formation has begun to shew itself in our prisons, it will not be difficult to find some person always ready to perform this pleasing office.

It would be very desirable to introduce Psalmody into prisons. Psalmody affords a species of social devotion, always agreeable, as well as salutary and instructive. "Paul and Silas sang praises to God in the prison; and the prisoners heard them," that is, heard them with delight, satisfaction, and improvement. A pious hymn, or psalm, may easily be committed to memory, and those who sing with the spirit, as well as with the understanding, will experience the supreme comfort of inward devotion:

The Liturgy of the Church of England, however excellent, is not altogether calculated for the use of prisons. Something more appropriate to the situation and condition of the prisoner is still wanted. But as the prayers of the Church abound in such a pure spirit of piety and animated devotion, many of them might be selected, and adapted, to this purpose, in a manner perhaps superior to any new compositions.

In case a system of religious instruction should be introduced into prisons on pure principles, would it not be attended with great advantage to adopt the ancient, and very beneficial duty, of catechising the old as well as young? I do not mean that all should be taught to repeat any catechetical form, but that the ignorant should be instructed by questions on the doctrines and duties of the Christian religion.

There are few books wholly appropriated to the use of prisons; but as all men are sinners, there are several suited to the condition of the prisoner. *

The titles, of some of both kinds, may be useful.

Rossell's Prisoner's Director.

Brewster's Sermons for Prisons; with Prayers for the Use of
Prisoners in solitary Confinement.

Bowen's Companion for the Prisoner: being a Selection of Ser-
mons, Exhortations, and other religious Instructions for the
Use of imprisoned Offenders.

Dodd's Thoughts in Prison.

A Form of Visitation for Prisoners.

A plain and serious Exhortation to Prisoners, both Debtors and
Criminals.

Kettlewell's Office for the Penitent; Trial of the Soul; and Office
for the troubled in Mind.

The great importance of a religious Life.

The Life of God in the Soul of Man.

Greene's Discourses on the Four Last Things; Death: Judgement: Heaven: Hell.

Bishop Wilson's 33 Sermons. 2 vols.

structed.

Instruction for the Indians.

on the Sacrament.

Principles and Duties of Christianity.

Maxims of Piety and of Christianity.

Stonehouse's Spiritual Directions for the Unin

Doddridge's Rise and Progress of a religious Life.

Family Expositor.

Wilberforce's practical View of the prevailing religious System of professing Christians.

Paine's Thomas a Kempis.

Whole Duty of Man.

New Whole Duty of Man.

Baxter's Saint's Everlasting Rest.

Baxter's Call to the Unconverted.

Law's Serious Call to a devout and holy Life.
Nelson's Practice of true Devotion.

The Nature and Guilt of Schism Considered, with a Particular Reference to the Principles of the Reformation; in Eight Sermons, preached before the University of Oxford, in the year 1807, at the Lecture, founded by the Rev. John Bampton, M. A. Canon of Salisbury. By Thomas Le Mesurier, M. A. Rector of Newton Longville, Bucks, and late Fellow of New College, Oxford. 8vo, Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme. London, 1808.

The whole of this work turns upon the nature and guilt of schism.

Schisms in the Church were absolutely foretold by Christ; these schisms have existed in all ages of Christianity, and to such an extent, that they may be esteemed, as Mr. Le Mesurier observes," producing effects more pernicious and lasting than even the cruelties and oppressions to which the Christian Faith was exposed during the earlier agès," when martyrdom was the price at which everlasting life was but too frequently purchased. So many and so various have been these schisms, that they have been the most formidable weapons with which Christianity has been attacked by its adversaries; these attacks, however, have been so repeatedly and so effectually repelled by various writers, that Mr. Le Mesurier did not conceive it necessary to join in the defence: his object was more immediately directed to the consideration of the actual existence of schism, to particularize the various modes which it had assumed, and above all, to inculcate the danger arising from its guilt.

Many as these schisms are and have been; it is no more to be inferred from thence that schism is not in itself a sin, than that the commission of crime should not be criminal because crime has existed in all ages and all nations; far otherwise! Mr. Le Mesurier considers schism to be, what it has always been represented by sound Divines to be, an evil of the greatest magnitude.

Still, however greatly we may admire the wisdom and the power of God, which can thus bring good out of evil: however firmly we may be persuaded that the existence of schism, far from operating as an excuse for rejecting the gospel, does in reality furnish the strongest arguments against infidelity, we must not suffer ourselves to be deluded into an idea, that it is a matter indifferent in itself, or not an evil of the greatest magnitude. Still less must we imagine, that it is an act against the commission of which we have no need to be guarded; or which, when committed, requires not to be deplored and repented of. We must regard it as, what in truth it is, what it has always in the church, until very late years, been taken to be, a very grievous sin. It is one, of which every congregation, as well as every individual, looked upon themselves as particularly concerned to stand clear. Whenever, therefore, a separation took place in any church, or community of Christians, great anxiety was shown by every one of the parties to account for their conduct: and to show that the guilt, which was universally allowed to follow the act, did not belong to them and to their friends, but to those of the other side. It was wisely reasoned that, although our Saviour had foretold consequences which would follow from his doctrine, this did in no degree operate as a recommendation or approbation of them; that his having declared, that "he was not come to give peace upon earth, but rather division," would no way excuse the individuals, by whose means peace should be driven away, and division brought in. It was remembered, that in the very same breath with which he had at another time declared that, "It must needs be that offences should come," he had added, "Woe to that man by whom the offence cometh."

