entertained of religion, nor in what he and fome others (much inferior indeed in all refpects to him,) call ferving God; which numbers regard as confifting in certain mere forms and notions, that have no useful influence on the heart. True and rational piety is an excellent principle, which, in proportion to its prevalence, extends to every part of our conduct, forming the foul to virtue, and the life to all that is amiable and useful. Righteous, benevolent, and upright practice, is the fure effect and evidence of real religion. Such efficacy it had with Mr. Ferrar, though he effentially miftook as to the peculiar modes by which he contrived to exprefs or thought to improve it. Poffibly, that knowlege which he had attained of the world, and that inconfiftency which he obferved between the dictates of truth and virtue and the customs of public life, especially in what are called its higher ranks, might incline him to that reclufe, auftere, and fuperftitious line, which was the object of his choice. To this alfo his own natural difpofition, affifted by the prejudices and erroneous cpinions which prevailed at that time, might greatly contribute.

ART. VI. The Hiftory of the Town of Taunton, in the County of Somerfet. By Joshua Toulmin, A. M. 4to. pp. 196. 7. 6d. - Boards. Johnfon. 1791.

A VARIETY of smaller tracts and fermons, published by this refpectable writer, have, at feveral times, fallen under our notice. He now offers himself to the public in fomewhat of a different line from that in which he has hitherto appeared; and we think he acquits himfelf in an agreeable and inftructive

manner.

Concerning Taunton, our author obferves,- Few towns in this kingdom have had a larger share in events of national importance; or can furnish a detail of tranfactions of which it has been the theatre, more adapted to give leffons on liberty and virtue to the riling generation.'-About ten years ago, Mr. Locke of Burnham made an attempt toward writing its hiftory, which he foon relinquifhed; his materials proved of fome ufe to Mr. Toulmin: but we are not furprized to hear him add, concerning this and every other affiftance, that the work has required more induftry in collecting, and more labour in compofing, than he at firft conceived would be neceffary.' He expreffes a warm fenfe of the encouragement which he has received, and of the aids of different kinds which have been afforded to his undertaking by feveral gentlemen; among whom Sir Benjamin Hammet, a great benefactor to the town of Taunton, is particularly diftinguifhed. Yet whatever may

be the countenance which he has obtained, or the attention which he has exerted, he acknowleges himself not divested of all timidity and diffidence, though accompanied with hope, in prefenting this volume to the world.

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He trufts, (and we think with great juftice,) that he has not given his attention to ufelefs trifles, nor directed his thoughts to fubjects totally foreign from the nature of the profeffion in which he appears. He has brought forward fome curious particulars, which in a few years more, for want of being recorded, would be irrecoverably loft. His work will hold up many inftances of exertion directed to the benefit of the town, as domeftic examples, to awaken a spirit of emulation. And it will display before the reader a fcene, which must inftruct and affect every one who has any idea what liberty, civil or religious, means: LIBERTY, that best birthright of Englishmen, and next to Chriflianity, the most precious gift of Heaven.'

This volume is divided into fix chapters: the first treats of the ancient ftate of Taunton, its fituation, manor, and religious foundations: the fecond gives a defcription of the town, and of its principal public ftructures of every kind: the third confiders its civil conftitution, reprefentatives in parliament, contested elections, &c.: the fourth is employed on trade, manufactures, navigation, filk-mills, &c.: the fifth contains political tranfactions and revolutions, and is indeed a very interesting chapter: the last acquaints us with the prefent ftate of the town, modern improvements, population, &c. All these books are attended with notes, which add confiderably to the value of the volume.

Selections from a work of this nature may be made with cafe but our limits confine us to a few curfory obfervations. -Among the edifices of a charitable kind, we read, with fome concern, the account given of the hospital, faid to be the most capital in the county of Somerfet:- With great and pleafing expectation, (we are told,) was the ftructure feen, to rife; and in the year 1774 was the building covered in. Here the pen muft ftop; it can carry the hiftory of the noble inftitution, to which the ftructure was deftined, no farther. It wishes to record, that its apartments were finished, and that its doors were opened to afford relief to pain and ficknefs. But for many years has it now ftood a monument of what the humanity of the county once felt; of what its charity once planned. Some fatal accident has blafted the hope of the afflicted.'-P. 42.

In the hiftorical account of elections for the town of Taunton, among other obfervations, we find the following:

It would be the dignity of all bodies corporate to confine themfelves within their peculiar province, which is the administration of juftice, and the maintenance of a good police. Neither the confti

tution of the nation, nor that of fuch a borough as Taunton, invefts them with any specific prerogatives in elections: but they are on a level with any other townfmen and fellow-citizens. As to the interference of the minifter at an election, instead of being fought to give weight to a party, it ought to be rejected and oppofed, as inimical to our conftitution and liberties, as tranfgreffing the bounds of his province, and converting the power which the people poffefs in the right of election, to controul the crown, into an engine of effecting the views and fpreading the influence of the crown to their own injury, if not ruin. Yet the writer of this has heard a new elected reprefentative, led away by grounded efteem and partial friendship, addrefs the court after the clofe of a poll, in a panegyric on the minister of the times, as if he had been elected to act as his fervant, rather than the deputy of the people, to watch and protect their rights.'

