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fathers Cyprian and Chrysostom. The Anti-jacobin Reviewers thuspourtray the present state of the theatres in the metropolis: The front boxes are almost exclusively devoted to women of the town; the lobbies swarm with them; they occupy every part of the house, with the solitary Fexception of the side boxes and the first circle; the rooms intended for the purposes of refreshment are like the shew-rooms of a bagnio; and it is next to impossible for a 'virtuous woman to walk from her 'box to her carriage without having 'her eyes offended, and her ears shocked, by the most indecent ges'tures, and the most obscene language. And in this most profligate exhibition, the young men are as 'bad as, if not worse than, the wo'men. At a summer theatre, we have seen the performance absolutely stopped by the noise of these male and female prostitutes; and the front boxes rendered the scene of actions fit only for a brothel." How therefore men who have professed themselves persuaded, they were inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon them the office of ministers, for the promoting of God's glory and the edifying of his "peoples,' and who have solemnly engaged that, laying aside the study of the world and the flesh,' they will labour, as much as lieth in them,' to fashion both themselves and others according to the doctrine and example of their master; how the ambassadors of Christ can be avowed advocates for such modes of diversion must seem extraordinary; how they can reconcile these practices with his example, and with the plain. precepts of his word, which so expressly condemn all unnecessary intercourse with the wicked, all 'corrupt communication,' levity, 'filthiness, foolish talking, and jest'ing,' it is surely difficult to conceive. The wonder, however, is increased, if, when they act thus, they solemnly profess, that it is their hope and wish to do service to religion,'

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See Milner's History of the Church, vol. i. p. 464; vol. ii. p. 321. 2 June, 1800, p 204-5. 3 See Ordination Service.

See, e. g. Ephes. v. 1-21; 2 Cor. vi. 14-18; Rom. xii. 2; Luke vi. 20-26, &c. &c.

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and to continue, and as far as pos 'sible improve the blessings of a regular ministry in the church of England; and if, at the same time, the grand article in religion, upon which they value themselves, and on account of which they despise others, is their pure morality!" p. 238-241.

Here follow quotations from clergymen in favour of the stage, with the author's animadversions. And the subject of loyalty to the king and subjection to civil government is the next topic, after which the duty of a superior in office to an inferior, namely, that of a minister to his people, is then considered, and the subject of residence is particularly noticed.

Section II. Concerning the SANCTIONS of Morality.

Section III. A vindication of certain INDIVIDUALS; an appeal to EXPERIENCE, and to the CONCES SIONS of our opponents on the point and a conclusion that it is the STRICTNESS of our morality which gives the offence.

Chap. VIII. The REASONS of our adherence to the genuine doctrines of the Church of England stated; and a general APOLOGY for her doc trines.

Chap. IX. The Recapitulation and Conclusion.

The whole of this work makes a handsome 8vo. volume of between four and five hundred pages.

LXXXI. VILLAGE DIALOGUES, be tween Farmer Littleworth and Thomas Newman, Rev. Mr. Lovegood, Rev. Mr. Dolittle, and others. By ROWLAND HILL, A. M. Vol. I.

HESE dialogues are eight in number, the first of which, entitled Cottage Piety, contains a conversation between Farmer Littleworth and his servant Thomas Newman, and exemplifies the simplicity and fervour of piety in a poor cottager with a numerous family with the content enjoyed by a mind under the influence of religion. The servant having received his religious instruction from the minister of the parish adjoining that in which the farmer

5 See Dr. Croft's Thoughts, &c. Preface, and P: 50.

resided, endeavours to persuade his master to give him a hearing, which is thus introduced.

"Farmer. Why, Thomas, you are not the worse for hearing your parson; I confess he has made you a better man than when you came home drunk with me from Mapleton fair.

"Thomas. A thousand and a thousand times I have thought that we were worse than the hogs we went to buy, and which I drove home the next day.

F. Ah! Thomas, that was partly my fault.

"T. But, master, if you think I am the better for hearing our minister, why won't you come and hear him too?

"F. Why if I did I should be jeer'd at all the market over. You know, Thomas, your cottage is not in our parish; and what would our rector say, if I was to leave our church to hear Mr. Lovegood? for you know he hates him mortally; calls him all sorts of names; says he is a 'thusiast; but what he means by it I cannot tell; and I should have as good a peel about my ears from my wife and daughters as ever I should have from the parson.

