It will be objected, publick preaching has been perverted but it will be answered, as long as we have a standard it may be reformed to its original purity. The ark of Jehovah fell of old into the hands of heathens, who, having no dimensions or directions from the first artist, decorated it according to their own fuperftitious fancies, and in their great wisdom returned it to its owners, as if it had been a trunk of Dagon, accompanied with the glorious images of mice and morbid ulcers. (1)

Thus it has happened to all the ordinances of heaven. Prayer and preaching, baptifm and the Lord's fupper, have all fallen into the hands of bad men, and they have difguifed and difgraced them: but what is reformation, and what is proteftantifm? do they not include recovery and original purity? In regard to the pulpit, let us at least try to feparate indelicate human baubles from original workmanship, and to place the ecclefiaftical roftrum in that neat fimplicity of finished tafte, in which the divine artift firft commanded it to be made. Plainnefs in religion is elegance, and popular perfpicuity true magnificence.

The hiftory of the pulpit is curious and entertaining. It has fpoken all languages, and in all forts of ftyle. It has partaken of all the customs of the fchools, the theatres, and the courts of all the countries, where it has been erected. It has been a feat of wisdom and a fink of nonfenfe. has been filled by the best and the worst of men. It has proved in fome hands a trumpet of fedition,

(1) The Philistines took the ark of God. Imate them with emerods.

God

coffer.

It

and

But the Lord

And they fent back the ark of

with five golden mice, and five golden emerods in a 1 Sam. iv. 5, 6.

and in others a fource of peace and confolation: but on a fair balance, collected from authentick hiftory, there would appear no proportion between the benefits and the mischiefs, which mankind have derived from it, fo much do the advantages of it preponderate! In a word, evangelical preaching has been, and yet continues to be reputed foolishnefs but real wifdom, a wifdom and a power, by which it pleaseth God to fave the fouls of men (2)

With views of this kind (I fpeak in the fear of God, who fearcheth the heart.) and not to give offence to any, I collected and published the notes in the following effay. Alas! does a modern epifcopalian undertake the defence of every abfurdity exhibited to the world by every thing called in past times a bishop! Or fhall a modern non-conformift adopt all the weakneffes of every one, who was perfecuted out of eftablished communities! All other orders of men examine and reform themfelves; do men in black alone intend to render impropriety immutable and everlasting! I have exemplified the abfurdities, complained of by Mr. Claude, by the works of our ancestors, who are dead and gone, on purpose to avoid offending. Indeed, this was neceffary, for who alive has one pulpit impropriety to quote !

I defigned at firft to have added to these two a third volume of the fame fize, entitled, AN ESSAY TOWARD A HISTORY OF PUBLICK PREACHING. The matter was intended to be diftributed into

twenty

(2) The preaching of the cross is to them that perif foolishness. But it pleafed God by the foolishness of preaching to fave them that believe because the foolishness of God is wifer than men. 1 Cor. i.

twenty differtations, containing one with another twenty pages each, and entitled as follows:

I. The neceffity of fome divine revelation as a ground of divine worship.-II. The revelation given to Adam, compared with other pretended revelations.-III. The patriarchal ftate of preaching from Adam to Mofes.-IV. The state of preaching from Mofes to the captivity.-V. The ftate of preaching during the captivity.-VI. The ftate of publick tuition, from Ezra's time to the coming of Chrift, both in Judea and other provinces. VII. The ftate in which Chrift placed preaching.-VIII. The pulpit-ftate during the lives of the apoftles.-IX. The state of preaching during the first three centuries.-X. The ftate of preaching in the Greek church till the reformation. -XI. A view of the pulpit in the Latin church till the fame period.-XII. The ftate of preaching in Britain, from the most remote antiquity, and in Europe at the time of the reformation.XIII. The condition of publick inftruction in England, from the reformation till the death of Charles I.-XIV. The English pulpit during the civil war and the protectorate.-XV. A view of the pulpit from the acceffion of Charles II. to the revolution.-XVI. The pulpit in foreign churches, and in England, from the revolution to the end of the reign of George II.-XVII. The ftate of preaching among English, Danish, Popifh, and other miffionaries abroad, particularly in the East and West Indies.-XVIII. The prefent ftate of preaching in England among Roman catholicks, epifcopalians, moravians, methodists, prefbyterians, independents, baptifts, quakers, &c.. XIX. Juftification of thofe in all parties, who

SIMPLIFY

SIMPLIFY publick preaching, by reducing it to its original standard of doctrine, language, and other properties.-XX. Survey of the whole, tending to prove the free and fimple preaching of the pure word of God a publick bleffing to fociety, and the power of God to the falvation of men. This was the plan.

In pursuing this inchanting path, I found pleafure enough to repay all the labour of collecting many materials, and poring over books and manufcripts: but I found also, that juftice could not be done to that part of the fubject, which I wifhed moft of all to illuftrate, without a nearer refidence to the grand repofitory of unexplored British fubjects, the Museum, and more leifure than my publick avocations in my own congregation (for I have no colleague.) would allow me to expect. I have, therefore, laid afide the plan, made use of a few extracts in thefe notes, torn, burnt, and given away most of the other papers, and patterns of fermons, that I had collected, and never more intend to resume the subject, except this once in the following brief sketch.

The firft voice, that imparted religious ideas by difcourfe to fallen man, was the voice of the creator, called by the infpired hiftorian, the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden, in the cool of the day. (3) Whether he, who afterwards appeared fo often in human fhape, and at laft actually put on a human body, defcended into the garden, affumed a form, and converfed with our first parents on this occafion, or whether the air was fo undulated by the power of God as to form articulate audible founds, certain it is, Adam and Eve li

(3) Gen. iii,

terally

terally heard a voice, and had the highest reason for accounting it the voice of God. The promife to the woman of a fon, who fhould bruife the ferpent's head, was emphatically and properly called THE WORD of God. It was a promife, which they had no right to expect: but, when revealed, the highest reafon to embrace.

It is natural to fuppofe, God having once fpoken to man, that mankind would retain, and repeat with great punctuality what had been faid, and liften after more. Accordingly, infallible records affure us, that, when men began to affociate for the purpose of worshipping the deity, Enoch prophefied. (4) We have a very short account of this prophet, and his doctrine: enough, however, to convince us, that he taught the principal truths of natural and the then revealed religion; the unity of God and his natural and moral perfections -the nature of virtue, and its effential difference from vice-a day of future impartial retribution. Conviction of fin was in his doctrine, and communion with God was exemplified in his conduct. He held communion with God by facrifice, and St. Paul reafons, from his teftimony that he pleafed God, that he had faith in the promife of the mediator, for without faith it would have been impoffible even for Enoch to have pleafed God. (5)

From the days of Enoch to the time of Mofes each patriarch worshipped God with his family, probably

(4) Enoch, the feventh from Adam, prophesied. Jude 14. (5) Enoch faid, The Lord cometh-Enoch faid, The Lord cometh with faints--ungodly finners Speak against him, and commit ungodly deeds-Enoch faid, The Lord cometh to execute judgment-The Lord cometh to convince. Jude 14, 15. Enoch walked with God. Gen. v. 24. Heb. xi. 5, 6.