which he does with great zeal, and, for aught we know, with truth and juftice. But we, who are uninitiated, can fay nothing concerning those folemn, awful, and inftructive scenes, where

at which only the faithful brother can he prefent,' and which, it is added, raife in our minds the most useful and fublime ideas, mixed with the pureft delight."

While this reverend brother fpeaks most highly of the dignity and utility of the order into which he has been admitted, he at the fame time, delivers much good advice concerning the fpirit and behaviour which every member of this body fhould endeavour to preserve and cherish.

For our account of Mr. Smith's book, entitled, The Errors of the Church of Rome deteaed, fee Review for December 1777, p. 472.

SERMONS.

I. Preached in the Church of St. Michael, Cornhill, Feb. 10, 1779. Being the Day appointed for a General Fall. By Robert Pool Finch, D. D. Rector of that Parish. 4to. 1s. Rivington.

In this fenfible difcourfe, the preacher laments the degeneracy of the times; and earnestly exhorts his hearers to repentance and reformation. The Doctor writes well; but when he talks of establish. ments granting and extending toleration at difcretion, and as circumftances require;' and of authority relaxing or tightening the reins, as its own difcerning eye fees fit ;'-we think he is rather fond of manifefting his zeal for political orthodoxy, and high-flown ecclefiaftical claims.

II. At the primary Vifitation of the Right Reverend Beilby Lord Bishop of Chefer, in the Cathedral Church, Aug. 13, 1778. By Thomas Townfon, B. D. Rector of the Lower Mediety of Mal pas. 4to. 1 s. Chefter, printed, and fold by Bathurst in London.

The text of this difcourfe is Luke iv. 32. And they were aflonifhed at his doctrine, fer his word was with power. The reflections which are here made on the matter and manner of our Lord's preaching, are fenfible and judicious, ingenious and edifying; and the style is easy and agreeable.

III. The Coming and Enlargement of the Kingdom of God: At Salter'sHall, April 28, 1779, before the Correfpondent Board of the Society in Scotland (incorporated by Royal Charter) for propagating Chriftian Knowledge in the Highlands and Islands, and ter fpreading the Gofpel among the Indians in America. By Thomas Toller. Published at the Requeft of the Society, &c. 8vo. 6d. Buckland. 1779.

Pious, fenfible, and well compofed. The text, Thy kingdom come. The preacher brings convincing proof of the importance and utility of that inftitution, which he recommends to charitable regard. He pleads for the free exercife of religion, and manifefts a liberality and candor of fentiment becoming a chriftian minifter. At the fame time, he fhews, that the extenfive diffemination of popery, and the alarming influence of popish emiffaries, are objects worthy the ferious attention of this fociety.

IV. Preached

IV. Preached at Truro, before a Provincial Grand Lodge of Free Accepted Masons, on the Festival of St. John the Baptist. By the Rev. Cornelius Cardew, M. A. Mafter of the Grammar School, Truro. 8vo. 6 d. Richardfon, &c.

This fermon treats of the excellencies of love and free masonry: the former, as the apoftle fays in the text, is the fulfilling of the law,' and the latter, as Mr. Cornelius Cardew fays, is a moral science: and that one principal end of the inftitution, is the cultivation and improvement of the polite arts and fciences.' • Indeed,' fays he, we boaft, and I apprehend on good grounds, that it has, through a long feries of ages, contributed to difpel the gloom of ignorance and barbarifm' But though free mafonry hath taught Mr. Cárdew to talk about those tessere, or watch-words, which conftitute a kind of univerfal language, by which he can diftinguish a brother in any part of the world;' yet it hath not inftructed him in making choice of the best language for the pulpit: and though order and proportion are pretended to be the alpha and omega of this moral Science; yet there is a fentence in Mr. Cardew's fermon, which is out of all order, and can only be reduced to regularity, by beginning where he hath, like a bungling mafon, ended it. Love beginning,' fays he, ⚫ with the nearer relations of parent, brother, friend, and neighbour, and all the tender charities of domeftic life, as it goes on to enlarge its circle, embraceth by degrees, within its comprehenfive grafp, not only the whole human race, and every order of spiritual intelligence, but takes every creature in of every kind, and at last centers in the great Author of all existence.' So this circle, as it enlarges, comes at laft to a centre! We thought free mafonry taught, at leaft, geometry among the other arts and fciences, of which, the preacher tells us, it may make so confident a boaft.' But we will charitably help him to a very great authority to countenance his error in mathema tics. It is no less than that of Dr. Sacheverel himself, who, in his famous fermon at St. Paul's, makes two parallel lines meet in a centre! Q. E. D.

V. The Doctrine of Divine Influence on the Human Mind. Confidered in a Sermon, published at the Request of many Perfons who have occasionally heard it. By Jofeph Priestley, LL. D. F. R. S. 8vo. 1 s. Johnfon. 1779.

In this difcourfe, the Author opposes the doctrine of fovereign and irresistible grace, the new and miraculous birth, or the poffibility of instantaneous converfion, as being altogether unfcriptural and deceit. ful. He founds his oppofition to the pretenfions of thofe empirics in religion, who maintain the immediate agency of the Deity on the minds of men, on the parable of the fower; which may be confidered as a prophecy, verified by all hiftory, as well as by daily obfervation; and in which our Lord compares himfelf and his apofties to perfons who merely fcatter good feed promifcuously, or without diftinction of places or foils; that is, whether they be well or ill adapted to receive it and bring it forth; and who do not alter the previous quality or condition of the foil itself.

This parable accordingly inculcates this important truth; That all the benefit we are authorifed to expect from the gofpel, arifes from the natural effect that the great truths and motives, of it are calculated to produce upon the mind; that the interpolition of the

Divine

Divine Being, in the difpenfation of the gofpel, confifts folely in imparting these truths, and fuggefting thofe motives, and not at all in giving any fupernatural efficacy to the truths or motives after they are prefented.'

To what end has been the whole apparatus of revealed religion,' fays the Author, if moral impreffions were made upon men's minds by an immediate divine agency?'-Why were the miracles of Moses and Chrift performed, by which a fanction was given to their characters and doctrines; if the Divine Being ftill found it neceffary, after all this, to produce the effects intended by these miracles, through his own immediate agency on the minds of those who had been witneffes to, and fpectators of, thefe miracles? This last miraculous and immediate interpofition of the Divine Being, must make the former miracles unneceffary and fuperfluous.

We read,' fays the Author, of our Lord's giving fight to the blind, limbs to the maimed, and the ufe of reafon to those who were ! deprived of it; but never of his giving a found mind, in a moral fenfe, to those who were deftitute of that. For this, though the greatest of all purposes, he made use of nothing but instruction and admonition. He ufed no other means, either to difarm the malice of his enemies, or to correct the imperfections of his best friends. Otherwife Judas would never have betrayed him, nor would Peter have denied him.'

The Author enforces this doctrine by the parable of the fig tree; to which our Lord likewife compares human nature. In this parable, the quality of the tree is not reprefented as liable to be altered, otherwife than by the natural effects expected to be produced, by digging round it, and dunging it. In both these cafes, the improvement of man is not defcribed as effected by the divine power immediately acting on his mind; but through the medium of certain natural means, external to the mind, and adapted to produce that end, according to the ufual and uniform course of nature; that is, by the natural influence of motives operating upon it.

Such is the doctrine intended to be inculcated in this difcourfe; in which the general agency of the Divine Being on the minds of men is maintained to be real and constant; but not immediate, that is, miraculous. To encourage the latter opinion, or that of a fuper natural influence on the mind, is to encourage an enthusiasm, and, in fome cafes, a dangerous delufion, leading men to neglect the natural and only efficacious means of improving their characters, and to depend on certain fupernatural impulfes and feelings, of vague and uncertain defcription, and that cannot have any relation to moral virtue.'

VI. Preached at the Chapel in Deal, on the Feflival of St. John the Baptift, June 24, 1779, before the Provincial Grand Lodge of Kent, and published at their Requeft. By the Reverend Brother, James Smith, Vicar of Alkham in Ken, and Author of The Errors of the Church of Rome detected, &c. 8vo. 6d. Wilkie.

We fincerely congratulated and honoured Mr. Smith, when, under the power of full conviction, he separated himself from the church of

• Vide Rev. for Dec. 1777. p. 472.

Rome.

Rome. Whether or not we are in like manner to congratulate him on his admiffion into the brotherhood of Free-Malons, is a question which, at prefent, we are not prepared to answer. He appears, however, greatly fatisfied, and highly pleated, with his new alliance, and continues in this fermon, as he had done in his late Charge +, to proclaim the excellence of the renowned order of Free Mafonry; an inftitution which he places next to Chriflianity. From Heb. x. 24, he deduces a laudable exhortation to the exercise of benevolence and charity. Let us then, my brethren, fays he, as we are exhorted by St. Paul, confider one another, to provoke unto love and to good works. Let us confider what we are, and what we ought to be. Firit, and principally, let us reflect that we are Christians; a charafter infinitely beyond any which may be acquired by a mere human inftitution. In the fecond place, let us confider that we are FreeMafons. Of the great importance of this, you cannot but be fenfible. These are the two noblet characters we can enjoy. Having confidered what we are, let us reflect on what we ought to be: true to our profeffions, faithful to our obligations. Natural and revealed religion are blended and interwoven with Free-Masonry; we cannot therefore become good Mafons, without being at the fame time good men, and good Chriftians.'

་

Our Author introduces fome terms into his difcourfe, fuitable, perhaps, to the character of a Mason, but not very fuitable to the gravity and dignity of the pulpit; as when he tells us, that the good Mafon is properly faid to live on the level with all men, &c.'The following fhort defcription of our myttic fcience, within the compass of prefcribed bounds, &c' Again, Laws to which the true Free Mafon ftridly adheres, and by which he invariably Squares his conduct; farther, The general depravity and incapacity of mankind, have made it expedient to tyle, or conceal fecurely, our myfteries, or fublime truths, by hieroglyphic and fymbolical reprefentations.'-The drift, however, of this difcourfe, to recommend love and good works in all their extent, is certainly commendable and ufeful;-and this, we are told, is the intent of Free Masonry.

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the MONTHLY REVIEWERS.

GENTLEMEN,

Beg leave briefly to observe, that the date of A. D. 660, affigued by your Correspondent in the clofe of your Review for September, to the use of organs in the church, is much too early; for we have the exprefs teftimony of the celebrated Thomas Aquinas, who Bourished in the middle of the thirteenth century, that, in his time,

the church did not ufe mufical instruments, left the should feem to judaize." See Peirce's Vindication of the Diffenters, p. 3, c. 3, or p. 106, 107, Eng. ed. And the learned Bingham, a ftaunch churchman, in his Antiq of the Chriftian Church, b. 8, c. 7, § 14, or v. 1, F. 314, fol. ed. fays, "'Tis now generally agreed by learned men, that the ufe of organs came into the church fince the time of

See this Month's Review, p. 396.

1

Thomas

Thomas Aquinas, anno 1250." He adds, "that Marinus Sanatus, who lived about the year 1290, first brought the use of them into churches. The ufe of the inftrument was indeed much ancienter, but not in church fervice; the not attending to which diflinction impofes upon many writers." I will just add,-that allowing the organ to be very ancient, there is no ground to think that the inftru. ment we have rendered organ in the Old Testament, bore any re. femblance to the modern organ; as the Hebrew Gnugab, is very indeterminate, and only imports that it was a favourite of delectable inftrument; accordingly the Septuagint render it, in the four places in which it occurs, by three different Greek words. I am, Gentlemen, your humble fervant,

*

S.

The Editor of COLUMELLA prefents his compliments to the Gentlemen concerned in the Monthly Review. He takes entirely in good part their judicious ftrictures on that trifling work. He is only forry to have his harmless raillery on Dr. Prieftley's ufeful and aftonishing difcoveries in chemistry, cenfured as "an attempt to ridicule them." He has the highest regard and veneration for Dr. Priestley's uncommon abilities, as well as for his moral character. The only opinions of Dr. P.'s, which the Editor of Columella could wish to fee exploded, whether by argument or ridicule, are his fyftem of materialifm-as he thinks nothing less than a power of working miracles, or at lealt of demonftrating them inconteftibly, can warrant the publication of opinions of fo fatal a tendency-For though truth, like gold in the crucible, can never fuffer by the ftricte fcrutiny, yet the operation may raise fumes very pernicious to the by-flanders.

Icth Nov. 1779.

Æ.

+++ In your last Month's Review 1, a catalogue of books, with a fhort character of them, by M. Denis of Vienna, was mentioned, and the Reviewers faid it was the best thing of the kind they had feen. A conftant Reader has long wifhed to fee a work of this kind in English, or, if that could not be had, in Latin or French; and would be much obliged if the Monthly Reviewers would recommend one in their next Number.

Y. Z.

We are of opinion that a tranflation of the work compiled by M. Denis would be well received in this country; or, rather, perhaps, a new production on the fame plan ;-to which the labours of the learned librarian might largely contribute.

ERRAT. in the REVIEW for August; viz..

In the account of Brown's Reports, p. 144, 1. penult. for model, I. mode.

* From

עגב

Adamavit. Vide Stockii Clavim V. T. in vocem.

Vid. Art. II. of the Foreign Literature.