REVIEW.

Sermons delivered at Beresford Chapel, Walworth, by Edward Andrews, L. L. D. Author of " Lectures on the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity." Part 2, with Portrait. Palmer.

It is always a source of great pleasure to us to meet with truth in humble attire, but more especially is her appearance delightful, when represented without the unseemly appendages resulting from the rudeness of the hand that attempts her portraiture. Yet we must be allowed to state, that truth is increasingly attracting, when attired in habiliments more nearly resembling those in which she is described in the inspired volume. For though the simplicity of her appearance there, is so engaging to the spiritual apprehension, that the simple' may catch the beauty of her charms and be enamoured; her grandeur and glory are delineated with such majesty, that he only can fully appreciate the description whose mind the Lord the Spirit has illuminated and enlarged.

The happy union of an expanded intellect with a spiritual mind is eminently conspicuous in the composition of these sermons, which complete the promised series, and form an elegant volume. The worthy author enters deeply into the subjects on which he employs his powerful mind, and from each, successively furnishes the reader with new and important matter for profitable contemplation and instruction.

The sermons contained in this second part are on the following texts; Matt. xxvi. 36-39. with Luke xxii. 44. Isa. xxxviii. 16, 17. Isa. xlv. 8. Jer. iii. 4. 1 Kings xix. 9. Psalm lxi. 2. 2 Kings ii. 11. and Acts viii. 2. the latter discourse occasioned by the death of His Royal Highness the Duke of York.

Our first quotation, which will fully justify the opinion we have given of the work, is from Sermon VII. on the Sufferings of Christ.

“He fell on his face, and prayed.”—It was an act of adoration before the Eternal Father, as much as to say, I come to do thy will, O God,—and to restore that which I took not away. For it is only in the work of Christ, that the august Trinity receives its full adoration. It also declared the exhaustion of his human nature, as quite overcome. All the hierarchy of hell in this trying season was gathered against him: and he fell on his face, abandoned and overwhelmed. On other occasions there was something to attest his dignity:-Was he born in a stable?—a meteor streaming in the air, pointed out his resting-place. Was he laid in a manger?-the Oriental magi, as typical of the learned and the Gentile world, poured out their treasures at his feet, while a multitude of the heavenly host invaded the listening sky, and wooed the vigils of one world with the rapturous music of another: praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and good will towards men!" As a poor man, did he traverse the streets of Judea?—he commanded the waves to yield the tribute-money. Did he hear the cry concerning Lazarus, “Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and turned mine acquaintance into darkness?"—he went to the grave's

mouth and said effectually," Lazarus, come forth." Did he meet the mourning widow of Nain when the young man was carried out, and did a tear stand in his eye, when he witnessed the frenzied wretchedness that dimmed her's?-he gave back to her pallid shaking grasp the again warm hand of her enshrouded child. There were many circumstances of this kind, that broke in before, like a glittering star upon the bosom of midnight. But here there is nothing of which we can conceive as relieving his sorrow, unless, indeed, that an angel ministered unto him for a time. But where was the over-shadowing cloud that covered the mount of transfiguration? where the visitation of Moses and Elias, who spake to him of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem? Where the voice divine which said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him!" Where the canopy of mingled azure and gold, outvying the rainbow, and perhaps more splendid even than the scenery of Sinai, when dark clouds beneath only heightened the brilliancy of the dazzling light above, and when the breathless stillness of the Jewish multitude gave grander emphasis to the thunder and the clarion which announced the descending God? Oh, where, thou Prince of peace! where was the pomp,-the type,-the voice,— where the escaping flash that revealed the circumjacent heaven,-that told out the concealment of intolerable Deity? Oh, no! not one ray of glory broke in upon the scene!-and he fell on his face in an agony, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.-This was a night of wrestling, more mysterious and awful than that of the patriarch of old. Then did Christ wrestle for his Church's salvation, and though in the end successful, yet in the action he sank amazed, exhausted, abandoned; and soon afterwards uttered that piercing cry, "Eloi, Eloi, Lama, Sabachthani!"

From the applicatory remarks at the close of Sermon XI. we take a short extract, regretting that our confined columns will not allow more:-the subject-" What doest thou here, Elijah ?”

"Take this question spiritually, and apply it,

1. To the Bible. -"When you retire to read the bible, or on any occasion refer to the sacred volume, God says, "What doest thou here?" and happy is he who can say, I am reading of thy covenant: I come as a poor, ignorant, guilty sinner, to be instructed, to learn the way of salvation; or, if I have discovered it, to find some sweet promise to feed upon: something that will satiate my soul this day. I have hastened, perhaps you will say, out of the midst of my family, or my secular calling, for one moment, in order to find oil to pour upon the ruffled waters: something to calm my soul. Now, Lord, manifest thyself to me, as thou dost not unto the world. Blessed is the man who can take up the bible with these feelings: he is doing well; and "thus shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord."

