muft fubmit to the toil of ftudying the hiftory of the church in her original writers, proceeding from the infpired authors of the New Teftament to their immediate fucceffors, and from them through all the eminent writers of the four first centuries. From that period down to the reformation, Mofheim and Dupin may indeed be relied on with confiderable confidence; but recourfe muft then be again had to the original writers, by every man who is defirous of difcovering the truth, regardless of the party in which it may be found. Such a courfe of ftudy as this will indeed fupply him who fhall have the perfeverance to go through it with a fund in himfelf, whereby he may difcover the value of almost every argument that can be advanced on any queftion of real importance. It will not indeed prove fo fhort a courfe as that which Dr. C. feems to have recommended to his pupils; but it will be incomparably fafer; whilft he who, to speak in the language of Johnfon, fhall fet himfelf doggedly to it," will not find it in reality either fo tedious or fo difficult after he has entered on it, as it may appear when contemplated at a distance.

In the courfe of this lecture the learned Lecturer puts the very fingular queftion-" Whether the Chriftian world and the republic of letters would be a gainer or lofer (gainers or lofers) by the annihilation of all our theological books, fyftems, controverfies, and commentaries on all the different fides, provided facred writ and facred hiftory were referved?" and in this queftion he feems inclined to pronounce for the annihilation. That many of our fyftems, controverfies, and commentaries are, in themselves, of very little value, muft be confeffed; but were they all annihilated, it is not easy to be conceived where a facred hiftory could be found in which any confidence could fafely be placed. Nay, it is not eafy to be conceived, after such a difaftrous event as this, how the authenticity of the facred books them elves could be afcertained. Could Lardner or Paley, for inflance, have written the credibility of the Gospel hiftory, or the evidences of Chriftianity, to the everlasting contufion of deism, had alļ the Chriftian fyftems, controverfies, and commentaries, which have paffed through the ftream of time to us, been annihilated before they were born?

In the fixth and concluding lecture on the ftudy of fyf tematic theology, the author feems to be aware of his having pushed his objections to fyftems, controverfies, and commentaries, too far; for he there lays down fome very judicious rules for the advantageous ftudy of fuch writings. After having from the fcriptures alone, or rather from the

feriptures and ecclefiaftical hiftory, acquired fome notions of the objects of the Chriftian revelation, and of the doctrines which it has brought to light as neceffary to enable us to run with fuccefs the race that is fet before us, let the ftudent, if he can,

"Provide himself in (with) fome of the most approved systems on the different fides. 'Tis error, not truth, vice, not virtue, that fears the light. You may reft affured of it, that, if any teacher exclaims againft fuch a fair and impartial inquiry, and would limit you to the works of one fide only, the reason is, whatever he may pretend, and however much he may disguise it even from himself, he is more folicitous to make you his own follower, than the follower of Christ, and a blind retainer to the fect to which he has attached himself, than a well-inftructed friend of truth, without any partial refpects to perfons or parties. On reading an article in one fyftem, let him purfue the correfpondent article in the others, and examine impartially by fcripture as he proceeds; and in this manner let him advance from one article to another, till he hath canvaffed the whole. 'Tis more than probable, that on fome points he will conclude then all to be in the wrong; because all may go farther than holy writ affords a foundation for deciding, a thing by no means uncommon; but in no cafe wherein they differ can more than one be in the right.

-If he should not have it in his power to confult different fyftems, he will find a good deal of fome of our principal controverfies in Burnet's expofition of the Articles, and Pearfon on the Creed. When thus far advanced, he may occafionally, as he finds a difficulty, (and in my opinion he ought not otherwife) confult scholia and commentaries." P. 228.

The learned lecturer prefers chalia to commentaries, and both to paraphrafes, which, in general, he juftly condemns. Of commentators on the Old Teftament he makes no mention in this publifhed lecture, though undoubtedly, when addreffing his pupils from the profefforial chair, he had pointed out fome as fuperior to others. Among the cominentators on the New Teftament, he gives a decided preference to Grotius, Hammond, and Whitby; and concludes the courfe with recapitulating the chief advantages of the method of ftudy which he had detailed and fo earneftly recommended.

If our teftimony to the excellence of that method be of value, we have no hesitation to fay, that to us it appears incomparably the beft method that can be purfued by thofe who are prepared for it by natural talents, and a competent flock of erudition and feience, and who have at the fame time leifure to profecute it thoroughly; but we are afraid

that

that thefe preliminary qualifications cannot all be looked for in the greater part of those who enter on the ftudy of theology with a view to the paftoral office in any church, whether established or only tolerated, in the British empire. A young man of the brightest talents can hardly, before the age of twenty-four, have acquired that knowledge of the Latin, Greek, and Oriental languages, and have at the fame time made himself mafter of all thofe branches of human fcience, without which it would be vain to enter on the method of theological study recommended fo earnestly by Dr. Campbell. To profecute that ftudy thoroughly it will Hot furely be fuppofed that a fhorter period than other fix

can be fufficient; but in the churches of England and Scotland, where "they who preach the Gofpel must live of the Gospel," how few are the candidates for the paftoral office who can afford to live unemployed till they be thirty years of age? We cannot help therefore thinking, that the methods of ftudy delineated by Dr. Hey in his Lectures in Divinity, and by Dr. Hill in his Theological Institutes †, will be found, not indeed better adapted to form the accomplifhed divine, but more generally useful to the candidates for orders in our two national churches, than the method recommended in the Lectures under review. By tudying theology in either of the methods prefcribed by thofe two learned profeffors, a young man of ordinary talents may, in no great length of time, furely acquire notions of the effential articles of the Chriftian doctrine fufficiently correct for all the purposes of a parish prieft; and if he fhould at the fame time have imbibed fome prejudices and errors, they can hardly be of dangerous importance, and may easily be removed by Dr. Campbell's method of inveftigation, on which he ought to enter as foon as fettled in a living, and perfevere in it, and in kindred ftudies, to the end of his life. It was well obferved by an illuftrious prelate of our church, that if a clergyman be once noted for his ignorance, fo ftrong is either the general malignity to his order, or the inforced fenfe men have of its inward dignity, that fuch a one is held up, through life, for the common object of contempt

See Brit. Crit. vol. xiv. p. 496; and vol. xv. p. 147, 496. + Brit. Crit. vol. xxiii. p. 280, 349.

Warburton, whose first triennial charge, publifhed with the third volume of his Sermons, as well as his directions for the findy of theology, published with the ninth book of the Divine Lega tion, will amply reward the moft attentive perufal of the theo. logical student.

and

and derifion;" and we beg leave to add, that he who when fettled, whether in town or in the country, does not daily labour to augment his flores of knowledge, will be in danger of gradually lofing even the elements, which he may have carried with him from the univerfity.

Pulpit eloquence, which conftitutes the fubje&t of the fecond part of this volume, is treated in a way worthy of the author of the Philofophy of Rhetoric*; and a higher character of the twelve lectures, in which it is difcuffed, we could hardly give. The ingenious lecturer begins the courfe (for a courfe of inftruction it may juflly be called) with obviating fome fanatical objections, which have often been urged against the employment of eloquence by the Chriftian orator. He then confiders the train of fentiment or thought which is beft adapted to the pulpit, and comprehends under this topic, narration, explanation, reafoning, and moral reflection, into which four different forms of communication may be diftributed all the inftruction that can with propriety be given from the pulpit. Under the head of pulpit reafening, he makes fome very pertinent reflections on controverfial fermons, fhowing on what occafions controverfy can with propriety be introduced into the pulpit, and what kind of reafoning is fit for difcourfes addreffed to a mixed audience, of which three-fourths at leaft cannot be fuppofed to have much knowledge of the principles either of logic or of criticism.

From fentiment the learned Principal proceeds to expreffion, and proves, with the force almoft of demonftration, that the language of a fermon ought always, though composed for the inftruction of the moft illiterate audience, to be grammatical and pure, according to the true English idiom. It ought likewife to be perfpicuous, and in fuch a style as fhows that the preacher is in earneft, labouring to inftruct or reform his audience. Among the caufes of obfcurity too commonly to be met with in fermons, he flates particularly the ufe of the favourite technical phrafes of the different fects of Chriftians, which he feverely condemus, recommending in its flead the language of fcripture.

"But be particularly attentive that the fcripture expreffions employed be both plain and appofite. The word of God itfelf may be, and often is, handled unfkilfully. Would the preacher carefully avoid this charge, let him first be fure that he hath

A very masterly work, in two volumes octavo, published feveral years before the commencement of our Review.

himfelf

himself a distinct meaning to every thing he advanceth; and next examine, whether the expreffion he intends to ufe be a clear and adequate enunciation of that meaning. For if it be true, that a fpeaker is fometimes not understood becaufe he doth not exprefs his meaning with fufficient clearness, it is also true that fometimes he is not understood because he hath no meaning to exprefs." P. 312.

Whether this be not the cafe of thofe who have fo long difturbed the peace of the church by controverfies about fovereign grace, effectual calling, hereditary guilt, imputed righteoufnels, and the perfeverance of the faints, thofe would do well to confider who attach importance to fuch difquifitions.

In the fourth lecture Dr. Campbell treats of pronunciation, under which term he comprehends all that by the Greeks was denominated ἐκφωνησιs and ὑποκρισις. He gives feveral excellent rules for the management of the voice in preaching, and difcuffes the queftion-" Whether a fermon fhould be fpoken or read." In nine cafes out of ten he gives the preference to reading, and fupports his opinion by arguments which would be fill more conclufive if employed to vindicate the ufe of a liturgy, than they are as urged by him in defence of the practice of reading fermons. No ferious clergyman, in the public pravers of the church, can have the prefumption to addrefs his Maker in unpremeditated words; and in prayer as well as in preaching

"There is furely fomething in charging one's memory with a long chain of words and fyllables, and then running on, as it were, mechanically in the fame train, the preceding word affo ciating and drawing in the fubfequent, that feems, by taking off a man's attention from the thought to the expreffion, to render him infufceptible of the delicate fenfibility as to the thought, which is the true fpring of (devotional as well as) rhetorical pronunciation." P. 336.

After treating of the fentiments, expreffion, and pronunciation, or delivery of fermons in general, the author confiders thefe difcourfes more particularly as they are addreffed to the underflanding, the imagination, the paffions, or the will; and lays down rules, eiulting from their refpe&ive natures, for the compofition of each. Of thefe rules our limits will not admit even of an abitrat; but we can recom mend them all as ingenious, and by far the greater part, if not the whole, of them, as indifput bly juft. What the Drincipal fays of the unity of a femon, and of the choice of a text, is particularly worthy of every preacher's attention;

and