Writer's reasonings; more especially as he has taken no notice of the ample and satisfactory answer that most of his arguments and objections have received, and has misstated in many instances the opinions he controverts. As a specimen of his logical tactics, we may refer to the flippant manner in which the fact of the original institution of the Sabbath, as recorded Gen. ii. 3., is disposed of. A greater importance has been attached to this part of the ques'tion', he says, ' than properly belongs to it.'

It is no doubt recorded, that God rested from his works on the seventh day; but it is to be remembered, that it is the precepts, and not the example of God, which constitute the rule of human duty.'

A more flagrant specimen of unfair dealing with Scripture evidence, could hardly be selected from the works of any papist or neologist. Is nothing more recorded, than that God rested from his works on the seventh day? Is his blessing and sanctifying the seventh day nothing? Is this recorded for nothing? Is not the example of God in resting on the seventh day, elsewhere adduced as a reason for the precept to rest on the sabbath? It is, however, an assertion in flat opposition to the most explicit language of the New Testament, that the example of God is not a rule of human duty.* A writer who can allow himself to deal in such bold and random affirmations, is not to be trusted as a reasoner; and the freedom with which he imputes to all from whom he differs, gratuitous assertions, preposterous opinions, mere assumptions, an entire forgetfulness of obvious facts, ill becomes the modest inquirer after truth.

We cannot pass over the gross misrepresentation of the Saviour's conduct, in working miracles of healing on the Sabbath, which occurs at p. 261. To evade the natural inference, that Our Lord designed to teach the Jews that the Sabbath was made for the benefit of man, and to reprove the sanctimonious hypocrisy of the Pharisees, the Writer represents his conduct as an intentional violation of the law, in virtue of his authority as Messiah; a public and avowed violation of the Sabbath. It can scarcely be necessary to refute this most abominable perversion of Scripture, which would justify the Pharisees for treating Our Lord as a blasphemer, making him to have committed a legal crime. If any possible doubt could exist as to the entire lawfulness (according to the law of Moses) of the acts which Our Lord performed on the Sabbath, from their very nature, his own language would remove it: Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath-days, or to "do evil?"+ Nay, his very accusers were put to shame, when

* See Matt. v. 45-48. Eph. v. 1. 1 Pet. i. 15. 1 John iv. 11. † Mark iii. 4. See also Matt. xii. 7.-" Ye would not have condemned the guiltless."

he appealed to their own construction of the law: "Thou hypo"crite! doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or "his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?

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ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom "Satan hath bound, lo! these eighteen years, be loosed from "this bond on the Sabbath day?"* We must say that, pernicious as is the conclusion which our Author labours to establish, the arguments which he employs are still worse, and are of a character that betrays the infatuation of error.

One more specimen. At page 186, the Writer asserts, that 'the two great commandments, the love of God and of our neigh'bour, are not directly propounded in the Decalogue;' that they comprehend the Decalogue, but are not comprehended in it; and that the assumption that the moral law is comprehended in the 'Ten Commandments, seems to be alike incorrect and unfounded.' Thus, first setting up his own perverse exposition of the Decalogue in opposition to that of Christ and his apostles, he would persuade us to throw away the whole Ten Commandments as a mere fragment of an abrogated Jewish code; boldly denouncing 'the modern practice of dragging the Decalogue from its natural 'situation in the old covenant of Moses,' as the relic of an ignorant age,' credulously retained without the slightest shadow of evidence!

6

He

Passing over the unwarrantable arrogance of such language, worthy only of the heretical doctrine which it is employed to bolster up, before we dismiss the volume, we would seriously conjure the Writer to reflect upon the awful predicament in which he will find himself, should he, after all, be mistaken. What if the law which he ridicules and misrepresents, which he has exerted himself to the utmost to undermine, which he would erase with more than iconoclastic zeal from the walls of every Christian sanctuary, be not abrogated? Let him not deceive himself with the fond notion that he is under the protection of Scripture. stands purely upon his own infallibility, contradicting the great body of the pious in every age, and risking, on the chance of being right in his opinion, the awful condemnation: "Whosoever "shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” True; he has Archbishop Whately and Peter Heylin on his side; and he may cite a few incautious expressions of some of the Reformers, when scarcely emerged from the darkness of popery. But the great body of those whose interests he has espoused in this volume, are of a less respectable character, consisting of the anti-puritan, the antinomian, the sabbath-breaker, the scoffer, and

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Luke xiii. 15-17. See on this very point, Mr. Wilson's Sermons on the Lord's Day, pp. 61—68.

the profane. However pure may be a man's intentions, however sincere and deliberate his convictions, it might well startle him to find himself ranged on the same side of an argument with men whose opinions are dictated by their corrupt passions, and aiding them in trampling under foot even a supposed law of God. The law of the Sabbath, considered as a law of expediency, he admits to be just and good; and he has therefore no excuse for having published a volume which, under the pretence of demolishing a theological dogma, aims at extirpating a Divine precept from the conscience, and subverting that law which Paul gloried in establishing. We can assure him that it is with unfeigned regret, and under a paramount sense of duty, we have been led to express such an opinion of the character and tendency of his performance.

We had intended to give some further extracts from the various excellent publications mentioned at the head of this article. Mr. Wilson's Sermons are distinguished by their practical value, combining with a very complete view of the theological argument in support of the perpetual obligation of the day, an earnest enforcement of its religious duties, and a faithful remonstrance with the habitual violaters of the Sabbath, of every class. Dr. Wardlaw's volume is of a more argumentative character, and embraces, as will have been seen, a particular examination of the question relating to its legislative enforcement. Dr. Burder's Four Lectures present with great perspicuity and conciseness the outlines of the argument, in a form adapted for popular circulation the subjects are, the Law of the Sabbath as instituted at the Creation;-as contained in the Decalogue; the change of the day; the due observance of the Sabbath. Mr. Gurney's Brief Remarks are arranged under the following chapters: 1. On the Patriarchal Sabbath. 2. On the Mosaic Sabbath. 3. On the Jewish Sabbath at the Christian era. 4. On the Christian Sabbath. Like every thing which proceeds from the Author's pen, it displays solid erudition and acute reasoning, united to true simplicity of mind and fervent piety. Though not adapted to silence a caviller, it will afford ample satisfaction to any one who wishes to have a concise view of the historical and ecclesiastical, as well as Scriptural evidence for the authority of the day. The fact cited by Mr. Gurney, after Bishop Andrews, from the Acts of the Martyrs, if it may be relied on, is decisive as to the practice of the early Christians; especially in connexion with the wellknown testimonies of Pliny and Justin Martyr. Referring to the words used by Pliny, Mr. Gurney puts the question, 'But what 'was the stated day when these things took place?'

Clearly the first day of the week; as is proved by the very question which it was customary for the Roman persecutors to address to the martyrs-Dominicum servasti?-Hast thou kept the Lord's Day?

