On this paffage we make no remark, being fully fatisfied that it will finally decide, in the opinion of every competent reader, the queftion at iffue between Academicus and the Dean of Peterborough.

In his third Chapter, the anonymous author profeffes to compare the Liturgy of the Church of England with the Calvinistic doctrines; but he has overlooked two or three of the prayers in that Liturgy, which to us feem utterly irreconcileable with thefe doctrines*; while, wandering in fome degree from his fubject, he compares the difficulties of the Arminian, with thofe of the Calviniftic fcheme, and then labours, in oppofition to the common sense of mankind, to confound the permiffion of evil with the decreeing of it.

The origin and continuance of evil in the world, is the most difficult queftion that has ever been agitated in the schools of philofophy; but, though it may be impoffible for a creature fhort-fighted like man to answer all the cavils of Atheism, deduced from this topic, against the attributes of God, yet every unfophifticated mind feels the difference between permitting a certain quantity of evil, which could not perhaps have been avoided, without preventing, at the fame time, a much greater quantity of pofitive good, and the creating of a vaft number of fenfible and intelligent beings, for the exprefs purpose of plunging them into endless mifery. The author affirms, indeed, that Calvin has nowhere maintained, that "the ultimate end for which the reprobate were created, was (is) their damnation" (p. 19); and he compares them to the detachment of an army employed on a fervice, which "the General forefees will be attended with their inevitable deftruction". This is fimilar to the account of the existence of evil, which was fo ●laborately given by Archbishop King; but it is an account which Calvin rejects with indignation.

"Hic ad diftinctionem voluntatis et permiffionis recurritur, fecundum quam obtinere volunt, permittente modo, non autem volente Deo perire impios. Sed cur permittere, dicemus, NISI QUIA ITA VULT. Quanquam nec ipfum quidem per fe probabile eft, fole Dei permiflione, NULLA ORDINATIONE hominem fibi accerfiffe interitum. Quafi vero non conftituerit Deus qua conditione præcipuam ex creaturis fuis effe VELLET. Non dubitabo igitur cum Auguftino fimpliciter fateri, VOLUNTATEM DEI ESSE RERUM NECESSITATEM, atque id neceffario futurum effe quod ille voluerit.-Ex Dei prædeftinatione pendet corum (reprobarum) perditio, ut caufa et materia in ipfis reperietur. LAPSUS EST ENIM PRIMUS HOMO, QUIA DOMINUS ITA EXPEDIRE CENSUERAT; cur cenfuerit nos latet. Certum tamen eft non

alitur cenfuiffe, nifi quia videbat NOMINIS SUI GLORIAM INDÉ MERITO ILLUSTRARI." Lib. iii. Cap. 23, § 8.

In a preceding fection he fays, "decretum fuiffe à Deo ut fua defectione PERIRET ADAM", and he repeats, it is hard to fay how often, that the reprobate "fufcitati funt ad GLORIAM ejus SUA DAMNATIONE ILLUSTRANDUM"; but he nowhere reprefents evil as permitted for the fake of greater good.

Before we take leave of this author, we beg leave to afk him, whether he thinks it credible, that inquiries into the ori gin of evil can be any part of that gofpel which our blessed Lord preached himself, and commanded his difciples to preach to the poor? If they be not, how comes the fyftem of Calvin, in which, by his own account of it, they are involved, to be the ftandard of orthodoxy? And why do the preachers of that fyftem ftigmatize as heretics all their brethren, who find it not in the Articles and Liturgy of the Church of England? His own language is indeed temperate; but fuch is not the language of Mr. Overton and the Prefbyter, who, arrogating to themselves and their adherents the exclufive title of true Churchmen, have libelled all the reft of the clergy, and have therefore no caufe to complain of the fevere caftigation which they have received from the Dean of Peterborough.

ART. VI. A View of the Moral State of Society, at the Close of the Eighteenth Century, much enlarged, and continued to the Commencement of the Year 1804. With a Preface, addreffed particularly to the higher Orders. By John Bowles, Eq. 8vo. 142 pp. 2s. 6d. Rivingtons, &c. 1804.

