Review of New Publications. Messiah's Throne, d Sermon preached before the London Missionary Society, at their eighth annual meeting, in Tottenham-court Chapel, on the evening of Thursday, May 13, 1802. By JOHN M. MASON, A. M. Pastor of the Associate Reformed Church in the city of New-York. London. Biggs and Cottle. 1802. which it is composed, and for the abundant evidence in favour of Christ's divinity, which it so briefly, and with such an impressive novelty, exhibits. "I cannot find, in the lively oracles, which is not applied, without reserve a single distinctive mark of deity or limitation, to the only begotten Son. All things whatsoever the Father hath, are his. Who is that mysterious WORD, that was in the beginning, with God? Who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the THIS discourse is founded on the sublime address of the eter-ending, the first and the last, the Alnal Father to the Lord Jesus Christ; Heb. i. 8, But unto the Son, he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. In the in troduction the author makes this observation; that the apostle is "Under no apprehension of betraying the unwary into idolatrous homage, by giving to the Lord Jesus greater glory than is due unto his name ;" An observation, which we may with evident propriety make, respecting many inspired writers. The general plan of discourse is, to consider Christ's personal glory, which shines forth in the name, "O God," by which he is here revealed; and his sov ereign rule; "thy throne is forever and ever." After noticing an attempt of those, who controvert the essential Deity of Christ, to pervert the phraseology and change the sublime meaning of the text, the preacher, bold in the truth, says; "The crown which flourishes on Messiah's head is not to be torn away, nor the anchor of our hope to be wrested from us by the rude hand of licentious criticism." The following passage deserves to be quoted entire, both for the animated eloquence with mighty? Who is he that knows what is in man, because he searches the deep and dark recesses of the heart? Who is the Omnipresent, that has promised, Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them? the light of whose countenance is, at the same moment, the joy of heaven, and the salvation of earth? who is incircled by the Seraphim on high, and walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks? who is in this assem. bly; in all the assemblies of his people in every worshipping family! in every closet of prayer in every holy heart? Whose hands have stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth? Who hath replenished them with inhabitants, having created all things that are in and garnished them with beauty, both, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities or powers? By whom do all things consist? Who is the governor among the nations, having on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. Whom is it the Father's will that all men should honour, even as they honour himself? Whom has he commanded his angels to worship? Whom to obey? Before whom do the devils tremble? Who is qualified to redeem millions of sinners from the wrath to come, and preserve them, by his grace, to his everlasting kingdom? Who raiseth the dead, having life in himself, to quicken whom he will, so that at his voice all who are in their graves shall come forth-and death and hell surrender their numer. ous and forgotten captives? Who shall weigh, in the balance of judgment, the destinies of angels and men? dispose of the thrones of paradise? and bestow eternal life Shall I sub mit to the decision of reason? Shall I ask a response from heaven? Shall I summon the devils from their chains of darkness? The response from heaven sounds in my ears; reason approves, and the devils confess-This, O Christians, is none other than the GREAT GOD OUR SAVIOUR! “Indeed, my brethren, the doctrine of our Lord's divinity is not, as a fact, more interesting to our faith, than, as a principle, it is essential to our hope. If he were not the true God, he could not be eternal life. When pressed down by guilt and languishing for happiness, I look around for a deliverer, such as my conscience and my heart and the word of God assure me I need, insult not my agony, by directing me to a creature-to a man, a mere man like myself! A creature! a man! My Redeemer owns my person. My immortal spirit is his property. When I come to die, I must commit it into his hands. My soul! My infinitely precious soul committed to a mere man! become the property of a mere man! I would not, thus, entrust my body, to the highest angel who burns in the temple above. It is only the Father of spirits that can have property in spirits, and be their refuge in the hour of transition from the present to the approaching world. In short, my In short, my brethren, the divinity of Jesus, is, in the system of grace, the sun to which all its parts are subordinate, and all their stations refer, which binds them in sacred concord; and imparts to them their radiance, and life, and vigour. Take from it this central luminary, and the glory is departed. Its holy harmonies are broken. The elements rush to chaos. The light of salvation is extinguished forever." But the author well observes, that it is not the Deity of the Son, simply considered, to which the text confines our attention; that it leads us to contemplate him, as God manifest in the flesh, and as the Mediator of the new covenant. Under the second general head the author with true Christian oratory, insists upon the stability of Messiah's kingdom, arising from his omnipotence, and from