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by toil and trouble to exalt your condition, will you not exalt it far above the level of thrones, or principalities, or any name that is named upon the earth "’ (Pp. 86-88.

On the subject of pardon through our Saviour Christ, we have the following striking remarks:

"If there had been any condition attached to this boon of forgiveness, we should have been in no better case than before. If it had been required that, anterior to any hope of pardon for past offences, we should be so far advanced in obedience, as to be of a reputable character for honesty, or charity, or truth, or to be doing our best to attain it, then verily things would have been marred at the very commencement. For it would have been left to self to determine the measure of attainment upon which we could found a claim to the benefit; and the question would have been perplexed anew with that uncertain element of self-adjudication, which we have already shown is enough to shake the stability of any system. Besides, from the nature of man, which always founds a claim of right when a condition is present, it would have soon lost the character of a boon, and failed to make the impression of a free unmerited gift. But above all, it would have opened the door to self esteem and partiality, and every kind of palliation, to juggle us into the conceit of having reached the mark at which all is safe And being persuaded that we were there arrived, all inducement to further ef forts would have been taken away when there was no further advantage to be gained." (Pp 177, 178.

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Our author thus recommends Jesus Christ as the best teacher:

Only one man, of the myriads who passed the darksome veil, returned; he passed into the obscure, in the obscure he tarried, and, like the rest, was given up for lost. But forth he came in the greatness of his strength, having conquered the powers beyond. He came not for his own sake, but for ours; to give us note and warning of what was doing upon the other side, and of what fare we were to expect for ever. And he hath laid down the simplest rules to guide us to happiness and honour, and the amplest warning to keep us from degradation and ruin. In the name of reason and consistency, then, to whom should we apply, but unto him who knows so well, and was never known, in all he said, to deceive in all he did, to injure ?—To him, then, let us go for tuition! And most surely he is the kindest, most affectionate, mest considerate teacher that ever breathed the breath of knowledge over help. less ignorance. Away then with our own conjectures, away with the conjectures of other men, however wise in this life! they know nothing of the ife within the veil which shrouds us in. Up then, go to the Scriptures, which he uttered of himself, or by the inspiration of his Spirit; there let us be stripped of all our fancied knowledge of things which we know not in the least. Under them let us commence a new childhood, a new scholarship for eternity, and we shall arrive at length at that manhood of strength and knowledge, which shall never fall away into the dotage or searness of age, and shall survive death, and convey us safe through the unknown; to the mansion of our heavenly Father, which our great forerunner hath gone to prepare for our reception." (Pp. 515, 516.)

Such impressive appeals as these deserve high praise. We record them to the honour of Mr Irving. That they are addressed to crowded audiences, comprising many but little accustomed to such plain dealing on the subfect of their best interests, affords us high gratification. What a pity that there should be any drawback where there is so much to commend, that such sterling excellence should be mixed up with so large a portion of alloy! We turn with reluctance and pain from this induction JANUARY, 1824.--No. 261.

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of passages, which show at once what decided scriptural truth the work contains, and how favourably it has impressed us, to the discharge of a duty no less important both to the reader and to the author, that of exposing some of its various defects and errors; defects and errors which affect not merely the style, structure, and subject matter of the work, but in some degree also, the frame and temper of the author's mind.

We must commence this class of our remarks at the very title page of Mr. Irving's book. When we read the advertisement in the public papers, announcing " FOR THE ORACLES OF GOD; FOUR ORATIONS. FOR JUDGMENT TO COME; AN ARGUMENT IN NINE PARTS, we could not forbear a smile at the pedantic absurdity of such a title. But when we opened the book, and found that these "Four Orations," and this " Argument in Nine Parts," were neither more nor less than so many ordinary sermons, we felt real concern; because we were satisfied that if it had been the author's object to cover himself and his work with ridicule, he could scarcely have devised a more apt expedient for the purpose.— What might be Mr. Irving's motives for choosing such a title, or what end he expected to answer by it, we are at a loss to conjecture. If, indeed, he designed that his book, on its annunciation should be regarded as one of large pretensions, and that it should excite a corres. ponding lofty expectation, his title is not an unsuitable one for such a purpose. But, putting every thing like modesty out of the question, what, on this supposition, we may ask, had become of the gentleman's judgment and common sense? We had always understood that to be moderate in pretension and promise, even where we hope to be ample in performance, is not only the dictates of modesty but of discretion. But here, in a title of such magnificient promise, as scarcely any performance could justify, this wise principle is reversed. Perhaps, however, Mr. Irving, only meant by the adoption of the high-sounding epithets, "Orations and argument," to procure more readers for his sermons, than they would be likely to have, if sent forth under their proper name. This may be considered by some as a justifiable Ruse de Gure. But, while we are bold to say, no such end has been answered by it, we must, for our own part, protest against every thing like puff or trick in what is connected with the Christian ministry. The office is degraded by it; and the mighty theme to be held forth disdains such aid.

