speak a word in his behalf. In the mean while, having occasion to pass through the village, I was much surprised at beholding him, the moment he recognized me, tighten his cummerbund (or gird up his loins) and proceed to run before my palanqueen. I said nothing until we had cleared the village, thinking that he would then return; but as he still continued to run before me, I called to the bearers to stop the palanqueen, and entreated him to go back. This he positively refused to do, saying, nothing should prevent his paying this mark of respect, at the same time overwhelming me with the most extravagant compliments, and in this manner he preceded me the whole distance, about four miles, until we arrived at the gates of my compound, when, with a profound salam, he took leave and returned.

In this manner I consider that Elijah, although he detested the crimes of Ahab, was desirous of paying him all that respect which his exalted station as king of Israel demanded; thus affording a practical comment on the apostolic precept, "Honour the king." By this means the prophet shewed his deep humility in not assuming to himself any glory because of the mighty works which God had performed by him; and at the same time evinced his entire dependence on the protecting hand of God, by thus accompanying the king to the very place where his greatest enemies, Jezebel and her prophets, dwelt.

The same man afforded me an illustration of Genesis xxiv. 9. "And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning that matter.'

On having communicated to him at a subsequent period his appointment to the situation, and exhorted him to fill it with fidelity, so that I might not be blamed for having recommended him, he dropped on one knee, and laying hold of my knee with one hand, and placing the other at the back of the thigh, he solemnly vowed to be faithful in the discharge of his duties, and professed entire submission to myself. pp. 116, 17.

Those gardens on our right are kept in nice order. The mollees are just beginning to water them; they are opening the little trenches with their feet; these trenches intersect each other at right angles; and when one has received enough of the refreshing fluid, the foot again closes the aperture, thus illustrating Deut. xi. 10. "For the land whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs; but the land whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven." There are two men busily employed in raising the water from yonder well, to supply the trenches.' p. 428, 9.

These are not the most entertaining extracts that might have been selected; but they will answer the purpose of supporting our cordial recommendation of this pleasing volume.

By

Art. VI. Sermons preached in the Chapel of Lincoln's Inn. Edward Maltby, D.D. F.R.S. F.S.A. &c. now Bishop of Chichester. 8vo. pp. xii. 402. Price 10s. 6d. London, 1831.

THESE Sermons were not composed for publication. They

may be considered, therefore, as a fair specimen of the instructions which the learned Preacher has been accustomed to address to the Lord High Chancellor of England and the Honourable Society who formed his auditory. In this point of view, the character of these Sermons becomes a matter of almost national interest. Something beyond curiosity, an eager anxiety may be felt to know what sort of religious instruction was imparted to those in authority over us, or to persons charged with the most responsible professional duties, at that only hour of the week at which, perhaps, a religious idea could find room to intrude itself into the antechamber of conscience. One half of beauty is propriety; and in the adaptation of his sermons to the character of his hearers, the Preacher is discharging an important condition of his duty. Of this, Dr. Maltby seems to have been fully conscious; and, in his Introductory Sermon he thus contrasts the ordinary duties of a country pastor, with those which he was selected by the learned society of Lincoln's Inn to discharge.

6

'But in addressing such an audience as I see before me, his duties take a wider range, and assume a more elevated, though not a more serious, tone. The truths inculcated are indeed the same: the fears, to which he appeals, must be founded upon the same awful declarations of scripture: and the hopes, which he labours to infuse, must be drawn from the same pure and perennial fountain-from the inexhaustible source of Divine knowledge and truth-of knowledge, purifying practice; and truth, opening the boundless view of God's mercy through Christ, encircling the whole compass of His rational and moral creation.

