field, and birds of the air. As to Eve, it doth not appear that her husband was her monarch, only the was to be his helpmeet, and placed in fome degree of fubjection. However, before his fall, the beasts were his mott obedient fubjects, whom he governed by abfolute power. After his eating the forbidden fruit, the courfe of nature was changed, the animals began to reject his government 3 fome were able to escape by fight, and others were too fierce to be attacked. The Scripture mentioneth no particular acts of royalty in Adam over his pofterity, who were cotemporary with him, or of any monarch until after the flood; whereof the first was Nimrod, the mighty hunter, who, as Milton expreffeth it, made men, and not beafts, his prey. For men were eafier caught by promifes, and fubdued by the folly or treachery of their own fpecies. Whereas the brutes prevailed only by their courage and ftrength, which, among them, are peculiar to certain kinds. Lions, bears, elephants, and fome other animals are strong or valiant, and their species never degenerates in their native foil, except they happen to be enflaved or deftroyed by human fraud; but men degenerate every day, merely by the folly, the perverfenefs, the avarice, the tyranny, the pride, the treachery, or inhumanity of their own kind. ་ The following PоEм being taken from a very correct Edition, we hope it will be acceptable. EDWIN and E M M A. FA AR in the windings of a vale, There beauteous Emma flourish'd fair, The foftest blush that Nature spreads Such orient colour fimiles thro' heaven, Nor let the pride of great ones fcorn That fun, who bids their diamond blaze, V. divinity; which I remember Erasmus ac counts for, by its being too trong a meat for babes. Perhaps if it were now foftened by the Chinese missionaries, the converfion of thofe infidels would be lefs difficult, and we find by the Alcoran, it is the greatest ftumbling block of the Mahometans. But in a country already Chriftian, to bring fo fundamental a point of faith into debate, can have no confequences that are not pernicious to morals and public peace. I have often been offended to find St. Paul's allegories, and other figures of Grecian eloquence, converted by divines into articles of faith. God's mercy is over all his works, but divines of all forts leffen that mercy too much. I look upon myself in the capacity of a clergyman, to be one appointed by Pros vidence for defending a poft affigned me, and for gaining over as many enemies as I can. Although I think my caufe is juft, yet one great motion is my fubmitting to the pleatures of Providence, and to the laws of my country. I am not answerable to God for the doubts that arife in my own breast, fince they are the confequence of that reason which he hath planted in me, if I take care to conceal thofe doubts from others, if I ufe. my beft endeavours to fubdue them, and if they have no influ ence on the conduct of my life. I believe that thousands of men would be orthodox enough in certain points, if divines had not been too curious, or too narrow, in reducing orthodoxy within the compafs of fubtleties, niceties, and difs tinctions, with the little warrant from Scripture, and less from reafon or good policy, which every man enjoys without fear of It is impoffible that any thing fo natural, fo necessary, and fo univerfal as death, fhould ever have been defigned by Providence as an evil to mankind. Although reafon were intended by Providence to govern our paffions, yet it feems that in two points of the greatest moment to the being and continuance of the world, God hath intended our paffions to prevail over reafon. The first is, the propagation of our fpecies, fince no wife man ever married from the dictates of reafon. The other is the love of life, ..which from the dictates of reason, every man would defpife, and with it at an end, or that it never had a beginning. I never faw, heard, nor read that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Christianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular but fome degree of perfecution. Thofe fine gentlemen who affect the humour of railing at the clergy, are, I think, bound in honour to turn parfons themselves, and fhew us better examples. Miferable mortals! can we contribute to the honour and glory of God? I could wish that expreffion was ftruck out of our prayer-books. Liberty of confcience, properly fpeaking, is no more than the liberty of poffeffing our own thoughts and opinions, The Scripture-fyftem of man's creation is what Christians are bound to believe, and feems most agreeable of all others to probability and reafon. Adam was formed from a piece of clay, and Eve from one of his ribs. The text mentioneth nothing of his Maker's intending him for, except to rule over the beasts of the field, field, and birds of the air. As to Eve, it doth not appear that her husband was her monarch, only the was to be his helpmeet, and placed in fome degree of fubjection. However, before his fall, the beafts were his most obedient fubjects, whom he governed by abfolute power. After his eating the forbidden fruit, the courfe of nature was changed, the animals began to reject his government ; fome were able to cicape by fight, and others were too fierce to be attacked. The Scripture mentioneth no particular acts of royalty in Adam over his pofterity, who were cotemporary with him, or of any monarch until after the flood; whereof the firft was Nimrod, the mighty hunter, who, as Milton expreffeth it, made men, and not beafts, his prey. For men were eafier caught by promifes, and fubdued by the folly or treachery of their own fpecies. Whereas the brutes prevailed only by their courage and ftrength, which, among them, are peculiar to certain kinds. Lions, bears, elephants, and fome other animals are ftrong or valiant, and their species never degenerates in their native foil, except they happen to be en. flaved or destroyed by human fraud; but men degenerate every day, merely by the folly, the perverfenefs, the avarice, the tyranny, the pride, the treachery, or inhumanity of their own kind. The following POEM being taken from a very correct Edition, we hope it will be acceptable. EDWIN and E M M A. AR in the windings of a vale, FARby a meterings wood, The fafe retreat of health and peace, There beauteous Emma flourish'd fair, The fofteft blush that Nature spreads Such orient colour fimiles thro' heaven, IV. His cheek, where health with beauty Before the northern blast. The parents now, with late remorfe, Hung o'er his dying bed; And weary'd heaven with fruitless vows, And fruitless forrow