Is by ordinances of awful solemnity, and accompanied, as it will be in every due celebration, by the proper fruits and real witness of the Holy Ghost. We experience the gifts of the Spirit, and discover that we possess them, by feeling in our hearts, and enjoying in our conduct their proper and promised effects.

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"Here, however, it is of importance to observe," says Mr. N., "that it is not the strength nor the exquisiteness of those feelings, that declare them to be the work of grace, specially infused, and immediately imparted, Joy' the most intense, and hope' the most ecstatick, may arise in the mind, from the workings of our ani mal spirits; and these emotions may lull the conscience by promising it some delusive good, and finally sink us in a state of undisturbed but fatal security. All those feelings, however, which seize the mind, in sudden and irregular impulses, are not merely suspici ous, but spurious evidences of the divine influence; for transports and raptures are the marks of an enthusiastick fancy, not of a spiritual mind. The work of divine grace is, on the contrary, progressive; and gradually displays itself in the effects wrought in our temper and conduct *. To have any security of its indwelling we must have attended those ordinances by which we are anointed; which are the seals and pledges of the Spirit +. To judge of its growth we must commence by scrutinizing our actions, not examining our feelings. To an attendance on the means of grace we must add 'prayer and supplication ; and to prayer and supplication sincere and unremitted obedience §; then it is that we are assured, that the God of peace shall be with us ¶ then it is, we are taught to believe that, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus **.' This calm composure of mind, and total resignation to the divine will; this comfort and consolation of spirit, which arise from reflecting on a life of persevering piety; are consequently the religious affections that constitute the choicest fruits of the Holy Ghost, the last and surest test of his indwelling and operation." P. 214.

The positions of this discourse are three. 1. The nature and degree of that knowledge which we may attain of the inward abode of the Holy Ghost, &c. 2. The nature and quality of those fruits or effects, &c. by which we are individually apprized of his indwelling and operation and, lastly, the fitness and wisdom of the particular modes in which his influence is revealed. These positions are supported with equal zeal and sobriety, with zeal against indifference and sobriety against enthusiasm ; and the principal parts of the argument are confirmed, as usual, in the notes, &c. page 484 to the end, by striking and apposite authori

ties from the Fathers, our public formularies, our first reformers, and our most eminent divines of later times.

In reviewing Mr. Nolan's book, we fear that we have not attained the end which we proposed:-but it is high time to draw to a close, and to sum up our judgment of a work from which we have derived much satisfaction, and still more instruction. We have no hesitation in saying, that we think it does high honour to the author, and that it reflects credit even on the Church of which he is a Presbyter. It well merits a very general circulation among the clergy, and a particular recommendation to the study of the younger part of the order. Especially does it merit the serious attention of the ordinary disputants and every day preachers, on the difficult and mysterious subject which it so ably treats, and on which they are unfortunately more eager to dogmatise and to dispute than to read, learn, and reflect. That we agree with Mr. N. in every particular point, argument, and illustration, we will not pretend. But we have no hesitation in asserting, that we think the present work better adapted to reconcile the different opinions of thinking, serious and sober men on this subject than any with which we are acquainted. The great obstacle in the present age, even among sober and serious men, to a just estimation of the sacraments and of the nature and ope ration of that grace of which the sacraments are the signs and seals, consists in the general neglect of Church authority, and in the total ignorance or contempt of the mission of her ministers. If the sacraments have divine authority and divine efficacy, the minister which celebrates them must have a divine commission, and this commission he can ordinarily derive only by succession from those on whom it was at first conferred by the Redeemer himself. This, which is evidently of so much importance, a spurious liberality has contrived to render insignificant or odious in the estimation even of some pious and thoughtful men. That it was considered of the utmost importance in the first and purest ages of the Church, and in the age in which our own Church was reformed, Mr. N. has completely proved, and our public formularies have distinctly asserted-binding the consequences on the conscience of every faithful and enlightened member of our communion.

We do not expect much concession on the part of Calvinists, for they are generally too warm and too much wedded to their own system of sudden conversions, imaginary perceptions, and sensible impulses, to allow judgment its cool and sober operation. In general too they systematically underrate the importance and efficacy of the sacraments, and there is very little hope of their being brought to see and acknowledge their error, as they have almost universally in practice, and altogether in principle rejected

the

the mission on which that importance and efficacy depend. The very claim to it so distinctly made by the Church of England; they treat with ridicule or scorn. This is a fundamental error, of which we have very little hope to see the remedy, as the great mass of Calvinists in this country and elsewhere really want the authority which they despise.., Men are always with difficulty brought to acknowledge the importance of that which they are conscious that they do not possess, the acquisition of which would require an entire change of system, renunciation of present opinions, connections, and habits. Yet if we attribute to the sacraments the importance and efficacy which the Scripture's certainly attribute to them, the authority of the ministry by which they are administered must be admitted of course. For without that authority they become utterly insignificant, like the act of a pretended ambassador without a commission from the prince, whose name and authority he assumes. For these reasons we have no hope that Mr. N.'s book will conciliate the favour either of our liberal or of our Calvinistic brethren on either side of the Tweed. He will be marked out by both parties as a bigotted high churchiman-as such he will be shuuned, and by this absurd nick-name, altogether unmerited on his part, he will be refuted without any expence of thought, of reading, or of writing.

