urch which relates to the discipline of their own minds; much which can be done in domestic life, for the advantage of the old or of the young, to whom they can give their attention or their time; much by which they can be useful to those whose characters they can influence, whose hands they can strengthen; whom they can assist in their difficulties, or comfort in their sickness, or furnish with the means either of prosperity or of religion.

"Those who apply the decline of life to such purposes as these, do not retire in vain from the bustle of the world. If they embrace heartily the opportunities of usefulness which they still possess, nothing is lost which they are capable of attaining. That which they do in secret for the glory of God, or for the advantage of their fellow mortals, is sanetified by the prayer of faith, and shall be accounted to them as good service, in the day of Christ.'

"But though I say this, I have no hesitation to add, that those who abide by their active occupations from a sense of duty, and who employ the last portion of their talents where they spent their vigour, have much better reason to expect, that both their usefulness and their personal comfort shall be continued as long as they live.

No good man's conscience will suggest to him that he ought to become weary of his labours. He who delights in the service on which his duty or his usefulness depends, can have no wish to relinquish it. He is anxious to persevere in the duties which he can in y degree accomplish, even when he is consous of his decline. He looks up to God, to whom he thinks he shall soon return; and though he knows that his summons to die cannot be distant, it continues to be the first wish of his heart, that he may be found enploying the last portions of his health and life, in the duties of his proper place.

"A man who is able to preserve this happy temper of mind to the end, has a far better prospect, than other habits could afford him, of possessing the vigour of his faculties to his last hour; and therefore of extending his labours and his usefulness far beyond the ordinary terin of human activity. He hears the voice of his master, urging his duties and his fidelity on his conscience, till his strength is gone: and he does not lose the impression of it, till the last spark of life expires."

In the tenth sermon preached in Edinburgh, before the directors for the asylum for the blind, the rev. baronet very ably illustrates this important doctrine

"That relief to the miserable, and the general instruction of the poor, essential characters of the Messiah's reign, as described by the prophets, were leading and peculiar features of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it was promulgated by himself and his apostles; that they have universally followed its progress, through all the ages and countries which it has hitherto reached;

and that, as well by means of those who have not believed, as of those who have sincerely embra ed it, they have universally produced the most extensive and salutary effects, on the conditions of human life.”

The whole of this discourse is deserv ing of the serious and attentive perusal of every unbeliever, and suggests many gratifying reflections to every enlightened disciple of Christ. Having shewn what was the aspect of christianity among the poor, during the personal ministry of our Lord, sir Henry justly observes :

"Before I attempt to trace its progress farther, it is necessary to reimark, that both the distinguishing characters which I have supposed to belong to it were at this period almost en tirely new to the world, and are not to be found either in the history or in the institutions of the ancient nations.

"We are not to suppose men of any age or country to have been destitute of the feel ings of humanity, or incapable of exercising them. But those who are acquainted withi human nature know well, how these may be controuled or perverted, by their superstitions, by their laws, by their inveterate prejudices, or by their general manners.

"There were virtues among the ancient nations which we read with a glowing satisfaction, and relate with pride and reverence. But their compassion for the helpless or the sick among the people, the kindness of the great to the poor, their provision for the old, or for the dying, among the lower orders, or their general sympathy with their conditions, were certainly not among their virtues. Setting aside what we find in the history of Judaisin, there has not come down to us one trace or vestige of compassion to the miserable, to the sick, or to the dying, among the common ranks of the people, which was sanctioned by the religion, or by the government, or by the institutions, or by the general manners of any ancient nation.

"This fact is so well established, that a serious argument has been maintained in modern times, in defence of the ancient system of slavery, founded on the assertion that it held out to the great body of the people the only effectual security which they possessed, against the miseries of sickness, of famine, and of age.

"If this is in any respect a just view of the preceding ages, it is no wonder that it should be given us as a distinctive character of the Messiah's reign, that, as the great deliverer and restorer of our fallen race, he was every where to heal the sick, and gladden the blind, and bind up the broken heart, and to com fort all that mourn;' and that mercy to the miserable should be represented to be as much a peculiar, as it is a universal, character. of the dispensation, over which he presides.

"The instruction of the great mass of tle people, was a circunstance not less new or pe culiar. The wisdom of the most enlightened

nations of antiquity was confined to the schools of their philosophers. Their religion was wrapt up in impenetrable fables and mysteries, which but a few individuals were allowed to examine. The knowledge which the people at large were permitted to acquire, was only calculated to, rivet on their minds the terrors of the most abject, irrational, and depressing superstitions. While the art of printing was not yet discovered, and the people were effectually excluded from all the means of information, which have become so accessible in modern times, all culture and all real knowLedge were of necessity confined to the higher orders of men. The instruction of the people could be no object of attention, and never was attempted. They were universally left to labour and to ignorance.

"We may no doubt recollect, that in the free states of Greece and Rome, a certain portion of information was inseparable from the spirit of liberty, and from the effects of the eloquence employed to work on the passions of the multitude, either in public trials or political contentions. But it is not difficult to form an estimate of all the useful knowledge, which can be traced to this source, which, in its best state, had certainly little influence to promote either the virtue or the happiness of the people. And if this kind of information is excepted, which was accessible to a very inconsiderable number of the human race, the people of the ancient world were effectually excluded from every source of instruction beyond the perceptions or the observations of an uncultivated mind.

