which subsequent care, reading, and meditation may suggest.

66

Some of the most celebrated extemporary preachers, those at least who were so considered, have been chiefly memoriter preachers. In Scotland, Scotland, where bookpreachers" a few years since were in too much disrepute, many exIcellent divines addicted themselves to the labour, in addition to writing their sermons, of learning them by memory; as is still very generally the practice in the Roman-Catholic Church. A remarkable illustration of this fact occurs in the case of the celebrated French preacher Brydainè. For half a century, the French literati have lauded the wonderful extemporaneous discourses of this Catholic Whitfield; and numerous regrets have been poured forth, that but very few traces were recoverable of the bursts of his evanescent genius. Oh that he had written, it was said, that posterity might have known what is the true eloquence of the pulpit, what are the subjects, what the arguments, what the descriptions which affect and agitate the soul! At length, to the confusion of the cause of unstudied sermonizing, a large collection of his discourses has been discovered in manuscript and given to the world in no less than five volumes. Whether or not they justify all that has been said of Brydaine's powers, or whether they do not sometimes need that living energy of the preacher to which they perhaps owed much of their effect, I leave your readers to collect from the work itself, or the review of it in your last volume; but one point at least is certain, they were not extemporaneous discourses; and hence we may learn that though a written sermon may be, and often is, tame, it is not of necessity tame because it is written. Some of the most energetic preachers of the present day are not only writers, but readers, of their sermons, and yet no defect is found to exist in point of animation. How it was that

Brydaine gained the credit of never writing his sermons, it is in vain to conjecture. His auditors might indeed, from the wonderful adaptation of his manner and his feelings to the sentiments he uttered, easily infer that the thoughts flowed spontaneously from him at the moment. He does not appear to have been a man guilty of the same vanity as Bossuet, who used roundly to assert, as even his eulogist Maury acknowledges, that he did not write his sermons, though those very discourses were given to the world after his death from his own manuscripts. Maury, indeed, curiously defends his assertion by exclaiming, "Can you call it writing his sermons to throw his ideas on loose sheets of paper, which he afterwards filled up with erasures, revisions, corrections and interlineations?" Surely if this is not writing a sermon it is difficult to know what is. It was in this very way-to go no further than the names already alluded tothat Butler wrote his Hudibras, Sheridan his dramas and speeches, and some of the most celebrated preachers their discourses. If art or affectation was employed to disguise the truth, with a view to gain the praise of ready powers instead of patient diligence, and, in the case of the pulpit, conscientious exertion, this was criminal; but it was neither criminal nor unwise to employ laborious secret study in order to accomplish the very object which too many are ready to suppose can be achieved only by some wonderful powers of ready conception and utterance.

I do not, by the above remarks, intend to disparage any mode of preaching which may be found useful, or adapted to the circumstances of any individual or congregation. I greatly admire, and, I trust, profit, from the extempore discourses, what at least are so called, of many excellent preachers of the present day; but then, I know that though the diction and many of the thoughts may be prompted at the moment of

find it convenient to do justice. The conductors of this disgraceful publication may, in a judgment of charity, be supposed to be so utterly ignorant of the volume which figures on their front, as not to know they were ridiculing Scripture, when they inserted the obnoxious remarks above alluded to; but, even after being apprised of it in several letters from their correspondents, they justify their conduct by saying, that Scripture becomes fanaticism when circulated in an improper manner, and by those who are not authorised to give religious instruction; adding, that all the letters of censure they had received came only from " old women and methodists." This seems somewhat surprizing; as we are constantly told that this would-be orthodox Sunday newspaper is chiefly supported by our clergy, (an assertion which I believe to be quite unjust,) and by the friends of "church and state," and

the most vehement opponents of "Evangelism," Catholic Emanci pation, and Bible, Missionary, Antislavery, and similar injudicious and absurd institutions, which this Sunday scribe views as the great corruptors of mankind. Surely some of these alleged constant readers are as likely to have animadverted on the profanity of their alleged (I hope and believe falsely alleged) oracle as the " old women and methodists," who were probably better employed at their respective churches or "conventicles," than in reading a journal which, in addition to its other crimes, not excluding its convicted libelism, enjoys the "bad eminence" of being, I believe, the first attack upon the sacred obligation of the Sabbath, in the shape of a Sunday newspaper, on the professed (certainly not the real side) of orthodoxy, morality, and loyalty.

