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to it. But he has proceeded farther, and by fo doing has qualified us to judge of the fize of the ftandard by which he has measured his fup. pofed opponent. Mr. Dennis fpeaking of Mr. Daubeny in P. 55, proceeds thus: "Having neither any perfonal acquaintance with this gentleman, nor any knowledge of his peculiar habits, it is utterly impoffible for me to fay, whether or not, like Homer, he now and then indu ges himself in taking a nod in his study; and at such seasons is apt to talk in his fleep; but of one point I am certain, that I fhall not hazard much in declaring my decided opinion, that at the time when Mr. D, wrote his Letter to Mrs, H. M. he either could not be perfectly awake, or elfe was not altogether compos mentis; for certainly, no man in his fenfes would commit himself to fuch a degree as to make the following affertion: The Church of England teaches the fame doctrine.' She no where, that I know of, defcribes faith, abstractedly taken, as "never exiting without producing the evangelical fruits of holiness;" nor does the any where reprefent the daties of Christianity as the neceffary production of its doctrines. Letter to Mrs, H. M. p. 40,

We are forry to find that a Student, who lately refided in one of our Universities, fhould have acquired fo little of logical precifion there as not to difcriminate between an abstract and a concrete terin, Mr. Daubeny's defign, in the paffage above commented on, was to guard againit a falfe conclufion which fome readers might draw from the indefinite language made ufe of in one particular part of Mrs, More's late excellent publication, Had Mr. Dennis read Mr. Daubeny's third Letter to Sir Richard Hill, he muft have known that his object was to guard against that abufe, which fubftitutes nominal profeffion for Chriftian practice. The pofition, advanced by Mr. Daubeny for this purpofe, is certainly true; and it appears to have been advanced with the view of convincing writers how neceffary it is that they should properly define and difcriminate, when treating of fo important and controverted a fubject as that of faith. Now it is fomewhat fingular, that an able Divine, who ftudioufly and folicitoufly endeavours to be precife and accurate in his language, for the very purpofe of guarding the established doctrine of the Church from poffible abafe, thould be charged with a wilful oppofition to that doctrine. Nevertheless, of this nature is the charge brought by Mr. Dennis on this occafion, which may lead fome readers to fuppofe that the author, having fet out with the intention of paying Mrs, H. M. a compli ment, has done it at the expence of his own judgment, by appearing her advocate against a Divine, with whofe character and writings he was very imperfe&ly acquainted. Mr. Daubeny fays, "that the Church of England no where, that he knows of, defcribes faith abftractedly taken, as never exifting without producing the evangelical fruits of holinels." The advancement of this pofition furnishes a proof to Mr. Dennis's mind, that Mr. Daubeny must at the time have been non compos. To prove to his reader that he was fo, Mr. Dennis brings forward the xiith Article of our Church, which fays, that "good

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works do fpring out neceffarily of a true and lively faith."-If it be neceffary that the charge of non compos fhould be brought on either fide on this occafion, it would be an affront to the reader to suppose him incompetent to draw the conclufion.

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We were not at all furprized to find that, after this bold commentator had decidedly called the author of the Letter to Mrs. H. M. a fool, he fhould proceed to honour him with the additional title of a rogue. For in no other light can we fee a man of the character which Mr. Dennis has thought proper to affix to Mr. Daubeny, in a fubfequent part of this fame note, where he defcribes him "as laughing in his feeve," when in the act of fubfcribing to articles he did not believe. Acquainted with Mr. Daubeny and his writings as we are, we confider this charge to be a libel undeferving a serious answer. It is a libel, which, though not actionable, perhaps, in a court of common law, certainly is fo in foro Confcientia, at which bar we fhall leave it to be tried, having no doubt of the verdict which will be delivered in, when Mr. Dennis, at fome future day, fhall fit in cool judgment on kimself.

The limits to which we are confined will not permit us to wait on this gentleman farther. We fhall, therefore, conclude our remarks on his prefent publication with a word or two of advice, which, we hope, as a young man, he will not defpife. Acknowledging him to be poffeffed, in a certain degree, of abilities, and defirous of doing at all times full juftice, even to the promise of abilities, it is our utmost wish that they should be employed to the best advantage. With this view we would recommend it to Mr. Dennis, to let his pen remain fome time longer in his inkhorn, to read better, and think more; and fhould the confequence be that he writes lefs, we are perfuaded that what he may write will, in fuch cafe, conduce more to his own credit and the public good. Our opinion of the writings of the author of the Guide to the Church has long fince been decided anʼ declared. We confider them as a valuable acquifition to the library of the Clerical Student. That all modern writers fhould not fee then, in the fame light with ourselves, can be no fubject of furprize to us. But when we fee fome of our own Divines attempting to depreciate them, we cannot help confidering this to be a fpecies of ingratitude, from which we had flattered ourselves Mr. Daubeny would have been exempted; at the fame time that we are mortified with the idea, that fuch Divines cannot be altogether those found Divines, which, for the honour and profperity of our Church, we wish them to be.

