record. Every county ought to have a similar printed account; and, to forward this object, we have extracted the history of the present undertaking.

SINGLE SERMON S.

Art. 35. The Duty of Britons to promote by safe, gradual, and efficacious Means the Progress of Christianity and Civilization in India. Preached at the Meeting House, Carter-Lane, April 4. 1813. By Joseph Barrett. 8vo. IS. Johnson and Co.

For benevolent and animated declamation, no subject opens a wider field than the conversion of the Hindoos to faith in Christ: but neither do we recollect any one subject which more imperiously demands the tempering of zeal with prudence. In practical application, Mr. Barrett's epithets would probably be found incongruous. Safe means may imply mildness: but efficacious means indicate a degree of energy which will secure the effect; and Europeans in the situation of Mr. B. have no opportunity for judging of the fitness of measures to be adopted in the delicate situation of our Eastern empire. We perceive, in the instance of Spain, that our exertions in her behalf have not induced her to abandon the Inquisition; and the bigotry of the Hindoos to their superstitions is even more inveterate than that of the Spaniards. We most ardently wish that they could be brought to adopt the principles of the Gospel: but we do not hesitate to repeat that we tremble at the consequences of intemperate and miscalculating zeal. We say miscalculating, because in India the proportion of Europeans (including all departments civil and military, to the native population is about thirty thousand to seventy millions! Mr. B.'s doctrine is that, instead of holding in subjection a mass of unconnected and unwilling tributaries, we should make a way into their hearts: but unwilling tributaries should be cautiously treated, lest, by employing efficacious measures to accomplish an object beyond our present reach, we lose for ever the opportunity of an intercourse with the Hindoos. The India Company are the judges of the state of affairs in the Indian Peninsula: yet Mr. B. complains of it as an evil that the Company should have the power of tolerating, or prohibiting, missionaries or other advocates for Christianity who may proceed to India: but is he not aware that, if they had not this power, our Eastern possessions would be in the most imminent danger? Persons of suspicious character might land in India, and, under the pretext of making converts, spread disaffection and endanger rebellion. Let zealots at home express an amiable wish for the conversion of the East: but let enlightened persons on the spot judge of its practicability, and take care that a great empire be not lost by an experiment. Whether the subject comes before us in the shape of a dissertation, a speech, or a sermon, we shall not hesi tate to reiterate the same advice. Most heartily do we agree with this preacher that the attempt at the projected amelioration would be highly beneficial;' with this proviso, that it be confined to exertions made among ourselves; for whatever tends to unite discordant sects, in plans of general benevolence, will infallibly promote the true spirit of the Gospel. We cannot, however, allow Mr. B. to be competent to give an opinion on the actual result of efficacious means

employed

employed for christianizing India. His replies to objections are ingenious, but not satisfactory. Our advice would be, in the language of the old proverb, "Make no more haste than good speed." The extraordinary seclusion of the Japanese from the rest of the world, arising from an attempt made to subvert their religion, should be a warning on this subject.

Art. 36. Memoirs of the Life and Ministry of the Rev. Hugh Worthington. Being a tribute of Respect to his Memory. By the Rev. B. Carpenter. 8vo. Is. 6d. Sherwood and Co.

The substance of this pamphlet having originally been delivered in the form of a sermon, it is allotted to this class. Indiscretion is a prevailing feature in tributes of respect to deceased friends; and survivors fancy that they discharge a duty by holding up the departed as paragons of excellence, and by telling the world that

"They ne'er will look upon their like again."

Could such indiscreet admirers, however, hear the remarks which are made on their panegyrics, they would soon be convinced that they render their friends no service by over-praising them. Mr. Carpenter has this lesson to learn. He has covered the canvas with high colouring, but has not sketched an accurate outline. Mr. Wor thington is in the first place ranked with Luther, Calvin, and Melancthon; in the second he is compared with Demosthenes; and in the last place he is represented as a man whose worth it is as difficult to appreciate, as it will be to supply his loss.' This high-flown eulogy is not supported by evidence. Mr. Worthington was a preacher of much renown in the dissenting chapel at Salter's Hall, and, in point of eloquence and devotional animation, he was allowed to excel many of his brethren: but he had nothing of the reformer about him; nor was he a Demosthenes in the pulpit. We cannot be supposed to know any thing of his private life: but Mr. Carpenter's own statements shew that, with all the good and amiable qualities which his friend possessed, his worth was not so very pre-eminent as to make it difficult to appreciate. Mr. Worthington is here said to have been led away by a flow of spirits, and to have been a procrastinator: but a man who is indiscreet and procrastinating must not be placed among "burning and shining lights." Mr. W. was born at Liecester, July 2d, 1752, and died at Worthing, July 26th, 1813. This pamphlet is intitled Memoirs, but we have no memorials, or anecdotes, by which the subject of it is made to live before us.

