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Art. XXIX.

The Majesty and Mortality of created
Gods, illustrated and improved:
a Funeral Discourse, delivered at
North-Haven, December 29, 1799,
on the Death of General George
Washington. By Benjamin Trum-
bull, D. D. Pastor of the Church
in North-Haven. 8vo. pp. 31.
New-Haven. Read and Morse.
1800.

THE following passage, from
the eighty-second Psalm, is
selected as the foundation of this
discourse: I have said ye are Gods:

and all of you are children of the Most
High. But ye shall die like men, and
fall like one of the princes. Dr. T.
in discoursing from these words,
undertakes, first, to show the ma-
jesty of civil rulers; or, that God
highly exalts some men in genius,
dignity and usefulness, above others:
and, secondly, that, however high-
ly they may be exalted in office, or
in other respects above other men,
they are equally with them subject
to mortality and all its consequen-
ces. After discussing these preli-
minary heads in a judicious and
sensible manner, he makes some
practical inferences from the doc-
trine contained in the text; and
concludes with an application of
the subject to the life, character,
and death of Washington. A num-
ber of notes are added, chiefly of
the historical kind, designed to
throw light on different parts of the
discourse, forming, in the whole,
a valuable mass of information.

Of the character of this learned
and venerable divine, as an author,
we have had several times occasion
to speak in the course of our
monthly criticisms. Our readers
will remember that we have uni-
formly considered him as display-
ing more erudition, and instruc-
tive good sense, in his compositions,
than liveliness or elegance. This
is the case with respect to the pre-
sent discourse. We see in it much
of the dignified seriousness of the
divine, and of the information of
the scholar; but little of the ease
and grace of the accomplished rhe-
torician.