ART. VI. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocefe of London, in the Years 1798 and 1799. By the Right Rev. Beilby, Lord Bishop of that Diocese. 8vo. Pp. 47. Is. Cadell and Davies, 1799. THE HE beneficial effects of a periodical vifitation of a diocefe by the Bishop are so obvious that it is needless to infift on them; but too much praise cannot be bestowed on the Right Reverend author of the Charge before us, who, inftead of feeking to abridge, pioufly labours to extend, the limits of his duty and the fphere of his influence. We allude to the extenfion of his "confirmations to two very remote parts of his diocese (Harwich and Rochford) of which one had but very feldom enjoyed that benefit, and the other had never experi enced it before." We had occafion, in our laft Number (P. 222) to advert to this charge, of which we fpoke in appropriate terms. And moft happy fhould we be if our good word could contribute to promote that clofe attention to the precepts that it contains which cannot fail of producing the moft folid advantages to thofe who pay it. Our readers will be furprized to find that the contributions to the fund establifhed for the relief of the indigent clergy,. their widows and children c do not amount, in the opulent county of Middlefex, to more than one fifth part of their produce in the neighbouring counties. In Middlefex they yield but 2col. a year, whereas in Effex and Hertfordshire they produce 1,000l. We know not the caufe of this aftonishing. difference, but we deeply deplore its effects. Such a fund, whether confidered in a political or religious point of view, is deferving of national encouragement; and as the metropo lis has generally taken the lead in charitable efforts, we won-i der very much that it fhould be fo deficient in this inftance, where the claims have fuch peculiar ftrength. For our own part, ever anxious to combine practice with precept, we can only fay, with the Bishop of London, that we fhall be perfectly ready to contribute our full proportion towards the propofed augmentation of fo wife and benevolent a provifion for our diftreffed clergy and their families." Adverting to a former charge, in which he had traced the deftructive progrefs of infidelity in France, his Lordship obferves that fuch a convulfion could not fail of producing fome fenfation in this country. "And, in fact, we know that fimilar attempts have been made here to shake our belief in revelation; that our religion has been reprefented U 2 fented as a grofs impofture, and a fcandalous impofition on the cre dulity of mankind; that even the facred writings themselves have been reviled and ridiculed without the fmalleft regard to decency and to truth; that every effort has been made to contaminate the principles, and extinguish the faith, of all ranks of people, but especially of the middling and of the lower claffes, by arguments brought down to the level of their understandings; by bold affertions, by coarfe buffoonery, by unblushing, falfehoods, by language the most impious and blafphemous that ever infulted the religion of any Christian country." Fortunately thefe daring efforts have not been productive of all those bad confequences which they were expected to produce. And much of their failure is judiciously imputed by his Lordfhip to the numerous and powerful antidotes which have been fupplied to the poifon circulated with fuch mifchievous induftry. We could have wifhed, however, that the Bishop had been more particular in fpecifying the publications to which fuch falutary effects may be fairly afcribed. Thofe which he mentions certainly contributed their full proportion; but there are others entitled to, at leaft, an equal portion of praife. We fully concur with his Lordfhip in his declaration that, "the danger is not over, nor the hope of finally accomplishing their purpofe abandoned by our enemies." And to the truth of the following statement we can bear ample testimony: They are ftill active and alert, ftill enterprizing, and intent upon their great object. In fo righteous a caufe they are deterred by no difficulties, they are difcouraged by no defeats. Unabating per feverance, unconquerable hatred, and eternal enmity to the name of Chrift, are their ruling principles. Whether there are in this country any of the fect called Illuminati, and other infidel myftics, that have been fo long diffufing vice and atheism over the reft of Europe, I do not undertake to fay; but that there are focieties amongst us, inftituted for the very purpofe of propagating infidelity and profligacy through the island, more efpecially among the lower claffes of the people, I can have no doubt. Publications of the most impious and indecent nature, have, I know, been diftributed, with infinite activity and industry, not only in the metropolis and its neighbourhood, and in large manufacturing towns, but in little obfcure villages in the remoteft parts of the kingdom; nay, they have even found their way into the very bowels of the earth, among the miners of Cornwall and the colliers of Newcastle, fome of whom are faid to have fold their Bibles in order to purchase the Age of Reafon. This very extenfive circulation of fuch Tracts from one end of the kingdom to the other, cannot be the work of a few unconnected individuals; it must be the combined effort of a confiderable body of men, united together for the the purpofe of corrupting the morals, and perverting the principles of the people, and contributing each their share of labour and expence to fo honourable and meritorious an undertaking. "We have then still a hoft of enemies to oppofe, and it highly behoves us to confider how we fhall most effectually counteract their artifices, and repel their malevolent attempts." " The means pointed out to the Clergy for counteracting thefe efforts of the enemies of all eftablishments are fuch as, we trult, will be univerfally adopted. "The first thing I would recommend to you for this purpofe is, that you would, each in your refpective parishes, make a ftrict enquiry whether any of the miffionaries of infidelity and impiety have been exercrfing their diabolical functions, by difperfing irreligious or immoral publications among your people. If they have, you will, I am fure, exert your utmost efforts to eradicate thefe vile and noxious weeds, and to plant in their room the genuine fruits of the gofpel. You will feel yourselves called upon to ftate occafionally in your difcourfes from the pulpit, or (what would be ftill better) in a courfe of lectures compofed for the purpose, the principal facts and evidences on which the truth of Chriftianity refts. You will enter into familiar and friendly converfation on thefe fubjects with fuch of your parishioners as you fufpect to have been staggered in their religious principles: you will endeavour to find out the objections, the doubts, or the difficulties