"do all the words of this law." We are forbidden to inquire into causes, which God has not revealed, and to ask after reasons which he has not thought proper to assign. And if it be unlawful to ask for reasons not assigned, how much more presumptuous and guilty are they who undertake to assign reasons for God, and to unfold those secret counsels into which he has commanded us not to pry, and the profundity of which it is impossible for us to explore. But the same authority which repels presumptuous curiosity, affords demonstrations satisfactory to faith, and encourages us diligently to examine those things which are revealed. They are our birth-right, and the inheritance of our children. We cannot neglect them without incurring guilt, and exposing ourselves to ruin. We ought not to be satisfied with possessing them ourselves; but nature and reason, Revelation and God, demand of us that we should make them known to the rising generation, and to those who are dearest to us. We cannot furnish a better rule for the guidance of our family while we live; we cannot leave them a better legacy when we die. It is implied that these "revealed things" are sufficient to all the purposes of life, and to establish all the hopes of immortality. It is to be inferred that nothing is withheld which is profitable-that the Bible holds out promises comprehending alike the interests of time and of eternity. This it assumes: and what is the testimony of experience? The experience, not of an individual, whose constitutional enthusiasm might seduce him, or whose limited faculties might render his authority worthless; but the experience of mankind at large, to whom the word of this salvation has been sent, and of myriads, whom it carried safely through the conflicts of life, and the agonies of death, and presented triumphantly before the eternal throne of God in heaven. These are facts which speak to the heart-which cannot, on account of their multitude and unquestionable character be resisted and which abundantly establish the claims of Revelation when it promises to the believer present peace, and future glory. It is still farther evident, that the doctrines of the gospel are intended to produce moral effects, and that they demand obedience; these things are revealed that we may do all the words of this law." The tendency of Revelation is to purify; and it increases our obligations to God. In proportion to it's clearness and extent is the responsibility of those to whom it is given. The heathen world shall rise in judgement against this generation, and shall condemn it; if our practice bears no proportion to our privileges. O ye illustrious dead, the lights of those dreary ages when darkness covered the earth; who sat amidst the gloom, watching the east, and longing for the day-spring from on high to visit you; how often did you trim your lamps, and mourn that reason afforded you so feeble a ray; how diligently did you employ all the powers of nature, and all the mutilated intelligence of tradition, to discover the unknown God! He whom you ignorantly worshipped is declared unto us; and ye will be our accusers in the day of final retribution, if we are insensible of our advantages, or neglect so great salvation! «The times of "this ignorance God winked at, but now calleth upon all men, every

"where, to repent." Who amongst us has heard his voice? Let us uot bring to the services upon which we have now entered, a spirit of indifference. The doctrines of the gospel are not speculative notions, but eternal principles: as they are received, or rejected, our character will be influenced here, and our destiny fixed for ever. If the question be only doubtful-if you are not certain that the Bible is a forgery and that it's contents from first to last are false, is it wise to rest in this state of indecision? What an infinite danger is incurred! What occupation can be so pressing, as to excuse an attention to such a subject as this? What interest can compare with that which is suspended upon this inquiry. If it be true," what shall it profit a man "if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" But if it be more than probable that the claims of Revelation are just-if they have been established by unquestionable evidence-if you have admitted it's authority-what excuse can you then offer for neglecting it's commands? It is put to your conscience; and remember, that conscience, which can frame no apology now for your criminal negligence, will leave you speechless at the bar of God!' pp. 24-28.

Our next specimen is taken from the Eleventh Lecture, 'On Salvation through Faith.'

