If we believed fuch things, could we adore and love our Maker? How are we to ferve him, and for what purpose? For if this be our condition, we can by no means, within our power, alter the decrees of Heaven. To what purpofe is Chrift preached to fuch men? for their everlasting fate is determined. Why urge dili. gence for diligence and induftry are of no avail: promifes, threatenings, inftructions, praying, preaching, and every religious and moral duty are unneceffary. We must cause to cease every duty and every hope, and wait in gloomy filence the irrevocable decree of Heaven. If there be any who honeftly and unfeignedly believe in fuch doctrines, they must be the most miferable of men. Only fuch people take care to work themselves by fome principles or other into the number of the elect; and then, with a favage fatisfaction, furrender the bulk of mankind to eternal mifery.

"I need not observe, that fuch fentiments are irreconcilable with the juftice of God. By fome kind of cafuiftry I know, that men attempt to reconcile this doctrine with the divine juf tice; but this is done by a fpecies of reafoning dark and intricate, and which no man can understand."

Mr. Watfon infifts upon it, that men have greatly miftaken the purpofe of the predeftination mentioned in the Scripture, which he contends, refers entirely to temporal privileges and diftinctions. In another part of his work,, Mr. W. notices the ufual plea of the Calvinifls, that by reducing man to a complete fate of inability, they magnify. the grace of God in thofe who fhall be raised to everlafting life; and is equally animated in his appeal to reason, against a doctrine fo prepofterous.

"By the very condition of their existence they have it not in their power, and they never had it in their power, to do any thing and this condition is impofed on them by their Maker. Some of thefe, however, by his fovereign will and pleasure, he raised to everlasting life; but another part, what portion we are not permitted to fay, are left to everlasting mifery. And can this ftatement magnify the fovereign grace of God! Is this the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who, we are taught, is no refpecter of perfons? What idea could we form of a fovereign among men, who could act upon this principle? We could neither call him gracious nor juft. We might fear him; but we could not love him. And is this to be called GRACE? How is language prostituted in such doctrines! What infults do men thus offer to their Father in Heaven!"

We have judged it right to infert thefe extracts from Mr, Watfon's work, not merely as the fentiments of a very

learned

learned and fenfible man, but of a member of the Scotch Church, which agreeing in difcipline with the great Reformer of Geneva, may be confidered as the more impartial in rejecting any of his leading doctrines. Mr. Watfon, to the best of our recollection however, does no where speak of them as peculiarly the doctrines of Calvin, but merely as the tenets of a certain set of professed Chriftians.

Mr. Watson has many excellent obfervations in the 5th and 6th Sections of Chapter II. on God's Care of Man, and on the doctrine of a Particular Providence. We with our limits would admit of our making such extracts from this part of the work, as might do juftice to the learned author. The diftinction he draws between a miraculous and ordinary interpofition of Providence is just and beautiful; and the reference he makes to the hiftory of Jofeph, and the cafe of Haman and Mordecai, is well managed, and exceedingly interesting.

In the IIId Chapter, there is much that is excellent on the propriety, duty, and utility of prayer; with fome most judicious remarks on the ill use made by enthufiafts of the figurative language of Scripture, and the abfurdity of applying fome of the bold and exaggerated expreffions of the Eastern languages to our own circumftances. There is nothing, perhaps, in which our modern enthufiafts tranfgress more than in this particular point; and what renders it more melancholy is, that there is nothing found more. efficacious ad captandum vulgus, and, therefore, nothing more commonly reforted to, with the full effect of bewildering their understandings and confounding their judgements. "The popular and overwhelming fyftem," fays Mr. W., "is to teach any thing but morals ;" and of the mode in which it is now common to form a doctrine from a metaphorical expreffion, he inftances, with great effect, in the cafe of repentance, as represented in Scripture under the figure of the new birth.

"Repentance," fays he, "is the new birth: therefore it muft be, in general, a fudden work, and accompanied with labour and pain; and, as in the cafe of a common birth, there is a great variety in their fufferings, fo it must be the fame in the new birth."

There is a great deal that we could wish to extract upon this head, but we muft content ourselves with referring our readers to the book itself. The arguments which are to be found in it against the doctrines and practice of modern enthufiafts are excellent, and we think too conclusive not

to

to command the affent of, every rational and fober mind. The Chapter on Internal Feelings we confider as a most important tract in itfelf, and could well wifh to fee it generally circulated, either detached, or with the reft of this admirable book; for the whole is good, but there are parts more particularly adapted to the exigencies of the times. Mr. Watfon has added greatly already to the ftores of literature, by his Illuftrations and Evidences of a future State;" and by his "Popular Evidences of natural Religion and Chriftianity;" his prefent work deferves to rank with the former; and we can fcarcely find any thing higher to fay in its favour.

We note one Scatticifm in the frequent ufe of will for fhall; and we are not quite clear, that Mr. Watson is altogether correct in faying, p. 134, "that it never entered into the conception of any of the excellent moralifts of the heathen world, to prefcribe any duties, which fhould extend to the thoughts." How far any specific duties, exprefsly of that nature, may be faid to have been prescribed by the heathen moralifts, we fhall not pretend to fay; but that fuch duties. did not escape their notice is plain. Juvenal exprefsly fays,

"Nam fcelus inter fe tacitum qui cogitat ullum "Facti crimen habet."-Sat. XIII. 209.

and Democritus in Sententiis:

σε Αγάθον ἐ τὸ μὴ ἀδικεῖν, ἀλλὰ τὸ μήδε ΕΘΕΛΕΙΝ ;" and again,

σε Δόκιμος ἀνὴς καὶ ἀδόκιμος ἐκ ἐξ ὧν πράσσει μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐξ ὧν

ΒΟΥΛΕΤΑΙ.”

