"I. We learn from the account which the Evangelist St. Luke gives of this transaction, that Moses and Elias, who appeared unto the Apostles, talking with our Saviour, 'spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Hence we may conclude, that one object of this transaction, was to impress on his disciples the certainty of the event, which they were so reluctant to believe, the decease of their Master, his sufferings and death at Jerusalem. "Reluctant indeed were they to receive these humiliating truths. In common with their blind and sensual countrymen, they drew a picture of the Messiah, only from those parts of the prophetic writings, which exhibited him as the Prince and Ruter of Israel, a King coming in the majesty and power of his father David, to achieve deliverance for his people, and to establish, as they supposed, the temporal dominion of Israel over all the earth. They never suffered the lustre of this picture, so flattering to their national pride, and so gratifying to their ambition, to be darkened by shades drawn from those parts of the prophecies, which represented this glorious and conquering Messiah, as a man of sorrows, smitten, wound ed, bruised; led as a lamb to the slaughter, and making his grave with the wicked. Slow of heart, therefore, were they to believe Christ, who claimed to be their Messiah, when he told them of his sufferings, that by wicked hands he should be taken, crucified, and slain.' Whenever this gloomy scene was opened to them, their language, directly or impliedly was, "That be far from thee, Lord; this shall not happen to thee. But when the three disciples heard Moses, their revered lawgiver, and Elias, the chief among their prophets, talk with their Master, not concerning his power, his victories, his triumphs, but his decease at Jerusalem,' they could no longer doubt that both the law and the prophets had decreed that the Messiah should suffer, should be cut off for the sins of the people II. Not only were the disciples thus convinced of the certainty of the death of Christ; but by the exhibition of his glory at his transfiguration, they were reconciled to this event. "Was it a humiliating reflection, that their Messiah, their Deliverer, and King, should suffer an ignominious death? Did the scandal of the cross offend them? Unreasonable must these feelings have appeared, when they found that persons so glorious, and who stood so high in their estimation as Moses and Elias, instead of being disgusted or offended at the contemplated sufferings of Christ, selected them as the subjects of their conversation with him on the Mount. The splendid change also which they beheld in his person, must have tended to elate and to gratify them; and thus to reconcile them to his sufferings. For they must naturally have concluded, that a personage who thus interested heaven in his behalf; whom celestial lustre encircled; whom the voice from the cloud of glory hailed, "This is my beloved Son;' could never be crushed by calamity; but that he would submit for a time to suffer, only that he might finally conquer, and that his glory might burst more resplendent from the gloom, which for a while over cast it. "III. In the events of the transfiguration, re behold also a striking attestation both of the Divine mission, and of the Divinity of Christ. "Moses and Elias would never have been permitted to visit the earth, to hold converse with an impostor. Had Christ falsely pretended to be sent from God, instead of being surrounded with the effulgence of divine glory, we should have expected to see him smitten with the lightning of heaven; instead of the voice from the most excellent glory proclaiming him to be the Son of God, begotten and beloved of the Father, the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, we should have expected to hear the thunder of Divine vengeance bursting upon him. Moses and Elias coming from the abodes of the blest, to hold converse with Christ; his glorious transfiguration by the power of God; the voice from the cloud, saying This is my beloved Son;' all these strikingly prove the Divine mission, and Divinity of Jesus. They were those signs from heaven, which, distinct as a species of evidence both from miracles and prophecy, concur with these in establishing the Divine claims of Jesus of Nazareth. These were facts of which those were eye-witnesses, who, in opposition to every worldly motive, sealed their testimony to them with their blood; and which testimony we have displayed in those writings, which every age has revered as a record of the life and actions of Christ and his Apostles," The author proceeds to show, that the transfiguration also afforded a display of the glory of Christ as the Judge of the world; that it tended to establish the im mortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and the final rewards of the righteous, to show the mild spirit of the Gospel dispensation, and to establish the supreme claims of its author, in whom were fulfilled the law and the prophets, to homage and obedience. But into the particulars of these sections we cannot enter. It is impossible for us to follow the learned author minutely through so much as one of his very numerous discourses; for they are all, if not of equal, yet certainly of similar importance; and we cannot properly attempt more than to give specimens both of his matter and his style. We proceed therefore now to transcribe a few of those particular passages, which may serve, in a short compass, to display his eloquence; though so many pages present themselves to our notice, that we