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obtain pardon, and a title to eternal life, is by believing with the heart in Jesus Christ. He proves this by various arguments and from the example of Abraham, and then shews the practical tendency of the doctrine. No part of scripture is more important than this, to be thoroughly read, marked, learned, and inwardly: digested. It utterly destroys all ideas of salvation by our own. works, in part or altogether. It sets before us free redemption, justification, and salvation in Christ Jesus alone, and yet shews us that the people of Christ will be a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

Now it is hardly credible that any Churchman, as he is pleased to call himself, should be so wilfully ignorant as not to know, or so obstinately perverse as, if he does know, not to inform hisreaders of the peculiar circumstances under which this epistle was written, that it was addressed to converted Jews, to combat and remove their bigotted and mistaken prejudices. It is muchbetter indeed, we confess, that the Bible should be its own interpreter, than that it should be placed in the hands of the lowerpeople, accompanied with such wilfully ignorant and erroneous misinterpretations.

ART. VIII. The peculiar Claims which the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge has on the Liberality of Churchmen, preached at the Church of Aylesbury. By the Rev. C. J. Blomfield, M.A. 8vo. 24 pp. 1s. 6d. Rivingtons. 1815. IT is with pleasure that we trace the labours of so deep and accomplished a scholar as Mr. Blomfield in the cause of our pure and apostolic Church. The sermon before us enters into no controversial discussion, but it lays down the soundest principles, and inculcates the most useful practice. The following extract will give the reader an idea of the simple, clear, and energetic style in which the exclusive claims of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge on the liberality of every true Churchman are enforced.

"It is certain, however, that the Scriptures may be read with more or less profit by different persons, according to the different mode in which their studies are pursued. It is also certain, that all parts of Scripture are not equally important, nor all equally clear; and that all men are not equally qualified to determine which those parts are. The same Spirit,' we know, bestows diversities of gifts" and divideth to every man severally as he will.' It is true, indeed, that those passages of Holy Writ, which set forth our

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duties and God's glory, which teach us all that is necessary to regulate our conduct and satisfy our hopes, are so plain and easy, that it requires only common sense and a sincere spirit to understand them. But there are also many parts, which have a local and particular meaning, by the misapplication of which we may be led into great and dangerous mistakes, and may fancy ourselves deeply concerned in precepts with which in reality we have little or nothing to do. And it is no imputation cast upon the wisdom or the goodness of God, to assert that all parts of the Scriptures are not equally intelligible to all men; because this is a defect, (if we may use such an expression in treating of such a subject) which arises from the natural condition of things, and for which the natural condition of things supplies a remedy. For the same diversity of talents and education, which renders some men better qualified than others to understand and interpret the Bible, provides also a resource for the ignorant, in the assistance which they may derive from the studies of the more discerning and more learned of their brethren. But to say that the Bible, when put into the hands of the unlearned, requires no comment nor explanation, is to say, that no important passage of Scripture can be misunderstood by the sincere enquirer after truth; and yet all the numberless sects, into which the Christian world is divided, if questioned as to the authority on which they ground their contrary doctrines, refer us to the Bible.

"It is not for us to determine whether the mansion of heaven be a palace with many gates; but of the countless variety of paths by which Christians seek to arrive at it, some must surely be more direct and safe than others; and it is therefore our duty, at the same time that we point out to our weaker brethren the high prize of their calling, and teach them duly to appreciate its value, it is our duty, I say, to place them, if we can, in that line of faith and practice, which we ourselves believe to be the safest and the best. Under this impression, our Society deemed that its charitable work would be incomplete, unless with the Scriptures it should furnish helps to the right understanding of them. Accordingly it has distributed to a vast number of Christians, not only that most excellent summary of belief and duty contained in the Liturgy of our Church, but also a great variety of excellent treatises, at once brief and perspicuous; in which those practical conclusions are drawn from the text of Scripture, which the unlearned and unassisted reader might not so readily have perceived. And these are not in any instance the fanciful and bewildering speculations of visionary men, nor the ravings of unlearned enthusiasts; having been composed by men not more remarkable for the warmth of their piety, than for the coolness of their judgment, and approved of by the most eminent members of the Church. Many, indeed most of them, are expressly directed to the edification and comfort of the poor; and by bringing into one point of view the most important passages of Scripture relative to Christian faith and practice; by pointing out their connexion and

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mutual dependence; and by enforcing in plain and familiar language the conclusions to be drawn from them, they are well calculated to form a storehouse of doctrinal and practical divinity for the great mass of society; and to counteract the mischievous effects of those numberless tracts and expositions of the Scripture, which are disseminated with so much zeal by misjudging, though perhaps well-intentioned men. The judiciousness of the plan pursued by our Society, and its excellent effect upon the minds and hearts of the people, those persons are best able to appreciate, who have witnessed the joyful alacrity with which the poor receive these tracts from the hand of their minister, and the care with which they peruse and preserve them." P. 15.

After speaking in forcible language of the missionary department of the Society, Mr. Blomfield thus sums up the whole.

