The memoir of Bishop Reynolds' life, prefixed to this publication, is rendered more valuable by an instructive and interesting account of the constitution and proceedings of that memorable body, the Assembly of Divines. It is much to be lamented, that it is not further enriched by a full and critical examination of the works of the Author. All must remember, with melancholy delight, how precious a tribute has been rendered to the memory of Bishop Taylor, by the "sainted genius" of Heber! We should gladly see the same good office performed for Reynolds, by surviving piety and talent. For though Taylor stands alone among the divines of that age, without any equal to him or like him, Reynolds may fairly be classed among the very foremost of those, who, at whatever interval, occupy the next degree of excellence.

ART. II. Sermons, delivered chiefly in the Chapel of the East-India College. By the Rev. CHARLES WEBB LE BAS, A. M. Professor of Mathematics in the East India College, Hertfordshire, Rector of St. Paul, Shadwell, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. 8vo. pp. vii. 416. London: Murray, 1822.

It is announced in the Title-page that these Sermons were delivered chiefly in the Chapel of the East-India College. The inference which may possibly be deduced from this announcement is, that the volume is less adapted for the public in general, than for the civil servants of the Hon. Company; or, at any rate, that it is more particularly suited to young persons placed under College discipline, and pursuing the studies of a College life; highly useful, perhaps, to hearers of that class, but of little benefit, and of less interest, to ordinary readers. This, however, would be a most erroneous conclusion. These Discourses are not, indeed, precisely of the description which would be adapted to a village audience; yet they do not so far differ from such compositions as not to be intelligible throughout to persons of fair understanding, who are at all in the habit of exercising their reasoning powers; and the subjects discussed in them are uniformly treated with such a regard to the practical improvement of the hearer, that they could scarcely be addressed to any reasonably educated congregation without producing a very salutary impression.

Of the seventeen sermons comprised in this volume, the subject of the first seems to be as little within the range of common pulpit discourses as any in the list. Yet is it made subservient to a very useful application; and no man who takes pleasure in contemplating the history of our blessed Redeemer, or in meditating upon his character,

'as drawn in the New Testament, would cherish a voluntary ignorance as to any part of the revelation which has been made concerning him, The text is Luke ii. 52.—And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

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The apparent difficulty in this passage is stated in the following

terms:

"The curiosity of man has been tempted to inquire, how He, who was the eternal wisdom of the Father, could be capable of such gradual improvement as the Evangelist here describes how that intellect, which we have been in the habit of contemplating as perfection itself, should be represented as attaining the fulness of its power by the same process as the mind of an ordinary mortal. And still more are our limited conceptions confounded by the assertion, that he advanced in favour with God. The union of the mortal nature with the Divine, was in Christ Jesus so intimate and complete, that the mind recoils from the most cautious attempt to contemplate them separately. Yet we find, that this very person, while thus combining in himself the heavenly and the earthly essence, is described as progressive in the good-will and approbation of the Superior Nature; that he, who was both God and man, became daily an object of more complacent regard with God. A statement is made which almost compels us to consider as distinct, what is recommended to our faith as an instance of perfect and inseparable union." Pp. 8, 9.

The author addresses himself to the explanation of the passage with suitable expressions of humility and reverence; and if to those conversant with such inquiries, the difficulty is rather apparent than real, and the view taken by Mr. Le Bas neither has nor pretends to have the dignity of a new discovery, yet he puts his argument in so clear a light, and by his illustration so completely vindicates the expression in the text, that we shall need to make no apology for introducing a somewhat lengthened extract. Even in our pages it may fall under the observation of some ingenuous mind, which has hitherto been at a loss to reconcile the statement of the text with the divine and perfect character of the Son of God.

"Let us, then, reflect awhile on that astonishing intercourse of the Deity with man, exhibited to us in the person of our Redeemer, and illustrated more particularly by the passage before us; an intercourse totally different from that which was ever enjoyed by the most favoured servants of God. It was more than the mere operation of the Divine Spirit on the faculties of a mortal. It was more than the conversation of Jehovah with a prophet, as a man converseth with a friend. It was not the case of an inferior intellect informed and governed by one superior to it; of one agent directed and controlled by the ascendency of another. It was an actual coalition of the two natures; a coalition so intimate and so complete, as to produce a perfect unity of counsel, and singleness of agency. By keeping this in view, we bring the light closer to the mysterious truth announced in the text. Like other men, the son of Mary had a reasonable soul, whose faculties were

capable of gradual expansion. The Divine essence, however intimately united to the human, did not supply the place of the intellectual functions; but, as the mental powers of the man advanced in capacity and strength, the perfection of the Godhead poured in its illuminations. The Spirit was not, indeed, given unto him by measure; but neither was it given by one mighty and sudden influx. It was not given in such a way as to swallow up the earthly nature in the heavenly, but to leave them their distinct properties, without confusion or loss. And here is another marvellous instance of the adorable humility of our Lord. That he should array himself in a garb of mortality, is a theme of endless wonder; but the miracle of his condescension is completed by his stooping to be like us too in soul;-to combine his infinite and perfect nature with an intellect subject to a tedious interval of infirmity, and incapable, as it should seem, of receiving at once the influences of that divine light, in which it "lived, and moved, and had its being." pp. 11–13.

We give together with this paragraph a passage from Bishop Horsley.

"It will seem nothing strange that Jesus, who was himself God, should derive authority from the unction of that Spirit, which upon other occasions he is said to give, and that he should be under the Spirit's direction ;-if it be remembered that our Lord was as truly man as he was truly God,-that neither of the two natures was absorbed in the other, but both remained in themselves perfect, notwithstanding the union of the two in one person. The Divine Word to which the humanity was united, was not, as some ancient heretics imagined, instead of a soul to inform the body of the man, for this could not have been without a diminution of the divinity, which, upon this supposition, must have become obnoxious to all the perturbations of the human soul, to the passions of grief, fear, anger, pity, joy, hope, and disappointment, to all which our Lord, without sin, was liable. The human nature in our Lord was complete in both its parts, consisting of a body and a rational soul. The rational soul of our Lord's human nature was a distinct thing from the principle of divinity to which it was united; and being so distinct, like the souls of other men, it owed the right use of its faculties, in the exercise of them upon religious subjects, and its uncorrupted rectitude of will, to the influence of the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus indeed "was anointed with this holy oil above his fellows; inasmuch as the intercourse was uninterrupted, the illumination by infinite degrees more full, and the consent and submission on the part of the man more perfect than in any of the sons of Adam; insomuch that he alone, of all the human race, by the strength and light imparted from above, was exempt from sin, and rendered superior to temptation. To him the Spirit was given not by measure. The unmeasured infusion of the Spirit into the Redeemer's soul was not the means, but the effect of its union to the second person of the Godhead. An union of which this had been the means, had differed only in degree from that which is in some degree the privilege of every true believer, which in an eminent degree was the privilege of the apostles, who, by the visible descent of the Holy Ghost upon them on the day of Pentecost, were, in some sort, like their Lord,

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anointed with the unction from on high. But in him the natures were united; and the uninterrupted perfect commerce of his human soul with the Divine Spirit, was the effect and the privilege of that mysterious conjunction." Horsley's Sermon on Luke iv. 18, 19.

We should have felt much pleasure in reading this first Sermon, even if it had done nothing more than elucidated a declaration, which to many persons, appears to be at least obscure: but Mr. Le Bas justly reminds us that the grand and ultimate object of this and all other religious meditations is to prepare us for the hour of death and the day of judgment; and here, through a succession of pages little short of onehalf of the entire discourse, he brings forward and urges several important practical reflections which arise from it.