which have made the ftrongest impreffion upon their minds, and remove them in the beft manner you are able: or if you fhould think yourfelves unequal to the talk, you will put into their hands fome of thofe excellent books or tracts which have been written in defence of Revelation, where the principal proofs of it are compreffed into a small compafs, and the most material objections to it confidered and confuted. "There is another prefervative, another antidote against the poifon of infidelity, which muft never fail to accompany what I have juft fpecified; and that is, the amendment and reformation of the hearts and lives of your parishioners, by your doctrines, by your exhortations, by your admonitions, by an unceafing attention to all your pastoral duties, and, above all, by the purity and luftre of your own examples." The following obfervations, we hope, will make a due impreffion on thofe to whom they are more immediately directed: "Above all things, it will be neceffary to destroy that fatal delufion which has misled so many, that it is a matter of perfect indifference what religion they embrace, or whether any at all; and that provided they lead a tolerably good moral life, and act up to what they call the light of nature, of reafon, or of philofophy, they are fecure from punishment at leaft, if not certain of reward, This is U 3 a most a moft dangerous, but, I fear, a very common error; and yet it is clearly and palpably repugnant to the moft pofitive declarations of holy writ: He* that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him; neither is there any other name given under Heaven by which we may be faved but that of Jefus only. The fact is, we are the fubjects of the Almighty, and we live, and cannot but live, under his government. His will (however made known) is the law of that government. If he has made no exprefs declaration of that will, we must collect it as well as we can from what we know of his nature and our own; but if he has exprefsly declared his will, that is the law we are to be governed by. We may, indeed, refufe to be governed by it if we pleafe; but it is at our peril if we do; for if it prove to be a true declaration of his will, to reject it is REBELLION." We shall close our account of this excellent charge with the Bishop's exhortation to his Clergy, which we shall not weaken by any comment of our own: "But to compleat the whole, and to give irrefiftible force to every thing we fay, to our inftructions, our admonitions, our exhortations, we muft add the weight of our own example. We must render visible to the eyes of men thofe very virtues we recommend, and exhibit, in our own perfons, the true temper, and fpirit, and character of a Christian. To fay that we must be uncontaminated by fin, is faying very little indeed. A wicked and profligate clergyman is a monster in nature, of which I will not fuppofe the exiftence. Even a gay and a trifling one, is a character totally inconfiftent with the fanctity and dignity of the minifterial office. Mere exemption, therefore, either from vice or levity, will avail us little. This negative, this neutral kind of merit, is far, very far, from what the world expects and the fcriptures require from us. We muft go a great way beyond this, or we fhall fall fhort of the high prize of our calling. Our bufinefs plainly is to go on conftantly towards perfection, and to exemplify, in our own lives, thofe great evangelical virtues, that humility, meeknefs, gentlenefs, and placability of foul, that correctnefs, purity, and fanctity of manners, that fincere and ardent love of our Maker, that unbounded gratitude to our crucified Redeemer, that indifference to worldly pleafures and advantages, that vital piety, that heavenly mindednefs, that decided and predominant preference of God to every other object, that devotion of the heart and life to his fervice, that defire to do all his will, and to live to his glory, which conftitute the true character of a Chriftian minifter, and with which it must be his conftant and earnest endeavour to inspire all thofe that are committed to his care." John, chap. v. verse 12. John, chap. iii. verfe 36.' ART. ART. VII. Biographical Sketches of Henrietta, Duchefs of Orleans, and Louis of Bourbon, Prince of Condé. To which are added, Boffuet's Orations, pronounced at their Interment. Tranflated from the French with felect Extracts from other Nations, by the fame Author. Pp. 59. Clarke, London. 1799. 8vo. THE eloquence of Boffuet was peculiarly adapted to this fpecies of compofition: it was chafte, animated, and impreffive; fometimes flowing with eafy grace, and tranquil majefty, like the meandering ftream that winds its fmooth paffage through the even plain; and, at others, bursting forth like an impetuous torrent, from the mountain-top, raifing aftonishment and impreffing awe. Called, as he was, to pronounce funeral orations on many of the most illuftrious characters, it required an extraordinary combination of talents to avoid repetition, and to impart that variety, without which, the most eloquent difcourfes become languid and dull. The moft prominent defects of this celebrated orator, were religious intolerance, and a proneness to adulation; though it be but juftice to obferve, that the latter was imputable to his fituation more than to the natural difpofition of his mind. Of the two Orations, or rather Extracts, the tranflation of which is before us, that on the Duchefs of Orleans is unquestionably the beft; a circumftance, probably, owing to the fubject, which is peculiarly calculated to admit of those pathetic appeals to the paffions which conftitute one of the chief excellencies of fuch compofitions. We shall extract a part of this, as affording, at once, a fair fpecimen of the orator's manner, and of the tranflator's talents : "Let us gratefully remember, that God infufes into our perishable frame a fpiritual power, which can acknowledge the truth of his exiftence; adore the redundant plenitude of his perfections, rely on his goodness, fear his juftice, and afpire to his immortality. By the principle of analogy, as our material form fhall return unto its mother earth, fo our fpiritual part fhall return unto its Creator. This, indeed, is a proud diftinétion, which brings into contact and alliance the fpiritual part of man with the fupreme- and primitive greatnefs, God! Let then the wife man fpeak with derifion of every ftate and condition of life, fince, wherever we caft our view, we behold the funereal gloom of death hovering over our brightest hours. Let the wife man equalize the fool and the fage; let him even confound the lord of the earth with the beaft of the field: for, if we look at man but through the medium of a coarfe corporeal eye, what do we behold in his fugitive exiftence, but folly, folicitude, and difappointment? And what do we behold in his death, but an expiring |