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has gratified himself in the publication, fo far all is well; the Public will not probably fuffer by not being admitted more into the fecret.

Art. 32. An Addrefs to the Members of Parliament; on the Neceffity of an Act to confine the Proprietors of Stage Carriages, and the Porters to Inns, to certain Rates for the Carriage and Porterage of Goods, &c. 8vo. I s. Bew.

In the raifing, manufacturing, and felling the neceffaries of life, competition, in most inftances, produces the only regulation to which they can be fubjected; but the Carriage of Goods to and from particular towns, is often free from the restraints of competition. Hence, though the creation of new offices ought to be regarded with a jealous eye, the mutual intercourfe of the Public ought as certainly to be guarded against impofition. The Author proposes that carriers, their book-keepers, and porters, fhould be fubject to a like regulation with hackney coaches; a general warehoufe to be prepared for the care and difpofal of unclaimed goods; and that the profits of the whole fhould be applied to the Foundling Hofpital. Art. 33. The Enfign of Peace. Shewing how the Health, bothof Body and Mind, may be preserved, and even revived by the mild and attenuating Power of a most valuable and cheap Medicine. Its fingular and moft excellent Property is to fubdue the. Flesh to the Will of the Spirit; by which happy Means, Mankind may enjoy a State of Temperance instead of Intemperance, and a State of Virtue inftead of Vice. The continued Ufe of this Medicine irradicates most Diseases, and is seriously recommended to the People of this Ifland. By a Friendly Traveller.

Wilkie.

2 S.

Some unhappy mortal, with a very weak head, oppreffed by a complicated load of medicine, hiftory, philofophy, divinity, and politics, may have found temporary relief by difcharging a pamphlet full of strange incoherent crudities; but from the complexion of the matter, we may safely predict that he will never be cured unless his friends confine him from books, pens, ink, and paper: allowing him nevertheless quant. fuff. of his favourite element-water. Art. 34. The British Chronologift; comprehending every material Occurrence, Ecclefiaftical, Civil, or Military, relative to England and Wales, from the Invasion of the Romans to the prefent Time: Interfperfed with Proceffions at Coronations, Initalments of the Military Honours, Marriages, Funerals of Sovereigns, &c. Also the Valuation of fuppreffed religious Foundations at the Reformation; the Introduction and Growth of Taxes, and Increase of the National Debt; together with the Price of Grain and Provifion at different Periods. 8vo. 3 Vols. 18 s. Kearly. 1776.

History is compofed of temporary materials, worked up in regular, connected narratives; the history of England is here decompofed, analyfed into its conftituent parts, taken to pieces, and detailed, in the paragraph ftyle of a news-paper.

The Compiler offers it, however, as an useful ally to history; ef pecially as it regifters every interefting event,-in that concife yet clear manner, that while it fatisfies the temper of curiofity, it is by no means a business to the memory,'

Art.

Art. 35. An Effay on Valour: Occafioned by the Perufal of fome Reflections on Valour, in an excellent Performance lately published under the Title of, "A View of the internal Evidence of the Chriftian Religion, by Soame Jenyns, Efq." 12mo. 6 d. Becket.

An attempt to restore valour of courage, directed to proper ends, and actuated by right principles, to the rank of Chriftian virtues, from which the Author of the View, &c. has excluded it. Mr. Jenyns, as our Effayift justly obferves, feems to have confounded valour, or, as he calls it, active courage, with the violence and ferocity of a favage; and he accordingly defcribes it to be the offspring of pride and revenge, and the parent of cruelty and injuftice; and yet, by a ftrange kind of inconfiftency, he does not object to the honours and rewards bestowed on the valiant. Paffive courage, thus nicely does he diftinguish, is according to his reprefentation of it little more than the refolution of a ftoic; the former, he fays, the Christian can have nothing to do with; but the latter is the only virtue of this clafs which Chriftianity allows. We fhall only obferve, as on a former occafion, that the genius of Chriftianity, and the character of its Author, are directly repugnant to fuch views of it.

RELIGIOUS and CONTROVERSIAL. Art. 36. A Letter to Soame Fenyns, Efq; wherein the Futility and Abfurdity of fome part of his Reafoning in his View of the internal Evidence of the Chriftian Religion, is fet forth and expofed. By a Clergyman of the Church of England. 8vo. 1s. Baldwin.

Principally defigned to vindicate Christianity from the charge of not having required or encouraged patriotism and friendship. The obligation of thefe virtues is clearly evinced both from the authority and example of its Author. This Letter writer likewife animadverts on one or two other exceptionable paffages; whilst he has omitted fome much more obnoxious than any which he has confidered. We can fcarce admit his apology, after the high compliments he pays the Author, for examining fo haftily and fuperficially what he thought it of any importance to examine at all. To give it a laboured reply would be, perhaps, paying the exceptionable parts too high a compliment; my obfervations are curfory, fuch only as offered themselves on the first reading, but yet fuch, I hope, as will not be deemed nugatory.'

