pressive and awakening motives. Nor will they be disappointed. And so highly creditable is this volume to the author's judgement and piety, so honourable a testimony does it bear to him as a parish priest, so well adapted is it to convey the most important convictions to the most careless mind, and to rouse the sensual and the indolent to serious attention, that we rejoice in its more extended diffusion, and are happy that the great reputation of its author has rendered his wishes to limit its circulation nugatory.

The sermons are thirty-five in number, and chiefly of a practical nature. The subjects are: Seriousness in religion; The love of God; Meditating upon religion; The state after death; Purity of the heart and affections; Taste for devotion ; The doctrine of conversion; Prayer in imitation of Christ; Filial piety; Thinking less of our virtues and more of our sins; Salvation for penitent sinners; Sins of the fathers upon the children; How virtue produces belief and vice unbelief; John's message to Jesus; Insensibility to offences; Seriousness of disposition necessary; The efficacy of the death of Christ; All stand in need of a Redeemer; The efficacy of the death of Christ consistent with the necessity of a good life; Pure religion; The agency of Jesus Christ since his ascension; Spiritual influence; Spiritual aid; The destruction of the Canaanites; Neglect of warnings; The terrors of the Lord; Preservation and recovery from sin; This life a state of probation; The knowledge of one another in a future state; The general resurrection.

The following passage selected from the sermon on conversion is deserving of more attention than, we fear, it will meet with from the enthusiasts of our day:

"It has been usual to divide all mankind into two classes, the converted, and

the unconverted; and, by so dividing them, to infer the necessity of conver sion to every person whatever. In proposing the subject under this form, we state the distinction, in my opinion, too absolutely, and draw from it a conclusion too universal: because there is a class and description of Christians, who, having been piously educated, and having persevered in those pious courses, into which they were first brought, are not conscious to themselves of ever having been without the influence of religion, of ever having lost sight of its sanctions, of ever having renounced them; of ever, in the general course of their conduct, having gone against them. These cannot pro perly be reckoned either converted or unconverted. They are not converted, for they are not sensible of any such religi ous alteration having taken place with them, at any particular time, as can properly be called a conversion. They are not unconverted, because that implies a state of reprobation, and because, if we call upon them to be converted, (which, if they be unconverted, we ought to do) they will not well understand what it is we mean them to do ; and instead of be ing edified, they may be both much and unnecessarily disturbed, by being so called upon.

It

"There is, in the nature of things, a great variety of religious condition. arises from hence, that exhortations, and calls, and admonitions, which are of great use and importance in themselves, and very necessary to be insisted upon, are, nevertheless, not wanted by all, are not equally applicable to all, and to some are altogether inapplicable. This holds true of most of the topics of persuasion, or warning, which a Christian teacher can adopt. When we preach against presumption, for instance, it is not because we suppose that all are presump tuous; or that it is necessary for all, or every one, to become more humble, or diffident, or apprehensive, than he now is: on the contrary, there may amongst our hearers be low, and timorous, and dejected spirits, who, if they take to themselves what we say, may increase a disposition, which is already too much; or be at a loss to know what it is herein that we would enjoin upon them. Yet the discourse and the doctrine may, nevertheless, be very good; and for a great

portion of our congregation very necessary. The like, I think, is the case with the doctrine of conversion. If we were to omit the doctrine of conversion, we should omit a doctrine, which, to many, must be the salvation of their souls. To them all calls without this call, all preachings without this doctrine, would be in vain and it may be true, that a great part of our hearers are of this des cription. On the other hand, if we press and insist upon conversion, as indispensable to all for the purpose of being saved, we should mislead some, who would not apprehend how they could be required to turn, or be converted to religion, who were never, that they knew, either indifferent to it, or alienated from it." The following passage from the same sermon is excellent and illus

trative of the preacher's general

manner:

"The truth is, in the way of Christian improvement there is business for the best; there is enough to be done for all.

"First, In this stage of the Christian life, it is fit to suppose, that there are no enormous crimes, such as mankind universally condemn and cry out against, at present committed by us: yet less faults, still clearly faults, are not unfrequent with us, are too easily excused, too soon repeated. This must be altered.

Secondly, We may not avowedly be engaged in any course or habit of known sin; being at the time conscious of such sin, but we may continue in some practices, which our consciences cannot, and would not, upon examination, approve, and in which we have allowed the wrongness of the practice to be screened from our sight by general usage, or by the example of persons, of whom we think well. This is not a course to be proceeded in longer. Conscience, our own conscience, is to be our guide in all things.

