nizing that he appears to have excelled. He gave much of bis time to the critical studies of the scriptures. But he was most at home in the pulpit, and his labours there were the most valuable. His ardent and animated feelings, his deep impressions of piety, his solemn sense of duty and responsibility, his very elevated, enlarged, and cheering views of the government of God, of the purposes of our existence and religion, and of the future world as a retributive state connected with this, rendered him nervous and forcible in his exhibition of religious truths, and uncommonly impressive in his appeals to the conscience. We are confident, that abundant proof of all this may be found in the volume before us. The subjects of the discourses are chiefly, as expressed in the title page, of a devotional cast, regarding principally the relation of man to the Deity and a future state, and of course representing religion raore in its pious and spiritual, than in its moral character; but at the same time showing, that its moral character can never fairly be separated.

The three first sermons treat of Faith, a subject which lies at the foundation of all religion, and which is capable of being treated in a great variety of ways, according to the particular object to be accomplished. The object here is to prove, that faith is no mysterious, inexplicable principle, added to the natural powers in a religious man; but is one of the natural principles of the mind, of constant use in the affairs and intercourse of this world, in the conduct of our common business and the arrangement of all our plans, and when applied to the business of religion is peculiar only in this, that it is applied to things more important, more distant, and invisible. We cannot enter at large into his views. We can only say, that they appear to us in a high degree clear and rational, as well as consonant to the scriptures. They have this advantage too, of presenting the subject in a tangible form, so that every one may know when he has grasped it, and not enveloped in mist and shadows. The following extracts show sufficiently the spirit and complexion of the whole.

"Faith is a reasonable principle. There is nothing dark, mysterious, or unintelligible in it; nothing for which he who values himself most upon the character of reason, has any cause to be ashamed. It is not an enthusiastic principle that first gives being to dreams and visions, and then supports itself upon imaginations of its own creating. It is not a supernatural impression proceeding from the immediate agency of God, capriciously bestowed where he pleases to bestow it, and denied where he wills it to be denied. It is not an inexplicable feeling of we know not what, conceived we know not how, and cherished we know not why it is not the persuasion of any thing, whether good or evil, concerning either ourselves

or any other being, taken up without reason, and maintained upon principles that may not be duly specified and explained: it is not any sudden irradiation of the mind, proceed ng from whatever cause; for Faith is not more the especial gift of God, than Sight; it is equally the natural and necessary result of the principles that compose the human frame.-To an eye duly formed, present any object of the visible world, and it is seen: to a mind attentive and undepraved, propose the evidence concerning any truth that respects the world invisible, concerning either distant objects, past transactions, or events yet to come, and in proportion to the strength of that evidence, it is believed. Whatever persuasion is taken up against evidence or without it, is blind presumption, or romantic imagination, and not Faith.

"Faith is as much the effect of evidence, as sight is the effect of sensible impression; nor is the one more absolutely dependent on its cause, or more closely connected with it, than the other. It is a law of our nature, that in such and such circumstances, we shall see; and it is as much a law of our nature, that in such and such circumstances, we shall believe. If we will be judging of such visible things as are beyond the sphere of clear and distinct vision, no man would call these presumptuous fancies, however strongly we might be attached to them, sight; and in like manner, if we would be judging of things invisible, to which the light of evidence does not reach, no man should call these visions of imagination, Faith: they are both of them the reveries of a capricious or disordered mind; a partial frenzy, which only requires to be extended to a greater multitude of objects, to render the perversion of our understandings both manifest and deplorable. What sight is in the natural world, with respect to things visible and present, Faith is in the spiritual world, with respect to things absent and invisible: to believe, on sufficient evidence, is as natural as to perceive and in thus believing, there is nothing more unreasonable, inex plicable, or indefensible, than in seeing with our open eyes the prospect that presents itself before us.

**Faith then is a principle no more peculiar to religion in general, than it is peculiar to the Christian religion in particular. Even those, who most affect to treat it with ridicule and contempt in the disciples of Christ, are themselves obliged, and they are satisfied with the obligation, to act upon it every day and every hour of their lives: it is the very principle which, in the ordinary affairs of life, regulates and governs by far the greater part of their thoughts, their affections, and their conduct." pp. 94, 95.

