ART. IV.-Sermons on various Subjects, Doctrinal and Practical, preached before the University of Oxford. By John Eveleigh, D.D. Provost of Oriel College and Prebendary of Rochester. 8vo. pp. 441. Oxford; Cooke and Parker.

TH

HE sermons usually published may be divided into two kinds : those which are intended for the use of ordinary readers, which treat of practical duties and explain the principles of religion in a clear and familiar manner; and those which are suited to persons of stronger digestion, containing learned disquisitions, and discussing abstruser points of theology. The volume before us comes, for the most part, under the latter description. Discourses to an academical audience ought undoubtedly to be of a more learned and recondite class than those which are addressed to ordinary congregations. They should be mostly of the argumentative cast; rather adapted to inform the understandings and exercise the reasoning faculties of the hearers, than to awaken the affections or work upon the passions. They will thus fix the attention of the more learned portion of the audience, supply matter of improvement and reflection for the students in theology, and perserve for an university pulpit that superior character by which it ought always to be marked.

The discourses of Dr. Eveleigh form no unfavourable specimen. of sermons adapted to such an audience. There is no particular novelty in the topics which he selects: indeed, novelty, in the proper sense of the word, is out of the question: but he treats them with a degree of weight and solidity, which shews that what he writes is the fruit of deep reflection, and which arrests the atten tion of the considering reader. There is a character of sound reasoning, a manner of sober discussion, which never quits the author. He has evidently paid considerable attention to his professional studies, and his learning appears to be accompanied with much well-judging good sense. Que of his recommendations is the total absence of all ostentatious display of erudition. The reader must not come to these sermons with the expectation of having his passions worked upon or his imagination enlivened: he will find no attempts at splendid oratory or brilliant imagery; and he will be visited by no false glare of ornament: but if he opens them with the wish to find solid argumentative matter presented in a proper form to his understanding, he will, we venture to affirm, meet with no disappointment. The language is plain and unaffected; there is, however, one defect of which we must forewarn the reader, for it will visit him in almost every part. Dr.

Eveleigh's style though sufficiently clear and perspicuous, is deficient in spirit and animation: and there is not unfrequently a flatness in his mode of expressing himself, in consequence of which less advantage is given to his matter than it really deserves.

The sermons are eighteen in number, on subjects of a mixed nature, doctrinal and practical. We were particularly pleased with the third sermon, on the inspiration of the Scriptures, in which we met with some observations which were new to us. The author's general idea is to furnish an indirect and accessory proof of the inspiration of the books of the New Testament in this manner: We have the authority of our Saviour and his Apostles for the divine inspiration of the Old Testament; for all Scripture' of the Old Testament' was given by inspiration of God.' Now the general proofs of the inspiration both of the Old and of the New Testament are the same in kind, and the general objections to it are, in both cases, precisely similar. But we have divine authority for affirming that the proofs are valid and the objections nugatory, as to the Old Testament; we may therefore infer, with probability, that, with regard to the New Testament, the proofs are equally good, and the objections unworthy of regard.

'I am well aware,' (he says, p. 51,) that to endeavour thus to prove the inspiration of the New Testament from that of the Old, is to reverse the ordinary method of proof on this subject. But, however unusual or new the present attempt may be deemed, it will not be without its use, if it tend to satisfy our minds with regard to the divine origin in general of all those writings which are classed by our church among the Holy Scriptures.'

In shewing that the general proofs of both Testaments are the same, he says

The Old and New Testaments, as we may observe in general, are evidently parts of the same great plan, and designed to form one allgracious and stupendous whole. The same authority therefore, and protection from error, which were necessary to the one must also have been necessary to the other. If divine inspiration were necessary to assure men of their origin, fall, corruption, and destined redemption; the same must have been as necessary also to assure them of the completion of this redemption, and of the means by which their corruption may be done away, their restoration to divine favour secured, and their present state made to terminate in eternal happiness.

Various also and prominent are the particular resemblances, which appear to result from an equally divine origin in both these sacred volumes.

If the writers of the Old Testament, speaking in the name of Jehovah, introduce their declarations with these commanding words," Thus saith Jehovah;" Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel;" those of the New Testament are not less remarkable for deriving, as

*" Ambassadors for Christ," their commission from this their divine master, who also is "God over all, blessed for evermore." Throughout the Gospels they make him the principal and almost the sole speaker. And besides, they make him in those Gospels expressly promise assistance through the Holy Spirit to his Apostles, (without excluding others from the same assistance,)" which should teach them all things, and bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever he had said unto them;" and, consequently, which should secure from error all the important parts, at least, of their writings.'-pp. 51, 52.

He then proceeds to shew that the general objections to the inspiration of both are the same in kind, and of equal apparent weight.

Few are the objections also to which the inspiration of the New Testament is exposed, which may not with as great force be urged against that of the Old; and this observation is equally just, whether the objections be urged against the inspiration in general, or against that of particular parts, of the New Testament.

Among the objections against the divine inspiration in general of the New Testament, it has been insisted, that the writers never declare that they are thus inspired, and that no promise of divine assistance is given to any among them, except the Apostles.

But, allowing this to be true, we may reply, that nothing is admitted in this case with regard to the New Testament, which is not equally true also with regard to parts of the Jewish Scriptures. No declaration or promise of the kind, here supposed to be necessary, is made with regard to certain parts of the Old Testament. And yet we not only learn from our blessed § Saviour and his Apostles, that the writings of Moses and the Prophets, who assure us that they spake from God, were given by divine inspiration; but also we learn from the same || authority, that the other parts also of the Old Testament, concerning which no such assurance is afforded by the writers themselves, were notwithstanding given by the same divine inspiration.'