2. To the Closet." When you retire thither for prayer, connected with which will generally be the reading of the scriptures, God says, "What doest thou here?" Christ says, poor sinner, what dost thou want here at my feet? God the Holy Spirit says, What is thy request? Your answer is, Lord, I want all thou hast to bestow: every blessing is precious; I cannot, I would not lose one. Father, reveal thine eternal love. Worthy Lamb of God, slain for sinners, I would be sprinkled with thy blood. Holy Spirit, awake as the north wind to stimulate, and come as the south to comfort me; and blow upon the drooping field, that the odours of faith, hope, and love, may ascend as a fragrant cloud, acceptable by Christ from the golden altar before the throne.

"What doest thou here?" I come, Lord, to tell out my sorrows, to confess my sins, to plead thy promises, to break through glittering ranks of angels, who crowd thy presence. I come with a trembling hand to lay my petition on the steps of thy throne; I must plead thy word. O send me not empty away!

"What doest thou here?" I come to break off the shackles that bind me to the earth; to remind myself of what I am, what I may be, and, I trust also, what I shall be;-to forget, in the visions of heaven, the troubles of time to snatch a coal from the altar of God to warm my frozen heart; and to illuminate my sometimes shadowed spirit.

"What doest thou here?" I come, Lord, to beg a better proof of my interest in thy eternal leve. O give me such a reviving, that a house of God may be set up in my soul, and that I may retire from the altar of mercy under a conviction that soon my prayer shall be exchanged for praise."

The consolations the spiritual receive under the ordinances of the Lord's house, and the happy effects produced, are admirably detailed in Sermon XII. of which we offer a specimen.

"Afflictions, in their first shock, have been known to incapacitate the mind for a time, even for the full enjoyment of public ordinances. The present is a state of great weakness: sometimes even a trifling circumstance will sting and discompose the mind; and Satan, on his part, never loses his opportunity to superadd certain accusations, and to bring in his never-failing auxiliary against us-guilt on the conscience, when he perceives that we are nearly disabled from sanctuary enjoyment. It is then we are truly overwhelmed; for to this we look forward throughout the week; and if the Bible be a sealed book, and the soul refuse to be comforted, even in the temple, we know not whither to look for consolation. Then are we indeed shut up, and cannot come forth: like Daniel astonied for many days; or in a state of stupor, like the disciples sleeping for sorow. It is, however, generally the case, that a child of God recovers soon from such a state of numbness and inanity; the warm atmosphere of the great congregation dissolves the ices which have gathered round the heart. Redeeming love; the praises of God; soul-shaking truths, and precious promises; all rush upon the spiritual mourner: and he sems almost to hear a voice, saying, that unmingled sorrow, and obstinate anguish, cannot exist long in the sacred confines of God's house.

"Let us always dread whatever would disturb our profitably hearing the word of life; let the temple of God be our joyous resort; and the sacred sabbath our soul's holiday: nor will we forget, that intermediate opportunities of visiting the sacred place, are often touched and burnished with a glow that seems between the distance, to connect one sabbath with another, in one perpetuated gleam of light."

We cannot withhold an introductory remark from Sermon XIII. on the removal of Elijah" by a whirlwind to heaven:" we believe the accusation contained in this extract to be well-founded. May some modern Diotrephes' be made to blush when detecting his own portrait-and may some faithful minister of Christ profit by the bold reproof!

"Many circumstances recorded concerning Elijah's removal will find a parallel in the history of the successive deaths of all the faithful ministers of Christ: not in the outward magnificence of his exit, be assured; for too frequently are useful and excellent preachers suffered to live in comparative, and to die in absolute, poverty. No race of men that ever lived upon earth in circumstances of accredited and received profession, were ever so wretchedly provided for in life, and so frequently abandoned if not insulted in its decline, as Evangelical ministers in the Non-Episcopacy of Great Britain. I know not what equipage many of them have to grace their last obsequies, but a widow worn out by innumerable mortifications, and broken-hearted children, for whom no adequate provision was or could be made by their father, who was, perhaps, during a long life of pastoral service, a gradual

victim to the meanness of some modern Diotrephes, and to his own mingled modesty and pride, an unrewarded scholar, an accomplished pauper!

