1831.3 Monthly Review of LiTercifure. 569 



dead, but the archbishop, like the king, never dies. Mr. Abbott applies to 

 Howley for information, and he replies in the most courteous terms — " I have 

 no wish to interfere against you, Mr. A., I must attend to my official duties.. 

 If a bishop apply to me, I must inform him that there appears in the books of. 

 my predecessor a caution not to ordain you without reference to him. I can say 

 no more." But he is dead, and cannot well be referred to. " I can make no 

 other reply, Mr. Abbott." AH this Mr. Abbott regards as perfectly intolerable 

 — it is the conduct of a despot — of the dark and tyrannical ages — of the ancient 

 decemviri — it is like the Roman emperors breathing revenge for what in his 

 conscience Mr. A. considers as a duty. His first grace issued, says Mr. A., an 

 edict calculated to blast my character and reputation, which the second with 

 the mildness and complacency of a Nerva, has renewed. 



To be frank, however, is not thought to be among the duties of archbishops or 

 bishops — it is obviously, from a thousand evidences, considered as derogatory to 

 their dignities. In Mr. Abbott's case, the course which common sense and com- 

 mon propriety prompted was clear — he had set the discipline of the church at 

 defiance, and had, moreover, published his belief of its corruption. Why should 

 he wish to join her communion .-' Or what views could he have, but such as 

 must, in the eyes of all churchmen, seem insidious ones ? These were grounds 

 enough for refusal — if bishops are to exercise any discretion at all — and might and 

 should have been frankly given as such. 



But what has all this to do with the book which Mr. Abbott professes to be 

 a History of the Roman and English Hierarchies, and their corruptions ? Simply 

 this — that Mr. Abbott's purpose is revenge, and of course no fair inquiry or 

 discussion can be expected from such a source, and with such an object. Its 

 merits are not worth scanning. There can be no doubt the bishops of the pre- 

 sent day are not the bishops of the early ages of the church ; but as long as 

 there are ample revenues, there will be possessors of them — there will be, occa- 

 sionally at least, a bad use of them ; and generally every thing will, as a matter 

 of course, be conducted on an exclusive principle. The public, in a personal 

 view, have little to do with the matter. Nobody is bound to continue in com- 

 munion with the state-church ; and episcopal power over laymen is, happily, 

 all but a nullity. Their authority is exercised over their " brethren," as they 

 style them, and it is not to be denied that they wield that authority, like auto- 

 crats ; and still less can it be denied, that those who submit to such treatment, 

 are only treated as they deserve. 



Family and PAHOCHtAL Sermons, by the Rev. W. Shepherd, of Ched- 



DiNGTON, Bucks. 



If we did not know the constant demand that exists for publications of this kind 

 among the clergy themselves, and generally, we should naturally ask of what pos- 

 sible use they could be — who could desire to have them ? Sermons, of this kind, 

 in general, are but an eternal repetition — a mere rechauffe, a thousand times 

 rechauffe-ed — no novelty — no eloquence — no vigour of conception — no force of 

 sentiment or of illustration — nothing to induce any person of intelligence or 

 taste to read one rather than another, or any of them at all. There is so much 

 dwelling upon trifles, at least upon unessential matters — such an emphasis given 

 to insignificance — such efforts made to revive or retain fading associations — so- 

 much taken for granted which no mortal can concede — so much of common, and 

 yet crude, truism, that reading is all but impossible, for there is nothing to 

 arrest. We see in this series, a sermon on Lent, in which, of course, an inex- 

 perienced person would expect to find some reasons given for enforcing ^jerioi/ira/ 

 repentance ; but not a word is there which docs not make the duty of as much 

 importance atone moment as at another, the whole year round. 



"We must turn to him also with fasting," says Mr. Shepherd — "our Saviour 

 fasted forty days, till he was an hungered, and then came various temptations, 

 all (f which he resisted, and triumphed so gloriously over his tempter, that 

 angels come and ministered unto him. The devout Christian, in like manner, is 



