AGRICULTURE.

Art. 25. An Agricultural Dictionary, confifting of Extracts from the moft celebrated Authors and Papers. By John Monk, (late 19th Light Dragoons) of Bears Combe, near Kingsbridge, Devon. 8vo. 3 Vols. 11. is. Boards. White, &c. 1794.

A Lieutenant of Dragoons venturing to compile a Dictionary of Agriculture, a fubject the most dangerous for unpractifed men to undertake, and in which the prefent compiler pretends not to possess an adequate fhare of judgment,-may be deemed an inftance of uncommon literary temerity. Accordingly we have here a very incomplete, although, no doubt, a very well intended performance. As a collection of valuable extracts from works of approved merit, it may certainly have its use. It may occafionally furnish many perfons with instructive materials, in their researches for information; and may ferve to recommend, to notice, many valuable books on agriculture, &c. which are quoted.

THEOLOGY, &c.

Art. 26. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Lincoln, at the Triennial Vifitation of that Diocele in May and June, 1794. By George Prety man, D. D. F. R. S. Lord Bishop of Lincoln. 4to. Is. 6d. Cadell and Davies.

There is always fo much propriety in adapting an epifcopal charge to the times; and the prefent critical period is fo pregnant with important topics of clerical addrefs; that we should have been much furprized if the Bishop of Lincoln had not availed himself of the opportunity, which his triennial vifitation gave him, of communicating to the clergy of his diocefe his fentiments on the aftonishing events which are paffing in the world. In his Lordship's charge we find what we fought, a general furvey of the prefent ftate of fociety:-but we must own that we have not found in it that pertinency of observation, nor that liberality of fentiment, which, from the writer's elevated fituation, known talents, and former expreffions of candour, we were prepared to expect. In an address from an epifcopal chair to a learned body of clergy, we can perceive no peculiar propriety in introducing a fet of elementary propofitions, afferting the neceflity of government and religion to the well being of fociety; and fupporting them by an appeal to the authority of the antients.

Quotations from Aristotle and Cicero, to prove that it is impoffible for men to continue united without the establishment of fome fpecies of political power; that the coercion of law is necessary for the protection of the innocent, and for the defence of the weak; and that the comforts of focial life cannot be fecured without the general prevalence of religion; might have better fuited an academical exercise than a prelatical monition. The practice of antient legiflators, in endeavouring to ftrengthen their authority by pretended intercourfes with fome deity, is, to fay the leaft, not very pertinently fet up before an affembly of Chriftian divines, in terms rather implying approbation than cenfure; and which are therefore liable to be mifconftrued into an intimation that religious inftitutions, whether founded in truth or falfehood, ought at all events to be maintained. In adopting the po

pular

pular rumour, never yet confirmed, that the adminiftrators of government in France have publicly and deliberately said there is no God, and have avowed principles congenial with this declaration ;-in conftruing the murmurs and difcontent, which have arisen in this country, into total difaffection to the conftitution ;-in representing the exertions which have been made towards reform, as endeavours at deftroying every principle of political fubordination, and fubverting all government, order, and religion;-and in throwing political odium on a particular religious fect, by attempting to make out a natural alliance between Socinian and Republican principles, and by afferting that those who degrade the character of the divine Jefus into that of a man may be expected to endeavour to deftroy all fuperiority in their fellow-creatures, and to feek the gratification of their pride in the abolition of all worldly diftinctions ;-the Right Reverend Prelate appears to us to have fuffered either zeal, or terror, to throw a temporary restraint on the natural candour of his difpofition, and for the moment to degrade him from the dignified character of a fage monitor, into the vulgar ftation of an angry declaimer. The dogmatical manner in which certain tenets of the established church are afferted to be the leading doctrines of the Gofpel; and the acrimony with which those, whose researches have not enabled them to discover thefe tenets in the fcriptures, are mentioned as men governed by a captious and restlefs fpirit, and holding licentious opinions on religion and government; can have little efficacy either in confirming the faithful, or in filencing gainfayers.

In the concluding part of this charge, however, his Lordship refumes the proper character of a Proteftant bishop inftructing his clergy. The grand fecurity of this country against infidelity he very justly places in the opportunities, which the lower claffes of the people enjoy for religious inftruction; and he earnestly advises his clergy to give their countenance and encouragement to the inftitution of Sunday schools, as the means beft calculated for diffufing a general knowlege of the fcriptures among the inferior claffes of fociety, and for inftilling into their minds just notions of their religious duties. While the clergy confine their exertions to the communication of knowlege by honeft inftruction, and to the refutation of error by fair argument, they will act within their own proper province; and they will be entitled to that grateful refpect from an enlightened public, which, to a good mind, will always be infinitely more valuable than the fervile homage of an ignorant multitude.

