The whole discourse from which we have made this long extract, so masterly in argument, though occasionally defective in style, is finely contrasted with the following sermon on “ The State of Grace,” Ephes. ii. 4---7., and both unitedly form a strong and striking description of the character of man as he is in sin, and as he ought to become through the converting influence of the Holy Ghost.

Of such materials is this valuable volume composed. That it should gain an extensive reception on account of the writer was to be expected. The character of Henry Martyn, the interesting scene of his later duties, the spirit in which he lived and laboured, suffered and died, had endeared his memory, to such numbers in the Christian world, that an indifference to any work from his pen could not be anticipated. These sermons, however, are now purchased and read from higher motives than any of merely personal or ministerial respect and affection. They exhibit statements of pure and undefiled religion. They come home to every man's business and bosom. They state the truth, as it is in Jesus, with affectionate fidelity. They deserve, therefore, the reputation which they have already received, and that which they may still look forward to attain.

In speaking of such a volume, from feelings of affectionate respect towards its sainted author, we would not willingly use any other language than that of unqualified approbation. It is therefore with reluctance, that we are compelled to make a few remarks upon the manner in which the Editors have performed their duty to the author, and to the public. We shall offer them in the spirit of sincere respect and cordial kindness: and we trust they will be received not as the cavils of opposers, but as “ the reproof of friends.”

We are convinced that they published this volume, because they wished him still to address the world, although he was removed from its warfare to the rest and triumph of heaven. We cannot, however, prevent the intrusion of a feeling, that the office, which they have undertaken, has hardly been fulfilled with that care and discrimination, which such a task requires; a task, always of delicate, usually of very difficult performance.

The first duty to which the Editors were pledged was obviously that of a careful selection. The interests of religion and truth were to be served: but in an instance, like the present, they ought to have been served in harmony with the most tender and affectionate regard to the memory of him, whose writings were considered as a valuable legacy to mankind, and to whose bequest the Editors had become voluntary executors. We cannot avoid regretting that in the anxiety to present the world with this volume of sermons, some instances of hasty and injudicious choice are marked and evident.

Every individual, familiar with the demands and duties of incessant ministerial engagement, must be aware that it is impossible, on every occasion, to prepare sermons for the pulpit strictly and entirely original. The preacher must occasionally depend upon the assistance of others; and the extent of that assistance will in such cases be regulated in a considerable degree by the pressure of those engagements which interfere with his opportunities of study and composition.

“ Scimus, et hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim.” . But the case is widely different, when sermons are committed to the press. Love of truth, respect for the property of another, or the fear of detection and shame, would prevent an author from publishing what he did not know, or at least what he did not believe to be original. Editors, therefore, who are bound to consider and to fulfil the probable views of their departed friend, are imperiously called upon to act towards his papers by the same rule. Now it so happens, doubtless unintentionally, but certainly through a defective examination, that the fourth sermon in this volume is mainly borrowed from one by President Edwards upon the same text and subject. (Edwards's Works, vol. vii. pp. 455---464. 8vo. Leeds.) The divisions are almost entirely the same: and the very words of this great divine occupy no small part of the whole discourse. It never could have been the purpose of the author that such a transcription should meet the public eye: and amidst the interesting variety of sermons which the Editors must surely have found among his papers, it might well have been omitted. · The anecdote connected with the 5th Discourse, to which we have already alluded, invests it with an interest more powerful than can be possessed by any other in the volume. The subject, as will be recollected, is “ The Doom of the Wicked." Now the two heads of this sermon, together with

the three subdivisions of the first branch, and the two of the - second, are precisely those adopted by the Rev. C. Simeon

(Helps to Composition, Skel. 357). Part of the practical application (p. 95) is taken from the second inference of the same discourse. A resemblance, less striking indeed, but probably too close to be accidental, may be traced between the eighth sermon on Coloss. ii. 6, and one on the same subject by Mr. Simeon (Helps to Composition, Skel. 96). These are instances of hasty selection which might have been avoided; and which the very reverence felt by the editors for the name and memory of Henry Martyn should have prevented. The present instance is not singular. We are acquainted with a volume of posthumous sermons, published in some degree under similar circumstances with that before us, which contains a discourse taken, almost totidem verbis, from the works of an eminent author.

Our next cause of regret arises from the faulty manner in which sentences, that ought to be essentially distinct and independent, are permitted to blend and mingle together, often to the great confusion of the author's meaning; when a very trifling degree of attention to the punctuation would have obviated the evil..

The posthumous works of the late truly venerable Dean Milner have suffered materially by an injudicious and hasty publication. We possessed an intercourse with that great and good man, sufficiently long and intimate, to be certain, a priori, that any sermons which might have been found among his papers, unless particularly marked by himself for publication, would stand in need of a careful, judicious revision, which it is much to be regretted they did not obtain. The inaccuracies of the present volume are of a character less prominent: they are such, however, as might easily have been amended, and such as we trust to see amended in a future edition.

