DIVINITY.

69. Miftakes in Religion expofed: in an Effay on the Prophecy of. Zacharias. By H. Venn, M. A. 8vo. 35. Crowder.

The points, upon which this writer chiefly infifts, are fuch as thefe: the mistake of those, who affert man's native innocence; and of those who recommend the excellency of moral virtue, to the neglect of the power and grace of Christ; the error of thofe, who imagine, that peace of confcience towards God is the reward of virtue, and those who fuppofe, that heaven will be open to all men; the mistake of thofe, who deny, that the perfect righteoufness of Chrift is imputed to his people, &c. A pious performance, on the principles embraced by the methodists.

70. A Liturgy on the Principles of the Chriftian Religion. With Services for Baptifm, the Lord's Supper, &c. 8vo. 25. ferved. Kearfly.

This liturgy, as we are told in the preface, is not the work of one man; it is not defigned to ferve the interest of any preacher, or any party; it was drawn up fome time fince; and is now offered to the public, as the beft book of CommonPrayer, which the editor has ever feen on the rational principles of the Chriftian religion.

The editor, without doubt, is a perfon of liberal fentiments, an enemy to bigotted orthodoxy.' For, with respect to public worship. we find him entertaining an opinion, which can only be embraced by a free thinker.

Public worship, fays he, is not only a fuperftitious cuflom, arifing from the early miflakes of men, and therefore to be indulged to the common people, who cannot be reasoned out of, their prepoffeffions; but it is a duty of moral obligation, and capable of being improved to moral purposes.'

The reader will undoubtedly afk: how is it poffible, that public prayer fhould be a duty of moral obligation, and at the fame time a fuperftitious custom ?- To our apprehenfion these ideas appear inconfiftent.

This collection of prayers feems to be drawn up on the plan recommended by the author of Effays on Public Worship +. All fentiments and doctrines, but those of piety and morality, are excluded. The fervices are fhort; the language plain and fimple. We have obferved, indeed, fome few expreffions, which have not that air of unaffected fimplicity every where obfervable in our established liturgy. The following petition is of this kind that it may please thee to prefide in the high court of parliament at this time, affembled. This expreffion reminds us of one Evans, a preacher of the last century, who

:

See Crit. Rev. vol. xxxvi. p. 77•

prayed

prayed for the parliament in this familiar language: When, O God, when, I fay, wilt. thou vote amongst the honourable commons? Thine own commons, who are fo zealous for thine honour? O Lord, when wilt thou take a chair, and fit in the houfe of peers?' Diffent. Sayings, collected by Sir R. L'Eftrange, P. 12.

71. Meditations and penitential Prayers, written by the Duchefs de la Voltaire, Mitress of Lewis XIVth. Tranflated from the French, with fome Account of her Life and Character, extracted from Valliere, Sevigné, &c. By Mrs. Lennox. 8vo. 2s. 6d. DodЛley.

Thefe meditations are formed upon the model of the Pfalms, and breathe fomewhat of the fpirit of religious enthufiafm. But with refpect to the fituation in which they are dictated, they cannot much influence the heart: for the duchefs's contrition was too much founded upon neceffity to be confidered as very meritorious.

72. Methodifm, a Farce. In a Second Letter to a Reader in the Univerfity of Salamanca. 8vo. 11. Meighan.

About two years ago a mean performance was published, entitled, Religion, a Farce; confitting of a series of letters, which had appeared into the Gazetteer and the London Packet. The author feems now to have fo far loft his credit with the editors of the Newspapers, that the prefent letter is chiefly employed in expoftulating with them for their neglect of his correspondence. He certainly affords a ftriking inftance of the partiality of a writer to his own productions: for his ftyle is the most ridiculous perverfion of natural arrangement of any we remember to have seen.

MISCELLANEOUS.

73. The Will of King Henry VII. 410. 35. 6d. Sewed. Payne. The editor of this piece justly remarks, that in teftamentary difpofitions we may find the real judgment which men form of their own actions; and may perceive the condemnation which they pafs upon their faults, in the care which they exprefs to repair, to expiate, or to cover them, when they are expecting to appear before the great tribunal; confequently the will of Henry VII. a monarch, whofe avarice is reprefented by all our hiftorians to be fo prevalent as to govern all his tranfactions, foreign and domeftic, muft afford entertainment to the curious. The prefent copy is taken from the original, preferved among the archives of the abbey, in the Chapter- houfe at Weftminfter.

74. Plan and Reports of the Society inftituted at London in the Year 1774 for the Recovery of Perfons apparently drowned. 8vo. 15. Kearly.

This laudable fociety is a&uated by the most benevolent principles, and it is to be wished that the method they have introdu.

See Crit. Rev. vol. xxxv. p. 236.

ced

ced were generally adopted. Several cafes are, here related, of perfons who have been recovered by the ufe of the means which they prefcribe, within the laft year. At the late general election of the fixteen peers for Scotland, it was propofed to fend a copy of this plan, and to recommend the execution of it over all that part of Great Britain. Humanity ftrongly urges the univerfal practice of such a measure.

75. An Award of King Charles I. under his Broad Seal, fettling Two Shillings of the Pound out of the Rents of the Houfes in Norwich, for the Maintenance of the Parochial Cergy of that Cuy, in lieu of Perfonal Tithes. With a Treatife vindicating the Legality and Justice of that Award. By Humphrey Prideaux, D. D. 8vo. IS. Robinfon.

