66 A DEFINITION OF PATIENCE. Τῇ θλίψει ὑπομένοντες.”—St. Paul. TALK ye of patience, resignation, faith, Firm courage, Christian fortitude, and hope? "Tis well to talk; but, better still to shew The power of these; when all are needful found: 'Tis in the trying hour their strength is seen; Not in the seasons prosperous and gay, [hearts When smooth the path you tread; and all your Can wish is held in full enjoyment sweet; Yourself, a lovely wife, and children dear; All healthy, free from want or wo; and bright The animating prospects you behold; (What trial here?) thus circumstanced, now You may have patience. Wanting still the proof! Let providential circumstances frown; Or sickness wither that delightful bloom So lately seen on lovely children gay; Let fell disease attack your bosom friend, Or agonizing pain your person seize ; Let death devour the lives of those you love; And lay them prostrate in the silent tomb: Let health, beloved friends, and wealth depart, And leave us all alone: the seasons these, When patience may be seen in men of prayer. Not hardihood, insensibility, Or sullen apathy-the stoic's pride: No place have these within the patient soul. A sensibility of pain acute, Is quite essential to the perfect work Of patience. There she triumphs; while she gives A patient man may weep, for "Jesus wept ;" Is far from Christian patience. We define ON PRAYER. WM. STONES. God alone can teach his children By his Spirit how to pray; Knows our wants, and gives the knowledge Why should men then manufacture Those who seek shall surely find him, Words are free as they are common, Some in them have wondrous skill; Saving "Lord" will never save them; Those he loves who do his will. Words may please the lofty fancy, Music charm the listening ear, Pompous sounds may please the giddy; But is Christ the Saviour there? Christ's the way, the path to heaven, Life is ours, if him we know: Those who can pray, he has taught them; Those who can't, to him should go. When a child wants food and raiment, Why not ask his parent dear? Ask in faith, then, God's our father; "Tis the language of the soul; That by words we God can charm. God alone must be exalted; Every earthly thought must fall; Every heart should be a temple; Every time, a time of prayer; ON THE DEATH OF MRS. MARY TIGHE, Thy smile-succeeded by a sigh, So let me die, like thee, when pure; REVIEW.-The Entire Works of the Rev. Robert Hall, A. M. with a Brief Memoir of his Life, and a Critical Estimate of his Character and Writings. Published under the Superintendence of Olinthus Gregory, LL. D. F. R. A. Š. &c. Vol. I. Sermons, Charges, and Circular Letters, 8vo. pp. 524. Holdsworth and Ball. London, 1831. THAT Robert Hall was one of the brightest luminaries of his age, no person acquainted with his character, talents, and writings, can for a moment doubt. To the body of Christians with whom he more immediately associated, he was a distinguished honour; to the christian name, he was a splendid ornament; and to the church at large, he has imparted a lustre which the lapse of centuries will not be able to tarnish. No During Mr. Hall's life, his publications were not numerous; but the intrinsic excellence of those which he could be induced to lay before the world, caused among his friends a sincere regret that they were not more diversified and more extended. solicitations could, however, induce him to depart from his constitutional modesty, and at his death a general opinion prevailed, that the emanations of his richly stored and gigantic mind would cease for ever to illuminate the hemisphere from which he had taken a final departure. We find, however, from a prospectus prefixed to this volume, that, from manuscripts which he has left, letters written to his friends, and discourses which have been taken down from his lips, together with a memoir of his life, and a critical estimate of his character and writings, six octavo volumes may be expected. These are announced to appear in the following order, Vol. I. Sermons, Charges, and Circular Letters. II. Tracts on Terms of Communion, and John's Baptism. III. Tracts chiefly political. IV. Reviews and miscellaneous pieces. V. Sermons from the author's own manuscripts, with a selection from his letters. VI. Sermons from notes taken while they were preached: with memoirs of the life of the author, and An accurate a review of his writings. portrait of Mr. Hall is also promised to accompany one of these volumes. on Among the discourses which this first volume contains, are included Mr. Hall's celebrated sermon on "the Influence of Modern Infidelity;" "Reflections War;" and a discourse on "the Death of her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte." We select these by name from others which are less generally known, as master-pieces of the author's splendid talents, and unrivalled mental energies. Throughout all his discourses, charges, and circular letters, the vigorous working of the same powerful intellect is perceptible; but in those we have named, the expansion of his mind, the accuracy of his discriminations, and the acuteness of his reasonings, shine forth in one continued blaze of unsullied lustre. The We well remember when "Modern Infidelity, considered with respect to its Influence on Society," first made its appearance, that a very powerful sensation was excited among various classes of readers. friends of infidelity stood aghast, on beholding their dagon tumbled from his throne; while its foes rejoiced with no moderate share of exultation, at the triumphs which this production had achieved. The following brief extracts can hardly fail to place this masterly performance in. an auspicious light. "The sceptical, or irreligious system, subverts the whole foundation of morals. It may be assumed as a maxim, that no