Art. XIII. LIST OF WORKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED.

A Sermon on the Reformation : Preached at the Church of the United Parishes of St. Andrew by the Wardrobe and St. Ann, Blackfriars. By the Rev. Isaac Saunders, A. M. Rector. Is. 64.

Journal and Writings of Miss Fanny Woodbury, the Friend and Correspondent of Mrs. Newell. Second Edition, greatly enlarged. 12mo.

A Sermon occasioned by the Death of the Rev. Robert Simpson, D.D. late Theological Tutor of Hoxton Academy. By Thomas Cloutt. 1s. 6d.

Heaven anticipated by the Righteous. A Sermon occasioned by the Death of the Rev. R. Simpson, D.D. and preached in Queen Street Chapel, Wolverhampton. By Thomas Scales. 1s.

The Triumph of Faith, in the Prospect and Crisis of Death: A Funeral Sermon occasioned by the decease of the Rev. R. Simpson, D. D. By George Clayton. 8vo. 1s. 6d.

A Sermon on the same Occasion. By John Leifchild. 8vo.

Observations on a Discourse delivered by Dr. Lant Carpenter, (A Unitarian) at Lewin's Mead, Bristol, Christmas Day, 1816, on the following passage in Isaiah." Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." By a Baptist Dissenter. Second Edition. Is.

ERRATA IN THE LAST NUMBER.

Page 23-line 2 from bottom-for discussion read depression.
63-line 10-dele anonymous.

***To explain this last Erratum, it is only necessary to mention, that a few copies of the Work reviewed, were sent to London, in which the Author's name did not appear. One of these copies was sent to us for Review. The Work was subsequently published with a new Title-page, which was copied by the Printer, and inadvertently affixed to the Article in which it is described as anonymous.

Page 23-Notice of the Third Centenary of the Reformation, there occurs an obvious error in the date of Wicliff's death. It should have been Dec. 31, 1387. Indeed the date of the year crept in through mistake, as the day of the month was all that it was intended to specify.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We are compelled to defer the notice of the Sermons on occasion of the Death of Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte, in continuation of the Article in the last Number, till our next; together with several Articles intended for the present Number.

THE

ECLECTIC REVIEW,

FOR MARCH, 1818.

1

Art. I. 1. Two Letters, addressed to a Young Clergyman, illustrative of his Clerical Duties in these Times of Innovation and Schism. With an Appendix, containing an Account of a recent Attempt to institute an Auxiliary to the British and Foreign Bible Society, in the Pa. rish of Midhurst. By Richard Lloyd, A.M. Vicar of St. Dunstan's in the West, London, and of Midhurst, &c. 8vo. pp. viii. 127.

1818.

2. Modern Policies, taken from Machiavel, Borgia, and other Choice Authors. By an Eye-Witness. 8vo. London, 1657. Reprinted, 1817.

3. A Defence of the Church Missionary Society against the Objections of the Rev. Josiah Thomas, M. A. Archdeacon of Bath. By Daniel Wilson, M. A. Minister of St. John's Chapel, Bedford-row. 'Twelfth Edition. 8vo. 1818.

IT

T is the prerogative of the Supreme Governor, to work by the instrumentality of contraries. Rarely has any thing been achieved for the good of mankind, which the opposition of the malignant or the mistaken, has not had a very principal share of service assigned it in bringing to pass. And we may trace the Divine Wisdom in this seeming law of his providence. In the present disordered condition of our nature, there is, we may believe, no possible plan of alleviating the moral evils of society, which would fail of rousing into full activity a host of logical combatants, whose fears, or prejudices, or obliquity of judgement, would prompt them to exert their ingenuity in proving, in a variety of plausible ways, that the designed good was no good, or that it was a bad thing to make things better. Was it not, therefore, the established tendency of these contrary efforts to subserve the purposes they are intended to frustrate, nothing short of miraculous interposition would be requisite, in order to the accomplishment of any beneficial design. Sometimes, the agency employed is almost purely evil; some "lying "spirit" is sent out to deceive the Lord's prophets; or, as was the case with regard to Balaam, the suborned agent of evil is VOL. IX. N.S.

