that God's difpenfation to us here is but part of our moral fyftem. The fate of all religion therefore being included in the queftion of God's moral attributes, our author thinks it of importance to prove, against his lordship, that men may acquire adequate ideas of them in the fame way, that his lordfhip hath fhewn us, we acquire the knowledge of his natural attributes, viz. by the contemplation of his works.

In order to prevent all ambiguity in the terms, and equivocation in the use of them, he explains what true philofophy means by God's works, whether phyfical or moral. He underftands by them, that conftitution of things which God hath established and directed, tending to a plain and evident end : without regard to thofe impediments or obftructions in its course, which the author of nature hath permitted to arife from any part of the material or intellectual creation. In order to decide the queftion concerning God's attributes, we are to confider, he obferves, the conftitution of things, as it is in itfelf, fimply: this conftitution, he tells us, is, properly fpeaking, God's work; the diforders in it, occafioned by the abuse of man's free-will, is not his work, but man's. This he premises to obviate one continued fophifm that runs through all his lordship's reafonings against the moral attributes: where the courfe and operation of the moral conftitution, as it appears under the difturbances occafioned by man's free-will, is perpetually put for the conftitution itself.

It is not,' fays he, the conftitution of the world, nor the Aate of mankind in it, but the CONSTITUTION OF THE MORAL SYSTEM; or the ftate of virtue and vice, as they naturally operate to produce happiness and mifery, by which • God's moral attributes are to be tried and afcertained.

.

But

this, which is a fteady and uniform view, he would have us ⚫ turn away from; to contemplate that obfcure, difturbed, and fhifting fcene, the actual state of vice and virtue, of mifery and happiness, amongst men. That is, he would have us conclude concerning God's nature, not from his vOLUNTARY CONSTITUTION of things, but from the breaches ⚫ into that conftitution by the abuse of man's free-will: which yet, when he is arguing for an equal providence, he again and again confefies ought not to be charged upon God; and declaims violently against the folly of thofe, who impute the effects of that abufe to him. While here, in his various attempts to blot out the idea of God's moral attributes he is full of the diforders of the moral fyftem as part of • God's defign.'

Having thus far cleared his way, our author proceeds to fhew, from God's works, that we have as precife ideas of his goodness and juftice, as of his power and wifdom. One of his arguments for the reality and full evidence of the moral attributes, is taken from Lord Bolingbroke himself, and concludes on his own principles. His lordship obferves, that it is fufficient to establish our moral obligations, that we confider them relatively to our own fyftem. From thence, he tells us, they arife; and fince they arife from thence, it must be the will of that Being who made the fyftem, that we fhould obferve and practife them.

Let me afk then,' fays our author, how it is that we collect this WILL from the objects which his lordship allows us to contemplate, namely, his works in this fyftem? He will fay, from certain qualities in these objects.-What are thofe qualities? He will reply, the fitneffes of means to ends. -Who was the author of thefe fitnefles? He hath told us, the God of nature. It was God's will then we fhould use the means in order to obtain the ends. Now, in the moral sys6 tem, the means are virtuous practice, the end happiness. < Virtue therefore muft needs be pleafing to him; and vice, as its contrary, difpleafing. Well, but then, as to this like and diflike; it must be either capricious, or it must be regulated on the nature of things. Wisdom, which his lordfhip condefcends to give his maker, will not allow us to fuppofe it capricious. It is regulated therefore on the nature of things. But if the nature of things be, as his lordship holds it is, the conftitution of God, and dependent on his will, then he who is pleafed with virtue, and difpleased with ⚫vice, must needs be himself good and just.'

It would lead us beyond the bounds we muft affign to this article, to give our readers a distinct view of what our ingenious letter-writer advances farther on this subject; we fhall close it therefore with the conclufion of the fecond letter, which is as follows:

And now, what I propofed for the fubject of this fecond letter is pretty well exhaufted. My firft was employed in giving you a fpecimen of his temper. This undertakes to explain his fyftem; and I referve the next for a difplay of his marvellous talents; tho' it be true, I have fomewhat anticipated the fubject. For you cannot but have conceived already a very uncommon idea of his abilities, on feeing him * ufe TINDAL'S ARGUMENTS against revelation, and for the 'perfection of natural religion, along with his own PRINCIPLES of no moral attributes, and no future ftate. The firft

• of

of which principles makes one entire abfurdity of all he borrows from Tindal against revelation; and the fecond takes away the very pretence to PERFECTION in natural religion.

His lordship's friend Swift, has fome where or other obferved, that no fubject in all nature but RELIGION, could have advanced Toland and Afgill into the clafs of reputable • authors. Another of his friends feems to think, that no fubject but RELIGION could have funk his lordship so far below it; if ever Lord Bolingbroke trifles (fays Pope) it will be when he writes on divinity.

But this is the ftrange fate of authors, whether with wit, or without, when they chufe to write on certain subjects. For it is with authors as with men: who can guess which veffel was made for honour, and which for dishonour? When • fometimes one and the fame is made for both. Even this ⚫ choice veffel of the first philofophy, his lordship's facred pages, may be put to very different ufes, according to the different tempers in which they may find his few friends and the public; like the China Jordan in the DUNCIAD, which one hero piffed into, and another carried home for his headpiece.'

