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"A Brand plucked out of the Fire," from Zechariah iii. 2, is the title of our author's seventh discourse, and is divided into two sections: 1st, The sinner accused. 2d, The sinner vindicated. It gives Mr. Close an opportunity of displaying his views of election and reprobation; which accord, we need hardly add, with the doctrines of Calvin, on these vexatious disputes; and of which we shall here assume the privilege (for our limits warn us to be brief,) of saying NOTHING: but would rather pass on to the eighth sermon in the volume before us"The Efficacy of Prayer," from Jeremiah xxxiii. 3. "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." Here our preacher considers-1st, The gracious invitation to prayer; and, 2d, The exceeding precious promises annexed to it. We willingly adorn our pages with an extract from this beautiful sermon, with which, indeed, it concludes.

Let us all, who profess to cultivate the duty of prayer, consider well the character of our devotions. May it not justly be feared that the prayers of many who maintain a character for true piety, are lamentably cold, formal, infrequent, and unbelieving? And may not this be the true cause why the blessings of the text are so rarely enjoyed? But it may be asked, how are we to kindle in our heart the spirit of prayer? We reply, How do the painter and the poet imbibe the spirit of their respective arts, but by studying the sublime scenery of nature, and gazing upon the objects which they would pourtray or describe? How then shall our devotion be animated but by more intense and frequent contemplation of the object of our worship.-Pp. 150, 151.

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The ninth sermon, from Isaiah ii. 22, on "False Confidence," affords us no particular topic of remark; we pass, therefore, to the tenth, "The Bow in the Cloud," from Gen. ix. 16, of which we confess that, to our sober tastes, it is too fanciful, where it is attempted to make the rainbow a figure of God's covenant with his own elect people in Christ Jesus." But we have already very far exceeded the limits usually assigned in our pages to works like the one under review. We must, therefore, content ourselves, as we hope we shall satisfy our readers, to whom we have thus given ample specimens of the matter and the style of the minister of Cheltenham, with stating that the remainder of the volume, which contains altogether twenty-five sermons,consists of discourses upon "The Path of the Just," "The Fountain of Life forsaken," "The Celestial City," "The Christian Passover," "Christ Stilling the Tempest," "The Universal Obligation of the Sabbath," "Twofold Sorrow," "The "" Grieving Heavenly Mansions," "The Influence of Satan resisted," " the Holy Spirit," "The Sympathy of Christ," " The Acceptable Offering," "Domestic Religious Education," "Conformity with Christ," and " The Present State and Future Prospects of the Church."

Our readers will judge from this criticism of the character of Mr. Close's Miscellaneous Sermons, and see clearly to what school the pious author belongs. Sorry we are to have felt the necessity of animadvert

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ing with such freedom upon the work of so zealous a minister of our Church; but" to drive away all erroneous and unsound doctrine,” and to check, as far as possible, the growth of opinions hostile to the fair character of Christianity, is a paramount obligation peculiarly incumbent upon us in these days, when our revealed religion suffers as much from the injudicious comments of her friends as from the open assaults of her enemies.

There is, indeed, nothing new in the volume before us; and the tenets, to which we have thus promptly objected, have been a thousand times refuted; yet their repetition from Mr. Close seems to call for a renewed demurrer on our parts, whose office it is "to beat down, as they revive, the hydra heads of sophistry; to eradicate those weeds of error, which aspire to wreathe their poisonous tendrils round the fairest pillars of the sanctuary, and to chase those obscene birds of darkness and rapine, which, from time to time, return to scream and nestle in the shadow of the altar of God."* The spirit, moreover, of Mr. Close's book seemed to justify some severity of remark; in which, therefore, we have indulged, endeavouring, at the same time, to preserve ourselves from every approach to uncharitable or excessive asperity.