"T. What of all that, master, if you could but get good to your soul? for there is no good like it.

"F. Ah, Thomas! this is fine talk; for if I was to quarrel with our parson, I should never have any peace in the parish, and he would raise my ty thes directly." p. 6.

This and the following dialogue contains a description of Thomas's manner of living, particularly his daily devotional exercises with his family; and the third, by the farmer's request, gives an account of the, means by which the heart of Thomas was influenced, and his practice regulated by religion, which determines the Farmer to go and hear Mr. Lovegood.

The Farmer hears Mr. Lovegood, and is so much attracted by his preaching as, with his daughter Nancy, to hear him regularly, which introduces Mr. Dolittle the Farmer's Rector, to enquire into the reason of his absence from his parish church. The conversation is contained in the fourth dialogue, entitled, The Church defended against false Friends and inward Foes.

In this dialogue, after the enquiries

on the part of the Rector, and the Farmer's replies, the former expresses himself with much anger against Mr. Lovegood, but is prevailed upon to stop and take tea, to talk with Mr. Littleworth about his new religion. The Farmer having introduced many passages from the Articles, Liturgy, &c. which he had heard from M. Lovegood, to defend his present sentiments, the Rector introduces his explanation of such passages.

"Dol. Well, Master Littleworth, if you have done preaching to me, it is high time that I should begin preaching to you. I have already observed, that our reformers were good men, but not over wise; and that they may have expressed themselves unguardedly; therefore, many of our divines of the present day, and I'll assure you most of them are Bishops or Deans, or other great dignitaries, have been at a deal of pains to put a proper explanation on their words; and though I confess they have hardly as yet settled the matter among themselves, yet it seems to amount to this. Some of them think that our reformers had a double meaning in all they said, and that they meant both ways, for and against the same doctrine, at the same time.

"Others are of opinion, that they had but one meaning, and that is to be understood as being just the contrary to what they say. They who are for the double meaning suppose, that while some are at liberty to take them in one sense, yet others are at liberty also to take them in the opposite sense; and though, to the ignorant and the unlearned, this may appear a flat contradiction and nonsense, yet many learned divines have written very ably on this side of the ques tion; though I confess, in my opinion, it gives too much latitude to those modern preachers that you are now so fond of, to preach up their notions; and very specious things, to be sure, they have to say, if we let this interpretation pass. I am rather, therefore, of the opinion of those divines who have proved that our reformers, when they said one thing meant another. And if you please, sir, I'll explain myself on this subject.

"F. 'Las, sir, you quite stagger me! I don't know whether I stand upon my head or my heels.

"D. Don't say so, sir, for I'll assure

you we are serious, and we can prove all this to be very true from the logic some of us brought from Oxford, and others of us from Cambridge; and that when we read in the article about original, or birth-sin, That it is the fault and corruption of the 'nature of every man that naturally is ' engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from 'original righteousness; 'it is evidently to be made out by the rule of reverse and that according to the opinion of our modern divines, there is a deal of original inherent rectitude in man, if he would but employ his reason and his conscience, to bring it forth.

"F. Though I dare not contradict the learned, yet I am sure my hardened conscience and my blinded reason never did any good.

"D. You should not have interrupted me, sir, till I had finished what I had to say; for I next must remind you of what you said about the necessity of Special Grace;' that we have no power of ourselves to help 'ourselves,' and that of ourselves 'we cannot but fall;' that we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing 'us;' now for want of our logic, it cannot be expected you can comprehend that these expressions are to be understood by the same rule of reverse; and that now their proper meaning is, that there is a deal of power left in us though in our laps'd state; and that nothing is wanting, but for God to second our good endeavours; and that through our own proper resolutions and endeavours, if duly attended to, we shall obtain the favour of the Almighty.

"F. Why, then, sir, when I tell Sam, that he is to fetch the black horse out of the stable, he must understand that he is to bring me the grey mare. Why, I am all in amazement at this new sort of learning.

"Mrs. L. Nancy, my dear, hand that fresh toast to Mr. Dolittle. (To Mr. Dolittle.) Perhaps, sir, you would like a bit more with your last dish. (Miss Nancy directly takes it into the kitchen, and comes back without it.)

"Mrs. L. Why Nancy, child, what have you done with the toast?

