Imatges de pàgina
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Thus much it is certain, that there can be no medium in this matter. The claiming this authority to our own reafon, muft either be a very great duty, or amongit the greatest of fins.

If it be a fin, to admit of any fecrets in divine providenceIf it be a crime, to afcribe wisdom and goodness to God in things we cannot comprehend-1f it be a bafenefs and meanness of spirit, to believe that God can teach us better, or more than we can teach ourselves-If it be a fhameful apoftacy from the dignity of our nature, to be humble in the hands of God, to fubmit to any myfterious providence over us, to comply with any other methods of homage and adoration of him, than fuch as we could of ourfelves contrive and juftify, then it is certainly a great duty to af fert and maintain this authority of our own reason.

On the other hand; If the profoundeft humility towards God, be the highest inftance of piety-If every thing within us and without us, if every thing we know of God, every thing we know of ourselves, preach humility to us, as the foundation of every virtue, as the life and foul of all holiness-If fin had its beginning from pride, and hell be the effect of it; if devils are what they are through fpiritual pride and felf conceit, then, we have great reafon to believe, that the claiming this authority to our reafon, in oppofition to the revealed wifdom of God, is not a frailty of flesh and blood, but that fame fpiritual pride, which turned angels into apoftate fpirits.

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Since therefore this appealing to our own reason, as the abfolutely perfect measure and rule of all that ought to pass between God and man, has an appearance of a pride of the worst kind, and fuch as unites us both in temper and conduct with the fallen fpirits of the kingdom of darkness, it highly concerns every pleader on that fide, to confider what grounds he proceeds upon; and to afk himself, what there is in the flate and condition of human nature, to oblige him to think that nothing can be divine, or holy, or ne ceffary, in religion, but what human reafon dictates.'

Those who contend that the relations of things, and the fitnefs refulting from them, must be the rule of God's actions, and that these relations are within our reach, afford an inftance of ftill more pride; for we can fee fo little of the relations of every part, that it is arrogantly eftimating the length of the chain, which would reach from earth to heaven, by furveying only the nearest links. The little that we know of the works of God, even in thofe fubjects immediately before us, is very properly urged as a convincing argument against rafh pretenfions of this kind; and the reafoning is very properly perfued, by fhowing how improbable it is that our reafon can fathom fubjects of a ftill more intricate nature, But the oh

jections

jections and the arguments are too numerous to allow of our following them minutely.

The fecond chapter is defigned to fhow that, from the state and relation between God and man, human reafon cannot poffibly be a competent judge of the fitnefs and reasonableness of God's proceedings with mankind, in any thing that refpects external revelation. In this part of the argument the reasoning is not always correct, nor are our authors always aware of the feeming contradiction between the external foreknowledge of God, and the freedom of the human will. The anfwers to the objections against miracles are by much the best parts of this chapter; but this ground has been repeatedly trodden, though we may be allowed to hint, that we want a clearer and a fuller anfwer to Mr. Hume's fcepticifm in this point than we have yet feen: unfortunately divines, in their contefts with infidels, generally reft their arguments on ground which infidels deny.

The chapter on the ftate and nature of reafon, and its application to fubjects of religion, is in many refpects illogical. The authors confound reafon fometimes with comprehenfion, and fometimes with judgment. In the conclufion, chapter fifth, they contend, that all the excentricities of the heart, as displayed in the paffions, tempers, and affections, as well as of the mind, fhown by abfurd and contradictory opinions, arife from the fame or fimilar errors and abfurdities of human reafon. When the principle is erroneous, the confequences cannot be correct; we think it more probable, as we have formerly stated, that they arise from applying human reason to fubjects for which it is not adapted, or attempting to employ it without proper guidance, experience, or difcretion. Let us felect a fpecimen, in which though the authors fometimes confound the reafoning faculty, with the conclufions drawn from reafoning, or the dictates of experience, there is much good fenfe and juft reasoning.

