MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For MARCH, 1763.

RELIGIOUS and CONTROVERSIAL.

Art. 1. The Works of the Reverend Thomas Jones, M. A. late Chaplain of St. Saviour, Southwark. To which is prefixed, a fhort Account of his Life, in a recommendatory Preface. By the Rev. William Romaine, M. A. Lecturer of St. Dunstan's in the Weft. 8vo. 4s. fewed. Dilly.

Republication of Mr. Jones's fingle Sermons. first published in

A of or the subjects of them, they are thus fet forth

by the Editor." Some of the leading points, fays he, are thefe the univerfal corruption of mankind by the Fall, their guilt, mifery, and helplefinefs ;-the gracious method contrived by the Eternal Three of bringing many fons unto glory by Jefus Chrift ;-the office of the Holy Spirit in the covenant of grace,' &c. &c.

The character of Mr. Jones and his writings being fufficiently known, efpecially among the Hutchinfonians, Methodists, and other enthufialtic fectaries, it were needless to enlarge on them here. Mr. Romaine, however, for the edification of the Brethren and Sitters about Moorfields and Tottenham-Court, has copioufly dwelt on the pious excellencies, and rare gifts of his departed friend: for they were congenial fouls, and a long and intimate acquaintance had fubfifted between them. As to what related to God's dealings with Mr. Jones's foul,our Editor had given an account in his Funeral Sermon; and as to other particulars of his life, it is of no confequence, fays he, to lay then before the public: and truly we are quite of Mr. Romaine's opinion. Neverthelefs, we must acknowlege, that, according to the belt accounts we have heard concerning the late Chaplain of St Saviour's, he was one of the leaft exceptionable, the leaft fanatical, of all our modern Pretenders to apoftiefhip. He was probably fincere in his way. Tho' deluded himfelf, he was, perhaps, not confcious of the delufion; and might have no intention to mislead others. His piety we fuppofe unquentionable; and from Mr. Romaine's account we learn, that Mr Jones died in perfelt peace of mind, and in a manner becoming the Chriftian character. In a word, Charity bids us hope, that all our Mob-leaders are not Impoftors; tho' there is great reafon to conclude, that few of them are diftinguished by that fimplicity of manners, and integrity of mind, which characterised the Author of thefe Difcourfes.

Art. 2. Evangelical Principles and Practice: Being Fourteen Sermans, preached in the Parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene in Oxford, on the following Subjects: the State of Innocence-the Corruption of Nature-the Deceitfulness and Corruption of the Heart-the Spirituality of the Law-the Penalty of Difobedience -Redemption by Jefus ChriftSalvation by Grace-the Nature of true Holiness-the Fruits of the Spirit-the Neceffity of per REY. Mar. 1763:

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Jinal H. Frreft the Means of Hit the Bees of Righ uninn. By the Rev. Thomas Hawes, of St. Mary Mig. dalen Ha, Oxford, and Chapian to the Right Hon. De Earl of Peterborow. 8:0.51. Keita, ko.

Thele Difcourfes are fent into the world, we are told in the preface, to ouviate the manifold misconceptions and mirepresentations which the Author of them has lain ander. He profeties himself to be confciento fly attached to the Artices and Hours of the Church of England, which he calls her only authentic Standard of Dorine; and as by the royal Declaration prefixed to the Articles he is farcidin, fo Le prefumes not, [good man!] to take them in any fenfe but that which a literal and grammatical conftruction of them imports; and knows no authority by which any Minifter of the Church of England can indulge himself in a greater latitude of interpretation.-Sulfcriptions, he thinks, bring the foul under the deepest obligations to fincerity before the great Searcher of hearts, who requireth truth in the inward parts, and he looks upon thofe, who in any degree allow themselves to trifle or prevaricate with them, to be men devoid of confcience towards God, and of honefty towards nan.That the Reader may have fome general notion beforehand of what he is to expect from thefe Difcourfes, the Author, in his preface, gives the following abftract of them.

"The Divinity of the Son and Spirit, fays he, co-eternal and coequal with the Father, not the idol-monster of inferior divinity, is here maintained, in full oppofition to the Arian and Semi-Arian: whose blafphemy, though more fpecious, is not lefs real than the more avowed and open blafphemy of the Socinian.

