like, you will soon find them so many monsters, utterly unfit for human society.

I desire it may be considered that most men want leisure, opportunity, or faculties, to derive conclusions from their principles, and establish morality on a foundation of human science. True it is (as St Paul observes) that the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen; and from thence the duties of natural religion may be discovered. But these things are seen and discovered by those alone who open their eyes and look narrowly for them. Now, if you look throughout the world, you shall find but few of these narrow inspectors and inquirers, very few who make it their business to analyse opinions, and pursue them to their rational source, to examine whence truths spring, and how they are inferred. In short, you shall find all men full of opinions, but knowledge only in a few.

It is impossible, from the nature and circumstances of human kind, that the multitude should be philosophers, or that they should know things in their causes. We see every day that the rules, or conclusions alone, are sufficient for the shopkeeper to state his account, the sailor to navigate his ship, or the carpenter to measure his timber; none of which understand the theory, that is to say, the grounds and reasons either of arithmetic or geometry. Even so in moral, political, and religious matters, it is manifest that the rules and opinions early imbibed at the first dawn of understanding, and without the least glimpse of science, may yet produce excellent effects, and be very useful to the world; and that, in fact, they are 80, will be very visible to every one who shall observe what passeth round about him.

It may not be amiss to inculcate, that the difference between prejudices and other opinions doth not consist in this, that the former are false and the latter true; but in this, that the former are taken upon trust, and the latter acquired by reasoning. He who hath been taught to believe the immortality of the soul, may be as right in his notion as he who hath reasoned himself into that opinion. It will then by no means follow, that because this or that notion is a prejudice, it must be therefore false. The not distinguishing between prejudices and errors is a prevailing oversight among our modern free-thinkers.

There may be, indeed, certain mere prejudices or opinions, which, having no reasons either assigned or assignable to support them, are nevertheless entertained by the mind, because they are intruded betimes into it. Such may be supposed false, not be cause they were early learned, or learned without their reasons, but because there are in truth no reasons to be given for them.

Certainly if a notion may be concluded false because it was early imbibed, or because it is with most men an object of belief rather than of knowledge, one may by the same reasoning conclude several propositions of Euclid to be false. A simple apprehension of conclusions, as taken in themselves, without the deductions of science, is what falls to the share of mankind in general. Religious awe, the precepts of parents and masters, the wisdom of legislators, and the accumulated experience of ages, supply the place of proofs and reasonings with the vulgar of all ranks; I would say that discipline, national constitution, and laws human or Divine, are so many plain landmarks which guide them into the paths wherein it is presumed they ought to tread.

[From Maxims Concerning Patriotism."] A man who hath no sense of God or conscience, would you make such a one guardian to your child? If not, why guardian to the state?

A fop, or man of pleasure, makes but a scurvy patriot.

He who says there is no such thing as an honest man, you may be sure is himself a knave.

The patriot aims at his private good in the public. The knave makes the public subservient to his private interest. The former considers himself as part of a whole, the latter considers himself as the whole.

Moral evil is never to be committed; physical evil may be incurred either to avoid a greater evil, or to procure a good.

When the heart is right, there is true patriotism. The fawning courtier and the surly squire often mean the same thing-each his own interest. Ferments of the worst kind succeed to perfect inaction.

LAWRENCE ECHARD (1671-1730) was a voluminous writer and historian. After receiving education at the university of Cambridge, he entered into orders, and obtained the livings of Welton and Elkington in Lincolnshire. In 1712 he was preferred to the archdeaconry of Stowe, and became also a prebendary in the cathedral of Lincoln. His leisure was devoted to historical pursuits, and he published a History of England, a General Ecclesiastical History, a

History of Rome, a General Gazetteer, &c. His History of England was attacked by Calamy and Oldmixon; but it long maintained its ground; and his Ecclesiastical History has been often reprinted, Without aiming at philosophical analysis or investigation, Echard was a careful compiler, with competent learning and judgment.

JOHN STRYPE.

JOHN STRYPE (1643-1737) was a laborious collector and literary antiquary. His works afford ample illustrations of ecclesiastical history and biography at periods of strong national interest and importance, and they are now reckoned among the most valuable of our standard memorials. The writings of Strype consist of a Life of Archbishop Cranmer (1694), a Life of Sir Thomas Smith (1698), a Life of Bishop Aylmer (1701), a Life of Sir John Cheke (1705), Annals of the Reformation, four volumes (1709-31), a Life of Archbishop Grindal (1710), Life and Letters of Archbishop Parker (1711), Life of Archbishop Whitgift (1718), Ecclesiastical Memorials, three volumes (1721). He also edited Stow's Survey of London, and part of Dr Lightfoot's works. Strype was the son of a foreign refugee, John Van Stryp, a native of Brabant, who fled to England on account of his religion, and followed the business of a silk merchant. The son received a classical education at Cambridge, and entering into holy orders, became successively curate of Theydon-Boys, in Essex, preacher in Low Leyton, rector of Terring, in Sussex, and lecturer at Hackney. He resigned his clerical charges in 1724, and from this time till his death, which happened in his ninety-fourth year, he resided at Hackney with Mr Harris, an apothecary, who was married to his granddaughter. Faithful and laborious, Strype was highly respected by the dignitaries of the church of England. A correct and elegant reprint of his works has proceeded from the Clarendon press at Oxford.

