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others; that knowledge which alone can make you wise to salvation, and guide you to avoid the paths of destruction, you shun it, you hate it, and choose to remain contentedly ignorant in this important respect; suppose your parents, who have been at the expense of your education; your friends, who have entertained such high and pleasing expectations concerning you; church and state, that look to you for help, and depend upon you to fill stations of importance in the world and your careful instructors, who observe your growing improvements with proportional pleasure; suppose that after all this generous labour, and all these pleasing prospects, they should see you at last doomed to everlasting darkness, for your voluntary abuse of the light you now enjoy ; suppose these things, and

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sequences of these suppositions are so terrible, that I am not hardy enough to mention them. And, O! shall they ever become matters of fact!

"Therefore, my dear youth, admit the light, love it, and pursue it, though at first it should make such discoveries, as may be painful to you; for the pain will prove medicinal. By discovering your danger in time, you may be able to escape it; but never expect to remove it by the silly expedient of shutting your eyes. Be impartial inquirers after truth, as to yourselves, as well as other things, and no longer attempt to put a cheat upon yourselves. Alas! how childish and foolish, as well as wicked and ruinous, would such an imposture be! The gospel, in this particular, only requires you to

be honest men; and surely this is a most moderate and reasonable demand. Therefore, be ye children of the light and of the day, and walk as such, and then it will be a blessing to the world, and to yourselves, that you ever were born."

Instructions thus faithful, delivered with the greatest tenderness, and enforced by a life of ardent, uniform piety, could scarcely fail to make the most important and salutary impressions on the minds of his youthful charge.

The public and official appear. ances of President Davies were marked with dignity, decorum and elegance. His performances at anniversary commencements reflected equal honour on himself and the institution, and afforded the highest gratification to the crowded auditories, which those occasions brought together. But the work of the ministry was his chief delight. Here, emphatically, he was in his element. Here he was at home. He had, indeed, a lively and almost overwhelming sense of the magnitude of the sacred office, and of his own insufficiency for its discharge. This is strikingly apparent from some passages in a letter to his friend, Dr. Gibbons. "It is an easy thing," says he, "to make a noise in the world, to flourish and harangue, to dazzle the crowd, and set them all agafe; but deeply to imbibe the spirit of Christianity; to maintain a secret walk with God; to be holy as he is holy; this is the labour, this is the work. The difficulty of the ministerial work seems to grow upon my hands. Perhaps, once in three or four months, I preach in some measure as I could wish: that is, I

preach as in the sight of GOD, and as if I were to step from the pulpit to the supreme tribunal. I feel my subject. I melt into tears, or I shudder with horror, when I denounce the terrors of the Lord. I glow, I soar in sacred extacies, when the love of Jesus is my theme; and, as Mr. Baxter was wont to express it, in lines more striking to me, than all the fine poetry in the world,

"I preach as if I ne'er should preach again;

And as a dying man to dying men."

But alas! my spirits soon flag, my devotions languish, and my zeal cools. It is really an afflicting thought, that I serve so good a Master with so much inconstancy but so it is, and my soul mourns upon that account."

The same humble and self-diffident spirit breathes in the following paragraph, which we find at the beginning of one of his discourses: "To preside in the solemnities of public worship, to direct your thoughts, and choose for you the subjects of your meditation in those sacred hours which you spend in the house of God, & upon the right improve ment of which your everlasting happiness so much depends--this is a province of the most tremendous importance that can be devolved on a mortal: and every man of the sacred character, who knows what he is about, must tremble at the thought, and be often anxiously perplexed what subject he shall choose, what he shall say upon it, and in what manner he shall deliver his message. His success in a great measure depends upon his choice; for though the blessed Spirit is the proper agent, and Vol. II. No. 7.

