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parliament. Voltaire justly observes, that the parliament decreed a parricide to be committed, in order to try an accufation of inceft, which poffibly was not committed. The trials by water and by fire, reft on the fame erroneous foundation. In the former, if the perfon accused funk to the bottom, it was a judgement pronounced by God, that he was innocent: if he kept above, it was a judgement that he was guilty. Fleury (a) remarks, that if ever the perfon accufed was found guilty, it was his own fault. In Sicily, a woman accused of adultery, was compelled to fwear to her innocence: the oath, taken down in writing, was laid on water; and if it did not fink, the woman was innocent. We find the fame practice in Japan, and in Malabar. One of the articles infifted on by the reformers in Scotland, was, That public prayers be made and the facraments administered in the vulgar tongue. The answer of a provincial council was in the following words: "That to "conceive public prayers or administer "the facraments in any language but La"tin, is contrary to the traditions and

(a) Hiftoire Ecclefiaftique.

practice

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practice of the Catholic church for many ages past; and that the demand cannot be granted, without impiety to "God and difobedience to the church." Here it is taken for granted, that the practice of the church is always right; which is building an argument on a very rotten foundation. The Caribbeans abstain from fwines flesh; taking it erroneously for granted, that fuch food would make them have small eyes, held by them a great deformity. They also abstain from eating turtle; which they think would infect them with the laziness and stupidity of that animal. Upon the fame erroneous notion, the Brafilians abftain from the flesh of ducks, and of every creature that moves flowly. It is obferved of northern nations, that they do not open the mouth fufficiently for diftinct articulation; and the reason given is, that the coldness of the air makes them keep the mouth as close as poffible. This reafon is indolently copied by writers one from another: people enured to a cold climate feel little cold in the mouth; beside that a caufe fo weak could never operate equally among fo many different nations. The real cause is,

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that northern tongues abound with confonants, which admit but a small aperture of the mouth. (See Elements of Criticism, chap. Beauty of language). A list of German names to be found in every catalogue of books, will make this evident, Rutgerfius, for example, Faefch. To account for a fact that is certain, any reafon commonly fuffices.

A talent for writing feems in Germany to be estimated by weight, as beauty is faid to be in Holland. Cocceius for writing three weighty folio volumes on law, has obtained among his countrymen the epithet of Great. This author, handling the rules of fucceffion in land-eftates, has with most profound erudition founded all of them upon the following very simple propofition: In a competition, that defcendent is entitled to be preferred who has the greatest quantity of the predecesfor's blood in his veins. Quæritur, has a man any of his predeceffor's blood in his veins, otherwife than metaphorically? Simple indeed! to build an argument in law upon a pure metaphor.

Next of reasonings where the conclufion follows not from the premises, or fundamental

mental propofition. Plato endeavours to prove, that the world is endowed with wisdom, by by the following argument. "The world is greater than any of its

parts: therefore it is endowed with wif"dom; for otherwise a man who is en"dowed with wifdom would be greater "than the world (a)." The conclufion here does not follow; for tho' man is endowed with wisdom, it follows not, that he is greater than the world in point of fize. Zeno endeavours to prove, that the world has the use of reason, by an argument of the fame kind. To convince the world of the truth of the four gofpels, Ireneus (6) urges the following arguments, which he calls demonstration. "There

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are four quarters of the world and four "cardinal winds, confequently there are "four gofpels in the church, as there are

four pillars that support it, and four "breaths of life that render it immortal."

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Again, The four animals in Ezekiel's "vifion mark the four ftates of the Son "of God. The lion is his royal dignity:

(a) Cicero, De natura Deorum, lib. 2. § 12.

(b) Lib. 3. cap. 11.

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"the calf, his priesthood: the beast with "the face of man, his human nature: "the eagle, his fpirit which defcends on "the church. To these four animals cor

refpond the four gofpels, on which our "Lord is feated. John, who teaches his "celestial origin, is the lion, his gospel "being full of confidence: Luke, who 66 begins with the priesthood of Zachariah, "is the calf: Matthew, who describes "the genealogy of Christ according to the "flefh, is the animal resembling a man: "Mark, who begins with the prophetic

fpirit coming from above, is the eagle. "This gospel is the shortest of all, because "brevity is the character of prophecy." Take a third demonftration of the truth of the four gofpels. "There have been four 66 covenants; the first under Adam, the fe"cond under Noah, the third under Mofes, "the fourth under Jefus Chrift." Whence Ireneus concludes, that they are vain, rafh, and ignorant, who admit more or lefs than four gofpels. St Cyprian in his exhortation to martyrdom, after having applied the myfterious number feven, to the feven days of the creation, to the seven thousand years of the world's duration, to

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