riods incorporated into the Jewish reli- || the law, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 29, 30. xxxv ́ gion by the princes of that nation, the 15. Hence false prophets, bad men prophets and all the seers protested who found it worth while to affect to be against this apostacy, and they were good, crowded the courts of princes. persecuted for so doing. Shemaiah Jezebel, an idolatress, had four hundred preached to Rehoboam, the princes. prophets of Baal; and Ahab, a pretendand all the people, at Jerusalem, 2 ed worshipper of Jehovah, had as many Chron. xii. 5. Azariah and Hanani pretended prophets of his own profes preached to Asa and his army, 2 Chron. sion, 2 Chron. xviii. 5. xv. 1. &c. xvi. 7. Micaiah to Ahab. Some of them opened schools, or houses into Babylon, the prophets who were When the Jews were carried captive of instruction, and there to their disci- || with_them inculcated the principles of ples they taught the pure religion of religion, and endeavoured to possess Moses. At, Naioth, in the suburbs of their minds with an aversion to idolatry; Ramah, there was one, where Samuel and to the success of preaching we may dwelt; there was another at Jericho, attribute the re-conversion of the Jews and a third at Bethel, to which Elijah to the belief and worship of one God; a and Elisha often resorted. Thither the conversion that remains to this day. people went on Sabbath days and at The Jews have since fallen into horrid new moons, and received public lessons crimes; but they have never since this of piety and morality, 1 Sam. xix. 18. period lapsed into idolatry, Hosea, 2d 2 Kings, ii. 3, 5. 2 Kings, iv. 2, 3. and 3d chap Ezekiel, 2d, 3d, and 34th Through all this period there was a dis- chap. There were not wanting, howmal confusion of the useful ordinance of ever,multitudes of false prophets among public preaching. Sometimes they had them, whose characters are strikingly no open vision, and the word of the delineated by the true prophets, and Lord was precious or scarce: the peo- which the reader may see in the 13th ple heard it only now and then. At chapter of Ezekiel, 56th Isaiah, 2d other times they were left without Jeremiah. When the seventy years of a teaching priest, and without law. And, the captivity were expired, the good at other seasons again, itinerants, both prophets and preachers, Zerubbabel, princes, priests, and Levites, were sent Joshua, Haggai, and others, having conthrough all the country to carry the fidence in the word of God, and aspiring book of the law, and to teach in the after their natural, civil, and religious cities. In a word, preaching flourished rights, endeavoured by all means to exwhen pure religion grew; and when tricate themselves and their countrythe last decayed, the first was sup pressed. Moses had not appropriated which the crimes of their ancestors had men from that mortifying state into preaching to any order of men: per- brought them. They wept, fasted, sons, places, times, and manners, were prayed, preached, prophesied, and at all left open and discretional. Many of length prevailed. The chief instruthe discourses were preached in camps ments were Nehemiah and Ezra: the and courts, in streets, schools, cities, first was governor, and reformed their and villages, sometimes with great.com posure and coolness, at other times with law of the God of heaven, and addresscivil state; the last was a scribe of the vehement action and rapturous energy; ed himself to ecclesiastical matters, in sometimes in a plain blunt style, at other which he rendered the noblest service times in all the magnificent pomp of to his country, and to all posterity. He Eastern allegory. On some occasions, collected and collated manuscripts of the preachers appeared in public with the sacred writings, and arranged and visible signs, with implements of war, published the holy canon in its present yokes of slavery, or something adapted form. To this he added a second work to their subject. They gave lectures on these, beld them up to view, girded and new-modelled public preaching, as necessary as the former: he revived them on, broke them in pieces, rent and exemplified his plan in his own their garments, rolled in the dust, and person. The Jews had almost lost in endeavoured, by all the methods they the seventy years' captivity their origicould devise agreeably to the customs nal language: that was now become of their country, to impress the minds dead; and they spoke a jargon made up of their auditors with the nature and of their own language and that of the importance of their doctrines. These Chaldeans and other nations with whom men were highly esteemed by the pious they had been confounded. Formerly part of the nation; and princes thought preachers had only explained subjects; proper to keep seers and others, who now they were obliged to explain words: were scribes, who read and expounded words which, in the sacred code, were H PRE 475 || become obsolete, equivocal, or dead. public preaching was universal: synaHouses were now opened, not for cere- gogues were multiplied, vast numbers monial worship, as sacrificing, for this attended, and elders and rulers were apwas confined to the temple; but for mo-pointed for the purpose of order and ral obedience, as praying, preaching, instruction. The most celebrated preacher that reading the law, divine worship, and social duties. These houses were called arose before the appearance of Jesus synagogues; the people repaired thither Christ was John the Baptist. He was morning and evening for prayer; and commissioned from heaven to be the on sabbaths and festivals the law was harbinger of the Messiah. He took read and expounded to them. We have Elijah for his medel; and as the times a short but beautiful description of the were very much like those in which manner of