acquainted with the early writers of the Chriftian church. But his work is tedious, and has an unpleafing appearance; for the first paragraph is continued above 200 pages. Some of the arguments which he has advanced are far from being conclusive : in this number the following may be defervedly included. I should be apt to think most people would conclude, that our Saviour could scarce have fuffered epifcopal government to obtain in his church univerfally for 1500 years together, without the leaft interruption, if that manner of government was what he did not approve of.'</ He must be a notable logician who can draw any conclufion from the premises; or be convinced of the divine right of diocefan epifcopacy by this kind of argumentation. 41. Two anniversary Difcourfes in the firft of which the old Man is exploded: in the fecond the new Man is recommended. 8vo. Pr. 15. Wilkie. This is a work of humour, or fomething like it. The first discourse is a declamation against Socrates, in which the philofopher is reprefented as a gofipping, rambling, drunken, wicked, hypocritical, ignorant, idle fellow. The fecond is a panegyric upon Squire Cokes, a character in Ben Johnson's Bartholomew Fair. སཉྙཱ༎ This author, would be no contemptible orator at the Robin Hood in Butcher-Row.. 42. The Jefuit Detected; or the Church of Rome discovered in the Difguife of a Proteftant, under the Character of an Anwer to all that is material in the Rev. Mr. Hervey's eleven Letters to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley. 8vo. Pr. 6d. Johnfon. That faith in the imputed righteoufnefs of Chrift is a fundamental principle of the gofpel, was a favourite notion of the late Mr. Hervey. This doctrine he has maintained with great zeal in eleven letters to Mr. Wefley, of which we have given an account in a former volume *. But the latter was of a dif ferent opinion, and foon after published an answer to what he thought material in thofe letters. The writer of the pamphlet now before us takes the fide of Mr. Hervey, and compares the fentiments of Mr. Wefley with thofe of the church of Rome, as they appear in a book, entitled, A Defence of the reformed Catholic, &c. by Dr. Abbot, printed in 1606; and from this comparison he infers, that Mr. Wefley is a Jefuit. * Vol. xix. p. 113. CC4 A This, This, we fufpect, is the writer who lately employed his *pen against Meff, Copping, Cayley, and Relly. If they are different perfons, they are, at leaft, par nobile fratrum! 2 :2 43. 4 Defence of the Doctrines of fovereign Grace; being a full An- In the New Teftament, Chriftian converts are said to be faved, TH XapITI, by the favour of God, through faith; that is, by a belief in the Meffiah, they were delivered from heathen darknefs and depravity, and admitted into a ftate of falvation under the gospel. This inestimable favour was beftowed by the free bounty and benevolence of God, without any refpect to the Vworks or the merits of mankind, who had all finned. Thus St. Paul, The kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy be SAVED us, cowory nuas. I Χαρις า In the facred writers acis fignifies favour, or beneficence in general; by a metonymy, any bleffing or gift which is the effect of favour; and a son, the gospel. But fince the days of St. Austin, the word grace has been used to fignify (what it never fignifies in fcripture) an over-ruling influence of God's holy Spirit ; and many an enthusiastic ignoramus has told us, that falvation in a future ftate is of grace, not of works; that we can do nothing towards the accomplishment of our salvation; that all must be the work of God; that grace is irrefiftible, &c. which are doctrines founded on a grofs mifapplication of fuch words as owenpre, χάρις, δικαιοσύνη, πισις· The author of this performance is one of thofe géniufes, who being perfectly unacquainted with the language of the New Teftament, perplex themselves and their readers with the inexplicable jargon of fovereign irresistible grace, abfolute predeftination, final perfeverance, and other abfurdities of this na ture. A great part of this pamphlet is employed in proving, that spartly true. But the great question is, not our firft reformers maintained thefe what which may be were the notions of Luther or Calvin, Cranmer or Latimer, but, what are the doctrines of Chrift and his apoftles. 44. Devotional Exercifes on the New Teftament. By John Gillies, One of the Minifters of Glasgow. 8vo, Pr. 35. 6d. Dilly. The pious author of this work has taken occafion, from alemost every remarkable paffage and expreffion in the four Evangelifts, to compofe a short meditation, ejaculation, or prayer, in this manner, • Matth. T Then faith he to the man, Stretch Matth. xii. Verf. 13. < Thou calledft him to stretch out his withered hand, and at the fame time gaveft him power wer to ft ftretch it out. Lord, when -thou calleft us to believe, to repent, to perform any duty, may we thas obey thy call.' Chap. xiii. Verf. 31 to 33. TJ 233 The parable of the muftard „baun), ed oa bikeab feed and the leaven."T 4 Here we learn that thy kingdom of grace is of a growing and fpreading nature and, from fmall beginnings, rifes to a great height. Oh may the gracious principle grow in our hearts; may our faith and love grow fexceedingly, fo as to give undoubted evidence of their reality; and may the example of thy faints be bleffed to thofe among whom they live: may thy grace flow from heart to heart, till a little one become a thoufand. Mark xii. Verfe 41 to 44, " The widow's two mites." Here is great comfort to thofe whofe abilities are small, when thou haft given them a heart to serve thee to the utmost bos of their capacity. Lord, give us fuch a heart. Let us have no reserves in dealing with thee. Had we a thousand worlds, gowe hope, by thy grace, we would offer them all. We have only two mites; a weak, finful, polluted foul, and a difeafed decaying body, Thefe, Lord, we would with deep humility beg thee to receive, and to difpofe of them as thou pleafeft for thy glory. O fanctify them to thyfelf." In this performance the reader will not find any ftriking, pathetic, or exalted fentiments; but he will find what is truly valuable, a strain of serious piety and devotion, without enthu5. fiafm. 