science-yet has it found a place for itself in many a mind and country, to which the simplest mathematical demonstrations are, at this moment, unsolved problems! "What then is the conclusion? It is, it must be this-that the religion of Christ could not have been propagated by any earthly power--that it could not have been propagated by any mere external agency of Providence that it could have been propagated only by a spiritual and supernatural influence addressed to the perceptions and affections of man; -- and, therefore, that the religion of Christ is DIVINE, and its propagation through all ages is a DISTINCT, INDEPENDENT, and SPEAKING EVIDENCE of its DIVINITY!"--pp. 225--226. His replies to the specific objections of Gibbon, though brief, are acute, and highly satisfactory. There are passages of great vigour and beauty in this discourse. The internal evidences of Christianity are ably treated by Mr. Curwen. The following are the propositions which this gentleman illustrates. "That the mysterious style and character of the Bible correspond to the essential nature of the Being respecting whose perfections it professes to treat "That the system of moral government which this book exhibits is worthy of infinite wisdom to devise. "That the unity of design and general harmony of the scriptural revelation required the constant superintendence of more than human agency. "That the excellency of those precepts which form and sustain the morality of the gospel furnishes strong indications of the divine authority of the volume that originally contained them. "That the intuitive knowledge which it evidently possesses, viewed in connexion with the majestic form of its appeals, proves the gospel to be an emanation from intelligence that is essentially divine. "That the universality of adaptation, which the religion of the Scriptures has provided, evinces it to be an expedient requiring the unbounded knowledge and goodness of God to suggest it."--p. 250. Under the last of these propositions we find the following remarks. "1. Let individual experience bear witNo. 32. N.S. ness here. The man who communes with his own heart will soon find within himself the elements of that evil thing, whose melancholy influence is every day wasting the world and threatening to make it desolate. His heart moves in sympathy with the mourners that go about the streets, but he knows not how to account for the misery whose root of bitterness has struck into his own heart. The voice of nature and of reason are silent on this fearful subject. They say not why man should die, although they often awake the fear that he may survive his funeral. In the moment of his deep solicitude, this language arrests his attention,- By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for this moment that he is a son of that degenerate parent, his heart is distracted. Needing something to relieve him from that all have sinned.' Conscious from the pressure of a care that sinks his spirit, he urges the mournful cry, What shall I do to be saved?' Invited by the messenger of glad tidings, he comes before the cross, listens to the successive tones of sorrow, saken me?'--and of reason,-- He was My God, my God, why hast thou for wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.' He accepts the remedy; and the wounded spirit, refreshed and comforted, is of good cheer, as one whose sins are forgiven him. Having thus tasted mercy at its fountain, as a pilgrim to another world, he hastens on his way rejoicing; nor does he faint in his journey. For, the stream from that source he finds still adapted to his refreshment. It is unremitting as the return of his wants, and ample as his desires for happiness. The rock of which he drinks follows him, and that rock is Christ.' Now, we are willing to admit, that this argument is more confirmatory of the Christian's faith, than convincing to the unbelieving mind. But then, is it unreasonable that the deliberate and solemn statements of the experimental man should be heard by the infidel with as much attention as that of the unbeliever, who has never brought this subject to the test of his own experience? If the pious man tells us simply, that prior to his acquaintance with the gospel he was unhappy, and that he elsewhere sought in vain for a remedy to remove his conscious wretchedness;--if now he says, that in consequence of yielding up his heart to the gospel, he feels joy and peace in believing ;'--if under the influence of its principles he assures us, that he is contented with the arrangements of providence in this world, while he longs to enjoy the presence of the Father of his spirit in a world to 3 L ministers did not lower, nor relax, nor conceal, in order to ingratiate Christianity or conciliate the passions. No, indeed; the apostles levelled the whole artillery of heaven against all the vices of all classes; and in the synagogues, the sanhedrim, and before the proconsular thrones, were equally bold and impartial in rebuking sin, while preaching Christ crucified. come; if this hope within him gives calmness to his temper, and makes him in the sight of all men, neek and prudent, and charitable and honest; --if, moreover, all this time, he is neither a fool, nor a hypocrite, nor an enthusiast-then, his testimony and professions demand the attention that is due to a reasonable man. Hence, did it not become the unbeliever, before he rejected the gospel, to have performed one of these difficult tasks,--either to have proved the doctrines themselves untrue, or to have shewn the infatuation of his fellow creature, (perhaps, indeed, his bosom friend,) who tells him, that they are the joy of his heart; or to have provided for him some better system, some other principles, that will comfort in life, and sustain him in the prospect of a dying hour? Till you can promise this, if even Christianity be only a solemn delusion, it is cruel to disturb his composure. Tear him from the rock to which he clings, and he rests no more; but "Like the ocean weed up-torn, And loose, along the world of waters borne, Is cast companionless from wave to wave On life's rough sea:--and there is none to save."