civil war ; and many persons unable to move from disease are immediately seen walking about the streets, merely from having tasted some of the Prince of Orange's diluted essence. What would Dr. Milner have said, if these wonders had been wrought in Ghent, instead of Breda? What would we have said, if that city had been besieged; if the people had been dying of the scurvy, and if the touch or the sight of some holy envoy from the pope had caused those who had not moved their limbs a month before, almost instantly to walk in the public streets, sound, straight, and whole?

3

But, sir, in conclusion, to speakmore gravely respecting the charge so often reiterated by Papists, that Protestants are unable to work miracles, and that the Romish Church has this privilege exclusively, that sentiment of St. Chrysostome appears to me to be a very weighty one:-"Once it was known by miracles who were true Christians, and who were false; but now the power of working miracles is wholly taken away; the pretence of it is to be found amongst those who pretend to be Christians." Nor are the words of St. Augustine of less weight; "Against those miraclemongers my God hath put me upon my guard, by admonishing me that in the last days there shall arise false prophets, who shall work such signs and wonders as to deceive, if possible, the very elect." When, therefore, the Papists demand miracles of us, we say with a divine worthy of being classed with Chrysostome and Augustine, (Calvin,) "To demand miracles of us is highly wrong; for we have not been the inventors of a new Gospel, but we retain that very Gospel which has for its confirmation all the miracles which Christ and his Apostles have wrought." We do not boast, indeed, of miracles such as the Papists pretend to; but we thank our God and Saviour that we have miracles of grace and spiCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 192.

ritual mercy to which we humbly can appeal. As the Apostle says, "Now the dead body does not open its eyes by a miracle of the Lord; but the blind heart is enabled to see by the word of the Lord. Now the deaf ears of the body are not unstopped; but how many have the ears of the heart closed, which nevertheless are opened when pierced by the word of God?" These are the miracles which we covet earnestly, which we witness thankfully; and, beholding them, we do not doubt, notwithstanding every denunciation from the Vatican, that "God is with us of a truth."

But to revert once more to Dr. Milner's pamphlet-Who can fail of observing the identity of the Roman Catholic religion in every age and in every place? Let those who think that the superstitions of Popery are not the same as they ever were, peruse these Authentic Documents of the Vicar Apostolical.

What a difference do we find between the apologists for the Ro mish faith, and the apologists, in the primitive times, for the faith once delivered to the saints! They were remarkable for their rare appeals to any undoubted miracles, excepting those of Christ and his Apostles they chose rather to adduce the evidence of Scripture," particularly the sure word of prophecy. Whereas these seldom refer to the Bible; but are for ever exhibiting their false miracles. Even the cover of Dr. Milner's pamphlet contains intimations that various works may be obtained treating of miracles; and the public are at the same time invited to purchase the Roman Missal, together with the evening office of the Church, or vespers, &c. &c.

What a consolation is it, whilst we witness these unwearied efforts making by the Romish Church, to reflect, that the Scriptures are daily becoming more and more widely diffused! Those who read them with prayer and humility, with 5 L

gradually see through the delusions of antichrist; they will know the Shepherd's voice, and will not follow strangers. They will distinguish the words of Jesus, and the works of the Apostles, from papal decrees, and the declarations of vicars apostolical; they will discern truth from error, and will be in no danger of confounding the gold tried seven times in the fire those Divine`miracles, for

instance, which were wrought on Peter's wife's mother, on the sick of the palsy, and on the man who was laid at the gate of the temple -with the tinsel and the dross of such wretched compositions as the reduction of a dislocated joint by the help of an apparition in the night, or the cure of Winifred White, of Wolverhampton, at the well of St. Winifred. D. H. Q.

Sermons, chiefly designed for the Use of Families. By JOHN FAWCETT, A. M. Rector of Scaleby, and perpetual Curate of St. Cuthbert's, Carlisle. 2 vols. 8vo. Carlisle Scott. London: Richardson.

