which enriches the portrait, a bad emblem of the mystery of fame. more cautious impoftors, who, under pretence of particular and exclufive penetration, have gained a better fort of notice, whilst they merited only correction and contempt."

ART. 26. Lectures on Diet and Regimen, being a Syftematic Inquiry into the most rational Means of preferving Health and prolonging Life, together with phyfiological and chemual Explanations, calculated chiefly for the Ufe of Families, in Order to banish the prevailing Abuses and Prejudices in Medicine. By A. F. M. Willich, M. D. 8vo. 708 pp. 9s. Longman and Rees. 1799.

This book is dedicated, we obferve," to mothers and guardians of families," but with peculiar impropriety; for, befides that the whole is too diffuse and prolix to engage their attention, fome parts are too fcientific, requiring, in order to make them intelligible, a preliminary course of study, which does not enter into the fcheme of female education. But a more material fault is, that a confiderable portion of it is fo extremely indelicate, that no woman in this country would, we truft, fuffer it to be feen in her poffeffion. After faying this, it will not be expected that we should enter into a particular examination of the different Lectures. As the author has gleaned from Tiffot, Buchan, and from many other writers, who have prefcribed regimens for attaining or preferving health, many ufeful regulations will doubtlefs be here found, but none, we think, of fufficient value to intitle this work to a pre-eminence over thofe, of which the public have long been in poffeffion.

DIVINITY.

ART. 27. The Duty of Rulers to encourage Public Worship. A Sermon, preached in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, the Judges, the Aldermen, Serjeants at Law, Sheriffs, and City Officers, on Sunday the Fourteenth of April, 1799, being the First Sunday in Eafter Term. By Thomas Bowen, M. A. Chaplain of Bridewell Hofpital, and Minifter of Bridewell Pre. cina, Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor. 4to. 25 pp. 1s. Rivingtons. 1799.

The preacher has selected a very appofite text, Nehemiah xiii, 11. "Then contended I with the rulers, and faid, Why is the house of God forfaken?" From this text are clearly fhown," the importance of the duty of public worship, and the peculiar obligation which refts. not only upon magiftrates, but on all who are placed in authority, or in any manner diftinguished by rank, office, or ftation, to encourage and promote it." P. 10. One or two fpecimens will prove fufficiently, that this is a feasonable and judicious difcourfe: If it be the duty of the magiftrate to ftrengthen the hands of government by the fanctions of religion, there never was a period when it was more neceffary to apply and enforce thefe fanctions than the prefent day, in which the neglect and difregard of facred things is made the prelude

to impiety, in order that impiety may be made inftrumental to the fubverfion of the state. The abolition of the fabbath, and the fuppreffion of Chriftian affemblies, were among the chief caufes which have given continuance to that great change of things effected in France, which aftonishes and alarms the world. When holy bells no longer "knolled to church," then the impious ruler thought himself fecure. He asked no aid to his government from the mild enforcements of religion; but took in her ftead, defpotic violence, terror, and difmay. The fame end which has been accomplished there, is attempted here, by the fame means; and, accordingly, those who are moft hoftile to the ftate are generally the forémolt to decry public worship and all fabbatical inftitutions." P. 17. Of the obliga tion of rulers to enforce religion, and a due attendance upon public worship, what more ftriking argument can be adduced, than the prefence of the VENERABLE CONGREGATION which is now affembled? They who prefide at the tribunal, and who are best acquainted with the laws and conftitution of the country, are best able to underftand the importance of religion to public order and the general hap pinefs. And it is a fubject of no small confolation in the actual state of politics and of morals, that now, as in former days, the feats of justice are occupied by men, not lefs [quere, not more] diftinguished by their profound knowledge of law, than veneration for religion. In France, the fpirit of impiety was not able to work the overthrow of the government, till it had infected the higher orders of the magiftracy. It is no small honour to the profeffion, that even there its approach to the chambers of justice was flow and difficult. But when, at length, it found votaries in the fanctuary of the laws; when they, who should have given vigour to the ftatutes which exifted for the defence of religion, betrayed the caufe which they were bound to protect, then im piety burft in like a torrent, and religion and the state perished in one common ruin." P. 21.

ART. 28. A Sermon, preached at the Vifitation, bolden at Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire, on Tuesday, June 26, 1798. By the Rev. Samuel Clap ham, M. A. Vicar of Great-Oufe borne. 8vo. 31 pp. 6d. Binns and Brown.

