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the great importance of the doctrine; and you will efteem it an objec
'tion of little weight, that the modern advocates of the unitarian tenets
cannot otherwife give a colour to their wretched caufe, than by de-
nying the infpiration of the facred hiftorians, that they may feem to
themes at liberty to reject their teftimony. You will remember,
that de doctrines of the Chriftian revelation were not originally de.
livered in a fyftem, but interwoven in the hiftory of our Saviour's
life. To fay, therefore, that the first preachers were not infpired
in the compofition of the narratives in which their doctrine is con-
veyed, is nearly the fame thing as to deny their inspiration in the
general.

You will perhaps think it incredible, that they who were affifted by the divine fpirit, when they preached, fhould be deferted by that fpirit, when they committed what they preached to writing. You will think it improbable, that they who were endowed with the gift of difcerning fpirits, fhould be endowed with no gift of difcerning the truth of facts. You will recollect one inftance upon record, in which St. Peter detected a falfehood by the light of infpiration; and you will, perhaps, be inclined to think, that it could be of no lefs importance to the church, that the apoftles and evangelifts fhould be enabled to detect falfehoods in the hiftory of our Saviour's life, than that St. Peter should be enabled to detect Ananias's lie, after the fale of his eftates. You will think it unlikely, that they who were led by the fpirit into all truth, fhould be permitted. to lead the whole church into error for many ages; that they fhould be permitted to leave behind them, as authentic memoirs of their mafter's life, narratives compiled with little judgment or felection from the ftories of the day; from facts and fictions in promiscuous circulation.

The credulity that fwallows thefe contradictions, while it strains at myfteries, is not the faith which will remove mountains.

The Ebionites of antiquity, little as they were famed for penetration and difcernment, managed, however, the affairs of the fect, with more difcretion than our modern Unitarians. They questioned not the infpiration of the books which they received: but they received only one book, a fpurious copy of St. Matthew's gospel, curtailed of the two firft chapters.

• You will think it no inconfiderable confirmation of the doctrine in queftion, that the fect which firft denied it, to palliate their infidelity, found it neceffary to reject three of the gospels, and to mutilate the fourth!'

The controverfy between the Archdeacon of St. Alban's and Dr. Priestley, feems verging apace toward the iffue that we expected, and foretold; and now we have nothing more left to do, than atten

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tively to watch, and candidly to report, its further progrefs.
II. The Character of Jejus Chrift; a Sermon. By George Skene
Keith, M. A. Minilter of Keith-Hall, Aberdeenshire. 8vo. 1s.
Evans. 1785.

This fermon has fome marks of a fertile and lively imagination: but the marks of puerility and inexperience are more deeply impreffed in it. Age, we hope, will mature the Author's judgment, and chaften his fancy. The glare of falfe eloquence will be foftened

into a milder and fteadier light; and the tinfel trappings of declamation will be exchanged for ornaments lefs captivating to vulgar minds, but more folid and more graceful: fuch as become the fimple dignity of religion, and are most acceptable to men of found judgment, and a cultivated tafte.

When this period arrives, the Author will be ashamed of fuch paffages as perhaps he now regards, with fond complacency, as the peculiar beauties of his fermon; and will then number them, as we do, among thofe pulpit-tricks to which the religion of Chrift fcorns to be indebted for fupport or recommendation.-From several other inftances of falfe and affected oratory, we will felect the fol. lowing paffage, as a fpecimen, (p. 13.)

Where thall we begin our enquiry into the character of Jefus Chrift? Go to Bethlehem.-Pafs by the inn.-Turn afide hither to this ftable. Look into the manger: and you fhall fee a poor babe wrapt in fwaddling-clothes. Befide him leans his mother, weak and languid. Here are the wife men from the Eaft: there a few thepherds from Bethlehem. A ftar in the firmament directed the wife men to this place. They worship the infant. A company of angels lately informed thofe fhepherds, that this child was the fon of the most high God, and the promised Saviour of men.-What an amazing floop from the heavenly glory! What an immenfe tranfition from the throne of God! Aftonishing humility, generolity, and condefcenfion in the Son of the Higheft, to affume human nature, and affume it in fo mean a condition!-In the character of the child Jefus, how many virtues are united!'

