which itself is founded, and of which it affords the highest evi. dence." P. 137.

This is found philofophy; but whether it will be perfectly intelligible to the majority of thofe who are moft in the prac tice of reading fermons, may reasonably be doubted. We req eft fuch men, however, not to be difcouraged; for if they will proceed through the whole difcourfe, they will be gratified with fuch view of the wifdom of God in the redemption of man, as they may fully comprehend; for it is diftinguished alike by clearnefs and fublimity.

The twentieth fermon (from 1 Peter iii. 18, 19, 20,) is on the descent of Chrift into Hell, and was reviewed by us* when firft given to the public. The three next are on our bleffed Lord's declaration, (St. Mark ii. 27,) that "the fabbath was made for man, and not man for the fabbath."

In the firft of thefe, the learned prelate diftinguishes, as well with philofophical accuracy as with Chriftian piety, be-tween the great natural duties included in the general topics of the love of God and man, and those positive ordinances of religion, which derive all their value from their divine inftitution. When these different duties interfere with one another, fo that both cannot be performed, he proves, with the force of demonftration, and from the example of our Saviour, that the latter ought to give place to the former; because, though the pofitive precepts of religion were made for men, the prac tice of its primary duties is the very end for which man was originally created; and, after the ruin of his fall, redeemed. The pofitive precepts, however, having been given for the falutary influence which the Maker of man forefaw they were likely to have on his life and conduct.

"To live in the wilful neglect of them, is to neglect the means which infinite wifdom hath condefcended to provide for the fecu rity of our future condition. The confequence naturally to be expected is that which is always feen to enfue, a total profligacy of manners, hardnefs of heart, and contempt for God's word and commandment." P. 214.

Having established thefe truths, the learned prelate proves in the next difcourfe, that the inftitution of a fabbath, under the Chriftian difpenfation, is entitled to the very fame regard as in the patriarchal ages, before the Mofaic covenant took place. He then answers several objections which have been urged to this doctrine, from the filence of the Apoftles and Evangelifts on the fubject; while the eating of blood, now

See our 24th Vol. P. 81.

deemed

deemed lawful, is fo folemnly prohibited by the whole college of Apoftles and Elders, met in council at Jerufalem, and guided, as they declare themselves, by the immediate influ ence of the Holy Ghost.

In the third fermon on this text, having fhown upon what principle, perfectly confiftent with the objects of the original inftitution, the Chriftian fabbath was changed from the laft to the first day of the week; and proved, that the paffage in the fecond chapter of St. Paul's epiftle to the Coloffians, from which Calvin and others have inferred, that the obfervation of a fabbath is one of those carnal ordinances of the Jewish religion, which our Lord hath blotted out, will bear no fuch meaning, he affign's the following moral to our rightly obferving the Lord's day.

"By keeping a fabbath, we acknowledge a God, and déclare that we are not atheists; by keeping one day in feven, we preteft against idolatry, and acknowledge THAT God, who in the beginning made the heavens and the earth; and by keeping our fabbath on the first day of the week, we proteft against Judaism, and acknowledge THAT GOD, who, having made the world, fent his only begotten Son to redeem mankind. The obfervation therefore of the Sunday in the Chriftian Church, is a public weekly affertion of the two firft articles in our creed-the belief in God, the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, and in Jefus Christ, his only Son, our Lord." P. 256.

But while he feverely condemns the prevailing profana-tion of the Lord's day, and calls loudly on the great and the wealthy to fet a more pious example to the poor, he is equally hoftile to that pharifaical morofenefs, which confiders as fin ful a walk in the fields, after the appropriated duties of the day have been discharged.

The prefent humour of the common people leads perhaps more to a profanation of the feftival, than to a fuperftitious rigour in the obfervance of it: but in the attempt to reform, we fhall do wifely to remember, that the thanks for this (profanation) are chiefly due to the base spirit of puritanical hypocrify, which in the last (17th) century, oppofed and defeated the wife attempts of Government to regulate the recreations of the day by authority, and prevent the exceffes which have actually taken place, by a ra tional indulgence.

"The fabbath was ordained for a day of public worship, and of refreshment to the common people. It cannot be a day of their refreshment, if it be made a day of mortified reftraint. To be a a day of worship, it rauft be a day of leifure from worldly bufi. nefs, and of abftraction from diffipated pleasure but it need not be a difmal one. It was ordained for a day of general and willing

refort

refort to the holy mountain; when men of every race, and every rank, and every age, promifcuously-Hebrew, Greek, and Scy thian; bond and free; young and old; high and low; rich and poor; one with another; laying hold of Chrift's atonement, and the proffered mercy of the gofpel, might meet together before their common Lord, exempt, for a feafon, from the cares and la bours of the world, and be joyful in the house of prayer." P. 272

The twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, and twenty-fixth fermons difplay, perhaps, greater ingenuity in the preacher than any other difcourfes in the two volumes. They are all on one text, St. John iv. 13; and, by a brief analysis of the text, the Bishop Thows,

"That the Samaritans of our Saviour's day, no lefs than the more inftructed Jews, expected a Meffiah ;-that they knew no lefs than the Jews, that the time was come for his appearance; that, in the Meffiah, they expected not, like the miftaking Jews, a Saviour of the Jewish nation only, or of Abraham's defcendants, but of the world-a Saviour of the world from moral rather than from phyfical evil." P. 285.

