strength of conception, in treating, 1st, from Luke xxiv. 5, 6, the consolations and joys resulting from the resurrection of Jesus Christ; 2d, from Psa. cxviii. 24, the evidence to our religion, resulting from it; 3d, and very ably and methodically, from Acts iv. 33, the power of the testimony giving by the Apostles to the resurrection; 4th, from 1 Thess. iv. 14. the certainty of our resurrection, deducible from that of Jesus Christ. The latter thus opens from the text, "If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." “And do we not believe it? Who is this that cometh from' the tomb, 6 with dyed garments' from the bed of death? This that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? Is it not He whom we late ly attended to the crucifixion, and left fast bound in the fetters of death? Is it not the resurrection of Jesus which, this day, fills our bosoms with unusual joy, and does not the declaration of the event which we have heard, call it up to our remembrance, free from doubt? Yes. If our service this day, and the service of the whole Christian Church, be not all a mockery; if the testimony of witnesses, competent in number and character, to establish a fact, which fact they attested with their blood, may not be set aside by mere suppositions and sophisms; if we have not seen such a success of imposture, as is contrary to all the past experience of mankind; if all rules of evidence, and all grounds of belief, be not altogether arbitrary, and if the Almighty Governor of the world has not poured down his bless ing upon the work of a blasphemous deceiver, Jesus Christ who died upon the cross, according to the Scriptures, rose from the dead." Vol. II. pp. 12, 13. Of the third sermon of this compartment, we could present no adequate conception but by giving the whole, which we think a most consummate display of reasoning and appeal, on the nature of the testimony given by the Apostles to the resurrection. From the second, we think our readers will thank us for the following extract. “The worth of the resurrection, as an evidence of our religion, will appear still greater, if we consider it, as capa tances which the proud mind of man ble of removing the principal reluc may feel, at embracing the Christian faith. The doctrine of Christ crucified, is the doctrine which unbelievers find it most difficult to receive. No one can deny, that human nature is prone to vice, and that vice is intrinsically odious, It is seen and felt every where. No one can doubt the need which mankind knowledged in all ages. No one can have of an instructor. It has been acquestion the possibility of another state, and immortal life. Of these, the soul has a strong presage, and ardent desire. No one can disregard a proffer of par. his mercy and favour. It is what man don from his Creator, and overtures of has, every where, sought with trembling is something in the Almighty's laying hope, and soothing devices. But there something in the Son of God's enduring such sufferings upon an innocent being; all the abasements of humanity, and expiring in agonies upon a cross, at which infidel reason revolts. It is a hard saying; they cannot hear it.' This, however, is au uncandid way of judging of Christianity. It is to condemn a system, upon a view only of one of crucifixion, and disbelieve, without con its parts. To fix our thoughts upon the necting it with the resurrection, is, surely, an unfair examination of the Gospel. Would it be right, from a contemplation of the earth when the shades of night are spread over it, to without continuing our contemplation pronounce the world dark and gloomy, to the effulgent glory which is diffused by the rising of the sun? Every objec tion to the cross vauishes before the grandeur and felicity of the resurrec abased; his humiliations no longer se tion. The Son of God appears no longer vere or useless; the exactions of the Almighty from him, no longer incom patible with the most affectionate goodness, when we consider Christ Jesus, for the sufferings of death, thus 'crowned with glory and worship.' The Jews, not regarding the satisfactory testimony which the Lord had promised, exclaimed, while he hung upon the tree, If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross, and we will believe.' Had their obstinacy permitted them to have gone with the wonder-struck watch to his tomb, they would have found even stronger demonstration than that which God they demanded. But their eyes were blinded, that they should not see. grant that the film may soon be removed from their sight; and they enabled to confess, in the risen Saviour, a greater and more glorious Messiah than they have idly expected! But more deplorable blindness has existed in the Chris tian world. The deluded Paine, from whom thousands have received a cup of poison, deadly as the most depraved na. ture could compose, has, with insolent infidelity, averred, that the story of the crucifixion is too cruel and ridiculous to be told by Christians to their children! Had he humbly contemplated it, in its connection with the event, which millions of the best of his race are to-day commemorating, he might have thought it a story so full of compassion, wisdom, and sublimity, that