racter favour fuch effect; he feems to have been a defperately wicked perfon; fuch a Gentile as the apoftle defcribes, who, being past all feeling, bad given up himself to work all manner of uncleanness, rapacioufnefs and oppreffion. Tacitus fays of him in his. Annals, Jampridem Judæa impofitus cuncta malefacta fibi impune ratus eft; and in his hiftory, Per omnem fævitiam ac libidinem jus regium Servili ingenio exercuit. I do not deny but a wicked confcience might produce this, or a greater effect, especially when alarmed by an eloquent and infpired apoftle, or even a pious and powerful preacher: the word of God being fharper than a two-edged fword, and piercing even to the dividing afunder of the foul and spirit: all that I contend for is, that it is not afferted," as I apprehend, in this place.

"

Many eminent divines in maintaining this pofition of St. James, that be who offendeth in one point is guilty of all, have madeufe of this kind of reasoning, viz. that he is therefore guilty, because he violates the authority of him who enacted them all; which, I am afraid, will never bear the teft, for this borders nearly upon the Stoical paradox, that all fins are equal, as they must be, if the guilt of them depends upon the authority of the Lawgiver, and not on the nature and quality of the actions themselves; and this falfe reasoning has been fuggefted to them by a wrong translation of what follows-for He who faid, Thou fhalt not-which men of learning know should have been tran-' flated-for the fame law that faid, Thou shalt not commit adultery, faid also, Thou shalt not steal, i. e. the fame general and royal law of love, which comprehends in it all the particular instances of justice and kindness to our neighbour, worketh no evil to him, and is therefore called the fulfilling of the commandments.'

Thefe, are the most material obfervations in this performance. Many of them we have epitomifed for the fake of brevity. We fhall therefore refer the critical reader, if he wants any farther information, to the pamphlet itself; in which, we can venture to affert, he will meet with many things which merit his attention, though fome perhaps which may admit of difpute.

VII. A Syftem of revealed Religion, digested under proper Heads, and compofed in the express Words of Scripture; containing all that the facred Records reveal, with respect to Doctrine and Duty. By the late Reverend John Warden, M. A. revised and published by his Son, the Reverend Mr. John Warden, Minifter of the Gospel in Canongate. 4to. Pr. 15 Dilly."

THE

HE fcriptures, as this author obferves, are written on a variety of fubjects, and contain inftructions given to men upon different occafions, and under different difpenfations.

Hence,

Hence, we frequently find the most important doctrines and precepts, the moft illuftrious promifes, and, awful threatnings, intermixed with a narrative, a prayer, or a hymn of praife. Tho' it be difficult, yet it is certainly practicable, to bring together the whole of what the fcriptures contain, on the great al articles of our religion, under their feveral heads: and when the paffages are properly arranged, they will caft a light on each other, and give the reader a full and perfect view of the faith and duty of a chriftian. But a great deal depends on the judgment and integrity of the compiler; for without thefe effential qualifications, human fyftems, and unfcriptural notions, may be fupported by detached fentences and fragments of fcripture.

In the execution of this work, Mr. Warden has obferved the following rules: rules!

ift, That every thing which the fcriptures contain relating to any one article of faith, or practice, fhould be fairly quoted under its refpective head.

zdly, That the texts be arranged in a proper order, fuch as may add to their perfpicuity, and at the fame time illustrate the fubject.

3dly, That the work be executed in fuch a manner, as may render the reading connected and agreeable; and that every chapter be in the form of a regular and continued difcourse.

In fome former collections of this kind, these rules have not been, obferved. On this account, our author fays, a work, intitled, Scripture Sufficiency, printed in 1676, A Common Placebook to the Bible, in 1697, and fome other compilations, feem not rightly to have answered the purposes for which they were defigned.

The collection which he most approved, was the Chriftian Inftitutes of Dr. Gaftrell, published in 1707. But the fmall fize of that book plainly fhews, that the author had no view of taking in the whole of what the fcriptures reveal on the feveral articles of religion; and he has faid in this preface, that he has not attempted to lay them before the reader in the form of a continued difcourfe,

6

This work is, therefore, in fome refpects new: it is at least more full and comprehenfive than any thing of this fort which has hitherto appeared; and, as it feems to be executed with fidelity and nd judgment, it may be of confiderable benefit to private people; and more particularly useful to those, whose inclination, or profeffion, leads them to an accurate ftudy of the scriptures.'

VIII. The

VIII. The Exemplar. Being an Expofition of the Prophecies of Daniel and St. John, relating to the fourth and laft Kingdom, viz. the Roman: and now, from recent Facts and continuing Signs, on a fufficiently proved improved Syflem. With a previous Differtation, manifefting the Scriptural Doctrine of the Trinity and Orthodoxy Antichriftian. To which is added, an Address admonitory to the Members of the Roman Communion: fome occafional Obfervations and Reflections, chiefly of a moral Nature, to elucidate the Subject, and establish the Belief of a particular Providence, and as Incentives to Virtue in general, being interfperfed through the whole: the Duarine of the intermediate State is occafionally illu ftrated; a Separation proved; and fhering, that any lifeless unconfcious Condition of the Soul in the Body benceforth, is contrary to Reafon, Chriftianity, and even its own natural Effence and inberent Principle. Together with fome phyfical Conjectures on the Nature and Ufe of Comets; and particularly that which hath now (1767) lately appeared: from whence the ceafelefs Rotation and Scale of God's Proceeding in bis creative Power, and the Tendency given to all Nature towards Perfection, is deduced, with great Appearance of Probability. By a Lay Gentleman, and Member of the Church of England; who in 1752-3 began this, as the best Sort of Amusement to pass away fome Months in Winter 410. Pr. 145. Becket.