R

made perforce to bless, instead of cursing Israel; or, as in the history of Joseph, the envy and treachery of brethren, become the means of their victim's future greatness. At other times, a more decent veil of plausible intention conceals the true character of the agency. Some Saul, with the learning, and pride, and blameless morals of a Pharisee, shall, through very zeal, turn persecutor; some high priest, full of jealousy for the honour of Moses and of God, shall detect blasphemy in the language of infallible truth; or grave philosophy, with infidel scorn, shall drive away the dreamer and his new doctrines, who brings to light the knowledge of the God it ignorantly worships. In all this, there is nothing to perplex the mind. We see agents acting strictly according to their nature, but acting in blind subordination to a higher law than that of their own wills; because "the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men," and thus the design of the Almighty appears manifest, in the vindication of his prerogative," that no flesh may glory in his "presence.' In the mean time, we are encouraged in the confidence, that the good we endeavour, shall by some means be accomplished, and we can look with unsolicitous calmness upon all the contention between the opposed energies of good and evil, knowing that the counsel of God it shall stand, in spite of human imbecility and perverseness.

66

But there is one circumstance sometimes attendant upon the progress of a good cause, which does a little perplex the mind. It is when we are doomed to view men whose characters are in many respects highly estimable, whose intentions appear to be upright, whose influence on Society has hitherto been exerted on the side of religion and virtue, enlisting in the ranks of the enemy, as the dupes of party and the tools of mischief. It is when we see such men occupying the foremost position in the confederacy of evil, with all the rashness of a recruit, and the zeal of a convert, while yet we know, that if they could see the cause they oppose in its real light, they would be the first to espouse it; when we see them, under this delusion, throwing away their character and their usefulness for a cockade and a sword, and are constrained to accept them as involuntary auxiliaries in the shape of enemies, when we should have rejoiced in their aid as acknowledged allies. Such a circumstance is, we say, perplexing, and it is to a high degree distressing. We feel for the man; we cannot but compassionate his mistake, and pity him under his task, and on account of the company into which he has fallen. We feel for him as we should for the poor knight-errant, who, with blindness scarcely less credible than the delusion under which we have known many men to labour, mistook a windmill for a giant, and ran a-tilt against its

sails. We feel for those whom his name, his talents, and his virtues may seduce to conclude, without examination, that the side he has espoused is the right one, and who finding him blamed, may volunteer their aid in what they mistake to be acting on the defensive. It is possible we may feel a few moments' anxiety about the immediate success of the cause itself, without being disturbed by any infidel fears as to its issue; but this will soon subside: a bad man in a bad cause is a dangerous enemy; but when a good man takes that side, although he may be equally sincere in his hostility, he generally exhibits a deficiency in policy; he is almost sure to expose himself.

If any object might claim to be regarded as above the reach of objection on the part of men bearing the name of Christians, and as redeeming, indeed, from exception, any and every means by which it is efficiently promoted, that object is the religious conversion and instruction of mankind. Two distinct plans of combined exertion having this for their sole object, ins vite at the present moment the attention and co-operation of every believer in Revelation. The one plan, by limiting itself to the simple unrestricted distribution of the Scriptures, a means concerning the necessity and excellence of which no disagreement can arise among Protestants, is adapted to conciliate universal support. The other plan renders necessary thie sepa rate prosecution of the same object, by distinct combinations of Christians, in consequence of its embracing means concerning which they differ. Both these plans have been assailed with equal virulence of opposition, and the warfare has of late assumed the aspect of a more than natural activity and insidiousness. The shafts of logic being well nigh spent or blunted, the fire-arms of invective or calumny have now been assumed by the enemies of Bible and Missionary Societies; and while some of their first assailants have had the prudence to retire from the field, or to assume the language of moderation, others are stepping forward to renew the contest in a style of attack perfectly novel and terrific. We have classed the pam phlets relating to the British and Foreign Bible Society, and those relating to the Church Missionary Society, together, not because there is any actual connexion between the Societies themselves, for indeed the plans of the two Institutions have scarcely any thing in common, except their final purpose, but because, as our readers are well aware, they have been associated as being alike the offspring of schism and fanaticism, as being supported by the same sect, and as bearing the same portentous aspect upon the interests of the Established Episcopacy.

I must say,' says the Rev. Richard Lloyd, that "the Church "Missionary Society for Africa and the East," whose proceedings in