ties in the discharge of his office, which result from this System. In recompense for the few services from which he may be relieved by the labour of Agents, the pas tor finds a demand created by their operations for another weekly prayer meeting, another monthly concert, where he himself is expected to be present; for frequent public meetings, too, which he must sanction, if not by a speech, at least by his respectful attendance. What is it to be spared a dozen sermons a year, (though some are annually relieved we have reason to think, from a score,) compared with the extra meetings, the excitements, the troubles, the formidable dangers to the ministry and the Church, consequent on the existence of this Agency System! But let the Agency System continue and extend itself, as it has done within a few years past, and pastors will be relieved with an emphasis. Invaded in its appropriate sphere, stripped one by one of its ancient powers, robbed of the respect and affection with which it had been regarded, and trodden into the dust, a regular ministry would be no more. In conclusion we cannot help reflecting upon the singular phenomenon exhibited in parts of the American Church at the present moment. It is but a few generations ago that our English ancestors endured the loss of all things, rather than conform in the smallest particulars to the inventions of men in the service of God. Our Puritan fathers came to this new and inhospitable land, that they might found a church in which all things should be exactly conformed to the Word of God. A few generations have passed, and what is the spectacle now witnessed in the New-England Church, founded as has been fondly thought according to the true model of the gospel Church? How is this goodly heritage of our fathers overgrown with burdensome and expensive establishments of various kinds, all the products of human invention, for none of which can the divine authority be pleaded, and many of which are directly at variance with the institutions of Christ! How are its hedges broken down, so that it is overrun with swarms of officers and Agents, owning no allegiance to the Church, pleading for all their assumptions and doings no higher authority, than their commission from extra-ecclesiastical bodies, unknown to our primitive polity! Truly, "the boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth de vour it." We trust, however, that the old spirit of non-conformity to human inVOL. IV. 38 ventions has not become entirely extinguished, and will yet stir itself up, and enter a new and effectual protest against all those unscriptural principles and methods, which have become so deeply incorporated into the modern system of the Church! ART. XII.-REVIEW OF DR. WOODBRIDGE ON PRACTICAL RELIGION. Practical Religion recommended and enforced, in a series of Letters, from Epsilon to his Friend, by John Woodbridge, D. D. New-York, published by John S. Taylor, 1837. WE are highly gratified at the appearance of this very interesting and valuable book on Practical Religion. It is a work which the wants of the Christian public have long demanded, and we are glad to see it appear executed by so able a hand. Dr. Woodbridge communicates his thoughts in a style clear, nervous, lively, and harmonious. The grand topics of doctrinal and practical Religion have been so long incorporated with all his thoughts and feelings, that he writes with an eloquence which cannot fail to make them interesting to others. It cannot have escaped observation, that many late writers on practical religion in this country have most studiously concealed the great doctrines of religion from view; have often endeavoured to give the impression that there is no necessary or close connexion between evangelical truth and evangelical holiness. Dr. Woodbridge every where recognizes this connexion. He never shrinks from presenting even the most unpopular of these truths; and in the sense in which the church has always understood them. The reader of this work will not find himself served, in exchange for the truths of God's Word, with those crude, illdigested notions, or that spurious sentimentality, which have marred to such an extent the works of the writers we have just mentioned. If we cannot have divine truth, we should at least be glad of common sense. We have regretted to see in the works to which we have alluded, that such a disproportionate attention is paid to the charitable use of money, and but a very passing notice taken of many other branches of Christian morals. One would think from the strain of some books, and the drift of much of our preaching, that the Church existed for no other purpose, than to contribute to benevolent societies, and that this was the sum of Christian duty. This certainly is the main drift of much of our religious instruction, and we have had some hints, that theology is to be so reformed, as to exclude, as antiquated and useless, all those doctrines which cannot be brought to bear upon the duty of making large contributions. In most works on practical piety which now make their appearance, we see not only the great distinguishing doctrines of grace overlooked, but also many of the most important topics of practical religion. What do we hear now of the great duties of keeping the heart, of self-examination, of mortifying our sinful passions and affections; of the importance of the constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit to enable the Christian to subdue his corruptions; the importance of the duties of the closet! If mentioned at all, these topics receive only a passing notice. To this remark the work before us is a happy exception. We will let our author speak for himself. On the intimate and necessary connexion of doctrines with practice, he says: "It is a very popular notion, that doctrinal opinions are of little importance. The infidel couplet of Pope, finds a response in many a heart, which has professed subjection to the Gospel: "For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; He can't be wrong, whose life is in the right.' But you have not so learned Christ. You have been taught to set a just estimate on revealed truth; knowing that without faith it is impossible to please God; and that the objects of this faith are nothing more nor less than the facts and inculcations recorded in the Scriptures. In the same proportion as it is right or safe to deny or undervalue what the inspired volume teaches, the utility and necessity of divine revelation itself, are diminished; and encouragement is