REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 'Death-bed Scenes, and Pastoral Conversations. By the late JoHN WARTON, D.D. 2 vols. 8vo. Second Edition. London. 1827. THE ministers of Christ would act wisely, if they more assiduously cultivated the arts of conversation; not to give laws to a little senate of listeners, but to sustain their spiritual character, by repeating the lessons of the Sunday in the social intercourse of the week. As they generally enter into every class of society, it would be well if they were able to meet alike the philosopher and the rustic; and while they live as not of the world, and least of all of what is called the gay world, yet to understand enough of its language and living manners to know how to act, should duty lead them--for inclination surely never ought for a moment-within its dangerous circles. Neither does an ability to do this imply any extraordinary measure of talent or cultivation. An average share of intellect, improved by the usual course of a liberal education, and a general acquaintance with the current habits of mankind, are the only necessary mental requisites for this part of the duty of an officer of the militant church. We do not say but that higher powers of mind, and more extensive acquirements, would increase the address of their possessor, and pioneer his way in certain cases of difficulty; but we are exceedingly jealous of being betrayed into any idolatrous admiration of the demigod Talent, at whose shrine so many of the present generation offer their inglorious homage.—The Gospel is a great leveller, not indeed of the social, but of the intellectual, system of mankind; and it puts to shame the pretensions of such highly-gifted and accomplished masters of theology and of eloquence, as take the field against infidelity and' heresy, without possessing the moral requisites necessary to their success. To the external equipment of the soldier of Jesus Christ must be added the spirit of the great Captain of his salvation. Without this, the exertions of the learned and of the illiterate will be equally inefficient; and the wise and the foolish must sink to the same degradation. We say not this to the disparagement of learning, or to the praise of ignorance; but to remind those who aspire to teach others, that they themselves must be first taught of God. It is, in the mean time, an evidence of the energy of personal religion, that ministers of very moderate talents and acquirements, but acting under the influences of the spirit of holiness and of God, have been the blessed instruments of turning many to righteousness; not only by their public ministrations, but by introducing their principles into the table-talk of domestic life. If this were generally attempted by all who are bound to make the experiment, we should not hear such heavy complaints about "dark lanthorns "-meaning, by that phrase, such lights of the world as shine weekly in the pulpit, but hide their splendour under a bushel, till the morning of another Sabbath. There is, indeed, such a thing as clerical pedantry, which is as useless and insipid as the affectation of the mere scholar, or mere geometrician; and equally unconnected with the spiritual improvement of mankind. Of this violation both of good taste and Christian feeling, no parochial clergyman will be guilty, if he converses with the social circle as with a party of immortal beings placed under his own care; and feeling himself responsible not to neglect any means that may by the blessing of God conduce to their salvation. In cottages, and in the chambers of sickness and contrary, we must ip courtesy asdeath, he will be yet more solemn- sume that the author has no longer ly impressed with the remembrance, a local habitation or a name among that he watches for souls as one that mortals*-appears to have been must give an account. Such is our Such is our a very sedate, a very respectable, estimate of one wide department of and a very kind hearted man; conthe pastoral care-a department scientious; assiduous in the care of which, in many instances, appears his parish; and finding no leisure to be most grievously neglected. for cards, the routine of dinner parties, or public amusements. He could boldly rebuke the vices of low life; argue with the half-bred sceptic and metaphysician; and support, in his own way, the pretensions of the established communion against all gainsayers. On the other handmust we say it?