parish, under the immediate superintendence of the Minister, for the education of the young, and of Benefit Societies for the relief of the sick, and the comfort of the old. In conclusion, he bespeaks the cordial co-operation of his Clergy, in his ardent desires and endeavours to promote the interest and respectability of the Diocese over which he presides, and that of the Church in general.

An Exposition of the Morning and Evening Services in the Liturgy of the Church of England; in Thirteen Lectures. By the Rev. EDWARD PATTESON, M. A. London: Rivingtons. 12mo. 5s. 6d.

ONE commonly hears complaints of the difficulty of keeping the attention entirely engaged in worship during divine service. Many who have left the pale of our Church, allege that this difficulty is caused by our using a set form of prayer, and trust to find a remedy in the practice of extemporary devotion. It is to be feared that the root of the evil lies deeper, even in the natural disinclination of man to things spiritual, or in the heart being set on things of earth, and not on treasure in heaven. Hence the thoughts continually recur to the favourite topics of our daily speculation; and by their defiance of control, prove to us the absurdity of attempting to serve God for a few hours in one day of the week, whilst the remainder of our time is devoted to the world. Something, however, of the difficulty referred to, may, perhaps, properly be ascribed, not to using a form of prayer, but to the want of sufficient information as to its purport, and of an adequate understanding of its component parts. To remedy this defect, we have several excellent treatises on our Book of Common Prayer; and can safely refer to the commentary of Bishop Mant, as containing an useful digest of the best writers on the subject. The work before us is of a more popular nature. It relates to those parts only of the Liturgy which commonly occur in the morning and evening service of our churches. The author addresses himself in a plain and serious strain to

his congregation, in thirteen lectures; aiming chiefly at an intelligible exposition of the several parts of the service, with occasional appeals to the consciences of those who fail to profit by it. We could wish that the didactic style of the work had been more frequently enlivened by the word of exhortation. But as a manual for the young, or for those who at any age are in the habit of attending church, without any accurate notions of the service there performed, we can safely recommend this publication.

We quote the remarks on the ninetyfifth Psalm, as a fair specimen of the style and execution of the work:

The minister now invites the people to a more diffuse and lengthened act of praise, using the form, "Praise ye the Lord;" which is merely a translation of the Hebrew Allelujah. To this call they reply, by professing their readiness to join in that grateful service, "The Lord's name be praised." Accordingly, they proceed to recite, in alternate verses, the ninety-fifth Psalm; a composition which sets forth the power and majesty, the fatherly care and mercy of God, in terms of such cheerful, yet sublime energy, as are well adapted to fill the hearts of all who attentively join in it, with the most exalted sentiments of veneration and gratitude. It calls upon us to "sing unto the Lord, and to rejoice heartily in the strength of our salvation;" to "come before his presence with thanksgiving, and show ourselves glad in him with psalms." And in what terms does it describe to us that Supreme Being, whose praise it invites us to celebrate! "The Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are all the corners of the earth; and the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands prepared the dry land." To the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, thus arrayed in the attributes of his might, and Lord by right of creation as well as of dominion, every form and degree of adoration and worship which a rational creature is capable of paying, must be continually due. Thus, therefore, the royal Psalmist proceeds: "O come, let us worship, and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker: for he is the Lord our God: and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." Here we find the pastoral care and loving-kindness of God alleged as a motive to veneration, as well as to gratitude. But this is a lesson which the

people of Israel, to whom it was originally addressed, and who, of all the nations in the earth, had experienced the most signal proofs of its truth and value, were the most addicted to forget. The remainder of this psalm, therefore, assumes the form of a caution to that people, as from the mouth of God himself, no more "to harden their hearts," as their forefathers had done "in the wilderness," when he " sware unto them in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest," that is, into the land of Canaan, which none of those who had attained to manhood when they came forth out of Egypt ever lived to see. Shall we presume to say, that the same caution is not needful to ourselves? We censure the Israelites for their extreme blindness to that Almighty protection, and undeserved favour, which so many signal miracles, wrought in their behalf, most clearly indicated. To our faith and gratitude, the paramount and perpetual miracle of our Redemption no less plainly appeals. The eternal Canaan, wherein is the heavenly Jerusalem, is our land of promise. There, if we duly acknowledge "the Lord for our God," and ourselves (as when upon earth he condescended to call us) "the sheep of his pasture," we shall find endless peace and joy in his presence; otherwise let us not doubt that the same sentence lies against us as against them, that we "shall not enter into his rest."P. 58.

