lication, is," to fix the young mind," as fhe fays*, "to a direct ftudy of the fcriptures, as they relate to the doctrines and duties of Chriflianity." With this view fhe introduces a teacher reading a fhort lecture on each of thefe doctrines and duties, and at the end of every lecture, or divifion of a lecture, mentioning the book, chapter, and verfe, where fuch doctrine is taught, or fuch duty enjoined. The pupil, who liftens, must be fuppofed to have her Bible befide her; to open it at the place or places referred to; and to read the texts on which her preceptrefs refts the doctrine or precept inculcated in the lecture, making fuch remarks on the text in connexion with the lecture as occur to her youth. In this form of a book to be read in the closet, there is not indeed much elegance; but the mode of inftruction, if carried into practice by a governess and her pupils in real teaching, would tend more than almoft any thing elfe that we can readily conceive, to store the youthful mind with a connected collection of paffages from the Old and New Testaments, on the most important topics of Chriftianity; and lay fuch a foundation of religious knowledge, and religious fentiments, as could not afterwards be erafed, either by the diffipation of the age, or by the fubtilties of fophiftry. As a model of inftruction, therefore, the book cannot be too strongly recommended; and the following extract, with which the whole is concluded, bears ample teftimony to the good fense and piety of the author.

"If therefore you are impreffed by thefe glorious and blessed revelations, you will make that book, which is full of corrobora.. tive teftimonies of those truths which we have been engaged in confidering, a part of your daily ftudy :-The early part of the day, the fpring alfo of life, will be gladly occupied by you in cultivating the "good feed." The extracts which have been fet before you, have been feparated from the complete volume, only to lead you to it in the hope of finding them as they are there united with fuch a combination of glorious truths, as will animate you with a vital principle of religion; with fuch a pre- · vailing fenfe of your duty to God and your fellow creatures, as fhall, through the aid of the Holy Spirit, enable you to conquer whatever oppofes your falvation; and, whenever it interferes with your hopes of immortal happiness and glory, to “avercome” every temptation this world can prefent to you.

"Let me, before I close these obfervations on the revealed word of God, in which, I humbly hope and pray, that in the

"Preface."

great

great day of account we may be found to have been fellow learners, remind you, that in the Scriptures only, the true fources of moral duty, as it is founded on religious principles, are unfolded to us. If we bring our conduct to any other teit, to that of our own opinions, or of thofe of our fellow creatures, an endless variety of motives and conclufions will perplex us.

"Our Redemption is through our bleffed Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift: He hath made "an atonement: He continueth to make interceffion for us:" He fends "the Comforter," and by HIM we fhall be "judged at the last day." Be it then our continual prayer, and earnest endeavour, to keep His command_ ments.' Of our prefent comfort and our future hope He is the "Chief Corner Stone*."

"I AM Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Firft and the Laft, faith the Lord+.”— -OTHER FOUNDATION CAN NO MAN LAY THAN THAT IS LAID, WHICH IS JESUS CHRIST!"

"Now TO HIM WHO IS ABLE TO DO EXCEEDING ABUN DANTLY FOR US ABOVE ALL THAT WE CAN ASK OR THINK;" TO THE KING ETERNAL, IMMORTAL, INVISIBLE, THE ONLY WISE GOD, BE HONOUR AND GLORY, FOR EVER AND EVER||! AMEN!" P. 335.

ART. XI. The beneficial Effects of Chriflianity, on the temporal Concerns of Mankind, proved from History and from. Facts. By the Right Rev. Beilby Porteus, D.D. Lord Bishop of London. 8vo. 90 pp. Cadell and Davies. 1806.

THE

'HE labours of this excellent and venerable Prelate seem to be only commenfurate with the term of his exiftence. They are alike numerous and important. There is not one which does not abound with maxims of inftruction, alike falutary in the confirination of religious faith, the improvement of morals, and the regulation of human conduct. This laft is not the leaft valuable, and it is very highly. confolatory to learn, that in the fhort interval which has occurred between its firft publication and the prefent month, it has paffed through three large editions. It proves, in the most fatisfactory manner, that inattentive, as numbers

may

be to the important duties of Christianity, and difinclined to be reminded of their danger, there is ftill a large and eftimable portion of our countrymen who receive with gladness the grave and inftructive precepts of their teachers, and willingly and fteadily apply them to the purposes for which they were intended.

The prefent publication is comprifed in three brief Sections, of which the following is, we believe, a fair aralyfis.

The adverfaries of the chriftian faith have contended with more zeal than juff.ce, mo e prejudice than truta, that the introduction of the Chriftian Revelation has introduced á fpirit of cruelty and intolerance, with endlefs maffacres, was, and perfecutions. This abfurd pofition is fairly and forcibly obviated, by proving that the Gofpel authorfes no other means of conviction than ger.tle e's ana perfuafion, and that if any of its difciples nave, by a mifguided zeal, been betrayed into fanguinary measures, the blame is to be imputed to them, and not to the religion of Jesus. But the author goes fill further, and f tisfactorily evinces, that the Gofpel has promoted and increafed the peace, the well re, and the comfort of mankind. This is exemplified, by ftating the relative condition of thofe domeftic relations upon which the mifery or comfort of the human race fo manifeftly depend, namely, the fate of marriage-the parental relationand the condition of fervants. In each of thefe cafes, this is remarkably well argue, and it is made moft clearly to appear, that in each and all of these relations the general condition of mankind has been ameliorated by the diffufion of Chriftianity. We give as a fpecimen of this part of the work the Bishop's opinion as to the relative ftate of marriage before and after the introduction of the Gospel.

