man conform himself as far as in him lies, with the wifi and purpose of his Maker." At the conclusion of this discourse, the Bishop drew a strong picture of the state of France, which very sensibly affected his auditors, and was circulated all over the kingdom through the public prints. When the sermon was printed, his Lordship subjoined to it an appendix, in which he vindicates Calvin from the charge of being a friend to the levelling -system.

At the yearly meeting of the charity children at St. Paul's, June 6, 1793, the Bishop preached a most excellent sermon on Luke iv. 18, 19, in which he defends, with his accustomed strength of reasoning, the doctrine of Christ's divinity, and urges, in a beautiful strain of eloquence, the benefit and duty of communicating religious instruction to the poor.

The year following, the Bishop was translated to the see of Rochester, with the deanry of Westminster, void by the death of Bishop Thomas. In the church of Westminster he made several excellent regulations, particularly with regard to the condition of the members of the choir, whose salaries he caused to be augmented.

In 1795, we find our indefatigable prelate preaching and publishing two sermons: one before the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and the other at the anniversary of the Magdalen, in the chapel of that institution. This last is entitled, "The Enjoyments of the future Life and true Notion of Christian Purity," from 1 John iii, 3; and though a very orthodox and perspicuous explication of the doctrine, "that the glorified bodies of mortals will resemble, in some measure, that of the Saviour in his exaltation;" it was made the subject of some severe remarks in that sin

performance the "Pursuits of Literature," the

but eccentric author of which, seemed to have a personal pique against the Bishop of Rochester. Why he should, it would, perhaps, be no very difficult matter to ascertain, if our conjecture respecting him be right.

The primary charge of the Bishop to his clergy at Rochester, in 1796, was printed the same year, and contains a very striking picture of the times, particularly with regard to religion, and an exact delineation of the advantages, difficulties, and duties of the Clergy. "We are fallen," says he, 66 upon times which, more perhaps, than any which the Christian Church hath seen,

since its first struggles with the powers of darkness in the three first centuries, require in the Preachers of the Gospel, those two qualities in particular, which our Lord told the Twelve he required in them, when first he invested them with their high commission, the policy "of the serpent united with the harmlessness of the dove."

In noticing the advantages of human learning, he repeats and amplifies what he had observed in his ordination sermon at Gloucester. "Learning," he says," is to us the best substitute for that preternatural illumination of the understanding, which was the privilege of the first preachers."

There is one passage in this Charge which deserves to be extracted, and very carefully to be considered by those ministers, who, by way of excusing their inattention to the studies peculiar to their function, gravely say, that they are engaged in the study of men.

So far as it has fallen in my way," says the Bishop, "to observe the good effects of this study of men, they amount not certainly to what those who addict themselves to the pursuit, tell us we might expect from it. I have never perceived among these juvenile Divines any extraordinary unction in the usual strain of preaching; nor have I discovered any thing more seemly, in the fashion of their lives, than the common polish of good breeding. Of all that wear the garb of Clergymen, they have certainly the least about them, either of the policy of the serpent, or of the harmlessness of the dove. And if the taste for this study of men, with a neglect of books, and the true study of men, should become general among our younger Brethren, (which God avert!) the enemy in the next generation will be likely to regain the advantageous post we have for centuries maintained."

In this year, also, the Bishop presented to the learned world, but without his name, a very elaborate disquisition, "On the Prosodies of the Greek and Latin Languages," dedicated, in warm terms of friendship, to Lord Thurlow, whom he compliments on his taste and skill in the subject of this profound investigation.

The signs of the times seem to have strongly drawn the attention of Dr. Horsley to the subject of the Prophecies of the Old and New Testaments; of the success of which application he published an excellent specimen in 1799, under the title of "Critical Disquisitions on the xviiith Chapter of Isaiah, in a Letter to Edward King, Vol. XI. Churchm. Mag. for Dec. 1806. 3G Esq."

a land

Esq." That respectable veteran in literature, had not long before published a Treatise on the Signs of the Times, in which, though there are undoubtedly many valuable remarks, there is also, as in most of his writings, much of what is fancifully ingenious. This chapter in particular, which according to Bishop Lowth," is one of the most obscure prophecies in the whole book of Isaiah," Mr. King considered not only as yet to be fulfilled, but as representing the restoration of the Jewish nation by means of France, which he supposed to be figured under the description of " shadowing with wings;" because the map of that empire, in his opinion, has something of that appearance. This notion is visionary enough to make one smile; but our learned prelate, who always lived on terms of intimacy with the worthy author, took up the subject in a grave manner, and has given us the best version and explanation of this difficult chapter, which can be found in language. He observes in the introduction, that, "first the prophecy, indeed, predicts some woeful judgment; but the principal matter of the prophecy is not judgment, but mercy, a gracious promise of the final restoration of the Israelites. Secondly, the prophecy has no respect to Egypt, or any of the contiguous countries. What has been applied to Egypt is a description of some people, or another, destined to be the principal instruments in the hand of Providence in the great work of the re-settlement of the Jews in the Holy Land, a description of that people by characters by which they will be evidently known when the time arrives. Thirdly, the time for the completion of the prophecy was very remote, when it was delivered, and is yet future; being, indeed, the season of the second advent of our Lord."