Art. 37. Preached at the Meeting-house, Salter's Hall, CannonStreet, August 8, 1813, on the Death of the Rev. Hugh Worthington, in the fortieth Year of his Ministry in that place. With Explanatory Notes. By James Lindsay, D.D. 8vo. 8vo. Is. Johnson and Co..

Some of the hearers of this discourse having accused the preacher of" damning with faint praise," instead of pouring forth, in honour of the deceased, that warm tide of studied eulogy which is usual on these affecting occasions, Dr. L. urges self-defence to be his sole

motive in sending this sermon to the press: but will it serve his pur pose? Though creditable to him as a composition, as a funeral sermon it is not adapted to harmonize with the feelings of an audience assembled to pay their public respect to the memory of a deceased pastor. We acquit Dr. L. of being in the smallest degree actuated by an envious spirit, a crime falsely laid to his charge: but, granting his strictures on the late Mr. Worthington's style of preaching and mode of conducting public devotion to be just, they are rather out of place in an address to the mourning society at Salter's-Hall. He doubtless meant to compliment Mr. W. when he remarked that the aim of his preaching was to teach moderate sentiments:' but this, at best, is very vague and indeterminate praise; if it be any praise. Nearly in the same indefinite way, Dr. L. describes Mr. W.'s eloquence; observing that, in his style and manner, there was a striking peculiarity, a nameless something? while the value of this nameless something is deteriorated by this remark, that other preachers we may have known endowed with minds of a higher order, exhibiting in their public exercises a wider range of thought, and with more varied and brilliant powers of fancy and illustration. In short, the popularity of the late Mr. Worthington is left to rest almost entirely on a nameless something; and, after the comment on the familiarity and deficient solemnity of his devotional exercises, the general praise which is subsequently bestowed will not be called in question:

To affirm that he possessed great general worth as an individual, great excellencies as a public teacher of religion, great zeal in promoting the best interests of this Society, and that his labours among you give his memory the highest claim to your gratitude and respect, is doing to him no more than justice requires, and asking from you no other tribute than of your own accord you are forward to pay.'

We are informed by Dr. L. that the religious sentiments of the deceased were very nearly, if not altogether the same with the preacher's own:' but what his own sentiments are we are not told, so that here again we are left in the dark, being only furnished with the epithet moderate as "the lanthorn to our steps." A tirade against systems is furnished in the notes; though we cannot perceive in what repect systems, as systems, are objectionable. Erroneous systems, or systems tyrannically imposed, are to be reprobated: but the clear exhibition and arrangement of true principles or doctrines must always be desirable.

Art. 38. Usefulness the great Object of the Christian Ministry :preached at Worship-street, Finsbury-Square, August 15th, 1813, on the Decease of the Rev. Hugh Worthington. With a complete List of the Subjects discussed at the Wednesday Evening Lecture, held at Salter's Hall, for Fifteen succeeding Winters. By John Evans, A.M. 8vo. 28. Sherwood and Co.

This sermon, which is certainly written in a different style from the preceding on the same occasion, has the singular feature of relating the death and funeral of Mr. Worthington, before it gives any trait of his life and labours; and so minute is Mr. E. in his account of

the

the funeral, that he tells the audience that eighteen mourning coaches and nine gentlemen's carriages attended :' even the names of the pall-bearers are not forgotten. More facts relative to Mr. Worthington, both as a man and as a minister, are also collected in this sermon than are to be found in Mr. Carpenter's memoir. Mr. Evans thus delineates his deceased friend:

'As a man he was intelligent, social, and friendly :- he possessed from nature a quick intelligent mind, enriched and expanded by a judicious education; his pulpit-labours had a peculiarity attached to them not easily to be characterized;-his prayers were original;-his style was the crystal stream, where we saw to the bottom; his subjects were practical; his delivery was singularly striking ; — and in the best sense of the word he was a popular preacher.'

