ment, provided the taste of the reader be not depraved by the study of modern eloquence. They are in number twenty-one, and preached fom the following texts of scripture.

The first and second from LUKE iv. 22; the third, MATT. xxv. 46; the fourth, JOHN xiii. 3-17; the fifth, JAMES V. 13, 14; the sixth, LUKE xi. 13; the seventh, MATT. xii. 31, 32; the eighth, I TIM. ii. 5; the ninth and tenth, Rom. xii. 9; the eleventh, GENESIS xlvii. 8, 9; the twelfth, MARK xiv. 29, 30, 31; the thirteenth, 1 PETER i. 8; the fourteenth, Jos. xxvii. 5,6; the fifteenth, ECCL. vii. 10; the sixteenth, JOHN xv. 9. the seventeenth, PROV. xiv. 10; the eighteenth, MATT. xxvii. 54; the nineteenth, PSALM Cvii. 21, 22; the twentieth,. HEB. xii. 2, 3; and the twenty-first, ROMANS x. 15.

The reader perceives that the subjects of these sermons are truly Christian, and we beg leave to assure him that they are treated in a Christian manner. The first and second sermons which are on the doctrine and character of our Lord, cónclude with the following reflections, which we extract as a fair specimen of our author's style.

"The systematic prejudices of many public teachers, whose sincerity cannot be called in question; the indolence and lukewarmness of others; together with the current of popular sentiment, have hitherto combined to retard the entire separation of the genuine truths of the gospel, from the interpolations of human invention. Let us, with honest hearts, have recourse to the original source of truth; and found our notions of the gospel upon the form of sound words, even that faith which was once delivered to the saints. Let us bear upon our minds a just sense of the ignorance, the guilt, and the misery, in which we are involved: let us cherish that esteem of moral excellence, which is consonant to the dictates of sound reason and conscience; and we shall find the gospel so well calculated to remove the former, and to gratify the latter; so replete with comfort, so benevolent, uniformly so gracious and wonderful, that it must not only convince the understanding, but captivate the heart and affections. We shall triumph over infidelity. We shall not only believe the gospel, but love and admire it. It will be to us no longer a matter of cold and barren speculation, but our most valuable treasure, the richest source of present comfort, and of joyful expectation. We shall progressively imbibe its amiable spirit; and more forcibly, than by any arguments whatever, recommend it to the esteem and imitation of spectators. While we count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, our Lord; our light shall so shine before men, that they, seeing our good works, shall glorify our Father who is in heaven.'" P. 38.

These are seasonable and just reflections; but though the aubjects, from which they result, are ably discussed in the two

sermons,

bermons, of which they form the conclusion, we think that, on one occasion, Dr. Somerville atteinpts to illustrate his reasoning by a fact, to which it cannot be applied. He is treating of the conjunction of purity and mildness in the doctrine and character of Jesus, of which he says, the following is a rare in

stauce:

"A woman taken in adultery, was brought to Jesus by the Scribes and Pharisees, soliciting his decision with respect to the punishment to be inflicted on account of her transgression. In conformity to his own doctrine, her accusers expected that he would ratify what they understood to be the command of Moses, that she should be put to death. But how much was mistaken zeal rebuked, when he said unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. How much was shame relieved, and an ingenuous sense of guilt awakened in the breast of the offender, when Jesus thus addressed her! Woman, where are thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee, that is to public, or open punishment, go and sin no more." P. 6.

On various accounts, we could wish that Dr. Somerville had chosen some other illustration of his doctrine than this story; for whether it had or had not a place in the Evangelist's autograph, (a question upon which we pause till we have seen what new light will be thrown upon this important subject, by a laborious enquiry, which we hear is in great forwardness for publication) our author's reasoning on it is very extraordinary. The Scribes and Pharisees had certainly no ground in our Lord's doctrine for supposing that he would condemn the woman to death, or indeed that he would interfere with the administration of their law. His doctrine, it is true, was strictly pure; and he enforced obedience to his laws by the most awful sanctions; but his kingdom, as he afterwards declared, was not of this world, and, therefore, the rewards which he promised, and the punishments which he denounced, were all to be enjoyed or suffered in a future state. The object of the Scribes and Pharisees in soliciting his decision on the case cannot be mistaken; for we are expressly told that it was to find occasion to accuse him. Had he condemned the woman to suffer the penalty of the Mosaic law, he would have laid himself open to a charge before the Roman government, of invading its prerogative of inflicting capital punishment, which had been for some time taken from the Jews; and if he had taken upon him to absolve her from that penalty, he would have furnished his accusers with the means of defaming his character among the people much more effectually than by their ridiculous accusation of him for keeping company with publicans and sinners. He acted, on this occa

sion, as he did on another, when he refused to decide a legal question between two brothers, concerning the division of the property which they inherited from their father; but as the case of the woman was more ensnaring than the other, he extricated himself from it with infinitely more address. Dr. Somerville takes it for granted, that our Lord's address to the woman when he dismissed her, awakened in her breast an ingenuous sense of guilt, and we trust that it did so; but this effect of his mildness is not recorded; and it was certainly not the motive which indnced him to act as he did, for he could not have acted otherwise, without deviating, in some degree, from the purposes of his mission.