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with the discharge of its appropriate duties, though not so palpable and apparent, is vet certain and unquestionable. A feeling of reverence and respect for the holy day of God, may be fairly asserted to be a moral principle of the most influential and practical character. It is a germ of thought and feeling pregnant with the most extensive and salutary results. It is a spring of action which has a powerful effect in controlling and regulating the movements of the whole machinery of the conduct. There is in fact, no external ordinance of religion, which experience shews to be so intimately connected with correspondent effects upon the general character, as that of the sabbath. habits are so truly symptomatic of the real state of the mind, as the mode in which it is habitually employed. Fix your eye upon any individual of your neighbourhood, or acquaintance in any department of life, who is remarkable for his conscientious regard for the sabbath, and for his regular and uniform attendance upon the public services of the sanctuary, and I am most exceedingly mistaken if you do not find him equally distinguished, if not by the genuineness of his piety and the fervour of his devotion, at least by the decency, the industry, and the rectitude of his general demeanour. Look around you on the other hand, and mark the man who is noted for his desecration of the day, which is by pre-eminence "the holy of the Lord",-the man who spends it in sleep, or in work, in travelling, or yawning, in drinking or gambling, the man who is rarely, if ever, found at his church, of his chapel, and still more infrequently at his Bible or his devotions; and what are his prevailing habits during the other days of the week? Granted-that he is not very precise in the duties which he owes to God; but is he more exact and conscientious in those which immediately relate to man? Is it to him that you would look for a pattern of every social and domestic virtue, of honour, benevolence, and integrity, as a man of property or professional engagement, of rectitude, veracity, and assiduity as a tradesman, of industry and conscientiousness as a workman, of fidelity as a servant, of sobriety and diligence as the head or the subordinate member of a family, of kindness as a husband, of affection and prudence as a parent, or of dutifulness and obedience as a child? To look for such qualities in combination with gross sabbath-profanation, and with habitual neglect and contempt of the appointed ordinances of the sanctuary, would obviously be to seek for light in darkness, virtue in vice, life in death. It is true indeed, that pride, necessity, or self-interest may do much to cleanse the exterior of the character, and to restrain the grosser excesses of profligacy and indolence; but no means are more effectual in raising the general standard of morality, and in removing the deformities of individual conduct, than the enlightened observance of the sabbath. I should deem it a most important step in advance, therefore, in parochial reformation, as a component part of national virtue, if every individual could be persuaded to pay a decent respect to the sabbath, and to be regular in his attendance upon the public means of grace. Such persons, I should consider not far from the kingdom of God; and thoug it be indispensably necessary to enter into the spirit, as well as to per form the outward duties of religion, yet, much moral benefit may be gained in improved habits of domestic and relative conduct, where un

happily there is danger the most awful and imminent, of coming short of the great salvation. It is impossible that a man of notoriously depraved and dissolute character should regularly meet his friends, or at least his neighbours, in the house of God, without feeling the dreadful inconsistency of his conduct. He will stand abashed in the presence of God and the congregation, and it can scarcely be otherwise, than that he should either be induced to forsake his vices, or abandon the place; where he appears from sabbath to sabbath, clad, as it were, in a robe of white, proclaiming his own shame. The indirect influence of the sabbath and its various ordinances, in thus purifying the outer court of the human character, even where it hath not the effect of consecrating its inner shrine, is, I am persuaded, incalculably beneficial to the community. pp. 146-51.

Art. II. The Eighth Report of the Committee of the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline, and for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders. 1832. With an Appendix. 8vo. pp. xvi. 320. Price 6s. London, 1832.

THE 'HE Seventh Report of the Committee of this admirable Society was published in 1827, and was reviewed in the last Volume of our former series. The present Report was (in substance) submitted to the General Meeting of the Society held at Exeter Hall, in the month of May last. The delay of its appearance is sufficiently explained by the immense mass of statistical and other valuable information, which forms the Appendix to the Report. While it was passing through the press, the population returns for 1831 have been printed by order of the House of Commons; of which use has been made to correct the calculations of the relative proportion of the number of criminal offenders throughout the country. The results are, upon the whole, more favourable than might have been anticipated.

Although the number of criminal offenders committed in the year 1830, was greater in particular districts, the aggregate number of commitments throughout England and Wales was less than in the preceding year. The total numbers were, in 1829, 18,675; in 1830, 18,107. The number of convictions had also decreased within the same period from 13,261, to 12,805. These numbers do not include offenders of every description who pass through the prisons during the year, but such only as were committed for trial at the assizes and quarter sessions; exclusive of debtors, vagrants, prisoners for re-examination, and summary convictions before magistrates. It was stated, at the general meeting, that, on a moderate computation, there are annually confined in the several gaols and houses of correction in the United Kingdom, a population of not less than 120,000 persons. This would be a two hundredth part of the aggregate population. The estimate

VOL. VII.-N.S.

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