This preacher has, on feveral former occafions, inftructed the public by fermons printed at the requeft of the refpective hearers. He will be found, on this occafion, to maintain and extend the credit he had acquired. Acknowledging himself to be, from the figns of the times, exceedingly alarmed for the prefervation of the church, and the interefts of the gofpel, he addreffes his brethren with fraternal freedom, and fuggefts what appears to him as effential to be generally adopted by the clergy throughout the whole kingdom, in order to preferve the very exiftence of the church; in which he comprehends the happiness of fociety, and the bleffings of falvation.

"Permit me," he fays," in conclufion, to repeat to you, and to infcribe in indelible characters upon your hearts, that we are called upon, by the nation at large, to exert ourselves in our profeffion with peculiar diligence; to fignalize our attachment to the church, and our concern for

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religion, by labouring more abundantly than we have hitherto done, in the work of the Lord. Permit me to repeat to you, that we are exhorted by every tongue, and conjured by every pen, " to lay afide every weight," every engagement, which, however lawful it may be in itself, is now confidered as by no means expedient, if, in appearance only, it interfere in the fmalleft degree with the difcharge of our ecclefiaftical function. Many wife and good men have expreffed the most alarming apprehenfions, that if we do not take efpecial heed to the miniftry we have received in the Lord, to fulfil it," there will be a fpeedy overthrow, first of the church, and then a general wreck of the conftitution." P. 28. With much plainnefs, but without any afperity, he enumerates fome particular duties of the clergy, very important, but fometimes (he does not fay generally) imperfectly difcharged. Recommending to the clergy a perufal of the whole difcourfe, we shall ex** It were tract one judicious and ufeful hint from the note at p. 16. much to be wifhed, where the Sacrament is administered only at three or four seasons in the year, that it should invariably be administered on two fucceffive Sundays or Festivals, in order that every person in every family, not only the mafter and mistress, but every part of the houfehold, whether fon or daughter, inmate, man-fervant, or maid fervant, arrived at maturity, might have an opportunity of receiving it." The text is 1 Cor. iii, 8, 9.

ART. 19. A Sermon, preached in the Church of St. Peter, Dorchester, at the primary Vifitation of Folliott, Lord Bibop of Bristol, on Satur day, June 9, 1798. By W. Bond, A. M. Rector of Steeple with Tyneham, and late Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. 410, 11 pp. 16. Rivingtons, &c. 1799.

After vindicating, with ability, the dignity and fublime purposes of our holy Faith, Mr. Bond proceeds to lament, firft, the fpeculative, but more particularly the practical, infidelity of the prefent period. He then points out to the clergy the beft means which they can employ for counteracting thefe great evils, and concludes with an earneft exhortation to them to perfift in the neceffary exertions. The difcourfe was approved by the Bishop at whofe Vifitation it was preached, and fimilar approbation will be given by its readers.

ART. 30. Three Letters, addreffed to the Readers of Paine's Age of Reafon By One of the People called Chriftians, 8vo. 31 pp. Darton and Harvey, &c. 1797

These Letters have too long efcaped our notice. We should willingly, by our prefent commendations, compenfate for this tardiness; but we can only say, that the tract is well intended, not containing any new arguments, nor any old ones very forcibly ftated. At p. 13, we find an egregious fpecimen of trifling: "It is no new thing, that great numbers of fincere Chriftians have objected to the Scriptures being denominated the word of God, feeing the Scriptures themfelves bear teftimony that the Bible is not that word, as is eafily found, by fubftituting Bible for the Words, in reading the firft chapter of John, namely, in the beginning was the Bible,' and so on." P. 13.

In

In Letter II, a quotation of four pages and a half (however excellent) is out of proportion to feven pages in the whole. In this way, it would be eafy to make a book of any length required.

ART. 31. A Sermon, preached in the Cathedral Church at Lincoln, on Sunday September 16, 1798, being the Anniversary Meeting of the Governors of the County Hofpital. By the Rev. George Hutton, B. D. lately Fellow of St. Mary Magdalene College, Oxford. Published for the Benefit of the Hofpital. 8vo. 35 PP. 18. Cadell and Davies.

1798.