ART. V. The Official Project of a Constitution for the United Netherlands. To which is prefixed the Declaration of His Royal Highness the Prince Sovereign, relative to the New Code. Translated from the Dutch, with Permission, and published by Authority. 64 pp. 3s. 6d. Murray. THE struggles for supreme power in Europe which were made by the Austrian family in the sixteenth century; the great confederacies which ensued to prevent it from establishing an uni versal monarchy, and to maintain the freedom of religious opinion against the vast pretensions of the Roman Pontiff; and the violence of that protracted warfare which was terminated by the Treaty of Westphalia; established, by precedent of acknowledged validity, if not by direct provision, a general law which renders the domestic concerns of nations a subject of common interest, and if need be in matters of high importance the ground of foreign interference. Thenceforward the countries of Europe became as the members of a great family united by interest, duty, and attachment. An institution familiarly called the Balance of Powers, became not only a matter of occasional couvention, but acquired the force of public law.

F

Many

VOL. I. JÚLY, 1814.

Many attempts have been made to disturb and to destroy that law. In the progress of events new relations have arisen inconsistent with its authority, and new principles have been called to operation which threatened its subversion. In the unpre cedented warfare of the French revolution it seemed to be abrogated for ever. It will be one of the greatest blessings flowing from the present glorious peace, if the sovereign powers shall again concur in regarding the civilized world as a fœderal Commonwealth subsisting, to resist the claims of the arrogant, to protect the rights of the weak, and to give stability and grace to lawful dominion. They will then be taught to submit themselves in dutiful allegiance to that law, and the legislatures of nations; and the nations also will regard themselves as amenable to the tribunal of the public opinion, and as restrained from making any internal changes which are incompatible with the general safety of Europe.

war.

England having acquired fresh vigour and influence in all the collisions of this eventful time, and, as we humbly presume, advancing even yet in political consideration, continues to regard, with great anxiety, whatever passes in the neighbouring states to affect their future rank and disposition in the affairs of peace and Whatever happens in that country, an alliance with which our wisest Statesmen have ever valued, as affording us a cheap and sufficient barrier against our principal enemies, we consider as of vital importance. For that reason the little work before us has claimed our earliest attention, and we think it. sug gests a speculation, which, at every period, would be of great national concern, but under the circumstances of the present day is of an importance very nearly approaching that of our own iminediate domestic affairs,

The United Provinces came into independent existence under, our fostering care, and flourished under our protection during the brightest periods of their history! They have never been permanently opposed to us but under the influence of our com mon enemy; and in union with us, they have exacted the respecť of the mightiest potentates, and been enabled to repel the ag gressions of their most powerful opponents. To that union, history attributes the failure of those projects of ambition which the Spanish monarchy had formed for acquiring an ascendancy! over all the affairs of Europe, civil and ecclesiastical; to that union we are indebted, under Providence, for the establishment of the protestant religion; by that alone a limit was established to the encroachments of Louis XIV.; and by-dissolving it the revolutionary powers of France was enabled to proceed in that course of outrageous aggression against civilized society, by which the subjugation of the world was almost completed.".

The Prince of Orange being recalled to his hereditary rank and power in that republic, proceeds immediately to the formation of a new constitution. Addressing himself to his people he says,

"Invited to the sovereignty of these states by your confidence and your attachment, we from the first declared that we would undertake the same, only under the guarantee of a wise constitution, which might secure your freedom against all possible abuses; and we have ever since continued to feel the necessity thereof.

"We regarded it, therefore, as one of the first and most sacred of our duties to summon together some men of consideration, and to charge them with the weighty task of establishing a fundamental code, built upon your manners, your habits, and corresponding to the wants of the present times."

Though we are little qualified to judge of the policy of princes in the great measures of administration, and are never disposed to question the validity of their proceedings while the public good is, without doubt, the object of their aim, yet we lament that any necessity should apparently exist to require or to justify this address from the Prince of Orange to his subjects, the people of the United States. We should have deemed it a far happier circumstance if, upon his return to his native land, he had professed his desire of re-establishing himself in the antient rights and prerogatives of his family, according to the antient laws and usages of the commonwealth, rather than of accepting an invitation, however unanimous, to become the head of a new government. We regret the more that his Highness should have found it necessary to promulgate a new fundamental code, as if in those laws and usages there was nothing to sustain the authority essential to his own dignity, and to the happiness and power of the state.

We are weary of revolutions, and have long thought that the re-establishment of order and public safety in society depends: upon the union of all classes in the reverence of established law, as a sacred work of antient institution. The work of any present legislature is at best but a provision of political expediency, which presuming speculators will often question or deride, and sometimes forcibly assail; but when we make antiquity the founda tion of public authority, we have the aid of all the virtues and all the noble habits of civilized man to sustain our social fabric. Filial piety and subjection to departed wisdom become the prop of loyalty. The laws exact obedience not merely as the mandates of power, but as the dictates of a revered ancestry, and are the object of filial love and veneration.

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