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ty, as to call the Americans- YANKIES. And all this, gentle reader, in a fermon !—in a fermon too, on a lowly and contrite Fastday!

VIII. Preached at Charlotte Street Chapel, Pimlico, &c. By the Rev. Richard Harrison, Minifter of the faid Chapel. 8vo.

Bew.

1 s.

This performance breathes a fpirit of piety. The Author, after lamenting the corruptions in faith and practice, which have crept into the church, and in his opinion, have made a moft alarming progrefs among the Diffenters (once eminent for their strictness and orthodoxy!) informs his Readers, that the very fathers and guardians of the church are asleep, while its enemies are quietly, but boldly and publicly, fowing the tares of herefy and infidelity amongst us.' Mr. Harrison's zeal, indeed, makes him "fear where no fear is.” In the catalogue of national and crying fins, he hath produced the general neglect of the holy feafon of Lent,' as a ftriking and cor. roborative proof of the degeneracy of our church.' Verily this is an alarming confideration!

ix. The Neceffity of making God our Friend at this alarming Crifis; feriously urged.-At the Parish Church of Kirk-Heaton. By the Rev. John Sunderland. 8vo. 6d. Huddersfield printed, and fold by Brook, &c.

A tolerably decent difcourfe.-The Preacher, indeed, feems to be a better Christian than a Politician. Witness the following paffage: As the prefent war has not been entered upon from a vain principle of ambition-to gratify the refentment of an angry, or the pride of an afpiring monarch, but in defence of the plaineft rights and privilegesand after every other method of reconciliation had been tried in vain, fo it behoves us, especially at this juncture, to beware of encouraging any measure of defigning men, which may tend to weaken the hands of government.'-Can any one, acquainted with the hiftory of the American fyftem of affairs, lay his hand on his bofom, and feriously utter fuch language as this? Let others do as they please. We CANNOT and amidst the folemn devotions of a Fast-day, we fhould have esteemed it the most impious piece of mockery to the allfeeing God, had we joined in fuch an affertion.

X. Preached in Hackney-church, and published at the Request of the congregation. 8vo. 6d. Dilly.

A ferious expoftulation with finners, to turn from their wicked ways. The text is taken from 2 Chron. vii. 14.

XI. To a Congregation of Proteftant Diffenters, at York, and publifhed at the Request of the Audience. By Newcombe Cappe. Svo. Is. Johnfon.

This Sermon abounds with ftriking fentiments, and we with others, who have thought proper to exhibit to the world their fafl-day declamations, had been infpired with the piety and candour of this fenfible and amiable minifter.

With paying this juft tribute to the abilities and temper of Mr. Cappe, impartiality obliges us to remark, that his language is very far from being a proper model of pulpit eloquence. We could quote paffages remarkably pleafing and elegant, in point of flyle; but Mr.

Cappe

Cappe is fo much of a mannèrist (as the painters fay), that in a whole piece he becomes tirefome. One fentence frequently involves in it feveral distinct ideas, and on that account becomes obfcure. In reading it, we often lofe the beginning before we arrive at the end, and are obliged to review the paffage, in order to collect its meaning. Mr. Cappe may charge all this to the account of our dulnefs, and not to his want of perfpicuity. It may be fo. Perhaps we are dull; but the misfortune is, that there is not, poffibly, one of an hundred readers of faft fermons but may be as dull as ourselves!

XII. The Character of a true Patriot briefly delineated-to a Society of Proteftant Diffenters, at Prefcot. By the Rev. John Wilding. 8vo. 15. Johnson.

An illuftration of a patriotic character, from the example of Nehemiah, prime minister of the Jews, after the captivity.

XIII. Virtue and Patriotism founded on Religion: Preached at Yarmouth. By Thomas Howe. 8vo. 6d. Law.

A pious and candid discourse, and not deftitute of animation. XIV. Profeffors admonished in the Day of Calamity; or, The Lord's Controverfy with Ifrael; at the Meeting-Houfe in Little Moorfields. By W. Bennet. 8vo. 6d. Buckland.

