would be profitable to our readers, or consistent with our duties, to fill up this department of our work with notices of single sermons. Among the multitude that issue from the press, however, there are some, which, for the peculiarity or importance of their subjects, may furnish the basis of profitable remark, or for their peculjar excellence, may demand, that we solicit for them the attention of our readers. We will not undertake to say which of these considerations has most influenced us to attempt a public revision of the sermon noticed at the head of this article. The subject, if our memories serve us, is novel; exceedingly well adapted to the occasion on which the discourse was delivered; one on which the author was able to speak with authority and interest from experience; and in its nature worthy the attentive reflections of at least a large class of our readers. The author is well known to the public as an historian and controversialist, a man of elegant literature and ecclesiastical science, professionally devoted to the preparation of youth for the ministry; and with these circumstances in view, it is enough for us to say that we have not been disappointed in this production. In an even, chaste, perspicuous, flowing style, the subject has received a pretty ample elucidation, in regard both to outlines and their filling up.

The text is taken from the Epistle of Paul to the Romans: So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also: for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

This apostle, entrusted with the dispensation of the gospel among the gentiles and qualified by the God of grace to discharge that high office,

felt himself to be a❝ debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise." Obligation rested on him to preach the gospel, and he was ready to do it, to the highest classes as well as to the lowest, in the most splendid cities as well as in the humblest villages. He had Vol 3.-No. 1.

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preached at Athens and Corinth when he wrote this epistle; and though prevented as yet by providence from visiting Rome, he was ready also to preach the gospel in that city.

The declaration of the apostle evidently implies, that, on a mission to such a city, he must encounter peculiar difficulties.

From this declaration, Dr. M. takes occasion to consider, as a general subject, the bearing which the circumstances of a city population have on the work of the minister of the gospel, and that in two respects; in enhancing its difficulties, and in enhancing its importance. The last of these considerations, we think was not particularly in the view of the apostle still as it goes to illustrate the peculiarity of the station occupied by ministers in populous places, and brings to view motives and obligations, countervailing, in their tendency, to the disheartening difficulties and temptations of the station, we think the preacher was warranted to introduce it into his plan, for the sake of utility; and while he warned the youthful candidate of the superior host of enemies that he was to encounter, which might serve only to appal, to spread before him also the greater victories to be won, which might serve as an incentive to exertion.

The introduction commences with remarks on the history of the church at Rome, and on the state of the city at the period the apostle wrote, preparatory to a paraphrase of the text, which is subjoined; when, after a summary statement of the substance of the gospel, the plan is announced under the following heads:

I. There are peculiar difficulties and temptations which attend the preaching of the gospel in great cities;-and

II. It is of peculiar importance that the gospel be plainly and faithfully preached in such places.—p. S.

Under the first head, our attention is directed rather to the causes which operate in a city population to raise obstacles in the way of the minister

of the gospel, than to the particular mode in which they affect him and his labors. To this source it is ow ing, that while one and another cause of difficulty is illustrated, we see it affecting, indiscriminately, one while, his pride; next, his fear of man; then, his regard to the world; now, his hopes; now, his amount of labors; now, his actual success; accordingly as an easy and a fertile and, we would add, a powerful illustration of the causes of difficulty leads the author to suggest.

The first obstacle, noticed by Dr. M. is "the accumulated wealth, and the consequent luxury and dissipation of a great city." The following extract may bring this difficulty more clearly to the view of our readers. After describing the luxurious and dissipated habits prevalent in large cities,

he adds:

Now, need I say, that all this is directly contrary to the spirituality and self-denial of the Gospel? Need I say, that a person who walks in such a course, even though he be a stranger to gross vices, cannot be a disciple of Jesus Christ? No, brethren, as long as the BIBLE is our guide, it is impossible to decide otherwise. And I have sometimes thought that there is no class of persons more difficult to be approached and impressed by a Minister of Christ, than your genteel, decent worshippers of luxury and fashion. We cannot denounce them as immoral, in the popular sense of the term; and they are apt to imagine that they are saints because they are not profligates. As long as this impression remains, there is no hope of their being profited by any thing we can say. With what an anxious and trembling heart, then, must a Minister of the Gospel go to proclaim his message in a place where such society abounds! He needs not only all his fortitude as a man, but also all his confidence as a believer, and all the gracious aid promised by the Master whom he serves, to support and animate him in the undertaking. He, of course, takes no pleasure in delivering an unwel come or offensive message, as such; but would much rather, if it were possible, please all his hearers. How painful the task, then, to go to the tribes of vanity and frivolity, however elevated in their own estimation, and address them plainly and faithfully, as Paul would have done, on the sinfulness and danger of their course! How hard to natural feeling, to go to those who, it may be, a few days or hours be

fore, caressed him, and perhaps loaded him with civilities at the hospitable table, again, he cannot see the kingdom of God; and tell them, that except a man be born that he that beliereth not on the Son of God, shall not see life, but that the wrath of God abideth on him; that we must not be conformed to this world; but must deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world!-0, what a temptation is here to soften or keep back the truth! What a temptation to avoid dwelling on those great practical, Gospel doctrines, which he knows are so grating and offensive to many of his hearers !-pp. 11–13.

Dr. M. next considers, as most unfriendly to the Gospel," the refinements of philosophy, falsely so called, which are apt to reign, in a peculiar degree, in great and polished cities."

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With our author, we would say, that genuine philosophy is not unfriendly to the religion of the Gospel.'

The truths included in the revelation of Jesus Christ, claim an attentive investigation; they have originated with a God of boundless intelligence; and the profoundest intellect may be usefully employed in exploring their nature and relations.

But it is the wise in their own conceits, those who set off their infidel speculations against christianity, that Dr. M. specifies in this remark, as opposing an obstacle, in cities, to the success of the Gospel.

The third difficulty illustrated by Dr. M. arising evidently out of that worldly spirit and opposition to the gospel which he had already mentioned as reigning in cities, is the peculiar demand in the taste of a city population for smooth and superficial preaching.

No wonder that those who give their days to luxury, and their nights to dissipation, who ridicule the holy and unbending system of evangelical truths-the gay crowds of frivolity and fashion-should strongly plead for the gratification of their taste merely in the house of God. They will consent to the theatrical enter tainment of imagination, or feeling, or intellect; and consent that the minister of Christ should be "unte

them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument"; if truth with her stern dictates, retire from the sanctuary, not to disturb, or error, with her smiling face, be present, to quiet their consciences. But we will quote the animated description of our author.

In short, they will not fail to be pleased with a preacher who gratifies their fancy with brilliant imagery and language, and their ears with fascinating tones, and says little or nothing to make them displeased with themselves.

Search Christendom over, my friends, and you will find this to be one of the grand temptations in preaching the gospel to the luxurious and fashionable, especially in large cities. And, alas! how many ministers who set out with the purpose and promise of being faithful, have fallen into the snare! They have begun, perhaps with that most vain and delusive of all calculations, (for such I verily believe it to be) that the doctrines of the gospel are never so likely to find their way to the hearts of the gay and the worldly, as when they are covered and disguised with artificial ornament. Hence they have insensibly contracted the habit of preaching, the truth perhaps, but truth so gilded over, -so loaded with ornament,-so studiously divested of every thing adapted to give it edge and effect, as to be little if any better than keeping it back. This kind of preaching is greatly admired by the people of the world; but it leaves the pious to starve and mourn. It excites no alarm. It produces no complaint on the part of the unbelieving and impenitent. It allows every hearer, who is so disposed, to slumber in security; and is adapted, ultimately, to make those who statedly attend upon it, christian in name, but heathen in reality.

Such have been the guilty course, and the fatal influence, of many a polished, courtly preacher, from the age of Paul of Samosata to the present hour. If you doubt the fact, search with impartiality the records of Jerusalem and Antioch, of Carthage of Alexandria, of Constantinople, and of Rome; and you will doubt no lon

primitive parity of gospel ministers, and which finally issued in the Papal usurpation. In great cities, likewise, or, at least,

in states of society similar to what is com monly found in such places, has generally commenced that fatal decline from orling in question some of what are styled thodoxy, which began, perhaps with ealthe more rigid peculiarities of received creeds, and ended in embracing the dreadful, soul destroying errors of Arius or Socinus.* We might easily illustrate and confirm this position, by examples drawn from our own country, had we time to trace the history of several sects among us, and especially of American Unitarianism. But I forbear to pursue the illustration farther: and shall only take the liberty to ask, as I pass along-How it is to be accounted for, that the preaching of those who deny the divinity and atonement of the Saviour, and who reject the doctrines of human depravity, of regeneration, and of justification by the righteousness of ChristHow, I ask, is it to be accounted for, that such preachers, all over the world, are most acceptable to the gay, the fashionable, the worldly-minded, and even the licentions? That so many embrace and enlogise their system, without being, in the smallest perceptible degree, sanctified

*The above language, concerning the destructive nature of the Arian and Socinian heresies, has not been adopted lightly; but is the result of serious deliberation, and deep conviction. And in conformity with this view of the subject, the author cannot forbear to notice and record a declaration made to himself, by the late Dr. Priestley, two or three years before the decease of that distinguished Unitarian. The conversation was a free and amicable one, on some of the fundamental doctrines of religion. In reply to a direct avowal on the part of the author that he was a Trinitarian and a Calvinist, Dr. Priestley said-" I do not wonder that you Calvinists entertain and express a strongly unfavorable opinion of us Unitarians. The truth is, there neither can, nor ought to be, any compromise between us. If you are right, WE ARE NOT CHRISTIANS AT ALL; and it we are right, YOU ARE GROSS IDOLATERS." These were, as nearly as can be recollected, the words, and, most accurately, the substance of his remark. And nothing, certainly, can be more just. Between those who believe in the divinity and atonement of the Son of God, and those who entirely reject both, "there is a great gulf fixed," which precludes all ecclesiastical intercourse. The former may greatly respect and love the latter, on account of other qualities and attainments; but certainly cannot regard them as Christians, in any correct sense of the word; or as any more in the way of salvation. than Mohammedans or Jews.

by it? That thousands are in love with it, and praise it; but that we look in vain for the monuments of its reforming and purifying power? I will not pretend to answer these questions; but leave them to the consciences of those who believe, that the genuine doctrines of the gospel always have had, and always will have a tendency to promote holiness of heart and of life; and that we must all speedily appear before the judgement seat of Christ-pp. 18-22.

The remarks of Dr. M. on lavishing artificial ornament upon discourses, we think striking and just. Doubt less man is to be addressed by the preacher as a creature possessing imagination, intellect, feeling, as well as conscience, when the high demands of the gospel are pressed upon his attention. Yet there is a wide difference between adapting discourses to the good of man and making concessions in them to his spirit of worldliness. In regard to the dress of a discourse, we think a minister may readily decide, whether he is adapting it to the reformation of the worldly or making undue concessions to the cravings of their "itching ears." Let him bring himself to the touchstone of such questions as these. Am I conscious of studiously seeking after ornaments, or do I use them, only as they are suggested by my ardour to press forward in the main subject of discourse? Am I more desirous that my gay hearers should be displeased with themselves, than pleased with me? that they should be slain by the sword of truth I wield, than be amused with its brandishings? Does my method of treating the truth, make it more impressively clear to the minds of my hearers, or does it operate to keep them in ignorance of its real nature and momentous bearings? In my choice of subjects, am I disposed to select those which I deem most profitable to my hearers, or those which are the most susceptible of ornament? By such rules, the minister may decide, we think, whether or not, he is giving that undue attention to artificial ornaments, which implies a tacit and unholy compromise with the spirit of the world; which

leaves the gay unreformed and the pious unprofited; and which in the words of Dr. M. "is adapted to make those who statedly attend upon 'his preaching,' christian in name, but heathen in reality."

In regard to the courtesy paid to the opinions of the world in the substance of his discourses, the minister has but one path of duty and safety. He must preach the substance of the gospel, whether man will hear or whether he will forbear. Let him indeed, as a wise steward in the house of God, bring out of his treasures things new and old, distributing to every one his portion in due season. Let him range through that wide variety and scope of subject which the gospel gives him for "doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness." Still, if he would avoid the slippery path to fatal error, let him not hide any of the momentous truths of the gospel in a spirit of concession to its enemies. This course begun, concession follows, step after step, on concession, till the minister has no resource left, but to say nothing or preach another gospel than that we have received from apostles. A minister cannot long be content to say nothing on a subject so momentous as the plan of salvation; though he may a while get up for his hearers a few moral essays, or attempt to amuse them with the pretended refutation of the rigid orthodox opinions of others, yet the time will soon come round, when he must say something positive respecting his own faith; and the spirit of accommodation to the world, by which he has been actuated, now forces him to make out a creed of error that shall be palatable to those whom he seeks to please. We believe we are drawing the path of many, who have turned aside from the faith to 'damnable heresies.'

We know the pretences that are set up by those who are in the high road of concession to the worldly and the enemies of the gospel ;-how that there are different opinions afloat in the world-how that each one must