as

ing things honest in the sight of all men, compels some to employ too large a portion of their time in the businesses of tuition and in other avocations; a necessity often deeply deplored by those who are placed under it; but from which there is no possibility of escaping, so long the provision for the clergy continues so utterly inadequate to their support; or so long as the niggardly and unfeeling disposition of many wealthy professors will allow them to enjoy the labours of a faithful minister without considering how he is supported. But notwithstanding all the deductions which may be made on these grounds, notwithstanding all the hindrances thrown in their way, by the incessant and urgent claims of Bible, and Missionary, and other Institutions; claims, be it remembered, which are often imperiously urged upon a minister by the consideration, that if he refuse to co-operate, their funds must experience a serious defalcation, and the progress of the Gospel, both at home and abroad, be, humanly speaking, materially retarded: notwithstanding all these exceptions, we doubt whether there ever existed a more diligent, devoted, and laborious body of ministers, than the serious clergy of the Church of England at the present moment. They may not be imaginative, or philosophical, or political men; nor do we think, that either their character, their preaching, or their usefulness, would be increased by becoming such. They may not bring forward so much argument, so much illustratation, so much literature as some might desire; nor are we sure, that their preaching would be more generally useful, if such were invariably the case; but they are men labouring

* If our language appears too strong, we would just refer our readers to the

severe privations with which a Scott and

a Cecil had to contend all their days; or

to the last or the next Report of the poor pious Clergy Society.

And as we doubt the truth of such insinuations, so we hesitate not to declare our conviction of their impolicy. What, for instance, is the natural result of Mr. I.'s declarations on the mind of a worldly and irreligious person? He no sooner reads the Preface than he comes to the conclusion, that if ignorant and unholy, it is not his fault--it is the fault of those who ought to have taught him better. Instead of being stimulated to ask, and seek, and inquire, he now regards himself as excusable, though still ignorant; and persuades himself, that the ministers of religion are really to be blamed for his present state, and that himself is no way, or at least very little, criminal. We have known serious ill-consequences resulting from similar unguarded conduct in more private life; the severe strictures of a parent on particular ministers, have brought a numerous party into contempt among his children, even before they had acquired a capacity for coming to any particular decision upon the subject, so as effectually to prevent their listening in future life to the only individuals in an extensive district who appeared to have any real concern for the salvation of their souls; and have, in consequence, led them to look up for advice and assistance to others, not merely defective in manner, or in attainment, but decidedly erroneous on essential points. And we cannot but feel, that the tendency of these reflections of Mr. I. and of some other remarks in the course of his volume, is, to divert

the attention of the literary, and imaginative, and philosophical, and poetical characters, who occasionally honour him with a hearing, but who cannot, on various accounts, become his stated people, from listening to the only persons in their neighbourhood from whom, even in his own judgment, they might reasonably expect instruction. This lengthened review of the Preface must necessarily very much abridge our intended remarks on the volume to which it is prefixed. Mr. I., indeed, states" I have set the example of two new methods of handling religious truth; the Oration and the Argument." But we, in common with many of our brother critics, are too dense to discover in what this novelty consists. Every writer on pulpit eloquence has discussed, more or less, the question of sermons with or without divisions; and every library can furnish numerous instances of sermons arranged and composed on either plan; of series of argumentative, demonstrative, and consecutive discourses; and we, therefore, really and frankly confess our ignorance of the novelty here alluded to-for certainly many, not to say most of the Discourses of Hooker, Butler, and Horsley, in the Establishment, of Hall, Foster, and a multitude of others out of it, have been composed on a similar plan. But attractive as this plan is in various respects, and affording, as it unquestionably does, much freer scope for the higher exertions of eloquence, it has very seldom been adhered to by ministers of much experience. The very men who have, perhaps, first attracted notoriety by the flowing stream of their eloquence, have, as they advanced in life, and discovered the real wants of a Christian congregation, deviated from the practice of their earlier years, have relinquished the more popular harangue, and adopted the old fashioned, but more useful form, of the sermon. The very last time we

heard Mr. Hall, we found his sermon as accurately divided and subdivided as those of Mr. Simeon, and the subdivisions as regularly distinguished. We are completely mistaken if such will not be Mr. I.'s own case in a few years.