"In speaking of a Society whose objects are so truly Christian, and so judiciously pursued, to describe is to commend it. It is impertinent. to spend many words in praising that, with which no well-wisher to the cause of religion can find fault. I will only suggest one other consideration; but that is an important one. If Christianity is to be propagated at all, it must be in some particular form of profession: as to what this form should be, mankind are divided in opinion. The Bible, it is true, is the standard by which they are to be judged of: but if every man is to be left, without help or guidance, to construct his own creed from the Bible, we know that an endless diversity of belief will ensue, and that all cannot be right. We believe that in all points of importance, the doctrine and regimen of our Church are scriptural and primitive; and that therefore our profession is the true one. It is possible that we may be mistaken; but that does not affect the present question, As long as we believe that we are right, and that others are wrong, that is, as long as we are conscientious members of our own establishment, it would be difficult to select any charitable institution which has equal claims upon our liberality with that, whose object is to promote the cause and propagate the blessings of genuine Christianity, by putting into the hands of the lower classes of society the volume of Holy Writ, and by teaching them to understand the mystery of godliness in that sense, in which so many pious and learned men have for so many ages concurred." P. 18.

We trust that this Sermon will have a very wide circulation, as by its plain, perspicuous, and most convincing arguments, it cannot fail to produce the most beneficial practical results.

ART.

ART. IX. Waterloo, a Poem, by Edmund L. Swift, Esq. Barrister at Law. 8vo. 5s. Stockdale. 1815.

88 pp.

THE pleasure which we have received from the poem of Mr. Swift, would almost incline us to retract the observations which we ventured in our last number, on the impossibility of cloathing patriotic ideas in worthy expressions, or of infusing the spirit of triumph into the song, in which it is to be celebrated. If in his Ode on Waterloo, Mr. Swift yields to W. Scott in the more pathetic parts, he more than equals him in the triumphant. Of one circumstance, which we wonder that Mr. Scott has omitted, Mr. Swift has taken due advantage-that the battle was fought on Sunday.

"It was the Sabbath morn :-the matin chime
Had pealed the warning of its holy tide;
And Wives and Parents on that blessed prime
With prayer and praise their hearts had occupied;
Unconscious, that even then the battle wide
Had many an Husband smote, and many a Son.-
'Twas then, the Gallic Eagle veiled his pride,
And then, the stubborn Victory was won.-

Such power perhaps, that day, had Britain's Orison." P. 13, The preceding stanza is also excellent.

"Triumph!-The blow is sped!-And in its' speed
GOD's arm struck with us !-'Twas a glorious blow!
Never did British swords so nobly feed,
And never did their feast so nobly flow!-
Not by the Elements was crushed the foe,
Nor by the gathered might of Europe's band.
He scaped the deluge of the Northern Snow,
And the sheer vengeance of the Southern Brand.

To fall beneath the force of Britain's single hand!" P. 13.

There are other poems of equal, if not of superior merit in his collection. The Proeme in honour of Pitt, is a strain worthy of its high subject: Can we say more in its commendation?

"Spirit revered and sorrowed!-Thou, whose care
Slept not on Albion's doubtful destiny!

Albion, thy living charge, thy dying prayer,
To her consummate glory asks thine eye..
Bend from thy blessed immortality,

And in their prosperous course her sons assure:

For they have watched thy word-how faithfully!-
And always shall thy counsels, wise and pure,
Avenge their suffering past, their future peace secure!

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"Oh when our wrath o'ertook the recreant Gaul,
And dashed him forth to exile and to shame :
When, seated in yon guilty Capital,

Firm CASTLEREAGH pronounced our victor claim;
Thought we not then of PITT's inspiring name?-
In that proud hour, which Providence hath given,
To join the Pupil with the Master's fame,
Back on its source we saw the tempest driven,
And his last prayer fulfilled-

"OH SAVE MY COUNTRY, HEAVEN?” P. xii. In another part we find some very spirited stanzas, sung in honour of our revered Monarch, at the celebration of the Jubilee 'n Dublin. The two first display a warm and genuine pathos, which can flow from the heart alone.

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"God bless the old King!-'Tis the heart-cheering voice, That affection and duty inspire:

This day in the years of our King we rejoice,

Our Guardian, our time-honored Sire.

TO HIM let us hallow this festival day;

The tribute of love and of gratitude pay;

And teach from their cradles our children to say,
God bless him! -GOD BLESS THE OLD KING!

"If seventy winters have silvered his head,
If care his kind spirit hath bent;

If the pride of his youth from our Father be fled,
Remember-for Us it was spent!

Remember, how oft hath He waked when we slept,
How long for his people his vigils He kept,

How sad, when we smiled, He in secret hath wept

And remember-GOD BLESS THE OLD KING!" P. 60.

This is the first time that we have seen a volume of Mr. Swift's poetry, and if he can produce a second resembling it, we care not how soon it somes: we shall welcome it with joy. If Mr. Swift will restrain some little exuberance in his ideas, and correct some few inelegances in expression, and will submit both to some sound critical discipline, he may fairly claim his place among the first poets of the day.

ART. X. Rosanne; or, a Father's Labour Lost. By Miss Hawkins. 3 vols. 8vo. Kivingtons. 1814.

IF the reader can find resolution sufficient to be jolted through the first seven or eight chapters, he will be amply repaid by the remainder of the work. The attempt of a father to educate his daughter as an atheist; the circumstances which first lead her to

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