tafte for fatire and invective? Muft not a good book be called good, becaufe perhaps a very acute and not very merciful man can difcover that it is not perfect? Muft its merits be concealed, and its faults exaggerated, only that the reader may laugh, and admire the wit of the Reviewer? Whatever may be the amufement attending fuch a proceeding, the end could only be the entire depreffion of literature; the deftruction of that laudable fpirit, which enables a writer to endure toil in the hope of fame, at leaft, if not profit that is, of the very life of useful authorship. We look into foreign Reviews, and we fee little or none of this petulance. The French are at least as witty a people as we are, yet in their journals we often fee works praifed with zeal, and without reserve; or blamed with decent refpect to the author: and we are convinced that, among ourselves, the caustic style. of criticism must in time give way to the candid and equitable; or we fhall have no authors left, 'but fuch as are cafed by nature or education "in ten-fold brafs:" a race by no means preferable to the modest and timid, with all their imperfections. On these and other confiderations we have determined to perfevere in the plan we originally took up: delighting to give praife, where praife appears to be due; and when cenfure feems to be demanded, difpenfing it with due regard to the feelings of fcholars and gentlemen. We will not fhelter our felves under the trite, though just remark, that it is more difficult to praife with judgment, than to find fault with ingenuity; our object is not private ambition but public utility: and though our work may appear tame, when compared with thofe which are full of fneer, farcafm, and feverity, yet we trust that it will be of more general use to literature as a history of what was actually produced, than any work can be, however able, whofe chief object is to convince the the public what great fools a few authors are *, compared with those who have diffected their labours. DIVINITY. A beautiful edition of the NEW TESTAMENT very fitly conducts us into this fubject, and Dr. White's t is one which offers not only beauty, but also the most eminent utility. It exhibits all the important variations in Griefbach's edition, for which therefore it may, in common cafes, be fubftituted. This is the bafis of all Chriftianity, and contains in itself the moft powerful of all arguments; but if external arguments be wanted, as to fome minds they are, it must be pleafing to fee them multiplied, by writers at once competent and judicious. Such a writer Mr. Penrofe has proved himself, in his fermons preached at the Bampton Lecture 1, which form a fuitable addition to a collection already diftinguifhed. A diftinct part of the general evidence is ably defended by Mr. G. Cook, in his volume on our Saviour's Refurrection §. Mr. Cockburn, lately Chriftian Advocate at Cambridge, undertook, and not without fuccefs, to defend the hiftory of the Exodus against the objections of Gibbon and others: while Mr. Veyfie¶, combating the hypothefis of Mr. Marth, concerning the origin of the four Gofpels, propofed one of his own; which though it cannot be denied the praife of ingenuity, muft by no means be confidered as conclufive. Much more fatisfactory to our minds are the Difcurfory * If a few works were felected for commendation, principally, fuch a felection might be a guide to the purchafer, fo far as it went; but what is he to do with a mere negative list, nothing more than a caveat emptor? + No. IV. p. 86. No. II. p. 100. No. IV. p. 378. A 4 Confiderations t Confiderations of Mr. Dunster*, which, though they affirm nothing, purfue fome very interefting fuggeftions, to a ftrong degree of evidence. Mr. Vix has ftudioufly endeavoured fo to illuftrate the thirtynine Articles + of our Church, that they may no longer be a fource of contention, to thofe who only differ in their mode of conceiving the fame fublime truths; a difference which, he apprehends, can never be entirely eluded under any form of words. The book entitled the Chriftian Code ‡ is an elaborate compilation, the patient occupation of fome veteran divine, whofe reafon for concealing his name does not appear. Lowered in value by a strange awkwardnefs of ftyle, and by moft inaccurate references to the facred text, it fill must be of ufe to thofe whose object it is to collate and compare the authorities of the Divine Oracles. Against a publication, on the fpirit of which we formerly remarked, (namely, the new edition of Ward's Errata §) the Dean of Peterborough, has also remonstrated, and has fhown, with proper fpirit, the malignity and falfehood of the attack; and the reflections naturally arifing from the conduct of those who reprint it. Two collections of Sunday Leffons have been noticed by us in their progrefs. They differ a little in their plan, and the public muft judge for itself of their comparative utility. Both, however, are useful. Among the volumes of fermons, which have lately appeared, the following feem to deserve preference: Mr. Morehead's, preached at the Epifcopal Chapel in Edinburgh**; Mr. Partridge's fecond volume t†, and Mr. Cooper's third ‡‡, with thofe of Mr. Scott, on Baptifm and other offices. The first No. I. p. 36. + No. V. p. 469. No. III. p. 25S. IV. p. 345. See Br. Cr. xxxi. 537. See alfo Dr. Ryan's Analysis of the fame work. No. VI. p. 610. Br. Cr. xxxii. 182. 1 No. 1. p. 17. 82 and 83. ++ No. VI. p. 607. No. VI. p. 648. are elegant and impreffive; the second, a judicious adaptation of foreign difcourfes to an English Congregation; the third, devout, fcriptural, practical; and the last clear, inftructive, and unaffected. Detached difcourfes are but too apt to be overlooked. Be it our task to point the finger to fome, which deferve to be exempted from that fate. Among these we muft unequivocally give the firft place to the charge of Bishop Gleig*. Clear, convincing, apoftolical, it tends to extinguish fchifm, and to animate judicious zeal: nor can we fail to hope well of a Church, in which fo able a paftor preGides without emolument. In our own Church, the charge of Archdeacon Daubeny †, is directed to the refiftance of popular attacks, which is done with no lefs judgment than energy. Mr. Gregor's vifitation fermon, before the Bishop of Exeter, vigorously defcribes the duties of the Clergy, and fhows at the fame time the dignity of the Chriftian minifter, when that character is duly fuftained. Mr. Dickenfon, in two Sermons, preached before the University of Oxford §, takes up the caufe of religious eftablishments, and defends them upon grounds of reafon, accurately ftated and deduced. Mr. Gisborne, in opening a Church at Needwood, of which he may be confidered as the founder, expatiated on the duty of "believing with the heart, and confefling with the mouth," not forgetting the indifpenfable point of making the practice conformable to the faith, and to the confeffion. No man better exemplifies what he fo feafonably recommends. The funeral of a pious Chriftian has often given occafion to the most edi fying reflections; but in few inftances more than in the fermon of Sir H. M. Wellwood, after the decease of Dr. Andrew Hunter *. The picture of a good man, "full of the Holy Ghoft, and of faith" is propofed, first in the example of St. Barnabas, and then in its application to the deceased paftor, with the animation of fincerity and truth. The fentiments of joy, gratitude, loyalty, and rational approbation, as they were almoft univerfally felt, on a late memorable occafion, the celebration of the Royal JUBILEE, will be expreffed in various ways. by different minds; but whatever may be done by others, the propriety and juftice of Mr. E. Nares's Sermon at Biddenden t, will not easily be effaced, and we, who delight in loyalty, cannot but rejoice to fee it fo efficacioufly inculcated. HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES. We have attended Mr. Maurice in his Indian Hiftory, to the clofe of his fecond volume of the Modern part, which brings him fome way into the eighteenth century. How his courage will encounter the difficulties which muft oppofe him, from that period to the prefent time, we cannot forefee; but, in juftice to his past labours, we cannot but wish fuccefs to him, in the termination of his long career. Of a very different nature is Mr. Card's fmall volume on ̈ Charlemagne, which is rather a memoir on the manners, knowledge, and opinions of that period, than a regular portion of hiftory. The republication of Robert Cary's Memoirs, with the Fragmenta regalia of Sir Robert Naunton, with illuftrations by an able modern, is a real acceffion to our hiftorical collections for England, and will be followed; we trust, P. 422. No. IV. + No. V. p. 531. and V. p. 506. I No. I. p. 16. by |