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the main principles is, that we are here in a condition of trial; that our given task in this world is to promote, by all the means in our power, the glory of God; that nothing is our own; that everything that we seem to possess is but a trust committed to us for a while; and that, whatever may be the talent thus entrusted to us,whether it be wealth, rank, authority, or, what is the point now immediately under our consideration, knowledge,— for all we are responsible to God, and shall assuredly be required to render an account of the purposes, good or evil, for which we have employed it.

"The influence of knowledge, thus sanctified by the fear of God, is immediately visible in the whole man,— in all that he thinks, and says, and does. While it produces its appropriate effect of expanding and invigorating his understanding, it guards him, at the same time, from vanity and presumption. While it makes him fervent in spirit, active and industrious in his particular calling, be that calling high or low, it also makes him honest, upright, and conscientious, doing the will of God from the heart; and, while it excites him to higher exertions in discharging the duties of his particular business or profession, it carries its influence even into private and domestic life, and, by correcting his temper and sweetening his disposition, as well as by rectifying his principles, it tends to make him an obedient son, an affectionate father, a faithful hnsband, a kind neighbour, and a zealous friend.

"These considerations, sufficiently obvious in themselves, can never have escaped the observation of our Church, the appointed guard of the morals, and guide of the education of the people. I cannot admit that she has been at any time negligent of the high charge committed to her. At the same time, I see no reason for denying that her observations on the actual state of society in this country have served to impress her with a deeper conviction, that it is become her duty to take more than ordinary care to connect the secular instruction of the people with sound religious knowledge.

"For this purpose, she has felt herself obliged to assume a twofold attitude;-the one of resistance to certain schemes of education, to which she cannot give her approbation,the other of active exertion to recommend and promote her own views."

Apocalyptic Tract. No. 1. A New Edition of the Common Version of the Revelation, divided into Sections and Sub-sections; whereby its Structure is rendered more obvious to the eye to which is prefixed, a Brief Essay on the Structure and Interpretation of the Prophecy. By HENRYGIRDLESTONE, A.B.Rector of Landford, Sarum. Romsey: Gray. London: Hamilton, Adams & Co. Pp. iv. 52.

A TRACT, displaying great zeal and research, and when carried out in the author's original plan, will be a most useful auxiliary in the study of the Apocalypse.

The Notes of the Church, as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmine, examined and confuted, in a Series of Tracts, written severally by

Archbishop Tennison,

Bishop Kidder,
Bishop Patrick,
Bishop Williams,
Bishop Fowler,
Bishop Stratford,
Bishop Grove,
Dr. Sherlock,

Dr. Clagett, Dr. Scott, Dr. Thorpe, Dr. Payne, Dr. Linford, Dr. Resbury, Dr. Freeman,

1

London: Holdsworth. Pp. x. 68. "THE present number," says the editor, which forms the introduction only to these Tracts, was written by the famous Dr. Sherlock. He at first merely designed to give a refutation in general to Bellarmine's 'Notes,' or proofs; but there came out an elaborate pamphlet, under the highest Roman authority, as a reply. To this he published a rejoinder, which he has called a "Vindication," and in which he scourges his illogical adversary in the most commanding fashion.'

Republications of this character are especially called for at this day. The

emissaries of popery are indefatigable, and indefatigable must the friends of the Protestant cause be. The number before us came so late to hand, that we cannot do it all the justice we could wish. We can say, however, that it is got up in the first style; and the illustrious names, from whose writings the subsequent numbers are to be composed, bespeak for it an enduring popularity, which the design of the work ought to commend in a Protestant's community.

Ancient Christianity, and the Doctrines of the Oxford Tracts. By the Author of "Spiritual Despotism." London: Jackson & Walford. Dublin: W. Curry, jun. & Co. Pp. x.132. We have been favoured with a sight of the Preface of this pamphlet, which promises to be one of the ablest works elicited by the Oxford Tract Controversy. The subjoined extracts will, we are quite sure, justify us in expressing this opinion; and as it is our intention to enter fully into the merits of the question, in an early number, we shall only add, that the testimony of the distinguished Author of "Spiritual Despotism" in favour of the Established Church, appears to us highly important and valuable at the present

crisis.

"As this controversy affects, in a peculiar manner, the welfare of the established episcopal church, it seems as if it should be demanded of those who engage in it, that they can profess a firm conviction in favour of the principle of religious establishments, and of episcopacy; as well as a cordial approval of liturgical worship, and specifically of that of the established church. On this ground then, my deliberate opinions are such as to allow of my fairly entering the lists.

