(even Curate of this Church) but great diligence, added to vigour of understanding and profound judgment, soon paved his way to preferment and honour.---The country at large acknowleged his merits; and truly discerning patrons, through the approbation of a gracious Sovereign, ever prepared to reward the deserving, raised him step by step to that exaltation, where he ended his labours and life. From the commencement of his ministry till a very short time before his death, his life may be said to have been a life of labour and of love; his labour appears in the various writings he has published, and left behind him; his love may be discovered in the benevolent intention of doing good. His eloquence and learning, both conspicuous, gave him weight and dignity in the Church and Parliament; active, cheerful, and willing, he attended on all his sacred duties; and in the Senate House maintained an inflexible integrity. Firmly rooted in the Faith once delivered unto the Saints, which the Prophets of old, the Apostles of his acknowledged God and Saviour, and the succeeding Fathers, who honoured and propagated the Christian system taught, HE like them exhibited in their genuine purity, the scriptural truths of the divine mysteries (which could not have been thought of, had they not been revealed from Heaven) and thoroughly separated them from the dross of Superstition, the folly of Enthusiasm, and the corruptions of Infidelity. At the same time his talents were employed, and his heart open, to instruct and guide the young by his counsel and advice: to provide for the deserving by his influence and power; to aid the distressed by his preaching and his charity; and to support the ecclesiastical institutions, as well as civil establishment, by his writings and his conduct. In almost the latest period of his existence, his abilities shone with all the ardour of youth, and as usual, with zeal for the Church, which will soon appear from the materials sent to the press to publish his last charge; and which will, I trust, ensure to his memory a new claim of gratitude both from the Church and State. His immediate instructions from this pulpit are well known, and will I hope, be ever remembered.

In general knowledge he has left but few equals; in Scriptural knowledge, I think no superior. We have lately seen his body committed to the ground; but his soul is ascended up on high! May that happy change in him induce us to dry up every tear of affliction, and contemplate him on a seat in Heaven, where he will have a view of that blessed and divine Saviour, the WeRD, or SON OF GOD, in whose cause he enlisted; whose doctrine both in faith and practice he kept, and earnestly contended for.---The glory of whose name he asserted and vindicated, proving him to be an all knowing Saviour, as well as an All-powerful Judge. Finally, that divine being, Jesus Christ, in whose presence he now is, aided him with the Holy Spirit,

in his various conflicts through life; and permitted him to sink into rest after a day of pain, that he might reward him with ́a crown, never fading and everlasting.”

Some interesting particulars of the Bishop are given in an appendix, of which we shall avail ourselves, with due respect, on another occasion.

An Historical View of the Rise and Progress of Infidelity, with a Refutation of its Principles and Reasonings. In a Series of Sermons preached for the Lecture founded by the Hon. Mr. Boyle, in the Parish Church of St. Maryle-Bow, from the Year 1802 to 1805. By the Rev. WILLIAM VAN MILDERT, M. A. Rector of St. Mary-leBow. Two Volumes 8vo.

THE

(Continued from page 312.)

HE Ninth Sermon treats of " the Origin and Progress of Deism. Herbert. Hobbes. Spinosa. New Sect of Sceptics in the seventeenth century."

To the very accurate delineation of the sophistical and hypocritical system of Herbert, we should have been glad if the preacher had given that extraordinary writer's enthusiastic pretension to divine revelation. The cir cumstance is related in his own life, written by himself, and is sufficiently curious to warrant our giving it a place in this article.

Being in great debate with himself, whether he should publish his book, "De Veritate," or not, he tells us that he addressed the following prayer to God, to know his will in relation to the publication of it. His words are these :

"Being thus doubtful, in my chamber, one fair day in the summer, my casement being opened towards the south, the sun shining clear, and no wind stirring, I took my book "De Veritate" in my hand, and kneeling on my knees, devoutly said these words:

"O thou eternal God, author of the light which now shines upon me, and giver of all inward illuminations, I do beseech

thee

thee, of thy infinite goodness, to pardon a greater request than a sinner ought to make; I am not satisfied enough, whether I shall publish this book, "De Veritate'; if it be for thy glory, I beseech thee give me some sign from Heaven; if not, I shall suppress it."

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"I had no sooner spoken these words, but a loud, though yet gentle noise, came from Heaven, (for it was like nothing on earth), which did so comfort and chear me, that I took my petition as granted, and that I had the sign I demanded: whereupon also, I resolved to print my book: this, (how strange soever it may seem) I protest, before the eternal God, is true; neither am I any way superstitiously deceived herein, since I did not only clearly hear the noise, but in the serenest sky that ever I saw, being without a cloud, did to my thinking see the place from whence it came. And now I sent my book to be printed at Paris, at my own cost and charges."

This curious effusion of vanity, weakness, and blasphemy, shews that enthusiasm and infidelity are more nearly allied, or approximate more naturally to each other, than perhaps is generally imagined. The same spirit which actuated Herbert in thus giving a divine sanction to an infamous book, whose tendency was to destroy all religion; led the Quakers and other Fanatics to ascribe all their nonsensical and antiscriptural conceits to the Holy Spirit.

It deserves observation also, that Hobbes, whose system is here exceedingly well defined, was a man of a most abject mind, and enslaved in the chains of miserable superstition, living in continual dread of death, and being always terrified when left in the dark, for fear of evil spirits, whose existence he ridiculed in his writings.