Fully aware, as Mr. Le Mesurier appears to be, of the dangers of schism, he of course admits, that there are different degrees of danger, and that there are circumstances in which the schismatic, acting upon principle, may be considered as entitled to hope that he will be judged with the greatest possible mildness and favour.

The laxity, that has for some time obtained with respect to schism is dated from the period of Bennet's controversy with the Dissenters at Colchester, and the celebrated Bangorian controversy, the result of which was a union among all Dissenters. This laxity it is the duty of every conscientious minister of the Church to withstand; to oppose in all cases where disunion is beginning to exist, in limine; and, where it has risen to any height, to endeavour to reclaim by persuasion and example; but in no case with force, with threats of temporal inconvenience, with passion or intemperance of any sort. Gentleness was one of the beautiful characteristics of the Messiah; and let gentleness be the means by which his doctrines VOL. I. 3 X

are supported. Man is more apt to be governed by his passions, than by his reason; hence, where his dereliction has arisen from inattention or partial conviction, his error, which might be assuredly reclaimed by mild and earnest exhortation, would be but the more confirmed by any attempt to force his opinion.

No False Alarm; or, A Sequel to Religious Union, &c. being the Result of a Parochial Visitation through the Archdeaconry of Bedford. By the Rev. R. Shepherd, D. D. Archdeacon of Bedford. London. Maxwell and Wilson. 1808.

In a Visitation of the respectable Author of this Pamplet to the Parishes in his Archdeaconry, it was one of his principal objects to ascertain the proportion which the Dissenters bore to the supporters of the Established Church. In order the more effectually to ascertain this important fact, the following citation was addressed to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Bedford.

To the Reverend the

of the Parish of in the Archdeaconry of Bedford.

REVEREND SIR,

the- day of

THESE are to desire you upon the Sunday next after the receipt hereof, and in' your Parish Church of aforesaid, to direct notice to be given to the Churchwardens and Sidesmen of the said Parish, that they are required to make their personal appearance before the Worshipful the Archdeacon of Bedford, or his lawful substitute and visitor, at his visitation in the said Church, to be holden upon next ensuing the date hereof, and to have in readiness to be exhibited such Books, and Ornaments, Communion Plate, &c. as belong to your Church, and are commanded by the Laws of this realm, and Constitutions Ecclesiastical and you are yourself to accompany the said Archdeacon, or his substitute and visitor, in his survey, and view of the said Church and Chancel, and Parsonage-house, and buildings thereto belonging, and also to present a faithful and true account of the number of Dissenting Meeting-houses for public Worship, whether edifices erected for the purpose, or licensed private houses, and also of the respective number of persons or families in your parish, that are attendant on Divine Service, as performed according to the institution of the Established Church, and of those who dissent from it, and frequent the Meeting-houses as above described. You are likewise to notice whatever may be amiss in your parish, as in former visitations you have been accustomed to do.

"Bedford Registry."

The County of Bedford has been held out as the focus of Dissenters. This accusation, says Mr. S. is not more illiberal than untrue; and the result of this Visitation proves, that the County of Bedford does not contain more Dissenters than Dorsetshire, Lancashire, or any other county of similar magnitude.

To an accusation which had been brought forward against the Clergy of Bedfordshire, that not one-third of the Villages and principal Hamlets in that County ever heard "The glad Tidings of the Gospel," Mr. S. gives the following decided and satisfactory reply.

I

very lately returned from a progress through the county of Bedford, where I visited every parish in that Archdeaconry; and one object of my visitation, and that a principal one, being to satisfy myself on those points, upon which the preacher had so unsuccessfully made his enquiries; I have much satisfaction in confronting his doubts with positive assurance, that the aspersions couched under them are as false, as they are wicked; and that there is not a parish in the county, where the service of the Church of England is not performed every Sunday, and in some parishes twice. Nor did I find a hamlet at so great a distance from its respective parish, that the inhabitants could not conveniently attend the service of the parish church, without a chapel for that service

in it

List of Original Theological Works, and New Editions, published during the Year 1808.

Sermons on various Subjects. By the Rev. W. Agutter, A. M.

gro. 9s.

Letters on Arianism and other Topics in Metaphysics and Theology; in Reply to the Lectures of the Rev. Benjamin Carpenter. By Thomas Belsham. 4s.

Questions on the Holy Scriptures, to be answered in Writing, as Exercises at School, or in the course of private Instruction. By John Bullar. 3s.

A Sermon, occasioned by the death of the Rev. Theophilus Lindsey, A. M. preached at the Chapel in Essex-street, Strand, Nov. 15, 1808. To which is added, a brief Biographical Memoir. By Thomas Bel sham, Minister of the Chapel. 25.

The Nature and Importance of a good Education: a Sermon preached January 14, 1808, before the Promoters of the Protestant Dissenter's