:

The Psalter; or, Psalms of David: according to the Version and Arrangement of the Book of Common Prayer illustrated; explained; and adapted to general use, in public and private worship; with preliminary Dissertations and accompanying Notes: intended as a Key to the Psalms, and a Companion to the Prayer Book. By the Rev. RICHARD WARNER, F. A.Š. Honorary Member of the Society of Natural History, Moscow; and of the Dutch Society of Sciences, Harlaem; and Rector of Great Chalfield, Wilts. London: Rivingtons. 1828. 10s. 6d. IN a Preface, written with no common energy and skill, the Editor has summed up the various interesting points of view under which the Psalms of David are presented to the Christian, as a source of instruction and a fountain of delight. At the same time

he thus expresses an opinion which will meet with cordial assent from all who 'regard them as a practical and devotional system of piety and useful

ness.

But although the Book of Psalms be thus " a pearl beyond price" to the thoughtful Christian, beaming with light and holiness; with the rays of eternal truth, and the splendours of infallible prescience yet, it may well be doubted, whether these divine lyrics, (under the form in which they are presented to him, in the authorized version of the PrayerBook), delight him with all the beauty which they intrinsically possess; or afford him all the usefulness which they are capable of bestowing.-P. ix.

To supply, in some measure, this advantage to those of the ESTABLISHED CHURCH, who need it to afford a KEY to the Prayer-Book version of the Psalms, which shall, to a certain extent, let in light upon its present obscurities; unravel some of its perplexities; unfold many of its hidden charms; and give access to its more recondite treasures; is the object of the following work,-which, waving every pretension to originality of materials, assumes only the humble merit, of condensing within a small compass, a considerable mass of that illustrative matter, which has been accumulated to the Editor's hands, by the best commentaries, ancient and modern, on this invaluable portion of the sacred canon.-Pp. xii. xiii.

This sufficiently explains the object and nature of the work. We shall content ourselves with stating the manner in which the Editor has carried his intentions into effect.

To the Psalms, arranged according to the version of the Prayer-Book, under the respective days to which they are there portioned out, are appended, as introductory, a title descriptive of the class to which each, in its order, individually belongs, and a brief account of its subject and origin: and also, a selection of notes upon various passages, compiled from the best commentators, and interspersed with some original notes illustrative of the literary branches of the compositions.

Three Dissertations introduce the work: I. On the Literary Character of the Psalms. II. On their use in Jewish worship. III. On miscellaneous Particulars respecting them.

These contain a good deal of instruction and, on the whole, the work appears to be likely to prove highly beneficial. The well-known character of Mr. Warner as a theologian, renders unnecessary any more explicit testimony in favour of this his recent labour for the good of his church.

The Sympathizing High Priest: Three Sermons, preached in the Parish Church of St. Mary Aldermary. By the Rev. H. B. WILSON, D.D. F.S.A. Rector. London: Rivingtons. 1828.

THE object of these Sermons is to inculcate the Christian duty of sympathizing in the calamities, the weaknesses, and the sins of our fellow creatures, by an appeal to the example of our blessed Lord, and such eminent pastors of the Christian flock, as have been more or less successful imitators of their Divine Master. With this view, after stating, as an acknowledged fact, the divinity of Christ, the preacher employs his first discourse in proving his humanity by an induction of passages from the New Testament, and the writings of the early Fathers; from which he deduces, as a necessary inference, that he was not a high priest which could not be touched with feeling of our infirmities (Heb. iv. 15). That he was influenced by a sympathy of this nature, may be inferred from the compassionate spirit exhibited in his miracles, and the various actions of his life, and from the express declaration to that effect in the Apostolic Epistles. In the second Sermon, the operations of this feeling are exemplified in the lives and conduct of the several Primates of the English Church, from the Reformation to the present time; concluding with a warm and affectionate eulogium on the active benevolence of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, to whose memory the Pamphlet is inscribed. The last discourse is occupied in recommending the example of Christ and his servants, more especially those who have been governors in his Church, to the imitation of Christians in general. With respect to the literary or theological merit of the Doctor's

VOL. X. NO. X.

publication, we cannot undertake to estimate them much above mediocrity. In lieu of an extract from the Sermons themselves, we subjoin the following prayer, written by an Alderman of London, who suffered much from the papists towards the close of the seventeenth century, which is appended by way of note in the last page:

