when pronounced from the pulpit, had at once delighted and inftructed thofe who heard them, night foon be given to the public at large. The delay which has taken place in gratifying that with, is fufficiently accounted for by the editor of these two volumes, the only fon of the Bishop; of whom we can fay, on the evidence of one well acquainted with both, and with their modes of thinking, that he inherits all his father's prominent principles, with no fmall share of the vigour of his mind.

That the Chriflian part of the British public will be highly gratified by this publication, there can be no doubt; nor will that gratification be the lefs for its being well known that Bifhop Horfley never prepared for the prefs any fermons but thofe, which, being preached on public occafions, he was either requested or commanded to publifh himself. We have, indeed, the means of knowing, that he did not confider his own fermons as adapted to the tafte of the age. When folicited, as he often was, to print a volume, and put in mind of the rapid and extenfive fale of other fermons, certainly of not greater merit, his ufual reply was, that the fale of fermons is not regulated by their merit, and that as he preached neither fanatical divinity, nor mere moral essays, his fermons, though he had compelled them to be heard, would not be generally read. But we truft that there is yet among us a fufficient portion of good fenfe and feriousness, to prove that in forming this low eftimate of British tafte, the learned prelate was miftaken.

The fermons contained in these two volumes, are in number twenty-nine, of which fix were given to the public by the Bishop himself. Thefe are the ninth, thirteenth, fourteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, and the twenty-ninth, which was, we are told, the laft that he ever compofed; and the critical reader will find fome rational amusement in comparing the ftyle of thefe fix fermons with that of the others, of which the editor fays, that "fearful of injuring the native dignity and ftrength of the compofition, he felt it a facred duty to let them appear in the ftate in which they were left by the Bishop." In judging thus, he judged rightly; for he has fhown to the public, that his father compofed his fermons with as great care, when he had no other object in view than the inftruction of his audience, as when he must have been aware that what he was compofing would be fent to the prefs.

The three first fermons are upon the most important of all fubjects the coming of the Lord to judgment; and in the rit, which is preached from St. James, v. 8, the learned.

Prelate

Prelate thus introduces the difcuffion, which is purfued through this and the two following difcourfes.

"Time was, when I know not what myftical meanings were drawn by a certain cabaliftic alchymy, from the fimpleft expreffions of holy writ,-from expreffions in which no allufion could reasonably be fuppofed, to any thing beyond the particular occafion upon which they were introduced. While this frenzy raged among the learned, vifionary leffons of divinity were often derived, not only from detached texts of scripture, but from fingle words-not from words only, but from letters-from the place, the fhape, the pofture of a letter! and the blunders of tranfcribers, as they have fince been proved to be, have been the groundwork of many a fine-fpun meditation!

"It is the weak nefs of human nature, in every inftance of folly, to run from one extreme to its oppofite. In latter ages,. fince we have feen the futility of thofe myftic expofitions, in, which the fchool of Origen fo much delighted, we have been too apt to fall into the contrary error; and the fame unwar rantable licence of figurative interpretation which they employed to elevate, as they thought, the plainer parts of fcripture, has been used, in modern times, in effect, to lower the divine." P. 1.

Among the paffages which have been thus mifreprefented. by the refinements of a falfe criticifm, he reckons all thofe which contain the explicit promife of the "coming of the Son of Man in glory, as in his kingdom." Thefe, he thinks ought, every one of them, to be understood literally of our Lord's coming to judgment at the end of the world, and not, as they are now commonly interpreted, of the deftruction of Jerufalem by the Roman armies. But before he states the arguments by which he fupports his own opinion, and obviates the objections which the learned have urged to it, he thus accounts for difcuffing fuch a queftion before a mixed audience.

"It is the glory of our church, that the most illiterate of her fons are in poffeffion of the fcriptures in their mother tongue. It is their duty to make the moft of fo great a bleffing, by employing as much time as they can fpare from the neceffary bufinefs of their feveral cailings, in the diligent ftudy of the written word. It is the duty of their teachers to give them all pof. fible affiftance and encouragement in this neceffary work. lap. prehend that we miftake our proper duty, when we avoid the public difcuffion of difficult or ambiguous texts, and either keep them entirely out of fight, or when that cannot eafily be done, obtrude our interpretations upon the laity, as magifterial or ora. cular, without proof or argument;-a plan that may ferve the purposes of indolence, and may be inade to ferve worfe purposes, but is not well adapted to answer the true ends of the inftitution

of

of our holy order. The will of God is that all men fhould be faved; and to that end it is his will that all men, that is, all defcriptions of men, great and small, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, fhould come to the knowledge of the truth. Of the truth, that is, of the truths brought to light by the gospel; not only of the fundamental truths of faith towards God, of repentance from dead works, and of a future judgment,--but of all the fublimer truths concerning the fcheme of man's redemp tion." P. 4.

