a better service than our own;-a service in which we seem to mingle our prayers and praises with those of Apostles, and Confessors, and Martyrs; to rise above the sorrows of the church militant; to turn aside the veil which separates us from the heavenly state; and to have "boldness to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus"-that sacred Name which closes all our praises and perfumes all our offerings. How often he has experienced this in our Te Deum, our Litany, and our Communion service, let the pious Churchman, who presents the incense of the heart with the service of the lips, declare.

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But the real minister of the Church is not only the mouth of the people unto God, but the mouth of God unto the people. Ah! here it is-yes, here it is that our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised God, is burnt up with fire, and our pleasant things laid waste." Could our Reformers rise from their graves and visit some of our churches-many of our churches-most of our churches-they would hear another Gospel than that they taught and lived, and for which they died. What indignation would glow in the breasts of such men, against preachers who, having made oath that they were called by the Holy Ghost to take upon them this office and ministry, can nevertheless preach doctrines which that Spirit never taught, and live in avowed friendship with a world which is in avowed enmity with God! What would our Reformers do with such men? They would warn them, and weep over them, and tell them of their danger and their doom, and beseech and conjure them to be reconciled unto God. Would to Heaven that our bishops and pastors, to a man, were such as Cranmer, and Ridley, and Latimer; such as Paul, and Peter, and John; yea, such as Christ himself," that great Shepherd of the sheep, who loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it, with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish."

The preaching of the glorious Gospel of this Saviour is the most important part of a minister's duty. Other parts may be good and great, but this is better and greater. Others may have a measure of glory, but this has a glory which excelleth. Now, we are bold to avow our decided conviction, that the awful neglect of this important trust has done infinite harm; has severed many a valuable member from our communion; has emptied the church, and filled the meeting-houses; has propagated Popish error under a Protestant profession, and marshalled men in the order of Episcopacy, while it has left

them destitute of the vitals of Christianity. Now, will any man, whose eyes are open, who reads his Bible as well as his PrayerBook, and who knows what the Church actually is, as well as what she ought to be-will any such man attempt to deny that this state of things has arisen from an undue prominence being given to matters of human appointment, combined with a neglect of those unsearchable riches of Christ, which, unless they be preached unto the people but little can be done in the propagation of genuine godliness? We speak not of high-flown doctrinal statement, unaccompanied by experimental or practical deductions. We join the Antinomian with the Papist, and consider both as enemies to the Cross of Christ. But we cordially welcome the scriptural instructions of a devoted minister, although of another church, who rightly divides the word of truth, and gives to every man his portion of meat in due season. And we are the more induced to notice the present volume, because, according to the following statement, it contains "a brief epitome of our author's preaching," and is intended as " a ministerial legacy" to his flock.

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For near thirty-five years he has been labouring to serve his present charge, in the unity of the spirit, and in the bond of peace, and he hopes he may add, in righteousness of life: and though he commenced this connexion young, yet such a period strikes far into the brevity of human life, and calls upon him to think, and feel, and act, with increasing seriousness and diligence, knowing that the night cometh wherein no man can work; and to be concerned that after his decease, his people may be able to have the things he has spoken always in remembrance. The work therefore, as a brief epitome of his preaching, will serve as a kind of ministerial legacy, to be perused, particularly by the younger members of his church and congregation, when the clods of the valley will be sweet about him, and by which, though dead, he may yet speak-perhaps, in some cases, to more purpose than while living. The work may tend to correct some pious mistakes both on the right hand and on the left. It contains many of the author's views on important subjects after considerable experience and observation. For such remarks his station has been favourable, and his opportunities numerous, especially from the variety and latitude of his religious intercourse. pp. iii. iv.

The preface contains some striking remarks on a class of religious professors-or rather, we ought to say, a class of professors NOT religious-who are the grief of Christian ministers, and the bane of Christian churches. They are men with whom doctrine is every thing, experience comparatively little, and practical godliness positively nothing. They may not unaptly be compared to locusts; and many a green spot, which before their arrival was like the garden of the Lord, has been made by them a desolate wilderness. Our preacher rebukes them sharply; and thankful shall we be if the rebuke be attended

with the Divine blessing, and the parties become ashamed of their folly and their sin.

