formances; and considering with myself that the way to please him is to feed my flock diligently and faithfully, since our Saviour hath made that the argument of a pastor's love; I have resolved to set down the form and character of a true pastor, that I may have a mark to aim at; which mark I will set as high as I can, since he shoots higher that threatens the moon than he that aims at a tree." A pastor he defines to be "the deputy of Christ, for the reducing of man to the obedience of God;" and he states his duty to be" to do that which Christ did, and after his manner, both for doctrine and life." To such ministers as live in universities bearing offices, he recommends as their rule the Apostle's exhortation, Rom. xii. 6,-8. Those who are preparing for the church, he exhorts not only to get knowledge, but to subdue and mortify all carnal and earthly affections, and not to think that when they have read the fathers and schoolmen, a minister is made, and the thing is done *. "The greatest and hardest preparation is within." Chaplains in noble houses, are to act there as a minister in his parish. They can not agree to come into any house where they are not free to exercise their ministry, without forsaking the plough and looking back. "They who, for the hope of promotion, neglect any necessary admonition or reproof, sell, with Judas, their Lord and Master." Mr. Herbert then enters at large on the character of the Country Clergyman. It would be impossible to follow him here step by step; and all that can be done is to trace a few of the more prominent parts of his outline, again recommending it to every pastor, who desires to stand approved in the sight of the great Shepherd, to study the work it self, and to labour under the influence of the Holy Ghost to imbibe its spirit. *In the present day, we fear that the thing is done at a much easier rate than that of reading the fathers and schoolmen. "The Country Parson is exceed ing exact in his life, being holy, just, temperete, bold, grave in all his ways.' "He hath thoroughly studied patience and mortification." He is circumspect in avoiding alt covetousness, and all kinds of luxury and sensuality. He is strict in keeping his word: his yea is yea, and his nay, nay. His apparel is plain, but reverend and clean, the purity of his mind breaking out even in his body, clothes, and salutation. He is full of all knowledge; but the chief and top of his knowledge consists in the book of books, the storehouse and magazine of life and comfort, the Holy Scriptures." The means he employs to understand these are a holy life (John) vii. 17), prayer, the collation of scripture with scripture, attention to commentators, without neglecting the grace of God in himself, and what the Holy Spirit teacheth. "He hath compiled a body of divinity, which is the storehouse of his sermons," and this he does by way of expounding the church catechism, both because catechising is a work of singular and admirable benefit, and a thing required under canonical obedience to be regularly done. He is much versed in cases of conscience, and "has thoroughly canvassed all the particulars of human actions, at least all those which are most incident to his parish." "When he is to read divine services, he composeth himself with all possible reverence," expressing a hearty and unfeigned devotion as he presents with himself all his congregation, whose sins "he brings, with his own, to be bathed and washed in the laver of Christ's blood." "He preacheth constantly. The pulpit is his joy and throne, If he at any time intermit, he is ever well supplied by some able man, who treads in his steps, and will not throw down what he hath built." He procures attention by all possible means, by earnestness of manner, by a diligent cast of his eye on his auditors; and by a particularizing of his speech, now 1 to the younger sort, then to the elder; now to the poor, then to the rich; "for particulars ever touch more than generals." He serves himself also of the judgments of God, and these most which are nearest to his parish. He often tells his people that sermons are dangerous things, but that none will be careless before his Judge. "The character of his sermons is holiness: he is not witty or learned, or eloquent, but holy." This is gained by choosing texts of devotion, not of controversy; by speaking from the heart; by frequent wishes for the people's good and joying therein; and by often urging the presence and majesty of God. In handling his text, he gives first a plain declaration of its meaning, and then "some choice observations drawn out of the text, as it lies entire and unbroken in the every person in it, and either meets with their vices, or advances their virtues. His wife is either religious or he is night and day winning her to it." His children he first makes Christians, then useful members of society. He seasons their minds with piety, not only by words but actions, sending them to visit sick children, and to dispense charity to the poor. "His servants are all re ligious, and were it not his duty to have them so, it were his profit, for none are so well served as by religious servants." "Those that can read are allowed time for it, and those that cannot are taught; for all in his house are either teachers or learners, or both; so that his family is a school of religion; and they all account that to teach the ignor ant is the greatest alms." "The parson is full of charity: all his works relish of it. When he riseth in the morning, he bethinketh himself what good deeds he can do that day. He takes care that there be not a begger or idle person in his Scripture itself." "The way of crumbling a text into small parts, bath neither in it sweetness nor gravity, nor variety; since the words apart are not scripture, but a dic-parish. And when his own stock tionary." "He exceeds not an hour in preaching, because all ages have thought that a competency, and he who profits not in that time will less afterwards.” If the parson be unmarried, "he is very circumspect in all circumstances of his behaviour, speech and very looks." He puts on the profound humility and exact temperance of our Lord Jesus. "He keepeth watch and