ART. XXVI. Sermons preached occasionally in the Episcopal Chapel, Stirling, during the eventful Period, from 1793 to 1803, by GEORGE GLEIG, LL. D. & F. R. S. É. 8vo. pp. 424.

THESE sermons are twenty-one in number. In an advertisement prefixed, the author disclaims all expectation of encreasing either his fortune or his fame by the publication of them. He hopes, however," that they may be read, as he was assured they were heard, with some advantage."

French Revolution.

Two leading objects appear to occupy the preacher's attention, through nearly the whole of these discourses: the first, to combat certain fanatical preachers, whom Dr. Gleig describes as having gained great influence in the northern part of this island; and the second, to expose and to censure that system of modern philosophy, the prevalence and success of which he attributes to a determined conspiracy against christianity, of the illuminati aided and abetted by what he considers as its genuine offspring, the The late war, therefore, he praises, as just in its prin ciples, and necessary for the preservation of religion and social order: and he denounces all those who have maintained a contrary opinion, or held the propriety of any reform in our government, as levellers and anarchists, zealous only to overthrow the happy constitution of their country. We shall not take upon ourselves to animadvert upon the accuracy or the candour of this representa tion, or to decide on the legitimacy of all the inferences drawn from it. Secluded from the busy world of political debate, we have heard at a distance the loud acclaim of the justice, the necessity, and the glorious tendency of former wars, the secret springs of which have been afterwards laid open; and the ostensible have been proved to be not the real motives by which the actors in the bloody scenes were moved. To war-preachers, therefore, we would recommend more moderation; and to them no less than to all other polemics we would suggest this truth, that to make an argument prove too much is exceedingly to weaken its force.

Of the fanatics against whom Dr. Gleig declaims, of their principles and their success, he thus speaks:

"In an age which has witnessed a whole nation renouncing the faith of Christ, and when the religion of all Europe has certainly waxed cold, this doctrine is peculiarly dan

gerous; and yet I believe it never was propagated among us with more zeal than at present.

religion in both parts of the united kingdom, supinely suffer things to take their course. without exerting one effort to stem the torrent of infidelity which threatens to overwhelin usa set of absurd and self-commissioned fanatics wander over the country, "creep into houses, and lead captive silly women," and sillier men, by assuing them. that Christianity requires of them nothing but what they call faith; that what moralists term the duty of subjects to their sovereign concerns not them; that the love of their country is no viue, but perhaps a vice; that the precepts of morality are but the elements of a legal institution; and that they shall certainly be saved, if they firmly believe that Jesus Christ died for the eleci, and that they themselves are of that happy number.

"While the more intelligent teachers of

"Thus is this nation likely to be lost with others, not by the arms of its enemies, but by the false principles of its members; by the irreligion of some; the lukewarmness of many; and the mistaken notions of Christianity entertained by those who appear by their conduct, compared with that of others, to be the only party actuated by zcal."

If the following picture of our northern youth be not too highly coloured, we agree with the preacher that we have reason to be alarmed at our situation. But we hope these have been contemplated by him through the same magnifying medium that has enlarged and rendered terrific the other objects of his animadversion.

"Of our young men bred to the liberal professions, two-thirds at least are avowed infidels; and indulge of course, without. compunction, in the practice of every vice which fashion has not made dishonourable, and of which the laws of their country take no cognisance. In proof of this heave charge, I might refer you to those impious and immoral books which daily issue from the press, and are bought and read with astonishing avidity. But to enumerate these would be little better than to mingle poison with your own cup; and for such a hazardous proof there is the less necessity, that one cannot mix at all with the world without finding my position fully verified. Nay, so prevalent is fashion, and so infatuating example, that we find professed infidels at every table; and no man can be sure that the stranger who sits next to him shall not,

before he rise, break an impious jest on the object of his adoration.

"The presence of a clergyman is still some restraint, in this respect, on the tongue of good manners: and yet, within these two months, I heard one of the greatest ornaments of this, or any other country, pronounced a party man, because some of the company had observed that he was a Christian! Men of lay professions meet much more frequently with instances of this kind than clergymen can be supposed to do. A friend of mine, whose veracity cannot be doubted, assured me, that of thirty young then composing a literary society, of which he was a member, there were but three who had the courage to profess themselves Christians. A few more declared their belief in the existence of God: but a very great majority were avowed atheists.

"Whence, now, can we suppose such extreme depravity of principle to have arisen? From calm inquiry and from the pursuits of science? No! Calm inquiry, on scientific principles, always leads to truth; and het who possessed perhaps the profoundest mind that ever actuated a human frame, and made greater progress in the pursuits of science than any man had ever done before him, was likewise one of the firmest believers in the doctrines of the gospel.

