of this opinion he quotes a number of refpectable authorities, and proposes fome threwd objections to the contrary doctrine; as that we can give no other rational explication of the malignity and invete. racy of certain diseases; that our Saviour and his difciples reprefent the demoniacs as perfons actually poffeffed, fo that the paffages in which they are thus represented are inexplicable on the notion of their being mere lunatics; that it is inconceivable how mere madmen fhould know the perfon and character of Chrift better than the bystanders, who were in their fenfes, &c.-As it is hinted, however, that the public are to be favoured with our author's further obfervations on the fubject, we fhall for the prefent defer a more particular examin ation of the prefent: remarking in the mean time that the author advances his opinion in the spirit of moderation and modefty. ART. XXII. Remarks upon the critical Parts of a Pamphlet lately publifhed, intitled, Letters to the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Kennicott, by Mr. L'Abbé ***. By George Sheldon, M. A. Vicar of Edwardston, Suffolk, and formerly of Trinity College, Cambridge. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Cadell. Answer a fool according to his folly, left he be wife in his own conceit. This pamphlet ab ovo, ufque ad mala, from its motto, to its conclufion, breathes a heat and vengeance, very unbecoming the facred peace-making order. The author feems to have followed his motto too ftrictly," Anfwer a fool according to his folly ;" for he hath even exceeded Mr. l'Abbé in the folly of railing. It had been better, perhaps, to have followed the oppofite proverb," Anfwer not a fool according to his folly." Catching the rage of Mr. l'Abbe, without his wit, Mr. Sheldon returneth abuse for raillery, and throweth firebrands for fquibs and crackers. At the fame time alío, that he cenTures Mr. l'Abbě as ignorant of Hebrew, he gives proof that he is not a greater proficient in that language himself. Our author's reafoning in his very firft fection appears to be altogether incongruent, when he allows (p. 1, 2.) that Dr. Kennicott and others do not think the variations of the Hebrew manufcripts to have any concern with faith and practice, yet fays, before the Doctor's collation the church was not affured of the authenticity of the prefent text. But furely if the truth of the text be fo grofsly uncertain, as Dr. Kennicott and this writer fuppofe it, the inference is but too cafy, " fo may have been the faith and practice of chriftians for more than feventeen hundred years past, and will remain fo till his edition fhall come forth;" which, to the no finall danger of his fubfcribers' fouls, may be years to come: fome have died in ignorance already, and many more in all probability will. If it be poffible to rectify fome fuppofed and unimportant mistakes, or various readings, by bringing them to a standard, this it may be granted might pleafe and fatisfy the critick, yet not inform and more establish in the truth the common man, nor be of eminent fervice to the cause of religion, but if after all, it should not be poffible to afcertain the original and true reading, then Mr. L'Abbe's question will remain in its full force, "If the articles of the Chriftian faith are fecured to us inthe prefent text, to what purpose is it to trouble the church with cor rections rections and innovations, which are no ways ferviceable to religion?" And we may add, Dr. Kennicott and his abettors will have made a very unjustifiable outcry againft the prefent Hebrew printed copy. Mr. Sheldon's skill in Hebrew appears not to be very deep, when he fays (p. 33.) that fignifies in pure Hebrew princeps, and that is its plural; whereas in pure Hebrew, ufually fignifies many, great, mighty, and with the affix it is feldom or never plural, 'becaufe this affix may be either the pronoun my, or a mere termination like and many other nouns, which is retained even in the genitive fingular, as, N: fee Gen. 4. 20. 9. 18. Joh. 24. 2. and if be made plural, it must be with the addition of, the fame as 1, or by the addition of ', both fignifying many, the former of the feminine, and the latter mafculine gender. Though indeed be found once, Jer. 39. 13. plural in regimine or conftruction, yet this doth not invalidate Mr. L'Abbe's affertion, that is Rabbinical Hebrew, or rather Syriack, Rabbi, conftantly used in the New Testament, "which being interpreted, fignifies mafter." Again p. 37. Mr. Sheldon would reject the opinion of Mr. L'Abbé, with refpect to the force of certain letters ufed paragogically, becaufe none of the grammarians had fuch an opinion." Herein he is miftaken; for there is extant a very curious grammar in Portuguese, which treats largely on the ufe and force of the pa ragogick, otherwife called hemantick, letters. Befides, this is infufficient reafoning, to fay a doctrine or opinion is good or not good, because new. He might as well say, that no improvement must be attempted, nor can be proper, because