ward, night and day, against the peculiar temptations of his state of life, which are principally spiritual pride, impurity of heart, ambition or untimely desire of promotion, and curiosity in prying into unprofitable questions. If married, his choice of a wife "was made rather by his ear than by his eye." A humble and liberal disposition he preferred before beauty, riches or honour. "He is very exact in governing his house, making it a copy and model for his parish.' He knows the temper and pulse of : serves not, he works those that are able to the same charity, still pressing it in the pulpit and out of the pulpit; and he uses his bounty as means of winning them to praise God more, and live more religiously. On the week days, he visits in person, now one part of his parish, now another. "When he comes to any house, first he blesseth it," and then forms his discourse according to circumstances; commending, or reproving, or instructing as may be necessary. Sometimes he hears the children read himself, and bles seth and encourageth the servants also to learn to read." He is not ashamed of particularizing in these things, for he holds the rule that nothing is little in God's service: if it once have the honour of that name, it grows great instantly. Wherefore, neither disdaineth he to enter into the poorest cottage, though he even creep into it;" for both God is there, and those for whom Christ died. When any of his cure is afflicted, he fails not to afford his best comforts. He is a father to his flock. When any sins, he pities him as a father; when any wrongs even him self, he considers him as a child, and treats him accordingly, expecting, and waiting, and hoping, and labouring, and praying for his amendment. his Divine Master, and of the saints his brethren. Nevertheless, he endeavours that none shall despise him, especially in his own parish; because where contempt is, there is no room for instruction. This he endeavours by a holy and unblameable life; by a courteous and winning behaviour; by doing kindnesses; by bold and impartial reproof, as occasion may require; by re"Heceiving reproaches humbly, grieving for his own and others sins; or joyfully, because he is made conforma. ble to his Master. "The parson is sincere and upright in all his relations." carries himself very respectfully as to all the fathers of the church, so especially to his diocesan, honouring him both in word and behaviour, and resorting unto him in any difficulty." "He keeps good correspondence with all the neighbouring pastors round him." "He welcomes to his house any minister, how poor or mean soever, with as joyful a countenance as if he were to entertain some great lord." "And he fulfils the duty and debt of neighbourhood to all the parishes which are near bim." He "The parson's library is a holy life." "The temptations with which a good man is beset, and the ways which he uses to overcome them, are in themselves a sermon. who hath considered how to carry himself at table about his appetite, if he tell this to another, preacheth; and much more feelingly and judiciously than he writes his rules of temperance out of books. So that having studied and mastered "The parson values catechising all his lusts and affections within, highly.""In sermons, there is a and the whole army of temptations kind of state; in catechising, there without, he hath ever so many ser is an humbleness very suitable to mons ready penned as he hath vic. Christian regeneration." "He extories." "And though the temp acts of all the doctrine of the Cate- tations may be diverse in divers chism; of the younger, the very Christians, yet the victory is alike words, of the elder the substance. in all, being by the self-same SpiThose he catechiseth publicly; these rit." In the same way of other privately, giving age honour. He things, the instruction and comfort requires all to be present at cate- which he gets for himself, when he chising." "This practice he much tells it to others, becomes a sermon. commends to all his fellow-labour-He first preacheth to himself, and ers," the advantage of which con- then to others." sists in this, that at sermons and prayers, men may sleep or wander; not so when asked a question. This practice exceeds even sermons in teaching; but there being two things in sermons,-the one informing, the other inflaming; as sermons come short of questions in the one, so they far exceed them in the other." The parson knows well that if he act thus, he must be despised, because this hath been the portion of This hasty glance at the model which Mr. Herbert framed for his own imitation, it is hoped, may incite such clergymen as are unacquainted with it, to procure the little book which contains it. It will amply repay the cost.-The abstract of this work has occupied so much space that it will be convenient to reserve the sequel of the proposed account to another opportunity. (To be continued.) S. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. "This generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled." LUKE xxi. 32. THE instances mentioned by Mr. Vint (in his sermon lately published, on Luke xxi. 24, and 32, preached at the Jew's chapel) of the use of the word yéved by the Septuagint translators, in Lev. xxv. 41; Num. x, 30; Jer. viii. 3, and ch. x. 35, tend, I think, to support Mr. Mede's explanation, which Mr. Vint adopts. At the same time, those who, with Mr. Faber, think it probable that our Lord in this memorable prediction used the word must form a contrary conclusion. The 36th verse of the 23d of Matthew employs evidently the same phraseology, and, I think, is a paraljel passage. Verily I say unto you all these things shall come upon this generation." All these things, I take not only to signify, the guilt of those crucifixions, murders, and persecutions, amounting to that of all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, but also to indicate a judicial retribution in the same kind. Now, though the calamities, and the deaths by crucifixion and the sword, which befel the Jewish nation at the destruction of their temple and city, were unspeakably great, yet the massacres, exiles, and persecutions which that unhappy. people