must confess we find much diffi culty in the selection, The "delay of repentance" is so common a subject for the pulpit, that it must be to the language alone we must look for any peculiar force or novelty of expression. The following has struck us as particularly animated and good. "But should God, in his infinite mercy, vouchsafe to you the gracious admonitions and aids of his Holy Spirit; and, notwithstanding a perverse continuance in sin, keep alive those sensibilities to goodness, those apprehensions of Divine justice, those desires for the Divine favour, which at some future periodmay urge you in earnest to return to him; yet consider the magnitude of the work to be performed, and you will be satisfied how much delay increases the difficulty of performing it. The business of salvation is too important to be allotted to a short portion of our time; it should engross our life. Not merely to shed over the recollection of our guilt the tears of sorrow, and in contrite confession to implore mercy; but utterly to forsake and renounce our sins: not merely with superficial and occa sional homage to address Jesus Christ as our Saviour; but to embrace him in all his offices, with an enlightened and steadfast faith. Not merely to abstain from some of the grosser acts of sin; but to be purified from all iniquity: not merely to exhibit the exterior of decorum, but to be renewed in the spirit of our minds.' Not merely to observe some of the commandments and ordinances of God; but to walk in all his commandments and ordinances blameless. Not merely to obtain the mastery over some one sinful passion; but to 'crucify them all. Not merely to display some one virtue; but to exhibit all the graces of the Spirit; to add to our faith virtue, and knowledge, and temperance, and patience, and godliness, and brotherly kindness, and charity. Not merely to perform occasionally some one deed of piety or mercy, but to abound in all the fruits of righteousness. This is the work of the Christian; a work immensely great in itself, and rendered more difficult from its opposition to many powerful propensities of our nature, and to the temptations which constantly assail us in the world. "It is a warfare in which the most formi-lable enemies must be overcome, to gain a triumph. It is a race in which every power of the soul must be incessantly and vigorously excit d, to obtain the prize. The triumph cannot be gained, nor the prize won, but by courage, resolution, watchfulness, zeal, perseverance. And is this a work to be delayed? a work which requires the whole period of a life; is it to occupy only a portion, and that perhaps only a small portion of it? a work which requires the exertion of all our faculties in their highest vigour; shall it be deferred to the time of sickness or old age? The period of sickness and old age, when sinking nature requires to be enlivened by the hopes, and fortified by the consolations of religion; is that the period in which the soul can sustain the sorrows and pangs of repentance? when her powers are enfeebled by infirmities of the body, her decaying companion, and by long continued exertion; is that the time to engage in the high exercises of faith? in a contest with those temptations, which, from having often seduced us, have become our masters; with those pas sions, which often indulged, have usurped dominion over us? Alas! fatal may prove this delay. The business of salvation is the business of the present moment: postpone it, it may never be performed." P. 378-380. There is no object more common in the pulpit than "the resurrection of the dead," and yet the following passage seems to us to be powerful and original. "The resurrection of the dead is not then impossible. The analogy of nature and reason renders it probuble. “All nature exhibits a resurrection. The glorious luminary of the day sinks into the night of the grave, and again rises to run his joyous race. Summer hastens, to bury her luxuriance in the cold sepulchre of winter. Nature dies, and is entombed. But again she lives, and grows, and flourishes, and sheds forth her beauties in the morn of spring. The seed that is sown in the earth, rots, and apparently perishes; but it revives, and sends forth its vigorous shoots, yielding sustenance, diffusing fragrance and delight. And is man, the noblest of the works of God, to know no resurrection? Is the sun of his being never to rise from the night of the grave? Are his joys extinguished in the gloom of winter, never to feel the reviving freshness of spring? And less favoured even than the seed that is cast into the earth? Is his mortal part never to escape from the embrace of corruption? There is no consistency in nature, no consistency nor justice in its Author, if there be not a resurrection of the dead. "For why should he connect with a soul that is to live for ever, a body which so soon perishes, and lives not as long as that of many of the beasts of the field? Why should he have connected this body with the soul, by ties so intimate and tender, that the agony of death only can rend them asunder, if the separation is to be for ever? And why is the body, which has shared with the soul her joys and sorrows, and has been the instrument of her virtues and her vices, for ever to leave its spiritual companion the moment she is entering that final state of being, where her virtues are to be re warded in the perfection of her joys, and her vices to be punished in the filling up of the measure of her sorrows? The analogy of reason and nature seems to require, that the body, like the soul, should live for ever. "But what the nature of the thing, and the knowledge and power of God, prove possible; what the analogy of reason aud nature suggests to be probable, revelation renders certain. Open those oracles which God has given as a light to our footsteps through this vale of darkness, as our guide to the bright scenes of a future world; and we shall find the truth so triumphant and consoling, that our corruptible shall put on incorruption, and our mortal immortality, confirmed beyond the possibility of doubt. It was this prospect of a glorious resurrection that shed the beams of joy, or the shades of sorrow, that enveloped the afflicted Job. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin, worms detroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.' "With the hope of a resurrection, Isaiah consoled the afflicted people of Israel. Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise; awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of the herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead.' "By the mouth of the prophet Hosea-—” But we must stop; it is impossible to pursue the matter further with any justice to the author; for the whole sermon cannot be transcribed; and our object in the present extracts is merely to show, that upon subjects the most common to the pulpit, the language of the learned professor has in it feeling, energy, and Auency. We must hasten to the second volume, which is entirely appropriated to the high est doctrines of Christianity, in sermons for Easter, Whitsunday, Trinity-Sunday, and Christmas. After the ninth sermon, indeed, as we are told in a short advertise ment, "All that follow, with the excep. tion of the last, relate to the doctrine of the Trinity generally, and particularly to the personality and offices of the Son and Holy Ghost, as set forth in the Nicene creed," p. 131. And we think we may safely say, there are few discourses ex. tant, in which these sublime mysteries are treated in a more misterly manner. The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth sermons in particular, on "the Son, the Creator and Ruler of the worlds," on "the Word," and of "Christ in the form of God," are exceedingly impressive. We shall select one of these discourses, as a specimen of the learned bishop's talents in the bandling of such important points; and we shall fix on the fourteenth, it being almost a paraphrase of that extraordinary passage of Scripture, the commencement of St John's Gospel, i. 1-14. This section he divides into the following distinct parts, as subjects for discussion. The person spoken of, who is Jesus Christ. His pre-existence from all eternity. The title, bestowed on him, and the declarations concerning him, establishing his divinity. The exercise of his divine power in the Creation of the world. The testimony to his incarnation. His divine glory and his exalted offices. The blessings which he bestows. The learned author observes, that the Consideration of so many particulars in the compass of a single discourse, must necessarily be brief. Nevertheless there is not one of them, on which he has not made some pertinent and important remark, not merely illustrative of the meaning of the Evangelists as understood by ourselves, but in reply to the strange perversions of Socinians and Unitarians. We shall advert chiefly to that point, which is selected as the particular title of the sermon itself, "The WORD." "In this passage," (says the author, p. 208) there is a person spoken of, and this person is Jesus Christ. "It certainly would not occur to any reader of this passage of Scripture, who had not a favourite theory to support, that by the term translated the WORD), was denoted not a person, but merely an attribute of the Deity; his infinite wisdom, that perfection of reason which distinguishes the supreme and eternal cause of all things. And yet this opinion has been ad vanced by some of the opposers of Christ's di vinity. They generally however admit, that by the Word, in the original, the Logos, is person; and that this person is Jesus Christ. meant not an attribute of Deity, but a distinct This construction is indeed the dictate of common sense; for the WORD is represented as existing, as possessing attributes, as performing operations. The Word was the Word was God;' the Word was life;' by the Word all things were made;' the Word came' into the world to his own;" 6 was made flesh, and dwelt among us.' These modes of expression prove that the Word was a person. And if a person, none deny that by the Word is meant Jesus Christ, of whom John came to bear witness, and to whom the Apostle obviously applies in this chapter, all that he has said of the Word. 6 "The Word then being a person, and this person Jesus Christ, we deduce from this passage the pre-existence of Christ from all eternity. For the Apostle says, 'In the beginning was the WORD. The phrase in the beginning,' does sometimes denote the commencement of the ministry of Christ; as where it is said, 'Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not,' John vi. 64. But how annatural and forced the Socinian construction, which considers the expression, In the beginning was,' as denoting, In the com mencement of his ministry, or of the Gospel dispensation, Jesus Christ was.' Does not the Apostle, throughout the whole passage, speak of a time previously to the commencement of his ministry, when all things were made by him,' when the world was made by him, when he came into the world?" "It must be evident that the Apostle, who was a Jew, writing for the information of his