ART. III. Scriptural Qualifications for the Christian Ministry: a Sermon, preached at St. Andrew's, Plymouth, on the 3d of June, 1831, at the Annual Visitation of the Venerable the Archdeacon of Totness. By the Rev. ROBERT Cox, M. A. Curate of Stonehouse. WE are not surprised that the Sermon before us was published at the request of the Clergy. The piety and good sense of the writer, reflected by this exercise of sound judgment on the part of his hearers, is equally creditable to both. In these our days, "the head is sick, and the whole heart is faint," beating wearily in the breast of many a conscientious, sober-minded minister, at the stumbling-blocks with which he is on all sides beset, and the dreary prospects opening upon him on every side. His difficulties consist in ascertaining what is his real line of duty, when so many of every variety of shade and character have each their favourite theory, every deviation from which is denounced as a shipwreck of their faith, and the earnest of everlasting misery. On one hand, we have vehement expounders of the dark sayings of revelation, announcing themselves to the world as the appointed prophets of the Lord, and uttering impatient railings against those who will not give ear unto their report. On another, we have those who claim respect from the multitude as chosen vessels, on whom the Deity has condescended to pour forth the more visible workings of his Holy Spirit; and on another a vast, we may almost add, a fearfully increasing host, who, decrying the use of those rational powers, and the exercise of those intellectual talents and gifts, which God has imparted for the enlargement of the human mind and the social welfare of civilized society, denounce, in harsh and unmeasured terms, the cultivation of science and advancement of all learning, not directly and solely dedicated to what they term the service of God. All these rival parties converging and uniting in one central point, that he who does not unequivocally sever from his ministerial creed of duties, all intercourse with the world,-its enjoyments,-its lighter occupations and pursuits, is not only himself running in the way that leadeth unto death, but, as a blind leader of the blind, is awfully conducting others in his pathway to perdition. These are fearful signs of the times; and many a heavy sigh will the humble Christian heave when he looks around him on his journey of life. And still more poignant must be the grief of that minister, who, sincerely wishing to do his duty, feels doubtful which course to pursue, and how with soundest judgment to stem a current, urging thousands and ten thousands between the nearly impinging dangers of fanaticism or infidelity. Far be it from us to breathe a whisper of doubt upon the sincerity of these several claimants to what they assume to be infallible tests of religion, pure and undefiled. That they are sincere we fully believe; that their object is to raise their followers above the world, and lead the way to brighter realms, we are ready to admit; but unless sincerity of heart and singleness of mind are allowed to be inseparable from truth, we must protest against the verdict they pronounce. The experience of ages, and the pages of history, teem with facts upon facts, proving, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the wildest enthusiasts and most preposterous pretenders to missions from heaven, have invariably held the same opinions, and denounced with equal warmth all who in soberness of mind had no part nor lot with them. We have been led into these observations by a perusal of Mr. Cox's Sermon, from which we shall proceed to extract a few passages bearing strongly on the point: earnestly, we wish we could shew how earnestly, desiring that every Christian of every denomination would attend to words spoken with the honest zeal of one who evidently wishes well to the cause of the gospel, and who would rescue his national Church from evils which may soon undermine and overwhelm it. Upon the text " God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power and of love, and of a sound mind," he proceeds to expatiate on the dangers to which religion is exposed from the absence of those essential ingredients in the formation of the Christian character. Of the spirit of power he speaks thus : The fortitude required by an apostle is little likely to be required in our days. The instruments of torture are destroyed, the flames of persecution are quenched : the current in fact appears to be flowing in an opposite direction. The danger now to be apprehended is lest liberty should luxuriate into licentiousness, and freedom of speech should degenerate into defamation and scurrility. It has been reserved for our days to witness the conduct, the sentiments, nay, the very motives of our highest dignitaries and most eminent divines misrepresented, vilified, and held up to open derision. Public meetings, convened for far different objects, have been converted into theatres for the exhibition of indecent altercations, and insidious attacks upon the best of men; and journals, professedly conducted on religious principles, have given point and sanction to the unworthy calumnies.—P. 7. The exordium on the necessary qualification of love is peculiarly just and impressive :— Of all the graces comprised in the Christian system, none occupies so conspicuous a place as love. It is not merely the ornament, it is the very essence of religion. It not only conveys an additional lustre to other graces, but in a measure supplies whatever is defective in them. The man that is possessed of this heavenly gift may be ignorant of some important doctrines, and form erroneous notions of others, and yet obtain eternal life; whereas the clearest views of divine truth, united with the most ardent zeal for their propagation, and stimulated by a faith which can remove mountains, will be of no avail, if severed from this sacred principle.”