to this 1260, it brings to 1573 as the period of the cessation of the persecuting pursuit; this æra it therefore is that commences another of the ecclesiastical æras.

Chap. iii. 1-6. The Church of Sardis, or as it signifies, the song of joy, or the song of the joyful assembly. The Reformation was indeed a matter of triumph to every true Christian, but of if Jesus said in this message, that they had but the name of reformation, they were dead. Be watchful, strengthen the things that remain and are ready to die, for I have not found thy way perfect before God."

Their work was reformation, to reduce the doctrine and practice and institutions of Christiaus to the test of the Scriptures. Had their works been perfect, there would have been none of those practices in reformed churches, national or dissenting, but what could produce Scripture evidence for their authority. But where do we find arch-bishops, bishops and tithes, or rituals, or ecclesiastical marriages, or doctors' commons, or angels, or devils, or original sin, or atonement, or reprobation, or predestination, or two gods, or three, or hell-fire, or ever Jasting punishment, and hundreds of nonsenses that have emanated from them? This message then pronounces that all will not be equally guilty, a few will preserve their garments undefiled; but on the remainder judgment shall come like a thief in the night. This church finished its period A. D. 1791: the next thirty years after that period is a time of vengeance. It will be wisdom in the reformed churches to recollect how judgment has come on the Catholic church, and prepare, by the fruits of repentance, to avert those which now hasten to fall on them.

judge of all mankind, because he was the Son of Man, i. e. (however supereminently) one of ourselves; and, therefore, as such, capable of entering into the condition of man, of sympathizing with his weakness, and of contemplating the possibility that he himself might have fallen.

For, if Jesus were not liable to fall, from any quality inherent in his nature, then is he no example to us who are; aud the extalled merit, aud prominent excellence of his character, that of being sinless, vanishes altogether, if he could not sin.

It is obvious, that if the apostle's language in the introduction to this gospel warranted the orthodox construction of it, another and a higher reason might be assigned for the delegation of all judgment to the Sou; but, how deficient in the consolation, which the reason he has assigned for it abounds with!

The anomaly, however, of such, or of any, delegation of authority from one member of the Trinity to another, upon the orthodox hypothesis of their co-equality, is palpable.

But, when has the nousense of a religious tenet been found an impediment to its reception?

If the great and prime constitutional blessing of Englishmen, the Trial by Jury-per pares!-wanted an argument for its support, it might be insisted that the principle of this cherished and glorious text is that which pervades and distinguishes it; tracing the institution, as it were, to a divine origin, wherein justice and benevolence, though finely blended, are equally conspicuous.

BREVIS.

P. S. I am sorry to observe, that the Editor has another Correspondent with my signature, and would willingly change mine, were it not so appropriate to my communications, on which account I hope I may be allowed to retain it.

It is a curious coincidence that my namesake's wish, expressed in your Number CLVII., [p. 19,] should have received a moiety of its fulfilment in the letters of John Locke, communicated, in the same Number, [pp. 11, 12,] by the indefatigable and highly appreciated labours of Mr. Rutt.

B.

that this

has set on them its sacred scal. Their style could never be commended for any thing but its lucid clearness. It is often wordy and diffuse, occasionally incorrect, and seldom elegant or graceful. But the Author had

Works is proceeding with rapidity, notwithstanding the difficulties which its Editor has had to vanquish. Had he been compelled to abandon his design, as once there appeared reason to fear, a great and indelible disgrace would have fallen on the admirers of his Author. Although Unitarians must rightly refuse to own any master but Christ, they cannot fail to hold the memory and the works of Priestley in a high and peculiar reverence. He is more decidedly, perhaps, the greatest of their modern champions, more elevated by the number and the value of his exertions above all labourers in the same vineyard, than iny one partisan of those sects whom t was his lot to oppose. His unwearied zeal, his astonishing industry, his quileless simplicity of heart and frankess of disposition, would entitle his memory to the fondest cherishing, ven had he not left works by which being dead he yet speaketh." Emient as he was in the pursuits of exerimental philosophy, earnest in the lischarge of his duties as a Christian ninister, and ever-active in the fields f controversial divinity, he yet found ime for all that is nearly connected with the interests of humanity in he worlds of politics and of letters. What, then, would have been the stimate formed of the zeal of those who feel it their highest honour to allow him as they think he followed Christ, had their indifference wholly revented the collection of his works, when undertaken by one whose fit ess for the task none could for a noment question?

Of the works of Dr. Priestley themelves, it cannot be desired that we hould now particularly speak. Human praise, were it conferred by those who have a far higher right than we ave to bestow it, could not now reach their illustrious author. Time

up to himself a fame on tuneful periods or sparkling fantasies. He felt so intensely the infinite value of truth, that he thought not of those ornaments by which, to minds of a dif ferent constitution, she might be rendered alluring. The great charms of his writings, next to the force of their arguments, are the intense earnestness with which every important doctrine is urged, and every lesson of wisdom impressed on the reader, and the plain-heartedness and unaffected feeling which glow even through his most profound and abstracted rcasonings.

