Our author's obfervations relative to the therapeutic management of the difeafe, though not new, are judicious and well-founded; and from the prefent, as well as a former fpecimen of his medical difcernment, we entertain no doubt, that what he propofes to write hereafter on other chronic complaints, to which this treatife is a prelude, will afford equal fatisfaction, if not additional information, to the faculty.

A Sermon preached before the University of Oxford at St. Mary's, on Eafter Monday, March 3, 1777. By Robert Holmes, M. A. Fellow of New College, Oxford. 4to. is. Rivington. THE

HE text is, Who fhall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,' Phil. iii. 21. The argument in favour of Chrift's refurrection is conducted in this manner: it is admitted, that Jefus was really put to death, that the fepulchre was made fure, &c. it was nevertheless afferted by a few, that he was returned to life, and that he fhewed himself openly among men. Among those, who afferted his refurrection, Peter was the chief, He had made an early visit to the fepulchre; but not finding the body, he departed, wondering in himself. If he had been embarked in any scheme of fraud, he had no occafion to repair to the se pulchre for intelligence; and if fuch a defign had been formed and executed by the difciples, it is astonishing, that the prin cipal among them fhould be unacquainted either with their scheme, or their fuccefs. There could be no room for credulity, on the one hand, or fraud on the other. What he had perfonally feen was a pofitive and perfpicuous fact. cerity can hardly be questioned. The bare apprehenfion of fuffering had induced him to deny his mafter; and he was afterwards affured, that an avowal of the truth would expose him to the pains of a bitter death [crucifixion]. It is therefore unreasonable to imagine, that he would struggle with thofe very fears, which had fo lately fubdued him, and brave that death, from which he had fled before, in fupport of a wil ful and deliberate falfhood,

His fin

From the refurrection of Christ, the author deduces the refurrection of our bodies; and illuftrates this doctrine by our Lord's transfiguration, giving this literal conftruction of the text. Who shall transfigure the body of our humiliation, that it may become comfortable to the body of his glory. In explaining these words, he very reasonably supposes, that this exprefion σωμα της δόξης αυτέ, the body of his glory, is

explained by what St. Luke fays, ch. ix. 31. of our Saviour's glory on the mount, and of Mofes and Elias who appeared in glory; that St. Peter, one of his difciples, who was prefent on the mount, refers to it, when he fays, fpeaking plurally of himself, we were eye-witneffes of his majefty; and afterwards adopts the very expreffion ufed by St. Luke, He received from God the Father, honour and glory,' 2 Pet. i. 16, 17.

·

There are other circumftances, which, our author thinks, plead ftrongly in favour of a connection between this vifion, and the refurrection. When our Lord before the transfiguration had hinted, that he fhould be killed, and raised again, St. Peter interpofed, Be it far from thee, Lord.' But on the mount he had an opportunity of hearing Mofes and Elias speaking ' of his decease,' at the mention of which he had taken offence; and also of seeing his mafter clothed with that glory, which he erroneously imagined would be deftroyed by his fufferings.

This fuppofed connection feems very much fupported by the exprefs injunction of our Lord, tell the vifion to no man, until the fon of man be rifen from the dead.' Why an account of the transfiguration would come with more propriety after, than before the refurrection, is difficult to fay, unless to tell the vifion before the refurrection, "were' to make it precede that fact, with which it was connected, and to which perhaps it was defigned to apply *.'

After the refurrection our Lord retained the fame body, which he had before his death. The fact of his identity was fo very material, that it alone required abfolute demonftration. It was therefore neceffary, that he should plainly fhew himfelf in fubftance, nature, and fashion, the fame individual, which the fenfes of men reprefented him. See John xx. 27. Luke xxiv. 39, 42.

The eleven difciples went up into a mountain of Galilee, where Jefus had appointed them, it may be to the very scene, where he had been transfigured, and there they faw, and worshipped him. The difciples, who had been favoured with a fight of his former appearance in glory, being at length af fured of his refurrection, were bound to tell the vifion to their brethren, who were now alfo become capable of understanding and applying it properly; and from that application a fyftem of evidence would arife, too strong and decifive to be refifted; and little doubt would remain, either that the 'dead are raised up, or with what body they come.

*This word is ufed by feveral writers, as a neuter verb, in the fenfe in which it is here ufed by Mr. Holmes: but, in our opinion, very improperly.

On

On the Mount, Chrift's form of glory was affumed, and continued on his perfon, without deftroying his identity; or, in other words, even under a change from bodily humiliation to bodily glory, he appeared fübftantially the fame... Here were exhibited to the eyes of the apoftles, mere men like themselves, wearing a glorious form, like that fashion of glory in which their Lord then appeared... One of the two prophets had never seen death; and as in the perfon of Mofes the buried part of mankind are represented, under an affumed body of glory, fo alfo in the perfon of Elias, the like reprefentation was made of those, who fhould be found alive at Chrift's coming... Thus in the refurrection, the body is fown a natural body, it is raised a fpiritual body... As we have borne, in our body of humiliation, the image of the earthy, we shall alfo bear, in the body of our glory, the image of the heavenly,

esgave, of him that is in heaven; for fleth and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven... This great vision will inform us, that it is very poffible in the hand of Omnipotence fo to modify matter, as to induce a change, without destroying identity, and to preferve the fameness of a body of humiliation, even when it is transfigured to a body of glory... It seems to refult from the comparifon, now made between thefe two important facts, that it was one great end of the transfiguration of Chrift to give ample information in refpect of the refurre&ion; and to prevent mistakes, which might be, and partly have been made in that point of doctrine, by arguments drawn from that body of Chrift, in which he appeared after his refurrection, which was not truly and pofitively his body of glory.

This is the most ingenious fermon we have seen upon the fubject, and throws a new light upon that important doctrine, the refurrection.

Letters on the Beauties of Hagley, Envil, and the Leafowes. With Critical Remarks: and Obfervations on the modern Tafie in Gardening. By Jofeph Heely, Efq. 2 vols. Small 8vo. 5s. Served. Baldwin.

LL who have visited the beautiful feats which are the fubject of thefe Letters, must acknowledge them to be amongst the most elegant works of the kind, that this country can boaft. Particularly favoured by nature, they have also received the choiceft embellishments of art, in fuch a ftyle as difplays, to great advantage, the excellent tafte of those by whom they were modelled and improved. Nor can it be VOL. XLIV. July, 1777. reckoned

D

reckoned a small addition to the pleasure which the fight of Hagley and the Leafowes infpire, that they were each the favourite refidence of men diftinguished for genius and virtue, and who were, as much as the villas they cultivated, the ornament of their country.

The first four Letters in this collection contain general obfervations on gardening, in which the author justly reprobates the absurd taste, that fo much prevailed towards the end of the laft, and in the beginning of the prefent century.

The author begins his description of Hagley, the feat of lord Lyttelton, with a general account of the house, where he tells us he found every thing agreeable to the expectation he entertained: the rooms convenient, and in the jufteft proportion; cieling pieces rich; cornices light, elegant, and fanciful; the paintings numerous and well chosen ; and the whole houfe furnished with propriety, modefty, and taste.

This ftately manfion, fays he, ftands upon easy rifing ground, in the midst of a rich and capacious lawn: except on the North fide, where for convenience, are the offices and kitchen garden: but thefe, by a very elegant fhrubbery, filled with variety of evergreens, and verged with luxuriant full grown. limes, and other trees, totally conceal every offensive object, from any point of view throughout the whole of the park.

• Before I defcended the noble flight of fteps, (which I thought wanted the addition of a portico) an endless profpect, enriched with every variety, held me for fome time in much pleasure and when I took my way round the house to the centre of the North front, I again paused in admiration.—

The park from hence exhibits a landfcape that would do honour to the pencil of a Pouffin:-an inexpreffible glow of the fublime and beautiful, in all the fullness of their powers.Immediately oppofite, happily distanced, on the brow of a finely polished lawn, ftands a tall and light column, embofomed by a fweeping grove of pines and elms, falling down the hill, and seemingly connected with the trees that surround a fmall Gothic church, within about a hundred paces from the foot. Large oaks fingle, and others in groupes, from hence grace another fwelling lawn, diver fified with patches of fern, extending itself in fine inequalities to a different and loftier compartment of a wood, that gradually diminishes to a light, airy grove, yet affording over its branches a precipitate flant of the green hills of Clent-bold, high, and picturefque.

Bringing your eye back again to the column; the grove on the left, fteals down the hill juft far enough to make it appear in the centre of an ample crefcent; while another fmall grove, relieved from the body of the wood, as if drooped

there

there by chance, lets in, on the extremity of the hill behind, a clump of firs: the lawn from thence gradually falls, forms the finest ground imaginable, and in a noble sweep, leads the eye up the stately hill of Witchberry.

Though this part, which fo gracefully fills the landscape, be not within the pale of the park, it bears fuch an intimate relation to it, that it never can be confidered otherwife than as the fame it is the great road only, that fevers the fifter beauties; and this being fo intirely fecluded, you are no where apprized of it; confequently the connection remains unbroken.

Thefe grounds are adorned in a lively and magnificent tafte. Upon the brow of the firft fteep rifing hill, appears a light, elegant portico, taken from a drawing of the temple of Thefeus, covered behind by a deep, dark plantation of Scotch firs, extending and fhewing itself in great power down the precipitate fides of the hill in front: and on the left of the building, on a yet higher fwell, in the midft of an irregular area of lawn, proudly stands an obelisk, rearing its ample head; beyond which, at the farthermoft extremity of the ground, a venerable grove of ancient oaks, ftretching down, and lofing itself behind the shrubbery and limes that grace the fore-ground, completes one of the most ravishing views that ever was held up to the eye.'

One part of Hagley park was particularly the favourite of Mr. Pope, who used to call it his own ground, and, as we are told, never knew how to contain himself when he strayed over it. Near this fpot, the late lord Lyttelton erected to his memory a handsome urn, emboffed with emblematical figures, on the pedestal of which are these lines.

ALEXANDRO POPE..
Poetarum anglicanorum
Elegantiffimo dulciffimoque
Vitiorum caftigatori acerrimo

Sapientiæ doctori fuaviffimo
Sacra efto.

Ann. dom. 1744.

• Sacred to the memory

Of ALEXANDER POPE;
The most elegant and harmonious
Of English poets;

The fevereft fatyrift of vice,

And the most agreeable teacher of wisdom.

Ann. dom. 1744.'