that has been given of this prophet by 'THE FAITHFUL AND true witNESS,' as recorded in the Apocalypse; in which the seals are removed from Daniel; and the time for which the vision, and the prophet who saw it, were to continue sealed, having expired." J. M. B. Theological Extract. THE EVILS ATTENDING A DEFECTIVE REPRESENTATION OF DIVINE TRUTH. BY LEONARD BACON, OF NEW HAVEN, CONN. "THERE are dangers arising from a misunderstanding of the end at which the preaching of the gospel ought to aim. I do not allude here to those who, rejecting such truths as are declared to be the wisdom of God and the power of God to salvation, consider the end of preaching to be nothing else than the cultivation of men's natural affections, and the promotion of social and domestic enjoyment, by lectures on ethics. It would be easy to show how such views of the end of preaching affect the eloquence of the pulpit-how naturally that preaching, the character of which is determined by such views, loses all vital warmth, and though perhaps magnificent with the creations of a poetic philosophy, or brilliant with the light of genius, becomes, to those sensibilities of man's nature which the gospel is designed to quicken, cold as a grotto of icicles glittering in the wintry moonlight. But it will be more pertinent to speak of such misapprehensions as may exist among those who intend to hold fast the great principles of what we call the evangelical system; and particularly of such misapprehensions as are naturally engendered, in opposite quarters, by the theological discussions which divide evangelical divines at the present day. On one side, in these discussions, it is maintained that conversion, the turning of the soul to God, is, and in the nature of the case must be, voluntary, a decision by the will of an intelligent mind; that the Spirit of God, in producing that change, operates by the instrumentality of motives addressed, not indeed to the passions of the natural heart, but to the constitututional susceptibilities of the human soul; that the end of preaching being the conversion of the hearer to God, the aim of the preacher should be to bring men to the act of renouncing selfish and worldly enjoyment as their highest good, and of choosing it as their chief end "to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever." I state this view, not to call it in question as heresy, nor yet to contend for it as orthodoxy, or as common sense, for here we have nothing to do with questions of heresy or orthodoxy. I make the statement only for the sake of showing what unpropitious effects, on the method and style of sermonizing, may be produced by a too zealous partisanship for the view referred to. "Suppose, then, a preacher who is so intent upon the idea that conversion is a voluntary act, as to forget or overlook every other aspect and relation of the subject. Suppose him to forget that the act in question, however voluntary, is an act that goes to the very basis of all specific voluntary action, being nothing less than the choice of what shall thenceforward be pursued by the soul as its supreme good. Suppose him to forget, or not to remember, that however voluntary this act may be, intelligence is as essential to it as volition. Suppose him to forget what is the truth by which men are converted or renewed; suppose that, in the eagerness with which he contends for the doctrine of the soul's voluntary activity in turning from rebellion to obedience, from stubbornness to repentance, from unbelief to faith, he insensibly comes to regard this as the great doctrine, the essential thing in preaching, the very truth by which the soul is renewed to holiness. Suppose that in the strenuousness with which he maintains that conversion is an act of choice, and resists whatever he imagines to be contrary to that view, he forgets what it is which is chosen in the act of conversion, and under what motives the choice is determined. How will his preaching be affected? "Is it not obvious that he will be very likely to insist, disproportionately, upon a few common-place propositions and arguments nearly connected with his favourite doctrine? The constitutional or physical ability of man, as a moral agent, to repent of sin committed, and to determine his own moral character-the nature of moral agency, and how it differs from mechanical or physical passivity-the certainty that man is able to do what God requires him to do, and that God cannot without injustice require him to do what he is really unable to do-these and some other points of the same kind, are the topics immediately connected with the doctrine in controversy. Who will tell us that the preacher who becomes enthusiastically engaged in maintaining the doctrine of the voluntariness of men in conversion, against all supposed opposition, will not be in danger of insisting frequently, largely, and even continually, upon these topics? And who will tell us that such preaching does not, after a little while, however exciting to those who never heard such views before, become dull, tedious, and as ineffectual to move man's higher and moral sensibilities, as the preaching of mathematical theorems ? "This, however, is an effect which is always more or less apparent, when the preacher has become engrossingly engaged in asserting some particular point of controversial divinity. To use a familiar but significant expression, he has mounted his hobby; and though the zeal with which he rides it may be extremely interesting for a while, it presently becomes, first to the people, and afterwards to himself, a trite and sleepy affair. Whatever his hobby may be, be it the millennium, or the doctrine of election, or anti-slavery, or temperance, or the unlawfulness of voluntary associations for doing good, or the divine right of congregational churches, or, as in the instance before us, the doctrine of man's voluntariness in conversion, the same sort of result is likely to be manifested. The temporary interest in the subject which enthusiasm naturally produces, will as naturally be succeeded by weariness in the hearer, and wearisomeness in the preacher. But in the instance now in question, there is another effect upon the preacher. The hobby which he rides not only carries him round one narrow circle, but carries him off from the preaching of the gospel itself, to the preaching of some particular points touching the reception of the gospel. Men are renewed and made holy by the objective truths of Christianity, brought home to the mind by the power of God himself, and received there, by a living faith, as springs of emotion and of action. The doctrine of Christ crucified and its correlate doctrinesthose awful and subduing relations of the character and government of God, and of the nature, character, and moral relations of man, which form the orb of light around the cross--are the wisdom of God and the power of God to salvation; and these doctrines, the objects of Christian faith, the motives to Christian holiness, the sources of Christian joy, it is the first great duty of the preacher to inculcate. The preaching of these doctrines, not by rote, or as received by mere tradition, but from a mind that perceives their evidence, their meaning, their grandeur, and from a heart that feels their power, will be full of life, and various and unfailing interest. But that preaching which, habitually omitting the objective grounds of religious affection, has to do only or chiefly with the analysis and description of certain subjective processes of mind, cannot be however perfect in its kind-of the highest order of eloquence. If eloquence would make the hearer weep with pity, is it to be done by metaphysical disquisitions on the subjective feeling of compassion, or by a clear exhibition of the object of compassion? If you would waken in a hearer the highest feeling of sublimity, will you read lectures to him on the nature of the emotion, and set him upon the inspection of his own mental exercises? Or will you, by the power of description, place him under the roaring of Niagara, and make him see that rushing world of waters, and show him the rainbow which, from century to century, still sits upon the boiling surges, like hope upon a death-bed ? "There is another view to be taken here. The pre-eminent glory of pulpit eloquence is its dignity, simplicity, and directness. Preaching, when it is what it should be, is nothing else than truth, the naked truth, truth from eternity, grappling with the intellect, the conscience, the affections, and bringing them into captivity to Christ. How does such eloquence disdain all artifice and trick-all the devices of the stage and of the stump! How is it degraded, and God himself dishonoured, when it is forced into so mean an alliance! But if the preacher is continually insisting upon the voluntariness of conversion; if that, in one shape and another, comes to be the beginning and end of all his sermons and addresses; if he falls into the habit of telling his hearers how easy a thing it is to be converted-nothing but an act of choice'—nothing but changing your mind'-'as easy as to move from your seat, or to turn your hand over;' if he feels that all he has to do is simply to make them choose, to bring them to some determination, to get them to commit themselves in favour of religion; how naturally may his preaching degenerate into a mere appeal to the nerves by his hideous descriptions and hideous noises and grimaces, or into a reckless endeavour to get the hearers upon what he calls, with appropriate barbarism, the anxious seat.' How naturally may preaching, under this influence, become a painful mixture of serious and eternal themes with coarse anecdotes and low caricature, and pantomime, and artifices to get people to commit themselves before they know it. From such debasement of the pulpit and the sanctuary, may the God of our fathers save his churches!" Query. To the Editor of the Christian Advocate. Had the apostles any authority to elect Matthias to be an apostle? (Acts i. 15–26.) If so; who gave them this authority? And if not, could Matthias ever be properly regarded as one of "the twelve apostles of the Lamb ?" CHRONOS. Review and Criticism. The Primitive Church in its Episcopacy; with an Essay on Unity, and Counsel for the Present Times, &c. By the Author of "Dr. Hookwell." London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, Publisher in ordinary to Her Majesty. 1844. pp. 283. A SHORT time ago, the following paragraph in a newspaper, under the head of "Going over to the Church," fell under our notice. "The Bishop of Hereford (Dr. Hampden) has just ordained five Dissenting ministers for the ministry of the Church of England; the Bishop of Chester has ordained two, who came over with their congregations, deeply impressed with reading the 'Primitive Church in its Episcopacy,' a small book, said to be written in a spirit of remarkable meekness and piety. And it has been told me by a clergyman of the diocese of Lichfield, that the Bishop has, since the commencement, received nearly sixty applications from Dissenting or Wesleyan preachers to be ordained ministers of the Church of England.-Correspondent of the Record." That such defections should take place among Dissenters and Methodists excited in in our mind neither surprise nor consternation; for there is nothing in popular Dissent, abstractedly, much less in Methodism, upon which the enquiring mind can rest. This we know by experience. Having been brought up in the National church, and when, in the course of years, we began to examine things in the light of Scripture, we became perfectly satisfied that although the National church was radically wrong, the Dissenters were not right: and we were compelled to go beyond the precincts of the "Three Denominations" to find anything like scriptural Christianity. To satisfy our mind upon the question of Truth, and to find rest, we were compelled to extend our walk beyond the pale of mere Dissent and Voluntaryism, and to thread our way into the midst of a people who (though closely bound together among themselves) yet dwell alone, and are not "numbered among the nations." And such, we believe, will always be the result of a close examination of the oracles of God, influenced by a sincere desire to find out the Truth. Modern popular Dissent is a mere system of negation, or of nonconformity to the national ritual, and hardly that. And Wesleyanism is only a compound of Jesuitical craft and delusion, which can never stand examination by the light of truth. Nevertheless, the above paragraph excited in our mind a strong desire to see the book which had induced such a defalcation in the ranks of Dissent, and such apparent triumph to the episcopal sect. Singular enough, a few days after we read the paragraph referred to, the book, accidentally, and quite unlooked for, fell into our hands; and we determined at once to gratify our curiosity, and give to our readers the result of our examination. Before we enter, however, on the examination of the work before us, it may be desirable to place before the reader's mind, the present position of the respective parties as they regard each other. We do this because both of them have changed their position. With regard to the National church, or rather the Episcopal sect, most of its adherents, and some of its most eminent writers, were content formerly to plead for its endowment, on the ground of utility; and with regard to its constitution and Episcopal form of government, it was maintained that this was the most suitable and becoming for a national establishment; and that there was nothing in this form of government opposed to the spirit of Christianity. Such were, in substance, the sentiments, and the ground maintained by many eminent churchmen of the last, and the early part of the present century. Of this class of writers, Dr. Paley may be considered a type. And so far as the "rites and ceremonies" of the church were concerned, these were viewed as decent and convenient, and observed more on the ground of their being imposed by law, than from any inherent attachment, or an opinion of their intrinsic value and importance. By the leaders of this school, the difference between themselves and the Nonconformists, was looked upon as comparatively trifling, and frequently no bar whatever to mutual esteem and friendship. Of late years, however, a material change has taken place; a new race of men has sprung up,-the dogmas of Hooker and Dodwell are revived in all their vigour; and with the exception of the political bias to the Stuarts, with all the virulence of the Nonjurors. The "divine right" of Episcopacy,the necessity of Episcopal ordination- and the "efficacy of the Sacraments," are now the leading principles, and the most popular topics among a numerous class of the clergy of the national establishment. So much so, that the "Evangelicals" and the low church party are thrust into a corner. While the latter viewed the church as deriving honour, dignity, aud supremacy from the State, the former look upon the church as superior to the State; and, if they dared, would hold the church property in defiance of the State. The controversy, then, between the church and the Dissenters, has therefore clearly shifted its ground, and must be conducted accordingly. G During the time this change has been progressing in the establishment, the transformation has been no less rapid and complete among the Dissenters. Time was when the great body of Dissenters were rigid nonconformists. With regard to the formularies and the clerical trappings the tawdry second-hand finery, borrowed from Rome by the Episcopal church -the main body of Dissenters would have acted upon the principle- "touch not, taste not, handle not." But among the present race of Dissenters, the rage for these fooleries is advancing with accelerated pace. The Dissenting clergyman is now bedizened with his black gown, and surrounded with a goodly portion of the paraphernalia of popery. We shall not be overcharging the picture, if we describe the modern dissenting congregations (of course we mean the more wealthy and popular) as a mass of inconsistencies and worldliness. Not only does the clergyman adopt all the trumpery of Rome which his circumstances will admit of, such as titles and garb; but the ordinance of praise is profaned for the gratification of pride, vanity, and popularity. Few Dissenting chapels of any note, where the preacher is popular, and the congregation moderately wealthy, but what are furnished with an organ. And if the cost of such an instrument places it beyond their reach, the deficiency is filled up by all the farrago of fiddles, "flutes, harps, sackbuts, and psalteries," &c. &c. The singers also frequently consisting, not even of religious professors, but of "lewd fellows of the baser sort." Not only is the profaneness of the National church imitated, but in many instances exceeded. The consequence of such a state of things may be easily guessed,Dissent is shorn of what spiritual strength it formerly possessed, and is reduced to a mere political faction. Its adherents have lost all relish for the sturdy nonconformity of their forefathers; and are therefore fully prepared to sink into the ranks of the national church, whenever interest or inclination prompts them so to do. A people initiated into such a state The modern Dissenting clergy not only display the spirit of the ancient Pharisees by giving "flattering titles to men," and greeting each other with the title of Rabbi, Rev., but they wish to identify those with them who would have shuddered at the blas phemy of applying one of the appellatives of the Great Eternal to sinful mortals. We were struck, the other day, while looking at the first Part of Bunyan's Works, now issuing by Blackie and Son, with the prevalence of this sin. The Editor (Robert Philip) notices several individuals who were called to the ministry by the church in Bedford, on the same day with John Bunyan:-viz., Messrs John Fenn, Oliver Scott, Luke Askwood, Thomas Cooper. Edward Dent, Edward Isaac, and Nehemiah Coxe, But when the Editor has occasion to mention any of these afterwards, he takes care to dub them Rev. We have no hesitation, however, in saying that if John Bunyan or any of the worthies named, were alive and heard such profanity, they would have been disgusted and horrified. of things, are ill prepared to contend against the subtle sophistry of High Churchism, backed as it is by fashion, wealth, and interest. These things, combined with the modern "catholic charity," have completely unnerved Dissenters for a deadly strife with endowed Episcopacy. And while some of the Dissenting leaders may cry out that "the church damns more souls than it saves," and extol voluntaryism as the ne plus ultra of perfection; the people will quietly sit down under a pious evangelical, and content themselves with the thought that they are agreed in essentials. And, notwithstanding the active operations of the Anti-State Church Association-by the bulk of the people, the fundamental principles of Dissent are neither understood nor cared for. In this state of imbecility and helplessness, Dissent has now to enter the arena with a mass of learning, talent, wealth, power, and worldly interest. And what bas Dissent to oppose to this formidable array? We may be told,-strength of argument! Be it so; but what of that! This is only a feather in the scale compared with the ignorance, prejudice, worldly interest, and the corrupt inclinations of men. Conscious of the truth of these things, the supporters of the hierarchy are aware of their favourable position, and fail not to take advantage of it. Instead of merely defending their citadel, they have become the assailants, and they prosecute the work with vigour. Learning and skill, and no small amount of Jesuitical craft are brought to bear upon the questions at issue. But it is time we should tell our readers something about the Work which has called forth these remarks. The newspaper paragraph, which we cited at the commencement, describes this Work as "written in a spirit of remarkable meekness and piety." That it contains a tolerable amount of a certain kind of piety is beyond all question. But if our readers ask-What sort is it? We answer-It is of that morbid kind which could exist without Christianity as well as with it. When thoroughly analysed, it amounts to no more than a reverence for the church; faith in the divine testimony, and hearing the apostles speaking in the Scriptures, are matters of little moment, unless men 66 hear the church." With regard to meekness, there does appear something like it on the surface, but it is evidently put on, and assumed in order to serve a purpose. To any one who will examine the book closely, the calmness which pervades it is like that of the troubled sea, over which a quantity of oil has been thrown,-the surface may be calm, and the wind may glide over it without causing a ripple; but a close observer will not fail to discover indubitable symptoms of the commotion,-the heaving and swelling of the surges beneath. (To be continued.) |