Providence does not, in any extraordinary manner, interpofe in Matters of fuch a contingent Nature that the Terms of Good and Bad Luck have no real Senfe in them; and wherein feveral Philofophical and Theological Queftions are handled, which are not promised in its Title.

BUT what was a Work of more use and moment, in the fame Year he published another French Treatife, de l'Incredulité; wherein he enquires into the general Reasons and Motives which induce Unbelievers to reject the Christian Religion to which he added two Letters, which incontestably prove the Truth of the Chriftian Religion; as the Defign of the whole is to fhew the Doubtful, that neither the Influence of their own Vices, nor an Offence taken at other Men's, fhould hinder them from believing the Doctrines of Chrift; and to fhew Believers, that none of the trifling Arguments, which are commonly made ufe of againft Christianity, ought to give any Shock to the Stability of their Minds.

IN the Year 1697, our Author published (what 1697. was wrote long before, chiefly for the benefit of young People) a fhort Abridgement of Univerfal Hiftory, from the beginning of the World to the Time of Charles the Great, together with a brief Expofition of Chronology; which may be run over in a very fhort time, and thereby the Memory mightily affifted, both in acquiring and retaining the Knowledge of remarkable Perfons, and Tranfactions.

In the beginning of the Year 1698, he pub- 1698. lifhed his Translation of Dr. Hammond's Annotions on the New Teftament into Latin, with fome Notes of his own; wherein he either gently confutes the Doctor, or confirms his Affertions, or

fupplies

1699.

fupplies his Omiffions, as the nature of the thing required. Dr. Hammond was certainly a good Expounder of Scripture; but upon every Turn he is fo very fond of the Notion of the Gnofticks, and, in many places, where there is no allufion to it, fo warm a Contender for Excommunication, that it can be no manner of Imputation upon Mr. le Clerc, that, in moft of thefe Places, he is found to differ from him: for fo well were his Animadverfions received in England, that, in a fhort time, they were tranflated into the Language of the Country, and made up one Volume in Quarto.

IN the fame Year he took care of the new Edition of Cotelerius's Collection of the Apoftolick. Fathers, and advised the supplying it with the Notes, which Learned Men had made upon each Father, with Beveridge's Defence of the Canons of the Primitive Church, Uber's Differtations on Ignatius, and Pearfon's Vindication of his Epiftles; as himself added likewife fome fhort Notes on the former Volume, and wrote a Dedication to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, with a short Preface, fetting forth the Defign and Excellency of that new Edition.

IN 1699 he published in French his Parrbafiana, or Mifcellaneous Thoughts upon feveral Subjects, fuch as Criticifm, Hiftory, Morality, and Politicks; and when, in 1701, it came to be reprinted, he added another Volume, where, in the like manner, he treats of Theological Controverfies; of the Studies of those that pretend not to Learning; of the Means to make a Commonwealth happy; of Friendship; and of true and falfe Zeal. Of all which he does not pretend to give us compleat Treatifes, but only to mention some principal Heads which feem to

him

him to be of greatest moment, especially in order to detect and expofe feveral vulgar Errors.

In this Year was published in Holland the Harmonia Evangelica, in Greek and Latin, in a more exact Method, than that of Mr. Toinard; to which our Author added a Paraphrafe upon the whole, and at the end fome Differtations on felect Subjects, and fhort Notes on the Harmony itself: and, in the fame Year, appeared his Epiftola Critica & Ecclefiaftica, which may pafs for a third Volume of his Ars Critica, wherein he maintains what he had afferted in the tenth Volume of his Bibliotheque Univerfelle, viz. that Dr. Cave, in his Hiftoria Litteraria of Ecclefiaftical Writers, had concealed many Things in. the Lives of Clement and Eufebius, in order to inhance their Credit; and fo treats of the Use and Authority of Ecclefiaftical Antiquity, and fully expofes the Diffimulations and pious Frauds which fo frequently occur in Church-Hiftory.

