and joy in believing-we are all apt to persuade ourselves that this happy state of mind will always last, or at least we are apt to forget how many circumstances may soon place us in a very different condition. We would ⚫ build tabernacles' when our mountain is strong;' and are unwilling to anticipate a time, when infirmities and temptations, or errors and calamities, shall spread a dark cloud around our habitations, and shall convince us, by experience, how closely allied weakness, and sorrows, and change, will always be to fallen and fallible creatures. Peter said, in the fulness of his heart, It is good for us to be here.' But he knew not what he said; and he was far from being aware, that Moses and Elias would appear no more, and that he and his fellow disciples were about to descend immediately from the Holy Mount. His hasty and premature idea of tabernacles there Was soon overwhelmed, by an event which concluded the whole scene connected with our Lord's transfiguration, and which goes far to explain its intention and design." The seventh sermon, which is on "The Agony in the Garden," neither shuns, nor lays light stress on the doctrine of the Atonement, but asserts and proves that fundamental point in the strongest manner. Our Lord's agony was occasioned, he admits, in part by the prospect of his severe bodily sufferings; but in addition to this, he shows, that the powers of hell were combined with the powers of this world, to aggravate the agony of his soul." But, finally," he shows, "that a far more awful source of agony was yet behind in the sufferings which were directly inflicted by his Father's hand. It pleased the Lord to bruise him, and to put him to grief." "But we must be conscious, even after we perceive the sources to which the Scrip tures have taught us to trace the unexampled agony, related in the text, that the cause or the occasion of this most astonish ing dispensation in the moral government of God, is still unexplained, till we can discover an intelligible reason, why the purest being in the universe of God should have thus been given up to the rage of men and devils, and, still more, should thus have been smitten of God and afflicted.' "The light of revelation unfolds this great mystery by the great end to which it was subservient; by representing the unmerited sufferings of the Holy One of God, as the selected expiation in the wisdom and sovereignty of heaven, of the apostacy and guilt of the human race-sufferings which were, on his part, a voluntary offering, or a great act of obedience to his Father; by whose will he became the substitute of the guilty whom he was to save from perdition; the just suffering for the unjust, to bring us to God."" On the sorrow to which our Saviour was subjected, there are the following judicious and scriptural remarks. "Sorrow cannot be produced, but by some real calamity which has been experienced, or by some melancholy or aggra vated recollection pressing on the mind. His was a sorrow not his own-a deep and piercing sorrow, for the wretchedness of our fallen race;-for the guilt imputed of those who should come to God by him, and for all the aggravated miseries and evils, which the apostacy of men from God had brought into the world. For their sins he poured out his soul unto death, and his agony of sorrow was the sacrifice of expiation for them. For the transgression of his people was he stricken.' "How deep and aggravated his sorrow was, human language cannot express. He could weep over the anticipated destruction of Jerusalem, and over the guilt and obduracy of its devoted inhabitants. But this sorrow was light, indeed, when com pared with the agony which he suffered, under the pressure of the accumulated guilt of those fallen beings, whose sins he bare in his own body for their eternal redemption." The practical improvement of this subject, which is added, is admirable. The author shows, that the doctrine of the atonement must lead to a strong conviction of the opposition of human depravity to the government of God; the inseparable connexion between the sufferings of Christ, as an expiatory sacrifice, and the salvation of man. kind; the awfulness of that punishment which awaits those who reject this salvation, and the strong consolation which this doctrine brings to those who rely on it as the faithful doctrine of the gospel of Christ,. We shall not particularly notice any of the subsequent discourses, till we come to the one entitled, "The Penitent of the Cross." They are all truly excellent, but brevity requires us to pass them by. The Penitent of the Cross, or the Penitent thief, as he is commonly termed, forms the ground of many discourses among the writers of sermons, and perhaps there are few subjects which serve more clearly to show the doctrinal bias of the respective writers. Although none of the peculiar points of Calvinism are involved in the subject, yet the opposite views which writers take of it, show that there is something more in dispute among them than the peculiar doctrines of Calvinism. The case of this penitent and pardoned malefactor, taken in its most obvious meaning, as recorded in Scripture, manifests clearly the possibility of a death-bed