The Principles of the Roman Catholics fairly ftated. nors, must be of little weight: and a charge of mifreprefentation, without pointing out the fpecific articles, deferves no particular anfwer. Vol. LVII. p. 25. Art. 1, 2, 3, 4.The firft four articles contain a good defcription of that faith by which we obtain remiflion of fins. Our capital objection against the church of Rome arifes from their addition of doctrines contrary to divine revelation, which is here rightly called the object of our Laith. 5. It is by no means neceffary in this life, that we should understand perfectly the myfteries of our religion. It is fufficient that we believe them upon the authority of revelation, 1 Cor. xiii, 12, 6. The doctrines of Scripture are fufficiently plain to the private judge To read ment of every candid man. the Scriptures, therefore, with humility and attention, is a principal method of obtaining a knowledge of the will of God. It is a pernicious practice, there. fore, in the church of Rome, to difcourage private Chriftians from this ftudy. John v. 39; Acts xvii. 11. 7. We certainly ought to liften to the voice of the church, when it teaches or enforces the doctrines of the Scriptures. But it would be very abfurd and dan gerous to fuppofe the church independ ent of the writings of the Evangelifts. It is fpread through all natious, and vifibly continued through all ages, to teach their doctrines, and is only to be regarded when it propofes articles con formable to the words of Chrift and his apofties. For though we have the promife of Chrift, that he would affift the apottles with the gifts of the Holy Ghoft, and that his church fhould never fail, yet it would be an unpardonable miftake to affert, that every paftor law fully ordained, or every fociety of Chriftians, has continued found in the faith, or that we are to fubmit to those who contradict the Gospel. The church, therefore, has authority to enforce the duties of morality, and to demand affent to the myfterious articles of revelation; but it is incapable of explaining thofe myfteries to our prefent finite ap. prehenfion. 8. The church of Rome has no exclufive claim to be the church of Chrift. The Chriftian church was established before there was any Bishop of Rome, and before a fingle Roman was converted. The church of Rome, therefore, is only a part of the Catholic or 413 univerfal church, and the five qualities, 9. We no more receive the Scriptures from the teftimony and authority. of the church of Rome than of any other church. Every church, and every learned and well-difpofed Chrif tian, may know the authenticity of the books of Scripture equally with the teachers and governors of that church It is evident that their decifions are not always directed by the fame fpirit that wrote the Scriptures, fince, in many material points, they contradict the doctrine of the Gospel. 10. Every truth revealed by God ought to be efteemed an article of the Chriftian Chriftian faith. Whenever any particular church alters or conceals the neceffary doctrines of the Gospel, in that inftance it becomes corrupt, and fins against God. No church can have any power independent of his will. Its filence, therefore, cannot prevent the neceffity of publishing all the articles of Divine revelation. 11. A feparation from a found church, in faith or government, is herefy or fchifm. But if any particular church departs from the doctrrines of the Gofpel, it is the duty of every trne Chriftian to adhere to the law of God, and feparate himfelf from her communion. 12. We believe every article, neceffary to falvation, to be fufficiently plain in the Holy Scriptures. Let the church of Rome, therefore, fhew what are the neceffary articles which are to be fupplied by the authority of general councils and apoftolical traditions; and then prove how her unscriptural doctrines are fupported by any traditions, preferved genuine from the days of the apoftles. Before the Reformation, the ftudy of the Scriptures was much neglected; and greater regard was frequently paid to idle legends and Papal decrees than to the doctrines of the Gofpel. I fhall only add one general remark upon this fection, that the claims made in it in favour of the church of Rome are mere affertions unfupported by the authority of the Scriptures. J. W. (To be continued.) Mar. 17. Mr. URBAN, HAV AVING occafion, from my fituation in life, to vifit many parts of this kingdom, and to remain fome months at times in each, and thofe frequently not the moft healthy fpots; being of a philofophic turn, I have been led to confider and with for a new work, which I conceive would be of confiderable utility: I mean, a Syftem of Medical Topography for Great Britain. This work thould contain a phyfical defcription of each County, City, Village, &c. the Winds prevalent, Water, general mean Heat and Cold, and every other circumftance tending to preferve Health, or induce Diteates: the prevailing Difeafes fhould be given, and alfo an avarage of Births and Deaths in each place for the last 21 years, with many other things requifite to render fuch a work complete. Such a work would do credit to the Natural and Medical Knowledge fo confpicuous in this ifland; to do this, let the Roval Society and College of Phyfi cians offer premiums, for the beft communications from the Physicians and Sur geons refident in every part of this king dom; let a Committee of Medical Topography be formed, to read, confider, and determine on the comunications