Warned by our sudden fate, learn heaven to prize;

Earth's pleasures fade, her riches quickly flee:
Death in one awful moment closed our eyes,

Thou know'st not but the next may summon thee.

We add some further specimens of his poetical efforts :

A BIRTH-DAY THOUGHT.

My birth-day of nature I've oftentimes kept,
And rejoiced in the revels of youth;

Yet 'twas all but a dream, for I slumbered and slept,
Quite a stranger to God and his truth.

But he pitied my soul, I awoke from my sleep,

And he saved me in infinite love:

A new birth-day my Saviour then taught me to keep,
For again I was born from above.

And now I believe that the God of all peace
Will be mine till with age I am hoary;
But if angels rejoiced at my birth-day of grace,
How they'll sing on my birth-day of glory!

L. R.

"No cloud can overshadow a true Christian, but his faith will discern a rainbow in it."-Bp. Horne. The same idea versified :

What though a cloud o'ershade my sight,

Big with affliction's tear;

Yet Faith, amidst the drops that fall,

Discerns a rainbow there.

L. R.

Epitaph on the death of his own infant :

This lovely bud, so young, so fair,

Called hence by early doom,

Just came to shew how sweet a flower

In Paradise would bloom.

By a reference to the diary it will be seen that an allusion was made to Mr. Richmond's review of the late Archdeacon Daubeny's Vindicia Ecclesiæ Anglicana. This critique, written in the year 1804, and inserted in the Christian Observer,' claims a just title to distinction among productions of this class; whether we consider the ability and conclusiveness of its reasoning, the extensive acquaintance which it manifests with the writings of the Reformers, and with the genuine principles and doctrines of the Church of England, or the conciliatory spirit in which it is written. Controversy is here stripped of the acrimonious spirit which too often disgraces its pages; and truth is pursued without violating the law of charity. By a writer in the Critical Review for June 1805, this critique is called, "the most respectable" work which has yet come before him. "In delivering this opinion," he declares himself to have been "influenced by a regard to the author's experience and learning on the matters in dispute, to the soundness of his principles, to his talents as a reasoner, and to the moderation and good temper with which he

1 See p. 58.

G

expresses himself." He adds, that the author "has manifested a considerable acquaintance with the writings of the Reformers, and the history of the religious opinions of their day ;" and that he has successfully exposed some errors of Mr. Daubeny, and has thrown out several remarks which may well deserve the attention of that gentleman." That the reader may be fully in possession of the circumstances of this controversy, it is necessary to state, that the Rev. Mr. Overton had written a work, entitled, 'The True Churchman Ascertained,' in which he undertakes to vindicate that portion of the clergy usually designated 'Evangelical,' from the charges and insinuations of their opponents; and to prove the priority of their claim to the title of true churchmen, from their stricter adherence to the real doctrines of the church. In the prosecution of this object, the real sense of the articles and doctrines of the Reformers is investigated and appealed to; and the conclusion then drawn is, that, by a reference to this standard, a very serious defection will be found to have taken place, among many of the clergy, from the doctrines of their own church, and from the principles established at the Reformation. A man bold enough to advance a charge like this, must naturally have expected to create a host of adversaries, and inust have looked for support, under such a conflict, to the sincerity of his

motives, and the supposed authority of his facts and evidence. It is impossible, however, to peruse this book, and not to acknowledge the great research, the acuteness of argument, the able exposition of the doctrines and principles of the Church of England, and the methodical arrangement manifested by the author, in the execution of his work; which, if properly revised, and purified from some of the defects imputed to it, might still be made highly instrumental to the removal of many doctrinal errors in the present day. Many living authors were specified by name on this occasion, and extracts adduced from their writings, as furnishing undeniable testimony of a departure from sound doctrine. Mr. Daubeny being classed, and in some respects rather unjustly, with others whose sentiments were more reprehensible than those he professed, came forward on his own behalf, and on that of a large body of the clergy, to vindicate himself and them from the charge of being corrupters of sound doctrine, and produced his Vindiciae Ecclesiæ Anglicana,' in reply. It is this last work which gave rise to the critique of Mr. Richmond. Without entering at large into the subject, we shall confine ourselves to the selection of those portions of it, in which the interests of sound faith and vital religion seem to be most at issue.

Though Mr. Daubeny seems in some places to distinguish between baptismal and spiritual

regeneration, there are other passages in which he appears to consider them as contemporaneous and inseparable, and as declared to be so in the judgment of our own church. On this subject, Mr. Richmond remarks-" as to the expressions which Mr. Daubeny brings forward, as proofs that the church considers baptism and regeneration to be synonymous; we would observe, that the church is usually made to speak in the name and in the character of that part of it, which truly believes and partakes of her saving privileges; and when assertions are made as to the efficacy of the sacraments, the blessing of church communion, the state of the departed, and other important articles of Christian hope and belief, whether it be in the form of public prayer, homilies, articles, apologies, or catechisms, it is presumed that all who unite in the use of her forms of worship, and are not, by open and known delinquency, worthy of excommunication, are really such as we hope and pray they should be. There is clearly a very wide distinction between the expression of a general hope, and a determination as each individual case.

:

Without the former, no public forms can be drawn up but we cannot hazard the latter, without wholly mistaking the nature of the Christian covenant.

"The Church of England, in her office of infant baptism, certainly presumes on the regeneration