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purposes for which they were formed. In Gloucefter, as foon as a beggar is feen publicly afking charity in the streets, he is that inftant taken up, and carried before a magiftrate; if an object, he is relieved and fent home; if not, he is afked, whether he will be whipped out of the north, the fouth, eaft, or weft gate; and the punishment is immediately inflicted. By this fummary mode of proceeding, all beggars are banished from Gloucefter.

Whether this fyftem is worthy of your notice, I am not able to determine; but it feems to me fo replete with good fenfe, that I fhould be happy to fee it adopted in every part of the kingdom. And as Westminster has more rogues in it than any other place, I fee no reafon why you should not make it a part of your plan. It is a wellknown fact, that begging is reduced to a fyftem, and become as much a trade, as any other carried on in London and Westminster. I believe, too, it is a very profitable one; for, if I am not mifinformed, there are many common beggars, in this metropolis, who get four or five fhillings a day. And is not this a great reproach to the English nation, where fo many honest and useful means may be found to employ thofe idle people? There are many, very many, hard-working, induftrious, fober perfons in London, who do not live half fo comfortably as thefe diffolute wretches. The common beggars of this great town have their walks and ftands as regular as the day; and are as fure to be found in them, at particular hours, days, and weeks, as the moft regular merchant upon Change. To thefe places they punctually resort, to attract your notice, excite your pity, and impofe upon your understanding. Tabernacles and preachinghoufes are admirable ftands; and happy is that man who can fix himself there firft; he is fure to live well. Many of them, like Shakefpeare's juftice, look fleek, and as if their bellies were with good capon lined. There is no fet of these common beggars who hurt me more than thofe, who, having any bodily infirmity, expofe it to awaken your feelings. Is it not fhocking, in a cold frofty day, to fee a great ftrapping fellow with a fore leg, without a plaifter or any thing upon it, lying down upon the ground, and making wry faces for hours together to gain a livelihood? If you were to fend, or propose to fend, one of these people to an hofpital, he might thank you, but he would not accept your offer. He looks upon his fore leg as an eftate for life-the rent-the hap of the day.'

In the fame lively manner our author difplays the bad confequences of idleness, and the wife policy of employing the poor, and enforcing rather than multiplying the laws.

DIVINITY.

ART. 28. Sermons by D. Grant. Angus, Newcastle. Mr. David Grant is what, by the courtesy of Scotland, is called a gofpel preacher," that is, he delivers doctrines, of which there is not the smallest trace or veftage to be found in the four gofpels. He is indeed a little more cautious and guarded than many of the artbodem

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orthodox brethren, with regard to the eternal reprobation, a parte ante, and eternal damnation, a parte post, of nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand * of the human race, from adorable fovereignty and mere good pleasure; in afcribing to the Deity all poffible imperfections, and in triumphing over the irrationality of reason and the nothingness of good works. Still however the root of the matter is in him; and he has fire and brimstone, blood and thunder, fufficient to gratify the maw of an ordinary fanatic. The following quotation will ferve as a fpecimen.

God, when the time was come that Christ must suffer, did, as it were, say, “O! all ye waves of my incenfed justice, now fwell as high as heaven, and go over his foul and body; fink him to the bottom; let him go like Jonah into the belly of hell. Come all ye forms that I have referved for this day of wrath, beat upon him. Go juflice, put him upon the rack; torment him in every part, till all his bones be out of joint, and his heart be melted as wax, in the midst of his bowels."

"Our armies fwore terribly in Flanders," faid uncle Toby, on a fimilar occafion, "but not at all like this." Would the author wish for a brother or a father of fuch a fanguinary temper ?

In page 97, we have a fpecimen of a different kind.

"The blood of Chrift is like the fea; as it covers with its waves the greatest as well as fmallett veffels; fo the blood of Chrift can drown the greatest as well as finalleft fins. Caft your eyes upwards, and furvey the retinue of the lamb ! Among the vast multitudes which follow him, are there not those, who were once in the gall of bitternefs, who were fornicators, idolators, adulterers, drunkards, revilers,

extortioners."

This comfortable view of the kingdom of heaven reminds us, that the author, when in Edinburgh, was a correfpondent of Lord George Gordon.

ART. 29. The Harmony of Law and Gospel, in the Method of Grace, demonftrated; in fewer al Sermons. By William Arnot, Minifer of the Gospel at Kennoway. Publifhed by particular defire. 8vo. Printed for Robert Jamefon, London, 1785.

