and difturbances in the world. Qui ratione fuá difiurbant mænia mundi. Remark.] Tranfubftantion, the Pope's infalibility, the power of the church to forgive fin, were opinions fundamental in Religion before the Reformation; that it is not impoffible to remove them without A abolishing the religion altogether, time has proved; that it was not wicked, muft alfo be allowed, or we must allow, that the Reformation was a wicked work. All that is here faid of the divinity of Chrift, may, with equal force, be faid of tranfubftantiation; if it is true of one, it is true of both. The want of belief is a defect that ought to be concealed when it cannot be overcome. Remark.] The want of belief in tranfubftantiation, and the Pope's infallibility, ought then to have been concealed. to the pleasure of Providence." Would it have been lefs his duty to submit to the pleasure of Providence if he had thought his caufe unjust? I am not answerable to God for the doubts that arife in my own breast, fince they are the confequence of that reafon which he hath planted in me, if I take care to conceal thofe doubts from others, if I ufe my best endeavours to fubdue them, and if they have no influence on the conduct of my life. Remark.] It is furely an affront to the Bauthor of our nature, to fuppofe it our duty to fupprefs" doubts, which are the confequence of that reafon which he hath implanted in us." Is it my duty to prevent my reafon from having an influence upon my conduct in life? Am I to act only in confequence of principles implicitly received and instead of improving doubt into enquiry, and enquiry into truth, to check The Chriftian Religion, in the most C early times, was propofed to the Jews and Heathens without the article of Chriff's divinity; which, I remember, Erafmus accounts for by its being too ftrong a meat for babes. Perhaps if it were now foftened by the Chinese miffionaries, the converfion of those Infidels would be lefs difficult: And D we find by the Alcoran it is the great ftumbling block of the Mahometans. But in a country already Chriftian, to bring fo fundamental a point of faith into debate, can have no consequences that are not pernicious to morals and public peace. Remark.] The fame might be faid of any Popish principle now exploded. I have been often offended to find St Paul's allegories, and other figures of Grecian eloquence, converted by divines into articles of faith. E God's mercy is over all his works, F but divines of all forts leffen that mercy too much. I look upon myself in the capacity of a clergyman, to be one appointed by Providence for defending a post affigned me, and for gaining over as many enemies as I can. Although I think my caufe is juft, yet one great motion is my fubmitting to the pleasure of providence, and to the laws of my country. Remark.] There is a confufion in this article which it is not eafy to regulate. Is there any fituation in which it is not a man's G duty to fubmit to the pleafure of Provi. H the foul in its firft effort to exert its faculties, and fit down in voluntary ignorance, and apparent abfurdity? I believe that thousands of men would be orthodox enough in certain points, if divines had not been too curious, or too narrow, in reducing or thodoxy within the compafs of fubtleties, niceties, and diftinctions, with little warrant from Scripture, and lefs from reafon or good policy. Remark.] What good would the orthodoxy of thefe thousands have produced, if it had been only a confufed and general affent to they knew not what? Subtlety, nicety, and diftinction, are abfolutely neceffary to fix opinions on the bafis of reason, and even to afcertain what is meant by the name that has been given them. If by this fubtlety, nicenefs, and distinction that which was believed, or thought to be believed, before it was examined, appears altogether incredible, the fubtlety, nicenefs, and diftinction have effected a good purpofe; and if what was brought to be believed without a definite and diftinct idea of the fubject, is minutely distinguish ed and afcertained, and appears t be wor thy of a rational afcent, then fubtlety, nicenefs, and diftinction, have "added to faith knowledge," and the benefit of this can fcarcely be difputed. I never faw, heard, nor read, that the clergy were beloved in any nation where Chriftianity was the religion of the country. Nothing can render them popular but fome degree of per fecution. Thofe fine gentlemen who affect the humour of railing at the clergy, are, I think, bound in honour to turn par ons themselves, and fhew us better examples. Miferable mortals! can