have had the happiness to receive your generous and unconstrained invitation to labour among you and to be over you in the Lord; since "yourselves, brethren, know their entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain;" since ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and justly, and unblameably, they have behaved themselves among you that believe;" since you have fairly examined and properly estimated their ministerial gifts and graces surely it will be your constant study to give full effect to your past acts by a submissive conduct and teachable disposition. Never let it be said with truth of you, that, in having claimed for yourselves the right of electing your own pastors, you have only erected an engine of op pression, the movements of which are directed not against the many, but against an unoffending and conscientious individual, who finds that the same power that professes to choose in wisdom, can dismiss with caprice.

Your obedience being voluntary, let it partake also of an enlightened character. A correct knowledge of the pastoral claims will contribute greatly to a due fulfilment of them: and where ignorance of the mind of Christ prevails on this head, it is no wonder that confusion and every evil work should ensue. It is greatly to the honour of members of churches to aspire to a full acquaintance with their principles, to inform themselves correctly as to the usages of their forefathers, but especially, to investigate with diligence the great statute-book of the kingdom of Christ. Upon this will mainly depend the stability of churches, and the comfort as well as success of pastors. It greatly becomes the members of all churches to endeavour to form a correct estimate of the value of the pastoral character; to aspire to scriptural views as to the mutual ob ligations of the pulpit and the pew, and, in short, to have fixed senti ments on every thing relating to doctrine and discipline: that thus Christian professors may become ensamples to surrounding churches, and prove a source of unmingled gratitude and joy to those who sustain the responsible office of spiritual instructors. An enlightened minister envies not, I am sure, a blind attachment either to his person or his ministry; he is too well aware of the fluctuations of ignorance to have formed any such preference. On the contrary, he invites you, according to your several abilities and circumstances, to make yourselves thoroughly acquainted with the nature of his office, and with the arduous character of his duties, being fully satisfied that to know your obligations will be one important step towards their fulfilment. The attainment of a sound judgement, on these matters, will guard you against a thousand snares into which otherwise you will unquestionably fall. pp. 238-241.

The Discourse on the Duties of Kings and Subjects, is, like all the rest, of a decidedly practical nature. It is written with peculiar care, and discovers both discrimination and firmness. It will please no partisan on either side. In fact, Mr. Morison remarks,

- if a man wishes that religion should prosper in his soul, he will be very careful, indeed, of coming into contact with any subject calculated to rouse the worst passions of our fallen nature; and I scruple not to say, VOL. XVII. N. S.

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that the political partisan, on the one side and on the other, does expose himself to this risk."

The

following is the Preacher's exposition of the much perverted text, Rom. xiii. 1.

1. It instructs us in the origin of government.

It is distinctly traced to the will and appointment of the Infinite Mind. "There is no power but of God"-in other words, there is no government in any quarter of the globe, or of any particular form, which does not exist by the good providence of Him by whom "Kings reign and princes decree justice." And lest the Christian converts at Rome had been disposed to consider the imperial despotism of Nero as forming a fit exception to this general proposition, the Apostle immediately adds," the powers that be, are of God.".

This inspired representation of the higher powers," by no means supposes, that the Most High, by any direct interference, sets up an individual monarch, or institutes any given form of government. This he never did, but in the instance of the Jewish people; and there were special reasons, in their marvellous history, explana tory of the Divine conduct. It appears quite obvious, that while the Moral Governor of the world, who is not the author of confusion, but of peace," has willed the existence of government in general; he has left the different nations of the earth to model and consolidate their respective constitutions, according to their particular circum, stances and characters; and it is equally obvious, from the doctrine of the text, and from the slightest reflection on the state of human nature, that government, in any of its existing forms, whether monarchical, aristocratical, republican, or mixed, is more in unison with the Divine will, than a condition of savage barbarism and uncontrolled anarchy and licentiousness. "A country without a government would speedily, for want of those means of subsistence and comfort, to the existence of which it is indispensable, become an Arabian desert; and that, however fruitful its soil, or salubrious its climate. Mankind have never yet been able to exist for any length of time in a state of anarchy. What reason so completely evinces, the Scriptures decide in the most peremptory manner. The powers that be, are ordained of God in other words; Government is an ordinance of God."

