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The poem itself is divided into two parts the Being, and the Nature of God. The first part is comprised in the first four books; the second occupies the remaining seven. It discusses and refutes every argument advanced against the existence of the Deity; and, borrowing from various sources of theological discussion, proves, from reason as well as Scripture, the existence of the Trinity in Unity; summing up with the great and distinguishing doctrines of the gospel. In the argumentative parts, there is a logical precision of thought and language, perfectly astonishing for an author so schooled. Whether we regard this work as a defence of Christianity, or as a work of intellect, we are equally struck with the power

and tact of the writer. It does great credit to his head, as well as to his heart. We sincerely wish he could be saved from the drudgery of his toilsome daily labour at the loom; but perhaps the wish is wrong. He is there a respected and an honoured instrument of good to perhaps many as thoughtless as he once was. Away from his daily toil, he might relax into habits uncongenial to his better interests. Paul was a tent-maker. Our author need not, therefore, despair. We earnestly, and most conscientiously, commend this volume to our readers. Its purchase will do good to a deserving man; its possession will put into their power a concise and satisfactory treatise on a topic, now, alas! too frequently discussed; and in coupling with this the assurance of mental gratification in its perusal, we are doing nothing but our duty to the author, the public, and ourselves.

A Letter to the Right Honourable and Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of London, on the present State of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in the Metropolis and its Suburbs. London: Rivingtons. 1834. Pp. 19.

THE object of the pamphlet is to invite the attention of the Society to the propriety of appointing metropolitan and suburban district committees. The subject is one of some importance. The meetings in Lincoln's-inn-fields are for the transaction of general, not local, business; and while the country is well provided with efficient local committees, London and its neighbourhood have none. The inconvenience, if we may call it by so slight a term, will, we trust, be attended to and removed. The means as well as objects of the Society would then be extended, since the Metropolitan District Associations would have their local subscribers, and many tradesmen, &c. who shrink from the publicity of a ballot at Lincoln's-inn-fields, would be ready and forward to contribute to district and parochial funds. We recommend the serious consideration of the subject to all members of the Society.

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The Penny Sunday Reader, for Sunday, Jan. 4th. Edited by the Rev. J. Ë. N. MOLESWORTH. London: Rivingtons. Canterbury: Barnes. 12mo. WHILE this sheet was passing through the press, a specimen number of this seasonable and well planned publication come into our possession; and we hasten to make it known to our readers, as furnishing a valuable accession to every family library, including also the library for the kitchen. The established character of the reverend editor for orthodoxy and piety will be a sufficient guarantee for the soundness of its principles. "The design of the Sunday Reader is, under the prevailing taste for periodical literature, to furnish, principally the poor, and, at the same time, families and individuals of all classes, with subjects adapted to the sacred character of the Lord's Day." The editor aims at giving it that form and tendency which shall render it-like the blessed religion it is designed to advance-a point in which the rich and poor may meet together, may know their common interests, and feel that the same God is the Maker of them all.

VOL. XVII. NO. I.

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The Sunday Reader is to be published every Wednesday, so that copies may be ready for circulation in all parts of the kingdom on the ensuing Saturday it is neatly printed, and is ornamented with a well-executed engraving of St. Martin's Church, Canterbury (of which Mr. Molesworth is rector), the most ancient church, perhaps, in England. As it is obvious, from the price at which the Sunday Reader is to be published, that its success must entirely depend upon a large circulation, we do hope that it will meet with the encouragement it so well deserves, by the Clergy and opulent members of the laity ordering copies for sale or distribution in their respective neighbourhoods.

An Essay, Religious and Political, on Ecclesiastical Finance, as regards the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland; interspersed with other matter not irrelevant to the subject. By the Rev. DAVID O'CROLY. London: Longman & Co. Cork, 1834. 2d edit.

12mo.

