juncture calls for, with all the seriousness of piety and devotion, which shows itself both in private conversation and in his most edifying sermons, by which he enters deep into the consciences of his hearers. The other is Mr. Tronchin, a man of a strong head, and of a clear and correct judgement, who has all his thoughts well digested his conversation has an engaging charm in it, that cannot be resisted he is a man of extraordinary virtue, and of a readiness to oblige and serve all persons, that has scarce any measures: his sermons have a sublimity in them that strikes the hearer, as well as edifies him; his thoughts are noble, and his eloquence is masculine and exact, and has all the majesty of the chair in it, tempered with all the softness of persuasion; so that he not only convinces his hearers, but subdues them, and triumphs over them. In such company it was no wonder if time seemed to go off too fast, so that I left Geneva with a concern that I could not have felt in leaving any place out of the Isle of Britain.

It began to be manifest, near the beginning of the last century, that the doctrine and discipline of the Genevese church, which had produced such happy effects, were likely soon to be abandoned. A repeal of the rule of the church, "by which candidates for ordination were required to subscribe to the Helvetick confession, and the decrees of the Synod of Dort, was procured in 1705." "Professor Vernet," who flourished about the middle of the last century," published his disbelief in the Trinity, and the imputation of Adam's sin to his descendants. In 1757, the clergy of Geneva were represented by the French Encyclopedists, as generally rejecting these doctrines." Here then we enter on a new order of things, and the result of it we shall presently witness.-The following testimony is from "Meiner's Letters on Switzerland," published in "Dr. Seiler of Erlangen's German Literary Journal," for 1785.

The buildings are large and expensive, the inhabitants wealthy, and an incredible number of beautiful country-seats surround it on all sides. The civil war was less owing to a defective legislation, than to growing depravity of manners, both among high and low:" for even to the lower ranks has this corruption spread. The works of Voltaire and Rousseau are read in shops, manufactories, and work houses. Perhaps the wealth which has flowed upon Geneva from her fine artists since 1738, when corporations were dissolved, and every artist allowed to follow what art he pleased, has accelerated her corruption. The strict church discipline, which Calvin introduced immediately after the Reformation, is now gone, and with it the authority of the clergy. Ladies of distinction give no signs of devotion in their church. They laugh, they talk, they adjust their dress, they flutter with their fans, as if they were in a jovial meeting. This indecent levity continued, when the young clergy

*Here Dr. Seiler remarks: “I have had certain accounts, by private letters, that in many families of distinction, in that city, Christianity is almost entirely neglected: and, by modish and excessive refinement, the children are formed to levity, and rendered incapable of serious religious reflection. Hence soli and edifying preachers are depised by this race of men. Only they who bring to the pulpit master-pieces of eloquence are sometimes attended; whose discourses are blained or praised, just as dramatic performance would be; and hence can have little or no influence on the heart."

man went up to the pulpit, and I suppose read prayers and directions relating to the approaching communion; for through the noise I could not hear distinctly. They became more quiet and grave, when the young preacher appeared, and took occasion, from the mournful state of the town, to exhort all ranks, and especially the youth, to unity and reverence for law. Probably, however, this was more to be ascribed to the curiosity, than to the devotion of the hearers for when the sermon was ended, in the moment immediately before communicating, the former noise and dissipation returned. Even when communicating, they could not so far govern themselves, as to suppress the appearances of prophanity and scoffing, which their former conversation had impressed on their countenances; or to avoid giving offence by assuming airs of seriousness. Formerly, adultery was considered at Geneva as a most shocking crime, and divorce was rendered as difficult as possible. Now the first is laughed at, and the second more easily and frequently obtained, than at London or Paris. Their old sumptuary laws are fallen into desuetude, and luxury grows incredibly. In twenty four families, they daily eat on silver plate; and in between three and four hundred, the turins and large dishes, though not the trenchers, are silver. The lowest ranks are mad on pomp and magnificence. Labourers will half starve themselves through the week, that they may appear genteelly dressed and travel in coach on the Sabbath. The wives of manufacturers are as elegantly attired, as ladies in Germany, when going to an assembly. An insatiable desire of making a grand appearance, is accompanied with a sordid covetousness, perhaps partly owing to the dearness of the necessaries of life, much increased by the multitude of strangers who resort to Geneva.

To this account, the translator, the late Dr. Erskine, adds,

So far as the translator knows, many of the clergy in Geneva are men of distinguished abilities, amiable characters, excellent writers on the Deistical controversy and moral subjects; and though perhaps allied to some pretended German Reformers in their Socinian and Arian tenets, yet no way tinctured with their scepticism and contempt of the Bible. Yet what a contrast between Meiner's character of the people, and that given them by Bishop Burnet in his travels, Letter from Zurich, 1685! May not this be owing to the opposing, or at least omitting in their sermons, those peculiar truths of the Gospel, by faith in which the heart is purified ?"

RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

1. Natural History of Enthusiasm. Boston: Crocker and Brewster. New York; J. Leavitt. pp. 302.

This is one of the most interesting and instructive volumes which have recently been published. The style is elegant, the subjects treated important, and the work altogether worthy the attention of the religious public. Unlike

most publications, the title is the least inviting part of it. We hope to make our readers better acquainted with it hereafter.

It will not be possible for us, without excluding more appropriate matter, to give our readers a particular account of the various sermons and pamphlets continually issuing fron the press. In future, ordinarily, we shall publish only titles, with such occasional extracts and notices as may be thought interesting. The following are among the more recent publications of this description which have not been noticed in this work.