• All virtue is nothing elfe, but reafon acting in a certain manner; and all vice is nothing else, but reafon acting in a certain contrary manner. All the difference is in the actions, and none at all in the agent.

And to fay, that reafon acts in our virtues, and paffion acts in our vices, is abfurd as to fay the contrary, that paffion is the agent in our virtues, and reason the agent in our vices. For the action or power of reason is as much required to make any thing vicious, as to make any thing virtuous.

Every thing therefore that is chofen, whether it be good or pad, is the exprefs act and operation of reason.

Reason therefore is certainly the worst, as well as the best fa

culty

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culty that we have: as it is the only principle of virtue, so it is, as certainly, the fole caufe of all that is bafe, horrid, and fhameful in human life. As it alone can discover truth, fo it alone leads us into the groffeft errors.

It was as truly reason that made Medea kill her children, that made Cato kill himself, that made Pagans offer human facrifices to idols; that made Epicurus deny a providence, Mahomet pretend a revelation; that made fome men fceptics, others bigots; fome enthusiasts, others profane; that made Hobbes affert all religion to be human invention, and Spinofa to declare trees, and ftones, and animals, to be parts of God; that makes free-thinkers deny freedom of will, and fatalifts exhort to a reformation of manners; that made Vaux a confpirator, and Ludlow a regicide; that made Muggleton a fanatic, and Rochester a libertine: it was as truly human reason that did all these things, as it is human reafon that demonftrates mathematical propofitions.

For as all mistakes in fpeculation are as much the acts and operation of reafon, as true conclufions; fo all errors in duty, whether civil or religious, are as much the acts of our reafon, as the exercise of the moft folid virtues.'

By this abfolute and indifcriminate ufe of reason, our authors form another faculty of the human mind, fimilar to the moral fense of fome metaphyficians. On the whole, however, we think this a very able defence against those who object to fome of the tenets, which we think are inculcated in the Gofpel, on the grounds of their feeming unreasonableness. If we have endeavoured to put the queftion, respecting the ufe of reafon in thefe Enquiries, on a different ground, it is only to avoid fome little errors, which leave the work before us open to a reply. We have only been able to give a sketch of the argument, which others who have more leifure may probably fill up.

A Commiferating Epistle to James Lowther, Earl of Lonfdale and Lowther. By Peter Pindar, Efq. 4to. 25. fewed. Evans. 1791.

THE great defcendant of the Theban bard fhould not stoop

to notice the petty law-fuits occafioned by accident from a coal-mine, or to scatter perfonal invectives. The eagle condefcends not to catch flies, and the lion fpares the petty prey which chances to fall within his power. Reviewers were a nobler game they partake of majefty, by their fignificant WE', and borrow fome dignity, like Eaftern defpots, from their obfcurity. Mr. John Nichols was a ftill nobler theme, Αναξ ανδρών Αγαμεμνων; the ruler of thofe who ruled the world. Mr. Bruce, the affociate of kings and queens, might alfo de

ferve the lay; but, after the most careful examination into all the fubjects of all the lyrics, we can find nothing which refembles a law-fuit, a coal-mine, or a Cumberland peer.

If we look at the poem, we fhall find it rife above its fubject. The Pindaric fparks glitter in the obfcurity of coalmines and Whitehaven, but they never rife into a flame: they are cafual corrufcations, temporary meteors, the fire of genius fparkling through the heavy weight of a dull subject. The following fimile is well expreffed ;

See yon proud oak, whofe dark'ning branches fpread
High o'er the rills that course the pebbled bed!
With what humility thofe rills falute,

And trembling wind around his rugged root;
Like bufy flaves, their little ftock afford,
And creeping, kifling, feed their frowning lord!
Mark, too, around that oak's majestic pride,
The pifmires crawling up his channell'd fide;
And mark his fielt'ring limbs, fupport of fowl,
The wren, the hawk, the cuckoo, and the owl.
Say, Lonfdale, can't thou not refemblance fee,
Refemblance ftrong between that oak and thee?
Why be a willow then, and meanly bend ?'