"It was therefore no common attribute of public teaching, that it was given universally to all the orders of human life; and it was, of consequence, a character of the Messiah, as new as it was peculiar, that he preached the gospel to all the people, to the wise and to the unwise,' to the priests and to the slaves; that he preached it through all the land; and preached it to the lowest of mankind.”

In that part of the discourse in which it is the object of the preacher to show that the relief of the miserable, and the instruction of the people, have distinguished the gospel from the first age of the gospel to the present times, we meet with the following passage; which we quote, not as containing any thing new, but as deserving of being frequently inculcated upon those, who, for want of due deliberation, are accustomed to undervalue the gospel.

all the preceding ages. Indeed, the effect of the promulgation of Christianity to all orders of men, to disseminate every other species of information, as well as its own peculiar doctrines, and its immediate and general influence on the manners and character of those who embraced it, cannot be either questioned or disguised, by those who have bestowed any attention on the history of the times. The emperor Julian, who renounced christianity, and who laboured, with indefatigable zeal, to bring back the people to the ancient superstitions, saw so much of the effects of the chris tian discipline, and of the regular instruction given by the ministers of the gospel to the great body of the people, that, with a view to give the same advantages to the heathen superstitions, he proposed a form of discipline, a system of public instruction, and even an institution for alms, after the model of the christian churches, to be adopted and incorporated in the temples of idolatry. No cons quences followed from this design; for before the experiment could be tried, the emperor's death put an end to all his frenzy. The fact, however, is a demonstration from the mouth of an enemy, of the power and success, with which christianity was seen to have spread a general light and knowledge among the people.

"The corruptions in the christian church, which were imperceptibly multiplied, till they at last produced the monstrous usurpations of the church of Rome, gave the first great check to the general information, which christianity had diffused. After the people were no longer permitted to read the scriptures, and were confined to a worship performed in an unknown tongue, the human understanding was soon in worse fetters, than it had ever worn; and the ignorance and barbarism of the dark ages followed.

"On the other hand, it is a fact equally certain, that the reformation and revival of the christian church in the sixteenth century, was the signal of light and knowledge returning to the world. The general knowledge of the scriptures diffused among the people-the zealous and enlightened exhortations of the first critical time-the books which the reformareformers the art of printing begun at this tion produced and circulated-created a new ara in the history of the world; and spread, more than ever, the sources of substantial information through every country.

"We have been more indebted for the superior light of modern times, and for the modern improvements in every art and science to the influence of christianity, and to the means of information which it has created; to the effects of its doctrines, of its spirit, and of its progress; than to all other causes whatsoever. The gospel, preached to the poor,' has added much indeed, to the resources, both of the rich and of the wise; and has done so, by preserving in its progress, the same general and peculiar characters with which it was at first promulgated by Christ and his apostles.”

The eleventh and twelfth sermons, upon the universal promulgation of the gospel, contain many valuable observations; but we fear that the preacher has not accurately interpreted that passage of scripture the 24th and 25th chapters of Matthew's gospel, upon which these sermons are founded. The events there predicted have, surely, all received their accomplishment; and once the gospel of the kingdom was published throughout the world. Infidelity has taken a strong hold

amidst the concessions which have been incautiously made on this and other subjects connected with these chapters; and she cannot be completely dislodged till those concessions be removed. Upon this topic no one has treated so ably as Mr. Nishett, and we recommend his writings to the attention of the rev. baronet, and to all who are desirous of understanding the history of the founder of christianity, and the epistles of his earliest ministers.

THE author of this posthumous volume was not altogether unknown to fame, though he retired from the public eye, and spent all his life in a distant provincial town, almost uninterruptedly occupied in the study of the scriptures. During the American war he published several fast sermons, which obtained for him the character of an eloquent and faithful preacher, and the admiration and esteem of many eminent persons. In the latter part of his life, when he was disabled by severe attacks of the palsy for performing the accustomed duties of his station as a minister, he gave to the world a series of discourses on the providence and government of God, which have been deservedly admired for the comprehensive view they take of an important subject, and the eloquent and energetic manner in which the practice of piety is enforced, and its consolations recommended. Since the author's death, two volumes of critical remarks and dissertations, on many important passages of scripture, have been published, which, however variously the novel principles that they contain may be appreciated, must be universally acknowledged to display great research, and great erudition, and to suggest, upon some topics, enquiries of no trifling and unim

portant kind.

A more acceptable present could not have been offered than that which the judicious editor has here made to the public. From the memoirs of the learned author prefixed to the Critical Remarks, in which many extracts from manuscript sermons were inserted, as well as from former specimens of his talents as a preacher, we were prepared to expect that, should the editor be induced to publish a selection of

discourses from those which his patient industry had rescued from the oblivion in which they must otherwise have been buried, they would prove eloquent, pious, adapted to improve the understanding, to amend the heart, and to enforce the practice of holiness and virtue. Our expecta tions have not been disappointed. A volume, such as we ventured in the name of the public to solicit, is now before us; and we will assure our readers that, although the English press has teemed with the discourses of able and eloquent divines, it has sent forth few that can claim a supe→ riority to these with respect to any excellence that ought to mark a work of this nature.

