They allow not an elder or a bifhop to marry again; becaufe St. Paul fays, he must be the bufband of one wife. As if there were, in general, the least moral turpitude in the fecond marriage of a man, after the death of his wife; when the fame Apostle permits a widow, if her husband be dead, to be married to whom he will, only in the Lord.

Every week they make a collection for the support of the poor, and the defraying of other expences. These collections, we make no doubt, are applied to good purposes; and their elders, we prefume, are not given to filthy lucre; but, not to mention parochial fettlements, there are not the fame reasons for these weekly contributions now, as there might be in the primitive churches, when many chriftian converts were perfecuted from place to place, and deprived of their fubfiftence.

But the most distinguishing ceremony among the Sandimanians is, that of the boly kifs. This they look upon as an indifpenfible duty; and therefore take feveral opportunities of faluting one another. In this country the fight of men kiffing men fuggeks no very pure or pleafing idea. And fuppo fing this cuftom introduced into England, we have some apprehenfions, that a promifcuous ufe of the kiss, especially at a feaft, may be an incentive to practices of a lefs inoffenfive kind. The myfteries of fanaticifm are sometimes not a little extrava gant; and to obviate all fufpicions, the Sandimanians cannot do better than take another text in a literal fenfe, and mak themfelves eunuchs.

There are other rites and ufages in this fociety, which here we have not leifure to confider; and they who have an inclination to know more of them, may have recourse to this Plain and Full, Account, or to the works of Mr. John Glafs, and the Letters on Theron and Afpafio, by which they will be fully fatisfied that they are ufelefs innovations, the reveries of extravagant reformers.

16. The Caufes and Reasons of the prefent Declenfion among the Congregational Churches in London and the Country, in a Letter. addrefed to the Paftors, Deacons and Members of thofe Churches. By one of that Denomination. Interfperfed with Refletions on Metbodifm and Sandimanianifm. Pr. 1. Johnfon.

This writer, who ftiles himself an Independent, afc ibes the declenfion, ficklenefs, and confufion, which, he fays, appears among fome diffenting congregations, to the influence of Methodifin; the empty popularity, and the nonfenfical harangues of fome of their preachers; the dry fcholaftic difcourfes, and the lifeless delivery of others; the neglect of difcipline; the abfurd method of education in many of their academies; and, in

particular, the ignorance and enthufiafm of the people; which, he thinks, are owing to a general neglect of the Bible; to whimsical notions of faith, regeneration, and the influences of the fpirit; to impreffions formed on the mind by texts of fcripture; to improper methods of catechifing their children; and, . laftly, to the cant and pride of fome of their minifters.

On these topics, and fome of the peculiarities of the Sandimanians, the author makes many fenfible remarks, which.. he delivers with a freedom becoming the character he profefles.

17. The Sovereignty of the Divine Administration vindicated; or, a Rational Account of our Blessed Saviour's remarkable Temptation in the Wilderness; the Poffeffed at Capernaum; the Demoniacs at Gadara, and the Deftruction of the Swine: with free Remarks · - upon several other Important Paffuges in the New Teftament. By the Late Reverend Mr. Thomas Dixon of Bolton. With a Preface, by the Reverend Mr. John Seddon of Manchefter. 8vo. Pr. Is. Becket.

"This writer fuppofes, that the devil was not at all concerned in our Saviour's temptation; but that fuch thoughts arofe in the mind of Chrift, in the course of his meditations, as would naturally have arifen in the mind of any man, in the fame or like circumftances, in which he then was; and that as these thoughts, if purfued, would in their confequence have been evil and wicked, they are metaphorically, or figuratively reprefented, as the fuggeftions of the devil or Satan, that being to whom all evil qualities are afcribed.

