On Joshua, ch. vii. ver. 30, to the end.

"Obferve that after the people had gained thefe victories, Jofhua caufed the law to be written, and the bleffings and curfes to be pronounced as Mofes had directed, Deuteronomy, chap. xxvii. This Joshua did in obedience to the command of God, to engage the Ifraelites to walk in the laws of the Lord, and to teftify their thankfulnefs at the time the promises were fulfilling. After fignal victories it is the custom in Chriftian countries to have days of public thankfgiving; on thefe occafions, men, women, and children, fhould affemble together in places of public worihip, to join in giving glory and praife to God who is the giver of all victory; but unlefs the hope of hearing fome famous preacher draws them to church, many people are apt to think they are not concerned in thefe thanksgivings, especially the poor, who feeling the preffure of poverty to a greater degree in time of war, imagine they have nothing to be thankful for, not confidering how much worfe it would be for every individual in a whole nation, were a cruel enemy to be permitted to conquer the fleets and armies which are fent against it." P. 127.

On Joshua's refolution to ferve the Lord.

"If every father and mafter of a family would make the fame good refolution as Joshua did, and keep it, there would foon be a great change in the world for the better; we should then fee houtholds joining together night and morning in family prayer, keeping the fabbath holy, going to the houfe of God together, and partaking at all opportunities of the bleffed facrament of the Lord's fupper. But the generality of people, who bear the name of Chriftians, appear to be ignorant that there is fuch a thing as family religion, by which means parents, and mafters of families, deprive themselves and their houfholds of numberless comforts and advantages which they would enjoy if they followed the example of Joshua. P. 133.

The reflections on Pf. 109, may be diftinguifhed among many that are good.

"We may learn, in general, from this Pfalm that as God protects good men, his curfe commonly pursues the wicked, and chiefly those who are cruel and hard hearted, who injure and op. prefs the innocent; and that the evil which thefe people have done, or wished to others, often falls upon themfelves; but great care must be taken not to pervert the meaning of this Pfalm by fuppofing that Chriftians are at any time allowed to with that the vengeance of God may fall upon those who hate or injure them. David fpake as a prophet, and foretold the deftruction of the enemies of the church; to his own private enemies, as he shows, ver. 4, he returned good for evil. What is here faid, therefore, muit be applied only to the enemies of God,

God, to prefumptuous finners and apoftates, fuch as Judas Iscariot, to whom fome of the words of this Pfalm are applied by St. Peter; fee Acts, chap. i. ver. 20. Chrift has commanded us to hate no man, but to love and pray for our greatest enemies, and do them all the good in our power; fee Matthew, chap. v. ver. 44, &c." P. 337.

That some of the Pfalms, commonly fuppofed to be imprecatory, are merely prophetical, we have no doubt. But the 109th Pfalm is not probably of this defcription. It is imprecatory indeed; not on the part of the Pfalmift against his enemies, but of his enemies against him; as is nearly demonftrated (we think) in a Sermon on this fubject, noticed in our 12th vol. p. 429.

On St. Luke, chapter v. refpecting the conduct of St. Peter, Mrs. T. fays,

"Peter and his companions forfook all, and followed Chrift. No one could be of the number of Chrift's chofen difciples, at that time, without giving up his employment; becaufe he required that they should attend him, to fee his manner of life and his miracles, and alfo to hear his doctrine, that they might bear teftimony to them after his refurrection. But the cafe is very different with Chriftians now; they may mind their bufinefs, and have fufficient leifure to follow the example and learn the doctrines of Chrift; nay, they may obey Chrift while they are engaged in their worldly purfuits." P. 593.

The 14th chapter of the 1ft Epiftle to the Corinthians gives occafion to the following reflections, never more neceffary than at prefent.

"Obferve, ver. 34, 35, what the Apoftle fays about women fetting up for preachers in the churches. Remember, ver. 33, that God is not the author of confufion but of peace, and ver. 40 that all things relating to his worship fhould be done decently and in order; and reflect what a happiness it is to have fuch a fervice as we have in our churches, which perfectly anfwers to thefe directions. We have a regular form of prayer, in which the whole congregation joins with the minifier; and the fame is ufed in all the churches and chapels of the establishment throughout the kingdom. We have alfo an order of men fet apart for the miniftry, who adminifter the facraments agreeably to our Saviour's commands, and preach the gofpel in places fet apart for thefe holy purposes. This cannot be faid of itinerant or wander ing preachers, for their proceedings are far from regular. They ufe extempore prayers in which the people cannot properly join, for want of knowing the words beforehand; and they often preach in fuch a vehement way as to hurry the fpirits of their

hearers

hearers, and puzzle them fo with picking out difficult texts of Scripture, and explaining them wrong, that their hearers, who are for the moft part ignorant people, are led into many errors which they would avoid if they kept to their parifh churches and chapels, and to their proper minifters." P. 719.

Here we must conclude our neceffarily imperfect fpe cimens; which however fuffice to fhow much judgment in the interpreter, and a laudable attention to practical utility. The appearance of fuch a book as this among many fimilar works, fuggefts to us a reflection, that, in fpiritual as well as in temporal concerns, the poor of this church and nation are, in the prefent age, better attended to, than the poor have ever been in any other age or country. The great number of charitable defigns and works, planned and exe cuted within a few years, in addition to former charities, are the real glory of England. We could not enumerate them all; and we will not do injuftice to any, by a partial or defective enumeration. It is enough to fay, that true Chriftian charity was never more ftrenuoufly, nor more wifely exerted, than in the prefent day. We are inclined by this circumftance to conclude more favourably con cerning the ftate of religion among us, than many wellintentioned perfons are in the habit of doing: and certainly we may conclude, without danger of erring, that there is not now in the world a country, which it is fo much the intereft and the duty of poor, as well as rich, to defend, against all its enemies, as that in which Providence has graciously been pleased to place us.

