religion, when we were disposed to set our faces as a flint against the arguments and rebukes of our male friends! St. Peter was fully aware of their power. "Wives be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives." He shews in what immediately follows, how conducive he thought "a meek and quiet spirit" in the wife, to the attainment of this great object*. Now, Sir, I cannot but fear, that your correspondent is not sufficiently aware of the danger of laying aside part of the weapons appropriate to her sex, and of taking up others of a very different kind. I cannot but fear, that she is not a lady whom St. Peter would have quite approved. He would have liked, if I am not much mistaken, a greater appearance of deep consciousness of her own faults, and more backwardness in mentioning, and even in seeing, the faults of others, and especially those of her aunt. He would have thought her, I apprehend, somewhat less winning than young women ought to be.

But perhaps it may be thought, that I am combating a phantom, and that there is in reality no such lady as Narcissa. Be it so. Still I would advise your correspondents to beware how they assume signatures, without sustaining the proprieties of the characters they personate. That instances of this species of fault may be produced from the Spectator, and other books of the same class, I well know. But authorities will never vindicate what is an outrage against good sense. Bold and forward young women are an anomaly in the natural, and a far greater in the Christian world: and surely good sense will not authorise their introduction into your Miscellany, especially when they are so bold and so forward, (to say no more,) as to pourtray the faults of those relations who are their natural guides and

* 1 Pet. iii. 1-4. CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 49.

protectors, unless it be done in such a way as to expose them to the censure they merit.

Surely it will not be said, that instruction cannot be conveyed in a periodical Miscellany, unless occasional violations of the laws of propriety in the delineation of characters are permitted. None of your correspondents can be so ignorant of the value of those laws, or so deficient in ingenuity, as to advance this plea. What would Horace have said, had it been brought forward by a dramatic writer, in defence of a breach of the rules laid down, in his Art of Poetry, for supporting the proprieties of the different characters introduced into a play? And I hope, Sir, that you will not permit liberties to be taken with the dramatis persona who may appear in your work, which would not be tolerated in a theatrical composition, inferior as such compositions are to the Christian Observer, both in the objects they have in view, and in the good which even the best of them actually effect. However not merely the literary character of your work, which is a point of secondary importance, but its moral and religious tendency is implicated in the present question.

E

another young woman did something of the same kind in a former number) as there is a spurious religion among us, which is said to make its professors bold, and impertinent, and unfeeling. The genuine Christianity inculcated by your Miscellany, is of the very opposite kind. It is calculated to add graces to female delicacy, and even to implant it in the bosom where it was not originally found. The ladies who study your pages, will I hope, be eminent among their coun

Discourses on various Subjects and Occasions, with a Preface addressed to the Congregation assembled in Christ's Church, Bath. By the Rev. CHARLES DAUBENY, Archdeacon of Sarum, and Author of a Guide to the Church, vol. ii. London, Rivington and Hatchard, 8vo. pp. 427. 1805.

If we go into an extended review of these sermons, our motive for doing so will, we trust, justify our prolixity. The writings, the station, and the reputation of the author, give considerable importance to whatever issues from his pen: his name will add weight with some persons, even to the heavy bullion of truth, and it will also give currency to prejudice and error. It becomes our duty, therefore, to avail ourselves of his authority, whenever it lends its aid to the promoting of what we deem to be " pure and undefiled religion;" and when his views no longer coincide with our own, and the difference appears to us of moment, the same sense of duty will compel us to oppose our cautions against his assertions, and to correct his statements by others, which we conceive to be more scriptural and just. In discharging this least agreeable part of our duty, we shall be actuated (so far as we know

7

ourselves) by no sentiments disallowed by Christianity or good manners; and if we must oppose our opinions, on some subjects, to those of Mr. D., we hope to do it with meekness and charity, and without forgetting the respect which is due to him. Nor shall any remembrance of those altercations, into which we have been reluctantly drawn with Mr. D., be allowed to affect the impartiality of our criticism.

We are glad to commence our report with commendation. In his first sermon, on 1 Pet. ii. 17., Mr. D. ably vindicates the importance of religious principle to the stability and prosperity of all human government; and with great strength of argument he controverts Dr. Paley's well-known position upon the subject of obedience to civil autho rity, that, "so far as relates to the extent of it, the gospel has left man precisely in the same condition in which it found him: that it has provided for no extreme cases, but laid down only the general principle of obedience to government; leaving it to the discretion of the subject to determine in what cases and under what circumstances, it is to be applied."

"This if I mistake not," says Mr. D. " is not so much to interpret scripture, as to explain it away. And certain it is, that

of man's natural life, represents that grace of the Holy Spirit derived, from the fountain of life, through Jesus Christ, without which every man living is counted dead before God. The pure fountain of life, (we read in the book of Revelations,) clear

as crystal, proceedeth out of the throne of God and of the Lamb;'-and whoever at

tempteth to draw from any other fountain; in plain language, whoever looketh for grace and salvation from any other quarter, than from that which has been provided by a merciful God, through the merits of a crucified Redeemer, is like a man that is seeking for water in broken cisterns that can hold no water'." (p. 34, 35.)

One more passage, however, he afterwards brings forward, "because too striking to be omitted," viz. Isa. 55. 1, &c. on which he thus comments:

"In pursuance of the same method of instruction, by which sensible objects are made subservient to the illustration and en

forcement of spiritual subjects; the prophet in the preceding passage, under the emblem of the natural food of the body, represents the spiritual food of the soul; with this difference only, that the former is to be bought with a price, whilst the latter is of too great value to be purchased with money; it is the gift of God: that meat which perisheth not, but endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto all that diligently seek him. But to this end it is necessary that attention should be paid to the condition of the party who is to obtain it. Every one knows what are the sensations of hunger and thirst;

and that without an experience of them,

there is no inclination either to eat or drink.