This difcourfe is formed (and we believe with a very honest and godly intention) on the old puritanical model. The Preacher hath adopted all the cant phrafes of the nonconformifts of the laft century, fuch as the ingathering of the people to king Jefus-the withdrawment of God's gracious comforting prefence-the crying fins of drefs and fashion, cards and playhoufes, &c.' In this difmal picture which he hath exhibited of the prefent times, he hath drawn a flattering outline of puritanism, in order to aggravate their deformity by the contraft. The Puritans (fays Mr. Bennet) were an ornament to their caufe, the glory of their churches, and the terror of their enemies." Terrible indeed, when they had the art of frightening the old women of both fexes by the awfulness of their vifages, and the deep and direful tone of fpiritual commination! Their terror was fomething more than the form of mock authority,

"When in the faddle of one fteed,

"The Saracen and Chriftian rid."

The late very learned Bishop of Gloucester appears to have been indebted to thefe lines of Hudibras, for a curious, and as many thought, original, delineation of puritanifm, in his "Doctrine of Grace." Speaking of the gradations of enthufiafm, from the Precifian to the Methodist, he obferves, that "the methodist is now an apoftolic independent, and the independent was then a Mahomet an methodift."-The Saracen and Chriftian! Admirable compofition! But fo it was.

CORRESPONDENCE.

UR Correfpondent, Philo-Martinus, who points out to us an into truck him, in the two first fentences of the fecond paragraph of our account of Dr. Dancan's late publication of Mr. Baxter's pofthumous work, [See our Review for January lait,

p. 58] fhould have reflected that a Monthly Reviewer may not be able, with all his wits about him, to exprefs, in the compafs of four or five lines, the precife meaning which his Author has at large conveyed, perhaps in as many pages; fo as to escape the piercing eye of an author, or of an attentive and warm friend. The Reviewer's meaning, in thefe two fentences, would, however, to a less strict reader, most probably appear to be this:that Dr. Duncan originally conceived a defire of mixing in the Priestleyan controverfy respecting the Soul; but wished to divert the attention of the Public from the metaphysical confideration of the subject.

In fact, the Reviewer, in the first of these two fentences, ufes the phrafe" the late controverfy concerning the materiality of the foul"-merely as a general name or title, by which he meant to defign the controverfy refpecting the foul: and it is not a "palpable abfurdity," as our Correfpondent choofes to exprefs himself, to fay that Dr. Duncan wished to write on the fubject; though he disliked the metaphyfical turn which the controversy had taken.-But even the paffage, literally taken, can scarce, except by the captious, be faid to involve a palpable abfurdity. A man may furely "conceive a defire of offering his fentiments on the subject" of a metaphyfical controversy; and yet, very confiftently, wish to diffuade the Public from attending to the fubject heretofore metaphyfically treated; and may recommend a better mode of treating it. If this implies an abfurdity, the guilt is Dr. Duncan's, not the Reviewer's.

Our Correfpondent makes a remark likewife on our note at the bottom of p. 6o; where he thinks we have left too much to the fagacity of our Readers. The Reviewer has not, at prefent, access to the book itself; but would willingly here fubjoin the context with which our Correfpondent has favoured us in his letter, were it there prefented in such a manner as to throw light upon the subject.

T. S. recommends to our notice, a mifcellaneous publica. tion, by Mr. Charles Graham, of Penrith. The book has not been advertised for fale in London; but if it should fall in our way, we muft, in course, mention it to our Readers: meantime, the Specimen which this Correfpondent hath fent us, excites no impatience in us to peruse the other compofitions of a perfon whofe natural capacity fo evidently wants the advantages of literary cultivation. Without thofe advantages, it cannot be expected that illiterate mechanics' will ever arrive at any eminence in the republic of letters; or that their writings fhould be confidered as a valuable addition to our li braries which are, indeed, greatly over-flocked with the compofitions of minor poets, and minor profe-writers, of every clafs and denomination.

+++ We acknowledge the receipt of B.'s communications; but he has mistaken the plan of the Monthly Review. Our Journal is not Supported by contributions from perfons unknown.

