public instruction; an evil so general, | gulations) would hardly be tolerated
that no individual patron would dream either at Oxford or Cambridge. It is
of sacrificing to it his particular in- commonly answered to any animad-
terest. The clergy are generally ap- versions upon the eloquence of the
pointed to their situations by those who English pulpit, that a clergyman is to
have no interest that they should please recommend himself, not by his elo-
the audience before whom they speak; quence, but by the purity of his life,
while the very reverse is the case in and the soundness of his doctrine; an
the eloquence of the Bar and of Par- objection good enough, if any con-
liament. We by no means would be nexion could be pointed out between
understood to say, that the clergy eloquence, heresy, and dissipation: but
should owe their promotion principally if it is possible for a man to live well,
to their eloquence, or that eloquence preach well, and teach well, at the
ever could, consistently with the con- same time, such objections, resting
stitution of the English Church, be only upon a supposed incompatibility
made a common cause of preferment. of these good qualities, are duller than
In pointing out the total want of con- the dulness they defend.
nexion between the privilege of preach-
ing, and the power of preaching well,
we are giving no opinion as to whether
it might, or might not, be remedied;
but merely stating a fact. Pulpit dis-
courses have insensibly dwindled from
speaking to reading; a practice, of
itself, sufficient to stifle every germ of
eloquence. It is only by the fresh
feelings of the heart that mankind can
be very powerfully affected. What can
be more ludicrous, than an orator de-
livering stale indignation, and fervour
of a week old; turning over whole
pages of violent passions, written out
in German text; reading the tropes
and apostrophes into which he is
hurried by the ardour of his mind;
and so affected at a preconcerted line,
and page, that he is unable to proceed
any further!

The clergy are apt to shelter themselves under the plea, that subjects so exhausted are utterly incapable of novelty; and, in the very strictest sense of the word novelty, meaning that which was never said before, at any time, or in any place, this may be true enough of the first principles of morals; but the modes of expanding, illustrating, and enforcing a particular theme, are capable of infinite variety; and, if they were not, this might be a very good reason for preaching common-place sermons, but is a very bad one for publishing them.

We had great hopes, that Dr. Rennel's Sermons would have proved an exception to the character we have given of sermons in general; and we have read through his present volume with a conviction rather that he has misapplied, than that he wants, talents for pulpit eloquence. The subjects of his sermons, fourteen in number, are: 1. The consequences of the vice of gaming: 2. On old age: 3. Benevolence exclusively an evangelical virtue : 4. The services rendered to the English nation by the Church of England, a motive for liberality to the orphan children of indigent ministers: 5. On the grounds and regulation of national joy: 6. On the connexion of the duties of loving the brotherhood, fearing God, Of British education, the study of and honouring the king: 7. On the eloquence makes little or no part. The guilt of bloodthirstiness: 8. On atoneexterior graces of a speaker are de- ment: 9. A visitation sermon: spised; and debating societies (ad- Great Britain's naval strength, and mirable institutions, under proper re-insular situation, a cause of gratitude

The prejudices of the English nation have proceeded a good deal from their hatred to the French; and, because that country is the native soil of elegance, animation, and grace, a certain patriotic solidity, and loyal awkwardness, have become the characteristics of this; so that an adventurous preacher is afraid of violating the ancient tranquillity of the pulpit; and the audience are commonly apt to consider the man who tires them less than usual, as a trifler, or a charlatan.

10.

-3

to Almighty God: 11. Ignorance pro- | this quotation, a command of language, ductive of atheism, anarchy, and super- and a power of style, very superior to stition: 12, 13, 14. On the sting of what is met with in the great mass of death, the strength of sin, and the sermons. We shall make one more victory over them both by Jesus Christ. extract. Dr. Rennel's first sermon, upon the consequences of gaming, is admirable for its strength of language, its sound good sense, and the vigour with which it combats that detestable vice. From this sermon we shall, with great pleasure, make an extract of some length.

"But in addition to fraud, and all its train of crimes, propensities and habits of a very different complexion enter into the composition of a gamester; a most ungovernable FEROCITY OF DISPOSITION, however for a time disguised and latent, is invariably the result of his system of conduct. Jealousy, rage, and revenge, exist among gamesters in their worst and most frantic excesses, and end frequently in consequences of the most atrocious violence and outrage. By perpetual agitation the malignant passions spurn and overwhelm every boundary which discretion and conscience can oppose. From what source are we to trace a very large number of those murders, sanctioned or palliated indeed by custom, but which stand at the tribunal of God precisely upon the same grounds with every other species of murder? - From the gaming-table, from the nocturnal receptacles of distraction and frenzy, the duellist rushes with his hand lifted up against his brother's life!-Those who are as yet on the threshold of these habits should be warned, that however calm their natural temperament, however meek and placable their disposition, yet that, by the events which every moment arise, they stand exposed to the ungovernable fury of themselves and others. In the midst of fraud, protected by menace on the one hand, and on the other, of despair; irritated by a recollection of the meanness of the artifices and the baseness of the hands by which utter and remediless ruin has been inflicted; in the midst of these feelings of horror and distraction it is, that the voice of brethren's blood 'crieth unto God from the ground'-' and now art

"Further, to this sordid habit the gamester joins a disposition to FRAUD, and that of the meanest cast. To those who soberly and fairly appreciate the real nature of human actions, nothing appears more inconsistent than that societies of men, who have incorporated themselves for the express purpose of gaming, should disclaim fraud or indirection, or affect to drive from their assemblies those among their associates whose crimes would reflect disgrace on them. Surely this, to a considerate mind, is as solemn and refined a banter as can well be exhibited: for when we take into view the vast latitude allowed by the most upright gamesters, when we reflect that, according to their precious casuistry, every advantage may be legitimately taken of the young, the unwary, and the inebriated, which superior coolness, skill, address, and activity can supply, we must look upon pretences to honesty as a most shameless aggravation of their crimes. Even if it were possible that, in his own practices, a man might be a FAIR GAMESTER, yet, for the result of the extended frauds committed by his fellows, he stands deeply accountable to God, his country, and his conscience. To a system necessarily implicated with fraud; to associations of men, a large majority of whom subsist by fraud; to habits calculated to poi-thou cursed from the earth, which hath son the source and principle of all integrity, he gives efficacy, countenance, and concurrence. Even his virtues he suffers to be subsidiary to the cause of vice. He sees with calmness, depredation committed daily and hourly in his company, perhaps under his very roof. Yet men of this description declaim (so desperately deceitful is the heart of man) against the very knaves they cherish and protect, and whom, perhaps, with some poor sophistical refuge for a worn-out conscience, they even imitate. To such, let the Scripture speak with emphatical decision- When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him."

The reader will easily observe, in

opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.' Not only THOU who actually sheddest that blood, but THOU who art the artificer of death-thou who administerest incentives to these habitswho disseminatest the practice of themimprovest the skill in them-sharpenest the propensity to them-at THY hands will it be required, surely at the tribunal of God in the next world, and perhaps, in most instances, in his distributive and awful dispensations towards thee and thine here on earth.”

Having paid this tribute of praise to Dr. Rennel's first sermon, we are sorry so soon to change our eulogium into

censure, and to blame him for having that Hume is not worth answering. selected for publication so many This affectation of contempt will not sermons touching directly and indi- do. While these pernicious writers rectly upon the French Revolution. have power to allure from the Church We confess ourselves long since wearied great numbers of proselytes, it is better with this kind of discourses, bespattered to study them diligently, and to reply with blood and brains, and 'ringing to them satisfactorily, than to veil eternal changes upon atheism, canni- insolence, want of power, or want of balism, and apostasy. Upon the enor- industry, by a pretended contempt; mities of the French Revolution there which may leave infidels and wavering can be but one opinion; but the sub- Christians to suppose that such writers ject is not fit for the pulpit. The are abused, because they are feared; public are disgusted with it to satiety; and not answered, because they are and we can never help remembering, unanswerable. While every body was that this politico-orthodox rage in the abusing and despising Mr. Godwin, mouth of a preacher may be profitable and while Mr. Godwin was, among a as well as sincere. Upon such subjects certain description of understandings, as the murder of the Queen of France, increasing every day in popularity, and the great events of these days, it is Mr. Malthus took the trouble of not possible to endure the draggling refuting him; and we hear no more of and the daubing of such a ponderous Mr. Godwin. We recommend this limner as Dr. Rennel, after the ethereal example to the consideration of Dr. touches of Mr. Burke. In events so Rennel, who seems to think it more truly horrid in themselves, the field is useful, and more pleasant, to rail than so easy for a declaimer, that we set to fight. little value upon the declamation; and the mind, on such occasions, so easily outruns ordinary description, that we are apt to feel more, before a mediocre oration begins, than it even aims at inspiring.

