ines of the Church of England in the
_Discourses_ delivered from their pulpits:" or, in plain terms,
it is to comprise a Selection of Sermons from the most eminent Divines
of the Church of England, chiefly within the last half century. Its
editorship is entrusted to the learned and accomplished Dr. Dibdin,
who enforces the publication of a _religious_ Library, in these
energetic words:--"Let it be specially impressed upon the minds of
Christians of EVERY persuasion, that at NO moment can a work, similar to
the present, have stronger claims upon their attention and support, than
at _this precise period_, when the elements of civil society seem
to be agitated in a variety of directions, and when a sound and sober
exposition of Scriptural Truths may essentially contribute to the
support of the best interests of the COUNTRY."

The two volumes before us contain the incomparable Mount Sermon by
Bishop Porteus; Bishop Bloomfield on the Choice of a Religion; two
Sermons by Paley; prefixed to the latter is a Memoir, concluding with
these excellent observations by the Editor:--

"The Sermons of Paley were chiefly a posthumous publication. They were
preached to, as they were written for, a country congregation; they are
therefore divested of studied ornament of style, and elaboration of
argument. But they bear the peculiar impress of the author's own
powerful and unsophisticated mind; and for strength of conception, and
clearness and sometimes vigour of expression, it may be questioned
whether many in them have been ever surpassed. They are not, strictly
speaking, eloquent; but there is a force, as well us a novelty of
treatment, in many of them, that put them above all comparison. They
are familiar without coarseness, and terse without obscurity. Their
main charm may be said to consist in the simplicity and strength with
which religious and moral truths are handled; the uncompromising and
straightforward manner in which human frailties and sins are exposed;
the kindliness of exhortation to repentance and godliness of living; the
power, purity, and comfort of the Gospel-dispensation; and, above all,
the perfect absence of fanaticism, of an overheated fancy, and of a
persecuting spirit. But these qualities, which so eminently distinguish
the _writer_, ought in some degree to possess the _reader_,
of the sermons in question. For the kindly _reception_ of the
scriptural truths enforced by Paley, there must be nothing ascetic,
nothi