• God alone is an infallible judge and difcerner of the heart a he only beholds, with an unerring eye, the uprightness or obliquity of human thoughts and intentions; therefore none but he can abfolutely and decifively pronounce of any perfon, that he is either holy or fincere, or wicked or profane. But we muft form our judgment from the outward actions; and wherefoever we find a regular conduct, where all the duties to God and man, as far as we can obferve, are exactly and punctually discharged; where there are no visible infractions of divine or human laws, we are to look upon the perfon fo qualified as a great, good, and virtuous man. Whoever impartially confiders the royal martyr's conduct from his afcending the throne to his martyrdom, must be forced to give him the character of great, good, and glorious. His devotion to God was regular, and conftant both in public and private, and that not cold and formal, but with an inflamed zeal and affection. The fplendor of an earthly crown did not make him neglect preparing for a heavenly one. In the midst of the highest plenty, and all the means of gratifying a fenfual appetite, he was remarkably temperate, chafte and fober. His conjugal affection has been even imputed as a crime; for he was an inviolable obferver of the matrimonialvow. And if we confider him in the last scene of his life, in his behaviour both, before and at the fcaffold, we may obferve an admirable compofition of Chriftian meeknefs and royal grandeur; how, under the extremeft preffures, he never could be prevailed with to do any thing unbecoming either the Chrif tian or the King. The merit of this prince, both in public and private life, may with advantage be fet in oppofition to any monarch or citizen, which the annals of any age or nation can present to us. He feems, indeed, to be the complete model of that perfect character, which, under the denomination of a fage and wife man, philofophers have been fond of delineating, rather as a ficlion of their imagination, than in hopes of ever feeing it reduced to practice; So happily were all his virtues tempered together, fo wifely were they blended, and fo powerfully did each prevent the other from exceeding its proper bounds. He knew how to conciliate the moft enterprizing spirit with the corleft moderation. His character, both in public and private life, is almoft without blemish. He feems to have poffefied every accomplishment both of body and mind, which makes a man either eftimable or amiable. His elocution was eafy, perfuafive, and at command. He was a fincere friend, an cafy, polite, and affable companion; carried a princely

The paffage in Italics is copied from Hume, and forms a part of the character of Alfred. Our Author, though a copious tranfcriber, makes no acknowledgment of obligations of this kind.

dignity, without pride and haughtinefs; was learned without pedantry; was orthodox without fuperftition; was brave in the field, and wife in council; compofed in the most perplexed cafes; modeft in profperity, and great in adverfity. But should I attempt to enumerate his virtues, they would fill up many pages therefore, without entering farther into the particulars of fo exemplary a character, which cannot be comprehended in a few words, we may venture to fay with Clarendon, That he was the worthieft gentleman, the beft mafter, the best friend, the best husband, the beft father, the best chriftian, that the age, in which he lived, produced. We have the warrant of authority, both in church and ftate, to pronounce him innocent, and a glorious martyr; while his enemies are declared a pack of miscreants, as far from being true proteftants, as they were from being good fubjects. And this may ferve for a certain teft of the true friends and enemies of the church of England, that he cannot be a friend to our church or ftate, who is an enemy to the royal martyr Charles I.

I have told you, in a few words, what Charles I. was: now I tell you, in as few, what he was not. He was no wax or ftraw king: he was not a prince that is the dupe of his fervants, and understands neither his own weakness nor ftrength! a prince incapable of making himself either feared or beloved. He was eafy and gentle; but was not led by his ministers as a flock of fheep by their fhepherd. He was not a child in council; a ftranger to the army. In fine, he was not a prince, with few vices in his heart, or rather in his conftitution, but with all manner of defects in his understanding.-—~

The king's ftatue, in the Exchange, was thrown down, and on the pedeftal thefe words were inferibed: Exit Tyrannus, regum ultimus; The tyrant is gone, the last of the kings.

To run over all the miferies, all the fcenes of distraction and confufion that followed this abomination of wickedness, would be a new fuffering, unless it were to admire and adore the goodness of God in our deliverance; that our legal monarchy, deftroyed and drowned in blood, fhould rife up in peace, and long continue to flourish; that our parliamentary conftitution, broken in pieces, and patched up into feveral deformed fhapes, fhould reaffume its ancient glory; that our national church, perfecuted, forfaken, and extint to all appearance, fhould recover its original beauty of holiness; that the laws of England be brought back from the point of the word to the council of justice, and flow in their wonted bounds and channels; that our nobility and gentry, infulted by the rabble, and enflaved by armed men, fhould be reinflated in hereditary wealth and honour; that all the people, oppreffed and vexed with fequeftration, plunder, free quarter, contribution, loan,

B 4

and

and all manner of arbitrary demands and impofitions, fhould once more be free men, and enjoy their own with comfort and fecurity! I fay, that the iniquity of thofe times fhould diffolve the whole fabric of our church and ftate, and put the foundations out of course, and turn our world upfide down; and yet that God fhould, as it were, create us a new heaven and a new earth, a restoration of peace and truth, and all that is dear to us. That was a furprifing light that arofe out of darkness; but long was the darkness, and terrible were the miferies which this nation fuffered, as we shall fee in the next chapter, before the restoration put an end to all our mifery. The murder of the royal martyr was a reproach to the nation, as it was committed in the name of the people of it, when in fact it was done by a few defperate villains; the two houfes of parliament fay, "By this horrid action, the people of England have received the most infupportable fhame and infamy, whilst the fanatic rage of a few miscreants, ftands imputed by our adverfaries to the whole nation. By this horrid action, the proteftant religion has received the greatest wound and reproach that was poffible for the enemies of God and the king to put upon it. Chriftianity itself has fuffered under the load of the guilt and fcandal of this nefarious action. For the troubles, tumults, and diftractions of that time, changed the face of religion, and filled the heads of men with political notions, and the noife of them; and as this abominable action was the refult of fafting, and as an answer to the feeking of God in prayer, this naturally put religion out of countenance, and tempted men to be profane, for fear of being hypocrites. And the principles of government and obedience fuffered extremely in the fatal caufes and confequences of this impiety. Before the convulfions of thofe times, the authority of princes, and the subjection of people, ftood upon their right bottom; the power of governing, and the duty of obeying and fubmitting, was the will of God, and the ordinance of man. It was the breaking down this fence, that laid open the fcene of rebellion and anarchy.'

