tain he has done; and this he must have done, if he has granted them the power of working miracles at pleasure: an opinion which cannot fail to rivet Heathens in their idolatry, and Chriftians in the most deteftable fuperftitions.'

The intention of the fifth fection is to fhew, that, if mira. cles were performed in favour of falfe doctrines, mankind would be expofed to frequent and unavoidable delufion.

If,' fays our judicious Author, after fome previous remarks, miracles, by their own natural influence, are calculated to procure immediate credit to the doctrine they atteft; if they conftitute an evidence adapted to the common fenfe and feelings of mankind; if they make an impreffion which fcarce any refiftance can totally prevent or efface: it is an eafy and obvious inference from hence, that if they were performed in favour of falfe doctrines, the generality of mankind would be neceffarily expofed to frequent delufion: and thofe would be the leaft able to refift the impreffion of miracles, who had the strongest fenfe of God upon their minds, the most honourable apprehenfions of his natural and moral government, and were the most fearful of incurring his displeasure, by rejecting any revelation of his will.

Here it will be objected, "That if miracles were wrought to confirm falfehood, the nature of the doctrine might ferve to guard us against being deceived, and direct us to afcribe the works to fome evil agent, who was permitted to perform them for the trial of mankind." In anfwer to this objection, it might perhaps be fufficient to observe, that what fome call God's permitting, would be in reality empowering and commiffioning evil fpirits to work miracles. For God's removal of the retraint or difability which thofe fpirits are under at all other times, amounts to his giving them both a power and a commiffion to work miracles on this particular occafion. And this God cannot do in confirmation of falfehood.

But much ftrefs being laid on this objection, we will offer fome farther obfervations upon it. The most arbitrary and unnatural fuppofitions, when they have been long made, are thought at laft to have fome foundation to fupport them, and require the fame notice to be taken of them as if they had. It is not true, in fact, that any miracles have ever been performed in fupport of error, on purpofe to try our faith: at least, no fufficient evidence appears of the truth of any fuch miracles; nor do the ends of the divine government feem to require that mankind fhould be expofed to this particular trial. The temptations which occur in the ordinary courfe of Providence, are abundantly fufficient to exercife our virtue; and it is quite needlefs that miracles fhould be wrought, merely to put it to a farther proof. Now if reafon cannot fhew that mankind ought to be, and experience convinces us that they never have been, expofed to the delufion of falfe doctrines inforced by miracles, the notion that they may be fo muit be confidered as a mere fiction. Befides, how unlike would fuch a trial be to thofe ordained by God? The latter arise from pallions planted in our nature for the most valuable purposes, and from the moft ufeful and neceffary relations of life. But our adverfaries fuppofe miracles may be atchieved with no other view than

as

as mere matter of trial to mankind, which is repugnant to all our knowledge of the divine difpenfations. Not to obferve, that errors inforced by miracles, would, very frequently at leaft, conftitute a trial rather of the understanding, than of the heart; and in this refpect, likewife, it would differ from thofe to which God has fubjected mankind.

• To convince us more fully that no miracles can ever accompany a falfe doctrine, merely for the trial of mankind, I would obferve, that they are not capable of anfwering this end, upon the principles of those by whom it is affigned. Were a falfe doctrine to be attefled by miracles, it must be afferted, either that the falfehood of it was difcerned, or that it was not. If the falfehood of the doctrine was difcerned, and it was at the fame time known that the miracles attesting it might and must be performed by fome evil agent: in this cafe, where would be the trial? The miracles, it would be allowed, were no evidence of the truth or divinity of the doctrine, and contained no recommendation of it, or motive to embrace it; nay, they could only ferve to furnish an invincible prejudice against it, on account of the known malevolence of their author. If, on the other hand, the falfehood of the doctrine was not and could not be difcerned, the miracles attending it being confidered only as proofs of the interpofition of fome fuperior being, the mind must be thrown into a ftate of perplexity and fufpence about the author of the works, and remain void of all inducement either to embrace or reject the doctrine. And confequently here also there would be no trial at all. We are never more in danger of charging God foolishly, than when we judge of him, not by what he has done, but by what we prefume it becomes him to do. It might convince us how little a way bare fpeculation can carry us in all researches into the nature and government of God, to find the ftrongeft minds, when trufting to fpeculation alone, afcribing to him unworthy measures, and inventing defigns and ends for them, which they are not adapted to anfwer. The very fcheme which affigns the trial of mankind, as the end of God's permitting miracles to be performed in confirmation of error, does itfelf fhew it could not be promoted by them. Now whoever calls upon us to believe, that miracles may be wrought without any neceflity, and even without any ufe, demands our affent to what contradicts all our ideas of divine wifdom, and the whole course of the divine difpenfations, as well as the feveral reafons before urged to fhew that no variations from the established laws of Nature can take place, except when they are difpenfably neceffary to promote the most important purposes of God's administration.'