Thy

Oh our great God and Father, maintain and increase love and peace, especially amongst all who call on Thy name; and so overrule, that none may seek their private gratification, but what may be the common profit, according to the doctrine of our Lord Jesus, who is my life, and in whom I hope eternally to rest, beseeching Thee, O Father, to accept me in Him as my sacrifice and only mediator. And as I have no dotage of this life for any thing therein, so I am not weary of Thy work, for or by reason of the many difficulties that have been, and are yet pressing on me. family, O Christ, I carry in my bosom, affected with the care and concern of each. Thy sufferings left behind I have been and am filling up, according to my poor capacity. Oh, strengthen me therein, that as through Thy gracious assistance I have been kept in Thy fear in prosperity, I may not be moved out of it by any adversity, but find Thy comfort and presence in all. And I implore thy pardon, O Father, for Christ's sake, of all and every miscarriage in my life, and of all whom in any kind I have offended, as I do most heartily forgive every one who have trespassed against and persecuted me, who, as I hope, through the many temptations of those evil times were prevailed upon: and I pray the Lord not to lay it to their charge. And thus willing to depart in a reconciliation of love and good-will to the whole creation of God, I conclude, Oh let Thy kingdom come, and Thy will be done in earth as in heaven. Amen!-P. 44.

Look About You: a Dialogue between a Tradesman and a Farmer. THIS is a little Tract intended for cheap circulation among the lower orders, with the view of exciting an expression of popular feeling, in the form of Petitions to Parliament, against the Catholic Claims. We sincerely recommend it to the notice of all sincere well-wishers to the Protestant Establishment, for circulation among their 4. N

dependants, and in their neighbourhood. This is not a time to be idle and lukewarm, with respect to the machinations and demands of the papists; they must now be resisted firmly and decidedly, if we wish to maintain our rights and our religion unimpaired. We anticipate great success in the establishment of Brunswick Clubs, now forming in various parts of the kingdom; and not a little from their distribution of plain and instructive tracts, like the one now before us.

JUST PUBLISHED.

A New and Improved Edition of Psalms and Hymns. Edited by the Rev. Thomas Willcocks.

WORKS IN THE PRESS.

Essays on the Principles of Morality, and on the Private and Political Rights and Obligations of Mankind. By the late Jonathan Dymond, Author of " An Inquiry into the Accordancy of War with the Principles of Christianity," &c.-The Work is divided into three Essays. In the first of these the Author has endeavoured to investigate and lay down the true Principles of Morality; in which term is included, first, the Ultimate Standard of Right and Wrong; and secondly, those Subordinate Rules to which we are authorized to apply for the direction of our conduct in life. In the second Essay these principles are applied in determining some of our more prominent personal and relative duties. In the third, the Writer has attempted to apply sound and pure moral principles to questions of Government, of Legislation, of the Administration of Justice, of Religious Establishments, &c. Thus the general object of the Work is, first, to ascertain and to establish the authority of the true Standard of Right and Wrong, and then to bring various private and political questions to that standard as a test: to offer to the public a work of Moral and Political Philosophy founded primarily on the morality of the Gospel, It was the belief of

the Author of these Essays that the treatises on moral philosophy already existing, do not exhibit the principles and enforce the obligations of morality in all their perfection and purity. His desire therefore was to supply this deficiency, to exhibit a true and authoritative standard of rectitude, and to estimate, by an appeal to that standard, the moral character of human actions.

Typical Instruction, considered and illustrated, and shown to be suitable to all, but particularly the Early Ages of the Church. By John Peers, A. M.

We understand that "The Amulet" for the year 1829 will be published early in November, with attractions, both literary and pictorial, greatly exceeding either of its predecessors, and will contain articles from a number of the most distinguished writers of the age, among whom are many who have not heretofore contributed either to this work or to those of a similar character; that its illustrations will be of the highest order of art, both with reference to the productions of the painter and the engraver; and that there will be several other improvements of a novel and important character.

We understand that the forthcoming Volume of "Friendship's Offering" will appear in a style very far superior to any of its predecessors. The Plates are of the very first character, engraved by the most eminent Artists; and its literary contents, superintended by the experience and talents of its Editor, Mr. Pringle, will be well worthy of its Embellishments. The splendid style of the leather binding, which now so happily unites durability with elegance, also fits the Volume for immediate reception into the library.

The Bishop of Down and Connor (Dr. Mant) is preparing for the Press a Volume on those Events in our blessed Saviour's Life, which are the subjects of Annual Commemoration in the Services of the United Church of England and Ireland.-This Volume, together with the Biographical Notices of the Apostles and Evangelists lately published by the same Author, is intended to form a complete series of narratives and reflections adapted to the holydays of the Church.