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    deductions to be derived from it . Lyra is mentioned as the principal Commentator in use in the days of Erasmus and Luther , and has been supposed to have led the way for Luther and the Reformers . Paul , a converted Jew , who was Bishop of Burgos and Arch-Chancellor to John , King of Castile and Leon , wrote remarks on these postilla , which are

    called additions , and are printed in the work there seen , immediately after them ; and these , again , are followed by the Replica , or-replies of Matthew Doring , a Franciscan Friar of Saxony . Froben , who was the printer of Erasmus , to be near whoa ) he made Basle his residence , em ployed his countryman , SebastianBrant ,

    to superintend the edition , and add notes and references , and this Brant dates his preface Augustina , or the ides of Sept ., 1501 . Such a work must give a tolerably good notion of what Scripture knowledge was , previous to Luther ; and a person having leisure to examine it , would be able to trace how far those who remain

    Roman Catholics have advanced or gone backwards , so as to ascertain the full extent of the improvement in this respect made by the Reformation . I should be very glad if any of your correspondents could give me information respecting different editions of this work , and also respecting the German work in which I should find the best explanation of the contractions used in printing as well as writing at that period , some of which I have been unable to make out . A .

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    Unitarian Ministers . To the Editor . Sir , I have read with attention the communication of your correspondent D . Z ., inserted in the Repository for September , entitled , " Hints to Unitarians : " the

    observations contained in it were , I doubt not , dictated by a- sincere wish to offer useful advice to young ministers , and ought , therefore , to be received by them with thankfulness , but they are far from being just in their application to the habits and conduct of Unitarian ministers

    in general . Entertaining these sentiments , I shall qow offer to the consideration of your readers , a few remarks which prove to my own mind , and may , perhaps , to that of others , that the strictures of D . Z . are very unjust to a class of men distinguished , for eminent virtues , of which it js not the least that they patiently endure

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    many privations and much obloquy , in support of doctrines which are very unpopular , and for advocating which they receive little emolument . The observations of your correspondent contain a serious charge against Unitarian ministers , representing them as wasting their valuable time in the

    indoleut pursuit of " clerical leisure , " and not cultivating " the practical habits of men of business , which , " it is affirmed , in " nine cases out of ten , rise up and condemn" them . Jn order duly to appreciate the justice or injustice of this , charge , let any one consider in what the usual business * of an Unitarian minister

    consists , aud he will find that , exclusive of other duties , it is not merely in public teaching from the pulpit one day in the week , but also in private teaching in a school every other day but that one . To perform the office of a public teacher once in seven days , in a proper manner , requires much reading and more meditation : the composition of sermons , if

    regularly and well made , is itself a Herculean labour . Persons , unaccustomed to mental exertion of this kind , ignorantly suppose that it is an easy task , to the ready execution of which nothing more is necessary than pen , ink , and paper ; but a good sermon is not made without a laborious exercise of all the powers of the mind : if it be argumentative , much

    previous research and study will be necessary for the collection of evidence aud the lucid developement of it ; if imaginative , the research may be less , but the difficulty of composition will , perhaps , be greater—the tracery-work of fancy requires repeated touches of the most delicate Mud , and the web of figurative or elegant diction is not formed without a minute attention to the different texture

    of words and colours of language , as well as patient application in the selection and arrangement of them . Every mind , it is true , may hot be competent to the production of a sermon of first-rate excellence , and the difference in the degree of merit in the discourses of different

    preachers may be very considerable ; but the labour of the inferior writer is probably as great as that of the master-composer , the one finding it as difficult to express a few common ideas in ordinary language , as the other to make an eloquent and powerful address . To both , therefore , much leisure' is requisite tor the work , preparatory to their delivering a composition of any kind from the pulpit ; especially when' it is considered that Unitarian congregations are not satisfied with that extemporaneous declamation

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    56 Occasional Correspondence .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1828, page 56, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2556/page/56/