In reviewing this sublime statement,' (viz. that made by the Apostle Paul, Ephes, ii. 8-10)how many doctrines are brough together as concentrated in the scheme of redemption! Do we need salvation? The fall, and our participation in it are implied. Is it of grace? then, of election, which resolves every thing into the sovereignty of God. Is it through faith? that faith regards the finished salvation and perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, and unfolds the doctrine of justification, and the means of it's attainment. Are we created? the image explains regeneration. Are we God's workmanship the new birth is referable only to the influences of the Holy Spirit. And thus also the distinctions of the Godhead are officially marked, and the doctrine of the Trinity, in effect taught, when salvation proceeds from the grace of the Father in Christ Jesus, by a work called creation, and implying that spiritual change which is constantly ascribed in the Scriptures to the Holy Ghost. Are" good "works" the result, and has God "before ordained that we shall "walk in them?" we have an additional evidence of the obvious tendency of election; and at the same time are instructed in the great and necessary doctrine of sanctification. Lastly, does the

apostle speak of salvation as though it were already accomplished? it is not possible to avoid inferring hence the important sentiment of Christian perseverance. Thus in one general statement, without any forced construction, receiving words in their ordinary meaning, and inferring only so much as must be concluded, if the principles advanced in them be admitted, we find expressed or implied-the doctrines of the Trinity-of election-of the fall-of justificationof regeneration-of Divine influence of sanctification-and of perseverance. Nor, as it appears to me, if any one of these be denied, is the reasoning of the Apostle conclusive. pp. 413-14.

The last passage we shall cite, relates to the Duty of Submitting System to the Bible.'

'How contemptible, and how criminal, then, is that minister, who is a stranger to the Bible, either theoretically, or practically. What the acts of parliament are to the lawyer, the Scriptures ought to be to the minister of religion. And as the judge sits not upon the bench to legislate, but to execute the laws--so a minister of Jesus Christ is bound expressly by the principles established by his Master. Yet while human laws are deemed so sacred, every shallow speculatist supposes himself wise enough to revise and improve Divine legislation; and modern systems are sometimes less (professedly even) framed upon revelation, than constructed to shew the ingenuity of the inventor, or the ability of the espousers of them-to expose and abuse the conclusions of others and to set the testimony of reelation at defiance, in every instance in which it is found to impugn the favourite tenets. The strength of a minister of the gospel is to be derived from the Bible: if this bears him out, he has little to fear from the sophistry or the hostility of opponents. That he was mighty in the Scriptures, constituted the highest praise of the eloquent Apollos. To be defective here, is an indelible disgrace to every man who assumes to himself to be a Christian teacher. Whatever be his other acquisitions, he must draw his qualifications for the ministry from the Bible. To say nothing of his obligations, what must we think of the taste of that man who could go to Epictetus, after having been invited to sit at the feet of Jesus-and borrow from human morals, after having been instructed in the sermon on the mount? Who could prefer the stream, defiled by flowing through polluted channels, who might drink at the living fountain-head? Who could desire to employ a torch, to guide him on his way, when heaven's own lamp, the glorious sun, shone with meridian splendour on his path? Who could be so insane as to exclude the light of day from his habitation, in order to give his taper leave to burn? A distinguished French Divine censured those preachers who only borrowed their images and illustrations from heathenism; and said, they reminded him of the Israelites who went down to the Philistines, to sharpen "every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock." What are we so impoverished, that we can find no resources in the scriptures? As it happened to those Israelites, so will it happen to every man who forsakes the Lord, and makes flesh his arm; who leaves the fountain of living waters, and hews out to himself broken cisterns which can hold no water-who quits the Bible for Seneca— in the day of trial he will be unable to stand. "So it came to pass, "in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found "in the hand of any of the people." With what pity and indig nation must we not regard those ministers, who borrow their morals from heathen philosophers, instead of the oracles of God; and who prefer the Grove of Academus to the School of Christ!' pp. 719-21. We have remarked numerous incorrectnesses, some of a kind very excusable, indeed, from the pulpit, but which might well

have employed a little attention in preparing the work for the press. Thus, we read of the spherical course' observed by the planets in their orbits; of the air as the medium of transmitting light to the eye; and of the Dial not going without winding up. The words of the Apostle, "Aliens from the "commonwealth of Israel," &c. are said to be applicable not to gentiles alone, but to those who are born in Christian 'countries.' There is surely some redundance in such a sentence as this, 'The agency which kindled up the skies, enriched the heavens with stars, fixed in his glorious height the < sun as the fountain of light, and feeds the perpetual fires of "those magnificent luminaries.' Again: to affirm against reason, against evidence, against scripture, and against facts." Greek must be introduced in an altogether popular work, care should, at least, be taken, that it is Greek 8 noμ is given for το κόσμο and κατηχεμενοι for κατηχέμενοι. Again, in the Hebrew,

If

We notice these errata .ממנו for סמינר and יהוה for יהוח we have

the rather as the volume, in other printed.

respects, is correctly

We feel impelled to submit to Dr. Collyer, the propriety, in his future publications, of abstaining altogether from the ap pearance of philosophizing, as well as from his rather too frequent apologies for not philosophizing: such apologies are, at least, unnecessary. The faculty which enables the mind to work its way, to any good purpose, through generalities, is altogether sui generis, and is, certainly, not very common; at any rate, it is a department of the intellectual constitution, upon which so little education is bestowed, as to be, in fact, but rarely developed. The ability of reducing abstractions, without losing their philosophical truth, into terms intelligible to persons unaccustomed to the labour of thought, is, it must be acknowledged, possessed by a very small number even of those who themselves think deeply and clearly. A practical and popular writer needs, therefore, by no means think himself bound to make any attempt or pretension of the kind.

Viewing the publications of Dr. Collyer in the light in which, we presume, he would have them viewed,-as designed, chiefly, for the instrucfion of young persons, there are some modes of expression very usual with him, which do not seem to us likely to produce the happiest effect. We refer to a too frequent appearance of conceding to that revolting against the Doctrines of the Gospel, which always characterises the natural mind;— too much of apology for those principles which no apology can render congenial to the tastes of the unrenewed heart. We are aware of no article of Christianity which demands from its advocate that air of timid jealousy, or that substitution of

temerity for courage, which has usually distinguished the defenders of Popish absurdities. Nor do we know of any point of revealed Religion, which contains in it matter of offence or of displacency to the mind that is reconciled to God. All that relates to God and to the infinite, is, indeed, incomprehensible, as a subject of simple speculation, by our finite powers; and on this ground, the believer and the unbeliever stand nearly on a level. But the test which distinguishes the one character from the other, is, the moral nature of Revealed Truth; and this too is the test which, to a great degree, distinguishes between the spiritual, and the halting, worldly-minded believer. The latter, while he confesses to the truth, is ever stumbling, objecting, reasoning, apologizing: discretion and various external Įrestraints, will not certainly prevent his now and then betraying the secret uneasiness of his soul. The spiritual believer, on the contrary, who has thoroughly quarrelled with the world, (a friendship with which is enmity to God,) and who, being brought nigh, actually lives nigh to the Divine Majesty, reads no "hard "sayings" in the sacred volume. Though he does not understand all things, all that he understands, pleases him. Such a person, in speaking of the truths of Christianity, though he cannot communicate to others, through the medium of words, his own perceptions,-for this very reason, that they result from the state of the heart, and are Divinely communicated,-will ever exhibit a reflection of the light that shines within. Expressions, such as those which we quote below, though, perhaps, not very palpably improper, if frequently recurring, can hardly fail to excite in the apprehension of the young and doubting reader, a suspicion that the mind of the Writer is oppressed by the consciousness of difficulties, more formidable, even, than those to which he refers, and that these inexplicable and perplexing doctrines have but a feeble, a forced, or a merely professional hold on his own convictions. It is, however, easy to imagine, that a lively apprehension of the known or supposed sentiments of those whom he addresses, may invade the tranquillity of a preacher's, or an author's mind. He may appear embarrassed,

Not that I would avoid any Scripture doctrine, or hesitate to go any lengths to which the Bible may lead.'- To receive the fact, if it be revealed, without affecting to comprehend it; and to state it simply, and sincerely, without venturing to speculate upon it. We must not omit any doctrine, manifestly scriptural, because it is difficult to manage, or to apprehend.'- If we cannot precisely reconcile the process of Redemption with our general notions of justice, and necessity, goodness, and propriety. However "hard" its" sayings" (speaking of the Bible) may appear, we should consent to them, as well in practice, as in theory."