little, except the removal of a few negligences and local improprieties from the language.

It is not very ufual to take the exact title of a work already approved and established, to apply to a new production; and the editor does not inform us why it was thought proper, in this inftance, to borrow from Bishop Eurnet, whofe Paftoral Care is very often cited in the margin. It might be called "the Paftoral Care for Scotland," being adapted to the fituation of clergymen-in that national church; but certainly, as the editor remarks, is fuch as "may not be unprofitable to thofe of other perfuafions." Many duties of Chriftian priests are general, and must be prescribed in every church that cap deferve the name; nor is it wholly useless to enable us to compare the practice of one eftablishment with another, and to weigh their refpective merits.

After an Introduction, which explains the general neceffity for preparatory ftudy, the fubject of the work is reduced to three heads: 1. The Importance of the Paftoral Office; 2. The Duties belonging to it; 3. The Requifites for performing them. These general heads are fubdivided into Chapters and Sections, exhibiting altogether a very correct and methodical view of the topic under confideration. Dr. Gerard feems indeed to have ftudied arrangement with great care and fuccefs, under the ancient masters; and his Introduction is fo truly Ariftotelian, that, put into fuitable Greek, a great part of it. might pafs for a fragment of that author's works. It must be owned, nevertheless, that this method of opening a fubject, and laying the foundation in logical and metaphyfical generalities, is of real ufe only in the infancy of fcience. It tells what is equally applicable to all enquiries; nor can there be any didactic treatife which might not, with equal propriety, commence with the words which begin this Introduction. "In every purfuit it is of great importance, firft of all, to fix a proper end: for the nature of the end determines the means which are fuitable, and the course we must take to attain it,” &c. At this time of day, pofitions fo very general may furely be taken for granted; and an author with more neatnefs, and greater fatisfaction to his reader, may commence at a point more clofely related to his fubject. The conclufion of the Introduction comes home to the point in a manner highly useful.

"Every perfon who confiders the prefent ftate of things, must be fenfible that there is great need to infift on the real nature of the Paftoral Office. In all ages the beft men have complained that the generality entered on it too forwardly, and without fufficient preparation. At prefent, many feem to think scarcely any preparation neceffary. They bestow very few years upon it; and they must be confcious, how fmall

a part

apart even of these they employ for the very purpofe of qualifying themselves for it. While a long apprenticeship is required for every ordinary trade, while intenfe ftudy and application are acknowledged to be neceffary for every other learned or liberal profeffion, little ftudy or application is imagined to be needful for the bufinefs of a clergyman. This cannot fail to render many unfit for performing it with fatisfaction to themselves, or with honour in the eyes of the world; and it plainly tends to bring the office into difcredit, and to make men think that any perfon is fufficiently qualified for being entrusted with it. An effectual check to this evil, by public authority, would be highly defirable, but, I fear, it can fcarcely be expected. It is for this reafon, the more neceffary to endeavour to imprefs you with fenfe of the genuine nature of the Paftoral Office for which you are candidates. This will affift you in your preparation for it: and this will leave it on every one's confcience to determine how far he is really fit to enter on it." P. 5.

The first Part, on the Importance of the Paftoral Office, contains only two Chapters. 1. On the Dignity of the Paftoral Office; 2. On the Difficulties of it. Thefe are explained, the former in four, the latter in three fubordinate Sections. Part II. On the Duties of the Paftoral Office, has four Chapters. 1. Private Duties refpe&ting Individuals. 2. Private Duties refpecting leffer Societies. 3. Public Duties refpecting a whole Parish. 4. Ecclefiaftical Duties refpecting the Church in General. The private duties to individuals are arranged under nine heads. 1. Example. 2. Private Inftruction. 3. Private Exhortation. 4. Counselling. 5. Vifiting the afflicted. 6. Reproving. 7. Convincing. 8. Reconciling Differences. 9. The Care of the Poor. Among thofe leffer focieties, towards which the Scottish paftor has particular du ties, we find mention made of Fellowship Meetings (p. 223). Thefe, to an English reader, will require fome explanation. They are meetings of private Chriftians, either among themfelves or with their minifter, employed in devotion, and in exciting one another to love and good works. They are very far from being univerfal in Scotland, and, confidering the people of whom they are generally compofed, and the manner in which they are too often conducted, Dr. G. recommends that they fhould be tolerated rather than encouraged. When a minifter finds fuch meetings eftablished in his parish, the Profeffor gives directions how to conduct them, and particularly recommends his perfonal attendance. As fuch meetings have at times been formed in England, and have even lately been recommended in fome places*, we shall infert Dr. Gerard's

*On this fubject we expreffed our opinion, in confidering the "Report from fome of the Clergy of Lincoln." Brit. Crit. vol. xv, p. 414.

wery ufeful and important confiderations and directions on the fubject.

"It cannot be doubted that meetings of private Chriftians, either among themfelves, or with their minifter, if they were managed aright, and judiciously employed in devotion, and in exciting one another to love and good works, might be attended with very confiderable advantages. But at the fame time it is plein from experience, that they have feldom been managed aright, and that they have in fact generally been attended with real inconvenience; they are too much confined, as all who choose are not admitted to them, though their morals may be unexceptionable; they are chiefly compofed of perfons who are difpofed to idleness, and think they cannot mind religion, without neglecting their worldly bufinefs and many of the focial duties of life; of fuch perfons as are conceited of their knowledge, on account of their dipping into abftrufe and difputable fubjects, or of their peculiar fanctity on account of the orthodoxy of their opinions; of fuch perfons as place almoft the whole 'or religion in a punctual obfervance of the ceremonial duties of it, and thus fubftitute fupcritition in the place of holiness; of fuch perfons as are under the influence of a weak and ignorant enthusiasm; and, in a word, of fuch as think they derive great merit from their attending fuch meetings, and on that account regard themselves as the only godly perfons, and defpife others who are perhaps much better and more virtuous than they. The conte quence of perfons of fuch characters meeting together, is generaliv to promote their fpirit of fuperftition, to fofter their enthufiafm, to flatter their hypocrify, to cherish their conceit and spiritual pride, and their pharifaical contempt of others. When they are met, the spirit that reigns in them will make their converfation tend rather to pervert than 20 improve their religious fentiments; their fpirit, joined with their ignorance, will render their devotions often full of abfurdities and exe travagance. This has been fo generally the effect of these meetings, the abufe of them has been fo frequent, that it appears to me, they fhould rather be fhunned upon the whole, than courted by a minister; if they have not been caftomary in his parish, it will be better not to introduce them. All the good effects that could be expected from them will be much more certainly and more effectually promoted, by the occafional private inftructions and exhortations which we have formerly recommended; and by exciting thofe who live in the fame neighbourhood to converse about religion, and admonish each other in the way that we have already hinted; and they will be promoted by this means, without the danger of thofe abufes which have often arifen from formal meetings. If a minitter find that meetings of this fort have been already introduced into his parish, it can feldom be prudent to attempt to difcourage or to abolith them, all at once; this would only irritate the people, and in a great meature destroy the winifter's ufefulness: if he should refute to atten them, the people would hold tem by themselves, and be ap: to proceed to a greater height of extravagance, than if he were prefent. He ought, the efore, to fet himself to tablish fuch regulations as may tend to prevent the abufes of them, and render them fubfervient to a good purpole; he should take care

