Art. XII. No False Alarm: or a Sequel to Religious Union, &e: Being the Result of a Parochial Visitation through the Archdeaconry of Bedford. By the Rev. R. Shepherd, D. D. Archdeacon of Bed ford. 8vo. pp. 67. Maxwell and Wilson, 1808. THERE is an Erratum in Dr. Shepherd's title, which gives his whole work an air of inconsistency; it will easily be corrected by blotting out the first word. The propriety of this alteration will be obvious to those readers who know, what every intelligent observer knows, that there is nothing like political disaffection among the general body of modern dissenters, that there is no prospect of any public disturbance resembling that of the 17th century, inasmuch as the political and religious grievances which occasioned it have ceased to exist, and that the church of England, established by law, supported by the national purse and sword, and profess. edly countenanced by the higher ranks and the great majority of the people, is secure from external force, and has nothing to fear but from the trea chery or folly of her members, of her servants, or of her officious and scribbling advisers. We very heartily approve some of the sentiments in Dr. S.'s pamphlets Leferring to the visitation charge of the Archdeacon of Bucks, (E. R. Vol. III. 621) he says, A respectable Divine of the Established Church, in investigating the causes that have most contributed to promote, and spread that dissention and disunion in Religion, which throughout the kingdom at this day so armingly prevail, attributes them principally, and chiefly, to the "favourite, but delusive doctrine, of Faith and Love" of which the Conwenticle preacher is known particularly to avail himself. And the Archdeacon's observation, if the doctrine have the effect which he attributes to it, will instruct us how to counteract its influence in the Conventicle; which will be, by a more frequent use and application of it in the Church, than generally obtains. It is, indeed, a favourite doctrine; for it is the most comprehensive one in the whole compass of Christianity; including belief in all Christ taught, and the practice of all that he commanded. Nor can I admit the doctrine to be a delusive one: because it is prescribed by the Church of England to be believed and taught and has the authority of Scripture in testimony of its truth.' PP. 23, 24. This Archidiaconal charge was the chief occasion of Dr. Shepherd's writing his False Alarm." A reference was made in it to the following passage of a sermon preached by the Rev. S. Greatheed, before a Society of Christians at Bedford for propagating the Gospel; "there are so many dark parts of the county (of Bedford), that the most diligent inquiry the preacher could make has left him in doubt whether an awakening ministry of the Gospel hath yet extended, even occasionally, to one in three of the villages and principal namlets of that county." Dr. S., it seems, is very indignant at this representation, and proves the aspersions to be as false as they are wicked;" for he says "there is not a parish in the county, where the service of the church of England is not performed every Sunday, and in some parishes twice!" Strange and perverse as it may appear, Mr. Great heed does not consider this assertion as a denial of his allegation, much less as a refutation of it. If Dr. S. (he observes, p. 46.) will take the pains of reading the discourse which he has so rashly and violently censured, he may discover that something more than the performance of the Church of England service, was intended by the phrase, "an awakening ministry of the Gospel." It is to be feared, that the manner in which the Liturgy is performed in many churches, tends to an effect very different from any thing that can be called "awakening" and that, if the congregation does not often sleep under what is "stiled" the Sermon, its usual brevity is the chief preventive of such a consequence. By an "awakening ministry of the Gospel," was meant an administration of the precepts, the warnings, the doctrines, and the promises of the Gospel, with a seriousness and earnestness suited to their infinite im. portance, and adapted to excite the attention and awaken the consciences of hearers.' It appears, from some very just remarks in Dr. Shepherd's pamphlet, that he does know, and that he highly approves, what is meant by "an awakening ministry;" they amount indeed to something very like a confession that such a ministry is not so prevalent as Dr. S. could wish in his archdeaconry; and are creditable to his wisdom as a dignitary, though they demonstrate him to be a disingenuous and absurd polemic. The remarks are just and highly important, though the expressions are incomparably ridiculous in a writer who sneers at "the ignorance and illiterature" of "the conventicle." "Let the silver tongue of Eloquence from the stores of learning draw its splendid picture of the beauty of Virtue, or the deformity of Vice; how will it fade before the stronger colours of those divine truths, which in the preaching of St. Paul put the Sadducees to silence, and the pride of Heathen Philosophy to shame! By an elegant harangue we may engage the attention of literary taste: but discourses of this nature will neither warm the heart, nor interest the affections; they die on the ear, and the impression on the mind scarcely lasts till the congregation have passed the threshold of the church. It is not thus with those great Gospel Truths, on which drawled out in a meeting-house from the lips of ignorance and illiterature