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 thofe of their hearers, with hypocrify:-a vice almoft infeparable from an affembly under the direction of a priest, whether called religious, moral, or sentimental.'

The clergy were firft indebted to the politeness of Mr. Hume for this reflection on the character of their order. Mr. Williams bears his teftimony to the justness of the reflection. This muft give it double credit; for having been of the order himfelf-and ftill 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 muft 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 intro duced with a motto from the moral writings of the Ethnic fages. This was confiftent enough with his plan, which excludes the prescriptive 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

§ See Pope's Dunciad.

truth

truth in the mouth of a Heathen as in the mouth of an Apostle. -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.'

"Those 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, fhould 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 those Apostles, 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 subject 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.' Thofe 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, because 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 thall 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.

The great principle which animated our brave and virtuous ancestors; which tinctured with fublimity the favagenefs of their virtues; impelled them to actions of dinterefted patriotism; and gave wifdom to their legislation and policy, at which we are astonished-was religion. Their defcendants improved in all the arts of life; intelligent in the principles and interefts of fociety; with characters and names which fcience and philofophy will hand down to eternity-are advancing to a political decrepitude and deftruction-from a puerile and wretched irreligion.-Religion hath been laid hold of by the State as an expedient to ferve its purposes; not generally and nobly countenanced as the means of making men happy, by making them virtuous. A variety of fects have sprung up, who have not only relinquished the advantages held out by the ftate, but have withstood its power. Here genuine and virtuous Free-thinkers might have hoped for fhelter, if they had not fpirit enough to affert their own rights. No. All denominations of Diffenters have founded their claims on the nature of their faith; and no fect hath afferted the indifputable right of man, not only to think for himself, but to disturb the facred repofe of the public, fo far as to attempt its improvement and advantage. All religious contentions have been on the comparative excellence of theological tenets. An Arian or a Socinian might venture fome inconvenience from a Calvinift or an Arminian. Not merely because he felt himfelf entitled to a common right of human nature; but because his faith was more rational, or more fcriptural: more worthy to be the established belief, and to receive the dignities and emoluments of the church. Let any of these denominations be put into power, and we only exchange tyrants; and have new names and tenets to which we muft facrifice our integrity and liberty.-The warfare of religious fects has had one effect, however, in producing what they never intended-a fpirit of universal toleration.'

These reflections are not unfupported by fact—or at least, ftrong analogy. We know how the Arians became perfecutors, in their turn, when the power of the ftate gave them an advantage over the Athanafians: and that Socinus difcovered more a want of power than a want of inclination to crush the fects which tended to weaken his intereft. His conduct toward Francis Davidis hath met with apologifts, who, like the apologifts for Calvin in the matter of Servetus, have stretched their ingenuity to foften and colour it. But whatever refpect we owe to the goodness of their defign, we are not infenfible of the weakness of its execution. The great heads of fects always have historians among their difciples, who are ever ready to glofs over what cannot be vindicated. Hence we are teized

and

and difgufted with a fophiftical apology, where we ought to have been informed by a fimple narrative. But it is become a fafhion to give to hiftory the drefs of philofophy. It is not confined to facts, it ranges for motives. And when the hero of the tale is the favourite of the author, motives will be created for him that he little thought of; and excufes will be formed for what he never meant to afk an indulgence, or to make an apology for.

From this digreffion we return with peculiar pleafure to our ingenious Author; and, for the entertainment of our Readers, we will present them with an extract from his fecond lecture "on Wifdom :"-not the wifdom which begins and ends in fciences, but that "wifdom which cometh down from above," and which ends, not in empty and ufclefs theories of fcientific fpeculation, but in moral practice; and like the wisdom of the apostle, is "full of good fruits-without partiality, and without hypocrify,"

It is in confequence of employing our thoughts on the wifdom and goodness which are every where to be found in the works of God, that we acquire moral principles. Morality, the proper fcience of man, may therefore be truly faid to be wifdom, even in the eftimation of the Deity. The fciences, commonly fo called, natural and experimental philofophy, ma thematics, logics, and aftronomy, are fteps to the great and univerfal fcience of morals; which furnishes the only permanent principles of focial and civil inftitutions; and produces all the happiness that the world can enjoy. It is in confequence of drawing thefe channels from their proper and useful directions that the words of the apoftle [the wifdom of this world is foolishness with God] became applicable to the wisdom of this world. For even fciences which might be extremely ufeful and worthy of purfuit, become foolishness when directed to no end; or when the perfons who are engaged in them, have no object but the fame which may arife from industry and fuccefs in their purfuits: or the fpurious, unnatural recompence, which is called fcientific pleasure. This however is the just reproach of modern knowledge; and the wifdom of this world may be truly faid to be foolishness with God.

In the more enlightened periods of antiquity, the most refpectable of all denominations, that of the philofopher, was never applied but to men who loved real wifdom; it was not prostituted to thofe mutilated monfters in the fcientific world, whofe minds have but one faculty, that of memory, and who employ that faculty on the minutiae of nature: and when they are gorged with facts from earth, and fea, and air, are hardly of any use in all those designs for which a reasonable man muít

have

have been fent into the world. You will obferve I do not fpeak against all difcoveries of facts, and all the ufe of memory; but against the improper application of the words, philofophy and wisdom, to purfuits which are only the elements of fcience, and which are refpectable and ufeful only, when they contribute fomething to the improvement of that great and univerfal fcience, Morality, which alone can make men happy.' `

Speaking of the ftate and progrefs of fcientific knowledge among the ancients, in his third lecture (which is a continuaation of the former on the nature and effects of true wisdom), Mr. Williams obferves, that it is very probable to a man who can trace events to their neceffary caules, that in the time of Socrates, the feveral fciences were purfued in the manner they now are, as separate and diftinct objects, and not as means leading to one univerfal and beneficial end. The flight and scanty informations of hiftory would confirm fuch an hypothefis. Thales had fpeculated and made experiments on water. He and his difciples drew it from all fubttances, and probably gave it feveral philofophic names, as it petrified into ftones, vegetated into herbs, and flowers, and trees, affumed the form and fubftance of animals, fublimated into a human foul, and by undergoing infinite procelles conftituted the nature and fupreme intelligence of the gods, and bleffed and ruled that univerfe, confifting only of various modifications of water. Thefe form the first order of fpeculative philofophers: and modern fabricators of worlds, and affayers of elements, muft ever look up to them with aftonishment and defpair.

The fpeculations and experiments of Anaximenes were upon air. He extracted it from every thing. He changed, and modified, and purified it, till he became fo enamoured, that he pronounced it to be God, immenfe, infinite, almighty, the foul of the univerfe, and the principle of all intelligence and all happiness. The difciples and followers of this philofopher were numerous, and continued in credit for fome ages.'

From air and water doors, our Author proceeds to the third clafs, the philofophers of fire.

The general effect of philofophic fpeculation was the opinion, that the element which was anciently called ether, and which we now call the electric fire, was the univerfal principle. It was probably feen to pervade all parts of nature, and appeared like the immediate caule of all motion and life. It was-beneficent in the fun it was fometimes mifchievous in lightning. All the good and evil in the world was allotted by it. It was therefore pronounced to be God-called Jupiter, and adored by all the world. We accordingly find fire to have been the univerfal emblem of the Deity; and the fuccefs of the very ancient