-there was a certain self-complacency about him, and a reliance on his own powers of reasoning, which, on some occasions, produce an effect irresistibly comic; while at other times, these marks of the man induce rather surprise and distrust, since they certainly indicate a want of humility,—that prime grace of the Christian character. He was also credulous; and ignorant of human kind, to a degree perfectly surprising in a clergyman so conversant with a populous parish. One consequence of this was visible in the hasty and rash opinions he formed of the sincerity of his supposed converts. His success in suddenly reforming bad men was as wonderful as it was ambiguous. He had further, a strong bias in The work before us bears an inviting title; and, had it been correctly executed, might have filled up one of the many vacuities in the clerical library. Its design has some claim to originality; but it has been partially anticipated: for instance, by the conversations of Dr. Barlow in Cœlebs; which, we are constrained to confess, are far, very far, superior, both in grasp of mind and in religious instruction, to any thing we can find in Dr. Warton's volume They are not indeed specimens of farm-house and cottage converse; but, examples also of these may be discovered in the discussions between Bragwell and Worthy, in the Two Wealthy Farmers, of the same revered authoress; and we know not that Dr. Warton could better have detected the inconsistencies so unskilfully interwoven into the texture of his system, than by reconsidering his doctrine, with Mrs. H. More's two performances at hand, as a pattern to work after. In one of them, Dr. Barlow shews us how to address men of the higher classes of society. In the other, Farmer Worthy acts the part of a lay teacher; without stepping an inch beyond the proprieties of his situation, yet affording the most useful illustration, within our recollection, of what has been termed parlour preaching. It may safely be added, that if a clergyman can read the conferences in question, and gain no instruction which he might transmit to numbers among his own flock, he is either wise beyond the usual measures of wisdom, or too ignorant to be conscious of his own deficiencies. The late Dr. Warton-for whatever rumour may whisper to the • However this may be, we will not lose the opportunity of endeavouring to revive the credit of a rich collection of authentic death-bed scenes, well-known to the last generation of religious persons; and republished, with large additions, by Mr. Burder in 1820-we mean Burnham's Pious Memorials; a work recommended of the preface furnished by him to the by the excellent Henry, and well worthy original publication. Neither can we refrain from mentioning the useful examples of pastoral addresses to persons, both of religious and irreligious character, in sickAmong modern manuals, we would par ticularise Sir James Stonhouse's Sick Man's Friend, though very inferior in energy and unction, to some of its prede cessors. But it is still a production of much utility, and describes a great variety of cases. ness, found in Baxter's Christian Directory. favour of the Papal doctrine of the opus operatum of the eucharist; and although he may disclaim this in one page, yet he re-settles himself, a few pages onward, into the abandoned doctrine; and, in effect, administers extreme unction to persons whose religion appears to begin and end with the ceremony. His system, generally considered, contains a considerable portion of scriptural truth, clouded with many errors; and occasionally confounding the reader by statements utterly inconsistent with the doctrines of our 'Established Church. In illustration of these assertions, we will adduce, in the first place, the death-bed scene which commences the volume, and which is headed Infidelity. Mr. Waring, the wretched subject of this tale, was an aged libertine and infidel. This man, on the very day on which he cavilled at the Gospel, though with greater moderation than he had previously done, suddenly said to Dr. Warton, "I cannot undertake to receive the sacrament at present: but to-morrow, at twelve o'clock, you shall give me, at least, the benefit of your prayers; and I myself will join with you." "Mr. Waring," says his confessor, yesterday so much better and stronger; with the prospect of some weeks at least before him; and so far renewed in the spirit of his mind as to have appointed this day and this hour for the commencement of religious exercises, was stretched upon the bed of death, and now almost a lifeless corpse. I seized his hand, and pressed it. He opened his eyes convulsively, and shut them instantly. He attempted to speak, but no intelligible sounds escaped from his lips. Nevertheless his mind was manifestly not yet gone; and I hoped that he still possessed the sense of hearing. I knelt down, therefore, and began in a loud and solemn tones that most beautiful, affecting, and Divine [query human?] prayer, which is prescribed for the sick at the point of their departure. His lips moved, as if he were trying to accompany me. This sign of God's gracious goodness towards him, in the midst of his dreadful agony, for a moment overpowered me, and of necessity I stopped. He began to speak, and I put my head close to catch his words. He said, It is very comfortable to me;' and that was all which I could distinctly underfinish the sentence which he intended; stand. It