discoveries of Divine mercy which constitute the essence of the Gospel; and these he is said to have preached with a simplicity and force which, when combined, display a mind of the highest order, and form a preacher most eminently calculated for usefulness. He was far from obtruding at the throne of the Eternal the quaintness and familiarity with which some dare to joke with the God whom they profess to adore, but was ever serious and solemn in his prayers, without the slightest tinge of drollery. "It is, however, difficult to give a verdict on his mode of preaching, which has since had many imitators, both in the Establish ment and among Dissenters. Much allow ance should certainly be made for natural temper, which will shew itself whenever a man feels perfectly at home; so that when we see clergy who glory in the title of queer fellows, and who set the table in a roar, stand in the pulpit like statues of ice, while their bearers betray alarming symptoms of the fatal lethargy which precedes being frozen to death, who will give them praise for their contemptuous jokes on droll preachers? Or who will think that man in earnest, who feels the touch of a pulpit like that of a torpedo, who is all quicksilver every where else, but dull as lead in the rostrum; animated when discoursing on the prices of stocks, or the speed of a race-horse, and only inspired with the genius of slumber when discoursing to heedless mortals on approaching death, judgment, and eternity? Yet these are the men who delight to profane the ashes of such preachers as Daniel Burgess, "On the other hand it must be owned, that in the footsteps of one who, by natural eccentricities wins uncommon attention, and by nobler singularity is crowned with emibent success, follow crowds of extravagant imitators, who, aiming to excite what their model has studied to repress, degrade the sacred majesty of divine truth, and sink the palpit below the stage. The serious consideration of the subject leads to this conclusion, that where it is natural and not forced, the corruscations of wit, which will sparkle through all efforts to restrain it, will impart a vivacity to preaching which may awaken attention, fix stings in the memory and conscience, and rather help than hinder efulness. But where it is indulged through levity, and still more where it is mimicked to court a grin, it will grieve the Holy Spirit of God, shock the pious, disgust the judieius, and leave the pulpit buffoon to the vile honours and rewards of making people laugh where they ought to weep, and furpiting them with food for religious jokes and gossip, where they ought to have provided themes for devout meditation and prayer." Vol. ii. pp. 275–279. The observation which is made on Burkitt's Exposition of the New Testament is both harsh and unjust. After giving deserved praise to the ministry of this good man, the authors proceed He "His Exposition of the New Testament, which, like many other middling or indifferent performances, has slipped into considerable popularity, is thus characterized by the candid and judicious Doddridge. has but few valuable criticisms, but many schemes of old sermons. His sentiments vary in different parts of the work, according as the authors from whence he took his materials were orthodox or not. Thus a book, which is a mere compilation of error and truth, is the oracle with that class of readers who are least able to sift the chaff from the wheat." pp. 357, 358. Here is a virtual confession, that the writers had not read, or even largely consulted, the work themselves. But they rest their general and judgment of Dr. Doddridge, censure of it entirely on the candour who, we must say, in defence of an eminent clergyman, is not in this case either candid or judicious. Were the whole of his degrading representation just, yet this is not an equitable account of the whole work, which those, who are acquainted with it, know to be principally displicity, by evangelical correctness tinguished by plainness and sim-. in the representation of doctrine, and by a practical application and enforcement of much solidity, weight, life, and effect. The last part of Dr. Doddridge's judgment is very harsh and undeserved: his own Exposition might afford a captious critic equal ground for similar censure. The judgment of the histo rians is still harsher and more unjust. If the bad criticisms, useless repetitions, and now as useless controversies, which abound in the work, were expunged, and some variation and vivacity given to the form of the remainder, it would stand on the first shelf of practica! expositions. The thirty-two pages of the third volume, in which the Methodists will find themselves saluted, not with pure panegyric, is intended, we suppose, as an intimation, that the present two volumes do not complete the work. The work, which we are now dismissing, has some excellences, and discovers capacities in the writers for many more. The style is generally vigorous and animated; and the best authorities are in the main referred to. But there is so much declamation, so much digression, so much colouring, such a degree, at times, of unworthy and offensive levity, that the value of the work is greatly diminished by these deductions. It has few, indeed, of the characters of a standard performance; and must, we apprehend, content itself with the inferior praise of interesting the passions and prejudices of more sanguine dissenters, and of rousing the animosity of more sanguine churchmen. In comparison with the more moderate of the body, the authors may not improperly be considered as high-dissenters, prepared to carry the claims of nonconformity and opposition to ecclesiastical authority to an almost unlimited extent. But the most serious part of our complaint is, not the partiality and unfairness, but the want of a Christian spirit, in our dissenting historians. A bitterness of expression (which must be considered as the counterpart of feeling) is perpetually recurring with respect to the church of England: particularly in that part of the work which professes to give the reasons of dissent, a spirit of sarcastic levity is indulged with a prodigality, which, if we are not mistaken, and mistaken in a judgment of charity, which we would least wish to be, can hardly be read without a sigh by a large portion of Dissenters themselves. Churchmen are under a temptation to cherish a servile satisfaction with things as they are, with all their defects and abuses, and to treat all their oppo nents as enemies to religion and peace. Dissenters, on the contrary, and for a correspondent reason, are as strongly solicited to an indiscriminate discontent with what is esta blished, to a proud impatience of controul and imposition, and to a kind of resentful hostility against the national church. Each party should be peculiarly upon their guard against their own temptations; and we wish the present history had not forcibly obliged us to reflect upon the extreme difficulty of such resistance. In the conduct, which we have thought it our duty to censure, there is likewise a circumstance, of which the authors were not perhaps aware, and which it appears important to state: and that is, that the intemperate use of satire and sarcasm has a natural tendency to defeat its own object. In our progress through these volumes we have often felt ourselves in the condition of a traveller assaulted on his journey by a brisk shower of hail or sleet full in his face. At first the little importunate asperities occasion considerable smart; but in a short time their very violence produces a numbness in the visage, which almost completely defends it from further molestation. In like manner the too inquisitive churchman, who, in the hope of historical information, may, like ourselves, be tempted to travel through these pages, will soon find himself assailed by such a tempest of sarcasms, flings, inuendoes, &c., that he will perhaps resolve to proceed no further. If, however, he take the bolder resolution, it will not be long before he discover, that these formidable weapons have deprived themselves of their virtue by their number and pertinacious rapidity of succession, and by imparting to the mind an insensibility, which performs the part of a shield against their future attacks; in consequence of which, the archest insinuations and the most epigrammatic and finely turned pieces of satire come to be regarded as sim ple propositions, concerning which the only sentiment excited is, whether they be true or false. There is another observation, upon the style of the work, with which we feel it right to trouble our readers. When we discovered the name of two writers in the titlepage, we at once began to apprehend some evidences of this literary copartnership in the composition of the volumes. And, in fact, the resault is sufficiently singular. We know not if we can so well illustrate We cannot say that what we have read in the first two volumes of the History of Dissenters has inspired us with any sanguine expectations respecting those which are to follow; for, if the authors have been able to maintain so little impartiality and moderation in times comparatively distant, what can we look for when they are approaching their own? We are unwilling, however, to despair, and will hope that, if it be not too late, our historians will profit by some of the counsel here tendered to them; especially when we tell them, that a history of the more modern dissenters and their cause, written with a fair portion of candour, is to us an object neither of fear nor aversion. Only CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 110, let there be more of the mind in them which was in their and our Master, and we shall be proportionably satisfied. Paganism and Christianity compared. A Course of Lectures to the King's THE animadversions of Dr. Rennell We owe the production of this volume to the appointment of Dr. Ireland as lecturer in theology in Westminster Abbey; and the particular subject of which it treats, to P the actual circumstances of his audience. It appears that the statute by which the lecturer is appointed, describes his office to be "sacram Scripturam ad plebis et auditorum edificationem interpretari." To the objection therefore, that the follow ing lectures are not prepared with the simplicity supposed by the stątute, Dr. Ireland replies, that at present there is no audience except the school; and that to young men in a train of education for the universities, the lecturer is at liberty to address himself in a literary manner, and to recommend a religious subject by the attractions of their scholastic studies. The plan of Dr. Ireland's lectures is accordingly chiefly historical, and divides itself into two parts. The event which serves as the foundation of the whole, is the capture of Rome by Alaric, in the beginning of the fifth century. Out of this arises, in the first part, a defence of the character of the church against the slanders of paganism. The true causes of the decay of the empire are contrasted with the false; the impotence of the heathen deities to whom the prosperity of Rome had been attributed, is exposed in the arguments employed by the ancient Apologists of the faith; and the beneficial tendency of the Gospel is asserted, in its connection with the condition of man in the present life, This part may therefore be called a vindication of the civil character of Christianity in the Roman empire during the first four centuries. The second part is employed in discussing the opinions of the pagans concerning the worship of a deity, and the pursuit of happiness as it was prescribed by the philosophical sects. It may be termed a view of mythological and moral no tions, as they are opposed to the everlasting promises of the Gospel; and it contains an examination of some of the more eminent systems of theology, and of the views of the summum bonum which prevailed in the heathen world. With these are interwoven occasional appeals to the superior doctrines of the Scriptures; and to this