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tion as a public man, let him boaft what he will of his integrity as
a private man, ftill he is not the honeft man he ought to be:-if he
doubts the affertion-let him lay his hand on his heart-it will
throb with confcious fhame, and tell him it is true.'

We have made larger extracts from this fermon, than we are ac cuftomed to do from a fingle difcourfe. Their excellence and pro...iety will be our beft apology. B...k

II. Preached before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in the Abbey
· Church, Westminster. By John Lord Bishop of St. David's.
4to. Is. Davis.

This fermon bears few traces of profound judgment, and discovers
very little skill in compofition. If is calculated to flatter the haughti-
nefs of authority. The rest is nought but what might have been the
production of any Curate in his Lordship's diocefe-a loose, general,
and indefinite harangue on the trite topics of fin and reformation:
-rebellion and loyalty!
B...k.

III. Preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at the
Church of St. Margaret's, Weftminster. By George Horne, D. D.
Prefident of Magdalen College, Oxford, and Chaplain in Ordi-
nary to his Majefty. 4to. 15. Rivington.

Dr. Horne is an ingenious writer; and his fermons abound with
the beauties of fentiment and language. He is, however, too much
inclined to a myftic method of interpretation; and he frequently
pays his orthodoxy a very poor compliment, by feeking a refuge for
it in allegory, when it lofes its fupport in plain fcripture, and com-
mon fenfe. If we had not known Dr. Horne to be a churchman at
all points, we should have fufpected that he had been indebted for
many of his Scripture allufions to the Prefbyterian fermons preached
before the Parliament, in the last century. Their political principles,
indeed, are quite at variance with each other: but their theological
fentiments have a very near affinity: and references to the Old Testa-
ment-to Lot and Affur; to lfrael and Reuben; are as common with
the one as with the other."

But Dr. Horne might have dealt in mystery and metaphor, if his fancy had led him to an amusement of that fort. We might have fmiled at feeing a grave divine playing with texts of Scripture before the Houfe of Commons. But we think the Doctor had fomething' worfe than a play toy in his head, when he penned and delivered the following paragraph.

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He [viz. Jehovah] looketh on all the inhabitants of THIS land,
and confidereth all THEIR Works. And when he thus looketh, what.
doth he behold?- He beholdeth
the faith once de
livered to the faints, deferted for the dregs of Socinianifm ;-a fet
of men, ftyling themselves philofophers, wantoning in all the para-
doxical abfurdities of fcepticism, leaving us, between them, neither
matter nor fpirit, neither body nor foul, and doing their best en-
deavours in their lives, and after their deaths, to render us a nation
literally without God in the world."

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This jingling and affected allufion to Dr. Priestley is equally uncandid and unjuft. Styling themselves philofophers! No, Mr. Prefident! the Doctor never affumed the title. All Europe hath given it to him. Leaving neither matter nor fpirit!' He hath left

what

what will effectually answer every purpose of the Gofpel. He hath
left man, whatever he may be compofed of, in the hands of the God
who created him out of nothing:-he hath left him to be judged by
the everlafting Gofpel at the Great Day, when his "corruptible
fhall put on incorruption, and his mortal be clothed with immor-
N.......ality!”
B...k

Iv. Preached in the Cathedral, Canterbury. By the Honourable
and Rev. James Cornwallis, LL. D. Dean of Canterbury. 4to.
6 d. Robfon.

A ferious and candid difcourfe, containing many juft and pious
reflections on the interpofition of divine Providence, in the various
revolutions of states and empires. The text, as well as the occafion,
led immediately to fuch reflections. Job xii. ver. 23. “He en-
creafeth the nations and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations
and traiteneth them again." The following remarks are ingenious
and pertinent. Amidst the univerfal cenfures upon our enemies,
we are not to forget our own fituation, or be blind to our own fail-
ings and neither the flagrancy of their public offences, nor the
ftriking licentiousness of their manners, ought, in the smallest degree,
to shake our belief in the Supreme Governor of the world. Thefe,
their iniquities, do not at all leffen the probability of their being
employed as inftruments to humble us. The Babylonians, at the
time of the Jewish captivity, were inferior to the Jews in morality;
and the most horrid and unparalleled crimes ftain the annals of the
Romans, about the time of the destruction of Jerufalem But as
thefe events had been foretold, there can be no room for thinking
that they were not directed by the immediate hand of God. They
evidently were fo. To the Jews much had been given, and of them,
therefore, the more was required.' The application of thefe reflec-
tions to our own country, privileged to fo high a degree, is obvious
and ftriking.

B...k.

V. National Depravity, the Cause and Mark of Divine Judgment upon
a Land, &c. from Luke xiii. 3. By Benjamin Dawson, LL. D.
Rector of Burgh, in Suffolk. 4to. 6d. Wilkie.

Contains fome good obfervations on the propenfity, too common
with mankind, to conclude from particular events, that great fuffer-
ings are the immediate confequences of divine judgments. The
conclufion, when it relates to individuals, is generally the effect of
ignorance, bigotry, and perfonal hatred. After guarding his hear-
ers, according to the example of our Saviour, in the vèrfes which
precede the text, against rafh and uncharitable judgment, the Doc-
tor obferves, that though we have no right to pronounce when,
and on whom, the judgments of God are brought from any calamities
that befal others, yet that fin and wickedness tend to bring them upon
a land and nation, and that the text fhews us, in a very awful decla
ration, how afflictive vifitations of heaven fhould affect us, and be
improved by us." Except ye repent, ye fhall all likewife perish."

The concluding part of this difcourfe is lefs of a practical, and more of a political nature. Neither the church nor the state (i. e. as they now are) will conclude much on the Doctor's orthodoxy. In a note, he makes an apology for the freedom he hath taken with the latter in this difcourfe. The perfons the moft ready to make a com

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plaint on this head, are thofe, he fuppofes, who would be perfectly
content, on fome days of ftate-appointment-fuch as the martyrdom
of the BLESSED king; the restoration, &c. &c. to liften to doctrines
and maxims of the most dangerous and pernicious tendency; fuch as,
paffive obedience and non refiftance-the divine and hereditary right of
How far the Doctor's apology will be admitted,
kings, &c. &c.'-
must be left to the determination of his readers.
VI. Preached and publifhed for the Ufe of the Parishes of Boneleghe
and Lushleigh, in the County of Devon. By Robert Tripp, A. M.
Chaplain to the Earl of Egremont. 8vo. 6d. Exeter printed

for Thorn.

B...k.

It is in vain for a man to fay that he publishes a fermon for the use of his parishioners. When it is fent abroad into the world, it invites the reading, and virtually appeals to the judgment, of every one. Mr. Tripp must not think of fhielding him felf beneath the modeft pretence of his title-page. He fufficiently difcovered his weakness, by preaching fuch a futile, puerile fermon, even to the poor fouls of Boneleghe and Lushleigh. His publishing it betrayed his vanity, and expofed that incapacity for literary compofition, which, but for this unlucky ftep, might never have got beyond the walls of his parifa churches.

B...k.

VI. A national Change in Morals, in Measures, and in Politics, necef fary to national Profperity. Svo. I s.

Cadell.

If we mistake not, this Sermon was announced in the public papers, as the performance of a Chefhire clergyman.' The Auhe hath no connection either thor informs us, in his preface, that with the leaders of, or the dependents on, adminiftration; with those who diftribute, or those who enjoy the honours and emoluments of office. Much lefs does he think, and much less has he to do with the demagogues or their dupes; with the political empirics, or the fubjects of their impofition; with the original venders, or the fmall dealers in fedition; with the rebels, their agents, accomplices, or affociations.' This Sermon bears a ftriking resemblance of the malignant fpirit which infpires the writings of that political empiric,' Dr. Shebbeare. The fame indifcriminate abuse of all the members of the Oppofition-the fame infolent and prefumptuous arraignment ...of fecret motives, which are the notorious characteristics of Dr. Shebbeare's productions, difgrace the Sermon before us. If it be really the compofition of a clergyman, and if it was indeed preached to any congregation of Chriftians, we are forry for it. His zeal for the government hath led him to tranfgrefs all the bounds of modesty and candour. He converted the pulpit into a theatre of scandal and defamation. He forgot the very first defign of a day of humiliation; and in his rage to caft out one devil," took with him feven other devils more wicked than the firft."

This Writer, who calls the gentlemen of the Oppofition, a needy and noify party,'-who are inceffantly morofe, querulous, and croaking, a rancorous, unrelenting, malignant, difappointed, def perate faction, whofe fole mortification is to be out of place, and whofe bittereft vexation is never to be credited by thofe they threaten ;' defcends fo low, fo very low in the vocabulary of abuse and fcurrili

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ty, as to call the Americans- YANKIES. And all this, gentle reader, in a fermon !-in a fermon too, on a lowly and contrite Faft day! B...k. VIII. Preached at Charlotte Street Chapel, Pimlico, &c. By the Rev. Richard Harrifon, Minifter of the faid Chapel. 8vo. Bew.

1 S.

This performance breathes a fpirit of piety. The Author, after lamenting the corruptions in faith and practice, which have crept into the church, and in his opinion, have made a moft alarming progrefs among the Diffenters (once eminent for their strictness and orthodoxy!) informs his Readers, that the very fathers and guardians of the church are afleep, while its enemies are quietly, but boldly and publicly, fowing the tares of herefy and infidelity amongst us.' Mr. Harrifon's zeal, indeed, makes him "fear where no fear is." In the catalogue of national and crying fins, he hath produced the general neglect of the holy feafon of Lent,' as a ftriking and cor. roborative proof of the degeneracy of our church.' Verily this is an alarming confideration!