A-A.

Essays on the Evidences, Doctrines, and Practical Operation of Christianity. By JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY. 8vo. pp. xi. and 566. London. Arch. 1825.

WE were reluctantly compelled to express our dissent from some of the reasonings of this author in a former work, (see Christ. Observ. for 1824, p. 754), when he undertook to vindicate the characteristic peculiarities of the Society of Friends. We were grieved to meet on sectarian ground a writer and scholar so capable of asserting the cause of our common Christianity. We should not have argued from the complexion or character of that work, though it contained much highly valuable matter, the probable appearance, after a very short interval, of a publication, from the same pen, at once

so enlarged in its views, so enlightened in its principles, and so judicious in its decisions, as that of which we are now preparing to lay an abstract before our readers. It would be difficult, from the whole compass of the volume, to select more perhaps than a single phrase which betrays the advocate (conscientiously so, we are sure,) of a separating community, rather than the advocate of the catholic faith. Should these Essays on Christianity be adopted by the body to which the author belongs, no more cheering symptom could be afforded of a disposition to merge the narrow peculiarities of a sect in the nobler and more comprehensive distinction of Christians, and thus to forward the Divine purpose of the Gospel, "that we should all come, in the unity of the faith, and of the know

ledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." The work, perhaps, embraces too wide a sweep. It consists of five Essays on the Evidences of Christianity, six on the specific Revelations of Scripture concerning God and Man, and one on the renewed Condition of our Nature, consequent upon the Act of Redemption. No person would look to the same volume for detailed information upon all these topics. At the same time the author could have chosen no better method for giving a full and sufficient reason of the hope that is in him, than thus exhibiting the whole at one view. We will endeavour shortly to convey to our readers an idea of the manner in which he has executed the office he has undertaken, under each of the heads into which we have divided the subjects of his Essays.

Than the first five Essays it would be difficult to find, in the same space, a more complete and able summary of the principal evidences of our holy religion. The existence of the New Testament being of course assumed, the genuineness of its several parts is proved, and thence its historical truth. From this point the evidences of Christianity begin to multiply, because the historical truth of the New Testament involves the truth of those miracles which are professed to have been wrought in support of it, the truth of several of the prophecies contained in it, the truth of those prophecies in the Old Testament to which it makes an appeal, and the rightfulness of the claim preferred by the whole volume of Scripture to universal respect and submission. These successive conclusions are established by the author with correctness of reasoning and considerable acuteness of investigation. He shews himself to be well read in all the subjects to which he adverts, never goes out of his way for the sake of saying something striking or new, but adduces those arguments,

whoever may have been their original author, which have been found most weighty in assisting the progress of truth. On the credibility of the Scriptures of the New Testament, the reader will find, in the first essay, a condensed abridgment of the extensive researches of Lardner; yet not so condensed as to lose the life and spirit of the argument, and present only a dry and marrowless skeleton of the original, like that which Lardner himself has given in his recapitulation. On the contrary, the writer, though following in the track of another, reasons with the characteristic energy of an independent thinker; and from time to time selects from the mass of his materials those particulars which appear most happily illustrative of his argument, and most directly conducive to the end he has in view.

The following quotations will shew something of his judicious selection of facts, circumstances, and statements, and his forcible manner of putting them so as to fortify and establish his conclusion.

"Tertullian of Carthage and Clement of Alexandria (A. D. 200) have each of them transcribed, in various parts of their theological treatises, a very large proportion of the whole New Testament; and Lardner justly observes, that the quotations from it, adduced by Tertullian alone, may be deemed greatly to exceed in number those made from the works of Cicero, by all the writers combined who have ever

cited him." p. 8.

Lardner, if we recollect rightly, speaks of Tertullian, Clement, and Origen combined, when he makes this comparison.

"From the works of Origen we learn that his opponent, the acute and bitter Celsus, quoted largely from the New Testament, and argued against Christianity on the allowed principle, that the Gospels and Epistles were actually written by the Apostles and their companions: and the same observation applies to those still more powerful enemies of our religionPorphyry and Julian.". p. 10.

"A striking uniformity of style may, in general, be observed between those different works in the New Testament which are attributed to the same author. On this ground, if we prove the genuine origin of the Gospel of John (as we may do by a

reference to innumerable quotations), that of his First Epistle is, on critical grounds, easily established. If, from historical evidences, we are satisfied that the Acts of the Apostles were written by Luke, we cannot reasonably dispute the genuineness of his Gospel. If the testimonies of many early fathers compel us to admit that the Epistle to the Romans was really the work of Paul, we may be sure that he was the author also of the other twelve Epistles inscribed with his name; since they are all written in the same inimitable manner; all display the same extraordinary mind; and, with respect to the mode of thought, of argument, and of practical application, are generally cast in the same peculiar mould." p. 14.

"We are actually in possession of spurious gospels, spurious acts of Paul, and spurious epistles, purporting to be written by Christ or his followers. It is probable that these wretched forgeries were produced during the second, third, and fourth, centuries of the Christian era; and the first production of some of them is matter of history. Now, they are not once alluded to by the fathers of the first century. By those of the three next centuries they are seldom cited: when eited, they are never adduced as Scripture, and are sometimes expressly declared to be destitute of all authority. They were the subjects of no commentaries. They were uniformly exeluded from the canons of sacred books. They are written in a style totally differing from that of the New Testament, though unskilfully copied from it in parts: and lastly, they abound in absurdities, contradictions, anachronisms, trifling ridiculous details, and narrations even of an immoral tendency." p. 16.

"The Apocryphal Gospels and Epistles, now extant, form but a small proportion of that mass of absurd and irreligious forgery, which was poured forth by the wilder sects of heretics during the second, third, and fourth centuries. The very fact, that almost the whole of these productions have long since been lost and forgotten, while the canonical books have, in all ages of the Christian Church, been received and carefully preserved, affords, in itself, a sufficient evidence of the spuriousness of the former, and of the genuineness of the latter. The ancient fathers were accustomed to eite these spurious works, for the purpose of shewing, that in point of learning, they were on a par with their opponents. When speaking of the forged gospels, Origen, after distinguishing them from the four genuine ones, writes as follows:

6

Legimus ne quid ignorare videremur, propter eos qui se putant aliquid scire, si ista cognoverint. Hom. in Luc. i. 1. So also Ambrose, Legimus ne legantur (ab aliis); legimus ne ignoremus; legimus non ut teneamus, sed ut repudiemus, et ut sciamus qualia sint in quibus magnifici isti cor exultant suum.'" pp. 16, 17.

So also the use which the author makes of the admirable collection of incidental evidences to the truth of the Gospel narrative, brought forward by Paley, in his Hora Pau line, may be judged of from the following single instance, which he has included in his argument.

"Between the Gospel of John and the three preceding Gospels, there may, moreover, be observed a variety of incidental accordances, which afford a conclusive evidence of the veracity of the respective historians. To mention a single example, among the many instances so ably stated by Paley; the first three Evangelists, in describing our Lord's prayer and agony in. the garden, advert to his earnest supplication, that this cup might pass' from him; and Matthew adds his words, O my Fa ther, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done :" ch. xxvi. 42. John is silent on this point of the history; but, in describing the lates in perfeet, though apparently undescene which immediately followed, he resigned, analogy with the account given by the other Evangelists of the preceding circumstances, that when Peter would have defended Jesus on the approach of his enemies, our Lord (whose mind must have continued to dwell on the same pious sentiment) expressed himself as follows: cup which my Father hath given me, shall Put up thy sword into the sheath: the I not drink it?"" pp. 22, 23.

Afterwards, when our author presses the internal credibility of the narrative, related in the four Gospels, we meet with the following just and forcible illustration from the personal character of St. Peter.

"The very singular character of the zealous and fervent, yet fearful, Peter, displays itself in various parts of the Gospel history with all the consistency of truth. In him, who walked forth on the surface of the stormy sea to meet his Lord, and then from want of courage and faith sank in the waves, how plainly do we recognize the sword in defence of Jesus, and immethe individual who so rashly made use of diately afterwards forsook him and fled; who was the foremost in a profession of belief in the Son of God, and in the hour of personal danger denied him thrice; who was the first to promulgate the Gospel to the Gentiles, and was afterwards afraid to eat with them in the presence of the Jews!" P. 26.

The subject of the inspiration and sufficiency of the Scriptures is one on which we might perhaps look for some peculiarities of statement