around him. How far this gloomy fentiment prevailed, we learn from a very remarkable anecdote, preferved by Dr. Young, in his Conjectures on original Compofition.' Mr. Faulkner, in his letter to Lord Chefterfield, hath given one of a very fimilar nature; which we will tranfcribe. One time, in a journey from Drogheda to Navan, the Dean rode before the company, made a fudden ftop, difmounted his horfe, fell on his knees, lifted up his hands, and prayed in the most devout manner. When

66

his friends came up, he defired and infifted on their alighting, which they did, and afked him the meaning. Gentlemen, faid he, pray join your hearts in fervent prayers with mine, that I may never be like this oak-tree, which is decayed and withered at the top, whilft all the other parts are found."

The concluding fcene of his life was truly affecting, and af forded a ftriking leffon to check the pride of human genius. Mr. Faulkner's account of it is well worth notice;

Swift never was very outrageous, but his memory failed him by degrees, for feveral years together, infomach that he forgot all his friends and domeftics He could not call any of them by their names; nor for cloths, food, or any neceflaries that he wanted. In short, his forgetfulness grew fo much upon him, he could not remember any one paffage of his life, nor read, nor even tell his letters for near two years before his death. He likewife loft the ufe of his fpeech, excepting now and then uttering fome incoherent, rambling words, being incapable of afking any questions, or of returning anfwers; nor could he afk for one neceffary of life. During this melancholy fituation great care was taken of his perfon and his food, as he was incapable of deffing, undreffing, or helping himfelf to cloaths or victuals; and fo totally was he deprived of all rational faculties, that he was treated like a new-born infant, being taken out of bed, undreffed, and put into bed like the youngest child; and had the actions of one, being fond of gold and filver toys, which he would play with, or put into his mouth. When he was dead, Mr. Whiteway, an eminent furgeon, nearly related to him, opened the fku!!, and found much water in the brain.'

This Supplement is enriched with fome valuable anecdotes concerning feveral perfons of diftinguished name in the political and literary world. The Editor hath had access to fonie MSS. in the poffeffion of Lord Corke, whofe father (generally known by the prior title of Earl of Orrery) was an intimate acquaintance of Dean Swift, and condefcended to be his biogra pher too, in a series of letters to his fon, the Hon. Mr. Hamilton Boyle. In the MSS. before mentioned, we have an account of the celebrated Dr. Delaney, who hath been accused of the most atrocious crimes relating to fome pecuniary matters that were brought before the Chancery of Ireland, and decided against him. But the English Houfe of Lords reverfed the decree, and, in the opinion of Lord Orrery, "did themselves great honour, and the Doctor great juftice. He is certainly

(fay's

(fays his Lordship) an honeft man. He means well. He acts ill. His heart is not under his head; but his head is under his heart. When the head is kindled into an extraordinary heat, the heart boils over and froths forth gall, ftuff, and all the compofitions of Hecate's cauldron. I am glad he will be eafy in his fortune the remaining part of his life. It will be his own fault if he is not easy in his writings; for who would dif. turb a paralytic, wrong-headed old man, efpecially when his own good qualities more than compenfate his bad ones ?"

This teftimony to the merit of Dr. Delaney, does great ho nour to the noble Lord: for he forgot his own injuries in order to pay it. Delaney had treated the Earl of Orrery with a petulance and acrimony that would never have been forgiven by a perfon of a lefs amiable and Chriftian difpofition than his Lordhip was. In the midft of the abufe which Delaney threw on him, this excellent man was the first to find an apology for it in the impetuofity of an overheated brain.' But (lays he) the Doctor hath great and good qualities, and of those I will bear teftimony to my grave. In another letter his Lordship fays, With all his faults he is a good man, and incapable of acting those bafeneffes of which his numerous enemies accuse him. His highest rage may make him act a foolish part: but it will never make him act a knavish one. I have lately had a letter from him, as if nothing had ever happened to make me think ftrangely of him. It is in his ufual ftyle, only more complimental. Good God! What is this world! I am a real Christian, and therefore moft heartily forgive.-I pity him, and lament his infirmities, which indeed are great.'