The first four of these Orations, Lectures, and Sermons, as Mr. I. rather curiously styles them in his half-title, considering what he had just before said in his Preface, are on the oracles of God, and are four discourses from John, v. 29. In these he entirely omits the inquiry, What are the oracles of God, and confines his observations to the due preparation for receiving revealed truth, the diligent attention to it while it is disclosing, and the strict observance of it when disclosed.

In the whole book of the Lord's revela tions you shall search in vain for one which ís devoid of these necessary parts. Witness the awe-struck Isaiah, while the Lord displayed before him the sublime pomp of his presence, and, not content with overpowering the frail sense of the prophet, despatched a seraph to do the ceremonial of touching his lips with hallowed' fire, all

before he uttered one word into his astonished ear. Witness the majestic appariall the emblematical glory of the Son of tion to St. John, in the Apocalypse, of man, allowed to take silent effect upon the Apostle's spirit, and prepare it for the revelation of things to come. These beard with all their absorbed faculties, and with all their powers addressed them to the bidding of the Lord. But if this was in aught flinched from, witness in the persecution of the prophet Jonah the fearful issues which ensued. From the presence of the Lord he could not flee. Fain would he have escaped to the uttermost parts of the earth; but in the mighty waters the terrors of the Lord fell on him; and when ingulphed in the deep, and entombed in the monster of the deep, still the Lord's word was upon the obdurate prophet, who had no rest, not the rest of the grave, till he had fulfilled it to the very uttermost.-Pp. 7, 8.

Mr. I. then animadverts upon the pre-occupations and prepossessions with which many y come to. hear the word of God; and, with singular infelicity in our view, considers the early use of catechisms as mainly contributing to this pre

The man who thus miedeems of himself, must, if his opinion were just, be like a sheet of fair paper, unblotted, unwritten

chisms.

But Mr. I. is very apt to advance bold and unguarded positions; he presses forwards with an ardour which continually leads him into paradox; so that we are no longer surprised, after reading his book, with the various and opposite representations which are made concerning his views and sentiments. This unguarded mode of expression is highly injurious to usefulness, and necessarily impedes edification. It has a direct tendency to lead the hearers to controversy and criticism; and he must have very little acquaintance with the human heart, who is not aware of the use made by the great enemy of souls of any debatable points to draw off the attention from every thing truly profitable, and to induce a spirit of disquisition in the room of feelings of ardent devotion.

Such a thing as a free and unlimited reception of all the parts of Scripture into the mind, is a thing most rare to be met with; and, when met with, will be found the result of many a sore submission of Nature's opinions, as well as of Nature's likings.

But the Word, as hath been said, is not for the intellect alone, but for the heart, and for the will. Now, if any one be so wedded to his own candour as to think he doth accept the divine truth unabatedsurely no one will flatter himself into the -belief that his heart is already attuned and enlarged for all divine affections, or his will in readiness for all divine commandments. DEC. 1823.

tions, its obedience a new obedience, which have to master and put down the truth, affections, and obedience gathered from the apprehension of Nature, and the commerce of worldly life. Therefore, there needeth, in one that would be served from this storehouse of truth opened by heaven, a disrelish of his old acquisitions, and a preference of the new, a simple, child-like teachableness, an allowance of ignorance anxious learner. Coming to the word of and error, with whatever else beseems an God, we are like children brought into the

conversations of experienced men; and we should humbly listen and reverently inquire or we are like raw rustics introduced into high and polished life, and we should unlearn our coarseness, and copy the habits of the station:-nay, we are like offenders caught, and for amendment committed to the bosom of honourable society, with the power of regaining our lost condition, and inheriting honour and trust

-therefore we should walk softly and tenderly, covering our former reproach with modesty and humbleness, hasting to redeem our reputation by distinguished performances, against offence doubly guarded, doubly watchful for dangerous and extreme

goodness.-Pp. 20-22.