It is certain that these Lectures would not have been completely congenial with the taste of some hearers. They would in any course of religious discussion have said, "We want more of doctrine, and more of Christ." Now we are far from treating these terms themselves with contempt or disrespect. We love the doctrines of the Gospel; and believe that it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace. We attach importance to evangelical truth; and have no notion of piety without principle, or of good fruit but from a good tree.-This is our creed: By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Yet, we cannot be ignorant that the complaint we have supposed, is too often the whining and seditious jargon of a party; and the very last party in the world we should ever consult with regard to preaching. These desperate adherents to something not easily fixed and definable in sentiment, but always accompanied with a spirit as well known and invariable in its operation, as any of the laws of nature; are, in spiritual things, what some discontented zealots are in political; and as the latter render the cause of rational liberty suspicious and despicable, so the former disserve and disgrace the cause of evangelical religion. They are Gospel radicals. They are not always even moral: they are never amiable. They neither pursue, nor think upon, the things that are lovely and of good report. They set at nought all sacred relations, proprieties, and decencies; while many of them abandon family worship, and leave their children without any attempts to bring them into the way everlasting, not knowing but they may be some of those against whom God" has sworn to have indignation for ever," and not daring to go before Him, or to be profane enough to take the work out of his hands. Self-willed are they; self-confident; presumptuous; censorious; condemnatory of all that are not initiated into their temper and exclusions. They are the blood-hounds of orthodoxy, and can scent unsoundness afar off; and never let go their prey. With regard to their ministers, they are not learners, but judges; and often make a man an offender for a word. In hearing, all is fastidiousness. Appetite has given place to lusting. They go to the house of God, not for wholesome foodthey want something to elevate and intoxicate. The preacher is nothing, unless he can make them drink and forget their duty, and remember their danger no more. Their religion is entirely an impersonal thing, any further than as it consists in belief and delusion. They look for all in Christ, not as the only source from which it can be received into us-this is truth: but as the only residence in which it is to remain, while they themselves continue the same. They are complete in Him-not as to the all-sufficiency provided in Him for their actual and entire recovery; but without their being new creatures. They look after nothing in themselves—and nothing in themselves should be looked for as the ground of their aceptance with God, or as self-derived or self-sustained: but they look after nothing in themselves even as the effect of Divine agency and communication-forgetful of the inspired prayer, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me :" regardless of the assertion, "It is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure:" subverting the promise, "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; and from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you a new heart also will I give unto you, and a new spirit will I put within will put my Spirit within you, and cause shall keep my judgments and do them." submitted to any process of trial, as those

you; and I you to walk in my statutes, and ye Their state is not a condition to be enemies to Christian comfort would

have it, who admonish persons to examine themselves whether they are in the faith and to prove their ownselves, and to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure. pp. v-viii.

In another part of this number, some remarks will be found upon fastidiousness, alias squeamishness. No man of common observation can doubt that this is a great evil, and a growing one. The consciousness of its existence in the minds of the people frequently chills some of the warmest and noblest feelings in the heart of the preacher. He imagines himself obliged, in deference to the few, to repress those words of fire which would be useful to the many. He desires to act the part of a good soldier of Jesus Christ, but he is often fettered and harassed by the peculiar armour that he is forced to wear. Happy that minister who finds himself at liberty to preach in his own way, to follow the dictates of his own conscience, and, unincumbered, to go forth, like David, with his sling and with his stone to meet the Philistine!

The following observations deserve the serious attention of all the ministers of the everlasting Gospel. They involve points of the highest consequence.

May the author be permitted to plead for a freedom of another kind?-An exemption from a wish to gratify a few, at the expense of the profit of many: an exemption from fastidiousness of composition and address: an exemption from such a primness of diction, as admits of the introduction of no anecdote, however chaste, and shuts out the seizure of all hints suggested by present feelings and occurrences: an exemption from the too serious apprehension of little faults, in seeking to secure great impressions. To the intimidation, and checking of the preacher here, how often is he told of the dignity of the pulpit-as if there was any worth, or real dignity in a case like this, separate from utility! What is the highest, and should be the most admired dignity in the preacher, but an apparent forgetfulness of every claim, but his object; and such an absorbing solicitude for the attainment of it, as leaves him unable to notice inferior things? Without such an impression, no man can do a great work gracefully; for if in the execution he is observed to be alive and attentive to any littlenesses, it will revolt the beholder, instead of pleasing him. An officer in the midst of action, will be all occupied in urging and completing the conflict-what should we think of him if he turned aside after a butterfly, or shewed himself at liberty to mind and adjust his ring, or his dress? Let a preacher be as correct as possible; but let him think of founding his consequence upon something above minuteness, and finesse. Let him never imagine that his influence, or dignity, will ever be impaired by his feeling and displaying a noble elevation; an indifference to every thing else-while the love of Christ bears him away, and he is lost in endeavouring to save a soul from death, and to hide a multitude of sins. There is nothing with which a preacher should be less satisfied than a tame correctness, or his producing something that will bear criticism, but which is as void of excellency, as it is free from defect. He that winneth souls is wise. What is every other praise of an instrument, if it does not answer its end? What is every other commendation of a preacher, if he be useless? unimpressive? uninteresting? What is it that nothing is complained of, if nothing is applauded? What is it, that nothing

offends, if nothing strikes? What is the harangue that dies in the hearing, and leaves nothing for the hearer to carry away, to think of in solitude, and to speak of in company? What but a fault is the smoothness of address, that prevents every excitement that could rend by terror, or melt by tenderness? A sermon may resemble a French drama, that observes inviolably all the unities, and challenges severity as a finished piece; but excites no sentiment, and produces no effect. But give us rather a Shakespear, who, with blemishes which a less shrewd observer than Voltaire may detect, actually succeeds: arrests inspires and enchants. We need not plead for coarseness or faults. A speaker may be animated, yet decorous and orderly too: but in popular addresses, if either fails, it is far better to sacrifice correctness to impression, than effect to nicety of endeavour. Let the squeamishly hypercritical remember, that he is labouring to little purpose while consuming his time and attention in subtle accuracies, and polished dulness. And let the man who is in earnest about his work, never yield to an undue anxiety resulting from the possibility of a trifling mistake; and which, as Gray says of penury, would repress his noble rage, and chill the genial current of his soul. Let him feel his subject, and follow his ardour, recollecting that great excellencies or impressions will redeem small failures; and even prevent their being noticed-unless by the little and perverse-minded, who only sit to discover and remark any minute impropriety-adders to every thing else in the charmer, charm he never so wisely. pp. xii-xiv.

As our work professes to be a Clerical Magazine as well as a Christian Review, our readers will not murmur in being detained still longer with the preface to this volume of sermons. And we scruple not to say, that our preacher has, in these prefatory remarks, rendered very essential service to the cause of pulpit eloquence, in the best and highest import of that term. Happy would it be for British churches, if all who wait at our altars were sincerely desirous that the word they deliver should be understood! He who never experienced such a desire, was never called to preach the Gospel. He who has been moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon himself this office and ministry, can scarcely fail to derive many useful hints from the following observations.

But while the preacher leaves others to speak upon this subject as a literary question, it cannot be improper for him to notice it in another and far more important connexion; and to deprecate the adoption of such a style in divinity, and to warn his younger brethren against every approach and tendency towards it. For how perfectly is it unlike the language of inspiration! What an entire contrast does it form with the simplicity there is in Christ Jesus! And how useless must such hard and unintelligible diction be to ordinary minds! And who are the mass in almost every audience? They who are often comparatively neglected, if not despised, there. Leighton, and Watts, and a thousand other names, whose works praise them in the gate, and are now useful to all, might have so written as to be useless to many. Had our Saviour felt the low ambition of some, he might have easily been beyond the comprehension and the attraction of the multitude. In Him were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He spake as never man spake. But was it a proof against his manner, or the highest recommendation of it, that the common people heard him gladly; and that all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words