--pp. 270--272. The IXth Lecture" on the Practical Influence of Christianity," by Mr. R. Philip, supplies us with the following extract. "1. The practical influence of primitive Christianity, whilst it was taught by the Apostles and Evangelists. "Now, upon its moral triumphs, even in that short period, we are not afraid to stake the question of its truth: and this is a concession which a reflecting deist ought to participate; for, if Christianity was then ITSELF in all things, the public mind and manners were then as impure as error and idolatry could render them. Nor was this general profligacy--like that which followed the Restoration in Britain --a sudden revulsion from austerity to extreme licentiousness; but it was the settled habit of the Roman empire, and had been the very element of mankind for ages. Nor was there any thing in any religion of the time operating as a check upon that profligacy: for Judaism had almost lost its inoral influence even in Jerusalem; and heathenism actually ministered to all the worst passions of human nature, when Christianity began to assail them. Whatever, therefore, it met with in the public mind that was favourable to its reception, it found neither moral taste nor moral feeling. The heart and habits of society were utterly alien to its practical character. And that character its "Now, what was the effect?, Multitudes believed and turned unto the Lord.' This is the account given by the friends of Christianity and its enemies said, that the apostles were turning the world upside down.' "I will not hazard an opinion as to the probable number of converts during the apostolic age. It is enough to say, that the Christians were soon so numerous as to awaken both the jealousy and the fears of the Jews and Romans. The sanbedrim and the senate thought it necessary to persecute the church, at an early period of her existence. Does not this single fact refute the assertions of Celsus, Julian, and Porphyry, who say, that the first churches were composed only of servants, labourers, mechanics, and women? Nero, Tiberius, and Domitian evidently viewed them as a more formidable body. Or, if this was their general rank in life, their numbers must have been very great indeed, to exCæsars. cite such attention upon the throne of the "But it is the character, not the number, of the primitive Christians, which belongs to this inquiry. Now, if they were, as their enemies affirm, from the lowest ranks of life, the more triumphant is the proof they furnish of the practical influence of Christianity; for, amongst the lowest class in society, superstition is always strongest, and vice grossest. The ancient philosophers felt this; and, as much from despair as pride, did not attempt to reform the poor. Was it then the Lowest Romans in Rome, who were so raised in character by the gospel, that their faith was spoken of throughout the whole world?' Was it the lowest Jews in Jerusalem, who rose superior to the proverbial selfishness of their nation, and set the first example of a widow's fund, besides making all things common in the church? Was it the lowest of the Corinthians, Macedonians, and Achaians, who, out of their own deep poverty, contributed abundantly towards the relief of the poor saints in Jerusalem? Was it the lowest in all the provinces of the Roman empire who nobly braved the wrath of the highest, rather than return to Judaism or heathenism? If so, then the practical influence of Christianity proves the divinity of its origin. JULIAN! you are vanquished again by the Galilean; for your charge defeats your own purpose; and your attempts to rival the benevolent institutions of the Christians, prove the truth of their existence and influence."pp. 202-294. Lecture X. On the Experimental Evidence of Christianity, is by Mr. Morison. It comprises a mass of highly interesting observations, from which we can merely select the following short pas sage. "But let us now pause for a moment, and ask ourselves, what is the great object proposed by the individual who honestly investigates the two departments of evi dence which we have just slightly touched upon? Is it not one of the grandest that can possibly be submitted to the scrutiny of the human mind? Where could we point to another object of superior, or even of equal moment? To know whether God has authoritatively spoken to us or not, is surely a branch of inquiry so awfully interesting to the human family, that he who neglects to satisfy himself upon it, is guilty of a degree of levity which there is no term in our language to. express. And if it be true, that wherever the Bible is conveyed, it carries with it the full blaze of its own evidence, what a pressure of guilt and responsibility must rest upon the unhappy millions, who have no impression of the authority and grace of God as speaking to them in his own word. That the Most High should have vouchsafed a revelation of mercy to his apostate creatures,-a revelation the truth of which is attested by so great a cloud of witnesses'-and yet that it should fail to realize an universal and cordial reception, is a circumstance which requires to be accounted for upon some satisfactory principle. Were the revelation unimportant, or were the evidence of its truth defective, or in any degree recondite, and beyond the common reach of the human faculties, there would be no just ground of surprise; but when the very reverse of this is the case,-when we call to remembrance that the subject of the Bible is the divine method of saving human souls,--that its truth is supported by a weight of evidence, which no one can discredit without trampling on all the ordinary means of belief,--that its most commanding and influential statements stand forth, as it were, on its very surface, and are embodied in forms of language, unrivalled alike in simplicity and force: when we take all these things into account, and yet contemplate the avowed infidelity of some, the more concealed unbelief of others, and the awful indifference of the mass of human beings with whom we mingle, we are convinced that there must be some generic principle, if it can be ascertained, which will account for this fearful state of things which exists; and by which too we may have suggested to our minds the only satisfactory reason why any individual of the human race is led to attend to the evidence of the gospel, as to receive from it the stamp of its regenerating influence."