the principal agents in the riotous oppofition to tithes. Dr. Woodward and I live in the fame county; can he ftand forth and arraign my conduct?" This is not the language of a man confcious of the danger of a fcrutiny.

Mr. O'Leary is an acute ingenious opponent, who refifts the Bishop on one fide as warmly as Dr. Campbell does on the other; and it had perhaps been better if his Lordship, in fuch a feafon as he has defcribed, had guarded againft giving offence to either of them. If we attend to Dr. Campbell, the Prefbyterians have at all times proved, in general, better friends to the Proteftant government in Ireland, than the members of the established church: If we give credit to Mr. O'Leary, the diforders complained of, are greatly exaggerated, and that in thofe outrages which did take place, the Protestants were to the full as active as the Catholics, being equal Had the Bishop fufferers under the exactions of the tithe farmers.

of Cloyne, fays he, been as active in enforcing peace and fubordination as I have been, the fire, which was firft kindled in his diocese, would have been extinguished before it increased to a conflagration.".

If in the long space of fifteen months he was really convinced that the veffel of the established religion, of which he is one of the pilots, was in imminent danger, why has he flept at the helm ? When the storm is over, and the sea exhibits a smooth furface, he fings the doleful ditty of the shipwrecked mariner all over the three kingdoms; but where was he when the fhip was on the point of finking? Where was the paftoral letter, where was the pathetic addrefs? &c.'

With refpect to inftigation of the Irish Catholics by foreign powers, Mr. O'Leary replies, He (the Bishop) alarms the diffenters with the apprehenfions, that if they do not affift him in keeping the tithes, the Catholic clergy will have them with the affiftance of a foreign power. Mr. Barber ingeniously anfwers, that it is equal to him who has the tithes, whether it be Peter, Martin, or John, fince they are of no benefit to him, either with regard to foul or body. If his Lordship be afraid, that the Catholic clergy will deprive him of all the tithes, with the afftance of a foreign power, I can affure him that he has nothing to apprehend from foreign powers. They will never invade Ireland in order to procure tithes for the Catholic clergy. This indeed would be a war of proctors and tithe-canters. Farther, I can affure his Lordship, that foreign powers are more inclined to reduce the revenues of their own national clergy, than to make war for the Catholic clergy of Ireland.' All this is plaufible, for and may poffibly be true; but Mr. O'Leary may be fairly asked, whether a neighbouring monarch did not make war to procure the North Americans what he will not confer on his own fubjects?. Art. 60. Two Letters to David Hume. By one of the People called Quakers; containing Remarks on his Philofophical Effays. 8vo. 6d. Crowder, &c.

These letters appear to have been abftracted* (as they fay, in Scotland) from a book entitled Letters written in London by an American Spy; of which we gave fome account in the Review for December 1786, p. 473. The Writer seriously admonishes David in

the Quaker ftyle, concerning his infidelity; but whether the letters were in reality ever fent to him, we are not informed. If they were, there is no probability that any anfwer was returned. David hated controverfy, and never replied to his Anfwerers.

Art. 61. Two Funeral Sermons, occafioned by the Death of two Young Women, preached at Peckham in Surrey, Oct. 17, 1784; and Nov. 6, 1785. By R. Jones. 12mo. 1s. 6d. Dilly.

The impreffion which is made by Funeral Sermons is often more owing to the melancholy circumflances of the events which occafion them, than to any extraordinary merit in the preacher. A dif courfe of this kind, which had a friking effect in the delivery, may appear trite and uninterefting on the fubfequent perufal. Had the Author of thefe Sermons attended to this, he would probably have contented himself with the credit they gained him on their first publication from the pulpit.

E.

Art. 62. Four Dialogues on the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity, as taught throughout the Scriptures, and on other Points which have of late been Subjects of frequent difcuffion. By E. W. Whitaker, Rector of St. Mildred's and All Saints, Canterbury. 8vo. 25.

Rivingtons. 1786.