repentance being available to salvation. But it goes a great deal farther than this; it establishes the doctrine of grace, in all its sovereignty, freedom, and efficacy. To obviate this, many hypotheses are formed by those who have no good will to this doctrine; a class of men, who in Scotland generally coincide with those who are anti-calvinists. We would earnestly recommend the following passage to those whose dislike to the doctrine of grace sets their brains so much at work to form hypotheses to evade the obvious force of the transaction narrated in this passage of Scripture. "I make no inquiry whatever into what this criminal might have known before his crucifixion; or, in particular, into what he might have learnt, to stimulate his repentance or prepare him for it, between the time when his crimes were committed, and the period of his crucifixion. On this subject we can have no real information, though much has been said on it, without any authority whatever. Every attempt to assume as facts, circumstances which have not been related, in order to prove that the repentance of this criminal was not the penitence of the cross, but a penitence which his crimes, and the justice of his punishhad been before prepared, notwithstanding ment, is, in effect, an attempt to explain away the plain narrative of the gospel, and the manifest design for which it has been given us. supposition which has so often been gratui"It is equally unnecessary to refute a tously assumed, that, notwithstanding his situation as a convicted malefactor, this man might have been a good man before; viation from his general character, and that that his crime might have been only a dethis penitence, instead of being the penitence of the cross, might have been no more than a return to his ordinary state of mind. "Let us just observe, that we know not the Evangelists have related, and that not a single circumstance more of the case than one syllable of what is thus assumed is recorded by them. We have no right to invent a history to suit any preconceived add to the narrative of the Evangelists, the opinion on the subject of repentance, or to supposition of a single fact invented by ourselves. They begin their history of the penitent malefactor with his crucifixion and his rebuke to his obdurate associate, and they finish it by relating his supplication to our Lord. We must begin and conclude our account of him at the same points. He was a criminal justly condemned to crucifixion by his own confession; and, whatcharacter, he had been, down to that peever he had before heard of our Lord's riod, a profligate man. At this moment, under the agonies of crucifixion, with our Lord beside him on the cross, he is held up to us as a sincere and genuine peni tent." This is written completly in the spirit of Sir Isaac Newton's maxim, by rigorously adhering to which, his "Hypotheses non fingo," a maxim, celebrity as a natural philosopher has been rendered imperishable; and surely, if the expounder of nature feels it necessary to abjure hypotheses, the expounder of Scripture ought to feel himself bound in conscience to reject them with equal decision, whatever may be the theory which may happen to suffer in consequence. The author, after illustrating, with his usual ability, the opposite effects produced on the two individuals to whom the narration relates, proceeds to the practical conclusions resulting from them. "That admitting the facts to be as I have stated them, they must give us a most striking view of the supremacy of the Son of God on the cross itself. "In his deepest abasement, while he is offering himself a sacritice to God for the sins of the world, he brings a crucified malefactor to penitence in the agonies of death, and engraves, on the cross itself, this decisive proof, that the hearts of men were in his hands, and that he had the keys of hell and death. If the fact be unquestion able, as it is inseparably interwoven with the history of our Lord's crucifixion, it contains a public and direct demonstration of the supreme authority which he exercised in his lowest humiliation, and of the power which was from that time given him over all flesh, as mediator between God and man, to give repentance and remission of sins to whomsoever he will. By the supposition made, he brings this great offender, in the last moments of his life, to a state of mind which has transmitted his name to other ages as a sincere believer and a genuine penitent; and produces this effect on him by the same power by which the gospel says he is able to subdue all things to himself. He first prepares him by faith and penitence, and then he gives him the answer of his prayer, with the authority of one, who was Lord both of the dead and of the living. Verily, I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.'