After the world has returned to its sober senses upon the merits of the ancient philosophy, it is amusing enough to see a few bad heads bawling for the restoration of exploded errors and past infatuation. We have some We are surprised that Dr. Rennel, dozen of plethoric phrases about Arisfrom among the great number of sub-totle, who is, in the estimation of the jects which he must have discussed in Doctor, et rex et sutor bonus, and every the pulpit (the interest in which must thing else; and to the neglect of whose be permanent and universal) should works he seems to attribute every moral have published such an empty and and physical evil under which the frivolous sermon as that upon the vic-world has groaned for the last century. tory of Lord Nelson; a sermon good Dr. Rennel's admiration of the ancients enough for the garrulity of joy, when is so great, that he considers the works the phrases, and the exultation of the of Homer to be the region and depoPorcupine, or the True Briton, may sitary of natural law, and natural relipass for eloquence and sense; but ut-gion.† Now, if by natural religion is terly unworthy of the works of a man meant the will of God collected from who aims at a place among the great his works, and the necessity man is teachers of morality and religion. under of obeying it; it is rather exDr. Rennel is apt to put on the ap-traordinary that Homer should be so pearance of a holy bully, an evangelical good a natural theologian, when the swaggerer, as if he could carry his point against infidelity by big words and strong abuse, and kick and cuff men into Christians. It is a very easy thing to talk about the shallow impostures, and the silly ignorant sophisms of Voltaire, Rousseau, Condorcet, D'Alembert, and Volney, and to say

*I cannot read the name of Malthus

without adding my tribute of affection for
ever lived. He loved philosophical truth
the memory of one of the best men that
more than any man I ever knew, was full
of practical wisdom, and never indulged
feriors in understanding.
in contemptuous feelings against his in-

† Page 318.

divinities he has painted are certainly a
more drunken, quarrelsome, adulterous,
intriguing, lascivious set of beings, than
are to be met with in the most profli-
gate court in Europe. There is, every
now and then, some plain coarse mo-
rality in Homer; but the most bloody
revenge, and the most savage cruelty
in warfare, the ravishing of women, and
the sale of men, &c. &c. &c., are cir-sertion; such as the following:-
cumstances which the old bard seems
to relate as the ordinary events of his
times, without ever dreaming that there
could be much harm in them; and if
it be urged that Homer took his ideas
of right and wrong from a barbarous
age, that is just saying, in other words,
that Homer had very imperfect ideas
of natural law.

ble, and imperatively dignified and
if Dr. Rennel means, that St. Paul dis-
played these qualities at different times,
then could not any one of them direct
or soften the other.

Sermons are so seldom examined with any considerable degree of critical vigilance, that we are apt to discover in them sometimes a great laxity of as

Having exhausted all his powers of eulogium upon the times that are gone, Dr. Rennel indemnifies himself by the very novel practice of declaiming against the present age. It is an evil age an adulterous age- an ignorant age an apostate age and a foppish age. Of the propriety of the last epithet, our readers may perhaps be more convinced, by calling to mind a class of fops not usually designated by that epithet - men clothed in profound black, with large canes, and strange amorphous hats-of big speech, and imperative presence-talkers about Plato-great affecters of senility despisers of women, and all the graces of life-fierce foes to common sense abusive of the living, and approving no one who has not been dead for at least a century. Such fops, as vain and as shallow as their fraternity in Bond Street, differ from these only as Gorgonius differed from Rufillus.

"Labour to be undergone, afflictions to be borne, contradictions to be endured, danger to be braved, interest to be despised in the best and most flourishing ages of the church, are the perpetual badges of far the greater part of those who take up their cross and follow Christ.”

This passage, at first, struck us to be untrue; and we could not immediately recollect the afflictions Dr. Rennel alluded to, till it occurred to us, that he must undoubtedly mean the eight hundred and fifty actions which, in the course of eighteen months, have been brought against the clergy for non-residence.