The editor has done wisely in prefixing to these discourses the very interesting and improving biographical sketch, originally drawn up for the Critical Remarks. A few alterations have necessarily been made, but none of them are of great importance.

The volume consists of twenty-four dis courses. The three first are upon faith, which the preacher, with much ingenuity, demonstrates to be a reasonable, a desireable, and an important principle, not enthusiastic, nor independent of evidence, nor peculiar to religion; but a principle upon which the most contemptuous scoffers act in the commonest concerns of

life-a principle suited to the wants and imperfections of the human mind, and introducing those who embrace it to the most delightful entertainments. The four succeeding discourses have been selected from a series which was composed and delivered by the author under the severest pressure of domestic afflictions, amongst which the death of an amiable partner

the affectionate mother of six children, was not the lightest. Let the reader of these bear this information of the editor's in mind, and the pious lessons they inculcate will reach his heart with greater force. In the first we are taught the unreasonableness and the folly of undue anxiety respecting any future evils that may arrive; and, in the three that succeed, we are taught the duty of joining prayer with thanksgiving, under such afflictions as no anxiety has been able to prevent.

The exclamation of the psalmist, 'Lord I am thine,' affords the subjects of the seventh discourse, in which many useful reflections are suggested from this weighty and consoling truth, that man is the property of God. The eighth and ninth discourses are employed in describing the obligations, the importance, and the reasonableness of the love of God. In a very forcible and eloquent manner, the preacher proves that,

"The love of God is one of the most natural operations of the human heart, the most obvious and self-approved direction of its sentiments; for it is to admire, what is perceived to be truly admirable; to esteem, what is infinitely worthy to be esteemed; and to che rish in our hearts with complacency and delight, the idea of what confessedly deserves our supreme affection: it is, to cultivate a grateful sense of kindness that exceeds our tenderest thoughts, and of beneficence that passeth knowledge.-To be devoid of the love of God, not only betrays an unnatural opposition to the dictates of self-love, and of charity; but also to that other powerful and amiable principle, by whatever name you call it, which recommends all moral goodness to our hearts. It implies a strange insensibility to our own happiness, to the happiness of our brethren, and to the noblest obligations; a criminal prostitution of our affections, and a perverseness and inconsistency of character, alike wretched, deplorable, and guilty."

But reasonable as the love of God is in itself, and essentially necessary to our own happiness, and the preservation of our virtue, the preacher is aware that there may be some difficulty in preserving and cultivating this divine affection: he therefore extends his enquiry into the causes from which this difficulty proceeds, and the means by which it may be best overcome. We regret that our limits will not allow of the copious extracts which we could with great pleasure select from these very valuable discourses. In some measure connected with these, are the four succeeding discourses, the most philoso

phical, and, upon the whole, the most im portant in the volume. The subject of them is the love of pleasure, which is thus accurately defined :

"It happens that although we have names for many of our affections, significant of their general nature, significant also of the affection in its excess or its defect; yet, in very few instances are we provided with different terms whereby to distinguish it when indifferent, neither laudable nor blameable, from the same affection in its excess, in which, it is in one way criminal, or in its defect, in which it is criminal in another way. Pride, and anger, are two censurable passions; the one being the excess of that affection that is naturally in ourselves; the other, the excess of that aiexcited by the consideration of what is worthy fection, which insults necessarily awaken. But, for these affections, in their general nature, in which they are indifferent; or in their defect, in which they are faulty, we have no appropriate terms. If we could speak of them accurately and usefully, we must describe them in several terms, and carefully distinguish them from pride and anger, which are the names only of the excess.

"From this narrowness of language arises much confusion in our ideas, giving birth to many prejudices, which in their effects may be hurtful to the comfort, and even to the good conduct of life; and hence it becomes neces sary, to attend closely, and distinguish accurately, when either the nature, or the obligations of man, are the subjects of our meditation or discourse.

"For that affection, or rather for that class of affections which we comprehend under the denomination of the love of pleasure, we have only this single term to signify its general nature: we have no names to distinguish it according to the different objects it embraces, nor even to express its excesses or defects. Unless we enter into a particular description of them, we have nothing but this general term by which to express all these various sentiments, and all their different degrees. But it is obvious, that with regard to some objects of delight, our love of pleasure cannot be criminally weak, although in regard to others, it may be blameably defective; in respect some sources of delight, it is not probable, it is not perhaps possible, that it should run into excess; in respect of others, it is very prone so to do; and there is hardly any class of ple sures, in respect of which there is not some degree of affection that is innocent, because natural and unavoidable: hence it follows, that what is true of any one thing, which we call the love of pleasure, is by no means true of all that we mean at any time by that name.

"The pleasures spoken of by the apostle. between which and the love of God we pro

posed to show you that there is a real opposi tion, are those which we derive from sensible.

and external objects. In respect of these, there are two different species of the love of