"The Maintainers of the doctrine of the rectitude of human nature, and the freedom of man's choice to good as to evil, will find these proud Anagimations attacked, he hopes laid low to the ground, even in the duft, by the word of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The strong evidences of a fallen and corrupted nature, with its dire effects, are produced and confirmed, and the inability of man in his fallen ftate to any thing but evil, clearly, he trufts, made manifeft,

The extent, parity, and fpirituality of God's law are laid open, that the conference may difcover and feel its tranfgreffions against it. The eternal obligation of this law is fhewn; its awful fanctions declared the impoffibility of obeying it as a covenant of life evinced; and confequently the conviction of our state, as a state of helpless guik, evidenced.

"The one great glorious and all-fufficient oblation of the Son of God for the fins of the world, as a true and real facrifice, atonement and propitiation, is pleaded for; its neceffity and influence proved; and the various blethings for finners thereby fet forth.

"Faith, as the only means of juftification and acceptance with God, is urged, from confiderations demonftrating the impoflibility of righteouthefs before God any other way. And as works of any fort are not admitted as the condition of our pardon and acceptance with God, the polition that we are juf ified by Faith only, is maintained and vindicated. "The works of piety and virtue which become men profefing godliness, at large opened, and the neceffity of them enforced, from the only

true

true principle of Faith which worketh by Love. The Antinomian blafphemy is rebuked and cenfured.

"Finally, the means of Grace are frongly urged, and the diligent ufe of them fhewn to be the only method of obtaining advancement in the divine life.

"The bleffednefs of the religion of Jefus concludes the whole, as the natural refult of the principles and practices above recommended." This abftract, which the Author himself has given of his Difcourfes, faves us the difagreeable task of characteriûng them.

Art. 3. A Letter to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Glocefter. Occafioned by his Tract* on the Office and Operation of the Holy Spirit. By John Wefley, M. A. late Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. 12mo. Is. Flexncy.

Mr. Wesley has anfwered the Bishop's book with all that art, addrefs, and fpecious appearance of primitive integrity, decency, and dove-like innocence, which must be naturally expected by fuch as are acquainted with the character of a man who is fo much matter of his own, as well as of other men's, paffions. His tract is, indeed, a notable one; he ftands his ground manfully, repels the learned Bifhop's attacks with fuch

we had almoft faid-Jefuitical evafions, and fhelters himself fo fnugly under the authority of the Scriptures, and of the Church of England, (which he well knows how to twift and turn to his purpose) that we doubt not this performance will fully anfwer the great end of preventing his dignified Antagonist from enticing the sheep out of his fold.

See Review for November and December l ́ft.

Art. 4. An Essay on the Revelation of the Apostle John. In which a new Explication is given of fome Paffages in that Book, and applied to the Circumftances of the prefent Times. By Lauchlan Taylor, A. M. Minifter of Larbert. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Millar.

This learned Gentleman has, after infinite labour and study, difcovered, that the book of Revelations afcribed to St. John, " contains in it all the grand revolutions of the Chriftian church, from the Apostle's time to the prefent, and from this time to the end of the world ;" alfo, among other new and amazing explications, that many things predicted in the faid book, have been fulfilled in the perfon, and by the great actions, of the King of prefent Pruffia: to whom the Author has dedicated this most important Effay; and whom he styles, a great Deliverer of God's church, refembling Moses, as a Laregiver, a Philofopher, a Prince, and a General.”- -You fimile, Reader; but perufe our Author's book throughout, and you will find in it' fuch things as eye hath not feen, nor ear heard, nor have entered the heart of any man, except the heart of Mr. Lauchlan Taylor, Minifter of Larbert, or of that other wonderful Decypherer, who discovered the Cherokee Indians in the prophecies of Ezekiel*; with a few other Gentlemen of uncommon pe

* See Review for laft Month, paze 164. art. 216

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netration,

screva, vide uses and performances we do not at prefent partică. Carly reos! cá.

POLITICAL

Art. 5. A Confutation on the Suffet of a Standing Army, held at the King's Arms Tavern, on the 28th of Feruary, 1763. 4to. 13. 6J. Kearly.

This is a fevere and well-written fatire ca the majority of the Cocoatree Politicians, who are nere fuppofed to be debating on the expediency of a flanding army; that is, not on its expediency as a national concern, but as the concern of their own body; the question before them, as laid down by their Chairman, being, not the political one, “Whether a flanding any be a right or a wrong mealure; but whether they shall approve or condemn that meafure"

On this fubject the feveral members are fuppofed to fpeak in their turns; the tergiverfation and inconfitency of the Tories being exposed in their respective fpeeches, with much truth, and a good deal of farcaffic humour.

