sought neither to impart nor to borrow, except as the slavish instrument of policy and conquest. The character of the preacher,the apostle," the messenger and legate of heaven,"-could belong only to a religion whose principles are unmixed truth, whose aim is universality, whose motive is benevolence. How beautiful, in the silent obscurity of its birth, was that ordinance which was designed to effect the mightiest and most permanent of moral revolutions on our globe, and to bring together the elect'-the choice of spiritualized humanity-in due time to be transported to heaven! Issuing from the remote capital of Judea, we trace the steps of a few noteless and unprovided wanderers, the disciples of One that had been violently and shamefully put to death. They proclaim, wherever they go, to as many as will hear, that that crucified individual was the expected Deliverer of the human race; that he has brought life and immortality to light;' and that it is He that shall judge the quick and dead.' Hopeless in such hands might seem the task to rouse a slumbering, to reform an evil, to propitiate a hostile world. But the fire is kindled; and these humble men are not to be discouraged. Vainly "stripes and imprisonments await them,"-the loud mockery of the rude multitude, and the subdued, but not less cruel derision of the polished and the great an invincible patience, the offspring of sin.

cerity and faith, supports them: an ardent zeal, inspired from above, urges them onward, in spite of every impediment. Not many years have elapsed before the chief cities of Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, possess each its colony of converts, and every convert, in his turn, a preacher; while as the circle widens, including within its circumference Arabia and Egypt, Gaul, Spain, and even the furthest isles of the west of Europe, in the same proportion are the numbers of the faithful every where multiplied. It is to no purpose that 'the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed;' that the anger of the imperial despot is roused, and persecution, infatuated already, blinds herself more and more with the blood of her many victims. A dominion more ancient than that of the Cæsars shakes to its foundations: -the gain of the priest is withdrawn; the oncecrowded temples of a multifold idolatry are wellnigh deserted; the smoke of altars becomes comparatively rare, and the images of those that " were no gods" begin to be left undecorated, to perish in solitariness and silence.

So far the missionaries of redemption were led by the immediate hand of Heaven; the unquestionable evidence of miracles, and the surviving impulse of the first outpouring of the Spirit from on high, had hitherto rendered unnecessary, and, in their esteem, even impious, the ordinary arts of persuasion

and conviction. Miracles, however, as become needless, and subject to abuse, like all sensible demonstrations of truth, by withdrawing the mind from the sources of inward conviction, were early discontinued; and Christianity, when thus effectually planted, was left to the general care of Divine Providence in the continued and unfailing watchfulness of its Author, and to the exertions of good and holy men, supplied with the ordinary aids of the Spirit. The simpler outlines of evangelical truth being already traced upon the popular mind, sermons now began to be something more than plain announcements of " the news that Christ had come into the world," to save sinners. When philosophers had embraced the new religion, and the state sought its alliance, and enquiring minds desired to be instructed in the extent of its moral applicability to the needs and exigencies of human life, then a more elaborate and artificial system of teaching was called forth. The preacher, at first brought up to some other occupation, and supporting himself in the intervals of his apostolic labours by his exertions in a worldly calling, was now set apart to the important office from his youth, furnished with the aids of learning, and trained in the arts of eloquence and disputation. He was required to be a polemic as well as a dogmatist; and that destruction of the edifice of idolatrous paganism, which the fervid might of inspiration

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had commenced, as with the stroke of lightning from heaven, was now to be completed, by little and little, by means of the slow operation of argument, and the silent force of Christian example. The Apostles were complete in their simple inspiration-in the irresistible strength of a faith miraculously imparted. Again, the Fathers were no less fitted "to do the work of evangelists" in their times, by blending with and enriching what remained of the diviner qualifications which distinguished the first ministers of Christ, with a more liberal education, a more extensive acquaintance with mankind, and the dignity of superior stations. The models left, however, by Chrysostom and Augustin, by Tertullian and Clemens Alexandrinus, soon yielded to the innovations of men who partook in the corruption of succeeding ages. The style of preaching kept pace with the decline in manners and in oratorical genius, and the gradual adulteration of doctrine; and, notwithstanding the temporary success of the various orders of friars, who were instituted at different periods, for the express purpose of reforming the negligence and the abuses which existed among the clergy-but who by degrees became tainted with and increased the vices they were designed to correct-the method of instruction from the pulpit, which generally prevailed for several centuries preceding the Reformation, was calculated, by the ignorance of the orators, the trifling scholastic forms adopted, and

the useless and often ridiculous choice of subjects, rather to darken, to embarrass, and to mislead, than effectually to answer the ennobling and sanctifying ends of a CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

A new era of taste in popular composition on religious subjects, dawned simultaneously with the Reformation: Tyndale, Frith, Cranmer, and others of the early Reformers, but especially the venerable Latimer-that thorough specimen of a plain English divine-abound with passages in a style which, for fluency, ease, and unaffected simplicity, may vie with the best specimens of the Augustan age of our literature; while in earnestness-in the natural pathos of unaffected sincerity and singleness of purpose-they are not to be excelled. This apostolic plainness did not, however, survive beyond the first period of the Reformation-the period of its struggles and imperfection with the men of more consummate learning, who occupied the eminent stations of the church in Elizabeth's reign, came back the subtle distinctions, the frequent quotations, and tedious subdivisions, of the scholastic divines. But these faults were counterbalanced by more than equal excellencies-by a profound acquaintance with Scrip ́ture and with the controversies of past ages, and the general history of the Church; often by great depth, originality, and variety of thought, and a fearless vigour and rich profusion of language.