GEORGE ISAAC HUNTINGFORD, D. D. WARDEN OF WINCHESTER COLLEGE, AND BISHOP OF HEREFORD. Discourses on Different Subjects. 1795-7. 8vo. 2 vols. In the selection of the two immediately following Sermons, from the writings of one of the most erudite as well as venerable of LIVING PRELATES, I consider that I am conferring a really essential service upon the Christian community. The first of these Discourses (upon FALSE PHILOSOPHY) was written and published at a moment of extreme agitation and anxiety respecting the probable issue of the FRENCH REVOLUTION, and of divers fantastical and even mischievous opinions circulated with unremitted diligence in our own country. The publication of the Sermon in question was at once opportune and successful. The solidity of the arguments and the strength of the diction carry conviction home to the most disputatious understanding; and at no period can such a discourse be considered obsolete. The second Sermon (upon THE PREACHING OF OUR LORD) exhibits the peculiar features of the writer's character: liberality of feeling, comprehensiveness of views, extent of learning, felicity of illustration, and piety of heart. It suffers nothing upon comparison with the ablest discourse (perhaps that of Dr. Townson?) upon the same subject; and I sincerely wish that younger divines, in particular, would make themselves masters of the scope of reasoning which it exhibits. The whole is founded upon a thorough knowledge of the inspired text, and of the aids which that text must always derive from apposite illustration. For the more obvious purposes of this work, I have omitted a few of the Bishop's notes in the Greek and Latin languages; but have retained the whole of those in the English tongue. The absolute, intrinsic worth of these Discourses must be the best apology for their length. But, in the task of this selection, I have been influenced also by a feeling, which, as it would be hypocrisy to suppress, so can it never operate to my shame to avow. The publication from which the two ensuing Sermons have been chosen, was first pointed out to me by the friend of the author to whom the second volume is dedicated. That friend was the late Rev. Mr. King, rector of Worthin, in Shropshire; a man of singular urbanity of disposition, and of considerable scholastic attainments; and with whom, in earlier years, I have spent many a cheerful and many a happy hour. He was both my warm friend and my near neighbour; and within his hospitable mansion I used frequently to associate with the amiable and learned author of these Sermons. The reader shall judge for himself of the relative footing on which the Bishop and his late friend stood with each other, by an extract from the concluding portion of the dedicatory epistle of the former to the latter : "Our civil polity hath not been treated with greater moderation than our religion. Both have equally been vilified, and the event in both cases hath been similar. That which before was but partial prejudice, hath upon conviction of its excellence been converted into the firmest attachment to the ESSENTIAL FORM of our government. The conviction hath arisen from due consideration of its distinguishing properties, and from attention to the happy effects which it actually produces. Supported on this basis of theory and experience, those who are enabled to estimate the blessings enjoyed by persons of ALL DENOMINATIONS in this country, have with earnest solicitude endeavoured to secure their stability and permanency. To this end they have inculcated truths which natural and revealed religion alike proclaim; that, by the will of God, legible and visible in the qualities and propensities of human kind, man is designed to live under some form of government: that no form of government can be effectual to good purpose, unless there be in the people, whom it is to protect, a temperate disposition to order and union: that the cultivating of such a disposition is a duty of moral obligation, resulting from the rela tion in which we all stand, to God as our Maker and Governor, and to men as our fellow-creatures. These are maxims which, as they clearly tend to the conservation of individuals and to the improvement of society, no person of sober mind and right judgment can well disapprove; and which, therefore, we can think it neither safe to relinquish, nor reasonable to change. "Thus persuaded, through that term of years which by Divine Providence may still be added to our lives, may we remain equally invariable in our CHRISTIAN and CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES! Nor in these only be our constancy shown. But may we also ever retain and cherish that mutual esteem under a full sense of which this work comes to you; presuming on your known candour to hope, that as it is thus dedicated to friendship, and wishes to recommend the moral and religious truths of the Gospel, it will, notwithstanding its imperfections, be received and viewed by you with great indulgence." I cannot, however, dismiss this brief prefix, without the recollection that their author, now an OCTOGENARIAN, full of fame as of years, must be in daily expectation of that summons, which I believe him to be as prepared, as he will rejoice, to receive calling on him to give "an account of his stewardship." The brightest ornament of protracted life, whether such life may have been learnedly or ordinarily devoted, is the possession of a CHRISTIAN SPIRIT; and that spirit, implying the Christian virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, I KNOW the Bishop of Hereford to have eminently evinced. This humble eulogy is scarcely worth his acceptance. Twenty-five years have passed away since we last met; and, in after-life, it will be some consolation to me to reflect upon what is here humbly and heartily devoted to his memory : — His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani |