1 bafis of the late act of parliament in favour of the Roman Ca- A Serious Letter to the Public, on the late Transaction between Lord The tranfaction on which this Letter is founded is, we believe, fufficiently known to the public. The author's defign is to vindicate lord North; but though in the execution of this province he difcovers a confiderable degree of zeal, he is greatly inferior, in point of compofition, to Junius, whofe fignature he affumes. A Letter to Lord George Germaine, giving an Account of the Whieldon. The author of this Letter defends the feveral measures which have been pursued by adminiftration fince the commencement of the difpute with America; and, as the bafis of an amicable accommodation, he propofes certain terms, which however appear to betray a coercive rather than a conciliatory spirit. Authentic Memoirs of the late Earl of Chatham. 8vo. 25. A zealous, unlimited panegyric, in which the author's admiration is more confpicuous than his accuracy. DIVINIT Y. An Inquiry after feveral important Truths; especially concerning the Is. The following declaration feems to be perfectly ingenuous: Not hearing at this prefent writing (Nov. 1776) of any publication against them [Mr. Lindsay, and Mr. Williams] and not choofing to liften to a known voice of delufion, I began first of all, to examine myself, what I could fay, in cafe one of them was to argue in my hearing. Am I myself well founded in the truth, fo as to answer their objection? Why, I am not quite clear myself, was the refult. I therefore refolved on an enquiry, in order to come at fome certainty in this point, &c.' By this it appears, that the author has not been long converfant in theological ftudies: for in November 1776, when he fat 'down to write this pamphlet, he was not much acquainted with the fubject, or, as he fays, not quite clear:' and from the perufal of it, we find no reafon to question his veracity. C The The Duly and Intereft of every private Perfon and the Kingdom at large at the prefent Janaure. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Buckland. This writer gives us a general view of our national vices, and confiders their natural and inevitable confequences. He ftates the most obvious arguments in favour of a fuperintending Providence, and fhews the propriety and wisdom of a conftant application to the great Governor of nations, and the fupreme Difpofer of all events. He then addreffes himself to the libertine, the unbeliever, the gamefter, the duellift, the drunk, ard, the felf-murderer, &c. fetting before them the fatal effects of their immoralities. In the last place, he infilis on the abfolute neceffity of a reformation; and fpecifies the virtues, which are indifpenfibly required of Christians.-A plain, pious, and useful treatise. A Sermon prea bed at the Anniversary Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy, in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, on Thursday, May 15, 1777. By the Hon. and Rev. James Cornwallis, Dean of Canterbury. $10. Is. Bathurst. The fenfible and judicious author of this difcourfe recommends the charity, which provides for the fons of the clergy, to the protection of his auditors, upon this general principle, that whatever tends to the promotion of religion and virtue, ought to have a precedence among our good works: fhewing, that the charity in queftion has the ftrongeft claims in its favour, is free from the objections made to others, and has the purity of moral conduct for its great object, To this Sermon is added an account of the annual contributions to the charity fince the year 1720. By which it ap❤ pears, that the collection in 1777, which amounted to 1000l, was greater than any former one fince the year 1766; and that the highest was 12241. 149. in 1763. In the present year the collection, if we rightly recollect, was about 6ol. more than that of the last year. This article fhould have appeared in 1777; but has been inadvertently overlooked. The Excellence of the Liturgy of the Church of England; a Sermon at the Church of St. Mary le Bow, on St. Mark's Day, 1778, pursuant to the Will of Mr. John Hutchin. By East Apthorp, D. D. 410. 15. Robfon. This learned writer introduces his difcourfe with fome ge neral obfervations on the ufefulness of prefcribed forms of prayer in public worship; he then gives us an hiftorical account of the origin of our Liturgy, and a general view of its principal parts. Two or three fhort extracts on the compilation of the Li -turgy may not be unacceptable to fome of our readers. The compilers of the first English Liturgy had no models before them but the Latin breviaries of barbarous ages in monaftic rhythm. The firft outline of this noble work is ftill to be 2 dif difcerned in the Litany and other prayers, published by the authority of king Henry VIII, in 1535...The two Liturgies of Edward VI in 1548 and 1551, with confiderable variations from each other, approached nearly in effentials, especially the latter, to the prefent form... In the reign of queen Mary the Liturgy was repealed... But the fecond Liturgy of Edward VI. was restored at the acceffion of queen Elizabeth in 1558, and continued through that glorious reign with few variations... In the first year of James I, after the conference at Hampton-court, it was reviewed; fome thanksgivings were added at the end of the Litany and the catechilm was enlarged with the doctrine of the facraments; its outline having been drawn long before, in king Henry's book of the Inftitution of a Chriftian Man, published in 1537, and 1543... It was again reviewed in 1661, after the conference of the Savoy; when feveral leffons were changed, fome collects altered, and the judicious prayers for the Ember weeks, for All Conditions of Men, and the very beautiful General Thanksgiving, were added.' To this difcourfe is annexed an account of a Catechetical Lecture, first established in 1622, which is to be regularly continued in Bow Church, on the firft and third Sundays in every month, at fix o'clock in the evening. The first course is to be preached by the rector. Providence and Free Agency. A Sermon preached in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, April 17, 1778, being Good Friday. By Samuel Horfley, LL. D. 40. is. Payne, 6 In treating on this difficult fubject, providence and freeagency, the learned author obferves, that we must not imagine fuch an arbitrary exercife of God's power over the minds and wills of fubordinate agents, as would convert rational beings into mere machines, and leave the Deity charged with the follies and the crimes of men, which was the error of the Calvinifts; nor, on the other hand, muft we fet up fuch a liberty of created beings, as, neceffarily precluding the divine foreknowledge of human actions, would take the government of the