Ezra's first preaching, Ne- that prophetlived, he chose a doctrine hemiah, viii. Upwards of fifty thou and a method very much resembling sand people assembled in a street, or those of that venerable man. His sublarge square, near the Watergate. It jects were few, plain, and important. was early in the morning of a sabbath His style was vehement, images bold, day. A pulpit of wood, in the fashion his deportment solemn, his actions eaof a small tower, was placed there on ger, and his morals strict; but this purpose for the preacher; and this tur-bright morning star gave way to the ret was supported by a scaffold, or tem- illustrious Sun of Righteousness, who now arose on a benighted world. Jesus porary gallery, where, in a wing on the right hand of the pulpit, sat six of the Christ certainly was the prince of preach. ers. Who can but admire the simplicity principal preachers; and in another, on the left, seven. Thirteen other princi- and majesty of his style, the beauty of pal teachers, and many Levites, were his images, the alternate softness and present also on scaffolds erected for the severity of his address, the choice of purpose, alternately to officiate. When his subjects, the gracefulness of his deEzra ascended the pulpit, he produced || portment, and the indefatigableness of and opened the book of the law, and the his zeal? Let the reader charm and sowhole congregation instantly rose up lace himself in the study and contemfrom their seats, and stond. Then he plation of the character, excellency, offered up prayer and praise to God, and dignity of this best of preachers, as the people bowing their heads, and wor- he will find them delineated by the shipping the Lord with their faces to evangelists. The apostles exactly copied their dethe ground; and, at the close of the prayer, with uplifted hands,they solemn vine Master. They formed multitudes ly pronounced. Amen, Amen. Then, of religious societies, and were abunall standing, Ezra, assisted at times by dantly successful in their labours. They the Levites, read the law distinctly, confined their attention to religion, and gave the sense, and caused them to un left the school to dispute, and politicians derstand the reading. The sermons de to intrigue. The doctrines they preachlivered so affected the hearers, that they ed, they supported entirely by evidence; wept excessively; and about noon the and neither had nor required such assorrow became so exuberant and im sistance as human laws or worldly pomeasurable, that it was thought neceslicy, the eloquence of the schools or the sary by the governor, the preacher, and the Levites, to restrain it. Go your way, said they; eat the fat, drink the sweet, send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared. The wise and benevolent sentiments of these noble souls were imbibed by the whole congrega tion, and fifty thousand troubled hearts were calmed in a moment. Home they returned, to eat, to drink, to send portions and to make mirth, because they had understood the words that were de clared unto them. Plato was alive at this time, teaching dull philosophy to cold academics; but what was he, and what was Xenophon or Demosthenes, or any of the Pagan orators, in comparison with these men? From this period to that of the appearance of Jesus Christ, terror of arms, the charm of money or the tricks of tradesmen, could afford them. The apostles being dead, every thing came to pass as they had foretold. The whole Christian system underwent a miserable change; preaching shared the fate of other institutions, and this glory of the primitive church was now generally degenerated. Those writers whom we call the Fathers, however, held up to view by some as models of imitation, do not deserve that indiscriminate praise ascribed to them. Christianity, it is true, is found in their writings; but how sadly incorporated with Pagan philosophy aud Jewish allegory! It must, indeed, be allowed, that, in general, the simplicity of Chris of saints, were substituted in the place of Sermons. The pulpit became a stage, where ludicrous priests obtained the vulgar laugh by the lowest kind of wit, especially at the festivals of Christmas and Easter. But the glorious reformation was the offspring of preaching, by which man dard, and the religion of the times was put to trial by it. The avidity of the common people to read Scripture, and to hear it expounded, was wonderful; and the Papists were so fully convinced of the benefit of frequent public instruction, that they who were justlycalled unpreaching prelates, and whose pulpits, to use an expression of Latimer, had been bells without clappers for many a long year, were obliged for shame to set up regular preaching again. The church of Rome has produced tion, but not equal to the reformed preachers; and a question_naturally arises here, which it would be unpardonable to pass over in silence, concerning the singular effect of the preaching of the reformed, which was general, national, universal reformation. tianity was maintained, though under that followed, when metaphysical reagradual decay, during the three first sonings, mystical divinity, yea, Aristocenturies. The next five centuries pro-telian categories, and reading the lives duced many pious and excellent preach ers both in the Latin and Greek churches, though the doctrine continued to degenerate. The Greek pulpit was adorned with some eloquent orators. Basil, bishop of Cæsarea, John Chrysostom, preacher at Antioch, and afterwards patriarch (as he was called) of Constantinople, and Gregory Nazian-kind were informed: there was a stanzen, who all flourished in the fourth century, seem to have led the fashion of preaching in the Greek church: Jerom and Augustin did the same in the Latin church. For some time, preaching was common to bishops, elders, deacons, and