on a birthday, when the body, after an emaciating illness, wants recruiting, or when they grow in years, Hor. Serm. Il. So that quondam here muft neceffarily fignify, not formerly, as ufually it does, but fometimes, or now and then. But where do we meet with it in that fenfe? Dr. Bentley paffes the place; but Mr. Baxter, one of our beft interpreters of Horace, obferves upon it, from the old Scholiaft, " quandocunque; adverbium medii temporis." This, however, is but his ipfe dixit, for he produces no example. For my part, I am of opinion, that quondam can never ftand in this place, and that we fhould read quodam. It is a very eafy miftake in writing; and quodam is an elliptical manner of speaking for quodam tempore; fo that tempore is the noun to be underfood here, just as gradu is in that other line of this author:

Eft quodam prodire tenus, fi non datur ultra. Or, as in the adverb quò, loco, modo, or fome fuch word, is underfood. But, as I am not pertinacious, let the claffical reader judge.

Mr. URBAN,

L. E.

Νου. δ. HENSTONE has this remark, in his "Effays on Men and Manners,"

SH

P. 144:

"I have been formerly fo filly as to hope that every fervant I had might be made a friend: 1 am now convinced that the nature

of fervitude bears a contrary tendency. It is the nature of fervitude to difcard all generous motives of obedience, and to point out na other than thofe fcoundrel ones, interest and fear."

He adds, "there are exceptions;" but they are fo few, Mr. Urban, and I have fuffered fo much from their ingratitude, that I with fome of your corre fpondents would point out the cause of fervants being more ungrateful than any other fet of people.

V.

Mr. URBAN, Norwich, Nov. 24.
T is a common faying among the

Itomac people laying among the

a perfon does not feem to recruit after a fit of illnets, or when he does not thrive in the world, that such an one does not moife. Now, Sir, I have ranfacked feveral of our English Dictionaries, both antient and modern, but can find no fuch word, nor indeed any word that this is likely to be a corruption of; and, as I never heard it ufed any where elle but here, and can find no one acquainted

with its etymology, I thought, perhaps, fome of your ingenious corre fpondents might be able to trace its ori ginal; or, if not, that it might poffibly be an addition to the long catalogue of non-defcripts with which Mr. Croft's Dictionary is to abound. Yours, &c. M.

Letter to the Rev. Dr. PRIESTLEY from the COMMITTEE of the REVOLUTION SOCIETY.

WE

REV. SIR, Aug. 16, 1791.

E embrace the opportunity of the first Meeting of the Committee of the Revolution Society, fubfequent to the atrocious Riots which have taken

place at Birmingham, to exprefs our concern and regret at those acts of law. lefs violence by which you have been fo great a fufferer, and which have reflect ed fuch extreme difhonour on this age and on this nation.

It might have been prefumed, that the most ignorant and lawless Savages would not have been induced to commit fuch depredations on the house and property of a man of fuch diftinguished merit as yourself, to whom the whole fcientific world has been fo eminently indebted, and in whofe Woks thofe Principles of equal Liberty have been afferted, and maintained, which would protect even the lowest of the human fpecies from violence and oppreffion. As a Political Writer, you have been and rational fentiments of Government, employed in diffeminating the most just and fuch as are in a very high degree calculated to promote general Freedom and Happiness.

The cond act of the Birmingham Rioters implied in it a complication of ignorance and brutality, which it is aftonifhing to find, at the prefent pertod, in fuch a country as Great Britain. No thing but the most execrable bigotry, united to ignorance the most contempti ble, could lead any body of men to fuppofe, that fuch acts of violence as were lately exercifed at Birmingham against yourfelf and other refpectable Diffenters in that town and its neighbourhood, could be justified by any difference of opinion. We hoped that the age had been more enlightened; that it had been univerfally admitted, that no country can be poffeffed of Freedom in which every man is not allowed to worthip God according to the dictares of his own con onfcience, and in which he is not permitted to defend his opin ons We hoped, wifo, that the principles of Civil

Liberty

179. An Enquiry into the Expediency and Pro priety of public or focial Worship. By Gilbert Wakefield, B. A. late Fellow of Jefus College, Cambridge.

