church, must mean the fame now that it ever did; and a feparation from it must be attended with confequences as dangerous in the prefent day, as at any former period. For the church of Chrift is but one; and all the promifes of the gofpel are exclufively made to that one church. None confequently but members of that church, can lay claim to an intereft in those promifes; upon the fame principle, that none but those who have been admitted members of any human fociety, can lay claim to the privileges belonging to it. Thus the direction given to thofe who were ftruck with St. Peter's fermon, was this, "Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jefus Chrift, for the remiffion of fins, and ye fhall receive the gift of the Holy Ghoft." Acts ii. 38.-By which we understand, that admiffion into the Church was confidered by the Apoftle as a neceffary qualification for the gift of the Holy Ghoft. Indeed, from the general tenor of fcripture, it is to be concluded, that none but those who are members of the church can be partakers of the fpirit by which it is accompanied. Without therefore prefuming to determine upon the condition of those who are out of the church, we are at least juftified in faying, that their hope of falvation must be built upon fome general idea of divine mercy; to which the member of the church has a covenanted claim. In their cafe, we recognize what appears to us to refemble the uncertain provifion of baftards, compared with the more fettled inheritance of legiti mate children. In the one cafe we have an act of grace, for the performance of which, because there has been no promife, there can be no fecurity; in the other an act of covenant, which certainly will take place; according to the conditions upon which it has been made; becaufe he is faithful who hath promifed." P. 176. For a full view of these important fubjects we must of course refer our readers to the work itself, which is written, in general, with great clearness of language and argument. In the first Poftfcript, which is addreffed to Occafional Separatists, the author takes occafion to comment on fuch parts of Mr. Wilberforce's book, as feem to have a dangerous tendency, or unfound basis; as on p. 131, where that writer feems too much to depreciate the moral precepts of the Gofpel*; and on other paffages, wherein he feems to give too abfolute an efficacy to faith, without any regard to works. He alfo very justly and properly defends the clergy of the establishment, from thofe cenfures which Mr. Wilberforce appears occafionally to throw upon them*. At p. 328, &c. he contends very forcibly that Baxter, whom Mr. W. has claffed among the brightest ornaments and pillars of the Church of England, was in fact a Schifmatic, though at the fame time a ftrenuous maintainer of the peculiar doctrines of Chriftianity, and in that character entitled to respect. The Address to the Clergy, contained in • Daubeny, p. 297, 307. + P. 321, &C. the the fecond Poftfcript, controverts at large fome of the doctrines of Hoadley, Warburton, and Paley, refpecting the Church; and the whole concludes with juft and proper exhortations, fuited to the general nature of the book: which certainly contains, in every part, much matter well deferving the confideration of all ferious Chriftians. ART. XVI. A Letter to the Reformers. By H. R. Yorke, Efq. 8vo. 87 PP. 2s. 6d. Symonds. 1798. IT must be in the recollection of most of our readers, that the author of this pamphlet was fentenced to a long imprifonment, in confequence of a conviction for feditious prac. tices. This therefore may be confidered as an important publication, fince it exhibits a full, honourable, and manly recantation of those principles, of the malignant and mischievous tendency of which, Mr. Yorke declares himself now fatisfied, from the molt temperate and fober examination*. A candid profelyte, in fuch times, is a rare phænomenon. The tract commences with proving, by clear reafoning, that the continuance of the war is imputable to the French, and no to us; that they are flaves themselves, and fighting to establish fimilar flavery among others. It proceeds to point out the abuse which our adverfaries have, on all occafions, made of their victories, which is inconteftibly demonstrated in the case of Holland, Venice, Switzerland, &c. and it concludes with a fpirited and feeling acknowledgment of indifcretion, which entitles the author to our unqualified commendation. It would be very unjust to Mr. Yorke, not to infert fome of his numerous animated paffages. The following, in a particular manner, characterizes the ambition and perfidy of the French. "The ambition of one man, Lewis XIV. has been tranfplanted into the bofom of every Frenchman, and is again revived as a national characterific. Thus they affect to liften with pleasure to propofitions of peace, because they gratify their vanity, while they infpire their * In our Catalogue, under the