Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

muft certainly conduce to the increafing of the tropical heat, to a degree much beyond that under the equator.

[ocr errors]

6

Thus far Mr. Sheldrake. And we are very much mistaken, if most of our Readers, when they have attentively furveyed this chain of thought, will not readily agree with what we have faid of it-That it is fomewhat fingular. For when this writer, in favour of his opinion, that the heat under the tropic is equal, or fuperior, to that under the equator, urges the fo lafting vicinity of the fun, the tardiness of his motion, and the fuperior number of hours that, in one half of the year, he remains aboye that horizon; does he not, at the fame time, feem to forget the vaft diftance to which the fun afterwards retires from the tropic; the length of time he keeps away, and the fuperior number of hours, that, in another half of the year, he remains below that horizon? If to this we fubjoin an oblervation or two of his own, That cold is increafed by the obliquity of the fun's rays, the swiftness of his motion, and the time of his abfence below the hori zon, as alfo, that cold increases, notwithstanding the fun's approach, till his thinly difperfed rays become clofer collected together, and his prefence is longer with us;' and apply thefe obfervations to the cafe of the tropics, will not his reafoning ftill appear fingular? And yet, altho' we, for our own parts, are perfuaded, that the action of the fun is much ftronger under the equator than at the tropics, because the fun never recedes farther from the equator than twenty-three degrees, thirty minutes, nor continues his abfence longer than fix months; whereas he retires from each tropic to twice that diftance, and remains abfent for twice that time: there are, however, two confiderations, which not a little weigh with us in favour of Mr. Sheldrake's opinion; fo far, at leaft, as to imagine the degree of heat to be nearly equal, at different times, all over the torrid zone. One of thefe confiderations is founded upon an obfervation of our Author's, viz. that water-clouds will make the air cool.' Now if this obferva tion be just; and if, as feems to be probable, and is agree able enough to the accounts we have of the feafons in that part of the world, the ftronger action of the fun will collect the greatest quantity of this fort of clouds; it may, from this fuppofed ftate of the atmosphere, happen, that notwithstand ing the fun acts with greater force at the equator than at the tropics, the air may be rendered, when the fun is on the equator, full as cool as when he is on the tropic. The other con fideration, which influences us to favour Mr. Sheldrake's opinion, is also what we owe to himself. For, full of this REVIEW, Nov. 1756.

[ocr errors]

Ii

notion,

notion, that the degree of heat yearly at the tropics, equalled at leaft that which happens femi-annually at the equator, he formed a fcale for a thermometer, by which is fhewn, how much the heat of fummer, or the cold of winter, in any other place exceeds, or falls fhort, of that degree of each, which he affigns to England. And this, he affures us, he had done with fo much exactnefs, that when he came to read Boyle's Hiftory of Cold; the account given by the Academy of Sciences, at Paris, of the cold of the northern circle; what Boerhaave reJates of the cold of Iceland, and Leyden; Ray's Collection of Travels; and Rollin's Antient Hiftory; none of which he had recourfe to for fixing the points of heat and cold in his tables; finding them fo nearly anfwer to what he had previously laid down for the heat and cold of thofe countries, it gave him, he owns, no fmall fatisfaction: and as we cannot fufpect this writer's integrity, what he thus advances, in corroboration of his opinion, feems to us one of the beft proofs that can fupport any opinion; a proof from nature and fact.

A Syftem of Divinity and Morality; in a Series of Difcourfes on all the effential parts of Natural and Revealed Religion: Compiled from the works of the following eminent Divines of the church of England, viz. Atterbury, Balguy, Barrow, Bentley, B veridge, Blackhall, Bundy, Burnet, Ben. Calamy, Clagett, Clarke, Dorrington, Gibfon, Goodmau, Hickman, Hole, Hopkins, Hort, Jackfon, Ibbot, Littleton, Lupton, Moore, Mefs, Pearfon, Rogers, Sharp, Synge, Stanhope, Stillingfleet, Tillotson, Wake, and Others. To which are added, Some Occafional Difcourfes. The whole revised and corrected, by Ferdinando Warner, LL. D. Rector of Queenhithe, London. In four volumes. 8vo. 1 1. bound. Griffiths.

[ocr errors]

F this Collection, which firft made its appearance in 1750, in five volumes, twelves, we gave fome account in the fourth volume of our Review. Of the prefent edition, little need be added to what Dr. Warner hath himself obferved, in his preface; an abftract of which is here fubjoined.

[ocr errors]

It was thought proper,' fays he, to give a general view of the undertaking; that its ufefulness may be known to those who are unacquainted with it, and who may otherwife confider it only as a collection of good fermons, with which, in this country, we already greatly abound.

To

1

To the honour of our country, and of this prefent age, it must be owned, that we do abound with fuch productions: but then the fermons of our eminent, and most admired, preachers, taking them all together, as they are to be met with in their works, are many of them critical and controverfial, and fo not very useful to families, and people unacquainted with learned fubjects: yet thefe are the people, who feem moft to ftand in need of a clear and judicious explanation of the principles of religion, and on whom the practice of it should be enforced with the most convincing ⚫ arguments.

[ocr errors]

The neceffity of this explanation has been much increased by the indefatigable labours of the enemies of our faith; and of those who, tho' they are friends, yet, through ignorance and enthufiafm, have difgraced and wounded it. The advocates of infidelity were formerly men of letters, of birth, `of leisure, and of fuperior rank; whofe ill lives would fuit but ill with any religion at all. But the poifon has been ⚫ fpread with fuch diligence and fuccefs, that infidelity is now become the profeffion of the loweft of our people; of little mechanics, filly women, and of people of all ranks, that are ignorant of letters and reafoning.

