counts, that he can have a notion of the mingled feelings of vexation and amusement, with which we perused this precious information concerning Mr. and Mrs. Fristoe.

To Mr. Cuming's tour is annexed that of another person from Bayau Pierre to New Orleans, and thence to Philadelphia; which, if we except some account of New Orleans, is altogether contemptible.

The book has apparently been put together very hastily. There are references in the body of the work to additions in the appendix, which are not there to be found. The notice of an expedition through Louisiana, mentioned in the title-page, and which we had almost forgotten, is a very brief account of Col. Pike's expedition, taken from the Medical Repository.

ARTICLE 6.

Sermons on particular occasions.

Dixerit hic aliquis: "Quis ista nescit? Adfer aliquid novi.”
Scio ista quotidie audiri in concionibus. Sed-

Erasmi Ecclesiastes..

Boston, printed by Manning & Loring, May, 1812. A VERY considerable, and perhaps the greatest part of the literary men of New-England has always been composed of the clergy. Some of these have acquired notice and a degree of fame by their writings. The Mathers possess a strange and bizarre sort of reputation, of which it is not easy to estimate the value. Edwards has made himself well known by his works in metaphysical divinity. Chauncy was a man of far more than ordinary talents, a very laborious student of ecclesiastical history, with reference to the controversy respecting church government, and one of the first in our country who broke through the theological systems, which had closed over us, and let in light upon the doctrines of Christianity, and the meaning of scripture. Others might be mentioned, who have added to the literature of our country; some, like Belknap, by works not immediately connected with their profession. But

till within a few years, not much, or at least not much successful attention has been paid by our clergy to that very difficult species of intellectual labor, the composition of sermons for publication. The writing of discourses, by which, when delivered, the congregation of a preacher may be instructed and edified, is a very different thing from the writing of such dis courses, as, when given to the world, will engage readers, and will make those who read wiser and better. Sermons for the public are one of the most difficult, partly because they are in themselves one of the least alluring of all kinds of composi tion. They have none of the interest of history, nor the charm of poetry and fiction, nor do they engage us like works of science. Their main purpose is to make men better; and there are few men who read much for the sake of being made better, who refer what they read to their own characters, and have the express object of their own moral improvement. Eloquence indeed, the expression of natural feeling, and striking representations, and beautiful composition, may delight us in a sermon as well as in other species of writing; but they can delight us only when we are at ease respecting the truths enforced, either because we endeavour to make them the rule of our life, or because we regard them with the carelessness of incredulity. Voltaire selected the famous passage of Masillon in his sermon on the small number of the elect, as a specimen of sublime eloquence. But no man can read this passage with any emotions of delight, who either does not believe that he himself is one of the elect, or who is not wholly incredulous as to the representation of the preacher. To sermons, whatever may be the richness of their eloquence, few men will resort for the purpose of relaxation and entertainment. In their reading the faculties ought not to be unbent; they require a grave and somewhat severe state of mind, not indisposed to the reception of high thoughts and solemn considerations. But this is a state, which to most men is irksome and painful. From the reading of sermons men are deterred likewise by the associations connected with this species of composition; by the impression of the many worthless discourses of this sort-some, which are

dull in their thoughts, and slovenly in their style, and appear to have been written, as they are read, with no other feeling than that of tediousness and labor; some, which are captious and ill-tempered, whose authors represent what they call our duty as unpleasantly as may be, and then endeavour to drive us to its performance by threats and reproaches; some, which are founded upon views of our condition and God's moral government, to which no man, unless when they are kneaded into him by education, can readily bring himself to assent; and others finally, which have the character of requiring too much, and of putting the standard of duty too high, but which in fact only misrepresent our duty, and require something else than what reason and religion demand; for if it be otherwise, it is as strange a complaint, as it would be to say that they require us to be too happy, and to have too great a regard to our own interest. All the indisposition to their reading produced by these various causes a volume of sermons must have merit enough to overcome, a merit of no very easy acquisition, from the very nature of the subjects of which they ought to treat, and to which few writers of sermons in our country have attained. This merit however is possessed by the sermons in the present small collection, which will preserve the of its author, as we think he would wish to be remem

memory bered.

