system of the Church of Rome. He undertakes to warn the champions of the English hierarchy, whose "taste for describing their Church as apostolical seems to have been recently revived," (and we would that it had never failed), that "the practice can be attended with no possible benefit;" and to this we answer, that, whatever in the doctrine or discipline of the Church is of apostolical origin and descent, whether it be defended or undefended, will survive the attacks of all the "newspapers and reviews that deserve the name," and that the erastianism and indifference which the Edinburgh Reviewer recommends, have no solid foundation of perpetuity; and that the sects which have been most ready to adopt them, have had the quickest experience of their instability. Protestantism, Episcopacy, and Christianity, are older than the Edinburgh Review. If the Edinburgh Reviewer would have taken the trouble of examining Mr. Morgan's Doctrine and Law of Marriage, Adultery and Divorce, which Mr. Todd's pages commended to his notice, he might have been better acquainted with the subject which he treats so superciliously he might, at least, have learned the difference between the doctrines and language held in the Churches of England and of Rome, in respect of marriage; he might have known that the one falsely attributes to it a sacramental character, and thence it infers its perpetuity; and that the other venerates it as a divine institution for the good of mankind; and in conformity with that institution and purpose, and with the express language of the Scriptures, maintains its permanent and indissoluble obligation, which is also recognized by the ordinary law of the land, and only violated by the anomaly of an ex-post-facto. From the same work he might have learned that these things are not ordered better in Scotland, where the merely civil contract of marriage is in one case as hard to be proved, as in another it is easy to be dissolved. The famous case of Dalrymple v. Dalrymple, is a poor testimony of the law of marriage in Scotland. But it has become the idiom, we had nearly said the idiotism of a party, to assert that the Church of England is in nothing better than the Church of Rome. "The most essential trappings of a proud popish Prelacy were left uncurtailed at the Reformation:" if this is meant of the wealth of the Church, Sir James Mackintosh may teach the reviewer, that a fifth or a fourth part of the landed property of England, then held by ecclesiastics, was confiscated in the space of five years: if it is meant of the power of the Bishops in Parliament, from which the Edinburgh reviewer would not grieve to exclude them; it should be remembered, that at the time of the Reformation, the ranks of the Peerage had been thinned by the wars of the Roses, and the spiritual Peers formed a moiety, if not a majority of the House, of which they now constitute hardly the sixteenth part; and there surely never was a period, in which there was less occasion to charge the Bishops of the Church of England with "the trappings of a proud popish Prelacy." The Reformation may not have been carried to the extent which was intended, or which may yet be desired. The spirit in which the reviewer speaks of matters of ecclesiastical polity, and especially of confirmation, (on which we would advise him to read any approved commentary upon Heb. vi. 2. before he again calls it "a popish and unscriptural rite,") proves his incompetence to judge of the progress and necessity of a Reformation. We are no apologists of errors and abuses in the Church; we have no prejudice against a just and necessary reform: but we remember how well the reformers did their task, and how little they left to be done; how wisely they restored to the people the knowledge of the Scriptures, and the liberty of worshipping God in their own tongue; how much they rejected, and how little they retained of what was contrary to the Scriptures, AND the practice of the primitive Church: and it is not true that nothing has since been done. The authorized version of the Bible is the imperishable memorial of the sacred learning of the reign of James I.; the liturgy was revised after the restoration; a further revisal of the liturgy, with a scheme of comprehension, was attempted at the revolution; the condition of the Bishops and inferior Clergy was improved, and some large parishes divided, and new Churches erected, in the reign of Queen Anne: and if some measures have proved abortive, and others have not been attempted, the fault may in some degree be ascribed to a keen sense of the jealousy of Catholics and Dissenters; and, favourable as we have always been to just concession and reform, we are constrained to ask, what but an increase of hostility has followed the repeal of the restrictions upon the Unitarians, the Catholics, and the Protestant Dissenters? Many of the writers, whose names and talents have given eclat to the Edinburgh Review, have lately been raised to high rank and office under the crown. We hardly need to name Mr. Brougham, Mr. Jeffrey, Sir James Mackintosh, Mr. Macaulay, and others. Is it not possible that those writers begin to experience, that the noise and the bustle, which are suited to opposition, are not equally adapted to the high responsibility of ministers of state; that they want the power to control the popular passions and love of change, which they have themselves excited; and to restore the affections of the people, to the institutions which they have taught them to depreciate, and which they are themselves now called to defend? But if they have now any control over the which their talents have raised to oracular eminence with their party; may they not give occasional hints to their young reviewers, to mix some little wisdom with their wit; to deal in something more valuable than antithesis, and point, and sarcasm; and to pages remember, that with or without the will of the Edinburgh reviewers, England is still a Christian country, its specific creed and formularies are all Protestant, its Church is in alliance with the State, its laws are founded in justice to the community, and to individuals, and its king is, in all causes and over all people, ecclesiastical as well as civil, within his dominions, supreme? LITERARY REPORT. NNNNN The Confessions of a Member of the Church of England, occasioned by a laborious Examination of the celebrated Work of the late Rev. WILLIAM JONES, entitled, "The Catholic Doctrine of a Trinity." And also, A brief Essay on Socinianism. London: Marshall & Miller. 1830. 1 vol. 8vo. Pp. 221. FROM a perusal of the Introduction to this volume, we learn that it is the production of a Mr. Shaw, of Bath, whose signature proclaims him to be its author. Why not manfully place his name in the title page? We have no intention of dragging our readers through this covert attack upon the fundamental doctrines of Christianity; for, as there is nothing new in the objections of Mr. Shaw, so there could be little of interest or of instruction in the refutation of his stale heresies. And what, though the Defence of "the Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity," against which our author would be supposed to direct his assault, and through the sides of which, he dares to impugn the faith of our venerable Church, be found defective, and justly obnoxious to condemnation? we are "not careful" to answer for its integrity, building our creed upon the word of God alone, as the one touchstone of truth! Mr. Shaw writes forsooth of "the love which he bears towards the Church of England; he entertains a hope that his labours may "tend to its advantage;" he believes it to be "the best church of the present day." He reminds us of our old friend, Isaac Walton, who, with infinite naiveté, instructs his pupils to handle the writhing worms, about to be fixed upon their fishing-hooks, "tenderly, as if they loved them." And we take this opportunity of remarking, that our author is one amongst ten thousand examples, confirmatory of the unquestionable fact, that noisy advocates for Ecclesiastical Reform are animated with distaste for the doctrines, whilst they would wish to be considered as hostile chiefly to the discipline of the Church. We confess that we know nothing of the author of the work before us; but we do know that he is guilty of a disingenuous misnomer, when he ventures to describe himself as 66 a member of the Church of England," with the Articles, the Creeds, the Liturgy, and the Homilies of which, he is at open war! We acknowledge our indignation at this assumption of a name, under whose treacherous and convenient disguise the characteristic doctrines of our holy Church are utterly denied, whilst, by these contemptible tricks, the infidel and the dissenter are furnished with weapons of attack against the very foundations of our Sion, from the armoury of such as falsely boast themselves her sons! Lovers of naked truth, we think it a solemn matter of duty, to enter our protest against these fraudulent impositions, which deceive the unwary, and give occasion to the sarcastic revilers of our ecclesiastical establishment to iterate the memorable taunt, that the members of our communion, "reprobate in the closet what they read in the Church."* Gibbon's Memoirs, p. 240. We cordially detest every species of juggling imposture, and we instinctively shrink from the hollow embraces of the assassin, who flatters us with his lips, and would at the same time plant his dagger in our hearts! "Betrayest thou me with a kiss?" is the query, with which we would repudiate these protestations of affection; and we would hold no intercourse, even as reviewers, with an author writing under a false name, as we would outlaw the pirate, fighting under false colours. "The Confessions of a member of the Church of England," forsooth! "What concord hath Christ with Belial?" "Much may be guessed at the man and his book."-" What depth there is, by the framing of his title-hung out like a tolling signpost to call passengers. A surer sign of his lost shame he could not have given, than seeking thus unseasonably to prepossess men BY A FALSE NAME. And seeing he hath neither kept his word in the sequel, nor omitted any kind of boldness in slandering, it is manifest his purpose was only to rub the forehead of his title with this AsSUMPTION OF A NAME, that he might not want colour to be the more impudent throughout his whole cONFESSIONS." The Gospel Miracles; in a Series of Poetical Sketches; with Illustrative Conversations. By RICHARD MANT, D. D. M. R. I. A. Lord Bishop of Down and Connor. London. Rivingtons, 1832. 