we contribute to the bonour and glory of God? I could wish that expreffion were ftruck out of our prayer books. B Remark.] It is, perhaps, difficult to con- A ceive what can add to the bonour and glory of God; the diftance between finite and infinite is immenfe; and the highest created Being, confidered with refpect to God, is in a state of inferiority that would juftify a like exclamation. We are deceived by confidering fuch Beings as relative to ourfelves, and because we can conceive of their being greatly our fuperiors, are betrayed into a notion that they can contribute to the happiness of infinite perfection. Honour and glory, if they do not include the idea of happiness, are meer names, and might as well not be, as be. Honour and glory, with respect to God, feem properly to mean a display of his divine perfections, to excite proper fentiments in the minds that contemplate them; such sentiments are certainly productive of happinefs, not in God, but in his creatures; and, as far as the worship of God tends to difplay his perfections, and impress us with a fenfe of them, it may well be faid to be D performed to the bonour and glory of God. Liberty of confcience, properly fpeaking, is no more than the liberty of poffelfing our own thoughts and opinions, which every man enjoys without fear of the magiftrate: But how far he thall publickly act, in pursuance E of thofe opinions, is to be regulated by the laws of the country. Perhaps, in my own thoughts, I prefer a wellinftituted common-wealth before a monarchy; and I know feveral others of the fame opinion. Now, if, upon this pretence, I fhould infift upon liberty of confcience, form conventicles F of republicans, and print books preferring that government, and con demning what is eftablished, the magistrate would, with great juftice, hang me am my difciples. It is the fame cafe in Religion, although not so a vowed, where liberty of confcience, under the prefent acceptation, equally produces revolutions, or at least convulfions and disturbances in a state; which politicians would fee well enough, if their eyes were not blinded by faction, and of which thefe kingdoms, as well as France, Saveden, and other countries, are flaming inftances, Cromwell's notion upon this article was natural and right; when, upon the furrender of a town in Ireland, the Popish governor insisted upon an arti cle for liberty of confcience; Cromwell faid he meddled with no man's confcience; but, if by liberty of confcience, the governor meant the liberty of the mafs, he had express orders from the parliament of England against admitting any fuch liberty G at all. Remark.] And might not the fame have been faid by a commander in Popish times concerning the worship of Proteftants ? Liberty of confcience, according to this account of it, is what cannot be taken away, and therefore to talk of allowing, or not allowing it, is abfurd. H If the great end is, to fupport a conformity to a certain religious establishment, whether true or falfe, thefe principles are good, but they are good upon no other fuppofition. By liberty of confcience, as a thing in the power of government, nothing can be meant but a liberty to worship God in that way which confcience directs, and this liberty certainly no fubordinate confideration fhould reftrain. It may be exercised without danger to life, property, or government. Whatever endangers either of thefe fhould be punished; and yet after all, he that is juftly punished upon principles of civil policy, as a traitor, has, often, by the very act that forfeits his life, given the highest proof of his virtue. It is impoffible that any thing fo na. tural, fo neceffary, and fo univerfal as death, should ever have been defigned by Providence as an evil to mankind. Remark.] This, however specious, feems to be rank fophiftry. It is generally allowed that no man can live without fin, But fuppofe I should therefore fay, " It is impoffible that any thing so natural, so neceffary, and so universal as fin, should be an evil;" would any man admit the confequence? Befides, if death, confidered as the period of our existence, is not an evil, it follows that existence is not a good ; but existence must be either a good or an evil, and, therefore, it is an evil if it is not a good but his argument may be brought to prove that life is good, and therefore it deftroys itself. "It is impoffible that any veral as life, thould ever have been defignthing fo natural, so neceffary, and fo unied by Providence as an evil." This directly overthrows his other propofition. Although reafon were intended