shall they arise; awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of the herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead." "By the mouth of the prophet Hosea———"

But we must stop; it is impossible to pursue the matter further with any justice to the author; for the whole Sermon cannot be transcribed; and our object in the present extracts is merely to shew, that upon subjects the most common to the pulpit, the language of the learned professor has in it feeling, energy, and fluency.

We must hasten to the second volume, which is entirely appropriated to the highest doctrines of Christianity, in Sermons for Easter, Whitsunday, Trinity Sunday, and Christmas. After the ninth Sermon, indeed, as we are told in a short advertisement," All that follow, with the exception of the last, relate to the doctrine of the Trinity generally, and particularly to the personality and offices of the Son and Holy Ghost, as set forth in the Nicene Creed," p. 131. And we think we may safely say, there are few Discourses extant, in which these sublime mysteries are treated in a more masterly manner. The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth Sermons in particular, on "The Son, the Creator and Ruler of the Worlds," on "The Word," and of "Christ in the Form of God," are exceedingly impressive. We shall select one of these Discourses, as a specimen of the learned Bishop's talents in the handling of such important points; and we shall fix on the fourteenth, it being almost a paraphrase of that extraordinary passage of Scripture the commencement of St. John's Gospel, i. 1—14. This section he divides into the following distinct parts, as subjects for discussion.

The person spoken of, who is Jesus Christ.

His pre-existence from all eternity.

The title bestowed on him, and the declarations concerning him, establishing his divinity.

The exercise of his Divine power in the creation of the world. The testimony to his incarnation.

His advent in the flesh.

His Divine glory and his exalted offices.

His reception in the world.

The blessings which he bestows.

The learned author observes, that the consideration of so many particulars in the compass of a single Discourse, must necessarily be brief. Nevertheless there is not one of them, on which he has not made some pertinent and important remark, not merely illustrative of the meaning of the Evangelists

as understood by ourselves, but in reply to the strange perversions of Socinians and Unitarians. We shall advert chiefly to that point, which is selected as the particular title of the Sermon itself, "The WORD."

"In this passage," (says the author, p. 208) "there is a person spoken of, and this person is Jesus Christ.

"It certainly would not occur to any reader of this passage of Scripture, who had not a favourite theory to support, that by the term translated the WORD, was denoted not a person, but merely an attribute of the Deity; his infinite wisdom, that perfection of reason which distinguishes the supreme and eternal cause of all things. And yet this opinion has been advanced by some of the opposers of Christ's divinity. They generally however admit, that by the Word, in the original, the Logos, is meant not an attribute of Deity, but a distinct person; and that this person is Jesus Christ. This construction is indeed the dictate of common sense; for the WORD is represented as existing, as possessing attributes, as performing operations. The Word was the 'Word was God; the Word 'was life;' by the Word 'all things were made;' the Word came into the world to his own;' flesh,' and dwelt among us.' These modes of expression prove that the Word was a person. And if a person, none deny that by the Word

was made

is meant Jesus Christ, of whom John came to bear witness, and to whom the Apostle obviously applies in this chapter, all that he has said of the Word.

"The Word then being a person, and this person Jesus Christ, we deduce from this passage the pre-existence of Christ from all eternity. For the Apostle says, In the beginning was the wORD.' The phrase ' in the beginning,' does sometimes denote the commencement of the ministry of Christ; as where it is said, Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not,' John vi. 64. But how unnatural and forced the Socinian construction, which considers the expression, In the beginning was,' as denoting, 'In the commencement of his ministry, or of the Gospel dispensation, Jesus Christ was.' Does not the Apostle, throughout the whole passage, speak of a time previously to the commencement of his ministry, when all things were made by him,' when the world was made by him,' when he came into the world.'

"It must be evident that the Apostle, who was a Jew, writing for the information of his countrymen, when he used a term known to them, would employ it in the sense in which they understood it. Now it is a fact, not admitting of dispute, and which has been established by reference to Jewish Commentators, that the title, the WORD,' was used by them to denote a divine person. They affirm of this word of the Lord, the titles, attributes, and acts, which they attribute to Jehovah, and consider him as the Messiah. The Evangelist St. John therefore, employing the same title, must have used it in the same

sense in which it was understood by the Jews: and therefore applying this term to Christ, he designed to establish his divinity.

"We see then the fallacy of the assertion made by the opponents of Christ's divinity, that the Evangelist borrowed this appellation, the Word,' from heathen writers. The Platonic school of philosophy, indeed, held a Trinity of persons in the Godhead, and styled the second person the Logos, or Word. But so far from the Evangelists having derived this appellation from the Platonic writers, it must be traced from them to that more ancient school, whence both they and the Evangelists derived its application-the school of the Jewish commentators; many of whom flourished before the age of Platonic philosophy. The mystery of the Trinity, and the divine Logos, or Word, did not arise from the mystical reveries of Platonism. It was the faith of the Old Testament, of the ancient Jewish church; and the Evangelist St. John, in applying to the Messias the term Logos, or Word, used a term well known to his countrymen, to denote a divine person, and that person the Messias."

"The incarnation of the WORD is another of those sublime truths set forth in this passage.'-' The Word was made flesh-incomprehensibly united to our whole nature, soul as well as body; flesh,' signifying by a figure which puts a part for the whole, our entire nature. Truly God, and not according to the Arian doctrine, God only in an inferior and subordinate sense, he became perfectly, and not according to the Apollinarian heresy, only in appearance, man. And man as well as God in intimate union; and not divided as the Nestorians maintained-and yet though both God and man in one person, the natures, though united, were yet not confounded; which was the Eutychian heresy. These were the heresies which, in the century immediately following the third century, assailed the truth which the Apostle declares concerning the incarnation of the Word; and against which the first four general councils of the Christian Church, with singular unanimity, maintained that doctrine which had been handed down from Apostles and Fathers, and which is embodied in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, and drawn out with great precision in the latter."

We must confess we are always glad when such allusions as the above are made to the ancient heresies, in explanation of our two supplementary creeds, if we may so call them, the Nicene and the Athanasian, for they can only be vindicated, as they should be, from the cavils of the profane, by such references to the pages of ecclesiastical history, with which we are disposed to think, such cavillers, though they generally speak and write upon the subject with the most bare-faced confidence, are very little acquainted. If any person were disposed to amuse an English populace, by turning into ridicule any ancient profane composition, they might very possibly succeed, if they were totally to keep out of sight the history of

the times, to which such composition might be said to bear a relation; and there is nothing of which we are more assured, than that that which is called the Athanasian Creed, has suffered in this way. The Nicene is secure from such attacks, though still dependent on the history of the times in which it was composed; but even the Athanasian is exceedingly intelligible to those who are well versed in the history of the Arian, Apollinarian, Sabellian, Nestorian, and Eutychian heresies; though for those who know nothing about the latter, it may be very easy to make it appear contradictory, and even ridículous; so easy indeed as to require no great share of wit or ingenuity quite the contrary-the caviller needs but a proper share of ignorance and impudence to obtain an apparent triumph over the orthodox; but an apparent triumph to those who make their appeal only to persons as ignorant and impudent as themselves, is as good as a real triumph. It is only the few, who are capable of treading in the steps of our very able transatlantic Bishop, that can properly appreciate the true merits of the case; he seems to understand the creeds as we understand them, having read what we have read, and knowing their precise history in regard to times and circumstances, as well as to the doctrines which they inculcate.

We wish our limits would allow us to transcribe the fine conclusion of the sermon we have taken in hand. But all the sermons are eloquent, even where they are learned, and though the points discussed are often such as might be expected almost to preclude the flights of genius.

We shall conclude with a short abstract of the contents, to be collected from the heads or titles of the several discourses, amounting in all to as many as fifty-five, independent of the very learned dissertation annexed, On the State of the Departed, &c. &c.

In the first volume there are thirty-two Discourses, adapted to the several Sundays, from Advent to Easter, including one, and certainly a very beautiful one, on the New Year, a topic which is in some sort resumed in the two next sermons, on the true Estimate, Shortness, and Uncertainty of the present Life. In these Discourses the Coming of the Messiah, the Time of his Appearance, the calling of the Gentiles, and all the subjects, that may be held to be connected with the festivals of the Advent and the Epiphany, are ably handled, as points of doctrine, which every Christian should "know and believe to his soul's health." The Lent Sermons, as might be expected, have more to do with the moral duties of man, the necessity of repentance, and dangerous neglect of the Gospel-call to that

VOL. II. NO. V.

A a

indispensable qualification of a true believer. The Passion and Resurrection occupy the last six Sermons in this volume, and are certainly upon a par with all that precede them.

The second volume resumes the subject of Easter, and continues the course of the Church festivals and holy seasons to Trinity Sunday. It will be easily comprehended, that though the learned author may have had sufficient opportunity to express his own opinions upon the leading doctrines and duties of Christianity, he may not have been able to go so largely into the discussion of certain controverted points, as a writer of his acuteness and research might desire, but we are almost tempted to say, that as far as he has gone, he has so fully satisfied our minds, as to make us conceive that every question has been thoroughly discussed. He has, we think, in these two very valuable volumes, done enough most effectually to wipe away the aspersions to which he alludes in his preface, and which cannot be renewed, with any propriety, while Bishop Hobart continues to support the character which the publication of these discourses must, we conceive, abundantly secure to him.

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mrs. Frances Sheridan. By Her Grand-daughter, ALICIA LEFANU, 8vo. Pp. 448. London. Whittaker.

1824.

It is notorious that, in this world, ill-luck is a very formidable affair; that nothing adheres more steadily to men, when it has once got hold of them; and that, like the gout, or the asthma, the paternal inheritance often descends to more than the third or the fourth generation. We all know the history of the Stuarts; and to this specimen of royal ill-fortune, the family of the Sheridans might form no inapt counterpart in humbler life. There actually seems to have been some curious destiny inflicted upon them, by which the whole race, in turn, should have prosperity within their grasp, and should with their eyes open, let it slip for ever.

The first public man of this very public family, William Sheridan, was a bishop, holding the united see of Kilmore and Ardagh in the time of Charles II. It might be presumed that he, at least, was safe; generals and statesmen may topple, but what ill wind can shake the solid tranquillity of the cathedral.