A Reply to the Dissenters' Reusons for separating from the Church of England; in a Letter to John Gill, D.D. Editor of them. By the Rev. SPENCER COBBOLD, A.M. late Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, 8vo. pp. 46. RIVINGTONS.

HE pamphlet to which this is an answer was written by Dr. GILL, the principal man among the antipodobaptists of his day. He died in 1771.

His works are prodigiously heavy, and calvinistical in the extremity of supralapsarianism. In his exposition of the Bible, nine volumes, folio, he has heaped together all the lies and conceits of the talmudists and cabalists, to explain what needed no explanation at all. His Body of Divinity, 3 vols. 4to; and the "Cause of God and Truth," as he calls it, in 4 vols. 8vo; are esteemed inestimable treasures by all Calvinists, because they carry the extravagant and dangerous notions of eternal election, eternal justification, the irresistibility of Grace, and consequently the absolute certainty of Salvation to the highest pitch.

Such was the writer, whose "reasons for dissent" are here calmly and dispassionately answered. Mr. Cobbold, who was not aware of the circumstances of the author's death, when he sat down to answer his pamphlet, was induced to publish this reply in consequence of the " industrious circulation of the Dissenters' Redsons in his neighbourhood, with the evident design of detaching the affections of the people from the Church."

This is an additional proof of the restless and insidious: spirit of the Sectaries, who, not content with the protection of a most liberal toleration, are constantly endea vouring by every means in their power to undermine the ecclesiastical establishment of the country: that material branch of the Constitution, in the destruction of which all would be involved in confusion.

While the doctrinal part of the Dissenters' reasons are urged in many churches, as absolutely necessary to be believed, the separatists add to it, objections to liturgical forms of worship, to infant baptism, and episcopal go

vernment.

The one party therefore only serve to prepare the way for the other; and when men are made to receive the notions of election, particular redemption, faith without works, divine influences and final perseverance, they are Vol. VII. Churchm. Mag. Oct. 1804.

S s

just

just ripe for separating from the Church as a legal state, unfit for spiritually-minded persons.

We have read Mr. Cobbold's reply to the flimsy, but artful and malignant pamphlet of the Dissenters with great satisfaction. He leaves no objection unnoticed and unconfuted; but replies to every one in order, and that in a plain, close, convincing, and what is of vast influence, temperate and christian' manner. We could, with pleasure extract many excellent and forcible passages from this admirable tract, if our limits would permit; but we shall content ourselves with giving what is said in the postscript, in reply to the Doctor's unaccountable and audacious assertion, that the Church of England is not a true or regulur Church; because of its national form--the doctrine preached in it-the mode of administering baptism, and the Lord's Supper, and its having a temporal head."-To this Mr. Cobbold replies: Now, neither of these, nor all of them together, are the criterion of a true Church, if we are to be guided by Scripture. A true Church of Christ, in Scripture sense, is always understood to be a religious society under the government of regularly appointed, and duly commissioned ministers; which ministers appear, both from Scripture, and the concurrent voice of antiquity, to have been always composed of the three orders of Bishops, Presbyters, or Priests, and Deacons; deriving their power ultimately through the Apostles from Christ: nor is there a well at tested instance of any other mode of Church government being in use for the first thousand years,--consequently, wherever this form derivatively subsists, there is a true Church.

"I do not say this for the pleasure of unchurching others, but merely with a view to make good our own pretensions so uncharitably disputed. If the Dissenters, esteem their order of ministers equally valid with ours, I have no quarrel with thein-only let them allow us the same liberty. But there is one order of men, calling themselves ministers, to whom I cannot allow the titleI mean those, who have nothing to shew for their authority but their own appointment. My reason is, because. in the whole New Testament there is not a single instance of a minister being appointed otherwise, than by the laying on of the hands of those, who had been them-: selves duly commissioned.”

We earnestly recommend the perusal of this tract to

our

our readers, and shall be glad to find that its circulation is widely extended; by way of counteracting the poison contained in the Dissenters Reasons.

Sons of Adam, once in Eden,

When, like us, he blighted fell,.
Hear the lecture we are reading,
"Tis, alas! the truth we tell.
Virgins much, too much presuming
On your boasted white and red,
View us late in beauty blooming,
Number'd now among the dead.
Griping misers, nightly waking,

See the end of all your care,
Fled on wings of our own making,
We have left our owners bare.
Sons of honour, fed on praises,
Fluttering high on fancied worth,
Lo! the fickle air that raises,
Brings us down to parent earth.
Learned Sophs, in. systems jaded,
Who for new ones daily call,
Cease at length by us persuaded,
Every leaf must have its fall.
Youths, though yet no losses grieve you,
Gay in health and manly grace,
Let not cloudless skies deceive you,
Summer gives to autumn place,
Venerable sires, grown hoary,
Hither turn th unwilling eye,
Think amidst your falling glory,
Autumn tells a winter nigh.