The common notion, it seems, concerning the power and' influence of the devil, is what this writer cannot believe. It is not, he thinks, to be fuppofed that the merciful Father of mankind would leave his frail creatures to be affaulted by fo wicked and fo powerful a being. The fcripture, he obferves, exprefsly tells us, that when we fin, we ourselves only are in fault, and that the devil and his angels are confined in chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

Every one, he fays, who is acquainted either with human or divine learning, knows, that the most beautiful parts of it confift in figurative, bold, hyperbolical defcriptions. Nay, nothing is more usual or ornamental in all kinds of poetry, thạn to reprefent good or evil qualities, virtues, or vices, under the characters of perfons. Thus in the heathen poetry, the mu-' fes, the graces, and furies, faith, fortune, &c. have been reprefented as real perfons. In like manner St. Paul has in profe, with great elegance, introduced fin and death, as though they were real perfons; from whence our famous poet Milton took one of his univerfally admired epifodes. Hence, as the fcrip

tures

Lures were wrote in the bold, figurative, eastern manner, when the literal fenfe of a paffage is abfurd, recourse may justly be had to a figurative interpretation.

In the New Teftament, wherever our Lord, or his Apostles or followers, are faid to caft out devils, in every inftance 'tis wrong tranflated. When St. Peter fays, Your adverfary the devil goes about like a roaring lion, feeking whom he may devour,' he means thofe, whether heathens or Jews, who perfe cuted the chriftians. When St. James fays, Refift the devil, and he will flee from you;' (as his Epiftle was wrote in the fixtythird year of Chrift, and the ninth of the perfecuting emperor Nero,) he probably means, bear up refolutely against perfecution, and ye will eafily overcome it; or elfe he muft mean, refift all evil thoughts, and all outward temptations to fin, and ye will obtain an eafy victory over them. St. Paul tells them, he proposed once and again to have visited them, but Satan hindered. It is plain from the context that by Satan, he means the perfecuting Jews hindered him. Satan is transformed into an angel of light.' St. Paul here alludes to the falfe apostles, who put on an outward fanctified appearance. Why hath Satan filled thine heart? Why haft thou taken this evil counsel. • Satan entered into Judas ;' that is, he took treacherous counfels against his Mafter. Satan ftood up against Ifrael, and provoked David to number Ifrael;' the meaning is, fome adversary to If rael artfully prevailed with David to follow this evil advice. It would be tedious, and perhaps not neceffary to run over every paffage particularly; but it is evident from what has been faid, there is an abfolute neceffity for a figurative interpretation.'

The editor of this performance remarks, that Mr. Dixon's notion of an allegorical reprefentation of real temptations feems preferable to an entire vifionary fcene; [for which fee Monfieur Le Clerc, and Mr. Farmer] and that it is more honourable to our Lord. But the reader will naturally afk, Is it credible that our Saviour should fufpect his own divinity, which must be suppofed, if we admit of this interpretation ?

By our Lord's cafting out devils, this writer understands no more, than that he cured several mad and lunatic perfons.

As this point has been fufficiently difcuffed by Dr. Sykes, Dr.' Mead, Dr. Lardner, and others, we fhall not enlarge this article by quotations; though the work before us certainly contains many fenfible obfervations.

18. A Letter to the Reverend Mr. Caleb Evans of Bristol. 8vo. Pr. 15. Johníon.

The trite and inconclufive arguments which Mr. Evans has alleged in favour of the Athanafian fcheme, are fully and clearly confused by this ingenious writer.

19. A Key to the New Teftament. Giving an Account of the Jerveral Books, their Contents, their Authors, and of the Times, Places and Occafions, on which they were refpectively written. 8vo. Davis and Reymers.

Pr. 2s.

This work contains, befides what is mentioned in the titlepage, a fhort account of feveral fects and herefies which prevailed in the times of Chrift and his apostles, and a fummary view of the prophecies in the Revelation of St. John. It is compiled from Michaelis, Lardner, Owen, Doddridge, Prideaux, Calmet, Mofheim, and other eminent writers; appears to be executed with a competent degree of care and judgment; and may be very ufeful to thofe who have not an opportunity or leisure to confult the more copious and extensive productions of these learned men.