positions, to demonstrate our recovered

How different the ordinary proceeding of Christians, who with timorous, mistrustful spirits; with an abeyance of intellect, and a dwarfish reduction of their natural powers; enter to the conference of the word of God! The natural powers of man are to be mistrusted, doubtless, as the willing instruments of the evil one; but they must be honoured also, as the necessary instruments of the Spirit of God, whose operation is a dream, if it be not through knowledge, intellect, conscience, and action. Now Christians, heedless of this grand resurrection of the mighty instruments of thought and action, at the same time coveting hard after holy attainments, do often resign the mastery of themselves, and are taken into the counsel of the religious world-whirling around the eddy of

3 s

some popular leader and so drifted, I will not say from godliness, but drifted cer tainly from that noble, manly, and independent course, which, under the steerage

of the word of God, they might have safely pursued for the precious interests of their immortal souls. Meanwhile these popular leaders, finding no necessity for strenuous endeavours and high science in the ways of God, but having a gathering host to follow

them, deviate from the ways of deep and penetrating thought-refuse the contest

with the literary and accomplished enemies of the faith-bring a contempt upon the cause in which mighty men did formerly gird themselves to the combat-and so cast the stumbling-block of a mistaken paltriness between enlightened men and the cross

of Christ! So far from this simple-mindedness (but its proper name is feeble-mindedness), Christians should be-as afore

time in this island they were wont to be the princes of human intellect, the lights of the world, the salt of the political and social state. Till they come forth from the swaddling-bands in which foreign schools have girt them, and walk boldly upon the high places of human understanding, they shall never obtain that influence in the up

per regions of knowledge and power of which unfortunately they have not the apostolic unction to be in quest. They will never be the master and commanding spirits of the time, until they cast off the wrinkled and withered skin of an obsolete

age, and clothe themselves with intelligence as with a garment, and bring forth the fruits of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Mistake us not, for we steer in a narrow, very narrow channel, with rocks of popular prejudice on every side. While we thus invocate to the reading of the Word, the highest strains of the human soul, mistake us not as derogating from the office of the Spirit of God. Far be it from any Christian, much farther from any Christian pastor, to withdraw from God the honour which is every where his due, but there most of all his due, where the human mind laboured alone for thousands of years, and laboured with no success-viz. the regeneration of itself and its restoration to the lost semblance of the divinity.-Oh!

let him be reverently inquired after, devoutly waited on, and most thankfully acknowledged, in every step of progress, from the soul's fresh awakening out of her dark oblivious sleep, even to her ultimate attainment upon earth, and full accomplishment for heaven; and that there may be a fuller choir of awakened men to advance bis honour and glory here on earth, and hereafter in heaven above.-Pp. 23-25.

We deeply regret, that in thus commenting upon the work before

us, we are compelled so much to adopt the language of censure; and the more so, because our limits prevent our affording equal space to those parts which we cordially approve; but when we contemplate the popularity which Mr. 1. has attained; when we recollect how invariably every individual of eminence is followed by

a host of imitators; and how often good and conscientious men, groaning under the small measure of success with which the patient labours of many years are attended, are apt to adopt new plans and systems which promise more abundant fruit; we feel, that with the most kindly inclination and disposition towards our author, we owe to many of our readers the duty of pointing out some other of his defects, lest they should fall into errors from which he, by the very peculiarity of his situation, may be exempted.

The second part of the volume, entitled, "Of Judgment to come, an Argument in nine Parts," consists of nine discourses on Acts, xvii. 30; and contains,

I. The Plan of the Argument; with an Inquiry into Responsibility in general, and God's Right to place the World under Responsibility.-II. The Constitution under which it hath pleased God to place the World.--III. The same Subject continued. -IV. The good Effects of the above Constitution, both upon the Individual and upon political Society.-V. Preliminaries of the solemn Judgment.-VI. The last Judgment.-VII. The Issues of the Judgment. -VIII. The only Way to escape Condemnation and Wrath to come.-IX. The Re view of the whole Argument, and Endeavour to bring it home to the Sons of Men.