After some examples of this, he goes on as follows:

"Almost all the affairs of life are transacted upon the evidence of testimony and under the influence of Faith; and yet mankind, in all the reproaches they have thrown one upon another, never thought that upon this account they could upbraid, or be upbraided. Even the most licentious ridiculer of this principle never dreamed that he was chargeable with weakness and absurdity for the influence that he allowed it to have over him, and would have joined as heartily in exposing him who totally disowned it in the affairs of this world, as him who abounded in it, in respect to the concerns of another.

"It is in matters of religion only that Faith is so weak, ridiculous, and absurd for there, instead of gratifying our irregular inclinations, it reproves them; it calls away the attention of mankind from this present world; it would moderate their attachment to it, and their expectation from it, and would engage them in the pursuit of the invisible and future New Series-vol. I.

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things of another world; things in themselves indeed more important, but not so well suited to the taste of the ambitious, the sensual, or the carnal mind. But does the dislike of them destroy their reality? Does it annihilate the evidence of these things? Is it the less certain that they are, or that they will be, because the men of this world are less willing to believe them? Does the reasonableness of Faith diminish, as the importance of its objects rises? Is it reasonable to act upon it in respect of this present life, and not in respect of that which is to come? Is it right that we should be guided and governed by it in regard to the transitory trifles of this present state, and right also that we should disclaim and resist it, in regard to the infinitely more important interests of that which is unchangable and interesting?

If there be a world invisible; if there be a future state into which we are, ere long, to be removed,-if the powers of that world invisible be favourably or unfavourably disposed towards us according to our conduct in the present,-and moreover, if our condition in that future state, will depend upon the preparation we make for it in this, what is the evidence that should determine us to regard these things? The evidence of sense is excluded by the very nature of the objects; if this were to be obtained, they could not then be invisible and future; the evidence of testimony is all the evidence we can obtain of such objects, and having this, is it right to treat them as chimeras? to forget, to overlook, or to despise them, as the unsubstantial fictions of a wild imagination?—We could only treat them thus, if we were conscious that they were the dreams of our own fancy, and that we had no evidence at all concerning them. If it be unjustifiable to give no attention to those things, which if they have a being, are most deeply interesting to us, and of the existence of which we have all the evidence that the nature of them will admit, then, our faith in these things can be no matter of reproach to us; it is a just and reasona ble principle.-Will it bear a doubt who acts the wiser part, he, who resisting the evidence of an invisible and future world divests himself of all concern about it, or he, who yielding to the evidence of its reality, attends to it, expects it, and forms his life upon the expectation.

"Can it be reasonable to distrust that principle in regard to the invisible and future things of the eternal world, which we rely upon, which we act upon, in regard to the invisible and future things of the present? What is there that should make a difference? If the testimony in the one case be as credible as the testimony in the other, the Faith is in both circumstances alike reasonable, and he who yields it in the one, and withholds it in the other, who, either in word or deed, in the one case countenances and approves, and in the other, vilifies and depreciates it, has no cause to value himself upon the reasonableness of his character, his own mouth accuseth him, and by his own conduct he is condemned." pp. 99-101.

Having thus spoken of it as a natural and reasonable, the third discourse is occupied in showing it to be a desirable and important principle. We quote from the concluding paragraphs.

"When we carry forward our thoughts unto futurity, we are compelled to believe, that there is a day, not very distant, which shall be marked by our funerals, when our bodies shall be sealed up in the grave. Should we anticipate that day with greater pleasure, if we believed that the pains and weaknesses which usually lead thither, would be our last sensations? If we believed, that when once the dust to which we were going had received us, we should know and be known no more for ever? Could we

think with greater pleasure of retiring out of this world, if we were ignorant, if we were dubious, whether there were any other scene of being to succeed it? Would the vale of death exhibit to us a more pleasing prospect, if it did not open into another and a more important world? Could we go with greater satisfaction to lay our pious parents, our worthy friends, or our virtuous children in the grave, if we thought that we had then bid adieu to them for ever? Could we stand with so much serenity by the death-bed of the just, if we dared not to encourage our imaginations in following them into nobler life, and to a better world, where ten thousand times ten thousand happy spirits are rejoicing in the friendship of their Maker, and whose number it may be is every moment receiving new accessions? if we knew nothing of the New Jerusalem, of God, of Christ, and the innumerable company of angels, to which all just men, when they have left this fleshly tabernacle, shall be for ever united?

