Keeping ever in view his grand object, the conversion | of the Indians to the knowledge, the belief, and the obedience of the truth as it is in Jesus, he made use of all the means which Providence placed in his power to promote the mental cultivation of the converts. On this point, a striking lesson may be learned from the unwearied efforts of this devoted missionary. The delusion has been too prevalent in the Christian world, that the work of a missionary must be almost exclusively limited to preaching the Gospel. He ought to be a man armed at all points, and ready to adopt expedients of all kinds, as well for the eradication of prejudice and error, as for the communication of truth. Mr Eliot's labours, however, were considerably retarded by a war which the colonists of New England had waged against Philip, the principal chief of the Indians. The converts naturally attached themselves to their benefactors, and some of them even took up arms against their infidel countrymen. Yet the fact, that a few of the professors of religion had been induced to join Philip's forces, was sufficient to excite the prejudices of the colonists against the converts. They viewed them with abhorrence and distrust; they subjected them to severe persecution, and judged them even worthy of death. Mr Eliot exerted himself to protect the persons and interests of his spiritual children; and in doing so, exposed himself to much calumny and reproach. An event occurred, which showed the malignity which rankled in the bosoms of some of the colonists towards this devoted servant of the Most High. "On a certain occasion, during the war, Mr Eliot went to sea in a small boat, which happened to be upset by a larger vessel. When about to sink, without the expectation of rising again, he exclaimed, The will of the Lord be done!' He was happily rescued from the imminent danger in which he was placed; but his deliverance, instead of being a matter of joy to all his acquaintances, led one of them to remark, that he wished he had been drowned!" At length, after a severe struggle and much loss, the war was terminated by the slaughter of Philip and many of his warriors, on the 12th of August 1676. On its conclusion, Mr Eliot found that several of the towns, inhabited by the Indian converts, had been destroyed; some of them had perished in the contest, while others had fallen away from their Christian profession. Trusting, however, in Him whose ambassador he was, he went forward with alacrity and vigour in his labours among the heathen; and the Lord was pleased to accompany his exertions with no small success. "The Eastern Indians," he remarked in a letter dated 4th Nov. 1680, and addressed to Mr Boyle, "do offer to submit themselves to be taught to pray unto God. A chief Sachem was here about it, a man of a grave and discreet countenance. Our praying Indians, both in the islands and on the main, are (considered together) numerous: thousands of souls, of whom some are true believers, some learners, and some are still infants. All of them beg, cry, and entreat for Bibles, having already enjoyed that blessing, but now are in great want." Mr Eliot now directed his efforts towards the publication of a second edition of his translation, first of the New, then of the Old Testament. This important work he was enabled to accomplish by the remittances which from time to time he received from England; and it appears to have been one of the last public employments of this indefatigable missionary. He had now reached the advanced age of fourscore years, and was so weakened by the extent and variety of his labours, that he was unable to preach to the Indians oftener than once in two months. An Indian pastor, named Daniel, presided over the Church at Natick, and almost all the other Indian Churches listened studiously to the instructions of pastors from their own tribes. Such a state of matters it had been Mr Eliot's great wish to see, and the time had come when he was ready to say, like Simeon of old, "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Feeling himself no longer capable of discharging his pastoral duties, Mr Eliot wished to resign his charge at Roxbury. To this, however, his congregation would by no means consent. In suggesting the election of a colleague and successor, his conduct was truly disinter ested."'Tis possible,' he said, when addressing them on this subject, you may think the burden of maintaining two ministers may be too heavy for you, but I deliver you from that fear. I do here give back my salary to the Lord Jesus Christ; and now, brethren, you may fix that upon any man that God shall make a pastor for you.' His Church, to their immortal honour, assured him, that they would count his very presence among them worth a salary, when he should be altoge ther unable to do them any further service." The choice of the congregation having fallen upon Mr Nehemiah Walter, a graduate of Harvard College, a young man of great piety and worth, the venerable pastor readily received him, and like another Elijah, threw off his robe and gave it to his successor. So completely satisfied was he, in fact, with his youthful brother, that he could scarcely be prevailed upon to perform any publie service for a year or two before his death. The last occasion on which he appears to have preached, was