The most striking advantage of this edition is its singular cheapness. The quantity of matter contained in each volume forms a striking contrast to the usual practices of the times, The First Volume is, as yet, withheld, from the desire of the Editor to render his Memoir of the Life and Writings of his Author as complete as possible. The Second Volume comprises the Institutes; the Appeal to Professors of Christianity; the Trial of Mr. Elwall; and the Familiar Illustration of certain Passages of Scripture relating to the great Points in dispute between those who follow Dr. Priestley, and the great majority of the Christian World. The Work is dedicated, by the Editor, with great propriety, in a short but very impressive address, to Mr. CHRISTIE, who, as Treasurer of the Unitarian Fund, is so nobly engaged in extending the great cause to which the energies of Priestley were devoted. The Institutes, published from the edition of 1782, "the last which had the superintendence of the Author," are here, for the first time, illustrated by Notes. Of this work Mr. Rutt thus speaks in his Preface:

"It bears a testimony highly honourable to the design which he had early formed, of giving every effect in his power, to his

favourite occupation of a Christian minister. His merit in this respect will, indeed, be understood very imperfectly by those who consider only the present excellent methods of early instruction which his example has so generally encouraged. They must rather recollect how little provision had been made, before his time, for the Christian improvement of the young, except by the general instructions of the pulpit, which, because they are general, however seriously and ably conducted, must be admitted to be, of themselves, insufficient. Even the instruction of children by catechisms, had been gradually disused among those public teachers, who wanted either courage or opportunity to follow the dictates of their better judgment, when they had been led by the study of the Scriptures to reject the dogmas of The Assembly of Divines." II. Pref. vi. vii. The Third Volume comprises The Remarks on Dr. Reid's Inquiry, Dr. Beattie's Essay, and Dr. Oswald's Appeal; the Introductory Essays to Hartley's Theory; the Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit; and the Illustrations of Philosophical Necessity. In his Preface, the Editor laments the uncharitable expressions too frequently contained in the Examination of the Scotch Metaphysicians, and which the Author, with his usual openness and humility, subsequently regretted. On the opinions defended in the works collected in this volume we do not desire now to enter. From the Preface and Notes of Mr. Rutt, we collect that he is disposed, for the most part, to coincide with Dr. Priestley in his views respecting the necessity of human actions, and the homogeneity of man. The progress of the Author's convictions on these subjects is interestingly traced in the Preface, and his arguments are well illustrated and enforced by the Notes scattered through the volume.

The Fourth Volume embraces the Discussion between Dr. Price and Dr. Priestley; the Letters to Rev. J. Berrington, Dr. Kenrick, Mr. J. Whitehead, Dr. Horsley, Rev. J. Palmer and Mr. Bryant; Collins's Inquiry, with Dr. Priestley's Preface; and the Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever, Parts I. and II. The Editor's Preface contains explanations of the occasions and circumstances of each of these pieces, which will both add to the reader's interest in the works them

selves, and enable him the better to appreciate and understand them. The following observations are well wor thy the attention of those who desire to attain a consistency of religious and philosophical belief on the great ques tions which are connected with the love and omniscience of God, and the moral agency of man.

"Dr. Priestley bas shewn, (p. 7,) how fully Dr. Price and he agreed in the great objects of religion, which are essential to the general interests of virtue.' Nor, I confess, am I able to discover any impor taut, if indeed any difference, between the result of the Doctrine of Necessity, as held by a Christian, and those views of divise determination which I have quoted from the Dissertations, at p. 121. What could a Necessarian say more, than what Dr. Price there says, and every serious Christian, upon reflection, must admit, that whole concatenation of events and causes, God is present in all minds,' and that the in consequence of which any agent finds himself, at any time, in any circumstances, should be considered as derived from him, and as having been in every part, the object of his superintending care'? I have sometimes thought that if, instead of early receiving, and approving through life the view of the Divine dispensations ably maintained in Butler's Analogy, though substituting for the endless torments of a great part of mankind the comparitively merciful belief of their final destruction, Dr. Price had entertained the doctrine of Universal Restoration, that only judge which ends the strife, he would easily have admitted the Doctrine of Necessity. But let every man be fully per suaded in his own mind." IV. Pref. iii. iv.

We have been agreeably surprised by the number of the Notes interspersed through all the volumes, yet published, of this edition. They arise naturally from the subject, which they either illustrate or strengthen. Many of them communicate very curious historical facts, and apposite extracts from works which are not within the reach of the great mass of readers. Numerous as they are, we think so much information has rarely been comprised in the space which they occupy. But their extent and value are by no means adequate measures of the Editor's labour. The great haste in which Dr. Priestley neces sarily composed his works occasioned a number of errors in all of them,

especially in dates, references and