We proceed from the title page to the preface, which opens with the following paragraph:

"It hath appeared to the Author of this book, from more than ten years meditation on the subject, that the chief obstacle to the progress of divine truth over the minds of men, is the want of its being properly presented to them. In this Christian country there are, perhaps, nine-tenths of every class, who know nothing at all about the applications and advantages of the single truths of revelation, or of revelation taken as a whole: and what they do not know, they cannot be expected to reverence or obey.-This ignorance, in both the higher and the lower orders of Religion, as a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart, is not so much due to the want of inquisitiveness on their part, as to the want of a sedulous and skilful ministry on the part of those to whom it is entrusted."

Of the three sentences, of which this paragraph consists, one only,

When Mr. Irving says,

the intermediate one, contains what is true. "In this Christian country, there are, perhaps, nine-tenths of every class who know nothing at all about the applications, and advantages of the sin gle truths of revelation, or of revelation taken as a whole," we go with him in the assertion: but when he tells us, that after ten years' meditation on the subject, it appears to him that the chief obstacle to the progress of divine truth over the minds of men, is the want of its being properly presented to them; we beg leave to assure him, that he has meditated, at least as it respects this subject, to very little purpose, Mark, it is of this "Christian country," in which every one has access to the Holy Scriptures, that Mr. Irving is speaking. Does he mean to assert, that divine truth is not properly presented in them? No, he can mean no such thing; because, in his orations, he has over and over again stated the contrary. But it has happened to Mr. Irving, as it almost uniformly does to those who dogmatize like him, he has asserted a great deal more than he himself intended: This rash assertion cannot therefore be too broadly contradicted. Divine truth, as Mr. Irving has himself admitted, is no where presented in so accurate, luminous, and affecting a manner, as in the Word of God. It is therefore properly presented to all who have access to that word. We must consequently look elsewhere for the chief obstacle to its progress over the minds of men. It is our author's mistake, as to this chief obstacle to the progress of divine truth, that we desire particularly to expose. The nature and magnitude of that mistake are rendered more apparent by the concluding sentence of this paragraph. "This ignorance, both in the higher and the lower orders, of religion, as a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart, is not so much due to the want of inquisitiveness on their part, as to the want of a sedulous and skilful ministry on the part of those to whom it is entrusted." In these passages, Mr. Irving's assertion is two-fold, first, that to which we have already adverted, relative to the chief obstacle to the progress of divine truth over the mind: and secondly, that the ignorance of men is not (as he awkwardly expresses it) so much due to the want of inquisitiveness on their part, as to the want of a sedulous and skilful ministry. Now what is the obvious state of things around us, as bearing on these assertions? Are men inquisitive, anxious and sedulous to examine into divine truth, as to its nature, import, evidences, bearings, and applications to their own case? No, they are not. Thousands and tens of thousands around us, live and die without ever exhibiting any anxiety or interest on the subject, nay, manifesting an utter repugnance to all such studies and inquiries; and when divine truth is forced on the attention, (as in the case of some, from various causes, it happens to be,) it immediately appears that the chief obstacle to its progress over the mind lies, not in the want of clearness and strength of statement, but in the very state, disposition, and tendency of the mind itself: it immediately appears that man is under the domineering influence of a principal, as opposite to divine truth, as darkness is to light, or as evil is to good. Exactly corresponding to this state of things, and satisfactorily explanatory of it, is the language of Scripture. The carnal mind is enmity against God." Rom. viii. 7. "The natural man re

ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. ii. 14. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil," John iii. 19. These passages of Scripture, and more especially the words of our Saviour in the last quoted text, distinctly aver that men are in darkness, while light and knowledge beam around them, from an inherent preference and love of that darkness, and that this sinister bias on the affections, is connected with and strengthened by the habitual evil course of the life. Mr. Irving's representation of the subject, besides being unscriptural and erroneous, is also highly pernicious. It furnishes men with an excuse for their ignorance. It teaches them to plead, "we are willing to hear, nay, inquisitive and anxious to be instructed. Only let truth be fairly presented to us, and its attractions will win their way to our hearts. That we are ignorant is our misfortune, and not our fault. The fault lies at the door of our teachers." The scriptural account of this matter, on the contrary, charges our ignorance on ourselves, as the result of our own choice, as constituting, therefore, a part of our guilt; and, unless dissipated by our speedily coming to the light, as leading to our inevitable condemnation.

Our author is aware that, in the paragraph which we have been examining, he has conveyed a reflection on the clerical order; and therefore, in the following sentence he disclaims any intention of doing so. With what face he could pen this disclaimer we cannot understand; inasmuch as in various parts of his work (all of which, may of course be presumed to have been written before the Preface) he had assailed not only different classes of the clergy, but the clergy as a body; nay, in this very Preface he tells them (softening the matter, however, by including himself) that until they act on the principle which he lays down, they will be without excuse. As we may have occasion to advert to this subject again, we now proceed to the examination of the new rule or principle which Mr. Irving has prescribed, and which he has endeavoured to enforce and recommend by his own example. He lays it down in the following passage:

Until the servants and ministers of the living God do pass the limits of pulpit theology and pulpit exhortation, and take weapons in their hand, gathered out of every region in which the life of man or his faculties are interested, they shall never have religion triumph, and domineer in a country, as beseemeth her high original, her native majesty, and her eternity of freely. bestowed well-being. To this the ministers of religion should bear their at tention to be called, for until they thus acquire the pass-word which is to convey them into every man's encampment, they speak to that man from a distance and at disadvantage. It is but a parley; it is no conference nor treaty, nor harmonious communication. To this end, they must discover new vehicles for conveying the truth as it is in Jesus into the minds of the people; poetical, historical, scientific, political, and sentimental vehicles. For in all these regions some of the population are domesticated with all their affections who are as dear in God's sight as are others; and why they should not be come at, why means should not be taken to come at them, can any good

reason be assigned? They prepare men for teaching gipsies, for teaching bargemen, for teaching miners; men who understand their ways of conceiving and estimating truth; why not train ourselves tor teaching imagina tive men, and political men, and legal men, and medical men! and, having got the key to their several chambers of delusion and resistance, why not enter in and debate the matter with their souls! Then they shall be left without excuse; meanwhile, I think, we ministers are without excuse. Moved by these feelings, I have set the example of two new methods of handling religious truth-the Oration, and the Argument.”

If by all this Mr. Irving only meant that the ministers of religion should be careful to cultivate their minds, to acquire various knowledge and information, to exert their talents and industry, to study the state of mind of their hearers, and apply with ardour to the high duties of their profession,-his exhortation would be unexceptionable, nay highly important, and such as those concerned would do well to attend to. But it is obvious that this is not what he means. All this is old and backneyed; and no man of common sense could think of presenting himself with all the airs of one who had made a discovery, and then hold up this to us as a novelty. Our author's expressions show that he intends something beside and beyond all this. "The limits of pulpit theology and pulpit exhortation," he says, "must be passed, and weapons taken, gathered out of every region in which the life of man or his faculties are interested." The clergy are " to train themselves for teaching imaginative, political, legal, and medical men:" and thus are they to be prepared for imitating the example which Mr. Irving has set in his " two new methods of handling religious truth." Now, while it is evident that our author intends to inculcate something quite new both in the training of ministers, and in the mode of their ministrations, we must confess that we are unable to find out exactly wherein this novelty is to consist. But, so far as we do understand this new rule, we deprecate the introduction of it; and we warn the ministers of religion against it. Mr. Irving is himself, we presume, an example of one formed on his own rule. No doubt he has trained himself, as he conceives, for teaching imaginative, political, legal, and medical men. He has our best wishes for his success in this course. No class of persons require more to be imbued with that kind of religious knowledge which is connected with feeling, than those professional men: and we sincerely hope that Mr. Irving's efforts may have the effect of impressing the Christian character on many of them. But sure we are that he will never do this, by abandoning his own proper region and going into theirs. Sure we are that if any imaginative man be made a real Christian by Mr. Irving's preaching, it will not be by his poetical criticisms, or by his wild flights of imagination : and we are no less sure that the cause of religion will not be advanced among judicious, political, and legal men, by idle vapourings about liberty and the puritans, or an unmeaning panegyric on Mr. Jeremy Bentham, as "the shrewdest jurisconsult of the day."

We should therefore condemn this new principle, even though we had no other test, by which to try it, than its working and effects on Mr. Ir

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