Abraham was young: but it pleased God to defer it till he was old, when reason could not receive it: and from this circumstance only his faith was meritorious. No, says the Socinian; this man, by my rule, was an enthusiast, no more to be argued with than the monarch of bedlam, &c.

What the mind of that man can be made of, who receives the Scripture as the word of God, and denies that faith has merit in admitting what is attended with difficulties to reason, it is as hard for me to understand, as it is for him to receive the Articles of the Church of England; and yet, if he has spoken of himself truly, I cannot deny the fact and as this man is but a pattern of other Socinians, I do suppose it to be the opinion of them all, that the proper act of faith in a Christian is an act of enthusiasm.

find these wild visions? In the State of the Case between Newton and Hutchinson, the author argues from the words of each, and confirms what he says by fact and reason. The whole is written with the utmost coolness of temper, and without once appealing to any ambiguous evidence. In his sermons his sense is strong, his language sweet and clear, his devotion warm, but never inflated nor affected: and, from the editions through which they pass, it is plain the world does see, and will probably see better every day, that they are not the discourses of a varnisher of visions. In his Commentary on the Psalms, he has followed the plan of the writers of the New Testament, and of the Primitive Church, in applying them as prophecies and delineations of the person of Christ and of the Christian economy. If he is judged to have betrayed any enthusiasm in so doing, it is only because he happened to write in the eighteenth century; when Christian learning, under the notion of improving it, is greatly corrupted; the Fathers of the Church but little known*, and less relished; and the zeal and piety of the Reformation very much abated. Erasmus was just such another enthusiast in his divinity as Dr. Horne; and is frequently found to have diffused a like colouring of elegance over like interpretations of the Scripture: in which, however, he is not always either so elegant, or so successful, as the late Bishop his follower: yet for this, in the days of better divinity,

I was therefore pleased with a seasonable attempt to revive the reading of the Christian Fathers, by the Rev. Mr. Kett, in the Notes and Authorities subjoined to the second edition of his very useful and learned Bampton Lectures, p. iii. where he recommends to the Ecclesiastical Student a Selection from the writings of the Greek and Latin Fathers. I could add other names and other pieces; but those he has mentioned are very sufficient: