pofed during their lives, by their nearest and most confidential followers. Of fuch perfons, it is believed on good grounds, that they were difciples chofen by our Lord himfelf during his abode on earth, and therefore not without ocular experience of the power of the Redeemer's miniftry; and it is indubitably certain, that they were men eminently qualified by fpiritual gifts to bear tertimony. They were affociated with the chief Apoitles of Chrift Jefus in their labours. They wrote in a manner by their fides. If the the promife of our Lord to his Apoftles went to limit the word of Scripture to the grace of the Apoftleship, is it probable that two Evangelifts, both the bofom-friends and comrades of Apoftles, would venture to invade that Province? Can it be believed, that the fame Apoftles being yet alive, and having knowledge of the fact, would not affert their own exclufive privilege againft fuch intrufions? Can we doubt their approbation, if they were but filent in the matter; and if the churches which they planted openly received the written document, as we know they did." P. 19.

We fhall place by the fide of this paffage the excellent note fubjoined in the Charge:

"I have advanced nothing in thefe remarks concerning two of the Evangelifts which the learned Profeffor Michaelis, whofe work is alluded to, does not admit. He propofes nothing new with reference to their connection with the Apoftles, fo univerfally attested; or with relation to the dates and reception of their writings. He refts all upon the fingle point that they were not Apoftles; upon which ground, in oppofition to the judgment of the Christian Church, he excludes their writings from the Canon of the Scriptures. For the fame reafon he fuggefts his doubts concerning the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Revelations." Affter all, faith he, "concerning the Epistle to the Hebrews, "we do not know whether St. Paul wrote this Epistle or not. "An abfolute decifion on this fubject is indeed to be wifhed,

but in my opinion, not to be obtained t." And he adds af terwards," according to the principle which I laid down in "the chapter on infpiration, a canonical book of the New Tef "tament is a book written by an Apostle. If then, the Epiftle

to the Hebrews was written by an Apoftle, it is canonical; but if it was not written by an Apoitle, it is not cancni"cal‡." P. 20.

A longer, and very important note, is added to the end of the Charge, taking further notice of Michaelis, and explaining from the best authors the canonical authority of the Four Gofpels.--To have cited and referred to these paffages is to have made the Charge fpeak its own commendation.

* Vide Dr. Whitby's Preface to St. Luke's Gofpel. + Michaelis's Introduction, vol. iv. ch. 24. Sect. 16, p. 257Ch. 24. Sect. 18. p. 264,

ART.

ART. 25. The Origin of Sovereign Power, and the Larfulness of Defenfive War; a Sermon preached in the Church of All Saints, Wainfleet, in the County of Lincoln, on Tuesday, June 4th, 1805, to the Wainfleet Corps of Volunteer Infantry. By the Rev. Peter Bulmer, A. B. Vicar of Thorpe, Chaplain to the Right Hon. Lord Muncafter, and to the Wainfleet Corps of Volunteer Infantry, 8vo. 29 pp. Rivingtons. 1805.

A prefixed addrefs to the Wainfleet Volunteers, reflects great credit on the corps, and well deferves to be noticed by us. It appears, "that in no place whatever have the duties of loyalty and patriotifm been more eminently fulfilled, than in this remote and unfrequented part of the united kingdom, where the population is comparatively fmall, and the influence of a refident gentry is wanting" and alfo, that their original number has not, fince the date of their enrolment in 1803, undergone any, even the smallest diminution. "In this corps is comprifed nearly an eighth of the whole population of the parishes of Wainfleet, Frithney, Thorpe, and Croft. And if this proportion were maintained throughout the county (the population of which in the year 1801, is reprefented to amount to 208,557 perfons) the Volunteer force for Lincolnshire would confift of not less than twenty-fix thousand men. Had it, in like manner, obtained throughout Great Britain (the population of which has been efti mated at ten millions) the number of its Voluntary Defenders would then have been one million two hundred and fifty thousand." We shall gratify the author by obferving, that the number would have been ftill larger; it appearing from Obfervations on the Refults of the Population, A&t 41, Geo. III. p. 3, that the total number of perfons in Great Britain was then nearly ten millions and a half, not including army, militia, navy, marines, feamen in registered fhipping, and convicts.

