you fee all our intellectual and moral powers harmoniously concur in giv ing their atteftation to the unrivalled amiableness and importance of religion, in reprefenting it as the nobleft attainment, the most natural, and confequently the best exercise of our rational faculties, as the primary cardinal law impreffed upon us in our formation, as the first and ultimate defign of our Creator, as the confummate felicity of our natures, as the beft moral copy of the great divine Original, as the faireft imitation of the Deity, the great firit Standard and fupreme Exemplar of all moral beauty and perfection.' As this ufeful performance is defigned for young perfons, the Author has, through the whole of it, made ufe of a florid, diffufive, and declamatory ftyle, as being, in general, most agreeable to their taile.' R. Art. 42. The Hypothefis of a Triune Subfiftence in the Deity, as maintained by the Author of A Seafonable Rebuke to an Ignorant Reviler; examined by a By-ftander. 8vo. 6d. Wilkie. Having never (to the best of our recollection) feen the Seafonable Rebuke, nor heard of it before, we have nothing farther to say, with regard to this examination of it, than that it is written in oppofition to the Athanafian herefy; and that this controverfy appears to have been occafioned by a notable tract pretended to have been wrote by a blackSmith: probably the fame mentioned in our 21ft Vol. p. 57. Art. 43. An Attempt to reflore the fupreme Worship of God the Father Almighty. To which is now added, a Dialogue between an Athanafian and a Unitarian. Written for the Ufe of poor Chriftians, by George Williams, a Livery-fervant. Second Edition, with Additions, and a Preface, by T. A. O. T. C. O. A. D. 8vo. I S. Becket and De Hondt. 1 From the publication of this edition of Williams's Attempt, it appears that the little anonymous tract, entitled, A Dialogue between an Unitarian Chriftian and an Athanafiun, mentioned in our Review for September, page 237, and here re-printed, is alfo the work of this honeft and pious DOMESTIC. The preface to this joint edition of the two pamphlets, appears to be written by a reverend gentleman of Briftol; who has taken this occafion of giving the following account of the Author: which may ferve as a fupplement to the particulars inferted in our Review of the Attempt, viz. Great numbers, it feems, have thought that the name prefixed to this pamphlet is a fictitious one, and that no fuch perfon as George Williams, the real author of this Attempt, can be produced. I have, therefore, wrote this, principally to atteft the identity of his perfon. This honest worthy man lives at Tewkesbury in Glocefterfhire. He is a very ferious, fedate, intelligent perfon, who has ever maintained a character unexceptionable. I take him to be about 50. He is a livery-firmant, but has enjoyed many opportunities for the improvement of his mind. In his vacant hours he hath carefully read fome of the best books in our language. His paffion for truth is boundless. In a letter now before me, he sells me, he had rather promote truth in the world than eri♬ churches churches or build bofpitals. He hath no defpicable apparatus of mathematical inftruments; and poffeffes a confiderable fund of philofophical knowledge, which he hath acquired folely by the dint of application, and the habit of patient thinking. I find he hath always been diftinguifhed for the probity, integrity, and goodness of his heart. This is a poffeffion worth all the science and erudition in the world. Our Lord faid, The poor have the gospel preached unto them, confequently the poor are as capable of understanding its fundamental truths as the profoundest scholar that ever lived. There is not one revelation for the poor, another for the rich; one fyftem of truths for the learned, another for the unlearned. The gospel indiscriminately opens its divine treasures to all. The peafant is as much concerned in its great doctrines and discoveries as the philofopher. This worthy confcientious Chriftian hath gone through evil report and good report; through honour and dishonour. Some fay of him as they did of our divine Maiter, that he is a good man: others fay nay, but be deceiveth the people. I find he hath been greatly careffed by numbers both of the clergy and laity fince the publication of this little tract; while others have loaded him with odious names; have tried to incenfe the rabble against him, threatened him with