ten times more had he discovered any intention of carrying on the war. But, when that unparalleled fcheme of a coalition was fairly exhibited, and the immenfe patronage of the East India Company ftruck at by thofe defperate political gamefters who apparently wished to establish a power alike independent of king and people, I thought it my duty to oppofe it with the fame fpirit that we affift to quench a flame which threatens common ruin to the neighbourhood. With these ideas I own that I am and fhall remain favourable to the prefent Miniftry till I fhall be convinced by their conduct that it will be a lefs evil to the country to be under the dominion of the old fet than to continue its present government.—I am not in general very partial to perfons in power; but I cannot conceive why a fet of men, who are already in poffeffion of all their ambition can wish, may not as well confult the true intereft of the country as bafely endeavour to deftroy it. If Mr. Pitt, actuated by these motives, wishes to put the almoft exhaufted refources of the country into fome order, to make provifion for the payment of public debts, and to ease the people of fome of thofe burthens, which if they are not taken off will infallibly crush all commerce and induftry; if he will endeavour by fteadily purfuing thefe objects to merit the approbation of the virtuous, he will certainly meet with it, and it is their duty to affift him, each according to his ability. As to the reform of parliament, I think Mr. Pitt has difcharged his promife, and the very reasons which have provoked fome of my brother reformers, are with me the ftrongest motives for admitting his fincerity. To expect that the minifter of a great, and above all a corrupted state like this, fhould calmly and deliberately demolish the whole frame of government for the fake of making an experi ment, is betraying a lamentable ignorance of human nature. I am not myself fuch a child as either to expect or wish that all government fhould stand ftill in fuch a wonderfully complicated fyftem of fociety as our own, in order that two or three reformers may try their skill in greafing the wheels. But what I think may be fairly required of the prefent miniftry is, that they should purfue national objects by fair and honourable means; that if they are not devoid either of intereft or ambition, thefe paffions should be worked up with public good, and not predominate in the piece; and that they fhould never be fo entirely engroffed with the dirty ideas of preferving their places as to facrifice truth, confiftency, and public intereit, and private integrity, You, Sir, must be the belt judge of the ends and principles of the gentlemen with whom you act. If they are fuch as I have defcribed, you may at any time command all the affiftance that fo unimportant an individual as myfelf can give, but you may depend upon it that I fhould become your most determined enemy, were I ever convinced that your defigns were of a contrary nature. As to myself, I am no more afhamed of fupporting a good than of opposing a bad government; both kinds of conduct muft alternately flow from the fame fpirit, and in this, like every thing else, the best and wifeft conduct is placed between the two extremes, One thing more I will take the liberty of adding-However little you you may conceive that any man can approach the treasury either with pure hands or a pure heart, I cannot help endeavouring to make you believe in fuch a miracle; and therefore whether our correfpondence fhould finish here or be extended any farther, I muft, in the most unequivocal language, abjure all views of profit, intereft or patronage, and give it under my own hand, that if I am ever detected in deviating from these principles, I confent to be called a fool, a rafcal, and an hypocrite. I have taken the liberty of giving you every explanation I am able of my views and fentiments. If the fample does not fuit, you will owe me no apology for not giving yourself any farther trouble upon my account, and be affured that I fhall be as little inclined to become an enemy by want of notice as I fhould be made a friend to any administration, by any attentions they could fhew. I am fufficiently acquainted with human things to defire nothing farther than what I already enjoy it is therefore I must ingenuously confels with great reluctance that I find myself even honoured in the manner I am at prefent; but if confiftently with the principles I have laid down you think I can be of any ufe, I will wave the point of ceremony and wait upon you when I come to town. I am, Sir, with the greatest respect, Annesley, near Chertfey, Surry, THOMAS DAY.' In the fame independent fpirit, is a letter inferted in the notes, to Dr. Jebb, who urged Mr. Day to take a feat in parliament. On these truly patriotic principles, Mr. Day continued to act as long as he lived *; at the fame time devoting his private life to the exercise of humanity and friendship, and the punc tual discharge of every duty. To enumerate the inftances of his bounty, and the pains he took in fupplying the wants and relieving the diftreffes of his fellow-creatures, were to write the minutes of his life. It is enough to fay that the larger portion of his income was dedicated to thefe purposes; and that he confined his own expences within the strictest bounds of moderation and economy; both that he might be enabled to be more liberal to others, and that he might, as far as his example could influence, refift the oppofite excefs of prodigality and vanity which too generally prevails. He had contemplated much on the manners of different ages; and he thought that the prefent was diftinguished by vanity, luxury, and effeminacy. He had often occafion to obferve, in the numerous applications made to him for pecuniary relief, the frequent diftrefs produced in different ranks by Mr. Day's political works are to be had together, in one volame 8vo, under the title of Day's Tracts. Of his excellent novel, entitled The Hiftory of Sandford and Merton, we have frequently fpoken. The third and laft volume was noticed in the Review for January laft, p. 84. F 2 the the affectation of gentility, and reprefentation of a station fuperior to their own. In his own conduct, therefore, he gave an example confonant with his principles; for he lived in a stile inferior indeed in appearance to his fortune, but with an hofpitality and plenty that were not confined, as in fome more fplendid manfions, to thofe who refided within the walls. A friend of his obferving his mode of living, and judging of him by general rules, a method perfectly fallacious when applied to thofe who think and act for themselves, wrote to him a letter feriously bidding him beware of avarice; not conceiving that whatever was faved from oftentation and luxury, was given to want and mifery.' For farther particulars refpecting the private life of this vaJuable man, we must refer the reader to the work itself; in which, while he will find much reafon for respecting the virtues of Mr. Day, he will alfo fee many occafions to admire the good fenfe and literary merit of his biographer. It is impoffible to perufe the clofe of this narrative without lamenting that a life fo ufeful to the public was so abruptly terminated. Mr. Day died, by a fall from his horfe, on the 28th of September, 1789, at the age of forty-one. ART XIII. Sermons preached before the University of Oxford, at St. Mary's, in the Year 1790, at the Lecture founded by the late Rev. John Bampton, M. A. Canon of Salisbury. By Henry Kett, M. A. Fellow of Trinity College. 8vo. pp. 328. 5s. Boards. Egertons, &c. 1791. A LTHOUGH we have, on fome former occafions, expreffed fome difapprobation of this establishment of the pious John Bampton, who, in every year, brings forward his prize-fighters on the ftage at Oxford, yet we fhould depart from the line of candour and genuine criticism, if we did not allow them fair play. We fhall therefore enter into a detail of the fermons before us, that our readers may judge how far Dr. Priestley and Mr. Gibbon have any reafon to tremble at the approach, or to fmile at the language, of their new antagonist. Mr. Kett comes forward with a bold and able investigation of the Fathers of the Church; whofe actions and fentiments, he complains, have been placed by fome ingenious writers of the prefent day, in a light very unfavourable to the Chriftian caufe. He has, with great comprehenfion of mind and justnefs of reafoning, laid down a few general data, which may prove of confiderable utility to the readers of Dr. Priestley and Mr. Gibbon. Thefe hiftorians have hitherto been attacked as to particular facts and affertions: but we do not recollect that any of their opponents have given the world any general or comprehenfive characteristics of their defects. Impreffed with this idea, we proceed to sketch an outline of the fermons before us. The firft difcourse contains a vindication of the Fathers of the Church in general, and a recommendation of the works of the earlieft Fathers in particular. Their refpective merits are afcertained, and they are placed in a variety of lights, both as to their faithfulness as hiftorians, and their ftyle as writers. . The fubject is enlivened by contrafts with the most celebrated authors of antiquity; and we venture to pronounce that the - whole forms an excellent effay on the works of the Fathers. With a defign to rectify the reprefentations of Mr. Gibbon and Dr. Priestley, Mr. K. proceeds to ftate the fix causes, which may be fuppofed to have promoted the firft fpreading of Chriftianity. 