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tude, and his marriage with the rich widow of the late Sir James Saunderson, he will laugh at critical strictures, and snap his fingers out of his coach at the whole corps of reviewers. Whether he will be what he arrogantly proclaims himself to be, 8. S. or Saved Sinner, remains to be proved: but his life has been a striking instance of the effect of personal effrontery on vulgar credulity. He has taught his followers to believe that he is the peculiar favourite of Heaven, and that his master (as he familiarly calls the Deity) has worked almost miracles to serve him. His preaching is story-telling, and these stories have made him rich as well as popular.

Of the national clergy, Dr. Porteus, the late Bishop of London, is the first in the catalogue, and the first in estimation with Onesimus :

It was the excellence of Bishop Porteus's eloquence, though not confined to him, that it was suited to his literary composition; while the labours of his closet, at the same time, derived the greatest effect from his powers in the pulpit. His style of writing was easy and perspicuous, his enunciation was distinct and equable, his emphases judicious and forcible, his delivery unaffected but impressive. There was something awfully becoming both in his words and looks.

Notwithstanding the shortness of his stature, for he was below the middle height in men, his deportment rendered this deficiency almost imperceptible; and the indescribable seriousness of his coun tenance, which was naturally not strong, deeply impressed, on all who saw him, the sacred importance of his character. It is not pos sible for me to convey to others, by any effort of mine, the sublime emotion with which I have heard him deliver such passages as the following." Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit yourselves like men; be strong, be resolute, be patient. Look frequently up to the prize set before you, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. The conflict will soon be over; a few years will put an entire end to it; and you will then, to your unspeakable comfort, be enabled to cry out with Saint Paul, "I have fought a good fight: I bave finished my course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day !" Here is the triumph of the preacher, when, kindled by piety, his people, full of faith, elevated heavenward, look only to their divine teacher.

• Viewed merely as a public speaker, Bishop Porteus was by some persons thought to be wanting in the quality of energy. His eloquence, however, was peculiar to him. What in other preachers is called energetical, was in this preacher impressiveness. Persuasive, rather than peremptory, and conciliating, instead of being commanding, he found his way to the hearts of those who heard him, and obtained their affection without losing their respect. Always understood, always esteemed, and often admired, his pulpit-labours unquestionably ranked him high among the best preachers of the Christian church.'

With

With Dr. Gerrard Andrewes, Rector of St. James's, the author is not so much delighted as with his patron the Bishop. His preaching is thus delineated:

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Argumentative but not impassioned, conclusive but not eloquent, Dr. Andrewes is rather a good than a great preacher. He is often striking, but seldom moving. All that human information suggests, or human ingenuity can devise, in aid of truth, elucidatory or confirmatory, presents itself readily to his mind, and is by him impressed on the minds of those who hear him. He is therefore fond of illustrating the evidences of religion; and of enforcing, from motives of propriety or expediency, the practice of the moral duties. While he pays so much deference to the authority of reason, it is his fault not to consult the sympathy of feeling. Sometimes, however, he rises into considerable animation; and he uniformly secures attention.

His great fault is clear. Dictatorial in his manner, he has too much of the teacher with too little of the preacher. He partakes more of the lecturer, than the apostle. Conviction surpasses consent; yet Dr. Andrewes, though he always compels consent, seldom follows up with conviction. While he subjugates scepticism, he leaves contrition at rest. While he confounds the infidel, or establishes the faithful, still he fails to alarm the transgressor. I know not, indeed, how far he may have felt solicitous to accommodate his discourses to the peculiar cast of this age; which, instead of being anxious to imbibe the vital principles of belief, asks to be instructed in the very elements of religion.'

This clergyman again figures in the Appendix, where his lectures on the Liturgy fall particularly under review. Onesimus is not contented with the preacher's apology for the commination against sinners; and he calls in question the propriety of the assertion that "power and commandment to declare and pronounce the absolution and remission of sins is left to the church." This form appears to him as one remnant of imperfection which still attaches to our best form of righteousness.'

The last gentleman noticed among the Dissenting popular preachers is Mr. Hugh Worthington, minister of Salter's-hallMeeting, in the city; with whom Onesimus appears to be highly captivated. We give the striking sketch of Mr. W.'s piety and eloquence :

It is in prayer, in his sublimely affecting addresses to the Divinity, that Hugh Worthington is more than great. Whether I consider the suitable solemnity of his deportment, or his scrupulous selection of phraseology; whether I reflect on the devotional magnificence of his sentiments, or on the unbounded liberality of his views; I confess myself perplexed between my unfeigned admiration of the individual, and my profound veneration for the character that he sustains. Loftily as this may sound, it is not the language of exaggeration.

• His manner of scriptural elucidation still demands praise. It is his custom, during the first part of worship, to read the portion of scripture from which he means to take his text; commenting, as he reads, on doubtful and obscure passages. Laudable in itself, this practice proves, in such hands as his, highly beneficial. Persons whose attention would not be attracted by having portions of holywrit commonly read to them, (and who, certainly though unhappily, abound in the church on earth,) feel their curiosity awakened by the striking comments of an able reader; and their minds, thus caught, become gradually rivetted to his wishes. It is thus that men must be, if so I may say, allured into seriousness of heart.

