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of licences, the momentous topic of popular religious education, particularly catechising, (on which the Bishop strenuously insists,) and Confirmation. On the qualifications for ordination, and the necessity of a learned Clergy, especially in an age of great intellectual pretensions, our Right Reverend author dwells at considerable length; nor are we disposed to ascribe to the prejudices of so eminent a scholar that he has declared his intention of making Latin composition a sine quá non for ordination. That language is so closely interwoven with that intellectual advancement and pure taste which every Clergyman ought to possess, and so closely connected with his immediate professional studies, that a correct knowledge of it ought to be indispensable. In connexion with the subject of Dr. Adams's Sermon, (reviewed No. 141.) our readers may be interested in perusing the following:

We are therefore not only authorized, but in my opinion required-authorized by the abundant supply of candidates, and required by the exigencies of the Church-to look for a more systematic and laborious preparation for the ministry; and to expect that clerical accomplishments shall be raised, with the universally rising qualifications of every other profession. We have perhaps some reason for wishing, that our Universities should do more than, even with the recent improvements in their system, they have hitherto done towards effecting this desirable result. For my own part, I entertain a very strong opinion as to the necessity of one or more theological seminaries, in which, besides going through a prescribed course of study for one or two years, the candidates for Holy Orders might be exercised in reading the Liturgy of our Church, and in the composition and delivery of sermons. The establishment of these, which need not interfere with the accustomed course of academical study, must necessarily be a work of difficulty, requiring much consideration and forethought.-Pp. 33, 34.

The conclusion of the Charge is too admirable to be withheld from our readers:

If all of us were earnestly bent upon seeking the mind of the Spirit in his Word, and upon obtaining his assistance, in the diligent use of all the appointed means of grace; if all would study, and meditate, and pray, as though they were convinced that the salvation of their brethren as well as their own, depended upon the issue of their studies, and meditations, and prayers; human counsel and direction would be almost superfluous. Yet the Spirit of truth and grace, all-sufficient and powerful as He is, and ready to succour those who call upon Him, usually works by instruments and means; and He has himself instructed us, that the wisest and the holiest are not to despise the aids of mutual instruction, encouragement, and advice; that we are not to be negligent to put one another always in remembrance of these things, though we know them, and be established in the present truth. To his guidance and influence, let us day by day, in our prayers, commend one another, and those over whom he has made us overseers; that he may build us up, while we are labouring to edify our brethren, and give us an inheritance amongst them who are sanctified, and to whose sanctification we ourselves have been graciously permitted to contribute, in however humble a degree, in guiding them, both by our doctrine and example, to the Author of salvation and to the Giver of eternal life.-P. 38.

Mr. Davys's Sermon is on Matt. xvi. 18; "Upon this Rock I will build my Church." The preacher insists on the peculiar doctrines of

Christianity as the great deposit with which the Church is entrusted, and by the faithful conservation of which she will stand. The sermon

is written in a pious spirit, with evangelical views, and in an even style; but it is too little relieved by passages of local or temporary allusions to justify us, with our limited means of notice, in making quotations. It is a sermon universally applicable, and such as might advantageously be preached to any congregation capable of understanding it.

Mr. Le Bas preached on Matt. vii. 29, in a vigorous and eloquent tone. He maintained the authority of the Church, and the duty of her ministers to speak accordingly. But our readers shall hear him:

Let us then, brethren, stedfastly keep in mind that we are the servants of him that taught with authority, and that, consequently, our instruction in general must assume the form, not so much of disquisition, as of testimony. The spirit of our teaching must, indeed, be affectionate and mild; but the form of our teaching must be dogmatic. We are to speak with that holy confidence which is derived from an entire simplicity of deference for the written word. We are to testify repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The language of doubtful disputation becomes not a prophet who is declaring the oracles of God; neither does the language of angry controversy become a sinful man when he is delivering the message of God to a fallen world. The language which does become him is that of a stedfast and serene assurance. He is warranted to say, with the apostle, we know that the world lieth in wickedness, and that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding to know him that is true. What though the winds of doctrine and opinion should be let loose from every quarter of the heavens to fight against the honour of the Church and the authority of her ministers ;-what though a feverish thirst should come (as it undoubtedly has come) upon the intellect of man, and many a hand should eagerly be stretched out towards the tree of knowledge, even while the tree of life is often scornfully passed by? What do these signs tell us, but that we are fallen upon days in which the word of authority must be uttered in no faint or languid accents, if we would have it stir the spirits of the people? It must be uttered as if it came forth from a heart in which the truth of God is inshrined. It must sound like a response from the sanctuary inhabited by him who sitteth between the cherubim. We hear much of the perils which array themselves against the bulwarks of our Zion: but the sound of this warning should speak to us only of increased faithfulness and zeal. It should admonish us not to pace round the towers of our fortress, and to number them with a proud and indolent security. It should prompt us to strengthen and adorn them by our own labours, that all who look upon them may say, "Of a truth, this is a city compact together, and at unity with itself; a city whose walls are salvation, and her gates praise.' It is indeed a noble thought, that Christians form a royal priesthood to the whole human race, and that Christian ministers are the priesthood to this holy generation. It is awfully glorious to think that, if Christian people are the elect of God, the Christian Clergy are "the chosen of his choice, the elect of his election." But what would all these privileges and glories be, but a burning reproach, if those who wear them should seem to set them at nought, and cease to magnify the office to which they have been consecrated? And how can they better magnify their office than by shewing, that it is an office which hath brought their own spirits into perpetual communion with heavenand hath taught them to go forth, strong only in the majesty and power of God? What is it that men expect to see when they come into the presence of a Christian minister? A reed shaken by the wind; or a goodly cedar of the Lord,

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whose roots are deep enough to defy the tempest? Do they look for one clothed in softness and self-indulgence; or for one who is familiar with toil and selfdenial? Do they not look for a prophet; yea, and for more than a prophet? for the least of the ministers in the kingdom of Christ is greater than the messenger who was sent to prepare his way. But I will cease from these words of exhortation, which it might better perhaps become me to listen to, than to deliver. I stand in the midst of men who need not to be told by me that, if the words of eternal life are to be spoken with authority, they should be spoken by lips which may seem to have been touched and purified by fire from the altar. You have not to learn, that nothing could so effectually silence the thunders of a Boanerges, as the slightest suspicion among the people that faintness and lukewarmness had come upon the spirits of his brethren and fellow-workers in the ministry. You well know, that nothing could strike the tongue of authority with so fatal a palsy, as the very thought of unworthiness in them to whom the word of authority is committed. You likewise know that the majesty of truth has no ally on earth more powerful, than the righteousness and the sanctity of them that are called to be the ministers of truth.-Pp. 16-20.

From Mr. Tyler's Sermon we have already borrowed an observation, and we regret that we cannot quote more largely. The text is Rev. iii. 1, 2. Our readers have seen how high an estimate this preacher entertains of the dangers to which our Church is exposed. On their remedy he writes thus:

I am speaking in the presence of men of far greater experience, and higher degrees of practical knowledge, than myself, and I feel that it becomes me to speak with diffidence; but on this point I cannot be silent, my conscience will not suffer me to keep this conviction within my heart, that, under God, nothing can save the Church of England, the purest, the most primitive, the most evangelical guardian of the "testimony of Jesus," but a steady, calm, temperate, persevering, manly, uncompromising spirit of progressive improvement, and internal self-renovation. Those who engage zealously and impartially in the blessed work, blessed to the Church, to their country, and to their own souls, must be prepared to bear, as Christ bore, opposition, calumny, and false witness; nay, what is in a tenfold degree more trying to a generous mind, they must expect to be mistaken even by their friends. But let them not fear. Their work is the work of God, and he will never suffer them to be confounded.

Let us not be misunderstood. East is not more opposed to West, than is the improvement and self-renovation we advocate opposed to that bold, restless, unsparing, unholy spirit of Reform (falsely so called) whose delight is to pull down what time has left, and to trample under foot all that is lovely, and venerable, and sacred. The principle we mean, finds its counterpart in the solicitude of a sincere friend, who would preserve the object of his affection from danger and error, even if it must be with tender violence. It corresponds with the wise and temperate but firm rule of a father and master, whose duty binds him to provide for the good order, and moral and religious well-being of his household, and who loves even whilst he corrects. Nay, it is no other than the watchful, and jealous, and strong government of a Christian over himself, without which Faith tells him his soul may be lost for ever.-Pp. 16, 17.

We are agreed with our zealous instructor; and did our limits allow, we should have great pleasure in accompanying our readers to the end of his discourse. We are sure that no Clergyman will do his duty who does not consider himself answerable to God, not only for his flock, but for his Church. Not that we recommend any irregular or tumultuary projects; let all be done in the strictest subjection to ecclesiastical forms and authorities. Any other mode of proceed

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ing, however well intentioned, must, of necessity, produce evil consequences. So much may be done by the machinery actually at work, that irregularity would be inexcusable. Let the Church Societies be known, advocated, encouraged. Let the claims of the Church herself be set before the people with conciliatory mildness, but with Christian decision. Let their minds be informed, and their reason challenged. We seek a rational dominion; the ascendancy of truth in enlightened intellects. Reading is a glorious instrument; let us rejoice that the people have it; let us labour to extend it; but let us, at the same time, diligently labour to improve this new means of right belief, just practice, and blessed expectation, to the transcendent objects of our holy calling.

In conclusion, however, we will state our conviction that no exertions of the Clergy, in the present condition of the Church, can realize the ardent aspirations of Mr. Tyler. She must be released from her present unnatural situation, or her ruin, as her enemies well know, can only be deferred. Let her constitutional power be restored; let her stand on the level of every Church in Christendom; let her be enabled to effect what alone can be called "an internal self-renovation," by the exercise of her just rights in her conservative council. Without the resumption of her convocations, her ruin may be deferred, but will not be prevented.

"Iracunda diem PROFERET Ilio,

Matronisque Phrygum classis Achilleï;

POST CERTAS HYEMES URET ACHAÏCUs
IGNIS PERGAMEAS DOMOS."

But shall this justify individual supineness? No! the Church, unsupported by her convocation, will only fall as an establishment : unsupported by her Clergy, she must fall as a church! In the first case she will preserve her purity, and the approval of her divine Founder, for he rebuketh and chasteneth in love; in the other, she must forfeit all. The light being extinguished, the candlestick will be removed. "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

ART. II.-The Christian Physiologist. Tales illustrative of the Five Senses: their Mechanism, Uses, and Government; with moral and explanatory Introductions. Addressed to a Young Friend. Edited by the Author of the "Collegians," &c. London: Bull. 1830. Pp. xxvi. 376. Price 10s. 6d.

We know not how it can be explained, for there are many things hard to be understood, as well as misunderstood, that physiology

should be productive of results so little accordant with what naturally it might be supposed to produce. It was the opinion of one, who was guided by a spirit that could never err, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made;" and, doubtless, the fruit of such a solemn conviction must be faith in the Creator. But where that conviction is wanting, faith can never enter. That the study of the human body, in its intricate and secret functions, must, if properly directed, be conducive to the increase of religion, there can be no doubt; where, therefore, that study is made subservient to the propagation of opinions which are inimical to religion, it is not uncharitable, it is not irrational, to suppose that there is a lack of honesty, or a want of piety. And the experience of all ages, both before and since the revelation of Christianity, testifies, that too often the physiologist has been betrayed into speculations adverse to truth and nature, and hostile to the best interests of mankind. It would not be of use here to bring forward the evidence of that alarming perversion of judgment which the writings of many heathen moralists supply, nor to quote the multitude of passages which strengthen that evidence occurring in the books which bear the Christian name. We need not go so far. The times of unsettled and unestablished opinions, on which we are fallen, too frequently bear witness to the influence of ideas which better graced the darkness of heathenism, than the light of Christianity; though even then the uncertain faith of a Pagan could induce him to exclaim against such a strange and melancholy prostitution of the human mind. We have lived to see teachers of youth in our public institutions, deducing from an examination of the most perfect and most complex of God's works, conclusions diametrically opposed to the inductions of sound philosophy, and inculcating their opinions with an activity and zeal only equalled by the malevolence of their object. And we have seen also such conclusions and opinions openly defended, and most impudently persisted in, in spite of the warnings which have been offered by apologists for Christianity, and the defenders of our faith. The evil and the sin of such a course, whether considered with reference to the temporal or the everlasting interests of our children, it requires but little ability to show; and less does it demand, to demonstrate the mischief which must ensue to society, when infidels are sent forth to deluge the land with poison for the soul, under the pretence of bearing comfort and assuagements for the body. In the first instance, it is demonstrable, that the denial, or the rejection of the First Great Cause, in any disquisition which concerns the interests or existence of mankind, is capable of operating incalculable and immeasurable error. Nor is it less easy to shew, that the doctrine of second causes, however insisted on, however employed, are altogether insufficient to satisfy an inquiring or a pious mind.

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