in no hands longer than the Negroe countries remain in a ftate of barbarifm; and that as Britain was the most forward in the traffic of flaves, it becomes, her to be the firft to labour in effecting a reformation. But he farther obferves, it is a notorious fact, that a confiderable proportion of our African, trade, for the last twenty-five years, has been actually directed to the fupplying of the French colonies with flaves; and that the improvement arifing thence contributed towards their making fo formidable an appearance in the beginning of the late war. It is his opinion, likewife, confidering the extenfiveness and fertility of the French islands, particularly Hifpaniola, with the habitual frugality of their planters, that in lefs than twenty years, even in fpite of our bounty of twenty fhillings per cwt. they will fupplant the fubjects of this nation in every foreign market for fugar.

The author next confiders the probable confequences which would refult to our own fugar colonies from advancing the con dition of their flaves.

That Britain, fays he, has a majority in them attached to her laws and her intereft, it would be ungenerous not freely to' acknowledge; and whatever prejudices exifted among them against a connection with her, when compared with her rival, they have in a great measure been done away in the small islands, by their late experience of the nature of a French government. Still it is not to be concealed, that in feveral of them there is a strong lurking bias for the new empire of America. The conduct of Barbadoes and Jamaica, in the beginning of the late conteft, marked this too ftrongly to admit of at contradiction; the reflefs emigrations from the fugar colonies, thither continue to mark it. The Americans indeed have not yet been able to give any fpecimen of liberality of fentiment to encourage this bias, or of advantages to be gained by efpoufing their caufe. But that individuals, who have occafion to with for an eafy method of paying debts, fhould delight in change, even when it promifes little, needs not to be wondered at.

But fuppofing this bias, and the propriety of it, ftill it is' a doubtful point, if any confiderable share of Weft Indian propriety will be in the families, who now poffefs it, at that period when Britain and France fhall be fo weak, and America fo ftrong in naval force, as to allow of our fugar iflands being added as an appendage to the American empire. Though it may be an object of deliberation with whom they may best be connected, yet it will not be difputed that they can never think of fetting up for themselves. They muft ever continue to belong to fome one or other naval power; and furely from prefent appearances no period can be affigned, when that power

hall

fhall be America. Yet fuppofe every thing to happen as fpeedily as it is fondly imagined, and obferve the confequences.

America, under a republican government, can never be but a disjointed unwieldy ftate, which nothing but common danger can poffibly unite in one purpofe. If the fugar islands be connected with them, it must be by conqueft, when they are become fuperior at fea to the European naval powers. By the maxim on which America feparated from Britain, no countries, between which feas intervene, can be incorporated together.. The fugar colonies, therefore, can never hope to be allowed to partake of any particular American conftitution. They muft be governed as conquests belonging to the union. When they were first fettled, it was by Englishmen, entitled to all the pri vileges and laws of the mother country, and preferving all the rights and claims of citizens. But when fubdued by an American fquadron, they will be confidered as a defpifed part of an hated people. Some American rice or tobacco planter, who perhaps has the clanking of the chains of his own famished flaves ringing in his ears, will make flaming fpeeches against fugar planters. He will call them inexorable tyrants over help lels flaves. He will advife to have them treated as flaves; and he will offer himself to be the inftrument, because he is wellacquainted with the mode.-When this defired change.commences in the fugar colonies, what a fine outlet will there be for all the turbulent fpirits of America in filling the departments of law, police, customs, and every civil eftablishment, not omiting the confifcations, that fagacious intereft will discover or make. Perhaps, when too late, the indolent rule of Britain, then no more, may be an object of regret.'

Mr. Ramsay is too wife to imagine, that any project of the kind which he fuggefts fhould immediately operate on the public. The moft that can be hoped, as he obferves, is gradually to correct and inform common opinion.

But, fays he, fuppofe a ftatute enacted, that the prefent flave trade fhould ceafe after a period of three or fix years, every planter would immediately fet himself feriously to stock his plantation, and to give fuch orders for the treatment of his laves, as would favour their health and population. This in the mean time would divert our flave trade from the improvement of the French colonies to that of our own: and the end: of the period would find the feveral islands in a state of opulence and happiness that they never yet have experienced, and prepared for that extenfion of privileges, and unexcepting freedom, which is the scope of our argument. But in making this fuppofition, I mean not to be accountable for thofe barbarities, and outrages to humanity, that the fhorteft existence of the flave trade must in the mean time neceffarily occafion.'

Our author's plan of preparing for the abolition of slavery, by introducing civilization in Africa, is a fuggeftion entirely

con

confonant to that philanthropy, fo confpicuous in the Effay, which has given rife to the production now before us. At what time foch a project shall become the object of public attention, it is impoffible to determine. But the period, we believe, is fufficiently remote, to diffipate the alarm given the West India planters by the author's former propofal. His humane endeavours, however, will not prove entirely abortive, should they only mitigate that rigorous treatment of the flaves, which he has defcribed with fo much fenfibility, and reprobated with fuch merited indignation.

Five Differtations on the Scripture Account of the Fall; and its Confequences. By Charles Chauncy, D. D. 8vo. 4s. in Boards. Dilly.

THE hiftory of the first man, as given by Mofes in the book of Genefis, is extremely concife, and yet being one of the most naturally interesting subjects that could present itself to the curiofity of his defcendants, imagination and conjecture have perhaps gone as great lengths in filling up the outline of the facred hiftorian, as in the cafe of any hiftorical fupplement whatfoever. It is not, therefore, much to be wondered at, that the comments of fanciful or fuperftitious writers should have proved little better than idle reveries, fit only for the amufement of children. But we have the pleasure to except the prefent author from this clafs of commentators. In no part of facred history does the ardour of investigation more need the affistance of cool judgment, and a temperate spirit of conjecture, than in this fhort but important ftory of our grand progenitor; and it is no more than justice to Dr. Chauncy, to acknowledge that he has difplayed a confiderable fhare of thefe effential qualifications in the work now under inspection.

