wich on the first News of PeaceLines for the Album at Cossey, the Seat of Sir William Jerningham, Bart. -The Voice of him I love The Complaint-Address of a Felon to his Child on the Morning of his Execution, respectfully inscribed to the Philanthropic Society-The Virgin's First Love-Stanzas written under Aolus's Harp--Consumption—Epigram-Lines addressed to Mr. Biggs Fatherless Fanny-The Despairing Wanderer-The Orphan Boy's TaleSymptoms of Love-Lines respectfully inscribed to the Society for the Relief of Persons imprisoned for Small Debts-To Twilight-Epistle to a Friend, on New-year's Day 1802On reading, since the Duke of Bedford's Death, Mr. Burke's Letter reBecting on his Grace. From the Negro Boy's Tale we select the part in which he petitions a Young lady just ready to embark for England to take him with her. "Missa, poor Zambo cried, sweet land Dey tell me dat you go to see, Dey say (but teaze me is deir joy) Ah! suré 'tis false! but yet if no, Dey say me should to oders do Vere every negro slave be free,- No doubt dat ship she never send Dat dare such cruel bargain try. tress, For Anna blush'd at others' shame.) view, And press my moder on my heart? THE ORPHAN BOY'S TALE. "Stay, lady, stay, for mercy's sake, And hear a helpless orphan's tale! Yet I was once a mother's pride, Poor foolish child! how pleas'd was I, My mother, shuddering, closed her But, ah! her eyes were closed in death. My hardships since I will not tell : Look down, dear parents! look, and On reading, since the Duke of Bedford's Death, Mr. Burke's Letter reflecting on his Grace. "SUCH were the stern reproofs, illustrious shade! That once to thee a warning voice convey'd; Thus he, whose eloquence enchants the world, Against thy head his powerful thunders hurled; Thus thy bright path the modern Thus he, whose praise thou hadst been proud to share, To stop thy progress bade his lightnings glare. But, had not death those lips in silence closed Which still by turns each varying passion roused, Had that afflicted genius lived to see The increasing merit that distinguished thee, And then beheld thee from the world removed, When most deserving and when most beloved, He would, forgetting all his anger past, O'er thy fair fame his sheltering wings have cast; Thy few and idle years' no longer scorn'd, But as a public loss thy death be mourn'd,- LXXX. THE TRUE CHURCHMEN ASCERTAINED; or, An Apology for those of the Regular Clergy of the Establishment, who are sometimes called Evangelical Ministers: occasioned by the publications of Drs. Paley, Hey, Croft; Messrs. Daubeny, Ludlam, Polwhele, Fellowes, the Reviewers, &c. &c. By JOHN OVERTON, A. B. THE HE method adopted by the author of this work is thus explained in the preface. "The manner in which the subject is here treated, is as old-fashioned as the doctrine which is defended. A leading characteristic of this is, to advance nothing without PROOF; to claim credit for nothing which is not either founded in argument, or supported by testimony; and, in the use of this testimony, to admit nothing at second hand, but to bring forward the vouchers to speak for themselves, or, at the least, to specify their names, and characters, and places of abode. This, it must be confessed, is a process which, besides being unfashionable, is liable to many serious objections and inconveniences. Who knows not how much more difficult it is to prove than barely to affirm, almost in the plainest matter? Who sees not the drudgery and tediousness of such a procedure, and the aukward appearance of the margin which it occasions? And how shall all this be endured? How much more easy and compendious a method of treating an opponent it is, to class him at once with persons whose principles or characters are generally obnoxious, with whom he may happen to hold some things in common; and constantly to assail him with their absurdities! How much more simple a process it is, to get furnished with a few indefinite terms of abuse, which, as the late excellent Bishop Horne affirms of them, always signify what the imposers please to mean and the people to hate;' and with these, as with a sort of magic, to overwhelm him at a stroke. "Tedious however, as the mode of investigation here adopted is, in questions of fact, of which kind the present enquiry must chiefly be considered, the wisdom of ages has dis covered no method so certain for arriving at truth. And really, there is no end of regarding what angry opponents merely affirm of each other. On this plan, the chief of the apostles may be represented as mad;' and Christ himself charged with immorality and obnoxious connections. Nor do sheer vulgar prejudices, suppositions that those who differ from us, in religious opinion are a kind of monsters in the creation, at all change their nature, whether they proceed from the great vulgar' or the small, from