-A striking demonstration of the supreme authority which our Lord asserted on the cross itself, as the Son of God, mighty to save;' and of the assurance which he intended from thence to 6 transmit to every age and generation of men, that by him all that believe are justified from all things'-' even as many as the Lord our God shall call.'" The author's sentiments on the subject of a death-bed repentance, are so judicious and scriptural, that tempted to give them en we are tire. "That it must of necessity follow from this representation, that genuine contrition, however difficult or improbable, is not absolutely, or in every conceivable case, unattainable, even in the last moments of human life. "However important it is, as will be afterwards stated, to warn impenitent men against the fatal inclination to rely on a repentance to come, and, above all, on a repentance on the bed of death. in which a great proportion of them obstinately persevere; it would, on the other hand, be extreme presumption to affirm, in dogmatical terms, that no such late repentance can, in any circumstances, avail a penitent, or be accepted at the throne of mercy. "There is certainly no warrant to be found, in the Oracles of God, for such a broad and unqualified assertion. To receive it on the authority of speculative men, is (to say the least) to adopt a most serious doctrine on very uncertain grounds. And it is, undoubtedly, both harsh and presumptuous, in short sighted and erring mortals, to consign to perdition individuals of whose sincerity they have no doubt, though, from the circumstances in which their penitence has been produced, the opportunity has not been given them by Providence to prove its efficacy by an active or a public fidelity. Their hearts are open to the God of truth, who says, to the humblest of his penitent worshippers, To this man will I look, to him that is poor and of a con trite heart, and who trembleth at my word." Their prayer is offered in his name, who said to one sinner, Thy sins are forgiven thee: thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace;' who said of another, This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost;' who says of himself, I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance;' and who said to the penitent of the cross, This day shalt thou be with me in paradise.' "Excepting the last example, the penitence of those individuals was not, indeed, the penitence of death. But the intimation made to them that their penitence was accepted, was given before they had any opportunity to prove their sincerity; and therefore shows, that there may be a since-, rity accepted by him who perceives and estimates every emotion within the hearts of men, before it can be visible in the conduct of the individual; and, as in the case of the penitent of the cross, even where all the opportunities of proving it by active fidelity are withheld. "It is surely hazardous, in an extreme degree, to rely on emotions of penitence which are, for the first time, awakened on the bed of death. But, on the other hand, it is both unwarranted and presumptuous to affirm, without reserve or qualification, that the heart of a sinful man is, in any circumstances, beyond the influence of the Holy Ghost; or, notwithstanding every appearance of sincere contrition, as far as the state of the mind can be expressed by words, is excluded from the benefit of the previous declaration given to a fallen world, that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." " They who take up the ground of the impossibility of a death-bed repentance, we believe, do so with the best intentions, to guard against the ruinous error of living a wicked and irreligious life, in the expectation of repenting and being saved at last. But we believe there is not one clergyman to be found, who, however strongly he may have preached that doctrine, would venture to act upon it when called to the sick-bed of a dying sinner. Every feeling of the heart would then revolt against such a doctrine, and the exhortations and prayers which are then offered up, must all proceed on the supposition, that, however uncommon such an event may be, death-bed repentance is still possible and available to salvation. Instead, therefore, of absolutely denying this, it is sufficient to surround the doctrine with such guards and caveats, as may prevent it from being abused; a procedure which, in fact, must take place, not only with this, but with all the doctrines of the gospel. The sermon before us, while it asserts the doctrine with decision, guards it with the utmost care from abuse. After mentioning that the case before us, is no example for ordinary situations; that the general experience of mankind shows the extreme improbability of such an event taking place; that after habits of wickedness have been long rivetted, there is little probability of a change in old age, he adds,— "There have been such examples, and there may be many. But I venture to affirm, that, for every well-authenticated case of this kind, there are ten thousand examples of men dying at last as hardened as they have lived, and, notwithstanding all their delusive dreams of repentance or reformation to come, are, to their own conviction, as well as in the judgment of all around them, as far from any symptoms of a better state of mind, on the verge of the grave, as at the time when they imagined themselves to have many years of health and activity before them. "But a malefactor on the cross was penitent, and found mercy there. This is undeniable. But look at his companion, warning of