we sometimes see a suspended audience hang: addressed with earnestness, and enforced with the graces of a manly and temperate eloquence which a cultivated mind inspires; while they inform the understanding, they captivate the heart; implanting there a happy and permanent effect. pp. 27, 28. Dr. S. shrewdly suspects that the independents" assumed that name from a tenet of the German Anabaptists, which was an independence or freedom from all obligations to the Civil Government ! !” Art. XIII. A Day in Spring, and other Poems By Richard Westall, Esq. R. A. royal 8vo. pp. 234. Price 12s. 6d. bds. Murray, 1808. POETRY and painting have seldom flourished in combination, though they employ the same mental faculties. The very congeniality has perhaps occasioned rivalry rather than alliance, and the mind for whose dominion they may have contended, has been too much perplexed and enfeebled by the division of its forces, to acquire such a power and dis tinction as will result from a concentration of them under the guidance of a single and exclusive ambition. The applause obtained by Mr. Shee's very spirited" Rhymes on Art, "(Ecl. Rev. I. 489.) was rather increased by the surprise which it occasioned; it was not frowned on as a sudden intrusion, but welcomed as an unexpected gift. His success has probably encouraged Mr. Westall to print: and in this instance, at least, the public will not regret its liberality. Mr. W. may take nearly as high a station among poets, as he maintains among painters. His poetical muse, if not more fascinating, is considerably more chaste, in both senses of the term, than her sister, who has so long flaunted at exhibitions in such gaudy colours, and sometimes disgraced herself by a subservience to the depraved appetite of amateurs. We were surprised indeed to find-so little extravagance of thought and warmth of expression in the poems" now before us. They are at least equal to the best of those productions that do not demand publication, that is, to about three-fourths of British Poetry; and, as they are printed, not correctly indeed, but in a splendid form, and enriched with four beautiful engravings from the author's designs, will probably obtain a respectable circulation. The poems are of -various kind and merit; about half of them are "Odes descriptive of the character of some of the greater poets." One of the best pieces, we think, is the Ode on Despair; we shall copy two passages, the latter of which refers to Richard III, as impressed with the vision so admirably imagined by Shakspeare. 'What time the Mighty Maker stood (Though long enduring) on his throne of wrath, And pour'd the dread avenging flood, And wrapt in ruin this polluted earth; Up from the billowy waste of woe, Seem'd with the growing flood to grow, And frown'd terrific thro' the o'erwhelming flood. And screaming millions shriek'd aloud, Despair.' * ** Amidst the shock of meeting arms, The clang that rends the sky; He, shuddering, heard a murmur low, "Tyrant, despair, and die!" He heard it still, though sword and spear Fell clattering rund his stunned ear; He heard it still, though many a wound Had stretch'd him on th' ensanguin'd ground; And still, and still, though agony Was closing fast his fiery eye. p 93. In the word "fast," there is an vulncky ambiguity. Does Mr. W. seriously suppose, as we might guess from his last stanza, that there will be no pain or despair in the future state? We shall add one specimen from the "Day in Spring." Roaming on, the place I find, Press the tears of joy away.' p. 18. It would be easy to specify blemishes. In the Ode to Homer we read, who attuned thy song," instead of attun'dst. Aught, is twice mis-spelt "ought." The fine figure of Twilight in the frontispiece is very cunningly wrapt up close, if she really be "grey-bosom'd," as Mr. W. assures us shejis; should he live to see Spring again, he will discover, perhaps, that she is green-bosom'd but we hope he will perceive that it would not become a gentleman and a poet to call her so. Art. XIV. A New Argument for the Existence of God. 12mo. pp 68. Rees and Curtis, Plymouth; Longman & Co. 1808. THE "new argument" to prove the existence of Deity, is no other than the whimsical hypothesis of Berkeley; it amounts to this, that matter has no existence, that all the sensations and ideas of men concerning it are mere illusions, and that as these illusions cannot have been caused by matter, they must have been caused by spirit, that is by God. As the existence of God is not in particular want of "new arguments," we very cheerfully leave to its fate a theory, which, even if it be allowed to establish the existence of the mind that entertains it, and of the Infinite Spirit which amuses that mind with falsehoods, completely subverts all proof of all other existence; and we should think it quite wasting time to tell a writer who ought to disbelieve our being, that we consider his defence of this fantastical system to be wretchedly weak and ill-written, its title to be disingenuous, and its author to be the dupe either of insanity or self-conceit. Art. XV. The Shipwreck of St. Paul. A Seatonian Prize Poem. By the Rev. Charles James Hoare, A. M. Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Vicar of Blandford Forum, Dorset, 4to. pp. 18. price 2s. Hatchard, 1808. "HE that thinks himself capable of astonishing," said Dr. Johnson, • And thou, dread Providence! whose awful name To farthest ages kind alike to all, The God of Jacob, and the God of Paul; If dark suspense e'er cloud his drooping eye, |