Now by what peculiar fagacity Lewis came to form fuch an opinion of William's injuftice, who was generally just and fincere.-And how the latter, whom our Author allows to have been religious, could confent to a proposal, which, according to him, was a violation of every law, human or divine; we must leave our Author himself to reconcile.

Again-with what truth, even from his own hiftory, can he reproach the memory of King William, as one who was dead to all the warm and generous emotions of the human heart, a cold relation, an indifferent hufband? He is not warranted by any thing he has fet forth in his hiftory, to pronounce this judg ment. On the contrary, in page 124, he tells us, that Queen Mary expired to the INEXPRESSIBLE grief of the King, who, for fome weeks after her death, COULD neither fee company, nor attend to the bufinefs of state.' How is the fenfation of INEXPRESSIBLE grief to be reconciled with the cold difpofi⚫tion and apathy, of King William? Does fuch violent forrow correfpond with infenfibility? Befides, can we fuppofe a man of an afpiring, ambitious temper, who was at the fame time religious, generally juft and fincere, to have been dead to all the warm and generous emotions of the human heart? Do not even the vices of his reign contradict this character? Does not his partiality to his countrymen and favourites, and in particular his friendship for, and extraordinary liberality towards, the Lords Portland and Albemarle, fhew him to have been fufceptible of warm and generous impressions †?

In his character of Prince George of Denmark, he fays He was a Prince rather of an amiable than a fhining character, brave, good-natured,' &c. Here it may not be improper to obferve, that bravery feems rather to fall under the divifion of fhining, than of amiable qualities.

He is not more accurate in drawing fome inferior characters, which he has haftily sketched, juft as the prefent whim guided his pencil. In his narrative of the debates during Sir Robert Walpole's adminiftration, the laft fpeaker is with him always the best orator. In one place, Sir William Wyndham is called the unrivalled orator; in another Mr. P. ftands unequalled, and

The Reader will remember, that in his character of Queen Mary, he fays, She imbibed the cold difpofition and apathy of her hufband; fo that this must be taken as part of his character.

+ It will be worth the Reader's while to confult Mr. Ralph's cha racter of William III. and he will there fee with what fuperior judg ment that able Hiftorian hath treated the fubject,

carries

WHITFIELD's Christianity of the New Teftament. 305 carries off the prize of eloquence. And in a third, L. C. bears it from them both, nay, even from Cicero himself.

The Writer has taken fo little pains to digeft his matter, that he has not only fallen into repetitions, but has related many things out of their proper order. The divifion of his fections is extremely inaccurate, and the tranfition from one circumftance to another is often sudden and unnatural: by which means, the Reader is frequently furprized with fome material incident, with out any break to prepare his mind for the reception of it.

Upon the whole, we cannot in juftice forbear to acknowlege, that, in our judgment, this compilation, which is called, a com pleat hiftory, is a hafty, and indigefted performance :—too voluminous for an abridgment, and too imperfect for an history. The Author's partiality to the Tory party is manifest in almost every page; and, in ftating the arguments which paffed on any fubject, he generally relates thofe only which were urged on one fide, fuppreffing what was offered on the other: which, without any other circumftance, unavoidably creates a fufpicion of his impartiality. Cicero very juftly obferves,-Prima eft historia lex, ne quid falfi dicere audeat ; deinde, ne quid veri non audeat ne qua fufpicio gratiæ fit in fcribendo, ne qua fimultatis.

The great excellence of this work, is the elegance and fpirit of the ftyle, which is, in general, nervous, clear, fluent, bold, and florid; and thofe Readers who are content with acquiring only. ageneral knowlege of our hiftory, cannot be more agreeably inftructed: for his manner of writing is fo extremely entertaining, that attention feldom fleeps over his pages.-In few words, this Writer's merit is rather that of an ingenious novelift than of an accurate hiftorian. His imagination overpowers his judgment; and we must take the liberty to add, his confidence in his own abilities appears fo confpicuous, that in all probability he will never take pains to correct his imperfections.

R-d

The Chriftianity of the New Teftament; or, a Scholaftic Defence of the Scripture Doctrines of Redemption, Propitiatiation, Sa tisfaction, and Salvation, by the Sacrifice of Jefus Chrift. From a comparison of the original meaning of thofe terms in the Hebrew of the Old Teftament, and the Greek verfion of the fame, and in the writings of Pagan theology, with their plain ufe and application, in the New Teftament, to the bleffed effects of the death of Chrift. Against the Infidels and Libertines of this age. With a preface, occafionally written as a calm and rational vindication REY. April, 1758.

X

of

of the Author's conformity to the church of England, (contrary to his education) upon the principles of fecular and ecclefiaftical polity; as laid down by Grotius, Puffendorff, Hooker, Calvin, &c. By Peter Whitfield. 8vo. 6 s. Liverpool, printed for Williamfon. Sold alfo by Hitch, &c. in London.

IN

IN the preface to this work we have the following account of the immediate occafion of it, viz. Having been informed, that a certain neighbouring minifter had discovered, in free converfation, a dislike to the doctrine of Redemption, and a • perfuafion of the fufficiency of Natural Religion, to recommend mankind to the Divine favour for eternal felicity, I took ⚫occafion to attend on his public fervice, that I might (at least have a hazard to) prove whether my informant had not been ⚫ too severe in his reprefentation of the gentleman's principles; when I had the mortification to find the account too true, and that his public difcourfe was fuitable to the account my friend had given me of his private converfation. And as the subject •he treated on naturally led him to discover his fentiments on this head, he did it in fuch a manner, as gave me sufficient reafon to declare, without referve, that he was not, in my opinion, an orthodox Chriftian; whereof, as a vindicationwas demanded, I thought it my duty, in this public manner, to justify my affertion, and fhew how inconfiftent the fermon I heard was to what has been almost universally received in the church of Chrift, for the true doctrine of the Gospel, as is before declared.'

The fubject which the minifter difcourfed from, it feems, was The Truth hall make you free; and, indeed, according to this zealot's own account, it appears to have been pertinently and ingeniously handled: But not a word,' fays he, of fuch things as I had been wont to hear enlarged on from fuch-like texts; nothing of being delivered by the gospel-difpenfation from the heinous guilt of fin; from the tremendous wrath of God; from the tyrannical dominion of our spiritual enemies, and the dreadful torments of eternal perdition, originally threatned upon difobedience.'

The remainder of this tedious preface is taken up with the Author's attempt to vindicate his conformity to the church of England; occafioned by the abovementioned minifter's declaiming, in his fermon, against all religious prefcriptions or authority whatsoever, except the Bible.

The work itself is introduced by remarking, that our 'moderns (are too apt) to extend their reafonings, upon principles of intuitive truth and demonftration, beyond their natural li

⚫mits,

mits, and apply that to religious fpeculations, and the myfteries of divinity, which is by nature limited to the effects of ⚫ matter and motion; undertaking to measure, by the short line of their own reason, thofe depths of Divine Wisdom in the • doctrines of revealed religion, which are, by the spirit of the Moft High, declared to furpafs all human understanding.'To this new fect of philofophers the hiftory of Adam's crea⚫tion and Paradifaical ftate, the tree of life, &c. with other par⚫ticulars relating to the first scene of the world, are treated as • fiction and romance, and turned to drollery and ridicule.'— • To the fame account they place the miracles wrought by Mofes ' in Egypt; his bringing out the Ifraelites from their long bondage there; and their paffing the Red-Sea miraculously divided." In vindication of this laft miracle, Mr. Whitfield ventures to make a long digreffion, even against the great Le Clerk's nation of it.

6

What has happened to the Old Testament, he thinks has been the fate of the New Teftament, under its new modellers, as he calls them. These gentlemen,' fays he, are pleased to think the doctrine of the expiation of fin, and the redemption of mankind, by the facrifice of the death of Chrift, as the great pro pitiation; that of juftification by faith, and the reconciliation of man to God, in the merit of that propitiation. Thefe, I fay, and perhaps fome other particulars, plainly taught in the New Teftament, they think ought to be rejected out of the scheme of Chriftianity, as quite inconfiftent with those ideas of propriety and expediency, which they think naturally arise from the confideration of God and man.'---' In order therefore to • vindicate our affent to these articles, I shall (taking for granted the divine authority of Scripture) 1. lay down fome truths preparatory to the evangelical difpenfation; 2. fhew the propriety of the terms, which are taken from the Mofaic into the • Christian Establishment, from their own fignification in the • Old Testament; 3. explain the neceffity of holiness, to complete ⚫ the scheme.'

Such is Mr. Whitfield's plan ;---but as we have already given a fpecimen of his manner of writing, we shall not trouble our Readers farther than juft to obferve, concerning the execution of this work, that its Author has fhewn abundance of zeal (but not according to knowlege) for the doctrines which he attempts to maintain; and that he has written a great book to very purpose.

D.

little

Indifference for Religion inexcufeable; or, a serious, impartial and practical review of the certainty, importance, and harmony of religion, both natural and revealed. By Samuel Squire, D. Ď. D. Clerk of the Clofet to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. 8vo. 4 s. DodЛley.

E cannot give our Readers a jufter idea of the plan of

WE this judicious and useful performance, than the Author

himself has given in his preface to it. To lay before the at⚫tentive and well-difpofed Reader,' fays he, a plain, distinct, ⚫ and connected review of the chief principles of religion, both < natural and revealed; to describe the evidence upon which they are founded; to point out the effential laws of moral action; and to furnish the strongest motives to live agreeably to those laws, is the intention of the following pages. They are defigned as a remedy against that indifference, with regard to God and his worthip, which is every day making such a mighty progrefs amongst us, by evincing, that the great doctrines and duties of religion, are infeparably connected with ⚫ the exiftence of the Divine Being, the uncorrupted dictates of right reafon, our own trueft happiness, and the lafting inte• refts of fociety.

• In pursuance of this plan, I have all along treated the various articles of my important fubject in the plainest, easiest, and most practical manner, wifhing, at the fame time, both to touch the heart, and to convince the understanding; I have • endeavoured to keep as free as I poffibly could from the per< plexities of the controverfial ftile, and to conduct my Reader from the proof of one propofition to another, without ever fuf⚫fering his attention to be interrupted, either by abftruse speculations in metaphyfics, or by literary difquifitions, or by un⚫ charitable cenfures upon other persons mistakes.

• But more especially have I ftudioufly avoided entering upon · any of those intricate and thorny fubjects of difputation, which divide Chriftians amongst themselves; fuch difcuffions being entirely useless, either to awaken the confciences of those, ⚫ who are indifferent to all religion; or to remove the prejudices of fuch, as really doubt of the celeftial origin of that system of faith and duty which we profefs.

The moft material objections which have been hitherto < urged against religion, though not drawn out into mode and figure, the competent Reader will find either obviated or refuted in the very manner of examining, ftating, and proving the feveral points, as they come before him.-And though it

be