! Dr. Smollet. know thefe two hands, for it is not above a bow-fhot from his houfe to mine, invited a farmer, who, tho' not rich, was a very honeft man.' Difpatch, brother,' cried the prieft, interpofing, for at this rate your flory will reach to the other world." It will hardly go half as far, an it pleafe God, anfwered the 'fquire, who thus proceeded. So as I was faying, the farmer going to the house of the gentleman-inviter, who is now dead, God reft his foul! by the fame token, they fay he died like an angel; for my own part, I was not prefent at his death, having gone a reaping to Tembleque.' As you hope to live, fon,' cried the ecclefiaftic, return quickly from Tembleque, and finish your story, without flaying to inter the gentleman, unless you have a mind to bury us all.' Well, to come to the point,' replied Sancho, ' when the two came to be feated at table. Methinks I fee them now more than ever. The duke and dutchefs were infinitely pleafed with the difguft which the reverend ecclefiaftic expreffed at the tedious and circumftantial manner in which the 'fquire related his story; while Don Qui xote was almoft confumed by fhame and indignation. I fay, moreover,' refumed Sancho, that the two, as I have already obferved, coming to fit down at the table, the farmer obftinately refused to take the upper end, according to the defire of the entertainer; while the gentleman, on the other hand, as obftinately infifted upon his compliance, alleging that he ought to be mafter in his own houfe; but the far mer, Mr. Jarvis. who was poor, but honeft, to dinner.' Proceed, friend,' faid the ecclefiaftic, at this period; for you are going the way with your tale, not to stop till you come to the other world.' I fhall ftop before we get half-way thither, if it pleafes God,' an fwered Sancho, and so I proceed. This fame farmer coming to the faid gentleman-inviter's houfe, God reft his foul, for he is dead and gone, by the fame token it is reported he died like an angel; for I was not by, being at that time gone a reaping to Tembleque.' Prithee, fon,' faid the ecclefiaftic, come back quickly from Tembleque, and, without burying the gentleman, (unless you have a mind to make more burials) make an end of your tale." that The bufinefs then,' quoth Sancho, was this, that they being ready to fit down to table-methinks I fee them now more than ever.' The duke and dutchefs took great pleasure in feeing the difpleafure the good ecclefiaftic fuffered by the length and pauses of Sancho's tale; but Don Quixote was quite angry and vexed. I fay then,' quoth Sancho, they, both ftanding, as I have faid, and just ready to fit down, the farmer difputed obftinately with the gentleman to take the upper end of the table, and the gentleman, with as much pofi-. tiveness, preffed the farmer to take it, faying, he ought to command in his own houfe. But the countryman, piquing himself upon his civility and good breeding," would by no means fit down, till the gentleman, in a fret, laying both his hands upon the farmer's fhoulders, made him fit down by main Dr. Smollet. mer, who piqued himself upon Mr. Jarvis. main force; faying, Sit thee down, chaff-threfhing churl; for, let me fit where I will, that is the upper end to thee. This is my tale, and truly I believe it was brought in here pretty much to the purpose.' We shall here take leave of Dr. Smollet's performance, with juft mentioning one small circumftance of omiffion in his book, that might easily have been fupplied, viz. the want of a table of contents to the adventures of Don Quixote; which Jarvis has given. Without fuch affistances, readers may be often very much at a lofs to turn to particular parts of a work, as occafion may require. We hope it will not be thought we intend the mention of fuch a matter as this, to pafs for a criticism: these are things that men of genius, and imagination, feldom attend to; but nevertheless, indexes have their uses, and no book, of confiderable price especially, ought to be with out them. G ART. XXV. Conclufion of the Memoirs of feveral Ladies of Great Britain. IN N the laft Review we prefented our readers with a specimen of this author's hiftorical and descriptive talents: we shall now take a view of him in his religious character; without, however, lofing