was evident that he did not for he began over and over again in the 66 Here then is an infidel of threescore years and ten, and a convert of, at the most, three days' standing, declaring that the commendatory prayer was very comfortable" to him, yet who died and made no sign! What is this, we would ask, but a practical repetition of the pernicious stories told in the newspapers, of the happy deaths of felons canonized under the shade of the gallows! The death-bed scene of Waring is, indeed, more pernicious still. The victims to the law are, to say the least, converts of a longer standing-perhaps of ten times three in the sight of God is often perhaps days. Add to this, that their guilt of a less malignant type than that of a hoary infidel who has consumed the allotted period of mortal existence in the practices of a spiritual sinner; being an avowed and active enemy of Jesus Christ; and having superadded the sensual crimes to his load of intellectual guilt. We shall decide who has the greatest load of not compare sinner with sinner, to guilt to account for; he who robs, or forges, or kills the body, or the beg to refer the editors of Dr. Warton's • On this melancholy subject we would work to our review of the Confessions of (pp. 282–296), in which may be traced, a Gamester, in our Number for last May practice with the system described in the as we presume, the identity of prisontext. A further illustratiou of the topic may be found in the paper of a correspondent, for July, on the Canonization of Executed Felons.-We may ask, in this place, was commendatory prayer, in the office for the sick, intended by its compilers to be used in the dying hours of existed a week, and in reality, as far as men whose religion had not ostensibly the evidence goes, not a moment? demon in human shape, who precipitates himself upon everlasting destruction, and tries to force others into the place of torinent. But Dr. Warton says, that Mr. Waring, on the second day of his conversion, had himself mentioned the sacrament in a most abrupt and unexpected manner. "I had said nothing," added he, "which could have naturally led to it; and I cannot conjecture by what train of thought it occurred to him." To ourselves, this is very far from being a mystery; since nothing could be more natural than for Waring to fly, in the midst of his misgivings, to the eucharist, as to a kind of talis manic security against the terrors of death; and why-but because he must have observed, during a long residence in the parish, that its pastor gave the sacrament to men ostensibly quite as bad as himself, provided only they made a barren confession of sin, and imposed upon their minister's credulity, by the words and attitudes of mimic de votion. Dr. Warton's practice, as describ ed in his own memoirs, was either the result of profound ignorance as to the nature and effects of the sacrament, or an attempt to expunge all human criminality, by recommending the physical act of taking the symbols of the atonement. What will any thinking Christian say to the following brief narrative? "Mr. Stamford died less fearfully, and after having received the sacrament of the Lord's body and blood. I administered it to him when he was in the last agony; but I have never heard that he had been per previously at church, or that he had formed before any religious act whatever, I was sent for to him very early in the morning, and found him already speech less. Yet he still possessed his faculties, and made known to me by signs his wish to partake of the bread and wine, with which I at once complied, and he died immediately afterwards." pp. 130, 131. What will be thought, again, of the statement concerning a third cha racter, respecting whom Dr. Warion relates; "I believe, indeed, that the impossi bility which he felt of subduing his angry lately occasioned on his part a neglect of passions, in that particular respect, had public worship in the parish church, where in former times he had been a regular at tendant; and although he had been preLord's supper at home during his sickness, vailed upon to receive the sacrament of the yet the hostile workings of his mind to wards his son had prevented him from reaping that degree of comfort and satisfaction from it, which might otherwise have been reasonably expected." pp. 133, 134. Who "prevailed upon" this man to take the sacrament in the very face of the rubric prefixed to the communion service? In a fourth instance, Dr. Warton said to a communicant of, at best, dubious character, "To shew that you trusted in Jesus Christ, to be a partaker of that salvation which he procured from the punishments of the next world, you received his sacred body and blood." "God enabled you to partake of Christ's body and blood; so that you might set up a fresh claim to that covenant of mercy and salvation through Christ, into which you entered at your baptism, but which you have since virtually