That he was not an idle preacher is evident, since he left behind him fifteen hundred sermons. Mr. Worthington's religious sentiments are clearly stated by Mr. Evans, and not vaguely characterized as moderate; and it appears that, like the late Dr. Richard Price, he was an Arian, believing in the pre-existent dignity of Christ, but not in his absolute divinity. By the extracts here given from the discourses of the deceased, it is manifest that Mr. W. was a very animated, impressive, and useful preacher. Mr. Evans also mentions his sensibility of heart, and specifies two amiable traits in his character; viz. his attention to the rising generation, and the encouragement which he gave to young men educating for the ministry. In short, the preacher has manifested his friendship by placing the character of Mr. W. in the most advantageous point of view, and his sermon must have given general satisfaction.

Art. 39. For the 13th January, 1814, being the Day appointed.for a General Thanksgiving. By the Rev. L. Blakeney, A. M., Curate of Lechlade. 4to. 28. Wilson.

The preacher here enumerates, as incentives to gratitude, the peculiar advantages and blessings which Great Britain enjoys; and he then exhorts us, as the only means of securing the enjoyment of the inestimable privileges which distinguish our land, to have the Lord for our God.

Art. 40. Preached at the Church of Kibworth, Leicestershire, on the 13th of January 1814, being the Day appointed for a General Thanksgiving. By the Rev. James Beresford, M.A., Rector of Kibworth, &c. 4to. IS. Hatchard.

Mr. Beresford first considers the fallen enemy as an instrument of God's judgments, and next as a chosen vessel of his wrath; and, if the degraded French Emperor resembled the portrait as delineated by Mr. B., he might have been the latter, though we should not have expected him to be selected by Omnipotence for the former. What a string of vices uniting in one man has Mr. B. here formed!-Cruelty -pride-insolence-injustice-oppression-meanness-malicetreachery-cowardice-ingratitude - hypocrisy

falsehood-calumny-theft-murder-perjury-blasphemy-and selfishness, are

'the hideous features of his character.'

is well that he has fallen"?

Then who will not say, "It

Art.

Art. 41. Preached in the Parish Church of Mortlake, Surrey, on the 13th of January, 1814, being the Day appointed for a General Thanksgiving. By Edward Owen, B. A. 8vo. Is. Hatchard. This animated preacher takes a review of the war from the period of the French Revolution, recounts the aggressions of the French and their strides to universal empire under their late Ruler, and congratulates our country on being a rallying point to the oppressed, and on the happy changes which, through our most energetic exertions, have taken place. He observes that, although war, with its attendant woes, has for years been raging around us in every direction, we have been preserved from that most dreadful of all its evils, that of having the field of battle in our own country;' and respecting the nations of the continent he says, we have only to compare the present state of Europe with its abject, degraded, and suffering state not two years back, to perceive cause indeed to excite our gratitude.'. Suitable exhortations follow; among which, the Naval and Military Bible Society is recommended to the liberal protection of the public: applications from fifteen thousand of our defenders, for Bibles and Testaments, not having been granted, on account of the reduced state of the Society's Funds..

Art. 42. Divine Providence evidenced in the Causes, Consequences and Termination of the late War. Preached at St. James's Church, Bath, July 7, 1814, the Day appointed for a General Thanksgiving. By the Rev. Richard Warner. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Hatchard. After having maintained the doctrine of a Divine Providence su perintending the affairs of men, Mr. Warner reviews, in connection with this principle, the long war which is now so happily terminated; and he offers reasons to induce us to consider that contest which, in fast-sermons, we have deplored as an evil, to be in its consequences productive of extensive good. The horrors and calamities of Europe have been great, but its sufferings have not been fruitless. Mr. Warner tells us that this infliction led to a revival of the religious spirit throughout Europe; (we wish that he could have said, to the extension of Protestantism, to the suppression of the Inquisition, and to the annihilation of the Papal power ;)-to the amelioration of the civil condition of millions; and to a conviction of the horrors of anarchy and the evils of tumultuous revolutions.

CORRESPONDENCE.

The letter from St. Andrew's is received, but, from an incidental circumstance, we can make no reply to it in this Number.

We shall look farther into the matter stated in the letter which is desired to be considered as private, when we have an opportunity, which at present we have not.

Other letters remain for future attention.

The APPENDIX to this Volume of the Review will be published on the first of October, with the Number for September.