After offering feveral other arguments to prove that God cannot fubject mankind to the delufion they would neceffarily be expofed to, if miracles were wrought in favour of falfe doctrines, Mr. Farmer comes to the fixth and laft fection of the fecond chapter; the bufinefs of which is to evince, that, if miracles may be performed without a divine interpofition, and in fupport of falsehood, they cannot be authentic credentials of a divine miffion, and criterions of truth. There are two cafes in which miracles are confidered as evidences of a divine mif

fion, by fome who plead that fuch works may, on other occafions, be performed without the order of God. It is urged, first, "That in cafe of a contest between two oppofite parties working miracles for a victory, the party which works the most and greatest miracles, may reafonably be supposed to be affifted by the Supreme Being ;" and, fecondly, "That fuch miracles only are to be afcribed to God as are performed for an end not unworthy of him." It is clearly fhewn, by our learned Writer, that these two fuppofitions by no means remove the difficulty; and we shall prefent our Readers with part of what he has advanced concerning the judging of miracles by the doćtrine.

1

It is neceffary, fays he, to obferve farther, that the making the doctrine the teft of the divinity of the miracles, is, to make the doctrine the rule of judging concerning the miracle, not the miracle the rule of judging concerning the doctrine. The proper and immediate defign of miracles is, to establish fome truth unknown before, and fuch as is not demonftrable by reafon, or capable of other evidence befides that of miracles; to prove, for example, the million of the prophet by whom they are performed, and the divine original of his meffage or doctrine, and to engage men to receive and comply with it, however contrary it may be to their prejudices and paffions. But, according to fome learned men, the doctrine must first be examined without paffion or prejudice, and then employed to prove the divinity of the miracles. But is not this repugnant to the proper use and intention of miracles? It is making the whole force of the proof to depend upon the doctrine to be proved. It is of importance to add, that miracles are intended more efpecially for the conviction of the ignorant and unlearned, who are easily impofed upon by the fophiftry of science, and the fpecious difguifes of error, as well as utterly difqualified to determine by abftract reafonings concerning the abfolute neceflity, or the fitnefs and propriety of fpecial divine interpofitions. It is neceffary therefore that miracles, when they are offered as evidences of a divine commiflion, fhould contain in their own nature a clear demonftrative proof of their divine original: for otherwife their fpecial defign could not be anfwered. It is quite unnatural to fuppofe, that the doctrine must first eftablish the divinity of the miracles, before the miracles can attest the divinity of the doctrine; and it is abfurd to expect that a new revelation and offensive truths (which are not received without reluctance, even where there is a prior conviction of the divinity of the miracles attefting them) fhould themfelves effectually engage men to afcribe thole works to God which might be performed by numberlefs other invifible agents.

Now can it be imagined that God will ever allow fuperior beings to work miracles in fupport of falfe hood, if hereby he would deftroy the proof from thefe works of his own immediate interpofition, and put it out of his own power to employ them, as certain credentials of a divine miffion? Miracles (under which term I comprehend those of knowledge as well as power) being the only means whereby God can

affure

affure the world of the truth of a new revelation, he must have referved the use of it to himself alone, without ever parting with it to ferve the purposes of his rivals and oppofers.'

Though we have extended this article to a confiderable length, we are under no apprehenfion that our Readers will be difpleafed with us, because the fubject is peculiarly important, and because our ingenious Author's reafonings upon it are uncommonly clear, juft, and forcible.