—P. 12. Our greatest praise, however, is due to his exposition of soundness of mind, which, if our limits admitted, we would gladly admit entire :- Edification should be the grand object of all instruction. But how can this object be attained, unless the instruction communicated be not merely scriptural but appropriate? "Study to shew thyself," says the apostle, "approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." The apostle's conduct best illustrates his exhortation. He became all things to all men. At Athens, the most philosophic and cultivated people in the world are addressed with an appeal to the authority of their own pages and poets. At Lystra, whose uneducated inhabitants were more accessible to a direct appeal to the senses than to any abstract deductions of philosophic truth, he refers to the rain from heaven and to the fruitful seasons, that fill our* hearts with joy and gladness. Before Felix, an unjust, luxurious, adulterous heathen, he urged the most awakening topics of natural religion, righteousness and temperance, and judgment to come. To Agrippa, a zealous wellinstructed Jew, expert in all customs and questions among the Jews, he opens at large those great and glorious events to which all the law and the prophets bear witness.-P. 20. is Again : There is danger not merely lest the best things should be abused, but also lest the essential doctrines of Christianity, in consequence of their being exhibited in an insulated or exaggerated form, should disgust or mislead, rather than attract and edify our hearers. A sound mind will lead a minister of the Gospel frequently and fully to enforce the corruption of human nature; for until this humiliating doctrine is cordially received, the Gospel remedy will be slighted. In the forcible language of our Ninth Article, he will frequently assert, that man very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh is always contrary to the spirit. But he may hesitate to describe man as a lump of sin, the image of the devil without any spark of goodness in him, only given to evil thoughts and deeds; he feels, to adopt the appropriate language of the Bishop of Chester, that it is far better to strike the mark than to shoot beyond it; for if a man's conscience does not answer to the condemnation of the preacher, if he cannot find himself to be so deeply wicked as he is represented, there is danger of his imagining that he is better than he is expected to be.-P. 22. Further, on soundness of mind, as necessary for the regulation of our intercourse with the world : When we assume the clerical character we do not cease to be men, or disclaim all interest in the common concerns of life. Our sacred profession, indeed, enjoins us to renounce the feverish ambition, the impassioned conflicts, and the visionary hopes of the world; but it is far from requiring us to abjure the public duties, the social amities, or the legitimate enjoyments of society;— an affected singularity, a pharisaical austerity, or a total seclusion from society, is scarcely less to be deprecated than frivolity of manner or secularity of spirit. No broad phylacteries distinguished the seamless garment of our Lord from the usual dress of his contemporaries, no peculiarity of expression marked the feature of the adorable Redeemer, unless, indeed, we except that heavenly benevolence which beamed from his countenance, and fastened the eyes of all that were in the synagogue upon him before he opened his lips. No monastic retirement characterised his demeanour. The marriage in Cana was honoured by his attendance; and the feast of Levi, no less than the humble fare of Peter, received the sanction of his presence. The conduct of St. Paul again will throw additional light upon the subject. Most justly did he count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord; but he was far from considering general literature, or even a somewhat accurate attention to the busy bustling scenes around him, as unsuitable to his character. Such are the sentiments of this admirable Sermon; and that many may profit thereby, we earnestly recommend it for general perusal. Registrum Ecclesiæ Parochialis. The History of Parish Registers in England. By JoHN SOUTHERDEN BURN. Souter. 8vo. Pp. 246. THE immense importance of a correct registration of births, marriages, and deaths, is so self-evident, especially when the difficulty of establishing titles to the inheritance, either of property or honours, even with their assistance, is considered, that in a country like this, in which the privileges of primogeniture form part and parcel of the law of the land, it might have been supposed the greatest possible care and jealousy would have been exercised, not only to have records of such value made perfect in the first instance, but to guard as strongly as may be against their being afterwards injured or interpolated. It is, however, but very lately that the attention of the public has been turned to this subject at all; and even now, notwithstanding some legislative enactments have been passed at no very distant date, so loosely and carelessly have those enactments been worded, and so little pains has been taken in the proper quarters to see them complied with, that it may be questioned whether any real good whatever has been produced. Even in this metropolis, in the very teeth of the Act of Parliament which places the custody of the parish registers in the hands of the clergyman, they are but too often left at the mercy of the parish clerk, or even of inferior servants of the church, persons altogether irresponsible for their misuse, and, from their circumstances, exposed to temptation. A twelvemonth has not elapsed since one glaring instance took place of the insecurity of the