POTTER AND KENNETT.

DR POTTER (1674-1747), archbishop of Canterbury, is known as author of a valuable work on the antiquities of Greece, in two volumes octavo. The researches of modern philologists, especially among the Germans, have greatly enriched this department of literature; but Potter led the way, and supplied a groundwork for future scholars. He also edited the writings of Lycophron, and wrote several theological treatises and discourses on church government, which were collected and printed at Oxford in 1753, in three volumes. With the learning of the English hierarchy, Dr Potter is said to have united too much of the pomp and pride which occasionally mark its dignitaries; and it is related that he disinherited his son for marrying below his rank in life.

BASIL KENNETT (1674-1714) performed for Roman antiquities what Archbishop Potter did for Grecian. His Rome Antique Notitia, or the Antiquities of Rome, in one volume octavo, was a respectable contribution to historical literature, and for nearly a century held its place as the standard work upon the subject. It was then partly superseded by the Roman Antiquities of Dr Adam; but recent times have seen both thrown into the background, in consequence of the vast additions which have been made to our knowledge of ancient Rome, its people, and their institutions, chiefly by German scholars, and partly by the investigations at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Kennett was educated at Corpus Christi college, Oxford, and became chaplain to the English factory at Leghorn, where he was in danger from the Inquisition. He was greatly esteemed by his contemporaries for his learning, piety, and modesty. Besides his Roman Antiquities, he wrote Lives of the Grecian Poets, an Exposition of the Creed, and a collection of sermons.

RICHARD BENTLEY.

He

DR RICHARD BENTLEY (1662-1742) was perhaps the greatest classical scholar that England has produced. He was educated at Cambridge, and became chaplain to Stillingfleet, bishop of Worcester. was afterwards appointed preacher of the lecture instituted by Boyle for the defence of Christianity, and delivered a series of discourses against atheism. In these Bentley introduced the discoveries of Newton as illustrations of his argument, and the lectures were highly popular. His next public appearance was in the famous controversy with the Honourable Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery, relative to the genuineness of the Greek epistles of Phalaris. This controversy we have already spoken of in our section on Sir William Temple. Most of the wits and scholars of that period joined with Boyle against Bentley; but he triumphantly established his position that the epistles are spurious, while the poignancy of his wit and sarcasm, and the sagacity evinced in his conjectural emendations, were unequalled among his Oxford opponents. Bentley was afterwards made master of Trinity college, Cambridge; and in 1716 he was also appointed regius professor of divinity. His next literary performances were an edition of Horace, and editions of Terence and Phædrus. The talent he had displayed in making emendations on the classics, tempted him, in an evil hour,' to edit Milton's Paradise Lost in the same spirit. The critic was then advanced in years, and had lost some portion of his critical sagacity and discernment, while it is doubtful if he could ever have entered

is

'Our torments also may in length of time
Become our elements,'

reduced into prose as follows:

"Then, as 'twas well observed, our torments may Become our elements.'

Such a critic could never have possessed poetical sensibility, however extensive and minute might be his verbal knowledge of the classics. Bentley died at Cambridge in 1742. He seems to have been the impersonation of a combative spirit. His college life was spent in continual war with all who were offcially connected with him. He is said one day, on finding his son reading a novel, to have remarked

Why read a book that you cannot quote?-a saying which affords an amusing illustration of the nature and object of his literary studies.

[Authority of Reason in Religious Matters.]

We profess ourselves as much concerned, and as truly as [the deists] themselves are, for the use and authority of reason in controversies of faith. We look upon right reason as the native lamp of the soul, placed and kindled there by our Creator, to conduct us in the whole course of our judgments and actions. True reason, like its divine Author, never is itself deceived, nor ever deceives any man. Even revelation itself is not shy nor unwilling to ascribe its own

in it, that there needs some very strong and powerful charm to rouse us from it; and perhaps nothing is of greater force to this purpose than the solemn and awakening airs of church music.

For the same reason, those accidental distractions that may happen to us are also best cured by it. The strongest minds, and best practised in holy duties, may sometimes be surprised into a forgetfulness of what they are about by some violent outward impressions; and every slight occasion will serve to call off the thoughts of no less willing though much weaker worshippers. Those that come to see, and to be seen here, will often gain their point; will draw and detain for a while the eyes of the curious and unwary. A passage in the sacred story read, an expression used in the common forms of devotion, shall raise a foreign reflection, perhaps, in musing and speculative minds, and lead them on from thought to thought, and point to point, till they are bewildered in their own imaginations. These, and a hundred other avocations, will arise and prevail; but when the instruments of praise begin to sound, our scattered thoughts presently take the alarm, return to their post and to their duty, preparing and arming themselves against their spiritual assailants.