20. The Principles of Chriftianity, as taught in Scripture: being Seven Difcourfes on our loft State in Adam, our Recovery by Jefus Chrift, and the Neceffity of Regeneration and Sanctification by the Holy Ghof. To which is prefixed, a Letter to a Clergyman. By Thomas Bowman, M. A. Vicar of Martham, Norfolk. 12mo. Pr. 11. 6d. Dilly.

This performance contains nothing but what has been a thousand times repeated by Calvinistical writers; who have appealed to the articles of the church of England, and heaped together many texts of fcripture, which are nothing to the purpose.

21. Another Defence of the Unity, wherein St. John's Introduction to his Gospel, and his Account of the Word's being made Flesh, are confidered, &c. 8.vo. Pr. 1. Longman.

This writer attempts to fhew, that the Logos denotes the *manifeftative will of God, however, or whenever made ;" and that the refidence of the Logos with Jefus Chrift was fo intimate and expreffive, as to justify St John in faying, the word quas made flesh, and dwelt among us. Yet, he says, we are not to conceive of it as any part of the perfon of Jefus Chrift; but only as refiding in, or with him; and becoming divinely oracular throughout his public miniftrations.

The fenfe in which this writer underftands the Logos, or word of God, entirely annihilates the idea of the pre-existence of Chrift, and confequently the whole doctrine of the bumiliation and incarnation of the fon of God, making him really nothing but a mere man, by whom the will of God was communicated to mankind.

St. Jo

St John fays, the word was with God, and the word was God. But how puerile and trifling is it to fay," the will of God was with God, and the will of God was God!"

22. Elements of Midwifry. Containing the moft Modern and Succefsful Method of Practice in every different Kind of Labour. With a fhort Hiftory of the Art of Midwifry, and an Answer to a Cafuiftical Letter, on the Conduct of Adam and Eve, at the Birth of their firft Child. By J. Aftruc, Profeffor Royal of Phyfic in the Univerfity of Paris, and Phyfician to the King of France, Tranflated, with Additions and explanatory Notes, by S. Ryley, Member of the Corporation of Surgeons in London. 8vo. Pr. 55.

Crowder.

Doctor Aftruc's character as a medical writer is fo well eftablished, especially by his elaborate treatise on the venereal disease, that every new production of his will neceffarily command the attention of the publick. But though he hath acquired fame by the abovementioned treatife, yet its value confists rather in containing the fubftance of all preceding books on the fame subject, than any new discoveries or improvements by the au thor. The merit of the volume now before us is of a fimilar nature. In the years 1745, 46, and 47, door Aftruc was appointed by the Faculty at Paris to read lectures on midwifry, for the inftruction of women who intended to practise that art. These lectures were thrown afide and forgotten, when somebody hinted to the doctor, that if they were put into order, and properly adapted, they might be of ufe to thofe midwives, who, by refiding in the country, were deprived of opportunities of acquiring knowledge in their profeffion. A compilation from authors who had written upon this fubject, he tells us, in his preface, was the ground-work of his lectures, from which thefe Elements were extracted; and therefore, they contain nothing new nor is there any thing peculiar in his arrange. ment. Nevertheless, the book may be useful, as containing in a fmall compafs the elements of the French practice of midwifry. As to the answers to the cafuistical letter mentioned in the title, being ferious replies to a ludicrous question, they are truly ridiculous.

23. A Differtation on the Inflammatory, Gangrenous, and Putrid Sore Throat: alfo, on the Putrid Fever, together with their Diagno fics and Method of Cure. By F. Penrofe, Surgeon. 8vo. Pr. 15. Owen.

Nothing is of greater importance in the art of healing, than an accurate knowledge of the figns called diagnostic, by which one disease may, with certainty, be diftinguifhed from another.