the chair of some learned seminary or from that of the nursing room.” Preface, p. vi-viii. 6 Judging by the quotations made from the works to which this is opposed the above paragraph appears to be a just contrast to represent the conduct of each party. In discussing this subject our author divides his work into nine chapters, in the first of which the main question is stated, and urged against the assailants, from their conduct in subscription,—their own concessions, and the complaints of several eminent Bishops. Chap. II. contains The real sense of the articles and doctrines of our Reformers, investigated, and appealed to, on the question. In this chapter are three sections. Sect. I. The true interpretation sought, from our different forms as they illustrate and explain each other; the title, and preamble annexed to the articles; the circumstances and object of our reformers; their other public and approved writings; and the authorities they respected. Sect. 2. The true interpretation of the Articles further sought from the known private sentiments of our Reformers. Chap. III. An Examination whose teaching most resembles that of our Church and her Reformers, in respect to the use made of the peculiar Doctrines of the Gospel, and the necessity of practical Christianity. From this chapter, wherein the various opinions concerning real membership of the Church of England and of Christ are stated and examined, we give the following extracts: 66 But let us see how the teachers in question speak, with respect to the necessity of internal and practical Christianity, in order to salvation.The Antijacobin Reviewers then, in opposition to those who contend for See Matth xi. 19, and Acts xxvi. 24. this kind of religion, say, 'our church supposes all who are baptized to be in a state of salvation'.' 'Now if this phrase has any meaning, as it is here used, it must mean ALL, whatever beliness,' which our Lord and his protheir characters; for that baptized persons, who possess a Christian character, are in this state, the divines they are opposing do not deny. By 'a state of salvation' they must also be understood to mean, a state in which if men die, they will inherit the kingdom of heaven; for that all professing Christians are so far in a state of salvation, as to enjoy church privileges, and the means of salvation, nobody denies. 'who every Lord's Day attend the service of the church. Yet surely he must have heard of the sin of pharisaism, and the mere form of god "Mr. Daubeny, in like manner, sees no difference between the true church of Christ and the national church; represents professed membership with this national society, as forming the line of distinction between the world which lieth in wickedness and a state of condemnation before God, and those who are in a state of sanctification and salvation; and speaks indiscriminately of all who have been regularly baptized, and remain in the established communion, as members of Christ's body,' par'takers of Christ's spirit,' the peculiar property of Christ,' and as having a peculiar interest in him:' in other words, as translated from the 'world,' delivered from the powers 'of darkness,' and heirs with Christ of an eternal kingdom. Every 'Christian, that is, every professed Christian, he says again, after being called to reconsider the subject, who is living in a state of communion with the Church,' namely with that 'visible society' of Christians, where the episcopal form of government is 'to be found, is in the sure road to salvations, Yet surely the sign of schism may be heinous, the ministrations of self-constituted teachers preSumptuous and inefficacious, and the advantages of a conscientious adherence to our established church inestimable, and this consequence not follow." p. 115, 116. "Mr. Polwhele considers it among the greatest extravagancies, to think unfavourable of the state of many phets and apostles so severely reprehend. Surely his attention to such subjects cannot be so superficial, but he must know persons who are in habits of occupying their pews in the parish church, and are yet notoriously guilty of some of those sins, of the which the Scripture solemnly and repeatedly declares, that they who do such things shall not inherit the king'dom of God". "According, however, to the same notion, Dr. Paley, Dr. Croft, and their admirers, teach, that the scripture titles of 'elect,' ' called,'' saints,' being in Christ,' &c. were intended in a sense common to all Christian converts,' and that the application of such titles to distinguish individuals amongst us, the professors of Christianity, from one another 6, argues the greatest ignorance and presumption. "In further conformity to this doctrine, the scripture terms and phrases conversion,' regeneration,' the becoming dead to sin' and alive from the dead,' the being