Belides those which point their weapons againft all-revealed religion whatfover, there is a fecond fort of enemies aided, tho' undefignedly, by the first, against whom it behoves us to be on our guard, and who, among the common people, are as fuccefsful as the others. These are the emiffaries of the church of Rome, who labour inceffantly to draw men over to the errors and abfurdities of popery, not only with fpecious arguments, but where it is neceffary, with money, and temptations more alluring than truth and reafon.

To thefe there must be added another fet, who, tho' profeffed friends to Chriftianity, yet pervert and difgrace fo much the genuine doctrines of the gospel, under a pretence of preaching Chrift with more propriety, that they have done infinite mifchief to the religion which they zealously mean to ferve. It is a melancholy thing to obferve so many well-difpofed people among our modern methodists, abused with words and phrafes, which either fignify nothing at all, ⚫or which have a bad, or at leaft, a doubtful meaning.→

The religion of Chrift, as it is in the gospel, is a fhort and plain inftitution, founded in reafon, obvious to common fenfe, and which appeals to the confciences of mankind: • but this is defaced and obfcured by paradoxes, myfteries, Ii 2 and

and fenfelefs propofitions, which defeat the very end for which Chrift was fent, or the gofpel publifhed. To preach Chrift with them, is not to preach Christian morals, how much foever Chrift did it himself; but it is to play off a fet of phrafes, without ideas, and without connection, in which the word Chrift is always mentioned, and inftead of p perfuading to the virtues which he taught by his life and docStrine, to recommend an amorous and enthufiaftic fort of devotion, in admiring his perfonal excellencies, his grace, and fulness.

Amidft the delufions therefore which thus obtain, and are propagated with so much zeal, it is a matter of real concern, that people of every rank fhould be furnifhed with a proper remedy: to prove, against the first, that the divine ⚫ original of the revelation which they deride, is established. upon inconteftible external evidence, and its own intrinfic excellence and usefulness, and to teach them, against the laft, "what in religion is truly good, and what accidentally fo; " what they ought not to be satisfied without, and what they may innocently not concern themselves with; in a word, "what will carry them to heaven fafely, and what answers 66 no other purpose, than either to furnish matter of difpute for * wrong-headed writers, or to employ the idle hours of de66 votees."

66

A collection of fermons from the ablest divines of the church of England, in the way of a fyftem of doctrinal and practical divinity, it is eafy to fee, would anfwer this purpofe very effectually: and fuch a collection was often wifh⚫ed for, and recommended, by fome of the greatest men we ◄ have had; as an undertaking that would be extremely useful, not only to the younger and inferior clergy, but also to other ferious people, of all ranks and orders.

[ocr errors]

Indeed, the importance of the subjects that are treated of in these difcourfes, which explain and recommend the great duties leading to the highest good of man, makes it a work of univerfal utility and extent. As the subjects are of the first importance in themselves, fo the difcourfes which illustrate them, are most of them extracted from the fermons of thofe preachers, which, for the purity of their language, the perfpicuity of their expreffion, the elegance of compofition, "the ftrength of reafoning, and the juftnefs and dignity of their fentiment, no other country in the Chriftian world can equal. We may therefore prefume to think, that if this feries of ⚫ difcourfes is attended to as it fhould be, it may contribute to

[ocr errors]

• pro

*

< promote the knowlege and practice of Christianity in its purity to ftem the torrent of infidelity, popery, and enthufiafm, which are deluging our country; and to reform the follies, and amend the wickedness of the age. In short, the whole collection, may be faid to be a concife, and at the fame time, a comprehenfive fyftem of natural and revealed religion, never before attempted in this method, and which is very entertaining, as well as extremely ufeful, for the family and the clofet."

At the end of the fourth volume, are added, five occasional difcourfes, in lieu of two, on the beatitudes, by Norris, judicioufly ftruck out of the prefent edition, viz. 1. A faft-fermon, preached at Kenfington, by Archbishop Herring. 2. On the 30th of January, before the Lords, by Bifhop Sherlock. 3. On the 29th of May, before the Lords, by Bifhop Secker. 4. On the fire of London, at St. Paul's, by Dr. Warner. 5. On the 5th of November, at St. Paul's, by Mr. King.

[ocr errors]

WE

Account of Norden's Travels concluded.

E are now come to the fecond volume, which is written in a different manner from the firft. It is drawn up from the journal kept by the Author, and perhaps differs little from Mr. Norden's firft sketch. We fhall extract fuch parts as are new or entertaining; which is all our Readers are to expect from us. Omitting, therefore, the circumftances of the wind and weather, the little accidents to which all travellers are liable, the names of fuch places as the Author has not thought fit to defcribe, the repetition of what has already been faid of the pyramids of Sakarra, and what is called the falfe pyramid, (for which fee the Review for September) 1, we begin at page 131, where our Traveller arrives at ShechAbade, formerly called Antinoé, the capital of Lower Thebes.

Here are feveral antiquities, conftructed of ftones, about the fize of thofe whereof the triumphal arches at Rome were built; and not of fuch enormous fize as the old Egyptians ufed in their edifices.

Amongst other ruins are feen three grand portals, the first of which is adorned with columns of the Corinthian order, fluted the other two are lefs ornamented. Thefe ruins of antient Antinoé, are at the bottom of certain mountains near the Nile. The walls of the houfes were built of brick, and to this day appear as red, as if newly made.

Ii 3

The

« AnteriorContinuar »