The Letter to Mrs. H. M. has very lately paffed under our Review, and we fee no reason to recall what has been advanced upon it. And we shall be much mistaken in the opinion we have formed of the understanding of that lady, if fhe can feel herself flattered by the defence of advocates, who diftinguish themselves more by confidence of opinion, illiberality of fentiment, and want of charity, than either by extent of information, folidity of judgment, or discrimination of ideas.

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ART. XVIII. A Second Tour from London through the Highlands of Scotland and the Northern Western Parts of England. By Rowland Hill, A. M. London. 1800.

HAVING heretofore attended this confequential and felf-fufficient tourist through his devious wanderings with great diligence and care, though rewarded with but little either of pleasure or of profit, there feems to be the lefs reafon for our now again fo very foon following his fteps fo closely. This Journal, like the former, confifts, chiefly, of dull egotistical details, which prove little more, than that the journalist is, at least in his own eyes, a perfonage of no ordinary confequence; the fame unvaried and unbounded praises of gofpel-preachers, and of promiscuous preaching, as readily in the conventicle, as in the church, if churches they can be called, in which fuch wild and dif. orderly preachers are thus promifcuously admitted.. A candid, Chriftian, friendly, and benevolent communication with profeffors of a religious creed that differs from our own, in the ordinary offices of life, we earnestly recommend; but this we conceive to be a very dif. ferent thing from giving them the right hand of fellowship in performing the public fervices of religion. That habit of worshipping thus indifcriminately in places fet apart for religious worship of any and every defcription, which our author and thofe of his fect are fo induftrious to bring into vogue, is pregnant with infinite mischief: and we cannot too earneftly caution the regular members of the eftablishment against giving any countenance to it. To what it may lead, and where it will ftop, we own we cannot forefee; but frequent ing the places of worship of Methodists, Baptifts, Independents, and Non-defcripts, as our author is proud to boat he does, we own we cannot conjecture by what arguments he can confiftently defend his not alfo frequenting the meetings and chapels of Quakers, Papifts, &c. and the Synagogues of Jews, or the mofques of Maffulmans. Mr. Hill's guilt mult lie, according to his own fhewing, in his continuing ever to frequent the eftablished church at all; if he really be in earnest in believing, as he fays, that the doctrine which Wicliffe preached is adjourned from the church to the meeting. (P. 3.)

Kendal is ftilla dull, dead place in point of religion:" the reafon that led our author to pafs fo harfh a cenfure on a people hitherto diftinguished for their regularity, good order, and attention to the fervices of religion, he immediately fubjoins: there was but "one refpectable family," whofe hospitality he fully experienced. We are furprized to find that, at Carlife, he was forced to preach in the diffenting meeting-houfe; as the parish church in that city, he fays, is now occupied by a gofpel-miniiter, with whom he had an hour's profitable converfation. But, church or conventicle, it makes no difference to his free, eafy, English confcience;" provided only he has crowded congregations, and is hofpitably entertained.

His cenfure of the General Affembly of Scotland, on the score of their late excellent Charge to their People, cautioning them against

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the dangerous delufions of thefe rash and intemperate Zealots, is almost as indecent as it is illiberal. He attributes it to madness; because, forfooth, it happened to be "dated on the day of the new-moon. This, we own, is much in the fpirit of his polemical brother, the Baroner; who also loves what he conceives to be a joke; but which, in other people's opinions, moft generally turns out to be, like that now under confideration, a piece of low and fcurrilous buffoonery. For ́tunately for the Affembly, and for the pious and peaceful members of the establishment, but fatally for his ill-timed and ill-founded cavils, he has printed this Charge at the foot of his page; thus furnishing an antidote to his own poifon. It would probably have thrown fome light on the yet concealed plans and projects of thefe felfcommiffioned Reformers, had he seen fit to inform his readers what was the private bufinefs, tranfacted at the fecret meetings, mentioned.

