"that they have no proper paftors;"--but he does this in a very bungling manner. He fays as long as "the preachers remain in any circuit, they are properly the paftors of every congregation therein." What fort of paftors are these? what is the meaning of the words “proper” and “ properly," introduced here? can thefe flitting itinerants be deemed proper paftors? what knowledge can they pick up of the fpiritual wants of the people whom they feduce? with what authority are they invested? are they recognized by law? are they not intruders, and ufurpers of the province of others? can they be correctly denominated proper paftors? have words loft their meaning? does Mr. Vipond think that the public will endure fuch stuff as this? It may do in a conventicle, but the good fenfe of the people of England, will laugh fuch jargon to fcorn. Sep. 10, 1807. I am, Sir, Yours faithfully, A LONDON CURATE. ON SKELTON'S WORKS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S SIR, T_may, may, probably, afford fome fatisfaction to your respectyour readers, to be informed that the Sermons of SKELTON and his Deifm revealed, with fome other pieces equally interefting, will fhortly be republished. The third volume of fermons which was fold in Ireland only, is now in the prefs, and will be in the hands of the bookfellers in November next; to which I fhall probably add his Effay on the Sacrament, being a reply to bifhop Hoadley's plain account, divefting it of its irony and fatire; and his admirable Prayers for Families. It may be proper to acquaint your readers that those difcourfes which I have incorporated into my SELECTED SERMONS, and also those which I intend for a third volume now ready for the prefs, will not be repub. lifhed for as Skelton is, I believe, known chiefly by my means, and as, in confequence, his works, which within a few years, fold at eighteen-pence a volume, are not now to be bought at any price; I prefume that the purchafers will confift of thofe chiefly who have been delighted with his fermons in my felection: it would, therefore, be unreasonable and unjust to fubject fuch of his admirers to an unnecessary expence. Should the book get into the circulation I am fanguine enough to hope it will from its intrinfic value, and the cha racter of its author; I fhall next re-publifh thofe fermons contained in his firft and fecond volumes which I have not transplanted into my felection. After which, I fhall, as is recommended by a learned and diftinguished prelate, re-publ lifh the Subftance of DEISM REVEALED, with the Appeal to Common-Senfe on the fubject of Christianity, which, fays Mr. Burdy, "is fuperior to any thing Skelton wrote before;" and perhaps, a part of his feventh volume. My defign at least is, to comprize in three volumes, every thing which will, I conceive, be now interesting that Skelton has written. It may be, probably, not unacceptable to your readers to have in one view, a short history of the publications of this celebrated writer. "under In the year 1736, he published a pamphlet, the title of which is, A Vindication of the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Winchefter. Skelton, as Mr. Burdy expreffes it, the pretence of defending the bishop's character, expofes him. He published in the fame year, Some Proposals for the Revival of Chriftianity. "The defign of this piece is to ridicule the infidels and enemies of our church." In 1737, A Dissertation on the Conftitution and Effects of a petty Jury: Trial by a petty jury being, as he juftly imagines, a temptation to perjury. Soon after its publication, the attorney general enquired of the printer who the author was, adding, "inform him from me, I do not think there is virtue enough in the people of this country even to put his scheme in practice." In 1741, he published the Neceffity of Tillage and Granaries, in a Letter to a Member of Parliament: alfo in the fame year, in the Tranfactions of the Royal Society, piece entitled, A curious production of Nature. "It gives a curious account of a great number of caterpillars that crawled onfome trees in the county of Monaghan, leaving on the bark of the trees a fine filken web." In 1743, Truth in a Mafque: "it confifts confifts of thirteen allufions, in which he fays, in his dedication, he has given religious truth fuch a dress and mask as may perhaps procure it admittance to a conference with fome of its oppofers and contemners. The dedication alone is worthy of being preferved." In 1744, The candid Reader, addrefsed to his terraqueous Majesty the World. The ob jects of his fatire are Hill the mathematician, lord Shaftesbury, &c. In the fame year he also published a Letter to the authors of Divine Analogy, and the Minute Philofopher: from an old Officer. "The veteran, in a military ftyle advises the two polemics to turn their arms from one another against the common enemies of the Chriftian faith." In 1745, he publifhed a pamphlet called The Chevalier's Hopes: "in which he fhews that the pretender had no other hope of success than in the horrible wickednefs of thefe kingdoms, which might juftly bring down on them the Divine vengeance." In 1749, his Deifm revealed appeared, by which he made about £200.* In 1753, The Confutation, or a Dialogue of the Gods, in the manner of Lucian. "It is intended to ridicule the Arians whom it represents as polytheifts, because they hold one fupreme, and other inferior gods." The next year his two volumes of fermons. In 1770, he published his works in five volumes. The 4th volume contains the fermons I am re-printing, and the 5th, the pamphlets I have men. tioned, with five other tracts. In the year 1784, he pub. lifhed his 6th volume, entitled An Appeal to Common-fenfe on the fubject of Christianity; with the addition of Some thoughts on Common-fenfe." "The rest of this volume con fifts of thirteen hymns, with a poetic introduction to them, and a Latin poem, which appear rather calculated to enliven his own piety in private, than to excite devotion in others." In 1786, his 7th volume was published, entitled Senilia, or an Old Man's Mifcellany. "It confifts, for the most part, of brief obfervations on fome paffages of the New Tefta ment."-I requested a literary friend who went lately to Dublin, to bring me a copy of it. He informs me that the Dublin bookfellers had never heard of fuch a book; and that Skelton, they affured him, had published only fix volumes. After a long fearch he met with a fingle copy. I have not yet received it, but am in daily expectation of now it. A second edition in 12mo appeared in 1751.-EDITOR. DD Vol. XIII, Churchm. Mag. for Sep. 1807. The The above account will not, I hope, be wholly uninterefting to thofe of your readers, who, like myself, admire the genius, and revere the piety of SKELTON. I am, Mr. Editor, very much yours, &c. SAMUEL CLAPHAM. Extracts. The dying Speech of an Ephemeron on the banks of the river Hypanis. [By the late Bishop PEARCE, and inferted in the 3rd vol. of the FREE THINKER, a paper published by AMBROSE PHILIPS, and other writers.] ICERO, in the first book of his Tufculan Questions, expofes vain judgment of the duration of human life, compared to eternity. In illuftrating this argument, he quotes a paffage of natural history from Ariftotle, concerning a fpecies of infects on the banks of the river Hypanis, that never outlive the day, wherein they are born. To purfue the thought of this elegant writer; let us fuppose one of the most robust of thefe Hypanians (fo famed in hiftory) was in a manner coeval with time itfelf; that he began to exift at the break of day; and that from the uncommon ftrength of his conftitution, he has been able to fhew himself active in life through the numberlefs Minutes of ten or twelve Hours. Through fo long a series of Seconds, he must have acquired vaft wifdem in his way, from obfervation and experience. He looks upon his fellow-creatures, who died about noon, to be happily delivered from the many inconveniencies of old age; and can perhaps recount to his great grandfon a furprising tradition of actions, before, any records of their nation were extant. The young fwarm, who may be advanced one hour in life, approach his perfon with respect, and and liften to his improving discourse. Every thing he says will seem wonderful to this fhort lived generation. The compass of a day will be efteemed the whole duration of time; and the firft dawn of light will in their chronology, be ftyled the great Era of their creation. "Let us now suppose this venerable infect, this Neftor of Hypanis, fhould, a little before his death, and about funfet, fend for all his defcendants, his friends and his acquaintance, out of the defire he may have to impart his last thoughts to them, and to admonish them with his departing breath. They meet, perhaps, under the spacious fhelter of a mufhroom; and the dying fage addreffes himself to them, after the following manner. "Friends and fellow citizens; I perceive the longest life must have an end: the period of mine is now at hand : neither do I repine at my fate; fince my great age is become a burden; and there is nothing new to me, under the fun. The calamities and revolutions I have seen in my country; the mani. fold private misfortunes to which we are all liable; and the fatal difeafes incident to our race, have abundantly taught me this leffon: that no happiness can be fecure nor lafting, which is placed in things that are out of our power. Great is the uncertainty of life! A whole brood of infants has perished in a moment by a keen blast: fhoals of our straggling youth have been fwept into the waves, by an unexpected breeze: what wasteful deluges have we fuffered from a fudden fhower? Our strongest holds are not proof against a storm of hail and even a dark cloud makes the ftouteft hearts to quake. "I have lived in the firft ages, and converfed with infects of a larger fize and ftronger make, and (I muft add) of greater virtue, than any can boaft of, in the present generation. I must conjure you to give yet farther credit to my latest words, when I affure you, that yonder fun, which now appears Weftward beyond the water, and feems not to be far distant from the earth, in my remembrance flood in the middle of the fky; and fhot his beams directly down upon us. The world was much more enlightened in thofe ages; and the air much warmer. Think it not dotage in me, if I affirm, that glorious being moves. I saw his first setting out, in the East; and I began my race of life near the time when he began his immenfe career. He has for feveral ages advanced along the fky with vaft heat, and unparallel'd brightness; but now, by his declenfion, and a fenfible decay (more |