seemed to themselves to have banished the instrumentality of elementary causes, an active, powerful, and universal fluid became at once as manifest as the day, which till that time seemed to have been concealed under the shades of the night. And there is no doubt, that Sir Isaac Newton, attached as he was to his mathematical speculations, would have given up his vacuum, and all the qualities working within it, had he lived to see the state of experiments in the present day.

The world is evidently no vacuum, matter does not act by qualities but by impulses, as the various operations of nature, and the experiments of art, demonstrate to satisfaction. The seasons of the year follow the light and heat of the sun, and all the productions of the earth follow the operations of the elements. Every man may be referred to his own body for an analogical exhibition of the ways of nature; for man's natural life, with the fluidity of his blood, the motion of his lungs, the digestion of aliments, the secretion of the juices, is undoubtedly carried on by the agency of heat or fire, with the impressions of internal and the pressure of external air. How is vapour raised in the world, and how is steam raised in the body, but by heat? How are they carried off, and conveyed from place to place, but by air? Examine all the operations of chemistry, and see whether attraction can be found acting without heat or cold in any one of them. Whether the formations of the forge and furnace, of which there is no end, can be carried on without fire. Whether repulsion is ever found to divide things, or attraction to unite them, without the elements to dissolve and evaporate. sulphur and oil together, and preach a sermon over them upon the power of attraction, they will remain quiescent

Put

quiescent to the end of the world; but apply fire to them in a certain degree, and they will unite, never more to be separated. From these, and all other like operations of nature and art, does it look as if matter acted on matter at a distance by qualities? Can there be a supposition more unphilosophical, more contrary to fact? For how should two masses of dead matter, placed at a distance, have any effect on each other, when even two animated bodies cannot exercise any such power? Let two men be placed at the distance of twenty yards from each other, take away the light from between them, and they cannot see one another; take away the air, and then the one cannot speak, and the other cannot hear. In short, the world is at an end with them both; and so it would be with this earth, and the sun, and all the planets, unless they communicated with each other by some intervening fluid in motion. As the system of life and functions of the body are kept up by the blood flowing to all parts, the rationale of the thing is the same in the great system of nature, where order and motion must be preserved on the same principle of a circulation in the fluid of the heavens.

But a notion is entertained, it seems, by some persons, that the Elementary Philosophy naturally leads to Atheism, and Sir Isaac Newton himself is charged with giving countenance to Materialism by his Ether; though nothing can be further from the truth; and it is surprising how such a thought could ever enter into the head of any man. It is the aim and study of the Elementary, called the Hutchinsonian Philosophy, not to confound God and Nature, but to distinguish between the Creator and the creature; not with the heathens to set up the heavens for God, but to believe

and

and confess with all true worshippers, that "it is Jehovah who made the heavens." And to maintain that the operations in nature are carried on by the agency of the elements, which experiment demonstrates, is no more excluding God from being the Creator of the world, than to maintain that motion once given to a watch will continue without the immediate application of the artist's hand every moment to it, is asserting, that the watch made itself. The powers of nature truly understood, in the sense of this Author, agree with what is revealed to us concerning the nature of God and man, which is a farther recommendation of the plan. "Nature is Christian." But Nature, falsely understood, as in modern philosophy, leads to such ideas of God as are contrary to the Christian Religion; it being well known, that ever since the fashion has prevailed of deducing religious truth from some fancied discoveries in philosophy, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity hath been more and more disputed; as it is an undoubted fact, that our Arians, Socinians, and Deists, are chiefly found among those, who affect to excel in the modern philosophy, and who actually make use of it to recommend Heterodoxy and Infidelity. Let any one read the Physiolo gical Disquisitions, and he will soon be convinced, that North and South are not more opposite than Hutchinsonianism and Materialism. In this, as in all his writings, Mr. Jones is mindful of his own observation, "Life is so short, and knowledge comes so "slowly to man in this mortal state, that nothing "should be represented under an obscure form, which is ❝ capable of a plain one." "Your stile" (says a friend writing to him, after having read the Disquisitions)

Your stile has the property of the Italian atmo

"sphere,

sphere, of which travellers remark, that "it embellishes all objects by shewing them with clearness, which is the great point; for the use of style, as of glass, is only to see other things through; and therefore the clearest must be the best."

The figurative language of the Holy Scripture having been always his favourite study; after revolving the subject in his mind for many years, he drew up a course of Lectures, which were delivered at the parish Church of Nayland in Suffolk, in the year 1786; and, that they might not be confined to a corner, but that "other cities also" might have the benefit of them, in the year following they were published for the edification of the Christian Church at large. The mode of interpretation here pursued, is what Christians knew and taught above a thousand years ago; yet apprehensive that it might seem to be "bringing many strange things to the ears of some people" in these days, he has been particularly careful to have the sanction of Scripture itself for every explanation he has adopted, that he might be able to say, "thus it is written." To compleat his plan, he had a supplemental discourse in reserve, which, knowing how "unskilful some are in the word of righteousness, having need of milk and not of strong meat," he did not print till several years after, and then with a desire that it should fall into the hands of those only, who were prepared, by what they had already seen in the other Lectures, to give it due consideration. The reflexion naturally suggested to the mind on reading this volume, is, that as the Author was diligent in all "other branches of learning, so he seemed restless "in searching the scope and intention of God's Spirit "revealed to mankind in the Scriptures. For the

"under

"understanding of which, he seemed to be assisted "by the same Spirit with which they were written; "he that regardeth truth in the inward parts, making "him to understand wisdom secretly."

Music was the delight of his soul, and he was a Master of it. He understood both Theory and Practice. His Treatise on the Art of Music is reckoned to display a profound knowledge of the subject, and his Compositions, a morning and evening Cathedral Service, ten Church Pieces for the Organ, with four Anthems in score for the use of the Church of Nayland, are greatly admired, as of the old school, in the true classical style. His instruments were all tuned to the glory of God," to sing praises to his name, to tell of his loving kindness early in the morning, and of his truth in the night season." And herein he was gratified at Nayland to the desire of his heart. The Church, which is an elegant Gothic building, wanted nothing, he thought, but an Organ, to make it compleat for worshipping God in the beauty of holiness. By the concurrent assistance of some good friends, who were ever ready to promote his laudable designs, it was accomplished; he was indulged in his pious wish; and in the holy services of the Church, he" rejoiced at the sound of the Organ." In a Ser-mon on the nature and excellence of Music, preached at the opening of the new Organ in 1787, he observes, "When we consider the performance of sacred Music

a It is the opinion of many eminent persons, well qualified to decide on the subject, that in the whole history of English Psalmody nothing has been produced superior to Mr. Jones's Composition, in four parts, which he adapted to the second metre of the 23d psalm (Old Version) and which, after the name of his favourite Saint, he called St. Stephen's Tune.