ters are denominated teachers. This was the business of the great Teacher and Prophet of the Church, Jesus Christ; and all who believed on Him, were called disciples or learners. This method of securing the reformation of mankind, is in strict accordance with, and wisely adapted to, the nature of man. We are so constituted, that the mind is the avenue to the heart. We seek to affect the one by enlightening the other. The heart can never be properly influenced by truth, while the judgment remains unconvinced. On the contrary, if the mind be fully persuaded of a truth, the heart and conscience seldom remain totally unaffected by it.

The Westminster Divines evidently regarded doctrinal instructions as an essential part of public preaching. In setting forth the Directory for public worship, they take for granted that the Doctrines of the Gospel will be faithfully inculcated, and strongly enforced by arguments and Scripture texts. This will appear from the following extracts from that part of the Directory which relates to public preaching. "In raising doctrines from the text, his (the preacher's) care ought to be, first, that the matter be the truth of God. Secondly, that it be a truth contained in, or grounded on that text, that the hearers may discern how God teacheth it from thence. Thirdly, that he chiefly insist upon those doctrines which are principally intended, and make most for the edification of the hearers. The doctrine is to be expressed in plain terms; or, if in any thing it need explication, it is to be opened, and the consequence also from the text cleared. The parallel places of Scripture confirming the doctrine, are rather to be plain, and pertinent, than many, and (if need be) somewhat insisted upon, and applied to the purpose in hand.

"The arguments or reasons are to be solid, and, as much as may be, convincing. The illustrations, of what kind soever, ought to be full of light, and such as may convey the truth. into the hearer's heart with spiritual delight.

"In the use of instruction or information in the knowledge of some truth, which is a consequence from his doctrine, he may, (when convenient,) confirm it by a few firm arguments from the text in hand, and other places of Scripture, or from the nature of that common place in divinity, whereof that truth is a branch."

The published sermons and other writings of the Westminster Divines, show that they acted agreeably to the directions which they gave to others.

The writings of the Puritans, doubtless, constitute a fair criterion by which to judge of the character of their preaching. Hence we may infer that the veneration in which they

were held by the pious, and the influence which they possessed with the intelligent and well disposed, are attributable not merely to their private worth, as godly and consistent Christians, but, perhaps, chiefly to that pure stream of sound doctrinal instruction which issued from their pulpits. And when, by a misguided and cruel policy, the pulpits of England were closed against them, that stream continued to flow from their consecrated pens, spreading itself over countless minds, and carrying down through successive generations, the blessings of wholesome instruction; affording light to those in darkness, knowledge to the ignorant, comfort to the distressed, stability to the wavering, and edification to all. Thus hath the overruling providence of God brought good out of evil, and made the wrath of man to praise him. The wickedness of their rulers withheld their instruction from a few of their cotemporaries, but the providence of God has extended it to unnumbered multitudes, through all subsequent time. God has thus put the seal of his approbation upon that kind of preaching and writing; and the Holy Ghost has put honour upon it, by making it the power of God to the salvation of sinners, and to the sanctification of believers.

Dr. John Edwards, in his work called "The Preacher," says, "Knowledge is a necessary ingredient or part of Christianity, and consequently, unless divine principles and truths be taught us, which are the true matter of our knowledge, our Christianity is imperfect. There wants a main and essential part of it, such a part as is absolutely requisite to make the other parts useful. For this is certain, that the practical parts of Christianity will be wholly insignificant, if they be separated from this. The reason is plain; because fearing and loving God, and keeping his commandments are duties that cannot be practised aright without a due knowledge. Therefore, a preacher must make his people knowing in religion. This is not his trade, as some reproachfully term it, but it is that which the nature of his high calling and office requires of him. For truth is a talent committed to us, and we are the trustees of this precious deposite. All our hearers have a right to share in this sacred treasure, and we must with faithfulness impart it to them. We must beware of imaginary draughts of Christianity, of false schemes of the Gospel, of which there are sundry extant at this day. These we must carefully avoid, and be very frequent in insisting on the fundamental articles of our faith, because our religion consists in true principles, as well as right practice.

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"We ought to be very solicitous and careful in this matter, because if our knowledge and our principles be corrupted, our practice will be so too. It cannot be otherwise, because the former have so great and so immediate an influence on the latter. Knowledge and belief are the foundations of Christianity; a Christian life is the superstruc ture that is erected on them: whence it follows that he who supplants the Christian truth, undermines the life of reli gion, and effectually subverts its morals. By overturning the faith, he destroys the practical part of Christianity.

"In brief, we must instruct the people in the sacred truths of the Gospel, and the whole body of its principles, or else we cannot lay claim to that character of being good ministers of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine; that is, well acquainted with, and imparting unto others the knowledge of the principles of Christianity." Vol. i. p. 51.

The mind, even under the most favourable circumstances, is slow to comprehend the great truths of the Gospel, and the unrenewed heart is universally disposed to reject them. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; they. are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Hence the necessity of line upon line and precept upon precept. What minister has not observed, and been both surprised and mortified at the ignorance of men in regard to religious doctrines, who were otherwise intelligent and well informed, and who for years have sat under the preaching of an enlightened ministry?

