devotion, which informs and guides our faith in the Articles and Homilies, which warms and animates our affections in the Liturgy of the Church of England. Such an anniversary was surely the chosen time, the appropriate period, for reviewing and proving our doctrinal sentiments the tone and standard of our religious views, principles, and habits, and for bringing them to the test of the primitive orthodoxy and the primitive zeal of the Reformation.

"Deliverance from the yoke of papal tyranny and the burden of papal superstition did not form the whole, or even the chief part of the blessed change, which our God wrought for us through

his chosen instruments, the Reformers. The dethronement of Jesus Christ from his sole office of Mediator between God and man by the introduction of angels, and even saints, as his coadjutors and colleagues, the doctrine of self-righteousness or justification by works, and the substitution of mere outward worship for spiritual religion, of the form of godliness for the power of it, and of a system of compromises and reservations for genuine universal holiness of heart and life; these were the capital fundamental errors of the papal system ;these were the chief sources and instru

ments of the wide-wasting desolation and depravity, which it diffused over many whole communities, and even over a quarter of the globe, from generation to generation.

"It has been well styled, so far as doctrine was concerned, the religion of corrupted human nature, subverting all that the Gospel has done for us, and, in effect, reducing us again to our natural ignorance of God, and to the dominion of our natural propensities and evil passions.

"In direct opposition to these corruptions, Luther and his followers, the reformers of our church, built again the whole foundation of their spiritual edifice upon the apostolical basis, even Jesus Christ. On Him, the Rock of ages, on his blood, his intercession, his grace, and his righteousness, they rested exclusively and entirely the hope of the Christian in life, in death, in judgment, in eternity. One of them is said to have borne his dying testimony at the stake to this radical and saving truth, exclaiming,' None but Christ, none but Christ!'

"In furtherance of the same views

they completely excluded all human works and human merit from any share in the office of justification before God. They made thus, according to the scriptural metaphor, the Apostle Paul their chief pillar, as his and their Saviour was their head corner-stone, elect, precious."" pp. 56-59.

The following practical questions are founded upon this state

ment.

"Do we, or do we not, perceive from time to time symptoms of degeneracy

from the faith thus once delivered to the saints, and a tendency to relapse into the papal corruption of self-justification, however abhorred in name, yet too often approved in deed? Is it not a severe and sometimes an unsuccessful struggle to keep the claim of works wholly out of the justifying office; and will they not often intrude under some unscriptural name or shape, and usurp a place, where Christ should be all in all? And again, Is it never a mitigated law and a lowered standard of holiness, the obedience to which we are apt to admit, as genuine and sufficient evidence of saving faith? Do we never allow the name of religion to that attendance upon outward ordinances, united with freedom from proscribed vices, which our forefathers of the Reformation would have characterized as formality? Do we never permit compliances and conformity with the world, which they would have branded with the title of sinful declensions, and proofs of a heart not right with God? Are we not, in short, in doctrine and in practice, far from living up to our privileges, and too much inclined to sink below the exalted principles, and to fall short of the spiritual graces, which the founders of our reformed church taught in their writings, exemplified in their lives, sealed with their blood, and still inculcate and enjoin in our Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy, the statutebook, if I may so call it, of our national religion? This very city, once blessed with the godly example and apostolical ministry of a Hooper, once the scene of his martyrdom for the truth; would, I sonal conviction and personal acknowmust fear, and I would speak in perledgment, bear witness to the comparative decline of our piety and remissness of our zeal." pp. 60-62.

Such are all the extracts from these discourses which our limits will

allow us to make. Our readers will, however, perceive from these, what they are to expect from the Sermons themselves. They are plain, practical discourses, of much simplicity, good sense, feeling, benevolence, strict in their adherence to the spirit and letter of Scripture; and carefully constructed with a view to carry the hearer's mind beyond mere local and less important objects, to those higher objects and considerations on which our everlasting happiness is suspended. Some of the arguments, as, for instance, that on the use of church music, and that on the benevolence of the early Christians, are carefully pursued.