FRO

ROM this title-page, and fome few extracts, a reader of difcernment will eafily perceive what entertainment he may reasonably expect in the perufal of this volume. In the preface, the author has given us the following account of his own abilities, and the motives which induced him to publish his lucubrations.

When I first fet upon this bufinefs, I was as little acquainted with these affairs, as any of you perhaps can be, and by what means it was that I undertook it at all I can scarcely tell. But I hope, through God's affiftance, (after fome help from a few authors, to put me in a right method to proceed) I foon made a pretty confiderable progrefs in it. It is for this reason, my kind reader, that I have entitled it, The Exemplar.

The beft I can fay in apology for the execution of this Effay is, that it is the top of my skill as to diction, and well intended as to fubftance.

But, however, modefty and confcioufnefs of my inabilities, and the difficulty of procuring a revifal of the work by fome masterly hand, and by which it might undergo proper caftigation, a fevere correction, and plentiful curtailing of the fallies and fuperfluities of a warm heart and young pen, which my

fituation,

fituation, and even the very nature of fome part at least of my fubject, (as the reader will perceive) ftill kept me under, obliged me to fecrefy, and to defer its publication. But now, that I inay say continual facts and experience, even to this very day December 1757, more and more ferve, I won't fay only to countenance, but fully confirm my fuppofition of an orderly and perpetual interpofition from above; this at laft has emboldened me, I hope in a fit feafon, to venture it abroad.'

If any one fhould require more particular information, he must have recourfe to the Exemplar; and we are perfuaded, that the perufal of three or four hundred pages will fully fatisfy his curiofity.

****

IX. Letters addressed to his Highness the Prince of containing, Comments on the Writings of the most eminent Authors, who have been accused of attacking the Chriftian Religion. By M. Voltaire. 8vo. Pr. 25. Becket and De Hondt.

T

HE reader is not to imagine, that there is any kind of refemblance between this tract, and Dr. Leland's View of the principal deiftical writers. The one is the work of a learned divine, who attacks the deifts in form, and expofes the fchemes they have invented, and the arguments they have advanced, against the Christian religion. The other is the production of a lively genius, whofe defign is, not to vindicate the authority of Chriftianity, nor arm the prince to whom these letters are addressed against the infidious and the dangerous infinuations of deistical writers, but only to amufe him with fome curfory observations and anecdotes relative to the most eminent authors, who have been accused of infidelity. Under this denomination M. Voltaire mentions Toland, Locke, Bifhop Taylor, Tindal, Collins, Wolfton, Bolingbroke, Chubb, Swift, St. Evremont, Fontenelle, Bayle, Barbeyrac, Montesquieu, Orobio, Spinofa, and many others. We fhall give our readers his account of Bolingbroke and Swift.

'Of BOLINGBROKE.

Lord Bolingbroke never fails of telling you, in his philofophical works, that Atheists are much lefs dangerous than divines; in which pofition he argued like a minifter of state, who knew how much blood religious diffenfions and quarrels had coft England: but he ought to have confined himself to the condemning the body of divines, and not the Christian religion, from which every true fatefman may draw the greatest advantages, by bringing it back to its bounds, if it has gone beyond VOL. XXVI, Dec. 1768.. them.

G.g

them. Since the death of lord Bolingbroke, there have been published fome works of his still more violent than his philofophical collection; he difplays in them a fatal eloquence. Noone had ever written any thing fronger; one may plainly fee by them, that he held the Christian religion in horror. It is a pity that fo fublime a genius was for tearing up by the root, a tree he might have made very useful, by pruning its branches, and clearing it of the moss with which it was overgrown. Religion may be purified. This great work was begun two hundred and fifty years ago: but men can only bear light to come in upon them by degrees. Who could, at that time, have forefeen that men would one day arrive at analising the rays of the fun, at electrifying the thunder, and at discovering the law of univerfal gravitation, that law which prefides over the univerfe? It is time, according to Bolingbroke, that theology fhould be banished as well as judiciary aftrology, witchcraft, demoniac poffeffion, the divinatory wand, the univerfal panacea, and the Jefuits. Theology has never been of any use, but to overturn the laws, and to corrupt the heart : it is only theology that makes Atheists: for the great number of divines who have just sense enough to fee the ridicule of this chimerical feience, have not, however, judgment enough to fubftitute to it a found philofophy. Theology, fay they, is; according to the fignification of the word, the knowledge of God; but as fome vile dabblers, who have prophaned this fcience, have given the most abfurd ideas of God, they thence conclude, that the Deity is a chimera, because theology is chimerical. This is precifely as if we fhould fay, that bark was not to be taken for a fever, nor temperance used in a plethora, nor blood let in an apoplexy, because there have been bad physicians: this is to deny a knowledge of the motions of the ftars, because there have been aftrologers: it is like denying the evident oeffects of chemistry, becaufe fome quack chemifts have pretended to make gold.

The people of the world, ftill more ignorant than these little theologers, fay, behold thefe bachelors of divinity and licentiates, who do not believe there is a God, and why should we? Such are the fatal confequences of the fpirit of theology. A false science makes Atheists, a true fcience proftrates men be fore the Deity, and makes those righteous and wife, whom a mifufe of theology had made unjust and fenfelefs.

• I have not, it is true, as yet entered on the article of Swift; he deferves one a-part; he is the only English writer, of this