The duty itself is first considered and then the manner of performing it. With regard to the former, the necessity of some restraint upon a nature at all times prone to get the master over our better feelings, is pointed out, together with the erroneous views frequently taken of the obligation; in noticing which it is judiciously remarked, that

"All self denial in things not in themselves sinful, and bodily mortifications especially, in whatever it consist, must be practised only as an instrument for a higher end; each must therefore" (on the subject of fasting or self denial)" consider his own besetting sins, his own spiritual infirmities. Let the covetous man deny himself in his desire after Mammon. Let the angry man mortify the irritability of his temper. Let the man of pleasure forego his walk in the broad road which is leading him to destruction. Let the proud man remember his dust, his origin, and his end. Let the uncharitable man think on the nothingness of his boasted attainments in other duties, the love of his fellow creatures unfulfilled, and then will be performed in very deed the Scriptural doctrines of the Christian faith."

SERMON III.-THE MERCIES OF REDEEMING LOVE. FOR GOOD FRIDAY.-Rom. v. 7, 8, 9.-" For scarcely for a righteous man one will die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commended his love towards us; in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

"No language which the ear could receive, or the human spirit understand could ever convey to our full understanding, what it is to be redeemed from the punishment due to sin, by the vicarious sufferings of the Son of God."

Still the text amongst other passages of the inspired writings assists us in our contemplation of the mysterious scheme of God's love and man's redemption by supplying images with which we are conversant, and thus gradually raising our thoughts from earth to heaven.

That so many are found travelling on "the broad road" and so few comparatively on the "narrow" one, which leads to the future world, is to be ascribed to the necessity of an

"Entire change of heart and manner of life from what natural corruption and the temptations of the world are ever pressing upon us all, which makes the weightier matters of the soul of small account, and gives the great hindrance to growth in grace here, and to any real desire for glory hereafter. It is, the stumbling block and rock of offence, which makes the cross of a suffering Redeemer "foolishness' in the estimate of of the unrenewed and carnal heart, and calls down the wonder of every thoughtful spirit, that man, redeemed by a Saviour's sufferings will not take upon himself the mercies of a Saviour's love."

VOL. I. NO. I.

But while we wonder that others should "neglect so great salvation," we must not forget that upon our own personal application of the promises of the Gospel, and an individual compliance with the terms of the covenant of grace, will depend our own participation in the benefits accruing to fallen and sinful man from the one great sacrifice and oblation made on the cross by the Son of God,

SERMON IV. THE MYSTERY OF MAN'S REDEMPTION.-ON THE PASSION.-2 Cor. v. 19.-" God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself."

"In our utter ignorance of the ways of God when unrevealed, we can know them only in their consequences, and then we know enough to make the whole scheme of our redemption matter of continual gratitude and spiritual improvement.'

With this view of the subject the text is considered under two heads; first, the nature and perfect efficacy of the great scheme of our redemption; and secondly, the necessity that we should rightly understand it. The first is demonstrated by arguments drawn from the inability of man to restore himself to the divine favour, from the need which existed for such a restoration, and from the nature and extent of sin. The second point is proved from the apparent indifference of so many professed Christians to the great truths of the Gospel. We may each of us refer to our own hearts, with a conviction that if on enquiry we find our lives are

"Otherwise passed in daily habits, in daily wishes and desires, in daily temper and behaviour one towards another, than what the Gospel enjoins, we may be certain that there must be something wrong within ; some grievous error in our will and manner of life, which keeps us from the proper fruits, as well as from our sufficient enjoyment of the promises and mercies of our baptismal covenant."

With the conclusion of this sermon we shall close our analysis and extracts, having, as we hope, given a sufficient specimen of the manner in which Mr. Marriott thinks and writes. As far as regards language merely, we should not class our author among the best writers of the day-there is sometimes a want of the lucidus ordo in his arrangement, sometimes of accuracy in the construction of his sentences, and sometimes of care in the use of metaphorical expressions, which may rather indicate a defect of ear in composition than of any other more material qualification. We may, however, safely rank him, if it be true that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," among the good men by whom the cause of pure and undefiled religion is efficiently upheld:-greater praise we can

not bestow.

"In conclusion," says Mr. Marriott "let us consider the case of those who believe, and those among professing Christians, who do not believe. To those who believe, and shew their belief in the great mystery of our redemption by a good and holy life, they need only to be urged on by the encouraging words of God himself: Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.'

"For those on whose hearts the solemn truths of religion have hitherto made no deeper impression, than what the succeeding cares and temptations of life have very speedily effaced, upon these should be deeply impressed this awful consideration: that though the Gospel is all peace and light to those who accept it; a dispensation of unspeakable love and mercy to all who endeavour to understand, believe in, and obey it; it is to those who refuse it more terrible than our imagination itself can conceive. The dreadful reality of its terrors can be known by such only as shall experience the horrors of that second death.' Christ himself has most plainly assured us all, that in the day of judgment it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, than for' those who refused the offered mercy and redeeming love of God. Let the anticipation of what must then be the poignant reflections of those who shall have so refused the Gospel, be now a lesson leading to a happier issue; let this be done, before it be discovered too late for any further trial, 'how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God.'"