article Politics, the reader will fee a fhort account of a pamphlet written by the fame perfon, before this judicious change of his fentiments, entitled, "On the Means of faving our Country." The means he now recommends are different, and felected with more fagacity and judgment. hopes, hopes, and feed their ambition. In the offers of peace, they imagine they behold the debility of their enemies; in the denial of them, they fancy they display their power. Their real object is obviously to fubjugate their enemies in fucceffion, and to plunder them when fubjugated. "If any proofs be neceffary in fupport of this affertion, I will refer you to their folemn declarations, their conftitutional codes, their manifeftoes on the one fide, and to their repeated perjuries, violent decifions, and unexampled cruelties, on the other. For inftance; they protefted, in the prefence of God and the world, that they renounced all conquefts, that their only triumphs fhould be those of philofophy; that, inftead of the luxury of courts, they would establish liberty and equality; in the place of a perfecuting fuperftition, universal tolerance; of individual will, general law; of literary fervility, unqualified liberty of opinion; of feudal oppreffions, the removal of many phyfical evils; of ignorance, the inflitution of a national education, which fhould redeem the human race from error, and advance the improvement of their intellectual powers and moral fentiments. All this they folemnly promifed, but have fulfilled in no one inftance. You, however, gave credit to the benevolent defign, because it was plaufible, and fo did I. Mark how they have performed their promifes. Inftead of renouncing all conquefts, they have not only fubjugated, but they have plundered Savoy, Italy, Holland, the Auftriar Netherlands, and all the territory fituated between their ancient frontier and the banks of the Rhine, which, with magnificent folly, they have appropriated as their boundary, in defiance of reafon, juftice, and military experience. The triumphs of their philofophy, confifted in the legalized murder or banishment of every man who was diftinguifhed for literary eminence, and who took no part in their fanguinary measures; the black catalogue of whofe names, are as appalling to the philofopher, as they must be difgufting to you. For liberty and equality, they have permitted the licentious freedom of a few hundred tyrants, who are the offals of human nature; and fuch as the lowest of the people brought into play according to the downward progreffion of civil commotion. For univerfal tolerance, they have martyred, imprifoned, or banished, moft exemplary characters, because they gave tef timony of that faith which is in them; fo that an Algerine pirate, or an Atheift, is certain of toleration and countenance there, when a Chriftian finds none. For general law, they have eftablished the difcipline of the bayonet, and the fanguinary codes of general profcription. For unqualified liberty of opinion, they imprison or banith every man who dares to fpeak against the government, and they have appointed a licenfer to the public papers, the only vehicles of public opinion and intelligence. For the removal of many physical evils, they have entailed poverty, the greateft of evils, on their pallive flaves; and for national education, and the improvement of the human intellect, they have difcountenanced all religion, profcribed its teachers, driven men of true knowledge either into banishment or filence; and, with a mockery of all fenfe, have inftituted Pagan Ceremonies, wherein the most bombast rant and fustian are delivered from their Chief Magiftrates, and the people embruted, are taught to be fatisfied like the fervile fervile Romans with panem and circenfes, bread and puppet-fhews." P. 20. The inefficacy and abfurdity of the new philofophy has not often been better difplayed than by this writer, in p. 32. &c. while the infolence, as well as abfurdity, with which the Direc tory on all occafions affects to defignate this country as a land of pirates, is very happily refuted from p. 46 to p. 61; the whole of which portion contains fome animated writing, and unan fwerable argument. At p. 72, the author turns from the poli tical conduct of the French, to their conduct as it concerns the interests of religion; on which subject he thus expreffes himfelf. 