WE feel, from even a slight inspection of this "Essay," disinclined to swell the stream of commendation which it has received from various and very contradictory quarters. For the free disclosures which the writer has made of the plans for pillaging the people, and squeezing the hard earnings of the poor into the priest's wallet, we tender him our best thanks; and there, for the present, we are constrained to stop. Mr. Croly is a prudent gentleman, by no means wanting in circumspection; and his doctrinal statements, bearing, as they do, some assimilation to the Feronian system, yet approach much nearer to the convenient oscillation of Dr. Lingard, and similar writers. This, and his fortifying some of his sentiments with references to Dr. John Milner, and the late illustrious charlatan, Dr. Doyle, are rather indisposing causes to a favourable judgment of Mr. Croly's performance. He says, for instance, "That there is much less difference been the Catholic and Protestant systems than most people imagine" (p. 13), supporting

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his remark with some cool assertions of Dr. Doyle! And in this he is perfectly correct, for there is no difference whatever between them; they are identical; but between Popery and Protestantism there is a difference, wide as the poles asunder. In the expectation that the sophistical portions of the "Essay" will find a ready answer in the land of its nativity, we abstain at present from any further remarks. To Mr. Croly's scheme for settling Popery down into the Irish soil, he shall have, not only ours, but the opposition of even every patriot in the country, who can do no less than think with the Right Hon. Lord Brougham, that "No greater curse could befal the people of Ireland, no greater danger could arise to the liberties of England as well as Ireland,--than any measure which would tend to instal the Roman as the established religion of that country."-Mirror of Parliament, June 6,

1834.

Mr. Croly has been suspended from performing the rites of his community in consequence, it is reported, of the "Essay." Our judgment of it remains the same, till better informed.

The Metropolitan Ecclesiastical Directory; or, a Guide to the principal Churches and Chapels in London and its Environs, with the Hours of Service, Remarks on the Preachers, and some Account of the Buildings. By the EDITOR of the "Cabinet Annual Register."

THIS volume may be of service to our country cousins; but to those who reside in London, beyond the mere knowledge of the existence of sundry preachers and sundry chapels, it might tend to increase itching ears, a fact most destructive of true christian humility and that sound piety which belongs to the true members of our Church. The observations of the author are impartial, and the information he has thrown together must have cost him no little trouble. In a work of this nature mistakes will of course be found. Hence at p. 50, for Rev. W. J. Hall, we have W. Hale; p. 54, for Rev. W. Hesketh we have Rev. Estcourt.

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Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Right Rev. Reginald Heber, D.D., late Lord Bishop of Calcutta. By THOMAS TAYLOR, Author of the "Life of Cowper." London: Hatchards. 1835. Pp. 512.

OF the life of Bishop Heber we have nothing to add to what we stated in our Miscellany of 1828. The materials for the present edition by Mr. Taylor are drawn from the life of his Lordship by his widow; from the Bishop's journal; and from Mr. Robinson's "Last Days of Heber." The volume is portable, and the style pleasing; and the work throughout, coming from the pen of Mr. Taylor, whose merits we have before eulogized, is most instructive. It will prove an acceptable volume to those who are at all interested in our eastern missions.

Herbert's Country Parson. Also, Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations. London: Washbourne. 1834. 18mo. Pp. 244.

AN elegant reprint of an inestimable book.

The Little Villager's Verse Book. By the Rev. W. L. BOWLES. London: Bulcock. 1835. 12mo. Pp. 36. THE object of this little book is to describe, in verse, the most obvious images in country life, and in the smallest compass to connect them with the earliest feelings of humanity and piety. Of the poetry we need say no more than that it is by Mr. Bowles, to acknowledge that it is both pleasing and instructive.

A SERMON

ON THE DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITY OF A CHRISTIAN MINISTER.

