Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

confute the tenets of an opponent." pp.

260-262.

We cordially thank our uncompromising adviser for these honest statements: such discrimination of character is at all times of great moment, and certainly not least so in the present age, when even our works of charity, our religious institutions, the circulation of the word of God, our widely-spread theological knowledge, and our large toleration, have brought into the apparent ranks of the faithful soldiers of Christ so many of the secret spies and abettors of the enemy.

1. Sermons before a Village Congregation. By the Rev. J.JOWETT, 2 vols. 10s. 1828. 2. Short and Familiar Sermons. By the Rev. T. SCARD. 5s. 1828. 3. Discourses on the Church Confession. By the Rev. T. BARTLETT. 3s. 6d. 1828. 4. Family and Parochial Sermons. By the Rev. F. G. CROSSMAN. 8s. 1828.

5. Sermons designed to strengthen the Faith and Increase the Devotedness of Christians. By the Rev. J. H. STEWART. 10s. 6d. 1828.

6. Discourses on Experimental and Practical Christianity. By the Rev. W. F. VANCE. 5s. 6d. 7. Parochial Sermons. By the Rev. C. BRADLEY. 10s. 6d. 8. Sermons on the Devotional Services of the Church of England. By the Rev. T. SIMS. 10s. 6d.

9. A Memorial of Ministerial Labour. By the Rev. W. MUDGE. 10s. 6d.

10. Sermons Doctrinal and Practical. By the Rev. J. PROCTER. 1828.

11. Sermons. By the Rev. W.

MOUSLEY. 5s. 1829.

WE wish we could devote a few pages to almost each of these publications. In looking back a few

years, we can well remember the period when every volume of sermons written with a fair portion of ability, and truly in accordance with Scripture and with the formularies of our own church, could claim from us a distinct notice and eulogium; whereas now, by the wonderful blessing of God upon our national Zion, such volumes are issuing from the press so rapidly that the columns of a magazine can scarcely keep pace with the announcement of them; and we are constrained, in the present brief article, to make a display of sundry bags of wealth, without having space to unpack them, so as to exhibit even a specimen of their contents. Having recently, at the solicitation of very many of our readers, adopted the plan of adding a few brief notices to our longer and more argumentative reviews, we hope in future to be able to keep a less crowded list; but being at present greatly in arrears, we can do little more than publish the names of a few of our literary creditors, and plead our insolvency as our only excuse for not better complying with their demands.

But in truth, some of the most excellent volumes of sermons offer the worst materials for a critique; much of their claim to the praise of usefulness arising from their being plain, scriptural, and practical; free from novelties and doubtful speculations, and therefore not calling for those discussions which dangerous or doubtful speculations require. Sermons of the very highest order of thought, or of extraordinary originality or power of eloquence, are not often to be expected,especially when we consider the numerous demands upon the time of our clergy, and the vast quantity of material which is requisite for the returning pulpit wants of every successive week. The consequence is, that the great mass of published discourses are not sufficiently remarkable to attract much popular attention; and a few extracts, with a general approbation, seldom interest

any class of readers, except the author and his friends. But would we, therefore, discourage the multiplication of volumes of sermons of this character? Would we say, that no clergyman shall put into the hands of his flock a selection from his discourses, unless they happen to contain something very extraordinary, and calculated to rivet the general attention of mankind? Far, very far, from it. If, indeed, but half a score books were allowed to issue yearly from the press, we should be very scrupulous as to the claim of any particular volume to publication; but when millions of reams of paper and print are indulgently allowed by the public to the fugitive literature of the day; to news, and politics, and trash of every sort, which no person ever pretends to read a second time; it is surely a refinement of scrupulosity to complain, as many of our critics do, that a clergyman should offer to his friends, or those of his countrymen who may be interested in his publication, an occasional volume upon subjects of the very highest importance, because he does not happen to be altogether a Horsley or a Barrow, a Chalmers or a Hall. If, by the force of local connexion, he be able to introduce into only a hundred families a volume of sound scriptural instruction, which would not have found access thither in any other form, we would not say that his labour has been in vain; much less would we attribute his attempt to a culpable vanity or overweening egotism. If a clergyman diligently compose his own discourses, and his exertions have been found beneficial to his flock, it may be very creditable to both parties that the latter wish to receive, and the former is willing to grant, a more permanent record of their value than was afforded by a single and oral delivery from the pulpit; provided both are willing to understand that the interest excited is of necessity chiefly local and pastoral, and not to feel

