was celebrated in the Church of St. Quen. This building is not so large as the cathedral of Notre Dame; but its interior is more beautiful, and the architecture much lighter than the latter, which is rather heavy. In the afternoon we heard an excellent sermon at the cathedral, preached to a small audience by a capuchin. The preach er wore a black bushy beard twelve inches in length, and was covered from head to foot with a long brown woollen garment, girt round the waist with a large rope, one end of which hung down to his shoes. His gesture was too vehement and his pronunciation too rapid, but his language was earnest and his matter admirable. His principal aim was to warn the catholics not to trust in the externals of their religion; and in discussing this point, he gave a severe but faithful description of that indifference to spiritual things, which now so universally prevails over the continent. After this sermon was ended, we went to the Church of St. Pierre d'Honoré, where a panegyric was pronounced from the pulpit on this favourite saint of the Romish Church; it being the Sunday of his festival. The discourse seemed to be an unconnected commonplace declamation on the merits of this saint: it was delivered by a reverend Carmelite, between the vespers and complines.

The city of Rouen abounds with churches and religious houses, which, including those on the skirts of the town, may be reckoned at near a hundred. The cathedral of Notre Dame is an ancient and magnificent structure, and was erected about the middle of the eleventh century. It is remarked, that there is a strong resemblance between this cathedral and that of Canterbury: the two churches have been both measured, and the dimensions are found to be the same in both. It is also conjectured, and with some appearance of probability, that they were both designed by the same architect. The portal is grand, and curiously ornamented with various kinds of ancient sculpture. The choir is surrounded with elegant brass grate work, which has a singularly pleasing effect. The altar is decorated by the golden figure of a dead lamb lying upon a book sealed with seven seals: above are two angels, one weeping and wringing his hands, the other pointing towards heaven. CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 17.

The whole was, probably, an allusion to the fifth chapter of the Revelations. At the entrance of the choir, on the right hand, lies buried Richard Cœur de Lion.

July 1. We paid a visit this afternoon to our countrywomen, the Gravelines, so called from a town of that name in French Flanders, to which they originally belonged. Every thing in this convent has an English appearance: few of the nuns can speak the language of the country, being all natives of England, and having no communication with the inhabitants of the town. They are of the order of St. Francis, and are called Poor Nuns of St. Clair. Their situation is preferable to that of any convent in this neighbourhood, being at the top of the whole city: the spot is of course very salubrious. On our entrance, an English female servant appeared, and on our expressing a wish to converse with the nuns, conducted us into the parlour, where we were soon courteously addressed by a soft female voice through the grate, which, on the opposite side, was covered with a black thick canvass, to prevent the conversing parties from seeing each other; for the nuns of this order are never visible to any but their own sex. We talked for some time with two of the sisters, one of whom was Miss C—, of L-shire, whose father has been a great benefactor to this community, and lately presented them with an organ, They were very communicative, and gave us a full account of the history and rules of their house. We were informed, that about two hundred years ago, the convent at Gravelines being unable to support its members, which were become too numerous for it to contain, fifteen of the nuns were turned out, with only one hundred pounds, to provide for themselves. With this miserable pittance they came to Rouen, where they were providentially supported, and enabled to build a convent for their residence. Their order is very strict, and obliges them to subsist by alms; they are, therefore, incapable of receiving any considerable legacy or estate. Miss P——, a young lady from L-shire, took the veil a few days before our arrival, and made the four following vows-poverty, obedience to the rules of the order, chastity, and perpetual confinement within the walls of the convent. The

first of these vows is so rigidly observed by the whole community, that I was very credibly informed, they frequently assemble together in the Refectory at the hour of repast, with nothing before them; there not being sufficient money in the house to purchase them the common necessaries of life. When charity is warmer than ordinary, and there chances to be a superfluity of money in their possession, the Abbess generally bestows a handsome donation on the poor, though, perhaps, a few days afterwards, they themselves may be in want of a comfortable meal. A short time after, I accidentally met with their Sacristain, a poor, honest, and pious, though bigotted man, who assured me, that he had but five louis a year, and could hardly subsist; yet he had refused several considerable offers, rather than leave these saints, (as he termed them,) with whom he had resided forty years. His simplicity added a strong appearance of truth to his assertions; and by his account, these holy virgins are sequestered from the rest of the world, with no other intention than that of dedicating their lives to the glory of their Creator.

(To be continued.)

