Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Bar, and proceeding along the High-Street, (which he compliments for its singular length, breadth, and cleanliness,) takes a view of the new church of All-Saints; where his admiration of the architecture is succeeded by a censure on the deformity produced by the position of the pulpit and reading-desk. Here Sir Henry introduces some just remarks on the usual improper arrangement of those parts of our churches:

The pulpit and reading-desk are placed in the centre of the church, so as completely to hide the altar from almost every part of it; and the officiating minister turns his back directly to it during the whole of the service. It is to be lamented, that the Church of Eng land, having formed her liturgy and ritual most closely on the model of the primitive church, did not at the same time adopt the form of the ancient ambones or desks, which stood on each side of the nave, of equal height, and from which in turn the different parts of the service were read; instead of huddling into one mean and incongruous group, the clerk's desk, the reading desk, and pulpit, to which the art of man cannot give either dignity or grace. In the church which we are now considering, the reading desk and pulpit might have been placed, with peculiarly good effect, on each side of the recess for the altar; and as the sounding board is omitted, a very elegant form might have been given to them, with no great deviation from the usual shape. As they now stand, besides their very irreverent position with respect to the altar, they have the exact resem. blance to the establishment of an auctioneer."

The regalia of the Corporation are not omitted; and to the description is added a plate of the sword, mace, silver oar, and seals, of which they consist.

The old building in Porter's-lane is suspected to be more antient than the Conquest; and perhaps, says the author, it is a part of the royal palace which was inhabited by the Saxon and Danish sovereigns. It is also observed that, in every part of the town there are vast stone vaults, most of them apparently of great antiquity, and constructed when this place possessed almost a monopoly of the French wine trade.'

Notice is taken of a singular monogram in St. Michael's Church, cut in relief; on which it is stated that these monograms were evidently the marks of traders or merchants, who had no right to bear arms; and they are thought to illustrate a passage in the antient poem called "Pierce the Ploughman," which (says Sir Henry) Mr. Warton, in his History of English Poetry, vol. I. p. 301, seems to have misunderstood. The author, describing a magnificent church of the Friars Preachers, says,

"Wyde wyndowes ywrought ywriten ful thikke

Shynen with shapen sheldes to shewen aboute,
With merkes of merchauntes ymedeled betwene."

In this description of a window adorned with memorials of benefactors, the "merkes of merchauntes” evidently mean monograms of this nature.'

Having given an account of various curious objects in detail, Sir Henry advises the visitor of Southampton to walk to the top of the keep of the Castle, where the town may be seen lying under his feet; and, as from a point in a map, the whole compass of the walls, the course of the streets, and the relative positions of the most remarkable buildings, may be distinctly traced.

At the Water-gate, our Cicerone makes his bow, with the following general remark on the character of the architecture of the antient edifices which he had been surveying:

[ocr errors]

Among the many specimens of the round-arched mode of building, commonly called Saxon, not a single piece of carving exists, except the small columns within the window in the edifice in Porter'slane, and a few leaves just sketched on the capitals of the little pillars in the building covered by the arches in the wall near West gate; nor an ornamented moulding, except a small fragment of billeted fas cia, at the east end of St. Michael's church. The carved members of imposts and arches, so profusely used by the Normans, and particularly their favourite zigzag, do not appear ever to have existed in any of the buildings now extant in the town; and a great number of the arches, both of the doors and windows, of incontestably high antiquity, are flatter than a semicircle; some being segments of circles, and some semi-ellipses. The mouldings of their imposts and fascias are also in exact imitation of the Roman architecture, having very well formed quarter-rounds and cavettos. From these conside rations I cannot but be led to suspect, that they are of an antiquity considerably greater than the Norman era; and I hope that those antiquaries who may differ from me in opinion, will at least acquit me of having taken it up without some grounds.'

Before he finally takes leave, however, Sir Henry offers his reasons for thinking that Bittern, in the neighbourhood, was the Clausentum of the Romans; detects an error of Leland and Grose respecting the site of the old town of Southampton; and offers an ardent prayer for the preservation of our civil constitution.

This entertaining manual is embellished with six neat plates in acqua-tinta.

ART. X. Discourses on various Subjects. By Thomas Rennell, D.D. Master of the Temple. 8vo. pp. 365. 78. Boards. Ri vingtons.

OUR

UR esteem for talents and learning is great but it ought to be, and we hope that it is, subordinate to our love of

X 2

truth.

truth. Much, therefore, as we are disposed to respect Dr. Rennell as a man possessed of a strong and cultivated mind, we are restrained from bestowing on this volume of sermons that commendation which the character of the author might seem to bespeak for them. In the present age, the advocate for revelation in general, or for Christianity in particular; for the doctrines of the Church of Christ at large, or for those of any distinct communion or sect; should endeavour to reason with the utmost fairness and temper, to discriminate with judgment and charity, and to avoid the extremes of adulation and condemnation. Round and vehement assertions, from the mouths or the pens of the clergy, directed against infidels and sectaries, are not calculated either to bring the former to believe or the latter to coalesce. Though both may be won by fair, mild, and liberal discussion, both will inevitably be repulsed by contemptuous and angry declamation. If a preacher, with a view to their conversion, makes them the subject of his pulpit discourses, he should exert the most conciliating delicacy and management; and if he selects them merely as objects of his spleen, even in the midst of his anger he ought to be just. Dr. Rennell, however, in the general composition of these sermons, seems to have thought that modern sceptics were deserving only of his sneers, and modern sectaries intitled only to his indignant scorn. Secure of not being contradicted at the time of their delivery, he indulges in the most extravagant epithets: his representations and opinions are displayed in the strongest colours; and, rarely condescending to employ argument, he is contented with bold positions.