renounced by the conduct of your life." The reader will observe, that these confident addresses were spoken to a notoriously bad man on a sick bed; and whose sincerity was yet to be tried, when he had returned into the world. But as Waring must have known of such cir cumstances-and the book abounds with parallel cases-who can wonder, that he should have considered the eucharist as a refuge from the wrath to come? Connected with the estimate formed by Dr. Warton, of the powers of the sacrament, and which justifies our charge against him, as practically converting a Christian ordinance into the popish rite of extreme unction, is his extraordinary credulity respecting the spiritual worthiness of his communicants, and his insight into the interior of their souls, He appears to have almost valued himself upon being a discerner of spirits. One of his converts " bowed her head at the sacred name of him before whom hereafter every knee shall bow, either in holy adoration, or in hopeless despair. I rejoiced to have thus discovered that she knew him." Again; "I saw that every petition went to her heart." And again; "Fresh tears of penitence again issued forth." And again; "I have had every proof of your sorrow for your sins, and of your abhorrence of them, that I could expect or wish." "I am sure you have repented of them.""During the administration of the solemn rite she gave a thousand tokens of devotion; and especially when she received the bread and wine, her ejaculations were fervent, and manifestly came from the heart." Dr. Warton, then, really thought that an inclination of the head implied a knowledge of Jesus Christ; he saw the devotion of the heart; the tears were tears of repentance; he had every proof he could expect, or wish, of contrition; he was sure of an individual's penitence; and finally, there were a thousand tokens of devotion, and they unquestionably came from the heart! We suppose, that, when Dr. Warton studied the tenets of the early Methodists in the writings of Lavington, Warburton, Gibson, and other opponents of that community, he entirely acquiesced in the reprehensory periods which accused the Wesleys, and their adherents, of estimating a convert's sincerity by animal emotions; by sighs, and shrieks, and groans, and passionate exclamations. He would also find, that some of the converts so hastily accredited and gathered within the fold of Methodism, totally forgot, in after years, not only these impressions, but wandered again into the deserts of the world, and poured contempt on the preachers, whom they once almost adored, as the instruments of their salvation". But Connected with this fact, there is a well-known and very instructive story told of Whitfield. As he was once walking with a friend, observing a drunken CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 312. did Dr. Warton never forebode that his converts of three, or thirty days, or thirty weeks, might also relapse; and then, what would become of the visible devotion of his penitents' hearts, and of the assurance he possessed of the various instances of sincerity! Yet we calculate, that nothing could have so rudely irritated his self-complacency, as to have been told, that his own scheme was essentiaily a new form of Methodism; and that, instead of waiting to observe whether his communicants brought forth fruits meet for repentance, he invaded the patent of fanaticism, by actual inspection of the movements of the human mind. We are not saying, all the while, whether Waring, Stamford, and the Bartons were or were not sincere; since, to pronounce on the insincerity of any one who discovers any thing like repentence, would be a presumption on our part, only to be paralleled by the belief, on the part of Dr. Warton, that a rapid and permanent transition from impenitence to sincerity is instantly discernible to a pastor's eye. We are compelled, further, to urge, that there is in this view of conversion much that is at once revolting and painful to every considerate mind. "By their fruits ye shall know them," is the inviolable canon of the Gospel. If genuflexions, weeping, oral assent to religious doctrine, promises of future reformation, the reception of the sacramental elements, and compliance with the ceremonies of the church, satisfy a minister of Jesus Christ, and allure man staggering by, he said, "I remember converting that man twenty years ago." Oh, sir," returned his companion, "you should say, that the Lord converted him." No," replied the other, "if the Lord had converted him, we should not have seen him staggeringly drunk."-We entreat the editors of Death-bed Scenes to make, without delay, diligent search among Dr. Warton's MSS., where, it is possible, that papers may yet be discovered, detailing the mortification and grief resulting to him from the falls of many of his sick-bed communicants, when restored to health, and again exposed to the derision of their fellows. 5 D |