What the country is which is to be the instrument in the hand of God for the restoration of Israel, the Bishop does not attempt to determine; but he is decidedly of opinion, that "the Atheistical Democracy of France is not destined to so high an office;" it should seem, however, from the following passage, that he was not without an idea and hope, that the British Isles may be intended: "The country, therefore, to which the prophet calls, is characterized as one, which in the days of the accomplishment of this prophecy, shall be a great maritime and commercial power, forming remote alliances,

making distant voyages to all parts of the world with expedition and security, and in the habit of affording protection to their friends and allies."

This important publication was followed in 1800, by a Charge delivered at the second visitation of the diocese of Rochester, and which was printed at the request of the Clergy. In this Charge, the Bishop took a review of the confederacy formed and carried on against religion on the continent, and the consequent apostacy of the French nation from Christianity; whence he inferred, that "this was but the beginning of that apostacy, from which the great Antichrist is to arise." Our prelate's opinion on the subject of Antichrist, is farther given in his letter to Mr. King, and is so curious, and at the present moment becomes so interesting, that we shall give the description as drawn by his masterly hand.

"I confess I cannot discern any immediate signs of the fall of Antichrist; I fear, I see too clearly the rise, instead of the fall of the Antichrist of the West; or rather I fear, I see him rapidly advancing to full stature and ripe age. His rise, strictly speaking, the beginning of this monster, was in the apostolic age: for it were easy to trace the pedigree of French philosophy, Jacobinism, and Bavarian illumination, up to the first heresies. But it is now we see the ADOLESCENCE of that man of sin, or rather of lawlessness, who is to throw off all the restraints of religion, morality, and custom, and undo the bands of civil society. The son of perdition, who is to arise out of an apostacy, not a constructive apostacy; never understood to be such by those to whom the guilt has been imputed; but AN OPEN, UNDISGUISED A POSTACY. The son of perdition, who shall be neither a Protestant, nor a Papist; neither Christian, Jew, nor Heathen; who shall worship neither God, angel, nor saint; who will neither supplicate the invisible Majesty of Heaven, nor fall down before an idol. He will magnify himself against every thing that is called God, or is worshipped; and with a bold flight of impiety, soaring far above his precursors and types in the times of Paganism, the Sennacheribs, the Nebuchadnezzars, the An, tiochus's, and the heathen emperors, will claim divine honours to himself exclusively, and consecrate an image of himself. I doubt not but this monster will be made an instrument of that pruning which the vine must undergo,"

SG 2

And

And thus in the Charge, the Bishop observes, "In the odious French Republic, aping the manners, grasping the dominion, speaking to friends and enemies the high vaunting language of antient Rome, we seem to behold the dreadful Apocalyptic Beast, which, at the time of the desolation of the Pagan whore, exhibited in vision to St. John, had been, but was not, but was to be again; we seem, I say, to behold in the French Republic this dreadful monster beginning to rise, in its ancient form, out of the raging sea of Anarchy and Irreligion."

The reason why the Bishop was so particular upon this subject in his charge, he assigns to be the desire of impressing upon the minds of his hearers, the magnitude of the danger which threatens all Christendom, and in urging upon them, the assiduity which the dreadful crisis required of them, in watching over the souls committed to their care.

He then calls their attention to the moral and religious condition of things at home, and he lays open the stratagems made use of by the enemy to revolutionize the country under the pretence of Reformation; but says he, "instead of divesting Religion of its mysteries, and reducing it to a mere philosophy in speculation, and to a mere morality in practice; the plan is now to effect a great zeal for orthodoxy; to make great pretensions to an extraordinary measure of the Holy Spirit's influence; to alienate the minds of the people from the Established Clergy, by representing them as sordid worldlings; without any concern about the souls of men; indifferent to the religion which they ought to teach, and to which the laity are attached; and destitute of the Spirit of God. In many parts of the kingdom, new conventicles have been opened in great numbers, and congregations formed of one knows not what denomination. The pastor is often, in appearance at least, an illiterate peasant or mechanic. The congregation is visited occasionally by preachers from a distance. Sunday schools are opened in connection with these conventicles. There is much reason to suspect that the expences of these schools and conventicles are defrayed by associations formed in different places. For the preachers and schoolmasters are observed to engage in expences for the support and advancement of their institutions, to which, if we may judge from appearance, their own means must be alto

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