fight of his memoirs. Some hafty readers, from a partial obfervation, as we suppofe, of his frequent favourable mention of certain eminent free-thinking writers, have been led to pronounce him an infidel, or fomewhat almost as bad as an infidel, an heretic at least. But, with this opinion we can by no means agree; for if he has, in his zeal for freedom of thought, and freedom of debate, commended Toland and Morgan, with others of the like stamp, he is, on the other hand, in various parts of his work, full as warm in the praises of fome pious and excellent divines, whofe writings are not unworthy the fpirit of of that glorious gofpel they were intended to elucidate and defend: befides, and above all, his numerous, lively, and, we doubt not, fincere afpirations, in honour and gratitude to the REDEEMER OF THE WORLD, and his many arguments in fupport of that facred REVELATION with which it pleased the SON of GOD to blefs mankind. But as the term Chriftian is now become vague, and of indefinite fignification; as fects are multiplied into a most astonishing variety; and opinions and doctrines are as numerous as the different complexions and tempers of men; fo it is not always fufficient to fay, a man is a Chriflian: for the faith of one believer in Chrift differs not lefs from the faith of another believer in Chrift, than both may differ from that of the Mahomedan. To give an idea, therefore, of our author's religious principles, it may be expected that we fhould do more than barely apprize our readers. that he is not an atheist, or deift; and fay to which, among the numerous profeffions of Chriftianity, he belongs but all we can difcover concerning this, we recollect has been already intimated in the former part of this article, where we mentioned his extraordinary zeal for the Unitarian fyftem.-He ftiles himself, indeed, with great propriety of meaning, a CHRISTIAN-DEIST; a defignation extremely well fuited to the tenets he fo affiduoufly maintains: in enforcing which he discovers no inconfiderable acquain tance with the facred writings, the only fource of true Chriftian knowlege; but alas! the alleged fountain also of every error which hath bewildered the imaginations of all the contending fectarists that have over-run the Chriftian world. We proceed now to felect a few fpecimens of his manner of treating, explaining, and vindicating that doctrine which he confiders as the genuine, uncorrupted doctrine of our bleffed Saviour and his apoftles. His ufual cuftom is to make his ladies pull the Athanafian creed to pieces. Thus Mrs. Schomberg, the young, beautiful, ingenious, and learned wife of the rev. Dr. Duncan Schomberg, a rigid Athanafian, attacks her husband t. *Review for Auguft, p. 129. 137. It The picture our author has drawn of this divine (if ever such an one existed) is remarkable enough. My fchool-fellow, Duncan Schomberg, was rancour itself in his temper; crofs, dark, obftinate, ⚫ and for ever contending. He was pofitive, ftingy, and headstrong ⚫ from his cradle; had a foul the most unrelenting; and was, even while a boy, a zealot for orthodoxy. In the univerfity he had read · all It feems Duncan, foon after his marriage, began to fumect he had got a heretic in his bofom. His lady faid fome humorous things that preffed a little upon the doctors, and • fpoke of the bleffed Athanafius as if the had no great opinion of his confeffion and fanctity. In mentioning the faints one day, fhe made ufe of fome comic expreffions, and begged of Dear to inform her, what reafons the church had for rejecting the abfurdity of tranfubftantiation, when it • received a more ftrange thing, a creed derogatory to the unity and fupreme majefty of God, the one God and father of all? And if the creed be truth, why do not you doctors fupport it by rational means, by argument, learning, and charity; but, in defence of it, apply to, and ufe, mifrepre• fentation, falfhood, calumny, railing, and abuse; and call out for the fecular arm and violence? It looks, my dear, as if fomething was impofed on the confciences of Chrif tians, that is against the laws of God and nature. Explane these things to me, Duncan. I really know not what to • make of my religion. The doctor fquinted at her for fome time, and then ob• ferved, that she spoke too freely, and too ludicrously, of the great mystery of our faith, and he was afraid fhe was inclined to an evil heart of unbelief: but as he hoped the beft, he would explane things to her conception, and fhew ⚫her the true nature of our religion; fo as to remove all ⚫ doubts for the future, in respect of the awful myftery, and all the fathers, and all the Schoolmen. He had the works of Daniel Waterland by heart; and Sherlock against South flowed from ⚫ his mouth like water. Myftery and tradition were, in his opinion, ⚫ most facred things; and to excel in formalities and trifles, his ⚫ labours were endless. His zeal for the religion of Athanafius was a furious, fanatical fervour.-The fathers were all angels, and Dr. • Samuel Clarke the Devil. With a temper unworthy of a man and a Chriftian, this doctor of divinity mifreprefents and abuses the most glorious defender of natural and revealed religion that any age has ⚫feen; and strives to make the rifing generation, within his sphere, deteft the very name of Clarke. This gentleman's perfon was not, it feems, a bit more amiable than his mind. He was in his figure the very counter-part of Evans the conjuror.-Short in ftature, pot-bellied, humpt behind, beetle browed, and fquinted dreadfully. He was flat-nofed, fplay-footed, and had prodigious thick lips. All this however had been no reflection upon him, if ⚫ his percipient had been a jewel. Where the mind of a man is wife and boneft, the deformity of the cafe it is lodged in, fignifies little, in my opinion. But where the mind is bad, it renders de⚫formity fhocking.' ་ < make make her fenfible it was the duty of a Chriftian to beliek ve • implicitly that fyftem of faith, which orthodoxy has fummed up in the creed of St. Athanafius. He then produced • fubftance, effence, perfon, and nature, and made them rattle for a long time, while he talked of what he knew nothing of, and concerning which the scripture has declared nothing. The fathers were next brought in, and, as St. Chryfoftom fays, in his fifth homily; St. Athanafius, in his fourth book de trinitate; St. Bafil, book the fecond; and St. Ambrofe de • fide, in his fifth chapter; Irenæus, book the fecond; and Tertullian, adv. Prax. in his seventh chapter, etc. etc. took the doctor up near another hour. From this he paffed to Churchifm's explication of fcriptures, and to the fayings of Bull and Bennet, Stilling fleet and Bingham, Mayo, Knight, and Nelfon, Waterland, and all the worthy moderns, who ❝ have contended fo ingloriously for tritheifm. This is the fenfe of the church, continued Duncan,-and by way of conclufion to his fine oration, he breathed hell and damna⚫tion against all his innocent brethren, and fellow Chriftians, who would not fubfcribe to the-orthodox truths, as he - phrased it.' • me. After an exceffive fit of [ill-timed] laughter, the impropriety and ill-manners of which, it is poffible, our author was not aware of, the lady replies, My dear Duncan, you astonish How could you priests ever take it into your heads to invent a thing fo corrupt and incomprehenfible ?—You, who fhould be as the falt and light of the world, to preferve religion both from darkness and corruption! You have talked ❝ near two hours, and oppreffed me with words and fathers, to prove a fcholaftic trinity; a trinity that is not once named in the New Testament of your Lord; and that has not the < least relation to the great end of his coming; which was to give mankind one high priest, instead of priests innumerable; a fpiritual lamb, instead of a brutal lamb; a spiritual temple, inftead of a fenfible one; remiffion of fins, and a state of righteoufnefs in this world, and a glorious metropolis above, for the wife, the brave, and the honeft to refide in for ever and 6 ever. This is a Christianity worth our turning to. A religion of regeneracy, and holy fpiritual life, from the Son of God; and by this means, immortal glory and happiness, is the greatest bleffing to all rational nature. Adored be the goodness of God for fending his Chrift on fuch an errand. But to come on with your frigid and frivolous fubtilties, and bring St. Chryfoftom, St. Bafil, St. Ambrofe, St. Auguftine, and a whole poffe of artificial faints, with their • books |