Of these facts, which are established in the firft of the three fermons immediately under review, it is the object of the other two to inveftigate the caufes; but the inveftigation, though exceedingly curious, involves fo much fcripture criticifm, that no abstract of it could be made, that would give any tolerable notion of the force of the Bishop's reafoning. On this occafion, the Bishop feems to have been aware that he was travelling over ground on which the people would not find it eafy to follow him; and that in undertaking to be their guide, he had undertaken a task of no fmall difficulty. But," fays he,

"It is not much my practice to fhrink from difficulties; nor can I bring my felf to believe, that common people are fo incompetent as they are generally fuppofed to be, to comprehend whatever' the preacher will be at the trouble to explain. Under the con. trary perfuafion, I fcruple not to ferve you with ftronger meats than are generally thought fit for popular digeftion; though I fhould confult my own eafe more, and your advantage lefs, if I could acquiefce in the general opinion." P. 303.

On this occafion we must again observe, that, though Bishop Horfley knew how to drefs thefe ftrong meats, fo as to fit them for popular digeftion, every preacher is not equally fkilled in the art of intellectual cookery. In drawing practical infe rences, however, from fpeculative difquifition, he has fet an example which all preachers are in fome degree qualified to: follow; and the reflections with which he concludes his dif

quifitions

quifitions on the faith of the Samaritans of Sychar, will be read with advantage by thofe who may find fome difficulty in accompanying him through the difquifitions themselves.

"We read of no miracles performed among the Sycharites. That we read of now is not a proof that none were performed: but if any were, it was not evidence of that kind which took poffeffion of the hearts of the Samaritans; they allege our Saviour's doctrine as the ground of their conviction; and our Saviour's doctrine carries with it fuch internal evidence ;-it is in itself fo rational and confiftent-in its confequences fo conducive to that which must be the great end of a Divine revelation, if any fuch be extant;-it discovers a scheme of falvation, fo wonderfully adapted, both to the perfections of God and the infirmities of men, that a mind which hath not loft, by the force of vicious ha bits, its natural fenfe of right and wrong-its natural approbation of what is good, and great and amiable, will always perceive the Chriftian doctrine to be that which cannot easily be difbelieved, when it is fairly propounded. The Samaritans heard this doctrine from the Divine Teacher's mouth for the short space of two days: we, in the writings of the Evangelifts, have a complete fummary of his triennial preaching; we have, joined with the detail of many of his miracles, the delineation of his character, and the hiftory of his wonderful life of piety and love: we have feen the fortitude with which he repelled temptation-the patience with which he endured reproach the refignation with which he underwent the punishment of other's crimes: in the figured language of the Apoftle, we ourselves have heard him preach-we have feen him crucified, we have feen him rife again: we experi ence his prefent power, in the providential prefervation of his Church, and fupport of his doctrine. The Samaritans were con vinced by a preaching of two days: how, then, fhall we escape, if we neglect fo great falvation." P. 355.

The twenty-feventh and twenty-eighth fermons are on Philippians iii. 15; and, though certainly not the most valuable in the collection, are fuch as few other preachers could have compofed. The Bifhop begins his difquifition (for all his fermons open with difquifitions) by fhowing that the English verfion of this text is no true copy of the original, which he therefore criticizes, and tranflates for himfelf. The tranflation without the criticifm would be little fatisfactory to the reader, and our limits will not admit of both. Suffice it therefore to fay, that in his interpretation of the paffage, he agrees very nearly with Hammond, and differs totally from Whitby, whofe paraphrafe he fhows to be inconfiftent with the Apof tle's general meaning. The refult of the whole is, that the' utmost perfection to which a Chriftian can attain in this world,

world, is an earneft defire and fteady purfuit of perpetual im provement in the habits of a Chriftian life; of which the confequence would be,

"That all differences of opinion (at leaft all contentious difagreement, the great bane of Chriftian love and harmony) would be abolished, by God's bleffing on the natural operation of this happy temper; and Chriftians would be established in that univer. fal peace and charity, which is fo generally profeffed and preach ed, and is fo little practifed. P. 371.

In the courfe of his reafoning on thefe fubjects, the Bishop takes occafion to mention that principle of human mature, well known to us all by experience, by which whatever action, whether good or bad, hath been done once, is done a fecond time with more eafe and a better liking; infomuch that a frequent repetition heightens the eafe and pleasure of the performance without limit. From the natural operation of this principle, he accounts, in the moft fatisfactory manner, for the general depravity which was gradually introduced into the world, in confequence of the first tranfgreffion; and had he taken into his view the doctrine of the differtation on the fate of man before the fall, by Bifhop Bull, whom, in his firft charge to the clergy of St. David's, he calls his illuftrious predeceffor, he would, in thefe difcourfes, have furnifhed us, though only incidentally, with the moft rational, perfpicuous, and fcriptural diftinétion, that we bave yet feen, between the prefent ftate of man and that in which he was, before he departed from what in our article is called, his "original right coufnefs."

The fermon, with which thefe volumes conclude, was preached in the Cathedral Church of St. Afaph, on the day of public thanksgiving for the victory obtained by Lord Nelfon over the combined fleets of France and Spain, off Cape Trafalgar. The text is Daniel iv. 17; and the principal object of the learned preacher, is to explode the notion of Guardian Angels, whether of nations or of individuals. In his opinion, THE WATCHERS and THE HOLY ONES, mentioned by the prophet, are the three Divine Perfons in the Godhead; and the arguments by which he fupports this opinion are certainly plaufible, if not abfolutely conclufive. The conclufion of the verse, in which "the MOST HIGH is faid to rule in the kingdom of men; to give it to whomfoever he will; and to fet up over it the bafeft of men, is applied with great. energy to the circumftances of the period at which the dif courfe was preached; and is indeed as applicable to the circumftances of Europe juft now, as it was five years ago. The

fermon,