"The young men whom I have mentioned as calling themselves atheists, had never thought seriously on the subject of religion: they had probably seen their parents and guardians, who professed Christianity, neglect its ordinances, disregard many of its precepts, and show a perfect apathy with respect to all its threats and all its promises. It was, therefore, not unnatural, for youth fal minds to infer that the faith of such persons, if they had any faith, fell short even of that which the apostle attributes to those beings, of whom he declares, that they believe and tremble. But, from thinking thus of the religion of parents and guardians, persons to whom every one is accustomed to look up with reverence-it is a very short step for a young man, ardent in the pursuits of pleasure, to conclude, without inquiry, that all pretensions to revelation are impostures upon mankind; and that the Old and New Testaments are a collection of fables."

6

In a sermon preached on the fastday, 1797, both the higher and the lower orders of our community are thus heavily charged.

"In the last century the natives of this island, after piously recommending themselves and their country to the God of battles, united with ardour under an usurped government, which most of them justly abhorred, to repel the threatened invasion of an insulting foe: but at the present awful crisis, when all the powers of Europe, that have it much in their power to annoy us, seem leagued for the destruction of every thing dear to us as men and as Christians, some individuals of the higher orders of society are exerting all their influence, and all their power, to distract the attention of government, to rend in pieces the force of the empire, and to deliver up their countrymen

nay, themselves, their wives, and their children-gagged and bound, to a host of murdering atheists. Others again, though not so far lost as this, to all sense of what the world calls honour; yet "forgetting the God of their salvation, and the rock of their strength," plunge heedlessly into the excess of dissipation, and trust the defence of every thing which ought to be dear to them to the arm of flesh.

"Nor are the principles and practices of the lower orders among us more consonant to our holy religion than those of the higher. Our peasants and mechanics, instead of looking to persons of the same station in other countries, and comparing their own happiness with theirs', which would fill their breasts with gratitude to God, and with a chearful submission to the laws of their country, turn their eyes upwards with stupid malevolence to the splendour of their landlords, and such other persons as occupy stations superior to their own; and, being stung with envy, are eager to pull them from those elevations which, in the present state of things, they cannot themselves hope to reach. Hence that impatience of government, and those wild clamours for political reformation, which pervade all the lower orders of society, may be traced to the single source of envy engrafted on ignorance; envy of the ima. ginary happiness of their superiors, and ignorance of this obvious truth, that had they no superior in the state, they could never have acquired the wealth which they now enjoy."

We must, however, do our author the justice to observe, that when his mind is not heated by the contemplation of the speedy destruction of all social order, he frequently reasons with precision, calmness, and effect.

ART. XXVII. Sermons on several Occasions.
Archdeacon of Bedford.

THE volume here presented to the public contains thirteen sermons, and a charge delivered to the clergy of the archdeaconry of Bedford. The four first of these discourses are on the ground and credibility of the christian religion; the three next, on the evidence of a future state, afforded by reason; the eighth on the influence of example, and the causes which mislead the multitude; the ninth the fear of God; the tenth on the power of conscience; the eleventh on inspiration, and the means by which it inay be discriminated; the twelfth on a former paradisaical state; and the thirteenth on the character of Charles the First, and of the causes which led to his death; preached at Oxford on the 30th of January.

The character of these discourses is, not uniform; those which relate to the evidences of the christian religion are, upon the whole, worthy of the serious attention both of the believer and of the sceptic. The arguments, if not always new, are in general well arranged, and forcibly stated; the observations are frequently good, and sometimes excellent; yet, in the midst of much solid reason. ing, we meet with positions which tend to destroy the effect of the previous arguments, and to increase the scepticism which it is the preacher's object to reThus, discoursing upon the miracles of Christ, he justly observes,

move.

“The manner also, in which these and ris other miracles were wrought, was such as added a strong corroborating argument to prove then both real and divine. They were not performed in secret, they were not performed before a few credulous or interested witnesses, a circumstance which might have left them fiable to the suspicion of imposture; but openly, before a multitude of enemies, as well as friends, at the most public festivals, and in the most frequented places of resort. They were performed also with the same sort of action with which Almighty God created the world; by a FIAT, by a bare word or intimation of his will, without gradual process, or visible means or instruments. In appeasing a violent tempest, he says only, peace, be still immediately the belient winds hearken to his voice, and the agitated sea subsides. In curing an inveterate leprosy, he says no more than-I will, be thou clean and the leper is suddenly cleansed.No sooner does he say to the deaf and dumb man, Ephphatha, be opened; than his ears are opened, and the string of his tongue

