as he had promised to do in the first sentence quoted above. It is not from a spirit of hyper-criticism that I make this remark, but from an idea that Capt. G. will yet have many occasions to step forward successfully in defence of the best of causes, and that therefore a little attention to style will render his endeavours more prosperous. Review. Toller's Sermons. A very admirable piece of criticism. But may I not be surprised, that the Reviewer is so scanty and recherchant in his list of favourite sermon-writers? Surely he who is gifted with the happy faculty of detaining in the house of God his fellow-mortals, without weariness on their part, or a wish to retreat, must be acknowledged, at the very least, to exert an innocent power. And does he not deserve higher praise? Is he not rescuing them, for the time being, from the temptation of idle and injurious pursuits? Is he not giving them a taste for superior enjoyments? Is he not imparting finer habitudes of character and feeling, which are likely to be permanent, as well as beneficial? Wesley, it is true, as our Reviewer urges, recommended short discourses. But he might have had some valid reasons for so doing, which will not apply to other denominations. The Methodists principally aim at producing conversions by clamorous, impassioned prayer, and often by prayer, singing, exhortation, shouting, supplosio, laughing and crying, all together. Regular, formal preaching is the most inefficient instrument they make use of; and Wesley was undoubtedly conscious of it. But on our side of the kingdom of heaven the Sermon is the great engine of instruction, impression, and general religious edification.+ A correspond At a camp-meeting in our new state of Alabama, this year, a man under conviction, rose from before the altar, where the ministers were praying for him, and rushed through the assembly, exclaiming, Independence, my God! Independence, my God! In another place he objects to Mr. Hall's views respecting the length required for a complete sermon, and the degree to which arguments and topics inay be repeated in the same discourse. I rather incline to the sentiments of the biographer on this subject, if properly guarded and modified, nor erected into universal, exceptionless rules. Being a thorough convert to the fine maxim of Mr. Hall's philosophy, respecting the good effect produced by keeping the attention of an audience fixed on a subject for a considerable time, particularly if accompanied by a correspondent train of vivid feeling, I am unwilling to discourage the composition and delivery of long sermons. I should say, preach to your hearers as long as they can well bear it. But to this effect, your own capacities must be studied as well as their habits watched. If the homilies of Chrysostom and the discourses of Sherlock were very short, the sermons of Massilon, Bourdaloue, Bossuet, Saurin, Tillotson, and the harangues of Whitfield were very long. It is absurd to lay down the same Procrustéan rule for speakers of various qualifications, to say nothing of Methodists did not, indeed, return to the the different lengths of time which exterior observances of the Romish church, different subjects require. Shall we but they substituted for them other bo allow half an hour to the cold, didac- dily actions and excitements of the senses tic, abstract treatment of religious to- and imagination, which rendered preachpics, which is peculiar to some preach- ing equally subordinate as formerly. In ers, and shall we, simply because the following passage, Hume treats the half an hour is enough for that pur- institution of preaching quite scurvily and pose, confine to the same space of unjustly, though mingling up some truth time, the orator, whose lively imagi- in his remarks. A different, and I hope a truer account of it has been given in nation, copious stores of illustration, the text. "It is observable," he says, animated manner, and flexible, pleas-that the Church of Rome and that of ing, appropriate, varied elocution, can command the attention of a mixed audience more closely for an hour than another can for ten minutes? +"In proportion as the ceremonies of public worship, its shows, and exterior observances, were retrenched by the Reformers, the people were inclined to contract a stronger attachment to sermons." Hume, Hist. Eng. ch. xxxiv. The England being both of them lovers of form and ceremony and order, are more friends to prayer than preaching; while the puritanical sectaries, who find that between the personal character of the preacher and the rules which he inculcates, a knowledge that his own religious experience is perpetually breathing through the discourses which he delivers, these constitute not only an irresistible charm, but an overcoming power upon our assemblies and communities, the tendency of which is, to build them up in the beauty of holiness. I do not intend to imply that Wesley placed no value on this kind of means; far from it; but his principal attention was devoted to other more stormy modes of obtaining success. Besides, his followers, we know, preached extemporaneously; most of them were uninstructed