Many things are admitted into this Supplement which add little to its value, and reflect no honour on Dean Swift. Though we approve of the induftry of the ingenious Editor, and heartily recommend this work to the curious reader, yet the impartiality of criticifm obliges us, though reluctantly, to acknowledge, that Mr. Nichols employed his time to a purpose unworthy of his abilities, when he fearched the British Museum for fome originals to complete his ufclefs lift of omiffions and corrections. The Journal to Stella, in the flate in which it was firft written, deferved all that correction and alteration which the Editor complains of. It was not fit to appear before the public eye in its original form. Witnefs the following ridi culous and childish paffage, to pafs over a hundred others, which the Editor hath taken the pains to tranfcribe and print, by way of enriching, as he thought, his catalogue of omiffions. I am to dine to-day with Lewis and Dartenent at Somers's, the Clerk of the Kitchen at court. Dartenent loves good bits and good fups. Good morrow, little firrahs [viz. Mrs. Dingley, and Mrs. Johnson, his beloved Stella.] At night-I dined as I

faid and it coft me a fhilling for, a chair. It has rained all day, and is very warm. Lady Mafham's young fon, my nephew, is very ill and fhe is fick with grief. I pity her mightily. I am got home early, and am going to write to the Bishop of Clogher, but have no politics to fend him. Night, my own two deareft, faucy, dear ones.' Another principal omiffion, · in the former edition of the Journal to Stella,' is now restored by the Editor to its proper place, for it were a pity to lose fuch an important piece of intelligence. I have taken my breeches in above two inches: fo I am leaner, which answers one queftion in your letter. I ftill itch terribly, and have fome few pimples. I am weak and fweat: and then the flannel makes me mad with itching. I muft purge and clyfter.'-Faugh! Dr. Swift! who would tell a delicate lady all this?-or rather faugh! Mr. Nichols, for telling the whole world of matters and things that Swift only intended to communicate to his Stella-though, if Mr. Nichols's conjecture be true, she had as little to do with the Dean's breeches as any woman; either by right or by favour. We know our ingenious Editor will plead the relative importance of things that are trifling in themfelves. There is fomething in this plea. But we fcarcely ever met with a pofthumous work in which this plea was not ftretched beyond all moderate bounds. Dr. Delaney hath faid, and the Editor hath adopted his affertion, as a motto for the prefent work, that he verily thought that there were few things that Swift ever wrote that he did not wish to have published at one time or other.' If this was his whim, there was no need of complying with it, when neither he could be gratified nor the world entertained or inftructed by it. But we are perfuaded that Dr. Delaney's affertion was too general, and admitted of much qualification to be true. The Dean hath himself given us his idea of pofthumous publications, in a letter to Mr. Pope, concerning Gay's. I had rather (fays he) fee his fifters hanged, than fee his works fwelled by any lofs of credit to his memory. I would be glad to fee the most valuable printed by themselves; thofe which ought not to be feen, burnt immediately, and others that have gone abroad, printed feparately like Opufcula, or rather ftifled and forgotten.' Here Swift difcovered an honeft concern for the reputation of his friend Gay; and was willing to prevent any lofs of it by the mercenary difpofition or poverty of his fifters, who might be tempted, for the fake of getting a little money, to collect the fweepings of their brother's Itudy, without confidering the effect it might have on his fame. If our Editor had paid more attention to this remark of Dr. Swift, his Supplement, though of lefs bulk, would not have luft one grain in real value.

ART.

ART. X. An Inquiry into the Belief of the Chriftians of the first three Centuries, refpealing the one Godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Being a Sequel to a Scriptural Confutation of the Rev. Mr. Lindley's late Apology. By William Burgh, Efq. 8vo. 6s. 6d. Boards. York printed; fold by W. Nicoll, London. 1778.

Tcourfe of the controverly relating to the Trinity, which

HE fubject of this Inquiry was amply difcuffed in the

followed the publication of Dr. Clarke's Scripture Doctrine. It is not to be thought that Mr. Burgh, who" at the time of publishing the Scriptural Confutation of Mr. Lindley's Apology, was an entire ftranger to the Fathers," fhould have been able to throw any additional light upon it. Indeed the prefent publication is no proper inquiry into the belief of the Chriftians of the first three centuries refpecting the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but a formal attempt to prove that their belief was the fame with that of the Church of England, as profeffed in the Nicene and Athanafian Creeds. The conduct and fuccefs of the attempt are fuch as might be expected from the known fentiments and prejudices of the Author. Inftead of comparing different paffages of the fame writer with each other, and thence Inferring the fenfe and meaning of particular words and phrases, he has contented himfelf with felecting fuch paffages as by their found, or by the help of a little mifconftruction, might appear to favour his defign, and then triumphing in his fuccefs. Whatever be the language and meaning of the paffages alleged, even though they contain a declaration in exprefs terms of the fubordination and inferiority of the Son and Spirit to the Father, we are fure to hear at the clofe that the writer was not an Unitarian: fo that in the end, instead of the Fathers of the three first centuries being generally Unitarians, as Mr. Lindsey has afferted, and as, we think, Dr. Clarke and Dr. Whitby have proved, we are told that there did not fubfift among them a fingle Unitarian, and even Origen and Eufebius himself are declared orthodox Trinitarians.

Where Mr. Burgh himself appears as a Writer, we meet with little elfe than confufed ideas, perplexed argumentation, and harsh and uncharitable language; and we fcruple not to pronounce the whole work a tiffue of mifreprefentation and mifconftruction, obfcure and intricate reafoning, and unfupported conclufions.

Mr. Burgh fets out with a grofs mifrepresentation of the sense and meaning of a paffage in Mr. Lindley's Apology. The fcriptures,' lays he, had afforded to me all that was neceffary to establish my belicf. Mr. Lindsey has fought to establish his upon another foundation. For their fatisfaction who may con cur with him in thinking that farther authority is requifite, I

mean,

mean, in the fubfequent fheets, to produce that authority to which he has appealed.

In the course of his work this Gentleman has made the following affertion, "If the matter is to be put to the vote as it were, it is abfolutely neceffary that the lefs learned fhould be told what, upon inquiry, will be found undeniably true, viz. That the Fathers of the first three centuries, and confequently all Chriftian people for upward of three hundred years after Chrift till the Council of Nice, were generally Unitarians." Apology, p. 23.1

We fhall give our Readers the whole paragraph in Mr. Lindfey's Apology, from which this fentence is extracted, that they may learn what ftrefs is to be laid upon Mr. Burgh's quotations from other writers, and his remarks on their fentiments.

"A very general perfuafion," fays Mr. Lindley," hath been entertained, though nothing can be farther from the truth, that those who have been diffatisfied from the firft with the doctrine of a Trinity in Unity, and have objected to it, have been only a few whimfical, conceited, obftinate perfons, the followers of one Arius, who lived near 1500 years ago; or of So. cinus, who was only of yesterday, in the time of our forefathers. Authorities of men are nothing: it is holy fcripture alone which can decide this important point, and to that we must make our final appeal. But if the matter is to be put to the vote as it were, it is abfolutely neceflary that the lefs learned hould be told, what upon inquiry will be found to be undeniably true, viz. that the Fathers of the first three centuries, and confequently, all Chriflian people, for upwards of three hundred years after Chrift, till the Council of Nice, were generally Unitarians, what is now called either Arian or Socinian, i. e. fuch as beld our Saviour Chrift to derive life, and being, and all his powers from God, though with different fentiments concerning the date of his original dignity and nature."

In the course of his work Mr. Burgh uniformly tranflates EOS without the Article, God, in the abfolute fense of that term; and SEOTT, and, Divinitas, Godhead. There are many other instances of miftranflation; fome of which appear to be owing to ignorance or inattention, while others can scarcely be imputed to fo innocent a caufe. We have selected the following:

P. 21. Hyperos T Targi, is tranflated, one with the Father, though the connection, as well as obvious meaning of the words required it to be, united to the Father. P. 79. Mera Tov Deov, is rendered, with God. P. 90. wounтov xai-Jer, the God of our Worship. The verb, pcrnuvew, is always rendered, to wor ship, or adore, in the higheft fenfe of thofe terms, though it evidently intends in many paffages, merely to reverence or honeur. P. 166. Λόγος Θεος ὁ ἐν τῷ Πατρι, ὁ ἐκ δεξιών το

I