:

By the Reverend R. SHEPHERD, D. I).
Svo. pp. 348.

loosed. He restores also to life both the wi
dow's son, and Lazarus, by saying, to the
one, arise, to the other, come forth. Once
or twice, indeed, he employs natural means
so ineffectual in their nature to the purpos
in his operations, but they were manifestly
for which they were employed, and design-
edly so, as conduced only to magnify the
power of the performer: who in those acts
communicated to certain forms of matter, by
an efficiency nothing short of divine, powers
and qualities, which in their own nature they
did not possess. Add to the whole this fi-
ishing circumstance, that his miracles pro-
duced always a durable and permanent effect.
If the ears of the deaf, or the eyes of the
blind, are opened, they continue afterwards
clearly and perfectly to hear or see.
If the
dead are raised, they continue to perform all
the functions of life; and remain incontes
tibly standing witnesses to the reality of what
was done in their favour."

But the force of this passage is much lessened by one in which it is allowed, that evil spirits may work miracles, and that "we cannot be certain, but that some phænomena which appear, and are really to us miraculous, have resulted from their agency."-Page 26. It is true, the preacher lays down some criteria, by which these may be distinguished from miracles wrought by the immediate agency of God; but if in any instance

we admit Beclzebub to have the same

power as Jesus, we diminish, if not destroy, the argument, upon which our Lord himself was willing to rest the proof of his divine mission; but Dr. Shepherd has not yet learnt what a miracle is, or he would never have conceived it possible for any but the Great Author of Nature to work one.

In the sermons on a future existence, there are many strong arguments well advanced, and many passages which dis play a feeling heart, and a correct judg ment; yet we cannot by any means agree with our author, when he asserts, "that in the present life there is more evil than good, and that virtuous conduct does not encrease individual happiness;" nor can we admit the validity of his reasoning, from the example of the thief on the cross, the situation and sentiments of whom Dr. Shepherd has totally misunderstood.

In these discourses on future existence, Dr. Shepherd appears to be embarrassed by what he apprehends to be the

scripture doctrine of a future day of general judgment. He cannot believe that the soul sleeps till the day of the resurrection: he considers it as the doctrine of scripture, that the soul departs to her appointed future station, immediately after death; but in common with many other divines, he limits the happiness which the virtuous are to enjoy, though it must be necessarily spiritual, till the union between the mouldered dust and the never dying soul shall have again taken place. For our own parts, we confess that this hypothesis has ever appeared to us replete with difficulties. Does the language of scripture indeed teach a future general judgment? Are not the terms usually considered as referring to such an event, in truth to be interpreted as relating to a very important occurrence already long past? In a work written by the late Mr. Cappe, and which we noticed in our last volume, this hypothesis was started, and appeared to us worthy of consideration, as likely to remove difficulties of which all theologians hitherto, whether they have ventured to confess it or not, have been fully sensible.

"If

Before we came, in our progress through this volume, to the sermon preached at Oxford on the 30th of January, we found reason to suspect that Dr. Shepherd is one of that class of churchmen (daily, we hope, diminishing) who regard moderation and candour as virtues which they are not called to exercise. As we perused this discourse, our suspicions were fully justisfied. Dr. Price and Dr. Priestley here meet with more than their usual share of obloquy, and the ecclesiastical gunpowder of the latter is by no means forgotten. there be those," thunders forth our preacher, page 307, "who with the dark spirit that conducted the operations of the infamous Vaux, openly exult in a texture of well conceived, and resolutely pursued machinations which will blow up our boasted constitution," &c. &c. and as though his readers were ignorant of the much misconceived and misrepresented passage to which he here refers, he adds this note :-"Dr. Priestley seems to have had Vaux's plot in his eye, when, to excite the spirited efforts of his coadjutors in the work of anarchy and confusion, he assures them, they were wisely placing, as it were, grain by grain, a ANN. REV. VOL. II.

rum,

Horslæi caput in rutilantia fulmina forgis;
Sulphuris et satagis subtilia grana parare,
Church quibus et churchmen, in cœlum up-
blowerc possis.