wounded or disappointed if the public at large are not so sensible as they think they ought to be of claims of which they know nothing.

We should not object to take the pile of volumes now on our table as a fair average specimen of the ordinary preaching of that large and respectable portion of the pastors of our church, who are currently known by the name of the Evangelical Clergy. In so doing we should not so much put forth their claim to the highest prize of eloquence, or the widest range of literature, or the most exalted developments of intellect, (though in each and all of these departments we could find powerful claimants,) as to the brighter meed of sound, useful, scriptural preaching; united with a respectable degree of learning and talent, and consecrated by an earnest desire to promote the glory of God, the kingdom of the Redeemer, and the temporal, spiritual, and eternal interests of mankind. When we thus view the discourses before us as a specimen of the doctrine and style of preaching which are heard from week to week in hundreds and thousands of our pulpits, we cannot but offer our warmest congratulations to our country and our venerated church. We discern, indeed, in these volumes different grades of talent, inany differences of opinion, great discrepancy of style, manner, and natural temperament, and even some varying shades of doctrine; but, taken as a whole, they all belong to the class which we have above designated by the popular appellation, whether of reproach or approbation,-though for ourselves disclaiming that and every other party badge amongst the members and ministers of our common church. But taken, as we have said, as a whole, and allowing for every minor difference of sentiment, they agree in their leading ideas of the nature and effects of the Gospel of our blessed Saviour: they agree in their view of the fundamental doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and its bearings

[ocr errors]

upon the infinitely important matter of human salvation: they concur in their general estimate of the lapsed condition of mankind; of our sinfulness and spiritual inability; of the guilt and punishment of the sinner; of the necessity of an atonement; the freedom of the Divine mercy through Christ Jesus to all who believe; the gratuitous character of our justification; the necessity of true conversion of heart to God; the need of the grace of Christ, and the influence of his Holy Spirit; the bounden duty of obedience to his laws; the privilege and blessedness, as well as the obligation, of conformity to the image of Christ; the joys, and trials, and duties of the Christian; his guidance through life, his hopes in death, his happiness in eternity. We conscientiously believe that no man could seriously read through any one of the volumes now before us, and which are but specimens of the tenor of thousands of discourses composed and delivered every week in our parishes for public edification,—and yet remain wholly ignorant of any doctrine or duty essential to be known for the eternal welfare of the recipient. We should not ourselves agree with every sentiment of every author; some may be a shade "higher," as it is called, or others "lower," than best suits our particular taste; but there is essential unity amidst much circumstantial variety; and we are the more anxious to impress this point, because both the Church of Rome and some among ourselves are ever ready to object to Protestantism in general, and in particular to the class of divines currently called Evangelical," that there is no coherence of sentiment among them, that each has a cast of opinions of his own, and that it is impossible, amidst so many controversies, to discover what is the doctrine of Scripture, or which the way to heaven. Let our readers fairly weigh any ten or twenty writers of the general class of those whose works now lie before us, and say if CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 327.

66

this charge be well-founded. We may also add, let any one read these several volumes, selecting if he pleases the one which he may think least guarded in its expressions, and say if there be any just ground for the oft-repeated scandal, that "Evangelical preaching," as it is phrased, leads to the neglect of good works, or to licentiousness of living.