"The two great banes of connubial happiness among the an cient Pagans, were polygamy and divorce. The first of thefe, it is well known, prevailed, and does at this hour prevail, through almost every region of the eaftern world. The other was allowed for the most trivial caufes, and exercised with the most wanton cruelty, in the later ages of Rome, not only by the worthlefs and the profligate, but by fome of the moft diftinguished charac ters in the republic: and both of them evidently tended to def. troy that mutual confidence, harmony, and affection, that conftant union of interefts and of fentiments, which conftitute the fupreme felicity of the matrimonial ftate. Befides this, the treat ment of married women in general, among the ancients, was harfh, ungenerous, and unjust. And at this day (for the fpirit of paganifm is at all times, and in all places, the fame) the favages

of

of North America, as well as thofe of the new difcovered islands in the South Seas, confider their wives as little better than flaves and beats of burthen, and ufe them accordingly.

"To all thefe cruelties Chriftianity (wherever it is received and profeffed with any degree of purity) has put an effectual ftop. It has entirely cut of that grand fource of domeftic wretchednefs, polygamy; and has confined the dangerous liberty of divorce to one only caufe (the only caufe that can juftify the diffolution of fo ftrict and facred a bond) viz. an abfolute violation of the first and fundamental condition of the marriage contract, fidelity to the marriage bed*. It has provided no lefs for the fecurity and comfort of the weaker part, than for the fovereignty of the ftronger. It has eftablished juft fo much command on one fide, and juft fo much fubjection on the other, as is neceffary to preyent thofe everlasting contefts which perfect equality muft unavoidably produce. It lays, at the fame time, a foundation for encreafing harmony and tendernefs by mutual obligations, and reciprocal conceffions; and gives to each more frequent opportunities of difplaying their affection, by ruling with mildness, and fubmitting with chearfulness.

"There cannot, indeed, be a finer proof of the benevolence of our religion than this regard and confideration for that part of the fpecies which moft wants, and yet in this inftance before the promulgation of the Goffel, did leaft enjoy the privileges of humanity. In effect, the condition of this fex, at least in the conjugal ftate, is fo infinitely fuperior to the part affigned them by the heathens of old, and the Mahometans and Pagans of this day, that they seem to be a different rank and order of beings. Inftead of being confidered merely as neceffary parts of the family, of being confined to the loom and the diftaff, and excluded from

"The hiftorian of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, has been pleased to obferve, (vol. iv. p. 380) that "the ambiguous word which contains the precept of Chrift refpecting divorce is flexible to any interpretation that the wifdom of a legislator can demand, and that the proper meaning of the original word Tops, cannot be ftrictly applied to matrimonial fin." But if that author would have given himself the trouble to look at 1 Cor. v. 1. he would have perceived that the word opra not only may be applied to matrimonial fin, but is actually fo applied fometimes by the facred writers; and in the place juft cited can scarcely admit of any other fenfe. In this fenfe it is also used by our Saviour, Matt. v. 32. xix. 9. And this being incontrovertible, it is, Í confefs, paft my understanding to comprehend, how this precept of Chrift can be flexible to any other meaning than that plain and obvious one which it bears upon the very face of it, and in which it has been hitherto conftantly understood; namely, that the only legitimate ground of divorce is adultery."

I

many

many of the moft effential comforts of life; (which was their cafe in the moft civilized nations of antiquity ;) inftead of being entirely cut off from all commerce with the world, imprisoned for life within the walls of a feraglio, and looked upon in no other light than as inftruments of pleasure, as having neither rational minds nor immortal fouls; as born only to minifter to the happinefs of others at the expence of their own, to be the flaves of fenfuality, caprice, and revenge (which is ftill their condition in eaftern countries); inftead of this, I fay, they are now, by the gradual prevalence of Chriftian principles and manners, admitted to an equal share in the advantages and the bleffings of fociety. Their understandings are cultivated, their minds improved, their fentiments refined, and their intereft and happiness uniformly and properly confulted in every important concern of life." P.9.

The firft fection having demonftrated how vifibly and undeniably Christianity has promoted the happiness of mankind in every domeftic relation, the fecond is employed in fhow. ing that its beneficial influence is no lefs evident in the great and important concerns of civil and focial life.

And firft, with refpect to government. The Gofpel does not enjoin or profcribe any peculiar form of government, but it regulates the duties both of them who govern, and of those who are governed. The Bishop then contrasts the outlines and principal features of civil policy in ancient and modern times; he points out the ferocious defpotifm, the fanguinary laws, and the corrupt adminiftration of those laws, concluding with (which admits of no queftion) the proof of the manifeft fuperiority of our own government, and that of other modern kingdoms. The fubject of war, and the behaviour of conquerors with refpect to their prisoners, is next difcuffed, and the reader will neceffarily be delighted with the temperate language, and yet energetic argument, in which the advantages arifing in thefe inftances from the introduction of the Chriftiam fyftem are demonftrated.

"I have formerly obferved, and fome arguments have been adduced to prove, that in Chriftian countries the horrors of war (that fevereft fcourge of the human race) have been greatly miti gated, and their frequency, their duration, and their attendant miferies, confiderably diminished. In further confirmation of this fact, and in addition to what has been already advanced in fupport of it, I would entreat the reader, when he is perufing the history of the ancient ftates, to pay a little attention to the na

* "Sermons, V. 1. S. xiii. P. 317. Ed, 10.”

fure,