-pp. 314-316. "The best methods of counter acting infidelity" is the subject of the XIth Lecture, by Dr. Winter. It is worthy of the well known sobriety of judgment and correct. ness of feeling by which its excellent author has been so long and so deservedly distinguished. The following sentences, though they will prove, perhaps, not very pa latable to the advocates of civil establishments of Christianity, possess great weight. "FOURTHLY,--We shall offer a powerful counteraction to the efforts of infi delity, by a consistent and uniform profession of Christianity according to the will of its Divine Author. "It is while Christians continue stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in breaking of bread, and in prayers, that they oppose the most efficient phalanx to both the open attacks and the covert artifices of the infidel. That Christians of all denominations, both Catholic and Protestant, have ably and successfully vindicated Christianity from the misrepresentations of its enemies, will be cheerfully and gratefully acknowledged. But charge me not, my respected hearers, with bigotry, if I venture to remark, that Protestant Dissenters, especially when united in the fellowship of the gospel, possess within their own hallowed enclosures, and in their scriptural principles, advantages of the highest order in this great warfare. A civil establishment of Christianity presents such potent secular recommendations of the system, as are particularly exposed to infidel objections. There are temptations inseparable from such an institution, to be satisfied with very superficial reasons, for avowing our faith in the gospel. It is the religion of my country-It is patronized by authority-It opens the door, in many instances, to worldly support, to respectability, even to aggrandizement. Such reasons for being Christians, are unable to stand against the ridicule which infidelity throws on the religion of Christ as a worldly system. And while opinions are professed, and practices adopted on human authority, which can derive no real support from the Holy Scriptures, even sincere Christians will often find it difficult to resist the opposition made to their profession by the scep tic and the unbeliever. "But where a profession of religion rests on no human authority; where its only appeal is to the law and to the testimony,' where there is a minute concern to be governed by the authority of Christ alone, and to adopt the plans and the discipline of the primitive churches, so far as they are detailed in the inspired records; the mind becomes inured to a consultation of the Scriptures; a growing acquaintance with them is the unavoidable consequence; and that acquaintance furnishes most powerful answers to many specious objections. Those who have been habituated to such employments are seldom found among the converts of infidelity. I am indeed fully aware, that it is not the possession of these advantages alone, but a constant attention to them, and improvement of them to the purposes which they are designed to answer, which will become effectual. There are too many in our congregations, and even in our churches, who are very ignorant of their own principles; and these have sometimes injured themselves, and grieved their friends and their ministers, by turning aside. But it is our mercy, that in the constitution of our societies, and in the observance of the ordinances of the gospel, according to the will of Christ, we have well-adapted means of building up ourselves and others in our most holy faith. "Allow me, then, to recommend a regular and constant attendance on the means of grace; the union of Christians in the fellowship of the gospel, promoted and strengthened by the observance of the Lord's Supper; mutual watchfulness over each other, exhorting one another daily; an earnest concern in our associated capacities, to teach the young, to visit the sick, to spread the knowledge of the gospel in the neighbourhood, to unite in promoting the diffusion of it through our own country, and through the world. To all these purposes, the constitution of our churches is admirably adapted; and we shall by these means, although some of them have little more than an inci. dental bearing on the subject, be erecting a potent standard against the most crafty and the most imposing efforts of infidelity, These remarks may, perhaps, be the means of securing in the minds of some young people, a greater degree of attention than they have yet given to the distinguishing principles professed in our churches, and of urging the use of these weapons in the defence of a spiritual king dom, which properly and exclusively be long to it."