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that a sin?" Antinom. Yes to him that thinks it a sin; but not to those whose hearts are free. The same thing, says Wesley, that wretch Roger Ball affirmed in Dublin. Surely these

are the first-born of Satan."

agree

Who that regards religion, or morals, does not with Wesley in his concluding remark? Genuine antinomianism carried out into all its details may justly be considered the most pernicious and most despicable of all the isms that ever infested religion. Wesley, and his little band of kindred spirits, were more than justified in their zeal to rid the church of so monstrous an incubus. Their exertions, let the world say what it will, have conferred imperishable blessings on the cause of religion. They gave an impulse to that leaden age of the church which greatly contributed to set in motion the tide of Christian benevolence which is now bearing the blessings of salvation to the remotest bounds of the world. Yet it must ever be regretted that they were not more emancipated from error, and that their zeal was not characterized by a spirit of mildness more conformable to the gospel. But such is the infirmity of human nature, that in the heat of controversy, all parties are driven to extremes. So it was in that age. The defenders of the doctrines which prevailed in the established church, among whom Toplady stands preeminent, verged the more to antinomianism, and their opponents were driven the more to the opposite extreme. Had they all, in a deliberate moment, come nearer to each other, and entrenched them selves upon some middle ground, they had all been more correct and judicious defenders of the faith

once delivered to the saints. VOL. INo IV.

As it

27

was, the labours of Wesley and his coadjutors, with their errors, prevailed, and wrought a mighty change in the sentiments and practice of the church from which he dissented. And it is curious to observe that while the articles of that church retain the same Calvinistic, or rather evangelical form, which they did when Toplady lived and died in their defence, yet now a great portion of the Episcopal church have departed from the import of these articles as they were then explained and defended, and are entirely opposed to their literal meaning. The defence of these famous and timehallowed articles, according to their true import, as they came from the hands of the framers, is now abandoned for the most part to those denominations who are said to have nothing more than "an unauthorized ministry," and whose only hope of salvation depends upon "the uncovenanted mercy of God." That the established church, and the dissenting Congregational, and Presbyterian churches did once agree in doctrine, is manifest from their adopting the thirty-nine articles into their confession of faith.* Whence then has arisen this doctrinal disagreement, and how can those churches which once precisely agreed in doctrine with the "apostolic church," as it is termed, and which have not departed from the same faith-how can they be "heretical," and stigmatized as "unauthorized" ?-How can these

things be?--And which is most inconsistent, they that have kept their early faith, or she that has departed CN. from it?

Platforms, and the Confession of Faith *See the Saybrook and Cambridge adopted by the Presbyterian Church.

REVIEWS.

A selection of Eulogies, pronounced in the several States, in honour of those illustrious Patriots and Statesmen, JOHN ADAMS and THOMAS JEFFERSON. Hartford. D. F. Robinson & Co. and Norton & Russell. 1826.

WE had just taken up this general repository of warm and splendid panegyric, and touched the margin in a few places with our critical pencil, when an inquisitive lad, to whom we are rather partial and indulgent in our old age, happening to cast his eye over our shoulder, and to notice the word eulogies in the running title, enquired what it meant. But seeming to catch a glimpse of the definition, before we had time to answer, added with great simplicity, “A'nt a eulogy a kind of novel?" We read on with our accustomed gravity, and the little querist vanished into the nursery; but we were directly surprised to find, that as we turned over page after page, the question would return unbidden," A'nt a eulogy a kind of novel?" This, in spite of all our straight-forward propensities, turned our musings into a new channel, and brought up a new question, What are some of the leading characteristics of a novel? For how could we answer our little flax-hair, who might return at any moment, till this latter point was settled? Here, as we found ourselves not quite so much at home as usual, we first thought of appealing to Johnson; but as such an appeal would have betrayed rather more ignorance, than our pride seemed just then willing to confess, we most philosophically leaned back in our elbow chair, and permitted the great Lexicographer to remain quietly upon the shelf.

If, however, it is essential to the

legitimacy of a novel, that the hero should be free from all the infirmities of our common nature on the one hand, and be adorned with more than every human virtue and perfection on the other-if a novel must necessarily bristle with exclamation points, and call for tears whether there is any occasion for them or not, we do not see how we could honestly have told our Joseph, had he returned and pressed his question, that a eulogy is not a kind of novel. Besides, in the case now before us, it required little more than a simple narration of facts, to give an air of romance to the whole volume. In what degree these nineteen eulogies, or any of them, exhibit the other features of a novel which we have just hinted at, we may find occasion to inquire before we are through.

