ago, that our Criminal Code had succeeded as well as it was possible for any system of Criminal Law to succeed'? Any man who should display such extraordinary ignorance, or such extraordinary impudence, would be hooted ont of society. We believe his Lordship to have been merely ignorant-grossly ignorant. But this is a proof that we have made advances; for no man of his Lordship's industry would now maintain that the system had not wrought most detestably.

"Dr. Blomfield adverts to a gross defect in our Criminal System which remains yet to be remedied. Upon the treatment which a youthful delinquent receives (he observes) when detected in his first offence, depends in all probability his character and conduct for the remainder of his life, and his prospects in eternity. To consign him, when only suspected (and, therefore, presumed by the law to be innocent), or even when convicted of a slight offence, to a common punishment, and an indiscriminate intercourse, with the most hardened and abandoned criminals, is to force him into moral contagion, and probably upon spiritual destruction. And in a note to this passage, he observes, This, is perhaps, the greatest practical injustice which occurs in the execution of our criminal law. Commitment before trial, except in the case of graver offences, ought surely never to be resorted to where the appearance of the accused to take his trial can be secured in any other way.'-This is indeed a grievous blot in our criminal procedure. Our prisons are crowded with individuals committed for paltry offences, and unable to procure bail, at an enormous expense of contamination and of pecuniary burden. The evil is purely gratuitous; and nothing but sheer ignorance, or the grossest judicial superstition, would countenance it. The individual who, in slight cases, flees from justice, and allows a sentence for contumacy to be suspended over him, inflicts on himself a heavier punishment than the law would inflict on him. Hence it is found in all other countries that the dread of the consequences of a sentence in absence is always sufficient to ensure the presence of a defendant in slight cases. Bail can never be necessary, except in cases of a serious nature. The holding poor people to bail, causes the ruin of thousands, body and soul, every year, in this metropolis. The returns on this head are most appalling.

"We cannot conclude our remarks without availing our

selves of the following truly liberal observations of the Bishop of London :- The grand principle of prevention is this, and it is a principle which the state can only indirectly enforce; but for the enforcement of which, in every possible direction and degree, it ought to make provision; -that men shall be convinced, not only of the unlawfulness, but the sinfulness, of crime: that they should be disinclined from its commission by the influence of more prevailing and more constraining motives than the animal fear of punishment; that they should be taught to regard it as infinitely detrimental to their own interests.' Now, though enormous sums are taken from the people for the professed object of supplying them with instruction, it is not the less true, that their moral instruction has been almost entirely neglected. The people should be taught, as his Lordship judiciously observes, that crime is detrimental to their own interests.' But this can only be done by acquainting them with the principles on which the prosperity of a nation depends, and instructing them in the principles of morals. There is no ethical treatise, as far as we know, adapted for the body of the people. The great fault in this country is, that we preach abstractions to the people-we tell them they are to do justice, to live virtuously, and so forth; but we do nothing to enable them to solve the difficulty as to what is demanded of them in the various circumstances of life, that they may live well. The Catholic Casuists, and our old Puritan Divines, endeavoured, according to the measure of their knowledge, to enlighten the consciences of the people; and the Christian Directory of Richard Baxter, in particular, might be of great use to those who are desirous of benefiting the people by the communication of the more enlightened views of our days. Instead of idle abstractions or mystical nonsense, the people should be catechised in the schools in the knowledge calculated to make them enlightened members of society in their several stations. We repeat it, there is no moral education in this country.

"Dr. Blomfield's example will, we trust, operate beneficially on his ecclesiastical brethren. We trust also, that as he possesses such enlightened views in moral and political subjects, he will follow up this Sermon by other works in the same spirit."

LECTURES ON A CATECHISM IN A SUNDAY-SCHOOL.

LECTURE X.

XIII. What are the religious doctrines of the New Tes

tament?

Like the Old Testament, it instructs us in the perfections and character of God, and teaches us that we ought to obey and love Him; and, besides, promises forgiveness to penitent sinners, and eternal life to the penitent, sincere and faithful. MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,

WE were engaged at our last meeting in considering the representations which the Scriptures of the Old Testament give us of The One True God, Almighty, All-powerful, Wise and Good; who made and governs the world; and to whom alone the religious worship of his creatures ought to be directed. And you were then furnished with a set of plain texts, or passages of Scripture, expressive of these great truths; which, if you duly keep them in remembrance, and pray to God for his direction and blessing in the practical application of them, can scarcely fail to lead you in safety through the various temptations and dangers with which you must all expect that you will be (as we all of us have been) assailed, in this world of imperfection, folly and sin; and, in the end, establish you in a holy and virtuous course of life; such as may lead you humbly to hope, through the mercy of God, (not from any ground of merit, or claim of right, on account of works done, but on the ground of the free grace and mercy of God, which was all that the people under the old covenant had any right to depend on, since none of them could keep the law of ordinances without frequent transgressions of it,) that you may ultimately secure his favour.