men, and unable to treat subjects with that fulness and interest which may be expected of those who spend much time in writing and preparation, for the business of which a long, varied, and extensive education has adapted them. But further, did even Wesley himself constantly enforce the precept in question by his own example? Not if I have heard and read aright. Our Reviewer adduces the example of the Greek orators too against some of Mr. Hall's critical maxims, but without much force of application. The cases are not parallel. Even if it had been a question about modern forensic or civil eloquence, the cases would have been far from parallel. Much less when pulpit eloquence is the theme. The audiences of modern times are not composed of the same materials with those of the ancient. The objects aimed at in addressing them are unlike. The speakers come before them in entirely different capacities. Isocrates would be an author most in point. But his discourses are longer than many of Demosthenes'. A rhapsody of Homer, a Muse of Herodotus, a Book of Thucydides, were probably borne patiently by even the volatile Athenians at one sitting. Also, De the latter method of address, being directed to a numerous audience present and visible, is more inflaming and animating, have always regarded it as the chief part of divine service? Ch. lii. Somewhat inconsistent with this doctrine, Hume elsewhere ascribes the excesses and disorder of the Puritans to their habits of abstract devotion. See chap. xlvii. mosthenes and Eschines have left some orations which must have occupied an hour or more in the delivery. They will, moreover, be found, to indulge in a repetition of arguments and topics to a much greater degree than the Reviewer seems to allow. It is customary with them to rest their cause on one or two main points, which they urge in every variety of form and enforcement, plying away, if I may so say, with the same battering ram, until they effect the desired breach. The Reviewer appears to me to undervalue the benefits to be derived from the frequent and protracted excitement of religious feelings in a listening audience. The effect of good impressions and emotions subsides not with the feelings themselves. The attention has been vivified and fixed by them; the memory has been more indelibly stamped; and virtuous and religious biases of character have been more decidedly favoured. East-India Unitarian Tracts. The Trinitarian Missionary Cause in EastIndia may now be fairly said to be written down. Burns upon Irving. If I thought the British public had not long since become perfectly indifferent about Mr. Irving or his rhapsodies, I would take the liberty in one word to give my candid and humble opinion of him. Devotional Exercises Certainly procure me a copy, Mr. Editor. My library is a thoroughfare for a pretty numerous circle, and I have the happiness of knowing that many will read this work before I shall have possessed it a year. Poetry. Morning. This is very beautiful. It almost sets itself to music. Yes, it falls thus, as I read it, on my fancy's ear:-The first verse, Recitative. The second verse, a duet two first lines, treble; the next two, tenor; the two last, both voices together. The third verse, a Trio. The fourth and fifth, Grand Chorus of voices with a hundred instruments. The sixth and seventh, Treble Solo. And as the piece now terminates rather abruptly, I would ask the author for one more verse, embodying perhaps a real prayer for the blessings enumerated in the two preceding stanzas to be sung by the chorus of voices accompanied only by the full organ, "Hear us, Thou on whom we call, Napoleon. An obvious trite reflec- Obituary. Mr. Christie. The vo SIR, April 7, 1825. lume of Lectures by this gentleman YOUR publication for September, on the Unity of God is one of the most clear and convincing books on the subject that have been published. Some of the strongest minds in America date their conversion to Unitarianism from its first perusal. Baron Maseres. Was the edict of Nantes atrocious, or its revocation? The mystery of the multiplication of negative quantities can only be solved by regarding them as relative, not absolute existences. Nobody on earth can practically and palpably demonstrate that 2 multiplied by 2 will amount to +4, as one can shew by counting two fingers on this hand and two on the other, that 2 multiplied by 2 amounts to 4. All we can say is, that this species of mathematical solecism is a very convenient instrument in algebraical operations, and leads to results which never deceive. Unitarian Association. Had we zeal and spirit enough in the United States to adopt a grand central organic institution like this, it would not be many years before our belief would be characteristic of the national religion. Is there to be obtained a list of Antitrinitarian congregations in Great Britain, with the names of the pastors, a statement of members, and other statistical information of the kind? Would not an annual Report or Register to this effect, after the manner of the Methodists, and some other denominations, communicate an interest and impulse to