I

F fpeculative minds can do away the doctrines and practices of the pureft religion in the world by negative arguments, there must be an end of all religion. If "the ftupendous doctrine of redemption from the confequences of Adam's tranfgreffion, by the atchievement of iminortality, through the medium of the Meffiah, a doctriné proclaimed, exemplified, and "afcertained by the life of the Son of "God, his facrifice upon the crofs, and "his restoration to life on the third day, was revealed amidft a molt auguft difplay of celestial agency, accompanying this unexampled communication of the Deity, the completion and "conclufion, it should feem, of all his "religious difpenfations to the human "race" if this requires no return of gratitude by public and focial acknow ledgement, it would be a difficult task to keep the impreffions of this moft in terefting of all communications alive on the human mind. An infancy, a youth, and a manbood are, as Mr. W. pertinently obferves (p. 2), at once difcernible in the feveral tages of religious communication. The fit in the Mofaic difpenfation till the Babylonish captivity; the fecond during that captivity, and onward to the appearance of the Melliah; the third under the Chrif tian Revelation.

The fit argument again ft focial and public prayer is taken from our Saviour's praying by himlelf, and apart from his difciples and the multitude. Not one of the inftances of this fort, here adduced, required fociety. Senfible of the presumptive and bypothetical nature of thefe arguments, Mr. Wakefield calls for pofitive proof of the existence of focial worship among Chrift and his Apoftles; and throwing the onus probandi on thofe who hold a different opinion, he retreats, flushed with imagined victory, in terms which befpeak the tendency of his enquiry,-to thake off cuflom, and priefcraft. Established forms, and extemporary effufions, are all done away at one froke, becaufe the Founder of our religion fays nothing about public and jocial worship. But are the precept and practice of his immediate followers of no weight in this cale? When they were deprived of GENT. MAG. November, 1791.

his immediate prefence and perfonal influence, they naturally betook themfelves to focial prayer, as public as it could with fafety be. And this is explained by our Lord's own reafon for the often fafting and praying of John's difciples, and his own obferving a contrary conduct (Luke v..33-35.) The work which our Lord had to do was inftruction. The practice of focial prayer among the Apofiles is expreffed or implied, as often as the occafions required it, both in the Acts of the Apoftles and their Epiftles, however it pleases Mr. W. to cenfure it among their "grofs "and inadequate apprehenfions." This is to call the zeal and fervour of the primitive martyrs obftinate firmness now, in thefe cold-blooded days, we, removed feventeen centuries from the firft impreffions, call Faith Credulity, and Infpiration Enthufiafm. Their dif charge of the duty of prayer, in common concert, is as plainly expreffed as words can convey it in Acts iv. 24, & feqq.; vi. 6; xiii. 3: the first, for affittance in their miniftry; the other two, acts of folemn and general confecration. Their attending in the temple at the hour of prayer (Acts in. 1), fhews that there were public, ftated prayers among the Jews, and that the Apostles fanctioned them, as their Matter came not to deftroy the law, but to fulfill it. Whatever Mr. W. may have learned from his own attendance at the Jewish fynagogues, he may recollect that there are in prist Jewith forms of prayer for public ufe; and is he till to learn, that, though circumcifion was retained by the Apofties as an occafional confor mity, the better to lead the new con verts, it was a rite to which their Divine Mafter, who was to take away the hand writing of legal ordinances, fub. mitted, when he took our nature upon him, as he did alfo to fafting, that he might the better foil the grand adver fary of our falvation? We have his exprefs word for it, that the hour cometh, but is yet at a diftance, when mankind can worship without fecondary aids.

But the irongeft argument brought by Mr. W. feems to be drawn from the corruption of the practice. On the fame ground we may bid adieu to every mbTal precept in the Bible. If we attend to the advice of the writer to the He brews (x. 25), we fhail "not foriake "the affemong ourtelves together, as "the manner of fome is,"

This

1026

This Enquiry is, however, only an apology for the author's own conduct, which has coft him several noble pupils, their noble parent, however unwilling he might be that they fhould attend the eftablished mode of worship, never meant they should attend no public or focial mode at all.

