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fect coincidence in their public capacities, with the essential doctrines therein contained:" that is, in the proposed compendium? The adoption of the author's plan would be a direct violation of the rights of conscience, and a gross departure from the principles of liberty, which he states as asserted and acted upon by the founder of the Methodist connexion. The following note deserves the attention of every person in that connexion, and should the plan recommended by this writer, ever be proposed at Confer ence, it is hoped some of its members will move that this note be read.

"It is both interesting and important

here to refer to the minutes of the First Conference, held in June 1744, where we find the ground of private judgment distinctly laid down as the unalienable privilege of every Christian; and, at the same time, the boundaries are ascertained at which a surrender of that judgment is required of a Methodist preacher. These fundamental principles being coeval with the preacher's character as a Christian, and his admission as a minister of the gospel in the Methodist connexion, are in full force at the present day, and must continue so to the end of time. These therefore must form the basis of all future regulations, respecting the belief and propagation of doctrines in the Methodist societies. They run thus:

"Question. How far does each of us agree to submit to the judgment of the majority-Answer. In speculative things each can only submit so far as his judgment shall be convinced. In every practical point, each will submit so far as he can without wounding his conscience.

"Question. Can a Christian submit any farther than this to any man, or number of men upon earth-Answer. It is undeniably certain he cannot, either to Bishop, Convocation, or General Council. And this is that grand principle of private judgment on which all the reformers proceeded, 'Every man must judge for himself, be cause every man must give an account of himself to God.' It is impossible to read this without admiring it; let it never be forgotten that these principles formed the basis of the Methodist Conference." P. 336.

After reading the above, we were ready to ask, can this writer be in carnest in wishing to have the religious opinions of the whole body of the Methodists fixed by "An Official Compendium?" Most inconsistently with the plan he recommends, speaking of John and Charles Wesley, he says,

"But ueither of these eminent men, нo, nor all the conferences at which they assisted or presided, had any power to enact laws, to establish principles, or institute regulations, binding upon their successors these is a matter of choice, and not comor their posterity. Our acquiescence in pulsion; and we possess the unquestionable power of revising, altering, or abolishing any part of our religions establishment. P. 340.

The length to which this article is already extended, compels us to pass over several things we had intended with the following note, p. 231. It is noticing; we conclude our extracts quoted by the author from the Belfast Monthly Magazine, for March, 1813.*

"AN EXAMPLE TO MODERN METHODISTS.-The Rev John Wesley himself has asserted in his writings, not only that an Anti-trinitarian may manifest a desire of escaping future misery, but that he may be a truly good man. In one of the numbers of the Arminian Magazine, published a few years before his death, he inserted an extract of the memoir of the life of that eminent Unitarian, Thomas Firmin. In introducing this extract, he observed, that he had been formerly inclined to think, that a person who was unsound with respect to the doctrine of the Trinity, could not be a converted or good man. But that now he thought differently, since the subject of the memoir was undoubtedly a pious man, though erroneous in the doctrine of the Trinity, and that there was no arguing against facts.'"

ART. IV.-Discourses chiefly on prac tical Subjects, by the late Rev. Newcome Cappe. Edited by Catharine Cappe, 8vo. pp. 492. York printed, sold by Longman & Co. 12s. 1815. O such of our readers, and we believe they are many, who are ac

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*The extract which follows was taken

by the editor of the Belfast Magazine, VIII. From the Belfast Magazine it has from our number for January, 1813, Vol. been copied into the "Inquiry," and copied back by our reviewer into the Monthly Repository. A striking proof, that when facts and truths are put into print, it is impossible to guess how widely, and by what means they may be made known to the public. The statement concerning John Wespublications, was made in a letter to us ley, which was the original of these several

On the Methodist Excommunication at

Flushing," under the signature of Sabrinus, adopted in the former volumes of this work, by the late much-respected Rev. W. Severn, of Hull. ED.