present practice, in a church in the city. The parish clerk, a superannuated old man, had ready access to the registers at all times; and a half-sovereign, properly applied, procured his ready acquiescence in a gentleman's request, that he might be allowed to inspect them alone; the consequence of which was, the forgery of an entry, which, had it not been subsequently detected, through a bungle as to dates, might have had the effect of placing the said "gentleman," or his employer, among our hereditary legislators. Mr. Burn, in the very amusing as well as instructive little tract before us, has many sensible remarks and suggestions, upon this as well as other points, and throws out many useful hints, both as to the propriety of securing documents so valuable, and the best means of carrying such a measure into effect. Since the abandoment of the old system of taking Inquisitiones post mortem, these registers are the only things we have to trust to in tracing genealogies with any accuracy; and when it is considered how frequently the establishing a single date will give a colour and complexion even to facts, of which they might be otherwise unsusceptible, it is no less in an historical than in a legal point of view, that such sources of information as these should be at once complete and above suspicion. Mr. Burn goes into the early history of parish registers, from their first general establishment, which, although some traditional instances of an earlier date are referred to, seems to have taken place on the recommendation of the Lord Cromwell, in the 30th year of Henry VIII. (1538), of which date a few are yet in existence. We are not aware of any anterior to that period now in being. The circumstance of its having been the custom among our ancestors not to content themselves, as is now done, with a bare inscription of names and dates, but to append notes, explanatory and descriptive, occasionally, and to make their register a kind of parochial souvenir, attaches great additional interest to their entries, which are frequently highly illustrative of the manners, as well as the events, of days of yore. Mr. Burn has produced several very entertaining specimens of this description; and, dry as the subject he has selected for his lucubrations may at first sight appear, we can assure our readers that he has contrived to enliven it with equal assiduity and success, and that, while on the antiquary it will lay an especial hold, the general reader will find the work possesses no slight claims even on his attention. That portion of it which relates to the marriages in the Fleet Prison is especially interesting; we seem to live over again the days of Fielding and Smollett, and many of their descriptions, which we have been accustomed to consider as inclining at least to caricature, were, it appears evident, but too faithful transcripts of a most sad set of originals. Many of these registers consist only of the pocket-books of the reverend divines who officiated, and whose complaisance in wording and antedating their entries, &c. "for a consideration," appears to have been unbounded. Various extracts from these valuable documents are given, and in such abundance as alone to convince us of the wisdom of the Marriage Act, which eventually put an end to the trade. We subjoin one or two from the list of an ecclesiastic, who seems to have entertained more scruples of conscience than some of his trusty freres on these occasions. ["These wicked people came this day; Peter Oliver, of St. Olave's, carpenter, and Elizabeth Overton, B. and W., would have a certificate dated in 1729, or would not be married if it was to be dated to this time; went to Lilley's, and was married."]["This 31st of May came to be married at Mrs. Levi's. Gave Mr. Ashwell 2s. 6d.; he would have 5s. all; but they abusied him, and all persons there went to Bates, or Mr. Dare's and gave 6s. 6d., and was married, which was nine shillings, when they might have been done cheaper."] ["N. B. A coachman came and was half married, and would give but 3s. 6d., and went off."] About four or five shillings appears to have been the clergyman's fee, and one or two shillings the clerk's, out of which a gratuity seems to have been allowed to the matrimonial cad who brought the parties. Nor was the balance always clear gain Lectures for the Religious Instruction of Young Persons, upon various Parts of the Scriptures. By M. A. RYAN. Dedicated, by gracious permission, to the Queen. London: Simpkin & Marshall. 1831. 12mo. Pp. vii. 112. THE peculiar circumstances under which this little volume is published, are of themselves sufficient to disarm the severity of criticism, even were it the production of questionable merit. Without entering into the afflicting particulars of the situation in which the authoress, the orphan daughter of an officer in the army, has endeavoured to allay the severity of mental cares and bodily suffering, by contributing to the instruction of the young, we shall merely state that the result of her meditations are deserving of the serious attention of those for whom they are intended. Sincerely do we hope that a wide circulation of her work will be the means of affording relief to her own necessities, and of imbuing the minds of her youthful readers with habits of pious reflection, and a sense of their duty to God, to their neighbours, and to themselves. Pulpit Oratory in the Time of James the First considered, and principally illustrated by Original Examples, A. D. 1620-21-22. By the Rev. J. H. BLOOM. London: Longman. Norwich Stacy. 1831. 8vo. Pp. viii. 243. THE materials which form the ground-work of this publication, consist of four entire discourses and some fragments, delivered in the latter part of the reign of James I.; they are printed with a view of illustrating the remarks of the editor on the pulpit |