was, he says, to be a teacher of morality; not of that morality which is acknowledged by the world, and sanctioned by considerations of present interest, but of the pure, spiritual and exalted morality of the gospel. The most interesting topic to his own mind was the hope of immortality, and this he justly characterizes as "the essence and glory of Christianity." This sermon should be perused first by such as wish to appreciate Mr. Cogan's merits as a preacher; the valedictory conclusion is an ingenuous and interesting exposition of his views and feelings, with regard to the profession which his talents and character so eminently adorned, and which all his readers must regret that any considerations should have induced him to relinquish.

The Sermons rarely touch upon the controversies carrying on amongst Christians; though there are some exceptions to the remark, which make us almost wish that the preacher had more frequently allowed himself to enter a province where he displays so much ability. His theology is, at the same time, by more than implication, Unitarian.

The reader, apprized of Mr. Cogan's high reputation for learning, may expect the Sermons to abound with criticisms upon the Sacred writings; but in this he will be disappointed. There are only a few passages in which there is any thing of verbal criticism. The truth is, that the preacher appears always to have been attracted to topics of great and solemn practical importance, and to have been carried at once by a strong feeling of religion into the heart of his subject. As a proof of this, we may remark that his exordiums are commonly striking and impressive.

The general doctrine of the Sermons is the superlative importance of Christianity, as the revelation of a future state of existence. In this view, the preacher goes repeatedly into the evidences of the Christian religion, and particularly of the grand fact, on which the whole system depends, the resurrection of Christ. All piety and morality he resolves into the temper and conduct becoming a being of immortal expectations.

Mr. Cogan is, in the true sense of the term, an Evangelical preacher.

He falls into the class of Christians, quaintly described by Sir Thomas Browne, as "disdaining to suck divinity from the flowers of nature." He pronounces the natural arguments for a future existence to be ingenious and plausible, but not solid and couvincing, [Vol. I. p. 4,] still allowing some weight to the "presumptions of human immortality," [Vol. II. pp. 5 and 259,] which yet do not supersede the necessity of the Christian revela tion, but, on the contrary, render it credible. [Vol. I. p. 296.] He cousiders testimony of sufficient force to establish any fact, not implying an impossibility; and suggests reasons why the fact of the resurrection of Christ may be the best medium of proof, with regard to a future life, to a being such as man, who is evidently in a state of intellectual and moral discipline.

The Sermons on the Evidences of Christianity are amongst the best in the Volumes. They may be confi dently recommended to philosophical inquirers, who will here find the ques tion stripped of all that is adventitious, and the argument fairly brought to a conclusion.

The difference between the believer

and the unbeliever is well stated in the following passage:

"He who believes that Jesus died and existence of a God, and will regard that rose again, will of necessity admit the God as a Being of infinite wisdom, power and goodness: he will consider himself as placed in a state of discipline, which, after a few years, will usher him into another and eternal world; and will look forward to glory, honour and immortality, as the reward of a patient continuance in will find the duties of devotion, benevolence well-doing. In his system of morality be and self-government; and these he will consider as essential to his happiness in that future state, for which he will regard the present only as a preparation. The various trials and afflictions of human life will, to him, be necessary parts of that wise and benevolent plan, by which the Universal Parent is producing the greatest ultimate good of his intelligent offspring. He, on the other hand, who does not admit the resurrection of Jesus, will, generally speaking, entertain no cheering views of in the administration of the universe, no the Divine attributes, and will acknowledge worthy and benevolent design. He will either look forward to death as the termi nation of his being, or will extend his

views beyond it with a feeble and uncerLain expectation; and his motives to virtue will be resolvable chiefly into mere worldly prudence and calculation. Whether of the two characters will have the advantage for the attainment of moral excellence, and for the rational enjoyment of life, it must be needless to explain. It is indeed melancholy to reflect, that Christians in profession, are too often unbelievers in practice. By dismissing the principles of their faith from their reflection, they become the slaves of worldly affections, and are scarcely distinguishable in conduct from those who professedly disregard the obligations of religion. But they have means of moral improvement, of which the unbeliever deprives himself. In a word, the unbeliever, generally speaking, must be what the professing Christian too often is." I. 10, 11.

The preacher thus argues the reasonableness of the Christian religion:

"All nature seems to prove that there is a God, and also evinces not only the power and wisdom, but the general benevolence of the Divine Being. The provision that is made for the accommodation and comfort of percipient beings, indicates a disposition in the Author of nature to promote the happiness of his creatures. At the same time the sufferings which enter into human life, will hardly allow us to admit the unlimited benevolence of the Deity, unless the existence of man is to be extended beyond the grave. It seems strange if man is to be annihilated at death, that he should be called to endure so much as many do endure, for so small a preponderance of enjoyment. And it does not appear that any hypothesis, but that of a future existence, will reconcile the present

eircumstances of our condition with the perfections of the Divine character. But as we can imagine no cause of imperfection in the Deity; as we cannot even conceive of any thing that should limit his benevolence, allowing benevolence to be an attribute of his nature, the doctrine of a future state may be considered as not in itself incredible, but as a doctrine which upon certain evidence may readily be admitted." I. 304, 305.