Art. 27. Sermons on fome of the principal Doctrines of the Chriftian Religion, with Pratical Inferences and Improvements. By Edward Stillingfleet, M. A. Chaplain to the Earl of Dartmouth, and late Minister of West Bromwich, Staffordshire. 8vo. PP. 431. 55. Boards. Rivingtons. 1794.

There are two claffes of doctrinal preachers. The first confifts of those who think it neceffary to explain, with precifion, the meaning of the doctrines which they advance, and to endeavour to establish them by a clear train of argument; or by fuch a critical difcuffion of the fignification of those paffages of fcripture, quoted in their fup. port, as may ferve to prove the quotation to be pertinent and the

authority

authority fatisfactory. The fecond clafs content themfelves with barely expreffing, in general terms, the articles of belief which they embrace and teach, and with fortifying their own faith and that of their auditories by numerous texts of fcripture. When it is confidered how much trouble is faved by the latter method both to the inftructor and to the learner, and how easily it accommodates itself to any fyftem which happens to be prevalent, it is not furprizing that the fecond clafs fhould be more numerous than the first and it is in this fecond class that we must place the author of the volume of fermons now before us. The doctrines, which he finds in the Chriftian religion, are thofe that have conftituted the creed of fuch churches as, from a remote period of ecclefiaftical history, have affumed to themfelves the appellation of orthodox :-but he thinks it fufficient barely to affert the doctrines in thofe terms which, because they have long been in common ufe, are therefore fuppofed to be generally underftood; and to adduce in proof of their truth, certain detached paffages from the Old or New Teftaments, without attempting to fhew that the citations are properly understood and applied, and ought to be admitted as decifive evidence. By thefe means, however, the author leaves large scope for a ferious and pathetic application of his doctrine to the hearts and lives of his hearers, in what he ftyles practical inference and improvement ;'-and thefe parts of his difcourfes, taking for granted the truth of the points on which he proceeds, are entitled to commendatation What he has laid down as the truth of re ligion he applies with a kind of energy very well fuited to popular addreffes; according to his profeffed defign of fetting forth, before a large congregation, the great truths of the gospel in the plaineft language, that they might be underflood by thofe of inferior ftations as well as by the great and noble among his hearers.

Art. 28. Outline of a Commentary on Revelations xi. 1—14. 8vo. 9d. Johnfon. 1794.

It is curious to obferve the wonderful power of an hypothefis in guiding a man's judgment, and fixing his opinions. Thus affociated, the most trivial argument or the flighteft analogy becomes a demonftration. The author of this pamphlet, having embraced Mr. Evanfon's hypothefis that civil eftablishments of religion are the Antichrift predicted in the book of Revelations, finds that the beaft with feven heads and ten horns' means the civil power, as far as it was connected with the ecclefiaftical, of the western divifion of the Roman empire in Europe. The woman, reprefented as feated on the wild beaft, is the apoftate church, fupported by the civil power. The two witneffes, who were to prophefy in fackcloth during 1260 days, are fymbolical perfons, the principles of civil and religious freedom, who remained in a-ftate of degradation, and uttered their voices without being heeded for 1260 years, from the year 325, when Conftantine prefided in the Council of Nice, to the year 1585, when the Dutch maintained their independence, civil and religious, against Spain. Thefe witneffes, having power to fhut up heaven that it rain not, and over the waters to turn them into blood, and to fmite the earth with any plague as often as they will, reprefent the mifchiefs, temporal and spiritual, resulting from the neglect of the ge

nuine principles of government and true religion. The wild beaft, which afcends out of the bottomlefs pit, and makes war against thefe witneffes, and overcomes and kills them, reprefents the combined powers of the European western empire united to restore defpotifm and fuperftition, and confequently to extirpate every trace of liberty. The dead bodies of thefe witneffes, lying in the streets of the great city which fpiritually is called Sodom, and Egypt, where alfo our Lord was crucified, are these fymbolical perfons embodied in the new conftitution, which now lies a dead carcafe in France. Their remaining unburied for three days and a half denotes that the French conftitution fhall continue in a lifelefs ftate for three years and a half, during which all memorial of truth and liberty is attempted to be obliterated. By thefe witneffes rifing from the dead, and afcending up to heaven, is expreffed the establishment of civil and religious liberty at the termination of the prefent war, attended by the univerfal confternation of the foes of freedom. The great earthquake which enfued, and in which the tenth part of the city fell, and of the names of men seven thousand were flain, predicts a violent political commotion, in which the apoftate church of France fhall fall, and large bodies or orders of men fhall lofe their privileges and titles. Lattly, the affright of the remnant, who gave glory to the God of heaven, indicates the alarm which fhall be taken at the progrefs of Atheism, and the subsequent deistical adoration of the Eternal.