66 I always confidered it as a wife measure to abstain from any pro feffions in a country, where religion reared her facred front in the pa. lace, and in the hamlet. But when Infidelity avowedly ftalks abroad, when every fallacy is marfhalled in fyftematic order, for the bale pur pofe of invalidating or rendering ridiculous the great truths of religion, it is right that every man should boldly and fearlessly avow his faith. It is a duty which I owe my countrymen, to caution them againft that cold and flippant fcepticism, which damps our hopes, removes the functions of morality, chills domeftic happinefs, deftroys the obligations of focial order, and builds up the philofophy of vanity, on the fubverfion of the altars of God. This however is not the place to difcufs the moral and political effects of religion on the happines of nations. The example of France, fhould ferve as an awful example to Europe. The church was no fooner declared independent of the ftate, under the pretext of univerfal tolerance; than a flood of vice inundated the land. The tribunals of justice received a fhock, in the abfence of every religious tye, and all conventions among n en were weakened or rendered nugatory. That the French should turn afide from the fuperftitions of the Church of Rome, is a natural conclufion, in an age remarkable for the general diffemination of knowledge. But that they fhould fuddenly renounce the acknowledgment of revealed truths, from the abufes which have oppreffed them, is as ridiculous in their conduct, as it denotes the impotence of their understandings. The vices and frauds of the profeffors of Chriftianity have nothing to do with Chriftianity itself. To know what it is, we must look to the only proper place, THE SCRIPTURES. The Chriftian religion is peculiar to itself; it has nothing in common with the other systems of religion which have existed in the world. It has God for its founder, and reafon for its bals. It is every where uniform, confiftent, and complete. Confidered as a body of ethics, it has never been equalled, and as a revealed law, it is fupported by that lucid evidence which muft be fatisfactory to an unbiaffed judgment. Its promifes are all intellectual (a remarkable inftance of its fimplicity) its object is unambi. tious, and its moral precepts correct even to mathematical precifion. The law of nature was but darkly known to the most enlightened of ancient philofophers; a revelation of it was therefore indifpenfably ne cessary. ceffary. Chriftianity fupplied this defect. It defcended upon the earth at a proper place and a proper time, after human philofophy had emptied itfelf of all its fubtleties, in the most inquifitive and enlightened nations of antiquity. It has exifted for eighteen centuries, throughout which we can trace is progrefs, without once lofing fight of it; and it will exit, as long as Charity and Virtue continue to be cultivated by men. What can the human moralift fubftitute in its place, or what hopes will he give us when Christianity is gone? It has been well anfwered, morality without motives, laws without mercy, and governments without principle. Virtue and Vice would become mere conventional founds, determined according to the fashion of countries, and a man might travel from one region to another, to commit vice with impunity. Thus inceft he would reconcile to confcience, by the law of Perfia, adultery by that of Sparta, and the expofition of infants by the codes of Lycurgus and China. The experiment has been tried in France, and it has failed." P. 73. On the British Conftitution the author's fentiments are now apparently coincident with our own; and they are well expreffed towards the end of the pamphlet. It concludes thus: "I have now done. By thus openly declaring my fentiments, I may incur blame or excite malevolence; but ray motive in writing this letter is fufficiently manifeft. It is my wish to fee the religion, laws, and conftitution of my country preferved entire, from the fury of a perfidious enemy, or the rash arm of fanatical innovation. My principles, religious and political, are certainly different from what they where when I entered the prifon. 1 am prepared, if it be neceffary, to explain the caufes of that change. I folemnly declare that I have nothing to hope from any party; from minifters or from opposition. I am totally unconnected with either. Although I have deeply and feverely fuffered from long imprisonment, both in fortune, and domeftic happiness, and although I have been invited to repair the mifchiefs, by entering again on political engagements, yet I will not facrifice my future tranquillity to temporary advantages, nor my opinions to interelt. If through me, the country have been wounded, I implore its forgiveness, and fincerely pray that the evils which may arise from any mifconduct of mine, may light on my head, not on Great Britain; and that in Charity to the failings of human nature, it may be ascribed to the levity and inconfiderateness of youth, not to any dishonesty of intention, nor defect of principle. If for fuch opinions, I am destined, in an ill-fated hour of my country, to be led to the fcaffold, 1 fhall willingly refign my life, in teltimony of a conftitution, the beneficent effects of which, I have felt even in the melancholy folitude of a prifon." P. 86. A few errors of the prefs, and of compofition, are amply atoned for by much vigour, ingenuity, and found argument. We would not ufe illuftrate," for, to make illuftrious, as Mr. |