trine, as prophets who teach lies,' he thinks it neceffary to introduce, in what he calls a long foot note, a vehement cenfure of a late publication, entitled, A Practical Effay upon the Death of Chrift, and declares himself happy to find that the Provincial Synod of Glasgow and Ayr have thoughts of taking this treatise into their ferious confideration. How long fhall the fpirit of inquiry be reftrained by the inquifitorial fpirit of ecclefiaftical bigotry?

The fermons contained in this volume are twelve in number; the fubjects, the nature and method of numbering our days, with the benefit refulting from it; the character and blessedness of the undefiled; the Chriftian character an honourable one; faithful paftors the falt of the earth; genuine believers complete in Chrift; our Lord's grave a fource of comfort.

The effays in poetry are verfions or paraphrafes of fome of the Pfalms, and fmall pieces on various fubjects, chiefly religious. Whatever fpirit of piety they may be thought to breathe, they have little pretenfion to poetical merit.

SINGLE SERMONS.

Art. 59. God, and the King: delivered in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, before the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, &c. Oct. 25, 1790, being the Anniversary of his Majesty's Acceffion to the Throne. By C. E. De Coetlogon, A. M. Chaplain to the Mayoralty. 4to. Is. Rivingtons.

This fermon, dedicated to Mr. Burke, is on Matthew, xxii. 21. Its general doctrine is good. Mr. De Coetlogon juftly remarks, that we are not to render to Cæfar the incenfe of flattery, the facrifice of divine honour, nor the rights of confcience; and that the perfons, poffeffions, and civil liberties of the fubject, are no part of the property of kings. The things which are Cafar's, he enumerates to be-bonour, fubmiffion, and pious interceffion.

Art. 60. Pious Memorials, a public Good: delivered in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, before the Lord Mayor, &c. Nov. 5, 1790. By C. E. De Coetlogon, A. M. 4to. Is. Rivingtons. Public commemorations, Mr. De C. argues, are of great ufe, as they are proclamations of the divine goodness, and national acknowlegements of a fuperintending Providence. From the circumftance to which he alluded in the fervice of the day, he is led to take fome notice of the Reformation; from which he paffes to the Revolution. In this event, as a fubject of the British empire, he glories: but, as a good Chriftian, he wishes moft devoutly to fubjoin to it another—a moral revolution, or a general reformation of manners. In this with there is certainly true patriotifm. (Text, Ex. xii. 26.)

Art. 61. Preached October zd, 1791, at Tring, Herts, for the Benefit of the Sunday Schools. By Michael Dupré, M. A. Afternoon Preacher of Tring, and late of Pembroke College, Oxford. 8vo. pp. 31. Is. Cadell. 1792.

A general and warm recommendation of charity-schools, very well adapted to interest a popular audience in their favour.

Art.

Art. 62. The Meaning which the Word MYSTERY bears in the New Teftament: confidered and applied.-Preached to an Assembly of Minifters, on the Thursday-morning's Lecture, at Exeter, May 4th, 1791. By Joshua Toulmin, M. A. 8vo. 1s. John fon. 1791. This difcourfe is faid to have been published at earnest defire.-It will be easily concluded, that this author confiders the term myftery as only another word for any thing hidden or concealed, or a secret. It is obfervable, (he fays,) that whatever awful import it may appear to carry when applied to religious fubjects, it is a word common and familiar in the affairs of civil life, when we speak of the mysteries of a bufinefs or trade, an art or profeffion. In this ufe of it, the meaning is obvious; it imports not what is incapable of being understood, but what, though at prefent unknown, by the help of a teacher may be learnt.'-Mr. Toulmin examines the different places in the New Teftament in which the word occurs, and collects from all, that it refers only to the fecrecy in which the fubject had been involved: after this, he deduces fome pertinent and ufeful conclufions.-There is little or no room to doubt the juftice of his explication; which is indeed by no means new, though it is highly proper that it fhould be often re-prefented to the attention of the public.-We cannot help obferving that Mr. Parkburft, in his Greek and English Lexicon, infifts on this explication of the word, and rejects, with a kind of refentment, the interpretation which would make it denote what is unintelligible and incomprehenfible. We notice this inftance of Mr. Parkhurft's impartiality with the greater pleasure, as he has generally been regarded as a man rather ftiff in his attachment to what is now ufually meant by the word Orthodoxy.

Art. 63. The Good Old Ways. Preached at the opening of the Church of Paddington, Middlefex. Publifhed at the Requeft of the Trustees for Rebuilding the Church. By John Shepherd, A. M. of Queen's College, Oxford, Curate of Paddington. 4to. IS. Faulder. 179!.