We had wished to draw up a brief notice of the more specific character of each of the volumes before us; so far at least as to exhibit the main object aimed at by our several authors; but our limits forbid either this or quotations from their works: a defect which we re quest each of our friends, for such we have the pleasure of knowing are several of them, to impute, in his own case as readily as in that of his respected brethren, to necessity, and not to any want of respect for himself, or of gratitude to him for his share of the common effort to promote the faith of Christians, and the eternal welfare of the human soul.

Heaven opened: or, the Twelve Visions of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, and St. John, explained. By ALFRED ADDIS, B.A. 1 vol. 8vo. 12s. London. 1829.

THE first sentence in this volume apprizes us, that the book owes its origin to the recent discovery of the name and number of the beast; which, says the writer, 66 we completed on JANUARY THE NINTH 1828!" If an author should tell us that his book owed its origin to his having discovered the perpetual motion, or the quadrature of the circle, every reasonable man would instantly lay down a work grounded on so visionary a basis; and we see no greater deference due to a volume, however well intended, which professes to find specifically prophesied of in Scripture, the ninth of January 1828; a day re2 B

markable in no respect that we remember, though possibly it might be the very day on which Mr. Addis began composing his lucubrations. The eighth of January is chronicled as the day on which Galileo died in 1642; and the tenth as that on which Laud was beheaded in 1644; and Linnæus died in 1788; but the intervening day was destitute of all fame, till it was thus catalogued as the completion of the era of the name, and number of the Beast. We should not, however, write thus, if we did not consider it worse than

absurd, as almost a burlesque upon the revelation of God, to tie down its large and holy prophecies to such minute and miserable dates as January 9, 1828: nor ought even the really pious intentions of authors who thus profess to "open heaven,” to prevent our protesting strongly against a too-popular system of prophetical interpretation, which has made many fanatics, and perhaps not a few sceptics; but which, we fear, is adding neither to the humility nor the real knowledge of its admirers.

LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL INTELLIGENCE, &c. &c.

GREAT BRITAIN. PREPARING for publication, or in the press:-The Christian Student; by the Rev. E. Bickersteth;-A Critical Record of Theological Literature; by Dr. Waite ; -The History of the Huguenots during the sixteenth Century; by W. S. Browning.

A considerable number of Dissenters, it is stated, of various denominations, have agreed to dedicate Good Friday to devotional purposes. This decline of bigotry forms an edifying contrast to the days of the Commonwealth, when no church was allowed, under heavy penalties, to be open on Christmas day, and churchmen were obliged to retire to secret chambers to exercise their sacred offices.

Mr. Todd has recently published another pamphlet respecting the Icon Basilike, in which he seems to have satisfactorily vindicated Bishop Ganden's claim to the authorship of that production.

A book of" Offices" is occasionally to be met with in our public libraries, which was published in the time of Charles the First, and was known among the Puritans, who considered it tainted with Popery, by the name of "Cousin's Cousining Devotions."-The origin of this book was as follows. The queen of Charles the First and her French ladies were frequently up braiding their English friends that the Protestant religion did not appoint hours of secret prayer, or breviaries, by which, as they said, "laidies and courtiers who have much open time might edify, and be

in devotion." Some Protestant ladies of the court, scandalized at this reproach, mentioned the matter to the king, who urged Bishop White to select an office of prayers, "that the court ladies who spend much time in trifling, might appear, and be, as devout as the new-come-over French ladies." Bishop White employed Doctor, afterwards Bishop, Cousin; and his performance so well pleased the king, that his Majesty wrote the imprimatur with his own hand. The work was only a compilation from Queen Elizabeth's "Office' of 1560 and the Liturgy.