We had intended to add somewhat upon the ascetic tone of these sermons; but our contracted limits forbid an excursion into so wide a field. "Innocent pleasures are among the means which God has ordained to preserve the heart in its proper tone, and to restore the mind to its equilibrium when overcharged with business and care." He, then, who lifts up his voice against amusements in general, opposes a benevolent ordinance of God, and lays a yoke upon the neck of his creatures, which makes religion unnecessarily distasteful to men, and clothes her in a garb of repulsive deformity not her own. Upon the disputable point of what is innocent relaxation, it is a great error to attempt" to fix a definitive limit," says the judicious Prelate from whom we have made the quotation above," of universal obligation." "It is," he continues," a false severity to confound things indifferent in themselves with things wrong in themselves. Nor is it just, or practically useful, to inveigh in general terms against public assemblies and amusements sanctioned by society, as if all toleration of them were positive evidence of a worldly spirit, and a heart alienated from God. Indeed, in the present condition of society, such a mode of preaching can scarcely fail to divide the congregation into two parties, both very deficient in that candour, which is the brightest ornament of the Christian's crown, and in that moderation, which is most able to diffuse the influence of his religion."+

*Heber's Bampton Lectures, p. 16.

Sumner's Apostol. Preaching, p. 294.

Ibid. p. 300.

Against these prudent cautions, Mr. Close perpetually sins, by his violent and indiscriminate philippics against what men as pious as himself have esteemed innocent recreations, as if an abhorrence of amusements were the one test of religious character, and sourness were sanctity! Against this morose spirit we enter our protest, and have availed ourselves of the language and sentiments of a Prelate, to which more attention will be paid, and that justly, than to any words or opinions proceeding from ourselves.

ART. II.-1. Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion. With Notes and Illustrations, by the Editor of "Captain Rock's Memoirs." London: Longman & Co. Second Edition, 1833. 2 vols. 12mo. Pp. 335, 354.

2.

3.

4.

Guide to an Irish Gentleman in his Search for a Religion. By the Rev. MORTIMER O'SULLIVAN, A.M. Rector of Killyman. Dublin: Curry. London: Simpkin and Marshall. 1833. Pp. viii. 348.

Reply to the Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion; in Six Letters, addressed to the Editor of the British Magazine, and re-printed from that Work. By PHILALETHES CANTABRIGIENSIS. London: Rivingtons. 1834. Pp. 171.

Second Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion. With Notes and Illustrations, not by the Editor of "Captain Rock's Memoirs." 2 vols. Dublin: Milliken. London: Fellowes.

(Concluded from p. 535.)

We now propose to conclude our observations on the works enumerated above. The Irish Gentleman's second volume is principally occupied with the Reformation. On the first four chapters we shall say nothing, as our readers will probably be satisfied with the table of contents as set down by their author, and which we extract accordingly:

CHAP. I.-Brief recapitulation.-Secret out at last.-Love affair.-Walks by the river." Knowing the Lord."-Cupid and Calvin. CHAP. II.-Rector of Ballymudragget.-New form of shovel.-Tender scene in the shrubbery.— Moment of bewilderment.-Catholic Emancipation Bill carried.-Correspondence with Miss * *. CHAP. III.-Miss's knowledge of the Fathers.— Translation for her Album from St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, St. Gregory, and St. Jerome.-Tender love-poem from St. Basil. CHAP. IV.-Difficulties of my present position.-Lord Farnham's Protestants.-Ballinasloe Christians.-Pious letter from Miss * -Suggests that I should go to Germany.-Resolution to take her advice.-- Vol. II. p. iii.

Such is the style in which a papist thinks fit to conduct a controversy on the result of which he believes the eternal welfare of every reader's soul to depend!