1. The miracles wrought in the primitive church. 2. The apologies addreffed to Emperors in vindication of the Chriftian caufe. 3. The zeal of the first preachers in diffeminating the knowlege of Chriftianity. 4. The fortitude of the early martyrs. 5. The difcipline of the primitive church. 6. The conformity of the manners of the firft Chriftians with the precepts of the gospel. Mr. K. afferts the prevalence of miracles in the first ages of the church, from the atteftation of the Fathers, and from their public addreffes to magiftrates and Emperors. He then proceeds to attack the arguments of Dr. Middleton, to whom Mr. Gibbon is, with great reafon, fuppofed to be much indebted for his obfervations on this fubject. The early apologifts for Chriftianity are in the next place defended from the fevere animadverfions of Mr. G., by afferting the neceffity under which they were, of fully expofing the abfurdities of polytheifm: they are likewife vindicated for infifting as strongly on the evidence of prophefy to the divine miffion of Chrift, as on the evidence of miracles. The third head contains a bold and nervous description of the zeal, extenfive labours, and rapid fuccefs, of the firft miffionaries a very high eulogium is here given on the early Fathers, for their animated and glowing reprefentations of the diffufion of the gospel; and they are ably defended from the attacks of Mr. G. This lecture clofes with affigning the probable reafons of the decline of the Chriftian caufe in the Eaft, and a delineation of its more than equal acquifitions, made in other quarters of the globe. The third fermon is taken up with the fourth caufe, confifting in the influence of martyrdom on the unconverted world; and here the causes of the perfecutions, the conduct of the martyrs, and the effects of their fortitude, are confidered. Under the firft head, Mr. K. ftates the proceedings of the antient F 3 world world against those who departed from the established religious tenets, the numbers and zeal of the first Chriftians, the privacy of their meetings, the peculiarity of their rites, and the unfair and cruel interpretation put on their proceedings by the Romans. Mr. K. obferves that the martyrs were generally felected from the moft eminent Chriftians, and that their behaviour was fteady and inflexible. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, in the second century, who was expofed to lions in the amphitheatre at Rome, is felected as an inftance of noble intrepidity, and his conduct is vindicated from the infinuations of Mr. Gibbon. The difference is accurately marked out between the early martyrs, and the various felf-devoted victims among different nations of the world. The causes of this conftancy are conjectured to have confifted either in fome divine fupport, or in the magnanimity of the martyrs themselves. Its effects were beneficial in increafing the Profelytes to Chriftianity, and in adding refpectability to its followers. Mr. K. concludes with an attempt to fteer a middle courfe between the faftidioufness of Mr. Gibbop, and the blind veneration of the middle ages, and to afcertain the exact refpect which is due to the martyrs. In the fourth fermon, the difcipline of the primitive church is generally difcuffed. Under this head, the particular principles and motives of the first minifters are stated: together with the early diftinctions of bifhops and prefbyters, the causes and progrefs of herefy, the leading fentiments of the Gnoftics, and the diftinct characteristics of the Nazarenes and the Ebionites. The particular zeal and diligence of the Fathers in oppofing heretics are proved by regular quotations from their works. Mr. K. then proceeds to point out the virtues of the first Chriftians, as connected with their external regulations and difcipline, their faith, zeal, humility, charity, and general propriety of character; all which he illuftrates from ecclefiaftical history at large. He concludes with drawing a contrast between thefe virtues, and the timid repentance and bigotted zeal, to which Mr. Gibbon confines the good qualities of the firft Chriftians. Mr. Kett, then, in an animated and comprehenfive train of thought, describes the general effects of the preceding caufes on the manners of the various nations that embraced Christianity; and concludes this part with a view of the grand arrangement, which the Almighty made in the affairs of the earth for the reception of Chriftianity, An examination of Mr. Gibbon's hiftorical character forms the fubject of the fifth fermon. Some general and very pertinent remarks are made on hiftorical compofition; and these remarks |