bewildered amidst types and antirypes, &c. it is to be feared he will H. collected from every Passage which occurs in the New Testament This voluminous title-page fufficiently informs the reader what H. Festival of St. John the Baptist. Before the Provincial Grand įs, This reverend Mason begins with praying for those who faile at his fraternity, and it is, therefore, to be hoped they may continue that IS. that wicked practice without spiritual dread or fear. He fets out Le. See our last Number, p. 246. minster. By William Vise, LL. D. Rector of Lambech. 400. Friend: "I beg pardon for interrupting you, Mr. Reviewer, but pray what is loyalty ??!! Reviewer : Loyalty, Sir!- loyalty is-Will you do me the favour to refer this question to your long.headed Correspondent, the Burgomaster of Amsterdam ? Friend: A Dutch definition of loyalty must be corious to an Eng: lith politician: I will certainly write to the Burgomatter. Reviewer : And, till this answer arrives, let us defer the confideration of Dr. Vise's discourse. VII. At Liverpool. By William Hunter, M. A. Fellow of Brazennose College, Oxford, and Minifter of St. Paul's, Liverpool. 4to. Cadell. If our Heavenly Father hath not more forbearance toward this finful nation than Father Hunter seems to have, dreadful, indeed, mult be the danger we are in; for, after drawing out an horrible cacalogue of our crimes, and adding to it'the open and avowed in. fidelity of the age,' he tells the mayor, aldermen, and corporation of Liverpool that this last insult offered to heaven is of too shock. ing a nature to be tamely endured'-We hope this reverend Gentleman of Brazen nose is not disposed to perfecute any man for his principles !--He appears to have had some individual infidel in view : Who can it be? Chub is dead, Boling broke is dead, Annet is dead, Hume is dead, -and Voltaire is beyond the reach of any Fellow of an English university.–We have it in a note, p. 23, where the pious Preacher expressly points at a well-known Sectarian champion in the field of letters, whose name (says he) it is to be wished, were closed up with the rest of the infidel group in the black I S. book of oblivion. From the extensive range this Writer has taken in the world of science, it might seem (however paradoxical the thought) as if he understood every thing but his own profession-the salvation of souls.'—There is more of this pointed note; the whole of which we leave to the feelings of Dr. ********, who may posibly deem such language “ too shocking to be samely endured.”—But this may depend upon the light in which the Sectarian Champion may may happen to view his antagonist. VIII. The LORD's Controversy with a guilty Nation. Two Sermons. By the Rev. Richard De Courcy, Vicar of St. Alkmond's, Shrews bury; and formerly of Trinity College, Dablin. 8vo, Robinson, &c. This flaming Churchman paints. the fans of a rebellious people, and the judgments of incensed Deity,' io dark shades and Arong colouring, -o use his own words, in describing the penciling of the Jewilh prophet, Jer. v. from whence Mr. De Courcy has taken his textt. He particularly displays, in all its abominable branches, the criminality of the Jewith nation; and hideous as the picture is, he boldly pronounces that we are even worse than the Jews of Jeremiah's time; and that there is not a single transgression in their group of iniquities,' which does not abound, with all its aggravations, in this land of guilt.' Among the enormities enumerated, he conGders' the horrible complacency in faise do&trines, and the propagation and national efpoufal of error (among the Jews] as the most atrocious; and, as there is not a single transgreition in their group, with which we is not chargeable, he accordingly directs the thunder of his spiritual artillery, point blanc, against there impious wretches, the pbilofophers, the materialisls, the anti-subscribers, and the anti-trinitarians This is one of your faunch, orthodox divines; but his zeal is not altogether without knowledge ; for he, undoubtedly, possesses confiderable abilities. IX. The Civil War between the Ifraelites and Benjamites illufrated and applied, -in the Parish Church of St. Andrew, Canterbury. By John Dancomb, M. A. Rector of that Parish, and one of the Six Preachers in the Cathedral. 4to. 6 d. Law. Avoiding political topics, as unsuitable to the pulpit, Mr. Duacomb, very commendably, prefers the conciliatory ftrain. Sermons thus conceived, in the spirit of moderation, are most worthy of the Christian character. We have here no common place railing at our own country, no illiberal abose of those with whom we are, unhappily for both, at variance : such a salutary spirit cannot be too much diffused. X. The paft Mercies, the great Sinfulness, and the present alarming State of this Nation, a loud Call io bumble ourselves forcerely before Our Readers must not imagine that the Preacher here points particularly toward the Americans. The rebellious people here meant are to be found nearer home ; rebels against their God, though, perhaps, loyal to their earthly King. + " Shall I not visit for these things, faith the Lord ? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as THIS.” Ver. 29. God of the age. See his , God. By John Towers, Minifter of the Gofpel in Bartholomewt A plain discourse, properly adapted, we fuppofe, to the devotional tess of Huntingdon's Chapel at Bath ; with a Dedication to her Ladyflip. By the Rev. T. Haweis, LL. B. 8vo. 6d. Dilly, &c. Not altogether fo Methodifical as might be expected from one of the Counters of Huntingdon's chaplains. XII. Two Sermons-preached Dec. 13, 1776, and on Friday, Feb. 27, 1778, &e. Dedicated to his Grace the Duke of Rich. mond. 4to. I s. Nicoll. CORRESPONDENCE. tory of Weltmorland in your last Review, respecting the firit Quakers, and, by adding the epithet curious to it, you have, in some degree, given it your fanction. The account is said to be drawn from some (I suppose before unpublished) memoirs of a Mr. Higginson, formerly Vicar of Kirkby Stephen. It seems somewhat extraordinary, that a gentleman of Dr. Burn's great and deserved reputation in the literary world, should have thought it fair to draw from its obscurity a paper, written at a time when the minds of most men were heated with religious preju. dice, and when the Clergy, more particularly, were irritated against the Quakers, because their tenets, opposing the venal fupport of the priesthood, fapped the very foundations of its splendour and aucho. sity. Nor perhaps did they servple to add the epithet of hireling to those who, making a crade of religion, brought it into disrepute amongst the people. At the quarter sestions at Appleby in Weltmorland, in January 1652, James Naylor, a Quaker, was tried for blasphemy. The trial is dill extant, and it appears from thence, that Higginson, Vicar of Kirkby Stephen, was a promoter of the prosecution. Naylor was then honourably discharged, nothing of that kind being proved againlt 'Y 1 him, unless it be reckoned blafphemy to oppofe Higginson's affertion, repeated in open court, that“ Christ is in heaven with a carnal body.” Both the temper of the good Vicar, and the complexion of his divinity, may perhaps be in ferred from this anecdote. • It must not however be denied, that the fame James Naylor aftere wards fell into delusions of the imagination, scarcely short of infanity. He was then disowned by the Quakers. Yet fome eminent writers have taken occasion from this instance, and a few others of the like kind, to charge those irregularities upon the principles of the society, for which individuals alone ought to be responsible. • The evidence of Higginson'carries with it all the marks of that wanton exaggeration which characterises personal animosity. The charge is supported by' no proof. Gerard Croese, indeed, in his history of the Quakers, mentions a petition from the ministers, and fundry other perfons of Lancashire, againit George Fox, James Naylor, and their affociates, in which they are accused of foaming at the mouth' in their conventicles, and of other strange agitations; and George Fox, in particular, of having said that he was equal to God, the only Judge of the World, Chrift, the way, the Truth, and the Life. One James Melver (perhaps Milner) was also charged with saying that he was God and Christ, and with prophesying that the day of judgment was at hand, that there should be no more justices in Lancashire, and that the parliament fhould be plucked up by the roots. ·Higginson's narrative and this petition bear striking marks of affinity with each other, and probably sprung from the fame foarce. Croefé, however, who was no Quaker, nor is his history partial to the Quakers, acknowledges " that thefe charges were so completely “ refuted, that it was apparent they who invented them were wicked “ men, and they who believed in them were fools." He excepts the mad presumption of Melver (or Milner), whom he says the Quakers rebuked. The trath is, that as the Quakers, for the season abovementioned, were especially fingled out as the objects of priestly indignation, every rumoar to their disadvantage was eagerly adopted, and frequently spread with circumstances of aggravation. Thusa Vicar of Wakefield, whose name was Marhall, reported of George Fox, that he rode upon a great black horse, and was jeen within an hour at two places fixty miles distant from each other. If the papers of this Vicar were narrowly searched into, it might, pofsibly, be found recorded as his opinion, that the first Quakers were witches. Ji mwit, notwithstanding, be acknowledged, that it was not unusual for some of the most zealous to go fometimes into the public places of worship, and after the preacher had finished his discourse, to reprove both priest and people for pradices which they considered as superstitious or antichriftian. • Amidt the Swarm of fects which distinguished the latt century, there was one, of which little is now known, but that the practices of its adherents outraged all decency and order. They were called Ranters. The enemies of the Quakers found it frequently suitable to their purpose to confound them with this ephemeron sect, whole principles were nevertheless totally incompatible with those of the Quakers. There is a paper ftill extant, written by Edward Bure roughs, an active preacher amongit the Quakers, against the licentious practices of these people. • Hune |