"Why need I tell the fate of Naxos' ifle,

When forc'd to feed the interdicted vine,
The Naiads mourn'd the too fuccefsfal wile,

Till their deep wrongs brought down the wrath divine,
Which mixt for man the medicated wine,

With fharp disease, and stormy paffions fell;

Then dire Alecto learn'd her fnakes to twine
With Autumn's purple ftore, and lov'd to dwell
Amid the feftal train, and hear the chorded shell.

"The Naiads are incenft,-and will their ire,
To profanation yield, or fcatter'd duft?
Can impious reliques of unholy fire

Calm their juft rage, when heedless of the trust
From them deriv'd, and fir'd with impious luft
Of change, we dare to taint the living tide

With the foul gleanings of a funeral buft,
(Mixture abhors'd) and rafhly fling afide
The pledges of our peace for alien gifts untry'd?
"Haply thefe figns of elemental wrath

"Still o'er the trembling ifle portentous hung,
Thefe humid plagues on high, that drizzle death
Thro' our pale bands, and thin the fickly throng,
By heav'ns permiffion came to try how long
Our faith will stand, by terror uncontroll'd:
For what is man by anguifh never ftung,
To virtue loft, to foft compaffion cold,
Till trials purge his drofs, and turn his lead to gold?

P. 64.

The Milefian Tales evince the author to be exceedingly well qualified for undertakings of this kind. The tales, though of a melancholy caft, are very pleafing and remarkably well told, particularly the Knight of Feltrim. neous poetry confifts principally of complimentary addreffes The mifcellato the author's friends, elegies, &c. The monody on the death of the late Marquis of Downfhire breathes the genuine fpirit of elegiac verfe. We however felect the following ode on the marriage of Lord Moira with the Countess of Loudoun.

"From Holftein to Almada's heights *

The tuneful Maids are mute and still,

Nor Pindus now the Mufe inyites,

Nor Fiefoles + romantic hill;

«* In Portugal.

+ Florence.

" Damp

Damp fears the general bofom chill,
Whilft Indignation burns to hear
The hireling rhymer deftly trill

His fonnets to a tyrant's ear.

"There let him tune with heart forlorn,
And faltering hand, the flavish lyre;
Not thus beneath the brows of Mourne
The Patriot wakes the Poet's fire.
Though meaneft of the Mufes choir,
The meaneft fuch a theme might warm;
Worth, Honour, Friendship, all confpire,
And Gratitude's ethereal charm.

"Hail to the Hymenæal ftar

That breaks thro' Danger's darkest shade,
Tho' Mars in fury mounts his car,
Beneath Bellona's flag difplay'd,
Dire fignal of the bloody trade;

The dauntless Warrior leads along,
In Glory's van, the plighted maid,
And news her to th' admiring throng.
"O! not for nought the generous tide
Of Bourbon, Haftings, and Navarre, (a)
And the TWIN ROSES fummer pride,
Which fortune menac'd oft to mar,
Were mixt by heaven's peculiar care
In thee, and heaven a PLEDGE bestows
(Foretold by many an omen fair)

Of triumph to the BLENDED ROSE.
"Hail Caledon! which oft beheld
Thy fpearmen by his kindred led, (b)
Invafion fled the trembling field,

When thund'ring down with meafur'd tread,
With Bruce and Freedom at their head,
From Scotia's hills they fwept the plain,
And native streams, with flaughter fed,
Ran purple to the fubject main.
"Like meteors from a low-hung cloud,
What fpirits light on ARTHUR'S SEAT*!
With WALLACE in his airy fhrowd,

The CAMPBELLS and MONTGOMERIES meet,
And DOUGLAS, fcorning Gallia's threat;
Then, circling round Edina's towers,
Adown the long-drawn vales they flect,
To roufe the Caledonian powers.

"A noted hill near Edinburgh.”

"With softer notes another choir
To fpoufal warblings tune their lays,
When Beauty fans the Warrior's fire,
And Valour wakes the fong of praise,
Twining the myrtle with his bays;

And viewless minftrels fing the LINE,
Whofe growing fplendors Hope furveys,
'Till Phoebus' felf forgets to shine.
"No! while a fon of Charlemagne (c)
Survives, by heaven's protecting hand,
The cruel Corfican in vain

Halloos his mercenary band

To flaught'rous deeds, and lines the ftrand
With crazy hulls that dread the deep;
Britannia's fons the fight demand

On level fhore or beacon'd steep.

"No trivial caufe infpires the flame,

No trivial pledge the realm fecures,
Combin'd with Freedom's ancient claim,
Religion's aid our strength affures.
Whether upon the rolling floors

Of England's barques, they mount the tide,
Or discipline her files enures

By land, to check th' Invader's pride.
"When mimic royalty, forlorn
Of Heaven and Fortune, difappears
Like yonder cloudy crown of Mourne,
Difperft, by Sol, in pearly tears—
Long as he leads the dance of years,
May manly worth and female grace,
Whatever filver'd Age reveres,

Or Youth admires, exalt your race.” P. 288.

