PREFACE TO NUMBER IV. THE triangular men are endeavouring to make common cause with presbyterianism, to engraft their scheme of doctrine on that Church, to avail themselves of her reputation, power, and sanctions, and to stigmatise all opposition to their tenets as neither more nor less than opposition to the church. This ground is now rather preferred to the old and idle outcry of Arminianism! Several bold and successful sorties have been made, even some judicatories have been unfortunately influenced by rash and furious spirits. They have already got up their phrases and watchwords. The tessira has been sent round. "Such a man is a good Presbyterian," is a phrase well understood to convey all the properties and qualities of a spiritual triangle. But this expression imports something far beyond the limits of abstract doctrine, as the following number will show. 66 99 These gentlemen are mistaken. The Presbyterian church in America is never to become a triangular pyramid. It is not to be doubted that a clear majority in that body, and, I trust, a large majority are on the side of correct sentiments. The efforts which certain persons are making to curtail and suppress the right of private judgment, and bear down the truth, can neither endure the light of fair examination, nor the just abhorrence of a nation, which knows the price of her privileges. "They shall,” I trust, proceed no further, and their folly shall be manifest to all men.' The Hopkinsians are condemned as odious heretics, and as preaching doctrines which flatter the pride, and corroborate the corruptions of the human heart. The object of the following number is to show that preachers may soothe the pride, flatter the vanity, and cherish the corruptions of their hearers, and yet never preach Hopkinsian doctrines. That this is done by many who lay such imposing and obtrusive claims to orthodoxy-that it is essential and radical to their scheme of doctrine, as well as to their manner of preaching, I have the fullest assurance: and if the reader do not, in the following remarks, recognise traits with which he is familiar, I will allow him to doubt of their correctness. These men, for it is precisely the same class, are endeavouring to bring our judicatories into the tedious, perplexing, and endless formalities of civil courts, to adopt their technical phrases, their doctrines of precedents, their rules of evidence, their doctrines of appeals, and their whole modus operandi, by which it must often happen, perhaps through some trifling informality, that proceedings are varied or arrested, justice is delayed, its rights perverted, or entirely contravened. And if the ministers of Christ are not liable to forget themselves in this immense and accumulating mass of judicial formalities and legal subtleties, rendered oppressive and importunate by conflicting interests, supported by opposition of talents and parties; if they do not lose the gentleness and benevolence, the meekness and sincerity, the integrity and firmness, which belong to their character-and if, when long surrounded by the appearance, they do not, at length, adopt the manners, the arts, intrigues, and corruptions of civil courts, with more latitude of perversion, because checked by laws less particular-with more pride and arrogance, because protected by an external badge of humility, and with less regard to truth, because in a wider field of construction-then perhaps there is no danger ; and neither argument, expostulation, or sarcasm, are necessary. No. IV. A GOOD PRESBYTERIAN. THIS is surely a most desirable article. For every thing to be good according to its kind, would be "a consummation devoutly to be wished," both in the natural and moral world. For every handicraftsman to be a good mechanic-every one who commands a vessel to be a good navigator-every agriculturist a good farmer-every clerk a good accountant-every member of the national counsels a good statesman-every clergyman a good preacher, and every professor of religion a good christian, would have a happy influence on the welfare of society. But I often hear the phrase, a good presbyterian, used with an air of significance, with certain intonations of voice, and expressions of countenance, which seem to indicate something bordering on an occult meaning. To come plainly to the point, this is a phrase almost exclusively belonging to the triangular scheme. I have seldom heard it used but by gentlemen of that order, or as an echo from them, or in some allusion or reference to that source. It surely cannot be but that there must be many good presbyterians out of the triangle; if by good is intended the common import of that term, that is, they are presbyterians in sentiment, and good men; but whether they are good presbyterians, with a nod of the head, with a little flexure of the cervical muscles to the left shoulder, an approximation of the eyebrows, and a curl of sentiment, half mystery, and half threat, descending to the upper lip, the reader may be better able to determine in the sequel of this number. Among the rhetorical characteristics of this phrase, perhaps, I ought to have said it is usually pronounced with an emphasis on the word presbyterian, and a strong accent on the antipenultimate syllable te. Since the words virtue, and disinterestedness, and holiness, and charity, and morality, fare so badly among them, I am heartily glad to have them so thoroughly adopt one good term and I am not unwilling to allow them the merit of being good presbyterians, as far as I have evidence to believe they are good men. I have been at some pains to discover the true technical import of this phrase; and to discover all its meaning is not the work of a moment. Dictionaries or encyclopædias are of no use; for the terms are used to convey an import entirely remote from their lexicographic definition. It reminds me of some astronomical discoveries which have been made by a long course of observation, in which patience, vigilance, and perseverance alone, could arrive at the desired end. The process necessary to the discovery is something like a physician carefully watching the diagnostics of a lingering disease, in order that he may thereby arrive at its remote and approximate causes, and the indications of cure. With what success I have pursued this subject, the reader will certainly judge for himself, but I suspect I have nearly completed the work, and I shall immediately lay before the world the result of my observations. One thing, however, must be premised: This phrase relates entirely to clergymen. As for a layman, all that is wanted of him is to be a good ministerial man; which is a different affair from being a good presbyterian; though in its place not much less important. The term good, even in this minor phrase, has no relation to moral goodness, of course, since no such thing is known in all the triangular regions. But if I am able to succeed to my mind in the present article, I may perhaps give the reader a small number on the qualifications of the good ministerial layman. A good presbyterian, then, is a clergyman possessed of the following qualifications: 1. He is thoroughly opposed to metaphysics; I mean metaphysics according to the triangular scheme. Let no reader start at this assertion, and conclude it to be extravagant-not even the good presbyterians themselves-for I think I can bring its truth home to every man's conscience who is capable of reflection, and possesses a good memory. They have the best reasons in the world for this aversion. Metaphysical subjects are nothing but dry, curious argumentations, and if sometimes true, always useless. And why should they trouble their hearers with nice and tedious arguments? People are never the better for being logicians; they do not want to reason-they only want to believe. In allusion to this, therefore, they seldom ever speak of christians under any other appellation than "believe rs." And surely it is a term used in the Bible. They have a far better and more instructive method of filling up their sermons than by arguments. They prove their points by scripture; and I have often heard several whole pages of scripture brought to prove that the soul of man is immortal-that his body must die—that there is a future state, &c. the assembly as feels better satisHe must prove it It is of no consequence if every person in firmly believes the point as the preacher. He fied to make his work strong as he goes on. and he does prove it—and that is not metaphysics. If he takes this text, "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble," he will, perhaps, 1st, Show what is implied in being born of a woman; 2d. What is implied in being of few days; and 3d. What is implied in being full of trouble. All those points he will prove by an abundance of scripture, without any mixture of metaphysics; and that surely is preaching out of the Bible, is it not? I can safely declare, that I never in my life heard one of your real" good presbyterians" trouble or puzzle his audience with an elaborate metaphysical argument; unless the proving of a long string of commonplace topics, by a still longer string of texts of scripture, can be called such. And I leave it for the reader to judge, whether the good presbyterian's sermon, so managed, does not produce the best effect possible; for the more points he proves by scripture, the more will his audience think him mighty in the scriptures: and they cannot but say "this man has prodigious knowledge in the scriptures," Who ever read Euclid's demonstrations without a continual effort of mind? And for a preacher to come forward with arguments, no matter how clear his demonstrations, that will require a perpetual intensity of attention from his audience, is it |