vine teaching. A teaching, not through the ordinary means common to all men, ftudy, and the inftruction of others; but a teaching by the immediate communication of the Holy Spirit. In vol. i. p. 157, the Holy Spirit is fpoken of as revealing and making a clear and fatisfactory difcovery how every hindrance to the free exercise of mercy on God's part is removed, and bow the demands of juftice are answered; and we are made by this revelation to understand the causes, nature, and defign of the fufferings of Christ. They who know all this, may fairly be faid to have known the mind of the Lord; and may claim to have been his counsellors in the work of redemption.. They who think themselves thus taught of God, will not doubt but that they are taught completely, and without error; will of course think that those who do not agree with them, are taught by another mafter: and this is hinted, perhaps not directly faid, in many places. Preface, p. xvi. when the Author fays, he is not afraid of contradiction from those who are taught of God.' This indeed is qualified in another place. They who are taught of God, it feems, do agree in fundamentals, though perhaps not in other points. But what then are fundamentals? Why,fuch points as fpiritual perfons, who really depend on a divine teaching, are agreed in.' Vol. ii. p. 19. Well! ig comes to just the fame:-you are not agreed with us, fays the Methodift; and this doctrine is fundamental-why then, you are not a spiritual perfon, nor depend on the divine teaching; for all fuch do agree with us in fundamentals. Mr. N. objects much to the mufic in the Abbey, vol. i. p. 64, and fays, They fet God's meffage to mufic.' Had this meffage been delivered in a few and folemn words, it might have been improper to have fet fuch words to mufic, as it undoubtedly is, to fet fome awful paflages of Scripture. But this is not the cafe. It is the poetical paffages of the Prophets, and Pfalms, and the hymns in the Revelations that are fet to mufic., We know the Pfalms of David, however different their fubjects, were fet to mufic, by himself or his chief musician, and we rather fuppofe the meffage delivered by the angel" On earth peace, good will towards men," was fung by the heavenly choir. However this be, the objections here brought are general; and hold against all anthems and choir-finging whatever. The antipathy of the modern Puritans both to the arts and fciences, exactly resembles that of their ancestors. Organs and cathedral finging were their abomination and our Author reprobates the Abbey mufic, and thinks the ftudy of mathematics and philofophy at Cambridge ferves only to fharpen our natural proneness to vain reafoning. See Cardiphonia, vol. ii. p. 233. We are forry to obferve, what we think an illiberal reflection on the promoters of the feveral acts of toleration, from Locke and Hoadley, &c. to thofe who procured the laft Act of 1779. But let the reader judge from the paffage itself, vol. ii. p. 152, • We have reason to be thankful for our religious liberty to the good providence of God; but fo far as men are concerned, we are not indebted for it to a juft fenfe and acknowledgment of the right of private judgment, but to the prevalence of Sceptical indifference and infidelity.' And it is immediately fubjoined The religion of the Gofpel was, perhaps, never more despised and hated than at prefent.'-As if this contempt and hatred was owing to the Toleration! This is not faid in direct terms, but it is plainly implied, from the manner in which it is introduced, more difingenuous, than if it had been plainly affirmed. Much complaint is made by the Methodifts of this way of fuggefting what the Author will not plainly fay, in Mr. Gibbon's famous hiftory. It were well if the Methodists would leave off fuch Gibbonifms themselves; none more abound in them. Notwithstanding the objections we have made to these Sermons, they contain much real piety, and may be read with profit by all, and, probably, with peculiar pleafure by thofe who are of the party. ART. XIV. A Collection and Abridgment of celebrated criminal Trials in Scotland, from A. D. 1536 to 1784. With historical and critical Remarks, by Hugo Arnot, Efq. Advocate. 