But while it is an ordinance of God, and one of a most benign and merciful character, it by no means follows as a consequence, that any particular monarch can plead a jus divinum, or divine right, to his throne, independently of the providential circumstances and agents by which he has been raised to the possession of regal dignity. The Roman Emperors, who are represented in the text as" ordained of God," were, at the same time, elected by military franchise, or chosen and confirmed by the voice of the senate. In order to illustrate this statement, it may be observed, that although the mutual contract of two individuals of opposite sexes, regularly tified by law, constitutes marriage; yet the Scriptures teach us to believe, that marriage is, notwithstanding, the ordinance of God. To bring the

illustration more closely home to your convictions:-the mixed govern ment of this country is, beyond doubt," the ordinance of God;"and yet who will deny, that the illustrious sovereigns of the House of Brunswick owe their elevation to the British throne, mediately, to the glorious Revolution of 1688? This train of thought, I am aware, carries with it a tacit recognition of what has been styled by writers on the theory of government, the original compact; and whether we are able to trace that compact to its origin or not, it appears palpable to human reason, that the relation of sovereign and people implies a state of mutual obligation: at all events, this can never be denied by any one who imbibes the doctrine of moral responsibility, as stated in the Scriptures. I will even go farther, and say,--it can never be denied by any enlightened Briton." It is," observes the celebrated Judge Blackstone, "a maxim of the law, that protection and subjection are reciprocal; and the reciprocal duties are what is meant by the Convention in 1688, when they declared, that King James had broken the contract between the prince and the people. But, however, as the terms of the original compact were in a great measure disputed, being alleged to exist merely in theory, and to be only deducible by reason and natural law, in which deduction different understandings might very considerably differ, it was, after the Revolution, judged proper to declare these duties expressly, and to reduce that contract to a plain certainty; so that whatever doubts might be formerly raised by weak and scrupulous minds about the existence of such a contract, they must now entirely cease, especially with regard to every prince who hath reigned since the year 1688."

The coronation of a British monarch is a standing memorial of the compact existing between the sovereign and the people. The solemn oath then taken, includes in it an avowed obligation to rule "according to law,"-to maintain "justice and mercy in these realms," and to watch over the interests of "the Protestant religion."

After what has been said, you will not suspect me of holding the odious doctrine, that the crimes which have disgraced the annals of human governments, are, in any way, chargeable on infinite wisdom and goodness, because "the powers that be, are ordained of God." As well might all the perversions of the human intellect be charged on the Deity, because there is no power or faculty of man for which he is not indebted to the great Author of his being. The power is from God; the abuse of it, from the erring and sinful creature.

This conducts me to another observation, viz. 2. That the text instructs us sufficiently as to the end of government.

In deciding this question, nothing more is necessary than simply to refer to the source whence government flows. If there is no power but of God," every government answers his benevolent design just in proportion as it provides for the happiness of his rational creatures; for whose welfare the institution of government has been erected.

I frankly admit, that Rulers are no where expressly addressed in the New Testament; but we are not to conclude, on this account,

that their high duties are in no way suggested to them. The conces sion of a people's allegiance is not, indeed, suspended on the con tingency of a monarch's conduct; but it would be worse than absurd, it would be extremely pernicious, to assert, that princes are not bound to regulate the affairs of their administration by the dictates of reason and the general laws of Scripture. If they are expressly “ordained of God;"if they " are not a terror to good works, but to evil;”—if they are "the ministers of God for good;"-if they are * revengers, to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil;”—there can be no hesitation in affirming, that when they divest themselves of these qualities, and assume others of a directly opposite description, they draw down upon themselves the displeasure of Heaven, and be come the curses rather than the blessings of mankind.' pp. 266–271.

