dered as degraded by Providence, and unworthy to participate in the benefits of true religion. In this respect, how superior is the character of our Christian tribes when they assemble in London. The noblest objects elevate their minds, the most expansive benevolence animates their bosoms. Their field of philanthropie contemplation is the whole world. Constrained by "the love of Christ they thus judge,that if one died for all, then are all dead :" "the Greek and the Jew, the barbarian and the Scythian, the bond and the free," equally claim and excite their pity. They cherish no antipathies -they yield to no prejudices. The political eminence of their country, its commercial relations with every quarter of the globe, and its wonderful resources, they regard only as so many facilities afforded them by Providence for the more extended diffusion of Christianity. This they consider as indispensible to human happiness, as well as the most effectual means of promoting the divine glory. It is in their view the highest good which individualand social man can possibly enjoy, and the divinest form which the moral government of God has ever assumed, Charmed with its peculiar excellence and embued with its beneficent spirit, the love of self, of sect, and of country, is made subservient to its advancement, is absorbed in that blessed philanthropy, which employs its unwearied energies in promoting the spiritual and eternal welfare of the whole human family. Thus are the tribes of Christian Britain formed to habits of sublime thought and reflection; thus are their characters invested with moral grandeur; while, in their individual and corporate capacity, they dispense the richest blessings of heaven, and are the ministers of merey to a guilty world. In point of usefulness and honourable distinction, as the servants of the Most High, they take precedence of patriarchs, prophets, and righteous men of the days of old; it is theirs to participate in the glories of the last dispensation of heavenly mercy: to prepare the way of the Lord, and to be the first to welcome his millineal chariot. Already from the heights of our Zion distinct notices of his speedy approach have been announced. A few more missionary festivals, and the assembled multitudes will exclaim, as the light of Divine Majesty breaks through the Heavens, "This is our God; we have waited for him." "Hallelujah." The sermon on Universal Providence contains much that is valuable, though in passing, we did not quite apprehend some of the author's reasoning. His character of NAPOLEON is drawn with great spirit, and has some masterly touches, but it is a character which nobody can believe. It suits the Devil, but not a human being. Bad as is human nature, there are some modifications in civilized society. We are willing to melt all into one mass as it respects the ra dical depravity of man, but in the general acceptation of the term virtue, we are of opinion that a man who is a compound of vice without a single virtue is a rara avis in terris, nigroque simillima cygno. Nor does the universal shade which our author throws over the late imperial exile, accord with what we have heard and read of him elsewhere; and, while he admits that he had virtues as well as vices, but asserts that those were fained while these were real, he arrogates one of those attributes which belong only to Deity-the being 'who searches the heart. We however, give him credit for his skill in painting a dark character. Should Fuseli die first, he ought to resign his pencil into the hand of Dr. Styles. We give a concluding extract on human depravity from the admirable sermon on Jer. 17,9. The passage is beautiful, but the composition is somewhat too highly wrought. To suppose that the Creator formed the human heart thus de ceitful and wicked, would be equally a reflection upon his wisdom and goodness. Though it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to account for the existence of moral evil; though it may for ever remain an inexplicable problem how, from faultless perfection, defect and deterioration could arise: yet the mind naturally revolts from charging its production upon God. The heart, depraved as it is, cannot, without wearing a tissue of ingenious sophistry, and persuing a long course of practical impiety, bring itself to such a persuasion. Hence philosophy, to rid itself of the monstrous notion that moral good and evil have the same origin, invented the absurdity of two equally potent independent principles necessarily and for ever opposed, the one marring and destroying the works of the other. There seems, likewise, to be an instinctive conviction in every mind, that a disastrous change has taken place in the world since its creation. Poetry dreams of its golden age; and Humanity sighs for the elder time, when the heart, entranced with moral harmony, felt only love and rapture and joy; when the beauty of the universe was reflected on the mirror of man's happy spirit; when heaven breathed only peace and good-will, and the earth yielded her fruits and flowers, untainted by poison, unchoked with briars and thorns. This has been the belief of all ages and of every clime. It is the child of tradition, and owes its existence to the fact, which the sacred Scriptures so equivocally reveal. For the depravity of the heart is in this volume placed on its own proper foundation. It was a monster unknown at the creation. It was neither hid in Chaos, nor had its minutest germ been wafted into the atmosphere of H earthly being, when "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted aloud for joy." Its detested presence would have suspended the lofty anthem, and thrown a damp upor the celestial gratulation. At that glad moment, the heart, unveiled to the descending embassy of light, displayed motives sublime and heavenly; affections kindled at the altar of praise; and aspirations rising with seraphic ardour to the "first fair and the first good." Unsullied was its brightness; unpolluted its chrystal fountain of purity and love. It was the only gem on earth, radiant with the moral glories of its creator. "Let us make man," said God," in our own image." "He spake, and it was done." The beauteous form arose, at once the semblance and the companion of the Deity-a terrestial God. Creation smiled, while the "Harmonious mind Pour'd itself forth in all-prophetic song; 'Paradise was the real, not the afterwards dreamed of false Elysium. It was to the new-created soul the Heaven of Heavens, and there it bathed itself in empyrean air, and quaffed immortal joy. In this happy state we have reason to conclude man did not long continue. The scene changed in a moment, and the being so lately distinguished by the favour of God, and the possession of a world, formed on purpose for his comfort and accommodation, was cast down from his excellency; and not merely impoverished, but the whole creation became armed against him. This outward desolation was but a faint emblem of his inward and moral condition. The divine inhabitant that dwelt within him was gone; and all the sentiments, emotions, and affections of his heart rose up in rebellion against his happiness. Never did the universe contemplate a reverse so perfect and so fatal. The revolution from glory to disgrace, from purity to corruption, from bliss to agony, was complete The image of God was totally defaced; and from that sad hour, the heart became "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." SCIENTIA BIBLICA: being a copious Collection of Parallel Passages, printed in Words at length, for the Illustration of the New Testament. The whole so arranged as to illustrate and confirm the different Clauses of each Verse: together with the Text at large, in Greek and English, the various Readings, and the Chronology. THE parallel and illustrative passages of Scripture, as far as we can judge of them from the first number, are selected with considerable judgment. The Greek text is an highly useful arrangement in the work, and is correctly printed in a well-executed type. Of the various readings we can say little from the specimen ; they appear to us to be scantily supplied. We consider this work as a valuable self-interpreter, and as an help to Christians in the private study of the Scriptures, and to Ministers in the composition of their pulpit discourses, of which they ought to avail themselves with feelings of gratitude to the industrious author. MEMOIRS OF THE LATE MISS MARY ANN BURTON, of Kentish Town: with copious Extracts from her DIARY, and Selections from her CORRESPONDENCE. 12mo. pp. 221. MISS Mary Ann Burton appears to have been a Christian above the common order, and was long evidently making meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. Private Christians may read these pages in their closets with much pleasure and profit. They, indeed, contain nothing extraordinary; but they may excite devotional feelings, and tend to raise the too often dormant energies of piety. One remark occurs to us, in glancing at these memoirs, namely, the estimation in which pious teachers of youth ought to be held, and the countenance which they should receive from the serious part of the community. When we consider that the twig can only be bent while young, and that then is the season most adapted to impress the mind, and when we think of the fatal consequences of neglected education, or education wrongly directed, the recommendation cannot be too powerfully enforced. 2 WRITTEN BY A CLERGYMAN ON THE MARRIAGE OF HIS. DAUGHTER. Ye happy pair in marriage join'd, Accept a father's tender strains, Who shares your joys, and feels your pains. While numerous friends your union hail, |