the progress of the cause? month. A correspondent in that Numdid not fall in my way till this ber, who signs himself A Calvinist, complains that Mr. Worsley identifies Calvinism with the gross and revolting notions of Antinomianism. Most with Antinomians, which I consider a Calvinists indeed dislike to be classed to common sense; but I confess I good sign that they have some regard could never see any marked distinction between them, except that the latter former do not. Sandeman appears to act up to their principles, while the have decided this point. If both proof the title of An Antinomian, by a fess the same principles, the rejection Calvinist, is no more a proof that it does not properly belong to him, than a man's disavowal of bigotry will prove that he is not a bigot. is to be an Antinomian. Perhaps we Our first inquiry should be, what it better in a few words, than by saying could not describe his sentiments he is an Ultra-Calvinist, who interprets Predestination in the most rigid sense. are of no signification in the sight of He believes that good works God, or rather that by themselves they are Whoever supposes that good works an abomination to him. have any effect to procure the favour of God, or whoever endeavours to the end of life to perform them with this view, will be condemned by an Antinomian as a proud contemner of gospel grace, and consequently as a reprobate doomed to perdition. He believes farther that divine grace does of conversion and justification, that every thing or nothing in the works the elect can by no act forfeit their salvation, that the gospel dispensation has superseded the moral law, and that his evil works have not the character of sin. should allow that his object in this Yet in candour we his principles, and not to justify wicklast sentiment is, to be consistent with according to his view of it, while he edness. As he obtained saving faith, remained in his sins, he thinks they can be no bar at any time to his elec tion, When this reasoning subjects him to the charge of undermining morals, he parries it, by saying that God does not allow his elect to be guilty of such wicked actions as may require repentance, and therefore that confession of sin and repentance imply an ignorance of the gospel, The question here is, not how far this zealot is mistaken in his opinions, but how far a Calvinist is identified with him. To enumerate all the degrees and shades of Calvinism would be endless; I shall therefore confine my observations to the doctrines held by the great majority of those who profess it. In the definition of an Antinomian, it is only in the two last particulars that Calvinists can say they are distinguished from him; for they deny as firmly as any Antinomian that works have any effect whatever to procure the favour of God. Justification, they say, is to be attributed exclusively to a cause which is totally out of the power of any mortal; and this cause is the decree of God, before the creation of man, by which he willed that the merits of Christ's atonement should be applied to a certain number out of mankind, without any foresight of their faith or works. At the same time he decreed, as they hold, that power should be given to these elect, to accept Christ at the proper time; and this miraculous power, which is what they call justifying faith, they can no more secure for themselves by any act of mind or body, which originates in their own free-will, than they could give themselves a new sense. But Calvinists say, that though good works have no effect to procure justification, yet they will not be wanting in those who truly accept Christ. This is the identical language of the Antinomian, and no distinction appears between them on this ground. Nothing alarms both one and the other so much as an apprehension that they attribute any efficacy to their works, and this feeling and dread they flatter themselves is humility. But what good is there in humility without charity, or can it exist? To renounce works, and to vilify their nature and character, cannot entitle them to the praise of humility, while their professions of abasement are united, in their estimation, with no less a distinction than a supernatural power to accept Christ, with a direct revelation that they are the elect and favourites of God; while they believe at the same time, that all from whom this revelation is withheld, and who never obtain it, are reprobates. In describing and judging a reprobate they entirely agree, and in these respects, their humility and charity are equally conspicuous. Nor is there any material difference between them in their assurance, that they can by no act forfeit the Divine favour. This assurance follows necessarily from their theory respecting the decrees of God; but a little common sense obtrudes, in spite of theory, and renders Calvinists occasionally weak in faith. Antinomians have greater confidence. We come now to the consideration of the two particulars, on account of which Calvinists will not submit to be called Antinomians. One of these has been already disposed of, where I gave the explanation of the opinion, that the evil works