private brethren in the primitive church: in process, it was restrained to the bishop, and to such as he should appoint. They called the appointment ordination; and at last attached I know not what ideas of mystery and influence to the word, and of dominion to the bishop who pronounced it. When a bi-some great preachers since the reformashop or preacher travelled, he claimed no authority to exercise the duties of his function, unless he were invited by the churches where he attended public worship. The first preachers differed much in pulpit action; the greater part used very moderate and sober gesture. They delivered their sermons all ex- In the darkest times of popery there tempore, while there were notaries who had arisen now and then some famous took down what they said. Sermons in popular preachers, who had zealously those days were all in the vulgar tongue. inveighed against the vices of their The Greeks preached in Greek, the times, and whose sermons had produced Latins in Latin. They did not preach sudden and amazing effects on their auby the clock (so to speak,) but were ditors, but all these effects had died short or long as they saw occasion, away with the preachers who produced though an hour was about the usual them, and all things had gone back into time. Sermons were generally both the old state. Law, learning, commerce, preached and heard standing; but some-society at large, had not been improved. time both speaker and auditors sat,-Here a new scene opens; preachers especially the aged and the infirm. The arise less popular, perhaps less indefafathers were fond of allegory; for Ori-tigable and exemplary; their sermons gen, that everlasting allegorizer, had set them the example. Before preaching, the preacher usually went into a vestry to pray, and afterwards to speak. to such as came to salute him. He prayed with his eyes shut in the pulpit. The first word the preacher uttered to the people, when he ascended the pulpit, was Peace be with you," or "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all;" to which the assembly at first added, "Amen:" and, I after times, they answered, "And with thy spirit." Degenerate, however, as these days were in comparison with those of the apostles, yet they were golden ages in comparison with the times" produce less striking immediate effects; and yet their auditors go away, and agree by whole nations to reform. Jerome Savonarola, Jerome Narni, Capistran, Connecte, and many others, had produced by their sermons, great immediate effects. When Connecte preached, the ladies lowered their headdresses, and committed quilled caps by hundreds to the flames. When Narni taught the populace in Lent, from the pulpits of Rome, half the city went from his sermons, crying along the streets, Lord have mercy upon us; Christ have mercy upon us; so that in only one passion week, two thousand crowns worth of ropes were sold to make scourges with; and when he preached before the PRE 477 pope to cardinals and bishops, and paint-his Testament hanging at one end of tured to give king Henry the Eighth a New Testament, with the label, Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge; while Knox, who said, there was nothing in the pleasant face of a lady to affray him, assured the queen of Scots, that, "If there were any spark of the Spirit of God, yea, of honesty and wisdom in her, she would not be offended with his affirming in his sermons, that the diversions of her court were diabolical crimes,-evidences of impiety or insanity." These men were not all accomplished scholars; but they all gave proof enough that they were honest, hearty, and disinterested in the cause of religion. All Europe produced great and excellent preachers, and some of the more studious and sedate reduced their art of public preaching to a system, and taught rules of a good sermon. Bishop Wilkins enumerated, in 1646, upwards of sixty who had written on the subject. Several of these are valuable treatises, full of edifying instructions; but all are on a scale too large, and, by affecting to treat of the whole office of a minister, leave that capital branch, public preaching, unfinished and vague. Our reformers taught all the good doctrines which had been taught by these men, and they added two or three more, by which they laid the axe to the root of apostasy, and produced general information. Instead of appealing to popes, and canons, and founders, and fathers, they only quoted them, and referred their auditors to the Holy Scriptures for law. Pope Leo X. did not know this when he told Prierio, who complained of Luther's heresy, Friar Martin had a fine genius! They also taught the people what little they knew of Christian liberty; and so led them into a belief that they might follow their own ideas in religion, without the con sent of a confessor, a diocesan, a pope, One of the most important articles of or a council. They went farther, and laid the stress of all religion on justify-pulpit science, that which gives life and ing faith. This obliged the people to energy to all the rest, and without which get acquainted with Christ, the object all the rest are nothing but a vain paof their faith; and thus they were led rade, either neglected or exploded in into the knowledge of a character alto-all these treatises It is essential to the gether different from what they saw in ministration of the divine word by pubtheir old guides; a character which it lic preaching, that preachers be allowed is impossible to know, and not to admire to form principles of their own, and and imitate. The old papal popular that their sermons contain their real sermons had gone off like a charge of sentiments, the fruits of their own intense thought and meditation. Preachgun-powder, producing only a fright, a bustle, and a black face; but those of ing cannot be in a