person can be required to act contrary to his greatest good, or his highest interest, comprehensively viewed in relation to the whole duration of his being. It is often our duty to forego our own interest partially, to sacrifice a smaller pleasure for the sake of a greater, to incur a present evil in pursuit of a distant good of more consequence. In a word, to arbitrate among interfering claims of inclination, is the moral arithmetic of human life. But to risk the happiness of the whole duration: of our being in any case whatever, were it possible, would be foolish; because the sacrifice must, by the nature of it, be so great as to preclude the possibility of compensation. "As the present world, on sceptical principles, is the only place of recompense, whenever the practice of virtue fails to promise the greatest sum of present good, cases which often occur in reality, and much oftener in appearance, every motive to virtuous conduct is superseded; a deviation from rectitude becomes a part of wisdom; and should the path of virtue, in addition to this, be obstructed by disgrace, torment, or death, to persevere would be madness and folly, and a violation of the first and most essential law of nature. Virtue, on these principles, being in numberless instances at war with self-preservation, never can, or ought, to become a fixed habit of the mind. Occurrences. overcome. "The system of infidelity is not only incapable of arming virtue for great and trying occasions, but leaves it unsupported in the most ordinary In vain will its advocates appeal to a moral sense, to benevolence and sympathy; for it is undeniable that these impulses may be In vain will they expatiate on the tranquillity and pleasure attendant on a virtuous course for though you may remind the offender, that in disregarding them he has violated his na ture, and that a conduct consistent with them is productive of much internal satisfaction; yet if he reply, that his taste is of a different sort, that there are other gratifications which he values more, and that every man must choose his own pleasures, the argument is at an end. "Rewards and punishments, assigned by infinite power, afford a palpable and pressing motive which can never be neglected, without renouncing the character of a rational creature: but tastes and relishes are not to be prescribed. "A motive in which the reason of man shall acquiesce, enforcing the practice of virtue at all times and seasons, enters into the very essence of moral obligation. Modern infidelity supplies no such motive: it is therefore essentially and infallibly a system of enervation, turpitude, and vice. "This chasm in the construction of morals ean only be supplied by the tirm belief of a rewarding and avenging Deity, who binds doty and happiness, though they may seem distant, in an indissoluble chain; without which, whatever assumes the name of virtue, is not a principle, but a feeling; not a determinate rule, but a fluctuating expedient, varying with the tastes of individuals, and changing with the scenes of life.—p. 22. In a strain corresponding with that of the preceding passages, the author proceeds to the end of his discourse. In argument he never languishes, in language he never becomes inelegant. Throughout nearly eighty pages, he pursues infidelity in all its windings, paradoxes, and retreats, assailing its principles in various forms, exposing the specious sophisms by which it imposes on mankind, and demonstrating its utter insufficiency to erect the standard of virtue, or to teach its votaries the nature and extent of moral obligation. A perusal of this admirable composition will fully justify these laudatory observations. From Mr. Hall's discourse on the Death of the Princess Charlotte, it was our intention to have taken several quotations; but other claims admonish us that we must be content with his pathetic introduction to that melancholy event. Having eloquently adverted to the false confidence which worldly greatness and exalted station are calculated to inspire, he appeals, for a proof of the instability and insecurity attached to every thing here below, to the unexpected death of the Princess, which at that moment had drawn forth a nation's tears. "Let them turn their eyes then for a moment, to this illustrious Princess; who, while she lived, concentred in herself whatever distinguishes the higher orders of society, and may now be considered as addressing them from the tomb. "Born to inherit the most illustrious monarchy in the world, and united to the object of her choice, whose virtues amply justified her preference, she enjoyed (what is not always the pri vilege of rank) the highest connubial felicity, and had the prospect of combining all the tranquil enjoyments of private life with the splendour of a royal station. Placed on the summit of society, to her every eye was turned, in her every hope was centred, and nothing was wanting to complete her felicity, except perpetuity. To a grandeur of mind suited to her royal birth and lofty desti. nation, she joined an exquisite taste for the beauties of nature, and the charms of retirement; where, far from the gaze of the multitude, and the frivolous agitations of fashionable life, she employed her hours in visiting, with her distinguished consort, the cottages of the poor, in improving her virtues, in perfecting her reason, and acquiring the knowledge best adapted to qualify her for the possession of power and the cares of empire. One thing only was wanting to render our satisfaction complete, in the prospect of the accession of such a princess: it was, that she might become the living mother of children. The long-wished-for moment at length ar rived but, alas! the event anticipated with sach eagerness will form the most melaneboly part of our history."