The Character of Dissenting Writers of the Present Age, or Those Who Have Written Since 1700
§ I. EVANS. — His style is grave, plain, manly, nervous. His heads are always distinct and well arranged. — The scriptures he quotes are very properly chosen. His thoughts, especially in the applicatioo, are thrown close together. His sermons to young people are scarce, and valuable. His Christian Temper is one of the best practical pieces in our language.
§ 2. Wright. — has great simplicity and awful solemnity. His writings compose the thoughts, and gradually elevate them. — The heads are distinct, — and sentences very comprehensive. — He discovers a deep sense of God, and a good acquaintance with the world. His words are elegant and well chosen; — cadence however is but little regarded. — He always appears master of himself. — There are often plain intimations of many thoughts being suppressed. — His sentiments are candid and rational. — His book on Regeneration has been remarkably acceptable, — and is one of the most useful pieces published in this age. — His work on the Deceitfulness of Sin is written with great knowledge of mankind; — with the ruin of many young people before his eyes, — and it is admirably adapted to prevent it. — His Great Concern is very comprehensive, — and even in that respect much preferable to the Whole Duty of Man. — His subsequent treatises are not equally valuable, nor is the collection of scriptures so judicious as was expected.
§ 3. Watts. — Very different from Wright. His style is harmonious, florid, poetical and pathetic; — but too diffuse, too many words, — especially in his later works, — and his forme?
are too mach loaded with epithets. — Yet on the whole he is an excellent writer. — All that he has written is well worth reading. — I most admire the first volume of his Sermons, — Death and Heaven, the Love of God, and. Humble Attempt. — Not to mention his incomparable Lyric Poems, — Psalms and Hymns.
4. Grove. — He resembles Watts, but is not equally poetical, — yet rather more nervous. — He has many judicious and new thoughts, — which are disposed in a method quite peculiar, and expressed with force and elegance, — and in his former pieces there is a remarkable sweetness. He discovers great seriousness, — but his great aversion to Calvinism, and the ill usage he had met with from bigots, have soured him of late. — The Friendly Monitor, — his book on Secret Prayer, — and some Funeral Sermons, published in his lifetime, are very valuable. — His book on the Sacrament is exceeding proper for scholars, though much exceeded by Henry and Earle, for common use.^-Some of his meditations at tle end of his Treatise on Faith are excellent.*
5. Henry. — Very popular; his style is short and pointed; — has many antitheses, and is too often a little fanciful; — elegailt imagination; some peculiarities, — such as making
* The six volames of his Posthumous Works contain a collection of excellent discourses on a variety of the most interesting and useful subyets;’ which, considered as posthumous, are remarkably finished and- correct.
his heads begin with the same letter, or some chiming word; yet this is generaJiy natural. — Great seriousness, sprightly thoughts, digested in very good order. — His Commentary excellent, though rather too large, and too full of typical and allegorical interpretations; yet there are some judicious notes both critical and historical. — Many, of his notes on the historical parts, on the import of some original words, and some of the most entertaining things, are taken from Grotius, Patrick, Poole, Joseph us, Calvin, and many others. — However, the work is despised only by those who do not know it. — His discourses on meekness, the sacrament, and early piety, are all very good. — His style is formed on scripture, to which he has numberless allusions.
6. Earle. — Judicious, pathetic, and very laconic. — He has written but little besides his Treatise on the Sacrament, which is excellent. — In his other pieces there are several pretty’ classical quotations in the margin.
§ 7. Bradbury. — His method is by no means accurate. — Many weak arguments, — but little enlivened by sprightly turns of wit„ and numberless allusions to scripture.- — Christ’s joy on finishing his course; and his Sermons on the lidh of November,, are his best.
8. BoYSE. — He has been called the dissenting Scott, — but much more polite. — His language is plain, animated, and nervous; — pretty much resembling’ Evans. His matter is excellently digested. — He abounds with ideas; — each sermon appears to be a coQtrac-LeCt. 3.] INTRODUCTION. 23
lion of soipe judicious treatise, — ^-and oAea
is so The two volumes of his sernoons,.
and his discourses on the Four last Things, ure his principal practical works, and deserve attentive repeated reading.
9. Bennett. — Plain, serious and spirit* ual; — but flat. — Ha« many good quotations from modern authors. — His Christian Oratory is his best and almost only practical piece; — which had been better, had it been less.
§ 10. Harris. — He was reckoned the greatest master of the English tongue among the Dissenters. — His style plain and easy; hisp thoughts substantial, — but seldom striking or uncommon. Nothing to blame, nor very much to admire. — See his discourses on the Messiah, and Funeral Sermons.
^11. Jennings. — Methodical, plain, and serious. — Some pretty turns of thought. His strain very evangelical — He is, upon the whole, the Flavel of the present age, only much more polite, and free from Flavel’s faults. — All he has published should be carefully read, — especially his Sermons to Young People, and those in the Berry-Street Lectures, — which are the glory of the book, and very much to the honour of the author.
12. Qrosvenor. — ^A most popular preach — er while his voice continued good. — In his consitions there is a strange mixture of the familiar and pathetic. — Many strong figures of speech,«especial]y prosopopsBiasarMi dialogisms, — beyond any writer of the age. See
particularly his Sermons on the Name and
Temper of Jesu8,^-his Mourner, — and bis Essay on Health.