12mo. Pp. xi. 254. IN the conversations attached to these sketches consists, in our opinion, the most valuable portion of the book. They illustrate, in an easy and familiar way, the scriptural, geographical, and incidental allusions in the several miracles of our blessed Lord recorded in the Gospel, which the sketches themselves are intended to pourtray. There is nothing, however, very striking or impressive in the poetry; which is chiefly interesting as marking the devotional feelings of the writer's mind, Milton's Apology for Smectymnus. Polit. Works, vol. iii. p. 172. Edit. Amsterdam, A. D. 1698. VOL. XIV. NO. VI. and his earnest wish to impart some portion of it to his readers. As a fair specimen of the whole, we select the stanzas on the raising of the widow's son. We are somewhat fastidious, perhaps, having perused and re-perused Dale's beautiful poem on the same subject; and we shall therefore leave our readers to play the minute critic themselves. The bishop is unquestionably a highly gifted scholar, and a sound divine; but non omnia possumus omnes. It is not denied, indeed, that his verses are respectable; but we expect something far above mediocrity from Bishop Mant. THE WIDOW's son. Yield the way, give ample space; Moving in funereal state. With maternal anguish wild, In affliction's darkest mood, Reft from her in widowhood. Thro' the livelong night and day He has been her only stay. All in him alone are dead! Life's last charities are fled. What, alas! is left for her, But in yonder sepulchre, Where her earthly hopes shall lie, There to lay her down and die? "Weep not!" Hark! a voice I hear Issuing from another throng, Which to Nain's city near Moves Capernaum's road along. There is one of gentle mien, Who, on yon funereal scene Gazing with benignant eyes, "Weep not!" to the mourner cries. Y Y Who is he that boldly bids Tears of grief their station keep, Pent within the bursting lids! 'Twere as easy task from sleep Fresh with life the nerves are strung, Him, whom he from death hath won; Let him to thy bosom grow, We meanwhile, whose lighter heart And thy Benefactor bless. So from distant Galilee Shall the glorious tidings sound; Tabor's mount, Tiberias' sea, Hence shall spread the marvel round. Judah's hills shall hear the tale; And her towns our PROPHET hail, At whose bidding sorrow flies, Death is foil'd, the dead arise! Sermons preached at the Temple Church by the Rev. W. H. ROWLATT, M.A., Reader at the Temple, and domestic Chaplain to the Right Hon. Lady Gifford. Rivingtons. Pp. xii. 418. Svo. THIS is a valuable collection of sound practical sermons, and highly creditable to the author, who has evidently devoted much of his time to the study of his profession. If we have any objections to offer to the positions laid down by Mr. Rowlatt, it is when he apparently advocates the doctrines of expediency, and farther concessions to the spirit of popery. With his views upon this subject it is impossible for us ever to coincide. Every day convinces us that concession has already gone too far; and that unless a stand, at once determined and immediate, be made against the encroachments of the enemies of our Established Church, she will inevitably become a victim to their implacable hostility, and unceasing machinations. We trust that these sentiments will not subject us to the charge of intolerance, as such is by no means our spirit. As watchmen of the Church, however, we dare not slumber whilst the enemy is abroad. The Missionary Spirit: introductory to the Course of Monthly Lectures, established by the Bishop and the Clergy of Boston and the Vicinity, to be denominated The Episcopal Missionary Lecture; delivered in Christ Church, Boston, on the Evening of Advent Sunday, Nov. 27, 1831. By GEORGE W. DOANE, M.A. Rector of Trinity Church. Boston: Stimpson & Clapp. Pp. 34. It is always gratifying to us to notice the labours of our brethren in America, especially, when, as in the present instance, they are directed to the extension of pure religion and virtue. Mr. Doane is unquestionably a writer of great power; and, what is of more value, a right-thinking man. The Missionary spirit displayed by him, is that which actuates our two admirable Societies for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and the Propagation of the Gospel; not that bitter feeling of sectarianism and exclusiveness which has rendered the term Missionary suspected, both in this country and our colonies; and, consequently, his testimony to the intrinsic merits of our venerable Church, is highly acceptable, and expressed in a manner that cannot fail to please our readers. He is pointing out the various subjects which may form the texts of succeeding lectures; and amongst them adverts to "the worthies of that blessed Communion, the good old Church of England, |