countrymen, when he used a term known to them, would employ it in the sense in which they understood it. Now it is a fact, not admitting of dispute, and which has been estabfished by reference to Jewish Commentators, that the title, the WORD,' was used by them to denote a divine person. They affirm of this word of the Lord, the titles, attributes, and acts, which they attribute to Jehovah, and consider him as the Messiah. The Evangelist St. John therefore, employing the same title, must have used it in the same sense in which it was understood by the Jews: and therefore apply ing this term to Christ, he designed to establish his divinity. "We see then the fallacy of the assertion made by the opponents of Christ's divinity, that the Evangelist borrowed this appellation, the Word,' from heathen writers. The Platonic school of philosophy, indeed, held a Trinity of persons in the Godhead, and styled the second person the Logos, or Word. But so far from the Evangelists having derived this appellation from the Platonic writers, it must be traced from them to that more ancient school, whence both they and the Evangelists derived its applieation the school of the Jewish comnientators; many of whom flourished before the age of Platonic philosophy. The mystery of the Trinity, and the divine Logos or Word, did not arise from the mystical reveries of Platonism. It was the faith of the Old Testament, of the ancient Jewish church; and the Evan gelist St. John, in applying to the Messias the term Logos, or Word, used a term well known to his countrymen, to denote a divine person, and that person the Messias." "The incarnation of the WORD is an other of those sublime truths set forth in this passage. The Word was made Aesh'-incomprehensibly united to our whole nature, soul as well as body; 'flesh,' signifying by a figure which puts a part for the whole, our entire nature. Truly God, and not according to the Arian doctrine, God only in an inferior and subordinate sense, he became perfectly, and not according to the Apollinarian heresy, only in appearance, man. And man as well as God in intimate union; and not divided as the Nestorians maintained-and yet though both God and man in one person, the natures, though united, were yet not confounded; which was the Eutychian heresy. These were the heresies which, in the century immediately following the third century, assailed the truth which the Apostle declares concerning the incarnation of the Word; and against which the first four general councils of the Christian Church, with singular unanimity, maintained that doctrine which had been handed down from Apostles and Fathers, and which is embodied in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, and drawn out with great precision in the latter." We must confess we are always glad when such allusions as the above are made to the ancient heresies, in explanation of our two supplementary creeds, if we may so call them, the Nicene and the Athanasian, for they can only be vindicated, as they should be, from the cavils of the profane, by such references to the pages of ecclesiastical history, with which we are disposed to think, such cavillers, though they generally speak and write upon the subject with the most barefaced confidence, are very little acquainted. If aay person were disposed to amuse an English populace, by turning into ridicule any ancient profane composition, they might very possibly succeed, if they were totally to keep out of sight the history of the times, to which such composition might be said to bear a relation; and there is nothing of which we are more assured, than that that which is called the Athanasian creed, has suffered in this way. The Nicene is secure from such attacks, though still dependent on the history of the times in which it was composed; but even the Athanasian is exceedingly intelligible to those who are well versed in the history of the Arian, Apollinarian, Sabellian, Nestorian, and Eutychian heresies; though for those who know nothing about the latter, it may be very easy to make it appear contradictory, and even ridiculous; so easy indeed as to require no great share of wit or ingenuity-quite the contrary the caviller needs but a proper share of ignorance and impudence to obtain an apparent triumph over the orthodox; but an apparent triumph to those who make their appeal only to persons as ignorant and impudent as themselves, is as good as a real triumph. It is only the few who are capable of treading in the steps of our properly appreciate the true merits of very able transatlantic bishop, that can the case; he seems to understand the creeds as we understand them, having read what we have read, and knowing their precise history in regard to times and circumstances, as well as to the doctrines which they inculcate. We wish our limits would allow us to transcribe the fine conclusion of the ser mon we have taken in hand. But all the sermons are eloquent, even where they are learned, and though the points discussed are often such as might be expected al most to preclude the flights of genius. We shall conclude with a short abstract of the contents, to be collected from the heads or titles of the several discourses, amounting in all to as many as fifty-five, independent of the very learned disserta tion annexed, On the State of the Depart ed, &c. &c. In the first volume there are thirty-two discourses, adapted to the several Sundays, from Advent to Easter, including one, and certainly a very beautiful one, on the New-Year, a topic which is in some sort resumed in the two next sermons, on the