on the day of a public fast, when, after expounding with his wonted clearness and simplicity the eighty-third Psalm, he concluded with an apology to his hearers for "the poorness, and meanness, and brokenness of his me ditations," and adding, "My dear brother here will, by and by, mend all." When at last compelled to ab stain from his public duties in the Church, he would say with a tone peculiar to himself, "I wonder for what the Lord Jesus lets me live, he knows that now I can do nothing for him." But even when unable any longer to preach to the English, he still continued once a-week to catechise and instruct the Indians. A length it was evident, that, in the ordinary course of nature, his end could not be far distant. But having been attacked with a considerable degree of fever, he rapidly sunk under his disorder. While be lay in the extremity of his sufferings, seeing Mr Wal ter come to him, and fearing that by petitioning for his life, he might detain him in the vale of tears, he said, the Brother, thou art welcome to my very soul. Pray retire to thy study for me, and give me leave to be gone.' Having been asked how he did, he answered, Alas! I have lost every thing; my understanding leaves me, my memory fails me, my utterance fais me; but I thank God my charity holds out still-l find that rather grows than fails.' When speaking about the propagation of the Gospel among the Indians, be remarked, There is a cloud, a dark cloud, upon work of the Gospel among the poor Indians. The Lord revive and prosper that work, and grant that it may live when I am dead. It is a work which I have been doing much and long about. But what was the word I spoke last? I recal that word, my doings! Alas! they have been poor and small and lean doings; and I'll be the man that shall throw the first stone at them all.' He used many similar extraordinary and precio expressions in his dying moments. Among the las words he uttered were, WELCOME JOY;' and his voice for ever failed him in this world, while he repeated, PRAY, PRAY, PRAY.' He departed from this he the beginning of 1690, and in the eighty-sixth year of his age." The fall of such a man as Mr Eliot could not fail to excite a strong sensation, not only in New England, ba also in Britain, the land of his fathers, and the land, too, which had fostered and encouraged him in his holy labours among the Indians. The language of Dr Mather, who knew him well, shows the feeling prevalent at his death. "Bereaved New England, where are thy tears at this ill-boding funeral? We had a tradition current among us, that the country would never perish as long as Mr Eliot was alive! But into whose hands must this Hippo fall, now that the Austin of it is gone? Our Elisha is gone, and who must next year invade the land? I am sure that it is a dismal eclipse that has now befallen our New English world. If the dust of dead saints could give us any protection, we are not without it. We cannot see a more terrible prognostic, than tombs filling apace with such bones as the renowned Eliot's: the whole building trembles at the fall of such a pillar. We hope that all true Protestants will count it no more than what is equal and proper, that the land which has in it the grave of such a remarkable preacher to the Indians, as our ELIOT, should be treated with such a love, as a Jerusalem uses to find from them that are to prosper." THE ORIGIN OF MAN; as aquatic animals appear to have been produced before terrestrial, and every living substance to have originated from a form or nucleus exquisitely simple and minute, and to have been perpetually developing and expanding its powers, and progressively advancing towards perfection, man himself must have been of the aquatic order on his first creation; at that time, indeed, imperceptible from his exility, but in process of years, or rather of ages, acquiring a visible or oyster-like form, with little gills, instead of lungs, and, like the oyster, produced spontaneously, without distinction into sexes; that, as reproduction is always favourable to improvement, the aquatic or oyster mannikin, by being progressively accustomed to seek its food on the nascent shores or edges of the primeval ocean, must have grown, after a revolution of countless generations, first into an amphibious, and then into a terrestrial animal. "It is not necessary to notice this dream of a poet ITS EXPLANATION BY HUMAN REASON CONTRASTED WITH izing philosopher, which had also been dreamt of long ITS EXPLANATION BY DIVINE REVELATION. "ARE the different distributions of man mere varieties of one common species, or distinct species merely connected under an imaginary genus? Has the human race proceeded from one source or from many? "In a country professing the Christian religion, and appealing to the records of Moses, as an established and veritable authority, I ought, perhaps, to blush at proposing such a question in public: but the insinuations which have in various ways been thrown out against this authority demand it, and I am desirous to rescue, so far as I am able, the first and most interesting account we possess of the creation of man, from the philosophical doubts which have been thrown upon it, and to reconcile it with the natural history of man in our own day. "The Mosaic statement has met with two distinct classes of