Art. 37. Obfervations on Soame Jenyns's View of the internal Evidence of the Chriftian Religion; addressed to its almoft Cbriftian Author. By W. Kenrick, LL. D. 8vo. 3s. Evans.

The reply of an orthodox Chriftian to a young convert; fee the Epifties to Lorenze, which are the standard of Dr. K.'s orthodoxy, and to which he frequently refers, not to indulge the vanity of an Author in quoting from himself, but to fhew that the Critic is no new convert; being much of the fame opinion refpecting these matters, after upwards of 20 years experience and reflection, as he was of fo long ago, and at a very early period of life.' As for the View and the Reply, they feem to be altogether frivolous and needless; fince,

• See Monthly Review for June, 1776, p. 465.

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on the principles advanced by Dr. K. the well-difpofed reader, fubmitting his reafon to revelation, and his belief of its divine origin, as well as of its effential doctrines, to a fuperior mode of conviction, the influence of grace, would do well patiently to wait the effect of its operation in God's own place and time, and not to be importunately anxious for the elucidation of obfcurities, which nothing but divine illumination can illuftrate.' In fhort, the perception and acknowledgment of the evidence of Chriftianity, and of the truth of its doctrines, do not at all depend on rational investigation. The Author has made many fruitless attempts to reconcile prophecy and miracles and scripture doctrines and precepts to reafon; and yet he is a believer, though not on any rational conviction;' a believer in ⚫ the greatest apparent abfurdities in the known world.' Such paradoxes as thefe frequently occur in the peformance before us: nor is it any wonder that our Author's faith fhould be the meer effect of an irrefiftible influence.

Art. 38. Subfcription: or, Historical Extracts, humbly inscribed to the Right Rev. the Bishops, and to the Petitioners, &c. 8vo. 2 s. 6d. Hay. 1775.

Among the numerous difquifitions concerning ecclefiaftical Subfcription, this tract is not the leaft confiderable of those which have embraced the free side of the question. The Author appears to be a man of a liberal turn of mind, and mafter of that learning which is requifite to a thorough difcuffion of the subject. His hiftorical deduction of the rife and progrefs of human impofition of human opinions in the Chriftian Church, and of the means unhappily ufed by our religious directors and legiflators (from the earlier ages, down to the Reformation) for contrading the terms of Chriftian communion,-is judicious, and fatisfactory and the inferences he draws are fuitable to the importance and utility of his defign. We have not room, at prefent, to enlarge; and, therefore, we fhall only add, that he concludes with recommending fome conceffions, and alterations, which, in all probability, would greatly contribute toward compofing our religious differences.-On the whole, we cannot but confider this performance as equally pious and judicious; calculated to ferve the interefts of Chriftianity in general, and of the Protestant Churches-in particular; and we are of opinion that it is written in a strain which cannot fail of producing fome good effect on every mind that is hoheftly open to conviction.

Art. 39. Sermons to the Condemned. Literally, intended for the Benefit of those under Sentence of Death by the Laws of their Country: Spiritually, for all who feel themselves under Condemnation by the Law of God, and who may properly be filed Prifoners of Hope. To which is added, an original Dialogue, be tween the Minifter and a Convict ordered for Execution. By David Edwards, Second Edition. 12mo. 2 s. Buckland, &c. This Author appears to have engaged in the charitable act of attending fome condemned malefactors, not officioufly, but by defire, at firft, with fome reluctance, but with the beft intentions. Attain of the Sermons may be judged of from the title. The benevolence of the preacher entitles him to commendation.

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Art. 40. A Looking-Glafs for the Profefors of Religion. Confifting of Seven Tracts on Practical Subjects. I. A Rod for the Sluggard, or the great Evil of Idleness reprefented. II. The Changes of Ephraim, or the Backflider's Warning. III. A Cadtion to Drunkards, or the Sin of Intemperance cenfured. IV. The Canker Worm, or the Gourd of Creature Comfort withered. V. Joshuah's pious Refolution, or the Duties of Family Religion, and Household Government enforced. VI. Pererurrah, or the Danger of Difcord confidered. VII. Some Thoughts on occafional Prayer. By John Macgowan. 12mo. 3 s. Keith. 1772. The title fufficiently specifies the contents of this volume, and to what clafs of Readers they are peculiarly adapted. Each tract is published feparately. Mr. M. is already known as the Shaver, the Liftener, the Author of familiar Epiftles to Dr. Priestley, &c. Art. 41. Thirty-fix Difcourfes on Practical Subjects. By the late Rev. Ben. Ibbot, D. D. Chaplain to K. Geo. I. Prebend of Wellminster, &c. &c. 8vo. 2 vols. 12 s. bound. Davies, &c. 1776.