suffered, during so many succeeding generations, evidently proves, that the threatened woes were not restricted to one generation, but extended to the whole nation collectively considered, whilst persevering in their opposition to Christianity. The 39th verse, " Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say," &c., though spoken to the Jews then present, must be, I think, understood of a future national conversion and restoration, even as the warnings (ch. xxiv.), given by our Lord to his immediate disciples, were. undoubtedly designed by him for the benefit of those who were living and resident in Judea, when invaded by the Roman army. Mr. Vint, in addition to the passages cited from the Septuagint, alleges those in the New Testament, where our Saviour styles the Jews, a wicked and adulterous generation; which word adulterous, he contends, must signify a national defection; and I think they prove, as in Acts xiv. 16, Phil. ii. 15, and elsewhere, that the word yéved will sometimes admit of being rendered indifferently, nation*, or generation. It is not improbable that the Syriac word, employed by our Lord, had the like ambiguity; and if so, it suited a prediction, whose special and primary accomplish. ment was near, whilst it involved the very important promise of the pre servation of the nation, notwithstanding their unexampled and pro tracted sufferings; an event in which divine power has been so con spicuous, that its prediction could only be given from God. I observe in some Bibles the marginal refer ence to Matt. xxiv. 34. is, Jer. xxxi. 35, 36. I am, &c. TITUS. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. IN a former Number of your work. (vol. for 1810, p. 601) I noticed a query respecting Dr. Macknight's translation of Rom. i. 17, and I beg leave to propose to you a few remarks upon that important passaget. The grand object of Dr. Taylor, in his Key to the Romans, is to prove that justification by faith is treated of in the former part of the Epistle to the Romans, and another justification by works in the latter part of the Epistle. But, if I am correct in my view of this verse under consideration, it will make much to refute Dr. Taylor's scheme, which is not affected, but favoured by the new translation proposed by Hammond and Macknight. 1 observe, first, that there is a violence done by them to the text in the transposition of its words, in the former clause of the verse. Had the Apostle intended to express the sense which is proposed, would he not have inserted the words, is revealed, after the words, from (or, by) faith, and before the words, to faith? I think there is also a degree of violence in giving a different meaning to faith in one place, to that which it has in the other, when the words are so closely united. Secondly, I would not contend that the common translation of the latter clause, "The just shall live by faith," is certainly right. The original may, without violence, be rendered, "The just by faith shall live." I prefer, however, the common version. I will now endeavour to explain the passage in a way which shall do no violence to it, and in a way more near to the common version. I. "For therein is the righteous ness of God revealed."—" There is," says Hooker," a glorifying righteous ness of men in the world to come, as there is a justifying and sanctifying righteousness here. The righteousness, wherewith we shall be cloathed in the world to come, is both perfect and inherent. That whereby we are justified is perfect, but not inherent; that whereby we are sanctified is inherent, but not perfect." (Hooker's Discourse on Justification.) May we not then understand by the righteousness of God, here spoken of, all these three successive sorts of righteousness, which are all equally, and both in part and in whole, the gifts of God, and bestowed by his free grace, one sort as much as another? II." From faith to faith."-The natural and obvious meaning of these words is, from one degree of faith to another and higher degree of the same faith; as is proved at length, by Theophylact. Comp. Rom. vi. 19; John i. 16. Thus the sense of the whole clause would be, for therein are the successive righteousnesses of God obtained by a progressive faith, revealed. It is by faith that we obtain that imputed righteousness which justifieth the ungodly. Rom. iv. 5. It is by faith that we receive the righteousness of sanctifica tion, or spiritual life, working in our members, to do, as well as to will of God's good pleasure. (Gal. ii. 20; Rom. v. 2.) It is by faith, that we receive the righteousness of glorification. (Phil. iii. 9, 10.) III." As it is written, the justby faith shall live."-Were I to contend for the common version, the just shall live by faith, it would unavoidably follow, in correspondence to, and confirmation of my explanation of the foregoing clause, that the mean. ing of the passage is, that they who have been already made just by faith shall moreover, by the same, but improved faith, obtain everlasting life. But for the sake of argument, I admit the proposed amendment of the version, and argue from the words, the just by faith shall live. Now these words, whether considered in themselves, or in reference to the foregoing clause, seem to have a much higher meaning, than simply, that they who are really justified by faith shall belong to that cove nant which holds out, as attainable to those who enter into it, everlasting life. Is it not most natural and consistent, to understand the apostle as declaring, that they who are truly justified by faith have everlasting life. (John iii. 36, xi, 26.) Can less be meant by the words shall live, than of the spiritual life of sanctification, and of glorification? And is not this the very sense in which the Apostle, in Hebrews X. 38, 39, alleges this same passage from Habakkuk ? Does he not there assert, upon the authority of Habakkuk, that the just by faith alone shall be finally suved? Is it not, therefore, the most natural and consistent exposition of the whole verse to understand the Apostle as declaring, that therein are the successive righteousnesses of God, obtained by successive degrees of faith, revealed, as it is written, He |