made sons of God from children of wrath,' and all the other passages of God's word by which the change that leads from this difference in the state and cha racters of men is represented, these divines tell us, now MEAN NOTHING;' that is, as they explain it, nothing to us, or to any one educated in a christian country." p. 117, 118. Chap. IV. The inquiry pursued with regard to the doctrine of ORIGINAL SIN, and the consequent state and character of man, in this world, as a SINNER. Chap. V. The investigation continued with respect to the doctrine of the Articles and Liturgy of the Church of England, which every minister of that Church must subscribe, and swear he fully believes. But that his opponents by their writings (from which are given copious extracts) despise those very doctrines they have soJemnly sworn to, and pour contempt upon those clergymen who believe their truth, and steadily support them. Chap. VII. "The question of adherence pursued in respect to the doctrine of GOOD WORKS, with a vindication of our tenets on this head." This chapter contains three sections. Section I. Concerning the STANDARD of morals. This the author and his friends consider to be the whole moral law of God, which the opponents represent as severe and rigid on the part of God, and maintain that the Almighty is satisfied with our defective obedience. Having noticed the duties of the first table, our author proceeds to the duties of the second. "Swearing and 'drunkenness,' and such other glaring vices, that make the most noise in the world,' they say, are the signs of thoughtless minds rather than of a depraved heart, !'-The vices of the universities have, doubt less, been exagerated. In respect to Cambridge, at least, it is certainly more than poetic licence to affirm, that study languishes and emulation sleeps. A far greater proportion of her members, it may be safely affirmed, are industrious, and, in the ordinary sense of the words, more sober and moral, than is often imagined. But there is, it must also be admitted, both here and in the sister seminary, a class who are, as the poet justly describes them, brothel Jers, impure, spendthrifts, and victims of the most complicated intemperance 3. Yet, when characters of this class are objected against as unfit to be admitted into the Holy Or⚫der of Priests,' Dr. Croft softly styles these enormities the irregularities of young men,' which, he are with ingenuous minds their own remedy'." says, "And will they pretend to strict notions of the moral precepts of Christianity, who can reconcile them with 1 Review of Policy, &c. p. 29. 2. See Cowper's Task, p. 83. 4 See bid, p. 84. Thoughts, &c. p. 84. the present morality of the stage! There is surely something very different in the spirit and deportment inculcated in the one and exhibited in the other. Rarely does the complete entertainment of an evening terminate without being polluted with open profanation of God's name, irreverent allusions to things sacred, or gestures and innuendos which in ordinary life would shock common modesty. And is this consistent with loving God with all our heart, and in all things seeking his glory?' Is this acting according to the spirit of the seventh commandment, to seek our entertainment, or as some will have it, our moral improvement, amidst profanation and obscenity? "But the worst is, that what is esteemed good in these amusements is good for nothing. The morality they usually inculcate, is equally at variance with the more sublime precepts of Scripture, and the plain duties of common life. It is, for the most part, founded in pride, in ambition, in excessive love of fame, in the exaltation of one virtue at the expence of another, in fiction, in extravagance, or in absurdity. The object of the conductors of those scenes is to attract and gratify the multitude, in order to gain; but chaste and correct representations of human life and manners will not effect this end. Their entertainments, therefore, are studiously accommodated to the reigning taste and appetites of their guests. And hence the very zest and soul of them consists in what is wrong, in exciting and cherishing those tempers and passions, which it is the object of Christianity to restrain and subdue; and their general tendency can only be to dissipate and corrupt. "The foreign and poisonous trash which is now the rage, is indeed infidelity and licentiousness without a mask . And for the rest, even Voltaire, a Deist, testifies of our English comedy,' that the incidents and language of it are those of ribal'dry and debauchery". Archbishop Tillotson denominates the playhouse, the devil's chapel; the school and nursery of lewdness and vice.' Precisely similar were the sentiments of 5 See, e g. Every one has his Fault; The Wedding Day; The Stranger; The Beggar's Opera; Pizarro, &c. 6 Kotzebue's, &c. |