It is not unusual for criticism to carry an ungracious aspect towards sermons which make no attempt to explain what is obscure, or to amend what has been depraved, in the Sacred Writings. We are far from disallowing the application of critical sagacity and theological learning to the elucidation of the Word of God. Much, very much, is due to those eminent scholars who have circumscribed the wanton flight of conjectural ingenuity, and ascer tained the genuine text of Scripture, by the sure though wearisome process of successive collation; who have thrown light upon many of the darker passages, by refer ence to the peculiarities of ages and nations, of religious sects and political parties; who have settled the force and import of ambiguous words, by tracing them through the perplexities of a long and devious etymology, to their original stock; or who have displayed, more clearly, than their predecessors, those portions of holy writ which owe their obscurity to the nature of the subject discussed,

or to the brief, condensed, parenthetical style of the inspired penman. Not only are such labours no unprofitable employment of talent and erudition, but they are of essential service to mankind. It is the part only of enthusiasın or ignorance, to decry those scholastic labours by which the Oracles of Truth are opened to the unlearned.

But while we acknowledge the deserts of studious men, whose diligence is employed in resolving biblical difficulties with the help of human learning, we must not undervalue those labourers in the cause of godliness whose chief aim it is to impress upon the heart the doctrines and precepts which lie within the compass of common understandings; and this is the object which the author before

us bas successfully accomplished. His sermons are modestly entitled "Family Sermons ;" and to adopt that appellation is to disclaim the praise of elaborate research and rhetorical ornament. That he has not attained that praise is only, perhaps, because it lay below the scope of his wiser ambition. Many passages in his volumes attest the sound divine and accomplished scholar and the attentive reader will remark some incidental criticisms, that seem to have escaped from our author almost unawares, which

warrant a belief, that he has not been prevented by the penury of his resources from dispensing them more largely. But the main design of this writer is to penetrate the heart and conscience with those sacred truths "that accompany salvation." To the sickly taste of the present age for curious conceits and fantastic interpretations, the pages before us afford no gratification. No obsequious concessions are made to conciliate the worldling; no impure mixtures are prepared to delight the Antinomian palate. But the lover of sound and practical doctrine, and Juminous exposition-the humble disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is more studious of improvement in holiness than of comfort under the empire of sinful infirmity -will set a just value on this addition to his religious library. He will especially delight to see the scriptural character impressed on these discourses. The foundations here laid are such as become a Christian architect, and are competent to sustain a building that aspires to eternity: and the structure corresponds with the foundation; for nothing less is demanded of the Christian, as suited to his high and holy calling, than the uniform influence of a faith and love which detach the soul from worldly objects, and maintain it in an uninterrupted commerce with the invisible glories of heaven.

Among the excellencies of these compositions, we feel pleasure in noticing the due combination of evangelical doctrines and precepts. Occasionally, it has been our painful duty to remark in writers not chargeable with doctrinal unsoundness, and who sometimes array religious truth in warm and imposing colours, a deficiency in the tely apostolic art of conducting moral disquisitions upon Christian principles. In the body of the sermon there may be much to recommend the pure morality of the Gospel, and the spiritual elevation

of a renewed heart may be beautifully portrayed; and, yet, "the Author and Finisher" of all faith and holiness may not occupy that prominent station in which the believer delights to behold him. The writer will, perhaps, proceed in a strain of pious and fervid exhortation, without any distinct reference to the "High Priest of our profession," until, at the close of his discourse, he seems to start into a consciousness of his defect, and immediately tacks on a meagre summary of evangelical truths, as if to vindicate his orthodoxy or to pacify his conscience. The salutary "unction" of a discourse from the pulpit depends very much on a reference to the person, the offices, the love, the example, the doctrines of the Redeemer being perceptible through all its parts: and when this quality is wanting in the body of the discourse, we ought not to be satisfied by an attempt to supply the deficiency in an ill-timed peroration. It is indeed true, that, when the preacher's aim is a minute delineation of some feature in the Christian character, or an extensive application of some Christian precept, his composition must suffer in regularity and distinctness, by interlacing it with points of doctrine. We are not advising that the mysteries of faith should be thrust into every chink and crevice of a disquisition with which they have no immediate concern. We have certainly no great sympathy with those who approve of throwing together the most discordant materials, without taste or order in the selection and arrangement: and we are not better entertained with that species of theological legerdemain which can elicit any given dogma from any given text of Scripture. Yet are we persuaded that, where the mind. is deeply imbued with the transcendental doctrines of Christianity, an evangelical tinge and colour will be communicated to whatever is poured forth upon sacred sub