This Award having been made a little before the civil wars broke out, the power which the parliament, from the firft beginning of thofe unhappy commotions, obtained in the affaciated counties, of which Norfolk was one, quafhed it, before it was ever thoroughly put in execution. The learned Dr. Prideaux, after it had lain hid for many years, unexpectedly found it in the office of the chapter clerk of Norwich, and published it in 1706, with the Vindication annexed; in which he fhews the legality and reafonablenefs of the faid award; and also that perfonal tithes (in lieu of which the payment of two fhillings in the pound out of the rents of houfes was decreed by this award) are ftill due by the law of the land; and that there is a neceffity of again reftoring them, or fettling fomething elfe in lieu of them, for the maintenance of minifters in the cities and larger towns of the realm.

To this edition the editor has fubjoined the substance of the ftatute of the 4th and 5th of Philip and Mary, for the payment of tithes (viz. two fhillings in the pound) in the city of Coventry; and offers the whole to the ferious and candid confideration of the inhabitants of that city, as tending to throw fome light upon their cafe of tithes.

76. A New Scheme of Short-Hand; being an Improvement upon Mr. Byrom's Univerfal English Short-Hand. By John Palmer. 8.v0. 10s. 6d. Half-bound. Johnfon.

The advantage which, in a variety of inftances, a fhort-hand writer has over others, is fo great, that we are not furprised fo many attempts fhould have been made to render the art of shortwriting complete. Many of thefe attempts have certainly been far from anfwering the purpofe intended. The prefent author has done much towards perfecting the art, and fhunned the rocks on which fome of his predeceffors have fplit. In his alphabet of confonants, however, we think fome of the characters rather too fimilar; and in making the vowels by dots in different fituations, although he has varied those fituations very ingeniously, it requires, in many cafes, great exactnefs in placing a dot fo as to distinguish which vowel it denotes. He writes every word fe

parately,

parately, justly looking on the faving of time, not of paper, as the main object aimed at in fhort-writing. Perhaps his characters by frequent ufe might appear to us lefs fimilar than they do at prefent; and with the affiftance of connection, on which all fhort-hand writers must in their abbreviations greatly rely, his writing might be easily intelligible. We may also remark that fome modes of contraction, which he recommends in short hand, and which are explicable only by the connection of phrafe, may be equally well made ufe of by those who are conversant with only the common method of writing.

77. Remarks on the English Language with Rules of Speech and Action, &c. By J. Jones. 4to. 15. (Birmingham, for the Author.)

Before the author had entered on the province of teaching, he ought certainly to have applied himself to the ftudy of grammar; for in this effential article he is egregiously deficient. 78. A New Dictionary of French Idioms: being a Select Collection ̈ of feveral Thufand idiomatical Phrafes moft ufual in the best French Writers, with the English adapted. By A, de Treitorrens. 800. 15. Harris.

M. de Treitorrens has collected the greateft part of thefe idioms out of Boyer's Dictionary. But his work may nevertheless be of ufe to those who are learning French; as it comprehends, in a small compafs, fome of the principal difficulties attending the ftudy of that language.

79. A Philofophical Effay on Space, &c. by Richard Yate. Gent. Author of feveral learned and ingenious Pieces, which have received the Sanction of the most eminent Profeffors of the Liberal Arts. 8vo. 1s. Snagg.

We are glad to know that Mr. Yate is confidered as an author of learned and ingenious pieces, though in our opinion, this effay will never be ranked among productions of that clafs. 80. Duelling and Suicide repugnant to Revelation, Reafan, and Common Senfe. 8vo. rs. Meighan.

A confufion of ideas, incoherence of fentiment, and ungrammatical expreffion, render this production fo unintelligible, that the most we can fay of it is, we prefume it is well intended. 81. Le Courier François. An Account of the Regulations concerning the Prices and Manner of travelling Poft in France, e. 12mo. 1s. 6d. Faden and Jefferys.

This being published by authority of the intendant-general, we fhall admit it to be an accurate account.

*

THE

CRITICAL REVIEW.

For the Month of March, 1775.

ARTICLE I.

The Hiftory of France, from the Commencement of the Reign of Henry III. and the Rife of the Catholic League; to the Peace of Vervins, and the Eftabiifhment of the famous Edi&t of Nantes, in the Reign of Henry IV. 4to. 17. 13. in Boards. Becket.

N the year 1769, this author published two quarto volumes,

I containing the Hiftory of France, during the reigns of

Francis II. and Charles IX. to which was prefixed, A Review of the General Hiftory of the Monarchy, from its Origin to that Period. We expreffed our opinion, that a work, of which the principal object was a recital of the reigns of two princes, the one fo defpicable, and the other fo extremely odious, was not likely to prove interefting to English readers* ;' as this portion of history is more explicitly authenticated, and, we believe, more generally known, than any other part of the French annals. The latter of thefe circumftances, is, perhaps, equally applicable to the volume under confideration, which comprifes a period rendered- almoft univerfally familiar by the popular Memoirs of Sully. Thefe, it must be acknowledged, are objections which affect the design of the au thor, rather than the execution of the work; and at most, they can only be refolved into mifapplication of industry.

The most fingular tranfaction in this period, and what influenced the fubfequent events in the reigns of Henry III and IV. was the Catholic League, of the origin of which Dr. Anderfon gives the following account.

*See Crit. Rev. vol. xxvii. p. 98, and 161.

VOL. XXXIX. March, 1775.

N

The