The town of Taunton made a confiderable figure during the civil wars in the reign of Charles I. It was alfo diftinguished in the attempt for the crown by the Duke of Monmouth, and, in connection with other parts of the Weft, by the atrocious barbarity and wickedness of Jefferies and Kirk, under the direction of a gloomy and infolent tyrant, James II.; for each of the former afterward acknowleged, that every cruelty was inflicted by the king's exprefs order; and that their commiffion went farther. It is faid that James related with pleasure, in the drawing-room, the barbarities of his two villanous emiffaries, and at his table talked with fome merriment of "Jeffries' campaign." As much as these imputations on the king may fhock the mind,' fays Mr. Toulmin, they are naturally refolved into the defpotic aims which directed his government. James was a tyrant, and all tyrants are cruel; and it is a maxim which regulates their councils, "That as to the quantity of blood it may coft, to complete their defigns, it ought not to be taken at all into the account, or confidered as of any confequence *." To fuch fanguinary fentiments are the hearts of defpots reconciled, nay, familiarized.'-To a people oppreffed by fuch a wretch, how welcome and pleafant must have been the Revolution! The conduct of numbers who fuffered under the iron hand of implacable and wicked oppreffion, was indeed noble and edifying. Several anecdotes of this and other kinds are here, with great propriety, exhibited to public notice and inftruction. This chapter concludes with these words: There has ever fince been in this town a large party attached to the principles of the Revolution; and from this town there went up an addrefs from the grand jury, (a copy of which is

Said to have been the language of Jofeph II. late Emperor of Germany.

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given

given in the notes,) animated with the fpirit of liberty, on the acceffion of George I. when, in his perfon, "the prefent royal family were called by the nation to the throne of these kingdoms, to defend and fupport our religion and liberties and laws."

The chapters concerning the trade of the town, &c. and its prefent ftate, modern improvements, &c. furnish several pertinent and useful reflections. We fhall merely felect the following lines, which immediately fucceed to the account of the great alterations which Taunton has latterly received, for rendering it more healthful, commodious, and beautiful :- We only regret, that the liberal undertaking was not left wholly to be fupported by the voluntary contributions of its friends, who were many, and by the funds arifing from the market, totally independent of the iflue of an election, which, to be conftitutional, and an efficient benefit to the nation, must be free from every fpecies and appearance of bribery, and of a fale of the most valuable franchise.'

We are rather concerned to learn, that this handsome and pleasant town has been, and is, fomewhat on the decrease, as to trade and population. We hope it does not decrease in the love of liberty, truth, and virtue, for which it appears to have been eminent. The former defect is in a degree fupplied, by its becoming, of late years, the refort of perfons of independent fortunes.

We have perused this volume with much fatisfaction. It does not enter into all the minutia which have been esteemed effential to works of this kind; nor does it weary us with a dry detail of particulars, acceptable to very few but it proceeds in a rational, fenfible, and informing manner, and directs the whole to moral and beneficial purposes. We find that the expence having exceeded the calculation which had been made for the work, Mr. Toulmin has been obliged to omit fome particulars: but he gives notice that he has fufficient materials for an Appendix, containing lifts and memoirs of lords of the manor, and other perfons-biography of eminent natives epitaphs-a view of the neighbourhood, &c.; which, if the fubfcribers approve it, will fpeedily follow this publication, together with an engraving of the market-houfe.

We may farther obferve, that the work is embellished with plates: one is, a view of the country feven miles round Taunton; another, the hospital; a third, the castle; and another, a view of the tower of St. Magdalen's church and church-yard.

ART.

ART. VII. Tracts on different Subjects, in Four Volumes. By William Lewelyn, Minifter of the Gofpel. 8vo. PP. 934 10s. 6d. fewed. Leominiter, printed; London, fold by Evans. 1791.

WHETHER this gentleman be a Behmenift, a Hutchinfonian,

a Swedenborgian, a Sandimanian, or all of them in parts, and none of them altogether, -is a point which we do not prefume to determine: we truft, we are not mistaken, when we regard him as an honeft, well-meaning, worthy man, and we may add, alfo, a man of intelligence and inquiry, though misled by noftrums and conceits.-We have perused the whole of his four volumes, in which we find a ftrange mixture of good fenfe, learning, and ability, with fancy, whim, mysticism, and rhapfody. He writes with freedom, vivacity, and occafionally with humour, by which we have been amufed and diverted; at the fame time he is diffuse, pofitive, and, while he pleads for benevolence, fomewhat intemperate in his zeal and in his resentment refpecting those who differ from him,— provocation to which, it feems, has not been entirely wanting. He is no Calvinist,-at least he rejects fome of its peculiarities, even with difdain and hatred :-but he is a firm Trinitarian, though in what clafs to place him in this respect is not easy to fay. Truth, he thinks, he has difcovered; and to truth he is a friend; and therefore, we apprehend, is prepared to relinquish any point that he embraces, as he has already done, when convinced that he has been mistaken.

The first of these volumes contains an Expofition of the Three First Chapters of Genefis. The author's philofophy is of the Hutchinfonian kind; yet let it not be thought that he is deftitute of ingenuity or acuteness; both are difplayed; and several pertinent reflections are intermingled with his defcriptions:concerning the creation of the heavens, in particular, he says,

If I had not the great Elohadai to guide me, who made the whole, I would not try to form any ideas of them, nor liften to any man who would offer to teach me.-The wife and great men of the earth perfuaded me once, that we common people have nothing to do with thefe great fubjects, becaufe our capacities are not equal to them; and therefore should be left to them who can handle them. But God has handled them on purpofe for us that we might know them; has faid a great deal on the fubject throughout the whole fcripture; yea, his book is fuller and larger on the fubject than all the books in the world. To fay then that we cannot understand it, is reviling and blafpheming him as unable to teach, or somewhat worse.'

Mr. Lewelyn does not deal greatly in verbal criticism; in a few inftances, he alters the text to render it, as he thinks,

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