and producing rain, Mr. Young gives the following account of their original and natural tenants: "The first in point of diguity, from the importance of the mifchief they do, are the bears. There are two forts, carnivorous and vegetable eaters; the latter are more mifchievous than their more terrible brethren, coming down in the night, and eating the corn, particularly buck-wheat and maize; and they are fo nice in chufing the fweeteft ears of the latter, that they trample and fpoil infinitely more than they eat. The carnivorous bears wage war against the cattle and fheep, fo that no flock can be left in the fields at night. Flocks must be watched by thepherds who have fire-arms, and the affiftance of many ftout and fierce dogs; and cattle are shut up in ftables

during every night in the year. Sometimes by accident they wander from their keepers, and if left abroad, they run a considerable risk of being devoured. The bears attack thofe animals by leaping on their back, force the head to the ground, and thruft their paws into the body in the violence of a dreadful hug. There are many hunting days every year for deftroying them, feveral parithes joining for that purpose. Great numbers of men and boys form a cordon, and drive the wood where the bears are known or fufpected to be. They are fatteft in winter, when a good one is worth three Louis. A bear never ventures to attack a wolf, but feveral wolves together will attack a bear, kill and eat him.

[To be continued.]

THESE Poems, though advertifed together, feem to be intended for feparate fale. The firft is a fimple paftoral ftory, which is not entitled to any praife on the score of invention, though the pleafing manner in which it is told may claim fome degree of approbation.Lewina is the daughter of a peafant fwain, who being fent by the wealthy owner of an eftate near Snowdon,

"To fell the foreft for a rood of land," rears a cottage, to which he brings his wife, and an only daughter, the heroine of the poem, who is thus defcribed:

Of Guido's Magdalen conceive the face,
In Grecian fculpture Ariadne's grace;
Enrobe the image in a flowing stole,
White and unfullied as the wearer's foul;
Let fall a waving mafs of auburn hair
Of fifteen fummers-and Lewina's there.
Soft was her voice, and mufically fweet,
Her fkin tranfparent, and her form com-
plete;

Whate'er she said, or did, was fure to please,
She spoke with blushes, while the mov'd with

eafe;

And, little skill'd to judge of beauty's praise, Blaz'd all unconscious, as the diamond's

blaze.

Bleft with content, with rural amufements, and domeftic comforts, the happiness of the family continued with

out interruption, " out interruption, "untinged with forrow," till one fatal day, By Fortune mark'd for tranfitory change, (From caufes common fpring adventures (trange)

Life, like a flower, unfolds its myftic form, And tranquil fkies precede the awful storm: That moin our jolly woodman, brisk and

gay,

Arm'd for the chace, anticipated day;
To fcrip and belt a little keg was hung,
Which o'er his manly cheft Lewina flong;
Then, kneeling, bound his boots in tender
fort,

And kifs'd his forehead as the wifh'd him (port.

Light broke, with filver lines; the morn
was grey,

And every figa bespoke a fultry day;
When the gay marden, who had long in view
A bank where ripe the crimson strawberry
grew;

Ever intent with all her little power
To deck the table, or adorn the bower;
Forth iffaing, fleetly as the lapwing flew,
So light of foot, the fcarcely brush'd the
dew,

Deep by the margin of a fhelving pool,
To feek the berries, and to pick them cool
A rushy basket grac'd the virgin's arm,
Woven with decent ornaments to charm;
Loole flow'd her waving hair in part
unbound,

Treading elaftic, as the fcorn'd the ground,

Onward

WE have already lamented the too prevalent fashion among the English Clergy of difcourfing on moral fubjects inftead of the great and peculiar truths of our religion. The confequence of this bad practice is, that the people, accustomed to confider morality as the all in all requifite to conftitute the Chriftian character, lofe fight of, and therefore pay no attention to the doctrinal parts of Chriftianity; and many perfons on that account readily imbibe the flattering conceits of Socinus, as better accommodated to the natural pride of man, and adding force to his confidence in his reafoning powers. Would any one who is entirely unacquainted with the Chriftian religion, on hearing the fermons generally delivered in our parochial pulpits, confider this religion as effentially different from, much lefs as fuperior to the morality of an Epictetus, a Socrates, a Seneca, or a Confucius? The morality all which is thus fubftituted for Chrif tianity, and which obtains chiefly among the younger clergy, is of fuch a locfe, flimly texture, as to be entirely unadapted to form a character of more than ordinary value. Thele divines are actuated by a ridiculous kind of politenets, and therefore treat vice in a general manner, fo that their thort moral effivs fly over the heads but never reach the hearts of the au ditors, to make ufe of an apt phrafe of Martin Luther's There is no coming home to mens' bofoms, and rousing confcience to its duty, by fuch particular reprefentations as to excite conviction in the mind of the finer that he is exactly in the condition defcribed. Inftead of this, a faint picture of the beauty of Virtue, or the turpitude of Vice, is drawn, as it were in crayons, with a gende hand; the mind of the auditor confefies it to be jut, and before he reaches the church door the whole is officed.

