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lence, to be proclaimed at the resurrection of the just. In his friendships also he was peculiarly happy; never was there a body of men in whose lives and actions the purity of the Christian faith shone forth with a more unclouded ray, than the friends of Mr. Stevens. Active and eminent in their various professions, cheerful in their social intercourse, ardent in the cause of true religion, affectionate in their attachment to our holy Church, they conspired to extend the same temporal and spiritual happiness which they themselves enjoyed, to mankind around them. The old age of Mr. Stevens was such as must ever result from the retrospect of an active, benevolent, and well-spent life, from the testimony of a pure and unclouded conscience, aud from the animating hopes and consolations of the Gospel it was kind, cheerful, and serene: to this the great delight which the young always took in his company, affords the amplest testimony. His own ideas of the propriety of mixing the young and the old together in society are so rational and just, that we shall present them to the reader:

:

To hear you talk of our enjoying our friends a little longer; and of our not being likely to die of old age yet, is laughable enough. Why, you are a brisk lively lass, just in your prime, fall of epigram and fun; but I am a poor old creature, with one foot in the grave, sans teeth, sans taste, sans eyes, sans every thing. There is sense in your not separating from society, who can be a useful member of it; you have the day before you, and may do much work; but with me the night is come, in which no man can work: it is past twelve o'clock, and time to go to bed. Dr. Grégory, indeed, in his comparative view, recommends the associating the old with the young; and it may be profitable to both, as with a little attention it may serve to keep all parties in good humour, which is a very good thing; it may make the old, by the lively, agreeable conversation of the young, forget their infirmities; and it may lead the young, from observing the calmed passions and placid manners of the old, to consider old age, to which they are advancing, as no uncomfortable state, nor any formidable evil.?"

P. 81.

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The death of this excellent man, which happened in the February of 1807, was in perfect unison with the character of his life; it was full of sure yet humble hopes, and forms a contrast to the presumptuous delusions which it is the great object of the fanatical party to encourage among their wretched victims at the last tremendous hour; plunging them first into the depths of despair, and then by a morbid reaction transporting them into the delicious extacies of a fancied assurance.

We congratulate all our readers, particularly those who feel an affectionate interest in the welfare of the Church, and in the advancement

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advancement of true religion, upon the publication of this excellent volume. Its simple and unaffected style is such as best corresponds with the character of its subject. The portrait of Mr. Stevens is at once animated and faithful. The extracts from his letters, the anecdotes of his private life, the traits of his personal character and habits are given in such a manner as to present, even to a perfect stranger the life, the manners, almost the very appearance of the man.

Votiva veluti descripta tabella

Vita Senis

stands exposed to our view. The detail, however, is never sufficiently lengthy to weary our patience, but we are insensibly drawn with our biographer to the consideration of those subjects upon which the attention of Mr. Stevens was directed, and to an interest in those designs, in the promotion of which his life was employed. The end which Mr. Park had in view when he published these memoirs, is fully accomplished, the recommendation of the life of Mr. Stevens as an example of activity to the indolent, of cheerfulness to the gloomy, of benevolence to the sordid, and of the pleasures of piety to the infidel and profligate. Let the biographer be heard in his own words.

"One view, therefore, which the Author has in submitting this sketch of the life of Mr. Stevens to the world, is to prove, and particularly to the young, how much every man has it in his power, even under very discouraging circumstances, by diligence, fidelity, and attention, to advance himself, not only in worldly prosperity, but in learning and wisdom, in purity of life, and in moral and religious knowledge. He wishes also to convince mankind, by the Justre of the bright example here held out to them, that a life of the strictest piety, and devotion to God, and of the warmest and most extensive benevolence to our fellow men, is strictly compatible with the utmost cheerfulness of disposition, with all rational pleasures, and with all the gaiety, which young persons naturally feel; but of whom many are deterred from the pursuits of piety and goodness, because they have been falsely taught that a life of virtue is not consistent with cheerfulness, and that the pursuits of religion are gloomy and enthusiastic. It is said by a learned writer, that a good God, and a good conscience, and the consciousness of being at peace with both, furnish a perpetual feast, and that it well becomes a wise man to be merry at it.' In no man was this truth more fully exemplified than in the subject of the following Memoir, whose uniform and habitual cheerfulness, whose lively but inoffensive wit, made the young and the gay delight in his society to the last week of his life; because his whole life and conversation proved that in him true and undefiled religion, undebased by superstition on the one hand, or fanaticism, on the other, had had her perfect work." P. 3.

Of

Of the value and estimation in which Mr. Stevens was held by: the first men in our Church, the following anecdotes will bear no trifling testimony:

"Of the opinion which was entertained of him as a theologian, I cannot give a better proof than that declared by the very learned Dr. Douglas, late Bishop of Salisbury. When this prelate preached before the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, a meeting which Mr. Stevens constantly attended, and of which society, in his latter years, he was one of the auditors, when the other Bishops were thanking his Lordship for his discourse, Mr, Stevens humbly, but politely, offered his tribute of thanks; the Bishop expressed himself much gratified, and turning to the other prelates, said, Here is a man, who, though not a Bishop, yet. would have been thought worthy of that character in the first and purest ages of the Christian Church.' And upon a similar occasion Bishop Horsley, who was not given to flattery, said, Mr. Stevens, a compliment from you upon such a subject is of no inconsiderable value.”” P. 21.

The sum of his general character cannot be better given than in the words of his biographer:

"I have now completed, though not in a manner equal to my own wishes, or to the deserts of the inimitable person whose life is recorded, what I had determined with myself to perform: namely, to give a true and accurate account of a man, as extraordinary for virtuous attainments, as any that has ever been offered to public observation. Some may have attained to equal degrees of excellence; but few have begun their course of virtue and religion so early; few have continued it so uniformly; and few in the private walk of life have taken the opportunity of exercising virtuous propensities to so great an extent. It appears that from his earliest youth to the age of seventy-five, the life of Mr. Stevens exhibited an uniform series of undissembled piety and pure Christian charity. His erudition was solid and various, and his mind was directed principally to the cultivation of sacred learning, though it delighted itself continually with whatever was admirable in literature; and the vigour of his intellectual enjoyments accompanied him to the last. He was a true member of the Church of England, whose institutions and discipline he thoroughly understood, and whose worship, to the very close of his life, he most conscientiously attended. His memory will remain for the benefit of those who survive, as a man whose piety and obedience to his Maker were zealous, whose faith in his Redeemer was pure and unshaken, and whose charity and good will to man, from the only solid principle, love to God, were extensive and universal." P. 186.

As Mr. Stevens enjoyed the friendship of many of the best and brightest characters both of the bar and of the Church during his life, so is his memory still cherished with the most una

bated

bated regard. That distinguished circle in which the old man so much delighted even to the last, still meet at stated periods in honour of their departed friend; and to these have been added, from time to time, many new members, eminent for their learning and worth, who, although they knew not the person, still hold in affectionate, veneration the character and the principles of NOBODY.

Here then we should conclude our account of this interesting little volume, did we not observe that by the generosity of its author, the gross receipts of the whole impression are dedicated to the Episcopal Fund in Scotland. To this fund Mr. Stevens was a large contributor, and to the Scotch Episcopal College he was ever a zealous friend. The most entertaining part of the volume before us is that perhaps which details the history of this venerable body. Ardent in their attachment to the unfortunate family of the Stuarts, they were debarred from the public exercise of their worship, and it was not till 1792, that they were relieved from the severity of the penal statutes. The existence of this Church, wholly independent of a state establishment, is surely the strongest answer that can be given to the worn out objections of modern dissenters, that establishment is essential to the existence of a Church. We cannot place this matter in a clearer point of view than by giving the reader the sentiments both of Bishop Horsley and of Mr. Stevens upon this head:

"Mr. Stevens's general opinion was that notions respecting the Church were very fallacious; and that people did not suffi ciently distinguish between the Church connected with, and not connected with, the State. Thus in a letter of the 1st of May, 1797, to Bishop Skinner, he says:

"I observe what you say of Mr. Jones's Sermons on the Church. Perhaps, from your situation, you are more upon your guard, and more correct in your language than you would otherwise possibly think necessary. Mr. Jones certainly thinks as you do on the subject, and when he speaks of Christians in the Church, and out of the Church, it is only in compliance with the customary way of speaking, calling all who profess to believe in Christ indiscriminately Christians. Making establishment necessary to the existence of the Church, as many are apt to do, is a grievous mistake; but to be sure it is a convenient appendage; and there is no harm in Kings being nursing fathers, if they will nurse it properly,'

"He seems in this letter to have accorded fully with the very learned Bishop Horsley, who in a more detailed manner in the House of Lords, in answer to the Lord Chancellor Thurlow, states the point thus:

66 6 My Lords,

These Episcopalians take a distinction, and it is a just dis

tinction,

tinction, between a purely spiritual and a political Episcopacy. A political Episcopacy belongs to an established Church, and has no existence out of an establishment. This sort of Episcopacy was necessarily unknown in the world, before the time of Constantine. But in all the precedings ages there was a pure spiritual Episcopacy, an order of men set apart to inspect and manage the spiritual affairs of the Church, as a society in itself totally unconnected with civil government. Now, my Lords, these Scotch Episcopalians think, that when their Church was cast off by the State at the Revolution, their Church in this discarded, divided state, reverted to that which had been the condition of every Church in Christendom, before the establishment of Christianity in the Roman Empire, by Constantine the Great:-that losing alf their political capacity, they retained, however, the authority of the pure spiritual Episcopacy within the Church itself; and that is the sort of Episcopacy to which they now pretend: and I, as a Churchman, have respect for that pretension. This opinion entertained by Bishop Horsley was exactly the same as that of Bishop Horne, mentioned by Mr. Jones in his Life of that venerable Prelate, 2d edit. p. 149, et subs. for he had considered that there is such a thing as a pure and primitive Constitution of the Church of Christ, when viewed apart from those appendages of worldly power and worldly protection, which are sometimes mistaken, as if they were as essential to the being of the Church, as they are useful to its sustentation."" P. 136.

It is with the highest sense of veneration and esteem that we take this opportunity of paying our just tribute of respect to the learning, the piety, and the worth of this depressed but genuine branch of the Christian Church. Fostered by no hand but that of private generosity, supported by no endowments but the rich treasures of secular as well as of sacred knowledge, armed with no power but that over the hearts and the affections of its children, the Scotch Episcopal Church stands on an eminence no less exalted than our own. In its doctrine and discipline, in its articles and liturgy the same as our own, it demands, as a Church, our protection, as a depressed suffering member even of our own body, while in the persons of its clergy it enforces a still stronger claim upon our veneration and regard. Maintaining even under the depression of poverty its dignity and rank, and by its moderation and worth extorting from every generous member, even of its established rival, the just tribute of esteem, it is both venerated and beloved. Its bishops stand distinguished alike for active piety, and extensive erudition, nor are its inferior clergy in any way unworthy of their spiritual rulers. Among those whose characters and writings have reached us in the south, are the names of Bishop Skinner, Bishop Sandford, and Bishop Gleig, men, whose deep and va

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