the ferond exhortation, addreffed to those who are negligent to come to the bly communion; the ufe of which I am afraid "(his fears, alas! are but too well founded)" the state of moft congregations in this country will fully warrant. And if always, after using either of these exhortations, the kind and affectionate paftor would, in the course of his fermon, pathetically and earnestly entreat his congregation to attend the enfuing facrament, to which they have just been invited, as they value their foul's health, I am confident the happieft effects would fequently follow. The neceffity of fuch exhortations and entreaties must be obvious to every one who is in the habit of rec iving the facr. ment. The mode in which the a thor combats the fcruples of the young friend whom he addreffes, is parti ularly happy, and the effect of it, we fhould fuppofe, moft fuccefsful. Still I hear you perfift in expreffing your fears, left, after having received this bleffed food, you fhould relapse into fin. Probably you may; and fo have the beft of men that have lived before you. But I am con inced of this (fuppofing you not to be an habitual finner), that the oftener you attend this holy facrament, purpofing to amend your life, and to walk from thenceforth in God's holy ways, though you should ftill occafionally fall, the less and lefs frequ nt will thefe relapfes be, till they altogether cease: and be affered, that he who, with pious di idence, forces himself, as it were, to approach that table, in obedience to God's will, and because he finds that, without it, he is unable to cleanfe his way, is better prepared than he is aware of. Come unto me all ye that travel, and are beavy laden, (with the burden ́f your fins) and I will give you reft, is Chrift's gracious invitation and promife unto finners. And if you defire to be relieved from fuch occafional relap es, you ought, undoubtedly, to obey this merciful call; for the denunciations against the unworthy reception of this facrament apply only to thofe, who, at the moment of reception, not only have not fo faken their fins, but are continuing in the w.iful and babitual commiffion of known Gius." We believe the dread, here fo ably combated, operates more generally than is imagined, to deter men from obeying the call of their Saviour. Not only the duty of obedience, in this refpect, is moft ftrongly enforced, but the dangers and p nifhment of difobedience are clearly unfolded to view. The author clofes his reflections with an admirable paffage from a fermon, preached at the Magdalen, by one whom he justly terms "as bright a luminary of our venerable Church this day," as Bishop Jeremy Taylor was in the feventeenth century. This well timed ulogy reflects equal honour on the perfon by whom it is bestowed, and on him who beftows it. Sacred Hours; or Extracts for private Devotion and Meditation: comprebending the Pfalms arranged and claffed under various Heads: together with Prayers, Thanksgivings, Hymns, &c. &c. principally felected from Scripture; the whole intended a a Compendium of Divine Authority, and a Companion for the Hour of Solitude and Retirement 12mo. Pr. 688. Ginger. 1804. 10s. 6d. SUCH of thefe felections as are not taken from fcripture are extra fed from authors of approved piety and orthodoxy; and the whole forms an ufeful and inftructive companion for the serious and devout Christian A Word to the Wife and a Hint to the Unthinking. 24mo. 1s. 6d. per dozen. Hatchard. 1804. PP. 11. 2d. or HE will not be a wife man who can treat fuch a word as this with contempt: and he must be worse than unthinking who will not take this bint. This little book contains a falutary admonition to follow only the lawfu ly appointed minifters of God's church, and to avoid the fin of fchifm. Never was admonition more neceffary; for ftrange teachers fpring up like muthrooms, and schifmatics daily increase and multiply. The most important Truths and Duties of Chriftianity ftated. Defigned chiefly for Perfons in the lower Stations of Lfe. 24mo. Pr. 20. Hatchard. 1804. MUCH good inftruction comprized within a small compafs, and therefore very well adapted to the purpose which it is defigned to answer. An Antidote to the Alarm of Invafion; a Difcourfe delivered at the Meeting- 8vo. FROM a text chofen, from its extreme appofiteness, by so many preachers on the fame occafion, Nehemiah iv. 14, Dr. Rees enters into a methodical investigation of the nature of the prefent, conteft; the character and views of the enemy; the infinite importance of the objects which we are called upon to defend; the advantages likely to refult from our fuccefs; the means of our defence; and, laftly, the juftice of our caufe, and the confequent grounds of our hope of divine afliftance. The learned preacher expoftulates on thefe different heads with great ability and animation; he draws a true picture of the prefent ftate of France and her dependencies; and of the effects of her Ufu per's paft conquefts, and of his future ambitious views; and, after eloquently exhorting his congregation manfully to ftand forth in defence of their country, and of all that is dear and valuable to them in this life, he directs their attention to the Lord as their fheet-anchor, conjuring them to conciliate his favour by repentance of their paft fins, and by an earnest refolution to pay in future the stricteft obedience to his word and commandments. This is one of the beft difcourfes which we have read, on the occafion of the late faft. A Sermon, preached at the Parish-Church of Gillinghem, in Kent, on Sunday, July the 31, 1803, on occasion of the united exertions of his Subjects being called forth by his Majesty, against the threatened Invasion. By Willian Chafy, M. A. Fellow of Sidney Suffex College, Cambridge, and Curate of Gilling ham. Publifhed by request. 