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every additional volume would appear under increasing disadvantage. But in the three discourses on the Delay of Conversion, not to mention others in this volume, there is a species of merit, which was not particularly attractive to the other translators; whose concurrence in rejecting them repeatedly, as they occupy the first place in the original, was a very clear and unambiguous mark of disapprobation. Mr. Sutcliffe has hinted very modestly at this circumstance; and whether it be disreputable to the sermons or to the translators, our readers in general will find little difficulty in deciding. For it certainly could not have arisen from any defect which they betray in argument, in eloquence, or in interest; and surely it is a very pardonable blemish that they force upon the attention of a sinner the extent of his guilt, and the imminence of his danger, with a fearless and distressing impetuosity. In this respect, Mr. S. proceeds to remark, that,

The general character of English sermons, is by far too mild and calm. On reading the late Dr. Enfield's English Preacher, and finding on this gentleman's tablet of honour, names which constitute the glory of our national Church, I seem unwilling to believe my senses, and ready to deny, that Tillotson, Atterbury, Butler, Chandler, Coneybeare, Seed, Sherlock, Waterland, and others, could have been so relaxed and unguarded, as to have preached so many Sermons equally acceptable to the orthodox and the Socinian reader. Those mild and affable recommendations of virtue and religion: those gentle dissuasives from immorality and vice, have been found, for a whole century, unproductive of effect. Hence, all judicious men must admit the propriety of meeting the awful vices of the present age with remedies more efficient and strong.' p. iii.

We should suppose that few will differ from our worthy author, who ever regarded sin as truly sinful, or its punishment as formidable and certain. The whole of his preface deserves attention; he is not blind to Saurin's faults, and though in our opinion he treats them far too leniently, he has said as much as ever a translator dares to ayow, or even submits to confess.

The sermons in this volume are twelve in number; the subjects of which are, the Delay of Conversion, Perseverance, the Example of the Saints, St. Paul's Discourse before Felix and Drusilla, the Covenant of God with the Israelites, the Seal of the Covenants, the Family of Jesus Christ, St. Peter's Denial of his Master, the Nature of the unpardonable sin.

Our extracts from these interesting discourses, must be brief ; we observe, therefore, as the general character of the whole, that while they display the talents of the orator in a manner

little inferior to any of his sermons hitherto translated, they are superior to most of them in exhibiting the earnestness, the solemnity, and the faithfulness of a conscientious ambassador of Jesus Christ.

If any one who reads these pages, has reason to appropriate the censures of Saurin, and to look back with terror on the dying man, whom he has deluded with anti-christian hopes in the unlimited mercy of God or in the efficacy of the sacrament, a delusion which would excite derision, if it did not inspire horror-the following paragraphs may not be unseasonable. The preacher is referring to an inveterate sinner, from whom the hour of death, and the fear of ruin, have extorted a semblance of contrition.

Woe, woe to those ministers, who, by a cruel lenity, precipitate souls into hell, under the delusion of opening to them the gates of paradise. Woe to that minister, who shall be so prodigal of the favours of God. Instead of speaking peace to such a man, I would cry aloud; I would lift up my voice like a trumpet; I would shout. Isa. Iviii. 1. I would thunder; I would shoot against him the arrows of the Almighty, and make the poison drink up his spirits. Job vi. 4. Happy, if I might irradiate passions so prejudiced; if I might save by fear; if I might pluck from the burning, a soul so hardened in sin.

But if, as it commonly occurs, this dying man shall but devote to his conversion an exhausted body, and the last sighs of expiring life; woe, woe again, to that minister of the Gospel, who, by a relaxed policy, shall, so to speak, canonize this man, as though he had died the death of the righteous! Let no one ask, What would you do? Would you trouble the ashes of the dead? Would you drive a family to despair? Would you affix a brand of infamy on a house?-What would I do? I would maintain the interests of my Master; I would act becoming a minister of Jesus Christ; I would prevent your taking an antichristian death for a happy death; I would profit by the loss I have now described; and hold this prey of the devil as a terror to the spectators, to the family, and to the whole church.

