ful and exceeding greatnes of the Gospel Salvation. This he summarily and very emphatically expresses in the words of the text. And he afterwards breaks out into a strain of eloquence, upon the high lustre and full evidence of the Gospel.

"But, if the words of the text had

been, that God was manifest in the flesh, though this could mean no more than that God was manifested, or made known to us, by Jesus Christ and his apostles, as he had been formerly manifested, but in an inferior degree, by the ancient prophets; and though this could not intimate that God became man, or that he was cloathed with flesh, like one of us, but only that his perfections were revealed to us by men; yet it could not have been said, without introducing a strange language, that God was justified

in the Spirit, nor, without absurdity and
impiety, that he was received up into glo.
ry; for God is the same, yesterday, to day,
for ever, and can receive no glory from
all the other beings in the universe."
We could with pleasure select
other passages
which evince deep
and rational piety, and a strong
sense of the nature and importance
of Christian duty, but our limits
charge us to forbear. They who
worship the Father, by Jesus Christ,
will find these volumes acceptable
and useful in the communication
of religious knowledge to the
church which ought to be "in the
house" of every professing Chris-

tian.

ART. XL. Sermons on various Subjects, by WM. CRAIG, D.D. Late Minister of St. Andrew's Church, Glasgow. A New Edition with several additional Sermons, and a Life of the Author. In two Volumes. 8vo. pp. 397. 447.

DR. Wm. Craig was born at Glasgow in the year 1709, and was early distinguished by superior talents, and great diligence in the acquisition of learning. When he had nearly finished his course of philosophical studies in the university of Glasgow, Dr. Hutcheson was elected to the professorship of moral philosophy. To this eminent person Dr. Craig was greatly indebted for the character he afterwards obtained as a preacher. In conformity with his judicious advice he neglected "the abstruse tenets of speculative theology and the mysterious doctrines inculcated by many popular clergymen in the church of Scotland," he insisted upon topics of a practical nature, and "preached to and from the heart." This style of preaching however was not generally pleasing, "and his audience was at no time so numerous, but especially during the last twenty-five years of his life, as those those who valued good Composition and liberality of sen

timent apprehended that he de served.

"But though he disdained every unworthy art to captivate popular applause, he was so sincerely attached to those who seemed to profit by his instruction, that he declined the proposals of Provost Alexander, and some of his friends in Edinburgh, who wished at one time to have re

moved him thither. He had the satisfac

tion also of knowing, that in another quarwere not insensible to his merits. He was ter, persons whose opinion he valued, proposed by his friends to be the successor of Professor Potter, in the Professorship of divinity in the university of Glasgow. Dr. Leechman, lately principal in that univer sity, then minister of the Gospel at Beith; and the Rev. Mr. M'Laurin; brother to the celebrated mathematician, were also candidates. Dr. Leechman and Dr. Craig were united in the closest friendship: their religious sentiments were similar, and alike MLaurin was a man of worth, and sincere obnoxious to the popular clergy. Mr. piety; he was believed to entertain reli gious opinions of a kind very agreeable to the multitude; and if both the other two had continued candidates, he would probably have succeeded. But Dr. Craig, appre

hending that the interests of religion would be better served by the appointment of Dr. Leechman, and influenced perhaps by the intimacy subsisting between them, prevailed

with his friends to transfer their voices to him, and withdrew from the contest.

Accordingly, by the casting vote of George Bogle, Esq. of Daldowie, then lord rector of the University, a man of unblemished integrity and real zeal for the pub. lic good, Dr. Leechman was chosen. How much this measure contributed to promote the interests of religion, learning and classical taste, among the students in that seminary, is very generally known, and will be long remembered. In truth, through Dr. Craig's early attention to good composition, and to what was accounted liberality of opinion in religious matters, showed a turn of mind a good deal different from the spirit and improvement of the times, he was not altogether singular. Clerk, minister of the Gospel at Neilston, Paton at Renfrew, Fleming at Kilmacolm, Warner at Kilbarchen, Dr. Wishart, his predecessor in the Wynd Church, and Dr. Leechman, his contemporaries or intimate friends, were eminent promoters of true learning, correct taste, and such views of religion, as seemed to them more agreeable to the ori ginal form of Christianity, than those usually recommended by many popular Presbyterian Preachers."

