will increase his substance, she will be a most effectual assistant in carrying on the instruction and government of the family, in which she will promote affection regularity, and happiness; she will almost entirely bear its cares, and prepare its joys; she will encourage the faith and hope of every individual within it, and will walk with them as an heir of the grace of life.' p. 117. Nor must the importance of servants in the estimate of family happiness be at all overlooked, for when they are of such as fear the Lord, they are a signal blessing to the family. In vain are the most magnificent palaces erected at the most enormous expence; in vain are they stored with all the profusion which the possession of wealth can suggest, and adorned with all the grandeur which the pride of rank can justify; in vain are they surrounded with all the pomp of greatness, and distinguished as the resort of the fashionable and the gay with all these advantages, small, very small indeed, will be the comfort of their lords, if all the while the servants are perverse, vexatious and dishonest.' pp. 118, 119. But this Author does not confine himself to any one range of topics. In some of his sermons he has selected a leading doctrine of Christianity, and in his illustration of it he gives his reader the full advantage of that bold and extensive style of thinking by which he places familiar truths in a new attitude and throws over them the light of novel and original illustration He has escaped from that monotony of observation, into which the training of a scholastic orthodoxy has drawn so many of our theologians. He is uniformly scriptural; and it does not appear that he has uttered a single sentiment of which the most jealous and inquisitorial Calvinism can disapprove. But he betrays none of that fearfulness, none of that cautious keeping within the limits of a defined representation, which we suspect to have had a cramping and frigorific influence on much of our modern preaching. He expatiates with all the freeness of a mind at ease on the subject of orthodoxy; not because he disdains or refines any one of its articles, but because, incorporated as they are with his general habit of thinking, he feels about them all the repose of a most secure and inviolable attachment. There is accordingly, even when employed upon some peculiarity of the Christian faith, little of the tone of controversy, and no anxious setting off of his own doctrinal accuracy, to be met with; but with a mind evidently cast in the mould of evangelical truth, he oversteps all the abridged and compendiary systems of theology, and feels himself free to expatiate on a rich and variegated field of observation. The above remark was forcibly suggested to us by the perusal of that sermon in which Dr. J. treats of the Power of Christ to forgive Sins. It has been denominated one of the greatest secrets of practical Godliness, to combine a reigning sense of se 4 curity in the forgiveness of sin with an earnest and an operative sentiment of abhorrence at sin itself. The believing contemplation of Christ, according to the real character which belongs to him, resolves this mystery; and we felt as if a new flood of light, was bursting in upon our mind on this subject by that power and liveliness of exhibition which characterize the sketches of our original and adventurous Author. In the compass of a single paragraph he has to our satisfaction given a convincing and impressive view of the link by which justification and sanctification are riveted in the person of the same individual into one close and indissoluble alliance. He inquires into the kind of power that is requisite for the forgiveness of sins. It cannot be a power to dispense with the authority of the law. It cannot be a power to make the law bend to the criminal. It cannot be a power to frustrate the object of the law. And none therefore can have power to remit the sentence of the law upon the offender, but he who can magnify it and make it honourable; he who can uphold it in the immutability of all its sanctions; and, at the same time, he who can so turn and so subdue the personal character of the offender, that in virtue of the change of heart and of inclination which has taken place upon him, there might be a real security established for his future respect and obedience to all the commandments. It serves to magnify every idea of the exquisite wisdom which presided over the plan of our redemption, when we think how all this power meets in Christ; in Him who took upon his own person the punishment that we should have borne; in Him who, descending from his place of glory, has exalted the law by putting himself under the weight of its indispensable sanctions; in Him who has at the same time had such a power committed to him, that he can revolutionize by the Spirit which is at his giving, the whole desires and principles of those who believe in him, so that they shall love the law of God, and delight in rendering to it all honour and all obedience. Contemplating this last as essential to the power of awarding forgivenes, it will dispose us cordially to go along with the whole process of sanctification, to perceive that the great Mediator must renew those for whom he has secured acceptance with God before he has completed his undertaking upon them; and that in fact we are not the subjects of his mediation unless we are prosecuting diligently the renewal of heart and of mind, and submitting ourselves faithfully to all the requirements of holiness. But on this subject let our Author speak for himself. From what we have now seen of the nature of forgiveness of sins, it will be evident, that the person who undertakes to exercise this power should first of all be inflexibly just. The law of God is a charter of rights. With the preservation of that charter, every thing dear to God and valuable to man is eternally connected. To permit the law to bend to the criminal here, would be attended with consequences of injustice, fatal beyond all calculation. Further, with inflexible justice, the person who undertakes to dispense forgiveness should be possessed of wisdom sufficient to determine whether, if sin should be forgiven, the object of the law could be secured, and supreme love to God, and disin terested love to man be maintained. He must moreover possess a power over the law, to suspend, alter, and reverse its sentence, which supposes a power superior to law, even to the law of God. He must also have such power with God as to prevail with him to lay aside his anger, and to receive the criminal, when forgiven, into his favour. The human heart must be in his hand, and under his control, so as he may be able to expel one train of thoughts and opinions, and to induce another; to take away one set of passions and dispositions, and to impart others; and, in fact, to alter the whole nature, character, and conduct of man. He must have so complete a dominion over Satan, as to be able to bind and