-p. 337. These prefatory observations are calculated to awaken more than ordinary expectations. Nor are they awakened in vain. Throughout the subsequent parts of the discourse they are fully gratified. The dignity of the preacher's language, and the elevation of his thoughts, keep pace with the solemnity of the occasion; incessantly chaining the attention of his hearers, and allowing them no time to diminish the grandeur of his subject, by wandering into the doubtful regions of speculative anticipation. The last discourse which this volume contains, has an immediate reference to the vicarious sacrifice of Christ, in which the innocent is considered as a substitute for the guilty. This doctrine has long been a stumbling-block to the wise of this world, and the source of a favourite objection with infidelity. The following will show the strength and manner in which Mr. Hall argues on this very momentous subject. "That the voluntary substitution of an innocent person in the stead of the guilty, may be capable of answering the ends of justice, nothing seems more necessary, than that the substitute should be of equal consideration, at least, to the party in whose behalf he interposes. The interests sacrificed by the suffering party, should not be of less cost and value than those which are secured by such a procedure. "But the aggregate value of those interests must be supposed to be in some proportion to the rank and dignity of the party to which they be long. As a sacritice to justice, the life of a peasant must, on this principle, be deemed a most inade. quate substitute for that of a personage of the highest order. We would consider the requisitions of justice eluded, rather than satisɓed, by such a commutation. It is on this ground, that St. Paul declares it to be impossible for the blood of bulls and of goals to take away sins; the intrinsic meanness of the brute creation being such, that a victim taken from thence could be of no consideration in the eyes of offended justice. They were qualified to exhibit, as he reminds us, a remembrance of sin every year, but are utterly unequal to the expiation of its guilt. In this view, the redemption of the human race seemed to be hopeless; aud their escape from merited destruction, on any principles connected with law and justice, absolutely impossible. For where could an ade. quate substitute be found? Where, among the descendants of Adam, partakers of flesh and blood, could one be selected, of such pre-eminent diguity and worth, that his oblation of himself should be deemed a fit and proper equivalent to the whole race of man? to say nothing of the impossibility of finding there a spotless victim (and no other could be accepted.) Who is there that ever possessed that prodigious superiority in all the qualities which aggrandize their possessor, to every other member of the buman family, which shall entitle him to be the representative, either in action or in suffering, of the whole human race? In order to be capable of becoming a victim, he must be invested with a frail and mortal nature; but the possession of such a nature reduces him to that equality with his brethren, that joint participation of meanness and infirmity, which totally disqualifies him for becoming a substitute. Here a dilemma presents itself, from which there seems no possibility of escape. if a man is left to encounter the REVIEW. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. REVIEW.-Ecclesiastical History, in a To what number these lectures will be ex- though it may seem to furnish the publisher with an opportunity of proceeding with the work, or of discontinuing it, as circumstances may dictate, without subjecting him to the charge of having violated his word or broken his faith with the public. Perhaps, eighteen out of every twenty of all who wish to purchase such a work as this, would first desire to know its probable extent, the times when the parts and volumes may be expected to appear, and the aggregate amount of expense. Unless these points can be satisfactorily ascertained, prudence will dictate to persons of limited incomes, not to commence an undertaking which it may be doubtful if they will ever be able to complete. No purchaser would ever wish to throw himself upon the mercy of either author or bookseller; and such a surrender no one has any reasonable right to expect. Ecclesiastical history is an extensive field, to which scarcely any boundaries can be assigned; and he who enters this fertile enclosure, will soon discover himself to be surrounded by materials that are almost inexhaustible. The business, therefore, of him who would turn his time and opportunity in this prolific region to good account, is, to examine with care the various subjects which court his attention, and, by comparing them with others, to make such selections from the general mass, as may appear most congenial with the unyielding character of historical truth. Guided by this principle, Mr. Jones has prosecuted his inquiries with unremitting diligence, and, returning from the thickets in which "weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot," with the fruits of his researches, the public are invited in this volume to enjoy the repast. To any large proportion of original matter, he makes no pretensions. Nor is this to be expected: the ground has been too frequently trodden, to admit of novelty in the leading historical facts. It is only in arrangement and combination, in elucidation of occurrences, and in delineation of character, that any thing new appears. In these we behold the author to considerable advantage. To the manner in which he recals departed ages to our recollection, he has imparted a degree of vividness, which renders his lectures as entertaining, as the facts recorded in them are intrinsically