and an apology for the sanguinary deed of the preceding day would infallibly have led to preferment; but we are told his discourse was so modest and inoffensive, that his friends could make no just exception, and his enemies found nothing to treasure up for the vengeance of a future day.

After this, Owen was frequently appointed to preach before the parliament; and in February, 1679, had Cromwell for the first time as one of his hearers. Cromwell was highly pleased with the discourse; and meeting Mr. Owen a few days after, at the house of General Fairfax, he came directly up to him, and laying his hand on his shoulder in a familiar way, said, Sir, you are the person I must be acquainted with." Mr. Owen modestly replied, "That will be more to my advantage than yours." Cromwell rejoined, "We shall soon see that; "" and taking Owen by the hand, led him into Fairfax's garden; and from this time contracted an intimate friendship with him, which continued to his death."

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ENGLISH PREACHERS.

It has been observed of Jeremy Taylor, that while he displayed great power of expression, and a rich exuberance of fancy, he blended true sense, false wit, and pedantic quotation. This misfortune, the result of a taste pedantic and affected, was partly the fault of the man, and partly of the time. Taylor, indeed, by the fire and vigour of his genius, threw off all the cold and phlegmatic pedantry which chilled and clouded the invention of such preachers as Bishop Andrews.

He stood on a kind of isthmus,

between the affections which disgraced the pulpit in the reign of James the First, and the classic purity, united with clear ratiocination, which began. to develope themselves after the restoration of his grandson.

The writers and preachers of the reign of Charles the First, seem to have studied themselves out of their understanding and their taste together. In their pulpit declamations, addressed for the most part to congregations more illiterate than their descendants of the present generation, these learned triflers could not prove a point of Christian doctrine from St. Paul, or urge a Christian duty from the words of Christ. Their astonished audiences must hear in languages which they have never learned, what a whole series of Christian fathers had said on the one, and a whole tribe of Heathen moralists on the other. To render such a mode of public instruction profitable, or even tolerable, the gift of interpreting tongues ought to have revived in the church. These learned and senseless farragos were further disgraced by the spirit of witticism and punning, which proved something worse than the preacher's want of taste-his want of seriousness; for no man, who had a proper sense of the office of a Christian preacher, would have either leisure or inclination to twist a pun, or trifle with the jangling of words. Meanwhile,

"The hungry sheep look'd up, and were not fed."

It may seem a wild and groundless imagination, that this unedifying and pedantic way of preaching, contributed to the downfall of the church which followed; but it must be remembered, that this very deprevation

in the mode of public instruction, gave birth to another style of oratory in the coarse mouths of the puritans, at once slovenly and unlearned, but powerful and enthusiastic, which reached every understanding, moved every heart; and when directed, as it quickly was, against the governors and government of the church, became the most powerful engine in subverting it.

At the restoration of Charles the Second, the old race of orthodox preachers were either dead, or dumb from age; while the rude brawlers of the commonwealth were condemned to silence, or to secret conventicles; profligate, however, as he was, and indifferent to all doctrines, Charles had a true taste for style; and as the decencies of his station condemned him to hear one sermon weekly, he determined, that whatever became of his conscience, his ear and understanding, at least, should not be offended. The revolution was instant; nor did the transition appear more abrupt and striking from the sourness of the court of Oliver, to the dissolute gaiety of that of Charles; than from the cant, the nonsense, and the sanctified blasphemy, of Goodwin, Sterry, and Hugh Peters, to the irresistible reasonings, and the majestic energy, of Barrow; or at a somewhat later period, to the more diffuse and captivating eloquence of Tillotson.

SCHOOL OF KNOX.

The eloquence of John Knox and his associates, which wrought such wonders in its day, was of a

very singular composition. The matter of it came warm from the heart, in a cause which absorbed every faculty of the speaker; but the manner was caught partly from the solemn denunciations of the ancient prophets, and partly from the energetic and animating tone of the free orators of antiquity. Of the meek spirit of the gospel, it certainly partook in a very slender degree. That temper was ill suited to the work in hand.

But of the eloquence of this period, it must at least be acknowledged, that it was natural and manly, without cant, and without fanaticism; formed by men of vigour and good taste, upon excellent models, and calculated alike (which is the highest character of eloquence) for the few and the many. In less than a century, this spirit was fled from the Kirk of Scotland; and Henderson, Gillespie, and their brethren of the covenant, bore no more resemblance to Knox, Willock, and Rowe, than at this day do the cold and feeble successors of Watts and Doddridge, to those animated and excellent preachers. This lamentable declension, besides a great prostration of native genius, is to be accounted for from the poverty and meanness of their education. They knew little of antiquity; they were not learned in the original language of Scripture; but they had drawn their information from narrow systems of theology, which, as they fostered their native bigotry and bitterness, damped every warm feeling of genius, and crippled every movement of free and excursive intellect. Yet, strange to say, these men wielded the great machine of popular opinion with no less power than Knox; for the truth was, that the taste of preachers and of

people was then become equally depraved; the nonsense of the one, suited the nonsense of the other; they had an appetite for cant, and they were fed with it most abundantly.

"THE PRIZE OF THE HIGH CALLING. "

When a divine once came to Archbishop Williams for introduction to a living, his Grace, who had been once Lord Chancellor, thus piously expressed himself: "I have passed through many places of honour and trust, both in church and state; more than any of my order in England these several years before. But were I but assured that, by my preaching, I had conIverted but one soul unto God, I should take therein more spiritual joy and comfort, than in all the honours and offices which have been bestowed on me.