If "he that uttereth slander is a fool,"* as we are instructed by an authority little known or regarded by the Irish Gentleman, his second volume is no homage to wisdom. It is well designated by Philalethes "a sort of scandalous chronicle." Every anecdote, whether probable or dubious, that ever was circulated against the Reformers, has found a nook in this choice repository. We regret that the narrowness of our limits absolutely compels us to omit the burning eloquence with with this traducer of piety has been castigated by Mr. O'Sullivan: whose apology for Luther is splendid, while, with the shield of truth, he retorts upon Popery the arrows, tinged with her own dragon gall, which she had levelled at Protestantism and Protestants. The Popish champion does not seem aware that there is a mode of conducting controversial combat without bespattering your adversary with dirt; and, moreover, that blackening your opponent does not whiten yourself. Grant that the great leaders of the Protestant Reformation were all that calumny itself would represent them—what has this, after all, to do with the question? Is the Bible, or the Pope, the arbiter of faith and practice? We do not acknowledge Luther, or Calvin, or Melanchthon, or Zuingli, as the rule of our faith; but we thank them for proving so clearly what is the rule; we thank them for achieving our liberty to walk by that rule; further than this, their character affects us not. They have won for us the Scriptures, and thankfully we receive the prize. But it might be supposed from the cool audacity with which papists calumniate the Reformation, that Rome was immaculate as well as infallible-that the names of Hildebrand, of Borgia— of La Rovere of Medici-had never been heard! And truly it would be not less ungenerous than illogical to produce such characters as evidence of the falsehood of Romanism, did not Rome herself consider them infallible, and even direct her followers to seek the Divine mercy through their mediation! The youthful Irishman himself, unquestionably pure as he is, and trained to cast even his softest thoughts in the saintly mould of Gregories and Basils, would not, we presume, be contented that the cause of his religion should rest on no other foundation than the unexceptionable purity and perfection of his life; nor shall we think of mingling the questions, until the period (distant may it be!) when his labours shall have earned for him a corner in the calendar. Then, and not before, may we perhaps inquire into the merits of a church which delegates the presentation of her prayers to the advocacy of "Little St. Thomas Apostle."

It is not then to defend the foreign or British reformers, who are the objects of our Traveller's fury, that we would expend one drop of our ink. The task is better suited to other pages, nor is it in the

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smallest degree necessary to the controversy. The Reformers were men-men bred in Popery-and human nature and perverted education are things which do not ordinarily generate perfection. Popes too are men, and if their friends would allow them to be fallible men, we would readily grant that the vices of individuals could no more disprove transubstantiation than they could prove it. We will not therefore enter into recriminatory details, for which materials are not wanting, did we choose to revolt our readers' taste and our own. But it may be useful, by a few select specimens of his statements, to shew how far the Irish Gentleman may be relied on as an authority. This, it is true, is somewhat supererogatory now; but the work cannot really be executed too effectually.

Our author very rarely deals in reference. He is therefore able, like a country gossip, to perpetrate a great deal of calumny with considerable difficulty of detection.* Sometimes, however, he ventures to refer his reader-or, at least, to afford his reader an opportunity of examining his statements-with what advantage to his cause, a few instances will easily shew.

He [Luther] was detected, by Staphylus, Emser, and others, in still further frauds on the text of the New Testament, and for the same party purpose. Thus, in the 6th verse of the Epistle of St. Paul to Philemon, he omitted the word "work" after the epithet "good," notwithstanding that this word was, as these critics assert, in the famous Complutensian edition as well as in the old editions, in Latin, of Robert Stephen. Vol. II. pp. 134, 135, note.

Now, what is the fact in regard to this word "work"? If Luther "omitted" it, he did but what all the Greek MSS. ever collated, eleven only excepted, have done. Of these eleven, nine are so inconsiderable that Griesbach thinks it not worth while to specify them. The Complutensian edition we have not at present the opportunity of consulting, but every printed copy of the Greek Testament we have seen "omits" this word-and there is very sufficient reason to account for the non-omission on the part of the Complutensian editor. But that a Romanist should bring the charge of falsifying and interpolating Scripture ! What authority is there for putting the Virgin Mary in the place of Christ in Gen. iii. 15? But we will recriminate no further.

The following charge is further brought against the same great malleus Papistarum, who, of course, is a conspicuous mark for the spleen of the Traveller.

In his work, de Servo Arbitrio, Luther declares expressly that "God works

* Thus a very offensive passage is said to have been written by Luther "in commenting on Gen. xxii." The quotation is, in all probability, garbled from some real words of Luther, but no further reference is given, nor is any commentary on Genesis to be found in Luther's published works. It is said that Luther interpolated Rom. iii. 28; but no reference again appears.

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