opponents, each of which has assumed a different ground of objection. The one has regarded this statement as altogether untrue, and never intended to be believed: as a mere allegory or fiction;-a beautiful mythos often indulged in by other oriental writers in the openings of their respective histories; as an enlivening frontispiece to a book of instruction. The other class has been in some degree more guarded in its attack; and has rather complained that the statement is inexplicit than that it is untrue. These last philosophers have found out that in its common interpretation it does not accord with the living volume of nature; and they hence contend that the common interpretation is incorrect; they perceive, or think they perceive, a variety of chasms in the sacred text, which it is necessary to fill up before it can be made to harmonize with natural facts and appearances. "At the head of the former class stand the names of some of the first natural historians and scholars of modern times, as Linnæus, Buffon, Helvetius, Monboddo, and Darwin. And from whom do these philosophers, thus departing from the whole letter and spirit of the Mosaic history, pretend to derive the race of man? The four former from the race of monkeys; and the last, to complete the absurdity, from the race of oysters; for Dr Darwin seriously conjectures that From The Book of Nature," by Dr John Mason Good. 3 Vols. Longman and Co. London: 1834. before his own day, any further than to remark that Earth fed the nursling, the warm ether clothed, And frivolous as such a theory may now appear, it was the only one which was current among the Grecian or Roman philosophers, except that which supposed mankind to have been propagated by eternal generation, and, of course, the universe, like himself, to be eternal and self-existent: compared with which, an origin from the dust of the earth, even after the manner of vegetables, is incomparably less monstrous and absurd. "Let us now pass on to the hypothesis of those modern philosophers who would associate the tribes of man with the tribes of the monkey, and originate both from one common stock, in the same manner as the ox and buffalo are said to be derived from the bison, and the different varieties of sheep from the argali. "There are a few wonderful histories afloat of wild men and wild women found in the woods of Germany and France; some of which are said to have been dumb, others to have had the voice of sheep or of oxen, and others again to have walked on all-fours. And from these few floating tales, not amounting, in modern times, to more than nine or ten, Linnæus. thought proper to introduce the orang-otang into the human family, and to regard such instances of wild men as the connecting species between this animal and mankind in a state of civilized society. Whence Lord Monboddo has amused us with legends of men found in every variation of barbarism; in some instances even ungregarious or solitary; in others, uniting, indeed, into small hordes, but so scanty even in natural or inarticulate language, as to be obliged to assist their own meaning by signs and gestures; and, consequently, to be incapable of conversing in the dark; of a third sort who have in some degree improved upon their natural language, but have still so much of the savage beast belonging to them, as to employ their teeth and nails, which last are not less than an inch long, as weapons of defence; and of a fourth sort, found in an island of the Indian seas, with the full possession of speech, but with tails like those of cats or monkeys; a set of dreadful cannibals, which at one time killed and devoured every Dutchman they could lay their hands upon. "It is truly wonderful that a scholar of Lord Monboddo's accomplishments could have allowed himself to be for one moment imposed upon by a mass of trash so absurd and extravagant, as not to be worth the trouble of confuting. Such romances are certainly in existence; but they are nothing more than the fabled news of a few illiterate mariners, whose names were never sufficient to give them the slightest degree of authority, even when they were first uttered; and which, for the most part, dropped successively into an obscure and ignominious grave on the moment of their birth, and would have silently mouldered away into their elemental nothingness, had not this very singular writer chosen to rake up their decomposing atoms, in order to support an hypothesis which sufficiently proves its own weakness by the scouted and extravagant evidence to which it is compelled to appeal. "But throwing the monkey kind out of the question, as in no respect related to the race of man, it must at least be admitted, contend the second class of philosophers before us, that the wide differences in form, and colour, and degree of intellect, which the several divisions of mankind exhibit, as you have now arranged them, must necessarily have originated from different sources; and that even the Mosaic account itself will afford countenance to such a hypothesis. "This opinion was first stated, in modern times, by the celebrated Isaac Peyrere, librarian to the Prince of Condé; who, about the middle of last century, contended, in a book which was not long afterwards condemned to the flames, (though for other errors in conjunction with the