Art. 46. A Short Defcription of the Human Mufcles, chiefly as they appear on Diffection. Together with their feveral Ufes, and the Synonyma of the beft Authors. By John Innes. 8vo. 3 s. Boards. Balfour and Smellie, Edinburgh. Murray, London. Mr. Innes who has been for feveral years employed to diffect for Dr. Monro of Edinburgh, dedicates this work to that celebrated profeffor, and candidly confeffes that he has no knowledge of the Subject but what he derived from him.

In an advertisement to the Reader he obferves that Several full and accurate defcriptions of the mufcles have already been published. But their fize and prolixity have rendered them of lefs value to the diffector than the fmall treatife of Dr. Douglas, which was first pub. lifhed about the beginning of this century, and, fince that time,' has undergone various impreflions, without receiving any improvement, excepting the addition of the fynonyma from Albinus. It is therefore prefumed, that a fimple and concife defcription of the muscles, which fhould contain all the improvements of the moderns, is ftill wanting.

To clafs the muscles according to their ufes, may do very well in a large work, or in defcribing their compound actions. But this method can never answer the purposes of diffection. To remedy this inconvenience, the mufcles, in the following treatise, are defcribed chiefly as they appear in diffecting the human body.

The defcribing of the mufcles according to their origins and inSertions, prevents much circumlocution. This is the method purfued by Dr. Douglas; and wherever his defcriptions feemed tolerably accurate, they have been copied with little alteration. But Dr. Douglas's book is peculiarly defective with regard to the mufcles of the back and neck; in defcribing thefe, therefore, the method of Albinus has been nearly followed.'

The plan adopted by our Author is certainly a good one, and it appears to be executed in a manner that will do him credit. His defcriptions though fhort, are plain, and as far as we have examined them very accurate.

RELIGIOUS and CONTROVERSIAL. Art. 47. A Letter to a Baptist-Minifter; containing fome Strictures on his late Conduct in the Baptization of certain Adults at Sy; with a particular Vindication of the Right of Infant-baptifm. 8vo. is. 6d. Shrewsbury, printed for the Author; London, fold by Robinson, 1776.

Offences will come, and controverfies will arife and be continued, even on topics that have been repeatedly canvaffed. The fubject of baptifm has been exhausted. Senfible and learned advocates have appeared on each fide of the queftion. It might have been hoped that both parties fhould have been left to enjoy their fentiments in peace. But that time is not yet come. This Author's zeal appears to have been rouzed by vollies of low witticifms which, (as he tells us) were levelled by a Mr. Mat the minifters in the establishment, and among the Diffenters who do not chufe to lay a ftrefs en dipping' or immersion. What he offers both as to the mode and

fubject

fubject of baptifm, fufficiently fhews, notwithstanding the confidence and vehemence of many oppofers, that there is fomething folid, rational and fcriptural to be faid in fupport of a practice, which has fo generally obtained in the Chriftian world, as infant-baptifm has done. He is firmly attached to the church of England, and fome parts of his pamphlet feem to indicate methodifm, if not highchurchifm; but he profeffes candor and charity to all denominations of Chriftians, and makes handfome and honourable mention of the Baptifts, while he combats their diftinguishing tenet.

Affixed to this pamphlet is another short one entitled, A Word to Parmenas: occafioned by his Addrefs to the Baptift-church, meeting in High-street, Shrewsbury.' The Addrefs here referred to, which perhaps is only a local and temporary thing, is not come to our hands, we can therefore take no farther notice of that, or of this reply.

Art. 48. Remarks on a Letter to a Baptift-minifter, contain-. ing fome Strictures on his late conduct in the Baptization of cer.. tain Adults at Sh-fb-ry, &c.' By a Well-wisher to all Mankind. 8vo. 6 d. Shrewíbury, printed; London, fold by Robinfon, 1776.

The preceding writer had laid himself open to fome cenfure, particularly when he drew King Charles, Oliver Cromwell, and the affairs of America into his pamphlet on baptifm. The Remarker does not fail to improve the opportunities which are afforded for lashing his adverfary. If the former was angry and fevere, this writer is not a jot behind him, and though we doubt not he is very fincere in what he fays about praying, preaching, experiences, &c. yet we can never approve of confidence and afperity on a point which long teftimony and experiment have furely manifefted to be at leaft dif putable. We could have wished that the good Vicar of St. Alkmond's Shrewsbury (for fuch it now appears is the author of the former pamphlet) would have permitted thefe honeft people to pafs unnoticed, rather than have molefted the public and ourselves with fo much useless altercation!