That they wanted the proper fanctions, however, to fupport and enforce fuch maxims is moft certain, which is the chief purport of Mr. W.'s argument.

ART. IV. A Cornish-English Vocabulary; a Vocabulary of Local Names, chiefly Saxon; and a Provincial Gloffary. By the Reverend R. Polwhele, of Polwhele, and Vicar of Manaccan. 4to. 65 pp. 10s. 6d. Truro, printed; London, Cadell and Co. 1808.

THIS publication, which accident has caufed us to defer

beyond the regular time, is only a fpecimen of a larger work intended by the author. "For a Cornith-English

Vocabu.

Vocabulary," he fays, "I had thrown together the dictionaries of BORLASE and PRYCE, not omitting a fingle word; to which I had added a large collection of words from WHITAKER'S invaluable papers. But the vocabulary must remain in MS. till curiosity shall call it into notice. For the prefent, I have made fuch a felection of words as I think may amuse the reader; in which I had chiefly a view to the Greek and Latin languages, to the elymology of local names, to natural hiftory, and to the occurrences of ordinary life."

For the vocabulary of Saxon names, Mr. P. profeffes himfelf chiefly indebted to the MSS. of Dean Milles, and Mr. Whitaker. Of the Provincial Gloffary he thus fpeaks.

"With refpect to the Provincial Gloffary, it confists of words which are at this time current in Cornwall and Devon, and are almoft confined to the vulgar, although of no mean origin. The greater part of them I have, from time to time fet down in writ ing, almost immediately as I heard them uttered: for the reft I am obliged to the MSS. of Bishop Lyttelton and Dean Milles, to my ingenious friend Mr. James, of St. Keverne, and to a Dialogue in the Devonshire dialect, between Robin and Betty, in three parts, by a Lady of the North of Devon; a MS. in which ruftic characters and manners are delineated, with much fimpli city and humour.''

We regret to add to this account, that the volume here announced contains only the first of thefe portions; and that the Saxon and Provincial Gloffaries remain to be published in a fecond part. We much fear that Mr. Polwhele, whofe labours have been indefatigable, and whofe confequent works are of confiderable magnitude, has had to ftruggle with the want of patronage and public encouragement; an evil which too often damps the ardour of those who are most zealous in the profecution of literary objects. Yet local hiftory, one great object of his research, and abundantly il luftrated in his Devonshire and Cornwall, is generally confidered as a popular fcience; and philology, which here is feen to arife out of the other, has many profeffed, if not fo many real admirers. Provincial Gloffaries have been defired by many, and attempted by fome eminent fcholars; and every ftep gained in fo difficult a purfuit will be thought material, by those who know how much is required, and how little has been hitherto effected. All these things being confidered, we cannot but hope that public favour, though it

In the author's poffeflion, Rev.

may

may come tardily, will come furely, to an author fo diligent and meritorious as Mr. Polwhele; and we fhall be happy to contribute our share towards fixing him in that rank of authorship which he juftly deferves to hold.

From the Gloffary here prefented to the public it would be evident, if it had not been before known, that the ancient Cornish language was a pure dialect of that Celtic tongue which, with fome variations, is heard in North and South Wales, in the Highlands of Scotland, and in fome parts of Britany, Thus bara, with its variations, in Welch at this hour. Ex. BARA, bread; bara can, white bread; bara gwidn, the fame; baragwanath, wheaten bread; bara haiz, barley bread; bara kerh, saten bread; bara fugall, rye bread; torth a vara, a loaf of bread. It is evident alfo that it has the fame peculiarity which marks the other Celtic dialects; that of changing the initial letters of words, when they follow other letters. Thus, in the above inftance, bara becomes vara when it is in conftruction with forth a; bennen, woman; an venin, the woman, &c. &c.

We will fubjoin a fmall specimen of the Gloffary as it flands, with a few remarks.

"BASKET, Bafcauda, a basket; basket dorn, a band basket; an ancient British word. See Martial: Barbara de pictis veru Bafcauda Britannis.

"BASNET, fame, disgrace.

"BAT, a dormouse.

"BATH, money, coin.

"BATHON, and Bathyn, a basin.

"BATTYZ, faves.

"BEALTINE, fires lighted to Belus. Tr. The Cornish for fire is tan; but to tine, or light a fire, is ftill used in Cornwall; whence, Bartine, the fiery top, i. e. the bill of fires.

"BEARN, Bern, sadness, regret.

"BEARN, a child.

"BECH, a voyage.

Ar.

"BEDEROW prayers'; Bafadow, id,

BEDEWIN, a poplar, an afpen tree. "BEDGETH, a face; Badgeth, id.

"BEDH, Beth, pl. Bedhou, a grove.

"BEDHO, a birch tree; bezo, idem. Qu. if Bezo, in St. Piran Arwithal, anciently written Bedow, be not derived from hence?

"BEDIDIO, to baptize; hence bed-ale, i, e. chriftening-ale. "BEDZHIDHIA, a chriftening.

BEFER, a beaver. Loft Gdan, id,"

3