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THE truth of the following account may be depended upon. About thirty years ago a gentleman, who lived in a considerable town in the north of England, was in the last stage of a consumption before he became aware of his danger; finding, however, his strength rapidly declining, he expressed, for the first time, to the physician who attended him, an apprehension of his real state. The physician too abruptly replied, Sir, you cannot survive many hours. This had such an effect upon the poor patient, who was little prepared either for such a denunciation or for the awful event which was soon to follow, that he suddenly rose upon his feet in the bed, and sunk down again as suddenly, exhausted by the effort. The physician, on observing his face,

thought that he perceived an appearance on the forehead very different from common perspiration, and upon applying a napkin, to his astonishment found it stained with blood, which had been forced from the extremities of the vessels, and even through the skin, by the agony and exertion of the unhappy sufferer.

Perhaps this is the only instance that has ever occurred of such a phænomenon, excepting one, which will instantly occur to the Christian reader: and it is recorded in this place in order to prove, for the benefit of unbelievers, that extreme agitation and distress, operating upon a sickly or delicate frame, may, without a miracle, produce this affecting and dreadful appearance.

The evidence for the fact needs not to be doubted: your correspondent, at the time when this circumstance happened, lived within a few doors of the person, visited his family, heard his story every where related, without doubt of its truth or variation in its circumstances; and, within three or four days from the time when it happened, saw him laid in his grave. O. U. J.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THE late Mr. John Hunter, I have been informed by a gentleman who attended his lectures, was accustomed, in the course of these professional exercises, to indulge himself in frequent reflections against revelation.

Such conduct, in the vulgar herd of infidels is neither extraordinary nor unsuitable. But it excites, I must confess, both my surprise and my indignation, when men of distinguished professional talents, and of manners in other respects liberal, descend to such an ungenerous method of attacking a religion, whose evidence they as little understand as they feel of its influence.

Christianity desires no other than a fair and a competent adversary: but such an one she may reasonably despair of meeting with."

P. R.

ing it as a system prefigurative of what the expected Redeemer was to perform when he came; the frequent adoption of the sacrifical terms of the Levitical service by the New Testament writers, is to us, who hold the death of Christ to be a propitiatory act, a perfectly natural usage: and by their reference to the use of those terms, as employed under the law, we judge of the sense in which they are to be understood in their application under the Gospel. As a specimen of this mode of illustration, the author introduces, after the example of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, a comparison between the solemnities of the great day of atonement among the Jews, and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And such is the force of the resemblance between them, that Socinus himself admits the anniversary sacrifice of atonement to be typical of the sacrifice of Christ. Vide Socin. Oper. Prælect. Theol. cap. xxii. tom i. p. 583.

When the ceremonies of this soIemn day, and the pointed reference made to them by the New Testament writers, when speaking of the sacrifice of Christ are considered, one cannot but be affected at the hardiness of those who assert, that nothing vicarious appears in the Mosaic sacrifices, or propitiatory in the death of him whom they prefigured. Such is the language of those who oppose the doctrine of atonement! a more awful instance of pertinacious adherence to system, the records of religious controversy perhaps cannot afford. Compare this language with a solemnity, in which substitution, transfer of guilt, vicarious suffering, and removal of punishment following the immolation of the victim, are the prominent features; and let the reader remember, that to this very solemnity does the New Testament pointedly refer him, when it teaches him what he owes to the Saviour of the world.

With this illustration Dr. Magee Concludes his second discourse.

We have endeavoured to apprise our readers of the value of this performance; and we hope that we shall succeed so far at least, as to induce every theological student, who may peruse our review, to get possession of the work. To say it deserves a place in the library of every clergyman, is, indeed, a hackneyed form of commendation; but let not our

readers, on that account, suspect its sincerity: it is the least we can say of this performance.

We doubt, however, whether the author has chosen the best form for conveying the vast quantity of instruction which is contained in his work. His text consists of only seventy-one pages, while the notes occupy three hundred pages, printed in a much smaller character. The contents of many of these notes might, we conceive, have been wrought into the body of the work, with still greater advantage to the subject, than it derives from them in their present situation; but we are glad to receive the produce of such a mind, in any form that may be chosen for its conveyance.

