that he even falls fhort of them in the accounts and defcriptions of difeafes, parts in which we might expect he had excelled: Indeed the work is put together in fo extremely careless a manner, that midwifery, one of the fubjects enumerated in the title page, is entirely omitted, fo that we neither fee the terms midwifery, labour, child-birth, nor many others relating to the art. "The forceps he calls an inftrument to extract extraneous bodies, which may be driven into any of the foft parts of the body." But they are used on a thousand other occafions: to extra splinters of bones, or stones from the bladder, which were ro: driven in, but generated there; and the midwifery forceps to extract the foetus from the uterus. "The fœtus he calls fimply the young while in the uterus." Hooper enumerates the pecu liarities of the foetus, as the thymus gland, foramen ovale, &c. In the Encyclopædia we have the Spanish fly thus loofely defcribed: "Cantharides, Spanish flies, poffeffing extraordinary stimulant; corrofive, and other virtues." In Hooper's dictionary the de fcription of them is more minute. Cantharides (Cantharis, idis, pl. Cantharides, um; from xardapos, a beetle, to whofe tribe it belongs), Spanish flies, Meloë veficatorius of Linnæus. The importance of thefe flies, by their ftimulant, corrofive, and epifpaftic qualities, in the practice of phyfic, is very confiderable; indeed fo much fo as to induce many to confider them as the most powerful medicine in the Materia Medica. When applied to the fkin, in the form of a plafter, it foon raises a blifter full of ferous matter, and thus relieves inflam. matory diseases. The tincture of these flies is of great utility in feveral cutaneous diseases, rheumatic affections, &c. but it should be used with caution." Hooper constantly, as in the above inftance, gives the derivations of the terms, and full descriptions of the articles ufed in medicine. This, with much other necellary information, are in vain looked for in the prefent Encyclopædia, which must be much improved before it can be put in competition .with the compendiums already in use. DIVINITY; Art. 29. Elementary Evidences of the Truth of Chriftianity, in a Series of Eafter Catechisms, on the Refurrection and other Miracles of Chrift, on Prophecy, and on Chrift's Teftimony of himself. By the Right Reverend Thomas Burgess, D.D. Bishop of St. Dawid's. 12mo. 264 pp. 264 pp. 35. Rivingtons, &c. 1806. Thefe Elementary Evidences are not now for the first time published, but first collected in the prefent form. We have before Hhs feen feen and noticed them under the title of Eafter Catechifms*. They are of the most useful and instructive kind, and are well calculated to perform the fervices which the learned and pious Bishop hopes to render by them. 1. To produce a conviction of the truth of Christianity, from the evidence of Scripture, and especially from Christ's teftimony of himself. "2. To promote the ftudy of the Scriptures, by authenticat ing the evidences by numerous and minute citation; and 3. To bring that ftudy to a further practical ufe, by draw ing from our Saviour's example and injunctions, and from the faith and conduct of the first believers in Chrift, fuch illustrations and rules of faith and duty, as may tend effentially to form the character and temper of a Chriftian." We are delighted to contribute, by any means in our power, to the celebrity and circulation of fo valuable a work. ART. 30. The Unity of the Chriftian Body ftated. A Sermon, preached in Lambeth Chapel, on the 28th of April, 1805, at the Confecration of the Right Reverend Henry Bathurst, LL. D. Lord Bishop of Norwich, and published at the Command of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. By Richard Proffer, D. D. Prebendary of Durham. 4to. 19 pp. 15. Payne, &c. '1805.. This preacher undertakes to show that the unity of Chriftians as one body, under their legitimate head, Jefus Chrift, was the grand object of the Chriftian Difpenfation: and he fums up his reafoning in the following manner. "There never has been a period in the whole fucceffion of the Christian church, in which this exhortation of the Apostle has not been greatly wanted. And if the evangelical principle, fo ftrongly inculcated, were but permitted duly to actuate the Chriftian body. of this land; would unity of affection then feem irreconcileable with fome diverfities of religious opinions? would small excep tions, either to the internal government or the difcipline of our religious establishment, be fondly magnified into reafons for breaking focial communion; and even for affuming a posture of hoftility against our national church? would the very ministers of its own appointment take occafion, from tenets at the best extremely difputable, to form diftinct parties, and diffuse animo. fities amongst Chriftian brethren? No; it would then be felt how much of wisdom and Christian spirit there is, in recollect. ing, that agreement, as to points of the highest value and moment, affords better reafons for holding together the Christian * Brit. Crit. Vol. xx111. p. 683. body, body, than any difagreements, as to matters of external and for mal concern, can ever yield, for tearing it afunder; it would then be felt not only that the authorities of the national church, in all their degrees, kinds, and places, are rendered venerable by the fanction they derive from our firft Fathers in Chrift, and from the fucceffive ufage of all Chriftian ages; but also that they are fuch more for the fake of the Chriftian body than their own; and that the proper action of them all is indifpenfably needed by every fingle power in it, and that of every fingle power by them all. Then too would the wifh revive, that the bleffings of Christianity might be fpread in genuine purity, without any unnatural mixture with the feeds of enmity, among ChriftiansThat every effort for its diffufion might proceed in perfect confiftency with an authorized fyftem in all its parts-That every agency in its fervice might be fitly prepared and adjusted to the end defigned, and conducted under established rule and in regular courfe, without deviating into anomalous innovation, and with out tending in the leaft to raife alienation of spirit among mem bers of the Chriftian body." P. 17. There is fome want of clearness in the discourse, and even in the paffage we have cited; but the intention of the author to per fuade to unity and Chriftian love, is worthy of him and of the occafion. ART. 31. Female Compaffion, illuftrated and exemplified in the Establishment and Superintendency of a Charitable Inftitution for the Relief of neceffitous Families in the City of Rochester, and adjacent Parishes; a Sermon preached in the Parish Church of St. Nicholas, Rochefter, on Sunday, 17th August, 1806. By the Rev. Charles Moore, M. A. Vicar. 