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19. The whole Proceedings in the Caufe on the Action brought by the Rt. Hon. Geo. Onflow, Efq. against the Rev. Mr. Horne, ex Friday, April 6, at Kingston, for a Defamatory Libel, before the Rt. Hon. Sir William Blackftone, Knt. one of the Justices of bis Majesty's Court of King's Bench. Taken in Short-band (by Permillion of the Judge) by Jofeph Gurney. 8vo. is. T. Davies. This publication is undoubtedly genuine.-We are extremely forry, that a proper regard to the letter of the law has prevented, for fome time at leaft, the determination of a question which has long engaged the public attention.

20. A Review of Ecclefiaftica! Hiftory, so far as it concerns the Progrefs, Declenfions, and Revivals of evangelical Do&rines and Practice; with a brief Account of the Spirit and Methods by which vital and experimental Religion have been opposed in all ages of the Church. By John Newton, Curate of Olney, Bucks. 8vo. Pr. 5s. Dilly.

This is the first volume of a work which the author propofes to continue, upon the fame plan, from the first promulgation of Chriftianity to the prefent time. He appears to be a worthy and laborious divine, a man of learning, and one who writes agreeably to the dictates of his confcience. The work is interfperfed with many obfervations of a serious and pious tendency, and is particularly calculated to vindicate and fupport thofe principles and tenets which are commonly called methodistical. As fuch, it will undoubtedly be acceptable to thofe who embrace that fyftem of Chriftianity; but we do not apprehend, that it will be read with equal fatisfaction or pleasure by thofe, who are advocates for the ufe of reason in religious enquiries; or those who want to have a concise, clear, elegant, and accurate, ecclefiaftical history.

21. Critical Remarks upon an excellent Treatife lately published, intituled A Syftem of Ecclefiaftical Hiftory and Morality. 8vo. Pr. 34. Bladon.

The Syftem of Ecclefiaftical History, which has given occafion to these Remarks, was written by Mr. George Adams, and is mentioned in our Review for February 1769. The author feems to be better acquainted with the Mifna, the Gemara, and all the dreams of the Jewish rabbins, than with his own language, or the principles of common fenfe. This publication is evidently the work of Mr. Adams himself. And indeed it is impoffible, that any other perfon fhould call fuch a farrago, as the book in question, ' an excellent treatise.' 22. Mystery Unmasked, addreffed to People of any Religion, and thofe of none. By A. Clement. 8vo. Pr. 21. ferved. Whiston. In this performance Mr. Clement has difplayed his religi ous turn of mind, rather than the talents of an ingenious writer, or folid reafoner.

23. An Efay on the Epifle to the Romans. With Notes. Defigned as a Key to the Apoflolic Writings. Part II. 8vo. Pr. 6d. Dilly.

The reader will find an account of the first part of this Effay in our Review for October 1768. There is nothing in this publication which deferves particular notice. The whole of it is comprised within the compafs of eight pages, and ought in confcience to have been fold for three-pence, or a groat.

24. A Short Explanation of fome of the principal Things contained in the Revelation of St. John. Shewing, from the XIth Capter, that the Fall of the Tenth Part of Turkey, by the oppressed Witnesses of Chrift, is begun, under the Protection of the Empress of Ruffia. All things being now ripe for the Fall of Popery, the Appearance of fome powerful inspired' Person is fhewn to be peedily expected, to reform the Proteftant Church to the primitive Purity; which, according to the XIVth Chapter and other Places, is to be propagated amongst the Romanists, and fupported by Wars till they are united in the fame Faith, and in a Religious War against the Turks; which is so commence quickly after the Fall of the Tenth Part of Turkey by the Witneffes, and be carried on by the Chriftian Powers, till it terminates in the Defiruction of the Mahometan Antichrift, and in the Restoration of the Jews in the MILLENNIUM. 8vo. Pr. 15. Owen.

No book, that ever made its appearance in the world, has been more violently tortured by dreaming expofitors, than the Revelation of St. John. They have wrefted it into a thousand forms, and made it fubfervient to their own frivolous and foolish conceits. Without defcending any lower, the reader will find a confiderable number of vifionary conjectures in Whitton's effay on that book. The treatife we are now confidering is the work of an inferior hand. In the title, which we have cited at large, it bears the image and fuperfcription of a crazy brain, or that of a genius who is equally qualified to write on the Apocalypfe, the influence of the ftars, the fig nification of moles, or the intrepretation of dreams.

25. The Teft of the true and false Doctrines. A Sermon preached in the Parish Church of St. Chad, Salop, on September 24, 1769. By William Adams, D. D. Minifter of St. Chad's, and Chaplain to the late Bijkop of St. Asaph. 8vo. Pr. 6d. White.

Mr. Romaine on the 10th of September laft, preached at St. Chad's. His fermon, as appears by this publication, gave of fence to the minifter of the parish, and the principal part of the congregation. The former therefore thought himfelf ob

liged, on the first opportunity, to warn thofe, with whom he was connected, against haftily entertaining a partiality for the principles of methodism, or believing that their own pastor is a fetter forth of falfe doctrines.

The teft, which he chiefly recommends in this difcourfe, for the trial of religious opinions, is, by comparing them with the great leading principles of religion, which are univerfally acknowledged to be effential and fundamental to it; that is to fay, fuch as thefe: that God is the righteous governor of the world; that he loves righteoufnefs and hates iniquity; that he is a rewarder of them that diligently feek him; and that he will not let the guilty go free; that man is endowed with an understanding to difcern between good and evil, and with a will or power to choose or to refuse the evil or the good, &c.