The site of King's College is finally determined to be on the eastern wing of Somerset house, with entrances from the quadrangle and from the Strand. *

In our Number for January appeared a paper, by a correspondent, stating some particulars respecting "the too well known Mr. Robinson, of Cambridge ;" and askingon what authority the commentator, Whitby,is alleged to have been a Socinian. The Monthly Repository, the organ of the Unitarians, is pleased, in alluding to this paper, to accuse us of wishing our readers to believe that Mr. Robinson was struck dead for preaching Unitarianism, and of either extreme ignorance or gross disingenuousness for not replying to our cor respondent's query about Whitby. The first charge is utterly absurd: it certainly never entered our minds that any reader could make so preposterous an application of the fact, that, because a man died soon after preaching in favour of Unitarianism,

It

he was specially cut off for so doing. is not the ordinary plan of Divine Provinence thus to vindicate its proceedings in the present world; nor would we dare to interfere between any man and his allrighteous Judge. With regard to the question about Whitby, we need only say, that our pages are open to a fair statement of facts, bear they whatever way they may. The cause of truth can lose nothing by fair dealing. But it is not, as our readers know, our practice to reply to every query of our correspondents, and thus to substitute our own decision for impartial discussion. As little justice is there in various other charges which the Repository has lately urged against us; such, for example, as that, in reviewing the "Child's Faithful Friend," published by a well-known Unitarian bookseller, we invidiously suppressed the publisher's name; whereas it is never our practice to give publishers' names in our reviews or announcements. Our business is with books, not booksellers.

One chief cause of the decay of stone buildings in our climate is, that the stone being saturated with moisture, the water in freezing tears asunder its particles; fragments of which may be observed on the spicule of the ice. To prove, therefore, the quality of different species of stone for resisting this destructive effect, it has been proposed to saturate the specimens to be tested several times with a solution of sulphate of soda, allowing the solution to dry and chrystalize between each operation. The effect of the chrystalized spiculæ very aptly resembles that of the action of frost, and the stone which is first disintegrated is considered the worst adapted for the climate.

We have several times of late felt it right to notice the religious delinquencies of the Gentleman's Magazine, chiefly be cause that work, not being professedly theological, and circulating among general readers, its mistatements are the more liable to do injury. The following is another recent specimen :-" As Adam Smith justly distinguishes the liberal system of the opulent, and the austere one of the poor, it is a matter of course that people will endure the one only until they are able to acquire the other. Men of Etonian education, and satisfactory circumstances, will not harass themselves about the baptism of infants or adults, Calvinistic predestination, and other polemical logomachies; nor will statesmen encourage irritability and fanaticism." The writer adds, "That juvenile immoralities do not influence after life is evident from the

[blocks in formation]

The humane plan of taking the honey without destroying the bees, which is claimed as a recent invention, was practised as long ago as the middle of the sixteenth century by the celebrated Dr. Wilkins, of Wadham-college, and others whom he had instructed in his method, by means of transparent hives piled one upon another.

Dr Fell, whose name is proverbiallyknown, is said to have had a habit of preaching, on special occasions, in blank verse. Are any of his metrical discourses extant, in print or manuscript, in any of our libraries ?*

Archbishop Usher once remarked in conversation, that it was but loss of time to study deeply the Oriental tongues; for that, with the exception of the Hebrew, there was nothing written in them to repay the labour. He recommended philology above all other "human studies."

The absurd ceremony of touching by our kings for glandular affections, was performed as follows:-The king sitting on his throne, the surgeons, who had found their own skill baffled, introduced the patients; who, kneeling, his majesty, after the Gospel and some prayers for the occasion, stroked their cheeks; the chaplain repeating, not very reverently, "He put his hands upon them, and healed them." Another chaplain then hung a gold coin, an angel, strung upon a ribbon round their necks, while the first repeated "This is the true light which came into the world." The ceremony concluded with the Epistle, and prayers for the occasion, and the chaplain's blessing.

It is often urged, in defence of the fairs near London, that they were originally designed for commercial purposes. How little truth there is in this assertion, as repects some at least of them,mayappear from the following passage from Evelyn's Diary. "May 1, 1683. 1 went to Blackheath, to see the new fair, procured by Lord Dartmouth. This was the first day, pretended for the sale of cattle; but I think, in truth, to enrich the new tavern at the bowlinggreen, erected by Snape, his Majesty's farrier, a man full of projects. There appeared nothing but an innumerable assembly of drinking people from London, pedlars, &c.; and I suppose it too near

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »