have not a saving belief of the truths they admit; but then they have such a belief as they deem respectful to them, and likely to lead on to it. They might, perhaps, be convinced that they have not such a belief as deters them from sins and crimes which set God and his word at defiance; still they insist that it is a belief. It appears to have little or no influence on their practice, still they regard it as a very important affair, and would not part with it on any account. They acknowledge their accountability and sinfulness, and, though sinning daily, claim that they are less daring, and more innocent and respectful than those who deny both. They have the happy way of resolving the matter so that they keep the thing, and shun the name of it. It is satisfactory to them, not that it has any reason in it; not that it proves any superior goodness in them; not indeed that it restrains them from any iniquity; but that it tallies with their household notions and conceptions of the beauty of faith and the deformity of its opposite."-p. 16-18.

The following passage will also give the reader a notion of Mr. Hooker's style of thinking and expression:

"It is not more clearly a part of the great design of the universe that all bodies should tend to a common centre, than it is the chief design of rational creatures that they should tend with strongest affection to the greatest and most worthy object of such regard; nor is this law of the material system more needful and proper to its destined action, than that of spirits to their safe and rational action, while both alike are allowed to attract smaller objects, and to feel their attraction, yet only as parts of a whole, and in pursuance of this their chiefest end. Why, therefore, one is not in love with this object, but goes counter to the ordinance of his nature, as well as to the claims and commands of Him whose claims could not be greater nor his commands more reasonable, and whose wills concerning us, expressing both his perfection and intending ours, may be summed up in one, 'be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,' enjoining on us his likeness in order to our participating in his felicity, is a question that may reasonably claim his first attention; and which, now that he deems it an unjustifiable reflection upon his faith, to infer that he denies its importance, he should be presumed to approach with candour and self-distrust, and as caring less to obtain that which he cannot keep, than to possess himself of that good which he knows he cannot lose."-p. 22, 23.

There are, to our feeling, two faults in this book, which, we should imagine, would diminish its interest with general readers. The first is the want of a sufficiently clear method and distinct progress of thought-the connection and relevancy of many trains of reflection to the main scope of the work, is not, in some cases sufficiently obvious. The other and greater fault is, that in some instances his analysis appears to operate upon

NO. IV.-VOL. II.

61

materials formed and combined by his own imagination, rather than upon the actual workings of the human heart seized by a searching observation of real life. This gives to some of his remarks, acute as they are, an air of unreality, or at least of exaggeration-an aloofness from the actual human heart with which it was his business to deal.

This latter fault is, however, by no means characteristic of the work. On the contrary, it is generally characterized by an analysis which is as true as it is profound and acute; and not seldom expressed in a style of remarkable originality. Take the following examples:

66

Hypocrisy is often spun of a very fine thread, so fine that even the spinner can hardly tell it from the material it is designed to represent; but when he affects to put it off as better than that, and to be surprised that that so often fails and disappoints our hopes, he may be suspected of too much interest in the matter to be honest." -p. 41.

"All men are ready to condemn hypocrisy, if not to boast that they are clear of it; the very word is odious, and yet nothing is more common than some degree of it. If men, good and bad, were taken for what they affect to be, they would generally pass for more than they are worth."-p. 43.

"Men, good men, must be greatly good if they are not quite content, we will not say desirous, to be esteemed more highly than they deserve; but to know they are so esteemed, and to be lifted up by it; to think it their due for no other reason, and to complain and take offence when any happen to think differently, is a species of hypocrisy, a deception in good earnest, a claiming of excellence which does not belong to them,--a proof that they are losing sight of themselves in their admiration of an image of others' making; and that the advantage, the credit of virtue, is more looked

to, than virtue itself."—p. 45.

Speaking of those with whom his treatise has chiefly to do— those who, admitting the truth and claims of revelation, live in habitual, substantial disregard of them, the author says:

"If we consider what their designs, motives, and affections fasten on, what they look to and centre in, all the faith we discover is, that God was somehow concerned in the making of the world, and that they, his creatures, do not exactly live without him. Is the desire of wealth, of knowledge, of office, the ruling passion?-every track leads to this path, every stream runs into this channel; there is no God, no world besides. . . . As we look upon the spectacle, we have only the idea that the rational being before us was made to lay up money, to gain some applause and distinction from his fellows, and then die; or that he has lost his proper attraction,

pursues no end suitable to himself or to the mind of his Creator, and is to be known as rational more by his feet and hands, than by any proof he gives of faith in the word of God or in the work of his own immortal nature."-p. 48.

"With what grace, then, does he ask us to give him credit for faith in the Gospel who leaves his whole concern in it at loose ends,' and is content to float upon the stream that is bearing him from God with a force that increases with the distance, and will soon make his return impossible? Why should he not be considered and treated as an infidel?