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Say, does Repentance wound thee ?- 'tis a driv'ler.
Defpife that thing called Meeknefs- 'tis a fniv❜ler

With pious fentiments, forfooth, who glows,
And kiffes the vile hand that deals her blows.
Spurn at Forgivenefs, that e'en fears to chide,
And keep again the company of Pride.'

The following lines, with which we must conclude, are truly picturesque:

To India's hift'ry turn thy happy eyes,
And bid a fecond scene of horrors rife.
By Britons led, did Famine's fpectre train

Pour devaftation on the fair domain.

What humbled victims funk beneath the ftrife!
What thousands, tott'ring, fnatch'd at parting life!
Nought could, alas! their fuppliant hands avail:
In vain each feature told a ftarving tale;

On those rich heaps that rofe beneath their care,
Their eye-balls faft'ning in a deadly glare.
Their had'st thou feen the fallow Babe difireft,
Hard clinging to a dying Mother's breaft;
Beating that breaft with little, peevith cry,
Its plumpnefs wither'd, and its fountain dry.'

The

FOREIGN ARTICLE S.

Globus Caeleftis Cufico-Arabicus Veliterni Mufei Borgiani, a Simone Allemano, Linguarum Orientalium in Seminario Patavino Profeffore, & Academiarum Patavine & Volfcorum Socio, illuftratus; præmiffa ejufdem de Arabum Aftronomia Differta tione, &c. Patavii. 4to. Edwards. London. 1790.

IN

the preface to this curious work, the learned author gives fome account of the celebrated museum of cardinal Borgia at Velletri, collected at a great expence from various parts of the world and as this museum has of late engaged a confiderable share of attention, we shall lay before our readers an abftract of profeffor Affemani's account.

The Egyptian clafs contains 386 pieces, and no fmall number of gems, befides the coins which Zoega has published in his learned work, Numi Ægyptu preftantes in Mufeo Borgi ano Velitris. Romæ 1787, 4to. To this clafs likewife belong many fragments of Coptic and Thebaic MSS. written upon vellum, or papyrus. The charter on papyrus, published by Schow, is the most ancient yet difcovered, as fhown in his work, which is intituled Charta Papyracea Græce fcripta Musei Borgiani Velitris, qua feries incolarum Ptolemaidis Arfinaitica in aggeribus & joffs operantium exhibetur, &c. Romæ 1788, 4to. From the fame clafs father Georgi published at Rome in 1782 his San&i Coluthi Aa, Velitris affervata; and in 1789 his Fragment of the Gospel of St. John, &c. reviewed in our laft Appendix.

The Volfcian clafs contains a figured plate of brafs, and feveral emboffed pieces of earthen-ware: Becchetti has illuftrat ed fome of the latter in his book intituled Baffi-relievi Volfci in terra cotta, dipinti a vari colori, trovati nella citta di Velletri, Roma 1785. Thefe Volfcian monuments are all found at Velletri, the birth-place and refidence of the cardinal.

The Etrufcan class abounds in dishes, vafes, urns, coins, and infcriptions. Lanzi has explained the Etrufcan infcriptions in his Saggio di Lingua Etrufca, &c. Roma 1790. A patera, reprefenting the birth of Bacchus, is illuftrated by Heeren in his Expofitio fragmenti Tabule Marmorea, &c. Romæ 1786; and by Ennio Visconti, in the fourth volume of his Mufcum PioClementinum.

The Greek clafs contains brazen ftatues, marble bas-reliefs, and many coins of towns and of kings.

The Roman clafs produces many brazen statues, bas-reliefs, inftruments, feals, weights, animals, and inscriptions engraved on marble and brafs; and a great number of imperial coins in all the three metals.

The

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