hear and believe instruction well administered, teaching that sin is an evil; and it is natural by a good education to be made afraid of sin. The change of character is not the technical regeneration in the catechisms, called by Miss More "implantation of a new principle," but is a change greater or less, according to the greater or less need of it, and is sensible and striking, or gradual and imperceptible, as the case may be. When Carlton, who had been profligate, and Lady Melbury, are converted, it is of the first sort. But the christianity of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley, of Coelebs and Lucilla, appears to come by degrees, like their other improvements. Sir John and Lady Belfield are rather improved than converted. Miss More is strenuous for works to be joined to faith. Mrs. Ranby is drawn a caricature of an Antinomian, to expose the ranters of this description. Yet Mrs. R. after all, is acknowledged a child of the author's own family, for she is not immoral, and really pious; that is she has no vices but pride, uncharitableness, bitterness, and she is regular at her devotions, and believes in the doctrines of grace. Then it is sometimes difficult to know how to reconcile the praise and the depreciation of good works that both occur in this treatise. "In one man who errs on Mr. Tyrrel's principle," says Dr. Barlow to Mr. Flam, "a hundred err on yours." "Many more perish through a presumptuous confidence in their own merits, than through an unscriptural trust in the merits of Christ" "A dependence for salvation on our own benevolence, our own integrity or any other good quality whatever is an errour," &c. Does this mean that more perish by works without faith, than by faith without works; or that vice is not so dangerous as wanting just notions, or what Miss More will call scriptural notions of the sacrifice of Christ? We must be afraid lest our good works make us proud. If they make us proud, they are not good; for we have as much humility as we have genuine virtue. If it be intended that men of mere correctness and decency of external behaviour are apt to depend on it as a substitute for goodness of heart, their danger should be ascribed not to their goodness, but to their want of it; or to their resting in the appearance as an equivalent for the reality. There is a perplexing ambiguity in this theological problem concerning good works. You must look to be saved by faith and not by works, by a reliance on the satisfaction made by Christ, and not by any good quality you may possess. And what is faith, considered as a requisite to divine favour, but a good quality or exercise, as much as any of the acts of obedience or moral rectitude which men perform? When we attend to sense and not to sound the purport of the several positions is something like this: Your good works are good for nothing as respects your acceptance with God; therefore you must add to these good works which are good for nothing, another good work which is good for every thing as respects the divine acceptance, viz. a practical conviction, sentiment and belief that all your good works are good for nothing. We mean no levity or disrespect; but the truth is, that such intimations of the worthlessness of moral virtue or goodness which is the great design of religion, accompanied with inculcations of that very virtue or christianpractice which has been before depreciated, throws common christians into perplexity to know why they should practise, when all that seems required is to believe. No wonder the Ranbys and the Tyrrels call the Barlows and Stanleys legalists, and disclaim the du.ies of the moral law, when the scheme of divinity delivered contains two opinions, but one of which can be true. The story of Mrs. Carlton is very interesting. Lady Melbury's conversion is edifying. We do think the qualities of the just and friendly Mr. Flam are far less foreign from the spirit of christianity than those of the selfish hard-hearted Tyrrel; and it would have been quite as safe to have allowed him to become a sincere convert as to have ascribed this change to the latter. We hope the numerous readers of this volume will imbibe its spirit of seriousness, of devotion, of active benevolence; and if they perceive, will not adopt any of the narrowness of temper or sectarism of belief which it may in some parts be thought to favour. We do not speak great things, said one of the fathers, but do them. If all those who covet christian excellence cannot talk as fluently upon points as the good people in this story, if they have too much distrust of their own judgment to dissect and display characters with the same freedom and facility, they may in all their conversation endeavour to talk as becomes religious beings, even when cautious of religious topicks, and live, though they do not preach the gospel. "By their fruits ye shall know them." ART. 16. Sermon delivered at the installation of Rev. Horace Holley to the pastoral care of the church and society in Hollis street, Boston, March 8, 1809. By Joseph Eckley, D. D minister of the Old South church in Boston. J. Beicher. State street, Text, Heb. xiii. 17. ORDINATION sermons commonly excite an interest in both hearer and reader. The importance of the christian ministry, the commencing rights and obligations of the pastor and his flock, and the near connexion about to be formed be tween a clergyman and his professional brethren, are considerations of no small moment. Dr. Eckley appears to have been duly sensible to the various circumstances of the occasion; and has adapted himself to them with propriety. His sermon indicates a heart deeply impressed with the worth of souls, and the duty of caring for their eternal interests; and it is strongly marked by a lively fancy, a charitable temper, and by what is commonly called an orthodox creed. The charge by Dr. Lathrop is highly respectable, and the right hand of fellowship by Dr. Kirkland is entirely suited to the solemnity. RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW. ART. 5. The History of New England, containing an impartial account of the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the country, to the year of our Lord, 1700. To which is added, the present state of New England. With a new and accurate map of the country, and an Appendix, containing their present charter, their ecclesiastical discipline, and their municipal laws. In two volumes. The second edition, with many additions, by the author. By Daniel Neal, A. M. London; printed 1747. THE first edition of this work was published in 1720. It was ́received so well in this country, that the degree of Master of Arts was presented to the author by the government of Harvard College, the highest honour they had then in their power to bestow. Several mistakes are corrected in the present edition, which is a valuable production, and was perused with great avidity by those of a former generation, who wished to learn the state of our affairs. It is now but little known, because the more complete history of Massachusetts Bay, by Mr. Hutchinson, has