4to. 18$. Boards. Edinburgh printed, fold by Murray in London. TH HE intention of this performance is to lay before the Public fuch proofs, collected from authentic records, as may be thought fufficient to shew what bitter fruits are produced under the gloomy climate of tyrannical government, and a fuperftitious priesthood. This is, furely, a laudable intention, fince, by comparing the bleffings and comforts we enjoy under a free government, in an enlightened age, with the hideous picture of human nature here delineated in days of ignorance and barbarifm, we have ample grounds for confolation that reafon prevails over fuperftition, and that the dark clouds of ignorance are difpelled by the bright beams of science. The trials Mr. Arnot prefents to his readers are judiciously abridged, fo that we escape the fatigue of wandering through heaps of rubbish, with which old records frequently abound; and the remarks which the Author has added, illuftrate the obscurities of the originals, and afford both information and entertainment. He has divided them into diftinct heads; as-Trials for Treafon, for Leasing making, i. e. defamation;-Parricide,Murder, Tumults,- Forgery, Breaking of Gardens,— Inceft, Adultery, Fornication,-Blafphemy,-Other crimes against religion, -Witchcraft. - Q3 Among Among thofe for treafon we felect the following doom, pronounced over the dead body of Francis Mowbray, a prifoner, who was killed in attempting to make his escape from Edinburgh Castle. A royal warrant was directed to Sir William Hart and the other Judges of the Court of Jufticiary, fetting forth in the ufual bombast ftyle of treasonable indictments, that the deceased had been guilty of moft high, horrible, and deteftable points of treafon; that the fame was verified by two or three witneffes; but that the deceased obftinately perfifted to deny the charge. That he attempted to make his escape from Edinburgh Castle, which rendered his guilt more manifeft; and that in the attempt he had brought about his own miferable and fhameful death. The warrant, therefore, required the Court to pronounce fentence on the deceased Francis Mowbray now prefented on pannel (i. e. produced at the bar), to be difmembered as a traitor; his body to be hanged on a gibbet and afterwards quartered; his head and limbs ftuck up in confpicuous places in the city of Edinburgh; and his whole eftate to be forfeited. The warrant is dated Holyrood-house, 31ft January 1603, and is fubfcribed James Rex, Montrofe Cancellar, Marr, Herreis, Halyrud houfe.-Doom was pronounced accordingly.' On this curious proceeding Mr. Arnot remarks This, perhaps, exceeds every act of King James's tyranny. For, ift, This fentence of forfeiture, pronounced after death, was not adjudged by Parliament, but by the Court of Jufticiary, in confequence of a royal edict. 2d, No fummons of treafon was executed against the heirs of the deceased, nor any defender cited, unless the corpfe, which was produced at the bar, can be called a defender. 3d, No fpecific charge was exhibited against the deceased; nor any thing but a general accufation of treafon and leafe-majefty, which, in those days, was fo far from conveying any precife and definite idea, that it might have been any thing which occurred to the whim of the King's Advocate, or that of his royal mafter. 4th, No proof was adduced in court, no jury called, nor verdict returned, eftablishing thecharge upon which the fentence of forfeiture was pronounced.' Thefe reflections render it unneceffary for us to add any obfervation on the injuftice of the proceeding: the action increases our deteftation of tyranny, and excites our pity for the miserable objects on whom it was exercised. The next trial Mr. Arnot thinks nonpareil. Archibald Cornwall was convicted of attempting to nail his Majesty's picture againft the gallows. The trial concludes thus: The Juftice-depute, by the mouth of Robert Galbraith, dempfter of the faid court, decerned † and ordained the faid Archibald Cornwall to forfeit life, lands, and goods, and to be taken to the faid gibbet, whereupon he preffed to hang his Majefty's portrait, and there to be hanged quhill he be dead, and to hang thereupon by the fpace of twenty-four hours, with ane paper on his forehead, containing the vile crime committed by him.' *Executioner; perhaps from the Latin word demo, dempfi.. + Decreed; from decerno. + Attempted. § Until. 