ginal Sin, the Influences of the Holy Spirit, and Justification by Faith, which he condemns as among the peculiar dogmas of Calvin. The impression produced by the Bishop's book-we do not say that it was intended-is, that the opinions which he impugns, as those of the evangelical clergy, are unfriendly to morality, and tend to licentiousness. Here, however, we feel bold to challenge the closest scrutiny. We have already named a number of writers of this obnoxious class. Their opinions are before the world; and they are expressed, in the case of many of them at least, on every material point of Christian faith and practice. Mr. Scott, Mr. Robinson, and Mr. Loyd,have published professed systems of theology; and the sermons of the others comprise, though not in an equally systematic form, every essential part of the Christian scheme. Now, we are far from saying that these works are free from error: of what human work can this be said? We nevertheless will venture to affirm, that on that very point, on which it seems to be implied by the Bishop of Lincoln that these men are the most vulnerable, we mean the practical tendency of their writings, they will be found to stand on infinitely higher ground than any one of their opponents, be he who he may. Let the Essays of Mr. Scott, for example, which contain his elementary system of theology, be compared with Elements of Theology by the Bishop of Lincoln, in respect to the elevation of the principles, the spirituality of the motives, the purity of the practice, and the strict and undeviating regard to duty, which they severally inculcate, and we can have no doubt that the decision will be greatly in favour of the former, in all these respects. We say nothing of the soundness of the theology: that point we have already considered. If our voice could reach his Lordship, we would endeavour to persuade him to institute this comparison himself. In that case (such is the opinion we entertain of his candour) we should expect from him the frank admis sion, that, for all purposes of prac tical godliness, the system of this member of a proscribed and heterodox party is far superior even to his own. And if such should be the result of the examination we recom mend; if it should appear from it that Mr. Scott's great aim, in what he has written, is to promote the interests of Christ's kingdom, and t call men off from sin and the world to holiness and heaven; and if i should further appear that the gene ral body of those who share in his reproach, are treading, with pes sibly a few exceptions, the same path of honourable service in which he has so long distinguished him. self; then it will be for the Bishop of Lincoln to consider, whether is episcopal censures have, in the pre sent instance, been judiciously ap plied;-whether he has done well i passing by all the worldly, neg gent, lukewarm, fishing, fox-hunting, visiting, dancing clergymen in his diocese; while he holds up to the scorn of these very men, as well as of the irreligious of every clas those whose conduct, both in private and in public, as ministers of Christ, and as members of society, bear unequivocal testimony to their sin cere devotion to the best of causes. Poems on Subjects connected with Scripture. By SARAH NEWMAN, Published by Subscription for her benefit. Alton: Pinnock. London: Hatchard, &c. 1811. 8vo. pp. 60. EVER since the time of Esop, to the best of our recollection, till the present period, it has been the custom of mankind to applaud and foster the efforts of genius in humble life. And though the above-named slave is likely to hold a higher rank amongst profane, than our Sarah Newman amongst sacred writers; we are not disposed, in these latter ages. of the world, to make a precedent of an opposite kind, by proscribing from our pages, without a bearing, the the W sacred poems of a maid-servant, which have accidentally fallen in our way. One reason, indeed, we know, for which critics "of sterner stuff" have occasionally threatened to require a qualification for appearing in the manor of Parnassus, is, that we materially injure society by a confusion of trades; that a man must necessarily make bad shoes who makes good (or even bad) verses; that to polish periods absolutely disqualifies your servant for polishing tables; and that a farmer's boy must necessarily misguide the plough or starve his horses, whilst he is in poetical jocundity driving his team a field," or thrashing his brains for rhymes upon his oats. To this, however, the answer of candour is very easy; that the instances are so very few, in spite of the utmost licence, or licentiousness, if we please, allowed, to such spirits, of their appearance at all; and so much fewer, of their materially injuring themselves or others, by the exercise of a humble wit and rustic fancy upon the objects immediatly lying around them; that it would be idle to preach against the permission of such an effort upon any general principle of social order. And perhaps the most rigid laws of Aristippus himself would repress only the least mischievous of this not very mischievous class, by repressing only the humbler and less riotous of the breed; whilst the wilder and really dangerous part of the community of genius would, in spite of all restraint, "break prison like a Levanter, sweep the earth with their hurricane," and only leave their superiors to lament that due encouragement had not been afforded at first, which might have turned their frantic efforts into a channel really honourable to themselves and profitable to the public. We have the happiness to add, as a confirmation of the foregoing remarks, that Sarah Newman, certainly, "for her station," rising almost above the former class, has not been at all spoiled, by a poetical vein, for the humCHRIST, OBSERV. No. 118. "She is a native of Odiham, in Hampshire, where she was left, in early life, an unprotected orphan, possessed of no other mental acquirements than those of knowing how to read and write; the latter she gained by procuring a few occasional lessons from a schoolmaster. This was the whole of Sarab Newman's education. Possessing an honest, active, and independent mind, she soon went out to service, and successively discharged her duties in that relation to several families. I knew her first in the family of a respectable boarding-school at Alton: she afterwards removed to another house, where she took the charge of an infirm person, who required constant attention. Whilst she was at the latter place, İ first became acquainted with her poetical talents, by accidentally calling on a friend on whose table lay a book of her verses, which she had lent one of the family to read. Though the verses were loosely connected, and evidently misarranged, I discovered enough merit in them to excite my curiosity to converse with the writer: in consequence, I prevailed with her to entrust me with a few more papers, and the result was, a determination to attempt the present use of them." p. v. We