"Thirdly, We may not absolutely omit any duty to our families, our station, our neighbourhood, or the public, with which we are acquainted, but might not these duties be more effectively performed, if they were gone about with more diligence than we have hitherto used? nd might not further means and oppor

tunities of doing good be found out, if we took sufficient pains to enquire and to consider?

"Fourthly, Again; Even where less is to be blamed in our lives, much may remain to be set right in our hearts, our tempers, and dispositions. Let our af fections grow more and more pure and holy; our hearts more and more lifted up to God; and loosened from this present world, not from its duties; but from its passions, its temptations, its over anxieties and great selfishness; our souls cleansed from the dross and corruption, which they have contracted in their passage through it.

"Fifthly, It is no slight work to bring our tempers to what they should be: gentle, patient, placable, compassionate; slow to be offended, soon to be though a necessary, is a difficult attainappeased; free from envy, which, ment; free from bursts of anger; from aversions to particular persons, which is hatred; able heartily to rejoice with them that do rejoice, and, from true tenderness of mind, weeping, even when we can do no more, with them that weep; in a word, to put on charity with all those qualities, with which St. Paul hath clothed it, 1 Cor. xiii. which read for this purpose.

Sixthly, Whilst any good can be done by us, we shall not fail to do it; but even when our powers of active usefulness fail, which not seldom happens, there still remains that last, that highest, that most difficult, and, perhaps, most acceptable duty to our Creator, resignation to his blessed will in the pri vations and pains and afflictions, with which we are visited; thankfulness to him for all that is spared to us, amidst much that is gone; for any mitigation of our sufferings, any degree of ease, and comfort, and support, and assistance which we experience. Every advanced life, every life of sickness, or misfortune, affords materials for virtuous feel. ings. In a word, I am persuaded, that there is no state whatever of Christian trial, varied and various as it is, in which there will not be found both matter and room for improvement; in which a true Christian will not be incessantly striving, month by month, and year by year, to grow sensibly better and better

nd in which his endeavours, if sincere, nd assisted, as, if sincere, they may ope to be assisted by God's grace, will not be rewarded with success,'

sermon upon

The following introduction to the this life a state of probation," is also excellent. It is a specimen of the preacher's happy art of compressing into a small compass much information, and many important topics for reflection.

"Of the various views, under which human life has been considered, no one seems so reasonable, as that which regards it as a state of probation; meaning by a state of probation, a state calculated for trying us, and calculated for improving us. A state of complete enjoyment and happiness it certainly is not. The hopes, the spirits and the inexperience of young men and young women are apt, and very willing, to see it in this light. To them life is full of entertainment; their relish is high; their expectations unbounded; for a very few years it is possible, and I think barely possible, that they may go on without check or interruption; but they will be cured of this delusion. Pain and sorrow, disease and infirmity, accident and disappointment, losses and distress, will soon meet them in their acquaintance, their families, or their persons. The hard hearted for their own, the tender for others woe, will always find and feel, enough at least to convince them, that this world was not made for a scene of perpetual gaiety, or uninterrupted enjoyment.

"Still less can we believe that it was made for a place of misery: so much otherwise, that misery is in no instance the end or object of contrivance. We are surrounded by contrivance and design. A human body is a cluster of contrivances. So is the body of every animal: so is the structure of every plant: so is even the vilest weed that grows upon the road side. Contrivances therefore infinite in number, infinite also in variety, are all directed to

beneficial purposes, and in a vast plurality of instances, execute their purpose. In our own bodies only reflect, how many thousand things must go right for us to be an hour at ease. Yet at all times multitudes are so ; and are so without being sensible how great a thing it is. Too much, or too little of sensibility or of action, in

any one of the almost numberless organs, or of any part of the numberless organs, by which life is sustained, may be productive of extreme anguish, or of lasting infirmity. A particle, smaller than an atom in a sunbeam, may in a wrong place, be the occasion of the loss of limbs, of senses, or of life. Yet under all this continual jeopardy, this momentary liability to danger and disorder, we are preserved. It is not possible therefore that this state could be designed as a state of misery, because the great tendency of the designs, which we see in the universe, is to counteract, to prevent, to guard against it. We know enough of nature to be assured, that misery, universal, irremediable, inexhaustible misery, was in the Creator's power, if he had willed it. For as much therefore as the result is so much otherwise, we are certain, that no such purpose dwelt in the divine mind."