interesting. To the works of preceding writers, Mr. Jones has had recourse; at times embodying in his own language the sentiments which they have delivered, and occasionally enriching his own pages with ample quotations from theirs. In the adoption of this method, he has not, however, renounced his own independence, for he rarely fails to animadvert with freedom even on our most celebrated historians, whenever he conceives their statements to be erroneous; nor does he neglect to rectify their mistakes, when they appear to ascribe given effects to improper and inadequate causes. Throughout all his lectures, Mr. Jones defends Christianity against the insidious attacks of Gibbon, and others of the same school; and in a variety of events, which these writers attribute to secondary causes, he discovers the finger of God, and the accomplishment of prophecy. The history of the early pagan persecutions is detailed with much vigour; and the credibility of the sacred writers he has rendered particularly interesting. The character of the ancient druids is delineated with a powerful hand; and the testimony of Josephus and of many others, to whom we are indebted for records of early facts, is given with great perspicuity. Of the church of Rome, Mr. Jones traces the origin and degeneracy with much fidelity; and the facts which he adduces in support of the latter, stand unparalleled in the dreadful catalogue of ecclesiastical enormities. These brutal excesses he has placed in their proper light; and no further evidence can be wanting, to prove, that a combination of such wretches, by what name soever distinguished, cannot be the church of Christ. On this, and on many other topics, he has done ample justice to his subject; and, on the whole, produced a volume that may be perused with advantage by almost every class of readers. REVIEW. Memorials of the Stuart Dynasty; including the Constitutional and Ecclesiastical History of England, from the Decease of Elizabeth to the Abdication of James II. By Robert Vaughan. 2 Vols. 8vo. pp. 523, 550. Holdsworth and Ball, London. 1831. THERE is no period in English history more eventful to the cause of religion than that which these volumes embrace. It was an age of turbulence, animosity, and disquietude in the state, and of fierce controversy and instability in the church. It was an age in which Popery and the Reformation contended for the throne of supremacy, and in which we perceive the scale preponderating alternately in favour of each, as the views of the reigning monarch extended their influence over his supple courtiers and submissive subjects. Nor was it with Popery and Reformation alone that the nation was exclusively embroiled. The court reformers were suspected by the Puritans of too near an approximation to the church of Rome; while the Puritans, on the contrary, were charged with faction, fanaticism, and disobedience to the constituted authority of the state, and of being influenced by a restless spirit, calculated to disturb the public peace. These mutual recriminations were expressed in no very conciliating terms. Animosity, acrimony, and invective, were enlisted under the banners of both parties, each of whom impugned the motives of the other, and delighted in giving features of frightful distortion to their characters. Of this wicked propensity, we quote the following instance, which, from a popular writer, in a work recently published, entitled, “Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles the First," Mr. Vaughan has inserted in his preface:— "According to one of our popular writers, and in this he is merely the echo of a host, the Puritans were a compound of barbarism, intolerance, and madness, and animated by a relentless maliguity against every thing great, and good, and beautiful. They did infinite mischief, and always from a pure love of doing it a little good they also did; but it was ever with an intention to do evil. Their weakness was marvellous, and the fittest subject in the world for ridicule, had it not been allied to wickedness still more remarkable, and deserving far other means of correction." Statements like the preceding no person can cordially believe; and when historical detail suffers itself to be thus distorted by prejudice, all confidence in the fidelity of its representations is at once destroyed. To know the real character of the parties who figured on the great theatre of our country during these troublesome and agitated times, all will allow to be highly desirable, and, so far as Mr. Vaughan has accomplished this arduous task, he has a right to claim the gratitude of the present generation, and of posterity. Alluding to the quotation given above, Mr. Vaughan thus states the character of his own volumes : "To the class of readers, who can derive pleasure from fictions of this description, when substituted in the place of history, the present work will be in no way acceptable. At the same time it will not surprise the writer to learn, that there are ultras on the other side, to whom the opinions sometimes expressed in these sheets will not be quite satisfactory. He has not cared to become a caterer for the morbid passions of any party. His object has been to induce a just estimate of the sentiments of devout men in former times, and to promote that enlightened attachment to the principles of freedom, by which those men were generally animated. That view of religion is defective and false which does not make the love and the veneration of man a natural consequence of devoted ness to his Maker."-Preface, p. v. To the impartiality by which Mr. Vaughan thus professes to be guided, he seems faithfully to have adhered in the prosecution of his inquiries. In the Puritans, and other sects, he has found much to commend, and many things to censure. |