of a more serious complexion.
In page 301, we meet with a charge
"In
some periods of the last century," Dr.
ing occasions the bishops and episcopal
Shepherd asserts, "when on several try-
clergy made their noble stand against
popery, it is well known, and ought ne-
held back, or were privately bargaining
ver to be forgotten, that the dissenters
with that party for indulgence." We
hesitate not to assert, with more than
known, and that the preacher has here
equal confidence, that this is not well
founded libel. Is the arch-deacon of
been guilty of uttering a gross and un
Bedford then so little read in the civil
who took a principal part in bringing in
history of his country, as not to know
the families of Orange and of Bruns
wick? Has his eye never glanced over the
Page which records the jacobitism of
maintained and patronized by our rival
churchmen, whilst the chevalier was

on the eastern side of the channel? Has

his attention never been arrested by the reviles; who, in times of public danger, tale of the patriotism of those whom he from the enemies of liberty and the protestant cause, when they, who lived upon deserted their duty, nobly and disintothe state, and were bound to defend it, restedly came forward, and performed the most important services; for which, instead of claiming honours, they were compelled to sue for pardon? But it is an old doctrine, that truth, faith and justice heretic is to be silenced; it is a doctrine may, with impunity, be violated, when a which the arch-deacon seems highly to approve, and, perhaps conscientiously, to practice.

M

ART. XXVIII. Practical Discourses. By the Rev. RICHARD WARNER, Curate of St. James's Parish, Bath. 8vo. pp. 245.

OF the design and character of these discourses, a more correct or fairer view cannot be exhibited, than in the preacher's own words:

"The term practical discourses, (applied to all the following ones, except those on the evidences of our holy religion) is intended to designate a series of sermons, founded on the precepts, rather than the pretended doctrines. of the New Testament; whose object it is to develope and enforce the obligations of moral righteousness, and not to discuss points of useless speculation, nor controverted articles of faith. They were written, preached, and, I hope, are calculated, for every description of christians; for all those who believe the divine mission of Jesus Christ; who consider his religion more as a rule of conduct, than as a bone of contention; and hold practical piety and holiness of life to be of greater importance to themselves, and of higher value in the sight of God, than the most bigotted attachment to any forms of mere human invention; or the most zealous devotion to any creeds fabricated by the ingenuity of uninspired men.

"Whatever wild enthusiasts on the one hand, or worldly divines on the other, may conceit, assert, or write to the contrary, this I must continue to think, as long as my faculty of ratiocination remains unclouded that christianity, according to the spirit and letter of the gospel, is a system neither veiled by mystery, nor involved in difficulty, as the fornier would lead mankind to imagine; nor is it essentially and exclusively associated with any particular form of liturgy, system of establishment, or modification of government, as the latter would suggest."

The spirit which dictated this passage is conspicuous in every part of the volume, so far as believers in the gospel are concerned; but towards those who admit not the divine origin of christianity, the author indulges in language by no means consistent with his avowed candour. Almost the whole of the first discourse is occupied in declamation against unbelievers, and is more like the production of an angry petulant controversialist, than of a grave and sober-minded divine. We agree with Mr. Warner, that the unbelievers are generally "unfair and uncandid in their conduct, with respect to their attacks upon revelation;" but we cannot assent to these unqualified assertions, that they are " under the influence of principles and prejudices vicious and perverse, base, wicked, and contemptible;" that they uniformly

"scorn to attend to the evidence which proves the authenticity of the christian revelation ;" and that their infatuated conduct can be accounted for upon no

other principle, than that it springs from

a secret dislike to those restrictions which christianity commands, and those virtues which it enjoins. "The features of christianity, so beautiful and so new, so worthy of infinite wisdom to suggest, and of infinite purity and goodness to command,' we gladly acknowledge, "form a proof in favour of the divinity of christianity;" but we will not, we dare not say, as Mr. Warner does, "such a proof, as nothing less than judicial blindness, can be inattentive to; a proof that no man can deny or reject, whose taste for moral beauty is not entirely extinguished, whose understanding is not wretchedly weakened by the malignant influence of sin, whose judgement is not marvellously infatuated by the witcheries of vice, and whose power of discriminating between truth and falsehood is not altother obliterated." To such sentiments, and to such expressions as these, we strongly object; they are not agreeable to the spirit which christianity recommends and enjoins, nor to that which the founder of christianity so carefully exhibited; they are not becoming in the christian preacher, nor adapted to abate the prejudices of those who receive not the gospel.

In other parts of this volume, we oc casionally meet with declamation of a more innocent nature, but which leads us to question, not the author's charity, but his taste.

"Let, therefore, the elegant apologist," says the preacher, "for the glittering profigacy of classical worship pour forth all his cloying cloquence in the praise of the mildness of Polytheism; let him exercise all his sarcastic subtlety in endeavouring to lessen the sufferings of the christians, and to extenuate the cruelty of their gentile persecu

tors."

So in page 184, we read " of dangers that were lately distant, approaching our shores by speedy approximation;" and in page 192, of "the coldness and inattention of the worshippers of the awful eternal essence.”

Mr. Warner is also chargeable with the use of words for which no authority