Dr. Craig was first settled in the parish of Cambusnetham; he was afterwards removed to Glasgow, and there spent the greatest part of his life. He died at the age of seventy-five. His writings are few but excellent. In the year 1761, he published a sermon on the reverence due to the name of God, and in 1764 another sermon on the character and obligations of a minister of the Gospel. In 1767, he published his well known and admirable essay on the Life of Christ; and in 1775, a volume of twenty discourses on various subjects. "These sermons having been for some years out of print, and often called for, it was thought that a new edition of them would be agreeable to the public. An

of

anonymous editor has undertaken this useful task, and added from Dr. Craig's manuscripts several sermons not before published, and making about a third of the present fore us contain twenty-nine sercollection. The volumes now bemons, which the editor is justly confident will be found profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." The subjects treated in these volumes are the following: The Importance of Religion to the virtue and happiness of private life, and to the welfare of Society; The importance of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ; The deceitfulness of sin. The nature of uprightness and the character of the upright man; The character of Jonah; The conduct of Nathan and David; The character Herod the Tetrarch; Of Judas Iscariot; Of Pontius Pilate; The scripture doctrine of regeneration. The one thing needful; Public worship; The disposition and conduct of our blessed Saviour at the grave of Lazarus; The temper and education; The character and conduct of the Bereans; Religious obligations of a minister of the Gospel; On the promiscuous dis the word of God is to be received; pensations of Providence; How The deceitfulness of sin; On the nature of sobriety; God, a believer's portion; The service of the world inconsistent with the service of God; The house of of early piety; The importance mourning; The peculiar advantages of the message which Jesus brought from God, and the nature of its evidence."

It will be observed that in the with the same title, they are howabove list, there appear two scrmous ever perfectly distinct as to the instruction which they convey.

congratulated the author upon his
landing again in safety after so pe-
rilous an undertaking. The fol
lowing is an instance of such an
attempt, and will certainly be an
ample justification of our appre-
hensions.

ART. XLI. Sermons on various Occasions. By the Rev. WILLIAM AGUTTER,
A. M. late of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford; and Chaplain and Secretary of
the Asylum for Female Orphans. 8vo. pp. 255.
THIS volume contains twenty-
three sermons, of a fashionable
length, upon the following sub-
jects. "The Danger of striving to
please Men; The Conduct of Jo-
seph proposed for the consideration
of Youth; The Excellence and
Value of Truth; The dangerous
Effects of Gaming; The Charac-
ter and Conduct of St. Peter;
The superior Excellency of the
Redemption which is by Christ
Jesus our Lord; The Character
and Murder of Louis XVI. King
of France; The Difference between
the Letter and the Spirit of the
Holy Scriptures; The Case of the
Jews in the fulfilment of the pro-
phetic Times; The Vices of Youth
felt in old Age; The Necessity
of penal Laws; The different Ap-
pearances of the Lord between his
Resurrection and Ascension; The
plurality of Worlds; The pastoral
Care of Christ; The Difference
between the natural and the spiri-
tual Man; The Ascension of the
Lord; The Effects of Bribery ex-
emplified in the Character of Ju-
das; The Necessity of putting
away the evil Thing; The Short-
ness of Time; Persecution a sure
Mark of a false Religion, on the
Occasion of the Application for
Catholic Emancipation; The eter-
nal Excellency of the Word of
God."
Considering the situation
of the preacher, we opened this
volume with the expectation of
meeting with some display of ge-
nius and eloquence, something be-
yond the ordinary cast of parochial
sermons. Our disappointment was
complete. We found only the
most common-place topics, dressed
in the plainest style. Occasionally
indeed we met with an attempt to
soar above the usual level, and

ANN. REV. VOL. VII.

"Jesus was seen of angels, when wrapped in fine linen, and laid in the silent tomb; angels guarded the sepulchre; the spot was most sacred. Had they seen the first man rise up to life in the Garden of Paradise? They now beheld a more wonderful sight, the second Adam; the Lord from heaven, recover the life which he had seemingly lost. The God of glory, rise up in that glory, which to dust of death. The principle of life, the appearances had been concealed in the fullness of divinity re-animates the in ward recesses of life in the human frame. The heart moves, the lungs dilate, the will receives all the fire of divine love, and the understanding, all the light of divine wisdom. The face which was once marred, more than any man's, on which the shadow of death was once overspread, in which the pains of hell. had made deep furrows, now began to beam with everlasting beauty. His eyes are unclosed to look the tenderest compassion on man; his ears are again opened to hear the cry of the poor destitute; and his lips to utter such words as never man spake. They saw until the fullness of the Deity manifested itself bodily in Jesus, risen from the dead; until every pore was beaming with eternal life; every hair resplendent with heavenly glory; from the crown of his head unto the soul of his feet, he was most glorious. The shining with the uncreated light. Out grave became the palace of his glory, of that Sion did God appear in perfect beauty; angels saw and wondered, and adored humanity thus restored. God so stupendously glorious, the Lord rich in mercy."

Our readers, it is probable, will desire no more.

Bb

ART. XLII. Sermons on various Subjects, and Occasions, by the Rev. J. NUNCE, M. A. Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. 8vo. pp. 331. THE sermons of which this volume is composed, are of unequal merit. Some of them are intended to recommend the rites, others to defend the doctrines of the Established Church; but this preacher has not proved himself an able advocate. Some are chiefly, if not wholly, of a practical nature; and these, although they are not by any means distinguished by superior judgment or energy, from the ordinary class of compositions of this nature, may be productive of good. The language is in general chaste, elevation either of style or sentiment appears not to have been the aim of the preacher. Upon the whole, this volume wil Times.

be read with pleasure by those who can subscribe to the writer's creed, and adopt the same religious practices. The following subjects are here treated.-Confirmation; Divine Meditation; Peter's Denial of Christ; The Death of the Soul; Anger; The Conduct of St. Paul; The Necessity and Benefits of Baptism; Our earthly Pilgrimage; The Divinity of Christ; The Conduct of Job; Patriotism; Perverseness; The Propagation of the Gospel; Contentment; Indifference; The Service of God; Before a Sacrament; Penitential Affection; The Resurrection of Christ; and, The Signs of the

ART. XLIII. Sermons on the Practical Obligations of a Christian Life, (for the Use of Families). By the Rev. THEODORE ROBERTSON, L. L. B. 2 vols. 8vo, pp. 373 and 352.

THESE volumes being intended by the author to supply private families with the means of religious instruction, contain fifty-two sermons, corresponding with the number of Sundays in the year. The professed design of their being published is highly laudable, but Mr. Robertson is not the first who has formed that design, nor the first who has failed in its execution. Sermons for the use of the domestic circle, require peculiar talents in the composer. It is not enough that the subjects upon which they treat be important, they should have an almost constant reference to the particular situation of those to whom they are to be addressed, and treat, for the most part, of the duties of social and domestic life. It is not enough that the style be correct and elegant, it should be plain, intelligible to very moderate capacities, and adapted to reach and affect the heart. It is not enough that the different discourses have all been acceptable to the mixed

audience at a place of public worship; they should be capable of being applied particularly to the respective characters of masters and servants, parents and children, and of conveying that peculiar instruction, which the younger and the lower branches of a family require. They should be written for this sole purpose, and not selected from the miscellaneous discourses composed for the use of the mixed assembly of attendants in a parochal church, or a dissenting meeting-house. In such compositions also, the greatest plainness and simplicity of language should prevail: all laboured disquisitions, all studied ornament of style, are more than misplaced. Imparting no information to the uncultivated minds which must necessarily form a considerable part of a domestic audience, they excite disgust at a religious exercise, which might, if properly conducted, be both instructive and pleasant.

The subjects treated in these

ART. XLIV. Sermons for the Use of Families; selected by JAMES HEWS BRANSBY. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 257 and 245. WE learn from the preface that "this publication is designed to supply Unitarian Christians with some serious impressive discourses, unexceptionable to them in point of religious doctrine, and calculated to assist in forming and strength.