doth admit; otherwise he doth only pretend to believe, out of some design, or from affection to some party; his faith is not so much really faith, as hypocrisy, craft, fondness, or faction." There is, it must be allowed, too much rigidity in this definition; it makes too little allowance for the appeal of faith to those instincts of the heart which lie deeper than the intellect, and at the same time are nearer the surface of human nature. For instance, it prevents Barrow apprehending, as has been already observed, the depth and importance of the great controversy of the early years of the Reformation respecting faith. But if this be an error, it is at all events one which his countrymen would be very ready to excuse, and which was, perhaps, especially welcome after the deluge of irrational enthusiasm with which the country had been flooded. It is at least an error on the manly side; and it requires, perhaps, an intrepidity like that of Barrow-the same kind of daring with which, on his voyage to Constantinople, he fought one of the guns of his ship against an Algerine pirateto be thus prepared, as it were, to stake the whole success of our cause on the superiority of the intellectual batteries we can bring into action. But Englishmen love a good fighter; and as long as men admire manly appeals to reason, free from the slightest touch of affectation, so long will Barrow demand the attention, and extort the respect, of.

every one who is competent to enter into the Christian controversy.

Accordingly, though there may have been, perhaps, in the English Church, profounder or more subtle theologians, more eloquent or more polished Preachers, there has been no one who has exhibited more forcibly the harmony of the Christian faith with the moral convictions, the scientific progress, and the solid learning of Englishmen. Barrow emerges from amidst the confusion of his time like a well-armed champion, trained in every moral and intellectual exercise, the representative alike of the old and the new learning, of classical culture, of experimental philosophy, and above all of Christian belief, and he challenges all the forces of anarchy to break the bonds which unite these influences. May we not all in these days learn something from his manliness and his faith? He has had, indeed, his successors in every age, though none perhaps of quite so vigorous, so sound, and so intrepid a nature. But we, like him, are surrounded by the brilliant dawn of what is almost a new experimental philosophy; we, like him, witness the very name of religion disgraced all around us by what he called "furious zeal for and against trivial circumstances," and sometimes by miserable perversions of its truths and ordinances. Like him, we see men recoiling from these scandals and acquiescing in infidelity or scepticism; like him, too, we see the political forces of

Europe in a kind of combustion, and we live in daily dread of a conflagration. Can we do better than follow his example, by concentrating our energies on the essential truths of the Gospel and the plain and obvious duties of morality?

Peculiar character of the age in which South lived, owing to the various schools of thought which were beginning to show themselves in the Church of England-This character due to the genius of the English Reformation, which had encouraged greater freedom of thought, and greater love of antiquity, than existed in any other of the Reformed Churches-Consequent certainty of a struggle between these opposing elements, which actually took place under Charles I. and Charles II.

Sketch of the life of South-His education at Westminster and at Oxford-His early indications of great ability, and of strong antipathy to the Puritans-Is made Chaplain to Lord Clarendon, and Canon of Christ Church-Spends his life at Oxford as the favourite preacher of the University and the Cavaliers-His support of Lord Arran.

General characteristics of South's ability as a preacher-Compared with Bossuet-Instances of his powers of arrangement and analysis -His defects in religious feeling-Comparison in this respect with Jeremy Taylor-Occasional passages of great beauty. View of South's character as a politician, which injured his character as a preacher-Evidenced by his absolute devotion to his party, and to the "Divine Right of Kings," and his hatred of the Puritans-Excuses to be found in the narrowness of the Puritan party, but the persecuting spirit displayed against them is still indefensible.

Summary of his excellencies and defects.

THE divine whose character and writings we are to consider to-day, if he can scarcely be called one of the greatest men of the Church of England, was yet

He

endowed with one remarkable gift which has never been common amongst her writers. He was, perhaps, the most powerful rhetorician, not excepting Jeremy Taylor, whom she has produced; and if we cannot call him her greatest preacher; if time, which has only added to the glory of Bossuet and Massillon, and which allows us still to study even Beveridge and Barrow, has seen South pass into comparative neglect, this is due to no want of natural power in himself, but to the fact that the value of his writings is impaired by so large an alloy of party spirit, and that he gave such full scope to his powers of sarcasm and invective, that it is very difficult to give an adequate idea of his Sermons without quoting passages which modern taste would reject. lived, indeed, at a time which proverbially tries the tempers of men—at the close of a great revolution, when much judgment and moderation were required to meet the wants of the Church of England, then at the end of the struggles which had marked the first century of her history, and violently agitated both by the remembrance of her sufferings under Cromwell, and by her sudden victory at the Restoration of 1660. Her long conflict might at first sight appear to have been of eminent service to the Church, for it had given birth, both within and without her pale, to a line of eminent men, and a vigour and a variety of thought greater than she had hitherto known. Thus the generous