*In the original Latin, Quam longissime, as far as possible.

"Nancy. As you bade me, mother. "Mrs. L. Why, I told you to hand it to Mr. Dolittle.

"Nancy. O yes, mother; but then by this new rule of reverse, I thought I was to take it away, and lock it up in the pantry.

"D. O, but we are not to adopt this rule of reverse in things temporal, but only in things spiritual. It is upon this principle that our divines have it in their power farther to prove about the justification of man by faith alone, that it means by faith and good works together; nor should you pretend to be so wise about the matter, but humbly to leave it to your clergy, and believe, as they direct you; for it should seem very strange, that after these abstruse divines have puzzled even the most learned among us about

works done before justification, and ' works done after justification,' that you should be able to understand their meaning.

"F. Why, then, sir, when I say I shall go alone to Mapleton market next Thursday, you are to understand that I mean to take my wife and daughter Polly with me. Is this the way in which I am to chop this newfashioned logic?

"D. I am sorry for you, Mr. Littleworth, if you can't understand, yet at least you should submit to the learning of our university divines." p. 51-53.

The fifth dialogue is on the evil nature and effects of stage plays, and originates in the farmer's daughters, Miss Polly and Miss Patty, accompanying Mr. BRISK (curate to Mr. DOLITTLE) and Mr. Smirking, (assistant to Dr. Dronish) to a play, for which the Farmer, in his dry way, roasts them when they come home.

The sixth dialogue introduces the Farmer's son, Henry, a prodigal young man, who went to sea, and after an absence of four years writes an affecting penitential letter to his father, which forms the subject of this dialogue.

A Sunday school examination is presented to the reader in the seventh dialogue; and in the eighth the prodigal returns, and is received by all his friends with much joy.

From dialogue VII. we present our readers with the following scene:

"Next commenced the examina tion. Mr. Attentive, a barber from Mapleton, was the schoolmaster, who was

appointed to this office, because he had made a sacrifice of his daily bread, by not following his occupation on the Lord's day.

"Mr. Lovegood was the examiner. Mrs. Fairspeech, who was a professor of that religion which she never pos sessed, sent her son with others to the Sunday school, and he was the first who was examined.

"Mr. Lovegood. Well, Bobby Fair speech, what do you remember of the sermon I have just now been preaching?

it.

"Bob. I remember the text, sir.
"Loveg. Let us hear you repeat

"B. 'Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.' "Loveg. And what did I say to you upon that subject?

"B. Why, that we were all miserable sinners, and should be ruined if we did not come to Christ.

"Loveg. Then it is to be hoped that you, as a miserable sinner, have been taught to come to Christ. Do you know what it is to give him your heart?

"B. Not so much as I should. "Loveg. Why then I fear you neglect to pray to him.

"B. Oh no, sir; for my mother would beat me sadly if I did not say my prayers.

Loveg. Surely, child, you must be very wicked if you need be beaten to say your prayers; but I should hope your mother has a better way of teaching you to pray than by beating you to it. I can hardly think that your father, who is a sensible man, though he does not come to church so often as he should, would allow you to be beaten to make you pray.

B. Sir, my father is scarce ever at home when it is my time to go to bed, for he always spends his evenings with Mr. Sobersides the sadler.

Mr. L. prudently forbore asking any more questions, lest he should dive into family secrets before the children but the truth was, that though Mrs. Fairspeech could appear very soft and saintish before others, yet was she of a turbulent temper, self-willed, insulting, and irritating to her husband; and after she had driven him away from the family, would consume three times as much in applying to the gin bottle as he

and Mr. Sobersides did in a pint or two of beer over a pipe of tobacco, while they read the news-paper, and conversed on the politics of the day. As for the faithful and salutary reproofs bestowed on Mrs. Fairspeech, they were all spent in vain; she still continued the perpetual grief of Mr. Lovegood's mind, who hated nothing more than the cant and hypocrisy of such false-hearted professors.

We now attend to the examination of Richard Heedless.

“ Loveg. Well, Mr. Attentive, how does this child come on? Tho' he comes to the Sunday school, I never see his father at church.

"Attentive. I am afraid, sir, his church is at the Nag's Head in Mapleton.

"Loveg. Well, but if the father acts improperly, that is no reason why the child may not receive good.

