REVIEW.

The Irish Pulpit; a Collection of Sermons by Clergymen of the Established Church. Second Series. Dublin, W. Curry & Co. 1830.

(Continued from page 318.)

The sermons of this volume require however as little allowance on this score, as any with which we are acquainted; some of the most valuable as to composition and arrangement, are from the pens of the most popular preachers, and bear internal evidence of having been delivered from the pulpit. The collection opens with two sermons by the Rev. H. White, the well known and deservedly popular curate of Mary's parish in this city, and exhibiting, we should think, not an unfavourable specimen of the interesting, and fervent, and eloquent addresses of that minister. The preacher makes no pretension to novelty of view, or depth of research, or power of reasoning; the sermons are a fervid statement of known truths, and frequently a searching and spirit-stirring application to the heart. The second abounds with passages of considerable beauty, which we regret we cannot extract. Were we to act the critics on Mr. White's sermons, we would say that there is no keeping in them, that he is too sustained, too constantly on the stretch, and that a little depression of his oratory and elevated strain would be felt by the hearer, we are sure it would be by the reader, a considerable relief. These very pleasing sermons are followed by two from the Dean of Ardagh, plain and simple, containing important and essential truths, promulgated in such language that "he who runs may read." The succeeding sermons are by Mr. H. Woodward of Fethard, and abound with the characteristics of his peculiar and striking style. Original views, distinct and lively pictures, scripture beautifully applied, and life accurately surveyed, are, with evangelical sentiments and most uncompromising morality, the basis of his sermons. The text from 1 John v. 19, gives an opportunity of stating the preacher's opinion of the world, and the opening of the second sermon is peculiarly striking. We shall give a few short extracts as specimens of his style.*

To point out, for your practical guidance, what that evil world is, where to be met with, and how to be avoided, should be now my business. But I own I feel no small difficulty in doing this, in what the generality of persons may be inclined to think a satisfactory manner. The truth is, men often look, in religious matters, for a species of guidance which the subject does not admit of. For, in reality, the gospel is intended rather as an inward than an outward rule. It is its object, rather to give men new eyes to see the path of life, than to throw so strong a light upon that path, as that the dim of sight may find it; rather to make the divinely instructed soul a law unto itself, than to explain the written law by nice distinctions, and laboured expositions.

In this view, one cannot sufficiently admire the beneficial operation of the holy Sabbath. A man in business may ascertain in what spirit he is pursuing his calling, by the manner in which he finds his mind affected towards the Lord's day. This day is a type and anticipation of the eternal Sabbath. It invites us to occupations which will engage the inhabitants of the world to come; and, consequently, if we have our conver

We observe a plain and convincing sermon on the doctrine of the Trinity, by the Rev. F. Woodward, son we believe of Mr. H. Woodward. We wish the preacher had selected a different text for his discourse than 1 John v. 7, particularly as there is no attempt either to explain the very difficult context, or to vindicate the authenticity of the disputed passage, 3 A

VOL. XI.

sation in heaven, we must call the Sabbath a delight. If, then, I wished for the surest criterion, in what world-whether in God's world, or in man's world-any of you, particularly any of you who are engaged in trade, are living; I would say, how do you pass, and love to pass your Sabbaths? Do you scrupulously avoid all ordinary business thereon? And do you feel this no restraint, but rejoice in it as your valued privilege? Do you desire to avoid, not only talking of business, but even thinking of business, during its sacred hours? Nay, do you believe that, even as it respects your worldly interests, more may depend upon your Sabbath's prayer than upon all your own diligence, wisdom, and contrivance? Do you thus bring religion into your trading calculations, and consider it as there the chief article in account? If so, you are living by faith, though in the midst of business. You have a realizing belief in an invisible God. Your eye has pierced the clouds of man's world; and you are living, and carrying on your business in God's world. Be faithful to this light; and all that you do here, bears upon the life to come. You are acting in that system, of which God is the contriver and the end. You are a member of, and filling a subordinate station in, that great scheme of things which is after God's intention, which is maturing in time for its consummation in eternity."-pp. 93, 106.

