Ps. cxliii. 2: And enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.

"The whole verse is figurative; and the terms are borrowed from the forms and proceedings of a court of criminal justice. I remind you of this circumstance, because such language is often to be met with in both the Old Testament and the New, and because it is much overlooked or not rightly understood. We find it particularly in the Book of Job, many passages in which, together with the plan and object of the poem throughout, receive explanation from this use of judicial images and phrases. In the Epistles of Paul also, and chiefly in his letter to the Romans, the peculiarity is of frequent occurrence, and should be interpreted neither literally on the one hand, nor as a merely ornamental way of writing on the other. God in addressing Himself to us by His inspired servants, employs words suited to our comprehension, and on account of their being familiar, fitted to impress our hearts; God condescendingly speaks to man in the style of man, nor refrains from keeping in view our weakness, usages and habits. At the same time, it would be most erroneous to believe that He is entirely such an one as ourselves, and to forget His all-perfect nature, while we are ascribing to him human offices and relations. Is He, for example, a Lawgiver and a Judge? Let us call to mind that no mortal infirmities are mixed with the characters which He thus sustains; no partialities, no ignorance, no want of watchfulness, care and penetration; above all, no mean selfishness and jealousies, no wayward passions, no personally vindictive feelings. Still even so contemplated, He remains not less truly our Judge and Legislator; and our faith in His consummate excellence, both natural and moral, does but the more fully persuade us of the infinite distance between Him and men, and heightens the solemnity of the prayer, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.""-Pp. 101-103.

The sermon closes with the following statement:

"A church in one of the Midland counties has a monument bearing an inscription, which, in deference to the earnest request of the deceased,' a man of signal accomplishments and worth, is confined to name, date, and these words-Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O LORD.””*

Sermon IX. is entitled, "The Gracious Character of Christ an Encouragement to Prayer." Would that this discourse could be read by those who have been led to believe that Unitarianism slights the Saviour and is unfavourable to piety!

Sermon X. is a comprehensive plea, on Christian grounds, for Mental Cultivation.

Sermon XI., on "The Rule of Christian Faith and Union," is a spirited assertion of true Protestant principles. It would make a good tract for the times-rebuking with equal force of argument those that would violate the right of private judgment, and those who morbidly suppress the convictions of their understandings in the vain hope of producing something like an uniformity of Christian profession. closing sentences are pregnant with truth:

The

"Definite convictions of Christian truth are attainable; and these may be avowed in entire accordance with the exercise of Christian love. Indeed, Christian love is but an empty name, unless it be joined with moral integrity and courage. The great point should be, to renounce those distinctive titles which are taken from human leaders, not to stifle the sympathies which must

"See Wordsworth's Poems, V. 325. The individual alluded to was the late Sir G. H. Beaumont, in whose grounds stands the parish church."

always exist among well-instructed and upright worshipers, and still less to shrink from being ranked under an obnoxious yet really honourable denomination."-P. 152.

Sermon XII. contains a plain and faithful statement of the "Obstacles to the Efficacy of Religious Instruction." The discourse which follows depicts the tyranny of Sinful Habits.

Sermon XIV. is marked by careful discrimination, and treats on a subject (Sinful Anger), in discussing which the lack of this quality has sometimes put Christian moralists in undesirable contradiction to human nature and its noblest exposition, the example of Jesus Christ.

In Sermon XV., Vainglory is exposed by being contrasted with Christ's humble spirit. Incidentally, the preacher (p. 204) remarks on the profound silence which the Scriptures maintain concerning the supposed descent of Christ from some former and higher state, to wear for a time the human nature and make his abode with men.

Sermon XVI. contains a brief explanation of the Parable of the Unjust Steward, similar to that previously given in the author's Notes and Comments (pp. 204—207). While we agree with Mr. Kentish in the opinion that the capital duty enforced by the parable is the wise application of wealth, we find it less easy to assent to the view of the parable contained in the following passage: We are certain that the steward's dishonesty cannot be and was not the subject of praise, but only the skill, the address with which, on his being deprived of his office, he secured the gratitude and good offices of his lord's tenants" (p. 215). To our minds, this view presents a serious difficulty. There scarcely seems in it that happy adaptation of the character to the moral, and of the incidents to the character, which is so apparent in the other parables of our Lord. According to this explanation, the master of the unjust steward commends the wisdom of a fraud which is no sooner committed than it is detected and exposed. The key which to our understanding best unlocks the difficulty of this parable, is that furnished by Dr. Samuel Clarke.* He supposes that in the final act of the steward there was no dishonesty whatever; that instead of being an act of fraud and robbery, it was one of liberality and generosity; and that by engaging the tenants to write down lower sums than they owed, he intended to take upon himself the difference, and to answer for it in his settlement with his lord. This hypothesis received the approbation of Mr. Bulkley, in his able discourse upon the parable.