Indifference to religion, that withering and blighting curse, which rests, with oppressive weight, upon the hearts of the great mass of every community, is traceable to an ignorance of Divine things. The god of this world has blinded their eyes, and they know not God, and therefore obey not the Gospel of his Son. It is an impenetrable shield which wards off the arrows of Gospel truth. Wrapt in ignorance, they slumber on in the region and shadow of death. Had they been properly and habitually instructed from the pulpit, although they might have remained at enmity with God, yet they could not be indifferent under the pungent appeals of the Gospel to their consciences. For, indifference is not to be confounded with a seared conscience. The one is the consequence of ignorance, the other is the judicial result of having abused and rejected both light and mercy.

Instructive preaching must sometimes be argumentative, as well as merely didactic, according to the nature of the

subject discussed. This is highly important and profitable in its place. And it is necessary, not only for the purpose of convincing the understanding, but because it operates upon the heart, by deepening the impression already made by the assent of the mind. This is effected by so engaging and engrossing the mind in an argumentative investigation, as to cause the hearer to look steadily and for a considerable time at the subject; and thus a longer and less interrupted communication is kept up between the heart and the mind, in regard to the subject in hand, than can possibly be effected by the mere statement of a truth, even where the mind yields a ready assent to it.

For example: if it be announced from the pulpit as an undeniable truth, that a sinner, remaining such, must inevitably perish, the mind of a hearer may assent to it as a doctrine of the Bible, and yet his heart and life remain unaffected by it. But if the minister undertake to prove this point in an argument, based upon the great principles of the divine character and government, and thus lead that mind through the entire argumentation, enabling it distinctly to see each link of the chain of reasoning which brings him irresistibly to the awful conclusion, that remaining as he is, he must perish, and that there is no hope, nor remedy for his case, but repentance and faith in Christ, is it not likely that his heart will be more influenced, than it was by the simple statement of the truth in question? Is it not probable that that state of mental contact with truth, is the one which the Holy Ghost ordinarily blesses to the renovation of the heart?

The apostles, particularly the great Apostle to the Gentiles, often resorted to the argumentative style of imparting instruction. His epistle to the Hebrews is a close, connected, and logical argument, proving the superiority of the Christian, over the Aaronic priesthood. He reasoned before Felix on righteousness, temperance and the judgment, and even that proud and hard heart trembled, beneath the power of his argument.

"When we would effectually exhort and stir up our auditors to a faithful discharge of the great duties of our religion," says Dr. John Edwards, in his Preacher, "we must endeavour it by true and substantial reasons and motives, such as the commands and injunctions of Him who is our Sovereign Lord; the free grace and bounty of God discovered in the Gospel; the evils that attend a vicious life; the inward deformity of sin, and its contrariety to the divine nature; the innate excellency and beauty of religion; the pleasures and advantages of holiness; the easiness of Christ's yoke; the re

wards that attend it both here and hereafter. And there are some arguments proper to the Gospel, which we must be continually urging upon our flock, to confirm them in the belief of the Christian religion, and the practice of it; as the authority of the Holy Scriptures; the accomplishment of the prophecies contained in them; the miracles wrought to convince us of the divinity of Christ's mission, and of the truth of his doctrines; the various ways of revelation whereby Christianity is confirmed;" &c.

"Thus the public instructers of the Church are to work upon men's judgments, and to argue them into religion and piety. And there is good reason for this, for it is not sufficient that the things we deliver be true, but we must prove them to be such by strong and convincing arguments. We are not to presume that men will admit what we say, whether it be proved or not; for as they are men, they are rational beings, and, therefore, must be dealt with accordingly. And this is certain, that we can come at their minds only by reason and discourse. We read indeed, in the Roman legends, that St. Francis preached to beasts and birds, and we are told he made a great reformation among them; but we do not pretend to deal with such creatures, but with those only that are reasonable, and we know no other way of dealing with these but that which I am speaking of. Our auditors are not insensible machines, and clock-work, and therefore must be handled accordingly: they must be wound up only by reason. If we put them off without this, we undervalue them, and sink them below their species. Wherefore, there is a necessity of a preacher's making use of his logic, and his acquired literature, that he may know how to fetch the best convictions, and clearest evidences from the best topics, whether with respect to principles or actions; whether he refutes a growing error, or establishes a known truth, or maintains the lawfulness and necessity of any religious practice, still, reason and argument must be made use of, and the more of these the better. The closer this powder is rammed, the greater execution it will do.

"The sum of this head is this, that a preacher is to take care that he always speaks good sense, and argues closely. Nothing that comes from him is to be raw and undigested, but all must be well ripened by judgment; which cannot be done without studying, reading, meditating, and industrious searching into divine matters. For we do not preach now by inspiration, and, therefore, there is a necessity of these." Vol. I. p. 215.

We are aware that some hearers strongly object to doc