unknown to our ancestors. The queftion ought to be, whether the obfervation of Mr, L'Abbé is well grounded, which indeed it feems to be by a constant practice in the language. P. 49. He afks with respect to the infertion of the word Samfon, "But was he lefs alone in the next verfe?" Surely prejudice hath blinded his eyes not to fee a difference in the beginning of verfe 11. where Samfon is neceffarily mentioned, though not in the immediate anfwer, where its repetition would have been redundant, but in verfe 12. where there is an interruption of discourse between the perfons present and him, it was of use to mention his name in the anfwer. The fame answer may be given to what he fays, p. 53. on . Methinks we hear the reader cry, it is time to have done : Alas! an,, or 1, apparently redundant or deficient, these are fuch trifles, that it is a fhame for Criticism to wafte its art and strength in obferving upon them. Pity but Dr. Kennicott, had made less rout about various readings and h propofed emendations, or rewarded his affiftant more amply; for then perhaps Mr. L'Abbé would have fpared his farcafm, Mr. Sheldon his abufe, and mankind have been juft as wife and good without as with the writings of either. MISCELLANEOUS. ART. XXIII. The pernicious Effects of Religious Contentions and Bigotry, exemplified in a feries of undoubted Facts, almoft unparalleled in the Dif Lenting Annals, which have lately happened relative to that Church and Congregation N 2 Congregation at Northampton, who, for many years, were under the Care of the late learned and worthy Dr. Doddridge. By a Member of the Congregation, With a Preface, by the Rev. Mr. Hextal, 4to, is. Dicey, Northampton. Buckland, London. 1 Cor. xiii. 2. And have no love, I am nothing. Rom. xvi. 17. Mark them which caufe Divifions, and avoid them. "Tanta religio potuit fuadere malorum!" It is with concern both for the honour and interefts of religion, that we at any time find a congregation of chriftians, whofe union fhould be that of peace and brotherly love, breaking those bonds afunder, and affailing each other with the virulence of hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. Yet this feems to have been the cafe with the difunited church and congregation of the late Dr. Doddridge at Northampton. The be haviour, indeed, of one party toward their aged and infirm paftor not only merits the epithet of unchriftian, but even inhuman; and we are not a little furprifed to learn that, after having been highly cen fured by the principal diffenting minifters in London, it fhould be afterwards rather countenanced than difcouraged. If, as it is hinted, the faid ancient paftor hath abated in the fervour of his Orthodoxy, he may merit the fpiritual admonition and perhaps the cenfure of his minifterial brethren; but we cannot approve of any difingenuous expedient to get him difmiffed from his paftoral charge, or to fubject him to the worldly difficulties and inconveniences attending fuch a difmiflion. ART. XXIV. An Enquiry into the Rife and Eftablishment of the Royal Academy of Arts, Sc. By R. Strange". Mr. Strange arraigns, in this enquiry, the conduct and behaviour of the directors of the Royal Academy, in a variety of inftances, refpecting the government of that inftitution; attempting to prove that their laws and regulations, with even their favorite exhibitions, are ill judged and detrimental to the arts. As what he advances on this fubject, however, appears to flow in a great measure from refentment, fome allowance must be made for mifconception and mifre prefentation. Indeed the moft ftriking part of this publication is the letter to the Earl of Bute, prefixed to it; in which Mr. Strange relates a long ftory about his being injured in his profeffion by rival artifts; particularly by Mr. Dalton; whom he charges with having improperly made ufe of his Majefty's name, to circumvent him in pro curing drawings from capital pictures in Italy. As it is impoffible for us to judge of a matter, which depends fo much on the proper ftating of facts; we can only exprefs our concern that men who ought to be infpired only with a generous emulation to excel others in a fair and honourable rivalship, should stoop to the pitiful expe dient of preventing their progress, in order to take an unfair advan tage of fuch prevention. ART. XXV. A Letter to Mr. Sanxy, Surgeon, in Effex-freet. Occafioned by his very fingular Conduct in the Profecution of Mis Butterfield, who was tried at the Affizes at Croydon, Aug. 19, 1775, for po:jen Announced in our Review for May. ing the late William Scawen, Efq. of Woodcot-Lodge, in the County of Surrey, and bonourably acquitted. 8vo. 1s. Kearfly. An expoftulation with Mr. Sanxy, refpecting the part he took in the late affair of Mifs Butterfield; in which his conduct and motives are represented in the worst light. It affords, however, no new information, and is evidently one of those impofitions, which our catch penny publishers are, on every popular occafion, fo ready to obtrude on the public. BOOKS and PAMPHLETS, Published this Month, of which a more particular account is deferred. ART. 26. The Mercantile Lovers. A Dramatic Satire. Performed' at the Theatre Royal at York. With Alterations by George Wallis. 