We have no room for further extracts, nor have we any disposition to criticise the style of Lectures prépared under the circumstances adverted to in the preface. To the justness and excellence of the sentiments, we are not aware of an exception; and they are enforced, as the quotations amply evince, in a popular, judicious, and striking manner. The language is always unaffected; and the style, if not uniformly unexceptionable in point of finished correctness, is, generally speaking, an excellent pulpit style. We cordially recommend the volume to the attention of our readers.

Art. VII. May Day with the Muses. By Robert Bloomfield, Author of the Farmer's Boy. Foolscap 8vo. pp. 100. Price 4s. London. 1822.

HEW poets have more honestly won, or more meekly worn their honours than Robert Bloomfield. That he is a poet, we will maintain in the face of all critics Northern and Southern, who would insinuate to the contrary. Had he been so fortunate as to come into the world fifty years earlier, no one would have thought of depreciating his claims. But the lite rary world has been of late pampered into daintiness. The Farmer's Boy was too loftily bepraised at its first appearance. It owed, it is true, much of its temporary success to the wellmeant endeavours of its Editor and Commentator; and so far the Poet was under great obligations to his Mecenas. But the ebb-tide of popular feeling has fallen proportionably below the mark, and has left the poet scarcely afloat,

It has been brought as a heavy and annihilating charge against Bloomfield, that he is not either Burns or Clare. To compare him with the former, were absurd, for Burns was not an uneducated man; and it were not less invidious to set up young Lubin to the disparagement of old Giles. But, as such a cómparison has been hinted at, we will just take the liberty

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to remark, that had Giles been left to follow the plough, instead of stooping over the last in Bell Alley, or vegetating at the Shepherd and Shepherdess in the City Road,had he remained a peasant and a pupil of Nature till his limbs had acquired their full development, his frame had been' strung to health, and his education as a poet had been completed by the woods and the streams, the winds and the sunshine, and the quiet of the country, our Farmer's Boy would have led off with the Muses on May-day in a far higher style than must now be expected from him. The man has brain enough, as his ample forehead testifies. The anterior cerebral lobes,' as Mr. Lawrence would say, are sufficiently developed to admit of his excelling as a poet. And he has certainly heart enough, for never was a more passionate lover of rural Nature. All that seems wanted is, a greater portion of physical elasticity, that should have given a healthful vigour to his thoughts, and tone to his feelings. The feebleness which is occasionally betrayed in his productions, is that induced by the languid action of a crazy frame, originally unworthy of the mind which it serves, and rendered still more inadequate to the higher functions of imagination by perpetual ill-health and concomitant anxieties,

I have written these tales,' he tells us, in anxiety and in a ⚫ wretched state of health; and if these formidable foes have 'not incapacitated me, but left me free to meet the public eye with any degree of credit, that degree of credit I am sure I shall gain,' They have not incapacitated him for pleasing those who are disposed to be pleased with wild-flowers and May-blossom, and such simple things as go to form a Mayday wreath; and he must be a ruthless and a heartless critic who would by rough handling doom them to fade a moment before their time.

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The argument of the present poem is as follows: Sir Am brose Higham of Oakley Hall in the county of Fairyland, baronet, now in his eightieth year, yet being of perfect mind and memory, resolves on celebrating old May-day by giving a feast to his tenants, when they should be allowed to pay their half-year's rent in rhyme. As a precedent for so singular a bargain, the poet refers us to a paper in the Rambler, where an individual is celebrated, who, as Alfred received the tribute ⚫ of the Welsh in wolves' heads,' allowed his tenants to pay etheir rents in butterflies, till he had exhausted the papilionaceous tribe. A man has a right to do what he will with his own estate, remarks the Poet; just as a Poet has a right to do what he will with his hero. The only difficulty lies in the required supposition that a cluster of poets could be found in one village. But, happily, Sir Ambrose's proclamation was