IN the Year 1700 he took care of a new Edi- 1700. tion of Dionyfius Petavius's Dogmata Theologica, together with fome other Books in Divinity, which were written by that Learned Fefuit at different times; and in the fame Year published his Quæftiones Hieronymiana, in anfwer to F. Martianay, a Benedictin Monk, who had published St. Jerom not long before; and treated both our Author and his Uncle (whom we mentioned be fore) with great Severity, for happening to disagree with him, in relation to that Father'sCharacter and Writings: and therefore he plainly fhews, that St. Jerom was not thatCritick of the Greek and Hebrew Tongues, as is pretended, nor his Editor any ways competent for the Work, fince almost in every Page he makes fuch egregious Blunders. NoXIII. 1731. VOL. III.

D

IN

1701.

IN the Year 1701, when the Bookfellers in Holland defign'd to print all the Works of the Poet Hefiod, in two Volumes, our Author took care of the whole Impreffion, both in Latin and Greek; added the Notes of Jof. Scaliger, Dan. Heinfius, Fran. Guietus, and Steph. le Clerc; J. Geo. Grævius's various Lections and Additions; Dan. Heinfius's Introduction to the Book Operum & Dierum, and his own Animadverfions upon the Theogonia, wherein he has made great Discoveries, in relation to the fabulous Hiftory thereof, both from the Circumftances of things, and their Analogy to the Phanician Tongue: and, in the fame Year, wrote an Etymological Differtation, by way of Preface, to Mat. Martinius's Philological Lexicon, which taught fome Readers (who before were ignorant of it) the Nature and Ufe of Etymology; and thereby contributed not a little to revive the Sale of a Book, which before was almoft quite extinct.

1702. IN the Year 1702, our Author published the Works of two very elegant Poets, C. Pedo Al binovanus's Elegies and Fragments, and P. Cor nelius Severus's Etna and Fragments, with the Notes and Interpretation of Fof. Scaliger, Nic. Heinfius, and others; and thereunto prefixed a Preface, wherein he lays down the right manner of interpreting an Author, and feems to cenfure three great Faults, which Writers of great Capacity frequently incur: The first is, of thofe, who give us nothing but various Readings, Emendations out of other Copies, Conjectures of their own, and fimilar Paffages from different Authors; while they pafs by in filence innumerable things, that need Explanas tion. Another Fault is, when Men have no

thing.

2

thing to fay of the Author they are explaining, that they run into needlefs Digreffions, on purpose to make a Parade of the compass of their Learning. And the third Fault lies in this, that they do not fufficiently attend to the feries and tenour of the Senfe, in order to fhew their Reader the Connection and natural Dependance of the Matters their Author treats of.

IN the Year 1703, a Bookfeller of Amfter- 1703. dam, intending to publish St. Auftin's Works, according to the Paris Edition, was advised by our Author to fubjoin the Differtation of John Garnier, relating to the Pelagian Hiftory; Pelagius's Commentaries on the Epiftles of St. Paul; the Cenfures, Prefaces, Notes, and Differtations, which Erafmus, and other learned Men had made upon that Father; and himself, at the fame time, under the name of Johannes Phereponus, wrote Critical and Theological Animadverfions upon St. Austin, wherein he illuftrates many places, and commends others: tho' he is not afraid to cenfure fome, wherein he conceives, that that Father has deviated from the Rules, both of Reafon and Revelation, which ought to guide him (as he imagines) as well as any other Author; and, accordingly, we find him confuting feveral of his Expofitions of Scripture, the falfe Miracles he relates, the Perfecution of Hereticks which he maintains, and the Doctrine of Predeftination, as he expounds it. Nor can we fee, why fuch Errors may not be condemned in the Ancients, as well as the Moderns; nay, in the Ancients the rather, because, as their Authority is greater, the Contagion of their Doctrines is more dan gerous.