180. The Hiftory of Baptifm.

THE advertisement, dated Chefter. ton, Cambridge, July 14, 1790, ftates, that "this volume, though it may be "confidered as a complete and distinct "work, was put to the prefs by Mr. "Robinson with the view only of exo"nerating the Hiftory of the Baptifis, "which he was writing, of the fubject "of baptifm. Had the author lived, "he would have published two, three, "or more volumes of ecclefiaftical hif"tory, under the title of The Hiftory of "Baptifm. From the refearches which

"he had made into the authentic re"cords of church antiquity, he flattered "himself he should be able to exhibit "the hiftory of a clafs of men, whofe "title to be denominated the difciples "of Chrift was infinitely better found. "ed than that of thofe who have hi"therto proudly and exclufively af "fumed to themselves the name of the "Church. In this work Mr. Robinfon "took great pleafure, and profecuted "his inquiries with fuch intenfe appli"cation as is thought to have impaired

his health, and to have brought on "the fatal diforder of which he died. "The MSS. which he left on this fub"ject are voluminous, but neither ar"ranged nor finished. It is the inten"tion of his family to fubmit them to "the infpection of fome of his learned "friends, on whofe approbation the "publication of them will depend. "The whole of the prefent volume “was finished, except the preface and "recapitulation, before the last year of "his life. He had engaged, in the "fpring, to preach the annual fermon "for the benefit of the Diffenters' cha"rity-fchool at Birmingham; and he "promised himself great pleature from ❝an interview with Dr. Prieftley, and "other gentlemen of that place. The phyfician did not difapprove of the journey, though he withed it could "have been deferred a week or two "longer; and his family flattered them "felves that the exercite and company "would have the most beneficial effects on mis health and fpirits. On Wed

[Nov.

riage, and, travelling by eafy stages, "arrived at Birmingham on Saturday "evening, apparently not at all the "worfe for his journey. On Sunday "he preached twice, in the morning at "the new meeting-houfe, and in the "afternoon at the old. On Monday

66

evening his friends were alarmed for "him, from an exceffive difficulty of "refpiration, under which he laboured "for fome time; but on Tuesday he "revived, and entertained the company "the greater part of the day, and the "whole of the evening, with all that "eafe and vivacity in converfation for "which he had ever been remarkable. "He retired to reft about 12 o'clock, "and probably died without a ftruggle, "for on Wednesday morning he was "found nearly cold, the bed-clothes "were not difcompofed, nor the fea"tures of his countenance in the leaft "distorted. It was always his desire to "die fuddenly and alone. He departed "this life, at the age of 54 years aud 8 months, in the houfe of William "Ruffell, Efq. at Showel!-green, near "Birmingham, and was interred by "this gentleman, with everv poffible "mark of refpect, in the Diffenters' "burying ground. Dr. Priestley and "feveral other Diffenting minifters paid "the due tribute of respect to the re"mains of our much-esteemed friend. "We intend to publish an authentic "biographical account of Mr. R. in a "fhort time."

In a fhort, well-written preface Mr. R. gives a candid account of his work; the defign of which was, to fhew, among other arguments against infant baptifm, how inimical it is to perfonal liberty and liberty of conscience.

The plan of this hiftory may best be learned from his recapitulation of it.

"Chap. I. attempts to narrate the origin of baptifm in an order of God, executed by John the Baptist.

"Chap. II. fhews John's baptifm was by immersion in water.

"Chap. III. treats of the perfons baptifed, and attempts to prove they were only true believers; and here Jefus is introduced as Lord of the New Oeconomy.

"Chap. IV. and V. enquire whether baptifin were in ufe among the Jews before John, or among the Gentiles; and it is fhewn not to have been, and that it was altogether a new and divine appointment.

"Chap.