"No, my friends:-it is Faith to which we owe the most cordial consolations, under the heaviest pressures of mortality: it is Faith to which we are indebted for our sublimest pleasures; for it is Faith that discovers to us our virtuous predecessors exalted into all the happiness we could desire for them. It is Faith that teaches us to look upon this life, noble as is the rank we hold in the present world, and great as are the blessings we enjoy in it, as nothing more than the seed-time of human being, the school of our education, the childhood of our existence; and it is Faith that enables us to antedate the happiness of that better state, where our labours shall be recompensed by the noblest harvest, and our nature shall arrive at its full maturity and perfection." pp. 113, 114.

The sermons which come next, "on undue anxiety," and "the duty of thanksgiving in affliction," are among his consolatory discourses; they contain representations respecting the cares and afflictions of life, well calculated to soothe and cheer those that are in trouble.

The seventh sermon is entitled, "Man the property of God;" illustrating the truth, that in every possible sense, man is absolutely and wholly dependent. The conclusion is a good example of the serious and impressive, or, as we may say, the close preaching which is often to be found in the volume.

"1. If we be the property of God, how highly reasonable is it, that we should study and obey his will.

"You honour and obey your parents, and herein you do well. If any man feed, and clothe, and provide for you, you are modest, humble, grateful, and herein you do well. You are submissive, respectful, and faithful, to those who are set over you in authority, and herein you deserve our imitation and our praise. If any man deposit his property in your hands, you would dread the very thought of violating your trust, or of injuring your brother, and herein you prove yourself faithful and just. Remember then, that you are the creatures, the dependents, the subjects, the property of God; let your sentiments and conduct towards others, respecting each of these relations, instruct you in the sentiments and conduct which you ought to maintain towards the great Lord and ruler of the world. But more particularly,

"Secondly, If you be the property of God, you have the highest reason to be thankful to him for every comfort, and to be resigned under every affliction.

"Had you been possessed of an independent being, had you been strictly and properly your own, had it been of your own accord that you had received the benefits, and become the subjects, and owned yourselves the property of God, you might then have pleaded that it was not an absolute, but a conditional engagement: you might then have received his bounties, as what were in justice due to you, and murmured against every thing that was unacceptable in your circumstances, as a violation of the treaty you had made with God: but, if you be his without any merit in becoming such; if you be his to do with you whatever seemeth to him good; if you have no claim of right on your Creator, how highly does this consideration enhance your obligations to him for every comfort of your existence? How indecent, how impious, how unnatural is it to murmur at any thing which he may appoint!

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"In the third place, If ye be God's, not only by the necessity of nature, but by your own deliberate choice and your own voluntary engagements, consider how highly it behoves you to be steady to your choice, and faithful to your vows. If you suspect that you have determined rashly, think again consider whether you can find a better master, or engage yourselves in a more gainful service. Remember that it were better for you never to have known the way of righteousness, than after having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto you; and tremble, lest to the guilt of profaneness and of rebellion, you add the accessory guilt of perfidy and falsehood.

"In the fourth and last place, If we be God's, if owning him for our lawgiver and our judge, he owns us for his people, and his children, how solid is the ground on which our hopes are built, and how secure our happiness! Whatever comes to us, comes to us for our good, for it comes to us from an almighty friend, who knows our state, and tenderly regards our interests. Though there may be some things in our condition which are not for the present joyous, but grievous, yet if we be God's, God is ours, and if God be ours; what security can we want of an ample indemnification in futurity? Afflictions are very tolerable when they are not the ministers of wrath; and prosperity is doubly acceptable when we can receive it as the testimony of divine favour. The men of the world are apt to boast themselves of their felicity, but if they now prefer the world to God, the time will come, when they will praise the Christian's choice. Their pleasures will decline, his will be improving; their hopes will vanish away, his will be more than realized; their confidence will fail them, but the Christian rests upon the rock of ages. In the time of apprehension and of fear, in the hour of trouble and affliction, in the moment of death, in the solemnities of judgment, they will want, what the world cannot give its votaries; and what God only can bestow. In these trying seasons, when every thing about those who are without God, is dark, and gloomy, and distressing, the Christian, supported by his conscience, and encouraged by the divine promises, can derive light and comfort from the relation that he bears to him in whose hands are the fates of every living thing. When all sublunary comforts have taken their flight, when human friendships can no longer avail, the hope of the Christian remains uninjured, for in this world he placed not his happiness:-he had long fixed it there, where true joys only are to be found, whither he is now going to reap that glorious harvest, the gracious reward of his faith, patience, and obedience; for he knows who it is that hath said, 'be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.'" pp. 156-158.

The subject of the eighth sermon, is "The obligation, importance and reasonableness of the love of God." We quote