This

Mr. Worthington's system of preaching, for it is system with him, is the most eligible one. Premeditated yet spontaneous, written partly yet partly spoken, while his discourses evince all the regularity of prepared compositions, they possess all the fluency of the extempore eloquence. Why should preachers not avail themselves of the admonitory assistance of head-notes; or, on the other hand, why do they doom themselves never to raise their eyes above the cushion to which their manuscripts seem to cling? If numbers of the clergy must content themselves with still "reading sermons," let them do this as it ought to be done. Holding their sermons boldly up, undisguised and manfully, let them so read their sermons. would give to their pulpit efforts at least an air of ease. Monstrous is it to see a public speaker, in one of the most august stations in the world, nearly as motionless as statues, muttering, instead of preaching, the noble precepts and sublime doctrines that were revealed by omnipotence to mankind! Reasoning, exhorting, consoling, animating, not of such who teach but preach not, is Hugh Worthington. What is said of one transcendant orator, may be said, at his best times, of the present preacher : his intellect is all feeling his feeling is all intellect." While he enlightens and convinces the understanding, he attaches and captivates the affections. While he seizes the strong holds of the head, he finds the passes to the heart. Both are within his grasp. He can make the head his road to the heart, or the heart his road to the head '

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We have met with similar accounts of this preacher, and we therefore conclude that the portrait is correct.

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He

The Evangelical Minister,' who undertakes to examine Onesimus, is much less satisfied with him than we are. pronounces Methodism to be now rampant,' and is displeased with the Clerical Critic because he is not sufficiently rampant in the defence of Methodism. Onesimus is accused of prejudice, is said to have a dim view of apostolic virtue and excellence,' and his heart and conscience are represented as at daggers drawn.' We leave the author of "The Pulpit" to reply to these charges, and shall quit his work with this remark, that his doctrinal notions have too much of the colour of orthodoxy to please Arians and Socinians, and too little of its substance to satisfy Methodistic Calvinists. We have heard

his

his name stated, and, as we believe, on good authority: but we know not that we ought publicly to repeat it. The readers of his present volume will, perhaps, be scarcely prepared to learn that he has been hitherto known as a votary of the muses.

ART. VIII. The Report, together with Minutes of Evidence, and Accounts, from the Select Committee on the High Price of Gold Bullion, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, the 8th of June 1810.-Reprinted for Johnson and Co. and Ridgway. 8yo. 14s. Boards.

ART. IX.

IN

Observations on the Report of the Bullion-Committee. By the Right Honourable Sir John Sinclair, Bart. M. P. Author of the "History of the public Revenue of the British Empire." zd Edition. 8vo. pp. 64. 2s. 6d. Cadell and Davies. 1810. N the pages of our last Number (174-191.) which we devoted to the momentous question of our paper-money, we explained the course of its progressive augmentation since the year 1797, and expressed our reasons for adopting the affirmative in the disputed question of its depreciation. We likewise gave a review of several pamphlets which had appeared previously to the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons; and our attention is now to be directed to the Report itself, and to a publication subsequent to the Report which is evidently written for the purpose of counteracting its influ

ence.

The rumour that a Committee of the House of Commons was about to recommend restrictions on paper-circulation seems to have roused Sir John Sinclair from the midst of agricultural meditations in the North, prompted him to shape his course with no little expedition to the South, and induced him to immerse himself in the depths of financial researches. The labours of the Committee, we presume, struck him from the outset with great alarm; for we learn that he did not venture (p. 41.) to take his departure from Edinburgh until he had laid in a stock of gold, as a preservative against the discredit which he apprehended their Report might throw on banknotes, before he could accomplish his journey to London. Fortunately, however, his panic was not realized; il en fut quitte pour la peur: but he reached our metropolis too late to guard his ministerial friends from falling into error. Mr. Perceval, he tells us, had taken scarcely any concern in the nomination of the members of the Committee, and no part in their deliberation, until the season of successful interference was past. The members had made up their minds regarding the points under discussion; and when the principles, on

which it was intended that the Report should be drawn up, came to be settled, the minister had the mortification of finding himself in a minority.

The only alternative remaining for Sir John was to await the completion of the Report, and to enter the lists with the Com mittee before the tribunal of the public. He has accordingly been neither slow in grappling with his antagonists, nor backward in characterizing them by rather decided appellations. They have failed, he says, in performing their task with impartiality; they have set up the chimeras of political speculation against the results of practical experience, and have recommended measures which cannot be too strongly reprobated.' So firmly does he believe that he is in the right and the Committee in the wrong, that he is not without hopes that, when the question is to be discussed in Parliament, the Committee themselves will see grounds for altering their opinion.

In examining the merits of Sir John Sinclair's arguments, it will be conducive to perspicuity that we follow the arrangement observed by the Committee; and while we are weighing their adversary in a balance, an opportunity will be afforded for placing in a prominent light the most interesting doctrines in the Report. It consists of four parts; the first treating of Bullion; the second, of Exchange; the third, of the Rules observed by the Bank-Directors in issuing their Paper; and the fourth, of the Amount of our Paper-currency, both in Town and Country.

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1st, Bullion. The high price of bullion, during the last two years, is too clearly proved by the state of the market to admit of any doubt:-the question is not about the fact, but its cause. Many persons in mercantile life ascribe it (and Sir John Sinclair has adopted the notion,) to an unusual demand for the precious metals on the Continent; and they account for this demand by supposing that specie has been required in quantity by the French government to pay the armies, as well as by individuals for the purpose of hoarding. Now it must be ob served that the French armies have wanted specie no more during the last two years than for many years before: but it is well known. never to have been abundant among them, their wants having in general been supplied by local requisitions, or contributions in kind. The last campaign against Austria did not materially affect the North of Germany; and, moreover, nearly eighteen months have passed since it was brought to as close. As to hoarding by individuals, what reason have we for concluding that this practice took place during the last year, in a greater degree than in any year since the beginning of the French Revolution? In that portion of a country which is overrun by a hostile force, hoarding will prevail to a certain

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