It is painful to obferve fo many and fuch grofs errors of the prefs, particularly at page 220, where Paftor cum traheret per freta navibus, is printed Paftor cum tratreret per freta ravibus.

"(abc) Literally defcended from the Emperor Charlemagn long before the Imperial title was difgraced, the Earl of Moira is confequently allied to the houfe of Bourbon, and more immediately by his descent from the ancient Kings of Navarre.

"It is well known, that the families of Haftings and Bruce were nearly related, and both derived from the royal ftem of Scotland. It is almoft unneceffary to add, that his Lordship numbers in his pedigree the Houfes of York and Lancafter, the white and red rose. See the English and Scotch Peerage, &c. &c."

The

The whole forms a very agreeable collection of lyric poetry, and the dramatic piece with which the volume. concludes, on the fubject of Abfalom, though from the length of the fpeeches and other caufes not well adapted for reprefentation, will by no means detract from Mr. Boyd's claim as a poet and man of genius, for it contains fome interesting scenes and highly animated paffages.

ART. VI. Eight Sermons preathed before the University of Oxford, &c.

(Concluded from p. 533.)

THE 7th and 8th fermons are on predestination, and the ar ticle of our Church relating to it. The first is taken up by an account of the doctrines of the churches of Rome, Germany, and Geneva, on this fubject; preparatory to the confideration of that of the Church of England. In the beginning of these expofitions, Dr. Laurence very rightly fixes the different fenfes in which this term has been used in the Chriftian Church. Calvin, it is well known, taught that predeftination preceded the divine forefight of the actions of every individual; and that the latter was founded on the former; which therefore had no refpect to actions foreseen, or was irrefpective or abfolute. Others held that predeftination followed that forefight *; and therefore was respective,

We are aware that the term prefcience or forefight, as ap plied to the Divinity, has been objected against and St. Auguftin has faid, "Quid eft præfcientia nifi fcientia futurorum ? Quid autem futurum eft Deo, qui omnia fupergreditur tempora? fi enim res ipfas in fcientia habet, non funt ei futuræ, fed præfentes at per hoc non jam præfcientia fed fcientia dici poteft. (1. 2. ad Simplicianum.) Law, in his annotations on Archbishop King, and others from whom we diffent with regret, feem to have followed this opinion of Auguftin. But in the divine knowledge, all things and acts are truly, and completely present in every moment: that is, as they are, and in all their accidents and relations. What happened yesterday as paft according to its true circumstances; what happens now as prefent; what will U u happen

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXVII. JUNE, 1806.

fpective, founded in former conceptions of it, and there-fore the fenfe of the term introduced by it may be shown on the conceffion of its moft eminent original fupporters, (in their late age of the Church) never to have been before received therein*: the latter opinion only prevailing, and the latter fenfe of the term being, in confequence, adopted. Thus alfo it continued to be ufed by the Church of Rome and her fchoolmen: although they introduced herein an error of great magnitude of another kind, which requires to be pointed out. The German Church likewife varied not from this ancient ufe of the term, from the time their fyftem received its determinate fhape at the Diet of Augsburg. On this point the English reformers adopted the decifions of that Church entirely, as it will be feen: and, with thofe decifions, the use of the term predeftination in the fame fenfe in which they applied it, to fignify the determinations of the Deity, founded on his foreknowledge.

:

happen to-morrow as future, for if the firft or laft were conceived as prefent in the divine mind, they must be conceived as they are not; or the divine knowledge must err. We have what we may call a moral certainty of knowledge of things future, as fuch in the Divine Mind that knowledge is abfolute. Al things are prefent to God or to the Divine Knowledge: this includes their circumftances; and in these the place of their exift. ence in the fucceffive order of things; or in time, or duration. Now their place in duration is prefent, paft, or future: and to fay of any thing or act now future, that it is prefent to the Divine Knowledge in every circumftance, its futurition excepted; is to charge Omnifcience with imperfection.

*Note, p. 245. On the controverfy Suppofed by Calvin to have been begun by Caftellio against his notions on this subject, Beza thus writes in the life of the former. "Satan gained this alone by thefe diffentions: that this article of the Christian religion which was before involved in the deepeft obfcurity, had its darknefs done away; and was rendered perfpicuous to all, not poffeffed by a fpirit of contention." Some notices, indeed, are preferved of a fect of heretics in the fifth century, called the Predeftinatiani: but their existence has been difputed. The af. firmative was held by Piccinardi, and in the correspondence be tween Ufher and Voffius, it was admitted by one or both by others it is held to be a term of reproach, ufed by the SemiPelagians againft the followers of St. Auguftin. The citations we hall make from Profper and Hilary may be among the grounds of that conclufion.