'Nevertheless, although the same principles are to be maintained and the same truths enforced, they are to be maintained and enforced in a different manner-the difference being obviously founded upon the different state of mind, to which they are respectively presented; and upon the difference of conduct too, as it is affected by the greater or less knowledge of right and wrong. Thus the enlightened audience whom I am called upon to address, will not require to be told the meaning of many terms, nor the history of many events, which occur in the sacred books, but which must be explained with minuteness and care to those, whose minds have received but little culture, and whose hours of unremitted toil, with a succession of worldly cares, afford but slender opportunities of improving that little at home. The result however of professional labour upon sacred subjects may be applied with good fruit to the improvement of those, who are themselves well educated and enlightened-in various sources of knowledge as well trained, and with minds more vigorous and acute than the

U

VOL. VIII.-N.S.

Preacher, who has assiduously employed himself in his own peculiar province. Topics both of morals and of faith may be illustrated, in contrast as well as coincidence, from the ample stores of heathen and of Christian sages--difficulties in the sacred text may be cleared up by the aid of candid, but sometimes elaborate, criticism—the objections of infidels or of heretics may be overcome by a reference to original documents, or by a chain of argumentation, not accessible or intelligible to ruder minds. Light may even be thrown upon those parts of Scripture in which, from their familiarity with the sacred volume at a very tender age, the wise themselves may have failed to catch the real meaning, and which the serious may have passed over without due observation.

In points of conduct too, where, when our faith shall have been once fixed, the great business of us all lies, inasmuch as we shall all be judged hereafter according to that we have done, whether it be good, or whether it be bad-in these points, there will be frequent room for the admonition of him who teaches, and for attention in him, "who hath ears to hear ".-Inheriting, as we all do, the frailty of our common forefather, the higher classes of society are not, by nature, more exempt from transgression than the lower; the wealthy no more than the indigent, the learned than the unlearned. Education indeed

will have given the one a more accurate understanding of his duty; his situation exempts him from the guilt, to which poverty proves a temptation; and a just sense of the responsibility, which he incurs to society, may preserve from meaner habits and from grosser vices. Nevertheless, every one of us may, nay, must occasionally, stumble; every one of us needs a warning against that "sin, which does too easily beset him". Can it be necessary for me to remind you that the pride of intellect, the love of power, a thirst after worldly honours and worldly enjoyments, an undue anxiety for heaped-up treasures, prove snares to the wise of this generation; to those, who possess knowledge and talent, and who occupy, or desire to occupy, high stations? They are snares, into which the mighty and the wealthy fall as easily, as the midnight plunderer will violate the prohibitions contained in the Decalogue against the pursuit of such objects, as pamper his appetite, gratify his lust, or satiate his vengeance.

Here then, in this holy sanctuary, on the day set apart for the glory of God and the benefit of man's immortal soul, the wise may listen with advantage to the voice even "of babes and sucklings"; they may learn, with delight and profit too, to chaunt Hosannas unto Him, who came in the name of the Lord. At the recollection of His sublime virtues, His disinterested uprightness, His profound humility, His matchless purity, His ardent piety, His all-comprehensive charity, the selfish may pause amidst their worldly schemes, the proud unlearn their conceit, the audacious assailant of female innocence forego his iniquitous purpose, the scoffer for once awake from his delirium of irreligion, and the cold-hearted and insensible feel some emotion of that warmth, which at once taught and practised the "new law" of universal love.

Such, in this imperfect world, and in this mixture of human character, may occasionally be the use of a preacher, even among those,

who have the experience of years, the credit of superior knowledge, the advantage of high station. But there is always, I trust, in such an audience, some part, among whom the discourse of a preacher may be attended with more general, more direct, and more lasting benefit. I mean those ingenuous youths, who are trained in these venerable seats of legal learning, and who look up with just admiration to those ornaments of their profession, who are revered for their goodness, as well as distinguished by their wisdom. In the ardour,-in the honest ardour, to surpass their competitors in the race for worldly knowledge or for worldly fame, some there may chance to be, who lose sight of that knowledge which is far more to be coveted; the knowledge of God, who formed him for the most glorious purposes; and of the Saviour, whose all-prevailing mediation gives effect to those purposes; -usefulness and goodness here, and hereafter everlasting life. Others there are, who bury the remembrance even of present wealth and present fame, in a vain and senseless endeavour to extract pleasure from a round of tumultuous amusement, or the unrestrained indulgence of immoral propensities; who vainly seek to calm the tumult of an undisciplined mind in the dangerous vortex of a gaming-house, the disquieting mirth of midnight revelry, or in scenes of debasing voluptuousness;-scenes, which to credulous inexperience may wear a fascinating look, but of which the infatuated votary will too soon reap the bitter fruits in disease and despair; and, without timely repentance and renewed faith, in the blighting of every prospect, both in this world and in that which is to come.

