Harris's Catalogue of the Library of the Royal Institution. 33 formance of fuch an undertaking, but that both scholars and students owe them no trifling obligation. That the knowledge how to diftinguish between the beft and inferior editions of books is in the highest degree important and effential, requires no formal argument to prove; and that the information where the beft are depofited is ufeful and neceffary to every one engaged in ftudious or fcientific purfuits, is alike and equally obvious. A very long lift of catalogues might be enumerated, which, from the confcioufnefs of their real value, the greatest scholars are anxious to poffefs, and indeed would confider their collections highly defective without them. Such are, to fpecify but a few only, the catalogues of De Bure, Gargnal, Goutard, De Boze, Hoym, De La Valiere, Crevenna, &c. &c. and in our country thofe of the Harleian, Mead, Afkew, Bridges, Rawlinfon, Crofts, and various other collections. This defcription of the Catalogue of the Royal Inftitution is entitled to a very honourable place among thofe books of the kind which have preceded, and will be found particularly useful not only to the collector, but to the student. The plan purfued is nearly that which was fo fuccefsfully adopted by Mr. Dryander, in the noble and extenfive collection of Sir Jofeph Banks; and we confider it as a matter of common juftice to Mr. Harris to infert his preface. "The library of the Royal Inftitution has been founded by the liberality of a few noblemen and gentlemen, for the immediate ufe of the fubfcribers to that establishment, and it may be faid, for that of the public at large; as any perfon, on the recommendation of one of the patrons, may always have access to it. "The library, in its prefent ftate, will be found as useful as many more fplendid establishments, fupported by royal or national munificence. It contains the best and most useful edition of every Greek and Roman claffic author, with the best tran flations in English, and fome in other modern languages. The clafs of mathematical science in all its branches is very full, with the beft fcientific journals and tranfactions of learned and philo. fophical focieties. The hiftorical clafs, particularly the English, in its various divifions and fubdivifions, will be found very in terefting; the managers having, at the formation of the library, procured the entire collection of the late Thomas Aftle, Efq. Author of The Origin and Progress of Writing: which library was chiefly collected by the Rev. Philip Morant, Author of the Hiftory of the County of Effex. Many of the books are enriched with his manufcript notes; particularly those relating to biography. Ꭰ BRIT, CRIT. VOL. XXXV. JAN. 1810. "The "The ufual claflification has been generally followed, with a few exceptions in fome of the claffes. It has alfo been thought advisable to keep the Greek and Roman claffics in two diftin& alphabetical claffes, rather than diftribute them under their refpective heads of hiftorians, poets, orators, &c. "In the alphabetical index will be found not only the names of authors of the entire works, but alfo of thofe in the different claffical collections of Stephens, Grotius, Maittaire, Reifke, Brunck, and Wernsdorf, and likewife the writers in the great hiftorical collections of Gronovius, Grævius, Burmann, Sallengre, &c. nor is it lefs complete in the contents of the collections of our English hiftorians, by Camden, Twyfden, Fulmar, and Gale. "This catalogue will be found particularly ufeful in all libraries; as under each head not only all the beft authors are to be found, but alfo every particular treatife contained in the mifcellaneous collection of their works; fuch as thofe of Bacon, Newton, Leibnitz, Boyle, and Locke; for inftance, at page 67, among the books on money and coin, will be found Locke on Money and Coin, with a reference that it is in the 2d volume of his works: alfo under the clafs of geography, voyages and travels, every diftinct voyage contained in the collections of Ramufio, Churchill, Harris, &c. is arranged under the respective ifland or country therein defcribed. "The fame method is followed in all the different claffes of fcience and hiftory; and by referring to the fynoptical table of contents, the reader will find a lift of the best writers on every branch of knowledge. In order to render the lifts more complete, feveral books are inferted which are not at present in the library, but are intended to be placed there when the funds of the inftitution will permit them to be purchased. "The books wanted at prefent are marked with a +, and those marked with * an afterisk fhew that they are to be found in the integral works of a mifcellaneous author. Among the English antiquities there is a frequent reference to Antiquary Tracts in 5 vol. 4to. This is a mifcellaneous collection made by Mr. Aftle; therefore cannot be found in the fame order in other libraries. It is alfo neceffary to remark, to avoid the charge of inaccuracy, that allowance must always be made for the difference of editions, as in the cafe of the reference being to the fecond edition in octavo, which varies in a volume or two from the first edition of that work." P. 5. The reader will thus perceive that this library, though it ufually goes by the denomination of A Library of Reference, contains a great variety of literary treafures; that it is exceedingly rich in English Hiftory and Antiquities, and that the beft claffics in their acknowledged befl editions will not be looked for in vain. That That an establishment fo honourable in a national point of view, fo important to the caufe of literature, and fo extenfively contributing to the convenience and afliftance of ftudents, fhould continue to receive the aid which firft formed and supported it, must be the wifh of every friend to fcience. But this is hardly enough. It claims, we think, the countenance and liberality of thofe, who, from their high ftations, mufl be not only fenfible of the wisdom and policy of foftering fuch an inftitution, but who also have the power of improving and increafing its advantages. May this falutary intimation not be communicated in vain. ART. VII. Prefbyterian Letters, addressed to Bishop Skinner, of Aberdeen, on his Vindication of Primitive Truth and Order: to which is prefixed, A Preliminary Difcourfe on the prefent State of the Controverfy concerning Ecclefiaftical Government. By Patrick Mitchell, D. D. Minister of Kemnay, Aberdeenshire. 