species of knowledge early, and they continued their acquisitions through the whole of their course. They lived upon classic ground, among a people who loved art, and honoured its professors; and wherever they turned, the fairest remains of Grecian and Roman art met their eyes....... Contemplating such objects continually, designing from them in different views, and under every effect of light and shadow, they every hour acquired a higher sense of the highest order of forms, or, in the schoolboy's phrase, got them off by heart, and had them ready at all times, to pour upon the canvas in the moment of composition.'

Wilson was fully aware of his peculiar excellence in aerial effect. He was intimate with Wright of Derby, and the latter having one day proposed an exchange of paintings- With all my heart,' replied Wilson; I will give you air, and you'll give me fire.' When Wilson was painting his Ceyx and Alcyone, he is said to have studied the broken surface and rich tints of rotten cheese for effects of colour. He was, at least, more secure in this domestic contemplation, than in some of his rambles in search of the picturesque. He was one evening, while engaged in sketching on Hampstead Heath, rather roughly accosted by two ill-looking personages, who abruptly inquired what he was about.' Wilson, who could have no doubt of their sinister intentions, replied with great simplicity, that he was making drawings for the livelihood of his wife and children. How much,' it was asked, can you get for such drawings? I sell them at a shilling apiece,' was the reply. Wilson's shabby attire came in aid of his dexterous invention, and these amateurs of the highway turned aside in quest of more profitable prey.

Wilson and Sir Joshua Reynolds were not on the most cordial terms; and it now and then came to a little sparring with the gloves. When, at an academical dinner, the latter proposed the health of Gainsborough as our best landscape-painter,

The

best portrait-painter, you mean, Sir Joshua,' was the prompt retort. Sir William Beechey, who knew Wilson intimately, gives a lamentable account of his situation at one period of his life, when the fifty pounds a year attached as salary to the office of librarian to the Royal Academy, seemed to be his only resource from absolute want. At this time, when distress compelled him to sell his drawings at half a crown, Paul Sandby, the well-known artist, highly to his honour, paid Wilson liberally for a considerable number. Such was then the state of public taste, that, while this great artist was struggling with penury, Barrett was in the receipt of two thousand a year from the sale of his pictures; and Smith of Chichester gained the prize at the Royal Society, and won the race of popularity, against the painter of the Niobe and the Meleager. The following

details of Wilson's convivial habits must close the present article.

• Old Mr. Taylor, who copied the portrait after Mengs, under Wilson's own eye, says, it was the custom, according to the sociable manner of the day, for himself, Wilson, Hayman, Dr. Chauncey, and other artists and gentlemen attached to literature and art, to hold a meeting or club at the Turk's Head, in Gerrard Street, at which half a pint of wine was the allowance; and it was never observed that Wilson (how ever irregular on other occasions) was to be tempted to exceed this quantity. It was here that Hayman, one evening, rallying Wilson, by assigning to him the palm of dissoluteness, was retorted upon by Dr. Chauncey, to whom he had appealed, by the reply, It must be confessed, Hayman, that what you say of Wilson, would be true, if we put yourself out of the question..........

At one of the meetings at the Turk's Head, Cosway, the Academician, who had been at court, attended in all the gay costume of the drawing-room, with pink heels to his shoes, &c., but the room was so full he could not find a place. What,' said Frank Hayman, can nobody, make room for the little monkey?' Wilson laughed, and exclaimed, How times and circumstances are changed; sure the world is turned topsy-turvy-formerly the monkey rode the bear, but here we have the bear upon the monkey.' This set the table in a roar, in which Hayman joined heartily, and rising, shook hands with Cosway, who received him with the greatest familiarity and politeness, and instantly every chair in the room was at his service.'

A well engraved portrait of Wilson is prefixed, from the original painted by Mengs.

