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ESTLIN’S SERMONS. 
our regard, have, in our opinion, dis- 
played a sounder understanding, or a 
more vigorous and independent mind. 
The preacher’s heart appears to be alive 
to every kind and benevolent affection, 
and to be warmed with a zeal worthy of a 
christian minister, firmly to establish 
the foundations of the Christian faith, 
.and to raise the beautiful superstructure 
of a holy and a virtuous life. 
The volume consists of twenty-one 
sermons on the following subjects: On 
faith; on fortitude; on justice, mercy, 
and walking humbly with God; the 
character of Nathaniel; miracles; the 
neglect of advantages sinful; God no 
respecter of persons ; David’s advice to 
Solomon ; the example of Christ in his 
youth; the improvement of the death 
of ministers, a funeral sermon for the 
-author’s colleague, -the late reverend T. 
Wright; the intermediate and future 
state; the future happiness of the righte- 
‘ous; misery the lot of the wicked ; the 
wicked excluded from heaven; all things 
for God and by him; on education in 
general, with remarks on female edu- 
cation ; the danger of imitating fashi- 
enable vices; the salutations of Paul; 
and the love of our country explained 
and illustrated. -  - 
These subjects are all of acknowledged 
importance, and they are all treated in 
a masterly and impressive manner. We 
extract the following passages, not as 
being more excellent than others; but 
because the one is particularly deserv- 
ing of attention in the present times, 
and the other contains some information 
which to many will be new. 
In the discourse on fortitude, Mr. 
Estlin observes : 
“©The gothic practice of duelling (cer- 
tainly deserving -of this epithet, as it was 
introduced into the more civilized nations of 
Europe by these barbarians, and isa remnant 
of their barbarity, and a proof that we are 
not so far advanced in national refinement as 
many apprehend) is by some considered as 
atest of personal fortitude. Little needs be 
said to demonstrate that it is totally incom- 
patible with that fortitude which is founded 
in the fear of God, and which consists in a 
freedom from every other fear. If we ana- 
lyze the principles from which it proceeds, 
we shall find that in their composition the 
main ingredient is not courage of any kind, 
but fear, under some or other of its modifi- 
cations. Fear, as was before observed, hav- 
ing for its object some evil, either real or 
apprehended, those things which we consi- 
der as evils are fearcd by us in the degree in 
171 
which they appear to be evil, and those 
which are considered as the greatest evils are 
consequently most dreaded. From this opi- 
nion of ait which directs the application 
cf fear, a person’s character is drawn, and his 
conduct determined. If, for instance, po- 
verty be cousidered as the supreme evil, 
riches will be considered as the supreme good ; 
if insignificance be thus regarded, fame and 
power will be the great objects of pursuit ; 
and if the censure of men be thought most 
to be dreaded, their approbation will be es- 
teemed as the most valuable of ali acqui- 
sitions. Now in the case of receiving a 
challenge (for giving one does not’ come’ 
under this description, but is a crime of a 
still deeper die) 1 say in the case of receiving 
a challenge, which is sometimes vindicated, 
on the ground of its being a test of fortitude, 
it cannot be denied that a fear of incurring 
the censure of men, is the principle which 
gets the better, not only of a regard to jus- 
tice, a respect for the laws of all civilized 
communities, and a fear of offending God, 
but what is in some minds (and I doubt not 
in the minds of those very persons who fall 
into the practice) a stronger principle than 
any of them, a love of life. To this modi- 
fication of fear, and to this principle alone, 
aconduct is ultimately to be resolved, which 
is a satire upon civilization and refinement, 
which strikes directly at the root of all laws 
both human and divine, which annihilates 
every moral distinction, which makes death 
indiscriminately the punishment ofall crimes, 
the lowest as well as the highest, which is 
as absurd as if the person who had been rob- 
bed and plundered were to be convicted 
equally with the person who had robbed and 
plundered him, and which in its immediate 
effects has frequently involved innécent fa- 
milies in the keenest distress, and sent those 
on whom they depended for support, with 
all their sins unrepenicd of, and with the 
guilt of intentional murder upon their heads, 
to their final account. ‘To such astonishing 
lengths will persons sometimes go through 
a depravity of principle, and a perversion of 
understanding, occasioned by the iufluence 
of fashion. But what is most extraordinary, 
this shall, after all, be termed fortitude. 
Let us, my brethren, be no longer imposed 
upon by names. ‘To give a challenge is to 
intend murder: to receive one,. besides the 
other evil qualities included in it, is cowardice, 
it is that contemptible * fear of man which 
bringeth a snare,” which is often greater 
than the fear of death, or even the fear of in. 
curring the displeasure of Almighty God.” 
The sermon on miracles exhibits the 
following curious information : 
«« We come now to shew, that the ac- 
counts which are given of these surprising 
transactions, are such, as from the circum- 
stances attending them must be true. But 
previously to our entering upon this part of 