purpose is also dedicated the first, or introductory chapter, which presents a general statement of the blessings annexed to the sincere profession of Christianity, in the "life which now is, and in that which is to come." The learned author is aware, that some might wish that a larger and more regular plan of revelation had been prepared, in contrast with the vain search after God and happiness by the efforts of philosophy; and after observing, that many notices tending to this purpose are interspersed through the body of his work, and that it would not have been possible to have done this more fully without injury to his present plan, he announces his determination to begin another course of lectures, which shall look to this as their principal object; describe, in a regular manner, the scheme of revelation; and impress more fully on the young hearers its doctrines and its duties. We profess ourselves satisfied with this apology. Had the work possessed less merit, or been considered as already perfect, we should cer tainly have been disposed to object strongly to the partial plan on which it is formed; but there is really so much sound learning, scriptural doctrine, and correct and elevated sentiment in this volume, that we are thankful for it as it is, and look for ward with pleasure to the comple tion of the whole design. The re verend author, however, thinks it necessary more particularly to defend this part of it from the objec tions of two classes of persons-First, of "the fanatic, a portion of whose spirit," he says, "has been lately reviving among us." We scarcely imagine that there is much ground for alarm on this head. If there should be any persons amongst us who seem to value religion in pro portion to the ruggedness of its ap pearance, and reject the assistance of profane learning, as if it tended to impair the character of evange lical truth, we can only say, that we are very far from being of that number, and most sincerely deprecate the prevalence of so narrow and misguided a spirit. We fully concar with him, however, on the other band, in his just and sensible rebake of the too fastidious scholar, who, turning with disgust from the ruder models of declining taste, would for ever confine his attention to those writings which exhibit the purest classical language: and with him he would urge the sacred nature of ecclesiastical truth, and the daty of pursuing it wherever it may be found; the peculiar interest which attends the warfare of the church with the early race of infidels, and its importance to the history of our faith. To forget this, as Dr. Ireland justly observes, is to indulge a spirit, which prevailed in an early age of the church, but could then be more readily excused; and which prevailed also, though less allowably, at the revival of literature; a spirit, which, while it professes an extraordinary reverence for letters, tends to circumscribe their influence, undervalues the materials of ecclesiastical history, and sacrifices truth to sound. This is no unseasonable admonition to our classical and cletical scholars; and we trust that it will not be received in vain. The first of the lectures under our review, opens with a brief statement of the general happiness of believers under the Gospel, both as to the present and a future world; which is followed by a detailed comparison of the apostle's assertion on this sabject, with the outward circumstances of the Christian church in the age in which the apostle wrote. A very elaborate and striking view is then given of the various persecutions of the primitive Christians, by the Romans, Greeks, and Jews, and of the faith and patience with which they were endured, confirm ed and illustrated by extracts from the origina ecclesiastical writers. Concerning the enmity of the po the Gospel, and the consequences of lished and philosophical Greeks to it to the harassed Christians, Dr. Ireland states some curious and instructive particulars from sacred antiquity. the manner in which Tatian conducts his "It would appear," he observes," from oration against the Greeks, that one of the principal causes of their hostility to the Gospel, was the injury supposed to be done by revelation to their philosophy. By a strange vanity, which had long distinguished that people, and which no calamities or had imagined themselves to be the first of disgraces of their own could exirpate, they perhaps the produce of it, and they fondly men, the original possessors of their soil, cherished the notion, that from their genius flowed, or ought to flow, to the rest of mankind, the knowledge of all art and science. This pretension was completely overthrown by the superior claim of the Scriptures, which therefore became the object of their hatred and detraction,"....“ and never did wounded vanity shew a more implacable resentment." "Whatever the Greeks could not ac complish by the sword, they endeavoured to and such was the madness with which they effect by the force of impious language; were inflamed, that they proposed rewards and honours to such of their poets and sophists as should write with most wit and elegance in opposition to the one, true, and incorruptible God, from whom descended to mankind the gift of eternal happiness, through Jesus Christ." pp. 12-15, 16. What an instructive commentary is this, on the apostolic caution against the philosophy and vain deceit of the Greeks! During several centuries it either openly opposed, or, when this was no longer practicable, it laboured to corrupt the pu rity and simplicity of Christian doctrine, maintaining all along a rooted antipathy to the truth. Nor is this Grecian spirit yet Though constrained by the circumextinct. stances of the age to repress its hatred of the Gospel, and of those who contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, within the limits of external decency, it will cer tainly be found, that too many of those who affect the name of philosophers are still amongst the bitterest enemies of Christianity and do not fail P2 |