[To be concluded in our next. ]

ART. V. The Hiftory of Great Britain, from the first Invasion of it by the Romans under Julius Cafar. Written on a new Plan. By Robert Henry, D. D. one of the Minifters of Edinburgh. Vol. I. 4to. Il. Is. in boards. Cadell. 1771.

TH

HE advancement of a free people in civilization and refinement, and the ftruggles between liberty and ambition, which they exhibit in the different periods of their history, are objects the most interesting to mankind. Thofe works, of confequence, which entertain and inftruct us the most, are the hiftories of Greece and of Rome. In modern times, the tranfactions and revolutions which have taken place in our own inland, have been thought the most important and engaging; and our Author, ftruck with their dignity and variety, has made them the subject of his refearches and reflections. Of the defign and plan of his performance he gives the following account.

The chief defign,' fays he, of this work is,-To give the Reader a concife account of the most important events which have happened in Great Britain, from the first Invasion of it by the Romans under Julius Cæfar, to the prefent times; together with a diftinct view of the religion, laws, learning, arts, commerce and manners of its inhabitants, in every age between thefe two periods. It is intended to draw a faithful picture of the characters and circumstances of our ancestors from age to age, both in public and in private life; to defcribe, in their genuine colours, the great actions which they performed, and the difgraces which they fuftained; the liberties which they enjoyed, and the thraldom to which they were fubjected; the knowledge, natural, moral, and religious, with which they were illuminated, and the darkness in which they were involved; the arts which they practifed, and the commerce which they carried on; the virtues with which they were adorned, and the vices with which they were infected; the pleasures and amufements in which they delighted, and the diftreffes and miferies to which they were expofed; not omitting even their fleeting fashions, and ever-changing cuftoms and modes of life, when they can be difcovered. This, it is hoped, will give the Reader as clear, full, and juft ideas of Great Britain, and of its inhabitants, in

every age, as can reasonably be defired, or, at leaft, as can now be obtained from the faithful records of hiftory.

To accomplish this very extenfive defign, within as narrow limits as poffible, the Author has endeavoured to express every thing in the feweft and plaineft words; to avoid all digreffions and repetitions; and to arrange his materials in the most regular order, according to the following plan:

The whole work is divided into ten books. Each book begins and ends at fome remarkable revolution, and contains the hiftory and delineation of the firft of these revolutions, and of the intervening period. Every one of these ten books is uniformly divided into feven chapters, which do not carry on the thread of the hiftory, one after another, as in other works of this kind; but all the feven chapters of the fame book begin at the fame point of time, run parallel to one another, and end together; each chapter prefenting the Reader with the history of one particular object. For example:

The first chapter of each book contains the civil and military hiftory of Great Britain, in the period which is the subject of that book. The fecond chapter of the fame book contains the hiftory of religion, or the ecclefiaftical hiftory of Britain in the fame period. The third chapter contains the history of our conftitution, government, laws, and courts of juftice. The fourth chapter comprehends the history of learning and learned men, and the chief feminaries of learning. The fifth chapter contains the hiftory of the arts, both ufeful and ornamental, neceffary and pleafing. The fixth chapter is employed in giving the hiftory of commerce, of fhipping, of money or coin, and of the prices of commodities. The feventh and laft chapter of the fame book contains the hiftory of the manners, virtues, vices, remarkable cuftoms, language, drefs, diet, and diverfions of the people of Great Britain, in the fame period. This plan is regularly and strictly pursued from the beginning to the end of this work: fo that each of the ten books of which it confifts, may be confidered as a complete work in itfe'f, as far as it reaches; and also as a perfect pattern and model of all the other books.

To render this plan ftill more perfectly regular and uniform in all its parts, the Author has difpofed the materials of all the chapters of the fame number, in all the ten books, in the fame order, as far as the fubjects treated of in thefe chapters would permit. For example, the arts, which are the fubject of the fifth chapter of every book, are difpofed one after another in the the fame order of fucceffion, in all the fifth chapters through the whole work. The fame may be faid of all the other chapters, whofe fubjects are capable of being difpofed in a regular order and arrangement. By this means, as every book is a perfect model

of