Mr. Ross's two sermons on Acts xvii. 12, and Heb. x. 28, 29, are of the highest strain in the volume; and although the name of the author is not so well known here as in his own diocese, must establish his claim to an elevated rank as a preacher. We remember to have read many years since an ordination sermon by Mr. Ross, which gave us a high opinion of his talents and his principles, and the two sermons before us do not detract from those sentiments. The first sermon on Paul at Athens, contains many striking passages, and is an admirable corrective to the intellectual idolatry that forms the besetting sin of the present day. The danger of presumptuous reasoning and its opposition to the gospel are strongly pourtrayed

"The natural mind of man, and more especially when refined and elevated by taste and literature, can often delight itself in abstract views of the Deity-in the immensity and omnipresence of his essence-in the glories and symmetry of his creation-in the order and adaptation of the various parts of organised being-yea, even in the tokens of goodness and benevolence, which radiate around the orbit of his mighty providence, and draw the eye of natural sensibility within the influence of its beauty and attractiveness; and many a one of cultivated understanding is betrayed into the self-flattery, that, because he can please himself with these intellectual views of the Eternal, which gratify his taste and imagination, he is, therefore, rejoicing in the God of revelation.

"But, alas, it is quite possible to do all this, while at the same time there is the deepest alienation of heart from those moral qualities in the blessed God, which form the only bond of relation between Him and his redeemed children. The experience of many a gifted mind evidences too painfully, that it is possible to have the most delicate and sensitive perception of all that is grand and beautiful in the creation, and general providence of the Most High, while we do not in any measure delight in the God of the Gospel, in the God of holiness, in the God who hates sin, in the God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity,' in the God of sovereign grace, and sovereign judgment, in Him whose only covenant of peace is through the blood of the cross, whose only way of access is the sin-atoning Saviour-whose only kingdom upon earth is among those who are born of his Spirit to a new nature and a new life-whose only dwelling is with him that is of a contrite and humble heart-whose only promise is to him that trembles at his word.

"There is in every man, naturally, a tendency to believe that religion is a thing which can be learned by the understanding, and, therefore, there is a very general disposition, and more especially among educated people, to imagine, that the most cultivated understanding is the best prepared for the reception of divine truth. Now this might appear

a very innocent mistake, and such as at the worst could only tend to make us more zealous in the pursuit and promotion of that, which all admit to be most valuable, intellectual acquirement-but it is not so. The supposition is one, which is not only false as to the matter of fact, but which is perverting in principle also. It contradicts in the very first place, that great pervading principle of revelation which stands written against every mere human faculty for attaining the things of God- Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' saith the Lord of Hosts; that principle, that the grace which saves, and the faith which justifies, is the gift of God. But this supposition has a still farther delusiveness, for it bears within it a secret inference-an inference too influential among men of reading and information-that whatsoever part of the great Gospel discoveries is not acceptable to refined tastes and cultivated understandings, must be either unreasonable and fanatical, and so cast away with mockery and scorn, or at least should be so modified and softened down, as to accommodate itself to some fair intellectual system.

"Now, all this deference to human intellect in the things of God, (and we live in days in which deference to intellect is carried to its utmost limit) produces a tendency to take away its mysteriousness from the Gospel of Christ—that is, to take away from it all the deep discoveries of God-all that, in fact, which makes it specially the Gospel of salvation. This deference to intellect, produces a tendency to take away from the Gospel the full doctrine of man's guilt and moral ruin; to take away from it the doctrine of faith, as the means of apprehending the sin-atoning Saviour; to take away from it the doctrine of God the Spirit's immediate and personal influence, in new-creating the soul for its new relationship to God. The same deference to intellect has a tendency too, not only to refine away the mystery of redemption, but also to unbody and attenuate to something which philosophy can compress and combine into affinity with her human science, the other great division of gospel mystery, the resurrection from the dead."-147–152.