But every one, alas! does not know what

is meant by the hunger and thirst of the soul. Such sensations, however, taken in a spiritual sense, must be felt by every Christian, before he will think of coming to the water of life; or of applying for that food from heaven, which alone can save his soul alive; upon the same principle that no one cometh to the physician, till he finds himself sick. The invitation therefore, of our Saviour in the text, like that of the prophet before us, is addressed only to hungry and thirsty Christians. If any man thirst,' says our blessed Saviour, let him come unto me and drink. Ho, every one that thirstetk,' (says the prophet,) 'come ye to the waters; come ye, buy and eat, without money and without price'." (p. 36, 37.)

Of this excellent comment there is one correction, however, which we beg leave to propose. When Mr. D. speaks of the invitation of our Saviour, as well as that of the "addressed only to prophet being

hungry and thirsty Christians," we

should be inclined to substitute the word men for Christians. And the emendation is of more importance than may at first sight appear. There is a class of religionists amongst us, whether known to the author or not, who warmly contend, that the invitations of the Gospel are not addressed to all men, but to the regenerate only; and they comment on these very passages precisely in the same manner, that Mr. D. has done, and thus make them to speak the language of their own pernicious and unscriptural opinion: an opinion which Mr. D. would, we apprehend, be far from wishing to sanction by his authority. It may be worthy, therefore, of his consi, deration, whether the terms "hungry and thirsty," be not rather intended to describe the condition of mankind at large, who seek happiness in the ways of sin and vanity, and find it not, than that of such only as, with genuine spiritual appetites, hunger and thirst after righteousness. And the whole scope of the quotation from the prophet strongly supports this exposition; nor indeed to our mind, can it very consistently admit of any other. For to whom is the invitation," Ho! every one that thirsteth, &c." expressly addressed, but to those who

I spend their money for that which is not bread, &c.?"-a description surely, that will not apply to the characters pointed out by "hungry and thirsty Christians." The object of the address, therefore, and its accompanying assurances, in this view of the passage, is, to call off fallen man from his vain pursuit of happiness in forbidden paths, and to offer him that solid and substantial good, the loss of which indeed he bitterly feels, but, till enlightened from above, knows neither

wherein it consists, nor how it is to be recovered.

Mr. D.'s application of this subject to his hearers, is faithful and impressive. The following extract from this part of the sermon, though long, will require no apology to be made for its insertion.

"Alas! when we look abroad in the world, and measure the modern profession of Christianity by the primitive standard,

we feel as it were shrinking within ourselves upon the experiment. The subject which in better days inflamed the heart, occupied the thoughts, and engaged the conversation of those spiritual Christians who loved the Lord in sincerity, is now become, for the most part, flat and uninteresting. We do not say, there are not spiritual Christians to be found among us; God forbid there should not. But when speaking of the general state of religion, it must be admitted, that we possess little more than the shadow of what ought to be possessed by us, to entitle us to the character of a Christian people. Christianity, from being what it ever must be, to become effectual to salvation, a vital principle influencing the thoughts, controuling the passions, and directing the conduct of every baptized per son, is for the most part degenerated into a mere nominal profession. If decent appearances are kept up, if the grosser habits of sin are avoided, Christians are apt to flatter themselves that, because they may not be so notoriously vicious as other men, they are therefore what they ought to be. "But those who conclude thus, have surely pever considered one principal end for which Christ came into the world. Did our blessed Saviour purchase a church with his blood, promise his presence and protection to it, furnish it with the means of grace, and appoint certain persons for the regular administration of those means; did he, think ye, make this gracious provision for the spiritual welfare of fallen man, for the purpose of raising him to no higher state of perfection, than that to which the morality of the heathen world might have advanced him?-Had the great and stupendous scheme of human redemption, that glorious combination (if we may so say) of divine wisdom, no higher object in view, than to qualify man for the discharge of the reciprocal duties of civilized society? --He who thinks thus, must never have

looked into his Bible; or if he has, and remains of the same opinion, he must consider that chosen vessel, St. Paul, in the

light of a madman, when praying for his disciples, that they may be filled with all the fulness of God;' and plainly telling them, that if they have not the spirit o Christ, they are none of his'." (p. 4-143.) It would be faint praise to say of the next sermon in this collection, that it is liable to no particular ob jection, It is both spiritual and impressive, and in the explanation and defence of the Christian duty on which it treats, is entitled to high commendation. From Daniel's example and success in "setting his heart to understand, and to chasten himself before God," the obligation and use of mortification, and selfdenial are inferred, and with great earnestness enforced. We are glad to aid the circulation of such re marks as these:

"The world may change its fashions every day; for it is a matter of little consequence to thoughtless mortals, whether they hunt after one shadow or another: but the Christian Religion, it is to be remembered, bears the unchange ble character of its divine author, the same yesterday, today, and for ever.'-What was Christianity therefore 1700 years ago, is Christianity still. The professors of it may, and indeed do at times, differ widely from each other; but this makes no alteration in the standard that has been set up, by which the Christian character in every age of the church must be measured; and, what is still of greater importance, by which it will be definitively judged. This circumstance considered, it might be expected, that instead of resting satisfied with a form of godliness, a mere outside shew of religion, which is a disgrace to the Christian profession; we should be desirous of practising those means, by which Christians of a former day arrived at that exalted degree of spiritual attainment, to which modern professors are for the most part perfect strangers." (p. 57, 58.)

We recommend to our readers the whole of this discourse, in which many sensible and judicious reflections are expressed in a lively and striking manner.

In a sermon on the sacrament of the Lord's supper, which comes next under our review, we are happy to find Mr. D. recognizing the distinction between nominal and real