1. A Sermon by Jacob J. Janewuy, D. D., and a Charge by Rev. J. Gray, A. M., delivered at the ordination of Nicholas Murray, A. M., on the fourth of November, 1829. Philadelphia: Clark and Raser. pp. 32.

2. A Sermon preached at Acworth, N. H., October 14, 1829, at the Installation of Rev. Moses G. Grosvenor, as Pastor of the Congregational Church. By Z. S. BAR. TOW, Pastor of the First Congregational Church and Society in Keene. Boston: T. R. Marvin. pp. 6.

3. The Claims of Education Societies, especially on the Young Men of our Country. A Sermon delivered in the First Baptist Meeting-house in Boston, November 8, 1829, before the Boston Young Men's Baptist Auxiliary Education Society. By RUFUS BABCOCK, Jr., Associate Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Salem. Boston: William Collier.

pp. 24.

4 The Safety of this Nation: A Sermon delivered in Holliston, on the day of the Annual Thanksgiving, November 26, 1829. By CHARLES FITCH, Pastor of the Church and Society in Holliston. Boston T. R. Marvin. pp. 14.

5. Prospects of the Evangelical Faith in the Nineteenth Century : A Sermon delivered at the Dedication of the Meeting-house erected by the Calvinistic Church and Society in Hardwick, Mass., Sept. 9, 1829. By JOHN WILDER, Jr. Pastor of the Congregational Calvinistic Church in Charlton, Mass. Brookfield: E. and G. Merriam. pp. 24.

6. Two Sermons,-the first entitled National Blessings of Christianity, delivered in the Meeting-house of the First Baptist Church and Society in Boston, on the day of public Thanksgiving, November 26, 1829;-the second entitled Infidelity, some of its Modern Features, delivered in the same place on the evening of Lord's Day, December 6, 1829. By CYRUS PITT GROSVENOR, Pastor. Boston: True and Green. pp. 32.

7. The Essential Doctrines of the Gospel: A Sermon by J. H. FAIRCHILD, Pastor of the Evangelical Congregational Church in South Boston. Second Edition. Boston: Peirce and Williams. pp. 36.

We are happy to apprise our readers of the publication of a second and cheap edition of this popular and useful Sermon. May it have a ready sale, and a more extended circulation.

and

FROM an Address at the annual meeting of the Boston Sunday School Society, (Unitarian,) the following observations may be regarded as deserving particular attention. "Behold," exclaimed the speaker, "that hovel, through whose chinks the winter wind whistles. In its comfortless and single apartment, behold that wretched woman! See her wan cheek! It is a mother, on that miserable bed, her dying child! Its moan agonizes her heart. Hark! It asks for a drop of water to cool the raging fever; but first, mother, kiss me. The scene is over; the mother is childless; the spirit has gone to the throne of its Father; but it has gone educated! That mother, in her wretchedness and in her poverty, had yet opened a fountain of love in the heart of her child. It flowed in the desire for that caress; the fountain will flow forever; it is the water of life; it is the element of worship; it is heaven." Here we are taught, that the fond affection of a child for its mother-an affection so tender and strong as to make it ask for a kiss on its dying bed, is the water of life, the element of worship-HEAVEN. If it is the element of worship, it is holiness. Heaven itself consists in the exercise of such affections!

Respecting Jefferson and Adams, we are told by their enlogists, "The apostles of liberty, the holy patriarchs of the revolution, have fulfilled their mission; and leaving the scene of their generous toil below, are gone above to receive their reward." Here patriotism seems to be presented as belonging to the element of * Am. Jour. Ed. 1829. p. 88. 22

VOL. III.-NO. IV.

worship as a qualification to which heaven will, undoubtedly, be granted!

In opposition to these and similar statements, wherever found, I shall undertake to maintain the following position: Such qualities as the domestic affections, patriotic attachments, and the feelings of humanity, do not necessarily imply the least degree of Christian holiness.

It

It is of importance, before discussing the subject in hand, that a just definition of Christian holiness should be given. consists in exercising towards God and man those affections of heart which the DIVINE LAW requires. The standard of holiness is the law of God. No hunan quality is holy, which is not accordant with this standard. Now the apostle Paul assures us, that "love is the fullling of the law."* What objects this love must embrace, and in what degrees it must be exercised, in order to be obedience to God, our Saviour has informed us in the comprehensive summary to which he reduced the divine requirements. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'t Obedience to the divine law consists, then, in the exercise of supreme love to God, and that cordial good will towards men which places their interests on a level with

our own.

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It should be further remarked, that that state of the affections in which any of the objects of heart-felt regard presented in the divine law are overlooked, is not obedience to God. This is a statement of the highest importance in its bearing on the present subject. It is a statement which rests upon the Scriptures. Whosoever,' says the apostle James, shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all; for, as he proceeds to show, all the divine commands rest upon the same authority; so that to live in habitual disobedience to any of these injunctions, is to set at naught the divine authority, and thus to show that the heart is not right with God.' That state of heart cannot be holy which, in any particular, habitually disregards the divine will. In support of the proposition which has been announced, I

6

observe,

I. It is generally, perhaps universally admitted, that very estimable qualities may exist in mankind which do not imply Christian holiness. This is evidently true of qualities merely intellectual. Who regards these qualities as having, in themselves, anything of a moral or religious nature? Who blames the weak and ignorant for their mental deficiencies? Who reproaches the idiot for being mindless? The wretch who could do so would bring upon himself the abhorrence of all around him. The