angels might ponder it with admiration. He is passed to the place of his account; and far be it from us, my friends, to load his followers with epithets of opprobrium and male volence. Would Heaven, they might be led from the cross to the sepulchre of our Lord! and, beholding the seeming contemptibleness of the former, lost in the majesty of the latter, there render homage to Him, unto whom every knee shall' be compelled to bow;' and whom 'every tongue shall' one day confess to be Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The triumph of Christ over the awful monarch whose sceptre had, for ages, dealt destruction through the world; is sufficient to satisfy the doubts, and remove the reluctance of every mind. When, by means of death, he overcomes death, and destroys him who had the power of death, that is the devil; this fruit of the crucifixion commends it as the wisdom of God. The despised Nazarene,' the humiliated victim, is here declared the Son of God with power.' Amidst the glorious lustre of the resurrection, the cross no longer appears either a stumbling block,' or ⚫foolishness."" Vol. II. pp. 12, 13. From the following sermon for the Sunday after Easter, on "Ye are complete in him,' rendered doubly interesting by the text being the last he ever handled*, we "In his sermons be constantly presented to his hearers Jesus Christ, and him crucified.' His first sermon was from the text, I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ,' and his last from must treat our readers with the following passage. "As the resources of Jews and Greeks, furnish not the means of atonement and peace, how great is the Christian's happiness in having received, from bis Maker's bounty, the full price of redemption. His beloved Son,' hath offered in his own body upon the tree,' a sufficient propitiation for the sins of the world; and with the blood of the sacrifice, is passed into the heavens," there to appear' for ever in the presence of God for us.' Ye holy, and humble men, who are overwhelmed with the contemplation of the majesty, and holiness of Jehovah, behold, between him and you, a mighty Mediator, in whom God is reconciled unto yon, aud, for whose sake, ye are honourable and precious in his sight. Ye penitent of fenders, who are heavy laden with the consciousness of your sins, behold, in the blood of Christ, a fountain set open by the Almighty, in which you may wash and be clean. Washed in this purifying stream, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be like wool; though they be red like crimson, they shall be white as snow.' A persecuting Paul, and an inconstant Peter, a sinful Magdalen, and a crucified thief, have found it sufficient to take away the stains of their guilt; and whenever it is resorted to, with penitence and faith, the Everlasting Father hath declared that, it shall cleanse from all sin.' Faithful members of the church, who with all your faith and perseverance, are conscious of the smallness of your attain. ments; and when ye contemplate the joys, and honours, and riches of heaven, are read to ask, with exceeding meekness, shall all this glory be given unto us? Look at your Redeemer: Ye are complete in him who is the Head.' As members of his body, ye not only have fellowship in his sufferings, but, also, these words, We are complete in him.'" To which it is added, "He loved to dwell on the nature of the ordinances, on the characters of the saints commemorated by the church, and on the excellence of the Liturgy, so as to induce his people to value prayer, and the reading of the Scriptures more, aud sermons less. He thought that the best preaching was that of inspired men, and of our Lord himself, contained in the lessons read in the daily service."-Funeral Discourse, Vol. II. p. 477.“ participation in his resurrection. He In the two following sermons on the ASCENSION, from Heb. ix. 24. and ii. 9. respectively, the Bishop well carries on to completion the noble edifice of doctrine he had before constructed. ་ "Here let us pause," he exclaims in the second sermon," and reflect; what glory to the fallen nature of man, that the Eternal Son should assume it, even to dwell in it on earth, and say of its humble offspring, My brethren are these! How immeasurably great, then, its honour and advancement, when he is exalted in it to the right hand of the Father; angels, authorities, and powers, being made subject unto him!' Where are, now, the pitiful objections to the humiliation of the manger, and severity of the cross? Where is, now, the despised Nazarene, the scorned Teacher of strange doctrines, the unresisting Victim of malice and death? The ascension of Christ vindicates, perfects, crowns the Christian scheme: it is the top-stone which gives firmness and gran deur to the fabric, and displays the proportionate beauty of all its parts. The railings at the incarnation, and objections to the crucifixion, vanish: all is consistent, grand, and worthy of the Anthor. God is just, and humanity made happy, while we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour."" Vol. II. p. 57. The first of these two sermons excellently compares the entrance of the Jewish high priest into the holy of holies, with that of Jesus into