The second sermon is an earnest appeal to the Christian church, to take warning by her "older sister" the Jewish, to whose responsibilities she has succeeded as well as to her privileges. While we agree in the main with Mr. Ross as to the views so well set forth by him upon this subject, we think that some of his expressions are, to say the least, unguarded, when he speaks of the high dignity of the Christian church, and that many unbelievers may be comforted, and many believers startled, when they read the following statements addressed to a mixed congregation.

"I say to you this day, ye are the people, the chosen, the church of the living God; and this distinction ye have, whether ye be believers or unbelievers-whether ye be spiritual or unspiritual-whether ye be walking in the light of God's countenance, or be still ignorant of Christ, the hope of glory; ye have it simply by the fact of being, according to God's good pleasure, born under the covenant, and being sealed over to God as his people, and God's covenant consigned to you in the great sacramental mystery and severing pledge of baptism.

"For you the eternal Spirit has flowed forth from the Saviour's wounded side, to convince you of sin, to lead you to the everlasting righteousness of Christ, to cast out from you the power of the world, and of the prince of this world, and to sanctify you for your eternal inheritance."-pp. 172, 173.

We are sure Mr. Ross only intends to convey the doctrine of our church -general redemption, and that the external and covenant privileges of the gospel belong to baptized individuals; but the fervour of composition has, perhaps, induced him to express himself rather more warmly than the awful importance of the subject admitted. With perhaps this exception the whole sermon is peculiarly interesting and powerful. There is a pleasing sermon

from the lamented Mr. Brougham on the union of believers with Christ; and that from Mr. Walker of Buttevant, on Paul and Felix, is an able application of that interesting incident. Among the sermons of this volume, there is a striking one from Mr. Tatam, and one from the pen of the Rev. J. C. Lloyd, already before the public as a writer and preacher of sermons; the latter is perhaps more original than any in the volume, and exhibits many marks of thought and reflection. We quote a passage that appears to us very striking

"There is, however, one reflection connecting itself with the subject, which, as it has addressed itself with great force to my mind, may perhaps strike others, and it is this, that bell is the common receptacle of the damned. Many of us who may at times have felt conscious that we were not of the number of the citizens of heaven, have at the same time felt a shrinking from the being counted as having fellowship or connection with those baser and more revolting sinners who darken with their crimes the face of society; and would tremble at the idea of being compelled, even upon earth, to sojourn for a time among those sordid miscreants. But hell has no distinctions. If we be shut up there, it must be among the gross and horribly iniquitous, as well as with the more refined and decent transgressors. In that wide region of unending horrors, are no retiring places whether the less profane may retreat from the society of the more disgustingly abominable. My friends, let this thought dwell with you; and when you see some of those sinners of this earth, whose base and beastly courses of debauchery sicken you, remember that if you be not born again, if you be not through grace made nieet to be inheritors with the saints in light, you must go down with them into the dungeon pit.”— pp. 347, 348.

One fault of the preachers of the present day is assuredly a setting forth a mutilated gospel, or laying a foundation without seeking to erect a superstructure; as if professing to ex pound Romans viii. 1, the minister were to employ all his powers in setting forth the firmness of that salvation by which "there is no condemnation" to the believer, and forget their characteristic "walking after the Spirit not after the flesh." This style of teaching cannot be ascribed to the authors of the Pulpit; and among others Mr. Magrath in a sermon on James ii. 14, and Dr. Hamilton in his discourse from Heb. ix. 27, have pointed out the necessary connection between faith and works, justification and sanctification."

"You see, then, the necessity of good works, as evidences of the Christian's faith:

1. They are necessary, as being the end of our election and redemption-for God 'hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.' (Eph. i. 4.)

