"One anecdote is related of him during this expedition, which, though already repeatedly published, and in fome refpects irregular with regard to the fervice, does too much honour to his filial attention to be omitted here: During the time the veffels were closely jammed up by the ice, Mr. Nelfon was miffed in the night, and no inconfiderable apprehenfions were entertained on board for his fafety; but he was at length dif covered on the return of day at a confiderable diftance from the veffel, in purfuit of a large bear. He was armed only with a musket, the lock of which having been, by fome accident, injured, was rendered of no further service to him than as a club; yet, thus weakly armed, he had the refolution and intrepidity to purfue the animal, in the hope of tiring it out, and knocking it down with the but-end of his piece. When he returned, he was fomewhat harshly reprimanded by the captain, who demanded, in a very peremptory tone, to know his reafon for fo inconfiderate and rafh an undertaking; when his answer must have unbent the brow of the most unrelenting tyrant-" I was in hopes, Sir," faid the young hero, "of getting a skin for my father." P. 9. Throughout the eventful process of his fhort but glorious life, Lord Nelfon appears not only as a great and gallant Hero, but as a moft amiable and accomplished man; highly fufceptible of the milder and better qualities of the heart, a dutiful fon, an affectionate brother, and a faithful friend. Many of his private letters to Mr. Locker, late Lieutenant Governor of Greenwich Hofpital, under whofe command he had formerly ferved, are given in the Appendix, and fufficiently prove the affertion concerning him. "" ORIGINAL LETTERS. "Lowestoffe, at Sea, Aug. 12, 1777. "My moft worthy Friend, "I am exceedingly obliged to you for the good opinion you entertain of me, and will do my utmost that you may have no occafion to change it. I hope God Almighty will be pleased to fpare your life, for your own fake, and that of your family; but fhould any thing happen to you (which I fincerely pray to God may not), you may be affured that nothing fhall be wanting on my part, for the taking care of your effects, and delivering fafe to Mrs. Locker fuch of them, as may be thought proper not to be difpofed of. You mentioned the word "confolation" in your letter I fhall have a very great one, when I think I have ferved faithfully the best of friends, and the most amiable of women. "All "All the fervices I can render to your family you may be affured fhall be done, and fhall never end but with my life; and may God Almighty of his great goodnefs keep, blefs, and preferve you and your family, is the moft fervent prayer of faithful fervant, "HORATIO NELSON." your "P. S. Though this letter is not couched in the best manner, be affured it comes from one entirely devoted to your fervice. "H. N." "[It is neednefs to add," fays Mr. Charnock, "that this letter was written in confequence of Captain Locker's extreme ill health, a circumftance which at length compelled him to leave the Jamaica ftation, and return to England for his recovery two years afterwards the foregoing letter fpeaks for itself; it needs neither comment, nor praife."] "Dear Sir, "Badger, May 13, 1779. "I am very forry I made you fo uneafy about the men that were preffed from the Amity Hall, but I will relate the ftory in particular for Mr. Taylor's fatisfaction, whom I fhould be very forry to difoblige, not only because he has been fo exceedingly civil to me, but also upon your account. "When I firft faw the fhips in Port Antonio, I took them for part of the Cork fleet, and fent the boat for men, with orders not to prefs from homeward-bound fhips; they went on board two, and did not meddle with their people; but as there were thirty-five men on board the Amity Hall, they were tempted to bring away five; I was not pleased when they came on board, and I returned into port on purpofe to release them, for I enter. tained not a thought of detaining any one of them; the master came on board, and acted in a moft impertinent manner. In very abufive language he told me he should take the law, &c. I cannot fay but I was rather warm at being talked to in fuch a manner; however, I immediately returned two men and a neutral, but told him I fhould keep the other two, on account of his im pertinent behaviour. (This is the whole of the matter.) If you tell the story, I beg you will mention, that the master forgot to advertise he had on board two deferters from the Badger. "The mafter is juft coming on board, fo I muft ftop a little. He is juft gone, and I never was more furprised than at his denying the advertisement, and saying that feveral circumstances were not fuch as he had written about, either in regard to the num. ber, or, that it prevented his proceeding with the convoy; he fays he wrote to a gentleman in Kingston his account of the af. fair, and begged he would get his men releafed, or take fuch methods as might preferve him from blame, if he did not fail; he tells me he never defired the bufinefs to be advertised, he has begged begged my pardon for his behaviour on that day, and we are parted very good friends (though I believe all he told me is falfe); however, it will convince people what fort of man he is. I have now completed our water, and fhall fail in the morning. I intend going off the eastern end, to fee if the report of the fourteen-gun brig be true. "Since I wrote laft I have loft a very fine brig, which we chafed twenty leagues to leeward of the island, and loft, I am fure, for want of a night-glafs. I intend to come in again on Tuesday to fave poft if poffible, but for fear I should not, I leave this here. I fee you are quite determined about going home, and in all probability may fail before you can hear from me again; but I fhall always write to you in England. I hope you will have a good voyage, and find Mrs. Locker, together with all your family, in good health: I hope you will foon recover when you get home. The friendship you have fhewn me I shall never forget; and though I lose my best friend