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1829.]

Warner on Evangelical Preaching.

scription, it is a favourite contemplation of their own minds, and a frequent subject of their pulpit instruction," that God has dealt with mankind (by eternally decreeing all their moral movements) much in the same manner as an artist does with a watch which he constructs; with this difference, however, that, whereas the artist frames his workmanship only for good, and regular, and useful motions, the views of the Clergy of whom I am speaking, represent the Almighty as giving that direction to the human machine, which, by unavoidable necessity, leads him into guilt and misery here, and predestinated damnation hereafter. In other words, they hold forth to their hearers what is called CALVINISM; a scheme of faith which makes PRAYER, an ordinance of God himself, unmeaning, void,' and of none effect; a scheme so contrary to reason, common sense, personal experience, and Holy Scripture, as makes it quite a marvel how it can be preached with gravity, or listened to with patience.

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"Others of these Divines appear to lose sight altogether of what men must Do to be saved, by confining their pulpit instruction' entirely or almost exclusively to the subject of FAITH, or what they must believe. Those GOOD WORKS, which Christ and his Apostles speak of and enjoin so frequently and forcibly, make no figure in their public exhortations. The morals of mankind, whether good or bad, are seldom specified or analysed: and never is the practice of God's Commandments brought forward by them, as one condition of salvation. It will be readily admitted, indeed, that in their own personal view of a saving faith,' the practice of all the graces of a Christian life is included; but this most important point of divinity is rarely, if ever, made intelligible to the hearer, or brought home with demonstration to his heart and conscience. Alarmed at the idea of man's building any claim to the Divine favour on his own righteousness,' (which no real Christian can do, who confesses himself to be, after all, but an unprofitable servant,') the Clergy alluded to never venture, like their blessed Master, upon moral exhortation; never, as he and his Apostles did, encourage the cultivation of all our best feelings by pronouncing God's blessing upon the meek, the merciful,' and the peace-makers;3 by describing the compassionate and humane asthe blessed of the Father;' by defining pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father,' in the words of St. James, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world;' or by painting, like St. Paul, the virtue of charity, or brotherly love, as the sublimest

3 Matt. v. 7-9. 5 James 1. 27.

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4 Id. xxv. 34.

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attainment of the true Christian,-" And now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three, but the GREATEST OF THESE is charity. Their representations, moreover, of what will shut out from the kingdom of God,' are equally rare, powerless, and indistinct; of hypocrisy, or profession without practice, so severely spoken of by our blessed Lord; of the unforgiving temper, pronounced by the same divine teacher to be a sufficient cause in itself of God's rejection of us; of spiritual pride, or a conceit of our own superior righteousness, and contempt of those who differ from us in their religious views, denounced in the parable of the Pharisee and Publican; of that arrogant faith, which (all worthless as we are) puffs us up with a notion of our enjoying God's special favour, and being assuredly sealed to everlasting salvation, so clearly disapproved by Jesus Christ in his conversation with his disciples; of that persecuting spirit which, among the Papists, has too frequently pursued with fire and faggot, those whom they could not proselyte by persuasion, and which, in our own Church, leads some of its members to hate and calumniate all such as are not of their own communion, a spirit so sharply reprimanded by our merciful Redeemer, in his speech to James and John; and of those bad passions and emotions, envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness,' which, ever rankling in the heart of the bigotted, malignant, and unkind, embody themselves on all occasions in action, disturbing the harmony of society, and ruining the peace of private and domestic life-passions and emotions, condemned, alike by the language and practice of Him who is at once our divine legislator, and our all perfect example, in conversation and conduct. The duties, also, arising out of the different degrees and various regulations, in which man is placed here below, are never specifically and fully brought forward by these Divines; or, at least, never enforced with an energy, to arrest the attention and affect the heart; or to convince the hearer, that their fulfilment is indispensably necessary to salvation: the duties. of loyalty and subjection to the powers that be,' so vitally important to the safety of the commonwealth: and the duties of natural affection and neighbourly obligation, whose observance pours into the cup of human existence its most precious drops, and makes men and brethren dwell together in unity' and love. Instead, I repeat, of thus encouraging their hearers to moral, social, and personal virtue, by a display of that approbation which God himself, in his infinite mercy, has expressed towards such conduct, and of that vast reward which, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, he has been pleased to annex to it even eternal life; instead of thus particularizing and denouncing those breaches of the Com