Review-Cuppe's Discourses.

quainted with the former volume of sermons, [M. Repos. I. 31 & 93.] by this truly Christian preacher, we should think it unnecessary to do more than announce the present publication. They know what to expect, and they will not be disappointed.—Simplicity and godly sincerity, unaffected earn estness in the cause of religion and virtue, benignity and zeal in happy union, speak in their proper language through the whole volume. The name of Baxter has often occurred to us in the perusal of it; for like the works of that very impressive preacher, it abounds in affectionate, practical ap peals, ardent expostulations, and that persuasiveness of address which is suggested, and therefore recognised by the heart. We no where detect an endeavour to win admiration or extort applause by ornament or artifice or labour. The author appears to have lost sight of himself, his thoughts and feelings wholly occupied by the grandeur and importance of his subjects; and the serious reader can scarcely fail to lose sight of him too, attending solely to the matter and objects of his address.

For the sake of such of our readers as may not be acquainted with the preacher's manner, we insert the following specimens of his devout oratory. In one of the sermons on the final Consequence of our present Conduct, he thus pours forth his convictions:

"Could I make you privy to the good man's thoughts, to the best man's feelings in his happiest hours, when, musing on the works and providence of God, or meditating on the glorious discoveries of his gospel, his soul, dilated into the noblest sentiments of charity, and elevated into the sublimest transports of devotion, triumphs in the government of God, and with all the ardour of gratitude for what is past, unites all the prospects of the liveliest and most exalted hope in respect of what is yet to come; when, finding all things right within, he forgets whatever is amiss without, overlooks the sufferings that are present with him, overlooks the sufferings he has yet to undergo, overlooks the death he has to die, and anticipates his union with the innumerable company of angels, with his departed friends, with the spirits of just men made perfect, with Jesus, whom not having seen he loves, and with God the standard of excellence and the fountain of all good; could I make you privy to his feelings in these happy hours, when, encouraged by the testimony of his conscience, he is not afraid to indulge his hope and confidence in God, you might think that these wanted

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nothing but stability and immortality, to convert this earthly happiness into Heaven." Pp. 262, 263.

The following passages are extracted from the series of sermons on Christian Perfection.

"We must propose to ourselves an exalted standard if we mean no more than to make a moderate progress.

"Every man's experience may be appealed to, how much in all affairs, and particularly in those of religion, our designs ordinarily surpass our execution. We propose great things; it is but little ones we perform. In the most enlarged views, with the most intense desires, with the most elevated purposes, with all the ardour and ambition of our souls stretching forward towards perfection, if we make no speedier progress in the Christian character, and our progress is liable to so many interruptions, disgraced by so many failures, what would be done, how much less could be expected from narrow views, from groveling purposes, from cold desires, and faint endeavours? To rest content with the attainments we have already made, bespeaks such a degree of self-complacency and self-confidence as bodes very ill to our patient continuance in well-doing; it bespeaks much of that pride which goeth hefore destruction, and of that haughty spirit which precedes a fall." Pp. 115, 116.

"Departed hours, and neglected talents, are like departed and neglected friends. When they come to stand upon the margin of the grave, when from the bed of death, they look back upon their forepast life, and on their former talents, then it is that men wish most earnestly to call back the years that are gone by; then it is that they lament their insensibility and negligence. They might have made better preparation for the tribunal of their Judge; they might have raised a better harvest from this only seed-time of their existence: but, alas! the season is gone, and they too must go, with what they have done, and what they have neglected to do, to the bar of an all-knowing and all-righteous God." Pp. 121, 122.

The following animated appeal to Christian professors is in the last series of discourses, on the great Importance of the public Ministry of Christ.

"Among all your schemes and purposes of improvement, does it never enter into your thoughts, that your capacities of usefulness may and ought, not only to be employed, but to be enlarged? Are the riches of beneficence, the only riches you have no solicitude to increase? Are these the only pleasures of which you are contented with a little sphere? Are these the only honours in which you are willing to be undistinguished? Can you pass from week to week, and from year to year, so

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licitous in every thing that regards yourselves and your sublunary interests, to be making progress; without labour, without care, without desire to become more capable of serving those who are within the sphere of your beneficence? Can your capacities of usefulness be actually though not intentionally enlarged, and yet your good works become neither more numerous, nor more perfect; neither more, nor greater? Can you content yourselves to have more of the sources of human happiness within your power, and not a soul of the human race be the more happy for

it?" P. 435.

"What a difference between Christ and

Christians; between his life and their lives; between his sentiments and theirs! What a contrast, between the constancy, the ardour, the perfection of his beneficence; and the interruptions, the lauguors, and the blemishes of theirs! How deplorable is the dissimilitude that appears between the exemplar that is proposed unto the sons of men, and many who avow

the obligation, and even make profession of conforming to it! How glaring is the opposition between his activity, and their indolence in doing good; between his usefulness, and their self-indulgence; between his disinterested zeal in works of charity and kindness, and their undiverted application to the gains and profits of the

world! P. 437.

These sermons are presented to the public by the pious hand of affection, and we join most cordially in the earnest prayer of the Editor Mrs. Cappe,

-that by a wider circulation, sentiments like these, so serious and awful, yet at the same time so just and important, may eventually contribute to form in many others those habits of diligence, of resignation, and piety, which were a source of continual satisfaction to himself, and of consolation, hope, and joy, when all other

consolations failed." P. 130. Note.

This volume of practical sermons consists principally of four series of discourses: the first on Christian Perfection; the second on the Final Consequences of our present Conduct; the third on the Imperfection of our Knowledge concerning God; and the fourth on the great Importance of the public Ministry of Christ. They are all very properly styled practical sermons, but with some difference of character notwithstanding. Into the third series on the imperfection of our knowledge concerning God, the nature of the subject has thrown a mixture of speculation; but the speculation is chastised and reverential, neither presumptuous uer timid, always pious and

sometimes original. In the last series on the importance of the public Ministry of Christ, the reader, who is acquainted with the "Critical Remarks ou many important Passages of Scripture," by the same author, will recognise with pleasure the same ingenious and satisfactory mode of illustrating the language of the New Testament. On the whole, we cannot better explain the leading objects of these discourses, than as the editor has explained them in her preface,

"simply to demonstrate the unspeaklife; of piety, humility and benevolence; able importance of holiness of heart and hension of mind, which habitually looks of attaining to that truly Christian compreforward, beyond the present to the future." Pref. p. 10.

And after the specimens which we have laid before our readers, it is su

perfluous to add our recommendation of what must so well recommend itself to the pious and intelligent of every Christian denomination.

The volume is dedicated in a very sensible and affectionate address to the Divinity and Lay-students, educated in the Dissenting College, York; and in addition to the reasons alleged by the editor, her dedication of it has this propriety, that it offers to their perusal the discourses of an eminent Christian Minister, written in the pure and ardent spirit of his religion, and in a style which has nothing in common with the false eloquence that often seduces the young and sometimes dazzles the old, that incumbers truth with ornament which it does not require, and invests in a gaudy rhetoric subjects too lofty to be raised by a metaphor, and interests too grave and momentous to be decked in flowers.

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Review.-Layman's Second Letter to Goddard.

and master of the English language. He treats the most common topics with originality. If we were to single out one excellence amongst so many, we should name the skill with which he detects and the ability with which he exposes the fallacies by which Calvinists cheat themselves in matters of religious feeling.

ART. VII.--A Second Letter to the Rev. Dr. Goddard. By A Layman. 12mo. pp. 90. Chichester printed: Sold by Longman and Co. London.

Ss. bds. 1815.

The Langmen's first Letter [M.
THE character which we gave of
Repos. vii. 642, 613,] belongs to this
Second: it is decorous, elegant and
spirited.

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years been so successfully assailed both with reasoning and ridicule as to render hopeless any attempt to build an argument on its exploded foundations."

Whilst the Layman objects to an alliance between Church and State, he says very smartly and very truly,

66 but there is one species or mode of this alliance which I admit to be extremely convenient to the individuals concerned, and to have been exemplified in history, I mean that close and intimate connexion which has occasionally subsisted between infidel statesmen and bigoted ecclesiastics. Had a bishopric been at the

(inde der given it to Dr. Swift than to disposal of Lord Bolingbroke, he would (independently of personal friendship) have Dr. Clarke." Note. P. 67.

Dr. Goddard had quoted Mr. Hume's eulogium upon the English Church, as " mitigating the genius of the ancient superstition" and "preserving itself in a happy medium." The Layman lays open the unmeaning verbosity of the passage, and says, in the language that becomes the unfettered Christian advocate,

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a consistent Protestant will not waste a thought on any medium between error and truth, and between inte grity and imposture, and an honest and enlightened reformer will feel that he has something else to do than merely to mitigate superstition." P. 65.