Towards the conclusion of Sermon XX. in Vol. II., "The Progress of Christianity, an Argument of its Truth," which is throughout a fine specimen of reasoning, there is a summing up of the subject, which forms the best of all perorations. The Sermon immediately preceding may be like wise quoted as an example of the same excellence; the beautiful conclusion of

this Sermon is also strikingly rhetori cal. We take notice of this the rather, because the peroration is not the part of these Sermons that usually pleases most. Several of them terminate abruptly and it would almost appear from their equal length, that the writer set himself certain limits of paper or of time, which he would on no account exceed. * We return with great satisfaction to the passage referred to, containing a summary of the argument in favour of Christianity, from its effects:

“A reformation in the religious notions, and the moral practice of mankind, was manifestly wanted before the Christian æra, and this reformation has been actually effected by the religion of Jesus. A system of idolatry which was destructive of every thing that is great and good has been overthrown, and moral and religious knowledge has been diffused, where all before was darkness, ignorance and superstition. And all this has been brought about by men who, if Christianity be not divine, were employed in imposing on the world the most shameless falsehoods that ever insulted the credulity of mankind. They called upon men to leave the idolatrous worship which education and habit had endeared to them, and to accept as their spiritual instructor, the crucified Jesus, whom they rashly maintained to have risen from the dead; and the final result of this wild and hopeless counsel has been the demolition of heathen idolatry, and the introduction of a religion, whose morality is most pure, whose doctrines are most sublime, and whose pros

pects are most animating and glorious.

"Let us, my Christian friends, rejoice in the assurance which we have reason to feel, that our holy religion proceeded indeed from above, and that while we have admitted the hopes of the gospel, we have not followed cunningly-devised fables. A religion which proposes to itself such an object as the Christian, which made its way by such humble instruments, and which was followed by such consequences, bears clearly impressed upon it the character of divinity. Had it been of men,

Archdeacon Sharp has left some Discourses on Preaching, which were de

livered as Visitation Charges. They contain some good rules for pulpit composition: at least, the Archdeacon's precepts are better than his example, for he breaks off in one of them, and concludes with, "But I have come to the end of my paper," &c.

of necessity, as it seems to us, be able to accomplish every thing that is the object of power." Is this self-evident? We are conscious that knowledge gives power to a certain extent; but are not we conscious also that knowledge beyond this limit only displays the want of power! Can we not conceive at least of a Being whose knowledge should indefinitely exceed his power? It may perhaps be proved that a Being who is infinite in any one attribute, must be infinite in all, that is, he must be perfect; but in the order in which the Divine attributes are apprehended by the human mind, it appears to us easier to begin with the attribute of power than with that of wisdom. We make these remarks with deference to the able writer who has occasioned them, and less for the sake of objecting than of giving an opportunity of our being corrected, if we have erred.

On the moral attributes of God, the preacher frequently expatiates, and there is a peculiar glow of eloquence in those passages of his sermons which relate to the Divine character, in its connexion with the present and future state of man, and its influence upon his affections and deportment. We may refer, generally, to the discourses on Providence, under several titles, and particularly to that "On the Benevolence of the Deity," from which we shall make a short but most interesting extract:

"There is, indeed, no truth in the whole compass of intellectual inquiry, that can be compared in point of importance with the goodness of the Deity. It is this that makes existence a blessing, it is this that at once gives the relish to present good, and enlivens the expectation of future being. It is this that soothes the mind amidst the trials and perplexities of life, that robs calamity of its sting, and death of its terrors. It is this that makes our meditation of God to be sweet, and that draws frail, fallible man by the bands of love, into a union with a Being, eternal, omnipotent and perfect.”—I. 26.

[To be concluded in the next Number.]

ART. II.-A Letter to Viscount Sidmouth, Secretary of State for the Home Department, on the Transpor tation Laws, the State of the Hulks, and of the Colonies in New South Wales. By the Hon. Henry Grey Bennet, M. P. 8vo. pp. 137. Ridgway, 1819.

NHUMANITY requires only to be

and put down. Arguments on abstract rights influence not the majority. Plain facts excited that humane spirit which abolished the Slave Trade, and the same means are now happily employed to enforce the melioration of our system of punishments, in spite of the opposition and the artifices of Secretaries of State.

Mr. Bennet here exhibits statements which must make Englishmen rebuke themselves for having been so long asleep, while such atrocities were perpetrating in their name, under the pretence of justice.