present,) that the narration of Moses speaks expressly of the creation of two distinct species of man; an elder species, which occupied a part of the sixth day's creation, and is related in the first chapter of Genesis; and a junior, confined to Adam and Eve, the immediate progenitors of the Hebrews, to whom this account was addressed, and which is not referred to till the seventh verse of the second chapter, and even then, without any notice of the exact period in which they were formed. After which transaction, this writer and those who think with him, observe the historian confines himself entirely to the annals of his own nation, or of those which were occasionally connected with it. Neither is it easy, they adjoin, to conceive, upon any other explanation, how Cain, in so early a period of the world as is usually laid down, could have been possessed of the implements of husbandry which belonged to him; or what is meant by the fear he expressed, upon leaving his father's family, after the murder of Abel, that every one who found him would slay him; or, again, his going forth into another country, marrying a wife there, and building a city soon after the birth of his eldest son. "Now, a cautious perusal of the Mosaic narrative will, I think, incontestibly prove that the two accounts of the creation of man refer to one and the same fact, to which the historian merely returns, in the seventh verse of the second chapter, for the purpose of giving it a more detailed consideration; for it is expressly asserted in the fifth or preceding verse but one, as the immediate reason for the creation of Adam and Eve, that at that time there was not a man to till the ground;' while, as to the existence of artificers competent to the formation of the first rude instruments employed in husbandry, and a few patches of mankind scattered over the regions adjoining that in which Cain resided, at the period of his fratricide, it should be recollected that this first fall of man by the hand of man, did not take place till a hundred and twenty-nine years after the creation of Adam: for it was in his one bundred and thirtieth year, that Seth was given to him in the place of Abel: an interval of time amply sufficient, especially if we take into consideration the peculiar fecundity of both animals and vegetables in their primeval state, for a multiplication of the race of man, to an extent of many thousand souls. "On such a view of the subject, therefore, it should seem that the only fair and explicit interpretation that can be given to the Mosaic history is, that the whole human race has proceeded from one single pair, or in the words of another part of the Sacred Writings, that God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.' The book of nature is in this, as in every other respect, in union with that of Revelation: it tells us that one single pair must have been adequate to all the purposes on which this class of philosophers have grounded their objections: and it should be further observed to them, that thus to multiply causes without necessity, is not more inconsis tent with the operations of nature than with the principles of genuine philosophy." DISCOURSE. BY THE REV. JAMES SOMERVILLE, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling: I. That which needs to be wrought in us, is, "to will and to do of God's good pleasure," or, in other words, that which is pleasing to God. He desires to see us such, as that he may be able to look upon us with complacency; to see in us all those principles, tempers, dispositions, and all that course of conduct, which will render us pleasing in his sight. God desires to rejoice in all his works, and especially in man, whom he placed at the head of his works in this world, and made very good, after his own image. To enter into a par bent to that which is right, this is a state of the soul good in itself, and therefore pleasing to God, and it will lead to all that is right and good in outward conduct. In a word, as the will is, such is the man. This is what we need to have wrought in us, that the will may decidedly prefer, and choose, and adhere to that which is good. This is indispensably necessary for us; for in our natural state, the will is wholly inclined to evil, and averse from good. In his natural state, man has no will to love God, and to obey him-no will to seek for happiness in pleasing him, or enjoying him as a portion-no will to work out his own salvationno will to come to Christ as a Saviour—no will to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly. Now that state of the will must be changed, and it must receive a completely contrary bent, so that, instead of being contrary to the will of God, it shall be in accordance with it. Instead of preferring and choosing those things which are earthly, sensual, and sinful, it shall choose those which are heavenly, spiritual, and good. True religion must begin in the soul; and the faculty of the will is one of the first and chief powers of the mind, which must be changed. ticular enumeration of every thing that is pleasing | or displeasing to God, in human character and conduct, would be to transcribe a great part of his word. Briefly, it may be said, that we are objects of his good pleasure, when, in looking upon us both with regard to heart and life, he beholds