from each place, the best of which should be published in the fame manner as the Philofophical Tranfactions, till fuch time as a fum of accurate information is received, fufficient for an appointed Committee to arrange and publish by counties in order, Such a work would be of infinite ufe to Medical Gentlemen who are first beginning to practise in a part of the kingdom that is new to them, as it would affift them in the treatment of thofe endemials which they may not have feen much of perhaps in their former practice, and this kind of information the Father of Phyfic ftrongly recommends as effen tially neceffary to thofe who wish to prac tife with fuccefs. To the informed Gentleman and Phi lofopher this kind of Natural History would be particularly agreeable; and I entertain not the fmalleft doubt the com munications from all parts would flow in rapidly, were fuch a plan attended to: that it may, is the carneft with of one who now, for the first time, defires your at tention. Mr. URBAN, K. May 6. IN digging the foundation of the Man fion-house for the Lord-Mayor of London, in April 1739, a ftone with the device and infcription reprefented in the inclofed drawing (plate III.) was taken out of the remains of St. Mary Woolchurch, which was decayed by the general conflagration in 1666. It is not noticed in Mr. Pegge's " Sylloge of Infcriptions." Yours, &c. I Ludere par impar. Mr. URBAN, M. G. May 24. T is now pretty well known who is the author of the Cento from Cicero in the preface to Bellendenus de Statu, and we acknowledge the hand of a great fchool-mafter, who has all the cafes of grammatical nicety, and every example of verbal accuracy, collected by the German fcholars, at his fingers end. The ufe and application that has been made by the learned fcholar of his labour and erudition I do not pretend to approve, becaufe I think they may be the occafion of offence to lome weaker and less skilful brother. There Portraits of Two British Orators, from the Ancients. There is a delufive brilliancy in the fort of patch-work I allude to, in the Preface to Bellendenus, which may be the occafion, unlefs in the hands of the moft skilful compofiter, of as much violence to the connection, harmony, order, and rhythm of Cicero, as ever was offered by Aufonius to the modefty of Virgil. If a ftatuary were to take the eye and forehead from one figure, and the mouth from another, he might eafily, without defigning it, give the leer of impudence to a modeft face, and place an angry nofe upon a placid countenance; which is a thing one fometimes fees, where nature plays with the human features. I beg, Mr. Urban, your acceptance, in excufe for this trouble, of the portraits of two British Orators, father and fou, from the galleries of Cicero and Quintilian. The refemblance of the ancients to the moderns is fo ftrong, that you will not require the names to be written under the pictures. The first portrait is finished with a few strokes in the manner of Rembrant, and painted as it were with a broom. TRACHALLUS. 415 "Habuit oratores ætas noftra copiofiores: fed cum diceret, eminere inter æquales Trachallus videbatur: ea corporis fublimiter erat, is ardor oculorum, frontis auctoritas, geftus præstantia, vox quidem, non ut Cicero defiderat, pane tragædorum, fed fuper omnes, quos ego quidem audierim, tragædos.” Quintil. lib. xii. 5. 5. CALIDIUS. "Sed de M. Calidio dicamus aliquid, qui non fuit Orator unus e multis: potius inter multos prope fingularis fuit: ita reconditas, exquifitafque fententias mollis et pellucens veftiebat oratio. Nihil tam tenerum, quam illius comprehenfio verborum, nihil tam flexibile: nihil quod magis ipfius arbitrio finge retur, ut nullius oratoris æque in poteftate fuerit: quæ primum ita pura erat, ut nihil liquidius, ita liberè flucbat, ut nufquam adhærefceret; nullum nifi loco pofitum et tanquam in vermiculato emblemate, ut ait Lucilius ftructum verbum videres, nec vero ullum aut durum, aut infolens, aut humile, aut longius ductum." Brutus 79. "Utinam effem bonus Orator." SUMMARY OF THE PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT, SESS. V. Debates in the Fifth Seffion of Parliament. (Continued from p. 328.) AS this was the last day appointed Mr M. A. Taylor prefented a petition from Mr. John Palmer, praying for leave to bring in a bill to enable his Majefty to licenfe the Royalty Theatre. Mr. Taylor faid, he had not made up his mind on the bufinefs; he had barely confented to deliver a petition, in which he difcevered nothing offenfive, or difrefpectful to the Houle, or improper to be received by it. He juft ftated, that Mr. Palmer and others had erected the theatre under an idea, that the licence of the Constable of the Tower would have been fufficient to enable him to perform plays without any violation of law. He then moved, that the petition might be brought up. Mr. Anfiruther oppofed the motion. He faid, that Mr. Paliner, after having for twelve months trampled upon the law of his country, applied with a very bad grace to Parliament for an act to licenie his theatre. Now that the atm of the law had reached him, he applied for a law to fan&tion his proceedings ; but, prior to this, he had fet the law at defiance. The pretence that he thought the licence of the Conftable of the Tower would enable him legally to give dramatic entertainments, was barely a pretence; for every man who could read might learn, that the King himfelf, much lefs the Conftable of the Tower, could not exercise