18. 6d. Johnson. ART. 27. A difclofure of the Circumftances of the Death of Mr. Scawen. 6d. Whitaker.. ART. 28. An Explanation of the Lord's Prayer, and of the Creed. 6d. Sewell. ART. 29. The Cafe of the Dutchess of Kingston. 1s. Wheble. ART. 30. A Brief Extract; or, Summary of important Arguments advanced by fome late diftinguifbed Writers, in Support of the Supremacy of the British Legislature, and their Right to Tax the Americans. By a Liveryman. 1s. Wilkie. ART. 31. A Memoir, entitled Drainage and Navigation but one united Work; and an Outfall to Deep Water, the first Step to it. Addreffed to the Corporation of Lynn-Regis and Bedford Level. By T. Pownall, Efq. M.P. Is. Almon. ART. 32. A Sermon on the Prefent Situation of American Affairs. Preached in Christ Church, July 23, 1775, at the Request of the Officers of the Third Battalion of the City of Philadelphia, and Diftrict of Southwark. By William Smith, D.D. Provost of the College, in that City.. Philadelphia, printed.-London, reprinted, 6d. Dilly. CORRESPONDENCE. TO THE LONDON GENTLEMEN, REVIEWERS. Although I doubt not but Mr. Seton will himself make good the charge brought against you, of having joined hands with Dr. Priefley, in mutually advancing a propofition tending to eradicate that fentiment of all mankind, that man is a being naturally immortal; yet I cannot myself refrain from addreffing you on the fame fubject, fo injurious to the great caufe of focial felicity, morality, and religion, 3. as as the tenet you advance, to me appears. At the fame time I am convinced you fee it not in fo odious a light, if, on other occafions, the public receives your real fentiments; for you have hitherto always tood forth warm friends in the cause of religion, natural and revealed, "The truth, you fay, (by the bye with greater propriety of expreffion, you should have faid notion) you mean to countenance is, that man bath no bape of furviving the grave, as a moral agent, but what is founded on revelation."This, gentlemen, you efteem an important truth; you think likewife, that your propofition thus worded, differs from that of Dr. P. "that the whole man becomes extinkt at deaths and that we have no hope of furviving the grave, but what is derived from the fcheme of revelation." Now, either you all mean the fame thing, i. e. that man naturally hath nothing to expect beyond the grave, or else you will have it believed, that Dr. P. really thinks the whole man abfolutely becomes extinct at death.-In justice to the Dr.'s reputation I am bound to declare, that such is not his fentiment. He means to affert, that as to him, the whole man appears of fome uniform compofition, and that compofition confequently material; it directly follows, that at the diffolution of the compofitum, the whole man muft fall to pieces, unless a fuperior power interfere, and by a pre-ordained scheme preserve and perpetuate his existence: therefore that man is not phyfically indestructible, and therefore not phyfically immortal. This he hath himself fufficiently expreffed in terms neither inaccurate nor fallacions. Is not this also, gentlemen, the truth you mean to countenance? or, perhaps, the difference may be, that he confiders man in general; you, as a moral agent only. You affert then, that revelation alone can extend our views beyond the grave: at that fad term all human investigation stops; there the weary traveller fits down, comfortless and forlorn; and there, fay you, the virtuous man of every age or nation, on whom the light from heaven bath not fhone, furrenders every wifh; for how can he hope for that, which his reafon tells him must not be? "Yet, tell me "Whence this pleafing hope, this fond defire, "This longing after immortality?" Such a doctrine, you prefume, is neither hurtful to the cause of morality, nor injurious to that of religion. How far it is calculated to produce fuch baneful effects I will not at prefent infist on; but this I must fay, that if it be true, natural religion becomes a baseless Fabrick. And, by what arguments to the unbeliever will you enforce the practice of his moral law, if you tell him he hath nothing to look for after death, and that the fame will be the fate of the vicious and the virtuous man, Natural religion and its morality ceafing, on what foundation, think you, is now to reft the religion of Jefus, and its moral inftitutes.-In direct oppofition, therefore, both to your and Dr. P.'s affertion, I dare engage my word to the public, frilly to demonftrate by pure philofophy alone, that the fol of man is naturally indestructible, and that the whole man, as a moral agent, muft furvive the grave, if there be a God, on whom he depends. Give me leave, gentlemen, to afk you a question: have you ever read the Religion of Nature delineated, and if fo, what think you of |