way: but they, for the most part, turn on subjects that more immediately belong to what is ufually termed the orthodox fyftem of theology. They are generally written in the ancient textual method, with all the formality of divifion, fubdivifion, and improvement. The author appears to be a man of a candid spirit; and though he adheres pretty closely to the established creed, he lays more ftrefs on rectitude of conduct than on soundness of faith. On the subject of religious freedom, his fentiments are manly and liberal. We quote the following paffage as a fpecimen of his manner of writing: Every man hath a right to make a confcientious inquiry about the will of God toward him-about the part affigned him to act by the Supreme Governor-about the truths propofed to his understanding, and the rules prefcribed for his conduct. Every man ought to examine, it is his duty to examine candidly, the various fchemes of religion that may be offered to him, to reject what he may think wrong, and to embrace, after inquiry, what appears worthy and proper to be embraced. Every man hath a right to worship God in the way his confcience dictates. The hand of God hath given us thofe liberties, and the hand of man cannot take them away. To talk of force in this affair is a perfect abfurdity. How prepofterous it is for man to lay his com. mands on a thing not fubject to man's jurifdiction. The chief may order us to embrace this or that fyftem of opinions; this or that form of worship; confcience fmiles at this order. The human mind will think its own way, will fee with its own eyes, and will take its own courfe, in fpite of all the orders of men, and in oppofition to all the ftatutes of human authority by which they may be inforced. What was it that produced our Reformation from papacy? or what is it that fupports this glorious fabric? It is freedom of inquiry: Take away this-the Reformation goes with it; popery and implicit faith will brandish their fword again over a benighted world. Thefe are rights inherent in men, liberties beflowed on human nature by its Creator; to hold them facred and treat them with reverence, and to endeavour to hand them down incorrupted, is a point of effential justice.' SINGLE SERMONS. Art. 70. Preached at All Saints, High-Wycombe, Bucks, Jan. 1, 1792. By William Williams, of Worcester College, Oxford, Curate of the faid Church. 8vo. pp. 29. The parable of the prodigal fon is here fpiritualized, and made IS. Deighton. the foundation of an address, to finners in a state of alienation from God.' It reprefents all men as naturally prodigals, and urges the neceffity of returning to God,' in that ftrain of eloquence which is ufual among the followers of Calvin and Whitfield. Art. 71. Saints, Saints, High, Wycombe. Publifhed by Requeft. Svo. pp. 28. 15. Deighton. 1792. The doctrine of the Trinity is here ftrenuously afferted, and many paffages of fcripture are quoted to prove it: but we do not find, what, indeed, we could not expect, that the author has advanced any thing that is new on this exhausted subject. Art. 72. Occafioned by the Death of John Thornton, Efq. late of Clapham, Surry; containing Obfervations on his Character and Principles. 8vo. Is. Johnson. 1791. The character of this gentleman has been, for many years, efteemed and respected. We doubt not that all who have known him, will allow the propriety of the delineation which is here made. The difcourfe is well written, and bears evident marks of the author's good fenfe, and of diligent attention to his fubject. One fentiment runs through the whole, to which we cannot avaid objecting. We trust that we are neither uncandid, nor biaffed by any party-view, when we exprefs our difapprobation of this writer's appearing, at least, to affert that Mr. Thornton's exemplary benevolence, probity, and piety, are to be afcribed to what has been deemed orthodoxy of opinion. That his eminent virtue was produced and improved by the principles of Chriftianity, we have no difficulty in acknowleging: but if our author would perfuade us that the Calvinistical explication of those principles alone could produce fuch an effect, we not merely hefitate, but declare our full diffent.-Worthy and excellent characters have abounded, no doubt, among all the denominations of Chriftians,- -even among Roman Catholics, to whom, perhaps, as much as to any, this writer might be difpofed to object.-Perfons who are far removed from what be regards as orthodox, will acknowlege and act on the * conftraining love of Chrift, and the infinite mercy of God hereby difplayed. It is not furely charitable, nor Chriftian, to confine religious and virtuous conduct to any fet of principles which depend on human explications. The principles of divine revelation, if we carefully attend to them and act on them, will, though in fome refpects differently received, operate to the most valuable purpofes; and it has not been without reason that fenfible and upright perfons have expreffed their fear, that this purpose has been obstructed and narrowed by those who have dogmatized about articles of faith, and by these means have led men aftray from real piety and righteoufnefs.-Let us direct this author to one character, which the perufal of this pamphlet has brought to our recollection: It will be no degrada tion to Mr. Thornton's merit, however confiderable, to clafs him with Mr. Thomas Firmin +; like him, in the mercantile line; like him, alfo, eminent for rectitude, philanthropy, and activity in * The text of this discourse, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. ufeful ufeful and worthy parfaits, and actuated in all by the principles of Christianity,-illuftrating, in his own conduct, their excellence and efficacy. He has been dead nearly a century, but his memory furvives with honour; as, we doubt not, will that of Mr. Thornton, to many diftant years :-but Mr. Firmin, it is well known, was, though an established Chriftian, an Unitarian and Socinian in principle. It will not be improper, before we close this article, just to obferve, that Mr. Thornton's extenfive, and, it may be faid, furprizing beneficence, (as was that of Mr. Firmin,) was greatly affitted by a wife frugality and economy in the conduct of his affairs. Diffipation and extravagance leave no room for benevolent attentions; if they seem to take place, it is thoughtlessly, often without any right principle in the bestower, or deftitute of much service to the receiver, and not unfrequently in contradiction to the claims of justice and honesty. Art. 73. Preached at the opening of Bridwell Chapel, near Ulculme, Devon, 4th Jan. 1792, by Joshua Toulmin, A. M. To which is prefixed, an Address delivered on the fame Occafion by John Williams. 8vo. Is. Johnfon. This chapel has been erected at the fole expence of Richard Hall Clarke, Efq. of Bridwell. It is intended for divine worship on the Unitarian plan. Mr. Williams, the minifter of the place, as we conclude, prefents a fair and free declaration of that view which he and his affociates take of Chriftianity, at the fame time that he afferts the right of private judgment, and claims the forbearance and candour of those brethren who may diffent from their opinions.-The subject of Mr. Toulmin's fermon is the promife of Chrift's prefence with his difciples, Matth. xviii. 20.-Dr. Priestley's paraphrafe of the words feems nearly, if not entirely, to include the meaning affigned to them in this difcourfe. It is here quoted, as follows," Whenever fo few of you are affembled, as Chriftians, for any purpose that refpects my religion, it is the fame thing as if I myself were there: fo that your prayers and your acts will have the fame force as mine." Mr. Toulmin obferves, the gracious promise holds forth an affurance of the good effects, which, fhould follow the affembling together in his name.'-He adds, in a note, Bishop Pearce thus gloffes the words:'--but the Bishop feems to limit the promise to the apostles, and does not appear wholly to coincide with this account: his concife comment indeed leaves the reader fill rather uncertain and perplexed.-Mr. Toulmin apprehends it may be thought, that too much time and labour have been given to explain a phrafe, the meaning of which is not far to feek. And certainly this might be faid, if a conclufion had not been drawn from the text, which entirely confounds the character of Chrift with that of the Being who fills heaven and earth.' He proceeds to draw fome practical inferences from his fubject: but we have only farther to remark, both as to the addrefs and the fermon, that while they plead for purity of worship, they urge, with energy and animation, animation, that practical influence of piety, and that integrity of life, devoid of which every other kind of zeal is bafe and contemptible. We should obferve, that a liturgy is to be used in this chapel. The prayers which were delivered on this occafion immediately before, and after, the fermon, are here printed. CORRESPONDENCE. To the MONTHLY REVIEWERS. GENTLEMEN, 64 14th July, 1792.' PLEASE to accept my thanks for your attention to my remarks on a paffage in Ariftotle, in your Review for May. I certainly meant de and not da. I cannot quite coincide with you in opinion in your obfervation on the laft conjecture I offered: for although the form of the phrafeology be preceptive," it does not neceffarily follow, that it is the precept of Ariftotle; it probably was the rafh decifion of fome Pfeudocritics at Athens, (the ci apw he had just been mentioning.) who guided the popular voice. Statim non poeta titulo falutandum eft, (fic enim perperam populus jubet,) etiamú imitationem perfecit. But my prefent motive for troubling you, was to point out what appears to me to be a palpable miftake in the third volume of the tranflation of Mariti's Travels, noticed in your laft Appendix, p. 525. It is refpecting the Cypress, as it is there termed. It feems that the Abbé intended to defcribe the Cyprus, and not the Cypariffus Mariti fays, that there is a general refeinblance between this tree and the Liguftrum (the Privet); but this does not correspond at all with the Cypariffus. In Ainsworth, the Cyprus is thus defcribed: "A bush or tree, much like to that we call Privet, of the flower of which, in the Ifle of Cyprus, they made a very Sweet oil," Plin. 12. 24. Cyprus is ufed alfo in the Vulgate edition of the Bible, to denote Camphire. Ainfworth, apud voc. The Greek Lexicon alfo mentions Kuros as fignifying a tree. In Mariti's 2d vol. p. 355, he fays, "The fhrub known in the Hebrew language by the name of Copher, the Latins call Cyprus, being common in that Island." Copher, ex Heb. 5 quod propriè picem fignificat. Camphire, G. ex Plin. vid. Ainsw. ap. voc. Copher. In the Song of Solomon, chap. i. ver. 14. according to our tranflation we read, My beloved is unto me as a cluster of Camphire in the vineyards of En-geddi;" according to the Vulgate, I think, "Botrus Cypri dile&tus meus in vineis Engaddi—Borgus— -racemus-a bunch or clufler."-"The Botrus Cypri (fays Mariti,) has been fuppofed to be a kind of rare and exquifite grapes tranfplanted from Cyprus to Engaddi: but the Botrus, (he adds,) is known to the nations of Cyprus as an odoriferous fhrub called Kenna (Chenna) or Alkanna. Copher, and Cipre, vol. i. p. 333 and 334." Pliny, 27. 4. fpeaks of an herb called Botrys, which, according to Ainfworth, is the Oak of Jerufalem, or Ambrofia. However this may be, there can be but little doubt that Cypress is a mis-translation. 'I am, Gentlemen, refpectfully " Your obedient fervant, LAVENENSIS.' Lavenenfis is entitled to our thanks for the accuracy of the foregoing obfervations. The shrub, of which the Abbé Mariti speaks, is well I figured figured by Profper Alpinus, p. 47, and has a manifeft fimilarity to Privet, or, rather, Myrtle; though, in its cluster of flowers, it widely differs from both. The term Cyprefs was appropriated by our old Botanifs to the plant known by the names of Cupressus, Cyparifus, and Chamaecyparifjus; alío Cyperus was called Cypress Grafs; all alluding to one common etymology:-in purfuance of which etymology, we fuppofe, the tranflator rendered Cyprus alfo Cyprefs. Parkinfon, an authority among old English botanists, fpeaks of this plant as a Privet; of which, had the tranflator been aware, he would doubtlefs have profited. The Cyprefs, properly fo called, was a funereal tree;-from its branches being hung up fo frequently in Rome at the doors of the deceased, it became one of the first objects of the young city painters' attempts at reprefentations of nature, whence the remark of Horace: "et fortaffe Cupreffum Seis fimulare; quid hoc, fi fratis enatat exfpes The Cyprus Plinii is the Lawfonia inermis of Linné. It would fave much trouble, if all writers, when fpeaking of plants, would ufe the Linnéan name. The antient name might be easily adduced by way of illuftration, but the characteristical name fhould be taken from the Linnéan Nomenclature. **S. R. does not appear to diftinguish between religion and its neceffary appendages; between its nature, which is not of this world, and the worldly exteriors with which the profeffion of it muft at present be accompanied.-Hence his objections to the article which has excited his comments:-but our engagements are become too numerous to allow of our entering into private controverfies; fo that, on this, and on other difputed fubjects, after impartially delivering our opinion, we are obliged to fay, with Pilate, "What we have written, we have written." +++ We are forry to acquaint Græculus Efuriens, that there is not now any probability that the intended fcheme, to which he refers, will ever be executed. It is the lot of mortals to meet with difappointments; and the circumstance, to which we here allude, is one of those inftances that fo often occur to remind us of the adage, Non omnia poffumus omnes. tit Other letters remain for confideration. In the Rev. for June, p. 197. 1. 13. from bottom, for looks” read locks. At the bottom of p. 360. (for July,) for P. 130.' read P. 150. |