By the command of our Saviour to his disciples, and through them to their fuccellois, to preach the Gospel, is not meant preaching in re morality, for this has been inculcated by able and virtuous men in every era of the world, and under every VOL. XXIII.

religious difpenfation. Morality cannot be justly termed glad tidings to men who are incapable of fulfilling its precepts fo uniformly as never to incur the penalties denounced againit offenders. The Gospel of the Son of God is fomething more than this, and of far greater importance to mankind. It is doctrinal, as revealing the method which the Almighty has ordained for the reconciliation of a guilty world unto himself, by the one oblation of a mediator, who is therefore peculiarly tiled the righteous, This divine perfon or Redeemer is evidently the grand object which Chritian Minifters are to hold out to the confideration of their hearers, tubo be is, but be bath done, and the terms of reconciliation to God the Father by him.

Complaints may be made with the ftrictett juftice on the great increase that herefy and infidelity have obtaine t among us of late years; but we apprehend, that till mere moral lectures are banished from our pulpits, and the doctrines of Chritianity are introduced into them, the evil will increafe to a fill greater magnitude.

obier

We have been led to make the vations under a deep fente of the great 14tisfaction which has been afforded us in the perufal of the Sermons before us; and we not only recommend them to the Clergy in particular, but with them heexample of the author, in difcourting on the necality of religious faith as the only real ground of religious practice.

42.

In the Firt Sermon from Matthew xxii. "But what think ye of Chrit, whole Son is he?" the preacher with contiderable energy, and much propriety of expreffion and candour of fentiment, flates the importance of the doctrine of Christ's divinity, as being indeed the chict cerner-flone in the edifice of Chili mnity." From Scripture teftimonies, and clear and natural inferences from them only, dues he profefs to vindicate this fiential article of the Chriftian Faith; and it must be allowed that he manages theie weapons with great force and dexterity.

The Second Sermon from John xvii. 5. The glory which I had with thre & c before

before the world was," brings together the facred evidences for Chrift's preexiftence, and the effential divinity of his nature. The reafonings of the preacher upon these teftimonies are strong and ingenious.

Sermon the Third is entitled, "An Enquiry whether any Traces can be found of our Lord's perfonal Appearance in the World previous to his Incarnation." Text, John v 39" Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." Though the preacher does not conclude abfo utely that Chrift was the vifible Jehovah so often mentioned in the Old Tellament, yet by a comparifon of a variety of paffages in both parts of the facred volume, he fhews it to be very probable that Carift did appear as fuch both before and under the Jewith difpenfation,

Sermon the Fourth adduces "The Teftimony of the Prophets concerning the Character under which the Meffiah was to appear." Text, Acts xxviii. 23.Perfuading them concerning Jefus both out of the law of Moles and out of the Prophets."

Sermons the Fifth and Sixth are from John i. 14, "And the Word was made flesh," &c. and Jn vii. 46. "Never man spake like this man." The preacher produces the Scripture evidences of Chrift's divinity during his incarnation, and argues upon them in a very full and able nianper. The following argument, which appears in a note, ftruck us very forcibly, and we take the liberty of recommending it to the ferious confideration of the reader, Let his fentiments on the fubje&t be what they may." Christ's agony in the garden," fays Mr Hawker, "fo decidedly implies the fuperiority of Our Lord's na ture, and fome peculiar purpofe to be anfwered by his death, that I think it is capable of bearing much greater ftrefs than is generally laid upon it. Can any man fuppote that Chrift, who had fhewn fuch initances of patience through life, fo much courage in the face of his enemies, and fo little concern at his own fufferings and diftreiles, fhould now fhrink back at the bare apprehension of death, if death was the only object of terror he had in view? Surely thofe Chriftians who speak of the death of Jefus as a martyr to his caufe, and propote him under that view as an example to the world, feem to have forgotten, that Chrift by his agony in the garden, and his defire that the cup of for row might be removed from him, fhewed uch lefs fortitude than many martyrs to

his caufe have fince fhewn in their laft mo ments. I cannot but conclude, therefore, that the horrors which furrounded Our Lord in this trying feafon, were of a peculiar kind, and fuch as no mortal ever fultained. Chrift declared it to be the hour of darknefs. And to what extent that power was permitted to be exercifed upon his facred perfon, who fall fay? But what must have been the conflict which made it neceffary for an Angelio be fent from Heaven to firengthen him, when his foul was exceeding forrorful even unto death, and the feat of his body was as it were great drops of blood falling down on the ground!”

In the Sixth Sermon the subject of Atonement is very pertinently introduced, and is proved clearly to be the doctrine of the Scriptures as the great defign of Chrift's miffion, and at the fame time to be a doctrine of no validity, unless the Divinity of Chrift be a truth.