heaven itself; in the course of which parallel it is remarked, "It belonged, exclusively, to the priests, under the Mosaic dispensation, to bless the people in behalf of God. And, doubtless, on the great day of atonement, they received joyfully that blessing, which, we may reasonably suppose, the high priest brought from the holy of holies, after he had made CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 246. expiation for their transgressions. In like manner, our High Priest hath received of the Father all gifts and blessings for his church. With the voice of his ministers, he dispenses to the penitent, assurances of the pardon of their sins. Visibly, with a rushing mighty sound, at first,-and in ' a still small voice' in the bosom since,-the Comforter, his most precious gift, comes down; to send whom, it was expedient that he should go away.' Mansions in the Father's house are given him, which he is preparing for the eternal accommodation of his friends. And the blessings which this adorable Priest and King of the redeemed shall bring for them, when he shall come in like manner as he went into heaven,' are represented to our minds, in the holy Scrip tures, by crowns of glory, palms of victory, and white robes of purity and peace." Vol. II. pp. 51, 52. A well-known quotation in the second sermon, from Young's Night Thoughts, in confirmation of the mixture of strange extremes in our condition, beginning, "How poor, how rich," &c. may lead to a conjecture that the writings of this poet were a favourite study with our author, who seems to have possessed a kindred spirit. The exuberance of imagination in that poet, conversant with the loftiest of sub jects, leaves an impression of grandeur and sublimity on the mind which is highly captivating, not to say seductive; seductive we mean, when, in a spirit of imitation, it leads a less exuberant imagination to tempt the bordering heights of bombast; and worse than seductive, should it ever satisfy an unsanctified heart with the comparatively cheap offering of gaudy acknowledgments, for the richer tribute of a subdued and surrendered soul. Perhaps it is against kindred dangers, that we should, without any imputation on the piety and purity of Bishop Dehon's ele vated soul, be inclined to warn some of his admiring, and, it may be, enraptured readers. The same richness of imagination and expression follows in the 3 D next four sermons on WHITSUN- in that of the sincere Christian. DAY; the first two from John iv. We must give only the conclusion. 14; the third from 1 Thess. v. 19; and the fourth from Acts ii. 33. In the third, the Bishop strenuously denies, as always, the doctrine of irresistible grace, and mentions various methods of quenching the Spirit. In the first, he as strongly maintains the necessity of Divine assistances for beginning or carrying forward the Christian life. "Man is now, what he ever has been, since the fall, a feeble being; ignorant by nature of his God, and duty; living, daily, in trespasses and sins, While he remains unenlightened by the communications from on bigh, darkness encompasses his mind. When this darkness is dispersed, and the points of true excellence are clearly revealed, to raise himself to them by his own strength, is not in his power. It is with anguish and humiliation that, in proof of this, I point you to the heathen sage; perceiving, admiring, celebrating the virtues which in the practice of life he abandons. It is with fear and trembling, that, for the same purpose, I point you to the arduous struggles, and the many defeats, by which the Christian, in endeavouring to maintain his heavenly course, is taught his dependence upon some superior strength. Man's moral powers are so weakened by corruption; his affections are so prone to evil; the holds which temptation has in him, are so numerous and so deep; his spiritual life is so far gone, that, in sacred language, he is represented, with awful emphasis, as dead while he liveth. And as soon may he raise himself from the iron slumbers of the tomb, to the life and glories of immortality, as rise, by his own strength, from the moral decay and corruption of his nature, to the purity, spirituality and holiness, of the new and eternal life." Vol. II. p. 69. We should willingly transcribe a longer and most eloquent passage at the close of the same sermon, tracing the effects of the Divine Spirit on " the noble army of martyrs," and "the goodly fellowship of the prophets;" and then contrasting the consequences of his absence from the heart of the unbeliever, with his full, though ordinary, operation hour, and behold him, meeting death "Approach the Christian in his fiual with such a holy and heavenly composure, as almost exhibits the saint made perfect' on this side heaven, and compels us to admire where we went to mourn. Is it in our feeble nature to rise to such majesty? Though reason may enable us to submit quietly to death, can she teach us to rejoice in it, to triumph over it with joy? Though nature may fill us with fear of God, and awful reverence, can she shed abroad such love of him in the heart? Though philosophy may teach us to be brave, disinterested, and generous, can she teach us to be humble? Can she enable