Art. 6. A fecand Dialogue between Prejudice and Reason, on the prefent State of public Affairs. By the Author of the firft.

416. IS. Coote.

Reafon defends the peace against Prejudice, from a view of the preliminaries only. A third Dialogue may be expected; Mefirs. Reasonand Prejudice having agreed to meet again, in order to canvass the definitive treaty, as foon as it fhall be made public: when, we doubt not, the former will obtain another victory over his antagonist, as eafily as in the first and fecond difpute.Poor Prejudice hath, indeed, very little to fay for hemfelf. He is fet up, like an unfortunate dunghill cock, on a Shrove Tuefday, only to be pelted, and cruelly knocked on the head.

Art. 7. Eleutheria: One of a Series of Letters to a Nobleman, on the most important and interesting Subjects, &c. 4to. 15.

Nicoll.

"Writings, calculated to promote the interefts of Liberty, can never be unfeatonable in a free country," fays the Author in his preface; and we readily fubfcribe to the truth of his obfèrvation: but when he

laments to fee a particul r occafion for the friends of Liberty to exert thenifelves," we muft withhold our acquiefcence, till the occafion he has in view is more particularly afcertained, than it seems to be in the present Letter, which, as the title informs us, is only the first of a feries intended for publication.

The Writer expatiates freely and warmly in defence of civil and reli gious Freedom; but whether his zeal hath really taken the alarm from any particular occafion, as he has expreffed it; or whether his apprehenfions flow from a notion which hath pretty generally obtained, that the l'ories and High-church Men have gained the afcendant at Court-is not very clear to us. With regard to religious Liberty, Indeed, he seems

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to have had an eye to the noted profecution of a perfon who had too freely enquired into the character and writings of Mofes; but we imagine he is too hard upon a certain great man, if he means to charge him with being the Author or Stimulator of that profecution: for we are affured, that his Lp was rather averf to fuch a procedure, and reluctantly yielded to it, in compliance with the zealous follicitation of certain dignified Ecclefiaftics.-But, in truth, th' we cannot but highly : approve the Writer's principles, as a Whig and as a Proteftant, yet candour obliges us to condemn the ungovernable excefs of his ardour, by which a good caufe is more likely to be injured than ferved. We must alfo obferve, that his manner of writing is by no means agreeable to the .epiftolary ftyle: his papers may be called Arma versions, Rejections, Differtations, or any thing rather than Letters.

"Were the maxims, fays he, of the Scottish rae to prevail,-ve fhould fee the land defirmed and miferable with flavery, violence, fuperftition, i̟norance, and that worft of furies, religiou perfecution.”

Art. 8. Curious and authentic Memoirs concerning a late Peace, concluded between the Rooks and Jack-Daws. 8vo. Burnet.

Is. 6d.

Under a very thin difguife, we have here a fatirical sketch of the late war, and of the Preliminaries. There is not much wit or humour in the piece; but plenty of scandal appears in the characters here drawn of many of the principal Rooks; i. e. the late and prefent British Miniftry, and the leading Members in both Houfes of Parliament.The Author has fallen into an obvious abfurdity, by making ufe of itrokes and dafhes, in fome parts of his work, where he apprehends his fatire to be dangerously fevere; although we are of opinion, that if the feathers of his Rooks and Daws are not thick and close enough to cover a libel, thofe breaks and blanks would but little avail him. Befide, fuch an obvious and common evasion of a literal conftruction, is quite foreign to the mode of allegorical writing; it prematurely unveils the fubject, 1poils that agreeable deception from which the Reader's entertainment is chiefly derived, and looks like Harlequin's white neck and ears behind his mask, juft appearing to undeceive the audience, by revealing to them, that Mr. Wriggle-tail is no Negroe, notwithstanding the footy complexion of his features.

Art. 9. Confiderations on the fatal Effects of the prefent Excess of public Charities. In which the Magdalene, Afylum, Foundling, Hofpitals for Sick and Lame, Lying-in Hofpitals, Charity-Schools, and the Diffenting Fund, are particularly confidered. And à Plan for a new Syftem of Poor's Laws propofed 8vo. Is. Hooper. Many fhrewd and fenfible obfervations are to be found in this publicfpirited pamphlet. The scheme for a new fyftem of Poors Laws deferves confideration; the subject being of very great confequence. As to the Writer's Remarks on our public Charities, they are not all of equal depth and folidity. Our Author is fometimes too warm and declama

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tory;