• terms than marriage, and confidering the distance which fortune had put between them, she was sensible she could not receive the title of wife, without difgracing her admirer. Shere• solved then to remove those obstacles to her Mahmut's happiness, at the expence of what was most dear to her. Wrapping herself up therefore in long mantle, she left her house in the dusk of the evening, and went to fell herself to • a dealer in slaves: after this she wrote the following letter to Mahmut. " My Lord, a "You have not thought me unworthy to be your wife, " and I have the deepest sense of gratitude for this single tes"timony of your esteem. I think my heart and sentiments " would not have disgraced that honourable quality: but "what would your relations say? What would all Persia fay, " whose eyes are upon you, and who fee nothing in me, but " the mean profession I was bred to? I allow, that in one " moment you may be deprived of every thing that makes the difparity between us: but if ever you should be borne down " by adverse fortune, the whole world would be forced to ac" knowledge the injustice, and to pity and admire you. You " love Idris: you are refolved to die, if she does not make " herself yours: come then, and take her out of the house of se the master to whom she has fold herself, in order that your" self may become her master. She is not qualified to be. "come your wife: take her then as your flave," The original of this work has not fallen in our way, but we imagine it deserves a better tranflation: with regard to our author's talent of story-telling, tho' he has been pleased to call his tales eastern, there appears nothing of the Afiatic genius, or mode of expreffion, in them: to this remark we must add another, of more consequence, viz. that, notwithstanding we have admitted several of his instructions to be useful, there are fome, we think, far from deserving the fame approbation; particularly, we would not recommend to a British Hero to draw from hence his nations of religion *. * Speaking of modes of religious worship, our author advises his young gentleman, 'to fide with the party which his fovereign, at the head of the majority, makes, or declares to be best. ART ART. VII. Wicked Christians, practical Atheists; or, Free Thoughts of a plain Man on the Doctrines and Duties of Religion in general, and of Chriftianity in particular; compared and contrasted with the Faith and Practice of Protestants of every Denomination; so far as either have come under the Observation, or to the Knowledge, of the Author, Anthony Fothergill, a Husbandman in the County of Westmorland. 8vo. 4s. Payne. W E have read this piece with peculiar pleasure. The author appears to be an honest and candid enquirer after truth; he shews a laudable zeal for promoting the interests of liberty, virtue, and religion; and a becoming indignation against vice and folly, however dignified or disguised. He expresses himself, tho' not with accuracy or elegance, yet in a clear, and often in a spirited, manner; his sentiments are generally just, and his observations natural and pertinent. Subjects of a religious nature he seems to have thought much upon, and to have understood, and properly digested, what he has read; no traces of a blind and implicit attachment to party-principles, or the peculiar notions of any fect, appear in his work; but, on the contrary, many marks of the impartiality and candour of this honeft PLOWMAN. In a word, there runs a plainfiess and simplicity of manner through the whole performance, that cannot but be agreeable to every ingenuous reader; and we meet with so many obvious marks of the author's good understanding, and good heart, as will abundantly compenfate for any improprieties of language, or want of elegance, precifion, or coherence, that may befound in his book. He gives us his thoughts on a great variety of subjects;-on the love of God, and the love of our neighbour; on faith; repentance; prayer; the origin of evil; divine rectitude; moral obligation; the use of reason in religion; infant baptifm; juftification; lineal descent; the church of England clergy; and several other important subjects; of which, tho' he does not enter into a large or accurate discussion, yet what he says upon them is generally to the purpose. As a specimen, we shall lay before our readers what this worthy Farmer says on the origin of evil. Our schoolmen,' fays he, in former times, have been • very much puzzled to find out the origin of evil; for, as they conceived God to be a Being of effential goodness and • holiness, they could not imagine how evil should come into f the world, But this difficulty will be easily folved, if we fe • seriously examine those natural powers God has bestowed < upon us; for tho' he has given us an understanding faculty, • whereby we can discover our duty and our interest; yet he ⚫ has also given us a will, which is not subject to the judg• ment of the understanding; by which he has put it in our power to act in direct opposition to our known duty. He ⚫ has also implanted paffions and appetites in our natures, • which frequently rise up in rebellion against the judgment; • and, notwithstanding our reason, often incline the judgment • to give way to their impetuofity, which leaves the will at • liberty either to be determined by the judgment, or to comply with the violent demands of the appetites and paffions; • which two last often prevail against the determination of the • judgment, and this produces what we call MORAL EVIL; To that the LIBERTY OF THE WILL is the real fource from • whence evil flows. On this account many men have * thought, that it had been happy for mankind, if God had < not given them this power of liberty of choice; or, which is • the same thing, a self-determining power. And tho' the • wills of angels or men (whose wills are not entirely subjected ⚫ to the judgment of their understandings) are the real and • fundamental causes of their fin, yet had neither angels nor < men been free in their choice, either to act, or refuse to act, they could have been nothing more than confcious instru• ments in the hands of the deity; nothing more than mere machines. The creation would have been visibly imperfect, < and the powerful and all-wife governor of the universe muft • have had no other than paffive subjects, if such can at all be • called subjects, who are utterly incapable of all active obedi⚫ence; which state