fure foundation on which our Lord himself built it; that of the prophets and apoftles, Jefus Chrift himfelf being the chief corner ftone. Let any fet of men lay another, or narrower, at their peril, that they may jofile one another off it; 'tis certain they go on a falfe bottom, and renounce the head, if they reject the members; for all those who own the divine authority of the fcriptures, and fincerely endeavour to understand and obey them, must have a right to our Chriftian fellowship; for in that cafe, they adhere to the common faith, as it is delivered in the holy writings, Tit i. 4.; and which only hath fufficient authority to derive a common obligation on all Chriftians to agree in it. 'Tis a contradiction in terms to affert it of any private opinions, the determination of the schools, or the jargon of any party. Let them put on the graveft airs, affert their powers, and draw their pretenfions as high as poffible; we know human nature too well to think any of the decisions of men infallible. Our Saviour hath taught us to call no man mafter, on earth; and by this, exprefsly discharged us from owning any viceregents, that under the colour of acting in his name, make their bye-laws in his church, and take inclosures out of his fold. No, his fheep hear his voice, they cleave to the form of found words, that hath his fanétion, and by this preferve the unity of the fpirit in the bond of peace, Eph. iv. 3. or (as it is expreffed verfe 13, 16.) attend to the unity of the faith and edifying in love; for in this manner you obferve both thefe divine graces exactly correfpond; and as they stand on the fame firm bafis, form one uniform fcheme; whereas they who wickedly depart from it, to erect an ecclefiaftical polity or kingdom of this world, established on the authority and decrees of men, it is plain, monopolize and diftribute the affection, respect, and tokens of brotherly kindness in the most arbitrary manner; they engrofs and measure out by human laws the rights of fociety formed by the divine: I had almost faid, those who meanly fubmit to the ufurpation, and accept fuch terms of communion, fo far leave the head, and fhew much lefs regard to his will and word than they ought.-If the apostles themfelves would not affume an arbitrary dominion over the faith of men, 'tis evident, that we owe no blind fubmiffion to the dictates of others in the matters of religion, for now we have the form of found words to direct us, every man's own confcience is fupreme judge on earth of all the controverfies that relate to it; and other men, popes, councils, convocations, and affemblies, are but witneffes to the feveral conftructions they give, of which we are to pass definitive fentences, according to the credibility of each. But perhaps, after all, we fhall find in our inquiries, that fcripture is the belt expofitor of itself, comparing one place with another; I am fure it is the only authoritative one, and

what

what will have most weight with every good Chriftian, who must love the word of God better for his fake than the words of men. 'Tis what I muft efteem, turning religion into rebellion, when any human authority is owned and fubmitted to in facred concerns, and men's allegiance is withdrawn from Chrift, who is fole king in his church; and then alfo is faith turned into faction, when parties are formed in the church of Chrift, and men's private interpretations erected into a public ftandard; for it is fo far a departure from the great rule of faith, as any other form of words is fubftituted in the place of it, and made the authentic teft of it.'

The foregoing fermon is particularly aimed against Popery, and was probably preached on the fifth of November.

This volume is concluded + by the difcuffion of a fubject that has long been, and probably ever will be, contested in the Chriftian world, viz. the doctrine of election. Whatever be its real meaning, there is, in truth, very little reafon for the altercation and animofities which have been occafioned by this doctrine. If Dr. L.'s opinion is valid, Chriftians, for ages. past, have had no concern in it; for he fuppofes what is faid on this topic in the fcripture, regards the primitive church, and is folely to be explained of that fupernatural agency which was employed in the firft age of Chriftianity, in order to advance its progrefs in the world. The first Chriftians were in this manner elected; but when the great end of such miraculous operation was anfwered, it was withdrawn, and confequently election, in the fenfe in which it is ufed by the infpired. writers, has long fince ceafed: the Writer's obfervations on this fubject are worthy of the utmost attention..

It may be proper to add, that we find three or four pages in this difcourfe which are almost literally the fame with the like number of pages in the tenth fermon: a circumstance to which it might have been proper for the Editor to have paid fome attention, and it may prove a useful hint to him in any further publication of Dr. Latham's valuable compofitions.

From the fpecimen we have given, our Readers will think, with us, that these fermons are, in no fmall degree, worthy of the favourable acceptance of the Public.

+ Serm. xv.

ART. V. Experiments and Obfervations on different Kinds of Air. Vol. II. By Jofeph Prietley, LL. D. F. R. S. 8vo. 6 s. Boards. Johnfon. 1775.

T

HE general obfervations with which we introduced our account of the Author's former volume *, with refpect to the unlimited extent and fertility of the fubjects treated in it, and

See M. Review, Vol. 51. Auguft, 1774. page 136.

of experimental inquiries in general, have been foon and amply verified by the contents of the volume before us. In the very small space of time which has intervened between his first publication and the prefent, the Author has proceeded with an accelerated motion, thro' these newly explored regions of experimental philofophy, and has been led to discoveries ftill more interesting and important; of which he himself acknowledges, that he had not the moft diftant idea at the time of his former publication. In giving an account of fome of the most material of these difcoveries, we fhall, as before, in general, follow the order in which they stand in the work.

In the two first fections, the Author gives an account of his experiments on two other acids, the Vitriolic, and Vegetable, in which they were made to affume the form of AIR, in consequence of their being combined with, or already containing, phlogistic matter. Though no juft exceptions could be formed against the ufe of this term, applied by the Author merely to design certain permanently elastic fluids, refembling air in the greater part of its properties; and to diftinguish them from common vapours, condenfable by cold: yet the propriety of the appellation will be ftill more evident, if it fhould afterwards be found, as will probably appear in the course of this article, that even THE Air, nar' ox, or the very fubftance we breathe, is itself the vapour of an acid fpirit, rendered durably elaftic by combination with other fubftances.