"2. They are essential-for without holiness no man shall see the Lord,' (Heb. xii. 14); if we live in the Spirit, we must also walk in the Spirit ;' (Gal, v. 25) ; and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.'

"3. Good works are most important as acts of obedience-for to this end did the blessed Jesus come; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him.' (Heb. v. 9.)

4. They are requisite, as we before endeavoured to establish, as evidence to ourselves of the truth of our faith. And therefore does the apostle exhort us to give diligence to make our calling and election sure;' and he adds, for if ye do these things ye shall never fall.'

"The wicked are like the troubled sea'-but, exclaims the Psalmist, in that manual of devotion, the 119th Psalm Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them;' while we know that love is identified with action by him who

declareth, "if ye love me, ye will keep my commandments.'

But lastly, our works

will constitute the witnesses by whose testimony we shall stand or fall at that awful day, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."-pp. 195-198.

"This is not faith-but it is to believe on him, so as to receive him, and depend on him, in all his characters and attributes, as he is revealed in the word of truth; it is to understand what he has done, and will do, for sinners, to deliver them from the power of sin and Satan, and free them from the curse of the law, under which they lay; and believing all this, to look to, and depend on him to perform it for them, and in them, that they may partake of all the benefits and blessings of his salvation. The first gift God bestows on those who look to him through Christ, is repentance, or that change of heart, whereby they forsake sin' the natural carnal heart, loves sin, and therefore will not forsake it; but God's covenant promise through Christ is this, a new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.'-(Ezekiel xxxvi. 27.) Now it is the property of the new heart to hate sin, and to forsake it; to love holiness, and endeavour to practise it.

"But though the sinner trusts alone in the righteousness of Christ for his justification in the sight of God, (for his alone is perfect; and an imperfect conformity to the law of God cannot justify, seeing that the law is perfect ;) yet the believer is not careless respecting personal holiness: no, he loves God, because he sees that he first loved him, and gave Christ to die for his sins; he loves Christ, and therefore be keeps his commandments: the remains of sin which he feels within him, he hates, and fights against, as long as he lives, looking unto Jesus for strength, to enable him to obtain the victory over it; and Christ has assured such, that they shall obtain the victory over sin and death, being more than conquerors, through him that loved them.'" (Rom. viii. 37 )— pp. 226, 227, 228.

Our readers will perceive that we have not had space to notice all the sermons contained here, nor indeed do we think they require special notice. The very names of the respected authors are a sufficient intimation to the public of what they may expect, and we close our brief notice by expressing our hopes that every additional series of the Pulpit will exhibit new proofs of the progress of religion, and our conviction that though in this series, deep reasoning, abstract speculation, or profundity of learning are not to be discovered, they who look for evangelical sentiments, deeply felt and strongly expressed, will find in this volume much to gratify and instruct.*

A Letter to Thomas Spring Rice, Esq. M. P. &c. on the Establishment of a Legal Provision for the Irish Poor, and on the nature and destination of Church Property. By the Right Rev. James Doyle, D.D. &c. &c. Dublin: Richard Coyne. London: J. Ridgeway. 1831.

A Letter to the Right Hon. E. G. Stanley, &c. &c. in answer to Doctor Doyle's Letter to Thomas Spring Rice, Esq. M. P. on the subject of Poor Laws, and the nature and destination of Church Property. By the Rev. Richard Ryan, Vicar of Rathcore, in the Diocese of Meath. Dublin: A. and W. Watson. 1831.

Never were there so many proselytes to any cause that heretofore was looked on with distrust and abhorrence, as within these twelve months have

• Two observations we cannot avoid expressing, though in the aside of a note; one, that it is a subject of thankfulness to the great head of the church, that in so short a space as our recollection can span, so many evangelical ministers have been raised up in the national church: twenty years since, how many would have contributed to the Pulpit? The other, that the volume before us is quite free from the intrusion of any of the novelties of the present day which disfigure the fair face of the Establishment.