B...k.

IX. The Neceffity of making God our Friend at this alarming Crifis;
Seriously urged.-At the Parish Church of Kirk-Heaton. By the
Rev. John Sunderland. 8vo. 6d. Huddersfield printed, and
fold by Brook, &c.

A tolerably decent difcourfe.-The Preacher, indeed, feems to be
a better Chriftian than a Politician, Witness the following paffage :
As the prefent war has not been entered upon from a vain principle
of ambition-to gratify the refentment of an angry, or the pride of an
afpiring monarch, but in defence of the plainest rights and privileges-
and after every other method of reconciliation had been tried in vain,
fo it behoves us, efpecially at this juncture, to beware of encourag-
ing any measure of defigning men, which may tend to weaken the
hands of government.'-Can any one, acquainted with the hiftory of
the American system of affairs, lay his hand on his bofom, and
feriously utter fuch language as this? Let others do as they please.
WE CANNOT and amidst the folemn devotions of a Faft-day, we
fhould have efteemed it the moft impious piece of mockery to the all-
feeing God, had we joined in fuch an affertion.
X. Preached in Hackney-church, and published at the Requeft of the

congregation. 8vo. 6d. Dilly.

B...k

B...k.

A ferious expoftulation with finners, to turn from their wicked ways. The text is taken from 2 Chron. vii. 14. XI. To a Congregation of Proteftant Diffenters, at York, and pub lifhed at the Requeft of the Audience. By Newcombe Cappe. 8vo. 1 s. Johnfon.

This Sermon abounds with ftriking fentiments, and we with others, who have thought proper to exhibit to the world their faft-day declamations, had been infpired with the piety and candour of this fenfible and amiable minifter.

With paying this juft tribute to the abilities and temper of Mr. Cappe, impartiality obliges us to remark, that his language is very far from being a proper model of pulpit eloquence. We could quote paffages remarkably pleafing and elegant, in point of ftyle; but Mr.

Cappe

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Cappe is fo much of a mannerift (as the painters fay), that in a
whole piece he becomes tirefome. One fentence frequently involves
in it feveral diftinct ideas, and on that account becomes obfcure.
In reading it, we often lofe the beginning before we arrive at the end,
and are obliged to review the paffage, in order to collect its meaning.
Mr. Cappe may charge all this to the account of our dulness, and not
to his want of perfpicuity. It may be fo. Perhaps we are dull; but
the misfortune is, that there is not, poffibly, one of an hundred
B...k.
readers of faft fermons but may be as dull as ourselves!
XII. The Character of a true Patriot briefly delineated-to a Society of
Proteftant Diffenters, at Prefcot. By the Rev. John Wilding.
8vo. Is. Johnson.

B...k.

An illuftration of a patriotic character, from the example of Nehe-
miah, prime minifter of the Jews, after the captivity.
XIII. Virtue and Patriotifm founded on Religion: Preached at Yar
mouth. By Thomas Howe. 8vo. 6d. Law.

A pious and candid difcourfe, and not deftitute of animation.
XIV. Profeffors admonished in the Day of Calamity; or, The Lord's
Controverfy with Ifrael; at the Meeting-Houfe in Little Moor-
fields. By W. Bennet. 8vo. 6d. Buckland.

This difcourfe is formed (and we believe with a very honest and
godly intention) on the old puritanical model. The Preacher hath
adopted all the cant phrases of the nonconformifts of the last century,
fuch as the ingathering of the people to king Jefus-the withdrawment
of God's gracious comforting prefence-the crying fins of drefs and
fashion, cards and playhouses, &c.' In this difmal picture which he
hath exhibited of the prefent times, he hath drawn a flattering out-
line of puritanism, in order to aggravate their deformity by the con-
traft. The Puritans (fays Mr. Bennet) were an ornament to their
caufe, the glory of their churches, and the terror of their enemies."
Terrible indeed, when they had the art of frightening the old women
of both fexes by the awfulness of their vifages, and the deep and dire-
ful tone of fpiritual commination! Their terror was something more
than the form of mock authority,

"When in the faddle of one steed,

"The Saracen and Chriftian rid.”

B...k.

The late very learned Bishop of Gloucefter appears to have been indebted to thefe lines of Hudibras, for a curious, and as many thought, original, delineation of puritanism, in his "Doctrine of Grace." Speaking of the gradations of enthusiasm, from the Precifian to the Methodist, he obferves, that "the methodist is now an apoftolic independent, and the independent was then a Mahometan methodift."-The Saracen and Chriftian! Admirable compofition ! But fo it was. B...k.

CORRESPONDENCE.

UR Correfpondent, Philo-Martinus, who points out to us an inconfiftency that ftruck him, in the two first fentences of the fecond paragraph of our account of Dr. Duncan's late publication of Mr. Baxter's pofthumous work, [See our Review for January last,

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