much more general application whose state of mind is held up to us as a to the ordinary circumstances and experience of the world, than the penitence of the cross. "The bodily sufferings of this hardened criminal were as severe as those of his as sociate. His prospect of death was as certain and immediate; he had all its horrors on his mind, and he was in as full possession of his faculties and of his recollection as his penitent companion; but so far from subduing, his certain approach to immediate death served only to irritate the worst passions of his heart; and he died as he lived, full of profligate rage and blas phemy. "There can be nothing but the most discouraging anticipations drawn from such a case. But it certainly brings with it most direct and important instruction-instruction for youth and for age-a lesson for the active and for the slothful-a powerful lesson, when the keepers of the house begin to tremble, and the sound of the grinding is low-a lesson which, when applied to the most common characters, goes deep into the interests and experience of human life. be as clear, on the other side, that, in the righteous judgment of God, the wicked man very commonly retains the insensibility of impenitence, till he is driven away in his wickedness; and that the obduracy of the impenitent heart remains entire and unchanged, till the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit is summoned to the tribunal of God, They are truly happy who are able to bring home the doctrine to themselves, if it effectually convinces them, that the present time, and that alene, is theirs, while their activity is still entire, and while the means which grace and Providence afford them are still within their reach; and that the penitence of decay or death can never be relied on, but at the imminent hazard of their everlasting welfare." We have given so many and such long extracts, not merely to put it in the power of our readers to see the intrinsic excellence of this volume, but because we are sure that no other matter which we have to bring forward, could afford as much edification. We shall not give any farther account of the remaining Sermons in this volume, but shall merely enumerate their subjects. The thirteenth is on the Opening of the Graves at our Saviour's death. The fourteenth is entitled, Peace of Mind, from these words, "Peace I leave with you," &c. The fifteenth is entitled, The Doc trine of Salvation by Christ. sixteenth is on the Separate Exist ence of Disembodied Spirits. The seventeenth is entitled, The Superiority of the Separate State; and the eighteenth, Joy in Heaven over one Sinner that Repenteth. We shall only add, that they are equally able and interesting throughout; and very probably they who read them, will be of opinion that we have omitted the best. The Our opinion of these Sermons may easily be learned from what has been incidentally said in the course of this review. It is not necessary therefore to say much more, especially after the ample quotations which have been given. But we must still add more explicitly, that they are scriptural, evangelical, and deeply serious. They exhibit those enlarged and compre hensive views, which indicate a capacious and vigorous mind, cultivated by long habits of close thinking and extensive study. To us, it is a prime requisite in a sermon that it be pious and evangelical; but it adds much to our pleas sure, when we find, in addition to these qualities, the subjects handled with ability and judiciousness. This is eminently the case with these sermons: they are calculated to inform and to edify the man of the most cultivated mind, and of the highest powers of reason, as well as the most devout Christian in humble life. There is nothing in them above the comprehension of the plainest Christian, while the whole must command the respect of the most able and learned. They are all practical, not however resembling mere heathen morals, but that practical religion which the apostles of our Lord inculcate, when they "beseech us by the mercies of God;" when they tell us that "we are bought with a price, and therefore bound to glorify God with our bodies and spirits which are his;" and when they bring forward the "grace of God," as an argument and motive for "denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts." The practice which these sermons inculcate is founded on evangelical truth, and so thoroughly incorporated with it as to form one homogeneous mass. Many of the discourses go deep into experimental religion, display great knowledge of the human heart, and happily illustrate the grace of the gospel in its practical effects. The plans are generally simple and happy, such as will occur only to a man extensively acquainted with ́ his subject; and the illustrations bear directly on the subject. The style is clear and uncommonly vigorous, quite free of affectation and mannerism. There is none of that extremity of care which would indicate a man writing merely to obtain celebrity as an author. The subject is clearly the first object in the writer's mind, and the style is just such as a man of a powerful and clear mind, and good taste, will naturally use to produce the im |