Dr. íbbot was a learned and judicious divine, who lived in the reigns of Anne, and K. Geo. I. To add, that he was the efteemed friend of the great and good Dr. Sam. Clarke, (to whom he was affiftant-preacher at St. James's) is faying enough to recommend his writings to all lovers of rational religion, and genuine piety.-Thefe Difcourfes, however, are already well known to the Public. His thirty Sermons were published foon after his death, which happened in the year 1725; and the fix Difcourfes added to the prefent edition, were preached on feveral public occafions, and feparately published. We alfo find, from the brief account given of the Author and his writings, that Dr. Ibbot was the author of a tranflation of Puffendorf's treatife, De Habitu Religionis Chriftiana ad Vitam Civilem. He also preached a courfe of Sermons at Boyle's Lectures, which gained him great reputation.

Art. 42. Lectures on that part of the Church-catechifm, commonly called the Apostle's Creed: Preached in St. John the Evangelift, Westminster, pursuant to the Will of Dr. Bufby. By Thomas Bennet, M. A. of Trinity College, Cambridge. 8vo. 5 s. fewed. Ginger, Bew, &c.

Though human creeds and fyftems have in themselves no real authority, that which is commonly called the Apostle's Creed is perhaps as generally accepted among Chriftians as any that have been proposed: yet if Chriftians will, with fome little exception, agree to the articles of this fymbol, it is not to be expected that they should unite in every explication which may be given of them: and fuch muft probably be the cafe with regard to thefe lectures. They are well written, and contain feveral proper and ufeful, though not uncommon, reflections. Bp. Pearson and others have confidered this Creed more learnedly and accurately, particularly as to the time of its being formed; of which we do not observe that this Author takes notice.

This Article was, by fome accident, overlooked, at the time of publication.

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The defcent into hell feems to perplex him; he explains it, that the foul of Chrift was to go to the place destined for the reception of finful fouls. Whether or not he means by this the popish dos» trine of Chrift's going into the hill of damned spirits is not clear. Art. 43. Supplement to. Critica Sacra; in which the Principles - of that Treatife are fully confirmed; and the Objections of Mr. - Raphael Baruh are clearly answered. By the Rev. Dr. Henry` Owen, Rector of St. Olave, Hart-ftreet, and Fellow of the Royal Society. 8vo.. Is. Bowyer and Nichols. 1775. A

The Critica Sacra was mentioned by us, in our Review for Augult 1774, (p. 167) in terms of fuitable approbation... The prinė ciples on which Dr. Owen proceeded, were fo fimple and obvious and the conclufions drawn from them fo juft and natural, that he verily believed, they could never be called in question. But herein he was greatly mistaken; for almoft every pofition he has laid down, has been controverted by Mr. Baruh. See Rev. December, 1775, P. 526.

The chief defign of the Critica Sacra was to recommend to the practice of the Hebraical reader, an accurate collation of the parallel texts; and fuch a collation was more particularly recommended, because it appeared to be one of the best and likelieft methods, as well to discover as to correct the mistakes, occafioned by the negligence or ignorance of transcribers. But Mr. Baruh ftrenuously opposes this notion; and "aims, on the contrary, to fhew, that no paffage, or even a fingle word, or letter of Scripture, should be deemed corrupted on the fole authority of parallel texts."

As thefe opinions are so widely different, and cannot posibly stand together; our learned Author hath made it his bufinefs, in the prefent performance, to discover on which fide the truth lies, by applying them both to a proper teft; the test of Scripture and reason. By the tefts, therefore, of fcripture and reason, he has tried Mr. Barah's Scheme, and proved it to be totally indefenfible. Indeed, the fyftem of Mr. Baruh is fo irrational, and even abfurd, that we can scarcely conceive how it could be adopted by any other than a moft bigoted Jew; and, on this account, we should have thought it altogether unworthy of Dr. Owen's attention, if he had not taken occafion from it, to exhibit a more enlarged view of his own plan, and to favour the Public with fome critical obfervations upon the Old Testament, which well deferve the notice of the friends to facred litera

ture.

Art. 44. The Ruin of Methodifm. By

It does not

fignify who. 8vo. 1 s. Printed for the Author, and fold by Dodfley. A meer rhapsody of we know not what; probably intended, by the extravagance of it, to ridicule methodifm. But though we have practifed the art of reviewing for many years, this farrago of French and English, of profe and verfe, of fcripture newly trans lated, and commentaries on fcripture, &c. &c. defies all our powers of criticism and we muft intreat the Author, in meer mercy, to fpare us the hard task of attempting to decypher another fuch work,. which, either in jeft or in earneft, he propofes to publish by fubfcription in two octavo volumes, intitled, the Grapes; or, the Books of job, the Song of Solomon, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Per

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