I have commanded to be given to the armed population of Moscow, who are training for the defence of their native country. May he obtain it through his intercession before the throne of God! Had such an incident as this occurred in the history of the Chief' of the French nation, how eagerly would it have been accommodated to the prediction! It is, however, the speech of the Emperor Alexander on the approach of the French towards Moscow, who did thus for the protectors of forces with a strange god.'-And, as to dividing countries for gain, have the French nation been singular? They have had both their predecessors and their followers in that business. Mr. Roberts, however, is inclined to believe that the complete accomplishment by making some one false god, whether Mars or Fortune, or some other, an object of public worship, and honouring it by a shrine or image, literally adorned with jewels, is yet to be looked to. This, we suppose, will take place in France, otherwise the unity of the piece would not be preserved. And does not this appear ominous of change? Are the Bourbons to become the patrons and heroes of infidelity? Or, is the late Chief of the French nation to leave the rock of St. Helena, that he may again become a worshipper in the Hotel des Invalides at Paris? On the measuring of the Temple of God, Rev. xi. 1, 2. Mr. Roberts remarks, that, The use of measuring is, to mark the extent and limits of the true Church of God by his word; and at the Council of Nice, A.D. 325, this was done, previous to the corruption of the Church by idolatry and Paganism. limits of true Christianity were marked, and the true Church of Christ distinguished from those who were of the outer court; that is, Christians more in name than in truth.' And these said Christians of the outer court, are, he informs us, here called Gentiles, because they are distinguished by admitting idolatry and persecution, which were the great errors and marks of Gentilism.' If Mr. Roberts will write in this manner we cannot help it; yet we cannot but offer him our advice to be very careful how he invites examination to the members and proceedings of the council of Nice, A.D. 325, as the persons who composed the true Church of Christ,' and the means by which its limits were marked. Idolatry and persecution, the last especially, we beg leave to suggest to him, are not less the great errors and marks' of a spurious profession of Christianity, than of Gentilism; and if the Council of Nice was not the outer court, as little was it the temple of God, which cannot be the scene of such scandals and cruelties as originated in that imperial Convocation. We are surprised too, that Mr. Roberts #should fix upon the sixth century (p. 172) as the period when the temporal power was called in, and took upon itself to enforce belief, and to add a temporal to a spiritual anathema. To what pnrpose, and with what attention, can ecclesiastical history have been read by an author who writes in this manner? We are truly glad to relieve ourselves from the unpleasant feelings which such passages as the preceding have occasioned us, by the perusal of such sentiments as the following, To demand absolute concurrence in opinion and belief, or to command a surrender of the conscience, is in man an assumption of diabolical tyranny, since it is to enjoin belief without conviction, and man to belie his conscience. For there can be no conviction where the mind is not free. To enjoin belief by force, is to enjoin more than God himself has done; for God, even in his judgements, condemns those only who have disregarded or resisted the just and sufficient grounds of belief which he had given. The conduct of Justinian, and of those who, like him, have endeavoured to enforce belief, has been an insult to the Deity, as assuming an impious authority; and no less have they done so, who, with a most audacious impudence, have dared to attribute their decrees to the Holy Spirit, without the same testimony of his presence that the Apostles had in the powers visibly bestowed by it.' pp. 177, 178. Why should these excellent and correct sentiments be rendered in any measure doubtful as the expression of the Author's mind, by the qualifying words- absolute concurrence?' We are willing to say, "it was an oversight;" for we really are most reluctant to suppose that this modified language was adopted as a salvo for the outrageous requisitions of the Rulers of the English Church during the reigns of Elizabeth and some of her successors; though we cannot avoid this reflection, which is forced upon us still more by the Author's excepting' England since the Reformation,' from the states to which the power and disposition of Justinian have descended, an exception against which we presume most strongly to except. Our readers may peruse the first five verses of the fourteenth . chapter of the Apocalypse, and then exercise their judgement on the following interpretation. The song I conceive to be composed in Hebrew, and the subject, praise to God for opening the prospect of the redemption of their nation from oppression, and for the reign of the Messiah beginning to dawn upon them. Such a song, the Jews of the empire certainly might sing imme diately after the French revolution, when universal toleration was proclaimed, and the substance of it they did express in 1806, when they said, "The time of our trial is expired, the period of our calamities is at an end." It is true they were not Christians, but still it appears to me that they who with ardent hope and pure intentions, have looked, and do look, for the Messiah, may without impropriety be called followers of the Lamb, as being intentionally such, and ready to be so as soon as he is revealed to them. They who are here called first fruits to the Lamb, may be the first who, under his dispensation, and though not immediately, yet by a beneficence taught here originally by his Gospel, and copied in France being relieved from their state of humiliation shall have been converted to Christianity.' pp. 185, 186. If Mr. Roberts had compiled a manual of prophecy as he originally purposed, a useful work might have been produced, and the thanks of many readers would have awaited him for condensing within the compass of a moderate volume the interpretations of the most judicious expositors of the predictions of the Bible. The comments of such writers as Mede, Vitringa, Newton, &c. in an abridged form, would be acceptable to many persons who have not opportunity or leisure to peruse the works of those eminent authors. To a certain extent, Mr. Roberts has executed such a compendium, but in so limited a manner, and the part of the work allotted to unprofitable discussion is so large, that we must speak of the publication before us in a tone of disappointed feeling. If Mr. Roberts would give us a work executed according to his first design, we should, we doubt not, have to give a less qualified recommendation to his labours, than we are prepared to bestow upon this Manual of