8vo. PP. 20. 1s. 6d. Rivingtons. 1803. « HONOUR all men: love the brotherhood: fear God: honour the King." This is Mr. Chafy's text, and on each of thefe precepts of the Apoftle Peter, he expatiates with equal zeal and judgment, in reference to exiiting circumfances; fhewing that, by a rigid oblervance of them all, anarchy may be avoided, and order prefeived and perpetuated, while, from their violation, rebellion, regicide, and war, with all their concomitant evils, muit neceifa'rily result. By By his command to love the brotherhood, fays the preacher, the Apostle means to imply, that it is the duty of the good and virtuous, to love and admire, to comfort and fuccour, thofe who, in confequence of their adherence to right principles of faith and piety, are often expofed to the corn and derifion of the thoughtless, the worldly-minded, and profane. This was the cafe with the primitive Chriftians, and melancholy it is to obferve, that, even in these days, the iron dart of perfecution, envenomed with the poison of malice, ceafes not to wound and lacerate thofe amongst us, who are most eminent for piety and virtue." There is, unhappily, but too much truth in this obfervation! The fufferings of France, with all the hor rors of her revolution, and its miferable effects, moft naturally fuggefted themselves to the preacher's mind as the immediate confequence of a flagrant violation of the Apoftolic precepts; and, of courfe, afforded him one of the beft illuftrations of his principle. Thele he has depicted with becoming indignation, and with Christian feeling. A Sermon adapted to the Circumstances of the present interesting Crisis, preached at Chiswick, on Sunday, September 4th, 1803. Published by particular desirè, and dedicated to the Society for the Suppression of Vice. By the Rev. Thomas Horne, D. D. Master of Chifwick School. Svo. PP. 32. Is. Riving IN a well-written dedication to the Society for the Suppreffion of Vice, Dr. Horne "cannot forbear exprefling his warmeft withes, that it may daily become more flourishing in its numbers, and more efficient in its refources; and that the great and opulent, in particular, will never suffer its views to be disappointed, for want of either countenance to encourage and animate its exertions, or pecuniary aid for the fupport of its expences, by a reasonable replenishment of its exhaufted treafury."-Since the publication of this Sermon, we understand, the Dr.'s wifes have been gratified; for, by the active exertions of a Nobleman, who at once does honour to his profeffion, and reflects luftre on his rank, who, in the highest circles of fashion, preferves his religious principles uncontaminated, and his morals uncorrupted, illuftrating by his conduct the excellence of the principles which he zealously inculcates, this Society has gained an addition of nearly two hundred moft refpectable members. From Romans viii. 31. If God be for us, who can be against us,' the preacher takes occafion to point out the inadequacy of human exertions, without the fupport and protection of God; to enquire how far we are entitled to expect that fupport; and to indicate the means of acquiring it. This neceffarily leads him into an examination of the prevailing vices of the age, which he enumerates and condemns. On one clafs of thefe vices he comments in the following words. If, in the next place, we direct our inquiry to the vices of intemperance, fornication, and adultery, how much greater fatisfaction will it afford us? Have they attained a lefs rank and luxurious growth? Has not their familiarity to the eye rendered it almost infenfible to their deformity? Yes; varnished over with a fpecious language, which licentiousness hath invented to veil their obliquity, we are accustomed to hear them poken of without emotion, and to fee them practited without remorse; and the fame actions are imputed to the frailty and infirmity of nature by the world, which are ftigmatifed as damnable fins by the law of God; which is thus made of no effect by the traditions of fuch as yield themfelves up to the lufts which war in their members, that they may enjoy the pleasures of sin for a H 3 season." It is a lamentable proof of the growing depravity of the age, that the fins here noticed daily increase in frequency and publicity. The most refolute adultreffes in the kingdom, fupported by the most elevated rank, now openly brave public decency and decorum; riot in luxury, the means for gratifying which have been procured by their fins; give routs and entertainments, announced, in our bafe and prostituted prints, in language the most bombastic and ridiculous, and with adulation the most fulfome and profligate; entertainments which are numerously and fashionably attended, even by women of virtue who have a reputation to lofe; and to fuch an extent is this abandoned fyftem now carried, that we may foon expert to fee virtue rendered a fubject of derifion, religion become a butt for the finger of fcorn to point at, and vice exulting in her triumph, and glorying in the multitude of her votaries!!! The preacher is equally pointed in his animadverfions on " the alarming decay of religion, and fcandalous profanation of the Sabbath, which fo unhappily characterife the prefent times," In a former article, we have noticed the increase of such profanation; but we thould have been truly glad to know what grounds Dr. Horne has for afferting, that it is "heltered under the connivance, and, as far as that goes, the fanction of the magif trate: for a forbearance to execute the laws in thofe whole office it is to enforce them, feems to be much the fame as not to condemn the offence; at least the difference is fo trifling, as hardly to be perceptible."