"After having pined and rotted in their respective county gaols for a given portion of time, which varies from three months to as many years, the prisoners are removed on board the different hulks designed for their reception. There are various modes of transport; some ave chained on the tops of coaches; others, as from London, travel in an open caravan, exposed to the incleidle, and the taunts and mockeries of the mency of the weather, to the gaze of the cruel; thus exciting as they pass along, the shame and indignation of all those who feel what punishment ought to bewhat ought to be its process as well as its fruits. Men and boys, children just emerging from infancy, as young in vice as in years, are fettered together, and (such are the triumphs of our criminal code) paraded through the kingdom; they are besides generally fettered in the cruelest

manner.

Mr. Brown, the keeper of Newgate, stated last year in his evidence before the Prison Committee of the House of Commons, that the convicts from Newgate travel unchained; but from the country, particularly last time from York, they were terribly ironed. Some years back, I saw in the Compter of the city of London, a considerable number of convicts who were on the road to the hulks. Among them were several children, all beavily fettered, ragged and sickly, and carrying in their countenance proofs of the miseries they had undergone. The women, too, are brought up in the same manner, ironed together on the tops of coaches.

"Mr. Brown mentioned a case of a

young woman between seventeen and eighteen years of age, who was removed from the house of correction at Cambridge,* to be lodged in Newgate for the night, prior to being sent to the Penitentiary at Millbank. Her offence was stealing something from a shop. She was leg-locked, the chains being brought up between her legs, under her petticoats, and fastened round her waist; in this state she remained all night, there being in Newgate no key which could unlock the chain. Another case of greater atrocity occurred too last year. A woman was sent up from Carlisle on the top of one of the coaches, during the inclement weather of the month of March, chained even more severely than the last victim. She had been brought to bed of a child while in prison, which she was then suckling: the child was torn from her breast, and deposited, probably to perish, in the parish poor-house. In this state of bodily pain and mental distraction she was brought to Newgate, where, by care, she soon recovered, and was then sent out to Botany Bay, on board the vessel which sailed last spring. I saw her on board, and she could not speak of her child without an agony of tears."-Pp. 23-25.

The custom hitherto has been, Mr. Bennet says, as soon as the ship cleared the river, for every officer and sailor on board to select some one of the women for his mistress.

"I have already described the ordinary treatment of the women-convicts in prison, the manner they are moved to the transportships, and the customary proceeding during the passage out. On their arrival at New South Wales, notice is given to the colony, and the women, newly dressed and cleaned, are turned upon deck to be chosen like slaves in the bazaar, or cattle at Smithfield: though the most reputable and best conducted of these women may be taken as domestic servants, and bringing with them a fair character and recommendation from the captain of the vessel, may be hired as such; yet the greater part of those who are well-looking are taken as prostitutes by the officers of the colony, or by those who have interest with the government to have the priority of selection. True it is, many of these women marry, and turn out well. I could furnish a list of persons who

"This wretched girl was removed from the town gaol of Cambridge, which is a disgrace to the corporation of that city, and though in the heart of the Untpersity, divine service is never performed, and there is no religious attendance at all."

are so situated, who, having been the mis tresses of the captain or officers of the ship, during the voyage, have obtained recommendations on their arrival, are now the mothers of families, and are living in a creditable manner. But these are the great prizes in the lottery; by far the greater part of the women go on the town, live oa the town, and subsist in no other way. Mr. Marsden writes, 'that the consequence of this system is, there is scarcely one female convict that will quietly go into the service of the most respectable families in the colony, that they in the most open and positive manner refuse to obey the order of magistrates to that effect, preferring to live upon bread and water in a solitary cell, till they weary out, by length of time, the patience of the magistrate, and he knows not what measures to adopt to support his judicial authority, and to carry his necessary orders into execution.'

The women who are not hired as servants, are put into a boat, and sent across the bay to a species of workhouse at Paramatta, where they are employed in a sort of factory, on the account of government. Here were in 1815, 150 women and 70 children. There is not any room in the factory that can be called a bed-room. For these wretched beings there are only two rooms, and they are over the yard, and both occupied as werk-shops, being about eighty feet long by twenty wide. In these rooms forty-six women were daily employed; twenty spinning wool upon the common wheel, and twenty-six carding: there are also in them, the warping ma chines belonging to the factory. These rooms are crowded all day and night; such women sleep in them as are confined for recent offences, amongst the wheels, wool and cards, and a few others who have not the means of procuring a better abode. The hours of government labour end at three o'clock of the day, and from that time till the following morning, the female convicts are at liberty to go where they think fit. No less than 150 women sleep out. During the night they spread themselves through all the town and neighbourhood of Paramatta, and some of them are glad to cohabit with any wretched man, who can give them shelter for a night. Hence the male convicts nightly rob or plunder either government or private individuals, to supply the urgent wants of the females who are devoted to their plea