Yearly, in our course returning,
Messengers of shortest stay,
Thus we preach this truth concerning,
Heaven and earth shall pass away,
On the tree of life eternal,

Man, let all thy hopes be stay'd,
Which alone, for ever vernal,

Bears a leaf that shall not fade.

LIFE,

An Allegory.

By Dr. JOHN CAMPBELL, Author of the Political State of
Great Britain, Lives of the Admirals, &c.

HILE through life's thorny road I go,
I will not want companions too

A dreary journey and alone,
Would be, alas! too troublesome.
But company that's choice and good,
Makes trouble hardly understood;
For toil, divided, seems to be
No toil, but a felicity.

Therefore will I companions take
As well for ease, as safety's sake.

Fair TRUTH shall serve me for a guide,
JUSTICE shall never leave my side,
INTEGRITY my trusty guard,

Nor shall I CAUTION quite discard:
EXPERIENCE shall my tutor be,
Nor will I wiser seem than he:
DISCRETION all my thoughts shall weigh,
And MODESTY my words convey;
Soft INNOCENCE protect my sleep,
And CHARITY my purse shall keep.
Thus thro' this wilderness I'll stray
Nor ever fear to lose my way;
The sages I sometimes will see,
Be sometimes with the muses free.
With guiltless mirth an hour beguile
Or with free-spoken satire smile;
With meditation often walk,
Or with sweet melancholy talk,
With these companions dear I'll sport,
Nor heed the journey long or short,
So health supply the doctor's place,
And for a chaplain I've Gop's GRACE.

LIST

A

LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS IN DIVINITY.

Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Bristol, at the Primary Visitation of George Lord Bishop of Bristol, in the year 1804, published at the request of the Clergy, 4to.

A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Chester, at the Primary Visitation in the months of July and August, 1804, and published at their Request, by Henry William Lord Bishop of Chester, 4to.

A Reply to the Dissenters Reasons for separating from the Church of England, in a Letter to John Gill, D. D. Editor of them by the Rev. Spencer Cobbold, late fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, 8vo.

A plain and practical Discourse, explanatory of the Communion Service of the Church of England, by Charles Plumptre, A. M. Rec

tor of Long Newton, in the county of Durham.

The Epistle of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Romans in Hebrew, corrected from the Version published by Dr. Ilutter at Nurem burg, 1000, and by Dr. Robertson at London, 1661, now re-published with many improvements, by Richard Caddick, M. A. of Christ Church, Oxford, 12mo.

Sixteen Discourses (abridged) from the Works of the Right Rev. Father in God, William Beveridge, D.D. sometime Lord Bishop of St. Asaph:) preached in the Parish ̧ Church of Hanwell, in Middlesex, in the years 1800 and 1801; with a Supplement, containing Ten original Discourses, by the Rev. G. II. Glasse, M. A. Rector of Hanwell, and Domestic Chaplain to his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge.

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE AND CHURCH PREFER

OXFORD.

MENTS.

THE Duke of Portland, as visitor to Pembroke College, Oxford, has finally decided on the Guernsey and Jersey Fellowships. After maturely considering the pretensions of the two islands, and examining the statutes relative to the foundation of the Fellowship, and their orders of succession, he has decided that the turn belonged to Jersey; but as by the express tenor of the statutes, the three Fellowships could not be held by three gentlemen of one island, and Messrs. Hue and Dupre, both Jerseymen, occupied the other two, the vacant Fellowship is to be filled up by a gentleman of Guernsey. Mr. Christopher Lipscomb of New College has been admitted to the degree of B. A.

The Rev. Francis Filmer, student in law of St. Alban Hall, is ad

mitted Bachelor in law. Thomas

Pennant, Esq. B. A. of Christ Church, M. A. Grand Compounder. Mr. John Mathias Turner, of Christ Church, a complete Bachelor of Arts, having been one of the gentlemen who distinguished themselves in the extraordinary examinations of the present year.Messrs. George Furlong Wise, of Exeter College; Benjamin Pope of Christ Church; and Frederic Au gustus Lawrence, of Queen's Col lege, have been admitted to the degree of B. A.

Mr. William Taman is elected Yeoman Bedel of Law, in the room of Mr. Samuel Walker deceased.

CAMBRIDGE.

The Rev. Christopher Wordsworth, M. A. Fellow of Trinity College, is collated to the Rectory of Ashby and Obey, with Thirne