In the course of our remarks, we have mentioned the subjects of several of the notes. It seems proper to inform our readers, that though the subjects of them are various, scarcely any of them are irrelevant. It should be noticed likewise, that they, in a great measure, answer the purpose of a history of the controversy; inas much as they bring before the reader, what has been advanced against the doctrine of atonement, by the most popular authors who have written against it. Nor is it the least useful part of the work, that here their modes of argumentation are laid open. By this exposure, as our author observes in his preface, the student may be convinced, "that their pretensions to philosophic distinction, and their claims to critical pre-eminence, stand on no better grounds than their assumption of the exclusive profession of a pure Christianity.

Many of the notes are so full on the subjects of which they treat, that they may stand alone as critical dissertations of considerable merit. Of this class, there is one that has not yet been mentioned, a note extended to twenty-six pages of close printing, on the date and author of the book of Job. Many of them likewise are not less entertaining for a sprightliness of manner, than conclusive for the justness of the reasoning they contain: of both these qualities, the first note in the work (on the pre-existence of Christ) is an admirable specimen.

We cannot dismiss this article without expressing our surprise at observing, how a work of such merit as that which is now before us, has been

treated in a popular review. There is, perhaps, no virtue for which the monthly reviewers have been more ready to arrogate merit than for their candour: but of this virtue, the reviewer of Dr. Magee's discourses affords no favourable specimen. Who that reads it would ever conceive them to contain that extent and variety of learning, with which they are enriched on the contrary, he would conclude that they were little more than a tissue of artifice and declamation. The extracts given in the Monthly Review suggest no idea of the work; but they serve another purpose, which the reviewers, without doubt, had more at heart; for they are, of all the passages the work contains, the best calculated to create an unfavourable idea of the whole performance. We think it a duty to apprise our readers of this unfair conduct, lest through a deference to the decisions of this uncontrouled tribunal, they should lose the benefit of all that the learning and piety of Dr. Magee has produced for their improvement. It would be truly mortifying, if all the fruits of extraordinary capacity, accurate research, and long continued labour, should be consigned to oblivion by a few strokes of a journalist's

pen.

The appendix, containing an account of the Unitarian scheme, as described by Mr. Belsham, in his review of Mr. Wilberforce's treatise, with occasional strictures on the leading arguments advanced in that publication, is spoken of by the Monthly Reviewers, as proving "Dr. Magee to be an able logician; who, while he glosses over the weak parts of his own system, knows how to attack whatever seems to be deficient in sound reasoning and consistency in that of the adversary." But the fact is, that Dr. Magee has not in this piece touched either the weak or the strong parts of his own system: he has merely drawn out the positions contained in Mr. Belsham's review of Mr. Wilberforce's treatise, with such occasional remarks as seemed necessary to direct the attention of his readers to their obvious tendency. Whether the Unitarian system be true or false, the public are here made acquainted with it as it stood in the year 1798, the year in which Mr. Belsham's review came forth: whether it continues to be the same, cannot be de

termined till the next report of this unfixed theology is made public. What it was in 1798, our readers may be told in a few words. It levelled Christ through the whole of his existence, to the rank of human nature. It left man for acceptance, to his own merit. It discarded the doctrine of the Holy Spirit's influence; and it proscribed the sabbath, as destructive of religion and morality. The system of Dr. Magee is to be learned from the work which has now been reviewed: whether there be any glossing there, let the impartial judge.

LXXXIX. Substance of Sir William Scott's Speech.

(Continued from p. 240.)

BEFORE we proceed to notice the estimate which Sir William Scott seems to have formed of clerical respectability, we shall trouble our readers with a few preliminary remarks. A large proportion of mankind, in determining their path of duty, scarcely look beyond the opinions which are current in the society to which they belong. Those opinions form their code of morals; and that, which is the object of general commendation, is their standard of excellence. Even such as think for themselves are generally much biassed, by the prevailing sentiments among those whom they esteem the more respectable part of the community. Hence it becomes important, that the truth or fallacy of those opinions, which have obtained general currency, and are closely con-, nected with religion, should be carefully canvassed by the Christian Observer.

Let us then enquire what is commonly thought, by the higher ranks of society, to constitute respectability in a clergyman. When in a well-bred company the Reverend Mr. - is said to be a most respectable man, the idea almost always intended to be conveyed is, that he is regular in his conduct, decorous in his manners, loyal in his politics, and possessed of a competent share of learning. Some negative qualifications are also comprised in the character intended to be given of him; and we must understand, that he is not troublesome to his parish, or to his neighbours, by uncommon zeal or strictness; and