mending to your notice, the advice which Mr. Locke gave to a young man, who was defirous of becoming acquainted with the doctrines of the Chriftian religion. "Study "the holy fcripture, especially the

new Testament: Therein are con❝tained the words of eternal life. "It has God for it's author; Salva"tion for it's end; and Truth "without any mixture of error for i'ts matter*."

I am, &c.

Locke's Pofth. Works.

I am obliged to a Gentleman, to whom I have not the good for tune to be personally known, for the following remarks: they were communicated to me, when thefe Letters were in a great meafure printed off; but the public, I am perfuaded, will think them too interefting to have been fuppreffed.

Remarks on certain passages in Mr. Gibbon's "Hiftory of the De"cline and Fall of the Roman "Empire." By R. Wynne, Rector of St. Alphage, London.

I

Tis not a little surprising, that this juftly admired historian fhould discover fuch an excess of

can

candour towards Nero, the moft execrable monfter that ever dif graced a throne, and at the fame time an uncommon prejudice against the profeffors of Christianity, the innocent victims of his rage.

&

He gives an account of the dreadful fire that confumed the greater part of Rome [Chap. XVI. p. 532.] in the reign of Nero; and endeavours to vindicate his character from the imputation of having fet the City on fire, contrary to the concurrent teftimony of all the Roman historians*. Nay, Mr. G. talks of Nero's generofity and humanity, on account of fome + popular

alts;

*Tacit. Annal. XV. Sueton. in Neron. Dion. Caffius, Lib. LXII. p. 1014. Orofius VII. 7.

+ Quæ quanquam popularia, &c. fays Tacitus.

atts; which, as Tacitus hints*, were intended to remove the fufpicion of of his being the incendiary. But let us hear what Suetonius fays of this melancholy event, the caufe of it, and of the emperor's behaviour on this occafion; who certainly had a better opportunity of inveftigating the truth, (as he was born in the reign of Vefpafian, † and is reckoned a moft accurate and candid writer) than our author. Quafi deformitate veterum ædificiorum, "et anguftiis flexurifque vicorum offenfus, incendit urbem tam "palam, ut plerique confulares, cubi

..

Sed non ope humanâ, non largitionibus principis, aut deûm placamentis, decedebat infamia, quin juffum incendium credere Idem. Annal. XV.

tur.

+ About

5 or 6

years

after the fire.

66

“cubicularios ejus, cum ftupâ tæ"dâque, in prædiis fuis deprehenfos "non attigerint: et quædam horrea "circa domum Auream, quorum "fpatium maximè defiderabat, ut "bellicis machinis labefactata, atque inflammata fint, quod faxeo "muro conftructa erant."-" Hoc "incendium è turri Mæcenatiana profpectans, lætufque flamma, ut «aiebat, pulchritudine, dλwow Ilii in "illo fuo fcenico habitu decanta"vit." Mr. G. after Tacitus, mentioning Nero's throwing open the imperial gardens to the diftreffed multitude, &c. applauds his generofity. It appears very pro

bable,

This circumftance is mentioned by Tacitus, who was born before this fire, as a report which the Emperor could not fupprefs. Idem. Ibid.