THE very able pamphlet of this author, entitled "Reflec

tions on the Political and Moral State of Society at the Clofe of the Eighteenth Century", was reviewed at large in our seventeenth volume*, for which reason, we fhould not have dwelt particularly on the prefent publication, had we not found, on examination, that the new and important matter contained in it amounts to more than half of its contents. This is too much to pafs by, when it proceeds from an author fo truly patriotic, and fo truly zealous for good principles as Mr. Bowles.

The Moral View of Society, as of more extenfive use and influence, is here separated from the political; and augmented

by many arguments and reflections drawn from recent circumflances. Left, however, the motive of the author, for making this feparation, fhould at all be misunderstood, we fhall, in juftice to him, infert a note which appears in an early part of his tract.

"In detaching the moral from the political part of the publication in queftion, the author muft not be fuppofed to retract any of the political fentiments therein contained. On the contrary, he fees, unhappily, but too much reafon to adhere to all the political fentiments, which he thought it his duty to avow throughout the laft war. It is with real concern that he finds confirmed, by the most direful experi ence, the reasonings which, from the very commencement of that war, a folicitude for the fafety of his country impelled him fo frequently to obtrude upon the public, and the main defign of which was to fhew, that a war of fo extraordinary a nature would admit of no fafe termination, unless, by being made fubfervient to the restoration of the lawful Government of France, it should effect the overthrow of that Revolutionary Power, which fought the fubverfion of all legitimate authority; and that peace, if purfued in any other courfe, would prove but a glittering dream, from which the country would awake, only to fee berfelf involved-either in a still more furious and defperate conflictor in inevitable rain-Thefe opinions, alas! are now become indifputable truths! We have awaked from fuch a dream, and we may thank Heaven, that it is the former part of the above alternative which is realized. The author can moreover review, without any desire of retractation, the sentiments which, in his " Reflections at the Conclufion of the War", he expreffed in regard to the Peace of Amiens; and in which he fteered a middle courfe between thofe perfons, who indulged hopes, fince proved to be illufory, that the above peace was confiftent with fecurity and capable of permanence-and thofe who, in their well-founded alarm at the dangers with which it was fraught, laid the whole blame of the tranfaction at the door of Minifters, without making any allowance for the state of the public mind-without remembering that the country had been induced to fupport the war, chiefly by the confidence it placed in the pacific difpofitions of Minifters; a truth to which a Right Hon. Gentleman, whose eminent talents have been brilliantly difplayed in condemnation of the peace, bore teltimony, when he obferved that no war was ever carried on with fo univerfal a cry of peace as the laft.” P. v.

The Preface, to which this note is fubjoined, is entirely new; and contains a powerful call upon the people, and efpecially the higher ranks, to imitate that moral and religious example of the Sovereign, which has long excited fo juft an admiration and attachment. The conclufion of it touches on our political fituation, with a particular effort to excite thofe virtues, public and private, which are necessary to the strength and union of a state at fuch a moment of trial.

The new matter, in the body of the tract, is occupied chiefly in illuftrating former obfervations (as p. 33) or in expatiating,

more

more particularly upon fome virtues, with which the liberality of modern times is too much inclined to dispense; such as female chastity, and the great land-marks of morality, formerly called Cardinal Virtues. With refpect to each of these Mr. B. laments, with feeling, the progrefs of corruption, and the influence of relaxed doctrines. But the dignity of the admonition rifes ftill higher, when the author comes to speak of the importance of Religion.

"Of all the principles that can operate upon the human mind, the moft powerful is-Religion. As a defire of happinefs is the univerfal motive to action, Religion must infinitely exceed in ftrength all other motives, because it prefents to the mind eternal happiness, or eternal mifery, as the confequence of our actions. Every other confideration involves only interefts which, however important, cannot furvive the hort period of the prefent life; but Religion opens to the view" the vaft concerns of an eternal scene," and stimulates to virtue, or deters from vice, by promises of endless felicity, as the reward of the former, and by threats of endless woe, as the punishment of the latter.

Religion is, therefore, the only principle of human conduct that can afford any folid fecurity to virtue, any effectual prefervative fron vice. Every other principle may be counterbalanced by temporal motives. Ambition, avarice, fenfual gratification, may prefs fo rongly as to overpower all moral feeling, all fenfe of duty. Hence it is, that the universal voice of mankind, in all ages and countries→→→ that the concurrent teftimony of theory and experience—nay, that even the unwilling acknowledgments of infidels and atheifts have recognized the facred truth, that Religion is the main pillar of fociety; that, without the belief of a Supreme Being, who will recompence every one according to his works-without the expectation of a future ftate of rewards and punishments-the motives to virtue would be fo languid, the force of confcience would be fo feeble, and the state of morals fo corrupt, that Government would be unequal to the preserva tion of focial order, and laws would be incapable of refraining the unruly paffions of mankind. Hence, too, it is, that fo many inftances daily occur, both in public and private life, of a violation of trust, because men are selected as the objects of confidence, who do not poffefs the only fafe foundation of confidence-religious principle; nay, fometimes, although their lives exhibit the moft giaring proof that fuch principle has no influence upon their minds*. But when Reli gion is made a fixed and invariable rule of action, then, and then only, an there be any real fecurity for virtue, any solid ground for confi

"Through inattention to confiderations of this nature, a great corporation in the city of London has lately loft the enormous fum of three hundred thousand pounds; and the unhappy individual, whofe abufe of confidence occafioned this immenfe lofs, is a melancholy proof, that neither a high reputation, a dread of disgrace and ruin, nor the fear of capital punishment, can, without religious principle, afford any adequate fecurity againft temptation.”

dence.

dence. Then, and then only, does there exift a motive, fully ade quate to the conqueft of paffion, and the refiftance of temptation.

"The importance and value of Religion do not, however, confift merely in its being the only effectual motive to virtue. This facred principle muft alfo be confidered as the great, nay the only authentic, moral instructor of mankind-the only fure ftandard of morality. Our state of dependence and refponfibility implies an indifpenfable obligation of obedience to the Great Being on whom we are depenA ftrict conformity to the dent, and to whom we are refponfible. will of that Being, as far as fuch will is known, is, therefore, at once the great duty of Religion, and the very essence of virtue; and it is only in the fchool of Religion that found morality can be learned.

"Such being the power of Religion on the human mind, and fuch its efficacy in favour of virtue, it must be confidered as affording the only remedy to correct the depravity of the world. If this fail, our cafe is hopeless. If it be poffible to deliver mankind from the dominion of vice, and to render them virtuous, it must be by the all-pow erful influence of Religion, fubjecting them to the authority of confcience, difpofing their minds to ftudy and obey the will of their Maker, and intructing them in that will, according to the various means by which it has pleafed the Almighty to reveal it. In all ages of the world, the light of what is called Natural Religion, aided by the moral fenfe and uniform experience, has been fufficient to teach men their great moral duties; of which the concurrence of fentiment, which has generally prevailed on queftions of moral obligation, affords ample proof. In all ages it might truly be faid by every individual who quitted the paths of virtue, video meliora proboque, deteriora fequor, But it is our ineftimable privilege to poffefs the most complete, comprehenfive, and explicit revelation of the divine will, that the moft anxious folicitude for the temporal or eternal happiness of man could poffibly defire. Such a revelation is Chriftianity." P. 81.

Adverting afterwards to the lamentable deficiency in the effects of thofe admirable doctrines upon the actual morals of fociety, Mr. B. expatiates largely on the fubject of religious education; and, acquitting our principal fchools of the neg lect which has been attributed to them, he particularly remouftrates with parents on the neceffity of difplaying a good example at home, and preparing the minds of their children for that improvement which may afterwards be expected from more extenfive inftruction. He urges alfo, in trong terms, the duty of maintaining the refpect due to the Lord's Day. The conclufion of the tract, though not among the parts now added, contains fo good an abftract of the preceding matter, and an admonition fo juft, as well as folemn, that we cannot withhold it from our readers.

"Let then the awful warning which, from all fides, is now founded in our ears, excite us to the most serious reflection; let the fevero chaftifement, with which we are now vifited, infpire us with heartfelt Compunction for the impiety and the vices, which have drawn down

fuck