The rose will fade, the eyes grow dim, and the heart grow faint, and all that is of this world become incapable of administering, even a momentary cordial or amusement. You know as well as I do, would to God that you would let the thought take possession of your souls! that the time will come when the warmest appetites will be cold, when the acutest senses will be dull, when the liveliest fancy will be languid, when the giddiest sinner will be serious, and the drowsiest conscience awake. The time will come, of which your preachers have so often warned you, when your bodies shall be undistinguishable from the dust that flies before the wind, and when that dust shall have as much interest in the gayeties and sensualities of these upon whom it falls, as you! Long before that time arrives, the day may come upon you, when, on a dying bed, while you watch for the moment that is to stop that beating heart, you shall look back upon the life that you have spent, and forward into the eternity that is to receive you. In that awful season, whence will you derive your comfort? to whom will you apply yourselves--to pleasure, or to God? I have seen devotion triumph in the arms of death, but you need not wait until that awful period, to be perfectly persuaded, that pleasure cannot triumph there. It is not the remembrance, that you have loved pleasure more than God, that can give you confidence when you are entering into his presence: it is not this conviction that can comfort your attending friends: if you love them, if you love your own souls, let God have your first attentions, let your duty regulate your pleasures." pp. 232, 233.

Then follow next, two interesting sermons on our Lord's appearance to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection. Then three on the text, "Come, see the place where the Lord lay," in which some circumstances are pointed out in relation to the tomb in which our Lord lay, tending to strengthen the argument for his resurrection; and some reflections are made, not in this writer's usual style, on the religious benefit to be derived from meditating on the place where he was laid.

"David's morning hymn of praise," (psalm xix) is illustrated in the nineteenth discourse; and the two succeeding are occupied in exhibiting "the glory of God as displayed by the heavenly luminaries." They are intended "as an illustration of the manner in which we ought to meditate on the works of God." And they certainly show us how the study of nature may assist our piety, and how even those portions of it which most men regard only with curiosity, may be made subservient to religion, by the desire to "see God in every thing, and every thing in God." Thus the very external appearance of the heavens, the magnitude, rapidity, harmony, of the heavenly bodies, the importance of the sun's light and heat, even the changes of the moon, and the moons of other planets, are all brought forward to illustrate God's glory, and help our devotion. And thus indeed, in the mind of this preacher, various subjects appear to have been associated in some way with religion, which are probably seldom thought of in that connex

ion, and still more seldom presented in that connexion by the preachers of the gospel. Some may think indeed, that such topics are foreign from the purpose of preaching, and are too far from the revealed truths of the gospel to be proper for the pulpit. But for ourselves, we care not how many things afar off are brought nigh; how many subjects are made to have a bearing upon religious truths, and to be connected with religious feelings. We certainly think it important that men, being, as they are, moral and immortal agents, should never be suffered to forget their nature and destiny, their relation to a higher Being and a better world; and therefore, that preachers should teach them how to contemplate all they meet with a religious eye, and so make all beings, all subjects, all events, subservient to their religious improvement. We conceive it to be the excellence of that admirable book of Paley, "Natural Theology," not only that it proves the existence and agency of God, by proving design in all the works of nature, but that it leads us to the habit of noticing that design; so that after we have read that book, we look upon nature and its objects around us with new eyes, we view them in a different connexion, we see them, more clearly than before, touched by the finger of God, and so are drawing perpetual nourishment to our devotional propensities. It is something like this which may be effected by the mode of preaching of which we speak ; kingdoms and provinces of nature are taken out of the hand of chance, and drawn away from the gaze of irreverent inattention. We are made to recollect that they are part of God's dominion, and are reminded that religion has to do with something else than a selected list of topics; and instead of being confined to a narrow circle, around which she must be perpetually walking, and from which she is never to depart, is an uncontrolled observer of the whole universe, who may range without limit from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, and call in, as a handmaid to her service, the least and most distant things.

The three discourses which conclude the volume, are those which were written by Mr. Cappe upon occasion of his recovery from a long and dangerous sickness. They are full of exactly such sentiments as we should expect to fill the mind of a pious man at such a season. We cannot speak of them more particularly; but take our leave with the following extract.

"The visitations of which we speak, that have brought near to death, and have not terminated in it, will be applied by the wise and good man, in his reflections on the feelings of such times, to reduce the over-weenings

of self-esteem, and therefore to quicken him in the culture of the Christian character, and to animate his diligence in all the business of life.

"There is no scene so humbling as the bed of death. In that solemn light, which the near approach of judgment and eternity sheds around us, infirmities are apt to look like iniquities; in that awful hour that enlivens the desire, and takes from him for ever the power, to repair them, there is danger that the good man's errors and failings should rise up in his imagination to the magnitude of faults and crimes. When the end of life is just upon us, it is natural, it is scarcely avoidable, to compare its attainments with its length. Short must be the life, or great the attainments, which upon such a comparison, at such an hour, shall not hold forth to the comparer, much cause of humiliation and regret; opportunities unobserved, neglected, or declined.-Talents, though not misapplied, nor hid, nor unimproved; yet improved but feebly, coldly, and remissly, are not desirable attendants on a dying bed; no self-esteem is to be derived from them; in their aspect there is nothing pleasing; there is nothing soothing, nothing elevating in the language which they hold. Dejection, it may be expected, will accompany them, and it is well, if they do not cast some transient and uncomfortable clouds, on "good hope through grace."

