England is under deep obligations for having unmasked the insidious schismatics who arrogantly assume to them selves the character of true churchmen. In this clouded day, it is of essential importance, that the various situations in the church should be filled by men of sound judgment, active zeal, and rational piety. A canting moderation has had no other effect than to produce such an indifference to Christian principles and Christian order, as hath increased licentiousness on the one hand, and fanaticism on the other.

The reverend archdeacon is sensible that this is the state of things among us, and he powerfully calls the clergy of his district to a serious consideration of it.

"The prophecies of the New Testament justify the expectation that in the latter days perilous times will come, The signs of the present are such as create an apprehension that these times are now at hand. And certainly when it is considered, that every separatist from the establishment, of what denomination soever, is more or less unfriendly to it (for in this case experience has proved, that " he that is not for us, is against us;")—it must argue a want of common attention to the instinctive principle of self-preservation, not to be on our guard against a possibly approaching evil. It will be our policy, therefore, to think seriously beforehand; to meditate on the glory that awaits those that shall endure unto the end, and the shame that will alight on those who shall fall away. At the same time it is to be observed, that the attention on this occasion should be directed perhaps less to others than to ourselves; not so much to those who have actually separated from the Church, as to those who still continue members of her communion. For, although to recal separatists from the error of their ways, has frequently been found an hopeless undertaking; still, to convince those in present communion with our Church, that there actually exists no just cause for separation from it, is, we trust, an undertaking not equally hopeless. And should this undertaking be accompanied with that becoming charity towards separatists, which as Christians they have a right to expect from us; we may even flatter ourselves, under the divine blessing, that many of those pious perscns, who have no particular prejudices to gratify, and who cannot be fairly thought to separate merely for separation's sake, will, from the production of such fruits among us, conclude, that the Church of England really is what she claims to be, a true Church of Christ; and consequently, it is not necessary that they should seek for the genuine vital spirit of Christianity elsewhere."

After noticing the plea urged by some for their sepa

ration

ration that the gospel is not preached in our churches, Mr. Daubeny exhorts his hearers to a due consideration of the subject.

"I do not hesitate to say, that no advantages of education, however on other accounts desirable, will compensate for a radical defect in the discharge of our ministerial office; and that even those blue-aproned men, (as Bishop Hall calls them), who never knew any better school than their shopboard," should they actually preach the truths of the gospel, with whatever inconsistent, offensive, and even blasphemous positions those truths may be mixed, will not fail to draw away hearers from the most dignified and learned divines, who preach them not. For in this case, my brethren, we are concerned about essentials, which admit of no alternative. Whilst the public mind is become so estranged from that confident respect, which heretofore generally attached to the commission which we bear, that we must expect at this time to receive credit for nothing but the real intrinsic value, considered in an evangelical sense, of the doctrine we deliver.

"What that doctrine should be, with the articles, homilies, and liturgy before us, we can be at no loss to determine. These are the authentic documents of our Church; and the more these documents are compared with, and thereby made to illustrate and confirm each other, the better qualified shall we be to draw the line of just discrimination between the genuine doctrines of grace, as laid down by our reformers, for the purpose of rescuing them from the corruptions of popery, and those gross and notorious errors, chiefly of foreign origin, which have since been grafted upon them; a line most necessary to be drawn by every minister, who would faithfully discharge his duty to the Church of England. At the same time it may be observed, without entering into nice distinctions, which tend more to verbal contention than to spiritual edification, that the most evangelical, and certainly the most useful kind of teaching, is that which, by a due combination of doctrine and practice, considered as essentially connected with each other, tends to raise the character of the Christian professor to that standard, which constitutes the perfection of the gospel system.”

Some excellent observations on the attention necessary. to be paid to the ministerial character, conclude this admirable charge, which cannot be read without profit, either by the private Christian, or those who are called to the awful and responsible duty of serving at God's altar.

A Letter

A Letter from a Country Vicar to the Right Rev. Father in God, Dr. SAMUEL HORSLEY, Lord Bishop of St. Asaph, inviting his Lordship to a Reconsideration of 1 Pet. iii. 18, 19, 20, and offering a more clear and consistent Interpretation of that Passage of Sacred Scripture, than is to be found in a Sermon lately published, affixed to a Second Edition of his Lordship's Version of Hosea. 8vo. Pp. 29.

HEN an obscure person undertakes to controvert the opinion of an eminent scholar on a question of difficulty, some portion of modesty is expected to characterize his language and address. Whether the author of the pamphlet before us is distinguished by much of this commendable virtue, may be gathered from his title page, wherein he presumes in pretty bold terms to pronounce his interpretation of a disputed passage of sacred writ, which has perplexed many deep-read divines, to be both clearer and more consistent than that offered by the learned prelate to whom his letter is addressed.