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Would you know, my dear brethren, which is the way to prevent such great calamities? Which is really the time to implore forgiveness, to derive the Holy Spirit into your heart? It is this moment, it is now. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Yes, he may be found to-day; may be found in this assembly; he may be found under the word we are now speaking; he may be found under the exhortations we give in his name: he may be found in the remorse, the anguish, the emotions, excited in your hearts, and which say, on his behalf, seek ye my face. He may be found in your closets, where he offers to converse with you in the most tender and familiar manner : he may be found among the poor, among the sick, among those dying carcasses, among those living images of death, and the tomb, which solicit your compassion; and which open to you the way of charity that leads to God, who is charity itself. He may be found to-day, but, perhaps, to-morrow, he will be found no more. VOL. III.

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Perhaps, to-morrow, you may seek in vain; perhaps, to-morrow, your measure may be full; perhaps, to-morrow, grace may be for ever withdrawn; perhaps, to-morrow, the sentence which decides your destiny shall be pronounced!

Ah! who can estimate a moment so precious! Ah! who can com. pare his situation with the unhappy victims, which the divine vengeance has immoled in hell, and for whom time is no longer! Who can, on withdrawing from this temple, and instead of so much vain conversation and criminal dissipation, who can forbear to prostrate himself at the footstool of the Divine Majesty; weeping for the past, reforming the present, and taking salutary precautions for the future. Who would not say with his heart, as well as his mouth, Stay with me, Lord; I will not let thee go, until thou hast blessed me, Gen. xxxii. 20. until thou hast vanquished my corruption, and given me the earnest of my salvation. The time of my visitation is almost expired; I see it, I know it, I feel it; my conversion requires a miracle; I ask this miracle of thee, and am resolved to obtain it of thy compassion.' pp. 58-60.

The discourse on Perseverance possesses many excellent and judicious observations. It would be well if all, who have preached and written on this topic, had discovered as much correctness of conception, and candour toward the sentiments. of their opponents. We are sorry that many of its censures on the misrepresentation or perversion of the doctrine have not become antiquated by the lapse of time.

The following extract will not be deemed less interesting, because part of it alludes to the personal circumstances of Saurin, and the congregation at the Hague.

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My brethren, when a man preaches for popularity, instead of seeking the glory of Christ, he seeks his own; he selects subjects calculated to display his talents, and flatter his audience. Does he preach before a professed infidel, he will expatiate on morality; and be ashamed to pronounce the venerable words-covenant-satisfaction. Does he address an antinomian audience, who would be offended were he to enforce the practical duties of religion; he makes every thing proceed from election, reprobation, and the irresistibility of grace. Does he preach in the presence of a profligate court, he will enlarge on the liberty of the gospel, and the clemency of God. He has the art,-(a most detestable art, but too well understood in all ages of the church,)- he has the art of uniting his interests and his ministry. A political preacher endeavours to accommo. date his preaching to his passions. Minister of Christ, and minister of his own interests, to express myself with this apostle, he makes a gain of godliness on this principle had Felix expressed a desire to understand the gospel, and St. Paul had a favourable opportunity of paying his court in a delicate manner. The christian religion has a gracious aspect towards every class of men. He might have discussed some of those subjects which would have flattered the governor. He might have discoursed on the dignity of princes, and on the relation they have to the Supreme Being He might have said, that the magistrate beareth not the sword in vain,

Rom. xiii. 4. That the Deity himself has said, Ye are gods, and ye are all the children of the Most High, Psalm lxxxii. 6. But all this adulation, all this finesse, were unknown to our apostle. He sought the passions of Felix in their source; he forced the sinner in his last retreat. He boldly attacked the governor with the sword of the Spirit, and with the hammer of the word. Before the object of his passion, and the subject of his crime, before Drusilla, he treated of temperance. When Felix sent for him to satiate his avarice, he talked of righteousness. While the governor was in his highest period of splendor, he discoursed of a judgment to come.

