both your Roman Catholic and Protestant readers to rise above the outworks of a religious profession, and to take a glimpse of the glory that dwells within the veil that screens eternity from time, where the Lamb that was slain pleads the merits of his work, without which a profession of religion will be as unavailing in eterWhen nity as it is vain in time. Roman Catholics can take this simple, but saving, view of the Gospel of Christ, I shall not only rejoice at their admission to privilege, and their elevation to power, but I shall consider the monarch happy, and the throne invincible. I am your's, "CANDIDUS." THE thrones of time shall pass away, The sun may quit his throne of light; Yea, smile, when time and tide are fled,- The universe shall pass away, SOL TURNED RECLUSE. Lo! Sol reclines his drooping head Upon th' uplifted wave; As though he meant to make his bed Thus pillow'd in the downy west, And see th' old empress to our view, The following Stanzas were suggested on seeing the beautiful Ship "The SILAS RICHARDS," in the Regent's Dock, Liverpool. GAY stately bark, success on thee await, That o'er ten thousand refluent billows bore, From transatlantic woodlands hewn of late, May no destructive tempests round thee roar! Yet art thou but inadequate to wear His name-whose mind, of truly noble bearing, Was vaster than the world of waters-where They kiss'd thy prow, or sportive eddied, veering, To gaze upon thy stern-as on careering Thou welcom'dst their caresses-while reflected His image thousand-fold, still reappearing; As if each wave his memory respected, Or melting, sunk in tears, mute, sorrowing, and dejected. 'Twas his great mind that latent sources grasp'd, Of intercourse, and loaded every tide clasp'd In golden unison, the distant wide, That bust should be of adamant, or oak An emblem of the boasts of either nation; THE SOLAR SYSTEM.* NOR Sing I now of war's tremendous clash, When earth forg'd thunders roll and lightnings flash; Nor are the world's deceitful charms fit theme With lucid clouds about his monstrous ball, (The system's centre) turns the radiant SOL; In orbits circling him the planets steer, Bat all run free of either one's career;' * By the Solar System we are to understand the sun-the planets, with their secondaries or moons-and the erratic bodies termed comets. The fixed-stars do not belong to the Solar System, but each star is generally considered to be the centre (or sun) of a number of planets, comets, &c. revolving round it, and on whose orbs it bestows its cheering influence. Formerly the sun was considered a body of fire, but the invention of the telescope has enabled us to discover spots on his disk. Dr. Herschel describes him as being an opaque habitable globe, like the planets, but with transparent clouds to a great height, swimming about him. The heat we receive from the sun is occasioned by the rays of light coming in contact with our atmosphere. On them be glares, the lord and monarch vast, Cheers the least distant, to the very last, (Although, no doubt, more distant they re move, His actuating pow'r the less they prove,) And sparkling he'll bedeck th' ethereal plain, As long as these revolving shall remain." Nearest, and in the solar rays nigh drown'd, MERCURIUS flies his small and speedy round; A million miles in half a day goes clear, And in three months fufills his scanty year. What heat must they receive who here reside, To those whose worlds through longer confines glide? Next CYTHEREA with less swiftness roll'd, Parading depths of ether, we behold; And following keep almost in constant sight, The lonely trav'ller in th' extensive height; Or in the eve, when daylight wears away. Joy'd by her smiling beams at dawn of day, Third from the central globe is TERRA found, With blessings by the great Creator crown'd; Though buge she seems in man's all-wond'ring eyes, Compared with Jove § she's but a grain in size; And Jove, if with the universe compar'd, to bear; With changing seasons, mutual night and day, In different phases constant she appears, Then MARS presents his ruddy orb to view, Nor fails his custom'd journey to pursue; Well-nigh two years his circuit takes to roll, But in surprising concord is the whole. Beyond the path of Mars, come wheeling on, Four planetary balls,¶ around the Sun; Minute in bulk, from naked eye conceal'd, But open to the telescopic field. Next to them, moving with a sober pace, Amazing mass! great JUPITER we trace; With belted disk be rides in state on high, And almost dares with bulky Phoebus vie. He (like gay Venus **) ere Aurora spreads, Blushing, her dewy mantle o'er our heads, Or soon as darkness draws her sable veil In solemn stillness over hill and dale, With beams reflected, shines in heaven's expanse, Where thousand little lustres seem to dance. Four Satellites, companions in his course, With rays receiv'd from the primeval source, Round him, their centre, all successive stray, And help to chase his five hours' gloom away. Then follows, winding from his foreign coast, Old SATURN, wonder of th' eccentric host; The planet Venus.