fpecting those diftin& and equally important offices, which the glorious, eternal, and united Three, have ftipulated to perform in the work of our falvation.'-We fhall offer no remark on this paffage, as our fentiments, in relation to the doctrine of the Trinity, are well known to our Readers.

Art. 63. Three Sermons, preached before the University of Came bridge, occafioned by an Attempt to abolish Subfcription to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion; and published at the Request of the Vice-Chancellor and Heads of Colleges. By Samuel Halli fax, LL. D. the King's Profeffor of Civil Law in the University of Cambridge. The fecond Edition. 4to. 1 S. White, &c.

72.

nough not perfonally acquainted with Dr. Hallifax, we had always been taught to regard him as a man of confiderable abilities and moderation; but, we are forry to fay, that the prefent publication hath not a little diminished our ideas of him in both these refpects. The Dr. hath permitted his paffions to be fo far engaged in the late tranfactions at Cambridge, relative to Subfcriptions, that his temper at leat, if not his judgment, hath fuffered much in the conteft. It might be expected, from the title-page of thefe fermons, that the affair of Subfcription was the principal thing difcuffed in them; but, in fact, what they chiefly contain, is, a fuperficial and angry declamation upon fome particular doctrines. Not content with pouring out his indignation against the heretiarch Priefly, Dr. Hallifax has vented his fpleen on the innocent opinion, that our Saviour's temptation was tranfacted in a vifion.-Nay, he has been fo unfortunate and fo abfurd, as to connect this opinion with a denial of the atonement of Chrift, and to intimate, that the method of interpretation on which it is founded is intended to lead on to the explaing away of the prophecies and miracles of feripture; though the gentleman, who has principally fupported the notion of the temptation's being a divine vifion, has never been fufpected of denying the atonement, has exprefsly fpecified his fentiments with regard to the prophecies, and has written the best treatife extant on the na ture and design of miracles. It feems to be the purpose of these difcouries, to guard the ftudents at Cambridge against the apprehended falfe doctrines of the times; but the Author ought to have known youthful minds fo well as to be fenfible, that they cannot be led into truth, or diverted from error, by any other than the gentleft methods. We hope that Dr. Hallifax will endeavour to recollect, and cool himself, before he appears again in public. If he wishes to recover his reputation, it must undoubtedly be by more judicious and more temperate productions. K. Art. 64. Critical Remarks on Dr. Nowell's Sermon, January 30, 1772, before the Houfe of Commons; to which is annexed, the Sermon complete. Printed with the Approbation of the Speaker, at the Expence of a Member. 4to. 1s. Evans.

Thefe critical remarks, which are very short and fuperficial, feem principally defigned to introduce a fpurious edition of Dr. Nowell's fermon: we fay, a fpurious edition of it, though the editor has endeavoured to impofe apon the public, by an ambiguous title-page.

Art.

2

Art. 65. A Letter to the Rev. Dr. Nowell, Principal of St. Mary Hall, King's Profeffor of Modern Hiftory, and Public Orator, in the Univerfity of Oxford: occafioned by his very extraordinary Sermon, preached before the House of Commons, January 30, 1772. 8vo. 6 d. Towers.

In this letter, the Jacobitical principles of Dr. Nowell are properly expofed, and his falfe affertions unanswerably refuted, from the authentic teftimony of history. How greatly fuperior, in the cause of truth, of reason, and of liberty, is a humble Bookfeller (for fuch, we apprehend, is the Author of the prefent performance) to the Principal of St. Mary Hall, King's Profeffor of Modern Hiftory, and Public Orator, in the University of Oxford ! X.

SERMONS.

J. Before the Lords fpiritual and temporal, January 30, 1772. By Shute Lord Bishop of Landaff. 4to. 6d. Payne, &c.

Confidering the fpirit of the times, or to fpeak more properly, the fpirit that feems to be rifing up among fome of the principal clergy, we may be thankful for fo rational and moderate a compofition as the prefent difcourfe. We do not, however, by any means agree with the Bishop of Landaff, in what he advances at the conclufion of his fermon. His Lordship feems to think, that every idea of improving the conftitution fhould be difcarded, and that an attempt to repair any flaws either in our civil or ecclefiaftical establishment, must be dangerous. Perhaps a determined oppofition to every degree of reformation may, in its confequences, be still more dangerous. With refpect to the eceleftaftical conftitution in particular, fome few reasonable alterations might give a longer fecurity and peace to the church than it would otherwise enjoy.

K

II. Before the House of Commons, January 30, 1772. By Thomas Nowell, D. D. Principal of St. Mary Hall, King's Profeffor of Modern Hiftory, and Public Crator in the University of Oxford. 4to. 6 d. Payne, &c. 1772.

It has often been confidered as a matter of juft complaint, that feveral of the profefforships in our two famous universities should be little more than finecures; but if this be the cafe with regard to Dr. Nowell's department, it is a happy circumftance for the ftudents at Oxford. All the fincere lovers of their country must be forry if young minds are to receive their political and historical maxims and inftructions from a perfon of fuch flavish principles, and who is capable of afferting, that in vain fhall we look for the beginning of the evils of Charles the Firft's reign from any real or pretended grievances, from any undue ftretches of prerogative, from any abuse of royal power. After fuch an affertion, we need not be furprised that not the leaft word efcapes the Author which appears like an approbation of the Revolution, or of that fyftem of policy which introduced the Hanover fucceffion. Perhaps, however, Dr. Nowell thinks that he hath made ample amends for this omiffion, by finding, in his prefent Majefty, the bright refemblance of the Royal Martyr. It feems fuitable enough to fuch a ridiculous, disgraceful, and (we are perfuaded) groundless compliment, to advance tenets fimilar to those

thofe of Montague, Manwaring, and Sibthorp. But did our Profeffor and public Orator reflect, that if his favourite doctrines had prevailed, King George the Third would never have fat upon, and adorned the throne of Great Britain!

The ftigma which hath been put upon this fermon by the House of Commons, in expunging, from the Journals, the Thanks that had been inadvertently given to the Author of it, does honour to the British Parliament, and will afford, to future Preachers, a lesson of wisdom and caution. K.

III. Before the Governors of Addenbrooke's Hofpital, June 27, 1771, at Great St. Mary's Cambridge. By T. Rutherforth, D. D. Archdeacon of Effex, and King's Profeffor of Divinity in the Univerfity of Cambridge. I s. Beecroft, &c.

IV. Occafioned by the Death of Mr. William Roffey, who died at Cranbrook, in Kent, Dec. 12th, 1771. By Robert Noyes. 6 d. Law, &c.

V. The early Knowledge and Remembrance of God recommended and urged,-to young Perfons, at Braintree, in Effex. By the Rev. Thomas Davidson, M. A. 6d. Dilly.

VI. At the Parish Church of St. Stephen, Wallbrook, for the Benefit of the Children belonging to the St. Ethelberga Society, April 14, 1771. By Thomas Coombe, M. A. Chaplain to the Marquis of Rockingham. 4to. 1 s. Kearsley, &c.

VII. The Triumph of Death, &c. an univerfal funeral Sermon, for the Year 1771; being the Subftance of feveral alarming Difcourfes upon the certainty of Death, &c. The many different Ways he may come upon us, and oft at a Time when least thought on; as in many Inftances, among the great Number cut off fuddenly laft Year. Delivered by an eminent Gofpel Minister of this City, to an attentive Affembly. 8vo. 6 d. Hood, &c. 1772.

.This Methodistical catch-penny fermon, preached no-where, may be read anywhere, and will be equally useful everywhere, to spread the extraordinary tidings, that

Firft or laft we all muft die,

Which the poet, however, had told us before; fo that the difcovery is not altogether new; although this fermon-monger has difcovered a new method of making money by it; of which we may expect he will annually avail himself, about the time when the almanacs come

out.

VIII. The Manner of contending for the Faith confidered.-Preached at Taunten, by Joshua Toulmin, A. M. To which is fubjoined a Letter to the Rev. Mr. Rooker, occafioned by his Sermon on the fame Subject, lately published. 8vo. 8 d. Johnfon, &c. 1771.

Jude v. 3. It was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you, that ye fhould earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the faints.'-Mr. Toulmin gives a liberal, and, we believe, a very true explication of this text; in oppofition to thofe who have applied it in favour of certain narrow principles, which have obtained in the Chriftian world fince the days of the apofties, who could only have had in view the truths which were then revealed to mankind, and not the difputable points and doubtful explanations of fallible men in afterages.--To his fermon, Mr.T. has fubjoined a fenfible and candid letter

to a reverend Gentleman, who, in a difcourfe on the fame fubject, feems to have intimated, that the faith to be contended for, comprehends the doctrines of particular election, the Trinity, original fin, and juftification by the imputed righteoufnefs of Chrift alone: which, from the diffention and confufion they have occafioned in the world, appear to be not fo much matter of faith, as fubjects of difputation.

IX. Containing a Plan for reforming the Liturgy, and Articles of the Church of England. By the Rev. T. Goddard, A. M. Rector of Swell, in Somerfetfhire. 8vo. 6d. Baldwin, &c. 1772.

This fermon no otherwife contains a plan for reforming the Liturgy and Articles of the church of England, than as it exhibits the Author's general view of the fcheme of Chriftianity, from John 17. 3. Mr. Goddard feems to be a candid and well meaning, but not a masterly or judicious writer. K.

W

CORRESPONDENCE.

E have been favoured with a letter, figned Your candid Reader,' relative to the fubject of the late clerical petition to parliament; in anfwer to which, we fhall obferve, that we cannot enter farther into the difputes of the times than is abfolutely neceffary to the discharging our duty to the public, with fidelity and juftice. As to Dean Tucker's Apology, there could be no greater reafon for fupporting our hint at the lefs defenfible parts of that performance, by citing the particular paffages to which we alluded, than for doing the fame with regard to all the publications upon the affair of Subfcription. If we had, in general, gone' beyond a brief character of them, we must have departed from our plan, to the exclufion of almost every other subject. The whole of our Review, for the two last months, would barely have fufficed for the pamphlets which have appeared in that very prolific controverfy, had we defcended to fuch a particular and circumftantial difcuffion of their contents as our correfpondent would feem to require. His remarks may, with propriety, be communicated to Dr. Tucker himself. K. WE have received a letter from the Rev. Mr. Hingefton, in which that Gentlemen, in the most unexceptionable terms, difavows all acquaintance with the writings of Calvin and his followers; declaring, as becomes a Chriftian Minister, that his ftudies have been chiefly confined to the facred Scriptures. He alfo utterly disclaims (what, indeed, he was not pofitively charged with) the having entertained a fuperftitious degree of reverence for the Chriftian Priefthood; and he has, in both thefe refpects, vindicated himfelf in fo handsome a manner, that we have thought it an act of justice, thus publicly to mention his polite and candid letter.

H.

*Our account of the Third Volume of Lord LYTTELTON's Hiftory has been unavoidably retarded; but it shall appear as foon as poffible. We hope to give it in our next.

*Review, Feb. p. 114

† Ibid. p. 117′′

THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For A PRI L, 1772.

1 ART. I. The Book of Job, in English Verse; tranflated from the ori ginal Hebrew; with Remarks hiftorical, critical, and explanatory. By Thomas Scott. 4to. 11. Is. Cadell, &c, 1771.

TH

HIS performance recommends itself to the public in a double capacity; as a tranflation of the book of Job in verfe, and as a learned and elaborate commentary upon that valuable, but difficult part of the Old Testament. It will be neceffary, therefore, to confider the work before us in these two diftinct views; and, in order to do juftice to its poetical cha. racter, it may not be improper to make fome obfervations on the nature and verfification of the original poem from which it is tranflated.

Various are the opinions concerning the time in which the book of Job was written; but the fuffrages of the best critics are in favour of its very early antiquity. They think that it was either compofed by Job himself, or by Elihu, or some nearly cotemporary inhabitant of Idumæa; or, if the work of Mofes (which is, perhaps, the most probable notion) that it was his first production, when he refided in the land of Midian, after he had fled from the court of Egypt. According to any of thefe fuppofitions, it must have been one of the oldeft, if not abfolutely the oldest book in the world. With regard to the nature of the poem, it is univerfally agreed that it is dramatic. But when this is afferted, it can only be faid that it is dramatic in a general fenfe, in confequence of the feveral charac ters being introduced as fpeaking in their proper perfons. The book of Job is not a ftrict drama, in the Grecian fignification of the word, so as to contain a regular fable or action, deduced, by imitation, through a series of events, till it is brought to its final catastrophe. It is, however, a fine compofition in the more general dramatic form, and is conducted with an order and beauty not to be paralleled in any other parts of the facred VOL. XLVI,

T

poetry: