To finish the ungrateful task of finding fault, we wish the little Poem called "Son Dayes," in Vaughan's Silex Scintillans, had been inserted, and that Milton's delightful Hymn, "Let us with a joyful mind,” had taken precedence of a far inferior specimen given. There are some pieces, however, which we always see with pleasure; "Gascoigne's Goodmorrow," homely and quaint as it is, is one of these. Who can resist the opening invitation?

"You that have spent the silent night In sleep and quiet rest,

And joy to see the cheerful light

That riseth in the east,

for a sort of prologue to a volume of selections of Christian devotional poetry in the English language, we cannot readily divine.

ART. VIII.-Genuine Christianity, or the Unitarian Doctrine briefly stated. By a Physician. 2nd ed. enlarged. 12mo. pp. 62. Falmouth, printed; Hunter, London.

THIS Physician, who is, we learn, a truly respectable practitioner in the West of England, has here furnished a very valuable tract for inquirers into the Unitarian doctrine. He writes with ability and temper; he discriminates correctly

-heart,

Come help me now to sing;

Each willing wight come bear a part
To praise the heav'nly King.”

R. Southwell's "Loss in Delayes" is another excellent piece; and in a higher strain of poetry there are Carew's two beautiful epitaphs (pp. 113, 114), and Quarles' Fifth Emblem.

"False world, thou ly'st: thou canst not lend

The least delight;

Thy favours cannot gain a friend,
They are so slight;

Thy morning pleasures make an end
To please at night:

Poor are the wants that thou supply'st,
And yet thou vaunt'st, and yet thou vy'st
With heav'n fond earth, thou boast'st,
false world, thou ly'st.

Thy babbling tongue tells golden tales
Of endless treasure;
Thy bounty offers easie sales

Of lasting pleasure :

Thou ask'st the conscience what she ails, And swear'st to ease her;

There's none can want where thou suppliest,

There's none can give where thou deniest;

Alas! fond world, thou boast'st-false world, thou lyest."

On the whole, no one who looks over Mr. Mitford's Collection can help lamenting that so good an idea as the compilation of a little volume of this sort, when the whole of English poetry is before him "where to choose," should be so completely thrown away. Of his own introductory poem it is impossible for us to say any thing, except that it is altogether either above or below our comprehension. Why Lempriere's Classical Dictionary is exhausted

he treats ; he explains the Scriptures with the skill of a well-read theological student; he exposes the unreasonableness of the popular scheme of divinity; and he asserts with firmness, and no small force of argument, the superior claims of the "Unitarian doctrine" to the rank and title of " Genuine Christianity." In one sentence he gives a definition, which we not only approve, but likewise wish our readers to understand that it is what we mean whenever in this work we use the term Unitarianism: "The great doctrine of ONe God the FATHER is the essence of Unitarianism: all Unitarians hold it, and all that hold it are Unitarians; Unitarians therefore, as a body, are not to be held answerable for any other opinion except this, unless in deed such opinion can be shewn necessarily to follow from this."-P. 13.

ART. IX. - Rural Lays. By Mary Ann Plomley. 12mo. PP. 128. Printed by Waters, and sold by Dobell, Cranbrook: Darton and Harvey, London. 1826.

IN these days of fastidious taste, we dare not promise the amiable author of this little unpretending volume that she will obtain poetical fame; but we can assure our readers that we have read the "Lays" with some gratification, and that from the spirit of filial piety dis"Dedication" and the played in the strain of simple, rational piety which runs through almost every poem, as well as on account of other considerations which make the publication interesting, we can recommend it to the patronage of such as are both able and willing to testify their sympathy with merit far retired from the public gaze.

REV. JOHN YATES.

JOHN YATES was born at Bolton-leMoors, Lancashire, November 10, 1755. When only six years old he lost his father, but this loss was supplied by the judicious cares of a most excellent mother, whose maiden name was Grundy, and who was a woman of sincere piety and of a very sound judgment. Of her he used often to speak, even to the close of his life, in terms of affectionate admiration; and he sometimes mentioned circumstances, from which it appears that in her were united in no common degree the qualities of steadiness and mildness. Thus were sown in his mind the seeds which afterwards produced the fruits of a life distinguished throughout its whole course by useful and vigorous activity.

During eight or nine years he was a pupil at the Free Grammar School of his native town, which has long enjoyed considerable reputation for classical instruction. In 1772, he became a student on the foundation in the Academy at Warrington, where he applied himself to his studies with exemplary diligence and great success, and where he formed, with many excellent individuals among his fellow - collegians, a friendship which continued through life, and contributed greatly to his enjoyment and advantage. His eminent abilities and merit as a student also procured him the friendship of the three tutors of the College, Dr. Aikin, Dr. Enfield and the Rev. George Walker. He often praised the candid and luminous manner of explaining all the principal questions in theology, morals and metaphysics, which distinguished the first of these most estimable instructors. The second of them, who was Lecturer on the Belles Lettres, joined with Mr. Yates and some other students in a system of regular exercises in elocution, and to the pains bestowed upon this attainment, under such guidance, we may in a great measure attribute the high degree of excellence which he afterwards displayed in reading and speaking from the pulpit. Mr. Walker, in the decline of life, publicly declared his early and long-continued attachment to Mr. Yates, in the dedication of his sermon, preached in 1805, on the death of Dr. Currie, which is inscribed "To the Rev. John Yates,

in testimony of a friendship, which, commencing with the relation of Tutor and Pupil, has continued to this hour, with an esteem and affection that have increased with his talents and his virtues.”

Before leaving the Academy, Mr. Yates preached with great acceptance at various country-places, and received several offers, which promised him an advantageous settlement. Among others, one of his fellow-students engaged to give him a living in the Church of England, if he would conform; but as he could not do this conscientiously, he without hesitation declined the proposal. At Newcastle, also, in Staffordshire, his services were so much admired, that the celebrated Mr. Wedgwood, the leading member of the congregation, made him very liberal offers, to induce him to settle in that town. But a field of far greater usefulness was presented to him, when, upon the removal of the Rev. Philip Taylor to Dublin, he was invited to undertake the pastoral charge of the Dissenting congregation in Kaye Street, Liverpool. At this time Dr. Enfield gave the following character of him in his recommendatory letter: "With a great share of good sense, a cultivated understanding, and a manly and just elocution, he unites a seriousness of temper and a desire of usefulness, seldom to be found in so young a person. His general behaviour is perfectly suitable to his profession. Through the whole course of his academical education he has pursued his studies with great assiduity and success, and merited in a high degree the esteem and affection of his tutors and friends. He possesses a steadiness of principle and solidity of character beyond his years, and to these more essential and valuable qualities, he adds an agreeable address and a pleasing mixture of modesty and politeness." After preaching in Kaye-Street Chapel, on probation, he was unanimously elected to the office of Minister, which office he continued to hold during 46 years.* His probationary sermons are upon practical

* Mr. Yates was ordained on the 1st October, 1777; Dr. Enfield preached the sermon, and Mr. Godwin, of Gateacre, delivered the charge. Both of these excellent compositions were published.

topics, but contain explicit statements of the writer's sentiments respecting the nature and design of Christianity. It appears that he believed at that time in the pre-existence of Christ; in all other respects these sermons contain the same doctrine which he afterwards preached. The learned Dr. Blomfield, now Bishop of Chester, has recently asserted of the class of Dissenting teachers to which Mr. Yates belonged, that they retained their situations by the most disingenuous artifices; and it is not unusual with many zealous defeaders of orthodoxy, both in the Church and out of it, to assert, that the ministers of Mr. Yates's age and denomination studiously concealed their obnoxious opinions, and by cautious insianations seduced their hearers into the reception of the errors which they had themselves embraced. But from Mr. Yates's numerous stock of manuscript sermons, from the recollection of his hearers, and from the uniform tenor of his private conversation, all who are able to judge will be ready to testify that he always expressed his sentiments with great freedom, and encouraged the same sincerity and love of truth in others. It was his practice to aid his flock in the pursuit of religious truth, and with manly eloquence to vindicate the great distinguishing principles of the party to which he belonged, the principles of the right and duty of free inquiry, and of the independence of Christianity upon the patronage of the civil power. The strain of his preaching was eminently practical, enforcing the duties of the warmest love to God, of the most extended benevolence to man; and although he never delivered any doctrines but those of Unitarianism, he rarely treated them expressly as polemical, because he thought such investigations more suitable to the closet than to the house of prayer.

Of the exemplary manner in which he dischaged his pastoral duties, the Rev. Wm. Shepherd, in the excellent and impressive sermon which he preached on the occasion of his death, thus speaks: "On this subject I appeal to the recollection of those of you who have listened with teachable minds to his religious instructions; and who have entered into the spirit of his devotional exercises, which were so rich, so copious, so fervent, and yet so chastened, the evident emanations of reverential awe and enlightened piety. I appeal to those whom he has so often visited in the time of their sickness and of their sorrow. I appeal to the rich, to whom he has pointed out objects worthy of their beneficent

aid; and to the poor, whom he has taught to adorn their station by the virtues of industry and honesty. I appeal to those whom he has admonished of error, as well as to those whom he has encouraged in the way of well-doing. Believe me, my friends, his heart was in his office. As he began his pastoral labours with zeal, with zeal he continued them. Sincere were the aspirations which he breathed for your welfare, as men and as Christians. Of him it may be truly said, that

"In his duty, prompt at every call, He watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all.'

"And as truly may it be said, that in the enjoyment of affluence, he lived not to himself. He was simple in his tastes, and strictly temperate in his pleasures. Selfishness was no ingredient in his character. He was fond of the cheerfulness of society, and his door was opened wide in hospitality. At his dwelling, those who had the slightest claim to his notice found a friendly welcome. Though he turned away in sorrow from irreclaimable profligacy and vice, he never turned away from misfortune. He saved the poor that cried, the needy, and him that had none to help him.' The mere bestowal of money is frequently the effort of irresolute indolence, to get rid of importunity; but to enter kindly, minutely and affectionately, as our friend did, into the concerns of others, demands the union of a discerning intellect and of a compassionate heart."

In the year 1779 he was married to Mrs. Bostock, the widow of Dr. Bostock, an eminent physician in Liverpool. Of this excellent lady it may be truly said that she passed her days in an entire devotion to her duty; as a wife, as a mother, as a friend, as a pious and humble Christian, as a liberal benefactor of the poor, she was most worthy of imitation. With her he passed nearly forty years of increasing satisfaction, and by her he had a numerous family, whom, together with Mrs. Yates's son by her former husband, (the present Dr. Bostock,) he educated with the greatest care. "He was," says Mr. Shepherd, exemplary in the discharge of the duties of domestic life. As a husband, he was affectionate; as a father, he was judiciously kind. Upon his children in their early days, he laid steadily, but gently, the hand of restraint; till by just degrces, as they increased in years, authority was relaxed into influence and influence was mellowed into confidence."

Some years after Mr. Yates's marriage his activity and usefulness were in a certain degree impeded by ill health, probably in consequence of severe application to his professional studies. From this circumstance he took into his family as a tutor, and also with a view to occasional assistance in the pulpit, the late Rev. Benjamin Davis, afterwards of Evesham. This gentleman was succeeded, on his removal to Walsall in Staffordshire, by the Rev. William Shepherd, now well known to the public, as deeply imbued with classical and polite literature, and as the intrepid asserter of civil and religious liberty.

In his friendships, indeed, Mr. Yates was peculiarly happy. The same kind and social disposition, and the same high character which had gained for him the love of his fellow-students at college, continued, wheresoever he went, to attract the regards of those who were most distinguished by their talents and their virtues. He considered himself fortunate in the very affectionate and confidential intercourse he enjoyed with Mr. Roscoe, Dr. Currie and Mr. Rathbone, so justly regarded as among the brightest ornaments of the town of Liverpool. With them he was accustomed to unite in every scheme conducive either to their own intellectual improvement or to the benefit of the public. With a view to the former of these objects, they (together with four other gentlemen) formed a society denominated from the number to which it was limited, the Octonian. It was a highly liberal and intellectual association. A topic previously agreed upon was made the subject of conversation, and sometimes a paper relative to it was read.

The delicacy of Mr. Yates's health made it necessary for him at a very early period of his ministerial services to quit his residence in town, and he finally removed to Toxteth Park. Here he spent the greater part of his life; and here he gratified that taste for the beauties of nature which was always one of the prominent features of his finely-constituted mind.

Nor did he content himself with merely admiring what was beautiful, he set himself sedulously to improve what he thought capable of greater excellenceand truly it may be said of him, "Nihil tetigit, quod non ornavit." A small dingle, celebrated in one of the earliest efforts of Mr. Roscoe's muse, the rough sides of which had, indeed, sometimes been explored by the prying gaze of the botanist, but which in general had at

tracted little regard, has in consequence of his liberality and discernment become the admiration and occasional resort of the neighbouring population. In this retirement after the discharge of his ministerial labours he loved to spend his leisure time amongst his family, regarding it as the means of contributing to their health, to their domestic union, to their virtuous recreation and to the cherishing of those tastes which, regulated by religious principle, confer a grace upon the character, while they give the purest pleasure to the heart. But he never suffered pleasures of this nature to interfere with his more important duties as a Christian minister; in these he placed his chief delight. In his attention to his congregation he was indefatigable, not as regarded his public services only, but also in his intercourse with them in private life. For a long series of years it was his almost daily practice to visit some one family amongst them, to study their interests, to encourage them in their difficulties, and urge them on in their laudable pursuits.