The principal topic of this found and vigorous difcourfe on Ezekiel xxxiii. 2, 3, 4, 5, is the inconfiftency and error of Quakers, in regard to defenfive war; in order to prevent" an undue impreffion on the minds of the neighbouring inhabitants, by the propagation of opinions which, if generally espoused, would, in the prefent ftate of fociety, be productive of the most difaftrous confequences." This topic is difcuffed with becoming seriousness, and not in that ludicrous way which we noticed from a preacher bearing nearly the fame name, in our 24th vol. p. 566.

ART. 26. The Churchman's Vade Mecum; defigned to promote a more enlivened Spirit of Devotion in the Ufe of the Liturgy. By a Prefbyter of the Church of England. Price 6d. Williams and Smith. 1805.

By fome paffages at the clofe of this tract, and the ment of Plain Truths," at the end, we conceive tract is intended as an aid to the calvinistical party.

advertise.

that this

We fee, however,

however, nothing in it to which every true fon of the Church of England will not give full affent; however free he may be from all taint of what we efteem calvinistical errors. At least we have detected no fuch paffages. We object, in p. 36, to the introduc tion of the unauthorized expreffion "the Triune of God," in. ftead of the folemn invocation of the three perfons of the Trinity, which belongs to the paffage.

ART. 27. Parochial Difcourfes, for the Information of the Common People, upon the Advent of Chrift, and other Events relative to his Miffion and Character; to which are added, Two Affize Ser mons, preached at the Lent and Summer Affizes bolden at Chelmsford, 1796. By W. H. Reynal, M. A. Minister of Horn Church, Effex, and Author of the Manual to the Pfalms. 8vo. 6s. Cadell and Davies, 1805.

Of the meritorious exertions of this author in his profeffion, we have before had occafion to fpeak in terms of deferved commendation. His two Affize Sermons, which are here reprinted, are excellent fpecimens in their kind of pulpit argument and eloquence. The object of the prefent publication is to enlighten the multitude with refpect to the fundamentals of the religion they profefs, by common-place arguments taken from fcriptural history, as it is read in our English translation of the Bible. The writer disclaims any pretence to novelty, fine writing, or learning. This undertaking is executed in eleven fermons, and we may truly say, that it is executed well. The Difcourfes are well adapted to the capa. city of the inferior and uneducated claffes, who, if they feriously attend to the arguments here inculcated, will be enabled to give an answer to every man that afketh them of the hope that is in them.

ART. 28. An Attempt to adapt Sacred Hiftory to the Capacities of Children. By A. Burgh, M. A. Late of Univerfity College, Oxford. 12mo. 43 PP. Price 1s. Rivingtons and Hatchard. 1805.

The author tells us that this sketch was drawn out for the improvement of his daughter, and that it completely answered the purpose of his inftruction. It was written, he fays, "in the way of copies, and learnt by heart by his young pupil every Sunday, till at length the whole was repeated with little or no difficulty.' The Attempt has merit, but it certainly has alfo material defects. Of the facred hiftory, not a word is given from the delivery of the law to Ifrael on Mount Sinai, to the coming of our Saviour. No intimation what became of the Ifraelites after re ceiving the law, no mention of their judges, kings, captivities. or prophets. Except that king David is once lightly mentioned in p. 11. This may be called adapting facred hiftory, but for all this vaft period it is adapting nothing. The fubfequent hiftory,

from

from the birth of our Saviour to the death of St. Paul, is not only difproportionately but very unneceffarily long and might with advantage have been fhortened, to make room for the parts fo improperly omitted. Nor is the author always fufficiently careful in what he writes. In page 3, the child is taught that Adam and Eve were turned out of paradife, though not a word had been faid of their being in it: and when Noah is faid to be faved alone, with his family, out of the general deluge, it is neither explained who Noah was, nor why he was faved. Mr. B. fhould have taken a little more confideration before he published this "Attempt," which cannot now be made any thing like what it ought to be, but by means of a fecond edition. The narrative that is given is clear, and the reflections are generally good.