true Estimate, Shortness, and Uncertainty of the present Life In these discourses the Coming of the Messiah, the Time of his Appearance, the calling of the Gentiles, and all the subjects, that may be held to be connected with the festivals of the Advent and the Epiphany, are ably handled, as pointe of doctrine, which every Christian should "know and believe to his soul's health." The Lent sermons, as might be expected, have more, to do with the moral duties of man, the necessity of repentance, and dangerous neglect of the Gospel-call to that indis, pensable qualification of a true believer. The Passion and Resurrection occupy the last six sermons in this volume, and are. certainly upon a par with all that precede them. The second volume resumes the subject of Easter, and continues the course of the church festivals and holy seasons to Trini ty-Sunday. It will be easily comprehended, that though the learned author may have had sufficient opportunity to express his own opinions upon the leading doc trines and duties of Christianity, he may not have been able to go so largely into the discussion of certain controverted points, as a writer of his acuteness and research might desire ; but we are almost tempted to say, that as far as he has gone, he has so fully satisfied our minds, as to make us conceive that every question has been thoroughly discussed He has, we think, in these two very valuable volumes, done enough most effectually to wipe away the aspersions to which he alludes in his preface, and which cannot be renewed, with any propriety, while Bishop Hobart continues to support the character which the publication of these discourses must, we conceive, abundantly secure to him. 1 the hope that it will prove both interesting and useful, we insert the follow. ing: An Inaugural Address delivered before the Medical Society of the county of New-York, on the 8th day of August, 1825. By JOHN ONDERDONK, President of the Society. GENTLEMEN, It is with much diffidence, yet with sentiments of unfeigned gratitude, that I accept the honourable office to which you have elected me. With diffidence, because I have not been accustomed to preside over public bodies; because I find on the list of your former presidents, those who have been among the most eminent and most distinguished of our profession; and because I see in our present circle, not a few who are making honourable advances towards the same distinction; and with gratitude, for your placing me in so high a seat of professional dignity in the first city in our land. With a great distrust of my ability to serve you in this exalted station, I feel, however, an entire confidence in your indulgent co-operation in promoting the usefulness of our society. On an occasion like the present, it might perhaps be expected that I should offer you some remarks professionally useful, or at least professionally entertaining; but, with me the ardour of youthful inquiry is past; and I have so long directed my medical studies and reflections into the one channel of practical utility, rather than into that of argument or disquisition, that I refrain from such topics. Allow me then to advert briefly to a different subject; one which should never be forgotten by us, and the importance of which strikes me with a deeper impression as I advance in years. I mean the religious character of our profession. The relief of misery and the remedy of pain, are the great practical objects of mercy; and a mercy no less than divine was engaged in this exalted function, for the eternal benefit of mankind. The same divine mercy condescended to minister to the temporal calamities of our nature, to those calamities which it is our business to assuage or remove. Hence we find the Saviour occupied in healing the sick and were his miracles counted, more of this kind would probably be found than of all others. In this fact we perceive the highest honour of our profession; and without detracting from the encomiums due to another profession which we hold in reverence, we may say of ourselves, that we are "fellow workers with God." We imitate the divine example in soothing misery, and removing pain; and we administer the "medicine" which God himself "giveth to heal their sickness.” If such is the honourable office we sustain under the supreme government of Providence, it seems but proper and consistent that we should feel the tie by which, not only personally, but professionally, we are bound to the Great Physician. The view of a skeleton, with all its admirable mechanism, converted an ancient member of our fraternity from atheism. In our day, we have a far more extensive development of the wisdom displayed in the human fabric, and of course a much stronger argument to avoid the error of the skeptic. But besides this, I would present to the physician of Christian feeling, the moral reflection to be drawn from the very nature of his duties, as one of the most touching arguments for the benignity of Him, of whose providence he is the agent. Nay, I would extend that argument from these lesser divine mercies, to the greater mercies which await the Christian, when disease and pain shall be no more. In the hope, gentlemen, that these remarks will not be accounted unprofessional, I now enter on the office you have assigned me, in the full trust that the kindness which has elevated me to this seat, will make allowance for any imperfections in the discharge of its duties. I trust also, that as we are associated not only by law, but by kindred professional feelings, and for the public good, our society will ever be . |