us bearing his own image, which consists in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. In this state, man at first came out of his creating hand, and it is the great object of God's good pleasure to have this image again restored. We are pleasing in his sight when he sees us holy, harmless, undefiled, and separated from sinners. As he hates all sin, we are the objects of his good pleasure when it is wrought in us also to hate it. As he delights in holiness, we are pleasing to him when he beholds us loving it. His good pleasure is in the course of being wrought in us, when he sees us in the way by which his image can be restored to our souls, coming with gratitude to Jesus, the Mediator, through whom alone sinful creatures can come to a holy God and find acceptance. His good pleasure is wrought in us, when we are brought to see our need of a Saviour-when we see the sufficiency and suitableness of his Sonwhen Christ is rendered truly precious to us, and we determine to look for salvation to his merits alone. We are pleasing in his sight, when, in When the will is brought to be decidedly on consequence of this, we are sanctified by his Spi- the side of what is pleasing to God, the most imrit, so that we love him supremely, and are wil-portant and difficult part of the work may be conlingly subject to his authority in all things. We are pleasing in his sight, when, as sinners, he beholds us humble and contrite, and ready to tremble at his word, penitent for sin, and resolved against it. His good pleasure has been wrought in us, when the works of the flesh do not predominate, or rule over us, such as adultery, fornication, uncleanness, idolatry, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, revellings, and such like; and when, on the contrary, the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, are to be found prevailing in us. In a word, we are pleasing in his sight, when the inward state of our hearts, and the outward state of our conduct, accord with his holy nature and holy law. This is what we need to be brought to, and to have wrought in us; and to the attainment of this state, there are two things which must be accomplished in us, first, to will, and, secondly, to do, what is pleasing to God. First, the will must be brought to prefer, and choose, and adhere to, that which is pleasing to God; and next, we must be enabled to follow up the choice of the will, and reduce it to actual practice. The will is the ruling faculty of man; and according to its choice, such will be the general conduct. If the will be decidedly averse to that which is pleasing to God, and decided in its choice of those things which are displeasing to him, the soul of that person must not only be extremely vile and hateful in the sight of God, but still more so, as the general tenor of the outward conduct will follow this evil state of the will. On the other hand, when the will is sidered as accomplished. But there is still a great deal more to do: for though, doubtless, when the will is decidedly bent to that which is pleasing to God, the general conduct will, on the whole, be right also; yet, between the choice of the will, and the carrying of that choice into actual practice, there occur often so many and great difficulties and hinderances, that the choice of the will evaporates in mere empty purposes and wishes, without the actual doing of the good that was intended. Even bad men, when their will has made its choice of doing something evil, are often prevented from carrying the choice of their will into effect, by some check or restraint, so that they cannot always get all the evil done which they wish. But much more is this the case with good men, when their will has chosen that which is good and pleasing to God. There are innumerable temptations, snares, and hinderances, from within, and from without, which compel them to adopt the language of the apostle, " to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I know not." Rom. vii. 18. "For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil that I would not, that I do." ver. 19. It is necessary, then, that it be wrought in Christians, not only to will but to do, of God's good pleasure. It is necessary that they should be strengthened with all might in the inner man, to do his will; that their good intentions may not pass away in mere empty ineffectual wishes, but that they may become active practical Christians, abounding in all the fruits of righteousness, which, through Jesus Christ, are to the praise and glory of God. II. It is implied in the text, that mankind cannot, of themselves, do any thing effectual in this work. It is not supposed that they are mere inanimate masses of matter to be wrought upon, and formed and fashioned by an external operator, without any consciousness or activity on their part. They can understand, and think, and consider; they can look forward to consequences, and judge what are to be the effects of certain courses of conduct, either good or bad; and they can use a variety of means. But when the natural hardness of the heart is considered, the strong hold which sin has of it, and the innumerable temptations to which mankind are exposed, they have the fullest ground to conclude, that they shall never work out their salvation by any power of their own. An