In the appendix, which our Author has annexed to his performance, he endeavours to explain the nature and spirit of the Prefbyterian church-government. But his zeal for Epifcopacy has not allowed him to inquire difpaffionately into this fubject. When men renounce moderation and decency, and are carried away by the violence of prejudice, they only excite pity or contempt.

*

** For an account of Dr. Smith's treatife on the Nature and flitution of Government, fee our laft month's Review,

ARTY

ART. II. Difcourfes on the Parables of our bleffed Saviour, and the Miracles of his boly Gospel. With occafional Illustrations. In four Volumes. By Charles Bulkley. Vol. II. 8vo. Vol. II. 8vo. 58. fewed. Horffield, &c. 1771.:

IM

N our Review for June, 1771, we gave fome account of Mr. Bulkley's first volume. The fecond has fince appeared, and confifts of thirteen difcourfes; the fubjects are, The two Debtors, the good Samaritan, the rich Man, the barren Fig-tree, the Builder, the loft Sheep, the Prodigal Son, the unjuft Steward, Dives and Lazarus, the unprofitable Servant, the importunate Widow, the Pharifee and the Publican.

The Author continues to write upon thefe parables in a fenfible, agreeable, and practical manner, though fome of his explications and remarks are very different, not only from commonly received opinions, but alfo from what fome men of learning, ability and candour, will allow to be entirely conformable to the spirit and meaning of the parable, confidered in conjunction with what appears to them the general tenor and fense of scripture.

It is not an easy matter to do juftice to topics of this fort; at leaft there is danger, that while the preacher is explaining them, or enlarging upon fome particular points at which they feem to aim, he fhould lofe that power and energy with which parables are intended to operate, and with which thofe of the holy fcripture are evidently calculated to convey fome moral and pious admonition to the heart. The main bufinefs in this kind of enquiry feems to be, firft to attend to the occafion on which the parable was delivered, and illuftrate those circumftances which refer to ancient ufages, without fome knowledge of which the propriety and ftrength of the allegory may, in a great measure, be overlooked; after this, it is farther requifite to inculcate and enforce that truth which may, by this means, be impreffed on the hearer. Our ingenious Author keeps this point carefully in view: poffibly he may give too great a scope to fpeculation and refinement on fome fubjects, though he argues in a nervous and fpirited manner. But it does not appear that the introduction of speculation and philofophy, at least to the degree in which they have been often employed of late, hath greatly advanced the real interefts of piety and virtue: may it not rather be queftioned, from obfervation upon fact, whether this, among other causes, has not contributed to weaken, if not fometimes to deftroy, the impreffions of religion, and by this means alfo to loofen the principles and foundation of Chriftian morality.

In the fermon on the parable of the prodigal, which is indeed. an animated difcourfe, Mr. B. endeavours to establish thefe

two points, on the one hand, the grand efficacy of repentance, as the certain infallible method for fecuring to us an interest in the compaffions, and in the favour of the Almighty; and on the other, the placability of the divine nature. And here he (rather covertly indeed) attacks fome high Calvinistical notions upon these heads; and he alfo feems to oppose the opinions of many others, who are far from running into those extremes. Justice and candor may here require us to observe, that there are numbers of Chriftians who are equally ready, with this refpectable Author, to admit and infift upon, the divine placability and the neceffity of repentance; but are at the fame time perfuaded, that revelation gives us fome farther views upon thefe fubjects, and points out to us a particular method which fupreme wifdom and goodness has appointed for conveying and fecuring forgiveness to the penitent, in a way the most honourable to the almighty Governor, and moft comfortable to mankind.

In reading the difcourfe, entitled, The importunate Widow, we were led naturally to reflect how much wife and worthy men may differ in their opinion, or rather in the reprefentation of their opinion, upon the fame fubject. One author *, of whofe fermons we gave a brief account in a former Review, is folicitous to eftablish the perfuafion, that prayer may have fome influence with the Supreme Being; and apprehends, that the fuppofition of its being only useful, as it may excite fome good difpofitions in our own minds, is likely to enervate greatly, if it does not entirely remove the motive to its practice. Mr. Bulkley, on the other hand, rejects, with a kind of abhorrence, any imagination that the humble entreaties of his creatures can have any prevalence with the divine Majefty, and fuppofes, that the good fruit of prayer is the beneficial effect it may have upon our own minds; at the fame time, he feems to allow, that fome particular advantages may be imparted to those who by fuch exercifes are brought into a proper ftate to receive and improve them. From hence we may infer, not merely that men of ability and piety may differ in their views of the fame fubject, but, more than this, that, could they properly and fully explain their meaning to each other, they would be found to intend much the fame thing. We are alfo led to this farther conclufion, that where the obligation to any particular duty is clear and certain, as in this inftance of prayer, it is the bufinefs of mankind to apply themselves to its practice, without regarding thofe reafonings and objections, which men of fpeculation and leifure may fometimes advance. Christianity is no fcheme of philofophy or difpute; it is defigned for prac

• Dr. Ogden fee Review, vol. xlii. p. 214.