It is well known that the vitriolic acid is of fo fixed a nature, that it cannot be elevated without a very confiderable degree of heat. On adding to it, however, any fubftance, on which it can act, and which contains phlogiston, the fulphureous or volatile vitriolic acid is produced, which is eafily raifed into vapours, that were found to be poffeffed of that permanent conftitution which intitles them to the appellation of air; as they are not condeníable by cold, though they are readily imbibed by water and other fluids. The vegetable or acetous acid likewife, in a concentrated state, and without addition, furnished air, which poffeffed the general properties of the vitriolic, and was as readily condensed and imbibed by water. The various phenomena of thefe two fpecies of air, and the affinities, or other properties which they exhibit, on applying to them, or mixing them with, a variety of fubftances, form the fubjects of the two first fections.

We come now to the most important difcovery contained in this volume, relative to the nature of our atmosphere. In the inveftigation of this curious fubject, the Author appears to have perfectly fucceeded in his attempt to afcertain the real principles which conflitute that invifible fluid in which we live, and which is to neceffary to our exiftence. This difcovery is of a nature fufficiently

ficiently interefting to deferve a circumftantial hiftorical relation of the steps that led to it, and a recital of fome of the more material experiments, which at length terminated in this fingular, and for a long time, unexpected refult; that the air which we breathe confifts of the vapour of the nitrous acid, combined with earth, and rendered permanently elastic by a portion of phlogifion.

It is certain that, in many of the proceffes from which the foregoing conclufion is deduced, the Author not only procured wholesome or refpirable air from a combination of the abovementioned materials; but that he went much further; and from these very substances, manufactured air, which was found to be five, or near fix times purer than that of the atmosphere. From fome parts of the Author's first volume, it appears, that he had formerly been, very naturally, led to fufpect, that common air confifted of the vapour of the marine acid, united with phlogiflon. This idea appeared fo probable, and had taken fuch poffeffion of his imagination, that for fome time it retarded his progress toward this capital difcovery. He ingenuously acknowledges the bias under which he viewed many of the new appearances that presented themselves to him, and ftiongly indicated the preceding conclufion; but which were overlooked, till he was in a manner constrained, by other and more decifive facts, to adopt it.

In the beginning of August 1774, the Author having procured a pretty large burning lens, threw the focus of it upon fome Mercurius calcinatus per fe, contained in an inverted vial filled with quickfilver, the mouth of which was immersed in a bafon of the fame fluid. The air which was expelled from this fubftance was not imbibed by water, and exhibited an appearance which greatly furprised him. A lighted candle introduced into it, burnt with uncommon fplendor, and with an enlarged flame; and a piece of red hot wood fparkled in it, exactly like paper dipped in a folution of nitre, and confumed very faft. The author tried the fame experiment with the common red precipitate, and it was attended with the fame events. He was, in fact, at this very time in poffeffion of atmospherical air expelled from these two preparations; but much fuperior in purity, as we now know, to that which we breathe, without being fenfible of the nature and value of his new acquisition.

Between these two mercurial preparations there is this very obfervable difference;-that the Mercurius calcinatus is only pure mercury, without any addition, (except what it may acquire from the fire and external air) converted into a red powder, merely by a long expofure to the fire in a glafs vefiel, where it has a free communication with the atmosphere:-whereas the red precipitate, which furnished air apparently of the fame kind, is a combination

of mercury with the nitrous acid. The Author attended to this difference, and at first, juftly as the event has fhewn, fuppofed that the Mercurius calcinatus had collected fomething of nitre, in that state of heat, from the atmosphere:' but this fufpicion appearing to him, at that time, as he obferves, much more extraordinary than it ought to have done; he imagined that his mercurius calcinatus might have been fophifticated, or poffibly nothing more than red precipitate. He found, however, the fame refults from a fpecimen of this fubftance which was warranted to him as genuine, by Mr. Warltire, an ingenious lecturer in experimental philofophy. Nevertheless, being at Paris in the October following, he procured an ounce of the genuine calx, prepared by M. Cadet; and frequently mentioned his furprise at the kind of air which he had expelled from this particular preparation of mercury, to M. Lavoifier, M. le Roy, and feveral other philofophers in that city. But, ftill, fo far from being acquainted with the fuperior purity of this air, he did not suspect that it was even wholefome. About the fame time he had procured air, which poffeffed the fame properties, from red lead; in the preparation of which, as in that of the mercurius calcinatus, it is to be obferved, that no other agents are employed than fire and atmospherical air.

In the March following, the Author was led to the complete detection of the nature of this artificial air, and to the discovery of the conftitution of the fluid which we breathe; firft, by applying to the former the teft of nitrous air; and afterwards, by trying how long a moufe would live in a given quantity of it. By both thefe modes of trial he found, to his great aftonishment, that the air which he had expelled from these calces was not only refpirable, but that it greatly exceeded common air in purity. On obferving the remarkable effects attending his mixing nitrous air with it, he inferred, that its fuperior purity was owing to its being more free from phlogifton; and being therefore capable of receiving more of that principle from nitrous air, the breath of animals, burning candles, &c. before it becomes faturated with it, than common air (already impregnated with this principle) is qualified to take from them. He very properly therefore gives to it the title of dephlogisticated air.

We have reprefented the Author hitherto as proceeding only in the way of anal fis; by expelling this pure or defecated air, from certain bodies, which had previously attracted it from the atmosphere. We next find him adopting the fynthetic method, and compounding, or forming, the puseft, or dephlogisticated air, by combining metallic calces, or other earths, with the nitrous acid. His attention was naturally directed to this particular acid, in confequence of the appearances above related. Having chofen red lead as a cheap and a proper fubject for this inquiry i