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though the best means, without his efficacious concurrence, are altogether fruitless, yet he is wont to bless those means that are best adapted to do good. After a long course of languid and fruitless efforts, which seem to have been unusually disowned by my divine Master, what text shall I choose out of the inexhaustible treasure of God's word? In what new method shall I speak upon it? What new, untried experiments shall I make? Blessed Jesus my heavenly Master! direct thy poor perplexed servant, who is at a loss, and knows not what to do: direct him that has tried, and tried again, all the expedients he could think of, but almost in vain, and now scarcely knows what it is to hope for success."

Respecting Mr. Davies' appearance in the pulpit, an eminent minister, who intimately knew him, has given the following testimony: "His manner of delivery, as to pronunciation, gesture, and modulation of voice, seemed to be a perfect model of the most moving and striking oratory. Whenever he ascended the sacred desk, he seemed to have not only the attention, but all the various passions of his auditory, entirely at his command. And as his personal appearance was august and venerable, yet benevolent and mild, so he could speak with the most commanding authority, or melting tenderness, according to the variation of his subject. With what majesty and grandeur, with what energy and striking solemnity, with what powerful and almost irresistible eloquence would he illus

* Rev. Mr. Bostwick, of New-York.

trate the truths, and inculcate the duties of Christianity! Mount Sinai seemed to thunder from his lips, when he denounced the tremendous curses of the law, and sounded the dreadful alarm to guilty, secure, impenitent sinners. The solemn scenes of the last judgment seemed to rise in view, when he arraigned, tried, and convicted self-deceivers and formal hypocrites. And how did the balm of Gilead distil from his lips, when he exhibited a bleeding, dying Saviour to sinful mortals, as a sovereign remedy for the wounded heart, and anguished conscience! In a word, whatever subject he undertook, persuasive eloquence dwelt upon his tongue; and his audience was all attention. He spoke as on the borders of eternity, and as viewing the glories and terrors of the unseen world; and conveyed the most grand and affecting ideas of these important realities."

Though to some, this description may seem like the partial, undistinguishing panegyric of a friend, there is much reason to rely on its truth and accuracy. There are those still living, who repeatedly heard Mr. Davies preach, and who speak of his public performances as combining a solemnity, a pathos and animation truly wonderful, such as seemed directly to result from a lively sense of a present Deity, together with a most tender, fervent benevolence to the souls of

men. The effects were in some measure answerable. It is said, that he seldom preached, without producing some visible emotions in great numbers present; and seldom, without some saving impressions being left on one or

more of his auditory. That this should have been the case, will not probably appear surprising to those who attentively peruse the volumes of his printed discourses, and reflect that the selection was made, after his death, from such as he ordinarily preached. The world is in possession of a great variety of excellent and invaluable sermons. Yet, if aptitude to accomplish the great ends for which sermons are needed, be considered as the standard of merit, few extant are superior to those of President Davies.

Their chief and prominent excellence is doubtless this: that they abound in clear, forcible and affecting delineations of the distinguishing doctrines of the gospel. The utter depravity and impotence of man; the sovereignly free grace of Jehovah; the divinity of Christ; the atonement in his blood; justification through his righteousness; regeneration and sanctifi cation by the Holy Spirit; these were his favourite themes. On these he never ceased to insist and expatiate. He viewed these doctrines as constituting the essence of the Christian scheme; the grand support of vital and practical religion. He considered their intelligent and cordial reception as of the highest importance; and viewed every attempt to subvert and explain them away, as equally hostile to the truth of God, and the best interests of men. On these

points, he was uniformly expli cit, decided, and strenuous.

Still he defended the truth, and even repelled those errors, which he viewed most danger. ous, in the spirit of love and meekness. None could be more

distant from pressing unhallowed human passion into the service of God. In his sermons, we find none of those asperities by which religion has too often been dishonoured. Truth ap pears in an attitude and aspect, not only majestic, but graceful and attractive.

Even in his most pungent and awakening addresses to the unconverted, the spirit of benevolence and compassion is obviously predominant. Perhaps there are no sermons, which depict, in more striking and awful colours, the guilt, the wretchedness and danger of the impenitent, Yet, who does not see, that a tender, trembling concern for their best interests prompts and pervades the whole? And where is the sinner, who can refrain from taking the preacher's against himself?

