Mr. Toplady is a writer, who difplays a lively imagination ; but his zeal for Calvinifm frequently throws him into reveries. For inftance :

:

The religion of Jefus Chrift, he fays, ftands eminently dif tinguished, and effentially differenced, from every other religion, that was ever propofed to human reception, by this remarkable peculiarity that, look abroad in the world, and you will find, that every religion, except one, puts you upon doing fomething, in order to recommend yourfelf to God.'-This is neither a compliment to Chriftianity, nor true in fact. Christ certainly puts us upon doing fomething, when he fays, If thou will enter into life, keep the commandments.' And one of his apoftles represents men as acquitted or condemned, at the last day, according to what they have done, whether good or bad.

But, we are told, the mediatorial riches of Chrift would have been so many dead commodities, if it were not for needy, undone finners, who take them off his hands.'

Here Mr. Toplady should recollect the parable of the talents. The man travelling into a foreign country called his fervants, and delivered unto them his goods. All of them, no doubt, were willing to take his commodities off his hands.' But they only, who traded with them, and encreased them by their own application and industry were commended and rewarded. The fervant, who would not put himself to the fatigue of business, was punished.

Take an inftance of our author's charitable fentiments, and of the modeft opinion, he entertains of his own way of thinking.

The devils, fays he, are incomparably more orthodox, than nineteen in twenty of our modern divines.'-The only inference which we can derive from this remark, is, that almost all our modern divines are worse than devils, and that there is not above one in twenty like Mr. Toplady.

31, A Letter to a Baptift Minifter, at Shrewsbury. 8vo. 1s. 6d.

Robinfon.

The baptift preacher, to whom this letter is addressed, having not only infifted on the neceffity of immersion, but also inveighed with great acrimony against the mode of administering baptifm in the established church, this writer, fhews from reafon and scripture, that dipping is by no means effential to the proper difpenfation of that rite ; and that infant baptifm is warranted both by facred authority, and the general prac tice of the church from the apoftolical times.

In this performance, he has fully vindicated the practice of the church. But-arguments are thrown away upon infatuated zeal. That, as Butler fays of the light within, is

"An ignis-fatuus, that bewitches
And leads men into pools and ditches,
To make them dip themselves, and found
For Christendom in dirty pond;

To dive, like wild-fowl, for falvation,
And fish to catch regeneration.'

They, who fo far forget the genius of Christianity, as to contend with virulence for modes and ceremonies of no importance, justly merit this fatirical reflection.

POETRY.

32. Amwell: a Defcriptive Poem. By John Scott, Esq. 410. 25. Dilly.

This poem is written in blank verfe, and affords an agreeable representation of the rural fcenes it defcribes. The author has with propriety availed himself of fuch hiftorical or traditionary facts as were connected with the fubject, which he has worked into pleasing little episodes, and embellished with the graces of poetry.

33. Odes, by Richard Cumberland, Efq. 4to. is. 6d. Robson*

This ingenious writer informs us, that fome time fince he made a domestic tour through the mountainous parts of Weftmoreland and Cumberland: and obferves, that we penetrate the Glacieres, traverse the Rhone and the Rhine, whilst our own lakes of Ulfwater, Kefwick, and Wyndermere, exhibit fcenes in fo fublime a ftyle, with fuch beautiful colourings of rock, wood, and water, backed with fo tremendous a difpofi, tion of mountains, that if they do not fairly take the lead of all the views in Europe, yet they are indifputably fuch as no English traveller fhould difregard, provided he has any taste for natural prospects.

This publication confifts of two odes. The firft is faid to have been ftruck out in one of thofe ftupendous fcenes, and is' addreffed to the fun. It is animated with a confiderable share · of the lyric fpirit. The following lines exhibit a natural and pleafing picture; fuch as every man must have observed, who has had an opportunity of furveying the inferior walks of men, from an aerial fituation.

