"Q. With such a mass of arguments, or rather, of evidence in its favour, how comes it, that so many persons either doubt its truth, or reject it as an imposture?

"A. Such persons either do not examine these proofs, or wish them false, or want to distinguish themselves by the singularity of their opinions.

"Q. That is to say, Infidelity arises from negligence, from vicious habits, or from vanity?

"A. Yes, from negligence, when men devote their time and their attention so entirely to their interests or their pleasures, to the business or amusement of the moment, as to think of nothing else, and eventually to exclude every other occupation. Such persons not unfrequently become practical Atheists, and live as if there were no God, no moral law in the universe. From vicious habits, when men give themselves up to practices prohibited by religion; and thus make it their interest, that religion should be false. And,

"Finally, when men wish to acquire the reputation of superior judgment or superior courage, by rejecting opinions and doctrines generally believed and reverenced.

"Q. Are not these causes of infidelity frequently united?

"A. Yes, the first naturally leads to the second; and as vice darkens the understanding, ignorance generally accompanies it; and ignorance almost invariably engenders pride.

"Q. Does not experience confirm the truth of this observation? "A. Yes, experience teaches us, that men invariably begin to neglect the duties of religion before they question its doctrines, or in other words, that they lose their morality before they renounce their faith.

"Q. Whence arise doubts in religious matters?

"A, Sometimes from negligence and ignorance, and sometimes from a habit of attending to the obscurities of religion more frequently than to its proofs.

"Q. Why should there be any obscurities in religion?

"A. Because both the nature of the Divine Being, and his operations must, in many respects, surpass human comprehension, and consequently be obscure,

"Q. Why so?

"A, Because a being of so confined a capacity as man, cannot possibly comprehend the boundless perfections of the Almighty; in other words, finite cannot contain infinite.

"Q. Is there any other cause of obscurity in religion?

"A. Yes, the operations of God, as well as his attributes are too extensive to fall under human observation. They are connected with systems of which we can have no conception, and may relate to periods and events far remote in place and time from our sphere of existence.

"Q. Are there not mysteries in nature as well as in religion, and are not the former as incomprehensible as the latter? "A. Yes,

"A. Yes, the visible world teems with wonders, and half the processes of nature, such as the propagation of animals; the production and growth of vegetables-the nature of light and soundof the electric fluid-of magnetic influence, &c. &c. are all mysteries as impenetrable to human reason as the ineffable secrets of the divine essence or the wonderful means of Redemption.

"Q. Why then do not men contradict and reject the former as often and as obstinately as they do the latter?

"A. Because the admission of the former does not interfere with their passions and prejudices, which the latter tend to con troul or to suppress." P, 41.

We trust that this useful and important tract will meet with an extensive circulation in those quarters which we have already named; where if it be not thought necessary, at least it will not be superfluous. We should also hope that its author would publish an explanation of the doctrines of our Church upon a similar plan, for the use of the higher orders of our youth: to whom we consider it as not wholly unimportant that some general Christian instruction should be given, and that they should particularly be brought up in the communion of our established Church.

THANKSGIVING SERMONS.

ART. 11. England's Glory and Duty: preached at St. Crux, in the City of York, by J. Overton, 4.M. on the 7th of July, 1814. Cradock and Joy.

Amidst subjects of so much greater importance that within the last year have crowded in upon us, we have not been enabled to pay sufficient attention to a large class of single sermons, which were preached upon this sacred festival of national triumph. Many of them are worthy of our attention; and if we shall not have afforded them a place in our Review, it is not because they have not fully deserved it. The Sermon before us is distinguished for soundness of principle, and energy, rather than elegance of expression. The preacher, after describing the incalculable importance of our naval superiority, in preserving our shores from the attack of the enemy, and our fields from becoming the scene of devastation and blood, thus proceeds:

"And who, except under the privation of these blessings, can suitably estimate this degree of success! Think of the horrors of Anarchy, of Atheism, of Despotism: Think of the undescribable wretchedness of those places which so long and frequently were the immediate seats and scenes of war: Think of what has actually

taken

taken place at Paris, at Moscow, at Hamburgh, at Leipsic, and in nearly every other part of Europe: Read seriously the appalling accounts of the sufferings in Germany: Compare all this with our condition at the worst: Contemplate, as Christians, the two conditions not only in their bearings on the present generation and present Life; but also with a reference to posterity, and the everlasting concerns of mankind; and it will appear what abundant cause we had at all times for thankfulness: and that in opposing a system at once so iniquitous and destructive, and " behaving ourselves, valiantly for our people, and the cities of our God," we have shewn ourselves, "a wise and understanding," as well as a highly favoured, nation.

"Some persons, indeed, have ever been more disposed to complain of our sufferings, as the result of mismanagement in our Governors, than to thank God for our remaining blessings. But this class of men have shewn themselves as short sighted in Politics as they are defective in Religion. They overlooked the grand source of the evil; the deplorable moral and political disorder which had seized Europe: They ascribed that to want of skill in the Physi'cian which had become unavoidable through the malignity of the disease; which, for any thing they could know, under an opposite mode of treatment might, inevitably, have proved fatal; nay, which in point of fact did so prove in every instance, Europe throughout, where their prescriptions were pursued: They distinguished not between theory and practice; and because they necessarily felt the inconveniences of the plan adopted, concluded, with out trying it, that another would have been preferable." P. 13.

ART. 12. Prespect of Perpetual and Universal Peace: a Sermon preached on the 3d of July, at the Essex-street Chapel, by T. Belsham, Johnson. 1814.

We do not see the force of the reason assigned by Mr. Belsham or preaching his Thanksgiving Sermon on the 3d, instead of the 7th July, the day appointed. His auditors, who are entirely of the higher orders, would not probably have been induced to become gapers at the shew which was passing by.

The language in which this Sermon is composed is uniformly elegant, sometimes even vigorous. The opening of it will afford the best specimen of Mr. Belsham's style and expression,

The events of the two preceding years are unparalleled in history. A portentous and devouring despotism, which trampled all Europe under its feet, which bid defiance to the combined energies of the nations, whose will was law, which disposed of crowns and kingdoms, and at whose voice the earth trembled, is suddenly crushed to atoms. Not indeed by hostile force, nor by the united

efforts of human intellect and strength, but by its own desperate and unexampled infatuation, and by the overruling providence of God. The giant power, which having lately sprung from the earth, had exalted itself above all rule, intoxicated with uninterrupted success, arrogantly attempted to scale the heavens; and vainly dreamed that the armies which no earthly force could controul, which were every where victorious, every where irresistible, might bid defiance to the inclemency of the seasons and to the rigours of a frozen climate.

"But pride and presumption were soon overtaken by deserved and exemplary punishment. For who ever hardened himself against God and prospered? The destroying angel received his dread commission, and the innumerable myriads of the invading army perished as it were in a night; the baffled and disgraced chief, like the Assyrian tyrant of old, escaping, with difficulty and dismay, a solitary and forlorn fugitive, to his own country.

"In the mean time the continental powers, which had before crouched at his feet or groaned under his tyranny, encouraged by the disasters which had befallen the common oppressor, entered into a new alliance, an alliance cemented by a deep sense of past wrongs and a just apprehension of future injuries, to shake off his yoke; and after a few convulsive struggles, the exhausted tyrant of the continent sunk under the generous and heroic efforts of the united nations, and was compelled to abdicate the throne, to resign his conquests, and to make way for the restoration of a constitutional government to a great nation, over which he had usurped a despotic and remorseless sway.” P. 1.

So far all is very reasonable and well; but when he calls the times in which we live" the childhood of the world," in which nations, like children, are making experiments in the pursuit of happiness and prosperity, we shall partly suspect Mr. B. of the same line of conduct with the patience of his readers. He informs us that men will soon discover that wars of aggression and conquest are both unjust and unwise, and that, after a few more failures, they will quietly repose in perpetual and universal peace. As mankind have been some few years making these experiments, without profiting much by their results, we are inclined to think that they will still pursue the system. The Apostle has informed us, with some little insight into human nature," from whence come wars and fightings among us." As long as the lusts and the bad passions of man remain, so long will war and all its miseries continue. By the general diffusion of Christianity, aud still more by the influence of the Holy Spirit and divine grace upon our hearts, those passions may be in some measure subdued, and in such proportion will the virulence of public and private contention be abated.

In the latter part of the Sermon, where Mr. Belsham appears to treat the fulfilment of the prophecies of Isaiah in the present events of this world, and their probable consequences, he abandons every law of common sense, and sets reason, as well as reputation, at defiance.

ART. 13. A Discourse preached at the Episcopal Chapel of Kircaldy, on the Day of Thanksgiving, by T. Scot, Minister of the Chapel. Edinburgh. 1814.

This is a Sermon by one of the northern brethren of our Church, and is distinguished for its vigour and animation. The author has a powerful, but some times too poetical an imagination; his language, however, is sufficiently chastened and correct. Mr. Scot was formerly a Minister of the Church in Maryland, which gave him an opportunity of witnessing the sad spectacle of irreligion and infidelity prevailing in a state without a national and an established religion. After the first acknowledgement of their political existence as a nation, a National Church should have been the first object not only of their pride, but of their policy.

"Then was the time, when, as a Christian people sensible of their mercies, they should have given the strong cement of religion to their rising institutions; and as they had inherited from the mother country their laws, manners, and language, together with the pure faith of the gospel, sound policy and good sense might have dictated the propriety of drawing as close as possible the ties of social intercourse with the only power that could give stability to their independence. It is true that, for twelve years after the peace, they did pursue this plan in some measure, and prosperity and improvement were in consequence visible in every part of the United States. But the spirit of irreligion had scattered among them its deadly poison, and its operation was not long concealed. Emancipated from a foreign yoke, they could hardly bear to acknowledge subjection even to the King of Heaven. Establishments had in several States been made for the support of the Church of England; these were now thrown down; the floodgates of impiety were opened, and every sacred and moral principle was allowed to float at the pleasure of the popular gale. Young as they were as a nation, the enormity and frequency of crimes among them were such as nations long corrupted by luxury could scarcely be thought capable of exceeding." P. 9.

ART.