"Christian, thy heart is no stranger to such sentiments; in the hour of devout reflection, how often have they intruded on thy repose! Humility is of the very essence of thy character, and when, drawing nigh unto thy Maker in acts of religious contemplation, or of pious homage, it is natural that self-abasement should spring up within the heart-it may even be, that "his dread falleth on thee," and that "his excellency, maketh thee afraid!"-Yet, I may appeal to you, that your humiliations were never more sincere, your self-esteem never lowlier, the sense of your imperfections never more awakening, and your sense of the divine excellencies more over-powering, if you have ever been there, than on the bed of death. With what affection was it that you then looked through impending death, to instant judgment, and an opening eternity? It was not terror;--terror was forbidden by divine mercy; it was not confidence, for confidence was repressed by the awful presence in which you were about to appear:-conscious of your own littleness and unworthiness, did you cast yourself wholly on the goodness and mercy of God? Sentiments like these become a creature such as man towards infinite perfection and unspotted holiness, and are highly favourable to Christian diligence and zeal; yet who that has ever felt the tender anguish intermixed with them, would prepare more of it against another hour of serious self-communion, or of approaching death ?--Who, that on the bed of death, has compared himself with his great Exemplar; his own conduct with the law of God; his temper, with God's discipline, and his attainments, with his privileges; who, that from such a situation has ever dwelt upon the painful retrospect of his own miscarriages and imperfections, can ever more think highly of himself; or ever more want motives in the future, to repair the past?

"Christians, cherish the remembrance of every scene and of every event which may have reminded you how far you have fallen short of the standard, to which your duty, your honour, your interest, and your comfort required you to aspire.

"While they are present with you, yield your hearts to the penitential sentiments which they awaken, for this is one act of honour unto God; but forget not, that in respect of such visitations, you have not rendered to him all the glory due unto his name, till you have pursued the dictates and demands of such penitential sentiments, into the faithful correction, and the diligent improvement of your hearts and lives." pp. 359–361.

We may perhaps be thought to have been speaking rather in the language of panegyric than of criticism. And we confess we have felt no inclination to point out faults in a volume, upon the whole so excellent. Indeed for ourselves we may say, that we do not perceive any faults in sentiment, doctrine, or morals, though we might, if this were the place, point out some of a rhetorical or literary nature. But these are of secondary importance. It is sermons like these which do honour to our religion, and improve the state of Christianity. It is sermons like these, that we wish to have printed and read. Above all, it is such as these, that we wish to have preached. In the high standard of moral excellence they present, in their celestial spirit of piety, their rational and sober and practical views of life, duty, and responsibility, in their animation, their fervor, and directness of address, in all these respects they are specimens of what the discourses of christian ministers ought to be; addresses equally to the understanding and the affections, the reason and the conscience, the intellectual, and moral, and spiritual nature of man. Preachers appear sometimes to forget that men have affections, and speak to them as mere intellect; sometimes to forget that they have understandings, and appeal solely to their passions; sometimes to imagine that all are scholars, and employ language which, to the majority of hearers, is an unknown tongue. In some sermons, the whole connexion of men with the Deity appears to be overlooked; in some, their connexion with one another; and in some, their concern with common sense. Now it is important, that all such errors be avoided. Men should be addressed according to the character and state in which they actually exist. Their whole nature and all their relations should be considered and remembered.

Of this kind of preaching, we have already said, this author affords examples; and we think the preaching which would do good, must have the same general characteristics. It must, in the first place, be rational, never losing sight of common sense. For though you may put the reason of some men asleep, and so make them Christians, yet the vast majority in this inquiring age, will not yield to representations which contradict their plain understanding; and therefore the more you approve every thing to men's reason, the more likely will you be to approve it also to their consciences. They must be treated as men, actual men, not as beings of romance or creatures of the imagination. Otherwise they will regard your exhortations as child's play, or the fictions of the theatre,

But this is not enough; preaching must also be animated, fervent, and pointed, another characteristic of these discourses. You must paint not only according to the truth, but in lively colours. You must show your hearers that you think the truth important, and are exceedingly desirous, that they should perceive it to be so. Men are so much influenced by sympathy, that they cannot see another greatly in earnest, without being ready to believe, that he has good cause for being in earnest. Here is seen the importance of addressing the affections. The state of men's minds on the subject of religion, is far more a matter of feeling than of Reflection. That attachment to the world, which is constantly counteracting the influence of religious truth, is altogether a matter of feeling. And it is to be overcome and altered, not by informing their ignorance, for they already know; not by convincing their understanding, for they are already convinced; but by creating an opposite feeling, by exciting an opposite interest, by presenting images of moral and eternal things in so lively and affecting a manner as to displace those images of earth which now fill and clog the mind. In order to this, you must speak to their feelings, must paint to their feelings, must engage their wishes, their desires, their passions, must interest their hearts. Else, you may convince a thousand, without moving one. Moreover, if men are to be at all interested in the subject, the preacher must do it; they will not excite themselves; they will not go out of their way to seek persuasion; you must bring it to them. They will be cold, except you warm them. A very calm, sober, learned dissertation may be borne, may be assented to; but it will leave no impression, for it will excite no emotion.

This animation and fervor, in the next place, must be distinguished by piety and devotional feeling. The relation of man to his Creator and Sovereign must never be left out of view. Otherwise eloquence will excite attention but for a season, and produce only a temporary effect. It will not sink into the heart and make a home there, unless the image of God go with it. It is the most excellent thing in these discourses, that He is in all the thoughts. The hearer never loses sight of him; his image is associated with all, and solemnizes all; and therefore the impression is lasting. And we believe, that sermons will always be found efficacious, in proportion to the solemnity, the elevation and purity of the devotional senti ments they contain, and the frequency, or rather constancy, with which they are presented.

We will only prolong this article to express a wish, that those who value impressive eloquence, pure morals, and fervent