Lastly, even the length of the service itself becomes a hindrance sometimes to the devotion which it was meant to feed and raise; for, alas! we quickly tire in the performance of holy duties; and as eager and unwearied as we are in attending upon secular business and trifling concerns, yet in divine offices, fear, the expostulation of our Saviour is applicable to most of us, 'What! can ye not watch with me one hour?' This infirmity is relieved, this hindrance prevented or removed, by the sweet harmony that accompanies several parts of the service, and returning upon us at fit intervals, keeps our attention up to the duties when we begin to flag, and makes us insensible of the length of it. Happily, therefore, and wisely is it so ordered, that the morning devotions of the church, which are much the longest, should share also a greater proportion of the harmony which is useful to enliven them.

But its use stops not here, at a bare removal of the ordinary impediments to devotion; it supplies us also with special helps and advantages towards furthering and improving it. For it adds dignity and solemnity to public worship; it sweetly influences and raises our passions whilst we assist at it, and makes us do our duty with the greatest pleasure and cheerfulness; all which are very proper and powerful means towards creating in us that holy attention and erection of mind, the most reasonable part of this our reasonable

service.

Such is our nature, that even the best things, and most worthy of our esteem, do not always employ and detain our thoughts in proportion to their real value, unless they be set off and greatened by some outward circumstances, which are fitted to raise admiration and surprise in the breasts of those who hear or behold them. And this good effect is wrought in us by the power of sacred music. To it we, in good measure, owe the dignity and solemnity of our public worship; which else, I fear, in its natural simplicity and plainness, would not so strongly strike, or so deeply affect the minds, as it ought to do, of the sluggish and inattentive, that is, of the far greatest part of mankind. But when voice and instruments are skilfully adapted to it, it appears to us in a majestic air and shape, and gives us very awful and reverent impressions, which while they are upon us, it is impossible for us not to be fixed and composed to the utmost. We are then in the same state of mind that the devout patriarch was when he awoke from his holy dream, and ready with him to say to ourselves, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not

How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.'

Further, the availableness of harmony to promote a pious disposition of mind will appear from the great influence it naturally has on the passions, which, when well directed, are the wings and sails of the mind, that speed its passage to perfection, and are of particular and remarkable use in the offices of devotion; for devotion consists in an ascent of the mind towards God, attended with holy breathings of soul, and a divine exercise of all the passions and powers of the mind. These passions the melody of sounds serves only to guide and elevate towards their proper object; these it first calls forth and encourages, and then gradually raises and inflames. This it does to all of them, as the matter of the hymns sung gives an occasion for the employment of them; but the power of it is chiefly seen in advancing that most heavenly passion of love, which reigns always in pious breasts, and is the surest and most inseparable mark of true devotion; which recommends what we do in virtue of it to God, and makes it relishing to ourselves; and without which all our spiritual offerings, our prayers, and our praises, are both insipid and unacceptable. At this our religion begins, and at this it ends; it is the sweetest companion and improvement of it here upon earth, and the very earnest and foretaste of heaven; of the pleasures of which nothing further is revealed to us, than that they consist in the practice of holy music and holy love, the joint enjoyment of which, we are told, is to be the happy lot of all pious souls to endless ages.

Now, it naturally follows from hence, which was the last advantage from whence I proposed to recommend church music, that it makes our duty a pleasure, and enables us, by that means, to perform it with the utmost vigour and cheerfulness. It is certain, that the more pleasing an action is to us, the more keenly and eagerly are we used to employ ourselves in it; the less liable are we, while it is going forward, to tire, and droop, and be dispirited. So that whatever contributes to make our devotion taking, within such a degree as not at the same time to dissipate and distract it, does, for that very reason, contribute to our attention and holy warmth of mind in performing it. What we take delight in, we no longer look upon as a task, but return to always with desire, dwell upon with satisfaction, and quit with uneasiness. And this it was which made holy David express himself in so pathetical a manner concerning the service of the sanctuary: As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. When, oh when, shall I come to appear before the presence of God? The ancients do sometimes use the metaphor of an army when they are speaking of the joint devotions put up to God in the assembly of his saints. They say we there meet together in troops to do vio- || lence to heaven; we encompass, we besiege the throne of God, and bring such a united force, as is not to be withstood. And I suppose we may as innocently carry on the metaphor as they have begun it, and say, that church music, when decently ordered, may have as great uses in this army of supplicants, as the sound of the trumpet has among the host of the mighty men. It equally rouses the courage, equally gives life, and vigour, and resolution, and unanimity, to these holy assailants.

DR SAMUEL CLARKE.

DR SAMUEL CLARKE, a distinguished divine, scholar, and metaphysician, was born at Norwich (which his father represented in parliament) on the 11th of October, 1675. His powers of reflection and abstraction are said to have been developed when a mere boy. His biographer, Whiston, relates