2 CORINTH. v. 20.

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

"It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners :" to point out the means and the conditions of that reconciliation between God and man, by which the fatal effects of the Fall could alone be remedied. With respect to the means of this reconciliation, the Christian is assured, that "there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby he may be saved," but only the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Redeemer of the whole race of man from the guilt and corruption produced by the transgression of Adam; and by the "full, perfect, and sufficient" atonement which he made by the sacrifice of himself upon the cross, he has "opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers." It does not follow, however, because Christ has opened the gate, that men will necessarily enter in. Salvation is, indeed, the free and unmerited gift of God." By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." But the Apostle does not mean that the salvation which is here spoken of is final and unconditional; much less that it is given only to a select few, whilst all the rest of the world are irrecoverably deprived of it. "The grace of God has appeared unto all men;" and to all, equally and indifferently, is eternal salvation promised, if they are careful to fulfil the conditions of God's covenanted mercy. "Being reconciled to God by the death of his Son," it is our own fault if we fail of so great salvation. During his ministry upon earth, our Lord himself repeatedly enforced the conditions of faith and repentance, as essentially necessary to this reconciliation; and after his death he commissioned his Apostles, and their successors until the end of time, to entreat their hearers, in his stead, to be reconciled to God. "As the Father has sent me, even so send I you and lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world."

It is obvious, indeed, from this very commission, that man has a part to act in the great and important work of his salvation. True it is, that, after our most earnest endeavours "to make our calling and election sure, to fight the good fight of faith, to work out our salvation, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God," we are still but unprofitable servants, and unworthy of the lowest mansion in the kingdom of heaven. Still, if nothing were required, because we are unable of ourselves to do it, and because it is unavailable as far as merit is concerned, where would be the necessity of so earnest an entreaty to be reconciled to God? Surely it would be worse than mockery, to entreat the sinner doomed to eternal perdition, to seek for that reconciliation of which he

is incapable; surely it would be worse than useless to beseech the elect to be reconciled to God, if his reconciliation were already complete, and his salvation sure. So far is either of these extremes from the truth, that if "the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness which he hath committed, he shall save his soul alive;" and, on the other hand, “when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, in the trespasses which he hath trespassed, and in the sins which he has sinned, in them shall he die." Upon the atoning blood of Christ as the meritorious cause, and upon repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, as the indispensable conditions, depends that reconciliation with God, which is the earnest of eternal happiness in heaven. With reference to the duty bound upon them to "beseech" their people" in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God," the ministers of the gospel are represented as "ambassadors for Christ," as "watchmen over the souls" of those committed to their care, as "stewards of the mysteries of God." Now" it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful;" and the fidelity required is proportionate to the importance of the trust. Awful, then, must be the responsibility of that stewardship, whose concern is not with treasures laid up on earth, but with treasures that should be laid up in heaven; not with things that minister to bodily comfort, but with the care of immortal souls; not with the fading vanities of time, but with the endless prospects of eternity. To impress your minds with a due sense of this responsibility, I shall proceed to explain to you the nature and importance of the office of a christian minister, and to point out the duties required on the part of his flock, in order to give effect to his ministry.

The commission which our Lord gave to his Apostles immediately before his ascension into heaven, was comprised in these words: "Go ye, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." Hence it appears, that not only to his Apostles, but to their regularly appointed successors in all ages of the Church, the charge to preach the gospel extends; and accordingly, from the beginning of Christianity to the present time, persons have been duly set apart to the work of the ministry, and spiritual powers conveyed to them by the imposition of hands. That no preacher, either self-ordained, or ordained by the people, was allowed in the early ages of the Church, is evident from the fact, that by the hands of the Apostles and their successors alone were elders ordained, never by the hands of the people. In accordance, therefore, with the charge thus committed unto him, and relying upon the gracious assistance which his heavenly Master has promised to afford, the minister of the gospel is called upon to preach the gospel; to feed the flock of Christ entrusted to his charge, to bring back the wanderers to the fold, to teach the sheep to know his voice, and to preserve them from the wolf, and from the "thief, who cometh to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." In dispensing, as a good and faithful steward, the word of life, he is to utter no preconceived or favourite doctrine of his own; but "whatsoever the Lord hath commanded," that, and that only, is he

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