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be said that every man in the workings of his intellect,) rea'lizes in his own mind the fact of a Trinity in Unity, and an

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Unity in Trinity.'

It seems impossible that a bad

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man should ever act wilfully. . . Unless man acts as the representative and delegate of God, as doing God's will, he 'must act wrongly. Perhaps we may say rather, he cannot act at all; but ought rather to be considered as the unconscious 'minister of some other power, probably a power of evil. . . Men who are absorbed in physical or metaphysical science, or in mathematics, such men are in the sight of Scripture the 'most immoral... Are we quite aware of the real difficulty and mystery contained in the fact of a covenant between God and man?... A covenant implies two independent agents. It implies also another fact more wonderful. These two indepen'dent agents in it must also be mutually dependent... 'may be that all the hierarchy of heaven are so formed that they 'move as a mighty machine. But the relation of man to God, even in man's corruptible and fallen state, is far higher. It is 'the relation of two mighty potentates, capable of making a treaty, and binding each other by mutual conditions.

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language is very awful; but it does not go beyond the truth. If I have the power of thwarting the designs of God, of marring his creation, of disobeying his laws, I am, so far, an inde'pendent sovereign, and a sovereign of vast power, for it is a power reaching to the will of God himself. Well may this misguided man say, that his language is sometimes' very awful.'

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Mr Sewell's account of the sympathy of the Church is very different from the parable of the good Samaritan. None, strictly speaking, possess that spontaneity which entitles them to be 'considered as persons, except such as are acting under the inspiration of God, and as members of the body of Christ. All others we must regard as machines, which it is our duty to 'raise into personality, by communicating to them the spirit of God; and which are worthless and punishable if they ' reject the communication, but which, simply as machines, can 'neither excite nor claim any moral affection or duty. Apart from the command of God, however signified, neither king, parent, friend, or fellow-creature, has a well-founded title to our respect or love.' From the passage last cited, it will readily be believed, that Mr Sewell has little scruple in breaking the vials of his wrath over the heads of all who differ from him. We need hardly say, that his list includes some of the most respectable names in English history, during the unhappy period ' of the last two centuries.' It is perhaps equally needless to mention, that his scorn begins with Queen Elizabeth

and the Reformation, and swells and darkens, until language seems almost to refuse to do his bidding, and to choke him in the utterance of it, when he has to speak of the generation among whom he has the misfortune to be living. We will not quote any of these passages. Why need laymen know the bitterness. which divines can put into Christian morals? and what harm can come to Doddridge, Locke, and Milton, from a whole university of Sewells? Zeal without humanity, talents without sense, thoughts connected by tricks of the imagination, instead of by the steps of reason, have never yet done much for the service of mankind.

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While reviewing this book, we have more than once thrown it aside, from a feeling of humiliation in the employment. The author, in the statement of his case, had made it so absurd and offensive, that there was little left for criticism to do. But a production of this kind, proceeding from the Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford, is a circumstance not to be passed lightly Our readers will bear in mind, what is the place in Education, in the Church, and in general Politics, which Oxford affects to hold. When Locke (whom Mr Sewell never mentions but to abuse him) was pressed to follow up his Essay on the Human Understanding with an Essay on Morals, he replied: Did the world want a rule, there would be no work so necessary nor so commendable. But the Gospel contains so perfect a body of ethics, that Reason may be excused from that enquiry, since she may find man's duty clearer and easier in Revelation than in herself.' Light and darkness certainly cannot be more opposite than the book which would have been written by Locke, and that which has been written by Mr Sewell. What is, indeed, the element which in his life and teaching Christ has added unto Morals? What is it that the best of us aspire to learn from the ennobling precepts of Christianity, from its great encouragements, from its touching voice of patience and of charity, from its paths of pleasantness and peace? Yet, what are the elements which not only predominate, but are in truth the exclusive elements, elaborated out of it in the crucible of Mr Sewell? The Gospel, the book of glad tidings, is turned into a book of Spiritual Magic, and of ecclesiastical domination. The days, however, of the black art are over, in any form of it. Selden has quaintly said: There never was a merry world since the Fairies left dancing, and the Parson left conjuring. The opinion of the latter kept thieves in awe, and did as much good in a country as a justice of peace.' But the man must be more of a conjurer than Mr Sewell, who is to persuade the English nation that Christianity and Church Government are one and the