But the general character of the Sermons is evidently rather that of affectionate persuasion than of elaborate argument. We can well believe, that there must be a perpetual struggle in the mind of an individual, so incessantly and usefully employed as the Bishop of Gloucester, whether he shall present only that which is elaborate and finished to the public, or shall yield himself to the ever-multiplying demands of benevolence and piety. And, certainly, we should be very sorry to see him employing his important hours in stringing metaphors and balancing periods, when, by throwing the weight of his presence and cooperation into the hesitating scale, he may decide the wavering cause of truth, and give religion its due preponderance in the public esteem. A person in ordinary life can little judge what individuals thus circumstanced have both to do and to resist. We cannot, however, but perceive that they have to bear up against their full measure of calumny, suspicion, and misrepresentation; against the disengenuous silence of some, and the worse than silence of others. To God and themselves alone are known the difficulties which arise from circumstances like these, cumbered as they will be with those workings

of the fallen heart which are com mon to us all. Let, however, such individuals "trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon their God." Let them say, in the words of Hooker, "I have a Shepherd full of kindness, full of care, and full of power-unto Him I commit myself."

And if, after drinking at these sources of heavenly consolation, they can stoop to taste of those which human love and gratitude supply, let them assure themselves that they are surrounded by the affections of not a few of the worthiest and best of their fellow-countrymen; that their sacrifices are justly and feelingly estimated; and that many a wish and prayer ascends daily to the Throne of Mercy, for their peace, and prosperity, and eternal happiness.

The Two Grand Instruments for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the Duty of Christians to uphold them with Zeal and Energy: a Sermon preached at St. Mary's, Aylesbury, at the Second Annual Meeting of the Aylesbury District Committee of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge; and also at the Establishment of the District Committee, at Bentinck Chapel. By the Rev. BASILWOODD,M.A. of Trinity College, Oxford, Rector of Drayton Beauchamp, Bucks, and Minister of Bentinck Chapel, St. Mary-le-bone. Lon

don Bridgewater. pp. 42.. "I HAVE lived," said the expiring Hooker," to see that the world is made up of perturbations;" — a sentiment in which, we are sorry to say, we have but too much reason to concur. When, especially, we look to the Christian church-and, we may even add, when we revert to our own pages, and see how considerable a portion of them we are obliged, for the sake of the interests of truth, to occupy in controversy-we cannot but experience sensations of the most melancholy

kind. Glad, therefore, are we to turn from subjects of a polemical -nature to those topics on which all genuine Christians are agreed; and with greater, satisfaction still do we witness the instances which, we are happy to say, bad as things are, do occasionally occur, of men who are content to handle even controversial subjects in a practical and devotional spirit, and to shew, that if all Christians cannot agree, they can at least differ without any breach of mutual kindness and charity.

The sermon before us is an illustration of this pleasing kind. The reverend writer is well known as an active and useful clergyman, and as a strenuous advocate for the prominent charitable societies which have been made the subject of much useless, and we might perhaps say unhallowed, controversy. We here find him, as a District Seeretary of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, advocat ing the cause of that excellent institution; without affecting a studied forbearance, much less evincing a positive hostility, towards other societies. This is as it ought to be; and we wish we could add, such as in point of practice it is usually found.

In reviewing, some months since, (vide Christian Observer for August, 1817,) a sermon by the Rev. John Matthew, we remarked, that single sermons, and especially charity sermons, are not usually of sufficient importance to demand an express notice in the limited space which we are able to afford to this department. We however thought that gentleman's sermonde serving of our attention, partly on account of its being a most curious specimen of divinity in itself, and partly, and indeed chiefly, from the circumstance of its having been preached before, and recommended by, a District Committee of the So. ciety for promoting Christian Know ledge. The former claim, it is true, does not apply to the discourse now before us; which is a plain

but highly respectable one, of an expository and practical kind: but the latter claim it possesses in full force, having been originally delivered by the reverend author, as secretary to the Aylesbury Dis-trict Committee, of which the Bishop of Lincoln is president, and being printed at their request, Having therefore been reluctantly obliged to notice with disapprobation a sermon coming before us with the peculiar recommendation which Mr. Matthew's possessed, we feel much pleasure in making the amende honorable by bringing forward another discourse, under similar circumstances, to which we can give a very sincere and cordial approbation. We trust that, in future, Bridgewater will condescend to take a lesson from Aylesbury.

