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tial distinction between the class of Unitarians to which they belonged, and the Arian class, that should any more reconcile their worshipping with Trinitarians in the same temple,' or rid the orthodox of the imputation, in their view, of being 'idolaters.' A creature born in Bethlehem eighteen centuries past, or a creature formed in heaven ages before the remaining universe, is but a creature still,-nothing before God; living on his almighty power, subject to his sovereign will, owing all reverence to his glories, a spark to that infinite effulgence of Jehovah, that fills the wide universe; and what subjects of the King of heaven and earth, in what portion of his dominions, could be justified in committing their interests, subjecting their wills, ascribing their praises to such a creature? Or could such a creature himself be justified in setting up claims to the supreme affection of any portion of intelligent beings; would he turn toward his person the worship of the angelic hosts, would he call upon the tribes of this world to invoke him with highest love, and thus rob the God in whom he lived and moved, and had his being, of the glory due to him from a created universe? We delineate thus what must be the views, formed of Trinitarian worship by consistent Unitarians. We see not then, why Unitarians should feel, on their own principles, any great solicitude to be united in worship with Trinitarians. We say, on the principles of their faith they should not desire it; and it must be on other grounds than a love to the purity of divine worship, that they do desire it. The fourth obstacle to the success of gospel ministers in populous cities, mentioned by Dr. M. is the tendency of particular circumstances, in such places, to harden the heart; among which, he specifies familiarity with death, and the frequency and publicity of gross vices.

The fifth and last, which he notices, is that love of variety, and that fondness for religious dissipation, as

he would ask leave to name it, which are apt to prevail in populous places. We will present our readers with an extract under this head.

But this desire may be, and often has been, indulged to excess; especially by parents and heads of families. Many basten from church to church, and from one social meeting to another, until every hour on the sabbath, and every evening in the week, are employed in publick services. In fact, they seem to think that they serve God acceptably just in proportion to the number of public exercises on which they can attend. This religious dissipation-for it really appears to me to deserve no better name-is productive of multiplied evils. It interferes, almost entirely, with that calm self-examination, and self-converse, which are so essential to a life of growing piety. It abridges, or prevents, in a most fatal degree, that faithful instruction of children and servants, which is indispensable to training up a family in the nurture and admonition of mind with an amount of spiritual provisthe Lord. And it tends to surcharge the ion, which is never properly digested, or likely to be advantageously applied. The consequence is, that the young and rising generation, in such families, are never prepared by adequate training at home to hear the gospel with profit. While those who are more advanced in life, taking little or no time for meditation and reading in private, do not grow as they ought in

Scriptural knowledge, and remain but babes, while they ought to be strong men in Christ.-pp. 26, 27.

It is but just to inform our readers. who may not peruse the sermon, that Dr. M. speaks under this head also, with warm commendation, of religious exercises on the week. He is not one whom the enemies of revivals of religion could quote, as their advocate against meetings for inquiry and for conference. He had not specially in view, in this passage, a season of superior spiritual influences, when the revived children of God and convinced sinners, crowd, with deepened interest, to hear the words of eternal life; but rather that state of deadness in which formality is too much substituted for the heart, and gratification of novelty, in the place of growth in grace.

The best remedy however, which can be applied to such superficial

hearers, we think, is to press their consciences closely at meetings with the demands of duty, rather than to advise them to stay at home. At least, it must be left to their consciences, under suitable instruction, to decide on the claims of conflicting duties. We are not disposed to admit it as a general truth, that men are in any more danger of neglecting their personal, domestic and social duties, and their worldly business, who are fond of attending religious meetings, than others. On the contrary, the greatest inroads are made on these foundations of good, in the idle meetings of the worldly. Were we to be furnished with the accurate estimates of experience on this subject, we hesitate not to believe, that periods of deep religious feeling, when desire for religious instruction was great, and meetings for the purpose were frequent and fully attended, could be pointed to in our villages and cities, as eras in which, proportionately, personal instruction was most rapid, domestic duties least violated, social feuds most banished, the farmer pursued his business with most industry, the merchant his trade with most satisfaction, the mechanic his art with most contentment, and the face of society looked most like the face of nature, as though God were present in his grandeur and beauty to awe and to bless.

We have extended our remarks on the particulars under the first head of the discourse so far, that we shall merely state the several considerations adduced by Dr. M. to illustrate the second head of the discourse the peculiar importance of preaching the Gospel in populous cities. They are the following. The need of the Gospel to counteract the intensity of depravity in such places; the greater number of hearers usually addressed at once; the influence of cities on the character of surrounding regions; the instruction of those who rely chiefly on public exercises; the strangers, who from time to time, attend on preaching in such places: and the

amount of literary power and pecuniary means in such places, that may be consecrated to Christ. These particular observations, are rapidly sketched, without the formality of a numerical division; and they present a train of truths very interesting to pastors and churches in populous cities.

Before we take leave of our author and the subject that he has brought to our notice, we cannot forbear to subjoin a few reflections which have been impressed on our minds, and which though in their strict application confined to few, may not be without interest to all our readers.

