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His difcourfes turn very much on the great Chriftian doctrine of falvation, or eternal life, confidered as the gift of God to mortal and finful men, through the redemption of his Son, and the fanctification of his Spirit.-We shall lay before our Readers a fhort view of what is contained in each of the volumes.

In the first fermon of the second volume, Dr. Hurd difcourfes from the following words - Take heed what ye hear; and he fhews, from feveral confiderations, of what infinite concern it is to thofe, who hear the word, to be attentive in hearing. In this fermon we meet with the following paffage- Shail a little fuperficial rhetoric be liftened to with regard, perhaps with ad"miration? And fhall not the heart-felt truths of the Coffel warm and affect us? Shall a few fpiritlefs periods, ranged in measure, and coloured with art, mere found and paint, throw an affembly fometimes into joy or grief, or tranfport it with indignation? And can we lend a carelets ear to the word of God? &c."

Few writers have a better choice of words, or are more happy in the arrangement of them, than the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry; but he appears to us to have departed from his ufual accuracy in this paffage. If the truths of the Gofpel are heartfelt truths, they must always affect us. And how is it poffible for fpiritlefs periods to throw an affembly into joy or grief, or transport it with indignation? But fuch frivolous inaccuracies, if they are fuch, would fcarcely be observed, or, if obferved, would be readily paffed over in the writings of an ordinary author, or mere declaimer; and the only reafon why they ftrike us in his Lorfhip's fermons, is, becaufe we very feldom meet with them.

In the fecond and third fermons his Lordship difcourfes from Rom. xvi. 19. I would have you wife unto that which is good, and fimple concerning evil. In the firft of them he gives a defcription of religious or Chriftian wifdom, both in respect of the end it has in view, and of the means employed by it; and exemplifies fome of thefe fubordinate ways, in which the prudent application even of thefe means is feen and expreffed, and all this, for the fake of thofe fincere, but over-zealous perfons, who are apt to think that wisdom hath little to do in the profecution of honeft and upright purpotes.-in the fecond, which is, indeed, an excellent difcourfe, he fhews, in the cleareft, moft diftinct, and fatisfactory manner, the worth and excellence of the Christian duty of fimplicity, which confifts, in general, in following the plain ingenuous fenfe of the mind; in taking our measures according to the dictates of confcience, and acting on all occafions, without referve, duplicity, or felf-imposture, up to our notions of obligation; it confifts, in a word, in whatever we understand by an honefly of nature; in obferving, univerfally, that which we believe to be right, and avoiding what we know,

or but fufpect to be wrong It may be almoft faid to be born with us; that it is the bias of nature in our young minds; and that our earliest inftructions, as well as the first efforts of reafon, ftrengthen and confirm it.

In order to fhew how dangerous it is to depart from this fimplicity concerning evil, his Lordship gives two or three inftances; and, to fit them the better for ufe, he takes them from different quarters; from the cabinets of the wife, the schools of the learned, and the vulgar haunts of careless and licentious men, and makes it appear, that the neglect of the Apostle's advice has DEGRADED RELIGION, RELAXED MORALITY, and POLLUTED COMMON

LIFE.

The fourth is a very ingenious difcourfe from these words, John v. 44.- How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and feek not the honour that cometh of God only? - The Preacher fhews how inconfiftent a true practical faith in the Gospel is with the folicitous and undiftinguishing pursuit of human glory.

In the fifth fermon, his Lordship endeavours to fhew, that faith and knowledge are not fuch enemies to each other, as they have been fometimes reprefented; and that neither the evidences of Chriftianity, nor the doctrines of it, need decline the fcrutiny of the most improved reafon. The words from which he difcourfes are thefe-Jefus faith to them, if ye were blind, ye fhould have no fin; but now ye jay, we fee, the efore your fin remaineth. John ix. 41.