find further, that she had occasionally looked into the works of Milton, Pope, and Young; which latter she possesses, and we should from the style which our guess, readers will notice in the extracts we shall make, she has been much in the habit of reading. She is described at present as near sixty years of age, far from robust, though supporting herself by her needle work, and by the rustic labours of "the prong and the rake," in addition to an annual income of three pounds saved from wages. With this she is represented as cheerful and contented, having an inexhaustible source of comfort within herself: "but who," as the editor truly enough asks, "will tax either her or her friends with covetousness, in desiring to enlarge her scanty store of supplies, against the approaching winter of 4 P old age?" She has already, he tells us, "expressed herself very gratefully" for the kind, and, as she considers it, unmerited patronage of the numerous subscribers to her little volume. The editor, in announcing further that Sarah Newman is a Church of England woman, cannot restrain himself from venting a wish which would have done honour to a St. Cyprian or a St. Augustine; and if fairly acted upon from their time to the present, would have saved the world from the incumbrance of many hundred large unmeaning folios, as well as from the loss of many of its best friends, prematurely cut off by the operation of other principles, some from usefulness, and some from life itself. "I wish," he says, "with my whole soul, that all who are distinguished from the children of this world,' by a conduct directed and inspired by the pure spirit of Gospel faith, which makes fit for the kingdom of God,' were less solicitous about those minuter distinctions which prevail in this age, of multifarious division on doctrinal points." p. vii. What an affecting phenomenon is it, in the history of human infirmity and inconsistency, that sentiments similar to these shall have been uttered by persons whom those very minuter distinctions only separate, as they think conscientiously, from the desired unity in Christian fellowship; and who perpetuate in their own persons the seeds of that very division, of which "with their whole soul," they deprecate the frait! This is the inconsistency which we presume will gradually convince our editor of the certain disappointment which awaits his most ardent wishes on this head ;awaits them, at least, till the prayers of the righteous, which avail much, daily ascending to the Spirit of all grace, shall at length obtain, as Heaven's last best gift to the universal church, that all who profess and call themselves Christians, shall be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and în righte ousness of life." But to return to Sarah Newman: Before we offer a few specimens of her style to our readers, we must premise further, that we follow the editor in disclaiming any participa tion in the guilt of grammatical or other inaccuracies, which the cri tical reader will find little trouble in detecting-though with the still more complete disavowal of cor recting any one" orthographical or grammatical inaccuracy," in addi tion to the " wonderfully few" which have been corrected, or which may still remain in the pages of the whole volume. This premised, we entertain a hope of surprising our readers with some extracts from the writings of this servant-maid, which, with due allowance, bespeak something of a "heart pregnant with celestial fire." They are chiefly in the heroic style, which seems evidently her turn, and that in which she excels. The first we give, is from the opening piece, entitled, "Desultory Reflections on the Creation in general, the Fall and the Redemption of Man." After an address to the "Parent of nature," "Whose powerful voice primeval silence broke, Pierc'd thro' the void, and thro' the darkness spoke," and who pose bour of the file is necessary to rub off from inexperienced compo sition, we find still a poetical vein running through the lines, enriched not always apposite, is at least with a variety of allusion, which, if very remote from the tame and colourless uniformity of polished debility; and not very deeply chargeable with that bombast which no vigorous imagination, more con versant with Young than with the sober lessons of classical taste, can be expected wholly to avoid. In some of the expressions, our Miltonic reader may perhaps trace a vestige of the great poet's No more of talk, where God or angel guest With man, as with his friend familiar, used To sit indulgent; and may perhaps seem to hear Whence morning praise, and evening incense again, when rose: When virtue turn'd their water into wine, -Nature gave her second groan, And clouds of blessing drop'd the dew di- Sky lour'd, and, muttering thunder, some sad drops Wept at completing of the mortal sin. PAR. LOST. B. ix. But we feel some distrust, it must be owned, in such a method of commending Sarah Newman to our readers. Or, at least, in placing a gem from the immortal crown of John Milton, so nearly in contact with the humble wreath of our rustic authoress, we can only be actuated by the hope of communicating to her, by reflection, a few of those sparkling rays, which may leave the reader under impressions more pleasing than were to be expected from the bare recital of her own defective verses. From p. 16, we select the following lines, which, with some claim upon the praise of ingenious versification, and much on that of genuine orthodoxy, may be a warn ing to all future poetasters, how they meddle with such real personages as bishops and primates, or invest their transient rhymes in the "shining robes of holy orders." "We are Abraham's seed, the house of Aaron saith But where is Abraham's zeal, and Abras ham's faith? This priest of priest's the purer ephod wore, And on his heart the chosen jewels boreGreat bishop of his church, with Urim grac'd, And Thummin pendant on his hallow'd breast. Primate of souls! Immaculate divine! How do thy robes with holy orders shine!" pp. 16, 17. The editor, we should observe here, has inserted a note on the Urim and Thummim, extracted from Lewis's Origines Hebrææ, which, with some other critical and moral notices in illustration of the text, deserves commendation, as shewing a spirit of research, and as judiciously conciliating respect to his authoress, by gaining it to her patron and panegyrist. If we have succeeded in bringing on our readers thus far with us, in our remarks on this little volume, we do not despair of decoying them through two more tolerably long quotations, one from a second heroic production, entitled "Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ?" and the other, an entire little piece, called " A Spiritual Song for Harvest-home," which shall be our specimen of her powers in the lyric measure. O Death!" Pp. 43-45. And feast with Him at harvest-home. Would all the kingdoms that the world be- Inspire the theme, and aid our lays: |