a profecution, and endeavoured to confute him by the invincible arguments of the Secular arm. I only wish I had interest enough in the world to promote a fubfaription to this worthy honeft creature, to enable him to buy a few more good books, and a few more ufeful philofophical inftruments.' The main intention of this preface, is to fecond and enforce what Mr. Williams has offered in fupport of the Unitarian doctrine; by fome general obfervations on the abfurdity of what is here styled the Athanafian impiety of three Gods.' Art. 44. Ante-nuptial Fornication confidered. In a Letter to a young Gentleman. Small 8vo. Is. Becket. One would not have imagined that any thing could ever have been seriously offered in defence of any fpecies of fornication; and confequently, we might naturally conclude, that a courfe of learned arguments against a criminal indulgence in ante-nuptial intimacies, would be totally unneceffary:- altho' diffuafives, on religious and prudential motives, may have become but too requifite, from the indifcretion or frailty of many individuals. A cafe, however, is here ftated, wherein a young gentleman, foberly inclined, and in view of a happy matrimonial connexion, was engaged in a debate on the fubject of antenuptial fornication; wherein he found himself unable to maintain the virtuous caufe of chaftity, against the fpecious reafonings of a fet of able difputants, who undertook to palliate and even vindicate a practice, into which the javenile cafuift was by no means inclined to fall. Our Author, therefore, fends him this long and elaborate epiftle, to enable him the better to ftand his ground, against his fubtle and even learned opponents. To this purpose, he enters on a critical enquiry into the nature of matrimony; and quotes a variety of paffages from the Old and New Teftaments, both preceptive and historical, relating to this fubject. And having confidered how far the idea of the marriage covenant is conformable to the dictates both of reafon and fcripture; he next fhews in what manner i 88 SERMONS. manner thefe dictates are enforced by our national laws concerning this inftitution. He then appeals to the law and voice of conscience; and makes a pathetic addrefs to thofe who are fuppofed to maintain the argument in favour of that libertinifm which is the point here contraverted: concluding the whole with some pious reflections, and judicious observations, well fuited to the occafion.-The Author, though a very grave, is by no means a disagreeable or inelegant writer; expreffing himfelf, throughout, in a manner becoming the fcholar and the gen tleman. Art. 45. Every true Chriflian a new Creature. Being a Treatife on II. Cor. v. 17. By J. Townfend, M. A. Rector of Pewfey in Wilts; late of Clare-hall, Camb. and Chaplain to Jean Duchefs Dowager of Atholl. 12mo. 18. Dilly. Methodistical fanaticism. Art. 46. An Exhortation to Beneficence. By Edward Watkinson, 8vo. York, printed for We have affixed no price to this article, as we do not understand that any copies are to be fold; but the Author, we are informed, hath fent a number of them to his bookfeller, Mrs. Richardfon, in Pater-nofterrow. It is a Sermon, and should have been inferted in the lift of pulpit difcourfes; but as the title-page doth not exprefs it as fuch, we have placed it here. We entirely agree with the good Doctor himself, that it is a plain honest discourse,' in which he hath nervously recommended the practice of one of the moft amiable, moft Christian virtues; without perverting the fcripture,' and (we verily believe) without handling the word of God deceitfully." SERMONS. I. The Infanity of the Senfualift.-Preached to young People, Dec. 25, 1765; in New Broadftreet. By John Palmer. Buckland, &c. M. On the Death of Mifs Eliz. Chriftian, Daughter of the Rev. Mr. W. Chriftian, late of Shapftead, Leicestershire, Sept. 29, 1765. By John Martin. Keith, &c. III. The Lord our Righteousness.At the Chapel in Westfreet, Seven Dials, Nov. 24, 1765. By John Wesley. [For the Benefit of the Poor.] Fletcher, &c. IV. At St. Thomas's, Jan. 1, 1766, for the Benefit of the Charity-fchool in Gravel-lane, Southwark. By Richard Price, F. R.S. Millar. THE MONTHLY REVIEW, For FEBRUARY, 1766. The Alliance between Church and State: or, the Neceffity and Equity of an eftablished Religion and a Teft-Law demonftrated. In Three Books. The Fourth Edition, corrected and enlarged. By Dr. W. Warburton, Lord Bishop of Gloucefter. 