Art. III. 1. Strictures on the Plymouth Antinomians. By Joseph Cottle. Second Edition. 8vo. pp. 214. Price 5s. London. 1824. 2. The Moral Government of God in the Dispensation of the Gospel vindicated; in Observations on the System of Theology taught by the Rev. Dr. Hawker. By Isaiah Birt. 12mo. pp. 92. London.

1824.

3. God the Doer of all Things: a Sermon. By Edward Thomas Vaughan, M.A. Vicar of St. Martin's, Leicester, &c. 8vo. pp. 40. London. 1823.

4. Strictures on the Rev. E. T. Vaughan's Sermon, entitled, “ God the Doer of all things." By John Owen, Curate of Gadsby and Keyham, Leicestershire. 8vo. London. 1824.

WE approach with reluctance the subject to which these publications relate; bnt we cannot allow ourselves to let them pass altogether unnoticed. If heretofore there has been room to complain, that Antinomianism was a term of indefinite meaning, or that the thing itself was intangible,-a something.

hovering betwixt truth and error, which it was difficult to refer to its proper class of opinions,-that difficulty exists no longer. It has crawled forth into the day-light of the press. It has answered to its name, and boldly professes itself to be all that good men hesitated to believe that it could be.

The term Antinomian has unquestionably been misapplied, ignorantly and injuriously misapplied, on the mere ground of a tendency, real or supposed, in a certain style of preaching to relax the obligations to personal holiness. It has been too often employed to give edge to a sentence of opprobrium or a" railing accusation" against ministers who, while earnestly, and perhaps too exclusively contending for the doctrines of Grace, symbolize on no one point with the Antinomiau. Knowing this, some good people have affected to doubt whether the thing exists; whether Antinomianism is any thing more than the doctrines of the Gospel somewhat bunglingly preached, or imperfectly understood. The Antinomian preacher has been defended either as a man that meant well, though he might express himself unguardedly, or else, as having been misunderstood or misrepresented. And we believe that =preachers of avowedly Antinomian character have been listened to with a firm conviction on the part of a certain portion of their hearers, that they did not mean-and it would be maintained, could not mean-what their words conveyed, and what the preacher intended that they should convey. We deem it, then, of importance that it should be generally known, that such a heresy as Antinomianism is not merely possible, that it lives, and walks the earth, and is exerting its deadly influence on society;--that it does not, as formerly, lurk behind Calvinism as its shadow, aping its form and gesture, but has set up for itself in the world, and opened its wares, and put up its own name as the vendor. In this point of view, these publications may be highly useful. For when it is once understood what Antinomianism is, and that the evil does exist, those who have hitherto treated as chimerical the danger of infection from such a disease, may possibly be put on their guard against its insidious approaches. It does not at first attack the vitals..

Flavel, in his " Blow at the Root," sums up the creed of the Antinomians of his day, in ten articles, which we believe may be considered as a fair representation of the system. They are as follows. 1. That the justification of the elect is eternal; that is, the act of God from all eternity. 2. That justification by faith is no more than a manifestation of eternal justification. 3. That men ought not to doubt of their faith. 4. That believers are not bound to confess or mourn for their sins, because

they are eternally pardoned. 5. That God sees no sin in believers. 6. That God is not angry with the elect. 7. That by God's laying our iniquities upon Christ, he became as completely sinful as we, and believers as completely righteous as Christ. 8. That believers need not fear their own sins, nor do any duty for their salvation. 9. That the new covenant is not made with us, but with Christ, and that faith, repentance, and obedience are conditions on his part, not on ours. 10. That sanctification is no evidence of justification, but rather darkens it. Each of these dogmas is either given in the very words, or supported by citations from the works of Saltmarsh, Crisp, and the New England Antinomians. Some of them may appear almost identical propositions, as the fifth and sixth; but there are nice shades in error, and the creed in question is held with variations. Eternal justification and imputed sanctification are, however, the two main and central articles of the system; and the fourth and tenth dogmas above cited are inferences inseparable from those articles, though all who have espoused the creed, have not gone the length of the divines who have broadly stated and blasphemously defended them.

We need scarcely inform our readers, that the Vicar of Charles and his relative are, at this time, the avowed champions of Antinomianism properly so called. Some of our readers, however, who may be acquainted only with Dr. Hawker's earlier publications, may have yet to learn that the Author of " Zion's "Pilgrim" has but of late years attained to the truth in these matters. There was a period in his career when he preached and published what was deemed evangelical truth; but he was then, it seems, in the dark. Although progressive sanctification is, we are told, impossible, progressive illumination, it seems, may take place; and though Dr. Hawker has not become, by his own account, more holy, he is greatly more wise. But Mr. John Hawker is wiser still. The following language was taken down from his lips.

The love of God is equally extended to us in our unconverted state. Men must receive Christ as a whole Saviour. Progressive holiness is no where inculcated in the holy Scriptures. In the timestate of our existence, there is nothing, good or bad, that is new, or that was not expected. What God has decreed must inevitably come to pass. Not all the powers of heaven, earth, and hell, can separate betwixt Christ and his church. Never was the church, in the Ådamstate, separate from Christ......It is said Enoch walked with God; that is, he had assurance. We may date our salvation before the limits of time. All was settled in the eternal and immutable decrees of God, so that we are not left on the foundation of our naturebottom. I declare from reason as well as scripture, that no one circumstance, good or bad, even the least, can take place in time,

which was not decreed from all eternity, for, if it were, the prescience of God would be impeached,' &c.

We wish only to give so much extract as will substantiate our statements. The following characteristic passage is from No. II. of the "Gospel Tract Society's" publications, entitled: The true Gospel; no yea and nay Gospel; a Tract affection⚫ately recommended to the People of God, in the present low Estate of the Church. By Robert Hawker, D.D. Vicar of Charles, Plymouth,'

And the advocates of a yea and nay gospel, all act in perfect conformity to those principles. The preachers of it are continually holding forth a motley religion, which they call the gospel, made up of law and gospel, faith and good works. Were it not for the awfulness of the subject, a man might smile, to hear what very wooing and winning words are made use of by them to gain upon the hearts of their hearers, by human persuasion. Offers of Christ; yea pressing Christ upon the congregation, are the chief topics adopted. And sometimes, from the great earnestness with which they have worked up their natural feeling to persuade, they enforce the present opportunity as if, should it be neglected, never another, perhaps, may be afforded them. And not unfrequently they call into their aid, that blessed scripture of the Holy Ghost, which the Apostle Paul hath given the church in a very different sense from what those men use it. For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation I have succoured thee. Behold, now is the accepted time! Behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Cor. vi. 2.

Every one who is acquainted with the Bible, ought to know that those words in the former part of the verse, are taken from the writings of the Prophet Isaiah xlix. 8. where the prophet, under the Holy Ghost, is representing God the Father speaking to God the Son, in covenant promises, to help him on, and carry him through, in his mediatorial character, in the accomplishment of redemption. See also a further account of this, Psalm lxxxix. 19-37. What the Holy Ghost hath added in this scripture by Paul, is an affectionate application of the blessed doctrine of Christ's redemption being now finished; that the church may know, that what was then predicted by the prophet hath been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ: and therefore, the present time-state of the church is the accepted time, and the day of salvation, for gathering in the Lord's people. The now, both of the accepted time, and the day of salvation means, the whole day of life, in the instance of every child of God. And that, and that only, strictly and properly speaking, becomes so, when the Lord makes his people willing in the day of his power, Psm, cx. 3. And so far is this from being limited as the yea and nay men would have it, that if refused to-day, it may not be offered to-morrow, that it can never be said to begin in effect, until grace begins as the cause in the heart. The labourers of the eleventh hour, were never sent before. The dying thief, on the cross, was never called by sovereign grace until dying. And 'till God calls, all the wooings and winnings