The tenth Sermon brings us nearer to our own times, and to a view of the progress of Infidelity in the latter part of the eighteenth century.

The writings and opinions of the principal infidels in this period are well characterized, and their pernicious effects exposed. We could give many copious and interesting extracts from this discourse, but we are necessarily restrained; and, therefore, we must be content with the striking portrait here drawn of a Royal Infidel Frederic the Second, King of Prussia.

"Like the Emperor Julian, this vain, ambitious, and artful Prince conceived an early hatred to the Gospel, wrought into his mind by an unhappy intercourse with unprincipled Sophists, who availed themselves of the indiscipline and inexperience of

*Life of Lord Herbert, printed at Strawberry Hill, 1764. pp. 170.

is youth, to instil into him sentiments the most profligate and licentious. Like Julian also, in his more advanced years, he became desirous of converting the whole civilized world into a seminary of Infidelity, with this only difference, that instead of introducing the follies and fopperies of Paganism, his aim was to substitute for Christianity a dreary system of Atheism, or of a Deism so nearly approaching to Atheism as to afford no better prospect to its deluded followers. For this purpose, the Philosophical Societies, in most of the European States, were put under the superintendence of men deeply in fested with what was dignified by the appellation of Philosophical Unbelief. Correspondence was kept up between these Societies, and between individuals embarked in this great undertaking, however remote from each other. Literary journals were carried on with the intent of giving celebrity and circulation to those works only which should bear the marks of the infidel Beast in their foreheads; and to stifle in the birth, if possible, every production hostile to their design.

"Statesmen and courtiers were also busied in obtaining the favour and encouragement of their respective sovereigns towards. the ambitious and assuming Philosophists of the age; so that scarcely a department of any importance was filled but by them, or their weak and servile dependants. Thus did they endeavour to compel religion to hide itself, as a thing of nought, a despised and broken Idol," fit only for the veneration of the illiterate and the vulgar."

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We are now come to a view of our own times, and to a consideration of the "Scoffers in these last days." Such characters, it is justly observed, there always have been, men deriding and contemning the will of God. and following their own imaginations, in opposition to that will,"

"But if it be more characteristic of one age than of another, to abound in such opponents to truth, and to be distinguished by such marks of impiety; have we not reason to consider the present day as pre-eminently entitled to that destinction, and therefore as indicating, perhaps, the approaching close of the Christin Dispensation upon earth? For, in like manner as the Jewish people, immediately previous to the destruction of Jerusalem, grew worse and worse, more infatuated in their opposition to the gospel, more licentious and profligate in their conduct, more profane and irreverent in their disregard of the manifest interpositions of Divine Power, for their reformation and conviction; so does it appear, that, in these latter times' the nearer the awful day of the Lord approaches, when all these things shall be dissolved: more madly does the world rage against its Creator and Redeemer, the more desperately does it rush on its own ruin, and scoff at the Divine judgment with increased audacity and contempt.",

To support this representation, the anti-christian conspiracy on the continent is fully exhibited, and the various plans adopted to spread atheism and immorality are fairly stated.

"All ranks and descriptions of persons being thus prepared and fitted, by every species of iniquity and delusion, for the designs of their execrable leaders, we may cease to be astonished at the tremendous catastrophe which ensued. The French revolution (dreadful as it must be deemed, by every one who retains a sentiment of religion or humanity) is but the practical commentary on the pernicious principles in which it origi nated. To these, the destruction of the altar, of the throne, and of society itself, is so clearly to be ascribed, that it is a vain attempt to trace it to any other source. Outrage upon outrage, horror upon horror, falshood upon falshood; the annihilation of truth, order, justice, decency, and humanity, were the bitter fruits of that Apostacy and Blasphemy, to disseminate which had been the unceasing object of the professed Adorers of Liberty and Reason."

The progress of impiety in our own country is thus described:

"Encouraged by the unparalleled success of Infidelity abroad, the enemies to the Gospel shewed themselves here in very considerable numbers. From the blasphemous atheist, to the corrupt or insidious professor of Christianity, all were ready to join in the demolition of those bulwarks of our Faith, which for ages had secured it against the attacks of former assailants.

"Foremost in the ranks, appeared the Authors of the Age of Reason, and of the Enquiry into Political Justice; works now sinking fast (it is to be hoped) into oblivion, and consigned to just execration by every friend of Truth and Social Order. Their effects, however, on thousands of weak, ignorant, and corrupt minds, can never be sufficiently deplored; and when we recollect the indefatigable zeal and industry with which the former of these works was circulated among the very dregs of the populace (by whom it was devoured with an avidity which bespoke the innate depravity of their minds), it is impossible not to tremble, even now, at the consequences which have ensued, and which may yet ensue, from so deep-rooted and wide-spreading an evil. Every year's experience brings us, indeed, fresh proofs of the balefui influence of these and other productions of Scoffers at religion: and although they may not have effected so general and avowed an apostacy from the faith, as was intended, yet it cannot be denied, that a very general taint appears to have been given to the morals of the community at large, and of the lower orders in particular, by the dissemination of what have been termed Jacobinical principles; peinciples compounded of a

hatred