The second and fourth Sermons, on the unhappy condition of those that are wise in their own conceit, (Prov. xxvi. 12.) and on the folly of making a mock at sin, (Prov. xiv. 9.) are among the best specimens which have fallen under our notice of the power, eminently possessed by Mr. Le Bas, to expose a bad principle or an unwarrantable practice to deserved disgrace and condemnation. It would be no easy task, we think, for any hearer of either description, and there are many of both sorts, to stifle the conviction which these discourses are intended to impress. Such a man will see here the correct and vivid representation of his own features ;-and he will be compelled to feel, if he be not past feeling, that they are both in the sight of God and man most hateful and revolting. In particular, to make a mock at sin, is obviously one of the last stages of idiotic profligacy: but, we venture to think, that there are few transgressors, even in this way, who could lift up their fronts against the formidable battery which is here brought to bear upon them: and the boldest and most besotted of the class would probably retire from the attack with confusion upon his face and bitter commotion in his heart; confessing to himself, if not to others, that a more stupid and despicable creature exists not upon the face of the earth. This is an effect which the Sermon now before us is, by the blessing of God, well calculated to produce; and it is a benefit of no ordinary magnitude: thoroughly to abash vice, is to render a great service to the cause of truth and religion. But we must observe that, in each of these very striking Sermons, the preacher aims at a still higher object; and both the man that is wise in his own conceit, and the fool who makes a mock at sin, will learn from these pages by what means they may attain a new character; how the one may become a subject of lively hope, and the other be blest with the noblest wisdom.

The third Sermon is on the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican: very graphic in its delineation of these respective characters, and, as usual, highly just and appropriate in its reflections. Whether some hearers might not be startled by certain parts of the extract from

Hooker's Discourse on Justification, with which Mr. Le Bas has fortified his own views of the scriptural statements concerning the demerits of our own best works, and the necessity of obtaining pardon even for the most blameless things that we do, we presume not to determine: concerning the justice of these views, and their full accordance with the Scriptures, we have no doubt.

The fifth Sermon refers to an event, which, afflicting as it was at the time, and painful in the recollection, may now be supposed to have lost much of its intense interest. This discourse was delivered on the day of the funeral of the late Princess Charlotte; but the principles maintained in it are so well adapted to every period, that we should be sorry if it had not found a place in the volume. The text (1 Tim. ii, 1, 2, 3,) naturally leads to the contemplation of the governors and the governed, as children of one vast family, of which Almighty God is the common Father; and exhibits the Gospel as establishing between them in this view, "a most heavenly communion both of interest and affection:" such is the main argument of the Sermon; and no state can be placed under circumstances more favourable, as it respects the welfare of all classes of the community, than that which is regulated by this Christian principle.

"Were I (says Mr. Le Bas) to deprecate, for my country, the most appalling visitation that could befall her, I know not that my fears could fix on a more fatal evil than the dissolution of this noble sentiment, than a divorce of this principle of public allegiance, from that of a personal interest and attachment towards our princes and governors. It would be an omen, I fear, of direct import-a prodigy big with danger and disaster to the State. As an exercise of moral speculation, it may be safe and instructive to separate the principle of loyality, like any other mixed motive, into its component elements; but in practice the combination should be indissoluble. The light of heaven, that guides and gladdens us, may, by the researches and experiments of science, be untwisted into those distinct rays of various property and colour, which are exhibited in the rainbow; but it is to the constant intimate union of them all, we owe that genial, uniform, and glorious element which ministers to the daily purposes and enjoyments of life. It is thus with the noble quality which animates a truly loyal heart. By a mental process it may be decompounded into motives not, perhaps, necessarily connected with each other. Unquestionably, a respect for the laws, and reverence for those who administer them, are, in themselves, distinct from the more gracious influences of personal affection: but the more intimately these principles are combined in actual operation, the more auspicious is the prospect of safety and prosperity to an empire, and the more nearly does a nation exhibit the beauty and perfection of a Christian community, where all the ruling motives are allied to gratitude and good-will. So powerfully indeed do nature and religion join to promote the union, that wherever the public sentiment towards the governing powers is destitute of this