6 A man A man hanged for attempting to fix up a paltry daubing, or a halfpenny print, upon the gallows, or even a halfpenny itself, for it alfo bears" the image and fuperscription of Cæfar." Dii boni! This is indeed a moft fingular record, whether we confider the crime, the punishment, or the mode of paffing fentence. The crime was not committed ;-there is no Scottish ftatute, as Mr. Arnot obferves, on which the indictment could have been founded; and the judge himself, not the hangman, ufually pronounces fentence. When we look over the trials for crimes againft religion, we find the clergy in matters of fcandal, fornication, witchcraft, &c. arrogating to themselves the office of profecutors-of inquifitorsgeneral, even fo late as 1720, the minifters publicly exercised this office in the courts of juftice; for we are told that An original precognition taken before the fheriff-depute of Rofs, June 23, 1720, against Helen Bowie and Janet Thompson for witchcraft, at the inftance of "Mr. David Rofs, Minifter of the Gofpel at Tarbatt, in behalf of the feffion of the faid parish," is in the poffeffion of the Right Hon. Robert Dundas of Arnifton, Lord Prefident of the Court of Seffion *. The bufy zeal of thefe bigots, in hunting after young women whom they suspected of being with child, and after old women who lay under the imputation of witchcraft, was productive of the most difmal confequences. The godlike quality of mercy, which the religion they pretended to profefs inculcates in the ftrongest terms, feems to have been afleep among them, and their piety was only productive of driving miferable creatures to the gallows, who had either obeyed the impulse of nature, or who incurred the imputation of doing what nature rendered it impoffible for them to do. Witchcraft was punished in Scotland by A&t of 9 Mary, c. 73, paffed foon after the Reformation had been establifhed by law. By the words of the ftatute, the legiflature feems not to have believed in forcery, and our Author is of opinion that the punishment provided by that law was annexed not to the crime of witchcraft, but to the impiety or blafphemy of pretending to, or believing in, fuch fupernatural powers.' This is most likely to be the cafe; for the A&t was paffed at a time in which the broaching a new fet of religious notions excited a paffionate defire for the attainment of extraordinary purity and ftrictnefs in religion and morals. We shall give no abstract of these trials, but conclude with a curious paper, viz. an account of the expences of burning a witch, communicated to the Author by Mr. William Henderfon of * This was not the cafe in Scotland only; for Jane Wenham was fentenced to be hanged for a witch at Hertford Aflizes, March 4, 3712, at the inftance of Mr. Bragge, a clergyman. Q4 Glasgow, Glasgow, a defcendant of Logan of Burncaftle, on whofe lands the unhappy fufferer lived: Count gifen out be* Alexander Louddon, in Lylftoun, in the yeir of God 1649 yeiris, for Margrit Dollmoune in Burncastle. Item, in ye first to Wm. Currie and Andr. Gray for watching of hir ye space of 30 dayes, inde ilk day xxx fh. inde Item, mair to Jon Kinked for brodding of her, • Mair for meit and drink and wyne to him and his man, • Mair for cloth to hir, • Mair for twa tare treis, Item, mair for twa treis and ye making them to ye xlv lib. vi lib. iiij lib. iij lib. xl fh. iij lib. iiij lib. xiiij sh. Item, to ye hangman in Hadingtoun and fetching of Item, mair fer ane man and twa horfs for ye fetching iij lib. xl fh. Mair to hir for meit and drink ilk ane day iiij fh. the vj lib. fhilline aught pennes is, Item, mair to the twa officers for y fie ilk day sex x lib. Summa is iiij fcoir xij lib. xiiij. fh. GHILBERT LAUDER. UM. LAUDER BILZUARS. Takin of this above written foume twentie feaven pundis Scotis qlk the faid umql Margrit Denham had of hir ain. 92: 14: 27:- : 65: 14: o' Many other original papers, fome of which ferve to illuftrate the hiftory of the times, are given in the Appendix; to which we refer the curious reader; he will find in it much entertainment, as well as hiftorical information. ART. XV. Select Cafes in the different Species of Infanity, Lunacy, or Madness; with the Modes of Practice as adopted in the Treatment of each. By William Perfect, M.D. of West Malling, Kent. 8vo. 6s. Boards. Murray. 1787. ASES collected with care, and reported with fidelity, are, doubtlefs, of real utility. The theorift, without that experience which refults from practice, frequently finds himself at his ne plus ultra, while the empiric, totally void of theory, and directed folely by obfervation of paft cafes, fuccefsfully cures his patient. We mean not, by this remark, to encourage empiri * Account delivered by, &c. |