and extravagant; yet Mr. A. who never underflood three words of Swedish, affirms, that in his judgment, it is not equal to Collins, whom he only knows perhaps through the medium of a French or Italian tranflator! "Fie!" as Parson Hugh fays, "what affectations is this?" This is the moft venial part of Mr. Acerbi's ftrictures. Weak, garrulous, petulant,. and malignant, he infults almost every celebrated name with defpicable calumnies, collected in poft-houses, and perhaps worfe receptacles of orance and vice. Thunberg, Sparrman, nay, the great Linnæus, appear like drivellers in his pages. But we have done. Our limits will not allow us to counteract the author's gratuitous flander, and we must therefore leave it to the oblivious contempt, to which its palpable injuftice has condemned it. (To be concluded in our next.) ART. II. Figures of Mofaic Pavements difcovered at Horkflow. By Samuel Lyfons, F. R. S. and D. A. S. Seven Plates. Royal Folio, with Letter-prefs. 31. 35. White. 1802. OUR UR readers probably have not forgotten the magnificent work of this author, on the Roman Antiquities difcovered at Woodchester, in the county of Gloucefter*. They who gave credit to our report, or, ftill more certainly, they who faw that work, would be convinced, that few perfons could be better qualified than Mr. S. Lyfons to preferve these remains of Roman magnificence, by means of plates and defcriptions. The prefent publication is announced as the beginning of a work on the most remarkable Roman Antiquities in Great Britain, which it is purposed to represent in the fame ftyle, under the title of RELIQUIA ROMANE. These delineations are to be published in feparate Parts, four of which will make a volume, having a general Title-page and Table of Contents. The fecond Part is to confift of fourteen Plates, on the Roman Antiquities difcovered at Bath, which we have mentioned on other occafions. The third Part will contain ten Plates, representing several Mofaic Pavements, difcovered near Frampton, in Dorfetthire, coloured after the originals. Mr. L. does not intend to confine himself to antiquities which See Brit. Crit. vol, xi, p. 1. have not been publifhed before. Thefe, however, will be firft given, and those which have already appeared will be afterwards introduced. The village of Horkflow, fituated near the northern extremity of Lincolnfhire, ftands within fight of the Humber, and the Yorkshire coaft. The great Roman road from Lincoln to the Humber pafles within three miles of the place*, and the neighbourhood is remarkable for Roman antiquities. In this fituation, and in a field adjoining to the garden of Horkflow Hall, the feat of Admiral Shirley, the Mofaic pavement was found which is the fubject of this work. It was difcovered, in 1796, by labourers, who were employed in making a kitchen-garden, about three feet below the furface of the ground. Roman coins had been found, several years before, near this fpot. The firft Plate is a coloured landfcape, giving a view from Horkflow Hall. It marks the fituation of the pavement; and, in the diftance, fhows the river Humber, and the Yorkfhire coaft, oppofite to Wintringham and Ferriby fluice. The view, though not bold, is pleafing. The fecond Plate con tains a Map of the neighbourhood of Horkflow, pointing out the fituation of the principal places where Roman antiquities have been difcovered. The omiffion of Broughton, at least in the copy before us, is a material fault. Within the Map, on a larger fcale, is a plan of the house and grounds of Horkflow Hall. Here alfo the defcription and the plate do not feem exactly to agree; for we are told in the former, that at C was the fragment of another pavement; but, in the delineation, it is fo united with that at B, that there is hardly room for a flight partition between the two, and it appears rather as a collateral part of the fame pavement, than another entirely diftin&t from it. Perhaps there was fome feparation between the two, or remains of a wall which are not expreffed in the engraving. The defign of the pavement at B, feems undoubtedly to be complete in itfelf. The general construction of this pavement is thus defcribed: "This pavement is compofed of tefferæ, for the most part cubes of about half an inch, of different colours, red, white, bluish-grey, dark blue, and feveral fhades of brown. The red, the dark blue, and the brown, are of a compofition; the grey and white are natural produc Mr. Lyfons fays four; but by the scale on his own Map, Plate II. it is very little more than two miles nor is it more on other Maps. Brough, No. 6, is omitted. It fhould, in fact, be Broughton; between Santon and Hibalftow, tions, the former being a kind of flate, and the latter of a hard calcareous fubitance called calk, found near the fpt. They are laid in mortar, on a ftratum of coarse terras, about fix inches thick, beneath which is a ftratum of coarse rubbish; but this pavement does not appear to have had the fame regular ftrata which, ufually occur in other works of the fame kind in this country; nor was there any appearance of fubterranecus flues. Very flight traces of the walls remain round the pavement*, only a small portion of the foundation being now left, from which thefe walls appear to have been formed of flint and calk, and to have been about two feet fix inches wide." P. 2. The Plates 3, 4, and 5, reprefent the three principal compartments of this great pavement, the extreme dimenfions of which appear, by the fcale, to have been about 70 feet by rather lefs than 30. The two collateral pavements together would give a better proportion, as they would be about 70 by 50. The defign of this pavement, as to its compartments, figures, and borders, is extremely elegant; but the execution of the parts which required drawing is very indifferent, from which Mr. L. rightly concludes, that it must have been the work of a late age. "It is not indeed improbable," he adds, "that it might have been reftored from a more ancient one fallen to decay." What it would have been, if executed by good artifts, is fhown in a fatisfactory