8vo. 459 pp. 9s. Johnfon. 1809. IN N the 16th century, when those eminent men, whom we emphatically ftyle the Reformers, were driven from the communion of the Romish Church, fome of them feem to have perfuaded themselves that they could not remove too far, either in doctrine or in difcipline, from that tyrannical and corrupt fociety. Hence the variety of fects which, at that period, fprung up in Germany and elfewhere, to the difcredit, in fome degree, of the Reformation itfelf; and hence too the doubts that were excited in the mild mind of MelanƐthon to what the fpirit of innovation might ultimately tend *. Of the various reformed churches on the continent, the most numerous, and on many accounts the moft refpectable, were thofe which were under the controul of Luther and Melancthon on the one hand, and of Calvin on the other. Thele two great bodies differed from each other in fome points of doctrine, and ftill more perhaps in their notions of difcipline and ecclefiaftical government; but fo long as both trembled at the power of the pontiff, neither of them, we believe, hefitated to hold at leaft occafional com It is well known that he advifed his aged mother, when fhe confulted him on the fubject, to remain in the communion of. the church in which the had been baptized. D 2 munion munion with the other; for neither of them was at leifure, during that period, to pay due attention to the importance of the points on which they differed. In England, the Reformation was conducted more deliberately and with greater prudence than it had been on the continent, either by the Lutherans or by the Calvinifls; and to the tyranny perhaps of Henry the eighth, and his half measures, we are indebted for the cautious proceedings of Cranmer and his affociates; though it is indeed evident from the remonftrances of the more impetuous Calvin, that the Archbishop continued cautious when all dread of Henry was removed by his death. We were thus enabled, by the bleffing of God, whofe property it is to bring good out of evil, to retain in our church whatever had a place in the primitive church during the three firft centuries of the Christian Era; though we may grant, without a blufh, that, we retained likewife feveral things which were then unknown*. We retained not only the form of epifcopacy, which the Lutherans had likewife done; but alfo the fucceffion of our bishops uninterrupted, which they had done no where, except in Sweden, and perhaps in Denmark. We retained likewife a liturgy in our church, without which, or fomething equivalent, it is not eafily to be conceived how a congregation can unite in the public worship of God; and with thefe more effential articles we retained likewife the facerdotal veftments. Thefe things feem to have given very little offence to any reformed divine in England, till the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth. At that period, indeed, fome of those confeffors, who had taken refuge at Geneva, from the perfecution of Queen Mary, brought back with them frong prejudices against the facerdotal veftments, and likewife against the hierarchy of the Church of England; though Calvin 飯 "Where he (Martin) obferved the embroidery to be worked fo clofe, as not to be got away without damaging the cloth; or where it ferved to Ride or ftrengthen any flaw in the body of the coat, contracted by the perpetual tampering of workmen upon it; he concluded, the wifeft courfe was, to let it remain ; refolving, in no cafe whatfoever, that the fubftance of the stuff thould fuffer injury; which he thought the beft method for ferving the true intent and meaning of his father's will." SWIFT. It does not appear that objections were made to a fet form of prayer by any of the first Reformers, or that there was, for fome years, any reformed church without fome kind of liturgy. himself himself had declared that there is no anathema of which they are not deferving, who would not reverence fuch a hierarchy. The objections that were then started by thofe fcrupulous men, foon afterwards known by the name of Puritans, gave occafion to our divines to inquire more accurately than perhaps they had hitherto done, into the conftitution of the primitive church, and the authority by which the clergy minifter in holy things; and as there were then no philofophical Chriftians who imagined, that any man might preach the Gofpel, and adminifter the facraments of Chrift's inftitution, by his own private authority, all parties were agreed in the neceffity of ordination by the impofition of hands. The only queftions at iffue were who authorized them to ordain, and fend labourers into Chrift's vineyard, and from what fource was that authority derived. Zuingle feems to have derived all authority, in the Church as well as in the State, from the civil magiftrate; but as the church fubfifted for three hundred years, independent of the civil magiftrate, his opinion was too palpably erroneous to make much impreffion on the good fenfe of Englishmen. The Reformers of our Church contended, that the hierarchy +, as it is eftablifhed in her, is of apoftolic inftitution; that the bishops alone therefore are authorized to fend others as they had been fent themfelves; and that they derive this authority-not from the civil magiftrate "Nullo non anathemate dignos fateor, fi qui erunt, qui non eam (hierarchiam) revereantur." + We fay perhaps, because it is evident from the preface to the forms of ordaining deacons and priests, and confecrating bishops, that the authors of thofe forms were convinced, that from the Apostle's time the three orders of bishops, priefts, and deacons, had been in the church, and that they allowed no man to officiate in the Church of England who had not been epifcopally ordained or confecrated. We use here the word hierarchy, because it is generally used by Dr. Mitchell to exprefs the three orders of bishops, priests, and deacons. Deans, archdeacons, and canons, however, are often confidered as degrees in the hierarchy; and we embrace this opportunity, once for all, to declare that we do not confider thefe dignities as of apoftolical appointment. No defender of our church ever did; but becaufe Hooker pleads only for the lawfulness of retaining them, he has, by a figure in logic, in great ufe among polemics, been reprefented as contending not for the apoftolical inftitution of the hierarchy, but only for its lawfulness or expediency! |