In the fixth fermon, charity is fhewn to be the proper cure of learned pride, and of thofe unfriendly vices which spring from it, fufficiency, felf-importance, and oftentation. The words of the text are knowledge puffeth up; but charity edifieth.

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The feventh fermon contains many pertinent and useful reflections on what the Apoftle Paul fays of himself, when he tells us, that he verily thought with himself that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jefus of Nazareth.

The eighth is a very ingenious difcourfe from-Woe unto you when all men fpeak well of you. His Lordship fhews, that, taking the world as it is, its good word, fo largely beftowed on any man, implies a medicerity of virtue at the belt; that it frequently implies, a confiderable degree of pofitive ill-defert; and that it fometimes implies, a thorough depravity and prostitution of the moral character.

The abfolution of the woman taken in adultery is the subject of the ninth fermon; and here the Preacher confiders, very attentively, the nature and circumftances of the cafe, and makes it clearly appear, that the decifion of our Saviour is founded on the highest wifdom.

I 4

Chriftian

Chriftian humility is the fubject of the tenth fermon; and in the eleventh his Lordship opens the fources of irreligious fcorn, fhews the base origin from which it fprings, and how it rifes on the fubverfion of every principle by which a vicious man is governed, and by which there is hope that a vicious man, may be reclaimed. He contends, that ridicule, both in its origin and application, is a very poor talent; that, when employed in moral and religious matters, we may certainly pronounce of it, that it fprings from vice, and means nothing elfe but the fupport of it; that it is the laft effort of baffled vice to keep itself in countenance; that it betrays a corrupt turn of mind, and only ferves to promote that corruption; that it is no argument of fuperior fenfe, rarely of fuperior wit; and that it proves nothing but the profligacy, or the folly, of him who affects to be diftinguished by it. Virtue and reafon, he well obferves, love to be, and can afford to be ferious; but vice and folly are undone, if they let go their favourite habit of fcorn and derifion.

From thofe words-He that loveth filver, fhall not be fatisfied with filver; our Author fhews, in the twelfth fermon, that riches are not evil in themselves; that the moderate defire of them is not unlawful; that a right ufe of them is even meritorious; but that the capacity of the human mind is not filled with wealth; that, if we purfue it with ardour, and make it the fole or the chief object of our purfuit, it never did, and never can yield a true and permanent fatisfaction.

In the thirteenth discourse, his Lordship explains and illuftrates those words of the Apoftle-What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghoft, &c. and, in the fourteenth, he fhews, that, in the order of things, an ill-fpent youth derives many lafting evils on the fubfequent periods of life.

The Preacher's purpose in the fifteenth fermon, is to fhew the fully and the injuftice of that anxious curiofity (the refult of our vanity and a mifguided felf-love) which prompts us to enquire into the fentiments and opinions of other perfons concerning us, and to give curfelves no reft till we understand what, in their private and cafual converfations, they fay of us.

The fixteenth contains fome very pertinent and ftriking reflections on the cafe of Felix, Acts xxiv. 24, 25. His Lordship fhews, that procraftination is the ufual fupport of vice; that falfe reasoning, or, what we may call, the fophiftry of vice, is the great fupport of procraftination; and that a final impenitence is the too common effect of this pernicious confederacy.

The feventeenth fermon is a comment on the Apoftle's declaration, that God hath given to us eternal life, and that this life is in his Son. This cominent his Lordfhip calls a fcriptural comment. The redemption of mankind through Chrift is a subject

on

on which various opinions have been entertained by Chriftian writers; but which of them is moft confonant to Scripture, every Reader muft judge for himself.

In the eighteenth, his Lordship takes occafion, from those words, he that foweth to the fpirit, fhall of the fpirit reap life everlafling, to open to us the Chriftian doctrine of Grace, together with the concern which we have in it.-This fermon, and that which immediately precedes it, is founded upon orthodox principles, as they are commonly called.

In the nineteenth, his Lordfhip reminds us of the effect which the great Chriftian doctrine of Salvation ought to have upon us. He enforces the advice which St. Paul gave the CorinthiansHaving therefore thefe promifes, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, &c.

The twentieth difcourfe (the laft of the fecond volume) is a comment upon the following words-Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifeft in the flesh; juftified in the fpirit; feen of angels; preached to the Gentiles; believed on in the world; received up into glory; 1 Tim. iii. 16.

His Lordship introduces this fermon with obferving, that the infpired writers fometimes give us the articles of the Chriftian religion, as it were, in clufters; accumulating their awful doctrines and difcoveries, to ftrike and aftonifh the mind with their united force. This, he fays, is the method of the text, which he opens a little and explains; but fo as to conform himself to the Apoftle's purpofe in giving a brief collective view of Chriftianity, that, the whole of it being feen together, we may be the more fenfibly affected by it.

In this fermon we are told, that it was neceffary the GODHEAD should assume the nature, in order to atone for the guilt, of man. This, furely, is a doctrine, at which, to ufe his Lordhip's language on a fimilar occafion, reason ftands aghaft, and faith herself is half confounded.

[An Account of the Third Volume in our next.]

R.

ART. VII. Conclufion of the Account of Dr. Kennicott's Bible, and General Differtation. See Review for May, 1ft Article.

DR

R. Kennicott having fhewn that the opinion of learned men, about the middle of the prefent century, was almoft univerfally in favour of the integrity of the printed Hebrew text, proceeds to give the hiftory of his own great undertaking: and this he begins with ingenuously confeffing, with regard to himself, that he was, at firft, in the common error. From this miftake, however, he was freed by an attentive perufal of 2 Samuel xxiii. 8.; which verfe had been recommended to his examination, in 1748, by Dr. Lowth, now Bishop of London.

Hence

Hence it was that our Author became convinced, that the prefent Hebrew text was far from being perfect; for he found that it was impoffible to underftand this fingle verfe, without allowing that there were in it four corruptions. The proof of these corruptions was drawn from the context in the fame chapter, and 1 Chron. xi. which, being a repetition of the fame hiftory, muft have been at first confiftent with it. This verfe, therefore, having been the foundation of the whole work which hath fince engaged fo much the attention of the learned through Europe, we cannot here pass it over, without exhibiting it to our Readers in English.

2 Sam. xxiii. 8. 1 Chron. xi. 11.

2 S. David had.

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The Tachmonite, that fat in the feat, chief

1 C. David had; Jashobeam, an Hachmonite, the chief of the

2

3

2 S. among the Captains; the fame was Adino the Eznite, against 1 C. Captains. He lifted up his spear against three hundred,

2 S. eight hundred, whom he flew at one time.

1 C. flain by him at one time.

The first corruption here is the proper name, or first hero (in Samuel), being changed into two common words, which make no sense. The fecond corruption is the word for three now changed into Captains. The third is the change of a participle into a proper name; it being impoffible that Jabobeam the Hachmmonite fhould be the fame man with Adino the Eznite, and the participle is here abfolutely neceflary to the fente. Laftly, the number 300 is here corrupted into 800.

As

The preceding explanation of this verfe having been approved of by Dr. Lowth, that gentleman recommended an examination of the fubfequent parts of the fame chapter; which was likewife performed, and the whole was published in 1753. we have already pointed out, from Dr. Kennicott, the four corruptions which occur in Samuel, we muft alfo copy from him one great corruption that immediately follows in Chronicles, and which is an omiffion of no less than thirty-four Hebrew words.

2 Sam. xxiii. 9.
1 Chron. xi. 12.
2 S. the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David,
I C. the Ahohite, who was one of the three mighties. 13. He

And after him was Eleazar, the fon of Dodo,
And after him was Eleazar, the fon of Dodo,

2 S. when they defied the Philiftines that were gathered toI C. was with David at Pafdammim, and there the Philiftines

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