manner in Plate 6, where Mr. Smirke has given the whole of it, with the deficient parts reftored from the beft founded conjectures, and with the advantage of correct and elegant drawing in the figures. Plate 7, reprefents a fmall fragment found in another place, nearer the house, with a piece of fculpture reprefenting mili tary trophies, rudely cut in alabafter. The prefent work, from the inferior nature of the fubje&t, is much lefs interefling than the publication relating to Woodchefter. But the ingenuity of the author is evinced, not only in the plates, but in his remarks upon the antique defigns; and the public will doubtlefs encourage the continuation of a work fo well calculated to give a correct idea of the remains of Roman art and magnificence ftill preferved in Britain. This may poffibly account for the appearance noticed above, Rev, ART. ART. III. The true Churchman afcertained; or an Apology for thofe of the regular Clergy of the Establishment, who are fometimes called Evangelical Minifters: occafioned by feveral modern Publications. By John Overton, A. B. 8vo. 422 pp. 8s. 8s. Mawman. 1801. THE principles of Chriftianity are all contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Teftaments; but, in these Scriptures, they are not ftated in a fyftematic form. It was found expedient, therefore, even in the days of the Apostles, to compile fhort fummaries of the faith, to which every Bishop, on his receiving the paftoral care of a church, was to declare his affent; and, in conformity to which, he was to inftru&t his people. This feems evident, from St. Paul's thanking God that the Roman converts had "obeyed from the heart that form of aoctrine which was delivered to them," as well as from his exhorting Timothy to "hold faft the form of found words which he had heard; and to commit the fame to faithful men, who should be able to teach others alfot." The articles of those creeds, for fuch they were, feem, for many years, to have been few in number, and of eafy comprehenfion. The immediate fucceffors of the Apoftles were not corrupted by a vain and fubtle philofophy. They aimed not at being wife above what is written; and they contented themfelves with expreffing fcripture truths in fcripture language. The earliest fummary of the faith which has come down to us, we believe to be that given by Irenæus; who fays, that the church, which was difperfed through all the world, even to the ends of the earth, by the Apostles and their difciples, received that faith, which profeffeth to believe in one God, the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth; the fea, and all things which are therein; and in one Jefas Chrift, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our falvation; and in the Holy Ghoft, who preached by the prophets the difpenfations of God, and the coming of our Lord, Chrift Jefus, his generation of a virgin, his paffion, his refurrection from the dead, and his afcenfion to heaven in the flesh, and his coming again from heaven in the glory of his Father, to fum up all things, and to raise again from the dead all the flesh of mankind; that so to Chrift Jefus, our Lord and God, and Saviour and King (7 Kvety pr καὶ Θεῷ, καὶ σωτήρι, καὶ βασιλεῖ) according to the good pleafure of the invifible Father, every knee may bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and every tongue may confefs unto him, and he may in all things do righteous judgment, by doom ing fpiritual wickednesses, and the angels who tranfgreffed, and turned apoftates, together with all impious, unjuft, unrighteous, and blafphemous perfons to eternal fire, and by giving life, immortality, and eter nal glory, to all juft and righteous perfons, who keep his commandments, and abide in his love, fome from the beginning (of their Chriftian profeffion) and others by returning to him after they have tranfgreffed." In this illuftrious teftimony to the Nicene faith, no article is introduced, which is not clearly revealed in Holy Scripture: no metaphyfical dogmas are afferted refpecting fate, the origin of evil, or the fate of the human foul when feparated from the body. The hopes expreffed of future happiness, are made to reft on the refurrection of the dead; and every man is taught to look for the pardon of his own fins, provided he repent of them, without perplexing himself with the enquiry how fin firft came into the world. The fummaries of faith, however, did not long remain in this fcriptural fimplicity. Numbers of converts were gradually made from the various fects of heathen philofophy; and thofe men introduced into the church, and blended with the doctrines of revelation, many intricate queftions, which they had been accustomed to agitate with vehemence in the schools. The Stoics and Epicureans confidered the freedom of the human will as çapa áruπóclalov, and fome of them contended, that even the Gods themfelves were fubject to fate; while the purer theifts, fuch as the Platonifts and Peripatetics, perplexed themselves with vain attempts to find a fatisfactory anfwer to the queftion πόθεν τὸ κάκον ? What philofophy could not furnifh, the Chriftian Platonists fancied that they had found in the Mofaic hiftory of the fall of our firft parents, which, however, many of them confidered as an allegorical account of a pre-exiftent ftate of the foul, and which, interpreted in any fenfe that the words will bear, certainly furnishes no folution to the queftion which was agitated in the fchools, concerning the origin of moral evil. With respect to fate, the Scriptures fo obviously affert the fovereignty and freedom of God, that in them the Stoical opinions received no countenance; but all, who were accustomed to deny the liberty of the human will, found, as they imagined, their philofophic doctrines confirmed by the authority of Mofes, and of the Apostle of the Gentiles. For the first four centuries these metaphyfical questions seem to have given little disturbance to the Catholic Church. During that period it was the univerfal belief, that "as in K k BRIT. CRIT, VOL. XXI. MAY, 1803. Adam |