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this Protestant country, which, for want of those counteracting explanations, those nice, and difficult, and yet absolutely essential distinctions, which might seem to reduce them to a harmless consonancy with Bible truth, are left to receive the first, and obvious, or, as it might be termed, the honest sense of certain unhappy forms! Under the impression of views, such as we have just quoted, with what an emotion of trembling and distress must the mind revert to the fact, that a very large majority of those for whose eternal welfare the Church of England, that is, each individual who gives her constitutions his support, is responsible, are exposed to the aggravated disadvantage of having the natural prejudices of the carnal mind against a spiritual change, not simply undisturbed, but actually corroborated, by forms which they are taught to consider as the standard of the standard of religious truth! That, to such a mass of our countrymen, what should have been for their benefit, is become a snare,' the light that is in them only darkness,' and the glorious gospel of the blessed God,' as it is edited and ministered by the Church, is rendered, in a peculiar and emphatic sense, a savour of death unto death," to the people! But we rejoice in the hope that, by the increase in the Church of England of such teachers as Mr. Bugg, and the dissemination of writings such as his, the number is daily diminishing of those who, when they have duly subjected their infant offspring to the mysterious rites of the Church, go away in their simplicity with the fatal persuasion that it is in fact, as the priest hath assured them, namely, that their child is,' indeed, regenerate; that it hath pleased the most merciful Father to regenerate their infant with his HOLY SPIRIT, to receive him for his own child by adoption,' and that by the laver of regeneration in baptism, he is now received into the number of the children of God.' We would fain indulge the expectation, founded, as we are willing to believe, upon the signs of the times, and the promises of the Divine word, that the period is not far distant, when the destructive errors which at present occupy more than three corners of this boasted land of bibles, from whencesoever they may derive their support, shall be thoroughly exploded, and nothing be suffered to remain among us, whose tried effect is, as Mr. B. expresses it, 'to lay a most awful stumbling block in the very threshold of the people's salvation.'

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We might make numerous extracts, that would set in a very favourable light, both the judicious evangelical spirit and the ministerial fervour of Mr. Bugg's compositions. Two or three short quotations will be sufficient to corroborate our general recommendation.

In the sermon on the Nature and Efficacy of Divine Faith, Mr. B. remarks, that

It expects and comes to the Saviour, for the purpose of obtaining his blessing. There are three false views of faith not uncommon amongst us, which I earnestly wish to guard your immortal souls against. The one is, the considering it as a pharisaical kind of national religion, which supposes that all is done for us in baptism, and by a decent education: and that nothing more than outward decorum, and general respect for religion, ought to be expected, or can be experienced. The second (which, though under different views, is much the same as the former, with respect to the inefficacy of faith as a sanctifying principle in the soul) is this; that every thing is so performed for the Church of God in Christ Jesus, that it would be legal and derogatory to the perfect work of Christ, to expect a real and sanctifying change of heart by faith in him. The third is a wild unauthorised notion, of an influence nearly miraculous, as if something like a vision, revelation, and instantantaneous deliverance from all feelings of sin, were to be sought for and expected. It is the very nature of unbelief to expect nothing, or to expect too much.' pp. 137-138.

From the view he has given of the efficacy of Christ's love,' Mr. B. derives an excuse for a minister's earnestness in mat'ters of salvation.'

And is it,' he asks, indeed, become necessary that we should make an apology for being in earnest? Do our hearers think that we might speak unto them smoother things, or in a more indifferent manner? or do our brethren, certain of them, think it necessary to charge our feeble imitation of Christ and his Apostles, as an uncalledfor exhibition of ardour, or as a proof of being zealous over much? What! are men's souls become of less value? or can they be saved in any other way than they could be in St. Paul's days? What! are the terrors of the Lord less dreadful? or our state by nature less dangerous? Is Heaven less desirable, or eternal death more tolerable? What! my brethren, has Christ's love lost its power? Did he lay down his life, and shall we cease to commend his love? Did his zeal consume him, and shall our's be cold as a stone? Are St. Paul's active labours and fervid affections to be commended, but not imitated? What, then, if we are esteemed enthusiastic, would be thought of him, were he here?' pp. 196, 197.

The Funeral Discourse, which closes the volume, is prefaced by an implicit (Mr. Bugg, we dare say, would not think we did him injustice were we to call it an explicit) avowal of Calvinism. Under circumstances where such an avowal costs nothing to the individual, but is rather likely to afford a gratification to sectarian feelings, its value is small, indeed, to however much of odium it may be supposed to expose him who makes it. But, in the Established Church, which shelters under one external profession, almost every variety of theological sentiment, and where there is, therefore, the greatest facility afforded for holding and wearing things without their names, and where a very little ingenuity will suffice, so to modify the enunciation of a system

as to enable one suspected or accused to say, "I know not the "man," in the Church of England we consider the avowal of Calvinism to be entitled to praise, as being a line of conduct at once manly and candid.

From the Sermon above named, we shall make our last extract.

Reflect, O! my reader: think, O my soul, what it is to realise such a declaration as this,-" For me, to live is Christ!" What do I know of this? What do you, my dear reader, feel, enjoy, and exhibit of this character? Oh, consider this is the life of the soul—it is Heaven begun.

Do you ask. as some do, how little religion will take us to Heaven? How much conformity to the world will be admitted? how much selfishness or indolence we may indulge? Oh! shame. Why do you not ask at once, how much you may be unlike Christ, and yet be a Christian! How wicked you may be, and yet be holy! How miserable you may be, and yet be happy!-St. Paul did not thus, O time-serving, unchristian souls, St. Paul did not thus teach, and would you thus learn Christ? He could not be content, unless the temper- the mind -the unwearied diligence-the flaming ardour-the heavenly-mindedness the deadness to the world, which were in Christ, were found in himself. Such was St. Paul.' pp. 324, 325.