us to be pure? No. In us, that is, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing.' The Christian finds in himself a new and wonderful creation. He is conscious, it is something which he did not, by his own power alone, [his own power alone produce. There is divinity in it. In the calm hour of contemplation, he surveys the operation in his mind; and, wrapping himself in his mantle, like Elijah listening to the still small voice,' perceives that it is the Spirit of God." Vol. II. p. 75. The worthy bishop, in his highest and warmest flights, does not forget his characteristic moderation of statement. those who, going fully with him in our present exhausted state as to It will be impossible for us, in room, to give any adequate idea of what follows in the remainder of the contents of which we regret to this volume, the consideration of have been obliged to cut thus short. We must content ourselves with remarking, that the two closing sermons of our second series, which relate to THE TRINITY, maintain the high character of preceding compositions. The one admirably limits and expounds the duty of contending for the faith ouce delivered to the saints: the other on the disputed text in St. John's Epistle, fully and strongly expounds the three points; "First, That the Godhead is one: "Secondly, That in this Unity of the Godhead, there is a Trinity of Persons; and, “Thirdly, That the Persons of the Trinity are co-equal and co-existent." Adding, "The illustration of these several points will be adduced, almost wholly, from Scripture; for I aver, that such is this mystery, as to leave it altogether improbable, perhaps impossible, that it should have been devised by the human mind; and that therefore we indulge our vanity, and our aversion to spiritual truth, when we look for the circumstances of it elsewhere than in the records of Divine revelation." Vol. II. p. 116. The keenness with which the argument is maintained may be conjectured from the following sen tence. "The enemies of the catholic faith evince, by their contradictions, its foundation in the Gospel; for Sabellius and Socinus were so convinced of the Divinity of the Spirit, that they made him the same person with the Father; and Arius and Macedonius were so satisfied with the distinction of the persons of the Three, that they considered the Word and Spirit as mere creatures." Vol. II. p. 122. The spirit in which it is maintained may equally be caught in the following paragraph. "But from the faith once deliver ed to the saints, there have been many departures. In the lapse of time since the coming of Christ, men have corrupt ed the truth, and multitudes are in the world, who hold not the form of sound words;' many of them, doubtless, through unavoidable ignorance, and in voluntary error. With what spirit are they to be considered? Are we to judge them severely, or to carry ourselves un kindly towards them? Should we, if we could, let loose the ministers of persecution, or call 'down fire from heaven' to destroy then? Ah, no. The religion of the Prince of Peace refuses the aid of passion and of force. It seeks not the salvation and happiness of men, in their misery and destruction. And they who, in any age, have had recourse to these means, what shall we say of them? Alas, they have not known what manner of spirit they were of!' That contention for the faith once delivered to the saints,' which the Gospel requires of us, is not conducted acceptably to its Author, unless the law of kindness be upon our tongues, and the feelings of charity in our bosoms. But, while the true Christian shrinks from a persecuting, he shrinks also from a prevaricating, spirit. Charity can never call him one way, while truth calls him another. Indeed, the highest charity he can confer on his fellow-men, is to use bis exertions in preserving the Gospel among them in its original purity, and promoting its blessed influences upon their hearts and lives. He abides, therefore, with zeal, by the ancient and unchangeable doctrines and institutions of the church. He manfully avows his belief in them. He asserts with meekness, yet with firmness, their authority and importance. He concedes not, under a mistaken notion of liberality, any ground to error, nor abates any thing of the high claims of truth. Yet he wishes the salvation of all men; and when he surveys the heresies and schisms which are in the world, his love for the faith once delivered to the saints,' as well as his desire that all men may find the mercy of the Lord Jesus unto eternal life, prompts, in his devotions, the ardent prayer, that it would please God to bring into the way of truth, all such as have erred, aud are deceived.'" Vol. II. pp. 109, 110. We could wish that every sermon of modern days, which professes to" contend earnestly for the faith ouce delivered to the saints," either proceeded in the spirit, or ended with the recommendation, of " ardent prayer" for those in error. Of the third series of sermons, which occupies the remainder of the volume from Sermon LV. to Sermon XC. it is impossible for heads. Of nine sermons on chaus to give even the outline or racters, those on St. Paul and St. John may be noticed as deserving commendation; the first |