To

Upon the danger to be apprehended from Roman Catholics in this country, Dr. Rennel is laughable. We should as soon dream that the wars of York and Lancaster would break out afresh, as that the Protestant religion in England has anything to apprehend from the machinations of Catholics. such a scheme as that of Catholic emancipation, which has for its object to restore their natural rights to three or four millions of men, and to allay the fury of religious hatred, Dr. Rennel is, as might be expected, a very strenuous antagonist. Time, which lifts up the veil of political mystery, will inform us if the Doctor has taken that side of the question which may be as lucrative to himself as it is inimical to human happiness, and repugnant to enlightened policy.

In the ninth Discourse (p. 226), we read of St. Paul, that he had "an heroic zeal, directed, rather than bounded, by the nicest discretion -a conscious and commanding dignity, softened by the meekest and most profound humility." This is intended for a fine piece of writing; but it is without meaning: for, if words have any limits, it is a contradiction in terms to say of the same person, at the same time, that he is nicely discreet, and heroically zealous; or that he is profoundly hum-specimens of argument Dr. Rennel has

Of Dr. Rennel's talents as a reasoner, we certainly have formed no very high opinion. Unless dogmatical assertion, and the practice (but too common among theological writers) of taking the thing to be proved for part of the proof, can be considered as evidence of a logical understanding, the

afforded us are very insignificant. For putting obvious truths into vehement language; for expanding and adorning moral instruction; this gentleman certainly possesses considerable talents; and if he will moderate his insolence, steer clear of theological metaphysics, and consider rather those great laws of Christian practice, which must interest mankind through all ages, than the petty questions which are important to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the time being, he may live beyond his own days, and become a star of the third or fourth magnitude in the English Church.

JOHN BOWLES.

(E. REVIEW, 1802.) Reflections at the Conclusion of the War: Being a Sequel to Reflections on the Political and Moral State of Society at the Close of the Eighteenth Century. The Third Edition, with Additions. By John Bowles, Esq.

found thought, not vulgar violence and the eternal repetition of rabble-rousing words, were necessary to literary reputation, he would never have emerged from that obscurity to which he will soon return. The intemperate passions of the public, not his own talents, have given him some temporary reputation; and now, when men hope and fear with less eagerness than they have been lately accustomed to do, Mr. Bowles will be compelled to descend from that moderate eminence, where no man of real genius would ever have condescended to remain.

Europe are avenged, and the Bourbons restored, is the master-principle of Mr. Bowles's political opinions, and the object for which he declaims through the whole of the present pamphlet.

The pamphlet is written in the genuine spirit of the Wyndham and Burke school; though Mr. Bowles cannot be called a servile copyist of either of these gentlemen, as he has rejected the logic of the one, and the eloquence of the other, and imitated them only in their headstrong violence, and exaggerated abuse. There are some men who continue to astonish and please the world, even in the support of a bad cause. They are IF this peace be, as Mr. Bowles as- mighty in their fallacies, and beautiful serts*, the death-warrant of the liberty in their errors. Mr. Bowles sees only and power of Great Britain, we will one half of the precedent; and thinks, venture to assert, that it is also the death-in order to be famous, that he has warrant of Mr. Bowles's literary repu-nothing to do but to be in the wrong. tation; and that the people of this War, eternal war, till the wrongs of island, if they verify his predictions, and cease to read his books, whatever they may lose in political greatness, will evince no small improvement in critical acumen. There is a political as well as a bodily hypochondriasis; The first apprehensions which Mr. and there are empirics always on the Bowles seems to entertain, are of the watch to make their prey, either of the boundless ambition and perfidious chaone or of the other. Dr. Solomon, Dr.racter of the First Consul, and of that Brodum, and Mr. Bowles, have all com- military despotism he has established, manded their share of the public atten- which is not only impelled by the love tion but the two former gentlemen of conquest, but interested, for its own continue to flourish with undiminished preservation, to desire the overthrow splendour; while the patients of the of other states. Yet the author informs latter are fast dwindling away, and his us, immediately after, that the life of drugs falling into disuse and contempt. Buonaparte is exposed to more dangers The truth is, if Mr. Bowles had than that of any other individual in begun his literary career at a period Europe, who is not actually in the last when superior discrimination and pro-stage of an incurable disease; and that It is impossible to conceive the mis- his death, whenever it happens, must chievous power of the corrupt alarmists involve the dissolution of that machine of those days, and the despotic manner of government, of which he must be in which they exercised their authority. considered not only as the sole director, They were fair objects for the Edinburgh Review. but the main spring. Confusion of