- Jupiter.- The Moon.-Asteroids; Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta.- Jupiter and Venus are the morning and evening stars. A double ring, encompassing his sphere, Farthest of all, remote URANUS wheels, The COMET here forget we not to trace, That great erratic wand'rer over space; Short is the time that we observe him trail, In the blue vault, with marv'lous length of tail; For 'tis but seldom that the rambler deigns To visit where our system's sovereign reigns; And, when that happens, we can scarce perceive His form and nature, ere he takes his leave, Breaks from the boundary in rapid haste, And tow'rs unheeded in th' empyrean waste. ours, At times reveal thyself to mortal eyes, Yet when invited to our native bow'rs, Disdainful wing thy way to yonder skes? Why, bird of Paradise, so seldom set Thy wary feet on this terrestrial ground? Why not repose thy weary pinions yet? Can no fit resting-place on earth be found? "Ah! child of earth, I never fly 'till when Thine own misdoings hurry me away ; I often visit the abodes of men, But virtue only can induce my stay. "Within that heart where pity is a guest, Where nobler passions o'er the base excel, There, there will I erect myself a nest, There, there alone, I condescend to dwell." Deal. VERSES, Addressed to a LADY, on her leaving the Place Time, winged coarser, bounds along, The present only we discern, Whate'er thy future lot may be, "Twill come from God alone; E'en now, methinks, bis love designs For, lo! the sun of promise shines Bright expectation gilds the scene, THE PROSPECT OF LIFE. On the brink of life's drear ocean, Lone and tremulous I stand, Whilst its waves in dire commotion, Thunder o'er the shrinking sand; And awful, at my feet their lave Beckons soon a wat❜ry grave. Proud, majestic, rise on high, The steeps that 'scape the storm, On all their radiant form: Danger present every where; He stalks, the form of hell, In front, the interminable deep, Where wreck'd have many been; Riding on the reinless stream, And shatter'd my frail bark, Nay, 'tis madness to think so; Unfurl'd, see, wait the sails; Trust but the art that bids you go, And aw'd, the stubborn gales, Like summer clouds, shall waft you o'er, In dreams of joy, to heav'n's blest shore. Leeds. J. REVIEW.-The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, &c. By Joseph Butler, LL.D. with an Introductory Essay by the Rev. Daniel Wilson, A. M. Vicar of Islington. 8vo. pp, 513. Whitta ker. London. 1824. BUTLER'S Analogy is a work too well known to require any analysis from a reviewer, and too highly valued to hope or fear any thing from the strictures of animadversion. It has long stood the test of severe investigation, and is "from the critic safe arrived in port." Many zealous Christians tell us, that natural religion is a nonentity, and, under an eager desire to exalt revelation, they fearlessly assert, that God has left himself without any other witness in the world. Butler's Analogy boldly asserts the contrary, and the arguments by which he supports his positions, will stand as a lasting monument, when the ebullitions of intemperance shall be buried among the wreck of things which were. 46 The essay, by Mr. Daniel Wilson, which is prefixed, occupies 161 pages, and we are happy to find, that it is written in a strain not unworthy of the important work it is intended to introduce. Mr. Wilson begins with a warm tribute of respect to the author of the "Analogy," adverts to some circumstances of his life, and delineates the character of his mind. the author, he turns to his work, stating the general argument which the Bishop pursues, marking the progressive links in his reasoning, and pointing out the connexion between natural and revealed religion, which the volume was written to establish. From It is obvious, from the step which Mr. Wilson has taken, that he has examined the "Analogy" with deep attention, and made himself fully acquainted with the arguments it contains, not only in their detached forms, but in their mutual combinations and aggregate bearings on the analógical resemblance. The essay is an epitome of the volume, without its elaborate details, in which Mr. Wilson follows Butler, and gives a microscopic view of his vast and energetic mind. That a revelation from God was necessary to teach man his duty, both the Analogist and the Essayist concur in asserting. This important fact the reader may gather from the following passage, in which this union of sentiment