This champion is a much greater mafter of the art of offence than of the art of defence. On the defenfive, he maintains that the damnatory claufes in the Athanafian Creed are expreffive of a chari. table spirit-afferts, that a man who does not find a proof of the doctrine of the Trinity in the words, "Let us make man," is ignorant of the general principles of grammar-and infers, that unless Chrift be God he cannot be a Saviour, from the words in the prophecy of Hofea, "There is no Saviour befides me." On the offen five, he charges Dr. Priestley (against whom this attack is chiefly levelled) with maintaining, with unblushing obftinacy, points in which he has been repeatedly confuted, and with entire unfkilfulness in the language in which the greater part of the history he pretends to elucidate is locked up; calls in question his fagacity and fincerity; and fpeaks of him as a writer no longer worthy of a ferious anfwer. Such auxiliaries can be of little fervice to any caufe; they had much better draw off their feeble and ill-trained forces, and leave a clear field to the principal combatants. Fa

SERMON S.

I. Preached at St. Peter, Carmarthen, Sept. 14, 1786, before the Society for the Relief of diftreffed Clergymen, their Widows and Orphans. By Edward Lord Bishop of St. David's. 4to. IS. Bew. 1786.

From the words of the Apostle, "We being many are one body in Chrift, and every one members one of another," Rom. xii. 5. the Right Rev. preacher fhews, that every man, even the least in common eftimation, even he who lives in the most abject condition, may, by a regularity of life, and fobriety of conduct, contribute to the promotion of God's kingdom on earth, and is therefore entitled to the common bleffings of Providence here, and to the protection of this fpiritual communion, of which he is a member.' His Lordship

concludes

.concludes with recommending, as proper objects of charity, the dif-
treffed members of Chrift, especially the inferior clergy, whó al-
though appointed by authority to the office of the ministry, are not
allowed (for reafons which the Bishop fays he shall not at prefent
enquire into) a fufficient maintenance.
R-m

II. Confirmation. Preached at the Vifitation of the Bishop of Lon-
don, at Thaxted, Effex, May 26, 1786. By the Rev. John How-
lett, Vicar of Great Baddow. 4to. 15. Richardfon.

Mr. Howlett has, in this defence of Confirmation, offered fuch arguments as will naturally occur to men of fenfe and piety, who have a confcientious reverence for the fubject, in recommendation of this rite. The preacher, though evidently much in earnest, is no bigot. He ably vindicates the establishment to which he belongs, in refpect of this inftitution; and, at the fame time, he allows, on the most candid construction, free liberty of diffent to those who apprehend that the ordinance in queftion, only tends to confirm the people in ignorance and error.'

III. Preached at the Drum-head, in the Queen's Square at Lancafter, Oct. 1, 1786, before the 40th Regiment, on the Delivery of the New Colours. By George Vanbrugh, LL. B. 4to. Johnfon. 1786.

15.

The text is, Love the brotherhood: fear God: bonour the King. Thefe three important injunctions are feparately enforced by Mr. Vanbrugh, in a manner fuitable to the character of his audience.) IV. Preached to the Congregation of Proteftant Diffenters at Walthamftow, Feb. 18, 1787, on the Death of the Rev. Hugh Farmer, who died Feb. 5, 1787. By Thomas Urwick. 8vo. 6d. Buck.

land.

The most interefting and valuable part of thofe Funeral Sermons which are occafioned by the death of great and learned men, is, doubtless, the Memoir. To this, therefore, we think preachers fhould give ample space and endeavour to render it the most accurate and finifhed part of the compofition. When a Sermon is published on the death of fuch a man as Mr. Farmer, we hurry over the difquifition of the text as mere prefatory matter, referving our principal attention for what is peculiar to the occafion, the account of the man and the fcholar, and fuffer no little difappointment, after going through the feveral heads and improvement of a long difcourfe, to find only a mere fhred of biography tacked to the end of it.

We were led to thefe remarks by the Sermon now before us; though it is but juftice to obferve that the defect of which we complain is by no means peculiar to it. Mr. Urwick's difcourfe fhews him to be a fenfible and useful preacher; but he muft forgive us, if we fay it did not fatisfy us in its account of the deceafed. We were furprised at the very flight mention of Mr. Farmer's literary character, which was acknowledged to be eminent, not only by Diffenters, but also by the moft learned divines of the Establishment. Mr. Urwick, we are perfuaded, does not mean in the note, p. 33, to excite the idea which the word domestic will probably convey to many of his readers, that Mr. Farmer was a fervant in Mr. Snell's family. It is certainly a mif take, a fubftitution of one word for another; as must also be the

m

cafe in p. 29, where there is mention made of an amiable memoir. Probably he meant to write inmate in the first inftance, and valuable in the second.

In this brief account of the learned Mr. Farmer there is one part which we perufed with the deepest concern, namely, of his having left in his will the ftricteft orders to burn all his MSS. by the religious obfervance of which (by his Executors) not only many valuable and finished differtations on particular parts of Scripture were deftroyed; but alfo the remainder of that great work, of which his laft publication, on the general prevalence of the worship of human spirits in the ancient heathen nations, was the first part; in the Introduction to which, the plan, or general outline of the whole, was given p 44.. V. A Sermon, in which the principal Doctrines of the Gospel are enumerated, and the Neceflity of believing in them with a true Heart proved. By R. Houfman, A. B. late of St. John's College, Cambridge. Svo. 6d. Lancafter, printed.

Sheer methodistical doctrine, with reflections on the conduct of the minifters of the church of England, who all, in Mr. Houfman's epinion, preach morality only, and are therefore unfit for the miniftry of Chrift.

A Letter to the Rev. Mr. R. Houfman; occafioned by his late Sermon. 8vo. 6d. Lancaster, printed; and fold by Johnfon, in London. A proper reprehenfion of Mr. Houfman, for the liberties he had taken with the clergy, in his fermon above mentioned.

CORRESPONDENCE. TYRO enquires where he may be informed of Mr. Hunter's mistake about taking the fpecific gravities of different fubftances. We anfwer, that we do not acknowledge ourselves to have charged Mr. H. with a mistake, but with a want of being “acquainted with the modern improvements in natural philofophy;" otherwise he would have taken the weight of the fubftances first in air, and afterward in water, and thence have determined the fpecific gravity according to the rules laid down in all the books that have been published on that fubject within the prefent century. Mr. Hunter's method is not fo accurate as that of the firft inventor, Archimedes; and that was rude enough.

- m

. The manufcript poem, entitled, A Soliloquy, cannot be found. We have no doubt of its being deftroyed, agreeable to the intimation which accompanied it from the Author; whofe late favour, of June 9, 1787, is hereby refpectfully acknowledged. ED.

14+ We conceive the meaning of the paffage in Sterne, referred to by S. W. to be fo plain, that we imagine he was only diverting himself with the idea of amusing us, when he wrote his letter of May 10.

ERRATA in Rev. for April. Page 293, par. 3, 1. 2, put a comma after 'just.' 330, 1. 17, read, who says he was on the spot. 1.4.

531, Art. 38. for m.

522. 1.5. "For "began ")

affir. mess.

beg

In June

Novum Teftamentum Græcum, ex codice MS. Alexandrino, qui Londini in Bibliotheca Mufei Britannici affervatur, defcriptum a Carolo Godofredo Woide, S. Th. D. Soc. Reg. et Antiq. Lond. Reg. Gotting. &c. &c. &c. Fol. 21. 2s. unbound. Author. Brit. Museum. 1786.

E congratulate the Chriftian world on the publication of this truly valuable work, which, while it bears the moft unequivocal teftimony to the learning and induftry of the Editor, confers diftinguifhed honour on our age and country. The work itfelf not being an object of criticism, we can only fay in general, that it poffeffes every internal mark of fidelity; but it is our duty to give our Readers fome idea of the judgment and erudition displayed in the Preface, recommending at the fame time the entire perufal of it to all thofe, who may have been induced by Weiftein's arguments to depreciate the value of the Alexandrian MS.

After enumerating the motives which led him to engage in fo laborious an undertaking, Dr. Woide gives an hiftory of the MS. to the following effect. It was a prefent from Cyrillus Lucaris, Patriarch of Alexandria, and afterwards of Conftantinople, to Charles I. The character of the donor was equally refpectable in a literary and moral view. He was a native of Crete, but had ftudied at Venice, and afterwards vifited feveral of the European nations. With the Greek, Latin, Italian, Arabic, and Turk fh languages he was familiarly acquainted; nor was he lefs zealous to promote the general improvement of mankind, than fuccefsful in the cultivation of his own talents. Ever active in the propagation of learning, he attempted, by the establishment of a prefs, to introduce the art of printing among the Turks; but the bigotry, or the folly, of thefe barbaAPP. Rev. Vol. LXXVI,

PP

rians,