P. 13.

Towards the close of his tour, our Author boasts that the minds of Christians are 66 advancing faft into a much clearer light;" and that, "throughout England, the effentials of Chriftianity begin to be much more regarded than the Non-Effentials." We know what this cant of the tabernacle means in plain English: he flatters himself, that his party is gaining ground. We truft, that the vauntings of this vain man are fomewhat exaggerated: yet it can admit of no doubt that the zeal and the diligence of the fect, to which he belongs, are perfe vering almoft beyond example; and it is hardly in human nature that they should long be exerted, without producing fome effect. That this effect, be it more or lefs, muft, in its degree, be equally inju rious to the established church, and to all found religion, we are no lefs confident. Fully aware of our danger, then, and no lefs perfuaded that, at prefent, there is but one effectual way of averting it; that remedy we beg leave to point out to the guardians of our national faith and morals in the words of the learned Bifhop of Rochefter. "I am much mistaken, fays that eminent prelate, if a proper diligence on our own parts, to inculcate the doctrines, which are indeed the very bafis of the Chriftian fyftem, which the philofophers of the prefent times explain away, and the illiterate Enthufiaft, by the meanness of his ftyle, and the abfurdity of his illuftrations, too often burlesques; I am mistaken, if a proper diligence on our parts, to inculcate these doctrines would not foon fuperfede the neceffity of all future controverfy. Nourished with the fincere milk of the word by their proper paftors, the people, however illiterate, would refuse a drink of doubtful quality, mingled by a ftranger. Our churches would be thronged; while the moralizing Unitarian would be left to read his dull weekly lecture to the walls of his deferted conventicle; and the field-preacher would bellow unregarded to the wilderness.”

ART. XIX. A Plea for Union, and for a free Propagation of the Gospel: being an Answer to Dr. Jamieson's Remarks on the Tour of R. Hill. By Rowland Hill, A. M. Pr. 91. London, 1800.

IS.

NOT

NOT having feen the pamphlet by Dr. Jamieson, who is an Antiburgher Minifter, of fome reputation, in Edinburgh, we can form no judgment of his performance, only through the dim, and perhaps falfe, medium, through which it is reprefented to us by his opponent. The principal point in debate between these two Sectarian Chieftains, is how far mere laymen, who have no regular nor legitimate call, may or may not take upon them the office of teaching or inftructing in the church of Christ. The stationary preacher in Edinburgh, fortunate at least in the fide he takes in this difpute, contends, (and, as far as we can judge, with fome dexterity and ability) for a ministry regularly conftituted and ordained; whilft, with perfect confiftency, the reftlefs, wandering, irregular Ubiquitarian, of Wotton-UnderEdge, infifts on the right that every man, and, it may be added, every woman alfo, who is duly gifted, is thereby duly called, and may preach the word.

It is not incurious to obferve how fiercely these two fectaries (for, Mr. Hill, we conceive, notwithstanding his having received orders in the church of England, thoroughly confidering his principles and practice may, with full as much propriety, be called a feceder, as Dr. Jamieson) contend about a point, which might be thought moft effential, if not peculiar, to an establishment. And it is not the leaft curious circumftance, that the avowed diffenter defends that doctrine of the church, which the profeffed churchman reprobates. And if, in any respect, the latter has any advantage over the former, it would feem to be in this, that reafon and truth compel him to efpouse, in argument, pofitions and opinions which are not, or at least do not feem to be, in perfect accord with those of the fect, to which He belongs. In keennefs of retort, and in bitter railing, both the one and the other are redoutable polemics; in which the "Bigot to Liberality," as Dr. Jamiefon called Mr. Hill, is affuredly not in. ferior to the advocate for a regular miniftry. The pamphlet before us furnishes us with one short sentence, which, for its neatnefs, delicacy, point, and wit, is fo truly Hillian, that it would have done no difcredit to the Baronet himfelf; and which we beg leave to be permitted to adopt, as defcribing very faithfully our opinion of the refpective merits of thefe doughty controverfialists, "both have written much, and faid little."

ART. XX. The predicted Stability and Permanence of Chriftianity, illuftrated by Hiftoric Teftimony. A Sermon delivered at Salter's Hall, Nov. 3, 1799, to the Supporters of the Sunday- EveningLecture at that Place; and published at their request. By Thomas Morgan. 8vo. Pp. 56. Johnson. 1799.

THOMAS MORGAN (we know not whether the gentleman be a clergyman or not, for he has not condefcended to prefix or fubjoin a fingle letter of information to his name)" rejoices (with Mr. Wrangham) to fee the Sovereign Pontiff, a fugitive and a vagabond." But fince his fermon was written, the fovereign Pontiff has been re

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