appears. Butler is decidedly of opinion that this is the case, He says, As there is no hint or intimation in history, that this system (of natural religion) was first reasoned out; so there is express historical, or traditional evidence as ancient as history, that it was taught first by revelation.' He seems likewise, to hold strongly, that such faint traces of this original revelation as remain, aided by the fragments of man's moral nature, are so inefficient, from the want of essential parts, from the absence of authority and sanction, and from the intermixture of gross errors and idolatries, as rather to strengthen than curb, much less subdue, the passions and vices of mankind. Those relics of truth, therefore, being thus impotent of themselves, and being unaccompanied by any assurances of pardon, or any promises of grace and assistance, only demonstrate, in every age, and in every quarter of the world, by the state in which they leave men, the indispensable necessity and infinite importance of Christianity. | thus given, are sufficient to place the views of both authors in a proper light, and it would be well if our modern sceptics would examine with seriousness, the solid weight and sterling worth of those overwhelming arguments which are here employed in favour of unadulterated Christianity. At a few detached expressions which Butler has advanced in his " Analogy," some infidel writers have occasionally nibbled, but his impenetrable phalanx not one of this philosophical host has dared to attack. Messrs. Chalmers and Collins have, therefore, rendered true religion a service, by bringing this new edition of Butler's Analogy before the world. 66 REVIEW.-The History of the English ALTHOUGH the volumes before us "Natural religion, in subserviency to Christianity, is of great importance. It is every where taken for granted in scripture, and confirmed and strengthened by the manner in which truth is addressed to man. All the evidences of revealed religion appeal to our moral nature, and meet precisely the faculty of judging which we still possess; and would have no medium of proof-and, therefore, no authority to convince-if this moral sense should be denied. Moreover, it becomes yet more important, in proportion as the light of Christianity, diffused around it, illuminates, in some faint degree, its grosser darkness, and dispels its baser corruptions and superstitions. In christian countries, men who reject Christianity, insensibly repair the decayed and In looking back, and tracing the dilapidated temple of nature with the materials march of opinion through the unenwhich it supplies. And it is with natural religion, in this form, that we have chiefly to lightened ages of antiquity, it is paintreat in this country. It then serves to shew ful to behold with what fierceness and men, that their consciences are bound, not only bitterness of spirit the contending by the law of Christianity which they spurn factions assailed each other. Their and reject, but by the law of nature, of which energies were wasted in the defence they cannot divest themselves; not only by the infinite benefits and stupendous dis- of doctrines which they admitted to be coveries of the revelation of the Gospel, to nonessential, and in cherishing the which they ought to bow, but by the truths demon of discord under the banners impressed originally on the nature of man, and of the Prince of peace. In modern sanctioned and enlarged in the primitive revelations of the Creator to him-revelations, days, controversy has been distinof which every glimmering ray of knowledge, guished by a more mild and conciliatevery feeble emotion of conscience, every re- ing character, but the period has not maining barrier between virtue and vice, yet reached our globe, when men can every impression of the responsibility of man, be persuaded either to think alike, or every anticipation of future judgment, every relic and trace of an immortal and accountable to live in peace with each other withspirit, are proofs and consequences. Thus out it. men are reminded, that they do not escape from moral government by rejecting Christianity, but fall back on a ruined and unaided principle, which leaves them just as responsible to God, the Creator and Judge, as before only with the accumulated guilt of having spurned the only way of pardon and grace which the infinite mercy of God had provided for them."-p. cx. to cxii. These quotations, which we have In the volumes now under examination, the author first adverts to the history of the Baptists in foreign parts, but his remarks are brief, and merely introductory. His observations then turn to the General Baptists of England; and in tracing their progressive establishment in this country, his details are both comprehensive and |