R

ART. XXXII. The Life of Pope Sixtus V. In which is included the fate of England, France, Spain, Italy, the Swifs Cantons, Germany, Poland, Ruffia, Sweden, and the Low Countries; at that time. With an account of St. Peter's, the conclave, and manner of chufing a Pope; the Vatican library, the many grand abelifks, aqueducts, bridges, hofpitals, palaces, ftreets, towns, and other noble edifices, begun and finished by him. The whole inter/perfed with feveral curious incidents and anecdotes, not to be met with in any other author. Tranflated from the Italian of Gregorio Leti, with a preface, prolegomena, notes and appendix, by Ellis Farneworth, M. A. fome time of Jefus College, in Cambridge, and chaplain to feveral of his majesty's hips during the late war. Folio, 16s. in fheets. Bathurst.

MR

R. Farneworth, in his preface, informs us of many difficulties and difcouragements that he met with in the execution of this performance, and speaks with no little contempt of his original. Leti,' he tells us, was an Italian of a confiderable family, born at Milan in the year 1630. After he had travelled through Savoy and France, he came into England, where he was well received by King Charles II.

• and

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and had a promise of being made his hiftoriographer; but ⚫ meeting with fome difappointment, he went to Amfterdam, and was chofen historian for that city.-When he wrote this hiftory, he seems to have been far advanced in years, or at least in the decline of life, and got into his talkative age." His facts are related in an old woman-like manner, full of tautology and repetition: he often forgets himself, and ⚫ tells the fame story over and over again, with little variation, in the compass of a few pages, without any regard to connection, eafinefs of tranfition, or that lucidus ordo, which is neceflary not only to make a history entertaining, or even intelligible and confiftent with the accounts of other na⚫tions.'

These and other defects in the original are proposed to be rectified in the tranflation, which the tranflator admits to be very far from a literal one: he acquaints us, that he is indebted to Leti for the marrow and fubftance of the history, but that he has in a great measure taken the relation of facts out of his hands, tho' with a ftrict regard to the truth of the whole, and every particular circumftance.

As to the history itself, it appears calculated rather to excite admiration, than to communicate instruction; and the trans actions it relates oftener surprize than please us. An uncommon fortitude, an almost unexampled refolution, a profound diffimulation, and unlimited ambition, are the principal characteristics of this pontiff, who, nevertheless, was poffeffed of virtues that in a great measure compensate for his faults; for he was remarkably affiduous in the obfervance of his ecclefiaftical duties, inflexible in the administration of juftice, and in general beneficent, grateful, and temperate: but as a further knowledge of fo complicated a character, will not, we conceive, be difpleafing to any of our readers, we fhall endeavour to make them better acquainted with fo extraordinary a perfonage.

He was born the 13th of December 1521, in the province of La Marca d'Ancona, at a village called Le Grotte, in the figniory of Montalto; his father's name was Francis Peretti, who, for his faithful fervice to a country gentleman in that neighbourhood, with whom he lived as a gardener, was rewarded with his master's favourite fervant-maid for a wife: thefe were the parents of that pontiff, who, from the inftant of his acceffion to the papacy, even till the hour of his death, made himself obeyed and feared, not only by his own fubjects, but by all who had any concern with him. Our Pope was their eldeft, and named Felix; befides whom they had two children, a daughter called Camilla, and another fon named Antonio.

Tho'

Tho' he very early discovered a fitnefs and inclination for learning, the poverty of his parents prevented their indulging it; wherefore, at about nine years of age, his father hired him to an inhabitant of the fame town, to look after his sheep: but his master being on fome occafion difobliged, removed him to a lefs honourable employ, and gave him the care of his hogs.

Providence, however, foon released him from this disagreeable occupation: he had ever manifefted a particular respect for all ecclefiaftics, and one day, in the beginning of February 1531, as Father Michael Angelo Selleri, a Francifcan friar, was going to preach during the Lent feafon at Afcoli, a ⚫ confiderable town in that province, he loft his way near Le Grotte, and coming to four lane ends, could not tell which to take, but was looking round for fome body to direct him; when little Felix, who was attending his hogs juft by, saw Father Michael in diftrefs, he ran to falute him, making him at the fame time a tender of his service: the friar chear• fully accepted it, and asked him the road to Afcoli; I'll foon fhew you the way thither, faid he, and immediately began to run before him: as they went along, the answers he gave to Father Michael's queftions were fo fmart and pertinent, and accompanied with fo much good humour, that every time the child turned his face to liften more attentively to what was faid, he was charmed with him, and could not conceive whence a child that had no higher employment than looking after hogs, should have such a share of sense and good

6

manners.

When Father Michael had got into his road again, he thanked Felix for the trouble he had given him; and would have difmiffed him with an alms; but he kept running forwards, without feeming to take any notice of what he said, which obliged the friar to afk him in a jocofe manner, whether he defigned to go with him quite into the town? Yes, fays Felix, not only to Afcoli, but to the end of the world, with a great deal of pleasure, and upon this took occafion to tell him, that the poor circumstances of his parents would not allow them to fend him to school, as he defired; that he earnestly wifhed fomebody belonging to a convent would take him as a waiting-boy, and he would ferve him to the utmost of his power, provided he would teach him to read.

To try the boy a little farther, he asked him if he would take upon him the habit of the order? Felix, who was in very good earneft, anfwered, that he would; and tho' the * other fet forth to him, in a long detail, and very frightful