-pp. 345-347. The last discourse is from the pen of Mr. Joseph Fletcher, upon we forbear to comment; but it shall which, for obvious reasons, speak for itself. The subject is "the Mysteries of Revelation." "The instruments employed both in the Jewish and Christian revelation, exhibit nothing in their mental character that will account for the sublime and exalted conceptions which they disclose respecting the perfections and government of the only true God, This forms one important part of the internal evidence of their divine inspiration. While the wisest sons of nature's light and reason's tuition, amidst all the splendour of Grecian literature, and all the subtleties of philosophic speculation, knew not God,' a small and despised community on the castern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, possess a volume which unfolds more sublime conceptions of the Deity than Plato ever imagined, or Cicero ever taught. When I look at the Rabbinical fictions of this very people, their Talmuds or their Mishnas, I find nothing resembling in majesty, and simplicity, and all the evident traces of internal truth, the writings of the Old Testament. By similar characteristics are the writings of the Christian revelation distinguished. In the New Testament I meet with a disclosure of the character of Jesus of Nazareth- I see a combination of simplicity and majesty, of grace and glory, of purest truth and most perfect beauty, such as no uninspired men could have presented. Rousseau was compelled, in a lucid interval, to confess, that if the character of Jesus was a fiction, the inventor was a more astonishing personage than the hero!'-But who were the narrators? The fishermen and tax-gatherers of Judæa! They could as soon have created a world, as have invented the character of Jesus! Yet these are the men who give us all the sublime and mysterious announcements of Christianity; and they were men of unaffected seriousness--of unimpeachable integrity-of disinterested benevolence--of unostentatious and unambitious principles; and they proved all they said, by what they did, and what they were. They were authorised to exclaim-- We have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God." "Be it farther observed, that the peculiar and incomprehensible announcements of this revelation are so interwoven with those parts which are confessedly not of this character, and are so perpetually associated with the feelings and sentinients of the inspired writers, that if we admit the truth and authority of the one, we must admit the truth and authority of The truths of the gospel testimony, like the other. We cannot separate them. the graces of the Christian character, the fruits of the Spirit,' grow and flourish together! The history of the rise and progress of error affords awful proof of this connexion; for if one sublime verity of this system be renounced, the progress and renunciation soon extends to the rest, and actual sceptiscism in its spirit and results is the awful consequence!"-pp. 393-395. Upon the whole we have derived great satisfaction and pleasure from the perusal of this volume. The only exception we feel disposed to offer, respects not the execution of the several discourses, but the general plan. The two or three last sermons are upon topics not so directly bearing upon the evidences of inspiration as we could have wished. Some branches of the main discussion would have been advantageously enlarged, and might, by mutual arrangement, have extended through two or three discourses. In particular, Mr. Burder's, Mr. Reed's, and Mr. Curwen's subjects, were all too extensive and momentous to have been comprised severally in a single sermon; or if it was found necessary to confine the subject to one preacher, at least a considerable expansion might have been admitted in the printed discourse. We wish the volume, however, all the success it so justly merits. ་་་་་་་་་་ The State of the Metropolis; or, the Importance of a Revival of Religion in London. By the Rev. James Haldane Stewart, M.A., Minister of Percy Chapel. 12mo. pp. 22. 6d. Hatchard. A Sermon preached in the Parish Church of St. Antholin, Watling Street, on Monday, March 19, 1827, for the Benefit of the City Missionary Society. By the Rev. Hugh M Neile, M. A., Rector of Albury, &c. &c. With an Appendix, containing the First Report of the Committee, &c. &c. &c. pp. 44. 1s. Hatchard. Reflections on the Moral and Spiritual Claims of the Metropolis: a Discourse delivered at the City Chapel, London, introductory to the second Series of Lectures to Mechanics, established by the Society for promoting Christian Instruction in London and its Vicinity: with an Appendix, further illustrative of the Subject. By John Blackburn, Minister of Claremont Chapel, Pentonville, &c. 8vo. pp. 36. 1s. Holdsworth. An Answer to a printed Paper, entitled Manifesto of the Christian Evidence Society. Published by the Society for promoting Christian Instruction. Second Edition. 12mo. pp. 60. 2d. Holdsworth. The First and Second Reports of the Society for promoting Christian Instruction, &c. 6d. Davis, Paternoster Row. "GREAT swelling words of vanity" have not, we fear, been exclusively employed by the apostate teachers of the primitive churches. In our day, many estimable and holy men have been led by the excitement of noble schemes, illustrious auditors, and applauding multitudes, to speak "unadvisedly with their lips," and to exult in the moral circumstances of our metropolis, as if it were a Shiloh for holy light, a Capernaum for Christian privigelical zeal in diffusing the Gospel leges, and a Jerusalem for evanamongst all nations. Time, however, has corrected, in some degree, last twelve years, disclosures have this boastful style, and within the been made on the moral state of this city, by the reports of parliamentary committees, statistical inquiries, and occasional pamphlets, which are indeed humiliating. In the year 1815, two pamphlets were published in the metropolis, which contained some frightful statements respecting the irreligion and immorality of the vast majority of its inhabitants; and though written by very different men, and with very distinct views, yet they were calculated to pro |