Now downward as I bend my eye,
What is that atom I espy,
That fpeck in nature's plan?
Great heaven! is that a man?

And hath that little wretch its cares,
Its freaks, its follies, and its airs;

And do I hear the infect fay,

:

"My lakes, my mountains, my domain ?''
weak, contemptible and vain!

The tenant of a day.

Say to old Skiddaw, Change thy place,"
Heave Helvellyn from his base,

Or bid impetuous Derwent fland

At the proud waving of a master's hand.'

The fecond ode is addreffed to Dr. James; and contains a very poetical defcription of the furprising effects of his celebrated powder in the cure of fevers.

34. The

34. The Captive Freed; or the Rescue of the Mufe. A Poetical Elay. 4to. 6d. Dilly.

At a villa near Bath where a felect party of friends affembled weekly for their mutual entertainment, it was proposed, that at the next meeting they should exercise their ingenuity by reviving the antiquated mode of compofition, formerly known in France by the title of Bouts Rimés. In the prefent effay, the mufe laments this reftriction, from which she is supposed to be delivered by her patronefs. We heartily congratulate the nymph on her fortunate emancipation; for the certainly is one of the moft elegant Parnaffian ladies that we have lately been in company with.

35. Parody on Gray's Elegy. 4to. Is. Wheble.

This Parody, which has been lately advertised as a new publication, was written by the rev. Mr. Duncombe, and printed for Dodley, in 1753, under the title of, An Evening Contemplation in a College. A copy of it is inferted in the viith volume of Fawkes's Poetical Calendar. It is a work of humour and ingenuity but injured in this republication by fome variations for the worse. By a late advertisement, in one of the Evening Papers, we are perfuaded, that neither the gentleman who poffeffed the manufcript, nor the bookfeller, knew any thing of its origin, or of its having been printed before.

36. The Patent, a Poem. 4to. Is. Kearfiy..

This production feems to be defigned as a fatire against the practice of granting patents for frivolous inventions. The author's difapprobation of the facility with which thofe are obtained, is certainly well founded; but it must afford fome atonement for the abuses committed in this inftance, especially to the poetafters, that the crown claims not the prerogative of li cenfing literary performances.

37. The Tears of the Foot Guards, upon their Departure for AmeIS. Kearfly.

rica.

410.

A fprightly and well aimed fatire against military effeminacy, exemplified in the lamentations of an officer on the profpect of exchanging the pleasures of the town for the fatigues and dangers of war.

38. An Answer to the Tears of the Foot Guards, &c. 4to.`

Kearfly.

IS.

An ironical effufion, not improperly characterised in the motto which the author has prefixed:

Sunt bona, funt quædam mediocria, funt mala plura,
Quæ legis.'

39. Addrefs to the Genius of America. By the rev. Chriftopher Wells, Lecturer of Penryn, Cornwall. 410. 15.

Baldwin.

If Mr. Wells be really an infant mufe, as he inform us toward the end of the poem, we may conclude him to be a very young lecturer. Upon this fuppofition, therefore, we thall at prefent fufpend his trial by a noli profequi; though it must be remem

Y 4

bered

bered, that no regard is paid to the benefit of clergy in the court of criticism.

40. Bedlam, a Ball, and Dr. Price's Obfervations on the Nature of Civil Liberty. A Poetical Mealey. 4to. 1s. Dodfley. Poetical Medleys, as this is entitled, are generally very incoherent productions; but we have feldom known any of them more extravagant or unmeaning than the prefent rhapsody. Though we should not look for any refutation of Dr. Price's arguments in a metrical compofition, we might at least expect, that the reverend gentleman's Obfervations would be treated with humour; of which, however, unless there can be any in affociating them with bedlam and a ball, we are entirely at a lofs to difcover the most distant traces.

POLITICA L.

41. Remarks on a Pamphlet lately published by Dr. Price, intitled, Obfervations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, &c. 8vo. Cadell.