given to skepticism, and the practices to which it leads. Certain it is, if men are not blameable for their creed, they ought not to be reproached for that conduct which is its fair and necessary consequence, since it is a crime in any one to violate, in his actions, the dictates of his judgement and conscience. All Scriptural doctrines have some relation to God, or the Saviour, or to the state and destiny of man; and cannot, therefore, as has been often alleged, be points of mere speculation, about which good men may differ without guilt or danger. Some of these doctrines are doubtless of more vital consequence than others; yet they all help to compose that scheme of divine truth which is coherent in all its parts, and on which, as an immovable foundation, rests the whole structure of evangelical piety and morals. Without reference to what is believed, religion is like a building without a frame, or a mass of flesh without the bones to which it properly belongs, and disconnected from which it is of no value to the living animal. "It is surely then your duty so to investigate the doctrines of the Gospel, that you will be able to understand them, and hold them without wavering. You may be accused of bigotry; but bigotry has its origin rather in pride, ignorance, or hatred of others, than in an unyielding attachment to opinions which you have found on examination to be Scriptural." He often draws imaginary characters, which we think are very happily executed. "Jesuiticus has respectable talents; and he occupies an important station in the church. He is a man of professions, of gentle manners, and of a persuasive tongue; he can, in little things, make the worse appear the better reason; he knows what points in 2 subject to exaggerate, what to depress, and what to overlook; and no wonder that, with these qualifications, he is regarded by many as a prodigy of wisdom and goodness. Others, whose minds are not blinded by their friendship and their interests, have learned to view with distrust all his great enterprises, which have a bearing on the cause of religion. Had he true modesty, he might be very useful in a humble sphere. But he wishes to be the leader of a partypoor ambition! and like many others, who have the same desire after preeminence, he is loud and frequent in reiterating the watch-words of the party, to which he has attached himself. While he expatiates on the loveliness of charity, and the hatefulness of a bigoted, sectarian spirit, he tells those who are suspected of unsoundness in their creed, that they are persecuted; encourages jealousies among good men; and tries to keep up a perpetual skirmishing in the ranks of the faithful. And while he kindles a fire in men's blood, he seems to cry with Antony in the play, 'Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up The prevalence of truth and peace would, he knows, be death to him and all his hopes of power. He must ride in the whirlwind, or go on foot. He makes use of all his popularity, all his arts of management, to exalt himself, at the expense of those who will not consent to wear his cockade, nor follow his triumphal chariot. One would think him an adept pupil of Machiavel, or a successful student of the "Monita Secreta" of the Society of Jesus. Yet Jesuiticus would deeply resent the charge of dishonesty; and he sometimes puts on such an appearance of openness and candour, as half imposes upon the persons who have witnessed most of his manœuvres, and have the clearest insight into his character. "I do not refer to him with the design of injuring an individual, (I wish there were but one Jesuiticus,) but from the hope that such an example of moral obliquity in one who is called a Christian, may, if distinctly set before you, so excite your abhorrence of the conduct to which I allude, as to guard you against any approaches towards it yourself, to the end of your days. While you remember the importance of prudent reserve in your words and actions, never descend to finesse; conceal what you should from principle; and make it not necessary to hide your designs, on account of the sinister and unworthy motives which give them birth."" The twenty-fifth chapter on Special Grace, is peculiarly able and interesting. The reasoning is clear, exact, and unanswerable. Among other remarkable discoveries of the times, it has been recently found out, that Christians have always been mistaken in supposing the doctrine of Special Grace to be taught in the Bible-that they have always drawn from Scripture a doctrine which dishonours God in the highest possible degree, and that infidels and Socinians have always been right in their objections against this truth. But we are now told that this great doctrine, and all the others of the evangelical system, as they have ever been understood by the Church, are built upon a system of moral agency which makes God a tyrant, and really destroys human accountability. It certainly becomes those who have made this discovery, and have succeeded so far in unsettling the minds of the community on the great subject of a man's accountability, to subsitute some scheme of moral agency in its place ;-not merely a scheme which may be handed about in private, but which may be made public, and be subjected to strict examination. It must be acknowledged that our author has struck a bold stroke in departing from certain rules of composition which may now be considered as pretty well established by modern usage. His readers will look in vain for those amusing narrations, dialogues, and anecdotes which have given popularity to many of the works on practical religion which have of late appeared in this country. We would not attempt wholly to excuse him for so serious an instance of nonconformity to the modern fashion of writing, and yet we feel it our duty to say all in his defence which the case admits. We have never supposed that the public, after they had once got a taste of this, kind of writing, would ever be cloyed with it, or that they ever would be much interested in truth, recommended by the ordinary arts of eloquence, when they have had it so long disguised and even concealed in children's stories. Especially we should expect that any attempt to wean them suddenly from their favourite entertainment must be followed by manifest signs of impatience and disgust. But it ought also to be remembered that all have not the peculiar talents adapted to this kind of composition. We doubt whether even Swift, Addison, or Pope could have succeeded here, and must think that our author |