Of the Argument, the author has said, that, though most imperfect, it is intended to be complete; by which we understand, that notwithstanding unavoidable defects, of which the author is unconscious, it contains a full developement of the sentiments he deems important. The perusal of this part of the volume has been far less satisfactory to our own minds than that of the orations. We have no ob

jection to arguments from analogy, when they are fairly introduced; but we think our Author has here, in many instances, overstepped the line that he has not sufficiently kept in view how profoundly ignorant we are of every thing concerning a future judgment, except as the result of revelation; and that the way in which he has disposed of many Scriptural declarations upon the subject, gives a very improper degree of countenance to those who are inclined to explain away every thing which they do not clearly understand, or cordially

approve.

Thus, when speaking of the Preliminaries of Judgment, he says,

As to the forms with which it is presented in Scripture, viz. the ushering in of

the solemn day by the archangel and the trump of God-the white throne of judgment, with the Judge that sitteth thereon -the glorious company of angels-the opening of the books, in which stand recorded every man's account of good and ill

—the solemn separation, to the right and the left, of the two great divisions of menof men and their separate verdicts of blessing and of cursing-these are no more to be understood by the letter than any other of the works of God, but to be taken as an image

or device of the transaction, done with the

best similitudes that the earth contains; and seeing there never was and never will bé a state of society to which a day of judgment is strange, God hath chosen this emblem as being the most likely interpretation

of it to the understanding and feeling of all men in all ages to whom the tidings of it might come.-Pp. 276, 277.

I regard all descriptions of judgment,

therefore, to be only a way of stating to us the design of God, as to our recovery from this fallen state and readmission into paradise, or our expulsion from this purgatorial state of existence and detrasion to the changeless settlements of the reprobate. These descriptions are no more than, "Do this and live;""in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;" uttered in a more expanded form to meet the various faculties of human nature, fancy, judgment, fear, hope, pain, or pleasure; but they do no more imply, that by the forms of an earthly tribunal we shall be judged, than the creation of animals at first implies the modes of their present creation. When the end of all things hath come, and the renovation of all things hath taken place, I reckon that the bodies of men will start

from their unconscious state of dispersion and dissolution, as the materials of Adam's rious places, or as the earth teemed out her body came at first from their secret and va

various tribes; and that the soul will come from its intermediate sojourn, as Adam's soul came, no one knoweth whence, and be

united to her ancient comrade. So that the moment the sleep of death is broken by the trump of God, we shall find ourselves, each one ere we wis, with the paradise of heaven overshadowing our heads, or the pavement of hell glowing beneath our feet. -Pp. 279, 280.

Now, without speculating too deeply concerning things we understand not, we may perhaps be allowed to protest against this mode tifiable. It has been well remarked, of explanation, as extremely unjus

that the terrors of Mount Sinai were manifest and audible; and why may not there be a similar manifestation at that solemn day to which we are hastening-a voice which may thrill through every soul, and be accompanied with inconceivable horror or supreme delight? But we ask no questions upon the subject. The Bible says, Thus it shall be. We are sure, that the Bible is the word of God; and, therefore, we pray, "in the hour of death and at the day of judgment, Good Lord, deliver us."

We must equally protest against many of the author's disquisitions concerning the Issues of Judgment. The employments of heaven, and the miseries of hell, as pourtrayed by his pen are far more poetical than Scriptural. We turn almost at random to one of the passages we had marked, and leave it for the judgment of our readers.

So that I think we very much take the thing for granted, when we fancy the wioked creatures pinched and scorched alive by active ministers of God. Their torture is the absence of the ministry of God. God comes not to their quarters, and therefore their quarters are so hot; for, where God is there peace and love, and where he is not, there is confusion and every evil work, Alas! there come no warning prophet nor ministering priest; no reformer, nor Saviour, to their world. It floats far remote from the habitations of holiness; and