"There is however yet a ground on which I feel that a rather peculiar advantage, in relation to such a controversy, belongs to me; and it is the circumstance of my personal independence of the established church, and

of my absolute exemption from the influence of any indirect motive for thinking, or for professing, thus or thus, in any question affecting its credit and welfare. As a layman, I have no secular interests at stake. I have nothing but truth to care for. And, moreover, my actual connexion, by education, and otherwise, with dissenters, may be accepted as giving to my decisive opinion in favour of the established church, the value, whether more or less, that may attach to principles that have resulted from serious reflection. And I will here take leave to remind you, my dear Sir, that, in declaring myself some years ago, on this side, I did so with a freedom of remark, in regard to the church, which precluded my winning any favour from its staunch adherents, or public champions. In fact, and I hope you will allow me on this occasion to make the profession, my convictions, on this subject, have been so powerful and so serious, as to put out of view every personal and secondary consideration."-Pp. viii.

"It now only remains for me to disclaim every hostile or acrimonious feeling towards the accomplished, and, I have no doubt, thoroughly sincere writers of the Tracts for the Times. If compelled to range myself among their opponents, I owe them no grudge; and am very ready to admit the importance of the services they have rendered to the church, in reviving some hitherto slighted principles; and particularly, in bearing a testimony, with great ability, against modern rationalism. I admire moreover, and would fain imitate, the mild and christian temper in which, for the most part, they write; and should deeply regret the inadvertence, should it appear that, in any instance, I have allowed an expression to escape me, that might seem to carry an unplea- : sant and personal meaning, or to be more pungent than the serious import of the argument would have demanded."-P. ix.

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A SERMON

ON THE SPECIAL PROVIDENCE OF GOD, CONSISTENT WITH THE
ORDINARY COURSE OF NATURE.*

PSALM LXVIII. 33, 34.

Who sitteth in the heavens over all from the beginning: lo, he doth send out his voice, yea, and that a mighty voice. Ascribe ye the power to God over Israel: his worship and strength is in the clouds.

THE extraordinary operations of nature, as unusual events are sometimes termed, are here ascribed to the immediate agency of the Almighty. The thunder is said to be his voice; the wars of the elements are described as manifesting his worship and strength. Now, there is an apparent contradiction on this subject, between the language of Scripture and that of human philosophy, which is well worthy of our consideration. Scripture constantly assigns the guidance of human affairs, the regulation of elementary processes, and the daily events and occurrences of the world, to the immediate and special agency of God. For proof of this, if proof were wanted of a fact which pervades the whole sacred volume, we need look no farther than the beautiful Psalms of David. "The earth trembled and quaked: the very foundations also of the hills shook and were removed, because he was wroth." "The Lord also thundered out of heaven, and the Highest gave his thunder: hail-stones, and coals of fire." "It is the Lord that commandeth the waters it is the glorious God that maketh the thunder. It is the Lord that ruleth the sea; the voice of the Lord is mighty in operation; the voice of the Lord is a glorious voice." "Thou visitest the earth and blessest it: thou makest it very plenteous. The river of God is full of water: thou preparest their corn; for so thou providest for the earth." "The day is thine, and the night is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter." No words can express more clearly than passages like these, the idea that almighty God is not only the author, but the immediate controller of all worldly and material events. That he exerts a special agency, and interposes a direct interference not only in those unusual occurrences which seem of themselves to indicate and even to require the putting forth of his controlling authority, but in the ordinary proceedings and every day events of common life. This is the invariable language of Scripture. God is there described as about our path and about our bed, and spying out, nay directing all our ways. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without his knowledge and his will. Now, as I have said, in apparent opposition to this stands our own experience. For nothing can be more evident even to the most careless observer, than the steadiness and regularity with which the great operations of nature are continually carried on; as if they were constructed on a system with which no external agency ever interfered, and were calculated to go on for ever in the same uniform track, impelled by some innate power which

• Preached in a large town in the north of England, on the Sunday after the late hurricane, Jan. 13, 1839.

