remain; a Minifterial Whig and a State Tory, when in power, are fo exactly alike in their conduct, that my difcernment is not fufficient to diftinguifh the one from the other.' He proceeds to give the principles of a real Whig, in his sense of the term; and herein, as we apprehend, he delineates his own principles; fome of which are as follow: That government is an original compact between the governors and the governed, inftituted for the good of the whole community; that in a limited monarchy, or more properly regal commonwealth, the majefty is in the people, and though the perfon on the throne is fuperior to any individual, he is the fervant of the nation; that the laws are equally obligatory to the prince and people;-that a parliamentary influence by places and penfions is inconfiftent with the intereft of the public, and that a minifter who endeavours to govern by corruption is guilty of the vileft attempt to fubvert the conftitution;-that our profperity depends on trade, which it is our intereft to encourage, our duty to protect—that the freedom of the prefs is the bulwark of religious and civil liberty; that as religion is of the utmost importance to every man, no perfon ought to fuffer civil hardships for his religious perfuafion, unless the tenets of his religion lead him to endeavour at the fubverfion of the establishment in church and flate.'

Tory principles are quite the reverse, for (he obferves) with them the Prince is above all law-the freedom of the press ought to be reftrained, and a standing army is neceflary.-They wifely maintain, that liberty occafions licentioulness, that freedom of thought and debate creates herefy in the church, and diffenfion in the state; that whatever reflects on the chara&er of a man in power is a libel; that even the public-fpirited fentiments of a patriot, delivered on the flage in the character of a Brutus or a Cato may be injurious to the peace of the nation; and villainy made odious by the reprefentation of a Sejanus or a Buckingham may, by popular malignity, be interpreted to reproach thofe at the helm of affa rs with the like difpofitions; that therefore the flage ought to be under the immediate directions of a Court Officer.'

The perufal of thefe volumes hath ftrongly confirmed the ideas that we had, long ago, conceived, in favour of the amiable Bishop of Derry, on the teftimonies of Swift, Pope, and others. That "Rundle had a Heart"-n excellent one,-is what every reader of this publication will readily allow. That be had, like wife, a Head, a good one too, will be as readily admitted. We are only forry that his difpofition did not lead him more toward authorship. He, who was fo weli qualified to inftruct mankind by his pen, as well as to excite them to virtue by his worthy example, would have been the beft architect of his own monument, We mean not, by this remark, to detract from the

-

merit of the prefent editor and biographer; to whom the Public are undoubtedly obliged, for this juft tribute to the memory of a worthy prelate; who, as Pope intimated, was at once an honour to the Bench, and a difgrace to Bishop G—.

ART. VI. A Summary of the most interesting Evidence, on a moft important Trial. Infcribed to R. B. Sheridan, Efq. 8vo. pp. 100. 1s. 6d. Matthews, &c. 1789.

F all the arts and fciences, divinity, as has been fomewhere

Foblerved, leans to be almoft the only one which mankind,

feems

if we may judge from their conduct, think they are qualified to understand; and to teach to others, without any previous pains and labour to learn it. Indeed, if men were to reft fatisfied with Tuch divinity as is taught in the Scriptures, which in its native purity is plain, fimple, and rational, and is the only divinity of any value whatfoever; and if it were poffible for them to come to the perufal of thefe most excellent of all books, with minds unwarped by popular prejudices and preconceived notions, we think that an ordinary capacity, and a very small fhare of learning, if accompanied by a good heart (which we hold to be a fine qua non in the bufinefs), would fuffice not only for the inveftigation of facred truth, but for teaching it alfo. Great talents and extenfive learning, an acquaintance with the hiftory and antiquities, laws and cuftoms, religious rites and opinions, and with the modes of expreffion, idioms and phrafeology in ufe among the Jews and other nations mentioned in Scripture, unquestionably terve to throw vaft light on the facred volume. With thefe advantages, the fcholar is able to elucidate obfcurities, to folve difficulties, to obviate objections, to reconcile apparent inconfiftencies, and to make the minute, fubordinate, and lefs important parts, harmonize and blend into a regular, compact, and beautiful whole. But the plain unJettered Chriftian, without any fuch helps (if prejudice did not chain down his faculties, and if he could but behold the book of life with eyes unblinded by the duft of prepoffeffion caft into shem in early youth), we are perfuaded, would, with little difficulty or learned labour, fee every thing effential and important which the most enlightened understanding could difcover in the oracles of truth. The moral precepts, and the fanЯtions by which they are enforced, are fo repeatedly inculcated, fo copioufly treated, fo clearly expreffed, and fo earnestly and warmly infifted on, that it would be next to impoffible for any unbiafled mind not to see what it is that manifeftly engroßes all the care and folicitude of the hw, the prophets, and the apoftles.

