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former days, and to an Abernethy and a Bell in our own, to say nothing of others, of this and other countries, men of the highest professional skill, and of the most enlarged and cultivated minds, who have been and are among the most devout and sincere Christians! And who of the Physiologists of the present day will dispute the palm of pre-eminence with the profound and sagacious Haller ?”

We presume the printer of Mr. Williams's Sermon heard it preached and marked the emphatic passages. It would be difficult to account in any other way for the notes of admiration which are sprinkled, somewhat indiscriminately, as our extracts will bear witness, over many of the pages.

On the Excellency of the Liturgy. A Sermon delivered at the Annual Visitation, at Leeds, June 1824. By the REV. CHAS. MUSGRAVE, M.A. Vicar of Whitkirk, Yorkshire, &c. &c. 8vo. 24pp. Deighton, Cambridge. 1824.

2 TIM. i. 13.-" Hold fast the form of sound words."

The author commences his discourse by shewing that the use of precomposed forms in public and social worship, is ancient and useful.

"The early Christians delighted to repeat the hymns of Mary, of Zacharias, and of Simeon :-God prescribed to Moses a form of blessing for the people; Christ himself dictated a form of prayer for his disciples. Our general wants are the same, our general condition the same, our universal dependence the same, and the Church, contemplating our common interests, our common necessities, our common frailty, has provided us a form of sound words,' with which, in conformity with God's appointment, we may suitably and profitably surround his throne, and compass his altars aright."" P. 6.

The Liturgy is then considered under two views:

I. As a summary of doctrine.

II. As a manual of devotion.

I. As a summary of doctrine it takes not the place of the Bible: but it states what is our interpretation of the Scriptures; what, to the best of our belief, the Holy Spirit intended to convey in the volume of inspiration. As a summary of doctrine, our Liturgy affords us; first, a standard of orthodoxy, and secondly, a course of Scriptural instruction.

1. "The public formularies are so many authentic testimonies against such of her members as might be tempted to pervert the truth; as might be led to debase or alloy the purity of her original constitution: her form of sound words' is placed as a barrier against the assaults of he resy and innovation." P. 11.

2. As a course of Scriptural instruction, our Liturgy declares the grand truths of the fall of man, and his corrupt nature: it exhibits our great deliverer in all the excellency of his power; it informs us on every point of his life, sufferings, and death; it teaches us to turn wholly to him: "to ask all, to believe all, to hope all, to do all, in and through him, to make mention only of him, his atonement, his righteousness for present or future acceptance." P. 12.

The same Liturgy directs us to the interposition and aid of the Holy Spirit; warns us against supposing that we can do any thing as of ourselves, and bids us pray that God will put into our hearts good desires, and gives us grace and strength to bring them to a good effect.

II. As a manual of devotion our Liturgy is suited to the wants, desires, and interests, of all alike; of old and young, high and low, rich and poor.

"It accompanies us from infancy and youth to maturer and declining years supporting us in sickness, warning us in health; guiding us in our earlier, chearing us in our latter days; diverting us from the fugitive and precarious, and unsatisfying enjoyments of this life, to a hope beyond this lower world, where true joys are to be found.'' P. 15.

After a just eulogium upon the spirit that pervades our excellent Liturgy, the discourse concludes with three very useful observations, of which the substance is as follows

1st. That, excellent as our Liturgy is, the assistance of the Holy Ghost must yet be sought to "breathe upon it the breath of life," and to enable congregations, while they join in the letter and the form, to worship in the Spirit and the power.

2ndly. That the Liturgy is thoroughly and soundly consistent with itself in setting forth the hope of salvation through Jesus Christ, and him crucified, so that all ministers of our holy religion should strictly imitate it in this respect, and be consistent with it and with themselves in taking the doctrine of Redemption by the death of Christ for the main subject of their preaching and exhortation." P. 21, 22.

3rdly. That from the spirit of the Liturgy, Christian ministers may take a pattern for their spirit and conduct: which should be strictly conformable to that genuine holiness which distinguishes our formularies of devotion.

"The fire of the Christian's piety must resemble the material fire on the altar of the ancient Israelites: it may be fanned into a flame in the season of public ministration, but even through the intervals it must burn; it must never be extinguished." P. 23.

The Duties of a Maritime Power: A Sermon preached on Trinity Monday, June 14, 1824, Before the Corporation of the Trinity House, in the Parish Church of St. Nicholas, Deptford, and Published at their Request. By CHARLES R. SUMNER, M.A. Domestic Chaplain, and Deputy Clerk of the Closet to his Majesty, and Prebendary of Worcester. 4to. 28pp. Hatchard. 1824.

A SERMON, upon such an occasion as this, is composed and delivered under peculiar disadvantages to the preacher. He feels that it is difficult to take up any subject which has not been previously occupied; that his hearers will listen to him with more of a secular and fastidious spirit, than ought to be brought into the holy place, where he has a much higher commission, than those who sit as his judges; and that he is in peril either of discharging his sacred trust unfaithfully, or of speaking truths, that may be in some degree offensive to those, whom he naturally wishes to please.