to be always prefent at them himself; he should appoint them to be held at fuch times as may not interfere, either with their worldly bufinefs, or with their other duties; he fhould take care that they be not confined to a particular fet of people of a pharifaical fpirit, but that all who are unexceptionable in their morals have free accefs to them; he fhould take care that all fubjects to be difcourfed on, be propofed at a previous meeting; he fhould hinder every fubject from being introduced, that tends to lead them into ufelefs fpeculations, intricate difputes, or fuperftitious and enthufiaftical notions; he should allow only fuch fubjects to be introduced, as have a real tendency to make them wifer and better, by either explaining or enforcing the duties of religion; and he ought to lead them to confider them in those views, in which they tend moft ftrongly to produce this effect; and, to keep to this way of confidering them, he fhould recommend it to the people to confider the fubject carefully by themfelves, before they venture to fpeak on it in the prefence of others. When any of them vent any thing abfurd or enthufiaftic, they should be immediately checked and corrected. None should pray but thefe who are defired by the minif ter; and when they utter any thing extravagant in prayer, it should not only be pointed out to them, but they fhould be hindered from attempting it again for fome time, till they learn to think more foberly and juftly. The minifter should always be careful to inculcate on them, that they are no better than their neighbours merely for attending thefe meetings; that they are only useful fo far as they are means of rendering them more virtuous in their ordinary conduct. By fuch means as thefe, a minifter of prudence may, in a great measure, prevent the abuse of fellowship meetings, and turn them to real advantage : and when he finds that they are already introduced into a parish, and that the people are fond of them, it will generally be better to model them in this way, into an useful form, than to attempt abolishing them altogether."

In confidering the "public duties respecting a whole parish," the chief attention is paid to the fubject of preaching, which occupies 120 pages. This part feems more particularly to have received the attention and finishing hand of the author, and the fubject is treated in a very judicious and matterly manner, with. great accuracy of divifion, and clearnefs of language. So much has already been written, and well-written, upon this fubject, by Taylor, Claude, and many others, that after all it may perhaps be wifhed, that the particular care of Dr. G. had been exercised upon fome other part of the work. He speaks decidedly in favour of writing fermons, but not of reading them; recommending rather what he calls mandating, by which he means committing them to memory. If, however, from defect of memory, or any other cause, this task be found impracticable, or too laborious, he allows of reading, on which he makes the following obfervations:

"But though mandating be not abfolutely neceffary to good preaching, good reading is indifpenfably fo. To read fervilely, with one's

eyes

eyes conftantly fixed on his papers, is difgufting to an audience. It fhows fomething fo cold and lifeless in a preacher, that what he says. be it ever fo good in itself, can never affect his hearers. A preacher ought always to perufe his fermon till he enter thoroughly into the fpirit of it, and be able, with a glance at his notes* now and then, to deliver it with facility and propriety. To read well is an accomplishment of much greater importance than many are apt to imagine. It admits of all that warmth and animation, of all that action which is neceflary or becoming in the pulpit, and will, in a great measure, fuperfede the neceffity of mandating." P. 354.

These remarks are highly judicious; and, in our opinion, fuch reading, and fuch only we would recommend, is highly preferable to memorial delivery. The advantages seem to be equal, and the faving of time prodigious, A clergyman much employed in preaching, were he to deliver his difcourfes memorially, muft, we fear, facrifice almoft all his other duties to the talk of writing fermons, and committing them to memory. There are occafional blemishes in the language of this ufeful work, which ought undoubtedly to have been removed; for the plea of being born north of the Tweed can hardly be allowed at this time, to men of education, in excufe for fuch failures. We meet with pled for pleaded, p. 109;, timeous for timely, p. 181; to " afk at" a perfon, p. 221, &c. The book however muft, in juftice, be recommended as dictated by a becoming zeal for religion; and offering, in general, counfels and directions arifing from right views, and a judgment remarkably found.

ART. XII. Turner's Embaffy to Tibet.

(Concluded from our laft, p. 12.)

HAVING in our former number accompanied the traveller to the frontiers of Tibet, we now enter that extraordinary region with him. The entrance is diftinguifhed by the drearieft objects in nature, by severity of cold, by mountains clothed with perpetual fnow, and by feeble vegetation. Yet the scenery is reprefented as altogether fublime; and the au thor in his progrefs had occafion to remark various objects of

* Rather" book;" for notes fuppofe the fermon not fully written, which here feems to be the case considered,

intereft,