There follow, in Sermons XVII. and XVIII., expositions of the Parables of the Barren Fig-tree and the Kind Samaritan, with which we unreservedly agree. In the application of the former parable to the fate of guilty individuals and guilty nations, the preacher rises to true eloquence. We extract only the latter portion:

66

History proclaims aloud the righteousness of the Divine Administration, and points out distinctly, in the fates of communities, the intimate connection of sin with wretchedness, of profligacy with decay and ruin. Let thy doom, proud Babylon, attest this truth; and thine, imperial Rome, once the mistress of the world, and now among the lowest of the people! Most of all, let the daughter of Sion, an outcast and wanderer from her once-favoured habitation, declare that wickedness is the overthrow of a nation. Alas! all that pass by

* Sermons, 8vo, Vol. III. § ix. pp. 284, 285.

clap their hands at thee, daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth ?"-P. 234.

The Sermon on the Kind Samaritan pointedly rebukes national antipathies; and a note informs us that the "discourse was first written and preached during the war with France, 1794." What a happy change has half a century made in the national temper! If, as we suppose, this sermon was preached during the height of the war, in a town profiting so largely as Plymouth then did by it, it is a pleasing instance of the exercise by the preacher of true Christian courage.

The four Sermons which follow (XIX.-XXII.), are judicious and earnest specimens of what are frequently called charity-sermons. The highest charity, the preacher shews by a variety of considerations, is that which is applied to the education of the poor. In Sermon XX., an error of translation is pointed out in reference to 2 Cor. viii. 5.

"I doubt whether the beginning of this fifth verse is generally understood. It gives me no pleasure to point out mistakes in our public translation of the Bible; because it is, for the most part, very admirable and excellent. However, when the meaning of passages which, in a practical view, are especially important, happens to have been lost sight of, it is our duty to place such texts before you in their proper light, or at least to make a humble and candid attempt towards rendering clear what at present is dark and questionable.

"This they did,' says our apostle, 'not as we hoped.' What! had he no hope that the Christians in Macedonia would assist those of Judea? Assuredly he had. In truth, they went beyond his hopes. They did much more than, considering their situation, could have been expected from them; and this is what Paul declares. He even lays before us the reason of their unlooked-for bounty. His language is—This they did, not merely as we hoped,' but more."-Pp. 267, 268.

Sermon XXII. is an instance of a very felicitous use of a text. From Is. lxv. 8, The new wine is found in the cluster; and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it,' the preacher discourses on "Advances in Men's Character and Happiness from Small Beginnings." In a single paragraph he justifies his use of the prophet's words:

"In the first blade which springs from the earth, the wise and pious observer sees 'the full corn in the ear,' and the earnest of an abundant harvest; in the earliest cluster, the coming vintage. He finds there already 'the new wine, and saith, Destroy it not'-welcome, cherish, protect it-' for a blessing is in it.' This single, uncorrupted cluster is a pledge of the rich and plenteous fruit, which maketh glad the heart of man."-P. 300.

Thus explained, the text is beautifully emblematic of the hopefulness with which the enlightened Christian surveys the youthful mind:

"Mark the infant mind as it comes from the hands of its Creator. It is then a pure and a good grape in the cluster; a blessing is in it. Neglected, perverted, it will soon decay and perish; whereas if you bestow due care upon it, nor kill it either by supineness or by fond indulgence-if it wither not under a chilling or a fervid sky-it is the promise of a copious vintage."

The pastor of the New-Meeting congregation, Birmingham, is entitled to mention it as a fact honourable to his flock, that their Sundayschool is nearly contemporary with the first establishment of these admirable institutions.

Sermon XXIII. is on "The Duty and the Means of Copying after Eminent Patterns of Christian Virtue," and very appropriately precedes

sermons on the character of Peter and Paul. The two latter discourses are remarkable illustrations of the aid which a nervous style will give to a condensed statement of the well-known facts of the Scripture history. Intermingled with the statement are some interesting explanations of Scripture language not always rightly understood.

Sermon XXVI., on "The Female Character," is one of the most pleasing and elegant in the whole volume. Readers who, like ourselves, are disposed to regret its brevity, will do well to carry the feelings which its perusal has excited to Sermon XXX., which describes and improves Jesus from the Cross committing his Mother to the care of the Beloved Disciple.

Most of the remaining discourses in the volume appear to have been suggested by funereal occasions, and are well adapted to soothe and heal the wounded spirits of surviving friends. The most striking of these more solemn addresses is that on Sudden Death (Sermon XXIX.). It was occasioned by the sudden death, in February 1821, of Dr. James Lindsay. It will be recollected that he expired almost instantaneously in Dr. Williams' Library, when attending and taking part in a meeting of the Ministers of the Three Denominations, convened to consider Mr. Brougham's Education Bill. Our final extract must be the passage in which reference is made to this event.

"The Christian soldier must be prepared to fall at his post; the servant of the Lord Jesus must be in a posture which shall enable him to welcome the season of his 'Master's return.' Then the event which, for a time, removes him from his dearest pursuits and friends, will be his eternal gain. If any man die very suddenly,' if he give up his breath while he is in the act of obeying that law of kindness which dwelt in his bosom and upon his lips, or while he is pleading the cause of that freedom which he eminently understood and loved, such an one dies in the very discharge of his duties equally with a Howard, who imbibes the fatal contagion, the progress of which he is endeavouring to arrest, or with the patriot leader who sacrifices his life in rolling back the tide of battle from his native shores. Nor can the spot where the Christian suddenly expires be to himself an object of concern. Still his end is peace, and his reward infinitely glorious."-Pp. 398, 399.

This interesting memorial of Mr. Kentish's pulpit labours, so much more valuable to his friends from being arranged by himself, has revived in our minds the wish that another venerable minister of our denomination, who for more than half a century has occupied and adorned the pulpit of Newcome Cappe, would gratify his pupils and friends by preparing for publication a similar volume of his discourses.

IMITATION.

NOTHING sifts and tries our tastes and our preferences better than the imitation of a stranger. There is no sharper polishing machine and grindstone for a genius than his apes. If every one of us saw running by his side his double, one who copied him in his talk, his gesticulations, his motions, his compliments, his bragging and his quarrellings, &c., by heaven! an exact repetition of our discords and our mistakes would make very different persons of us..... Princes are surrounded by courtiers who are the supernumerary copyists and mirrors of their individuality, and who strive to improve them by this slavish mimicry; but they seldom attain this good end, because the prince fancies that in morals, as in catoptrics, every object shews itself reversed.— JEAN PAUL.

MEMOIR OF THE LATE REV. ROBERT ASPLAND.

CHAPTER XXI.

Soon after the publication of the "Plea for Unitarian Dissenters," Mr. Aspland committed to the press "Three Sermons," two of which he had recently preached before several public societies. The subjects of these discourses were-I. The Unitarian Christian's Appeal to his Fellow-christians on the Christian Name. II. The Apostles' Creed concerning the One God and the Man Christ Jesus. III. The inseparable Connection between the Unity and the Benevolence of God. It would be wrong to conclude, from the controversial strain of a large portion of his occasional sermons, that he was indifferent to "the common faith of Christendom." The application of Christianity to the practical purposes of life formed the staple of his pulpit addresses. On suitable occasions, such as public lectures and the meetings of religious societies, he felt it to be a solemn duty to vindicate Christianity from corruption and abuse, believing as he did that while error existed in the world, controversy was the only means left of preserving or reviving truth. In the language of Dr. Disney,* he reminded those wellmeaning and candid persons who, having themselves attained to pure Christianity, dislike and discountenance controversy, that their aversion "is no other than their declaring their earnest desire to establish the end, while at the same time they inconsistently and peremptorily protest against the only means which can effect it."

Like the "Plea," the Sermons are illustrated by notes containing choice passages from some of the best English divines. The little volume found acceptance with the public, and when a second edition was called for, the author prefixed a reprint of a Sermon on Religious Liberty, which had been originally preached by him before the Western Unitarian Society in 1812.

When the Sermon on the Christian Name was first addressed to his own congregation, the appeal with which it concludes, urging Unitarian Christians to honour their profession by activity and zeal, was illustrated by the following narrative, which is valuable as a proof that the goodness of God, earnestly preached, will sometimes melt to repentance hearts that would be proof against the terrors of the Lord.

"I was yesterday called to attend the death-bed of an utter stranger, who wished to make a confession before he quitted the world, and I should leave off assured that this discourse had answered its end if I could convey to you the impression which the scene has made upon my own mind. The dying penitent had to confess no great crime, no habitual vice (God grant that in this respect your death-beds may be as easy as his !) but he wished to unburthen his mind of a painful sense of religious negligence. For years, he said, he had known the truth, but had lived as if he had never known it; serving Mammon more than God, and doing nothing for the promotion of that great cause for which Jesus laid down his life. He wished me to make use of his experience to warn the thoughtless, inactive professors of pure and undefiled religion, that there is no peace at the last but in the consciousness of having kept the faith, fought the good fight and finished a good course. Yet he acknowledged the unspeakable goodness of his heavenly Father, that he should now find comfort in those views of truth which he had so long slighted. The last time he mixed

See Memoirs of Dr. Sykes, p. 364.