doth not exclude a rational felf-regard, or an abhorrence of iniquity, or a prudent zeal for virtue and for religion.

In the latter part of this fermon, he takes notice of the imprecations contained in the 109th Pfalm. In a note, he fays, these imprecations have been commonly fuppofed to be the words of David: but it feems more probable, that they are not the curfes which David pronounced against his enemies, but the curfes which his enemies pronounced against him, and which he repeats in their words; and then adds in the 27th verfe. Though they curfe, yet blefs thou, &c.' But be this as it will, they are no patterns for Chriftians to imitate.' This, and many other apologies have been made for David; but, in our opinion, without effect. Other pfalms contain several bitter imprecations, which cannot be fuppofed to be the curfes of David's enemies; nor yet, perhaps, declararations of future events. We may therefore content ourselves with fuppofing, that David had his infirmities; and that thefe harsh expreffions are only the effufions of corrupt nature, unenlightened and unrefined by the precepts of Chriftianity.

In the fourth fermon, the author purfues the fame fubject, and fhews the reasonableness of loving our enemies. He mentions feveral motives to the observance of this duty, and particularly confiders the meaning of this remarkable paffage, Rom. xii. 20. If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in fo doing, thou fhalt heap coals of fire on his head.'

There are, he obferves, two interpretations given to thefe words. One is this:

By repeated acts of charity thou shalt melt him down at length, even though he be most obftinate and hardened; as the hardest metals are melted by putting live coals on the top of them.

This expofition looks plaufible, and conveys a fenfe and a fpirit in it fo conformable to the fentiments of humanity and benevolence, that if it be not the meaning, one could almoft with that it were the meaning of the place. If therefore we cannot admit it as true, yet neither will we utterly condemn it, but leave it as a comment, which may be fafely adopted, though it should be erroneous.

The other interpretation is this: Feed thy enemy, and give him drink; for in fo doing thou shalt bring down upon his head the juft vengeance of God.

*

This interpretation feems to be favoured by the words before it, in which Chriftians are exhorted to leave their caufe to God, the God of vengeance, and by many places of fcripture where fire and coals of fire denote God's wrath and punishments inflicted by him. Solomon, from whom St. Paul took thefe words, fays in the Book of Proverbs; If thine enemy be hungry, give him a ead to eat ;

* Grotius and Whitby. See alfo Jerem. v. 14. and kevel. xi. 5. and Le Clerc, Bibl. A. and M. t. i. p. 373.

both keep wiping their eyes with their handkerchiefs every other moment for about an hour.

• Many authors and editors have the custom in Spain to dedicate books to the Almighty, to his Angels, to his Saints, and even to those of their images that are in reputation of being miraculous. A volume of Calderon's Autos Sacramentales is by a printer dedicated to the Patriarca San Juan de Dios, though he was no Patriarch at all, but a bookseller at Grenada, as the dedicatory letter informs us, who in a fit of devotion threw into the fire all the books he had in his shop, thofe of piety only excepted. That San Juan (or St. John) was' the founder of an order which profeffes ignorance. It was natural for a man who burnt his books, to think of forming fuch an inflitution.

• When the edict was published in Madrid, that commanded every man to cock up his hat, the whole town was filled with murmurs and difcontent. Many a ftranger laughed then, and laughs ftill, at the Spaniards for their not fubmitting with pleasure to a more becoming fashion: yet we ought to confider how natural it is for mankind to hate innovations, even when they are for the better. Suppofe that the French, or any other European nation, wearing cocked hats, were ordered to uncock them, do you think they would fubmit without reluctance ?'

We fhall now take the liberty to remind our readers of the recommendation which we gave this book towards the beginning of our first article upon it. There is no inconsistency in cenfuring fome parts of a work which one recommends to the world. Unmixed praife is generally as ill grounded as it is fultome; and totally to condemn often betrays more ill-nature than judgment. Mr. Baretti's book, confidered as a defcription of countries, as a narrative of facts and occurrences, is extremely entertaining and inftructive. He travels through parts of the world with which the English are lefs acquainted than might be expected; and he prefents the reader with a variety of new, and interefting objects. It must be owned, he is a poor moralift, and a worfe politician; and we have thought it in fome degree incumbent upon us to confute his notions of government, left they should make fome impreffion upon fuperficial and inattentive minds. But his moral and political noftrums feldom occur, and they do not long retard the curiofity of the reader.

III. A New

Since we must think that God will act thus, and fince God hath declared that he will act thus, it is our duty to approve these proceedings, proceedings founded upon reafon, upon the laws of order, upon the perfections of God.

Befides; it is to be observed that the divine vengeance denoted by the words, coals of fire, means in the Old Teftament rather temporal judgments than punishments to be inflicted in the world to come; and as St. Paul hath thence borrowed the expreffion, there feems to be no neceffity to extend the fenfe of it to any other chastisements than to those which the divine Providence inflicts or fuffers to fall upon finners in the prefent world. Now though we ought not to pray or to wish that temporal evils may befal unmerciful and tyrannical perfons, but rather leave it to God, yet when fuch evils overtake them, we may and we must think that the punishment is right, and that it is not only an act of divine juftice, but of divine mercy and goodnefs alfo. If it puts it out of their power to injure others any longer, or if it deters others from following their example, it is a great and general benefit; and though it should cut them off in their iniquity, and take them out of the world, ftill it may be profitable even to them, either as it hinders them from adding to their fins, and confequently to their future mifery, or as it is a part of their punishment, and gives room to hope that the more they fuffer here, the lefs they may fuffer hereafter.