But I told you, at the same time, that, when we come to study the New Testament, or covenant proposed by God to his erring, guilty creatures through his Son Jesus Christ, we should see in every page in how much more familiar and pleasing a manner "it gives the same general account of God and his attributes, of the worship due to him, and of the expectations we are led to form from him, than we have in the Old Testament;" but also that it, in an extraordinary manner, enlarges our conceptions of him, as a God" that pardoneth sin repented of, and offereth eternal life to the penitent, sincere and faithful." You will, therefore, at once

see your duty to him, and your dependence upon him, in your connexion, not only with this, but also, through Jesus Christ, with that future world which he came from God to reveal; and, consequently, how much it is, always has been, and ever will more and more become, your duty" to fear and honour him, to worship and obey him, and in all your ways to trust in him, and to please him."

I shall now proceed to select a few, out of the many, texts in the New Testament which express the great truths concerning God, and his gracious purposes to his creatures, in this his new, still more than in his former, dispensations. First, then, the New Testament teaches that God

is One.

Mark xii. 28, 29. When one of the scribes (or teachers of the Jewish law) asked him, "Which is the first commandment?" Jesus answered, "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord," &c.

John xvii. 3.

"This is life eternal, that they may know (or acknowledge) thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

I Cor. viii. 6. 66 Though there be that are called (by the Heathens) gods, to us (Christians) there is but one God." 1 Tim. ii. 5. "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

Secondly, that he is All-powerful.

Mark xiv. 26. Jesus prays to God, "Abba, Father, all things are possible with thee." And he says of himself, (John v. 30,) "I can of my own self do nothing," &c. (See the whole passage.)

Ephes. iii. 20. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above what we can ask or think."

James iv. 12. "There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy."

Rev. xix. 12. "The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." Thirdly, that God is Wise.

The apostle James, as president of the council of Jerusalem (Acts xv.18), represents the whole of his dealings with mankind through all his dispensatious as effects of his wisdom: "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." The dispensation of the gospel is particularly represented by St. Paul as the fruit of his wisdom as well as of his power and goodness, 1 Cor. i. 24; and in another of his Epistles it is called "the manifold wisdom of God,"

Ephes. iii. 10. He closes two other of his Epistles with an ascription of glory "to the only wise God." Rom. xvi. 17, and 1 Tim. i. 17.

Fourthly, that he is Good.

Our Lord Jesus himself is so deeply impressed with the original, essential, exclusive claim of the Father of all to absolute goodness, that he is careful to disclaim it even when offered to him as an expression of common civility. Why callest thou me good?" says he to the young man. "There is none good but one, that is, God." Matt. xix. 17. In his very first discourse (Matt. v. 45) he represents the Father as making his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sending rain on the just and on the unjust." In the discourse with Nicodemus (John iii. 16) he is represented as "so loving the world as to give his onlybegotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life." St. Paul says to the people at Lystra, (Acts xiv. 17,) that God "left not himself without witness, in that he did good, giving rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling men's hearts with food and gladness." And to the Romans (x. 12), he represents God 66 as rich unto all who call upon him." And the beloved disciple, (1 John iv. 16,) with an earnestness suited to his character, asserts that "God is love."

But if God is infinitely good, it follows of course that we, his creatures and the objects of his bounty, are bound to love and to obey him. This is the inference which St. John draws from the doctrine that God is Love: "We love him because he first loved us" (ver. 19); and "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." (Ch. v. 3.) His blessed Master had taught this as the first commandment of all, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength." (Mark xii. 30.) And his apostles often exhort us to "keep ourselves in the love of God," and teach that "the love of God is perfected by keeping his word."

But then, as erring, guilty creatures, how great is the obligation to love God; to detest and forsake our sins, which have led us astray from the path of duty and obedience; and to pray for a share in that pardoning grace which he sent the Lord Jesus to publish to penitent sinners ! He had indeed been known under the Old Covenant as a God that forgiveth sin; but then the benefits promised