After having thus reviewed his own performance, and given it so decided a character, it might seem presumptupus in us to pronounce any judgment upon its merits : but as the author has done us the honour to censure our critical labours, and to associate us with the venerable bishop, we conceive ourselves bound in return to take some notice of his pamphlet.

The letter-writer very disingenuously opens his attack by an assertion that the bishop's interpretation of this portion of scripture," tends to lead us back to papal superstition, because," as he says, "the Romanists have built their notion of purgatory upon it."

And what if they have? Are we to abandon a scriptural truth, because it has been perverted, and by designing men applied in support of a gross error? The same Romanists have built the absurd fiction of transubstantiation

upon our Lord's own declaration at the institution of the sacrament! Are we therefore to put a forced and taphorical sense upon his words, and so run into another error, in order to avoid the charge of popery? It will be found that almost all the capital errors of the Romish church have arisen from perverting the ancient ar

ticles

ticles of faith, and by subtilizing them, creating doctrines which were unknown to the primitive Christians.

Thus on the subject in hand; the universal belief of the church in the pure periods of Christianity with respect to the state of the dead, and the descent of Christ into hell, was briefly thus: that the souls of the righteous go to their place, which is a state of rest and comfort, and those of the wicked depart to one of misery and torment, both waiting for the day of judgment*. In conformity with this belief, it was understood, that the soul of Christ did in the interval visit the souls of the righteous in that part of HADES or Hell, which is called Paradise, and there preach or declare that their salvation was accomplished; thus fully confirming what St. Paul says, that he hath brought life and immortality to light by his gospel." It never was the opinion of any Christian divine till the days of Popery, that the souls of the righteous go into Heaven, properly so called, till the consummation of all things; but that they abide.till that event in a middle state, secure from evil, and waiting in joyful hope for the resurrection of the just.

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The descent of the soul of Christ in the sense expressed and elucidated by the learned prelate, is therefore clear and consistent: it coincides with the faith of the church in the best ages: it harmonizes with the rest of scripture; and renders the declaration of the apostle's creed plain, intelligible, and a matter of comfort.

On this article of faith, it is true, the Romanists built their purgatory, and let them keep what they have invented, and by which they have profited, if they chuse; but let not their error and presumption induce us to abandon the truth they have perverted.

What we have here said, is as much as need be said on this Address of the Country Vicar: for his interpretation of the disputed passage in St. Peter, is no other than that given by Whitby, and very nearly in his words. That commentator understood the text as meaning no more than the long-suffering of God in the time of Noah, and the preaching of Christ, to signify the preaching of repentance by that patriarch to the antediluvian sinners. while the ark was preparing. This is also the interpretation of the Country Vicar, who modestly calls it "more clear and consistent," than that offered by the bishop of

* Justin Martyr, Dial, cum. Trypho. Ed. Paris, 1636.

St.

St. Asaph. We shall make no farther remarks upon this petulant address, which closes as it begins, with ringing the alarum-bell of Popery, and freely asserting that the bishop's explanation is a prelude to the belief of the figment of purgatory. Such an illiberal observation is deserving of nothing but contempt.

Rejoice and do Good; or, the Road to Happiness. A Charity Sermon, preached at Banbury, Oxon, March the seventeenth, 1805. By the Rev. GEORGE BELL, A. M. Vicar of Bloxham, Oxon, and Chaplain to the Right Hon. WILLIAM Earl of CRAVEN. With an Appendix of Notes and References, explanatory of some local Parish Concerns. 8vo. Pp. 64.

HIS Sermon, which is of a very unusual length, contains a brief commentary upon the book of Ecclesiastes, from whence the text is taken, "I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life."

The charity for which the preacher pleads with considerable eloquence, appears well to deserve his praise, and to be generally known; we shall, therefore, give what is said of it in the sermon.

"Here is an annual Subscription raised among you for the relief of your poorer neighbours and parishioners, who may be aged or infirm, sick or heavily pressed with large families: the relief is given in as impartial and liberal a manner as can well be devised; given at each person's respective home, to whom tickets for the same have previously been sent upon the recommendation of any one of the subscribers, and that without any distinction as to religious opinions, sects, or denominations. The donations are given in such a way, as to shew, as much as conveniently can be, that they are intended not only as a relief, but as a mark of neighbourly regard for such of your poor parishioners, as have been the most willing and exemplary in their endeavours to provide for themselves: it is, in short, a society of the more fortunate or prosperous neighbours joining hand in hand, heart and purse, to assist those of their neighbours who have been less fortunate than themselves in life, though perhaps not less industri▾ ous: for we know, upon the same authority as our text, and Vol. IX. Churehm, Mag. for Oct. 1805. Q9 from