The first sermon, on the vice of Gaming, formerly published separately (see M. R. Vol. xvii. p. 238. N.S.), manifested an indiscriminating severity, which we noticed, and which seems to have induced the Doctor, in an Appendix now subjoined, indirectly to apologize, by complaining that he had been misunderstood; which is not unfrequently the lot of writers and orators, when they do not express themselves with clearness and precision. The same defect pervades the other discourses in this volume; in which theology and politics are blended, and Modern Philosophy and Modern Divinity combated with much ardour. In the Church, Dr. B. finds nothing but perfection; and out of it, nothing but imperfection. We have

neither criticisms on nor illustrations of passages in Scripture; almost the whole is conceived in the style of a clerical alarmist; and we cannot think that the volume is calculated to be perused by the private Christian with either present satisfaction or future profit.

[ocr errors]

It is proper that we now adduce some evidence to substantiate these charges.

The subjects of the discourses are; Gaming;-Old Age;-Benevolence exclusively an Evangelical Virtue (preached before the University of Cambridge);-The Services rendered to the English Nation by the Church of England, a Motive for Liberality to the Orphan Children of Indigent Ministers (at the Meeting of the Sons of the Clergy)*;-The Grounds and Regulations of National Joy (on Lord Nelson's Victory) +;-On the Connection of the Duties of loving the Brotherhood, fearing God, and honouring the King;-The Guilt of Blood-thirstiness (on the Murder of the Queen of France;-The Atonement ;-The Duties of the Clergy (at a Visitation) ;-Great Britain's Naval Strength, a Cause of Gratitude and Thanksgiving to Almighty God (preached before the Corporation of the Trinity-House); Ignorance productive of Atheism, Anarchy, and Superstition, (on Commencement Sunday at Cambridge); -The Sting of Death; the Strength of Sin; and the Victory over them both through Jesus Christ.

The sermon on John xiii. 34. "A New Commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another," represents Benevolence to be exclusively an Evangelical Virtue; a position which is contrary not only to reason, but to the very assertion of the Apostle John himself in his first Epistle, chap. ii. where he calls it an old commandment, as well as a new one. To this passage, however, Dr. R. has not referred; because, if he had, it must have demolished the whole tenor of his discourse, Brotherly love, as originating in Nature, and commanded under preceding dispensations, may be considered as making a part of the old law of God to Man; though, in as much as the Gospel lays us under new and peculiar obligations to love one another, and urges this benevolence by motives of its own, it has with us all the force of a new commandment. Here Revealed Religion comes in aid of Natural Religion, and affords an invaluable addition: but such a respresentation would not answer Dr. Rennell's purpose. He maintains that Natural Religion is nothing more than natural pride, sensuality, and disease,' (p. 82.); and that we should be extremely cautious in founding any doctrinal conclusion on what is loosely and negligently called the connection between natural and revealed religion.' It can never be allowable to draw conclusions loosely and negligently on any subject but, as long as the powers and capacities of man adapt him for moral and religious duties, so long revealed reli

* See Rev. vol. xxiv. N. S. p. 120.
+ Id. Vol. xxviii. N. S. p. 119.

X 3

gion

gion must be considered as founded on natural; and when man shall be divested of all moral and religious discernment, the exhortations of the Gospel will be addressed to him in vain. It is futile to adduce the enormities of the pagan world, as proofs that the Heathens had no perception of virtue and benevolence; because, if the excellence of the Christian's rule be judged by the practice of Christians, it will reflect as little credit on the sublime morality of the Gospel, as that of the Greeks and Romans has conferred on natural law. We need hot, however, argue against Dr. R. in this place; since he allows in the 12th sermon that God never left his creatures without a law, and quotes that passage in the Epistles of St. Paul in which natural reason and conscience in man are represented as dictating the duties of man previously to revelation, and the eternal power and godhead of the Creator as clearly legible in the things that are made.

It is very true, as Dr. R. observes, and it ought not to be overlooked by divines, that the exhortations of our Blessed Lord himself to the duties of benevolence are derived uniformly from considerations arising out of his own mission and character:" but this fact does not make benevolence exclusively an evangelical virtue; for, while this virtue is (as it were) expanded by the Gospel and enforced by new motives, we must not deny the assertion of Cicero, " Naturâ propensi ad liberalitatem sumus: -Naturâ gigni sensum diligendi et benevolentia caritatem." (De Amicitiâ.)

In the sermon for the Sons of the Clergy, which we have before cursorily mentioned, adverting to those who disapprove Civil Establishments of religion, Dr. Rennell says:

• They peevishly, passionately, and sometimes malignantly indulge themselves in trite and vague declamation against civil establishments as the grand obstacles and hindrances of all Christian influence in the heart of man; they cannot or will not discern that it was as much in the intention of the Divine Founder of our religion that at a stated period of its growth it should be incorporated with the civil govern ment of Christian nations, giving and receiving reciprocal support, as it was that it should, before such a period, found and maintain itself without such support; and who presumptuously, by so perverse a train of reasoning, restrict Infinite Wisdom in producing the same end by different instruments.'

How much controversy would have been prevented, if the assertion here so confidently made could be substantiated by evidence; viz. that it was the intention of the Divine Founder of our religion that it should be incorporated with the civil government!' Could this be proved, our numerous dissertations on Christ's kingdom not being of this world would indeed be 'trite

and

« AnteriorContinuar »