What impreffion the preceding miniature of the outline here published will make on our readers, we cannot predict: but for our parts we honeftly confefs that it appears to prove nothing more than the ingenuity, or credulity, or perhaps both, of the writer. It is not by fuch fanciful applications of the obfcure language of the book of Revelations, that the edifice of our holy religion is to be fupported. As to Mr. Evanfon's ingenious notion of feveral intervals, of 1260 years each, between an incroachment and an improvement on gofpel liberty, we cannot fuppofe that it will have much weight in the judgment of any one, who recollects how often liberty has been invaded and tyranny refifted, fince the commencement of the Christian era.

Art. 29. The Signs of the Times: Part the Second. With an Address to the People of Great Britain. By J. Bicheno. 8vo. pp. 71. Is. 6d. Parfons. 1794

Mr. Bicheno agrees with Mr. Evanson, and the anonymous author of the commentary noticed in the preceding article, in underilanding by Antichrift all that civil and ecclefiaftical power, which has oppofed itself to the fpiritual kingdom of Chrift, and in interpreting feveral of the prophecies in revelation as predictions of the speedy downfall of fpiritual and civil tyranny :-but in the application of the prophefies to hiftorical facts he differs in feveral particulars from thefe writers. The destruction of the witneffes by the fecond beast, Rev. xi. 7. he chiefly applies to the perfecution of the witneffes for religious truth and civil liberty under Louis XIV. after the repeal of the edict of Nantz. By the death of the witneffes during three years and a half, he understands their political death during a period of a hundred and five years, and fixes their revival in the year 1789, when the French Conftituent Affembly declared for civil and religious liberty. His REV, APRIL, 1795.

I i

reafons

reafons for this interpretation, together with a commentary on other parts of thefe prophecies, are given in the first part of this work, (briefly noticed in our Rev. for July 1793,) of which a third edition confiderably enlarged is now alfo before us. In this fecond publication the author purfues his refearches into the meaning of this mysterious book, and endeavours to prove that the judgments of the feventh trumpet, which are to bring the triumphs of popery, idolatry, oppreffion, and wickedness to an end, and to introduce the kingdom of Chrift, are already begun, and will be shortly completed. Understanding by the word thunder, in the language of prophely, war, Mr. B. finds that, according to the prophely (chap. x. ver. 2.) of feven thunders, there have been exactly feven periods of war, fince the termination of the fixth trumpet in 1697. The flaughter of feven thousand names of men, Mr. B. with the commentator in the laft article, explains by the abolition of titles and the deftruction of privileged orders in France. Some obfervations are added on the prophecies which predict the overthrow of the Turkish empire, on the restoration of the Jews to Jerufalem, and on the figns of the times which indicate the speedy accomplishment of thefe prophecies. To confirm the expectation refpecting the restoration of the Jews, Mr. B. quotes an account given in the Afiatic Refearches, vol. ii. and transcribed in the Monthly Review enlarged, vol. x. p. 502, from which it appears probable that the Afghans are defcended from the Jews, and are the remains of the ten tribes of Ifrael, and of which we have not heard for many generations.

Not to purfue farther Mr. B.'s inveftigations, which, after all, we apprehend, will leave the generality of his readers in a confiderable degree of uncertainty refpecting the true meaning of these prophecies, we fhall only remark that the work bears itrong marks of an ingenuous difpofition, and of a zealous attachment to truth and liberty. The author is a decided enemy to the prefent war, and apprehends, from other grounds befides thofe of prophefy, that most serious calamities are to be dreaded from its continuance.

Art. 30. A Letter to Thomas Paine, Author of the Age of Reafon. By George Burges, B. A. Curate of Whittlefea, Ifle of Ely. 8vo. IS. Evans.

The old faying, "Truth is not to be spoken at all times," may

fland as a fit motto to this letter to Thomas Paine; which is not an examination of the contents of "the Age of Reafon," but a general condemnation of it on the ground of its being an impolitic and ill-timed publication. Mr. Burges, though an advocate for the Rights of Man, is nearly of the fame way of thinking with Mr. Burke on the fubject of establishments; he would pay a high deference to prejudice, as prejudice; and, whatever were his private thoughts, he would not difclofe opinions which were fubverfive of antient inflitutions. As a clergyman, he makes rather a fingular affertion and confeffion, when he fays that it matters not, politically fpeaking, whether their religion be true or falfe,' and that there is no religion to which fraud does not in fome measure attach.' Confiftently with fuch data, he contends that whether Christianity be a matter of fraud, a matter of

doubt,