• Preachers of the court, confessors to princes, pests of the public, who are the chief promoters of the present persecution, and the cause of our calamities! O that I could animate you by the example of St. Paul: and make you blush for your degeneracy and turpitude! My brethren, you know a prince; and would to God we knew him less! But let us respect the lustre of a diadem, let us venerate the Lord's anointed in the person of our enemy. Examine the discourses delivered in his presence; read the sermons pompously entitled, "Sermons preached before the King;" and see those other publications dedicated to The perpetual conqueror, whose battles were so many victories-terrible in war-adorable in peace. You will there find nothing but flattery and applause. Whoever struck, in his presence, at ambition and luxury? Whoever ventured there to maintain the rights of the widow and the orphan? Who, on the contrary, has not magnified the greatest crimes into virtues; and, by a species of idolatry before unknown, made Jesus Christ himself subservient to the vanity of a mortal man?

Oh! but St. Paul would have preached in a different manner! Before Felix, before Drusilla, he would have said that, fornicators shall not inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. In the midst of an idolatrous people, he would have painted in the liveliest colours, innocence oppressed, the faith of edicts violated, the Rhine overflowing with blood, the Palatinate still smoking, and buried in its own ashes. I check myself; we again repeat it let us respect the sacred grandeur of kings, and let us deplore their grandeur, which exposes them to the dangerous poison of adulation and flattery.' pp. 156-158.

Instead of transcribing more freely, we refer our readers to the work itself, and conclude with a remark which we have reason to think may be useful. Most of the imitators of Saurin have copied his blemishes while they were admiring his beauties; and this is a failing which almost invariably attends the practice of imitation, as the characteristic and attainable peculiarities of any author are commonly faults rather than excellences. A preacher who studies the manner of Saurin judiciously, will carefully avoid his rhetorical extravagances, his long dramatic apostrophes and narratives, his vague and sentimental reference to doctrines, his deficiency of detail on subjects connected with experimental religion; but on the other hand, he will emulate the ingenuity of his divisions, the personal and practical application of his subject, the acute

ness of his penetration into the secrets of the human heart, the impressive truth of his pictures, the sublimity of his sentiments, the tenderness, intrepidity, and animation of his address.

In qualification of our general praise of this translation, we should notice that several inelegant and unauthorized words have been admitted, such as revigorated, &c.; and that there is occasionally a blamable omission of copulatives and relatives, for which an attention to the original is not always an excuse. Many typographical errors have escaped correction in the errata; as p. 259. 1. 37. for allusion, read illusion; and p. 172. 1. 28. for resolution, read revolution.

Art. IX. Essays on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting. By Charles Bell. Royal 4to. pp. 196. With Plates and Vignettes. Price 21. 2s. Longman and Co. 1806.

THE Arts of Design, when aiming at excellence, are almost surrounded with difficulties. Not that the manual execution they require is any wonderful attainment, though regarded with admiration by the uninitiated; but, because there is a kind of indefinite and immeasurable extent in the objects of mental effort, which the mind with difficulty embraces, and there is still greater difficulty in communicating to the spectator even those ideas which the artist may distinctly possess. The selection and treatment of incident and accessories, the silent speech, the general narrative, the correctness of delineation, the energy and effect of the whole, are so many sources of embarrassment, trouble, and sometimes of distress, to the master who intends to produce a capital performance.

That which does not manifest an intellectual origin, will never effectively impress the intellect. In vain will a thousand beauties of proportion, of fitness, of delicacy, be observed: that which is only manual dexterity may please the eye, or gratify transient curiosity; but there its efficacy terminates. Nevertheless, it is necessary that these excellences be apparent, since the eye is the organ by which the mind is affected. The union of these great principles of art is extremely rare: most artists content themselves with pleasing; while others who have more deeply studied their profession, have been prone to neglect recommendations which they despised as ordinary and superficial.

To such difficult studies every assistance is acceptable; and Mr. Bell has performed no trifling service to art, in directing his attention to investigations which he knew would be

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