Mr. Arnot, we imagine, is a feceder, or diffenter from the church of Scotland. The Sermons, we dare fay, met with the approbation of his hearers, as they are faid to be published by particular defire.' They may perhaps be read by a certain clafs in this metropolis, but they are calculated for the perufal, neither of the reader of tafte, nor of the rational Chriftian. As a fpecimen of the compofition, we give the following fhort extract.

It is not enough to preach Jefus, unlefs his fuitableness to the needy condition of finners be pointed out, which cannot be done, without taking particular notice of the miferies of finners, and leading their eye to each particular benefit in Chrift, which is calculated to

* One out of a thoufand, i. e. cutting off the cyphers, and retaining the unit, is the exact calculation of the ele, according to z celebrated doctor of the Geneva school.

supply

Counselling

Supply each correfpondent want about themselves.
them, as poor, to buy of Chrift gold tried in the fire, that they
may be rich. As blind, to buy eye-falve, that they may fee. As
naked, to buy white raiment, that they may be clothed, and the
fhame of their nakedness may not appear As far from righteouf-
nefs, to embrace Chrift's righteoufnefs, brought near in the gospel.
As ignorant, guilty, vile, and enflaved, to receive Chrift, as made
of God unto us, wifdom, righteoufnefs, fanctification, and redemp-
tion. As thirsty, to come to him and drink. As having no money,
to buy without money and without price. As hungry, to eat that
which is good. As being heavy laden with the mifery of a natural
ftate, to come to him for reft; even to let all their wants be upon
him, and all their breaches under his hand. As one beautifully re-
marks,

"Chrift is a path, if any be mifled,
"He is a robe if any naked be,
"If any chance to hunger, he is bread,
"If any be a bondman, he is free.

"If any be but weak, how ftrong is he!

"To dead men life he is, to fick men health,

"To blind men fight, and to the needy wealth,

"A pleasure without lofs, a treasure without ftealth.”

Mr. Arnot feems to fpurn at the very idea of elegance; "If the "reader," fays he, in the preface, "be fond of the wifdom of

man's words, he will, no doubt, be difappointed." Yet, though the author be not fond of choice words, and phrases, he more than makes up in quantity, for the deficiency of the quality; fix fermons form a volume of 400 pages?

ART. 30. A Legal Attempt to enforce the Practice of Infant Baptifm: being a genuine Copy of a Petition to Parliament, by the Nurfes and Chambermaids of the Cities of London, Wefiminster, and the Borough of Southwark, against the Anabaptifts. To which is added, a Counter-Petition by the Wives of the Anabaptifts; and a Letter to the Rev. John Harfley, by Amy Caudie. 12mo. Is. Buckland, 1786.

The petition from the nurses and chambermaids, who are alarmed at the difrepute into which certain publications have brought infant baptifm, which has almoft deftroyed the perquifites connected with their employment, is figned, on behalf of the whole meeting, by their fecretary, AMY CAUDLE. The counter petition again, from the wives of the baptifts, who confider the petition intended to be prefented to parliament by the nurfes and chambermaids as an attempt to deprive them of their religious liberty, is figned, in name of the meeting, by their fecretary, ISABEL DIPPER. An ironical letter of thanke, alfo, is fent by AMY CAUDLE to JOHN HORSEY, in the name of the fociety of nurses and chambermaids, for the feasonable attempt he made to fupport the caule in which they and he were mutually embarked.

One EMMA DRY, who has lived in friendship with both the fecretaries, AMY CAUDLE and ISABEL DIPPER, for many years, in a pre

a preface, affures the public, "that there is not a fingle word added, and in this lies the wit) to either the petitions or the letter, but what they have themfelves respectively fupplied."

It might appear, at first fight, that this ftrange publication is written by fome common enemy, who means to turn all religion into ridicule. But we are fo well acquainted, by means of the numerous religious difputations which we have occafion to infpect, with the various difguifes affumed by controverfial zeal, that we have not a doubt but this is, in reality, the production of fome zealous baptift, who has learnt the common arguments in favour of his religius fyftem.

ART. 31. Free Access to God by a Mediator. A Sermon preached at Beffels-Green, near Sevenoaks, in Kent. By John Strange. 8vo. 6d. Mathews, London, 1785.