15.

Had Dr. Price's Obfervations on Civil Liberty and Government been published at a time when the nation was undisturbed with any political controverfy on the fubject, they would in all probability have met with univerfal neglect, and no antagonist might have arifen to expofe the error or abfurdity of crude opinions, which the common fenfe of mankind must have fuffered to fink into oblivion. It was, however, the fate of that production, that being blindly extolled by the party whofe pur pofes it was calculated to ferve, it has been generally regarded with a degree of attention, which otherwife it never would have merited. The author of this pamphlet animadverts with great juftice on Dr. Price's definition of civil liberty, which he clearly hews to be incompatible with the idea of government, and even inconfiftent with the doctor's own principles in other parts of his treatife. It would be unneceffary to defcend to particular remarks; and we fhall therefore only obferve, that those who perufe this letter will find in it a refutation of the most effential propofitions in Dr. Price's performance.

42. A Letter to the rev. Dr. Price, wherein his Obfervations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, the Principles of Government, &C. are candidly examined, &c. 8vo. 11, Bew.

The author of this pamphlet traces Dr. Price's progrefs attentively through his various obfervations, fometimes attacking him with argument, and at other times with raillery or farcafm. If this opponent does not uniformly maintain the gravity, of a commentator, he has not facrificed to the levity of ridicule any paffage which was not liable to cenfure.

43. Experience preferable to Theory. An Anfwer to Dr. Price's Obfervations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, and the Juftice and Policy of the War with America. 8vo. 15. 6d. Payne. The author of this pamphlet, if we may judge from the in ormation he dif.overs refpecting fome particular facts, is ex

tremely

tremely well acquainted with the history and state of the colo nies. When this circumftance is confidered, and at the fame time the general knowledge which he evidently poffeffes on other fubjects of political fpeculation, the public cannot but regard him as happily qualified for entering with advantage the held of the American controverfy. He is, however, very far from making any oftentatious difplay of his polemical abilities ; and though the force of his arguments be fuch as to prove irrefiftible by his antagonist, he betrays nothing of that air of triumph which a confcioufnefs of fuperiority is apt to produce in a victorious, though generous difputant. Among many important obfervations which we meet with in this pamphlet, the juftnefs of the following remark induces us to lay it before our readers.

If any principles may be faid to be fundamental in the Englith conftitution, this feems to be one, that the lands in all parts of the dominion, by fome tenure or other, are held of the crown: in conformity to this principle, grants of all the territory in the plantations have been made by the crown. It is another principle, equally fundamental, that wherever the authority of the crown extends, the authority of parliament extends alfo it is an undeniable fact, that the grantees received their grants, as of lands within the dominion of the crown, and under focage tenure, in which is included allegiance or fidelity to the crown: an oppofition, by force of arms, to the execution of acts of parliament, by construction of law is a breach of this allegiance and high treafon.'

We are of opinion that the claim of parliament to a legislativeauthority over all parts of the British dominions, is well fupported in this fhort but comprehenfive paragraph. The author's tenderness for the Americans, which appears throughout the performance, may have reftrained him from pronouncing their oppofition vi & armis to the execution of acts of parliament, a breach of the oath which is required of perfons who have fuftained public offices in government among them, as well as of many others. This, however, is a confideration of no fmall importance in a religious and moral light; and we wish it might have its due force, not only with all who are in actual rebellion in America, but with their aiders and abettors in this country.

Much has been faid of the neceffity of an express acknowledgement of the authority of parliament, if the Americans fhould be restored to a state of internal tranquility; but if the doctrine just now mentioned be well founded, as we conceive it is, and a way can be devifed to imprefs the truth of it, the Oaths to government, as they are now framed, effectually anfwer every purpofe; and the obligation of fidelity to the king must be understood in his capacity as the first branch of the legiflature, as well as in any other capacity or relation whatever. The fenfe of the legislature in an act of parliament, and in an

oath