by your going, I would not have you stay a day longer in this country. I am very forry indeed Captain Deane is ill; I beg you will give him my best wishes for his fpeedy recovery. May health and happinefs attend you is the fincere with of your "Much obliged and faithful fervant, "HORATIO NELSON." "I am afraid the Admiral has got the wrong end of the ftory about the men; if you think proper mention it: I beg you will return Mr. Taylor my fincere thanks for the kind part he has taken in this affair." App. p. 3. Mr. Charnock has made his volume ftill more interefting by the communication of various anecdotes of different individuals belonging to the fea fervice, or connected with Lord Nelfon by blood or friendship. As of Captain Maurice Suckling, Lord Nelfon's maternal uncle; of Conftantine Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave; of the gallant Captain Farmer, Sir Edward Hughes, the prefent Sir Edward Berry, and many others. The narrative is in fome parts unneceffarily protracted, but the whole is an entertaining performance, and will preferve a respectable place among the numerous publications which doubtlefs will come before us on the fame animating and important fubject. ART. ART. VIII, Eight Sermons preached before the University of Oxford, &c. (Continued from our last, p. 423.) AFTER the two firft Difcourfes, which may be confidered as introductory, in the third Dr. Laurence comes to a comparison of the doctrine of original fin, held by the Roman, the German, and the English Churches; and in this mode, and this order, he confiders their tenets on the fubject of each of our articles which he difcuffes. The reformers of Germany fet themselves vigorously to attack the numerous errors the fchoolmen had introduced on this fubject. Many they were; fome we fhall have to cite from this fermon; but of the character and spirit of the works of these men we shall not decline giving fome opinion here, as it will be of ufe in the remainder of this article: and although we fhall not with Leibnitz, fpeaking of the founder of that fect, call him the venerable and great Thomas of Aquinas;" nor number the Thomifts indifcriminately" among good philofophers *;" yet we lean rather more to his fentiment, when he fays that a felection of the good things to be found in the works of this clafs of writers, (for Scotus has his fhare in his praifes) would be a valuable prefent to the literary world, if performed by a perfon duly fitted for the tafk, than to that of those who think that the value of the difcovery would not repay the fearch. The efforts of the human mind may have been mifdirected for ages; a great part of the labour of multitudes of men of penetrating genius may have been thrown away, but it is impoffible that they fhould not have left many things of great utility and value in their works. Many fictions were ingrafted by the Romish schoolmen on the doctrine of original fin, which, as it is here fhown, were defervedly condemned by thofe firft reftorers of the purity of the Chriftian religion; and among thefe were thofe fet up to account for the depravation of the nature of Adam after the fall, phyfically, in two modes. It were to be wifhed, that no charitable writer of our own Church had endeavoured to rescue either of thefe from the deferved oblivion they feemed to be haftening to. Nor must we omit the fanciful * Sur la bontè de Dieu, f. 93, 89. hypothefis hypothesis here mentioned of Thomas Aquinas, of two different expiations of the original and actual fins of mankind. But, as we are informed by Dr. L. these divines more particularly cenfured another and capital error fet up by fchoolmen, as flattering human pride, and depreciating the value of the great facrifice which Chrift has offered up for us. Original fin is agreed on all hands to be oppofed to original juftice or righteoufnefs, the ftate of Adam before the fall. This inherent righteousness the schoolmen held not to have been a part of his proper nature, but an addititious ornament to it only, like a garland on the head of a virgin; and that when it was taken away from him, his nature remained perfect. It is the confequence of this that fallen man deferveth not the wrath of God, nor can a being perfect in the nature he has given it be difpleafing in his fight: he is only defective in that which was pleafing; he is thus not in a corrupted and finful ftate, but in one which with Luther we may call nonmeritorious. Our Saviour therefore, he obferves, fuffered not for finners, but for the non-meritorious; the word fin in the Scripture and the Creeds must therefore receive a new fenfe, and for the future must be understood to mean nothing pofitive, but the abfence of merit only. But thofe of the reformed Church, who attribute the first formation of her opinion of the imputation of the fin of Adam to all his pofterity, or, which is the fame thing, that they are all involved in the guilt of it, to the church of Rome after she fell into her greater errors, or to her schoolmen, evidently err against ecclefiaftical hiftory; which demonftrates that the opinion and the term were much more ancient than those writers fuppofe. This may be proved from St. Auguftine, St. Bafil," and others of the fathers *. The ninth article of our Church does • Authorities on this point might be multiplied, not only of the Latin but of the Greek Church, which Burnett denies. Of the Latin Church one, only fhall be cited, St. Auguftine, who fays, lib. 3, de Pec. mor. c. 8. Deus ** imputat vero non jam aliena [peccata,] fed propria. Aliena quippe erant, quando hi qui ea propagata portarent, nondum erant, nunc verò carnali generatione jam eorum funt, quibus nondum fpirituali regenera tione dimiffa funt. This is exprefs on the imputation of the fin of Adam to his pofterity, and Bafil, in his Homily on Paradife, fays, "As often as I behold this flower (the Rofe) I am admonimed of my own fin (της αμαρίίας της εμης) for which the earth was condemned to produce thorns and thiftles." Here Bafil fpeaks of the fin of Adam as his own proper crime, and perhaps the best illuftration |