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27, et passim;) more invulnerable to just impeachment of contradictory statements in the pulpit and even in the same sermon, nay, of dealing in contradictions and paradoxes-and it is no proof at all that a thing is false or contemptible in the way of censure that a sinner says it, fas est et ab hoste doceri; more devoted, prayerful, and united; more one in sentiment, in soul, and in action, as nothing but the Scripture ever will instrumentally make us :-what might our thousands of preachers not achieve, in extending the reign of the heavens over our total population? By the ungrudged and ready blessing of God Almighty, our own God, HE WOULD DO ALL, AND WE COULD DO ALL! and this nation would be revolutioned to "truth and soberness," grace and salvation. "One should chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight." The centres of influence would be touched, and their dependent circles moved, in homage to the name of JESUS; and the influences of conversion to the world would radiate in ten thousand forms from the American continent! With all the faults of Presbyterians, and with all my faults, I am a Presbyterian. The common enemy honours us as one with his indiscriminate hatred. He accuses us of doing all the good; and Providence may yet use him to convince us of the necessity of union! But this union, to be lasting or desirable, must be in truth and for the holy ends of "the kingdom of heaven" alone. Partyism must be viewed as sin; ambition as treason against the Holy Ghost; and human authority every where postponed to the supremacy of the word of God. The Bible must be more studied, honoured, expounded. Interpretation must be the monarch of theological reasoning; evidence the light of his throne; demonstration the medium of his sway; and divine legitimacy, unusurped, the strength and stability of his government, forbearance must be mutually exercised, and that to the farthest limit of ability or endurance; "Jesus Christ became a human God, that we might become divine men." We must learn to garner up only the virtues of others and the faults that are our own. Denunciations, suspicions, manoeuvrings, must be religiously foregone. Liberality of feeling and sentiment, fulness and freedom of discussion, courtesy and gentleness of manners, must mark our reciprocal intercourse. No man, however old or conspicuous or venerable, must set up himself for a judge, a standard, or a sentinel. There must be no

*I speak of Presbyterian ministers generically, as not confined to our de.

nomination.

There must

heresy-hunters, no disorganizers, no innovators. be sound Catholicism, latitude of thought, interchange of views. The discipline of the Church must not be handled with officiousness, or brandished in menace, or despised with impunity. Union must be desired, kindness manifested, and A UNIVERSAL REVIVAL OF RELIGION prayerfully and practically sought. Prayer must be more practised in secret by the ministry themselves, and its fruits more exemplified in all their deportment. Youth must abstain from forwardness, and age from usurpation. Ignorance must not be positive, nor learning dictatorial. Goodness must become more the criterion of worth than greatness or station; and HOLINESS TO THE LORD must be written-and ours is the responsibility to write it, each for one--on the principles and the actions of every individual.

New York, August, 1831.

SAMUEL H. COX.

ART. IV.-REMARKS ON DR. COX'S COMMUNICATION.

We have departed from the established usage of periodical works in admitting the communication of Dr. Cox. For this departure, as well as on account of the character of the article in question, we owe some explanation to our readers. This is the more necessary, as we are not willing to be considered as now setting a precedent, which shall render it in any degree incumbent on us, to publish the rejoinders of all who may wish to appeal from the decisions of this Review, to the judgment of the public. There is an evident propriety in those who feel constrained to make such an appeal, choosing some other vehicle for the purpose. We have already been requested to give up a large part of a number of the Repertory to a vehement attack on the validity of our own ordination. Our Baptist brethren may think it reasonable to request us to assail infant baptism, in their behalf; and in short any man, no matter what his sentiments, might, on this principle, employ us as the means of advocating his cause before the public. There was the less ground for the present application, as Dr. Cox does not pretend that he has been unfairly dealt with. He has no wrongs to redress. By his own admission, his doctrines were fairly presented and kindly discussed.

If it be asked, why then we have inserted the Dr's. communication, in violation of a general and s lutary usage? we have only to say, we were desirous of manifesting to him the sincerity of the kind feelings and confidence, which we had expressed; and that we really wished ourselves to know, and let our readers know more fully what views were entertained by the Dr. and others, on the subject to which the sermon and review relate. It was mainly on these grounds, in the exercise of the responsible sovereignty which all editors possess over their own pages, that we informed Dr. Cox of our willingness to admit his reply to our review, provided its contents should present no insuperable objection. We confess, however, when we came to read the expected article, we were a good deal staggered. Instead of a calm and instructive discussion of an important doctrinal subject, we found a series of the most extraordinary subsultations it has ever been our lot to witness. Under some of the more violent paroxysms, we saw that he was carried, at times, beyond our comprehension, and at others beyond the limits of becoming reverence for his subject. We found he had availed himself of this opportunity of setting himself right with the public, on an indefinite variety of points; of answering way-side remarks of critics on his sermon; of counteracting all rumours of his desire to leave "the See of Laight Street;" of giving side-hints to all classes of dissentients from his views and measures; of drawing the portraiture of men and parties, and in short, of careering, in the joyous consciousness of freedom from all logical trammels, over the whole field of things actual or possible. Still, as the victims of the Chorea Sancti Viti, in the multitude of their movements, do sometimes hit on those which are graceful and forcible, so, Dr. Cox, under the influence of the singular mental chorea to which he is subject, is not unfrequently interesting and striking. It is for the sake of these instances of the excellent in his address, and for the opportunity which it affords of remarks on several topics, that we concluded to give our readers the mingled pleasure and pain, the perusal of the article referred to must occasion.