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Vindication of the Review in Gent. Mag.

mandments, which Christ solemnly declares render all faith vain,' and all worship' an abomination, the Ministers of our Church to whom I now allude, dwell (as has been before observed) almost entirely in their pulpit instruction, on the necessity and efficacy of FAITH: a principle of vital importance, indeed, in the Christian character, but, after all, forming only one of those

conditions, which a believer must fulfil in order to be saved."

This is a clear explanation of the point at issue, between the Orthodox and the Evangelical parties. When I was ordained, nearly forty years ago, I was solemnly cautioned against preaching sermons on faith in disjunction from works: and my University not having been a conventicle, nor my Divinity Lecturer John Wesley, I beg to make some remarks on the pertness, buffonery, and pseudo-theology of a Correspondent, who entitles himself" An Evangelical and no Antinomian," as if he could answer for the effect of his doctrines upon his disciples. The attack is made upon your Reviewer, who was called upon to quote his authorities for affirmations made, which are taken from Episcopal charges, and the writings of eminent men, of which he certainly was not the author. By adducing such authorities, he showed that he had only in view his duty, that of not writing or maintaining any doctrines contrary to those of the Church of England; and being a Clergyman, he could not do otherwise without ruin. Instead of reason, this Correspondent adduces only allegation and insult, and falsifies the meaning and intention of the Articles, and the Scripture itself. He applies the filthy rags of Isaiah (LXIV. 6.) to morals, though only referable, because prophetic, to Pharisaic righteousness. He maintains, that those who

have faith cannot sin; as if the very devils did not acknowledge Christ, or St. Paul himself did not fear that he might be a cast-away: and he makes faith (an involuntary act) the primum mobile, which is FALSE; for Bishop Tomline says, (Art. x1. of The Justification of Man,) "neither WORKS NOR FAITH can justify (i. e. absolve) us. It can only be the ATONEMENT (pp. 258, 259). St. Paul means, when he speaks of Justification by faith only, the faith in Jesus Christ, in opposition to the Mosaic law: and St. James, as to faith without works being dead, merely that, if a man adopts Christi

[Feb.

anity, and does not afterwards obey its precepts, his faith is ineffectual: he will not continue justified." (pp. 258-263.

Thus, a Giant in Theology, recommended by all the Bishops as a study for orders, positively contradicts your Correspondent's absurd dogma; which in reason is no more than this, that because faith may produce virtue, it necessarily does so. If so, how coines St. Peter to say, add to your faith virtue,' when one was included in the other.

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He is equally mistaken with regard to the x11th Article. That Article is not intended to vilify works; but only because they are in se insufficient to salvation, to direct the MOTIVES to that point which can insure it. See Bishop Tomline on the Article (p. 276). His remarks on Art. XVII. consist of mere sneers and insults upon the pillars of our church.

Your Reviewer having advanced the sound doctrines of the Church of England, and proved them to be so by quoting his authorities, I cannot see why any man, in equity or uprightness, is justified in blaming him for positions not his own, and positions, moreover, allowed by the whole Bench of Bishops.

AN OLD CLERGYMAN.

*The object being merely to vindicate the Review from the assertions of the Suffolk Chronicle, that object is effected by the publication of the Authorities; and, the Gentleman's Magazine not being an arena for polemics, the discussion must here be closed. EDIT.

Mr. URBAN,

N

Feb. 2..

your Magazine for October, 1791, p. 893, is an extract from a letter George Plaxton, dated " said to have been written by the Rev. Trentham, St. Peter's day, 1716." This extract attributes to Dr. Johnson's father a station in society quite inconsistent with all the other accounts of Mr. Michael Johnson. As I have never been able to meet any confirmation of the authenticity of this letter, I should any of your Correspondents who may be much obliged if you would invite be able to throw any light on that subject, to be so good as to do so.