and incapacity would have rendered man kind far less worthy of the care and fuperintendence of in< finite wisdom, than their being created free agents, and < beings capable of chusing and acting upon rational principles: and tho' it is true that liberty capacitates men to offend, and • consequently renders them liable to be miserable; yet it is as < plain, that it is not the liberty, but the abuse of that liberty, which is the real cause both of that fin, and the mifery con• sequential upon it. But he that will fay every thing is an imperfection in the creation, by the abuse whereof a crea⚫ ture may become more miferable, or more unhappy, than if * God had never given it that power at all, must also say, that ⚫ a stone is a more excellent creature than a man, because it ⚫ is not capable of making itself miserable as man is. And by ⚫ the fame argument, reason and knowledge, yea, and life it• self, might be proved imperfections in the creation; because if if man had been created without these, it would have been impossible for him to be miserable. The truth therefore is, it is not liberty, but the abuse of it, that is, the corruption ⚫ and depravation of that without which no creature could be ⚫ either virtuous or happy, which is alone the cause of their ' mifery: for liberty itself is a great perfection of the rational nature, and the more perfect any creature is, the more • perfect is its liberty; and the most perfect liberty is that • which cannot be corrupted or biassed from what is the proper • object of free choice, that is the greatest good. WITHOUT 'LIBERTY OF CHOICE there can be NO VIRTUE; for virtue • confifts not in being RIGHTLY acted upon, but in CHUSING ' AND ACTING what is right: if men had not been created • with this liberty, it would have been impossible for them to • be virtuous, because it would have been impoffible for them ⚫ to chuse it. And if men have a power to use this their li• berty, or natural freedom of will, to the best purposes, they ⚫ have also a power to abuse it to the worst: and every such • abuse of it is morally evil: so that I cannot discover any means for the effectual prevention or banishment of vice, but • which would be equally effectual for the prevention or banish• ment of virtue. • But to return from this digreffion, and resume the argu' ment: it is afferted by many pious, learned, great and worthy divines, and others, that all mankind finned in Adam; and if fo, they finned for want of conformity unto, or by tranfgreffion against, some law given unto them, (as the af• sembly's catechism excellently expresses it): for fin is the tranfgreffion of a law, and where no law is, there is no tranfgression. Now the pofterity of Adam could not be guilty of breaking that law which prohibited eating the forbidden fruit, ⚫ for as there is not now any earthly paradise, and, confequently, no fruit, which we of the present age can poffibly come at, which is prohibited by that law, men cannot at all • be supposed to be any way affected at present by any such law, • as it is, on all accounts, impossible for them to tranfgress. • And to suppose that all mankind finned in Adam, and were therefore punishable by a just and merciful God; a God who always acts upon principles of equity and perfect rectitude; * would be to represent the father of mercies, and the father • of our spirits, not as a being who has any paternal affection for us, but as a most cruel tyrant, which must fill our minds with the most frightful apprehenfions of him: we could not • address him as our father, nor as a being gracious and mer6 ciful, but as one altogether arbitrary and fevere. For, if ، • mankind were entirely passive in their descent from the loins ' of Adam, as to be sure they were; if they could not poffibly • avoid coming into a state of existence, nor poffibly avoid thereby being involved in a state of fin and guilt, by his tranfgreffion; it is (as to their cafe) equally finful in them ' to descend from Adam, as to be obnoxious to everlasting pu• nishment by his fin: for according to this doctrine, they • are born finners; a term which is a glaring contradiction to • human reason at first view, and an high and audacious im• peachment of the attributes of the great, gracious, merciful, • and just God. If this doctrine sets the state and condition of • mankind in its just light, such consequences will attend it, * as appear to me very difficult to account for; if we are born • sinners, and obnoxious to everlasting punishment by Adam's • tranfgreffion, many cafes may happen, in which it is an ut• ter impoffibility for us to escape it, even by the covenant of grace; nay, I add, if we give a close attention to the terms • and conditions of that covenant, as laid down in the New • Teftament, and allow ourselves in a damnable estate by • Adam's fin, I cannot discover any folid foundation of hope • (even for the fincere believer himself) by that most gracious • covenant of redeeming love; for the terms of our acceptance ⚫ in and through the glorious redeemer, are faith, repentance, • and fincere obedience, not separately, but conjunctly; so that ⚫ the want or defect of any one of them deprives us of our co• venant-title to heaven. Now, as a child, for a long time • after it is born, is incapable of exercising its rational powers • and faculties, and a much longer before the principles of the • Christian religion can be instilled into its mind; if that child ⚫ dies under the damnable guilt of Adam's fin, and altogether • incapable of believing, is not that child unavoidably con• demned for ever by this doctrine? And if an adult must be ⚫ for ever excluded from heaven, except he repents, and cannot ⚫ in any wife repent of what another person acted before he had 'a being; he likewise must be unavoidably deprived of all ' claim or benefit by the covenant of grace. I know it has • been answered to this in general, that Christ, by the merit of ⚫ his obedience, has taken away all fin, without any conditions • to be performed on our part; and that any such conditions ⚫ would very much eclipse the glorious grace and mercy of the • covenant itself: but I must own I fee it in another light, • and look upon the terms as conditions every way becoming ، a rightful legislator, to such of his subjects as have broken ⚫ his equitable laws, and rebelled against his government: for • it would argue weakness instead of favour in a prince, if he • should |