cast it into the back ground. Mr. Neal, who rendered himself eminent by his other works, was a distinguished clergyman, in the city of London, of that denomination of Dissenters, styled Independents. His capital performance was a history of the Puritans, which contains notices of the fathers of New England, as well as other non-conformists, who suffered from the arbitrary mandates of queen Elizabeth, or the more cruel scourges of archbishops Whitgift, Bancroft and Laud. He has been accused of giving too deep a colour to those transactions of the high church party, and throwing a veil over the faults of the Puritans. That he deserves censure on this account, we believe, not from the illhumoured sneers of Warburton, but the plain unvarnished representation of one who had neither the prejudices of English "No writer," says bishops, nor the rancour of the sectaries. Mosheim, "has treated this part of the ecclesiastical history of England in a more ample and elegant manner than Daniel Neal, in his history of the Puritans." But he adds, "The author of this laborious work, who was himself a Non-conformist, has not indeed been able to impose silence so far on the warm and impetuous spirit of party, as not to discover a certain degree of partiality in favour of his brethren. For while he relates in the most circumstantial manner all the injuries the Puritans received from the bishops, and those of the esta blished religion, he in many places diminishes, excuses, or suppresses the faults and failings of those he defends." We ought to be candid where we can, but even the candour of Reviewers should not prevent them from being just and impartial, and we think this well grounded opinion of Mr. Neal's writings ought to guide those who read his history of New England. There is enough to commend in the book, and it is more worthy of commendation than any other account previously written; yet we think due allowance should be made for the prejudices, the feelings, and the party zeal of all who write about the affairs of New England, when they tell of the grievous sufferings of our ancestors from "ecclesiastical commissioners, spiritual courts and penal laws for conscience sake." The first volume of the history is divided into twelve chapters, and takes up the narrative from the first peopling of America to the year of our Lord, 1673. It may not be amiss to give an analysis of the whole work, because it contains a variety of materials for the reader's instruction and entertainment. The first chapter is a summary of the opinions of learned men concerning the settlement of America; a relation of the unsuccessful attempts to settle the Northern Continent; a survey of New England; and a description of the Natives, &c. All that can be known concerning the first peopling of America, is very little. The conjectures of those who make the Aborigines of our country and the Tartar hordes the same nation, were suggested very early. Grotius says it was the general opinion while he lived, "that the tribes of Indians in North America, came from that part of Scythia, called Tartaria Magna, and that if navigators had found the straits, or described the proximity of the continents, he should be of the same opinion; but as this had not been done, we have no fixed opinion about it." Had he lived in these times, he would have had all the evidence he wanted. Mr Neal does not quote Grotius de origine gentium Americanarum. The substance of the chapter is taken from Harris's voyages, where the same, or similar conjectures are collected. Whoever reads the dissertation of Grotius, ought likewise to read the notes of Joannes de Laet, of Antwerp. His opinion is, that allowing the two continents. were united, it would only prove that the natives of America might come from Asia; not that they were Tartars; but it is more likely that they were nations whom those warriours drove out of their possessions, and who sought a shelter in other regions of the earth. This The second chapter of Mr. Neal's history is a short account of the sufferings of the Puritans; of the original of the Brownists; their principles, sufferings, removal into Holland, where Mr. Robinson laid the foundation of the Independent church discipline, as it was afterwards practised in New England. is a chapter full of information No person could write better upon this subject, and it proves the contrary of what Mr. Hutchinson asserts, that Neal's history is only an abridgment of Mather's Magnalia. We shall quote an account of Mr. Robin, son's church, not as the most instructive passage, but merely to shew what foundation those writers have, who have called the Plymouth settlers Brownists, and who sometimes have inadvertently confounded the fathers of Massachusetts with the fathers of New Plymouth, "Mr. J. Robinson was the father of the Independents, being the first that beat out a middle way between Brownism and Presbytery. When he came first to Holland, he was a rigid Brownist, but after he had seen more of the world, and conversed with learned men, he began to have a more charitable opinion of those that differed from him; and though he always maintained the lawfulness and necessity of separating from those reformed churches among whom he lived, yet he was far from denying them to be true churches; nay, he allowed the lawfulness of communicating with them in the word and prayer, though not in the sacraments and discipline, and would give liberty to any of the Dutch church to receive the sacrament with him occasionally; he maintained to the last, that every particular church or society of christians had a complete power within itself to choose its own officers, to administer the gospel ordinances, and to exercise all acts of authority and discipline over its members; and that consequently it was Independent upon all classes, synods, convocations and councils; he allowed the expediency of synods and councils for the reconciling of differences among churches, and giv ing them friendly advice, but not for the exercising any act of authority or jurisdiction, or the imposing any articles or canons upon them without the free consent of the churches themselves. He disallowed of the constitution of the Church of England, as irrational, of their liturgy and stinted prayers, and of their open communion, as thinking it necessary to keep out unworthy communicants, and to have some marks of the grace of God discovered by those who desired the privilege of church fellowship; and these are some of the principles of the Independents at this day." Mr. Robinson wrote an apology for the Brownists, which is frequently quoted by Mr. Neal. We have his own words, in his most excellent advice to our fathers who came into this country. "I advise you to abandon, avoid, and shake off the name of Brownists. 'Tis a mere nickname, and a brand for making religion and the professors of it odious to the christian world." The third chapter which contains the Rise and Progress of the colony, settled at New Plymouth from 1620 to 1628, is a very just and concise narrative. Such an account is very interest |