Our opinion of its manner is perhaps already sufficiently indicated. We would only remark further on this point, that Dr. Cox seems in this matter very unfortunately circumstanced. For him to cast aside all that is out of the ordinary way as to style and method, would be to renounce his individuality as a writer or speaker, and to divest himself of the

What

very thing, which now excites attention and secures notoriety. And yet, it is obvious that the peculiarities of his ma: ner may, and in fact have already, become so prominent as to constitute almost its whole character. Hence it is rare that his readers trouble themselves with what he says; their attention is engrossed in witnessing his feats at diction. This is a serious evil; but it is one which might be corrected. Dr. Cox, when filled with his subject and anxious to carry a point in a deliberative assembly, is capable of speaking after the manner of men, and that too, with great force and directness. magic influence there is in a pen that it should send him off like a rocket, whizzing, scintilating and exploding in thin air, we do not know, and very much lament. The fact is, however, that there is as great a difference between Dr. Cox in debate and Dr. Cox with a pen in his hand, as between a piece of artillery and a piece of fire-works. There is danger, too, of constantly carrying the peculiarities to which we have referred to greater lengths; because there is pleasure in the exercise of almost all kinds of power; and it is evidently a source of much gratification to Dr. Cox to be able to execute sentences, which no other performer on the language would think of attempting. His friends, therefore, see with regret his fondness for the wonderful in style growing upon him. However much some other productions of his pen may have been admired, we think the one before us must, in many of its parts, be regarded as his chef d'œuvre, in its way.

There is another prominent feature of the Dr.'s manner as a writer, his profuse use of Latin phrases. We are not disposed to refer this to pedantry, but to that fondness for aptness, and taste for the unusual, which govern him. With a tenacious memory such phrases adhere to the mind, and without effort suggest themselves as the fittest vehicles for its ideas. But though it is easy for such a man to retire from "the feast of languages" well laden "with the scraps," he should remember that scraps are poor fare for other people, especially when they constitute so large a portion of all they get. As Dr. Cox loves frankness we trust he will not be offended with the foregoing exhibition of it.

With regard to the spirit of his communication, we have no complaint to make. On the contrary, we thank him for the kind feelings which he expresses towards the conductors of this work, which it gives us sincere pleasure cordially to reciprocate. We readily make this acknowledgment as to

the general spirit of the piece, although we think there is a grievous ad invidiam tendency pervading the greater part of it. What there is of argument in it, is entirely of this character. This offensive and mischievous characteristic, however, does not appear to arise from a deliberate, much less a malignant desire to cover those who differ from him with odium, but from an overweening complacency in his own peculiar opinions and measures, which to a lamentable extent perverts and narrows his views. The justice of these remarks, we fear, will too clearly appear in the sequel.

It is not our purpose to enter anew on the consideration of "regeneration and the manner of its occurrence." For this, the piece under remark, furnishes no apology. No one of our positions has been presented, much less discussed; Dr. Cox leaves the matter just where he found it; and there we shall leave it. Nor do we intend to follow the writer through the various mazes of his course, but simply to select a few from the numerous subjects around which he has corruscated, as the topics of a few remarks.

I. The first point to which we wish to refer for a moment, is the complaint, that we had no right to consider his discourse as an attack on Old School Calvinism. This, he says, is a gratuitous assumption, and asks, "What right, brethren, had you to feel aggrieved?" In the subsequent part of the piece, he tells us candidly, that his object in the preparation and publication of his discourse, was to destroy at one stroke, the very foundation of the objection of sinners to the duty of immediate repentance, and to stop the mouths of those who encouraged them in their cavils and delay. If, therefore, we did not justify the ground taken by sinners, we did not come within the scope of his remarks; and, consequently, as he was not acting the part of a partizan, we had no business to assume a foreign quarrel, and, by appearing to act on the defensive, to secure an undue advantage before the public. He seems to labour under a misapprehension, however, in supposing that we regarded him as acting as a party man in this affair. We distinctly stated, "Dr. Cox pins his faith to no man's sleeve, and is the follower of no party," p. 267. What more could he wish on this point. His avowed and laudable object in publishing his sermon, is perfectly consistent with every thing we have said of it. In prosecuting this object, however, he was led, as we believe, to commit great injustice. He stated, that to maintain that men are passive in

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