shed. In their birth was no difparity: but in fortune, alas! fhe was his inferior. His father, a hard old man, who had by his toil acquired a handsome competency, expected and required that his fon should marry fuitably. But, as amor vincit omnia, his heart was unalterably fixed on the pretty young creature already named. Their courtship, which was all by stealth, unknown to the family, continued about a year. When it was found out, old Wrightson, his wife, and particularly their crooked daughter Hannab, flouted at the maiden and treated her with notable contempt. For they held it as a maxim, and a ruftic one it is, that blood was nothing without groats. The young lover fickened, and took to his bed about Shrove Tuesday, and died the Sunday seenight after. On the last day of his illness, he defired to fee his Miftrefs. She was civilly received by the mother,; who bid her welcome when it was too late. But her daughter Hannah, lay at his back ; to cut them off from all opportunity of exchanging their thoughts. At her return home, on hearing the bell toll out for his departure, she screamed aloud that her heart was burst, and expired fome moments after. The then Curate of Bowes inferted it in his regifter that they both died of love, and were buried in the fame grave, March 15, 1714. I am, &c. * Bowes is a finall village in Yorkshire, where in former ages the Earls of Richmond had a castle. It stands on the edge of that vaft and mountainous tract, named by the neighbouring people Stanemore; which is always expofed to wind and weather, defolate and folitary throughout. Camb. Brit. IT Of public Abfurdities in England. T is a common topic of fatire, which you will hear not only from the mouths of minifters of state, but of every whiffler in office, that half a dozen obfcure fellows, over a bottle of wine or a dish of coffee, fhall prefume to cenfure the actions of parliaments and councils, to form fchemes of government, and new model the commonwealth: and this ufually ridiculed as a pragmatical disposition to politics, in the very nature and genius of the people. It may poffibly be true: and and yet I am grofly deceived if any fo- with a vote for electing members in the ber man, of very moderate talents, when Houfe of Commons. Because every man he reflects upon the many ridiculous hurt- is full of zeal for his own religion, alful maxims, customs, and general rules though he regards not morality; and, of life, which prevail in this kingdom, therefore, will endeavour to his utmost to would not with great reafon be tempted, bring in a representative of his own prinaccording to the prefent turn of his hu- ciples, which, if they be popular, may mour, either to laugh, lament, or be angry; endanger the religion established; which, or, if he were fanguine enough, perhaps as it hath formerly happened, may alter to dream of a remedy. It is the mistake the whole frame of government. of wife and good men, that they expect A ftanding army in England, whether more reafon and virtue from human na- in time of peace or war, is a direct abture, than, taking it in the bulk, it is furdity. For, it is no part of our busiin any fort capable of. Whoever hath nefs to be a warlike nation, otherwise been prefent at councils or aflemblies of than by our fleets. In foreign wars we any fort, if he be a man of common have no concern, further than in conprudence, cannot but have obferved fuch junction with allies, whom we may either refults and opinions to have frequently affift by fea, or by foreign troops paid passed a majority, as he would be afham- with our money. But mercenary troops ed to advance in private converfation. I in England can be of no ufe, except to fay nothing of cruelty, oppreffion, in awe feuates, and thereby promote arjustice and the like, because thefe are bitrary power, in a monarchy or oligar fairly to be accounted for in all affem- chy. blies, as best gratifying the paffions and That the election of fenators should be interefts of leaders; which is a point of of any charge to the candidates, is an abfuch high confideration, that all others furdity; but, that it fhould be so to a mimuft give place to it. But I would be niftry, is a manifeft acknowledgment of underfood here to fpeak only of opinions ridiculous, foolish, and abfurd, with conclufions and actions fuitable to them, at the fame time when the most reasonable propofitions are often unanimously rejected. the worst defigns. If a miniftry intended the fervice of their prince and country, or well understood wherein their own security best consisted, (as it is impoffible that a parliament freely elected, according to the original institution, can do any And, as all affemblies of men are li- hurt to a tolerable prince, or a tolerable able to this accufation, fo likewife there miniftry ;) they would use the strongest are natural abfurdities from which the methods to leave the people to their own wifeft ftates are not exempt, which pro- free choice; the members would then ceed lefs from the nature of their climate confift of persons who had the best estates in than that of their government; the the neighbourhood or county, or at least Gauls, the Britons, the Spaniards, and never of ftrangers. And furely this is at Italians, having retained very little of leaft full as requifite a circumstance to a the characters given them in antient hi. legislature, as to a juryman, who ought kory. to be, if poffible, ex vicinio; fince fuch By thefe and the like reflections, I perfons must be fuppofed the best judges have been often led to confider fome pub- of the wants and defires of their feveral lic abfurdities in our own country, most boroughs and counties. To chufe a reof which are, in my opinion, directly prefentative for Berwick, whose estate is against the rules of right reafon, and are at the Land's End, would have been attended with great inconveniencies to the thought in former times a very great foleftate. I shall mention fuch of them, as cifm; how much more as it is at prefent, come into memory, without observing where so many persons are returned for any method; and I fhall give my rea- boroughs, who do not possess a foot of fon why I take them to be abfurd in land in the kingdom. their nature, and pernicious in their confequence. It is abfurd that any perfon, who profelleth a different form of worship from that which is national, fhould be trufted By the old conftitution, whoever poffeffed a free-hold in land, by which he was gainer of forty fhillings a year, had a privilege to vote for a knight of the shire. The good effects of this law are wholly eluded, |