good state in those the newe learninge, as the monks called communities, where the shameful trafthem, were small hearty seeds, which, fic of buying and selling manuscript ser. being sown in the honest hearts of the mons is carried on. Moreover, all the multitude, and watered with the dew of animating encouragements that arise heaven, softly vegetated, and imper- from a free unbiassed choice of the peoceptibly unfolded blossoms and fruits of ple, and from their uncontaminated, disinterested applause, should be left open inestiniable value. to stimulate a generous youth to excel. Command a man to utter what he has no inclination to propagate, and what he does not even believe: threaten him, at the same time, with all the miseries of life, if he dare to follow his own ideas, and to promulgate his own sentiments, These eminent servants of Christ excelled in various talents, both in the pulpit and in private. Knox came down like a thunder-storm; Calvin resembled a whole day's set rain; Beza was a shower of the softest dew. Old Latimer, in a coarse frieze gown, trudged afoot, and you pass a sentence of death on all he says. He does declaim; but all is languid and cold, and he lays his system out as an undertaker does the dead. Mark, x. 6. It is undeniable that he speaks this of Adam and Eve, because in the next verse he uses the same words as those in Gen. ii. 24. “Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife." It is also clear from Gen. iii. 20, where it is said, that cause she was the mother of all living;" that is, she was the source and root of all men and women in the world; which plainly intimates that there was no other woman that was such a mother. Finally, Adam is expressly called twice, by the apostle Paul, the first man, Cor. xv. 45, 47. Since the reformers, we have had multitudes who have entered into their views with disinterestedness and success; and, in the present times, both in" Adam called his wife's name Eve, bethe church and among dissenters, names could be mentioned which would do honour to any nation; for though there are too many who do not fill up that important station with proportionate piety and talents, yet we have men who are conspicuous for their extent of knowledge, depth of experience, ori-1 ginality of thought, fervency of zeal, consistency of deportment. and great usefulness in the Christian church. May their numbers still be increased, and their exertions in the cause of truth be eminently crowned with the divine bless ing! See Robinson's Claude, vol. ii. pre face; and books recommended under article MINISTER. PREADAMITE. a denomination given to the inhabitants of the earth, conceived by some people to have lived before Adam. PRECEPT, a rule given by a superior: a direction or command. The precepts of religion, says Saurin, are as essential as the doctrines and religion, will as certainly sink if the morality be subverted as if the theology be undermined. The doctrines are only proposed to us as the ground of our duty. See DOCTRINE. PREDESTINARIANS, those who believe in predestination. See PREDESTINATION. PREDESTINATION is the decree Isaac de la Pereyra, in 1655, publ.sh- of God, whereby he hath for his own ed a book to evince the reality of Pread- || glory fore-ordained whatever comes to amites, by which he gained a considera-pass. The verb predestinate is of Latin ble number of proselytes to the opinion : || original (prædestino,) and signifies in but the answer of Demarets, professor that tongue to deliberate before-hand of theology at Groningen, published the with one's self how one shall act, and, year following, put a stop to its pro-in consequence of such deliberation, to gress, though Pereyra made a reply. constitute, fore-ordain, and predeterHis system was this. The Jews he mine, where, when, how, and by whom calls Adamites, and supposes them to any thing shall be done, and to what end have issued from Adam; and gives the it shall be done. So the Greek word title Preadamites to the Gentiles, whom poop, which exactly answers to the he supposes to have been a long time English word predestinate, and is renbefore Adam. But this being express-dered by it, signifies to resolve beforely contrary to the first words of Gene-hand with one's self what shall be done, sis, Pereyra had recourse to the fabu- and before the thing resolved on is aclous antiquities of the Egyptians and tually effected; to appoint it to some Chaldeans, and to some idle rabbins, certain use, and direct it to some deterwho imagined there had been another minate end. This doctrine has been the world before that described by Moses. occasion of considerable disputes and He was apprehended by the inquisition controversies among divines. On the in Flanders, and very roughly used, one side it has been observed, that it is though in the service of the dauphin. impossible to reconcile it with our ideas But he appealed from their sentence to of the justice and goodness of God, that Rome, whither he went in the time of it makes God to be the author of sin, Alexander VII., and where he printed destroys moral distinction, and renders a retraction of his book of Preadam- all our efforts useless. Predestinarians ites. deny these consequences, and endeaThe arguments against the Preadam-vour to prove this doctrine from the ites are these. The sacred history of Moses assures us that Adam and Eve were the first persons that were created on the earth. Gen. i. 26. Gen. ii. 7. Our Saviour confirmed this when he said, "From the beginning of the creation God made them, male and female," consideration of the perfections of the divine nature, and from Scripture testimony. If his knowledge, say they, be infinite and unchangeable, he must have known every thing from eternity. If we allow, the attribute of prescience, the idea of a decree must certainly be be |