of together with others. He has done with extenuating his sins; with explaining them into mistake, or rashness, or violence of temptation; or the extreme of generosity and gratitude, whereby some men, not knowing or feeling the universal depravity of mankind, would persuade themselves and others, that their vices are virtues, and their crimes, for which they deserve even the punishment of the law, noble and heroic actions. Pleas of this foolish kind, the truly humbled man has done with for ever: he traces the sinfulness of his life to its proper source-the sinfulness of his heart: he knows that as sure as he is a man, he is a sinful man: that his heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, and that every imagination of the thoughts thereof is only evil continually. It is in this humbling way that he adopts the words, in thy sight shall no man living be justified." Vol. I. pp. 91---93.

The two following citations—one from a sermon on Luke xvi. 8, the other from a sermon on 1 Cor. vii. 35-will be acceptable to the spiritually-minded reader.

"In every comparison of these two great divisions of mankind the advantage is generally on the side of the children of light. But at present we are going to compare them in a point of view, in which the preference must be given to the children of this world: the wisdom of each in their respective generations. If we contemplate them in any other light, there is no comparison. The righteous excel the wicked, as much as light excelleth darkness. Their principles are incomparably more excellent, the objects which they pursue more noble, their joys more pure, their lives more useful, their deaths more peaceful, their eternity more glorious. There is one and only one point of view, in which the preference can be given to the children of this world. They are wiser in their generation than the children of light. In forming an estimate, however, of the wisdom of each class, we must proceed with caution; that we may neither give to the worldling a praise which he does not deserve, nor condemn without reason the generation of God's children.

"The children of this world are not all of them wise in their generation. There are many who are fools for both worlds, madly throwing away the com

fort of this, and treasuring up for themselves an inheritance of wrath in the next. Yet it will be hard to find, even among the most worthless and inconsiderate of mankind, one who is not outdone in folly by the wisest of God's children; if we take into consideration the proportion which ought always to be kept between the worth of the object, and the diligence of the pursuit. A man is not to be accounted foolish because he does not labour hard for a thing of no worth. It is when, for want of consideration, diligence, and management, men let great things slip out of their hands, that they are justly accounted fools. And if this be the case, and we think what eternity is worth, what heaven and our souls are worth; and, on the other hand, how little satisfaction there is in any worldly thing, and how short a time it lasts: in this light, even a little diligence in a. worldly man may justly shame a great deal in a spiritual man. The spiritual man may be the more diligent of the two, and yet not so diligent in proportion, nor so wise in his generation." Vol. II. pp. 1-3.

"Contemplate much the nearness and vast importance of eternity, and see, in this light, the vanity of all those things about which you are apt to be troubled, or by which you are distracted. How soon will they all be as if they had never been! Those busy moments are making provision, as they fly, for moments which must pass away in their turn. Those important concerns which look so big, and demand so close attention, how soon will they disappear for ever! While eternity, that great thought, with what demonstration does it show all things here to be lighter than vanity! Our comforts, our possessions, our relations, our idols; whatever we think them now, what will they be in a few years? Or what will they appear to be, when the soul enters on her eternal portion? My brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, therefore, that both they that have wives, be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away. If, then, you would wait upon God to good purpose, be serious as men that have here no continuing city, but who seek one to come. Have your loins girded about, and