In this pious and practical difcourfe, the author fhews, that fin hath fet us all at an awful distance from God; that without being reftored and brought near to him, we cannot be happy; and that, unless we enjoy a prefent nearness to him, by faith in the great Mediator, we cannot hope for the future fruition of him in heaven.

ART. 32. The Character of Jefus Chrift: a Sermon, by George Skene Keith, M. A. Minifter of Keith-Hall, Aberdeenshire. 8vo. 1s. Evans. 1785.

Mr. Keith very juftly obferves, that, if he were to give a detail of all the virtues which adorn human nature, and tell us, in general, that all of them were poffeffed by our Lord in the higheft degree, he might be able to give, in a few fentences, a true and pleasant, though a very fuperficial account of his character. But general declamation, even on the virtues of our bleffed Saviour, he alfo obferves, could neither inform the understanding, nor warm the heart: on the other hand, were he to be minute in his inquiries, he could not, in many difcourfes, exhauft the fubject. Therefore, purfuing a middle courfe, he felects fuch particulars of the life of Chrift, as may give a juft and affecting, though imperfect view of his character. The particulars he felects are, indeed, affecting, and he arranges them in a natural order. He writes with elegance and vivacity; but this file does not fuit his theme. His breaks and starts fuit not the majeflic fimplicity of his great fubject. We recommend to his imitation the death of Socrates, recorded in his CRITO, by PLATO.

ART. 33. Eays on Scripture Metaphors; Divine Juflice, Divine Mercy, and the Doctrine of Satisfaction. By W. Ludlam, B. D. Rector of Cockfield, in Suffolk; and formerly Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Davis, London, 1785.

Of thefe, which are all of them excellent, and contain a very able defence of the principal doctrines of the Chriftian faith, what we most esteem is the Effay on Scripture Metaphors, from which the following is an extract.

• When

When the scriptures teach us the things of God and of another world, they use, and muft ufe metaphors. A literal account, in many cafes*, cannot be given. Men, in their prefent ftate, have not, and cannot have the ideas peculiar to another state; no words can convey fuch ideas. When St. Paul was caught up into paradife, he heard unspeakable words, fuch as were impoffible to be uttered. He received new ideas, which it was not poffible for him, by any words, to communicate to others. When the fcriptures, then, teach us the things of another world, it must be by resemblances taken from the things of this world. By metaphors, by enigmatical defcriptions fo that we fee now only through a glafs darkly, and, as it were, in an enigma; and it must ever be remembered, that while this is the cafe, we fee in part only.

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Metaphors, at beft, are only refemblances; and we must no expect to find the resemblance hold in every circumstance. The purpofe of the metaphor is fully answered, if the refemblance holds in fome one capital point; in that point which is intended to be taught. The very fame capital doctrine may also be illuftrated and explained by different metaphors, according to the different light in which it is placed; or, as different parts of that doctrine are intended to be conveyed to us.

It will be asked, how fhall we know in what parts of a metaphor the resemblance holds ? Will not doctrines thus conveyed be vague, and of doubtful interpretation ?-Not at all; all language abounds with metaphors; we can scarce fpeak without ufing a variety of allufions, yet no uncertainty follows from it. The boldeft figures of fpeech feldom render our meaning uncertain, yet add a great force to what is delivered. Much lefs fhall we be at a lofs to know what is literal, and what is metaphorical. Let us try in an instance

or two.

It is faid of the damned in hell, that their worm dieth not, and that the fire of kell hall never be quenched. Every one fees that the expreffion, their worm dieth not, cannot be underflood literally of a worm creeping on the earth, but is a metaphor. The inceffant up. braidings of a guilty confcience, are very aptly, as well as forcibly, represented by the gnawings of a worm, which does not quickly devour the fubftance on which it feeds, but preys on it continually. When it is faid, this worm dieth not, every one will underftand by it, that the guilt of the damned ever remains unattoned for, and the upbraidings never ceafe. Again, if we take the fire of hell in a metaphorical fenfe, it is plainly put to fignify the greateft poffible torment. Burning alive is, with men, accounted the greateft torture poffible. Whether we have precife ideas of the torments of hell, or not, the words are awful enough, and their meaning past a doubt. But, if any fhould fay, the words may be understood as well in a literal

We say, in many cafes; for in fome a literal account could be given. Thus, were we told the particular time of the day of judgment, we could understand it. But the cafes are but few.

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