From 1 John, iii, 17, the preacher firft fhows the neceffity of this principle, the love of God, as a motive to all our actions, by "a confideration of the inferiority, the vanity, the emptiness, the inefficiency, of all other motives to action;" p. 7. He then applies the doctrine he had established to the occafion of the meeting, the great duty of Charity. Under the 1ft head, he contends ftrongly for the freedom of human will, on which is grounded our accountableness for all our actions; and he jully reprobates the doctrines of Mr. Godwin and others, that man is a mere machine;" and that "his actions, as well as every thing that happens in the univerfe, are the refult of abfolute neceffity." Under the 2d head it is fhown, that the Greek word for love, when it is rendered in the New Teftament charity, "ufually denotes love to our fellow-creatures, exemplified in all acts of kindness and benevolence towards them, and deriving its origin from the only true fource, the Love of God; that Chriftian Charity, which alone deferves the name of true Charity, by being founded upon Chriftian principles:" (p. 12) and that this love is " a new commandment," fince it is placed by Chrift upon a new foundation, the love of God;-fince it is greatly enlarged in its application, "love your enemies," &c. and fince it has a new nature and quality; “as I have loved you-as the father hath loved me," &c. The modern doctrine (modern at leaft in its conftruction and application) of univerfal equality, is then encountered; and is fhown to have a direct tendency to fuperfede the neceffity, if not to annihilate the exercife, of Chrif tian charity. The usefulness of hofpitals is then adverted to; and reference is made to the statements, annually published, of the affairs of the general hofpital for the county of Lincoln; from which the author thinks it evident, that "a comparatively greater number of poor fufferers may have been restored to their families, than in almost any other county whatsoever." P. 25. We with that this argumentative difcourfe may operate to increase the number of benefactors, and confequently the amount of charitable deeds performed in this truly Christian mode, within the above-mentioned, or any other county.

ART.

ART. 32. An Apology for Village Preachers; or, an Account of the Proceedings and Motives of Proteftant Dijenters, and ferious Chriftians of other Denominations, in their Attempts to fupprefs Infidelity and Vice. and to spread Vital Religion in Country Places, especially where the Means of pious Inftruction among the Poor are rare: With Jame Animadverfions on an anonymous Appeal to the People," and Replies to Objections. By William Kingsbury, M. A. 8vo. 56 pp. IS.

Chapman. 1799.

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This Apology is, for the most part, an answer to the " Appeal to the People," mentioned in the title-page; which Appeal (it feems) alledged, that the real object of feveral itinerant preachers, who have lately appeared in and near Salisbury, "is not religious, but political; and that this object leads to alienate the attachment of the people to the established church, as the ground-work and foundation of fome fecret defign in the field of politics." P. 8. Mr. K. "feels himself called upon to explain and defend the views, motives, and conduct of the itinerants." P. 9. We are inclined to believe, that neither he nor his itinerant friends, entertain the defignis imputed to them; but whether or not they be unconscious inftruments in the hands of more fubtle defigners, is a queftion which this tract does not affift us in answering. As further difcuffions may probably arife, we recommend to Mr. K. an abftinence, much more rigid than he has shown on this occafion, from the application of grofs epithets to the conduct of his opponent; and from thofe frequent and vehement infinuations against the elergy in general, which favour more of " anger and bitterness" than of" fpeaking the truth in love." P. vi.

Of the temper in which an author writes," we must judge by what we find written; and therefore if we chance to "miftake it," the fault is all his own.

ART. 33. The principal Part of the Old Teftament, from the Beginning of Genefis to the Conclufion of the Second Book of the Kings. For the Ufe of Schools. By the Rev. William Ashburner, Vicar of Urfawick, and Schoolmafter there. 8vo. 630 pp. 35. 68. bound; or, on a better Paper, 45. Robinfons, &c. 1798.

In order to make this a convenient and useful school-book, there is prefixed to each chapter a felection of the most difficult words and names occurring in it, fo divided as to affift the learner in fpelling them. The book alfo is fold at a very cheap rate, and the type being very clear and good, there is little doubt of its meeting with approbation from those who are engaged in teaching the firit elements of knowledge.

PHILOSOPHY.

ART. 34. Experimental Enquiries concerning the Principle of the lateral Communication of Motion in Fluids, applied to the Explanation of various Hydraulic Phænomena. By Citizen J. B. Venturi, Profeffor of Natural Philofophy at Modena, Ec. c. Tranflated from the French. 8vo. 75 PP. 25. Taylor. 1799.

After an Advertisement, by Mr. W. Nicholfon, the tranflator, and the table of Contents, the work begins with a fhort Introduction, defcribing