It is well that the Hiftory of the Birth of Chrift was not penned in a ftyle like this. Such a mode of relation would have funk its credit, and we should have been rather difpofed to fmile than to believe.

The Author informs us that this fermon is published as a fpecimen of a volume of fermons now in the prefs.-Had he no judicious and faithful friend to whisper in his ear

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Nonum prematur in annum ? or did he turn a deaf ear to good counsel? III. Preached at the Magdalen-hofpital, on the Anniversary Meeting of the Prefident and Governors of that Charity, May 11, 1786. By John, Lord Bishop of Oxford. 4to. Is. Printed for the Benefit of the Charity. Rivington. 1786.

No quotation could more exactly correfpond with the occafion, than that which is felected as the text of this difcourfe, Galat. vi. 1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken, ye, which are spiritual, restore fuch an one in the fpirit of meekness, confidering thyfelf, left thou also be tempted. The fentiments here implied, are illuftrated and recommended by his Lordship, in a fenfible and serious manner. Thus, in a plain and practical way, he enforces, in the general, this branch of a Chriftian fpirit, and properly applies the whole to the purpose which more directly claimed his attention. IV. An Attention to outward Cleanliness recommended as a Virtue? Preached in the Parish Church of Blackburn, July the 17th, 1785. By Borlafe Willock, M. A. with a View toward preventing the Progrefs of an alarming epidemical Fever, which raged in that Town and Neighbourhood. 8vo. 6d. Richardfon.

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If the fubject of this Difcourfe is at all unufual, its propriety and importance are nevertheless felf-evident; and the particular circumstances of the time and place of its delivery, render any apology for the Author wholly unneceffary. It is a well-compofed Dif courfe, worthy the attention, not only of the very poor, for whole difficulties fome little allowance might be made, but of others, who would not chufe to be claffed in that number.. The text is Levit. viii. 6. H.

V. Preached at the Anniversary Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy, at St. Paul's, May 12, 1785 By Thomas Jackfon, D. D. Prebendary of Westminster, and Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty. 4to. Is. Rivington.

This discourse is entirely employed in ftating the grounds of the charitable inftitution for the Sons of the Clergy, and in enforcing, with plain and manly eloquence, the arguments which recommend the establishment to the countenance and fupport of the Public.-To the fermon are fubjoined, Lifts of the Stewards for the feafts of the Sons of the Clergy, together with the names of the Preachers, and their texts; and the fums collected at the anniversary meetings, fince the year 1721.

NOTES to CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received C. C.'s remarks. The opinion we delivered refpecting the " excifion of the part bitten by a mad dog being the only efficacious prophylactic," was the result of the most minute investigation, and the most impartial enquiry; and therefore (notwithstanding the authority of Dr. Hillary) we cannot poffibly retract it. To flatter people with fecurity from other more gentle methods would be to deceive them in a matter of the utmost confequence, and might, in the end, prove no less prejudicial to them, than unworthy of us. M.

1st "A Conftant Reader," who enquires concerning Dr. Jones's book on the ftate of Medicine, which he supposes we overlooked, is referred to the 67th volume of our Review, p. 170. If he will likewife turn to p. 383. vol. i. of our General Index, under the name of Jones, in the Medical clafs, he will find it inferted there also.

The article to which Mr. Graham refers, though not yet inferted in the Review, was written fome months before we were favoured with his very fenfible letter. What we had, with equal freedom and impartiality, remarked, at the time when we perufed the book, could receive no alteration, in confequence of the particulars communicated by this Correfpondent.

Philalethes is under confideration..

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For OCTOBER, 1786.

ART. I. Dr. REID's Efays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, continued. See our last.