by providence to govern our paffions, yet it feems, that, in two points of the greatest moment to the being and continuance of the world, God hath intended our paffions to prevail over reafon. The first is, the propagation of our fpecies, fince no wife man ever married from the dictates of reafon. The The other is, the love of life, which, from the dictates of reafon, every man would despise, or with it at an end, or that it never had a beginning. Remark. It is difficult to produce an instance of stranger inconfiftency than this article, whether we compare the feveral A parts of it with each other, or the whole of it with the laft. If every wife man would wish life at an end, or that it never had a beginning, it is very difficult to conceive why our fpecies fhould be propagated; and there is the fame misconception concerning Paffion and Reafon here, as in most other writings of moralifts and B divines: They fuppofe Reafon to be always dictating one thing, and Paffion another, in perpetual enmity and oppofition; but the truth is, that Reafon is Paffion's best Friend; and is never properly employed but in contriving the means for Paffion to attain its purpose. All paffions may be refcived into the defire of pleasure, and averfion to pain, fubordinately to which they defre the prefence or abfence of certain objects, but which, by the ordination of Providence, give pleasure or pain to our nature; Paffion, of itfelf, is fo little able to obtain what it defires, that it frequently incurs the contrary. It has been gratified by eating; it therefore continues to eat till intemperance brings difeafe; here is an end of pleasure, and the paffion has fruftrated itfelf! but Reafon prefcribes Tem perance as the means of pleasure, and thus enables Paffion to accomplish its purpose, It is the fame with the defire of all good; Paffion is moft gratified when most hap. piness is poffeffed; most happiness is poffelfed by those who make this life fubordinate to a better; Reason, therefore, in reftraining thofe exceffes which forfeit the greatest good, moft effectually fecures the gratification of Paffion. Without Paffion nothing could be defired, without Reason nothing effected: On Life's vaft ocean diversely we fail, Reafon the card, but Paffion is the gale. Man, but for this, no action could attend, And, but for that, were active to no end ; Further THOUGHTS on RELIGION. C D E F The Scripture fyftem of man's creation is what Chriftians are bound to believe, and seems most agreeable, of all others, to probability and reafon. Adam was formed from a piece of clay, G and Eve from one of his ribs. The text mentioneth nothing of his maker's intending him for, except to rule over the beasts of the field, and birds of the air. As to Eve, it doth not ap To lay a man is bound to believe, is neither truth nor fenfe. See above. pear that her husband was her monarch, only the was to be his helpmeet, and placed in fome degree of fubjection. However, before his fall, the beafts were his moft obedient fubjects, whom he governed by abfolute den fruit, the courfe of nature was power, After his eating the forbidchanged, the animals began to reject his government; fome were able to efcape by flight, and others were too fierce to be attacked. The Scripture mentioneth no particular acts of royalty in Adam over his pofterity, who were cotemporary with him, or of any monarch till after the flood; whereof the first was Nimrod, the mighty hunter, who, as Milton expreffeth it, made men, and not beats, his prey. For men were eafier caught by promiles, and fubdued by the folly or treachery of their own fpecies. Whereas the brutes prevailed only by their courage or ftrength, which, among them, are peculiar only to certain kinds. Lions, bears, elephants, and fome other animals are strong or valiant, and their species never degenerates in their native foil, except they happen to be enflaved or deftroyed by human fraud; but men degenerate every day, merely by the folly, the perverseness, the avarice, the tyranny, the pride, the treachery, or inhumanity of their own kind. N B. The Obfervatory in the Baflion is 26 (econds E. from the Academy, diftance four fifths of a mile. Mr Bradley's time was obtained by the fun's tranfit over the meridian this day, and the time at the Academy by equal altitudes of the fun, this and the foregoing day. I am, &c. Mr URBAN, H A.MAXWELL. Norwich, Aug. 19. eclipfe was observed to begin 44 minutes 12 feconds after three o'clock; at the time of the greatest obscuration, which was about 22 mi 376 Authentic Account of the Murder of Thomas