Some there may by chance be among my younger hearers, who (from a fatal neglect of religious culture, or the unhappy example of those, with whom it has been their hard lot or perverse choice to associate) may have contracted a fatal taint of scepticism; may have permitted themselves to doubt about the substantial doctrines of our creed; or, even more fatally, have suffered their doubts to merge in a total disbelief of the utility, the efficacy, the truth, of all Revealed religion.

To these several degrees of moral perversity or intellectual darkness the efforts of a preacher may sometimes most properly be opposed; and, by the gracious assistance of God, his admonitions may be addressed effectually. Him, whose thoughts are too much engrossed by the hope of gain or distinction, he will remind that no earthly labour can prosper, but by the aid of that Power above, who ruleth all human events; he will remind him that, after all, the riches and the glories of this world are equally transitory; and that he, who is truly wise, will fix his main hope, and exert his chief endeavours, for such as are unperishable and eternal.

The votary of dissipation or mere animal enjoyment he will rouse to nobler pursuits even here; to the due cultivation of his mind; to the judicious employment of his time; to the praise and the esteem of his fellow-creatures, which, when conferred by the wise and good, are of far more value than the uncertain and fleeting gratification, which at best can be supplied from worldly pleasure. If, awakened by such suggestions, he will arouse him from his dream of sensuality, and shew an anxiety for present peace and present fame, he may be led gradu

ally to elevate his thoughts to higher views and fairer scenes; and at length to center them, where all the thoughts of man should chiefly, should ultimately, be centered, the favour and approbation of "Him, in whose right hand is the fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore.'

pp. 7-13.

This outline of the Preacher's duty will be thought much more comprehensive than distinct; and the phraseology is in that highly polished strain of courtesy which scarcely admits of the insinuation of repulsive doctrine. The higher classes are not exempt from transgression; they are not free from frailty; humanum est errare; they may, by possibility, stumble; some ingenuous youths may chance to lose sight' of the knowledge which is most important! We should have feared that language like this would have been mistaken by these learned and honourable persons for delicate, yet severe irony. Was it meant for such? Or could it be intended to conciliate them, on the principle of becoming a Greek to the Greek? Or was the Preacher unconscious that he was complimenting his auditory in a style so little in harmony with notorious fact, that a secret laugh must have been excited at his own expense?

The volume contains seven and twenty sermons. The subjects are various and well selected. In the course of the Preacher's ministry, he delivered a series of nineteen discourses explanatory of the Epistle to the Romans, seven of which are here printed. No more valuable or appropriate service could have been rendered, than that which Dr. Maltby proposed to himself in this course; and the high scholarship and extensive reading he brought to the task, might have enabled him to throw important light upon this difficult portion of the New Testament. The great and funda'mental rule of sound interpretation' which he lays down, is, that, as many of the causes which induced St. Paul to write, were incidental, temporary, and local, so must a great proportion of his expressions be interpreted of those peculiar times, and not considered equally applicable to any other part of Christianity." (p. 164.) In this fundamental rule, the learned Author appears to us to have fallen into a capital mistake. The interpretation of expressions is one thing: the application of them is another. In reference to the former, the causes which induced St. Paul to write, may be safely put out of the question, since all that an honest interpreter has to do, is to give the proper meaning and force of his text. Of the applicability of the reasonings or precepts, when interpreted, to our own circumstances, the Critic is not required, nor may he be competent to decide. In his illustration of the above rule, the learned Preacher betrays at once its dangerous tendency and its fallacy. In reference to the harsh epithets' employed by St. Paul to describe the condition of our fallen nature, we meet with the following remarks.