The National Register. — London, England, 1813-06-20 00:00:00

ebiptflptt. No 3. . : (THIRD SERIES). To worth he fitroisit'd well his studious head, Sirius all Ow (iireek told Latin Fatti rs said; 141ade all the Homilies, lie read, Iti. own, 3-tis ardcitt wish to make them better ki.owtt; • • l'hoitglit all the Articles were strictly - titte, Laotiaititig they were held stICII by so few ; lint chiefly drawn ti..);11 Scripture chamois pure clearest knowledge, his best turuiture! HOLLOWAY. IMF: CHARLES SIMEON, M. A. FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. .11...... P. .I'. itelkions prtjudices have wonderfully subsided. Perbar'. it will elTthlud, some few years hence, that the present preacher was, at 11(4 distant period, branded with the odious epithet of me thodist ; as if he had been disaffected towards that ecclesiastical es tablishment of %%hie}, he is consideml a most Valt&ed member, whe ther as to his preaching or his writings. lie has thus lived down" this error of his age. Methodism cannot with any fairness be im puted to the clergyman who declares, as this preacher has done that " if in any thing he grounded his sentiments upon human au thoril it ouhl not be on the tkgmas of Calvin or Arminius, bat en the Articles aini Homilies of the Church of In r ziand ; " since " he Lai the lupin, ess to sav, that he does ex warn°, hom Ins inmest soul, LChCVC the Doctrines to w - hich he ha: subscribed : but the reason of hi: believing them is not that they are made the Creed of the E. • tahlished Church, but that he find, them manifestedly contaihed iii the Sacred Oracles." Are his opponents yet unsatisfied with 11;111? Continning to exonerate himself rrom all unfounded suspicions on this head, Mr. i1:111.-YN asks -" who, among the Clergy, are they that are continually making their appeal to the Artiele-z, the Homi- Itie:., and the rilmgy of the Church of e pgland ? Who are they • that rite and preach Exrcsitions to tlw L.itur ? Who arc they that rem: the liomilies to tin Congregations?" Interrogation is evidently here oin to affirmation. _ The Reverend Cit to,rs SIMEON, M. A. and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, has long stood distimfmished in the pulpit of that University, for the depth of his theological attainments and the linpresFive solemnity of his manner. lie has, indeed, preferred the quiet of academie groves, rather than :nix in the turmoil of the world ; but, scorning supineness, he has greatly towered above those, ‘i hrnn the amiable Iturdis (himself both pr'.i..st and poet*) ees, lilies as ----‘ Pamperd Priests, who only cat and sleep, And sit - el) aod tat, anti quaff the tiwny jinee Of veteran pert ; slt el> on, and take their rest Nor (wit the downy couch preferment strews, 'lO aid their Master!' Ardently devoted to the sacted came, the Reverend Mr. SIMEON :has, instead ef dissipating retirement in selfishness, done his utmost to brut fit hi,. clerical eotemp. retries. Among..? his published work's. Titer► fore, the palm of excellence is muitiestionably due. to - his i-h ips to Composition ; or, Five Hundred Skeletons of Sermons, the Substance of Sermons preached before the Uni ter-iry' of Catuhrhke, and to hick is added Claude's L.:say on the Composition ut a Sermon.' I'llere has appeared a New Edition of This ptiblication, wit.' Alterations and Improvements, in five vo hum's, two. Although Mr. SIMEON exhibits scatee'y any action in the pulpit, and is not advantaged as to height'', yet there is something peculi• * Rev. James Hindi:, author of the Village Curate, and of other In, as well as of - sOnle 'Lectures on Poetry ; and whom 31r. taph apostropni-e. ! ingenious Poet and Divine ! ettiier sanctity of thowiht . was thine, TOE :ikTrA 'MONA!, REGISTER. .TEINT, 90. arl‘ persuasive in his pleaching. ilia z•crittoits, w.:etoer 11, position or deliveiy,•have nothing of those perfunctory perforniaeces which so nuhappily disgrace the church. The detect of this Kea coer ;is of another kind. It iS not that his serrramus• are too llttle•sindied r but that they sm em too much laboured ; which solicitude 141.1% nave been generated in him,imy considering the character of the mommeoces • before whom he is accustomed to preach. isn. is too pal pable in the censtruction of his discourses. Deprevatury of this pGctice, an eognent modern preacher asks, while corms ( Ih ra h %illy should that force which %in pi ise glies to every emotion, derived from just and ailectmg seminal' -. be banished from the pulpit, vi hen it Is found lit such 11.011!elit ittr every other kad of public address ? I eataiet but in - a 4 ibe," he adds, " that the first Preachers of the Gaspcl iqqlCall'd retie n a ir audience with a more free and unfemti red an than is t onsisielmt w mtlt the narrow limits to which, in the-e lat.er air , disconrses hem the pulpit are confined. The sublime emotiolis with kt hash tocy were franght, would have rendered them inmpattmmit of soil, re: ti te nons ; nor could they suffer the in petumms mu tat ' ) ti t . - t e ;;;o o le ,,e, expostulation, and pathos, to be weakened kmy dive; tin:; it into the artificial reservoirs prepared in the Mods inativitiais of d tuo dern.sermon. Let the csperiment be fried," commeamtles the Kcv. Robin t Hall, in his Di •course chtitieJ the Di•courao meta* aml Supports of the Christian Minister " s , •me of Lie best specimens of ancient elompienee ; let an oration of Cicero or De . mostheoes be stretched 'won a Procrustes' bed of this sort, amid, if I am not greatly mistaken, the flame and entlinsia•m, which have excited admiration in all ages, %%lb lust and's - evaporate." It should be observed, considering time sad laxity of clerp men it this particular, that Mr. SIMEON pr the prayers of the chnrch. His voice, thoulth lint stroitg . , is finely clear, and in the benethe, tory dismissal of the congiegatiou, 'where its powers ate Nit,. tenches the true eltiml. • _ _ Mr. SIM EONS hest prominent publication is ' The Excellency of the Liturgy ia 'out Di-courses, preached before :he 1.7-tve:sity: of Cambridge, in November 181E' and to et inch is prutixeti aiv Answer to Dr. Mars:i's Inquiry re•peeting the Neglteting to give the Prayer-Ronk with the Bible? Convinced . 4 that multitudes of pions men would in the Established Church, if they could got over" the liturgical " of it, " :that loony conschi tions ministers have gone heavily all their days, because they knew not how to act, whether to use expressions which they did not ap prove, or to drop the use orthem, or to teave a chord+, vvlnch, with these small exceptions, they loved and admired above any npon eat th,"—and, cexcei "- mat the subject tad never Set been taken op in a right pinta of view,"-1111e.SIN1E.ON has suggested such on this Lead, as in his " deliberate judgment are m st satistactory to s a conscientious mind ;" but, he adds," I, have not so vindicated these expresAoos, ac . to hold them up, like the rust of Ow Liturgy, to the admiration of mankintl."t It wits next to impossible to leave done so. Praiseworthy as the design of thew discourses nne-t he aeknow !edged to have been, few couscientious clergymen V. ill have the satisfaction of congratulating hint on its accomplishment. In fant baptism is not adult regeneration ; nor does the elven'''. stance of dying within the pale of any chinch, although followed by c a. , onical -interment, entitle the departed to hope for the. resurrection to life eternal. With respect to the Athana sian Creed, which, it seems, is the " Cross of the Anglican Church," the resew divine will not have satisfied the finials of such thinking persons as view it id its genuine limn. 'nise ministers who cannot take up this Cross, and follow the Lamb that etas slain, but now lives, sue not, whatever they may think of them selves, conscientious members of the established chord' ! Doubtless but too many eel these, like Paley,cannot attend to keep a conscience.; aud this, however impotent, forms their main apology, though it is out; winch they vvonlil be the most likely to resist if urged on Levlialt of any other description of individuals. Besides the works prey misty sir-rifled, the Reverend Cut zt LES Si ME ON has collected hi; University Sernmos : .cuutaining the Churchman's Coolession, 01., an Appeal to the Litorg - y; the Fotuns taut of Living IVateiS ; Evange heal and Pharisaic Righteonsne:,s. Compared ; and, Clii ist He recently published The Jews provoked to Jealousy : a Sermon, preached Juue 15, 1811. Estimated according to the theological detinitimis of our day, he may be preperly considered as a moderate ealvinist. ONESIMUS. t llr. SimEON's Answer to the Objections of "J ) " in the' Cluis tiv Obsci . ver' for November, lltti At f 96