These laudatory funeral discourses are of very unequal length, the shortest containing but six pages, and the longest extending almost to fifty. In the time allowed for preparation, there was a still greater range. The first, that of Governor Tyler, was pronounced on the eleventh of July, and the last, that of Mr. Wirt, on the nineteenth of October. The difference in the solid contents of these several orations, is not less apparent, though the ratio is not uniformly in direct proportion to the superficies. Some of them were evidently written in haste, under that thrilling and intense excitement, which the simultaneous decease of Adams and Jefferson, on the first jubilee of American Independence, was calculated to produce. These for the most part are rather fervid than in good taste. They contain more of declamation and apostrophe, than of principles and their results. Others bear the marks of much

thought, and bring together a surprising number of the most import ant incidents of our political history, for the last fifty years.

There is in this volume, some extravagant panegyric, expressed as is usual, in high sounding epithets, and wrought up now and then to the intensity of bombastic superlatives. But this is by no means a leading characteristic of these eulogies. They are in general well written, and they contain some of the finest strains of eloquence which can be found, we had almost said, in the whole circle of our American literature. There is, as there needs must be, a great diversity in the productions of so many men of divers gifts, tastes, and pursuits, though all writing upon the same subject. Thus Cushing, yielding himself up to the impulse of a glowing imagination, abounds in metaphor and ornament to a fault. Knapp is rich and happy in classical allusions, beyond any of his associates in the present selection; and few of them are happier in the choice of topics, or in force and beauty of illustration. Sergeant and Duer are cool, sensible, argumentative, patriotic, and impartiai-not so exuberant in blossoms, as some others, but richer in fruitless dazzling, but safer guides-not so sparkling in foam at the brim, but having more depth beneath. Webster is strong, philosophic, logical. He moves among the great principles with which every statesman should be familiar, seizes the very points which ought to be taken, arranges his topics with admirable judgment, and is borne along by a deep current of good sense to the end. Wirt, if not his equal in strength and originality, is certainly a more polished writer; and judging from the specimens before us, a more finished classical scholar. Indeed, however proud we may be of several of these eulogists, as natives of our own New

England, we feel constrained to award the palm in this splendid Olympic contest to Mr. Wirt. Rarely, indeed, have we met with so much good taste, with such affluence of thought, such a classic elevation of style, such felicity of imagery, and beauty of illustration, in any similar production. It ought not to be forgotten however, that Mr. Wirt had the advantage of all his contemporaries in the time which was allowed him for preparation.

We should be glad to submit to the arbitrement of our readers, in copious extracts, the grounds of the critical judgment which we have thus freely pronounced upon the literary merits of these admired eulogies, could we do it without intrenching upon space which, as Christian Spectators, we feel bound to reserve for graver topics. And contracted as our philological limits must be, we cannot willingly pass on, without presenting our patrons with a page or two of " elegant extracts."

Before we do this, however, critical justice seems to demand a few examples of rhetorical transgression, and of the common place ore rotundo, which so much abounds in fourth-of-July orations. Let the following suffice. "Glorious day"-"tremendous storm"-" star-spangled banner"-" glorious morn""blanched by the snows of seventy winters". "-" tremendous convulsions"-" halo of glory.""That glorious orb which has for so many years given light to our footsteps, has set in death.' "Behold a people in tears over the funeral bier of their benefactor."-Query, what other bier could it be? But these, to borrow a "pet phrase" of both ancient and modern encomiasts, are only "spots upon the sun," the mere shading of a flood of glory.

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Hyperbole apart, such passages as the following would do no

discredit to the pens of our best writers.

Our country has been sometimes reproached for not erecting monuments and statues to her departed worthies. But what avails the monument of brass and stone? Sink its foundations deep; raise it as high as human ken; when the rolling years press on-it fallsthey sweep over it, and leave not a trace of its gloomy grandeur. Erect the statue of marble; it is cold and lifeless-Time claps it-and it becomes dust in his hands. But the patriot statesmen and philanthropists, like those whom we this day commemorate, who have been the instruments of Providence in adding to the numbers and happiness of the human race; who have peopled and gladdened new regions-their memorials are every where! Their statues are man; living, feeling, intelligent, adoring man; bearing the image of his maker; having the impress of divinity. These shall endure, by constant succession, through countless ages and vigorous in the embrace of Time, become more and more abundant. Their monuments, are the everlasting hills which they have clothed with verdure-their praises, are sounds of health and joy, in vallies which they have made fruitful-to them incense daily rises, in the perfumes of fragrant fields, which they have spread with cultivation-fair cities proclaim their glory-gorgeous mansions speak their

munificence-their names are inscri

bed on the goodly habitations of men; and on those hallowed temples of God, whose spires ever point to the heaven, which, we trust, has received them. pp. 152, 153.-P. Sprague.

If ordinary men chance to die in high places, the eulogist is constrained to cull from the barren heath of their lives, here and there a flower to make up a garland for their hearse, but when truly great men leave the world, we may speak of them before their ashes are cold as if they had been dead a century. The men whose decease we have met to commemorate, were great men. Adams was a man of robust intellect and of martial feelings; he had in his elements much of the old NewEngland hardihood, and that quickness which they had to feel an insult. Jefferson was shrewd, quick, philosophical

and excursive in his views, and kept at all times such a command over his temper, that no one could discover the workings of his soul. The deep discerner of character of ancient days, if he had studied these men, would probably have said, the former belonged to the school of Socrates, and the latter to that of Seneca. Their minds were not only different in their elementary properties, but education had made the Adams was difference still wider. born and educated on the seaboard, and practised law in a seaport whose merchants were princes, and whose traffickers were among the honourable of the earth.' He entered deeply into the views of this class of men-and commerce, and its protector, a navy, were the desire of his heart from the first dawn of the Revolution. Jeffer son was a planter, the son of a planter, and his first impressions were of extended lands and literary and philosophical ease.

Agricultural pursuits had more charms for him than commerce. The productions of their pens also mark the difference in their mode of thinking and reasoning. Adams grasped at facts drawn from practical life, and instantly reasoned upon them. Jefferson saw man and his nature through generalities, and formed his opinions by philosophical inductions of a more theoretical cast. In the writings of Adams, you sometimes find the abruptness and singularity of the language of prophecy; in those of Jefferson, the sweet wanderings of the descriptive, and the lovely creations of the inventive muse. When these great men first met, the subject was so important they were called to consider, that not only they, but most of their compeers, seemed made with similar feelings and dispositions. There was such a necessity of concert and harmony, that the lights and shades of character could not be minutely displayed. When the great labour was finished, there was more leisure to compare opinions on subjects which were minor in their nature and effect. pp. 184, 185.-Knapp.

A superior and commanding human intellect, a truly great man, when heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary flame, burning bright for a while, and then expiring, giving place to returning darkness. It is rather a spark of fervent heat, as well as radi

ant light, with power to enkindle the common mass of human mind; so that when it glimmers, in its own decay, and finally goes out in death, no night follows, but it leaves the world all light all on fire, from the potent contact of its own spirit. Bacon died; but the human understanding, roused, by the touch of his miraculous wand, to a perception of the true philosophy, and the just mode of inquiring after truth, has kept on its course, successfully and gloriously.-Newton died; yet the courses of the spheres are still known, and they yet move on, in the orbits which he saw, and described for them, in the infinity of space. pp. 195, 196. -Webster.

Death has not surprised us by an unseasonable blow. We have, indeed, seen the tomb close, but it has closed only over mature years, over long protracted public service, over the weakness of age, and over life itself, only when the ends of living had been fulfilled. These suns, as they rose, slowly and steadily, amidst clouds and storms, in their ascendant, so they have not rushed from their meridian, to sink suddenly in the west. Like the mildness, the serenity, the continuing benignity of a summer's day, they have gone down with slow descending, grateful, long lingering light; and now that they are beyond the visible margin of the world, good omens cheer us from "the bright track of their fiery car!" p. 197.-Webster.

Auspicious omens cheer us. Great examples are before us. Our own firmament now shines brightly upon our path. Washington is in the clear upper sky. These other stars have now joined the American constellation; they circle round their centre, and the heavens beam with new light. Beneath his illumination, let us walk the course of life, and at its close devoutly commend our beloved country, the common parent of us all, to the Divine Benignity. p. 233.-Webster.

At pages 386, and 7, we have marked a discriminating and richly merited eulogium upon our pilgrim fathers, which we cannot withhold from our readers.

The spirit of liberty which had prompted the pilgrims to bid adieu to the land and tombs of their fathers, and to brave the horrors of an exile to the wilds of America, accompanied them to the forests which they came to subdue; and questions of political right and power, between the parent country and the colony, were continually arising, to call that spirit into action, and to keep it bright and strong. These were a peculiar People, a stern and hardy race, the children of the storm; inured from the cradle to the most frightful hardships which they came to regard as their daily pastime, their minds, as well as their bodies, gathered new strength from the fearful elements that were warring around them, and whatever they dared to meditate as right, that they dared and never failed to accomplish. The robust character of the fathers descend

sent over to

ed upon their children, and with it, also came the same invigorating contests. Violations of their charters, unconstitutional restraints upon their trade, and perpetual collisions with bend or to break them, had converted the royal Governors that province into an arena, in which the strength of mind had been tried against mind, for a century, before the And tug of the Revolution came. these were no puerile sports. They were the stern struggle of intellectual force, for power on the one hand, and liberty on the other. And from that discipline there came forth such men as such a struggle only seems capable of generating; rough, and strong, and bold, and daring; meeting their adversaries, foot to foot, on the field of argument, and beating them off that field by the superior vigor of their

blows.

Præcipitemque Daren, ardens agit æquo-.

re toto:

Nunc dextra ingeminans ictus, nunc ille sinistra,

Nec mora, nec requies.

From this school issued those men so well formed for the sturdy business of life, and who shine so brightly in the annals of Massachusetts-Mayhew, and Hawley, and Thacher, and Otis, and Hancock, and a host of others, of the same strong stamp of character: men as stout of heart as of mind, and breathing around them an

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