But

We could with pleasure multiply limits necessarily restrain us. such passages as these, did not our we feel ourselves compelled to observe, before we conclude, that in those discourses which have a controversial air, and turn upon some point of doctrine, the learned author has followed too much the practice of the vulgar; and quoted numerous texts from scripture, with more regard to the sound than to the sense of the words, connection, the thor, or of those to whom the words circumstances of the original auare addressed; every thing, in short, which is necessary to determine accurately the signification of the phraseology is omitted. A method much too common in the present day, and which ought to have been discountenanced rather than Of this we subjoin one example, encouraged by such a man as Paley. speaking of evil propensities encountered by the aid of the Spirit:

"And whence arises this alteration and improvement in our condition and our hopes; this exemption, or rather deliverance, from the ordinary state of man? St. Paul refers us to the cause. "The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and

before the existence of Christianity, and we may now discover much where it is altogether unknown. The gentle virtues, which form the bond of society, and the charms of existence, which soften the evils and reconcile the oppositions of life, were never unknown in a greater or less degree, in any period, and are still found in every state of mankind, that has experienced the least subordmation. Benevolence, friendship, charity and other virtues, have been experienced even where the endearing precepts of our Redeemer have never extended, and long before their promulgation. We cannot but remark, that man was never left with out a moral sense of rectitude. The religion of nature, founded on the common exercise of reason, must be considered as the work of God, who never left man without a distinction of good and evil. On this foundation Christianity builds; and we have the assurance of the apostle to this effect. Revelation was designed to confirm and strengthen the suggestions of natural religion and therefore all that is excellent in reason, must be attributed to the Deity, and considered as his dispensation, not indeed so express, but as certain as that of revelation. As we cannot form a precise judgment of the comparative and practical advantages derived from the knowledge of Christianity, the disputatious have denied its utility, and that of the preachers of religion, be cause their instructions have not produced the total eradication of vice. But effects can never be greater than their cause. If there be much depravity in the world, who shall pretend to say it is not amelio rated by the labours of the pulpit? That vice is prevalent, is indeed to be lamented, but that its prevalence is naturally to be expected, our preceeding observations have established; and though our endeavours have not produced universal and irresistible conversion, who can assert with truth that they are not very beneficial? that a little leaven leaveneth the whole mass, is an observation of our Lord himself; and as the particles are imperceptible which produce fermentation, in the same manner the moral intellect of society is generally improved by religious instruction. Principles constant and uniform in operation, though not visible in process, are

evident in effect. Moral improvement, like the progress of nature, is gradual. When we view the state of society, we are struck with horror at enormous evils, but we pay little attention to private excellence. There are in the moral, as in the natural world, frequent disorders which awhile derange without destroying the regular system. In the one we are affected with the account of the awful volcano, or the terrible earthquake; while the placid stream that gives con stant fertility, the gentle dews which refresh the face of exhausted vegetation, are not regarded because calm and constant. In the other, we are reasona bly alarmed at the recital of capital crimes, but hear little of the unassuming virtue of private persons, that constant light that cherishes life. Yet enquiry will enable us to find every where individual merit to counterbalance the general depravity. If then the catalogue of vices be at once numerous and dark, yet a bright contrast agreeably relieves the contemplations of the moralist. When we reflect on the nature of man, the variety of his pursuits, and the difficulties of his attainments; when we recollect that many errors spring even from an excess of virtue, that they are irregularities of desires implanted in him for wise and gracious purposes by an almighty providence ; when we observe that even the pursuit of good will sometimes lead him into error; that the boundaries of virtue are sometimes not clearly defined, and sometimes deceptive; that the path of rectitude is often intricate, and that his abilities are naturally weak, and perpetually fallible; that the powers of virtue are as liable to fail as the strength of the body; we must conclude, that there is as much goodness to be found in the world, as can be hoped from the nature of things; and that it is reasonable to expect much peccability from beings, whose powers are finite and variable, whose understandings are contracted and indistinct, whose passions are vehement and intoxicating."

This volume contains sixteen sermons on the following subjects: The spring of the year; The summer; The autumn; The winter; The omnipresence of God; The