The National Register. — London, England, 1813-06-06 00:00:00

JUNE 0. grt pulpit. No. I. (THIRD SERIES). Philosophy !--a name of meek degree, Embraced in token of humility By the lirond Sage, who, whilst he strove to hide, In that vain artifice reveal'd his pride ; Philosophy ! whom Nature had design 'd To purge all errors from the human mind, Herself misled by the philosopher, At once her prieu asid master, made us err! •••• CUURCHILL. REV. ALEXANDER FLETCHER, A. M. MINISTER oy NILES'S-LANE, MEETING-HOW; NEAR CANNON STREET. The reign of miscalled philosophy is now past. Scepticism has had its day, respecting both politics and religion, and men's minds are appeased. The calm is mercifully consequent on the storm. Ri fleeting on the scenes which have taken place, we shall, never finless, be better enabled to ascertain their causes,' and guard against the - A- recurrence. " A daring spirit of innovation, nutempered by humility and devotion, has been the distinguishing feature 6f the esent times. Whilst it coeflned itself to the exposure of the cor ruptions of religion and die abuses of power, it met with some de gree of countenance from the wise and good in all countries, who were ready to hope it was the instrument destined by Providence to meliorate the condition of mankind How great was the disap• pointmeut when they perceived that pretensions to philanthropy were, with many, only a mask assumed for the more successfill propagation of impiety and anarchy ! The season, however, was at length arrived when God was resolved to punish the impiety of a nation lulled in voluptuous ease, and dreaming of a philosophical miliennium ; as well as to avenge the blood of his servants, whose souls had for a century been incessantly crying to him from under the altar,"—those " mystical virgins of the Apocalypse, who fol• lowed the Lamb whithersoever he went, redeemed from among men, 'first fruits to God and the Lamb, and who overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and ►sy the word of Isis testimony." The hour of retri lmeton was t h us come. " And what nietbod did " God " employ for. this purpose? When he to whom vengeance belongs, when he whose ways are unsearchable, and whose wisdom is inexhaustible, proceeded to the execution of this strange work, he drew from his treasures a weapon he had never employed befbre. Resolving to make their punishinent as signal as their crimes, he neither let louse an inundation of barbarous nations, nor the desolating power s of thelilliVerSC:—lle neither overwhelmed them with earthquakes, nor visited them with pestilence. He summoned from among themselves a ferocity more terrible than either ; a ferocity which mingling in the struggle for liberty, and borrowing aid from that very refinement to which it seemed to be opposed, turned every man's hand against Isis neighbour, and sparing no age, nor sex, nor rank, till satiated with the ruin of greatness, the distresses of in• nocence, and 'the tears of beauty, it terminsted its career in the most unrelenting despotism." Such has beets the scourge of our times! " Our only security against similar calamities," adds the Rev. Robert Hall, In his Sermon entitled Reflections on War, ‘ 4 is a p eady adherence to religion; not the religion of mere form and pro fession, but that which has it, seat in the heart : 'not as it is mu tilated and debased by the refinements of a false philosophy, but as it exists; in all its simplicity and extent, in the sacred scriptures ; consisting in sorrow for sin, in the love of God, and in faith in a crucified Redeemer. If this religion revives and flourishes amongst tiq, we may still surmount all' our difficulties, and no weapon formed against us will prosper; if we despise or neglect it, no 1111- 111101 power can afford us protection." • Religion Was an affair with whiils the speculative philosophers ought nut in prudence to have meddled. Religion was above their • TIM NATIONAL RtnISTBR. ' 363 conception. Though they might cobble states, they never could mend hearts. Hence, while they threatened her, ilia overwhelmed - them with shame. Reli,rion is natural to man, is necessary to him. and is inseparable from his condition. Religion affords us an Eden in the moral wilderness. The true superiority of our religion seems most evident in the promulgation of it. When has it not pleased God by the foolish ness of preaching to confound the wisdom of the most wise? How is this? Not by might, humanly speaking, nor by choice. Evi dently, then, ever since the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the recep. tion of the Comforter, (promised by the Redeemer before his ascension!) on the day of Pentecost, that Spirit of Truth, then vouchsafed to the Church, whose office it is to " present the mys. teries of salvation in so penetrating and transforming a manner as to render them vital principles," has invarisbly sown and matured the seeds of Christianity. It was this Spirit which gave assured• ness to Peter, made Stephen faithful unto death, and rendered Paul, although he had consented to the stoning of that martyr, the most distinguished Champion of our Religion, which he also sealed with his blood ! Apostles were not alone entitled to the outpourings of this divine Spirit; the christian commission was not only aposto- Heal, but ministerial. It is the same Spirit, therefore, that still attends the Ambassadors of Christianity, whenever duly accredited, throughout the world. This promise is to them, and to those who Shall labour after them, in the spiritual vineyard, even to the ele. veuth lour. Lt .t them thus work, while it is day. The Revered ALEXANDER FLETCHER, A. M. appears to have be,'u etsdnellt with much of that spirit which imparted even to the apostles " an unction, a fervour, a boldness, to which they were at first strangers;" and without which, " however intrinsically ex. cellent," the great truths of our most holy religion 4 6 will be to us mere dead speculation, an inert mass." Having been invited from Scotland, and his ministry foiled ac ceptable in 'town, Mr. Fletcher was, towards the close of the year 1810, admitted to the Pastoral Charge of the Scots Church in Miles's Lane, near Cannon-street. This church was formerly under the case of the Rev. Dr. Addington, and had fallen into decay, internally as well as externally ; but it bas happily revived duritig the short period of Mr. Fletcher's pastorship, and, should his life be spared to seems - likely to he the crown of his ministerial labours. Added to qualifications of a far superior kind, Mr. Fletcher may be pronounced, without the risk of dispute, an highly animated and deeply impressive preacher Although his discourses are evidently' • tudied with great care, and arranged with precision, although rhe torically constructed and logically elongated, the habit of learning them, common to the clergy of his country, enables him to preach with the fluency of extemporaneons eloquence. Of this excellence be displayed a consummate proof in hix recent Sernwd before the Missionary Society, which, though it was written for the press, and open before him, he delivered, apparently, almost from meiitory, but with an ease and naturalness that are supposed W belong exclusively to the extemporary speaker. • _ _ Drilled as it were by the discipline of a northern_ education into habits of severe reasoning, Mr Fletcher may not be aware that his ratiocination at times becomes burdensome to the mind of the hearer. It really demands an effort, beyond the ordinary stretch of retention, to bear in memory a sermon consisting of font heads, split again into four, and making, on the whole, sixteen divisions ; Let him early eschew, then, the unprofitable practices of those who still perplex the simpler class of auditors' ' With subtitties on subtilties refinid, ' Meant to divide and ,übdivide the wind!' Believing him to be sincere in his great work, the cure of sours; it is matter of regret to find, considering his ability and impre , sion, that his strength is scarcely equal to his day,--that bodiy indispo sition has al-eady compelled him to limit his ministerial exertions, and circa iuseribed the sphere of his utility. Still the spirit is linj : the gc , th is we4k ONESIMUS4 A I