the Father's covenant; and upon his administration, bearing, in the highest degree, the charac. ters of mystery, wisdom, and righteousness. In his enumeration of the means, which Messiah employs in the administration of his king dom, the author mentions the gospel, the agency of the Holy Ghost, and the resources of the physical and moral world. treating the last particular, he shows how extensive his views are of the sovereign dominion of Christ. In "Supreme in heaven and in earth, upholding all things by the word of his power, the universe is his maga zine of means. Nothing which acts or exists, is exempted from promoting, in its own place, the purposes of his kingdom. Beings rational and irrational, animate and inanimate; the heavens above, and the earth below; the obedience of sanctified, and the disobedience of unsanctified, men; all holy spirits; all damned spirits: in one word, every agency, every element, every atom, are but the ministers of his will, and concur in the execution of his designs. And this he will demonstrate to the confusion of his enemies, and the joy of his peo ple, in that great and terrible day when he shall sit upon the throne of his glory, and dispense ultimate judg ment to the quick and the dead." From this exalted station, to which the preacher has happily raised us, we are invited to survey the prospects of God's church; 1. prospect of preservation; 2. of increase; 3. of triumph. On each of these topics the author expatiates like one who is filled with the language and spirit of inspiration. His address to his auditors with reference to the object of Missionary Societies must not be wholly omitted. "All scriptural efforts to evangelize the heathen," he says, " contribute their share" to the triumph of the gospel, "But let us pause;" he subjoins, "you exult, perhaps, in the view of that happiness which is reserved for the human race; you long for its arrival ; and are eager, in your place, to help on the gracious work. It is well. But are there no heathen in this assembly? Are there none, who, in the midst of their zeal for foreign missions, forget their own souls; nor consider that they themselves neglect the great salvation? Remember, my brethren, that a man may be active in measures which shall subserve the conversion of others, and yet perish in his own iniquity. That very gospel, which you desire to send to the Heathen, must be the gospel of your salvation; it must turn you from darkness to light, from the power of satan unto God; it must make you meet for the inheritance of the saints, or it shall fearfully aggravate your condemnation at last. You pray, thy kingdom come. But is the kingdom of God within you? Is the Lord Je sus in you, the hope of glory? Be not deceived. The name of Christian will not save you. Better had it been for you not to have known the way of righteousness better to have been the most idolatrous Pagan-better, infinitely better, not to have been born, than to die strangers to the pardon of the Redeemer's blood, and the sanctifying virtue of his Spirit.” It is with reluctance that we forbear to transcribe still larger portions of this sermon. It is so admirable throughout, that we hardly know which part to prefer, or what property most highly to commend. History of the rise, progress and termination of the American revolution. Interspersed with biographical, political, and moral observations. In three vols. By Mrs. Mercy Warren, 8vo. Boston. E. & J. Larkin. 1806. IN an "address" prefixed to. the work, the historian informs "the inhabitants of the United States of America" what were her inducements to engage in this undertaking, and the advan tages she possessed for that purpose. She was apprehensive that "when every manly arm was occupied, and every trait of talent or activity was engaged either in the cabinet or the field, many circumstances might escape the more busy and active members of society;" and there, fore she determined to employ her leisure hours in recording events as they occurred. "Connected by nature, friendship, and every social tie, with many of the first patriots, and most influential characters on the continent; and in the habits of confidential and epistolary intercourse with several gentlemen employed abroad in the most distinguished stations, and with others since elevated to the highest grades of rank and distinction," she "had the best means of informa tion." It is very evident that the his tory before us is the product of "a mind that had not yielded to the assertion that all political attentions lay [lie] out of the road of female life" every page afless it is the more peculiar provfords a proof of this; yet," doubtince of masculine strength, in the nervous style of manly eloquence to describe the bloodstained field, and relate the story of slaughtered armies." Few of the American fair have ges the attention, and is therehitherto ventured to appear before introduced as the first subfore the public in the character ject of remark. It is very uneof historians; and considering qual; and although the reader the timidity natural to the sex, is often charmed with elegant it is not wonderful if in the pre- expression, and the polished pesent instance, "the trembling riod, yet is he frequently disheart has recoiled at the magni- gusted by the heavy sentence, tude of the undertaking, and rendered tedious, and almost unthe hand often shrunk back from intelligible by parentheses. The the task;" or that these “histor- following quotations will furical tracts" are "now with diffi- nish sufficient specimens of the dence submitted to the public," style. after the story