unconverted sinner has every reason to conclude, that without an exertion of divine power in taking away the hard and stony heart, and giving him a new heart and a right spirit, he never would be brought into a saving state: and the converted sinner, who is in a saving state, has equal reason to conclude, that unless divine power were exerted to uphold, strengthen, and carry him forward, he would certainly turn back unto perdition. to do. Thus, when their will is brought truly to desire to repent, he works in them the grace of repentance. When they are brought to wish earnestly that they were enabled to believe in the Saviour, he works in them the grace of faith. When they truly and earnestly desire to be enabled to love God, he works in them to do so, and sheds abroad his love in their hearts, by the Holy Ghost given unto them. When they truly and earnestly wish to be stedfast and unmoveable, and to be always abounding in the work of the Lord, he imparts to them grace and strength to carry these desires into effect. He communicates to them such supplies of grace and strength, that they are strengthened with all might in the inner man to do his will. He enables them, on the whole, to overcome all the difficulties, hinderances and temptations which tend to prevent their actively doing the will of God; so that, by his grace, they are not only kept from falling away, but are enabled to abound in doing the will of God. The whole tenor of Scripture confirms this doctrine. "The Lord is the strength of my life," says David, " of whom shall I be afraid?" Psal. xxvii. 1. "The Lord will give strength to his people." Ps. xxix. 11. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Ps. xlvi. 1. III. It is clearly taught in the text, and in various other parts of Scripture, "that it is God who "The Lord will perfect that which concernworketh in his people, both to will and to do of eth me." Ps. cxxxviii. 8. "Being confident of his good pleasure." He has immediate access to this very thing, that he which hath begun a good the soul, and to all its powers, and complete power work in you, will perform it, until the day of Jesus over it; so that he can turn it, like the rivers of Christ." Phil. i. 6. "In the day when I cried, water, whither he will. He does this, not by thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with forcing the will, but by his powerful and efficaci- strength in my soul." Ps. cxxxviii. 3. "Thy ous working, inclining it to those things which people shall be willing in the day of thy power." are right and pleasing to God. Under this work- Ps. cx. 3. "They that wait on the Lord shall ing of God, the man who is the subject of it, acts renew their strength; they shall mount up with most freely and willingly; but God, by his graci- wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, ous influences, has so operated on his will, that he they shall walk and not faint." Isa. xl. 31. "Withfreely and willingly chooses that which is good, out me," says our Saviour, "ye can do nothing." and rejects that which is evil. God thus works John xv. 5. In accordance with this, his apostle in and upon his people, by the truths of his word, says, "I can do all things through Christ, which by his providence, and by the influences of his strengtheneth me." Philip. iv. 13. On this ground, Spirit, presenting to their minds such reasons and he exhorts Christians, "to be strong in the Lord, motives as may produce an effect on their will, and in the power of his might." Eph. vi. 10. And causing them to see and to feel the strength and the same apostle tells us, that, in answer to his weight of these reasons and motives, and to yield prayer, he obtained the promise from Christ, "My to them, and thus making them a willing people grace is sufficient for thee; my strength is made in the day of his power. This work is generally perfect in weakness." 2 Cor. xii. 9. On him, very slow and gradual, and often almost, if not al- therefore, ought to be all our dependence, and to together imperceptible. They who are the sub-him should all the glory be ascribed. jects of it, in general, feel at first only some slight inclination toward that which is good, and this is attended with many waverings and counter inclinations towards that which is evil; but, under the influences of the divine Spirit, their inclinations towards that which is good, gradually become stronger, and weaker towards that which is evil, until at last the will is brought to cleave strongly, decidedly, and habitually, to that which is right, and to reject that which is displeasing to God. Thus God works in his people to will of his good pleasure. It is God also, who works in them effectually IV. This doctrine furnishes us with a most encouraging motive to work out our salvation. It has been said that it encourages indolence; and the charge would be just, if we had the offer of assistance to do a work for which we ourselves were quite able. But if we are called to perform a work which is manifestly beyond our strength, we will either never attempt it, or soon give it over; the promise and offer of sufficient assistance is the very way to induce us to shake off our indolence, and rouse ourselves to the most vigorous exertion. If an officer, with a very small force, were ordered to engage an enemy vastly superior |