If we had not thought this volume of very considerable value we should not have taken the trouble to point out the only exceptionable passage which we have observed in it. We say this with great sincerity; and we know not in what terms we could more highly praise any volume of such magnitude. We do not, however, mean to say, that there is not another passage in it which might not be improved. Should we recommend this as a faultless work, Dr. Somerville would himself be among the first to controvert our opinion; but we can say, that the subjects are well chosen and well treated; and that we recollect not one volume of discourses, Paley's excepted, which has lately issued from the press, more fit for the use of those pious masters of families, who are in the practice of reading sermons to their children and servants on the evening of the Lord's day. Instead of supporting this opinion by extracts from other discourses, we shall conclude this article by laying before our readers the author's own opinion of the proper subjects and style of sermons, as we find it in an address delivered at the admission of a clergyman to the cure of Hawick, in the year 1784.

"The choise of the particular subjects of our discourses must in a great measure be regulated by local circumstances, and the prùdence of ministers. There are, in every age, fashionable and predominant sins, which call for more frequent and pointed animadversion.

"The sincere friends of religion cannot fail to observe, with serious concern, the progress of scepticism, and a remissness with respect to the ordinances and public duties of the Christian religion, by many who still profess to reverence its author. It may be extremely doubtful, whether any solid advantage will accrue to religion from our attacking infidelity in our public discourses, because its advocates generally shun the opportunity of listening to them, and besides the evidences in support of religious truth, and the proper answers to objections against it, consist of such a connected series of arguments, as cannot be stated, with clearness

and

and precision, within the compass of a single discourse, and must therefore lose their efficacy, when exhibited in a broken and disjointed form. Alarmed at the progress of scepticism, we ought conscientiously to adhere to the simplicity and purity of the gospel, and to avoid encumbering it with foreign and eccentric difficulties, which ill-disposed men will be ready to lay hold of for the disparagement of our faith.

"But still more formidable than the assaults of avowed enemies, is the lukewarmness of pretended friends. The greatest danger, to which religion is exposed in our own times, arises from the decline of piety among many who still bear the Christian name. The public ordinances of religion are deserted by a great proportion of persons in the higher ranks of life; and they are not attended by the generality of professing Christians, with that punctuality, which many of us can recollect to have been observed a few years ago. Nor can it be doubted, that a corresponding laxity has taken place with respect to the duties of family-worship, and private devotion. Supposing a regard for divine ordinances to abate in the same proportion for half a century to come, the very form of religion will disappear. It is therefore more than ever incumbent upon preachers of the gospel, to inculcate the importance of social worship, and the necessity of piety towards God, in order to lay the foundation of every social and moral duty. How palpable, as is but two evident from experience, the imbecility of those motives, and the deficiency of those principles of morality, which have been substituted in the place of the love of God, and a reverence for his authority! P. 466,

ART. VIII. Church of England Missions. By J. W. Cunningham, M. A. Vicar of Harrow upon the Hill. 8vo. Hatchard. 1814.

THAT it is the duty of Christian nations to spread the knowledge of the Gospel in all countries to which their dominion is extended, and not merely to publish its glad tidings, but to take a special interest in the success of the publication, is a position too obvious to admit of deliberation. Scarcely less self evident is it, if the revealed counsels of God be allowed to enter into our speculations, that the measure is as unequivocally dictated by an enlightened policy as by religious obligation. Nor will a different result be the issue of the enquiry if experience be resorted to, and a comprehensive survey be taken of the vicissitudes of the universe, and the moral causes of those vicissitudes be searched out; for no proposition is more capable of demonstration, indeed none has been more abundantly demonstrated, to those who have

eyes

eyes to see it, than this, that "the various revolutions of civil affairs, the rise and fall of empires, the progress, maturity and decay of arts and learning, the impetuosity of human passions, the refinements of politicians, and every movement of the national communities of the earth are adjusted and directed by the deter minate counsel and foreknowledge of God to the ultimate advancement of the Gospel of his Son." (Dean of Winton's Commencement Sermon.)

What thus appears to be at once the duty and the interest of this kingdom with reference to all its foreign possessions, and therefore specially to its Indian territory which has most contributed to its unrivalled greatness, and contains a population by far the most numerous and abject of all its dependencies, though not neglected altogether, has been prosecuted hitherto with an economy so niggardly, and by means so crippled and so obviously inefficient, that it can scarcely be said that we have maintained Christianity at our own Presidencies, much less that any thing in earnest has been done towards its further dissemination. therefore cordially mingle our voices with those of the "wise and good men" referred to in the first paragraph of the pamphlet before us, in "thanking God, and congratulating each other that the nation, as by a sort of general impulse, has burst the bonds of political speculation and commercial prejudice by which it had too long been fettered, aud has nobly resolved to discharge its duty to the prostrate millions of Asia."

We

But we go no further with Mr. Cunningham, for such a chaos of religious principles does the next passage contain, that Babel is the only adequate similitude of the confusion. But our readers shall appreciate its merits for themselves."

6

"Under such circumstances, a question will naturally arise,What part ought the Church of England to act in the great enterprise of evangelizing the East ?'-To this question we answer, in the first place, That, as the field it open to her in common with every other religious body, she will, doubtless, arise to avail herself of the propitious moment. Remembering the noble works done for her in the days of our fathers, and in the old time before them;' possessed, by her connection with the State, of a more commanding influence than any other body of Christians; she will esteem it her duty to place her troops in the van of the spiritual battle, and to spread her shield over the numerous emissaries of the Gospel.

"But the Church of England will not be satisfied merely to extend the general knowledge of Christianity. The Churchman has gladly co-operated with his Dissenting Brethren for the accomplishment of the end common to both-viz. the diffusion of the Religion of Christ. He rejoices in the zeal with which they prosecute that end: he discovers, in the almost immeasurable plains of India, and mountains of Thibet and China, a sphere vast enough to employ all

the

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