The love of God and our neighbour, and a future state of rewards and puniments, beam with fuch fplendor throughout

the

the revealed word, that nothing but the thick gloom in which the combined powers of vice and folly, intereft and ignorance, craft and fuperftition, have fo long involved the whole Chriftian world; and which, though it has been gradually retiring ever fince the Reformation, is yet far from being completely diffi pated; could prevent the meaneft understanding from perceiving, that to spread the knowlege of these precepts, and to extend the influence of thefe fanctions, was the primary, the only important, nay, we do not hesitate to fay, and our affertion is the refult of no hafty or careless inquiry, the only defign of the facred writers. But eafy as it would thus be to acquire a knowlege of divinity, on a fuppofition that men were to enter on the ftudy of it free from prejudice, with the Scriptures as their guide; yet it is not fo in reality, because the supposition is not verified in fact for where is the man whofe mind is not enflaved by prepoffeffion, before he is able to examine his Bible, and judge of its contents for himself? The notion that the Scriptures are defigned to treat of incomprehenfible myfteries, fcholaftic doctrines, abftrufe queftions, and metaphyfical fpeculations; to anfwer conjectures, by giving a minute detail of what is to take place beyond the grave; and to fatisfy curiofity, by making particular discoveries of the nature of the invifible world, and its inhabitants; is inftilled into all men from their infancy; and hence it is that the foundest and most penetrating judgment, exercised by much labour, matured by long experience, and affifted by extenfive learning, is indifpenfably neceffary, not to comprehend the great truths of revelation, which, in themselves, are most easy and intelligible, but-to clear away the load of rubbish under which they have fo long been buried; and to feparate the drofs of human inventions from the pure fterling word of God.

Of fuch requifites for understanding and explaining the truth as it is in Jefus, we can fee but very faint traces in the work before us; which is intended for a brief fummary of the evidences of CHRISTIANITY. In judgment and penetration, the author is very deficient. We do do not mean to fay, that every one is destitute of these qualities, who does not difcern that many things, which are commonly admitted as genuine doctrines of the Gofpel, are but fo many corruptions which debase it; for to do this, requires the ftrongeft faculties: but we mean to fay, that he can have but fmall pretenfions to judgment, who introduces fuch obfcure and controverted matters, whether he thinks them true or false, into a work which is profeffedly written, not on the doctrines, but on the evidences of revelation. Indeed we cannot difcover fuch excelience, of any kind, in this Summary, as to induce us to give it a place among the many admirable defences of Chriftianity with which our language abounds; nor do we apprehend

that

that it is calculated to produce any powerful effect, even on the minds of thofe who are the cafieft to be perfuaded. But we are certain, that if fcepticism and infidelity can hold out against the folid and fatisfactory arguments of other writers, they will never yield to the flimfy declamation of the prefent. To eftablifh his point, and to do away all objections and diffculties, he deems it fufficient, if he can produce a fingle wit nefs only, in favour of revelation, whole teftimony is unerring and infallible. Accordingly, he confiders the witness of the Spirit; first to the truth of revelation in general; next to the perfon, office, and character of Jefus; and laftly, to real Chriftians and true believers in every age of the church. Before he enters on the main fubject of his work, the author informs us, that the interference of the Spirit was for the communication of certain propofitions of fupernatural science, and principles, beyond the reach or ken of unenlightened reafon; and in the progress of this work, he talks of important fubje&s of inquiry, upon which, if we wish to obtain any certain information, it is an abfurdity too great to be defended upon any principles of common sense, to have recourfe to human reason for that purpose, or to human learning, or to human philofophy.' Little, it must be owned, does the author feem to be indebted to any of thefe fources of information for his fublime difcoveries.

Speaking of the witnefs of the Spirit to the perfon of Jefus, he fays: From the most explicit language of the facred writings, it feems to have been the particular engagement of the Holy Ghoft, to prepire and furnish the human nature of the Merliah with every thing neceffary for the execution of the work in which he had engaged. The very body in which he was to perform this undertaking,-in which he was to live, to fuffer, to obey, and die-was prepared for that purpofe in an extraordinary manner by a fupernatural agency.'

When he comes to treat of the witness of the Spirit to real Chriftians and true believers in all ages of the church, the author tells us, that the Spirit difcovers to individuals what is the truth, amidst that diversity of fentiments with which so many are perplexed; and that it is his particular office to bear witness to the understandings of thofe who refign themfelves to his inftruc tion, by thewing them, through his divine illumination, what is the truth as it is in Jefus.'

But

How differently do different perfons read their Bibles! All this, and much more of a fimilar kind, which this author fees in his copy of the facred code, we never could find in ours. when men forfake the guidance of reafon, there is no faying what they will not find in any book. That it is the intention of all these advocates for myftery, and enemies to reason, to caft a ridicule on Chriftianity, we do not take on us to affirm. But

we

we verily believe, that their writings do more differvice to the cause of revelation, than the open attacks of its profeffed adverfaries; and we know that it has been fufpected of fome of them, that it was their fecret wifh and defign, that their performances fhould produce this effect. Such was conjectured to be the motive of the late Mr. Soame Jenyns, when he published his View of the internal Evidence of Chriftianity." The fame thing might, with at leaft as much reafon, be fuppofed of the writer of the prefent Summary. We hope the conjecture was not true of either of this pair of prattlers *.

At the prefent writer's dedication, fome grave and pious perfons, who hold fomething more than a mere talent for eloquence to be requifite for the recommendation, promotion, and support of the Chriftian caufe, will perhaps be ready to take exception; they may think that a more proper patron might have been chofen for a work of this nature; and that it would have been more becoming to have prefixed lefs adulation to a defence of a religion, the very effence of which is plain (peaking and fincerity. For our part, we fhall only fay, that whatever may be thought of the dedication, we must approve the adopted advice which the author gives Mr. Sheridan, toward the conclufion of it; and fincerely wish that he may as feriouly attend to it: In every tranfaction of your life, always confult firft with God, next with your honour, and laft of all with your intereft.'

ART. VII. Thoughts on the different Kinds of Food given to young Silk Worms, and the Poffibility of their being brought to perfection in the Climate of England, founded on Experiments made near the Metropolis. By S. Bertezen. 8vo. pp. 47. Is. Bew. 1789.

promote the interefts of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, having always been the ftudy of the authors of the Monthly Review, we generally lend a particular degree of attention to fuch publications as have a tendency to extend our knowlege in thefe useful branches. For this reason, we have been, of late, fludious to give our readers as diftin&t an idea, as our limits would admit, of the steps that have been taken for improving the culture of filk worms in this country; and on this principle it was, that we were fo copious in our account of the experiments of the ingenious Mifs Rhodes, on this fubject. On the fame principle, we hell now lay before our readers the refult of Mr Bertezen's experiments and obfervations; adding, as ufual, fome particulars that have occurred

to ourselves.

This author ftyles Mr. Jenyns a trifling prattler.' We think, however, that he prattled much more plealantly, and full as much to the purpose, as the writer before us.

Mr.