Mr. Bourne fays, "On the place where the Cross formerly stood, was a cistern for receiving the water, which was called the New-water. This too, he adds, was pulled down, and there is now, on the place where the Cross then stood, a pillar of stone-work." In the year 1773, a Milk-market was established at the White cross. In the year 1783 it was pulled down, and rebuilt after a design by Mr. David Stephenson, architect, in the mayoralty of the late worthy alderman Atkinson, whose name it bears infcribed. It is a neat but low fabric, with a good clock, in a little pretty spire, which is of great service to that part of the town. The fairs are also proclaimed at this Cross. We have given a general account of the ancient places of strength, of restraint for the unruly, and of amusement for the gay and lively part of the inhabitants of the town and its vicinity. We now turn our attention to the description of the numerous places of worship, for which it has been celebrated, during the revolution of many centuries. We shall begin with an account of ST. NICHOLAS' CHURCH. The propriety of structures dedicated to the purposes of devotion has been denied and ridiculed by a certain class, many of whom are otherwife men of science and intelligence. Yet we prefume to observe, and it may do no violence to metaphyfical investigation to affert, that religion is natural to man; and that you may as well divest him of his exiitence, as attempt to efface this indelible impression stamped on his mind. It is interwoven in the constitution of the enlightenlightened sage, and of the uncultivated barbarian. It pervades human nature in every age and clime; though the external expressions of it may be found widely different, according to the education of the mind. Man certainly stands high in the scale of being. His fublime aspect, his ardent aspiration after fuperior degrees of mental improvement, and confequently enjoyment, demonstrate him to have been formed the noblest and most perfect of all the works of the Deity, in the system with which we are acquainted. So true is the observation of the old chronicler, of the debaucheries of his gods : Pronaque cum spectent animalia cetera terram; OVID. And whilst they (the gods) beheld other animals groveling upon the earth, to man was given an erect countenance; he was ordered to look up towards heaven, to lift his face towards the stars. The wide universe is one vast volume, spread out for his instruction, and a motive for his devotion. Yet, to mortify his pride, he cannot fail to observe, that, in several respects, he is furpassed by the brute. In his long imbecility, in infancy; his neceffity, through custom, for dress; the neceffity of his food being transformed, by the action of fire, &c. In all these circumstances, his inferiority to the brute is incontestible. But the principle termed instinct in the brute, and which regulates its whole routine of actions, becomes reason in man; and the powers of his mind, so vast, so boundless, set him at once, at the head of creation, and demonstrate him formed for the most sublime contemplation, and the purest intellectual pleasures. Indeed, Indeed, no one can confider the grand structure of the heavens without having his mind filled with the most supreme veneration for its glorious Author. He cannot fail to observe, that even every portion of this earth, sea, and air, is full of fenfitive beings, capable, in their respective orders, of enjoying the good things God has prepared for their comfort. When philosophy informs us of the motion of a comet, running beyond the orbit of the Georgian star, attempting to escape into the pathless regions of boundless space; yet feeling, at its utmost distance, the attractive influence of the fun, hearing, as it were, the voice of God arresting its progress, and compelling it, after a lapse of ages, to reiterate its ancient course! The incompre hensible distance of the stars from the earth, and from each other! Our imaginations are confounded and loft, when we are told, that a ray of light, which moves at the rate of above ten millions of miles in a minute, will not, though emitted at this instant, from the brightest star, reach the earth in less than fix years! But we are still more confounded in contemplating the goodness and condescension of the Supreme Being, in rectifying the fatal errors which had convulfed and ruined the moral world. These excite, in a welldisposed mind, the mingled emotions of "wonder, love, and praise." He, therefore, who confiders, that " in Him we live, move, and have our being, may readily yield his affent to the propriety of either publicly or privately acknowledging his dependence upon that independent Being, and his humble fubmiffion to all the divine dispensations. Hence arises the propriety of public or focial worship, and thankfulness to that great First Cause, from whom we derive all all our benefits; nor can man be engaged in an em. ployment so dignifying, so sublime, and so truly noble. Contemplations such as these fill the mind with humble benevolence and piety. It arose, as we ought charitably to suppose, from these and fimilar confiderations, that the early inhabitants of Newcastle crowded the town with places of worship. The river, the hills, the dales, and the adjacent ocean, would all tend to impress them with ideas at once fublime and devout. They might be mistaken in the lesser circumstances of mode and form, but the grand principle, the continued sensation of acknowledgments of the power and benevolence of the Supreme Being, ever remains the fame. When we fee the names of Roger Thornton, Lawrence Acton, Robert Rhodes, and many others, inscribed in public places of devotion, in marble and on brass, but "whose record is on high," we are inspired with a veneration for the fanctity of their characters and the splendour of their virtues; and yet who (maugre the ample fortunes which they acquired and the high honours to which they attained) knew how to "use the world as not abusing it," as well as any fcoffing infidel, either in their own times or in ours. Thefe introductory remarks on this important branch of our work, may not feem unneceffary, when we confider the uses and designs of churches; as, when we fee large and convenient structures, with curious and ingenious pieces of machinery, and are informed that they are intended for casting iron, smelting metals, fabricating silk, cotton, linen, woollen, &c. for the service of man, so churches are for that of the Most High, who inhabits that which is "not made with hands." The |