A fpirit of innovation in religion is the great evil which this preacher laments and endeavours to correct. He claffes innovators under four heads: 1. Such as doubt all revelation.' Thefe he difmiffes, perhaps with too much contempt, as unworthy of farther notice. Thefe men are few and feeble, they have repeatedly been confuted, and their revival of objections once obviated, is fufficiently anfwered by a reference to former replies.' 2. Such as place all merit in faith and piety.' The preacher here reprefents it as the frantick aim of the methodistical fanatic, to separate belief from morality; and he complains that they are continually cafting the difgraceful imputation of infincerity on the moft pious and learned of the clergy. To thefe he replies, that the liturgy and offices of the Church, are abfolutely irreconcileable with the Calvinistic fcheme, and therefore may be honestly used by clergymen who are not Calvinists. This part of the difcourfe concludes with the following fentiments, fo liberal as fcarcely to be confiftent with that averfion to innovation (in many cafes only another word for improvement,) which appears to have dictated this difcourfe:

• But

But however we may difapprove of the principles of the infidel, the opinions of the enthufiaft, or the practices of perfons denoted by the harsh names of fchifmatics and heretics; be it ever remembered, that the religion of Jefus teaches us to maintain candour for their fentiments, and love for their perfons.-In the apoftolic writings, whatever doctrine or duty is inculcated or recommended; whatever vice or error is rectified or corrected; whatever herely or fchifm is cenfured or lamented; charity, that is, love to God and love to man, is always infifted upon as the end of the commandment, the bond of perfectness, and the very life and foul of christianity itself. The bigot, whether of our own, or any other communion, is violent against every one that differs from him, becaufe HIS creed has taught him to hate the man for his opinions: whereas the well-informed, judicious, moderate man, though he believes the established church to be the best inftitution, and therefore joins in its communion, yet he contends not for its abfolute perfection, he invefts it with no exclufive privilege. A member of another communion he can cafily conceive to be as good as himself; and acceptance with God he neither hopes nor believes confined to any particular church. In a word, we dare not infringe upon the unqueftionable right of others to judge for themselves in religious matNeither equity, humanity, nor the law of the gofpel, allows us to dictate what faith they fhall embrace, or what mode of worship they fhall practife.-And whatever may be the notions of the narrow-minded bigot, or mifguided enthufiaft, upon the fubject, the withdrawing of your love, the alienation of your affection, from those whofe religious fyftem does not exactly correfpond with your own, is the most grievous fchifin and an attachment to the use of coercive measures, a difpofition to force, to perfecute men, is a violation of that evangelical harmony and peace, in the breach of which the fin of herefy principally confifts.'

ters.

3. Such as alter or omit ceremonies and inftitutions,' by having the office of public baptifm of infants,' and the churching of women,' performed in private houfes; or by general profanation of holidays, in oppofition to the ordinances and inftitutions of our Ecclefiaftical and Civil Governors. 4. Such as come to Church, not as they ought, for the purpose of prayer and praife, but to be amused by, and to criticife the preacher and the Sermon.' On this head Mr. Shepherd ftrongly expreffes his difapprobation of controverfial preaching:

We do not think ourfelves at liberty to attempt to amuse our hearers with fanciful fpeculations; to confume the precious moments in unedifying controverfy; or, as the cuftom of fome is, to praise and flatter themselves and their refpective congregations, and uncharitably to cenfure the members of other communions. Should any of thofe that now hear me be unhappy enough to expect amusement or entertainment of this caft, they muft feek for it elsewhere. And if any delight in polemic theology, and controverfial difcourfes, they will probably be offended with the fimplicity of the preacher, who candidly tells them, that that is a depraved and vitiated appetite, which requires to be fed with difputable points.'

It would betray in us a want of that liberality which the author of this discourse fo unequivocally expreffes, if we were not to remark, that, amid all his zeal against innovation, he leaves full fcope for free inquiry, and paffes no uncandid cenfure on the tenets of modern heretics.

Art. 64. A particular Attention to the Inftruction of the Young recommended: delivered at the Gravel-Pit Meeting, in Hackney, Dec. 4, 1791, on entering on the Office of Paftor to the Congregation of Proteftant Diffenters affembling in that Place. By Jofeph Priestley, D.D. F. R.S. &c. 8vo. Is. Johnson.