dispose of him at his will. All human events must be under his absolute direction, so as not only to create prosperity and adversity, but to produce from them such impressions as he may require. He must have power over conscience itself, to make it speak, and speak with effect when he pleases, and how he pleases. To death he must be able to say come, and it shall come, go, and it shall go, and to make its valley dark or light, the portal of heaven, or the gate of hell, as he shall appoint. Such must be the power of his command, that, in obedience to it, the grave must surrender the prey which it has retained for ages. To him it must belong to open and shut when he pleases the bottomless pit, and effectually to command the waves of the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, to recede or advance as he may appoint. Under his control must be the gates of the New Jerusalem, to open and none be able to shut, to shut and none be able to open, with the Cherubim and the Seraphim, and all the host which is within them; at his disposal must be thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, and all the happiness, and all the grandeur of the world of glory. In short, however great the power of any Being may be, unless it is infinitely just and wise, and placed with a controlling energy over the law of God, and has prevailing influence with God himself,-unless it is equal to the government of the world, and death, and the grave, and heaven, and hell,-in one word, unless it be the power of God, it is not a power adequate to the remission of the punishment of sin: for nothing less than this is the power requisite to forgive sins on earth,' pp. 143-5. It may well be said of Dr. Jones, that he is not an everyday writer of sermons. There is a certain intrepidity about him, both in his selection of topics, and in the free and original way in which he handles them. He possesses a mind stored with a variety of imagery and of information; and this circumstance enables him delightfully to blend with his illustrations of scriptural doctrine both the truths of science, and all that is most pleasing and attractive in the contemplation of Poetry. We are quite sensible however, that in the exhibition he is now making before the public, he feels himself to be upon ceremony, and accordingly he has put the exuberance of his fancy under evident chastisement and restraint. There does not appear to be that power and viva. city of illustration, nor that copiousness of allusion, nor that fearless application of the lessons of philosophy and experience, nor that excursive boldness and variety of remark, which are well known to signalize his extemporaneous oratory, and by which he makes himself highly interesting and impressive to his hearers. Still, however, though in print he falls beneath his own habitual excellence in the pulpit, he retains so much of his peculiarity and of his power, as places him far bove the tame, insipid, servile monotony of ordinary sermon-writers. And from the volume before us, were we to multiply extracts, we might present our readers with many specimens of a mind that can soar above the region of common-place, and expatiate in the field of its own unborrowed light, and originate its own spontaneous ingenuities, and without disguising or even so much as throwing a shade over any of the substantial prominences of the Gospel, adorning the whole of its doctrine by such sallies of illustration, as any powerful mind which draws from its own resources, and disowns the authority of models, is able to throw into any track of contemplation over which it may happen to pass. There are some people possessed with such notions about the simplicity of the truth as it is in Jesus, that the very ap.. pearance of originality alarms them. But it by no means necessarily follows, that a writer on practical Christianity is, every time that he stretches his ingenuity, working out a laborious deviation from what is useful and applicable to the familiarities of human conduct and human sentiment. Every attempt to be wise above that which is written, should be discouraged as being opposed to the spirit both of piety and of true philosophy. But still there is room for the exercise of our best and our highest faculties in the attempt to be wise up to that which is written; nor do we think that any fair conclusions drawn from such premises as are supplied by the written record, can be unprofitable for our instruction in righteousness. In his sermon on the Doctrine of Salvation the Study of Angels,' Dr. Jones has given us a happy example of the use to which a subject apparently remote from the powers of human contemplation, may be turned. In his reflections on the Utility of the Truth contained in his text, he 6 has said, and said powerfully and irresistibly, as much as should 6 Many deem the doctrine of Salvation low, mean, vulgar, and worthless; and they attempt to vindicate their conduct by saying with the unbelieving Jews, Which of the scribes or rulers, which of the highly esteemed or dignitaries of our church, make it the theme of their beautiful addresses or fine harangues? Which of our celebrated men of science, discrimination, and taste, even amongst ecclesiastics, make it the object of their study, or the subject of their discourse? Does not the preaching of this salvation provoke contempt and scorn, and expose to the resistless, overwhelming, degrading imputation of methodism and fanaticism? And yet angels fascinated by its charms, suspending their studies of nature and their lofty pursuits in heaven, descend from the celestial world to look into the salvation of Jesus; and whilst they look, they discover new beauties and new wonders incessantly arise, which continually kindle a desire again to look and continue the research. They bend and again they bend their lofty minds, and cannot quit the object, and by their conduct they seem to unite in sentiment with St. Paul, when he said, "Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Yes! angels are captivated by the doctrines of salvation, which men presume to neglect; and archangels admire with rapture what men affect to despise. Surely this should convince them of their folly, discover to them the evil of their ways, and rescue the doctrine of salvation from such unworthy treatment.' pp. 288-9. We trust that the following extracts will both vindicate and exemplify all that we have said in our attempts to sketch the characteristic merits and peculiarities of this Author. While Christ ascended, his heart overflowed with love; his countenance beamed benignity; his lips uttered blessings; his hands dispensed grace. Whilst he ascended, his sacred person was clothed with the robes of light and immortality, He made the clouds his chariot, and he rode on the wings of the wind. A scene in every respect so sublime and so grand, was never before, nor never since exhibited to men or to angels. He shall so come in like manner, visibly, majes 1 |