Our Correfpondent's expreffion.

ART. I. The Hiftory of the Eftablishment of the Reformation of Reli gion in Scotland. By Gilbert Stuart, LL. D. 4to. 10 s. 6 d. Boards. Murray, 1780.

Fall events in the hiftory of Scotland, the reformation of

religion is the moft curious, and the most important. When we confider the nature and magnitude of the event itself, the wonderful means by which it was effected, and the many extraordinary circumftances by which it was accompanied, there is reafon to expect that, as this great revolution is fufceptible of a high degree of hiftorical ornament, it ought to have been treated with the most induft. ious exertions of cultivated genius. But if a fubject peculiarly adapted to entertain the fancy, and to intereft the paffions of the reader, fhould not have met withr an eloquent, it was ftill to be wifhed that it fhould meet with a comprehenfive and an impartial hiftorian. Yet in the gene'ral hiftories of Scotland, the introduction of the reformed religion is not explained with that circumftantial minutenefs which the fubject requires; and in the books written profefedly concerning ecclefiaftical affairs, there is often an improper mixture of prejudice and controverfy, which renders the perufal of them tire fome and difagreeable to the generality of readers. In order to remedy thefe defects, Dr. Stuart has given to the Public the performance before us, in which it has been his earnest endeavour to exercife that precifion, which is not usually expected from the general hiftorian, and that impartiality which is never to be found in the apologift of a faction.'

The origin, progrefs, and final establishment of opinions, which produced a total change in the religious, and a confiderable change in the civil ftate of half the nations of Europe, have been illuftrated by the ingenious labours of feveral of the moft VOL. LXII.

Z

eminent

eminent modern hiftorians. The great and general causes of the reformation are to be discovered in the abfurd doctrines of Popery, the profligate lives of priests, and the rapid diffu fion of knowledge, which, after the invention of printing, took place in the fifteenth and fixteenth centuries. These caufes operated alike in the feveral countries of Europe which embraced the reformed faith; but the particular mode of reformation adopted by each community, depended on a series of events, which, as they are lefs palpable and obvious, have generally efcaped obfervation. To point out, and to explain the events of this kind which immediately produced the ecclefiaftical eftablishment peculiar to Scotland, is the principal fsubject of the work before us; which, we will venture to pronounce, is the cleareft and moft comprehenfive, as well as the most entertaining performance that we have met with refpecting this important branch of hiftory.

In explaining the immediate and particular causes of reformation, great attention ought to be paid to the characters of the principal agents employed by Providence to effect this remarkable revolution. Dr. Stuart has beftowed on this part of his fubject the attention which it deferves, and he difplays equal induftry and ingenuity in defcribing the motives, manners, and character of the perfons introduced on the fcene of action. As a fpecimen of his abilities in this way, we fhall take the liberty of inferting his character of Lord James Stuart, who was the chief promoter of reformation in Scotland.

This illuftrious man was the natural fon of James V. by Margaret, the daughter of John Lord Erefkine. He had been appointed, at an early age, to the priory of St. Andrews; but he poffeffed not that pacific mind, which, uninterested in the prefent world, delights to look to the future, and to busy itself in the indolent formalities of devotion. The activity of his nature compelled him to feek agitation and employment; the perturbed period in which he lived fupplied him with fcenes of action; and the eminence of his abilities difplayed itfelf. He discovered a paffion for liberty and a zeal for religion; and he diftinguished himself by an openness and fincerity of carriage. These popular qualities pleafed the Congregation, and procured to him their confidence. The love of liberty, however, was not, in him, the effect of patriotifm, but of pride; his zeal for religion was a political virtue; and under the appearance of opennefs and fincerity, he could conceal more fecurely his purposes. Power was the idol which he worshipped; and he was ready to acquire it by methods the most criminal. He was bold, firm, and penetrating. His various mind fitted him alike for intrigue and for war. He was deftined to flourish in the midst of difficulties. His fagacity enabled him to forefee dangers, his prudence to prepare for them, and his fortitude to furmount them. To his talents, his genius, and his refources, Scotland is indebted for the Reformation.

But