ART. IX. The Synonymes of the Latin Language, alphabe tically arranged; with critical Differtations upon the Force of its Prepofitions, both in a fimple and a compounded State. By John Hill, LL.D. Profeffor of Humanity in the Univerfity, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 4to. 11. 11s. 6d. Longman and Rees. 1804.

PP. 803.

AS
S fome time has, of neceffity, elapfed, before our atten-
tion to other works would allow us to take this in hand,
the author has doubtlefs in the mean time been told, from
fome other quarter, what we could have communicated long

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ago,

ago, that his plan is not, as he appears to think*, a new one. Many years have we had in our poffeffion, and occa. fionally have confulted, a work of French origin, on a fimilar plan; the title of which is as follows: "Synonymes Latins,et leurs différentes fignifications, avec des exemples tirés des meilleurs auteurs; a l'imitation des Synonymes François de M. l'Abbé GIRARD; par M. GARDIN DUMESNIL, Profeffeur Émérite de Rhétorique en l'Univerfité de Paris, au College de Harcourt, et ancien Principal au College de Louis le Grand, 12mo. 522 pp. Paris. 1777." When we confider how much time, thought, and reading muft of neces fity be employed in a work of this nature, we cannot but regret extremely, that Dr. Hill fhould not have had the advantage of the aid which would have been afforded by this prior work. To improve upon the performance of another is much easier than to form and execute an original defign; and it is hardly poffible, in the nature of things, that two perfons feparately forming works of this kind, muft not refpectively have been guilty of omiffions, many of which a knowledge of the other would have prevented. We are by no means inclined to confider as unpardonable fuch omiffions, which are furely unavoidable; but by collating the two works fhall fhow, in fome inftances, how the latter author might have been benefited by a knowledge of the former. Many tedious hours of toil might probably have been faved to Dr. Hill, had he poffeffed the little work of Dumefnil.

The fynonymes, however, are not. the whole of Dr. Hill's book: it contains befides, as the title announces, "Differtations on the force of the prepofitions, both in a fimple and a compounded ftate." This part of the undertaking appears to be entirely new, and is executed in an acute and very inftructive manner. We shall first notice the fynonymes, and then. give a fpecimen of the other part.

From the very first inftances which occur in the fynonymes, and which happen to be found in both authors, we perceive that Dr. Hill's views are more profound and accurate than thofe of his predeceffor. The first words which occur in each are abdere, condere, òcculere, celare, &c. Ab. dere, fays our countryman, fignifies to hide by mere reroval, condere to hide by the intervention of certain ob.

He fays in the preface, "In executing a plan both new and difficult, much time and labour have been expended." p. xi.

jects,

jets, abfcondere unites the powers of abdere and condere; Occulere means to hide for the fake of that which is hidden; celare, for the fake of him who hides, or of those from whom it is hidden. These original diftinctions do not appear in Dumefnil, though in giving the fummary at the end of the article, in the manner of Girard, he approaches very hearly to them..

"Un homme qui craint, fe in remotiorem et tutiorem. ædium partem abdit: le laboureur, au temps de la moiffon, condit fruges et fructus in horrea: un ennemi qui dreffe des embuches, abfcondit armatos: le foldat, après le combat, recondit gladium in vaginam. Cic. Le Jardinier couvre les artichaux, occulit ciniras, ne frigore lædantur: celui qui a intérêt qu'une chofe ne fait point connue, celat." The next words in Dr. Hill are abjurare and ejurare, which appear in the 7th article of Dumefnil; but the Frenchman has entirely miffed the most important diftinction between the words. Abjurare, fays Dr. Hill, fuppofes the fwearer guilty of perjury in denying; ejurare implies only denying with an oath, whether truly or not. Neverthelefs, the examples cited by Dumefnil confirm the diftinction of Dr. Hill. But, of the intermediate articles in the French work, not one is noticed in the English. Thefe are, 2. abdicare, &c. 3. abeffe, diftare; 4. abigere, &c. 5. abjicere, &c. 6. abire, &c. Here therefore, though Dr. Hill might not have thought all the fynonymes of his predeceffor worthy of notice, it would have been well for him to have had the opportunity of examining them. On the other hand, abnormis and enormis, the next fynonymes of Dr. H. are not at all noticed by the French profeffor; nor alapa and colaphus, aborfus and abortus, with many others.

One manifeft defideratum in Dr. Hill's book is, that which the French work poffeffes, and might with great facility be added, a complete verbal index. The alphabetical order, in which both are arranged, might feem, perhaps, to fuperfede the neceffity of this addition; but, in fact, it would be a great accommodation to the ftudent; and fome, at this moment, to us, in comparing the two volumes. Our examination, however, without this aid, fatisfies us, that Dr. H. has exerted much diligence, and difplayed great fagacity and knowledge in the conftruction of his work. The mot prevalent diftinction is this, that the French author compares ufually a greater number of words to one; but our countryman is much more attentive to affign the reasons for the differences which he remarks. The former is concife and quick, the latter diffufe and explanatory. To exem

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plify