But before we take our leave of the Country Pastor, we must state the difficulty we have had in attempting to affix a determinate meaning to two or three expressions of which he makes use. Such, for instance, as the following:

True doctrines and vital religion commonly go together; but there is a too frequent separation of what God has united. We often discover an orthodox, and sometimes an evangelical creed, where there is no genuine life of religion, and where no soul-reviving efficacy of the doctrines professed is earnestly desired or expected.' p. 252.

Had these terms, orthodox and evangelical,' been used copulatively, we should have passed the sentence as containing a mere pleonasm, calling for no remark, both words being to be understood in their primitive sense, which refers them to one and the same thing. But, placed together thus disjunctively, they assume the distinctive and cant meaning which their recent use in this country has affixed to them. Now, understanding the term orthodox, opposed to the term evangelical, as designating the system of the party that manifestly and professedly oppugns the notion of its being reasonable earnestly to desire and expect a 'soul-reviving efficacy in the doctrines professed,' we cannot understand the appropriateness of stating it as a case of exception, too frequently occurring, that an orthodox creed is found unaccompanied with the genuine life of religion.'

Again: Mr. Bugg, in reprehending an undue severity of reproof, remarks very justly, that The true penitent is discou

'raged, sinks in sorrow, and pines away in secret;-seeking ' and enquiring candidates for spiritual sociality will be deterred 'from joining the Church, &c.' p. 121. Over this last phrase, 'joining the Church,' we have paused some moments in a fruitless pursuit of surmises as to the actual and definite idea present in the mind of the writer, when it came from his pen; nor, of those which have occurred to us, can we fix upon one, the supposition of which is not loaded with difficulty. By the Church, here, Mr. B. cannot be supposed to intend the real invisible Catholic Church of Christ, because persons whom he would designate as true penitents,' and as seeking enquiring 'candidates for spiritual sociality,' are such as have already joined, or, to speak more properly, have already been joined to the Church-the mystical body.

But if by the Church is meant the Church of England, the phrase-' joining the Church,' sounds oddly, as intending the ordinary way in which the infant population of this country are by baptism made members of it; nor does it appear in what cases such a joining is obstructed by the supposed evil referred to in the context.

But are we to understand by this joining the Church,' the coming over to her communion of the different classes of dissidents by which she is surrounded? and does Mr. Bugg mean to state it as his opinion, that that wholesome branch of Christian duty-reproof, so essential to a godly discipline,' is maintained, and exercised, and carried even to such a faulty excess in the Church of England, as to amount to an actual impediment in the way of so desirable an in-gathering? But, to be perfectly serious, should we understand the phrase in the only sense. which can make it intelligible in the connexion in which it stands, and in nearly the sense it would have conveyed to us coming from the pen of a Dissenting minister, we are faced by another difficulty. That a clergyman, not within the bounds of the selected circle, but upon the house-top, should be so incautious, in such terms, directly to refer to certain, wholly uncanonical, and in fact puritanical, arrangements, which, by the by, spring almost inevitably from puritanical doctrines, that a clergyman, we say, in referring to such arrangements, should use no saving word, but talk distinctly about joining the Church, to say the least, does quite surpass our expectations. At any rate, it is an accident which well deserves to arrest the attention of those who are keeping a watchful eye upon the movements of the times; especially as it is a symptom of the extent to which some of the GREAT PRINCIPLES OF PROTESTANT NONCONFOR MITY are at present triumphing within the pale of the Establish

ment.

At page 277, it is remarked of our Lord, that

His attention to all the feasts and ceremonies appointed to the Jews, shews us his faithfulness to him that appointed him." Circumcision, baptism, and all the usual institutions under the Mosaic economy he regularly attended to. And the constancy with which he was found at the temple worship, was evidence of his sacred regard for the established religion of those days.'

Our Lord, in his obedience to the ordinances of the Mosaic institution, did nothing more than honour by his conduct as a man, the appointment of that House of which, as we are told, he was himself the builder;-it was "his own house." He did, indeed, give the most striking evidences of his regard to the established worship of Jehovah, in the Temple which crowned the chosen Mount. Of these rites, no Jew doubted, (nor indeed was there room for controversy on the subject,) that they were of Divine authority. So for all is very plain. "But does Mr. B. intend to suggest to his readers, that a good and a solid therefore, connects this statement with such a consequence as this, namely, that those who would follow Christ, are, as a matter of course, to pay a sacred regard to the Established religion of these days? What vastly different things then must this word established, be made to represent! In the former case, it means nothing less than the setting up of a system of observances by a miraculous interposition; and with respect to neither the authority nor the nature of which, any doubt could be entertained. In the latter case, the word established means nothing more than a particular system, selected from the mass of controverted opinions, by a certain set of men, themselves subjected to all those influences which commonly direct the movements of a court; and such a system passed into law, the profession of it being secured at once by bounties and by penalties. But Mr. Bugg, we are sure, could not formally draw such an inference. Those who know any thing of human nature, are aware into how wide an aberration from truth the mass of mankind may be drawn by the frequent use of mere phrases, which, while they produce their effect, excite no attention that might lead to examination. We do not therefore think that we overstep the line of our duties, in making a passing remark which may originate such needful examination. We hope indeed our integrity would carry us so far as to do the same, did the fallacy tend to the establishment of our most favourite opinions. We consider that we do a man an injury, whom we mislead even into the truth; and our maxim is, For that which is capable of being defended by reasons good and strong, let nothing be advanced butreasons good and strong.