"Attentive. Oh, sir, I cannot get him on at any rate; for all that he receives on the Sunday he forgets on the week days, and I am afraid it is only for the sake of the feast that we see him now.

"Mr. Lovegood to Ned Heedless. Why, my child, how is it that I hear all this of you? but let us see if you understand any thing. Who made you?

"Ned. God Almighty.
Loveg. What did he make you

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for?

"Ned. To do my duty, and mind my religion.

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Loveg. But do you do your duty, and mind religion as you ought? Ned. I do it as well as my fa

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Loveg. I am afraid if you do no better, your duty is miserably done; but tell me who redeemed you?

"Ned. Mr. Littleworth redeemed us last Monday."

"Loveg. to Mr. Littleworth. What can this poor child mean by saying you redeemed them?

"Littlew. Truly, sir, I cannot tell, unless it is that I stopped his father's wages to redeem his clothes out of pawn; for after he had been two days drunk at Mapleton revel, be pledged every bit of decent clothes he had to his alehouse debts; and when I saw him such a dirty pay ragged fellow, I told him he should work for me no more till he had taken his clothes from the pawnbroker's.

"Littlew. to Heedless. I fear, mas

ter Heedless, your son's ignorance is to be laid to your wickedness.

"Heedless. Sir, it can't be expected that I should be able to instruct my children, for I was never bred to no learning.

Loveg. Why thousands and tens of thousands who were never bred to learning have yet been blessed with grace; and you can't suppose you need to be a bad man, because you are a poor man ; nor need you be the if it were not poor man you now are, for the wickedness of your heart. Did you ever pray?

"Heedless. Why, sir, more's the pity, I cannot read.

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Loveg. I did not ask you if you could read, but can you pray? "Heedless. I can say the Lord's prayer from top to bottom.

"Loveg. And is this all your religion? I fear you are in a dreadful state. Here, Richard, is a book for you," A compassionate Address;" and Thomas Newman, who is almost your next neighbour, can read very well, and I dare say he will be so kind as to read it to you."

The author closes this book with the following remark: "Though à little fiction has been called in to aid the dramatic dress of the dialogues, yet the principal events are all of them taken from matters of fact, and similar living characters may be found in every age and country where the Gospel has been introduced."

The second volume of these dialogues, which is just published, will appear in our next.

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Difficulties of the Pastoral Office, from 2 Cor. ii. 10.-Motives for hearing Sermons, from Prov. viii. 33, 34.Directions for hearing Sermons, from Luke viii. 18.-Instructions and Consolations from the Unchangeableness of Christ, from Hebrews xiii. 8.-The Agency of God in human Greatness, from 1 Chron. xxix. 12.-The People of God considered as all righteous, from Isaiah Ix. 21.-The important Mystery of the Incarnation, from 1 Tim. iii. 15, 16.-Jesus justified in the Spirit, from 1 Tim. iii. 16.-Jesus seen of Angels, from 1 Tim. iii. 16.— Jesus preached unto the Gentiles, from 1 Tim. iii. 16.-Jesus believed on in the World.-Jesus received up into Glory, from 1 Tim. iii. 16.—and ower given to Christ for blessingthe Elect, from John xvii. 2.

From the discourse entitled the Blessing of Christian Teachers we present to our readers the observation that "public teachers often refine the taste, improve the genius, civilize the manners, and promote the literary pursuits of a nation. The advan tages of this kind derived from their labours, though much inferior to others afterwards to be mentioned, are yet important enough to demand our grateful notice and acknowledgment. It is chiefly in Christian countries, that the valuable remains of Eastern, of Greek, and of Roman wisdom and eloquence, have been preserved, studied, imitated, and sometimes even excelled. Christian countries have produced the most complete and accurate books of history, geography, chronology, and antiquities; and the most judicious systems of natural religion, of morals, both as respecting individuals and'nations, of jurisprudence and of political knowledge. Christians have conducted philosophical inquiries with the best success, and improved them for the most useful and benevolent purposes. If these things are good and profitable to society, (and that they are good and profitable my present hearers need not be told), a large portion of the honour of such usefulness belongs to men set for the defence of the Gospel, desirous by sound reasoning to convince gainsayers, and conscious what arms human literature furnishes

for this holy war. Of these defenders of the faith many were clergymen, and laid the foundation of their know

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