In 1763, his meditations on the types and figures of the Old Testament were published in a neat volume 12mo. The favorable reception which this piece met with from the public, shews, in a much stronger light, the distinguishing excellency of it, than any thing else that could be advanced. Five editions of this work having been already sold, and the demand for it still continues.

With regard to the following sheets, they contain the substance of what the author originally com-posed and delivered in the pulpit, in the form of sermons. His heart, his time, his study, were entirely devoted to the duties of his profession. To contract the force and spirit of a subject into a small compass, and to exhibit it to the mind in one clear and easy ▼iew, was a study he was remarkably fond of. And though he prepared his discourses for the pulpit with great diligence and accuracy, he frequently employed a leisure moment in digesting them, after they had been preached, into the form of little Essays.

From his collection of manuscripts in this kind, the following Essays were selected. Each of them was committed to paper at one sitting, without any design of publishing them; and none of them appear to have been written over again, or revised by the author. It should not then be thought strange, if, in some things, they will not bear a critical examen with regard to the minutiæ of graceful composition. More important matters engaged Mr. M'Ewen's attention; nor was fame, as a writer, by any means his aim.

But it is hoped the reader, who peruses them with the humble child like spirit of a christian, and seeks religious advantage in all he reads, will not lose his labor. He will find a just and lively representation of true christianity, in a variety of its most important articles, and distinguishing peculiarities, enforced by a very warm and pathetic mode of expression, happily conspiring at once to enlighten the understanding and persuade the heart. Apparent repetitions will doubtless sometimes occur; but this will be chiefly in those

things which lie at the root of all vital religion, and evidently lay very near the author's heart; which is very different from that thin starvling common-place work that flows from a barren head, or unfeeling heart. As these Essays were the first effusion of thought, they ought to be considered rather as the production of the heart, than the head, which, it is hoped, will be no disagreeable recommendation of them to the sober christian. From a few cursory specimens, the reader could form no adequate idea of a work replete with such a vast variety of important subjects; and, there fore, I have only to add, that as no order has been observed in writing these sheets, I have not attempted to methodise their contents, or combine them into a regular series.

.

SELECT ESSAYS, &c.

ON THE GREAT EVIL OF SIN.

O SIN, thou only evil in which there is no good, thou superfluity of naughtiness, thou quintessence of what is odious and execrable, whose nature is entirely opposite to that of God, and the reverse of his holy law, who claimest the devil for thy sire, while death, and hell, and misery, confess thee for their only parent! how hast thou troubled all the creation! upon what creatures hast thou not transmitted thy baleful influence !

Ye angels of darkness, once the angels of light, how are ye fallen! how changed! how is your fine gold become dim! what plucked you from your starry mansions, where you did walk with God, high in salvation, in the climes of bliss! you were the angels that sinned; therefore you could not keep your first and happy state, but were driven out from God, flung from eternal splendors to everlasting horrors. "The crown is fallen from your head; wo unto us, for you have sinned."

Ye sons of men, once were you blessed with innocence and peace, in the morning of your existence, when our grand parents first lifted to the heavens their wondering eyes, and reposed themselves in the blissful bowers of paradise, that happy garden, planted by

B

the Lord, and fitted out for their reception. The understanding was bright as the light. The will, all pure and holy, reigned queen of the affections, and swayed them with a golden sceptre. The memory was faithful to his trust, being replenished only with good things. And, O how peaceful was the conscience! how serene! nothing unholy was hatched in his heart, or uttered by the lips, or manifested by the actions.Disease had not invaded our body; death would not have dissolved our frame. We should have been strangers to the miseries of life, and to the dreary mansions of the grave. But sin, that cursed monster, sin hath quenched our intellectual light; hath inthralled the will to vile unruly passions; hath vitiated the memory, tenacious now of evil; hath banished true peace from the conscience. Some are harrassed with direful apprehensions, and consumed away with fearful terrors. What multitudes are stretched on the bed of pain it was sin which bade the head ache, fevers to revel through our veins, convulsions shake the human frames, and agues agitate our bodies.

See there, in that house of mourning, the pale and ghastly corpse extended on the bed. Descend into the silent grave, and view the putrifying flesh, and the mouldering bones. Ah! where are we to what are we reduced? Is this that heaven-labored form, which wore the divine resemblance? Yes, yes; "sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

But can we venture lower still in our meditations, into those dismal regions, where God's mercies are clean gone, and where he will be favorable no more? Hear how they shriek and roar; see how they toss in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone !-Unhappy beings, what brought you to that place of torment?"We are filled with the fruit of our own ways, and are reaping the wages of sin." Yes; it was sin which laid the foundation-stone of your prison, aud filled it with these inexhausted treasures of wrath and indignation.