same thing. O'Connell begins his letter to the Earl of Shrewsbury with an old saying the greatest enemy to religion is a pious fool.' We have no means of knowing any thing for or against the piety of Mr Sewell; and he is certainly no fool, in the sense in which that uncourteous monosyllable is usually understood. But there cannot easily be a greater wrong and violence done to Religion, than to tell us, that, to be really Christians, we must hold our moral and intellectual natures, our hearts and consciences and understandings, upon no better title than the existence of a Church of Apostolical succession, the votes of a Council or a Convocation, and the spiritual guidance which we may happen to receive from the ministrations or the teaching of our Parish Priest. Men have been often told before that St Peter kept the doors of Heaven, and that without the good word of the Clergy nobody would ever get there. Terms of Communion, and terms of Salvation, we have got accustomed to see put together; and we must bear it as best we can. Accordingly, it this had been one of the ordinary impertinencies of theologians, we should have neither made nor meddled in it. But morals are another matter; and we are not as yet disposed to bear so meekly, on the mere authority of the Chair at Oxford, the imposition of a Moral Law, more oppressive than the Jewish ceremonies, and little less incredible than the Pagan superstitions, from which it is our blessing that Christianity relieved us. Mr Sewell has fortunately defined his Church in such a manner that it is utterly impossible he ever should be able to identify its existence. But were it otherwise, and could he make out, as an historical fact, the existence of such a Church, he would be as far as ever from the possibility of proving any of the consequences, which, under the fumes of a heated fancy, some ill-digested learning, and a contagious neighbourhood, he has incorporated with his imaginary fact. The Right of Private Judgment was the great prize fought for at the Reformation. It was won at the cost of many evils, but was fairly worth them all. And, at all events, Mr Sewell may make sure of this: If Protestants are called upon to surrender it to Church authority, the bosom of the Church in which they will lie down for a false unity, and false repose, will be neither the Church of England nor that of Mr Sewell.

ART. VIII-American Notes for General Circulation.
CHARLES DICKENS. 2 vols. 8vo. London: 1842.

By

TRA 'RAVELLERS should be well-instructed and conscientious men, for the reputation of nations is in their hands. Lawyers, Physicians, and Clergymen, must pass their examinations, and receive their credentials, before they can give opinions which the public are authorized to confide in; but for a man who has been where no man else has been, it is enough if he can write-spelling, punctuation, and syntax, will be furnished by his publisher; and there is no Continent so large but he can pronounce upon the character of its laws, government, and manners, with an authority which few Professors enjoy. If there be any Englishman living who has smuggled himself through the interior of China, ascertained the colour of the Emperor's eyes and beard, eluded the officers of justice, and escaped from bowstring and bastinado down the river Yang-tse- Kiang, now is his time for a book on China and the Chinese. For three months to come, he will be an absolute authority on all the internal affairs of a third of the human race. Every body will read his book, and every body will believe all he says. But he must not lose his tide; if he let any body get the start of him, his authority will go for little more than it is worth-unless he be able, not only to write, but to write the more readable book; for it may be generally observed, that where we have conflicting accounts of a foreign country, the opinion which carries the day is not that of the person who has taken most pains, or had the best opportunities, or is best qualified, by education and natural ability, for forming a judgment, but that of the most agreeable writer.

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We say this only of the reading public' in general. Very many, no doubt, there are amongst us of whom it is not true. Very many there are, who are more particular about the formation of their opinions on such matters-who hold it to be not foolish only, but wrong, to let false impressions settle in the mind; and who, remembering that a few weeks' residence among strangers will not qualify a man to judge of the character of Nations and Governments, whose opinion nobody would ask on the working of the Poor Law or the Corporation Act in his own parish, require some better assurance of the worth of a traveller's judgment before they will take the character of a Continent from his representation. With such fastidious readers, in entering upon a book of travels, to learn something of the character and capacity of the writer is a primary object. Unfortunately, printed books having no physiognomy,

but being all alike plausible, it is an object scarcely attainable; except where the writer has the rare art of impressing his character upon his composition, or where he has already written on matters which others understand. It is on this account that we have looked forward with considerable interest to a work on America by Mr Dickens ;-not as a man whose views on such a subject were likely to have any conclusive value, but as one with whom the public is personally acquainted through his former works. We all know Boz, though we may not have seen his face. We know what he thinks about affairs at home, with which we are all conversant-about poor-laws and richlaws, elections, schools, courts of justice, magistrates, policemen, cab-drivers, and housebreakers-matters which lie round about us, and which we flatter ourselves we understand as well as he. We know, therefore, what to infer from his pictures of society abroad; what weight to attribute to his representations; with what caution and allowance to entertain them. If his book abound in broad pictures of social absurdities and vulgarities, we know that his tendency in that direction is so strong, that, though possessing sources of far finer and deeper humour, he can hardly refrain from indulging it to excess. If he draw bitter pictures of harsh jailers and languishing prisoners, we know that his sympathy for human suffering sometimes betrays him into an unjust antipathy to those whose duty it is to carry into effect the severities of justice. We know, in short, where we may trust his judgment, where we must take it with caution, and where we may neglect it.

Mr Dickens has many qualities which make his testimony, as a passing observer in a strange country, unusually valuable. A truly genial nature; an unweariable spirit of observation, quickened by continual exercise; an intimate acquaintance with the many varieties of life and character which are to be met with in large cities; a clear eye to see through the surface and false disguises of things; a desire to see things truly; a respect for the human soul, and the genuine face and voice of nature, under whatever disadvantages of person, situation, or repute in the world; a mind which, if it be too much to call it original in the highest sense of the word, yet uses always its own eyes, and applies itself to see the object before it takes the impression-to understand the case before it passes judgment; a wide range of sympathy, moreover-with sweetness, and a certain steady selfrespect, which keeps the spirit clear from perturbations, and free to receive an untroubled image ;-a mind, in short, which moves with freedom and pleasure in a wider world than has been thrown open to the generality of men. This happy combina

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