hausisse me ingenue fateor." Lett. March 23, 1697. In his Paraphrase and Notes upon the Epistles of St. Paul, how fully does our author obviate the erroneous doctrines (that of absolute reprobation in particular), which had been falsely charged upon the apostle! And to Mr. Locke's honour it should be remembered, that he was the first of our commentators who showed what it was to comment upon the apostolic writings: by taking the whole of an epistle together, and striking off every signification of every term foreign to the main scope of it; by keeping this point constantly in view, and carefully observing each return to it after any digression; by tracing out a strict, though sometimes less visible, connexion in that very consistent writer, St. Paul; touching the propriety and pertinence of whose writings to their several subjects and occasions, he appears to have formed the most just conception, and thereby confessedly led the way to some of our best modern interpreters. Vide Pierce, pref. to Coloss. and Taylor on Rom. No. 60. I cannot dismiss this imperfect account of Mr. Locke and his works, without giving way to a painful reflection, which the consideration of them naturally excites. When we view the variety of those very useful and important subjects which have been treated in so able a manner by our author, and become sensible of the numerous national obligations due to his memory on that account, with what indignation must we behold the remains of that great and good man, lying under a mean mouldering tombstone, [which but too strictly verifies the prediction he had given of it, and its little tablet, as ipsa brevi peritura] in an obscure country churchyard-by the side of a forlorn wood-while so many superb monuments are daily erected to perpetuate names and characters hardly worth preserving! Books and Treatises written, or supposed to be written, by Mr. Locke. Epistola de Tolerantia. The History of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Select Books of the Old Testament and Apocrypha paraphrased. Introductory Discourse to Churchill's Collection of Voyages. Exceptions of Mr. Edwards to the Reasonableness of Christianity, &c. examined. Pieces groundlessly ascribed, or of doubtful authority. Occasional Thoughts in Reference to a Virtuous and Christian Life. Discourse on the Love of God. Right Method of searching after Truth. Spurious ones: Common-Place-Book to the Bible. P. S. Having heard that some of Mr. Locke's MSS. were in the possession of those gentlemen to whom the library at Oates belonged, on application made to Mr. Palmer, he was so obliging as to offer that a search should be made after them, and orders given for communicating all that could be found there; but as this notice comes unhappily too late to be made use of on the present occasion, I can only take the liberty of intimating it along with some other sources of intelligence, which I have endeavoured to lay open, and which may probably afford matter for a supplemental volume, as abovementioned. THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. JOHN LOCKE, one of the greatest philosophers and most valuable writers who have adorned this country, was born at Wrington in Somersetshire, on the twenty-ninth of August, 1632. His father, who had been bred to the law, acted in the capacity of steward, or court-keeper, to colonel Alexander Popham; and, upon the breaking out of the civil war, became a captain in the service of the parliament. He was a gentleman of strict probity and economy, and possessed of a handsome fortune; but, as it came much impaired into the hands of his son, it was probably injured through the misfortunes of the times. However, he took great pains in his son's education; and though while he was a child, he behaved towards him with great distance and severity, yet as he grew up, he treated him with more familiarity, till at length they lived together rather as friends, than as two persons, one of whom might justly claim respect from the other. When he was of a proper age, young Locke was sent to Westminster school, where he continued till the year 1651; when he was entered a student of Christ-Church-college, in the university of Oxford. Here he so greatly distinguished himself by his application and proficiency, that he was considered to be the most ingenious young man in the college. But, though he gained such reputation in the university, he was afterwards often heard to complain of the little satisfaction which he had found in the method of study which had been prescribed to him, and of the little service which it had afforded him, in enlightening and enlarging his mind, or in making him more exact in his reasonings. For the only philosophy then taught at Oxford was the Peripatetic, perplexed with obscure terms, and encumbered with useless questions. The first books which gave him a relish for the study of philosophy, were the writings of Des Cartes; for though he did not approve of all his notions, yet he found that he wrote with great perspicuity. Having taken his degree of B. A. in 1655, and that of M.A. in 1658, Mr. Locke for some time closely applied himself to the study of physic, going through the usual courses preparatory to the practice; and it is said that he got some business in that profession at Oxford. So great was the delicacy of his constitution, however, that he was not capable of a laborious application to the medical art; and it is not improbable that his principal motive in studying it was, that he might be qualified when necessary to act as his own physician. In the year 1664, he accepted of an offer to go abroad, in the capacity of secretary to sir William Swan, who was appointed envoy from king Charles II. to the elector of Brandenburgh, and some other German princes; but returning to England again within less than a year, he resumed his studies at Oxford with renewed vigour, and applied himself particularly to natural philosophy. While he was at Oxford in 1666, an accident introduced him to the acquaintance of lord Ashley, afterwards earl of Shaftesbury. That nobleman, having been advised to drink the mineral waters at Astrop, for an abscess in his breast, wrote to Dr. Thomas, a physician in Oxford, to procure a quantity of them to be in readiness against his arrival. Dr. Thomas, being obliged to be absent from home at that time, prevailed with his friend Mr. Locke to execute this commission. But it happening that the waters were not ready on the day after lord Ashley's arrival, through the fault of the person who had been sent for them, Mr. Locke found himself obliged to wait on his lordship, to make excuses for the disappointment. Lord Ashley received him with his usual politeness, and was satisfied with his apology. Upon his rising to go away, his lordship, who had received great pleasure from his conversation, detained him to supper, and engaged him to dinner on the following day, and even to drink the waters, that he might have the more of his company. When his lordship left Oxford to go to Sunning-hill, he made Mr. Locke promise to visit him there; as he did in the summer of the year 1667. Afterwards lord Ashley invited Mr. Locke to his house, and prevailed on him to take up his residence with him. Having now secured him as an inmate, lord Ashley was governed entirely by his advice, in submitting to have the abscess in his breast opened; by which operation his life was saved, though the wound was never closed. The success which attended this operation gave his lordship a high opinion of Mr. Locke's medical skill, and contributed to increase his attachment to him, notwithstanding that he regarded this as the least of his qualifications. Sensible that his great abilities were calculated to |