lished 1770, in 3 vols. 8vo., by his son the late Bishop of Durham, then Bishop of Landaff.

In this work the noble author has traced, with great care and judgment, the methods taken by the apostles and first preachers of the gospel for propagating Christianity, and explained with great distinctness the several gifts of the Spirit, by which they were enabled to discharge that office; these he improved into an argument for the truth of the Christian religion, which is said to have staggered the infidelity of Mr. Anthony Collins.

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This gentleman, who lived in Essex, often visited Lord Barrington at Tofts, his seat in that county, where Dr. Jeremiah Hunt also sometimes visited his Lordship. They therefore occasionally met there, and it is said to have been their custom after dinner to have a Greek Testament laid upon the table, as they were all men of letters, and had a taste for scriptural criticism. In one of their conversations, Mr. Collins observed, that he had a very great respect for the memory of St. Paul; and added, "I think so well of him, who was both a man of sense and a gentleman, that if he had asserted he had worked miracles himself, I would have believed him." Lord Barrington immediately, produced a passage in which that apostle asserts his having wrought miracles: Mr. Collins seemed somewhat disconcerted, and soon after took his hat and quitted the company. When Lord Barrington, in another conversation, asked Mr. Collins what was the reason that, though he seemed himself to have very little faith in the doctrines of religion, he yet took great care that his servants should attend regularly at church, his reply was, that he did this to prevent their robbing or murdering him.

We have said that Lord Barrington was the friend and disciple of Mr. Locke, and from him he derived those ideas of civil and religious liberty which he has so forcibly stated and maintained in many of his productions: no one, indeed, who is acquainted with the writings of that great and illustrious man, can fail to discover in the religious and political publications of Lord Barrington, the same clearness of ideas, the same closeness of reasoning, and the same unadorned perspicuity of style, which distinguish the works of Mr. Locke. Each indeed of his Lordship's productions is strongly marked with all the characteristic peculiarities of Mr. Locke's corresponding treatises : in the tract entitled "Revolution and Anti-Revolution Principles Stated and Compared," we find an able amplification of nearly all the most important positions in the famous treatise On Government in the pamphlets on the Corporation and Test Acts, we plainly discern the same spirit of civil liberty, and the same arguments in support of it, which we find in the Letters on Toleration; and in the Miscellanea Sacra, and the Dissertations which accompany that interesting work, we are forcibly reminded of that just and cool, and candid mode of scriptural interpretation which pervades Mr. Locke's compositions on theological subjects; and he and his noble disciple have been the means of diffusing a very

general spirit of free and scriptural criticism,which, though too often perverted, has been proved by experience to be well adapted to the more perfect apprehension of the meaning of Scripture, and which has consequently been cultivated among all classes of theologians. As his Lordship's attention was much directed to the study of divinity, he had a strong sense of the importance of free inquiry in matters of religion and it is needless to remind those who are acquainted with the writings which this edition of his works embraces, that whenever he advances any thing which is doubtful in his own estimation, or which his arguments do not conclusively establish, though they may have great weight, he always expresses himself with a becoming diffidence, the certain indication of a philosophical mind: he never gives or requires a stronger assent to the conclusion than the premises will justly warrant.

To the Miscellanea Sacra of Lord Barrington may justly be ascribed the origin of that useful and important work-" Benson's History of the Planting of Christianity," in the course of which the author frequently acknowledges his obligations to his Lordship for many valuable suggestions.

The following extracts from a funeral sermon, preached at Farringdon and Becket,' a few

'By Robert Mackewen, M.A., on 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8: preached on 29th December, 1734.

days after his Lordship's decease, give an interesting account of his character; and as both the speaker and the hearers knew him well, we may be certain that the picture is fairly drawn:

I have all along laid a restraint upon my affections, which would have broken forth in admiring expressions of the eminent worth, learning, usefulness, Christian fortitude, and the public loss of that great and excellent person, the late Lord Viscount Barrington, whose death we lament.

"He was descended from worthy ancestors, several of whom served the Kings of England with honour, as commanders in the wars of Normandy, when Normandy was annexed to the crown. He had a graceful person, a happy constitution, and an extraordinary genius, improved by a happy, pious, and liberal education; and, if I am not mistaken, it will hereafter be accounted an honour to Utrecht, where he finished his academical studies, to have contributed to the forming so great a man; for he was a person of almost unequalled abilities, and many excellent and uncommon virtues. His great judgment, extensive knowledge, acute sagacity, and intense application, rendered him perhaps, on the whole, the most finished character in life.

"His principles of civil and religious liberty were rational, demonstrative, and immovable, and his happy faculty of communicating his

thoughts upon any subject made his conversation extremely agreeable and instructive to men of sense and taste: such admirable talents could not long be hid, and therefore he had an early and strict friendship with several persons of the greatest rank, learning, and virtue, which be never sought.

"The years of his retirement were devoted to the noblest purposes-the study of the sacred oracles, in which province he shone with a peculiar lustre : his profound skill and facility in handling these divine themes, by the happiest mixture of reason and oratory, was the admiration and delight of all that had a just relish of them; and, I speak it from knowledge, the contemplations which filled his own mind with the highest rational pleasure were of the Supreme Being, His moral government, particular providence, and dispensations to mankind. We may view the picture of his mind in those pathetic and admirable lines written to his son and heir, whom he tenderly loved, a few weeks before his death.

"The study of morality is the noblest of all others-those eternal truths which regulate the conduct of God and man. This alone can be called the science of life; will instruct us how to act in this scene with happiness and usefulness; leave it with composure, and be associated in a future and better state to the best moralists