Ogilvie, Efq; 22 minutes after four, the fun was two digits and a quarter eclipfed. The echiple ended 3 minutes 42 feconds after nve; the duration being one hour, 19 minutes, and 30 seconds, apparent time. The times were obtained by a well adjusted meridian line; and confirm. A ed by several altitudes taken during the time of the eclipfe. CHR. ELLINETT. A Particular Account of the Murder of Thomas Ogilvie of Eaftmiln in Scotland, by his wife Catharine Nairn, and Patrick Ogilvie, Lieutenant of the 89th regiment of foot, his Brother, who have both been found guilty of the complicated crimes of Ince and Murder. K B D ATHARINE NAIRN was married to Thomas Ogilvie of Eaftmiln, in the month of January lalt; and about the fame time, Lieutenant Pa C trick Ogilvie returned from abroad, and took up his refidence at his brother's houfe at Eafimiln. Soon after the marriage, the deceafed Thomas Ogilvie, and other friends of the family, obferving fome indecent familiarities betwixt his wife and bro. ther, repeatedly admonished them a gainst fuch improper behaviour. But inflead of profiting by thofe admonitions, they obftinately perfifted in the fame familiarities, frequently retired together, and continued in private a confiderable time, as well in the fields, as within the house of Eaftmiln, and in E other houfes and places of that neighbourhood; till at last, yielding to their inordinate defires, they lay together at different times, and in different places, and thereby committed the abominable crime of inceft. had private meetings together for concerting the perpetration of their wicked defign. Accordingly, lieutenant Ogilvie went, about the end of May last, to the Burgh of Brechin, and there bought of James Carnegie, furgeon, a fmall phial of laudanum, under pretence of health, and about half an ounce of arfenic, as he said, to kill fome dogs which deftroyed the game in that part of the country. Thus furnished, upon the third of June, the lieutenant came to the house of Andrew Stewart, his brother-inEafimiln, where he received a letter law, at Alyth, within a few miles of from, and immediately wrote an anfwer to Katharine Nairn; and next day, Andrew Stewart having occafion to go to Eafmiln, he fent by him the phial of laudanum, and a paper of directions about the manner of using it, and alfo a packet which he said contained falts, and a letter closed with a wafer, and likewife fealed with wx, addreffed to the faid Katharine, and detired him to deliver them and the letter privately into her own hands, as the packet contained medicines for her use. When Mr Stewart arrived, he was conducted into a private room by Nairn, who received the above particulars from him, which the immediately locked up in a drawer, along with the letter, without reading it. And Mr Stewart having told to fome of the family his having brought these medicines from lieutenant Ogilvie to Katharine Nairn, it afforded apprehentions of danger to the life of Thomas Ogilvie; and caution was given to him to take no meat or drink from his wife, except what he faw others taking; and that fame night, Katha. prine Nairn faid to Mr Stewart, that he wished her husband was dead. Upon the discovery of this Lieutenant Ogilvie was dimiffed from his brother's house, in the month of May last; 011 which occafion Katharine Nain expreffed her refentment against her husband by the most outrageous behaviour; and wickedly conspired with the lieutenant, to murder him by poiten This horrid intention. Ka- G tharine Nairn, on different occafions, communicated to Ann Clark, who then lived in the family with her; and likewife informed her, that the lieutenant had undertaken to provide poifon for that purpose. Anne Clarke not believing either of them capable of fuch wickednels, endeavoured to divert her from all thoughts of that They perfifted, however, in their intended confpiracy, carried on a fecret correfpondence by letters, and nature Next day, the fixth of June, breakfast was fet in the parlour earlier than ufual, and Thomas Ogilvie being yet in bed, Katharine Nairn filled out a bafon of tea, which the faid, she was going to carry up to the Laird, meaning her husband, and accordingly left the parlour with the bafon in her hand; but, instead of carrying ftrait to her it husband, he went into a closet adjoining to his bed room, and there mixed the arfenic, or other poifon, which he had received as aforesaid, into the faid tea, which the afterwards carried to her husband, and preffed him to drink the fame, which he accordingly did. Soon A B C D Soon after he rose from bed, went abroad, converfed