Art. 49. Intemperate Zeal reproved, and Chriftian Baptifm defended; in a Letter to the Rev. Richard De Courcy, Vicar of St. Alkmond's in Shrewsbury. By Samuel Medley. 8vo.

Keith.

15. 6d.

Here the two principal difputants in this conteft are announced to the world, who appear, till this time, to have been on very friendly terms with each other. We have hinted in the account of the first pamphlet that it would be thought fevere, though we did not ob ferve in it all that anger and afperity which Mr. M- finds it to contain. But a perfon attacked feels more fenfibly than a mere spectator, and his imagination often aggravates the injury. If in an ex tempore declamation fome unwarrantable things fhould fometimes be advanced, it would be no great marvel. But Mr. M's opponent has given him a great advantage, fince it appears, that Mr. De Courcy did not attend the fervice with which he professes himself fo greatly difgufted, but his offence and objections are founded on hearfay evidence. Much wifer, furely, it had been in the Vicar to have. admonished

admonished his friend in private, rather than have called on the Public to witness their contentions! Mr. Medley recapitulates the arguments which have been repeatedly urged in fupport of adult baptifm by immerfion and against the contrary practice. He is fmart on his antagonist, and, at times, very fevere, in which he feems to think himfelf juftified by having been provoked. His wit is, in one inftance at least, quite low and indecent. He folemnly denies the charge of ridiculing his brethren of any denomination, and in return for what is (needlessly, we think) faid by the Vicar, of the origin of Baptifts in Germany, reminds him of his defcent from the church of Rome, and imagines that a likeness between the grandson and the grandmother is to be traced in more than one particular.' But all this and a great deal more is idle and trifling. On the whole we think thefe gentlemen will not acquire much real and fatisfactory honour from these publications; and it may not be improper to recommend to their fober thought, a weighty inftruction which they must have often seen, "The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."

• Several other pamphlets have appeared in this debate; but we have not been able to collect all of them.

Art. 50. Three Letters addreffed to Mr. English, late Preacher of the Methodist Chapel in the City of Chichester. By a Layman. To which is added a Poftfcript. 40. 1 s. Chichefter printed; London fold by Baldwin.

Mr. English does not appear to any advantage in these Letters, the Writer of which feems to have truth and reafon on his fide, but has received in reply, we are told, only wretched evasions and an unfair perversion of his meaning, for which caufe it was thought requifite to publish them; though the world will not be much edihed by thefe altercations. One charge against the Preacher is, his urging young perfons to hefitate not in attending at the chapel, though it was contrary to the advice of their parents.

Art. 51. The Scotch Preacher; or, a Collection of Sermons, by fome of the most eminent Clergymen of the Church of Scotland. Vol. I. 12mo. 3 s. Edinburgh printed. Sold by Cadell in London.

Collections of Sermons are become fashionable, In England, we have had great variety of them; and now Scotland follows the example. But the Editor of the prefent difcourfes seems to aim at overwhelming us with an inundation of divinity. His view is to publifh, annually, a volume of fermons, on practical fubjects, which have never before been printed, compofed by clergymen of the church of Scotland; and, he adds, that he has received affurances from feveral of the most esteemed preachers in the church, that materials for fuch a collection shall not be wanting.'

Here, we fee, his defign extends not only to the collecting and preferving from oblivion, such printed difcourfes, as, from their detached form, were in danger of perithing, but to the foliciting, and ufhering to the prefs, others, which, poflibly might never have iffued from their manufcript-ftate.-To this part of his plan, Reviewers will

not

not be over hafty in wifhing fuccefs. Sermons, it is well known, are apt enough to fpring up in the field of literature, without fuch induftrious culture; nor is there much danger of our ever wanting fufficient crops of them. We have heard of a calculation, by which it appears that not fewer than fifteen thousand different fermons have been printed in the English language, within the laft hundred years. Judge then, O compailionate Reader! what thofe Reviewers have undergone, to whofe fhare the perufal of about one-fourth of the above number muft have fallen-And ftill we proceed, labouring in a circle, with no termination of our task in view!