Mr Sumner has judiciously made one topic a leading feature of his discourse, which the character of the times, and the tone of public sentiment, render extremely seasonable: viz. The duty incumbent on such as direct, or enjoy the benefits resulting from, Maritime Power, to provide not only against the temporal, but the spiritual wants of seafaring men.

After dilating upon this most interesting subject, which we are glad to see has been so ably and opportunely canvassed before persons, who have the means of promoting the object which the preacher had in view, Mr. Sumner proceeded to touch upon the expediency of encreasing the number of Navy Chaplains. We wish he had done more than touch upon it; for the following sentence would bear amplification to a great extent, and so would the subjoined note, containing the information, that there are but 35 acting chaplains to 162 ships fully officered.

"Yet if it were practicable to encrease the company of those, that publish the word among them that dwell upon the waters, we know from the experience of God's blessing upon other spiritual labourers, as well as from the page of Revelation, that it would not return unto them void, or fail to prosper in the thing whereto it was sent.'

And why is it not practicable? There are many modes of providing for the religious instruction of seamen, both on foreign and home stations, which might be resorted to, even if it be impracticable to supply more than every fifth King's ship with a Chaplain and we will venture to offer a few suggestions to the point.

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Where there is a squadron, there might be a chaplain in the flag-ship at least, and the unwillingness of commanding officers to nominate chaplains, ought to be no reason for a neglect of their appointment on the part of the Admiralty.

Whenever the chaplain performs divine service on board his own ship, a signal might be made for the other vessels in company to send a proportion of their crews to attend, if wind, weather, and other contingencies permit.

The chaplain should be required to visit each ship in the squadron professionally, as often as circumstances will allow; and he should keep a log-book, or register of the number of times that duty has been performed on board his own ship, or that visits have been made to other ships.

When the weather or press of duty will not permit the chaplain to read prayers and preach on the sabbath day, he might summon the crew to hear the church service on some week day, when he can conveniently do so; that seven days may not elapse without this discharge of his public ministration, unless sufficient reason can be assigned to the contrary.

A chaplain should be supplied with sacramental vessels, and take care to administer the sacrament every quarter. There is no doubt that some of the crew would be disposed to communicate with him.

By a few regulations of this sort, a chaplain might render himself so useful to a whole squadron, as to supply that deficiency, which is now so much felt among the smaller ships of

war.

When ships are in home ports, and have no chaplain, provision might be made for empowering the commanding officers, to pay a parish minister for his occasional services on board, in cases where the crews have had no opportunity of receiving religious instruction for a stated period.

On foreign stations, wherever there are chaplains to factories, or clergymen who would be willing to officiate, ships unprovided with naval chaplains, might secure and have the benefit of their services, in the same manner.

A little attention on the part of the Board of Admiralty, to the obligation of affording seamen such means of receiving religious instruction as these at least; and to the necessity of put

ting naval chaplains upon a more comfortable and respectable footing, if they would render them more useful, would soon be followed, there is no doubt, by visibly good effects. We therefore strongly recommend Mr. Sumner's feeling and judicious observations on this latter head, to the most serious consideration of those who have it in their power, to promote so essentially, and by such unexceptionable means, the spiritual welfare of a large and important class of their fellow-creatures.

The Present Prosperous State of the Country. A Sermon preached before the Worshipful Company of Grocers, in the Parish Church of Allhallows Stayning, Mark Lane, on Friday, July 16, 1824. By the Rev. W. H. ROWLATT, A.M. Reader at the Temple and Domestic Chaplain to the Right Honourable Lord Gifford. 4to. 20pp. 1s. 6d. Rivingtons. 1824.

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NOTHING can more clearly display the true character of a Christian preacher, than his being placed in a situation in which he has to deliver his sentiments upon a subject foreign to the usual course of pulpit exercises; or in which he is bound to notice other topics than those of a spiritual nature. It is in the nice discrimination of appropriate arguments, and in the religious improvement of the most trivial circumstances, that the principles and talent of the Christian orator are especially called forth. He, whose mind is not only furnished with "things new and old," for the purpose of edification, but is imbued with a strong sense of the importance of his office, is never at a loss to turn to account his public opportunities of exciting salutary feelings in the breasts of others. Sound judgment and prevailing piety, will surmount all difficulties; and the most barren field for discussion, shall, in the hands of him who possesses them, become a pleasant and fruitful ground for theological inquiry and instructive discourse. The sermon to which we would now refer, is a proof that even on an occasion almost exclusively political and civil; such as the admission of three of His Majesty's Ministers into a civic corporation, much excellent advice may be given, and much cause for serious meditation pointed out.

Mr. Rowlatt begins by showing that to our own nation, above every other, his Text is applicable; for it was when the Royal Psalmist had before his eyes the happy prospect of a state of prosperity and peace that he exultingly and gratefully exclaims,

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