45. Two Difcourfes on the Spirit and Evidences of Christianity. The former preached at the Hague, the 8th of September 1762. The latter delivered in the French Church of Hanau, on the Ocondon scafion of the late Peace, to a Congregation compofed of Catholics, tou and Proteftants, at their own Defire. Tranflated from the original French of the Reu, Mr. James Armand, Minifter of the Walloon Church in Hanau, and dedicated, by the Tranflator, to the Rev. Moderator of the General Affembly of the Church of Scotland 1768. 8vo. Pr. z. Dilly. The dedication prefixed to thefe Difcourfes contains fome animadverfions on the character and conduct of a clergyman, in his private, his parochial, and his judicial capacity; and fome advice which may be useful to thofe who can condefcend to be influenced by the admonitions of a friend. In the firft discourse, the author undertakes to demonftrate, that incredulity must be condemned, 1. by the nature and force of those proofs which eftablish the truth of Chriftianity 2. by the wretched and defpicable fource from which it arifes, viz. the perverfion of the will, and the pollution of the heart. In the fecond, he endeavours to prove, that God has established the Christian religion, from no other motive than that of love to men, from no other view but to corroborate and fanctify the connections which unite them; that charity is one of its primary laws; a law fo effential, as to obtain the preference over every other difpofition which conftitutes its genuine profeffors; and that, according to its eftimate, our highest and most laudable efforts, without charity, are accounted as nothing; that all its tenets, all its peculiar precepts, and all its ceremonies, directly and natively tend to infpire men with the love of their fellow-creatures: that it abjures, in fhort, every fentiment of malice, every effort of zeal which is incompatible with humanity, every exertion of violence, though intended for its own propagation." ,,་, The author's manner in thefe difcourfes is lively and oratorical; and the language of the tranflator clear and nervous. We will venture to afcribe this publication to the learned and ingenious author of Paraclefis. 46. Practical Difcourfes on the leading Truths of the Gospel. By John Witherspoon, D. D. Prefident of the College of New-Jerfey. 12mo. Pr. 35. Dilly. These difcourfes were originally preached on particular occafions; but are now thrown into a systematical form. In the first, the author endeavours to establish what he calls a preliminary truth, that all mankind are finners. This, we apprehend, would have been easily proved, and the author need not have spent many pages in the attempt, if he had only meant, that all mankind are guilty of perfonal tranfgreffions. But he joins together original and actual fin, telling us, that the one is infeparable from the other; which is a point that will admit of fome difpute. One of the arguments to which he begs the reader's attention is this: Under the old and New Teftament infants were admitted to be partakers of the feals of the covenant. Now, fays he, if they received thofe feals before the commiffion of actual guilt, it cannot be but that their nature itfelf muft be defiled; efpecially as baptifm is exprefsly called" the baptifm of repentance for the remiffion of hs."Of all the arguments which have been advanced to fup port port the doctrine of original fin, this is furely the mok inconclufive. In the fecond difcourfe he proceeds to fhew, that if God fhould execute the decrees of juftice, and punish every thing that is done to abide mifs, the holiest man on earth would not be able In the third he points out the grounds upon which we believe that God will forgive the iniquities of mankind; in the fourth he endeavours to explain the nature of faith; in the fifth he confiders the death of Chrift, as a proper atonement for fin ; and in the fixth he difplays the greatnefs of our Saviour's phi lanthropy in the redemption of the world. In the seventh, redemption is confidered as the subject of admiration to the angels. There are feveral circumftances, he fays, in this difpenfation, which may be fuppofed to ftrike them with aftonishment and wonder. ft, The union of the divine and human nature; 2dly, The fubftitution of an innocent perfon in the room of the guilty; 3dly, The free juftification of finners, through the imputed righteousness of Chrift; 4thly, The manner and means of tranflating finners from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. This, in our opinion, is an adventurous enquiry. It is very poffible, and we are apt to believe, that the angels and Dr. Witherspoon have very different notions concerning fome of the circumftances of the redemption. In the eighth difcourfe our author confiders the reasons which induced St. Paul to glory in the cross of Chrift. The import of a believer's being crucified to the world, and the world to him, is the fubject of the ninth and tenth. The eleventh and twelfth are employed in explaining and illuftrating the nature, duty, reasonableness, and advantage of importunity in prayer. And the defign of the latt is to thew, in what refpects it is that obedience is preferred and oppofed to facrifice, Sam. xv. 22. Though the author, in thefe difcourfes, adopts fome theological notions, which, at prefent, are generally exploded; yet he fhews himself a man of fenfe and learning; and suggests a great variety of reflections, which may be read with advantage by every ferious Christian *. 47. Sermons on practical Subjects: to which is added, A FarewellDifcourfe, delivered at Paifley in April 1768. By John Wi therspoon, D. D. 12mo. Pr. 2s. 6d. Dilly. Thefe fermons, as the author informs us, are published juft in the e manner in which they were delivered at home: from *We have given a long account of fome Effays by this writer in our Review for October 1764. which |