Sermon the Seventh is on " The Testimony of the Apostles to the Character of their Master," from Matthew xvi. 15."But whom fay ye that I am?" The title of this difcourte is rather inaccurate, for the teftimony of John the Baptift is allo adduced and argued upon with much ability and strength of reasoning. In the notes the arguments of Mr. Lindsay in his Address to the Students of the Universities, to evade the force of the teftimonies of John the Baptift and the Apottles to Our Saviour's divinity, are combated with confiderable addrefs, but without any severity of expreffion.

The last Sermon is very properly on the fame text as the firft, and contains a fummary recapitulation of the feveral arguments made ufe of in the former Sermons. From this difcourfe we fhall make one extract, as a specimen of our author's manner of writing. If this be the real ftate of things, and the Chriftian's Lord be not divine, farewel to all the hopes of the faithful, his confolations are no more! Then all the gracious promiles of religion, fo highly encouraging to repentance and amendment of life, and with which the anxious mind, when fmitten with a fense of guilt, fought a requiem, are done away, and the law of God, ftrict and unalterable in its demands, ftands forth before the guilty confcience, arrayed in all its terrors. To what refuge thall the awakened finner now fly, or in what facrifice can he again place confidence? I thought (he will fay) my foul fecure in the expectation of pardon to my fins, through the meritorious death of my blessed Saviour, upon

the

the terms of faith, repentance, and newnefs of life. I understood that the Apoftles of Chrift had inftructed the world in this doctrine, that God hath fet forth the Redeemer as a propitiation, and that the Son of Gd himself had declared that be came to give his life a ransom for many; but if this be all a delufion, I am robbed of my best comforts, and am without hope. Tell me not of the virtues of human nature; for, how fhall any man build his hopes of acceptance with his Maker upon the fandy foundation of the purity of his own life! Alas! my very best deeds are largely tinctured with a mixture of infirmity. I fee a mark of imperfection strongly appearing in every page of my life. And for the errors and intentional fins of nature bould the Lord be extreme to mark all that is done amifs, who may abide it? And how then by the deeds of the law ball any fleft be justified? And what is repentance? a patched-up, blemished, and imperfect repentance, made up of alternate forrow and fin; to-day, feeling the compunction of guilt; to-morrow, falling again, perhaps, into the fame or fimilar tranfgreffions: the next day renewing the ferious impreffion, and foon after giving fresh proofs of human infimity; and thus going on through life in the fucceffion of offences and contrition; fometimes humbling the foul under the mighty hand of God, from a confcious unworthinefs, but more frequently forgetting that there is a God which judgeth the earth. Are thefe facrifices to offer the Loid? Are these fragments of a chequered life fufficiently meritorious to fave the foul? Can any man be prefumptuous enough to fatisfy his mind that Heaven must be the natural requard to fuch a train of conduct?

"Confidering the miferable confequence to which the rejection of Our Lord's divine nature neceffarily leads, and the defpondency it creates in the human mind, one thould imagine that the advocates for this doctrine, however fecretly convinced that they are right, muß yet wish to be wrong. For, furely, it is the most com

fortless doctrine ever propofed to mankind! to confider ourfelves in a fallen, helpless ftate of being expofed to various dangers, and surrounded with the numerous temptations which befct the path of duty; and in this fituation to have no divine fpirit to look up to as the helper of our infirmities, nor any divine Redeemer to confide in as the propitiation of our fins; confcious alfo of being accountable creatures, and that a day is approaching when all our actions will be brought into judgment, with every fecret thought, whether it be good or bad.-Can there be a more difcouraging and comfortless religion than this? and efpecially when the retrofpect of life is clouded over, I do not fay barely with frailties, but with wilful offences, to have no better fupport than repentance, and no refuge but what arifes from the unbounded mercy of God; ignorant at the fame time, whether that repentance hath been exercised in due proportion to our fins, or whether that mercy will be extended equal to our neceffities. However hopes of this kind may footh the mind with the fpecioufnefs of their promiies, when that mind is perfectly a eafe, and the awful objects of futurity are confidered as at a distance; yet when a man is juft clofing the book of life, and hoveiing between this world and the next, then it is to be apprehended mere abftract arguments will entirely lofe their efficacy. And, indeed, if experience can be deemed the trucft teft for ascertaining a matter of fact, we have realon to conclude, that those leave the world with most complacency and fatisfaction who have learned to place their hopes and confidence in a Saviour's merit, and not in their own."

The earnest manner in which Mr. Hawker inculcates a fpirit of Chriftian candour and charity towards the persons of thofe who entertain different fentimentsfrom thofe which he has here vindicated, affords an amiable picture of his heart, as the Difcourfes themfelves are a very refpectable one of his abilities.

W.