powers which were reftrained by a pofitive act of par liament. The question was then put on the motion, which was negatived without a divifion; and the petition was confequently rejected. Mr. Mainwaring then faid, he had in his hand a petition, figned by 5000 perfons, inhabitants of the county of Middlefex, in favour of Mr. Palmer's theatre: but, as the former petition had been rejected, the Speaker informed him, that the prefenting of that which he had could aufwer no purpose. Mr. Sheridan prefented a petition from the convention of the delegates of the royal burghs in Scotland, praying that Parliament would interfere in fuch a manner as to refiore to them refpectively the original purity of their internal conftitution. A great number of petitions to the fame effect were prefented, by Mr. Sheridan, from the boroughs individually. Some were alfo prefented by Lord Maitland. The petitions were ordered to lie on the table. Mr. Sheridan then informed the Houfe, that he had in his hand a petition from as meritorious a body of men as any in the nation; he meant the gentlemen who ferved in the navy with the rank of lieutenants. Thefe gentle men complained very juftly of the fmallnefs of their pay, and wifhed to fubmit their cafe to the confideration of the House. The Public Advertiser. With respér to the pamphlet of which he had com. plained, he obferved, that Mr. Debrett, the publisher, had waited upon him, apologised for the publication, and promifed to ftop the fale of it. He felt, therefore, no defire to trouble the Houfe any further on that fubject. Whatever injury he had received from it, he en tirely forgave. Sir Elijah after this withdrew. Mr. Grenville then rofe, to ground upon thofe publications a motion, of which he had given fome intimation the preceding day. The Houfe, he remarked, had, for a confiderable time paft adhered to a principle of forbear This petition came within the defcription of thofe which praved for a grant of money from the publick, and therefore could not be received, according to the orders of the Houfe, without the previous confent of his Majefty, expreffed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer; which confent, Mr. Pittance, which in its individual capacity faid, he was not prepared to exprefs; and therefore the petition fell to the ground; as the Houfe, under this circumftance, could not receive it. The Right Hon. Mr. Frederic Montagu prefented a petition from Lady Penn. He pointed out the royalties which her family had enjoyed, and the loffes which it had fuftained by the revolution in America; the claims the and her children had upon the publick, and the obligations the publick were under to her family. Amongst other refources, out of which the country could make good fome of the loffes fuftained by the Penns, it was obferved, that there were lands in Jamaica, which ifland had been fubjected to the Crown of England by the ancestor of the petitioner's fon and nephew, Sir William Penn. Mr. Pitt confented, on the part of the King, that the petition fhould be received; it was accordingly brought up, and read; and then it was ordered, on the motion of Mr. Montagu, that it fhould lie on the table. Mr. Pitt prefented a petition from the univerfity of Cembridge, praying for an abolition of the flave trade. Sir W. Dolben faid, he had authority to declare, that, though no petition had been prefented from Oxford, that univerlity concurred mott heartily with her fifter in praying for the abolition of a trade that was a ftain of the deepest die upon humanity, Sir Elijah Impey was called to the bar, and required to produce the pubircations which he had made the fubjects of complaint yesterday. He produced The Morning Herald of Wednesday, and the Gazetteer of Thurfday, which he had yesterday, by mistake, called 7 was, perhaps, very proper; though it was a matter of doubt whether, in its collective character, it was right to fub. mit quietly to any attempt which had.a tendency to leffen the confidence of the people in its wisdom and integrity. But, whatever might be the opinions of gen. tlemen in this particular, in the prefent cafe he thought there could be but one; for, whether the old fyftem of forbearance should be adhered to, or departed from, in what merely concerned the Houfe, individually or collectively, it was unquestionably their duty to pay attention to the complaint now before them. The papers complained of had, in a moft virulent manner, libelled a perfon who stood accused by one of their own members, and paffed even a declared cenfure on the proceedings of the Houfe. Befides, the paragraphs were calculated to mislead the public judgement in a caufe on which the publick were not competent to judge. The accufed party had, therefore, very properly demanded their protection, not as a matter of favour, but ex debito juftitie. As to the mode of proceeding moft proper to be adopted, he conceived that, in this inftance, it would be more eligible to depart from the general cuf tom of Parliament punishing the offenders by their own immediate authority. From the nature of the offence, it was certainly rather within the determination of the law than of the Legiflature. With respect to Parliament refigning this power to the Judges, he was of opinion that, as they were independent of the Crown, the privileges of the Houfe could not be injured, whatever might be their decifion. For this reafon he would move," that the faid paragraphs, relating to the defence of Sir |