Dr. Goddard appears to have judged the Layman's Letter worthy of consideration, and accordingly, he attempted a reply in " a Sermon lately delivered at the Consecration of the Bishop of London." The Layman could not have flattered himself with the hope of such a distinction. The arguments delivered ex cathedrâ on this notable occasion have not, however, either satisfied or silenced our author; he boldly investigates the learned dignitary's well-written passages; and has, we think, put in an effectual claim to a more detailed answer than can be given in the florid In a Postscript the Layman inserts periods of an oration before the clergy. some reflections on the Council of The Layman had endeavoured to Nice, from the pen of Dr. Lardner, shew that no alliance subsists between whom he justly characterizes as "one the Church of England and the State; whom divines of every sect, party and Dr. Goddard considers the expedien- denomination regard with great and cy of such an alliance so ably proved increasing deference: [by Bp. Warburton] that it is unnecessary to enter into the argument: but the Layman maintains that the alliance is impossible.

"The meaning of the term forbids it. An alliance supposes a treaty, and a treaty sapposes the mutual independence of the parties who treat. To contend therefore for an alliance between Church and State, is to contend for a principle which would introduce imperium in imperio, and thus incur the offence called præmunirė.”* Pp. 39, 40.

Of Bp. Warburton's book, the Alliance, the Layman says, (p. 41,) that' it "has in the course of the last fifty,

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Crescit, occulto velut arbor ævo,

Fama."

Would our laymen of learning and leisure copy the example of this re spectable writer, and embrace every Opportunity of asserting truth and liberty, the cause of Protestantism and liberal and rational Dissent would be a certain and great gainer.

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WE

E cannot," says Mr. Wright, 'give too much for a good conscience." Hence he argues the

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question of Dissent morally as well as theologically. His arguments are worthy of the attention particularly of unthinking Conformists and inconsistent Non-conformists.

Mr. Wright is well known as an Unitarian Dissenter, (the terms should be tautological,) but he treats the subject of Dissent so generally, that any Dissenter may read his Essay with satisfaction, and so candidly, that any churchman may read it without of fence.

ART. IX.-Zeal in a good Cause Recommended and Enforced. A Sermon preached, Tuesday, May 16, 1815, at Worship Street, be fore the General Baptists" Annual

SIR,

Assembly. By John Couplaud. 8vo. pp. 32. Eaton. 1s.

of thinking and serious man. HIS is evidently the composition

It is particularly adapted to the General Baptists, but will be unsuitable to the taste of no Christians who set a value upon plainness of appearance, simplicity of manner and solidity of judgment. Since the Sermon was printed Mr. Coupland has been removed from the present stage of ac tion this gives a peculiar interest to the publication, especially as we believe that the sale of it will be of service to a widow and several fatherless children, who have no provision besides the interest which the family of a Dissenting minister usually cre ate amongst his surviving friends.

POETRY.

Feb. 13, 1816.

The following lines, though not origiual, may be worthy of your insertion, as peculiarly seasonable, for there can be no better employment of an interval of peace than to inculcate and apprehend the true character of war

-a game which, were their subjects wise, Kings would not play at.

The Great Victory was an offspring of Mr. Southey's Muse in her juvenile days, and then published in one of the Anthologies, yet now apparently deserted, though not disowned, by the Poet Laureat. He has lately collected his smaller pieces into three volumes, among which I was rather sorry than surprised not to find the uncourtly dialogue of Old Kaspar and Peterkin.

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And first the old man shook his head,

Then heav'd a deep-drawn sigh: "Tis some poor fellow's scull," said he, "Who fell in the great victory."

"Now tell us what 'twas all about?"

Young Peterkin, he cries, And little Wilhelmine looks up

With wonder-waiting eyes; "Now tell us all about the war, And what they kill'd each other for ?”

"It was the English," Kaspar cried, "That put the French to rout; And what they kill'd each other for

I ne'er could well make out : But every body said," quoth he, "That 'twas a famous victory.

"My father liv'd at Blenheim then,
You little stream hard by,
They burnt his dwelling to the ground,
And he was forc'd to fly;
So with his wife and child he fled,
Nor had he where to rest his head.

"With fire and sword the country round Was wasted far and wide,

And many a childing-mother then

Aud new-born infant died:
But things like these you know must be
At every famous victory.

"And every body prais'd the Duke
Who such a fight did win."
"But what good came of it at last?"
Quoth little Peterkin,
"Why that I cannot tell," said he,
"But 'twas a famous victory."

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