Juft and righteous are the ways and the judgments of God. The injurious and the injured are in his hands. He will reward fuffering innocence, and he will correct infolent oppreffion without paffion and prejudice, according to the dictates of perfect wifdom and perfect equity.”

In the fifth difcourfe, our author confiders the nature of that wisdom which the fcriptures recommend, which they reprefent as an invaluable poffeffion, which they declare to be a gift and a bleffing defcending from above, and which they advise us to request of Almighty God. He fhews that this wisdom does not confift in the art of pursuing wealth and power, and the good things of life, nor yet in learning and philofophy, but in a knowledge of the truth of our religion; of the things which a Christian ought to believe, and of the things which he ought to do; and lastly, in a lively fenfe of the poflibility, reasonablenefs, obligation, and advantage, of performing the will of God, which will excite us to perfevere in the obfervation of it. He concludes, with fome remarks on the fuperiority of religious wisdom to all other kinds of wisdom.

The fixth fermon contains an illuftration on thefe words of St. James, ch. i v. 5, 6. If any of you lack wisdom, &c. In explaining the feveral parts of this text he takes them in the fame order in which they lie: If any of you lack wisdom,-let him afk of God,-who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him ;-but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. Upon the laft of thefe topics it is natural to afk, why is faith fo acceptable to God, that he rewards it by

grant

the utmost consequence to a proper knowledge of his subject, he has laid the foundation of it in aftronomy; because the fcience of geography cannot be completely understood without confidering the earth as a planet, or as a body moving round another, at a confiderable diftance from it.' Hence arifes the great neceffity and abfolute propriety of beginning fuch a work as this with an account of aftronomy, or of the heavenly bodies. With refpect to the aftronomical part, we will first give our author's words concerning the figure of the earth, which will convey fome idea of the execution of the other parts of the work.

Though, in speaking of the earth, fays he along with the other planets, it was fufficient to confider it as a fpherical or globular body; yet it has been difcovered, that this is not its true figure, and that the earth, though nearly a fphere, or ball, is not perfectly fo. This matter occafioned great difpute between the philofophers of the laft age, among whom, Sir Ifaac Newton, and Caffini a French aftronomer, were the heads of two different parties: Sir Ifaac demonstrated from mechanical principles, that the earth was an oblate sphere, or that it was flatted at the poles, or north and fouth points, and jutted out towards the equator; fo that a line drawn through the centre of the earth, and paffing through the poles, which is called a diameter, would not be fo long as a line drawn through the fame center, and paffing through the east and weit points. The French philofopher afferted quite the contrary. But the matter was put to a trial by the French king in 1736, who fent out a company of philofophers towards the north pole, and likewife towards the equator, in order to meafure a degree, or the three hundred and fixtieth part of a great circle in thefe different parts; and from their report, the opinion of Sir Ifaac Newton was confirmed beyond difpute. Since that time, therefore, the earth has been always confidered as more flat towards the poles, than towards the equator.'

From this fhort abstract, it will eafily be feen, that the introduction to this work contains much fcientific matter; and, indeed, fuch fatisfaction has it afforded us in reading, and comparing it with works of a fimilar nature, that we fhall felect the doctrine of tides; on which fubject, though no new folution is attempted to be offered, nor do we apprehend it poffible, after the difcoveries of a Newton and a Halley'; yet the eafy and natural. method (which fo eminently appears throughout this work) of communicating fubjects feemingly of an abftrufe nature, muft greatly facilitate the knowledge of this fcience, and will amply juftify us for the following quotation.

By

By the tides, is meant that regular motion of the sea, according to which, it ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours. The doctrine of the tides remained in obscurity till the immortal Sir Ifaac Newton explained it by his great principle of gravity or attraction. For having demonftrated that there is a principle in all bodies within the folar system, by which they mutually draw, or attract one another, in proportion to their distance, it follows, that those parts of the fea, which are immediately below the moon, must be drawn towards it; and consequently, wherever the moon is nearly vertical, the fea will be raised, which occafions the flowing of the tide there. A similar reason occafions the flowing of the tide, likewise, in those places where the moon is in the nadir, and which must be diametrically oppofite to the former; for in the hemifphere farthest from the moon, the parts in the nadir being less attracted by her than the other parts which are nearer to her, gravitate lefs towards the earth's center, and, consequently, must be higher than the reft. Those parts of the earth on the contrary, where the moon appears on the horizon, or ninety degrees diftant from the zenith, or nadir, will have low water; for as the waters in the zenith and na dir rife at the fame time, the waters in their neighbourhood will prefs towards thofe places to maintain the equilibrium; to fupply the places of thefe, others will move the fame way, and fo on to the places ninety degrees diftant from the zenith and nadir, where the water will be loweft. By combining this doctrine with the diurnal motion of the earth, above explained, we shall be fenfible of the reafon why the tides ebb and flow twice in twenty-four hours, in every place on this globe. The tides are higher than ordinary twice every month, that is, about the times of new and full moon, and are called fpring tides; for at these times, the actions of both the fun and moon are united, and draw in the fame ftraight line, and, confequently, the fea must be more elevated at the conjunction, or when the fun and moon are on the fame fide of the earth, they both confpire to raife the waters in the zenith, and confequently in the nadir; and at the oppofition, or when the earth is between the fun and moon, while one occafions high water in the zenith and nadir, the other does the fame. The tides are less than ordinary twice every month, about the first and last quarters of the moon, and are called neap tides; for in the quarters the fun raifes the waters where the moon depreffes them, and depreffes where the moon raifes them; fo that the tides are only occafioned by the dif ference by which the action of the moon, which is nearest us,

prevails