"hath given us an understanding that we may know Irim that is 66 true; and we are in him that is true; even in his Son Jesus "Christ.' "And we have known and believed the love that "God hath to us-we love him; because he first loved us.”

But we must draw this long extended article to a close; and if our examination of Dr. Whitaker s pamphlet, has appeared already to partake rather of the form of a disquisition than of a critique, and our remarks have seemed disproportioned to the importance of the publication, we must request our readers to bear in mind, that the sentiments which our Author has advocated with so much ingenuity, and adorned with so much candour, are not those of an individual alone; but under different modifications are adopted by a respectable body of the national elergy. This very discourse, fraught, as it appears to us, with dangerous error, and defective in the radical principle of its reasonings, has been recommended in the highest terms of eulogy, for distribution in the form of a tract, by the publication to which we have before had occasion respectfully to advert, as taking the lead among the pious members of the Established Church. Seldom have we perused an article in the pages of that work, with more unfeigned regret, not unmingled with surprise, than the review alluded to; by which, the neutrality they had previously seemed desirous of maintaining on the subjects of the Calvinistic controversy, is at once, by implication, abandoned.

The Author of "the Velvet Cushion" has told us, that there are only five points on which Calvinists and Arminians differ, and a hundred on which they are agreed. It is in the spirit of this remark that the Author of the sermon under review would dissuade ministers from entering upon these controverted 'points.' But, surely, he proceeds upon a mistaken principle. The doctrines of Calvinism are either true or false. To withhold a part of the truth may be as dangerous as to predicate error: but when the truths which are controverted, relate to a Divine message, it deserves the most serious consideration, how far we are at liberty, upon any plea of prudence or policy, to resolve on abstaining from the discussion, or, rather, the declaration of those points. So far as they are involved in the discoveries of revelation, which the Deity has been pleased to communicate, they are not to be considered as speculative opinions. Their having been framed into systems, or obscured by metaphysical and scholastic glosses, cannot change their essential truth, or affect their importance in relation to the grand scheme of Divine agency. It still remains our duty meekly to examine their import and their evidence; and to bring forward without hesitation or compromise, "the whole counsel of God." Bishop Horsley's excellent advice deserves to be better followed

up, Before you venture to attack Calvinism, be sure you un'derstand it."

The fact is, that although those points of difference may have occupied fruitless speculation, they involve practical consequences. The individual who, on the evidence of the word of God, believes in that form of Christian doctrine, which is called Calvinism, will conduct his reasonings in relation to all other topics, and enforce the precepts of religion, by a process wholly different from that by which one of opposite sentiments would proceed. This difference will be apparent, not only in what is withheld, but in what is advanced. But, indeed, it is impossible on these controverted subjects, to maintain the neutrality-the negative prudence which our Author would recommend. There may be some young clergymen, perhaps, among Dr. Whitaker's acquaintance, to whom, as being too rash in adventuring opinions upon subjects they are too indolent to examine, such advice might have a temporary seasonableness. But, even in such cases, we should rather recommend them to "get understanding," and to seek that Divine illumination which may guide them "into all truth," than to content themselves with indecision, and candour, and forbearance. The systematic and technical style in which these subjects have sometimes been treated in our pulpits, is certainly to be regretted, nearly as much as the jejune and rapid manner in which it has become more fashionable to dispose of them. But the truths to which these sentiments relate, remain the same. If the Gospel of Christ does not depend upon them, the consistency of our belief, the strength of our faith, the peace of our minds, may often be found to rest upon them. The doubts and difficulties which arise in the inquiring mind, or which, in the hour of weakness, are urged upon us by the tempter, are not to be silenced by our being told, that they are merely speculative difficulties, and relate to the non-essentials of religion. The forbearance of the preacher can yield us no assistance or encouragement. It may be little to us what Calvin stated, or what Limborch disputed; what terms have been invented, or what systems have been raised; but the subjects themselves which occupied those discussions, will recur to us, sometimes with agitating importunity. They are felt to affect the very foundation of our consolation and hope. The mind resents, at such times, the impertinence of logic, but it asks for light, and aches for rest.

And after all, there are preachers and disputants who will not observe the forbearance Dr. Whitaker enjoins; and they are the last men on whom he would be willing to devolve the discussion. We should think that this consideration alone would be suftieient to shew the futility of the advice he gives. Are these doctrines, then, to be abandoned to men who, in the estimation of

their opponents, are the least competent to state them with clearness, or to preach them with efficacy? The pulpit is not, indeed, to be made an arena for controversy; but we must deem it a very short-sighted policy which should observe a silence upon topics, the most likely, from their abstruse nature, to be misrepresented and abused. Rather, because they have been perverted, because they have been distorted into system, and obscured by technical phraseology, because they have been separated from their just consequences of practical virtue, let the able divine, and the pious minister, bring them forward, exhibit them in their just relations, vindicate them from their supposed evil tendency, and shew the harmony and mutual dependence of all the parts of the Christian scheme. That all truth is important, and essentially connected with practical results, is an axiom which cannot with safety be abandoned, nor without casting a stigma upon either the completeness or the necessity of the Revelation to which we profess to pay the homage of our understandings.

We had marked several passages in Dr. Whitaker's sermon, for extract and encomium, especially some admirable remarks on the spirit to be maintained toward those from whom we differ; but we must here terminate the article, for the length of which we again bespeak the indulgence of our readers.

Art. III. Roderick, the Last of the Goths; a Tragic Poem. By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureate, and Member of the Royal Spanish Academy. 4to. pp. 340. and cxxxvii. 21. 2s. Longman and Co. London. 1814.

THERE are scarcely six heroic poems in the world that have acquired general, permanent, and increasing renown; yet nothing short of this in idea, has been the object of the authors of hundreds of similar works, which have gained a transient, or established a local reputation.

'What shall I do to be for ever known?"

--is the aspiration of every true poet, though, in the pursuit of fame, each will choose, out of all the means whereby it may be achieved, those only which are most congenial to his talents or his taste. A libertine will not select a sacred theme, nor a modest man a licentious one; but be it a virtuous or a profligate one, we may assert, not as a questionable hypothesis, but as a matter of fact, that the love of glory is the first impulse of every poet's mind, and the desire of the greatest degree of glory, is, perhaps, essential to the attainment of even a moderate portion. Without the highest honours in view, no poet will put forth his

whole strength; he will be content with the exertions that enable him to excel his competitors, but he will want a motive for those which would enable him to excel himself.

Mr. Southey is still in the prime of manhood, and, exclusive of other compositions of singular merit, both in verse and in prose, more than we can at present enumerate, he has already published five Epics; for, though he disclaims the degraded name,' Epics we must call them, till he furnish a more appropriate generic term for his long narrative poems. It might safely be said by any person who had not read one of these, that they will not all go down to posterity as the companions of the "Iliad," the "Odyssey," Odyssey," the “ Eneid," the "Jerusalem Delivered," and the "Paradise Lost;" since the possibility that one writer should mature five productions equal to these, cannot for a moment be imagined, after the experience of three thousand years from Homer to Milton. But we have read all Mr. Southey's Epics; and it is quite fair that we be asked whether we think one of them will stand in this line among the few imperishable monuments of genius, and add another volume to the library of mankind,-a volume that shall be read in all ages, and in all countries, where a language besides the mother language is known? We will not say No, and we cannot say Yes; but we do not hesitate to admit, that we know no reason that the intellect, the imagination, and the energy of that mind, which, within eighteen years, has given birth to " Joan of Arc," to "Thalaba," to "Madoc," to "Kehama," and to "Roderick," might not, within the same period, have elaborated a single poem, rivalling in length, only one, but transcending in merit, all of these admirable pieces. At the same time we are willing to acknowledge, though we are unwilling to admit the application to Mr. Southey, that it may be very possible for an author of exalted acquirements and versatile talents, to compose the five, who could by no intensity of application perfect one such as we have supposed, nor indeed one of any kind much excelling the rest. There are birds of indefatigable wing, that soar often and long, to a noble elevation, and yet

The eagle drops them in a lower sky,'

though his flights are few and far between.' If Mr. Southey has found his height, and dares not venture nearer to the sun, . let him make his excursions as frequently as he pleases in this middle region, and we shall always be glad to hail his rising, admire his course, and welcome his descent; but if by any toil, or time, or care, he can reach the highest heaven of invention,' we would earnestly entreat him, in the name of all that be loves in song, or seeks in fame, to risk the enterprise. We know he needs not write for bread; his living renown can little VOL. III, N. S. 2 D

compensate him for his arduous and incessant pains; then, since the immortality for name cannot be acquired at will by any poet, the least that can be required of him, who is rationally in quest of it, is, to employ his utmost endeavours to deserve it, whether he obtain it or not. Plainly, if Mr. Southey can do no better than he has done, we care not how often he appears in a new quarto form; but if he can, we care not how seldom we see him; nay, we shall be satisfied if it be but once more-in his old age and ours-provided he then present to us a poem surpassing, in comparative worth, not only the five labours of the last eighteen years, but five more, during the advancing eighteen years, which, if he continue his present career, may be reasonably expected from so enterprising a knight-errant of the Muses.

After all, the immediate popularity of works of genius depends much on the fashion, manners, taste, and prejudices of the times,-on things which are artificial, incidental, and perpetually changing; but enduring reputation can be secured only by the power of awakening sensibilities common to all men, though dormant in the multitude; and appealing to sympathies universal throughout society, in every stage, from the rudest barbarism to the most fastidious refinement. We might, perhaps, add, that it is almost indispensable to the success of an heroic poem, that it be a national one, celebrating an event well known, though far distant in time, and hallowed to the imagination of the poet's own countrymen by patriotic lessons, examples, and triumphs of constancy and valour. Mr. Southey's poems of this species, are written in defiance of the fashion, manners, taste, and prejudices of the present times, and they have contained little that could conciliate them; consequently, it is no wonder that they have been less popular than the captivating romances of the Northern minstrel. On the other hand, though they do frequently awaken sensibilities common to all men, and appeal to sympathies universal through society; though they abound with adventures, marvellous and striking; with characters boldly original; with sentiments pure, and tender, and lofty : with descriptions rich, various, and natural; though in these they exhibit all the graces and novelties of a style peculiarly plastic, eloquent, and picturesque: yet, by an infelicity in the choice of subjects, they are addressed to readers, who have either a national antipathy against the burthen of them, as to the dishonour of their country in "Joan of Arc ;" an indifference to super-human exploits and sufferings, as in "Thalaba," a horror of barbarity, as to the Mexican scenes of "Madoc;" a resolute incredulity of monstrous and unclassical mythology. as in "Kehama;" or an ignorance of the history, and unconcern for the fate of the heroes, as in many instances in "Ro"derick, the last of the Goths." The latter, indeed, is less