Dr. Adams proceeds to point out the ufe of those principles in fome particular inftances, efpecially in forming a judgment of those doctrines which are the favourite notions of the methodists; as the infignificancy of good works, the impotency of our mental powers, hereditary guilt, predeftination, imputed righteoufnefs, and the like.

A critical reader will probably find fome pofitions, in this discourse, in which he may not entirely agree with Dr. Adams, and fome paffages which may not seem to be fufficiently guarded against all reasonable exception; yet it is evidently the production of an able and a pleafing writer.

26. A Letter to the Rev. Dr. Adams, of Shrewsbury; occa fioned by the Publication of his Sermon, preached against the Rev. Mr. Romaine: entitled A Teft of True and Falfe Doctrines. To which is now added a Dedication to the Parishioners of St. Chad's and Cund. With an Appendix, containing a short Account of the Hereftes of Arius, Pelagius, Socinus, and Arminius; as also a Letter from Mr. Romaine to Dr. Adams. The 2d Edition. 8vo. Pr. Is. Dilly.

The principles and abilities of this writer are well known by his late publications. It will therefore, on this occafion, be fufficient to observe, that he has attacked Dr. Adams with his ufual fpirit, for having borne, as he tells us, a public testimony against the Articles, Homilies, and Common Prayer Book, and for ranking the reformers among the bad interpreters of Scripture.

In an Appendix to this Letter he reprefents the Dr. as an Arian, a Pelagian, a Socinian, an Armiaian, and a Heretic. When writers begin to call their adverfaries by opprobrious names, we may fairly conclude, that they do not pretend to reafon any longer. Abufive appellations is the weak refuge of the orators at Billingsgate.

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THE

CRITICAL REVIEW.

For the Month of May, 1770.

ARTICLE I.

The Hiftory of the Lower Empire, beginning from Conftantine the Great. Tranflated from the French of M. le Beau, Vol. I. 8vo. Pr. 5s. boards. T. Davies.

T

HE tranfactions of the Romans undoubtedly conftitute the moft beautiful and most entertaining part of profane hiftory, which ought therefore to be read with the greateft attention. It abounds with fuch a variety of important events, and affords fuch repeated occafions for reflexion, that it might very well fupply the place of every other branch of hiftory, in forming a fchool, as it were, of all the moral vir

tues.

This hiftory is divided into two grand periods; one, containing the times of the republic, and the other those of the Roman emperors. In thefe different periods, the Roman ftate bore an exact refemblance to the different ages of human life. Governed in its infancy by kings, who formed its conftitution for a long existence; under its confuls ever active, and invigorated by the conftant exercife of arms, it arrived in the days of Auguftus to its maturity, and notwithstanding the dif orders of a military government, fupported its grandeur during three centuries, that is, to the reign of Conftantine the Great.

The reign of this prince is a famous æra; the Chriftian religion rescued from the hands of executioners, to be invefted with the imperial purple, and the feat of the Cæfars tranf ferred from Rome to Byzantium, give an intire new face to VOL. XXIX. May, 1770.

Y

the

the government of that mighty flate, which from this very æra of Conftantine the Great, to the taking of Conftantinople by the Turks, affumes the name of the Lower Empire. Down to this æra Rome was diftinguished by a number of eminent hiftorians, both Greek and Latin, whofe writings are as much admired for the beauty of the ftile, as for the importance of the fubject. The fame cannot be faid with regard to the hiftory of the Lower Empire. We have no other accounts of the emperors, but fuch as were written by perfons, either greatly prejuviced, or of weak capacities. The body of these historians is what we properly call the Hiftoria Byzantina. The first of there is Zozymus, who lived under the emperor Arcadius; next to him follows Procopius, who flourished under the emperor Juftinian; and both of them were very partial, fatyrical writers. The following reigns were written by several perfons, the chief of whom are Theophanes, Theophylact Simocatta, Cedrenus, Nicephorus, princefs Anna Comnena, Glycas, Nicetas, Nicephorus Gregorius, Curopalates, John Cantacuzenus, Cinnamus, Pachimerus, Conftantine Manaffes, and Ducas. Most of these writers have almost copied from each other, and having but a very small degree of understanding, with a high fhare of credulity, they feem to have committed to writing, without judgment or difcernment, whatever came to their knowledge.

To rescue this branch of the Roman history from the confufion and intricacy in which it lay entangled, was the arduous task of the very learned M. le Beau, profeffor Emeritus in the university of Paris, and perpetual secretary of the Royal Academy of Inferiptions and Belles Lettres. He has undertaken to write the hiftory of Conftantine and his fucceffors, down to the time when their power, fhaken without by the attacks of barbarians, weakened within by the incapacity of the princes, funk at length under the arms of the Turks. This work is the hiftory of the Roman empire, in its old age; it was at first vigorous, and its decline was not fenfibly perceived till under the defcendants of Theodofius; from that time to its fall is a space of more than a thousand years. M. le Beau has attempted to dispel the obfcurity of barbarous and inelegant writers, to weigh their authorities, to point out their different degrees of credit, and upon the whole, to furnish the reader with fuch a narrative of the Byzantine accounts, as fhall be respected for its exactness, and admired at the fame time for its perfpicuity and elegance. He never fails to quote his authorities with the most fcrupulous diligence, and is critically fevere in his manner of applying them; he embraces every opportunity of difcouraging vice, and commending virtue and religion;

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