of some men have not the character of sin. Few Calvinists of the present day will say that God does not behold sin in the elect, but none of them will object to say that he will not finally punish it; and this opinion is the same in effect with the explanation of the Antinomian. It remains now to be considered whether Calvinists so far resemble Antinomians in their doctrines, as to supersede the moral law. Probably neither party will admit expressly that they do this, but their denial is not sufficient to decide the question. Do they not both maintain that our nature derived from Adam is not merely very imperfect and prone to sin, but that it is sinful altogether, without one redeeming grace; or, more properly, that it is sin itself in the abstract? To such a degree do they carry this sentiment, that they say the best work of the best man, viewed without the atonement of Christ, deserves hell. Yet when a monster of sin supposes he has power given him to accept Christ, notwithstanding a sense of his sins continued to that moment, and notwithstanding that he still continues to insist on his vileness, he takes possession without hesitation or difficulty of the infinite righteousness of Christ, and of the infinite merits of his atone ment. Fraught with these, he stands boldly before the infinite wrath of God, and challenges justification from his justice, regardless of his mercy. These opinions appear to me to have a direct tendency to supersede the moral law. But a man may not think it fair to be charged with opinions which he denies, though they may be inferred from his principles. Both Antinomians and Calvinists may deny that they supersede the moral law; and it may be judicious to take them at their word. Yet they hold two other doctrines of the same tendency, which try our candour to the utmost. These are, the doctrine of unconditional election, and the appaling doctrine of unconditional reprobation. I call the last appaling, not be cause the mention of it can alarm any rational man, but on account of its atrocity, and because it is most distressing to think that zealous and learned Protestant Christians in the nineteenth century, who lay claim to the only true profession of the gospel, should fail so deplorably in charity and common sense as to entertain it, and should represent in so hideous a light the pure and benign religion of Jesus Christ. If they will adhere to their principles, they must maintain that the Deity is a malignant Being; and, in fact, they do say, that God, to the praise of his glorious justice, indulges bis infinite wrath against the great body of mankind, and that he would do the same toward all men without exception, if an infinite person, as much God as himself, had not plucked the elect from him as brands out of the fire. Mercy is altogether excluded from his attributes, according to their views of the gospel. Does it not plainly appear to be of very serious importance to them, that they analyze and review their doctrines; and that they reflect, not merely that the Scriptures do not teach, but that no revelation from God can possibly teach, that he doomed the greater part or any part of mankind to endless torments, without affording them a possibility of escape? If they should prove that a doctrine so dishonourable to God is taught in the Scriptures, who will believe the Scriptures? What a head and what a heart must that SIR, June 4, 1825. WHEN I concluded my fourth trusted that the controversy respectletter to Dr. J. Pye Smith, I ing the present state of morals in Geneva was at rest; Dr. S. has, however, thought proper to republish his accusations of the Genevese in a pamphlet, to give a wider circulation to the charges which he has brought against the pastors and people of that city. I have been prevented by a long illness from taking an earlier notice of this pamphlet. Before I examined it, I fully expected to find those passages were omitted, which contained the and of M. Chenevière, but with the gross abuse of the Genevese people exception of the epithet "dumb," all the abuse and calumny remain undiminished without apology, and without acknowledgment of their falsehood.* It will be in the recollection of your readers, that I repeatedly and earnestly pressed Dr. S. to bring proofs of the open flagitiousness" with which he had gross immorality, profaneness, and charged the Genevese, and to name morals were as pure as in Geneva. any large Calvinistic city where the Your readers will also recollect that Dr. S. utterly failed to substantiate his charges, and avoided it by intimating that the morality of the Genethat there was no corresponding invese was not Christian morality, and crease of true Christians among them. Dr. Smith will not insult the understanding of your readers by citing the alleged instances of the profane expressions of a few soldiers or women and children riotously assembled, even insult them by citing these instances were they true. I say he will not The pamphlet Dr. S. has entitled, "A Vindication of those Citizens of Geneva aud other Persons who have been instrumental in reviving Scriptural Religion in that City," &c. |