moral world out of the hands of God, and leave him nothing to do with the nobleft part of the creation' To avoid these extremes, and to fhew, that the foreknowledge and providence of the Deity, and the liberty, which properly belongs to man as a moral agent, are perfectly confiftent, and naturally connected, he proposes the following hypothefis : A moral motive and a mechanical force, are both indeed causes; and equally certain caufes each of its proper effect. But they are caufes in very different fenfes of the word, and derive their energy from the moft oppofite principles. Force is only another name for an efficient caufe; it is that which impreffes motion upon body, the paffive recipient of a foreign impulse. A moral motive is what is more fignificantly called the final caufe, and can have no influence but with a being that proposes to itself an end, chooses means, and thus puts itself in action. It is true, true, that while this is my end, and while I conceive these to be the means, a definite act will as certainly follow that definite choice and judgment of my mind, provided I be free from all external refraint and impediment, as a determinate motion will be excited in a body by a force applied in a given direction. There is in both cafes an equal certainty of the effect; but the principle of the certainty, in the one cafe, and in the other, is entirely different: which difference neceffarily arifes from the different nature of final and efficient caufes. Every caufe (except it be the will of the Deity acting to the first production of fubftances, every caufe I fay, except this acting in this fingular inftance) produces its effect by acting upon fomething; and, whatever be the caufe that acts, the principle of certainty lies in a capacity, in the thing on which it acts, of being affected by that action. Now the capacity which force, or an efficient caufe, requires in the object of its action, is abfolute inertnefs. But intelligence and liberty conftitute the capacity of being influenced by a final caufe, by a moral motive; and to this very liberty does this fort of caufe owe its whole efficacy, the whole certainty of its operation; which certainty never can difprove the exiftence of that liberty, upon which it is itfelf founded, and of which it affords the highest evidence. Thefe diftinctions, between the efficient and the final caufe, being once understood, we may from the Neceffarians own principles deduce the firmeft proof of the liberty of man. For fince God fore knows and governs future events, fo far as fubordinate agents are concerned in them, by the means of moral motives, that is, by final caufes; fince thefe are the engines, by which he turns and wields the intellectual world, bending the perverse wills of wicked men and of apoftate fpirits to his purpofe; and fince thefe motives owe their energy, their whole fuccefs, to the liberty of the beings that are governed by them; it is, in confequence, molt certain, however it may feem most trange, that God could not govern the world as he does, by final caufes, if man were not free; no [any] more than he could govern the material part of it mechanically, by efficient caufes, if matter were not wholly paffive.' 1x Speaking of the Neceffitarians he fays: So far as they maintain the certain influence of moral motives, as the natural and fufficient means whereby human actions, and even human thoughts, are brought into that continued chain of caufes and effects, which, taking its beginning in the operations of the infinite mind, cannot but be fully underfood by him; fo far they do fervice to the caufe of truth, placing the "great and glorious" doctrines of fore knowledge and providence-AbfoJute fore knowledge, univerfal providence upon a firm and philofophical foundation.' There are many fenfible obfervations in this difcourfe; but the foregoing, hypothefis does not appear (to us at leaft) fo perlesty fatisfactory, as the author feems to imagine. For if moral motives are certain in their operations, is not man as much a machine, as if he were impelled by a mechanical force? If the Deity propofes a motive, which I cannot refift, am I in that cafe a free agent? are not my elective powers abfolutely over-ruled and determined to one particular choice? On the contrary, if moral motives are not certain in their effects, the difficulty of reconciling divine fore-knowledge and man's free will still re mains. A Sermon preached in a Country Church, on the Faft Days; 13 Dec. 1776, and 27 Feb. 1778. 4to. 15. White. The author points out the propriety and equity of national judgements, and the pernicious confequences, which must attend a total decay of public virtue.-This difcourfe bears the following infcription, in a curious engraving on the title-page: Supremitate Regis vindicatâ in inferiori Domo Convocationis, Jan 23, 1775, which is the fignature of Dr. Ibbetson, and records his meritorious vindication of the king's fupremacy, as the following celebrated line of Cicero commemorates his prefervation of Rome: "O fortunatam natam me confule Romam." The Vanity of Human Dependencies ftated and explained, in a Sermon preached at Barbican, May 17, 1778; being the Sunday after the Deceafe of the late Earl of Chatham. By Charles Bulkley. 4. I. Johnson. In this difcourfe the author explains thefe words of Ifaiah, ch. ii. 22. Ceafe ye from man, whofe breath is in his noftrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of ?"-fhewing, that whatever may be the ftation of any individual, however eminent his abilities, however brilliant his character, a dependence upon him is extravagant and prefumptuous, when it is either. inconfiftent with that unrivalled glory and honour, which we owe to the Divine Majefty, or with the ftate and fituation of man here on earth.-Having thus explained the text, he proceeds to the application, in which he pays his tribute of refpect to the late lord Chatham: but complains, that he has been fhocked with the appearances of a fullen infenfibility' upon the occafion. The righteous, fays he, perifheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none confidering that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come. " · How applicable, continues he, are thefe words in particular to the character of him, whofe death we now deplore? What was his conftant, uniform language as a fenator, and a statesman, from the very beginning of our prefent troubles to his own latest breath? Tax not without reprefentation :-there was righteoufnefs. Withdraw, withdraw your troops :-there was mercy, And when I reflect upon the great and mighty lofs we have fuftained by his removal, I am ready to cry out with another prophet, "Woe is me, for I am as when they have gathered the fummer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vine tage: |