He denied altogether any distinction of persons in the Godhead; or, in fact, any distinctions, by whatever name they might be called; holding that Jesus was the Son of God in his human nature only, becoming possessed of divinity, because God the Father [not God the Son] dwelt in him, and was united to his human nature; and that the Holy Spirit is not a person in any sense except as Wisdom, Law, Righteousness, are persons, (that is, figuratively,) but "the real, almighty, operative power, or principle, of knowledge or action in the true Godhead."

Now this, we say, is plain, unequivocal unitarianism. It expresses, not perhaps in the very words that we should select, but in the general sense, our own opinions; and it is impossible. by any ingenuity to torture or twist it into the authorised doctrine of three persons in one God.

These were well understood to be his opinions before his death, and many consequently looked upon him with suspicion, and called him an Arian.

These opinions he published and defended, two years before he died, in a book entitled "Useful and important questions concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God;" and in another called, "The Glory of Christ as God-man displayed." Other writings on the subject he left in manuscript, most of which were suppressed, "because it was not judged necessary to publish them;" but of one of which, since printed, we have already given account in the place referred to above. To that article, and the books we have named, we refer for satisfactory evidence, that his opinions were such as we have stated them. He that will go to these sources of information, will soon be convinced, that however much this excellent man might have loved the form of sound words in which he had been educated, and been unwilling to abandon them; yet their spirit and meaning he abandoned entirely, and was an advocate for the doctrine, that the Father only is God. He was, therefore, so far as this fundamental principle is concerned, a Unitarian.

MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS.

PULPIT ELOQUENCE.

THE description of the preaching of Dr. Mills, with the remarks upon it, in the little work lately published, entitled "No Fiction,"

appear to us very fine, and may help some of our readers to understand what true eloquence is. We have another reason for copying them, which is, that we may draw the attention of some to the work itself, which, upon the whole, is exceedingly worthy of perusal, and well calculated to do good..

"On Sunday I heard Dr. Mills. I had not many expectations, but how was I surprised and delighted! He is a real orator; quite an example of the eloquence of which we have been lately say. ing so much. No jingling antitheses-ho unmeaning epithets no periods set to music-no meretricious ornaments no tricks to catch admiration and applause. On the contrary, there was, occasionally, something in his manner, that a fastidious critic would have called awkward; and, sometimes in his style, there was a degree of carelessness that involved a sentence in some obscurity; but this seemed to carry forward the great effect of the discourse, as it convinced the hearers, he was intent on higher objects. His gestures were the most natural; dictated from present feeling, and not from studied attitudes. His language was plain and simple, such as seems at every one's command, but which, after all, few can employ: and, if images were introduced, they evidently rose to illustrate and enforce the subject, and were not called up to assert the capacity of the speaker.

"But Dr. Mills' forte is in the pathetic. He appears convinced, that sermons, addressed, as they generally are, to people who know more than they practice, should incline rather to exhortation, than argument; and he possesses, in a remarkable degree, that insinuating, affectionate earnestness, which the French call onction.

"When he first announces his subject, there is nothing to observe, except, that every thing about him seems to say, 'he is in earnest. He gathers warmth and energy as he proceeds; and the prevailing sentiment of his heart evidently is'If so be I may save myself and them that hear me !'

"I shall never forget the close of his sermon on Sabbath morning. He had been treating of the excellencies of the Saviour; and was addressing those who neglected them. Piety, anxiety, benevolence, rose to their fullest exercise, and his manner and language were most powerfully vehement. Now, he entreated like the tenderest of parents; then he proclaimed the forgiving mercy of the Redeemer, with the authority of an apostle; and again, with trembling, he foretold, like a prophet, the unavoidable miseries of impenitence. He forgot himself, and his hearers forgot him. His style, his manner, his sentiments, were wonderfully eloquent and grand. They influenced all; but no one dwelt upon them. Nothing filled the soul of the preacher, but the im

mortal interests of his people, and he had succeeded in fixing their attention on the same object.

"As he was about to sit down, he paused; looked compassionately on his congregation, and said, "I have now fulfilled my commission. I have contrasted the world you have idolized, with the Saviour you have neglected. Say, my dear hearers, which will you serve? I will not receive your reply. The Saviour himself is in this place !-Answer as in his presence!-Do you besitate?-Hesitate to prefer bliss to sorrow-honour to disgrace-heaven to earth-heaven to hell-Oh! to hesitate, is to yield to the temper of your souls--to hesitate, is to defer your safety to a moment that may never, never be your's !-Yesterday is not your's. It is gone; and has recorded your transgressions before God!-To-morrow is not your's-it may never come to you. This moment alone is your's; and the very moment in which you should cast yourself on the mercy of the all-merciful Redeemer."

"O, say not," he continued, "I am too ardent on this subject. Because you are too insensible to your salvation, blame not those who cannot imitate your indifference. I have a deep stake in your highest interest! I trust I can lay my hand on my conscience and say, I am clear of your blood; but this-this is not enough! I aspire not only to escape being accessary to your ruin-I pant to be the instrument of your redemption! You are part of the charge which the hand of Providence has committed to my care; and, when I pen my fold for immortality,' how can I bear to find you wanting? I have prayed for you-and watched for you-and' travailed in birth till Christ be formed within you the hope of glory; and how-O! how can I endure to subscribe to the sentence of your condemnation, and see you sink into hopeless, endless, unutterable wretchedness!--God Almighty, in his infinite mercy, avert from us such tremendous evils! and grant, that through His dear Son, we may all finally partake of that blessed salvation which we all so eminently need-which we have all so criminally abused!"

"He sat down. A solemn silence testified the feelings of the assembly-several were moved to tears. I trembled on my seat. But you should have seen and heard him to judge. I have not done him justice.

"I was greatly astonished, however, to find, that few of his regular attendants had power to appreciate the merits of their Pastor. They were all, indeed, strongly attached to him and his ministry; and would, perhaps, have refused to change it for any other. They admired his piety, and felt him to be a 'warmhearted useful preacher;' but they did not seem to think, that

he had any great pretensions to eloquence. Eloquence they imagined was the art of fine speaking-of loading every sentence with gaudy epithets and inflated terms; sustained by a delivery the most precise and studied.

"At least, I suppose this is the general opinion, from the remarks of Mr. Jones, whom I met last evening. We were speaking of Dr. Mills, and I expressed warm admiration of his sermon. "Yes," said Jones, "the sermon was excellent, and produced a great effect, but I can hardly agree with you in calling it eloquent. Dr. Mills is no orator." "No orator?" said I, “ pray what is an orator?" "An orator-an orator," said he, "is a good speaker," looking disconcerted as though he wished for a better answer. "There we are agreed," I replied, "and is not Dr. Mills a good speaker?" "In one sense perhaps he is," returned Jones; "but I think not in the higher sense. His language is not so beautiful and figurative as our best speakers-it is too familiar. Then, his manner is not studied and gracefulhe is carried away by his subject and totally forgets himself." This was spoken with so much self satisfaction, that I waved reply."

The friend to whom this account is given replies as follows: "Thanks for your eloquent account of Dr. Mills' eloquence. He is a man quite to my heart's delight. Would that every church possessed such a one! It is by such men, and by such men almost exclusively, that the word of God must finally prevail.

"I need not say I wish it had been my privilege to have heard him. I have long thought, that no object in the whole earth is half so grand and interesting as a minister of the gospel, who careless of his own fame, with a heart full of sacred jealousy for the honour of his Saviour, and a countenance beaming with tender benevolence for his hearers, pours forth, from an overflowing soul, the words of eternal life. On the contrary, I know of nothing more contemptible, or monstrous, than a man who, professing to plead for the authority and and honours of Almighty God in a rebellious world, is in reality, courting applause, and offering incense to the vanity of his depraved heart! And, as far as eloquence is concerned, the advantage lies just where we wish to find it. The one must be eloquent ; the other never can. He may figure, and dazzle, and be very rhetorical and majestic; and he may raise to his talents the extolling applause of the multitude; but nothing can be farther from true eloquence. Eloquence is the language of the heart; eloquence carries the mind from the speaker to the subject; eloquence raises us from words to things. The man who is false

to his subject, cannot produce this effect; nor does he wish it. He would deprecate a mode of thinking and speaking, that should teach his hearers to forget him in the greatness of his subject. How can that paltry being be expected to rise to the grandeur of real eloquence, who is wooing a smile, rounding a period, or deciding on a gesture, when the whole soul should be absorbed by the sublime object of saving an immortal spirit from destruction?

"I am not, however, greatly surprised at the bad taste of your townsmen. A false taste is natural to us, and only yields to cultivation. The human mind too often despises the simplicity of real oratory, and applauds the mysterious and flowery pomp of that which is false; like the silly child, which carelessly tramples down the corn, in its eager admiration of the poppy."

FROM BISHOP WATSON.

WHEN I was young, I learned my catechism as other boys do; but I had never thought either of the truth of the christian religion or of the nature of the doctrines it contained. Afterwards I thought freely on religious subjects, and I found nothing in revealed religion which in any degree lessened the natural notion I had formed respecting the divine goodness, but many things to confirm and enlarge it. I found in truth, and lamented to find in all christian churches a tendency to become wise above what was written, to require certain assent to doubtful propositions, to explain modes of being which cannot be explained to beings with our faculties, and to mould the ineffable attributes of God according to the model of human imperfections."

As to the mysteries of the christian religion, it is neither your concern nor mine to explain them; for if they are mysteries, they cannot be explained. But our time may be properly employed in enquiring whether there are so many mysteries in christianity as the Deists say there are. Many doctrines have been imposed on the christian world as doctrines of the gospel, which have no foundation whatever in scripture. Instead of defending these doctrines, it is the duty of a real disciple of Jesus Christ to reprobate them as gangrenous excrescences, corrupting the fair form of genuine christianity.

DR. EAST APTHORP.

In our last number we invited the attention of our readers to the character and works of Dr. Mayhew. The following notice of Rev. Dr. East Apthorp, with whom Dr. Mayhew engaged in