4to. 21 PP. Hatchard. 1806. IS. The chief part of this difcourfe is occupied in explaining the principles and plan of the charity in queftion, which feem, indeed, to be truly laudable. Towards the end the author remarks upon the exemplary activity of women in their benevolence, of which he gives inftances from Holy Writ. It is very probable that the fermon will; as was intended by the preacher, extend the knowledge and increase the patronage of the fociety. ART. 32. A Sermon, preached at Holyrood Church, Southampton, on. Sunday, August 10, 1806, on the Duty of Humanity toward the irrational Part of the Creation. By the Rev. Charles Sleech Hawtrey, A. B. Curate of Holyrood Parish. Published at the Request of the Inftitutor of the Annual Sermon on the Subject. 8vo, Is. Baker, Southampton; Rivingtons, London. 20 PP. 1806. The inftitutor of this annual fermon (whose name we do not difcover) appears to be animated by a truly Christian spirit to Hh3 wards wards the brute creation. The preacher feconds his good intentions, by proving," that the claims of the brute creation to kind and merciful treatment, are derived from the dictates of reafon, and enforced by the commands of revelation." P. 18. At p. 16 we find a paffage exactly agreeing with the remarks in our xxvii. vol. p. 440, on a fimilar occafion. We recommend this fermon, and the subject of it, to the notice of parents in particular, that they may "fow the feeds of humanity in the early education of their children." ART. 33. The Forbidden Tree. A Sermon preached at the Church of St. Lawrence, Reading, on Thursday, O&ober 2, 1804, at Archbishop Laud's Lecture, and published at the Request of many of the Clergy and others, who were prefent. By the Rev. Nathaniel Gilbert, Vicar of Bledlow, Bucks. 8vo. 36 pp. Hatchard, &c. 1805. The principal purpose of this valuable Sermon, which we have fuffered to lie unnoticed longer than we intended, is to vindicate the literal interpretation of the Sacred Hiftory of the Fall of Man, against the infidels, the Geddefes, and all other deniers or allegorizers of Scriptures. This object is purfued with much clearness of method, and foundnefs of argument. The preacher confiders the objections of opponents as reducible to thefe fuppo. fitions: either that our first parents ought not to have been put under any teft of obedience; or, fecondly, that fome better teft might be fuggefted; or, laftly, that whether a better can be found or no, the particular teft recorded was weak, unreasonable, or improper. I. The first argument is eafily difpofed of, fince it cannot be conceived that many perfons will fer quily contend, that God had not a right to beftow his bleffings on whatever conditions he chose. II. In feeking for a better teft, the author gives fome very ftrong reafons, why a moral teft, under the circumstances of our first parents, would not have been preferable. III. He comes, in the third place, to juftify the command ac. tually recorded in the Mofaic Hiftory, which he does upon thefe confiderations:- -1. That it was plain, and could not be mifunderstood; 2. that it was eafy; 3. that it was not contemptible; 4. that it oppofed a falutary check to those propenfities by which fin was most likely to affail and enter their hearts; namely, the animal appetites, and an inordinate curiofity and defire of knowledge; 5. (though this feems rather to belong to the fecond head of enquiry) that any one moral command, fo particularly enjoined, would have feemed to weaken the obligation of all the reft; 6. that a pofitive law was moft fit to keep in view the fupreme authority of the lawgiver; which ought to be the highest confideration in the mind of a creature towards his Creator. From From this doctrine, feveral other confiderations of importance are alfo deduced. We have analyfed the principal part of this fenfible difcourfe, as briefly as poffible, to let our readers fee what they have to expect in it. Nor fhould we have felt an inclination to object to any fentence in it, had it not been for a note upon the conclufion, (p. 35) where the author appears ftudiously to juftify a particular mode of preaching; by which, though he does not use the term, he feems to mean that pretending to the high diftinction of Evangelical. To this we muft reply, that if minifters of that clafs only inculcate, as he does, that "there is no condem. nation to them that are in Chrift Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit;"-if they pretend to no perfonally revealed experiences;-if they do not terrify their hearers with abfolute and irreversible decrees, contrary to the gracious and univerfal invitations of Chrift; if they do not, even in ap. pearance, difunite faith and good works, which are, as he re. prefents them, infeparable; no worthy minifter of the church will object to their preaching; except, indeed, they presume to accufe others of not inculcating, what in truth they do inculcate. The misfortune is, that the fhades of opinions are fo mixed and blended in various teachers, at prefent, that when we anfwer one, we muft fay what is inapplicable to many others. The prefent author, if he belongs at all to the clafs he defends, muft be among the moft moderate of it; that is, if he always teaches as he does here. ART. 34. The fentiments of this difcourfe are plain, pious, and practical. They are alfo well fuited to the occafion on which they were de livered. There is not, indeed, any peculiar energy in the ex preffion, or novelty in the illuftration of them; but they are fuch as fhow the principles of a good Chriftian, and the difpofitions of a confcientious minifter, ART. 35. A Sermon preached at the Parish Church of Aylsbam, Norfolk, on the 5th of December, 1805, being the Day appointed for a General Thanksgiving to Almighty God, for the fignal Vic tory obtained by his Majesty's Ships, under the Command of the late Lord Viscount Neljon, over the Combined Fleets of France and Spain. By the Rev. John Bedingfeld Collyer. 8vo. 23 PP. 15. 6d. Norwich. 1806. A very refpectable difcourfe, from which many favourable extracts might be made, among which is the following, "We Hh 4 muft |