The difcourfes contained in this first volume of the Scotch Preacher are eight in number; and most of them are already well known, being celebrated performances, and of acknowledged merit. They

are,

I. The Nature and Tendency of the ecclefiaftical Conftitution in Scotland; by John Bonar, A. M.

II. Times of public Diftrefs Times of Trial; by George Wishart, D.D.

III. The Importance of religious Knowledge, &c. by Hugh Blair. IV. The Situation of the World at the Time of Chrift's Appearance, &c. by William Robertson, D. D.

V. The Nature and Advantage of Prayer, &c. by William Leechman, D. D.

VI. Minifters of the Gofpel cautioned againft giving Offence; by John Erskine, D. D.

VII. The Gospel preached to the Poor; by Patrick Cuming, D. D. VIII. The Folly, Infamy, and Mifery of unlawful Pleasure; by James Fordyce, D. D.

The names of the preachers would, alone, be fufficient to recommend these discourses; but it is to be observed, that the most confiderable of them † have appeared in former collections,-as, The Proteftant Syftem, Pra&ical Preacher, &c.

Art. 52. Sermons on the Evidence of a future State of Rewards and Punishments arifing from a View of our Nature and Condition: Preached before the University of Cambridge in 1774. By William Craven, B. D. Fellow of St. John's, and Profeffor of Arabic. 8vo. Is. 6d. Cambridge printed: London fold by White, &c.

Some Readers will probably think that thefe Sermons have little connection with the texts of fcripture by which each is introduced, and which in fome of the difcourfes are no farther mentioned; and in others very sparingly, after the first recital. Nevertheless the texts have at least a remote relation to the fubjects treated on by the Author, who does not propose fo much to confider them, in a direct theological and fcriptural method, as in a philofophical manner, and to prove that the confideration of the nature and condition of man does really lead us to expect hereafter a ftate different from

• The M. Review has fubfifted above one-fourth of a century. + Particularly No. IV. V. and VIII.

and fuperior to the prefent. This propofition he labours to eftablifh, in oppofition to those who urge that the experienced train of events, is the great ftandard by which we are to regulate our expectations.No event can be foreseen or foretold, no reward or punishment dreaded or expected beyond what is already known by practice and obfervation.' To overthrow the inference that might be drawn from fuch fuggeftions, he aims to fhew that a future ftate is deducible from the prefent, by obferving what is to be thought the juft and true law of experience, and that though we admit the pofition, that we can give the moral attributes of the Deity no particular extent, only fo far as they are feen to exert themselves; this will not affect the religious hypothefis, It is fufficient, he adds, for a future ftate of rewards and punishments, that the divine juftice and benevolence operate hereafter in the fame manner and degree as we fee at prefent: Yet after all, (it is farther and moft jufly obferved) there may be reafon to believe, that these attributes are exerted by ways and in a degree further than we see and comprehend; and exceed what is to be collected concerning them, from our narrow, imperfect views fo that the maxim, we have hitherto allowed, and which fome take fo much pains to establish, may on fufficient grounds be rejected. God may be abfolutely in himself at all times the fame, and yet appear very different to us, in the feveral periods of our existence, according as our underflandings and experience improve and become enlarged.-We allow a man, in his religious enquiries, the free ufe and exercife of his reafon only he must not prefume too much upon it; and confider it as the standard, by which he is to measure the precife de. gree of divine benevolence and juftice' Let him read the volume of nature, even with the eye of a critic; yet of an ingenuous critic; one who is fenfible, that it is a book on which he cannot comment fo learnedly, as to bestow on each page its due proportion of praise or cenfure, and make every where as he goes along, an accurate diftribution of critical juftice. Having done then his utmost to give what he thinks a faithful explanation, let him be mindful to add this as an appendix to his other obfervations, that the works of his author must be fuppofed to contain numberless beauties, which he has not the knowledge and abilities diftinctly to point out.'

Thefe difcourfes are fenfible and ingenious, and quite adapted to fupport the cause of truth and virtue; though there are few congre. gations in which they could be delivered greatly to the advantage of the hearers, as they confift chiefly of strict reafoning. The objections he proposes to remove are probably to be found in the works of Mr. Hume, though no particular author is mentioned. It may be very proper, and especially in feminaries of learning and religion, to endeavour to confute fuch kind of arguments, but it does not appear always and abfolutely neceffary to combat all the difculties and chimeras which learned fcepticism and fophiftry may think fit to propose.

Art.