With these few abatements the work before us is worthy of the great cause which it was intended to promote, and of the mind by which it was produced. The writer is now immeasurably beyond the reach of human censure or applause. But a volume, bearing his name, as its author, seems to come to us, as from his grave; and, connected as it is with many tender recollections, it has cast a kind of moral spell around us, and made us not only slow to break through the circle of the enchantment, but glad to linger within its delightful limit. We have felt also, that some more than ordinary regard was due to the legacy of one,

“ By whom and by whose means part of the Liturgy of the Church of England, the Parables, and the whole of the New Testament were translated into Hindoostanee-a language spoken from Delhi to Cape Comorin, and intelligible to many millions of immortal souls ; by whom, and by whose means also, the Psalms of David, and the New Testament were rendered into Persian, the vernacular language of two hundred thousand who bear the Christian name, and known over one fourth of the habitable globe; by whom, lastly, the imposture of the Prophet of Mecca was daringly exposed, and the truths of Christianity openly vindicated in the very heart and centre of a Mahometan empire.” (Memoirs, pp. 506, 507.)

ART. IV.---ARCHDEACON BROWNE, AND MR. WILKINS.

1. On the Corruption of Human Nature. A Charge delivered

to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Ely; at a Visitation held in the Parish Church of St. Michaels, Cambridge, on Tuesday, May 7th, 1822. With an Appendix. By the Reverend J. H. Browne, A. M. Archdeacon of Ely, Rector of Cotgrave, and late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Published at the request of the Clergy. Nottingham, 1822. (For

Rivingtons.) pp. 122. 2. Body and Soul. Second Edition. London. Longman, 1823.

pp. 416. 3. Five Letters, addressed to the Reverend G. Wilkins, Vicar of

St. Mary's, Nottingham, containing Strictures on some parts of the First Volume of a Work, entitled “ Body and Soul.” By the Reverend J. H. Browne, A. M. &c. Second Edition. Hatchard. 1823. pp. 81. 4. Body and Soul. Volume Second. London. Longman.

1823. pp. 380. 5. A Sixth Letter to the Reverend G. Wilkins, in reply to a

Chapter in the Second Volume of “ Body and Soul,' entitled “ Evangelism.” By the Reverend J. H. Browne, A.M. &c.

London. Hatchard. 1823. pp. 94. | Among the characteristic traits by which the old puritanic writers were distinguished, quaintness of title was not the least remarkable. The designations of their works were either sarcastic, allegorical, pedantic, or enigmatical, as best suited the turn of the author; while not a few bore names, which far from setting forth the family to which they belonged, only served to awaken curiosity, and puzzle conjecture. We consider it as no credit to the taste of modern writers to revive this sort of mystical introduction. There is something still left in the old English feelings, that leads our countrymen to respect a man who appears what he is, and to regard frank and open avowal of character and profession, as part of the common law of intercourse.

An ordinary reader, lighting upon a work whose title-page was simply inscribed “Body and Soul,” might fancy that some modern Leibnitz, Berkeley or Hartley, was about to prefer a modest claim to his attention. He might flatter himself that the delicate subject of life and organization was about to receive some new light; that the cogitative atoms of Democritus, the intellectual vapour of Heraclitus, the pre-existent germs of

Spallanzani, or the airy speculations of some physiological magician from the age of Lucretius to that of Maupertius and Lawrence, were on the point of dispersion before some rational and intelligible theory. He opens the book, and finds it a kind of serio-comico-theological romance---a something, that (we believe) people call “a religious novel.”

Now we have strong misgiving as to the quantum of good producible by this species of literary exertion. At least, whatever may be its merits in other hands, the publication, which we have now in view, is calculated to be injurious in no trifting degree, from the popular and colloquial manner, in which it handles topics of very grave concern, but too often upon false principles, and, while it brings forward in dramatic style angelic misses, sentimental divines, and eccentric sectaries, will hardly fail, as we fear, to interest some juvenile or uninformed minds, who may be deceived into the persuasion, that they are quaffing a wholesome, because palatable beverage, at the very time that they are quite unconscious of any deleterious mixture. It has indeed gone rapidly to a second edition, and the author has been induced to add another volume; for which reason we shall bestow a little more attention on the work, than under other circumstances its relative magnitude or intrinsic merits would appear to demand.

The author is assumed by his antagonist without contradiction, though the title-page is anonymous, to be the Rev. Mr. Wilkins, Vicar of St. Mary's, Nottingham, a gentleman already signalized by a controversy with the minister of St. James's chapel, in that town. He dedicates his lucubrations in the present volumes to the three christian graces, "Faith, Hope, and Charity.” How far he has rightly estimated the character of the first of these venerated names, may perhaps appear hereafter. How far he has caught the spirit implied in the last of them, some judgment may be formed from the following statements, with which the Preface commences : .....

“ It is the fashion of the age in which we live to mistake the outward show of seriousness and gloominess of deportment for the effect of true religion, and to determine on the merits and demerits of all who call themselves Christians,' by their professions and appearance, without sufficient regard to principles aud doctrine. Hence it is, that one part of the evangelical world excludes from the pale of genuine religion all who have a cheerfulness of manner, and a liveliness of spirit, because they say, these are signs of a carnal and unconverted mind. In like manner they are anathematized as strangers to the, heritage of God, who conform with those innocent amusements and customs of society, which give a zest to the more serious things which belong to their peace,