It

He was also ever active in promoting the education of the poor: with this view he built, principally at his own expense, in Harrington, a town adjoining Liverpool, a school in which about 450 poor children now receive instruction. The plan which he projected well deserves attention. He was uniformly desirous that all sects should join in schemes for the education of the poor, but he lamented that, in the endeavour to secure union, the inculcation of religious principles is liable to be neglected. was his intention that in the Harrington school, which is supported by voluntary contributions, moral and religious instruction in those fundamental principles on which all Christians are agreed, should be a primary object, and that besides religious exercises on the other days of the week, the children should on the Lord's-day be conducted in the morning to their own places of worship, and meet in the afternoon in the school, to join in singing, in praying and in hearing instructions suited to their tender capacities. With a view to this object, he compiled and published, in 1817, a small volume of Hymns for the Social Worship of Children, in the preface to which he has admirably unfolded the principal design of the school, and to which Mr. Roscoe and some others of his friends with great kindness contributed by original compositions.

The various associations either for charitable or scientific purposes, by which

the town of Liverpool has been so honourably distinguished, always found in Mr. Yates a warm, judicious and liberal coadjutor. He was among the earliest Contributors to the London Unitarian Society, and to the Manchester New College, and the exertions which he made very recently on behalf of the Widows' Fund in Lancashire, and in which he was eminently successful, are fresh in the recollection of his brethren in the ministry.

The African Slave Trade, principally carried on from the port of Liverpool, could not fail to engage very deeply the thoughts and feelings of a man and a minister such as Mr. Yates. Upon this subject he always spoke as became a Christian patriot and philanthropist. But he was not satisfied with the expression of his sentiments in private conversation. In January, 1788, he preached an eloquent and argumentative discourse apon the inconsistency of the traffic in slaves with the rights of humanity and with the principles of the gospel. This measure excited the violent and disdainful anger of many of Mr. Yates's townsmen, and by taking this step he incurred the risk of estranging some of the leading members of his own congregation. Some individuals, however, aware of the conscientious motives which alone prompted his language and conduct, requested a transcript of the sermon, with a view to the serious examination of his arguments, and were induced to relinquish that lucrative, though iniquitous traffic. The transcript in question seems to have been widely circulated, as it fell into the hands of the late Dr. Kippis, who spoke of it in terms of high admiration, observing that the preaching of it in Liverpool was an indication of moral courage, and of a sense of duty highly creditable to the writer.

He

Mr. Yates's assiduous attention to his pastoral duties and his increasing acceptableness as a preacher, induced his congregation to erect a larger place of worship, the present commodious and elegant chapel in Paradise Street. preached at the opening of this place to a crowded audience, on Sunday, September 11, 1791. In his sermon he insisted upon the great practical purposes of religious associations, and he endeavoured to communicate the temper of universal charity by pointing out to his flock some circumstances worthy of their imitation in the practices and modes of worship of all the principal denominations of Christians.

Through Mr. Yates's efforts, aided by

the friendly and landable zeal of his auditors, a charity-school for boys and girls was, in the course of a few years, attached to the Paradise-street Chapel; and in compliance with his advice, it was regularly attended by some of the young ladies and gentlemen of the congregation in the capacity of visitors, and rose to the highest degree of estimation with the public. Several persons, who in afterlife have attained to much respectability in society, have expressed in the highest terms of gratitude the sense of obligation which they entertained for the steady and effective system of instruction which was there pursued, and have themselves become annual subscribers to the school. In the year 1812, Mr. Yates judged it expedient to resign his ministerial charge; but his congregation were so warmly attached to him, and so desirous of the continuance of his services, that he agreed to continue them with the aid of a copastor, and his hearers made choice of the late amiable and eloquent Pendlebury Houghton, who was one of his earliest friends, having been his fellow-student at Warrington Academy. At length Mr. Yates and Mr. Houghton, as increasing years brought with them increased infirmity, simultaneously relinquished the pastoral office in the spring of 1823. The following entry in a book, which Mr. Yates kept as a record of the particulars of his public services, expresses his emotions on this termination of his ministerial duties: "April 20th. This was the first Sunday after I had resigned the office of Pastor of the Congregation at Paradise Street. A day of many serious and affecting recollections.” Soon after his resignation he received from the congregation a handsome piece of plate, as a mark of their gratitude for his long-continued services, and of their esteem for his private virtues.

In his latter years he was enabled to manifest his regard to his congregation and to promote their friendly intercourse in a way which gave them much pleasure. Persuaded that those who assemble under one roof to worship the same bountiful Parent, in the name of the benevolent Saviour of mankind, ought to regard one another as friends and brothers, he invited the members of his congregation, from the richest to the poorest individual, to meet in large parties at his house. There, in the tranquil summer evenings, they had opportunities of becoming more intimately acquainted with each other, of learning how they might render mutual services, and of cultivating their social affections under the influence of Chris