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required no directing hand to guide it, but was always competent to execute its appointed ends. We trace this regularity most obviously in the great operations of nature, in the periodical changes of the heavenly bodies, in the revolutions of the seasons, in the ebbings and flowings of the ocean, in the rise, progress and decay of vegetable and animal life, and in the invariable sequence of the same effects always arising out of the same causes. In great matters like these, all men know the operations of nature to be fixed and unchangeable. They sce that there is no special interference in the direction of them. They calculate upon them with absolute certainty, and are never disappointed. But philosophy shows us that this invariability of nature's working extends even more deeply into the system of the world than thus appears at first sight, and is just as true of the minutest as of the mightiest of her operations. The laws are as fixed and unchangeable which govern the formation of a rain-drop, or the growth and colour of a flower, as those which guide the sun in its course, or retain the planets in their sphere. There is a fixed necessity in every thing which we see around us. All that seems to the ignorant observer to be accident, is in reality, fixed firm as fate. There is no wantonness in the passing breeze; the flying shower is not scattered at random on the earth; but all this apparent irregularity is governed by rules as fixed and certain as that by which a falling stone descends inevitably to the ground. The more we investigate into the secrets of nature, the more do the unchangeable laws by which she is governed manifest themselves to the inquirer. The world shows itself to him as a vast machine, infinitely complicated in its movements, and answering ends far too deep and various for mortal comprehension, but always executing the same tasks by the same processes, and never failing to complete the purposes which it was originally designed to discharge.

Here then is no room for special and direct interference from any extraneous power: such interference would at once destroy that uniformity and continuity of action, which we have already pronounced to pervade the whole system of nature; and we could no longer reckon from what is past, upon that which is certain to follow. Is there then any contradiction between Scripture, which says, that every thing which happens is the special work of the hand of God; and our own experience, which shows us that every thing takes place and is governed by fixed and immutable laws? Can it be true that God superintends and directs every minute event that befals us; and yet that these events occur by unchangeable rules, which never alter as to cause and effect? With man, this is impossible; but with God, all things which do not imply a contradiction, are possible; and this great truth is one of them. Of God alone, it can be said, that he acts by rule, and yet acts freely; the rule itself, the constant sequence of like effects from like causes, arising not from the nature of things, but his sole will and pleasure. We see the sun rise and set every day, and we fancy it to be by some necessary law of nature; yet, whence came that law, except from the Author of nature, by whose constant agency it is kept in operation, and by whose immediate will, every thing that happens, whether in our eyes ordinary or unusual, is conducted and concluded? Laws of nature are in truth nothing but the continued special agency of the Almighty;

so that the evidence of our experience that the order of events is uniform and unchangeable, is perfectly consistent with the Scripture doctrine, that every event that happens is by the special ordination of the Almighty. Every thing is from the will of God.

Now this view of a subject, in itself doubtless a question of great obscurity as well as interest, seems to obviate two erroneous notions of the providence of God in the affairs of men, which, opposite as they are to each other, lead practically to equally dangerous results. The one, which may be called the superstitious view, and which is full of piety as well as truth in its origin, and dangerous only in its excess, is the habit of attributing every event that happens to ourselves, to the special interference of the Almighty. Men who look for providences in the events of their own lives, are sure to see them in the most common and ordinary occurrences. They soon learn to overrate their own importance in the scale of being, and to fancy that many things happen for their sakes, which have infinitely greater and more important ends to serve, than their benefit or injury. Such men see a blessing in every earthly favour, a curse in every adverse circumstance; whereas, they may have been intended as neither one nor the other, but simply as a trial of their christian temper. Success then leads to presumption, disappointment to despair; and men fancy themselves either the favourites of Heaven, or the victims of its chastisements, from circumstances which have happened to them simply in the common course of events, and which should teach them nothing but that God is no respecter of persons, and wishes all his creatures to learn, in whatever state they are, therewith to be content.

The other error, equally dangerous, and perhaps more common, is that of those who take a cold, earthly, and what is falsely called philosophical view of the condition of the world, and who attribute every thing that happens to them, not to the will of God, but to the common course of nature. They observe, and we have shown that they are right in their observation, that the affairs of the universe are governed by fixed and uniform rules, and that every thing that happens, if properly understood, can be explained and accounted for by principles from which nature allows of no deviation. Hence, they conclude, that if the God of nature did at first put this machinery into operation, he has impressed upon it such powers as to enable it to work its own ends without his direct interference or control. It is unnecessary, they conclude, to look higher than the circumstances with which they are surrounded. Nature is all that concerns them, the God of nature having committed every thing to its fixed and known operations: and thus they, in effect, cast off their own independence as spiritual beings, and mix up themselves and their high destinies with the material objects around them, being, to all practical purposes, little removed from the sceptic or the infidel.

As the former error arose from misapplying scripture, so does this arise from misinterpreting experience. The mistake lies in supposing that what happens by a fixed law of nature, does not happen also by the special providence of God: a law of nature being but the will of God displayed in a continuous act. True as it may be that each effect follows its cause by a natural constitution of things, yet that constitution

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