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p ies the imagination with the beauty and the grandeur of goodness , and with p ictures of the blessedness which it enjoys and diffuses ; whatever calls forth holy emotion , feelings of penitence , gratitude , humility , and love to God and man—that , pre-eminently , is practical preaching , and that Mr . Belsham ' s
Sermons shew us may be done by a strain of preaching which many would think too speculative , too metaphysical , too controversial , too exclusively doctrinal , to be tolerated in a Christian pulpit . It / is difficult for us to imagine the individual who can rise from the perusal of his published volumes of Sermons without much being done thereby towards making him a wiser and a better man .
Mr . Belsham ascended the pulpit to impart knowledge . His sermons are full of instruction and information . Facts , which it must have cost him much time and labour to collect , he could compress with admirable skill into the compass of a single discourse , or a short series ; and his arrangement was always judicious , his statements always luminous . Specimens of the masterly manner in which he discharged this part of his duty may be seen in the sermons on the Cessation of Miraculous Powers , on the Fall of
Babylon as the accomplishment of Prophecy , the Progress of Error concerning the Person of Christ , the Sufferings of Unitarians in former Times , the Progress of Intellectual , Moral , and Religious Improvement during the late Reign , the Present State of Religious Parties , &c , &c . What has been already said of the manner may be applied to the matter of his discourses , as to their influence in disposing to calm and serious reflection . He always appeared as one ' * breathing thoughtful breath . " His composition holds on a firm and steady march , with frequent
intervals , at which to estimate the progress made , and the course to be pursued . He presents a thought or argument to the mind in so distinct a form as to ensure its admission ; he allows it to sink and find its resting-place , and become a firm basis for his next reflection before he proceeds ; and then he adds another and another consideration , alike distinct and weighty , till the solid , and massy , and moveless pile stands in its full proportions , an edifice of Christian faith and hope , founded on the rock of personal conviction , and proof against the storms of life .
It was the uniform object of his preaching to hx in the mind , and to pervade the mind with , those simple and great principles which are the essence of religious truth . While the unity , the attributes , and the universal providence of God , and the mission and resurrection of Christ , were frequently brought forward as distinct subjects , he never preached without some or all of them being present to his own thoughts , and , by the conduct of his discourse ,
made present also to the thoughts of his hearers . What a plain , fearless , comprehensive , sublime , and conclusive view of the doctrine of Providence is that contained in the third , fourth , fifth , sixth , seventh , and eighth sermons of his second volume 1 - He always excelled in his treatment of , and his allusions to , this all-comprehensive topic . He justly estimated its importance , the security which it affords to religious faith , the energy which it imparts to righteous action , and the consolation of which it is the unfailing
source . Rightly did he call his " Discourses Doctrinal and Practical , " for although the two volumes contain scarcely a sermon which some would term so , nothing in the old style of common-place ethical exposition , yet are they thoroughly imbued with filial reverence towards the Deity , and unbounded charity for mankind , and continually illustrate his definition of Virtue , that it is the means of happiness—and of Vice , that it is the certain
Untitled Article
On the Character and JFritikgs of the Rev . T . Belsham . 169
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1830, page 169, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2582/page/25/
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