with fome of his tenants and fervants, and then ap peared to be in his ordinary state of health; but before he got back to the houfe, and within the space of an hour after he had drank the faid bason of tea, he was seized with a violent reach ing and vomiting, and having got into the kitchen, he continued there for fome time in great diftrefs; upon which he was helped up to his own room, and laid in bed, where he remained reaching, vomiting, and purging with fuch violence, that he fometimes appeared convulfed; and, in the intervals of his diftrefs, he did fay to his friends, and others about him, that he had been poifoned by his wife; and he having called for water to drink, which was brought up to the room by Anne Sampfon, his fervant maid, in the fame balon, or one like to that out of which he had drank the tea, he faid, "Damn that bason, for I have got my death out of it already;" and ordered her to bring up the water in the tea kettle, for he would drink out of nothing elfe; and having continued in the fituation above described for feveral hours, his tongue fwelled, and his mouth became fo parched and dry that he could fcarcely fpeak; and during his illness, though from the beginning very alarming, Katharine Nairn, his wife, not only endeavoured to hinder his friends and neighbours from having access to him, but when the was preffed by Andrew Stewart to fend for a furgeon, the obftinately re- E fifted that propofal till near fun fet, when Thomas Ogilvie, her husband, appearing to be very low, and near his end, the fent her fervant on horseback to bring Peter Meik, furgeon at Alyth, who accordingly came with all difpatch; but, before his arrival Mr Ogilvie her husband was dead, having died in the night, between the 6th and 7th days of June lalt: And from the fymptoms of his diforder, and the whole circumstances of the cafe above recited, it evidently appears, that he died of the poifon, which was mixed and given him by Katharine Nairn, in the bafon of tea as above mentioned. And fome days thereafter, when it was propofed to infpect the dead body, he appeared like one diftracted, and cried out, what fhall I do! And lieutenant Patrick Ogilvie being advifed of the death of Thomas Ogilvie his brother, to whom he is heir, in case Katharine Nair» be not with child, F H he immediately came to Eafmiln, took up his refidence there, and gave the neceffary orders for the interment. The criminals being foon after taken into custody, were brought to their tryal on Monday the 12th of Auguft at feven in the morning: The tryal was long, fo that the court continued fitting till about two on Tuesday morning, and then the jury being enclosed, the court adjourned till Wednesday at four o'clock in the afternoon: The jury continuing enclosed till five on the Tuesday morning, then agreed upon their verdict, and when the court met on Wednesday according to the adjournment, they returned it, finding both the prifoners guilty. Immediately after reading the verdict, the council for the prifoners pleaded an arreft of judgement, and mentioned several informalities in the tryal, on account of which they in-' fitted for a delay in pronouncing fentence. On this debate, the court fat till nine at night, when they adjourned till next day at eleven; they then refumed the confideration of the objections, when their lordships found the procedure during the whole tryal mott regular, and the verdict given in by the jury most diftinct and definitive. Then the court proceeded to pronounce fentence upon Patrick Ogilvie, and condemned him to be carried back to prison, there to be fed upon bread and water, till Wednesday the twenty fifth day of September next, and betwixt the hours of two and four o'clock in the afternoon of that day, to be carried to the Grafs Market, and there to be hanged upon a gibbet till dead; and thereafter his body to be given to Dr Alexander Monro, Profeffor of Anatomy, to be publickly diffected. A petition was then presented for Katharine Nairn, pleading the compaffion of the court, in respect that the was fome months gone with child. In confequence of this petition, the lords remitted her to the judgment of a jury of midwives, who met next forenoon, at ten o'clock, at which time the court having alfo met, five midwives were folemnly fworn to examine the prifoner Katharine Nawn, and to report whether or not she was pregnant. The midwives having attended her into an adjacent room, and remained there fome time, returned into court, and made oath, that they could not depofe with certainty whether he was with child or not. In Iconie |