The lecturing and catechizing of the young are here urged by Dr. Prieftley as most important branches of a Chriftian Paftor's duty; to which he fubjoins the plan adopted by him in difcharging them, when at Birmingham, and invites his new congregation to affift him in carrying the fame plan into effect in the congregation at Hackney. Entirely do we agree with Dr. P. in thinking that this mode of inftructing youth in the principles and duties of religion, is of infinitely more fervice to morals, than all the mifcelTaneous inftruction that falls from all the pulpits in the kingdom. Whenever we go to church and hear the ingenious fermons of our clergy, we cannot avoid reflecting that, good as they are, they require a confiderable degree of previous tuition, to prepare the minds of hearers for benefiting by them.

Hence the general inefficacy of preaching.

Art. 65. Occafioned by the Death of Mr. John Flight, who departed this Life, July 10, 1791, in the Twenty-fifth Year of his. Age; preached at Worcester, July 24, 1791. By James Dore. 8vo. 6d. Gurney.

The fubject of this difcourfe is fomewhat unusual, though by no means improper, on a funeral occafion. The text is, 1 John, iv. 8. God is love. It was felected at the immediate requeft of the deceased, who appears to have chofen, and to have continued in, the path of piety and virtue; the happy effects of which he enjoyed in his laft hours. Mr. Dore has properly confidered and illuftrated the appointed topic; deducing from it some very fenfible and important practical inftructions.

CORRESPONDENCE.

We are glad that Lavenenfis was pleafed with our account of Mr. Twining's tranflation of Ariftotle's Treatise on Poetry in the Review for February laft; and we thank him for the remarks on a paffage in Ariftotle, which he has communicated to us, though we are obliged to differ from him.

Inftead of oux xôn xai moinînı πpocayogeulsor, in the first chapter, he propofes either to read, ουκ ΗΔΑ και ποιητην προσαγορεύον, non plac cuit (fcilicet populo) illum poetæ titulo falutandum:" or, to confider " ουκ ήδη και ποιητην προσαγορεύον as equivalent to ηενεούνται [agrilar] online eiva, in the fenfe of " ftatim publice clamatum eft non effe poetam."

We are inclined to believe that our correspondent meaned ne, and not nda, as the latter term cannot mean placuit: but both nda and về, for placui and placuit, are poetical terms, and therefore, we conceive, not fuited to Ariftotle's text. Befide, d, in the fenfe of έδιξε, τῷ λαῷ, Οι τοις πολλοίς, we apprehend, would not be Greek. We have as great an objection to confidering ουκ ηδη και ποιητην προσαγορεύλιον as equivalent to αξιουλαι ποιήλην είναι. The form of the phrafeology fhews that the two expreffions are not convertible. The latter words would be merely narrative, the former are preceptive: the latter would exprefs merely the fentiments of others, the former exprefs his own.

The other reflections, which Lavenenfis communicated in the fame letter, he will excufe cur detailing, as the very nature of our undertaking precludes our indulging in fo general a correfpondence.

+++ A Conftant Reader and Admirer' has our thanks for his intelligence refpecting an old compilement entitled, "A New Help to Difcourie;" which we recollect to have feen, nearly half a century ago; and in which, it is most probable, we first met with the epitaph on Joan of Arc, reprinted in our Review for March last, P. 274. We have frequently recalled to mind fome idea of that entertaining little volume, [it was fo, to the writer of this article, then a child,] and have rather wondered that the plan has never been revived, in this age of literary induftry. A new compilement, of that kind, could hardly fail of proving acceptable to young readers, of either fex, as a pleasing introduction to a great variety of useful information.

Itt R. S. complains that we are too dilatory in the review of fome new publications; and he urges, that it was hoped that any imperfection of this kind would have been remedied by the enlargement of our work. Certainly, the evil has, in fome degree, been leffened: but, alas! the increase of the productions of the prefs is fo much beyond all proportion to that of our limits, that no extenfion of our plan could keep pace with it. A Review, containing fix times the prefent quantity, would fcarcely be equal to the demand for space; and a regiment of writers would be required to fill it monthly. However, what can be done, we shall endeavour to accomplish; and more can not be required.

The continuation of our General Index, concerning which this correfpondent inquires, is intended: but the plan is not yet fixed.

+*+ The letters from Mr. Gilpin, Lucius, &c. came too late for confideration in this number.

1* Dr. Wallis's Sermons will appear in our next Review.

ERRATUM in our laft Number.

Page 461. 1. 13 from the bottom, in the quotation from Lord Rofcommon, for mouldring eloquence,' read, maudlin, &c.