The National Register.
London, England, 1808-10-09 00:00:00

OCT. 9.

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

api,ointed to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, in
the tiillage where you first drew your breath," &c. It; as
is coajectorable. this letter alluaed to his commencing ser-
mon, the clerical exertions of Mr. Jay are to be dated from
the dose of the year 1787. His labours seem to have been
immediately appreciated. " 0 blessed villages," exclaims
his enraptured teacher, " which were favoured with your
respective ministerial labours! 0 highly-favoured Marl-
borough, whose streets were then occasionally thronged
with them who went to and from the house of God, and
had their hearts filled with joy and gladness !" He had
iudeed taken care to enter upon preaching, in the words of
his more than-father, as a work of the lust importance.
Mr. Winter's conuexien with 'the Rev. Rowland Hill
enabled bun quickly to place his pupil where evangelical
talents would be most extensively estimated. Mr. Jay
appeired accordingly at Sorry Chapel, Black Friars'
!toad, during the summer of 1788. His preceptor, with
paternal solicitude, followed all his steps, with vigilance
so unremitting, with au afection so anxious, that I can-
not resist the pleasing task .of transcribing his counsels.
lf," he writes to Mr. Jay, July 29, 1768, 44 you really
have performed your appointment for Mr. Hill, I would •
advise you to attend to no further invitations, but leave •
London immediately. Come intothe country, to pray and
reflect; and wherever you go. set the picture of your
mortality before you, and consider that he who has
raised you can sink: you," &c. " What a noise
IMay 8, 1789) have you made in the world ! How many
eyes are upon you.—How many hearts fear for you !
how many envy you! &c. These are your best days,
make much of them; anti by your indifference to yourself,
and that holy negligence which is a bright ornament and
necessary to blunt the edge of even kind suspicion ; shew
that you can be popular without being proud. The church,
as well as the world, looks with a jealous eye upon the
young minister of the day ; and especially upon those who
ave no paternal property to support gay appearance."
Let every young candidate for the church, of whatever
denomination olcbristians, read and reflect on these im-
portant concluding admonitions.
Mr. Jay now became rapidly popular. He long since
settled at Bath, as Minister of Argyle Chapel, where his
hearers are both respectable and numerous. He has pub-
lished various Sermons, and a tract on Marriage. Ile is
married, and has children.
Easiness is the characteristic of this preacher. " God,"
to use the quaint but significant description of his precep-
tor, " has given him a tongue,- and an early commission to
" use it." his great excellence is, that his disposition
leads him to delight in the benevolent features of Chris-
tianity; whence he is persuasive rather than peremptory,
and excels in exhorting to repentance. If he is not a
Boanerges, he is a Barnabas : if he does not often alarm
and intimidate the sinner, yet he always consoles and
Strengthens the believer. His talCnts, indeed, arc pecu-
liarly calculated to interest minds susceptible of tender-
ness; and his labours are therefore particularly agreeable
to the female portion of his audiences. He is what may
be termed on amiable preacher.
The matter of his discourses is generally practical and
experimental. But he enumerates his divisions too often :
a custom -which, howeier it may assist the speaker, en-
cumbers his arrangement and tires his hearers. His
expressions are frequently quaint, as—" the example
of king Josiah of old" —44 We may say as one of old
did".----; and sometimes they border on vulgarity, as—
" being ready to strike the heart out of one's body"—
" the ordinance of preaChing seems to have swallowed up
the duty of prayer." • • .
His style, though deformed by many inaccuracies, is
pleasingly familiar. His address is simple, but insinuating.
iiis action, if not striking, has nothing ungraceful.
I should Id entirely admire the (idioms and clearness hisvOice, apparently in coptorinity with his system ..of
intercessieul •
IllatruCtion, it 'did not degenerate into peti-