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These sermons contain frequent descriptions of the nature and evidences of real religion. They exhibit it as commencing in repentance and faith, as continued by a course of mortifica tion and self-denial, and as manifesting itself by substantial fruits of holiness and virtue. So luminous and striking are these delineations, and so accurately do they distinguish genuine religion, both from its opposites and counterfeits, that it seems scarcely possible that any one should attentively peruse them, and yet remain ignorant of his real state. His discourses upon the poor and contrite in spirit,

upon the bruised reed, and upon the spiritually whole and sick, abound with discriminating remarks on character, and with consolations for the weakest, the most dejected and trembling believer.

It is no small recommendation of the sermons of Mr. Davies, that, while intelligible to the meanest capacities, they are calculated to gratify persons of the greatest knowledge and refinement. They abound with striking thoughts, with the beauties and elegancies of expression, and with the richest imagery. Some fastidious critics may perhaps object to his style, as florid and ornamented in the extreme. But it should be remembered that nature made him a poet; and that a brilliant imagination, operating on a warm heart, familiarized him to forms of expression, which, in others, might seem unnatural and affected. On the whole, it may be properly remarked, that his style, though rich and entertaining, is rather a dangerous model for imitation. Young preachers, by following it too closely, might be betrayed into a manner ill suited to their genius. Let them study to resemble President Davies in his piety, his zeal, his fidelity in exploring and communicating truth; but let them not be too emulous of soaring upon the wing of his vigorous and excursive imagination.

Z.

Beligious Communications.

ON THE IMPRECATIONS IN THE SCRIPTURES.

WHEN a passage, in the original language of the Scripture, may be fairly translated two ways, it will hardly be denied, that we ought to adopt that translation, which is attended with fewest difficulties.

The writer of these remarks pretends to no critical knowledge of the Hebrew language, but believes it to be generally conceded, as it is by bishop Horne and Mr. Scott, that those passages in Psalms, 69, 109, and 137, which are rendered, by our translators, as imprecations of temporal and spiritual judgments, on the writer's enemies, are capable of being translated, as if they were a prediction.

The latter supposition is attended with no very important difficulties. The greatest difficulty, which presents itself, is, that the psalmist should be supposed certainly to know the destiny of his enemies. Once suppose

him possessed of this know edge, and it is easy enough to conceive that he should communicate it to others.

The difficulties attending the opinion, that the psalmist prayed for various temporal disasters to descend on his enemies and their connexions in this world, and for their everlasting damnation, in the world to come, are neither few nor trifling.

1. To pray for the destruction of enemies appears not to savour of an evangelical temper. The apostle's direction is, Bless, and curse not. A greater than the

apostle hath said, Bless them that curse you.

2. To imprecate wrath against enemies does not appear to coincide with other parts of David's conduct. In Psal. xxxv. 12, &c. the psalmist is represented as being very deeply afflicted, when his enemies were in distress. Christ, on the cross, prayed, not that his enemies might be destroyed, but forgiven. Stephen, in the agonies of death, preferred a similar request.

The language of imprecation and cursing does not seem to have been common to saints. Jeremiah did, indeed, use it in the 20th chapter of his prophecy. His words, at that time, as well as those of Moses on a particular occasion, give humiliating proof of the power of corruption, even in God's children. They are not to be imitated.

But you imagine, perhaps, that benevolence may lead a man to imprecate present and eternal misery on his enemies, on supposition that his enemies are the enemies of God.

The crucifiers of Christ were enemies to God by wicked works; so were the murderers of Stephen, yet both were the objects of intercession, and not of imprecation. Those enemies of David, for whom great tenderness is expressed in the 35th psalm, must have been of a similar character to those others, of whom he speaks in psalm 109. Nay, there is an important sense in which all unrenewed persons

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