Not Blenheim's field nor Ifter's flood, His captives feel their limbs confin'd Now this is as it fhould be:-but when Dr. Watts talks in the fame ftrain of Jefus Chrift as he does of Lady Sunderland, or as he would of another beauty of the noble house of Churchill, the charming Duchefs of Devonshire, if he were living to behold that inimitable fair;"-when he talks of "diffolving in extacy, in the love of his dear objectthe bleffed Jefus-of clafping him in his arms as the fixed centre of his foul's delight, on whom he feafts by day, and with whom he refts by night;' (Vide page 55. vol. I.)-when he makes ufe of language and fentiments, fo repugnant to all ideas of that diftant veneration which mortals owe to their divine Mafter, we are difgufted and afhamed. The fecond Volume of this collection, contains a number of infignificant letters that were never defigned for the public eye, and which ought rather to have been committed to the flames than fent to the prefs. By the publication of them, the remembrance of a filly controverfy, long fince configned from its worthleffnefs to oblivion, is now revived. The controverfy was chiefly of a perfonal nature, between Dr. Watts and Tom Bradbury. The latter was a man of fome wit and vivacity, and in his merry moments would laugh at Dr. Watts's Hymns, and in his fplenetic and zealous hours would abuse his principles, and call his orthodoxy in queftion. He tells the Doctor. very bluntly, that he never admired his mangling, garbling, transforming, &c. fo many of his fongs of Zion.' He lafhes him for his predilection for Sabellian principles, in refpect to the perfonality of the Holy Ghoft; and informs him, that he • heard and faw the holy Sir John Hartopp, with tears running down his cheeks, lament his oppofition to Dr. Owen;' which (fays Bradbury) he imputed to an inftability in your temper, and a fondness for your own inventions, Dr. Dr. Watts acknowledges the fprightliness of his antagonist's wit; but calls it vain and licentious.' To this accufation of wanton levity, he adds others of a more serious nature. He charges him with a spirit of contention; and he attempts, by feveral appeals to his conduct, to make good the charge. He next accufes him of ingratitude: and to complete the catalogue of Bradbury's crimes, the Doctor meekly calls him a liar-civilly afks his confcience if he were not one-and then fays with abundant courtefy- Give me leave to tell you, Sir, that there is not any one minifter in London, whom I have heard so often charged with falfhood and injustice, in fuch fort of contentions, as Mr. Bradbury.'-This was a home-thruft. But yet this notorious liar was ftill Dr. Watts's dear brother,' both at the beginning and at the end of the letter; and Dr. Watts was his fincere friend,' who prayed heartily for him, that he might be as heavenly-minded as his own foul wifhed and defired.' But we have faid, perhaps, more than enough on this idle debate. The private contentions of individuals, though important to themfelves, are of no confequence to the public; efpecially where wit is fo little proportioned to resentment, that to endure is fufficient,--to approve is impoffible. ART. V. Public and domeftic Devotion united; in a Letter to the Heads of Chriftian Families. By John Martin. 8vo. 6 d. Buckland. Tits 1779. HE title of this fmall performance fufficiently expreffeth its nature and defign. The original idea of it appears to be derived from a paffage in the Old Testament, in which the public and domeftic piety of David is recorded. When the good King of Ifrael had borne a part in the folemnities which attended the establishment of the Ark in Zion, he returned,' it is faid, to bless his houfe.' Mr. Martin makes a very pious ufe of this circumstance, and inculcates on Chriftians the importance and utility of a regular plan of domestic devotion, particularly on the evening of the Lord's Day. His attempts are fo laudable, that if they had been executed with lefs abilities than Mr. Martin appears to be poffeffed of, we could not have paffed any unfavourable ftrictures on them. Several of this Gentleman's remarks are fenfible and judicious; and his whole performance breathes a fpirit of candour and piety. We fhall felect one or two of his obfervations, to juftify our approbation of this little piece: and we shall be happy, if our teftimony to the excellence of the Author's defign, fhould be the means of promoting the execution of it in chriftian families. • It must be confeffed, that of the two, it is much easier for us to appear religious in public, than to be fo, or even to appear fo, in private. We naturally love to court the attention, and gain the applause of strangers; nor are we always unmoved at their cenfure, how much foever we may affect to defpife it. But true religion, though it doth not annihilate thefe emotions, does however fo regulate them, as to make every emotion fubfervient to the teftimony of a good confcience. To a good man, God is every where the fame, and to be approved in his fight is the ruling principle of his life. He is the fame man in private as in public; and in his own house as in the house of God. Perhaps our opportunities of attending to the public worship of God in London are multiplied to excefs: and this feems to be particularly the cafe on what we commonly call the Lord's Day. They who carry it to that excefs, seem to forget, that the Chriftian Sabbath, as well as the Jewish, was defigned to be the Sabbath of the Lord in all our dwellings. But what idea can we have of this in thofe dwellings where the family conftantly attends public worship on the morning, afternoon, and in the evening of that day? How neceffary, therefore, evening lectures may be for thofe who live in irreligious families, or who live in families pretending only to be religious, who have no fettled regard for public worship themselves, and who but feldom permit their domeftics to enjoy it, yet we hope to be forgiven, if we fay, that they are not likely to be productive of much good to those who have attended to the former opportunities as they ought, and who have those personal and relative duties to difcharge at home, that no pretence of regard to public worship ought to fet afide.' We mention it with regret, but family religion appears to be fo neglected by fome worthless zealots, whose zeal blackens while it burns, that they seem to have no notion of it. These people hear fermons as others fee plays all is excellent, or the reverfe, as they are moved in hearing; but their moft violent agitations generally fubfide as fast as they were raised. Not fo their effects in either cafe; for they commonly leave the mind difgufted with the idea of their being obliged to return to the important concerns of common life. There are, we think, profeffors of religion, whole pretenfions to critical exactnefs, and to cool confiftency, cannot be difputed, that hear the Gospel to as little purpose as the idly enraptured clafs we have mentioned before. How depraved is the tafte, whofe empty effufions, or lifeless harangues, naturally productive of fuch effects, are admired! What then is their's who delight in the difmal drudgery of gratifying taftes fo vicious, and of being thought the favourites of them who can relish nothing that is better!" REV. Dec. 1779. Ff This This Author expreffes a juft and manly refentment against those shocking abuses of the pulpit, which pafs with the herd of illiterate and enthufiaftic hearers for found and favoury doctrine but which, in fact, are a burlefque on religion, and a moft fhameful infult on the common fenfe of mankind. Thofe empty indecent rhapfodies,' fays Mr. Martin, always betray, but no where fo much as in the pulpit, a want of good manners, as well as common fenfe. It is not only fhameful, but fhocking to obferve, how the pulpit is fometimes proftituted by thofe pitiful puns, and fenfelefs quibbles, thofe idle and indelicate ftories, which fome delight to retail in that folemn fituation, as if it were a mighty achievement to felect, and throw out fuch oddities as feem beft calculated to divert the foolish, and difguft the wifer part of mankind!' We heartily with these reflections may have their proper influence on the fwarm of fanatical preachers which infeft the capital, and extend their baneful influence to the country. But we are afraid, that the moft candid remonftrances, and the most poignant invectives, will fail of producing any falutary effect, where intereft joins iffue with ignorance, and convinceth the man of noife and nonfenfe, that by this craft he gets his Bread.' THE ART. VI. An Address to the Public on an improved Plan of Education in public Schools. 8vo. 1 s. I s. Evans. 1779. HE object of this Addrefs is of confiderable importance, and merits the attention of all who are entrusted with the cducation of youth. The Author (who, we find from an advertisement prefixed to this Addrefs, is the Master of Scorton fchool, in the county of York') writes like a man of experience and understanding. He propofeth no vifionary and phantaftic plan, merely for the fake of departing from an established mode; but modeftly offers one, that appears, on the whole, to be well-founded, and might, if adopted by a fkilful tutor, be attended with much fuccefs. He confiders the prefent method of education at public schools, as too vague and indif criminate. Youth are treated in the fame unvaried manner, and their attention directed to the fame objects, let their future profeffions be ever fo different. This our Author deems a capital abfurdity in education; and he willies to rectify it, by diverfifying, as far as requifite, the objects of tuition, and regulating the ftudies of the pupil by the views of his future profethion and employments. As education is now generally conducted at public fchools, little, if any thing more is regarded, than the furnishing the pupil's mind with a certain degree of claffical knowledge:-often to the great neglect of the more refined parts of English literature, and generally, to the total neglect of many branches of fcience, equally ornamental and beneficial to the fcholar, the gentleman, or the man of business. Though it cannot be fuppofed (fays this Writer) that young people in general are capable of any long, intenfe, or methodical reafoning, yet as they do, and muft neceffarily reason, judge and determine upon many occafions for themselves, it is of great importance to enable them, as early as poffible, to perform these operations aright. That education which aims at nothing more than ftoring the mind with knowledge, without enabling it to difcriminate and appreciate that knowledge, is certainly defective in the moft effential part. This is knowledge without judgment, which fetters and enflaves, without improving and invigorating the powers of the mind. However fpecious fuch qualifications may appear to incompetent judges, their real merit is inconfiderable. Those who are intended for learned. profeffions, in which their fuccefs and eminence depend fo much. on acuteness and accuracy of reafoning, will owe no great obligations to that tutor, whofe inftructions have been applied to their memory rather than their judgment. In learning the dead languages, indeed, the attention of youth muft neceflarily be long confined to words, and the mere exercife of memory, before they can be competent judges of fentiment; but their preceptors fhould always remember, that words are of no ufe in any language, but as they are the vehicle of fentiment. If, therefore, they be accustomed too long to regard the former in preference to the latter, they will become pedants, or mere verbal critics, but never elegant or polite scholars.' There is much truth in this remark, if there be no novelty in it. The general run of our public fchools affords perpetual evidences of a moft difgraceful neglect of the mind. But we would not infinuate any reflection on claffical knowledge. On the contrary, we esteem it abfolutely effential to a finished education. It frequently lays the foundation of the most important acquifitions gives an elegance to the mind, and opens on it beauties peculiar to itfeif:-and fuch as a mere English fcholar will be fcarcely able to form any tolerable conception of. It will be the means of forming the pupil to the purest and most perfpicuous methods of compofition, and will bettow a grace and correctness on his common converfation. A man of found, claffical erudition may, by a difcerning critic, be diftinguished almost immediately from a perfon who was not originally, and who hath not been thoroughly converfant with the ancient models of all that is fublime in genius, and beautiful in expreffion and who hath acquired all his knowledge from, and formed his tafte on tranflations, and Englith writers only. There will be a deficiency, which the beft natural abilities, and the most extensive English reading, will feldom, if ever, be able |