has been told in detail by a Gordon, and sufficiently, though less diffusely, recited by the more elegant pen of a Ramsay. "The writer," however, "indulges a modest expectation that they will be perused with kind. ness and candour; and this she claims, both in consideration of her sex, the uprightness of her intentions, and the fervency of her wishes for the happiness of all the human race." No claim can be better founded, and we certainly have not a wish to dispute it; but, although we are not disposed to "criticise with severity," yet our office requires that we should candidly point out those things which appear amiss, as well as bestow the encomiums which are merited. The work commences with a chapter of "introductory observations;" in the progress of it events are detailed, in chronological order, from the "memora ble era of the stamp act in one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four," to Gen. Washington's resignation of his commission in 1783 and it concludes with "supplementary observations on the subsequent consequences.” The style is unavoidably one of the first objects which enga Vol. I. p. 146. "It cannot be deni. ed that nothing is more difficult than to restrain the provoked multitude, when once aroused by a sense of wrong, from that supineness which generally overspreads the common class of mankind. Ignorant and fierce, they know not in the first ebullitions of resentment, how to repel with safety the arm of the oppressor. It is a work of time, to establish a regular opposition to long established tyranny." P. 209. "Nature revolts at the idea when the poniard is pushed by P. 215. Those who mark the through all revolutions, will frequentchanges and the progress of events ly see distinctions bestowed where there are no commanding talents, and honours retained, more from the strong influence of popular enthusi asm, than from the guidance of reason, which operates too little on the generality of mankind.” P. 16. "In the cool moments of reflection, both humanity and philosophy revolt at the diabolical disposition that has prevailed in almost every country, to persecute such as either from education or principle, from caprice or custom, refuse to subscribe to the religious creed of those, who, by various adventitious circumstances, have acquired a degree of superiority or power." P. 190. Thus resentment stimulated by recent provocation, the colonies, under all the disadvantages of an infant country, without discipline, without allies, and without resources, except what they derived from their own valour and virtue, were compel led to resort to the last appeal, the precarious decision of the sword, against the mighty power of Bri tian." Vol. II. p. 44. "He [Gen. Vaughan] boasts that he had not left one house in the flourishing and industrious town of Esopus,' and offers no other reason for reducing it to ashes, but that the inhabitants had the temerity to fire from their houses on his advance,' to rob them of liberty, property and life." Whilst adverting to the style of the history, we cannot avoid remarking a frequent improper use of some words, and the introduction of others totally unknown to the English language. Thus in Vol. I. p. 2, we meet with "a principle producing benevolent effects." P. 3, "It is needless to adudce innumerable instances." Vol. III. p. 61, "In instances too innumerable to be again recapitulated." Vol. I. p. 4, "young acquired wealth." P. 40, "The voice of the people breathes universal murmur." P. 16 and 337,"learns" for teaches. P. 346, "reversive." Vol. II. p. 126, "adduce" for evince. P. 131," to reconcile the Breach," "Antidote," "derelict," and "retrospect," used as verbs in various instances. Vol. III. p. 250, "Rabiosity." "Flying like fugitives" [Vol. I. p. 198] is a tautological expression, the impropriety of which will immediately be perceived. Many other instances might be produced, but as we wish not to " criticise with severity," no additions will be made to the list. We add only this remark respecting the style, that it is fre quently injured by a free use of the nominative absolute, on the one hand, and sometimes by a re dundancy of words, on the other. Instances of both have occurred in the quotations already made: we shall, therefore, mention only Vol. I. p. the following here. 192. "The Bostonians, thus unexpectedly made prisoners, and all intercourse with the country from whence they usually receiv ed their supplies, cut off; fame ine stared them in the face." P. 208," All former delusive expectations now extinguished, both the Statesman and the Peasant......discovered a most unconquerable magnanimity of spirit." Vol. II. p. 174, "effaced the unfavourable impressions this proposal might have left, had it not have been wiped off." Vol. I. p. 340. "Had General Howe overtaken the American troops, and have secured their Com mander, he would doubtless," &c. In the course of the "introductory observations," a short sketch is given of the first European settlements in North America, and of the character and manners of the settlers; and many very pertinent reflections are made. One or two inaccuracies, howev er, require attention. In P. 8, the settlers at Plymouth are rep? resented as "the first colony of Europeans permanently planted in North America;" but this is certainly erroneous, even if we admit our author to have correct ly stated that Virginia "scarcely deserved the appellation of a reg ular colony, until a considerable time after the settlement in Ply. mouth in one thousand six húndred and twenty;" for a colony was "permanently planted" by the French in Canada in 1608 |