THE

HE fecond effay contains an amazing quantity of valuable erudition, as well as of found reasoning, and deep investigation, and constitutes almoft a third part of the whole volume. Its title is, "Of the powers we have by means of our external fenfes." It confifts of twenty-two chapters. A confiderable portion of it is taken up in giving a clear and accurate account of the theories and opinions that have been embraced and maintained by philofophers, both ancient and modern, with regard to the fenfes, and the knowledge derived from their operations. The doctrines of the most eminent leaders of fects, from the days of Pythagoras to those of Mr. Hume, pafs fucceffively under review; and every class of tenets upon the subject is traced from its origin through its fubfequent changes. The hiftorical deduction is every where accompanied with judicious obfervations and acute difcuffions. Of this, and of many other parts of the work, no tolerable notion could be communicated to oar readers by means of an abstract. The matter treated of, from the nature of it, requires the full illuftration which the Author has beftowed upon it, to convey a competent knowledge of it. We must therefore fatisfy ourselves with mentioning, in general, the topics that are difcuffed, referring the inquifitive reader to the book itself, which, we can affure him, will not only furnifh him with rational amufement and valuable information, but will also present him with more diftinct and accurate views of the fubjects treated, than are to be met with in preceding authors.

The firft four chapters treat of the organs of perception, and of the impreffions that are made upon the nerves and brain. The fubftance of the doctrine contained in them is thus fummed up by the Author himself:

It is a law of our nature, established by the will of the Supreme Being, that we perceive no external object but by means of the organs given us for that purpofe. But thefe organs do not perceive. The eye is the organ of fight, but it fees not. A telescope is an ar VOL. LXXV,

R

tificial

tificial organ of fight. The eye is a natural organ of fight, but it fees as little as the telescope. We know how the eye forms a picture of the visible object upon the retina; but how this picture makes us fee the object, we know not; and if experience had not informed us that fuch a picture is neceffary to vifion, we should never have known it. We can give no reafon why the picture on the retina fhould be followed by vifion, while a like picture on any other part of the body produces nothing like vifion.

It is likewife a law of our nature, that we perceiye not external objects unless certain impreffions be made by the objects upon the or gan, and by means of the organ upon the nerves and brain. But of the nature of thofe impreffions we are perfectly ignorant; and though they are conjoined with perception by the will of our Maker, yet it does not appear that they have any neceffary connection with it in their own nature, far lefs that they can be the proper efficient caufe of it. We perceive, becaufe God has given us the power of perceiving, and not because we have impreffions from objects. We perceive nothing without thofe impreffions, becaufe our Maker has limited and circumfcribed our powers of perception, by fuch laws of Nature as to his wisdom feemed meet, and fuch as fuited our rank in his creation.'

In establishing thefe general conclufions, Dr. Reid has occafion to confider feveral hypothefes, that have been invented by philofophers, to explain the manner in which the nerves and brain are inftrumental in furnishing us with fenfations and ideas. The ancients conjectured that the nerves are tubes filled with animal fpirits fecreted from the brain, and Des Cartes endeavoured to fhew that mufcular motion, perception, memory, and imagination are effected by means of the motions of these animal fpirits. But neither the tubular structure of the nerves, nor the fubtile vapour fuppofed to be contained in them, were ever discovered by any ancient anatomift. Dr. Briggs conceived the nerves to be folid filaments, which, like mufical cords, have vibrations differing according to their length and tenfion. We remember that this hypothefis was formerly mentioned by Dr. Reid in his Inquiry. Dr. Prieftley, on the other hand, in his examination of Dr. Reid's Inquiry, denied that any fuch opinion was ever entertained. He must have forgot that he himfelf had alluded to this theory in his Hiftory of discoveries relating to vifion (p. 663.), in the following words: Dr. Briggs fuppofed that fingle vifion was owing to the equal tenfion of the correfponding parts of the optic nerves, whereby they vibrated in a fynchronous manner.' Dr. Hartley has likewife attempted to explain fenfation by a theory of nervous vibrations, though of a different fort from thofe that were fuppofed by Dr. Briggs. External objects, according to him, occalion in the nerves vibrations of the fmail, and as one may fay, infinitefimal me dullary parts. He borrowed the hint from a query fubjoined to Sir Ifaac Newton's Optics, though that eminent and accurate philofopher

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