That there is no danger to be apprehended from the illuf tration of the fublimeft truths of the gofpel, or the public difcuffion of difficult and ambiguous texts, by fuch a mant as Bishop Horfley, who thought accurately and profoundly on all fubjects that attracted his attention; who never at tempted to explain what he did not himfelf underftand; and who poffeffed the art of rivetting the attention to the most fubtle or critical difcuffions, we readily grant; but we fhould hesitate to recommend to the clergy in general fuch difcuf-* fions, in mixed audiences, of difficult and ambiguous, texts,, not connected intimately with the effentials of the faith. A man may be a very ufeful parifh-prieft, who is not qualified to difcufs texts which can be illuftrated only by a minute. acquaintance with ancient cuftoms, ancient fuperftitions, and ancient fcience; and hence it is, that the royal declaration prefixed to our articles, prohibits, we think with great wifdom, all public difcuffion of thofe curious points which difturbed the peace of the church in the feventeenth century; and which a party among us, are now, in defiance of that prohibition, difcuffing again, as effential doctrines of the gofpel. With re'pect to the doctrines effential to the faith, what the Bishop fays is unquestionably true. Of them nothing that can be profitable ought to be kept back from the lowest of the people; and we are willing to hope, with him, that the knowledge of the fcriptures neceflary to the understanding of fuch things, is what few in this country are too illiterate to attain. We likewife agree with hin), that

It is our duty to facilitate the attainment by clearing dif ficulties. It may be proper to ftate thofe (which) we cannot allow,to prefent our hearers with the interpretations that have. been attempted and to fhow where they fail; in a word, to make them mafters of the queftion, though neither they nor we may be competent to the refolution of it. This inftruction

would more effectually fecure them againft the poifon of modern corruptions, than the practice dictated by a falfe diferetion, of avoiding the mention of every doctrine that may be combated,

and

The cor

and of burying every text of doubtful meaning. ruptors of the Christian doctrine have no fuch referve. The doctrines of the divinity of the Son-the incarnation-the fatisfaction of the crofs as a facrifice, in the literal meaning of the word-the mediatorial interceffion-the influences of the Spiritthe eternity of future punishment-are topics of popular dif cuffion with thofe, who would deny or pervert thofe doctrines: and we may judge by their fuccefs what our own might be, if we would but meet our antagonists on their own ground." P. 6.

All this is unque@ionably juft; but fill we may be permitted to doubt, whether the church be the fitteft place for the difcuffion of fuch topics by ordinary preachers; and we are fure that the Bishop would have agreed with us, that great abilities, great addrefs, and great difcretion, are requi fites to the difcuffion of them any where, fo as to edify the illiterate part of the community *. It is indeed true, as his lordship obferves, that we often find confiderable proficiency made in fome fingle fcience,

"By men who have never had a liberal education, and who, except in that particular fubject on which they have beftowed pains and attention, remain ignorant and illiterate to the end of their lives. The fciences are faid, and they are truly faid, to have that mutual connection, that any one of them may be the better understood for an infight into the rett; and there is, perhaps, no branch of knowledge which receives more illuftration from all the reft, than the fcience of religion: yet it hath, like every other, its own internal principles on which it refts, with the knowledge of which, without any other, a great progrefs may

The following obfervations on this fubject, by another learned prelate, are worthy of the clofeft attention.

"All objections to truth muft needs he founded in falfe judg ment. Falfe judgment proceeds from ignorance, or a fuperficial view of things; but this ignorance is the proper allotment of the vulgar; fo that what arifes from thence, as referring to, and confonant with their capacities, cannot but make a quick and eafy impreffion. On the contrary, the folurion of thefe difficul. ties mult needs be formed on a true judgment of things. This judgment proceeds from a profound view of nature or (of reve. lation.) But fuch a view requires a large detail; and the mu...; tual connexions and dependencies of things, a ftrict examination. Hence the neceffity of time to inquire, and of attention to comprehend. Thefe different properties in OBJECTIONS and SOLUTIONS are fo conftant and notorious, that the cafe of questioning foolishly, and the difficulty of anfwering wifely, is become pro

verbial."

Warburton's Sermon on the Nature, &c. of Truth.

1

be

be made; and thefe lie much more open to the apprehenfion of an uncultivated understanding, than the principles of certain abftrufe fciences, fuch as geometry, for inftance, or aftronomy, in which I have known plain men, who could fet up no pre tenfions to general learning, make diftinguished attainments." P. 9.

If this be a fufficient vindication, as we admit it to be, of the conduct of thofe clergymen, who, poffeffed of learning and judgment fufficient for the purpose, discuss, with thofe committed to their paftoral care, the most obfcure parts of revelation; it furnishes likewise a fufficient. proof, that no clergyman fhould enter on fuch difcuffions, who has not fome acquaintance with the whole circle of the fciences. If no branch of knowledge receive more illaf tration from all the reft than the fcience of religion; how dare the illiterate mechanic quit his workfhop to enlighten his countrymen in this moft important of all fciences, and how can the vulgar fuppofe, even for a moment, that fuch a teacher is a fafer guide than the regular clergy, who devote their lives to the ftudy of literature and of fcience. The Bishop introduces thefe obfervations, not with the view of giving the smallest countenance to illiterate preachers, but as an apology for himself in difcuffing a subject, which, on the first view of it, might feem adapted only to a learned auditory. That fubject is the import of the phrafe of our Lord's coming a phrafe which, with the exception, perhaps, of fome paffages in the book of Revelations, he infifts, is through the whole New Teftament, to be underflood literally of a visible defcent of our Lord from heaven, as vifible to all the world. as his afcenfion was to the apoftles-" a coming of our Lord in all the majefly of the Godhead, to judge the quick and dead, to receive his fervants into glory, and to fend the wicked into outer dark nefs." That there is fomething figu rative in many of the paffages which mention our Lord's coming, he admits; but he contends that the coming itself is to be taken literally of the perfonal coming at the laft day; and

"That the figure is rather to be fought in thefe expreffions which, in the literal meaning, might feem to announce his immediate arrival. And this St. Peter feems to fuggeft, when he tells us, in his fecond epiftle, that the terms of foon and late, are to be very differently understood when applied to the great operations of Providence, and to the ordinary occurrences of human life. The Lord, fays he, is not flack concerning his promife, as fome men count flackness. “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." Soon and late are words whereby