Prophecy, some parts of which, it is but fair to say, occasionally exhibit its Author to greater advantage than do the extracts that we have copied. Art. IX. The Philosophy of Elocution; elucidated and exemplified Wright has very much overrated his powers, or that he has ventured upon a very intelligible course, in order to recommnd himself to a particular class of individuals, as a teacher of elocution. That he should work himself up to rapturous admiration of an Established Church, among whose wealthy sons he may hope to find customers, and that he should indulge in a little collateral contempt towards less profitable sectaries, is all perfectly fair,-quite in the way of trade; but that he should thrust all this upon the world, in a very indifferently written octavo, mixed up with a great parade of learning, and with very genuine proofs of comfortable ignorance, upon theological and ecclesiastical questions, is to quit altogether his proper ground; to entangle himself among a class of subjects which his mental habits and acquisitions have not qualified him to discuss, and to bring himself, altogether without necessity, within the very vortex of a controversy which, we can assure him, his book being witness, he does not in the least understand. Not that VOL. XI. N.S. 2 K we intend to follow him through his assertions and his declamations. He is welcome to affirm, if he can do it honestly, after reading his Bible, that the British and English Churches 'were formed on the model of that of the Apostles. We have no objection to his believing, with an implicit faith, all that the Bishop of Lincoln has written, or said, in behalf of Episcopacy. He may even infer, by the most exquisite sequitur yet discovered, that in these perilous times, Calvanisin' (we verily believe this not to be an error of the press) on the one hand, and Unitarianism on the other, continually springing up, therefore gravity, earnestness, and sometimes vehemence of expression, as when pronouncing the Litany, to be cultivated, whether in the desk or in the pulpit.' We shall leave him to the quiet enjoyment of his demonstrations. We shall not presume to hint that, after all, it may be reasonably doubted whether he knew what Calvinism means; nor to hesitate an apprehension, that he appears to be happily ignorant of the somewhat important distinction between episcopacy, and diocesan episcopacy; still less would we question him too closely on the accuracy of his knowledge of the Apostolic model:' all this we shall leave and at once to the more professional portions of his work. pass If Mr. W. had restricted himself to a particular and critical recital of the many admitted excellencies, mingled, however, with great defects, of the Liturgy of the Established Church, he would have avoided unprofitable controversy, and trodden upon safe and pleasant ground. He had, besides, immediately before him, the happiest and least controvertible view of his subject; the excellency of the Liturgy considered in its adaptation to oral delivery. The variety of its style; the mingled beauty and simplicity of its composition; the richness and the pregnancy of its scriptural and devotional matter; all these taken in connexion with the advantages of dress, attitude, situation, and character, assigned to the reader, might have afforded Mr. Wright an ample and varied field both for criticism and declamation. Add to this, that advantageous for public reading, as is the public service of the Establishment, it is, with inconceivably few exceptions, miserably read. There is a certain conventional hardness and pomposity in the manner of most clergymen, while reading the various portions of the Liturgy, which they are unable to lay aside, even in the humblest of its Supplicatory devotions: and this unhappy system, added to the palpable incongruity of prayer by book, always, to us at least, makes this part of the Church service nearly unprofitable. Neither can we think that Mr. Wright's plan will go very far towards the correction of this erroneous practice; independently of the very awkward manner in which he delivers his precepts, there is considerable danger of contracting unpleasant stiffness and technicality in thus following the steps of a master. If, at a certain age, we found habits formed, and the manner already decided, we should be extremely cautious of endeavouring to force the individual into a system altogether opposite; and should propose little more than the correction of gross misconceptions, and the grafting of necessary improvements upon the original manner. We have never known an instance of a total alteration, that did not retain manifest signs of effort and elaboration; and compared with this, almost every other species of oratorical error is tolerable. We have heard, generally without disgust, sometimes with gratification, public addresses from persons altogether without the advantages of education or elocutionary training; but we have very frequently been annoyed to excess by the librated periods, the measured cadences, and calculated gestures of accomplished orators. With respect to public lecturers on elocution, those at least whom we have heard, have been all buck rám men ;' in one or two instances we have been gratified by the matter of their lectures, but in their manner and enunciation, they have invariably been cramped and stiffened by adherence to rule and system. We should even be reluctant to exercise a merely systematic control in these matters, over the young. Nature and passion are always eloquent, always impressive; and we conceive that the wisest and safest plan of instruction will, in a great measure, be confined to the repression of palpable irregularities, and the correction of obvious defects, without much interference with those peculiarities which give both originality and piquancy to individual manner. Mr. Wright enters upon his proper subject, by a dissertation on what he has been pleased to call the Philosophy of Elocu'tion.' We shall not quarrel with him about the import and application of this hackneyed phrase; but we object to him, that he has given us a most meagre history of his art, and that he has scarcely touched upon one of the most important inquiries connected with it, the different, and in some instances opposite, vocal habits of different nations. He begins with the following unqualified assertion : The improvement in the English language, which so rapidly advariced in the reign of queen Elizabeth, began to decline during the great rebellion, in the year 1642. The prevailing cant of the enthusiasts, at the time of the usurpation, together with the dissolute manners which marked the reign of Charles II, tended much to lessen the value of our language." This is the flippant and summary way in which Mr. W. despatches the criticism of a period which possessed some of the best and ablest writers of his native land. The cant of ' enthusiasm' is not much more annoying than the cant of presuming ignorance. We shall not defend the dissolute 6 |