These sermons are distinguished for good sense; an originality of manner and thought, which displays the mind of the writer, and gives them a distinctive character; great simplicity, plainness, and, if we may use such a phrase, directness of expression; an unusual propriety and accuracy in the use of words; and great correctness, and sometimes great beauty of imagery. They are, what very many sermons are not, adapted to the real character, and real circumstances of men. The persons whom their author addressed were not the creatures of his imagination; they were not beings, such as many preachers seem to fancy to themselves as their hearers, who, if we may judge from the motives urged upon them, and the affections to which they are exhorted, are no more like human

1

beings than like any thing else in the universe; they were the actual men, women, and children of his congregation. The views of our character, our condition, and our duties, which are given or implied in these discourses, are conformable to reality and life. There is nothing in them of the romance of sermon-writing, nothing better than the truth, plus beau que la verité, as somebody told Voltaire there was in his histories.

This volume may give to a stranger a just notion of that style of rational and manly preaching, which has been the boast of our metropolis-a kind of preaching solemn and serious, but with no purpose of exciting any temporary emotions of terror; devotional, but without enthusiasm, because its objeet is to make devotion an habitual feeling; inculcating every branch of morality, and applying the motives of religion to the every day duties of life; and instructing men without ostentation in the character and evidences of our religion, and in the meaning and design of the sacred writings. While we have such preachers as the author of these sermons, religion will never be deprived of any of its proper influence, by the manner in which it is exhibited by its friends. There is no perversity of mind which can find any thing to ridicule in discourses like these. They display truths, which no man, who thinks at all, can think that he will not be the happier for believing, if their belief have its proper effect; they inculcate duties, which no man can pretend that he will not be the better for practising.

There are in this volume only eight sermons, of not unusual length, with the addition of some notes, and a charge delivered at the ordination of a colleague. The subjects of these sermons are as follow:

❝I. Duties resulting from the esteem and love, which the members of a Christian congregation owe to their minister. (Preached previously to the ordination of a colleague.)

"II. The tenderness of Jesus Christ. (Preached on Good Friday.)

"III. The immortality of man the important consequence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Preached on Easter-day.) "IV. There is sufficient evidence that the Christian reli

gion began in the early part of the first century, notwithstanding no notice is taken of it by a great number of the writers of that age. (Preached on Whitsunday.)

"V. The effect of Christian principles in rendering the female heart benevolent. (Preached before the Boston Female Asylum)

"VI. A summary of several important duties. (Preached on the Sunday before Advent)

"VII. Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace. (Preached on Christmas day.)

"VIII. The end of the year. (Preached on the last Sunday of the year.")

To the first of these sermons a number of notes are appended, which contain much amusing and learned criticism, with regard to the composition of sermons, the character of those of the English and French preachers, of Vieyra, the Portuguese jesuit, and of the homilies of the Greek and Latin fathers.

The fourth sermon is, we believe, original in its subject. Between the year twenty seven, in which, or about which time, our Saviour was baptized by John, and the year one hundred and seventeen, the end of the reign of Trajan, at which time there is no controversy that Christianity existed, various heathen authors wrote, who have made no mention of the Christians. The object of the sermon is to account for this silence; which is done by shewing that the greater part of them, viz. fourteen, wrote on such subjects, that no mention or notice of the existence of a body of Christians could with any propriety be introduced into their writings. Of five others, viz. Persius, Petronius Arbiter, Seneca the younger, the elder Pliny, and Plutarch, it is remarked, that they might have mentioned them, but have not; but that their silence is an objection of little weight, as they have omitted many other important facts, which undoubtedly existed in that age. The eight remaining heathen authors of that period either speak of the Christians by name, or probably allude to them. Of Jewish authors, Philo probably wrote before this period; and with regard to the testimony of Josephus, reference is made to Lardner. In the above statement, Pliny is placed in the second class of heathen