In like manner, if, to abate of our confidence in the general inspiration of the New Testament, it should be urged, that it is uncertain when the books of it were so collected as to exclude all spurious and apocryphal writings from their number; that it is uncertain when the Canon of these Scriptures was settled, whether at the Council of Laodicea, or at some preceding or even subsequent period; the same uncertainty, we have above intimated, attends also the settlement of that of the Old Testament. And as this uncertainty did not in the least preclude the unqualified approbation, given by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles to the law, the prophetical books, and the Psalms, so neither ought it to diminish our confidence in the infallibility of all the received writings of the Christian Covenant.'--pp. 61 to 63.

2 Cor. v. 20.

· Rom. ix. 5.

This objection is considered and answered by Michaelis in the first edition of his introductory lectures, p. 8. It is however again urged in Geddes's preface to vol. ii.

§ St. Luke xvi. 17. Matt, v. 18.

St. Mark xvii. 56. Heb. iii. 7. 8.

The twelfth sermon is on a very useful subject, to an academical audience especially, the study of the Scriptures. After describing the character which many parts of them must ever bear as specimens of fine writing, he says

This character of the writings which constitute the Books of Revelation, depends not upon the judgment of any one critic, much less upon a conjecture, however probable, concerning his judgment. Even an ordinary and cursory reader cannot but be delighted with the simplicity and dignity both of the sentiment and expression. But the man of letters, who studies with attention the holy Scriptures, must find in their composition all those excellencies which are required either to please or to astonish the mind;-in the narrative, clearness and consistency, an assemblage of circumstances interestingly descriptive of ancient manners, and not connected by art but by inherent probability, not embellished by fiction but recommended by unerring truth; in the poetical parts, new and beautiful thoughts, drawn immediately from nature, and enlivened by bold and sublime metaphors, and these too not rarely dispersed, but, as far as is consistent with a pure and unaffected style, crowded in almost every line.

Indeed if the observation, so universally approved in criticism, be well founded, that impressive and animated writings are the result of lofty and grand conceptions; where can we so reasonably expect to meet with such writings, as in those parts of Scripture, which abound in descriptions of the all-perfect God? Since the subject is the greatest which can possibly enter into the conceptions of man; and though we exert on it the utmost of our strength and ability, yet, agreeably to an admirable + observation of the son of Sirach, "we can never go far enough."-pp. 281, 282.

On the pleasures and advantages of these studies, compared with all other, he thus expresses himself

When the pleasure of novelty ceases, the heat of ambition abates, and reason begins coolly to operate, we are soon convinced in the progress of all sublunary pursuits, how inconsiderable an advancement we have made towards real happiness, and how useless it is to enlarge our views without making them terminate in some agreeable object.

What but this has stimulated the greatest men and best philosophers in all ages, after they have arrived at the summit of human fame, to seek for private happiness from religious studies? What could have induced so many of our late philosophers to turn aside from other subjects, by which they had acquired so much credit, to an investigation of revealed truths, less calculated to excite admiration, were it not that such studies were more conducive to permanent satisfaction? And, indeed, what but that continued and elevated satisfaction of mind, which is derived by the learned Christian from his illustrations and vindications of divine truth, made them value themselves, not less on the assistance Ecclus. xliii. So.

See Longinus, sect. ix.

which they were supposed to have given to the cause of revealed religion, than on that whole display-of elegance, with which they had refined our language of † accuracy with which they had unfolded the powers of the human mind-of clearness, with which they had exhibited the beauties and wonders of nature-or of § certainty, with which they had demonstrated its most abstruse and hidden laws?'pp. 284, 285.

But we must abstain from any further extracts; and perhaps have now done enough to give the reader a general idea of these discourses, and to enable him to judge that our character of them is sufficiently correct.

ART. V. Voyages and travels in the Years 1809, 1810, and 1811; containing Statistical, Commercial, and Miscellaneous Observations on Gibraltar, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Serigo and Turkey. By John Galt. 4to. pp. 435. London; Cadell and Davies.

1812.

The

HERE is no species of writing on which we feel less disposed to exercise any severity of criticism than books of foreign travel. Information is generally derivable from the worst of them, and, where that fails, the want of it is not unfrequently made up in amusement. For this we are so grateful, that we are unwilling to put a check upon the scribbling mania of travellers; and we are the more inclined to be lenient because we have reason to think that the dread of critical exposure has prevented the publication of the journals of some of our countrymen, which would have been a real acquisition to literature.

It was therefore, with any other idea than that of finding fault, that we opened the volume before us; and if we find ourselves com. pelled to use the language of censure, it is because we have seldom met with a work of the kind which it was less possible to commend. The trifling error of Serigo for Cerigo, in the title-page, indeed, led us to imagine that we had to do with no great clerk; but we thought that this defect, even in a voyage through Sicily and Greece, might have been abundantly compensated by a plain account of the actual state of things from a plaiu man; one who, spelling the names of places just as he heard them, might possibly describe the places themselves just as he saw them.

The first sentence of the preface strengthened our hopes.

This work' (Mr. Galt says) is part of a design which I had

* Addison.

t'Locke.

'Boyle.

'Newton.