eloquent sermons the language pages, and may mostly be read in contains. It is desirable, therefore, little more than so many minutes. They are therefore well adapted to instruction where short services are required. that the press should be employed to provide for the wants, both of destitute villagers and cottagers, a plain, faithful, and useful store of Christian instruction, while sermons intended for readers, and these educated and Christian readers, should be raised as high as possible in all the qualities that can gain the understanding and affect the heart of the reader. Of Mr. Binney's volume our opinion is highly favourable. From what we hear of him as a preacher, he seems likely to combine in himself the rare qualities both of an efficient and popular preacher, and of a powerful writer. The sermons before us are entitled to a high rank. They are adapted to the educated and well-informed Christian, and it is no slight commendation to say of them, they combine sound Christian instruction with high intellectual and literary excellence. A citation or two will convince our readers that these are no every-day discourses. The following passage, on the apostolic definition of faith, deserves close attention: The two volumes of Discourses before us, will serve to illustrate the remarks we have already made. That by the Editor of the Christian Observer, is well adapted to be read in the family circle. At the same time we may observe of his discourses, they possess a simplicity and perspicuity which will entitle them to travel into a wider circle than that of the family. They will suit country congregations and villagers of the better class. At social meetings, of a devotional "What appears primarily to demand attention, is the first of the selected kind, nothing could be more ap- passages, which looks like a specific depropriate than to read one of these finition of faith. Now faith is the subshort discourses. Although, should stance of things hoped for, the evidence That this was indissenters use them either in the of things not seen.' tended by the Apostle to be a definition villages, their families, or their or description of a faith, is obvious. social meetings, they would find it The question with theologians has been, necessary to expunge some few of what kind? whether particular or self-adulatory expressions respectgeneral? that is, whether of the principle with which pardon is connected, ing our holy, apostolic, and all-that- and which is said to justify the sinner; is-excellent church, which would or whether of that more comprehensive of course sound oddly from their principle by which the saint' lives,' lips, though doubtless unobjection- which, in the hour of distress or temptation, assuages grief and invigorates able enough to those whose ears are virtue. The latter is the general opiaccustomed to such a phraseology. nion. It seems to be countenanced by The chief recommendation of these the context. The Apostle, in the presermons, is their perspicuity and ceding chapter, addressing the Hebrews general soundness of doctrine. Of cumstances in which they were involved; as believers, adverts to the afflictive circourse they are not immaculate, warns them against apostatizing; ex and a critical reader might find horts them to constancy; and reminds some slight grounds of exception; them, by a scriptural quotation, that but in the main they are admirable they were to live by faith;' and then, intending largely to illustrate this truth, specimens of plain pulpit instruc- he gives, in passing onwards to the fultion, and are characterized through- filment of his purpose, a description of out by a brevity which rarely that faith which he intended, which he marks dissenting sermons. was anxious they should exercise, and They the power of which he was about to exvary in length from ten to fifteen emplify. "It seems proper, therefore, to admit, that the definition of the Apostle is to be taken in its most comprehensive seuse. It is to be observed, however, that, if the language defines what faith is at all, it may, perhaps, define what faith is always. That is to say, it may be, that faith, whensoever exercised, and whatsoever it may effect; whether it be that which a man exercises after he is a believer, and as such; or whether it be that by which he becomes so; it may be, that, in each case, it is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' The compass of the principle may be more or less extended; the objects may be more or less numerous; they may be different, or they may be the same viewed under different aspects, and for different purposes; but still, the principle, as such, may undergo no change;-as to its nature, it may still possess those properties, and those only, which are attributed to it in the text. Perhaps, therefore, in strict accuracy of speech, there are not kinds of faith. The principle is probably one. For the sake of distinctness, we may speak of that which justifies, and that which sanctifies; that of the sinner, and that of the saint; but, it may be, that we speak all the time of a mental act really identical, only contemplated in different lights and relations; in the one case, as it has an aspect towards heaven, and in the other, towards earth; in the first, as it is viewed in itself by the Supreme Mind, and in the second, as it is seen by us in its effects. In short, if it can be so expressed without impropriety, we may be regarding, perhaps, the same thing, in the one case as it influences God, and in the other as it influences man. "We suspect that there is some truth in these suppositions. It will be our object to evince it in the succeeding remarks. Your attention will first be called to the language of the Apostle, as descriptive of faith in its most general and comprehensive sense; that sense, in which it directly bears on his present purpose, and in which we shall principally have to regard it in subsequent discourses. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' The word rendered substance,' seems, in its application to objects that are desirable and expected, to express such an entire confidence in their future actual possession, or, in the sufficiency of the means by which they are secured, as imparts to them, in relation to us, the character of present reality. That, translated evidence,' is a logical term 6 signifying conclusive demonstration; it is here applied to things that are invisible, to matters that cannot be submitted to sense, and, it imports that the mind so feels the force of the proofs by which their existence is established, as to regard them with a sentiment similar to that, with which it looks upon actual appearances. Perhaps the brief phrases 'confident expectation' and ' perfect persuasion' may express every thing we are warranted to include in the two terms; every thing in fact intended to be conveyed by the sacred writer. It would then be said,' faith is the confident expectation of things hoped for, the perfect persuasion of things not seen." The Apostle, it will be observed, describes two classes of objects as coming within the sphere of the general principle, and that principle as supposing the existence of two corresponding mental states, or,-if you prefer it,-as comprehending the exercise of two appropriate mental emotions. The entire definition may be expressed, either by the two distinct parts of which it consists being transposed, (a very allowable liberty by way of paraphrase,) or, by their being presented in the order that obtains in the text. The first we should term the order of nature, the second that of observation. Each would stand thus: -Faith is the perfect persuasion of things not seen, [and] [connected with] [leading to] [terminating in] the confident expectation of things hoped for.' Faith is the confident expectation of things hoped for, [and] [founded on] [arising from] the perfect persuasion of things not seen.' In the first case, you observe, the objects are placed in the order in which they come to be perceived and felt by the mind; and the states of mind are described as they are successively experienced. In the latter case, the process is reversed. It is conceived to be completed. You are supposed to look at it as such. It is therefore presented by describing the last result, and connecting it with that which necessarily precedes it, and without which it could not be. "Both parts of this definition we should conceive to be necessary to a scriptural description of faith, and both the mental exercises to belong to the nature of the thing; and, in either case, no more. The description and the reality would thus equally be complete. In consistency with this remark, faith might, perhaps, not improperly be denominated, the repose of the intellect and the repose of the affections; that is, the understanding perfectly admitting the divine testimony, and the heart confi "It appears, from what has been advanced, that, in order to understand the Divine procedure towards Abraham, and to conceive correctly of the patriarch's faith, it is necessary to admit that the promises had a spiritual, as well as a temporal sense; that they had an ultimate relation to a future world, as well as an immediate relation to this. Such a subject might admit of being very largely argued and illustrated. Without, however, pretending to any thing either profound or minute, we shall offer a few remarks, which will not, we trust, be deemed inappropriate or useless. "The allegorical, spiritual, and typical interpretation of certain transactions, declarations, and facts, stated or described in the records of the ancient church, has often been carried to an injudicious extreme. This has given rise to an indiscriminate condemnation of all expressions whatever, that seem to countenance, in any thing, typical significancy. This conduct, however, is neither religious nor rational. Though the fancy of some interpreters may be too warm, the feeling of other interpreters may be too cold; the one may reason too little, but the other may reason too much; and thus pure scriptural truth may be either missed or abandoned by both. It would certainly seem, one would think, to a person of plain unsophisticated sense, that there are some scriptural facts possessed of a positively typical character, and that there are some prophecies designedly capable of a double acceptation; and, therefore, it may be, that there are some promises involving both a temporal and spiritual significance. The passover and the brazen serpent are of the first class. We have their typical character asserted by infallible interpreters, and their import is both obvious and affecting. The prophecies respecting the new heavens and the new earth, in Isaiah, with other similar allusions to the renovation of nature, are, apparently at least, of the second class. They seem to refer, first of all, to the moral restora tion of man under the reign of Christ; and then, secondly, as expounded by Peter, to the actual restitution of all things;' the removal of the curse from the physical universe; the ultimate condition and character of the redeemed; the re-establishment of harmony among God's intelligent offspring; and the reign of eternal order. Hence, with these unquestionable proofs of such a principle in some parts of the word, as gives a passage a meaning both immediate and remote; it certainly appears natural and logical to admit, that, possibly it may be, the promises to Abraham, respecting an inheritance in Canaan, instead of being confined to what at first strikes the ear, have an interior sense, and belong to what is termed in the New Testament,' the eternal inheritance of the saints in light.' 66 Again. It will be admitted, that all the dispensations of God to men, had a bearing upon their becoming spiritually fitted for a future world. This world, in all probability, was never intended to be eternal; at least, it could not be intended that man should eternally reside in it. Had he remained innocent and immortal, and had the species, as immortal, uninterruptedly increased, some mode of removal from a place incapable of containing indefinite numbers, must have been afforded. But, however this might be, as soon as man fell and became subject to death, this world lost all its independent importance. Henceforth, the species derived consideration and dignity altogether from the fact of its connexion with another. And their preparation for that other was the object of the Divine solicitude, and the end of God's moral government, from the annunciation of the first promise, through every successive discovery of himself, and in all acts of his general and particular providence, up to this very moment in which we are met to worship Him. "This preparation of the species for their ultimate state could only be secured by the direct interposition of God. It was necessary that He should graciously communicate that knowledge and those means by which it was to be effected. He did this; but in doing it, it seemed meet to Him to convey that revelation gradually,-to unfold it by degrees,to impart, age after age, additional intimations of his plan and his purposes. It seemed meet to Him, and therefore it was right. But, in conducting it, it does not seem likely that he would ever communicate any thing but what had some influence, more or less direct, in carrying on the process; and, therefore, some connexion, more or less remote, both with that concluding dispensation itself, which crowns and consummates every other, and with that future world for which it was the aim of all to prepare and capacitate the species. In carrying on this great desi,n, the Divine Spirit, I imagine, never put forth any portion either of his energy or wisdom, which terminated exclusively in the concerns of earth. It had not become him to do this. It comported not with the majesty of the Supreme, to come forth from the unapproachable glory,-to rend the heavens' to commune and converse with man, without having any purpose or communicating any sentiment, but what was bounded by a word that 'passeth away; and, therefore, it seems antecedently probable, that, if he condescended to regulate the concerns of his people with respect to that world at all, it would be with some reference to that spiritual and higher one, into which it was the glory of his grace, and the splendid determination of his wisdom, ultimately to conduct them."-pp. 217 221. (Concluded from page 496.) But we pass on to a more delicate part of our subject, suggested by the volume before us. It is to state our opinion, respecting the present position and duty of the pious clergy of the established church. Though we have plainly declared our convictions, relative to Mr. R.'s plan of reform, yet our opinions concerning the impracticability of it, can never interfere with the duty of those who are in the church, and who, with Mr. R., feel the N. S. NO. 70. need of alteration. The necessity to use means for reform, not only exists in spite of our opinions; but even though there was no Dissenter in England, and no Roman Catholic in the world, the duty of the serious portion of churchmen remains imperative. In saying this, we deem it right to observe, that we entertain feelings of Christian affection for all the pious ministers of the Church of England, and that in faithfully declaring our sentiments, which have a reference to them, we do so under the conviction that the views we entertain are scriptural; and in the hope that, at least, they may receive some consideration from those whom they more immediately concern; while we expect this mark of courtesy from them, we may be allowed to say, that didly, to examine any remarks we are willing, calmly and candiffer from us. which may be made by those who It is admitted by them, that serious evils now exist; that various defects in their formularies need correction; and that, from a combination of circumstances, dangers of no common kind threaten their church. That with all the advantages of a church establishment, there are abuses which its warmest advocates cannot deny, and its best friends deeply lament. If such are the convictions of the pious clergy, we cannot see how they can suffer such a state of things to continue, with out exposing themselves to the charge of indifference to the apostolic purity and spiritual welfare of their own church. Believing that Diocesan Episcopacy is either scriptural or desirable, and seeing its character is deeply injured by evils which all see and many regret, it appears a paramount duty, to use means to get rid of these serious drawbacks on the 4A efficiency of their denomination. They cannot remain quiescent, without a plain dereliction of duty, and sanctioning a state of things which they know materially affects the cause of religion in the land. They have long lamented in secret this state of things; they have hitherto confined their expressions of grief to the whispers of confidential and friendly intercourse with some of their pious brethren; but is this enough? Has the Christian church no right to ask more than this from them? Unquestionably, Christians in their own communion, and Christians of other denominations, may fairly require from them a firm and open interference with the evils which are acknowledged on all hands in order to remedy them. Let them bring fully before their own people, the palpable abuses that injure the spirituality of their church, and shew them how much better their system of ecclesiastical polity would work, if disencumbered of the grievous weights which press upon it. Let them defend Diocesan Episcopacy if they please; but let them also unite in seeking the reform of evils in the church, which lessen the usefulness of some of the best men in it, and give to the enemies of all religion, excuses for utterly rejecting it. We apprehend, that this united call for reform should not be confined to the inferior clergy, but should be heard from all, of what ever rank they may be, who are favourable to the purity and efficiency of their communion; and who could have no selfish objects in view, in seeking remedies for these evils Let this strong appeal be made to those who have power to reform some of the abuses which exist, or whose influence may be exerted for that purpose. It is impossible to deny, that there is a crisis in the present state of the church of England; and all the pious clergy must know, that there can be no real security, but in its religious character. If this consideration is kept in view, while seeking to accomplish a reform, it will render them indifferent to various charges which may be brought against them. They may be accused of dissenterism and of puritanism; threats may be used by their superiors; and calumny and abuse may be freely employed; but no fear of consequences like these, should deter them from giving a firm statement of their opinions and their wishes, with regard to the necessity and extent of church reform. Even as a matter of policy, this alteration for the better should be sought. The pious clergy must know, that there are at this moment, in the minds of nominal churchmen, the strongest feelings against the clergy, though not against episcopacy. That in the estimation of the pious members of the establishment also, there exists a strong necessity for some decided change, respecting the abuses named by our author. If the clergy, therefore, will not lead the way in seeking this reform, they may expect very soon that demands will be made by the laity, which they cannot gainsay nor resist, without compromising their characters, or losing their hold on the affections of their people; besides swelling the ranks of dissent from episcopacy, to a fearful extent, and rendering the hope of a religious reform, if possible, still more distant. It becomes the pious clergy, as a matter of precaution then, to show those who respect their characters, and who prize the truths which they preach, that whatever is the result, they are no longer guilty of a mercenary connivance at numerous |