8vo. 6s. Millar and Tonfon. A S this edition of the celebrated Alliance between Church and State is much enlarged, it will naturally be expected that we should give an account of the most confiderable additions that are made to it. As to the work itself, any analysis of it would be unneceffary, as few of our Readers can be unac quainted with the merit of so very curious a performance. In Chap. 5th, Book 1ft, his Lordship, fpeaking of the author of The Rights of the Chriflian Church, makes the following obfervations in regard to Hobbes :- Hobbes, fays he, is commonly fuppofed to be an enemy to all religion, especially the Chriftian. But it is obfervable, that in his attacks upon it (if at leaft he intended his chapter of the Chriflian Common-wealth in the Leviathan, for an attack) he has taken direct contrary meafures from thofe of Bayle, Collins, Tyndal, Bolingbroke, and all the other writers against revelation. They endeavoured to fhew the gospel-fyftem as unreasonable as their extreme malice could make it; he as reafonable as his admirable wit could represent it. The schemes of church difcipline likewife, which they and he fe verally recommended, were by an odd fatality as different as their reprefentations of the doctrine; but in the reverse, as to their qualities. They, all of them contended for the moft une bounded toleration: he, for the most rigorous conformity. He feems, indeed, to have formed his plan of ecclefiaftical government before he turned his thoughts to the Chriftian doctrine; and therefore as his politics had inforced an abfolute fubmiffion to the civil magiftrate in fpirituals, he contrived, in order to make VOL. XXXIV, H it it go down the better, to make the object of this fubmiffion as reasonable as poffible. Whereas the others, beginning with the Chriftian doctrine, which they aimed to render as abfurd as poffible, very equitably contrived to make it fit eafy on their followers, by a licentious kind of toleration destructive of all church difcipline. In chapter third, book fecond, we have the following note to his Lordship's fecond corollary: When the Quakers first arofe, the clergy generally claimed their tythes by divine right; and there being nothing in the light within to direct those people up to that original, they regarded the exaction of tythes as an Antichriftian robbery; and rather chofe to fuffer, what they called, perfecution, than comply with the demand. In no long time after, the clergy in general gave up this claim. I think, the prieft's divine right to a tenth part, and the king's divine right to the other nine, went out of fashion together. And thenceforward the church and the crown agreed to claim their temporal rights from the laws of the land only. • One would think therefore, that when churchmën ́had changed their bad principles for better, the quakers might have done fo too. To be candid, I will not fuppofe, they wanted this good difpofition. But the fmalleft change in their religious fyftem would have brought the whole into hazard. For here lay the difference between the church and the conventicle. The reform of the national religion from the corruptions of popery, was made on the principles of human reafon guided by common fenfe. In which, whatever mistakes the reformers had committed (errors incident to humanity) their fucceffors might redrefs without blushing; and, what is more, without any danger of difhonouring religion. It was not fo with the quakers. For this fect being founded in modern infpiration, (which is, by interpretation, fanaticifm) to alter the leaft article of their creed was giving the lye to the holy fpirit, as it came from the mouth of their founder, George Fox. Payment of tythes, therefore, was ftill obftinately to be refufed. And to fupport their perfeverance they had recourse to another fetch of principle, "That whoever contributes to the fupport of a thing finful is partaker of that fin." And tythes being apparently finful, the defired conclufion was within call. This afforded much confolation to friends. It is true, the expedient was not without its inconvenience: for in the number of things finful, they held war, efpecially an offenfive war to be one. And then an act of parliament, granting an aid for the fupport of fuch a war, brought on a new diftrefs. What was to be done? The king would be obeyed. This, they well knew, and therefore in dutiful filence paid their quota, and left |