The fubject of the first Differtation is The one Man, Adam, in his innocent State.

Our readers may form an idea of the fcope of this Differ◄ tation from our author's recapitulation.

The fum of what has been faid, under the foregoing obfervations, reprefenting the contents of the Mofaic account of the first man in his innocent ftate, to place it in one view, is this, that he was made male and female, the most excellent creature in this lower world, poffeffing the highest and noblest rank that he was made by an "immediate" exertion of almighty power, and not by God's agency, in concurrence with fecond caufes, operating according to an established courfe or order: that he was made in the image of God;" meaning hereby, not an actual, prefent, perfect enefs to him, either in knowlege, wifdom, holiness, or happiness, but with im

planted

planted powers, perfectly adjufted to each other, and as perfectly fitted for his gradually attaining to this likeness, in the highest measure proper to a being of his rank in the creation : that, upon being thus made, he was conftituted the "head" or "root" of the human race, from whom, as the fecondary inftrumental caufe, like effential powers with his own should, according to a divinely fettled order, be tranfmitted to others, and from thofe others, to others ftill, throughout all generations; that is, powers inferring a capacity in nature of their being formed to a refemblace of the Deity in his moral glory, in confequence of which they would be individuais of the fame kind that he was, and diftinguished from all the other creatures in fine, that being made, not perfect at once in actual knowledge or holiness, or any other intellectual or moral quality, but with implanted powers only rendering him capable of gradually attaining to this perfection, he was placed by his Maker under a fpecial law or rule," principally defigned as a fuitable and powerful mean to guard him against danger in his prefent unimproved ftate, and to encourage, affift, and conduct his endeavours in the ufe of his faculties, fo as that he might gradually rife to as near a likenefs to God, in all intellectual and moral acquifitions, as was poffible for fuch a creature as he was, and in this way be prepared for complete and perfect happiness.

This account of the creation of the firft man, and of his ftate while innocent, is that which Mofes has communicated to us, either exprefsly, or in words that naturally and fairly import this fenfe. And it is the whole we can now know about him, as it is the whole that has, in an authentic way, been handed down to ús.'

What our author, in a former part of his Differtation, has faid in objection to the common opinion of man, in his original ftate, being under a covenant of works, requiring obedience to the whole moral or natural law of God, as a condition of life,' is rational and fatisfactory; but we want room to cite his arguments on this point, as well as on many others which equally deferve commendation. A fhort note, however, which he quotes from bishop Patrick, in confirmation of his fentiments on the above topic, is fo energetic and conclufive, that we cannot help giving it to our readers.

Those who afk, why was Adam's obedience tried in a merely positive inftance? do not confider, "that an experiment of it could fcarce have been made in any of the moral precepts; which there was no occafion to violate. For what hould tempt him to idolatry, or to take God's name in vain, or to murder his wife? How was it poffible to commit adultery, when there was no body but he and the in the world? How could he fteal, or what room was there then for coveting, when God had put him in poffeffion of all things? It had been in

vain to forbid that which could not be done; and it had not been virtue to abstain from that to which there was no temptation, but from that which invited him to trangrefs.'

Differtation II. confiders the one Man Adam, in his lapfed State, with the Temptation which brought him into it.

Dr. Chauncy, after fhewing it was in the body of a ferpent that Satan, thence called the Old Serpent in other parts of Scripture, beguiled Eve, and, after mentioning fome ridiculous defcriptions, given by dreaming commentators, of the wings, the beautiful fhining appearance, and erect figure, &c. of the ferpent in Eden, defcants upon the nature of the argument which, according to Mofes, he made ufe of; but the doctor does not allow himfelf any of thofe eloquent paraphrafes upon it, in which the imaginations of fome authors he has alluded to, have fondly indulged themfelves. He then proceeds as follows.

It will poffibly be faid here, is it a thing credible, that the all-wife good God fhould permit the entrance of fin into the world, as occafioned in the manner that has been represented, by a temptation" begun, and carried into effect, by a " ferpent," actuated by an "evil fpirit ?" Can it reasonably be fuppofed, that he would, when he had created man, have fuffered the devil, before he had made any confiderable advances in knowledge and experience of the world, to "tempt" him, fo as to draw him into fin; and, in this way, bring ruin upon himself? Is this a fit thought to entertain of that God, who, of his mere goodness, had given him exiflence, that he might be happy in the love, fervice, and enjoyment of the original fource of all being, and of all good?

The answer is this: it is in fact true, that fin and forrow now are, and all along have been, in the world, however difficult it may be to account for their entrance. And difficult it really is, and vaitly fo, upon the principle of "reafon," as well as "revelation." The greatest philofophers, in all ages, have found it a depth they could not fathom. The question, therefore, remains unrefolved by them to this day, woler To nanoz,

whence came evil?" It is not pretended, that the difficulty is removed by what is faid upon the matter in the facred books. It is a difficulty ftill; though not fo great an one as it was before. It is certainly leffened, and not increased.

The difficulty, as peculiar to the Mofaic history, and as ftated in the above objection, lies in this, that fin, and ruin thereupon, should be occafioned by temptation" from an

evil fpirit," and as practifed upon the first parents of men, before there had been time for their making any "confiderable improvements" in knowledge, experience, and goodness.'

After much plaufible reafoning to remove this difficulty, Dr. Chauncy allows, that the queftion of the origin of evil

7

ftill