-If it be meant, that a magiftrate refused to execute the law, when an information was brought before him for a profanation of the Sabbath, and the charge fubftantiated by evidence; the accufation is one of a very serious nature indeed, and, in our view of the fubject, involves a charge of no lefs magnitude than that of perjury; for as a magiftrate is bound, by his oath, to administer justice according to law, his refufal to execute the law is a violation of his oath. It is not optional with a magiftrate to receive or reject informations, when all the legal forms are duly obferved; nor to inflict or withhold punishment; nor, in any way, to difpenfe with the execution of the laws. God forbid any fuch difcretion thould be vested in magiftrates, or even in judges! The law is alike imperative, on those whofe duty it is to execute it, and on those who break it; and, if a magiftrate neglect, or refufe to perform, any part of his duty, an application to the Court of King's Bench would fupply a speedy and effectual remedy for the evil." The ftudied modes by which the Great difplay their irreligion, by their Sunday routs, concerts, and card-tables, &c. &c." and the excefles and imprecations of the vulgar, on the Lord's day, are ftrongly and justly ftigmatized. The growth of fchifm, the preacher confiders as another ft iking feature in the corruption of the last days; and the shameful abuse of the Toleration Act, by which the lowest of the people are permitted to invade the prieft's office, (and wonderful, fure, it is they should be fo permitted) is that fin of Jeroboam, in which God feels his honour peculiarly interested, and which he therefore never will fuffer to escape the feverity of his difpleafure. And how can he, when it has fo direct and powerful a tendency to fink that holy religion into contempt, by which he purposed to save the world." It is, indeed, most ftrange, that, in a Chriftian country, a man who fhall prefume to exercile in the city of London the meanelt of trades, without having ferved the given number of years to it, and being poffeffed, moreover, of other qualifications, is liable to the fevereft penalties; while, if he only venture to exercife the office of an appointed minifter of Chrift, to become the guar dian dian of Christian confciences, to inftruct men in their religious duties, and to point out to them the way to falvation; if he only do this, without any other qualification whatever than fuch as is derived from the mere act of taking an oath, he is fubject to no penalty, but is protected, and even encouraged, by the law! It is furely high time to eradicate fo fcandalous an abule. Having pointed out the prevailing fins of the age, the preacher concludes by fhewing the indifpenfable neceffity of a fpeedy and radical reform, as well for our political as for our eternal salvation. The Fear of God a sure ground of Confidence and Hope. Two Sermons preached October 19, 1803. By the Rev. Sir Adam Gordon, Bart. M. A. Rector of Weft Tilbury, Effex, and Prebendary of Bristol. 8vo. THE text, Luke xii. 4. 5. Two plain and animated difcourfes, well fuited to the folemn occafion. We fhall make an important extract as a fpecimen, which juftly condemns a practise which we are certain that some who practised it, now as cordially condemn it, as does the reverend Ba ronet. "Inftead of taking warning by the fore chaftisements of the still wretched nation, which labours under the moft oppreffive tyranny that people ever felt; the unrelenting fcourge of a STRANGER, who can have no feeling for the natives of the land, and has but one view, the flavery and ruin of millions to gratify his own infatiate rage of power, and which the hopes of conquering this ifland would complete; inftead I fay of profiting by fo woeful an example of the anger of the Almighty against the crimes that have reduced them to this ftate of wretchednels and defertion, we have madly preferred their drefles, their entertainments, and even their mode of feeding; and what is worse than all, a taste for that licentioufnefs of education to which their modern and infidel philofophy has artfully and most destructively paved the way. Nay, fo dead have many of our deluded countrymen been to that laudable dignity of manners, that proper contempt of difhonourable, bafe, and cruel conduct (when found even in the highest station) and which formerly marked the honeft and truly noble character of Britons, that they have meanly paid court to a common affaffin of the human race; a wretch without a tingle virtue or liberal accomplishment to recommend him: in fhort, the occafional inftrument of the fell rage of Heaven against the ungodly. Would a genuine Christian hold adulatory converfe with an apoftate Judas? p. 20, 21. We believe that this will meet the eye of fome who bowed before the idol of the day, and told him that their reafon for travelling fome hundreds of miles out of the way was merely for the honour of feeing the greatest man on the face of the earth. Had all thefe been detained to feel the greatest of his tyranny, and to languifh in mifery and fcorn at Valenciennes, we should have but little pity for their fate, and have thought that the English nation could fpare them well. |