Mr. Woodd has chosen for his text Acts viii. 30, 31: And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I except some man should guide me? From the history, of which this passage forms a part, Mr.Woodd considers, first, the "grand means," and secondly, the "sublime object,” of Christian instruction. The narrative is certainly well calculated for affording an answer to both these points, and the author has fairly availed himself of the circum stances mentioned in it, without overstating or straining them, to suit his purpose. There are few modes of preaching more generally useful and acceptable to an auditory than this. The illiterate cannot, and will not, attend to an argument of much precision or difficulty; nor will the literate be always inclined to stoop to a mere hortatory and common-place strain of free remark. But a narrative sermon never fails to interest the former; and, if well digested, if all the points of improvement be fairly and seasonably deduced, if there be no appearance of effort to prove or illustrate what was never intend-..

ed to be proved or illustrated by the circumstances under consideration, such a sermon will, generally speaking, be as useful and interesting to the rich and fastidious as even to the former class. Mr. Woodd thus introduces his subject:

“An Ethiopian, a man of civil rank and authority, desirous to know and receive Divine truth, had taken a long journey of some thousand miles to Jerusalem, in order to worship the One true and living God. The extent of sandy desert, which he had probably crossed, the anxiety, expense, inconvenience, and fatigue, which he must unavoidably have experienced, afford us the strongest conviction of his piety, zeal, and desire of instruction. The fame of the temple of Jehovah had probably reached the interior of Africa, and interested many to know the character of a religion, which professed to be a revelation descended from above, and which distinguished the Jews from all other nations on the face of the earth. He had joined in the worship at Jerusalem, had obtained a portion of the Hebrew Scriptures, and was now returning to his native land. It appears, by the sequel, that it was requisite that he should understand the way of God more perfectly. Divine Providence had conducted him to Jerusalem, introduced him to the Court of the Gentiles, and put into his hands the sacred Records: still there was need of further instruction, and therefore an Evangelist is, by explicit revelation, directed to accost him, and to explain to him, more distinctly, the Christian method of Redemption, and the distinguished truths of the everlasting Gospel.

"Accordingly we read that 'the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go towards the sonth, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethopia,an Eunuch of great authority, under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning, and, sitting in his chariot, read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.' The instance here recorded, must by no means be pleaded as an encouragement to regard internal impressions, or impulses

of mind, as criterions of faith, or directories of conduct. St. Philip lived in the age of miracles. It is expressly recorded, The angel of the Lord spake

unto him.' It was a direct revelation, an immediate suggestion from above;

but, under the present dispensation, we have no scriptural authority to expect such communications. To consider any impressions on the imagination as arguments of faith, or directions of pursuit, would involve us in those mazes of enthusiasm, which have always proved dangerous, and in some instances fatal.‘ Our rule of duty is the written word of God. Let us walk by this light of the Lord." pp. 4-6.

From the circumstances of the narrative, Mr. Woodd justly shews, first, the importance of the holy Scriptures as a means for the propagation of the Gospel; and then, the necessity of the Christian ministry as a second means.

"Although this nobleman possessed and read the word of God, he acknow ledged that he could not understand the sacred writings without an instructor. This his reply to the Evangelist confesses. When St. Philip addressed him, 'Understandest thou what thou readest?' he instantly replies, as if rather surprised at the inquiry, 'How can I except some man should guide me? On this he desired St. Philip to come up and sit with him and instruct him. His incapacity to understand without an instructor again appears by a subse quent inquiry (verse 25), I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself, or of some other man?'

"It is not by this observation presum ed to insinuate, that the holy Scriptures are not able to make wise unto salvation, or that the obviously plain and practical part of the Divine word does not contain the detail of truths essentially necessary to eternal life, or that the Holy Spirit of God may not, independent of human agency and of the ministry of the church, open the eyes of the understanding to understand the Scriptures; but the observation is simply designed to state, that, generally speaking, it is by the concurrent aid of the ministry of the church, together with the inspired word, that men are brought to understand, and cordially to receive the truths of God. Thus it is written by the great Apostle of the Gentiles, How shall