National Literature the Exponent of National Character [pp. 201-225]

National Literature, the.
then we had produced orators as eloquent as Bolingbroke,
Chatham, or Burke, and three divines at least who might bear
comparison, each in his own proper province, with any on the
long and honoured roll of England's ecclesiastical authorship.
We allude of course to President Edwards, President Davies,
and Doctor John M. Mason.
Jonathan Edwards would have been an eminent man in any
age of the Church. Had he lived within the first five centuries, he would have taken rank for metaphysical acuteness and
immovable adherence to what he believed to be the truth, with
Athanasius and Augustine. In the thirteenth century his
scholastic subtlety and inexhaustible fertility of ingenious
thought would have made him the rival of Thomas Aquinas,
and Duns Scotus. In the sixteenth century he would have
been regarded by all good men as the fit associate of Calvin
and Melancthon, to whom indeed he was related, not only by
his personal excellence and general theological agreement, but
as an able minister of the New Testament, and a good steward
of the manifold grace of God. Since his time our country has
produced many very able and many very excellent divines;
many far more learned than Edwards, especially in the important department of scientific exegesis. But we suppose it will
not be thought injustice to any living or to any departed
divine, to assert that in originality and depth of mind, and in
the value of his contributions to theological literature, President Edwards remains unrivalled. For popular use and for
popular edification, no sermons in the English language surpass those of President Davies. As a vigorous and polished
writer, as a popular and effective preacher, Dr. Mason was
acknowledged in his own day to be fully equal to any English clergyman.
With the splenetic violence not rare with him, Dr. Samuel
Johnson is reported to have said to a person with whom he
was disputing, "Sir, I am bound to furnish you with arguments; I am not bound to furnish you with brains." In like
manner may we say to the witty reviewer-Sir, we are bound
to furnish you with good books; we are not bound to furnish you with knowledge and candour.
We are glad to see that the tone of the British press in
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