The remaining Sermons are on the following subjects; Christ Risen from the Dead, 1 Cor. xv. 20.-On the Ascension, John xiv. 2.—On the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11. -On the Holy Trinity, 1 Cor. ii. 13, 14.-On the Ministry of Holy Angels, Heb. i. 14.—On a Preparation for the Judgment, Amos iv. 12.-The First Advent, Gal. iv. 4, 5.-The Word, or Son of God, made very Man, John i. 14.-On Receiving the Holy Sacrament Unworthily, 1 Cor. xi. 27, 28.-On Original Sin, Rom. v. 14.--On a Surrender of the Will to the Obedience of the Gospel, James ii. 10, 11.-On the Unprofitableness of Sin, Job xxxiii. 27.-On Temptation, 1 Cor. x. 13.On the Love of God towards Man, 1 John iv. 16.-On Indifference to Spiritual Things, Matt. xii. 34.-On the Danger of Worldly Comforts, Mark x. 23.-On the Due Employment of each Man's Talents, 1 Pet. iv. 10.-One Thing Needful, Luke x. 41, 42.—The Idolatry of Christians, Ephes. v. 5.--Man the Ordinary Cause of his own Heaviest Sorrows, Psalm xxxvii. 25. -The Single Eye, Matt. vi. 22, 23.-The Christian Test, Isa. viii. 28.-On Faith, Hope, and Charity, 1 Cor. xiii. 13.-The Same. The Same.-On Anger, 1 Pet. iii. 3, 4.-The Same.On Christian Friendship, Rom. xii. 15.

Sermons, by the REV. J. W. CUNNINGHAM, A.M. Vicar of Harrow; Domestic Chaplain to the Right Hon. Lord Northwich; and late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Vol. II. 8vo. 435pp. 10s. 6d. Hatchard. 1824.

IN this second volume of "Sermons" Mr. Cunningham " presents to the public a somewhat larger number than before of these plain and unpretending discourses, which have been delivered in the parish where he has the happiness to reside." The number of the discourses is twenty-five, and the description which the author himself gives of them is perfectly accurate-they are "plain and unpretending :" but more than this, they are not common place, and the subjects of them are, in some instances, more than usually interesting. We say more than usually interesting, not because any religious topic can be uninteresting, but because, among the multitude of sermons which the press annually supplies, there are certain theses so frequently adopted for discussion, and the treatment of them is so similar, that the most important truths fail of exciting the attention they deserve, merely because the readers of sermons become tired with the repetition, and disgusted with the sameness which writers of sermons are bound, if possible, to avoid. The public cares not to have the same thing said twice over, even if it be by two different people, unless it be recommended by some new grace, or the display of superior talent. In fact, printed sermons have to sustain both a religious and a literary character; to be generally useful they must be generally read: and to gain readers they must not only be spiritual or argumentative, but they must also possess certain excellencies which prove the writer of them to be a scholar and divine, as well as a pious man,

We judge, therefore, that Mr. Cunningham is too scrupulous when he says,

"Even if he could presume to consider himself as capable of satisfying the wishes of those who think more profoundly than the mass of society, he should exceedingly hesitate as to the lawfulness, especially in this species of composition, of labouring to gratify the few at the expence of the many.'

We have never been accustomed to doubt the lawfulness of the Bampton, Boyle, Warburtonian, or Hulsean Lectures which have been successively published, and which, as series of discourses, are perhaps not to be equalled in all the higher qualifications of this style of writing. We should assuredly doubt the expediency of preaching many of them to a country congrega, tion of farmers and labouring men; but the question before us

regards not so much the pulpit as the press. We hold that the style of printed sermons should be adapted to the purpose, not perhaps for which they were originally written, but for which they are published; and that, for this reason, the author of a volume handsomely printed, and costing ten and six-pence, which must be designed rather for the upper than the lower ranks, may very easily err on the side of "simplicity," although the composer of cottage sermons cannot well be too simple, if he be not affectedly uncouth.

We have been led into this digression by the surmise that, through a little error in judgment, though on commendable motives, Mr. Cunningham has not always made the best selection from his stock that he might have done; and that if he had written expressly for publication he would have done better still. We by no means intend to imply, however, that there is any thing in this volume which can offend the most fastidious by over-strained simplicity; but we do think that a little more labour would have been well bestowed upon it.

SERMON I.-On being righTEOUS OVERMUCH. Ecclus. vii. 16. The object of this discourse is to supply an answer to these two questions: I. To what classes of individuals counsel of the same general character with that in the text may with propriety be applied; and II. To what classes it ought not to be applied. 1st. It is strictly applicable "to those troubled with what may be termed a scrupulous conscience" to those who are disposed to go beyond the obligations of the Gospel, and to require what it is impossible for fallen man to perform. 2nd. To those who "by their intense occupation with the direct employments of religion are betrayed into a forgetfulness of the ordinary duties of life."

"It is the pleasure of the most High to be served according to the dictates of his own law: and his law is that we should combine morality with religion; love to man with love to himself; the duties of the field and the study and the shop, with the duties of the closet and the sanctuary.".

3. To those "who may be termed, in general language, the superstitious"—to those "in whose religion fear prevails over those other feelings and passions by which it ought to be checked and regulated." 4. To "those who are properly termed enthusiasts in religion"-to those with whom "religion has its seat rather in the imagination than the judgment and conscience." Mr. Cunningham begs here "not to be confounded with the class of persons whose habit it is to denounce all vigour and earnestness in religion under the sweeping and odious title of enthasm; "for," he justly remarks, "if religion be genuine