"It may very well be said of the treasurers and secular managers of certain congregations, that their greatest fear is, that the minister's mind may become too easy on pecuniary affairs: they piously think that domestic wretchedness will improve his sermons; they have much in common with the Roman Catholics as to voluntary pains and mortifications, with this difference, that the popish laity practise penance themselves, but these worthy men only recommend it to their minister."

Exile at Immanuel's Royal Nursery and Academy, previous to entering the Armory and Field of Battle: intended for the comfort and edification of the Babes in the Church of Christ. An Allegory. By Thomas Upcraft, Manchester. Part the Second. SINCE the days of the inimitable BUNYAN, many have essayed the allegorical style, on spiritual subjects, exposing themselves to the just rebuke of well-regulated minds; while the greater number remain at an immeasurable remove from the perfection that good old divine attained. Mr. Upcraft displays much ingenuity in arranging the plan of his work, but its chief excellence consists in a scriptural and experimental relation of the work of grace on the heart, and in closely following the tried believer through the difficult windings of the thorny path by which he makes his way to the kingdom.

The title of part the first" the believer's law-trial, condemnation, and reprieve, or, the captive exile rescued out of the hands of the great assassin, by King Jehoshua,"-connected with that of the second part, now before us, furnishes a succinct idea of the author's design, which throughout is sustained with considerable ability and energy.

The following specimen, will, we trust, incline many to procure the work for their own edification.

"I take this opportunity of apprising the reader that the following remarks are chiefly intended for the comfort of babes in the church militant, and experience and observation afford ample proof that such an attempt is needful, seeing there are many precious souls who are the objects of Jehoshua's love, who possess scriptural evidences of a call by grace, and yet are daily the subjects of fear and bondage, arising from the suspicions they feel of being, but almost christians. Such mourners in Zion, for want of a train of experience and evidences of a change of heart being produced, often write bitter things against themselves, not knowing that the exercises of their minds are true proofs of their being born again.

66

Many there are who hear the precious doctrines of the gospel preached, who assent to the truth of the positions laid down, who love to hear the glorious Redeemer exalted and the sinner debased, who revere the victories of the cross and the triumphs of sovereign grace, and who readily admit of the present safety and future glorification of all the redeemed, and yet, after all, they place themselves in the society of hypocrites, with a mercenary Balaam, a covetous and deceitful Simon Magus, and a bloody and traitorous Judas, whose superficial knowledge was of no advantage to them in the solemn hour of death. To meet the condition of such readers, the writer has collected materials from his own experience and the word of life, and cast them in an allegorical form; and, while he is assiduous on one hand to

guard against hypocrisy and deceit, he is equally anxious on the other to embrace the feeblest of the Lord's called family, and to descend to the lowest evidences left on record by him who could not err. That great care, caution, and understanding are needful in executing such an important design the writer frankly confesses, and that the subject is too delicate and extensive for his circumscribed abilities he freely acknowledges; but being desirous to do his utmost he draws the bow at a venture, humbly confiding in that Almighty arm for wisdom and direction, without which the most refined and extensive talents are but as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Though fidelity has but few friends, yet it becomes an author to be faithful; to study the dictates of conscience, the import of revelation, and to consider himself under the inspection of heaven's immortal King; and to be little elated by the smiles of men, and as little affected by their censures."

Discourses designed as preparatory to the administration of the Lord's Supper; with several Sermons on various passages of scripture. By Samuel Eyles Pierce. New edition, corrected by the Author. -Palmer.

MANY years having elapsed since the first edition of these discourses was published, and the friends of the venerable author being desirous they might not be utterly lost, Mr. P. was solicited to examine and correct them for the present edition; this, though very infirm by age, he was enabled to accomplish, and they now appear enlarged and considerably improved.

Our opinion of the writings of Samuel Eyles Pierce has been frequently offered during the progress of the Spiritual Magazine, and requires not repetition; it will suffice that we recommend a perusal of the volume, and pray that it may be made an abundant blessing to the reader. The sermons on the Lord's supper abound with exceedingly useful and consolatory remarks, particularly directed to those who are distressed on the subject of approaching the table of the Lord; to such of our readers we believe they are calculated to become essentially advantageous.

Perceiving we have left ourselves no room for quotations, we trust the strong recommendation presented our friends will be a sufficient inducement for them to patronize the work.

A Voice from the Throne: being the substance of a Sermon, on the event of the Decease of His Royal Highness the Duke of York. By R. S. Fry.

"THIS sermon is published for the benefit of a distressed family, and the profits arising therefrom will be appropriated for that purpose," says the author-and in saying thus he offers the only recommendation to the purchase of his discourse. Should this notice have the effect of extending its sale, the purchaser will obtain, at least, the satisfaction of knowing he is aiding the cause of charity!