Yours, &c.

W.

C

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1829.]

Mr. URBAN,

Wolvesey Palace, Winchester. Feb. 4. THE HE venerable Episcopal residence at Winchester called Wolvesey Castle, situate at a short distance from the College, was erected on the site of a more ancient palace, by Henry de Blois, Bp. of Winchester, about the year. 1138. Its strength was soon evinced by the siege which it withstood against the united forces of Robert Earl of Gloucester, and David King of Scotland; and Henry the Second, on his coming to the Crown, caused it to be dismantled. The castle, however, soon became again a place of great strength, and continued to be the residence of the Bishop of Winchester till it was finally destroyed by order of Cromwell in 1646.

The principal ruins that now remain, belonged to the keep. Their appearance about thirty years since is thus described by Dr. Milner, in his History of Winchester:

"The keep appears to have been an im perfect parallelogram, extending about 250 feet east and west, and 160 north and south. The area, or inside of the quadrangle, was 150 feet in length, and 110 in breadth, which proves the wings of the building to have been 50 feet deep. The tower which flanks the keep to the S.E. is square, supported by three thin buttresses, faced with stone. The intermediate space, as well as the building in general, on the outside, is composed of cut flints, and very hard mortar, a coat of which is spread over the whole the N.E. tower, which advances beyond its level, is rounded off at the extremity. In the centre of the N. wing, which has escaped better than the other wings, is a doorway leading into a garden, which is defended by two small towers, and has a Pointed arch. Hence there is reason to suspect that it is of more modern construction than the rest of the building. The inside of the quadrangle, towards the court, was faced with polished free-stone, as appears from the junction of the north and east wings, which is the most entire morsel in the whole mass, aud exhibits a specimen of as rich and elegant work as can be produced from the twelfth century; we there view the wallet ornament, and triangular fret, which adorn the circular arches, still remaining; together with the capitals, and a corbel bust, executed with a neatness unusual at that early period.

"Wolvesey is stated to have derived its name from the tribute of wolves' heads, imposed on the Welsh by King Edgar; and which, it is asserted, was ordered to be paid here."

GENT. MAG. February, 1829.

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The picturesque remains of this episcopal and castellated Palace, as they now appear, are faithfully represented in the subjoined engraving (see Plate 1.) They are of considerable extent, but without any prominent architectural feature. Heaps of ruined walls, none very lofty, and nearly all clad with ivy, or concealed by shrubs and trees, compose the subject of these remarks. Wolvesey Palace has for ages supplied materials for the builder, who has not scrupled to detach the firm and well-constructed masonry from the solid walls which it faced, thereby leaving fragments as rough and shapeless as rocks. These heedless dilapidations have heretofore been permitted among the noble ruins of our ancient edifices, and perhaps no one exhibits more strikingly the effects of this mischief and economy than Fountains Abbey; but in this instance the injury is no longer pernitted,, though it is still allowed at Cowdray, the remains of whose ancient mansion are not inferior in point of interest, and in the elegant variety of its architecture, to any in the kingdom.

But to return to Wolvesey Palace. Though its architecture has few enrichments, it possesses sufficient interest to command notice. The antiquary will be gratified by the examination of the mutilated carved work of its windows and arches; there is scarcely one of either entirely perfect, and the massy observable for their strength, and the stone and flint walls of its towers are neatness of their construction.

Wrought in the solid walls, and occasionally disclosed, are fragments of early Norman sculpture, which we may fairly presume to have belonged to the palace built by William the Conqueror near the north-west corner of the cathedral churchyard, and which was utterly demolished by Bp. Henry de Blois, who rebuilt the palace of Wolvesey, of which nothing more keep. Originally the plan was a paral now remains than fragments of the lelogram, and its situation within the inclosed area which was spacious, near the north-west angle. Its principal gateway faced the north. The northeast and north-west angles were defended by massy semicircular towers. Within the keep was a court which, besides the entrance before described,

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