"If we judge of them by their spirit, we see no difference; if by their works, we see both breaking the same ground, and looking for the same increase. Both sow to the flesh, and of the flesh reap corruption' daily and visibly. Both are self-confident, self-complacent, indisposed to devotion, and trusting in themselves that they are righteous.' Both are disposed to carry this impression as far as they can, and when they make it succeed with men, to take that for an argument that it will pass for a reality with God. Both are the willing dupes of an evil heart of unbelief,' and, in spiritual matters, 'grope as if they had no eyes.' Both have a price all price beyond, put into their hands to get wisdom-the one openly discrediting its value, and thinking himself wise and good enough without itthe other putting upon it all manner of professed respect, and acknowledging his folly and destitution without it, yet burying it in the earth as a talent which he cares not to employ; and, if neither the priest nor the Levite, but a certain Samaritan' was 'neighbour to him that fell among thieves,' which of these is the believer? Which treats his Lord with most reverence--he that discredits the gift and his need of it, or he that professes to credit both and does not act conformably to either? he who rejects the offer which he thinks made to him without authority, or he who affects to receive it as of the authority which it claims, and yet never attempts to possess himself of the good it proposes? Which has the most fear of God--he that sins largely as doubting his word, or he that deliberately sins enough as believing it to incur his just displeasure forever? he that sees God as angry with the wicked every day, and is every day sinning, or he that sees him only as indifferent to human actions, and continues to do what he will? Which should we think the better man-he who receives our bounties and favours as thinking they came from us, yet never returns any thanks or dischar ges any obligation they lay on him, or he that receives them, as he does the showers of heaven, by the chance or right of his condition, and as little thinks of his duty to us as of the clouds that, without mind, drop down the rain? he that pays us an external respect and deference because he thinks it shall profit him, or he that passes us by as though we were not, and is as regardless of his own interests as of our rights ?"-p. 107-109.

6.-Alumni Anniversary of Columbia College, New-York. Address delivered in the College Chapel, 4th October, 1837. By JOHN MCVICKAR, D. D., Professor of Moral Philosophy. New-York: G. and C. Carvill & Co. 1837. pp. 40.

WE intended to have noticed this address at an earlier day. The opening remarks upon the recollections and associations of academic life are singularly beautiful. Then there is an exceedingly interesting sketch of the late Rev. Dr. Bowden. But what leads us particularly to call attention to this pamphlet, is the recommendation by Dr. McVickar of an additional endowment to be made in Columbia College for a course of instruction in the evidences of Revealed Religion. ""Tis true," he says, our statutes have recently recognized this study as part of the senior course; but being thrown on an already overloaded professorship, it is evident it cannot receive the time and attention it deserves. Let, then, our college circuit be enlarged by a lectureship, devoted specifically to this end, bearing the name of "Alumni" for its founders, and the truth of the Bible for its special subject, and embracing, at the shortest, the two closing years of the sub-graduate course." This suggestion is strongly and eloquently enforced in the address; and we earnestly hope it will be acted upon with proper spirit by the large, respectable, and wealthy body formed by the sons of Columbia College.

7.-Apostolical Fathers: Clement, Bishop of Rome; Epistle to the Corinthians. Burlington, N. J. J. L. Powell, Missionary Press. 1837. 8vo. pp. 32.

FULFILLING the plan intimated in the introductory notice to the edition of the Epistles of Polycarp and Ignatius of which we made mention in our last number-Bishop Doane has brought another of the Apostolical Fathers, the Epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, accompanied by notices and notes, in the same neat style as the former pamphlet. We are glad to see these "almost Apostolical" writings printed in this way for parochial use.

8.-The Interrogatories in the "Ordering of Deacons," considered in an Address delivered at the fourteenth Annual Commencement of the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, &c. By BENJAMIN T. ONDERDONK, D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of New-York. Protestant Episcopal Press. 1838.

THIS address is marked by the plain and vigorous good sense which distinguishes Bishop Onderdonk's mind. It contains a clear exposition and a solemn enforcement of the obligations implied in the interrogatories contained in our service for the "ordering of Deacons." It was particularly suitable for the occasion on which it was delivered; and we are glad that in its present form it can exert a wider influence to instruct and quicken our candidates for orders, as well as those who have already assumed the responsible obligations of the sacred office.

9.-Subordination to the Civil Authority the Duty of Christians. A Sermon preached in Christ Church, Lockport, N. Y. Jan. 7, 1838. By the Rev. E. H. CRESSEY, A. M. Minister of Christ Church. Lockport: R. M. Lyon.

MR. CRESSEY does not say a word in this discourse about the Canada war, nor the disgraceful outrages that have been perpetrated on our frontiers by a set of exceedingly worthless personages among our own citizens, by a strange misnomer calling themselves "Patriots"-outrages marked not more by the grossest violation of Law and of National Faith, than of common Honesty. Still, we presume this sermon was occasioned by the excitements in that region. Its application is obvious. We are glad that in such circumstances Mr. Cressey has had the boldness to come out, and, asserting the legitimate office of the Christian minister, has so clearly and in so unexceptionable a way enforced a plain Christian duty. We honour him for his fidelity. The truth is, there is a pestilent spirit abroad in our land, which, canting perpetually about Liberty, threatens the subversion of all LAW and PUBLIC ORDER, without which liberty is nothing more than the anarchy of the French Reign of Terror-as great a curse as the most iron despotism. What, in the name of Reason, of Truth, and of God, we ask-what are