The first we suggest, is the folly of candidates for the ministry indulging an ambition to settle in populous pla

ces.

The reflection is suggested by the great difficulty and responsibility of the station.

We make this reflection, because the subject presents so favorable an opportunity, rather than from any serious apprehension that such a disposition is alarmingly prevalent.

When the love of Christ and the love of souls reign in the heart of the minister, he will subordinate other considerations to the pursuit of these ends. He will be willing, indeed, to enter on that station to which his Lord calls him in his providence, whether it be among the learned or the rude, the wealthy or the poor, in the splendid capital or in the humble village, in christendom or among the gentiles. To his station of labour, he desires to be guided, not by any unholy desires, in his own heart, but by the gracious providence of that Saviour whose servant he is in the gospel; persuaded, that if Christ call him to it, he will fit him for it, and sustain him in it, and carry him through its labours, making him of real service to his kingdom, and placing on him, when his labours are over, "the crown of glory that fadeth not away." Were an unholy ambition. however, prevalent in his heart to secure to himself a station in some populous city, were he to re

ject plain and obvious calls of providence to humble villages because he panted after the name and the emoluments and the literary privileges of a city pastor, how if he were successful in procuring the station, how could he hope in it for the presence of his Lord? Thrust into a situation of extreme difficulty and temptation, by his own ambition, he might just ly fear that the Lord would abandon him to the influence of those worldly motives, in his future course, by which he was guided to his situation. Such danger attends an aspiring spirit in the clergy. And after all, what is there in the worldly circumstances of a city pastor, that is worth coveting? In the worldly objects that might seem so bright in distant prospect? The name of being a city pastor? A mere puff of air. No. His reputation lies not in his station, but in his conduct as a minister. "His honour," as the author of the sermon before us eloquently remarks, consists in DOING GOOD; his laurels are CONVERSIONS; the highest eulogium that can be bestowed upon him, is that which is recorded of a minister of old-He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people was added to the Lord." And such a reputation he may acquire in the humblest village in christendom, as well as in the most splendid of its capitals. What, the emoluments of a city pastor? Not very often superiour, when all attendant circumstances are taken into consideration, to those received by the clergy in less populous places. What, the literary society and privileges of the city pastor? To the society of the merely literary he can give but very few hours of his life, and the village pastor will in ordinary cases possess an opportunity of nearly an equal degree of intercourse. Interviews with brethren in the ministry, can be enjoyed in most cases by the village pastor, as well as by him, to a degree that is necessary and profitable. And after all, what to the minister of the gospel, are the literary

acquisitions and the interviews with kindred intellects, which may be af forded him in the city, compared with converse with God and the bible and his own heart and kindred souls in Christ-which may be had in villages as well,-to fit him to discharge with purity of aim, warmth of zeal, and patience of labour, the duties of that office which it is his highest privlege to sustain, and which it should be his highest ambition to honour?

Another reflection we make on this subject, is, that it is peculiarly important for ministers who are settled in populous places, to render their visits among their people, as much as possible, strictly pastoral. The city clergy have so much to occupy their attention and consume their time, that their visits among their people are necessarily more seldom than those of the country clergyman in his parish, not to say that in most instances the families demanding his visits are more numerous. His parish cannot reasonably demand of him frequent visits. The families, therefore, whom he can meet so seldom, during the days of his ministry, he cannot afford to enter and leave on visits of mere ceremony. There are civilities, which, as a man, he is bound, indeed, to observe toward fellow men; but while he carefully observes these, in a manner not to occasion just offence, he will not forget that he is a minister of Christ and among a people whom he is engaged in leading to the Saviour. The peculiar difficulties of his station in he city, are to be met by him, as he goes from house to house and not merely in the public labours of the Sabbath. If during the intercourse of the week with his people, he has been making compliances with their worldliness; if among the worldly and the gay and the thoughtless he have been passing the mere ceremonious visits of civility of a man of the world and have foreborne to address the little circles he met on the concerns of their souls and eternity, in vain will he expect to encounter the tide of a worldly spirit

with success, in his addresses before the great congregation. His best way of encountering the difficulties of his situation, is not to yield the least to the encroachments which the world would make on his testimonies to the grace of God. The apostle Paul acted the part of dignity, yea and of civility, when he testified from house to house the gospel of Christ. There was consistency in such conduct, even the bitterest enemies of the gospel could see it; and internally, at least, yield him their respect. But if the minister in his intercourse among his people concede the least to their worldly prejudices, and be prevented from addressing them, as his station calls him to do, on the interesting concerns of their souls, they see it and know their triumph, and he has lost his influence over their consciences. Let the minister of the gospel in populous cities, then, if he would not be borne away by the splendid tempta tations that surround him, resist the first encroachments of them, their first beginnings. What are the loaded tables of dining festivities, what the brilliant splendor of midnight parties, to those who are living among a people as ambassadors for Christ, to beseech them to become reconciled to God? Let a minister forbear visits merely ceremonious among his people as much as possible, and engage in those which are strictly pastoral, and he will nor be caught in these snares of the worldly. His business it is, as a minister, to carry home to the consciences of others, the demands of the Gospel; his office authorizes him to begin the attack on the worldly; he must not wait their attack to waste his efforts in mere self-defence; his safety and success lie in acting on the offensive and claiming from the world their obedience to the gospel of Jesus.

Another reflection we offer, is, that the members of churches in populous places are under great responsibility to be active in the cause of Christ. They must not leave their minisVol. 3-No. I.

5

ter to struggle, unaided, against the peculiar difficulties of his station.They must not abandon the high ground of influence which belongs to their situation. If they dwell daily amid the luxuries and dissipation of the worldly, if they are conversant with the infidel sneers of the pretended wise, if they see around them a prevalent taste for error, if daily occurrences are exerting a powerful tendency over them and their fellow-citizens to harden the heart, is there not a solemn demand made upon them, for superior exertion in the cause of Christ? Can they act up to the spirit of their profession in such circumstances; can they hold good their tithe to the christian character, can they consult their own safety in such circumstances, without displaying a superior fervency of prayer, purity of example, earnestness of instruction, boldness of reproof? We are persuaded, that if the members of city churches were more in the habit of conversing with their fellow-citizens on the truths of the Gospel and the concerns of their souls, they would act more in conformity to the design of their location in such places; that they would exert more of their appropriate influence; that they would adopt the best means for their own purity, enlargement and preservation, and for stemming the destructive tide of surrounding depravity.— Yes, it is the very nature of the Gospel that its adherents are safe only while exerting a warfare against sin; and city churches, would they be saved from the influence of surrounding temptations, must not sit idle while the enemies of godliness around them are active. They must summon together their hosts, put on the panoply of God, unfurl the banner of war, sound the note of attack, send forth their forces in every direction, and give the enemies of God around them no peace, till reduced to the domin ion of Jesus; if they would appropriate to themselves the promise, and secure the rewards, vouchsafed by the Lord to one of the seven church

es; "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation." When we look at Jerusalem, Alexandria, Constantinople, Rome, Geneva, and behold the once flourishing churches of Christ trampled in the dust by the spirit of the world, we see no safety to the churches in the populous cities of this growing republic, under God, short of their most vigilant exertions-exertions proportionate to the powerful opposition that is continually pressing in upon them from the world and threatening to overwhelm. We will close this reflection and the review, with the concluding paragraph of the sermon before us, which may serve as a specimen of its style, and finish the train of thought we have just been pursuing.

When I look round on this great city, I think of Rome, as it was when Paul went its prosperity and grandeur in that day; thither to preach the gospel. I think of and I ask myself-Where is it now? Alas! its glory is departed! Had Rome been faithful to its privileges, it had retained its and corrupting; and the righteous Goverglory to this day. But it became corrupt nour of the world brought upon it his destroying judgments. My dearly beloved brethren, read in the history of that city, at once what will be your happiness andsafety, and where your danger lies. Your happiness and safety will consist in cherishing the Gospel in opening your houses and your hearts, as well as your church, to its blessed influence. Your danger will lie, in rejecting that Gospel, or in turning away from its spirit and power, while you bear its name. Behold, I set before you, this day, life and death, blessing and curs ing: Therefore chuse life, that your souls may live. The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord make his face lo shine upon you, and be gracious unto you! The Lord lift upon you the light of his countenance, and give you peace! AMEN.-pp. 42, 43.

Literary and Philosophical Intelligence.

Franklin's Works have been translated into German, and published at Weimar.

The Society for educating young men for the Ministry of the Protes -tant Episcopal Church, in Maryland, and Virginia, have resolved to establish a Theological Professorship, to be located at William and Mary College, or elsewhere, as the society may direct. It is stated in their Circular Address, that William and Mary College is now supplied with able professors, and with all the securities for procuring a complete education. The facul ty, with one exception, have offered a gratuitous course of instruction to all bona fide students of theology. An excellent theological library is attached to the college; and in the event of our succeeding in a professorship, a very valuable private library, belonging to a clergyman of our church, will be added by that worthy person. The living at Williamsburg is cheap, and the climate healthy except during the months of vacation, when the professor and students might easily, and to the advantage of their health remove to the upper country.'

There are in the city of Vienna, 550 persons who are authors by profession, and upwards of 50 booksellers.

published a volume on luminous meE. F. Chladni, of Vienna, has lately teors, (feuer-meteor) illustrated with plates, in which work be gives a detail made by himself and other learned of the most important observations men on these bodies, and the solid masses which are known to have fallen from them. To an historical ac count of more than two hundred and eighty meteors of this kind, from which detached masses have fallen, he has subjoined observations on the nature of these bodies, and on those masses meteoric, though not known to be of native iron which have been thought such by observation. M. Scheibers, who designed the plates, has added a whether of stone or iron, which are list of all the meteoric specimens, at Vienna. found in the cabinet of natural history

C. A. Wahl, minister at Schneeberg, in Saxony, has published during the last year at Leipsic, a work in two vols. 8vo. entitled, an introduction to

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