ART. 29. An Attempt to prove that the Opinion concerning the Devil, or Satan, as a fallen Angel, and that he tempts Men to fin hath no real Foundation in Scripture, being a Supplement to a Pamphlet, published about the Year 1770, entituled An Enquiry into the Scripture Meaning of the Word Satan. By William Ahdone. 8vo. 63 pp. 1s. 6d. Johnfon. 1804.

Though this tract is faid to have paffed through two prior editions, it is, in fact, a lamentable performance. It exhibits the obftinacy of a mind determined not to admit, what it chooses to reject, though unable to make any rational resistance to it. The paffages of fcripture cited by Mr. Afhdowne, to prove his point, abundantly refute it: and indeed the hardihood of a man who confiders our Saviour's temptation in the wilderness as no proof of a tempter, muft rather excite furprise than admiration. We cannot conceive that fuch a writer can make any converts, and therefore is little worth refutation.

ART. 30. A Sermon preached before the Alderman and Corporation of Grantham, on Sunday, the 21ft Day of October, 1804, by the Rev. Robert-Lafcelles Carr, Chaplain to Earl Clanwil liam and to Lord Mendip. 4to. 19 pp. 1s. 6d. White. : 1805

This fermon, addreffed to magistrates, is rather fingular, than otherwife valuable. The text is Pfalm Ixxxii. ver. 6 and 7. "I have faid ye are Gods, but ye fhall die like men." From the former part of the text Mr. Carr inculcates the dignity of magiftrates, and their obligation to act uprightly. In the fecond part, fpeaking of their mortality, he introduces the following cal culation and reflections.

"It is generally fuppofed that this earth is inhabited by one thoufand millions of men, or thereabouts, and that thirty-three years make a generation, and therefore that in thirty-three years

5

there

there die one thousand millions. Thus the number of those who die on earth, amounts to

"This calculation must neceffarily ftrike us: if the mortality be fo great every year and every hour, is it not probable that he who reflects on it, may himself be one of thofe foon to fwell the lift of the dead? It is at least certain, that it ought to lead us to think seriously and often on this fubject. Now, at this very mo. ment, one of our fellow-creatures is going out of the world, and before another hour be paft, more than three thousand fouls will have entered into an eternal state." P. 17.

The magistrates of Grantham defired the fermon to be printed.

MISCELLANIES.

ART. 31. The Cafe of John Horfley, Efq. late a Captain in the Royal Regiment of Horfe Guards Blue. 8vo. Stewart. 1805

Is. 6d.

According to this ftatement, a Mr. Edward Goulbourn, was obliged to quit the Regiment of the Blues. Captain Horfley afterwards met and infulted him, on which Mr. Goulbourn challenges Captain Horfley. Captain Horfley conceiving that Mr. Goulbourn's character did not entitle him to be met as a Gentleman, refufed his challenge. Mr. Goulbourn proceeded to poft, Captain Horfley, and Captain Horfley, though he appears to have had the fanction of many of his brother officers for not meeting Mr. Goulbourn, was neverthelefs obliged to leave his regiment. Such is the narrative, and fuch, in the eyes of common fenfe, are the ftrange inconfiftencies of military etiquette. The pamphlet is remarkably well written, and with every appearance of candour, and there can be no doubt, from Mr. Horley's affertion, that feveral of his brother officers commended him for not meeting Mr. Goulbourn. How they can reconcile, this to their fubfequent figning of a paper, which obliged the com plainant to quit his regiment, is beyond our fagacity or comprehenfion to explain.

ART. 32. A Defcription of the Island of St. Helena; containing Obfervations on its fingular Structure and Formation; and an Account of its Climate, Natural History, and Inhabitants. 12mo, Price 6s. Philips. 1805.

As there is no feparate account of this extraordinary Ifland, fo important and fo interefting to navigators to and from the

Eaft,