his daughters, his colleague, and other relatives, and from a wide circle of friends. What was incomparably better, he enjoyed the reviving presence of God. Under acute pain and protracted debility, he exemplified the power of that living faith, which he had often inculcated on others, and exhibited a noble pattern of devout resignation. After his affliction had almost completely confined him to bed, his people expressed an earnest desire once more to see and hear him; and in compliance with their solicitations, he went from his bed to his pulpit and delivered a short discourse from these cheering words, Job xix. 25: "I know that my Redeemer liveth." His last sermon was literally preached from his bed to a company assembled in his room; where he baptized a child, after discoursing on a text with which he had particularly wished to finish his ministry, viz. Psal. xlviii. 14: "This God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even unto death." A letter which he wrote to his daughter, Mrs. Scott, breathes a tranquil, grateful, and submissive spirit. "The Lord," says he to her, "makes me to sing of mercy on this account, that my bed is made to ease me, and my couch to comfort me; nor am I, like poor Job, scared with dreams, or terrified with visions. Many times my meditations of Him are sweet in the silent watches of the night. Many, many times, the Lord says, 'I am the Lord thy God;' and then follows, O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my God."" In conversing with those around him he often used language to this effect: "I have always found my times of severe affliction my best times. Many blasts I have endured through life, but I had this comfort under them-a good God, a good conscience, and a good cause." To several friends that made him a visit one afternoon, he expressed his assurance of future bliss in the following memorable words: "O sirs, my body is now become a very disagreeable habitation for my soul; but when my soul goes out of my body, it will as naturally fly into the bosom of Jesus, as a stone will fall to the centre." When one of his relatives began to comfort him thus, "I hope you get now and then a blink to bear up your spirit under your affliction," he promptly returned this spirited reply: "I know more of words than of blinks.Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.' The covenant is my charter; and if it had not been for that blessed word, my hope and strength had perished from the Lord.”

That night on which he finished his mortal career, Mrs. Fisher, having come from Glasgow to see her dying father, was sitting in the room where he lay, and engaged in reading. Awakening from a slumber, he said, "What book is that, my dear, you are reading?"""Tis your sermon, father," she replied, "on that text, ‘I am the Lord thy God." " "O woman," said he, "that is the best sermon ever I preached." The discourse had proved very refreshing to his own soul, as well as to many of the hearers. A few minutes after that expression had fallen from his lips, he requested his daughter to bring the table and candle near the bed; and having shut his eyes, and laid his hand under his cheek, be quietly breathed out his soul into the hands of his Redeemer, on the 2d 3

VOL. I.

of June, 1754. Had he lived twenty days longer, he would have finished the seventy-fourth year of his age; and had he been spared three months more, he would have completed the fiftyfirst of his ministry, having served Christ twenty-eight years at Portmoak, and nearly twenty-three at Stirling.

In conformity with his own request, he was interred in the middle of his meeting-house, in a spot opposite to the pulpit, where a large stone covers his grave. A Latin inscription simply states the time of his decease, the duration of his ministry, his pastoral fidelity, and his having expressed a wish that his mortal remains should be deposited in the church, that being dead, he might still confirm the doctrine which, when living, he had steadfastly maintained. It is as follows:

2. Junii 1754, ætat. 74, Dormiit in Jesu, Reverendus Dominus Ebenezer Erskine, officio pastorali, primo apud Portmoacenses 28, dein apud Stirlinenses 23, fidelissimè functus In æde hoc sepeliri voluit,

ut mortuus testimonium firmaret,

quod dum vivus, mordicus tenuit.

The accounts already given of the life, ministry and death, of this faithful servant of Christ, appear to supersede the necessity of an elaborate delineation of his CHARACTER. His piety was at once sincere and fervent. A personal Covenant, in which he solemnly takes hold of the promises, and dedicates himself to the Lord, was found among his papers. His religion was not confined to the sanctuary, but appeared in the regularity and delight with which he performed the exercises of the family and the closet. He conversed frequently and intimately with God, and with his own heart. While he instructed and exhorted his children with great affection and alacrity, he gladly embraced opportunities of promoting the best interests of his domestic servants, and of labourers that were occasionally employed in his service. His pious benevolence also took a wider range, and extended its unwearied efforts to the people.of his charge, to all the churches, to all mankind. He was singularly helpful, as well in private conference as in public ministrations, to those whose minds were anxious and perplexed with regard to their immortal welfare. Nor did he overlook the temporal necessities of others. Whilst he often recommended cases of indigence and distress to the generous attention of his hearers, his own example of liberal beneficence gave weight to his appeals. His gravity was tempered with the most engaging affability and cheerfulness; his zeal with candour, and true moderation. The correctness of his morals, as a Christian, was above suspicion; and his loyalty, as a citizen, was incontestably established. His enemies, indeed, stigmatized him as a troubler both of church and state; and struggled hard to prove him guilty of sedition, if not of treason. To these calum

See a copy of this Covenant in Gospel Truth, p. 45.

nious charges he refers in advertisements, or notes, accompanying at least the early editions of some of his sermons, as those on Amos ix. 11; Psal. ii. 6. In these vindications of his character, he justly appeals to the general tenour of his conduct, and to the decided proofs he had shown of his loyalty, in the hour of public alarm. In the year 1715, he "prayed for the honourable family of George I. under the very nose of the Pretender;" and many of his parishioners at Portmoak, owing to his influence, engaged to serve as volunteers, and kept garrison for a time in a castle. In 1745, too, some time after the commencement of the Secession, when another daring and unnatural rebellion assaulted the British throne, he discovered the same ardent attachment to the Protestant interest and the House of Hanover; and, by his counsels and example, was singularly active and successful, in stimulating the inhabitants of Surling to defend their king and country, their privileges and liberties.* How could the most envenomed shafts of calumny injure a man distinguished by such sterling fidelity and worth? It is deserving of notice, that during that critical period, not even one Seceder was known to swerve from his allegiance to George II.

All the other excellencies of this great man were crowned by that amiable grace, unfeigned humility. Modest, unassuming, self-diffident, he felt sometimes ashamed to succeed his brethren in the pulpit. He made no high pretensions, or ambitious claims. Referring to the encomiums pronounced upon him by the people of Kinross, in their reasons for translation, he used the following words in his speech to the Presbytery; "I am conscious their character is so remote from the truth, that I blush it should have been read before you.” His first publications, as we have seen, were in a manner extorted; and, in the prefaces to some of them, he makes ingenuous acknowledgments of their defects, both as to

The following letter, which Mr. Erskine had the honour to receive from the Marquis of Lothian, will give the reader some idea of the estimation in which, during the rebellion, his loyalty and influence were held. We quote it verbatim from the original now before us.

"London, January 25th, 1745-6. "Rev. Sir, Being informed that many of his Majesty's well-affected subjects, (with whom you have great interest,) zealous for the defence of our present happy government, and invaluable interest, now attacked by France, Spain, the Pope, and a Popish pretender, have offered to take arms and serve the King, upon condition of being allowed to choose their own officers; I therefore take the liberty to offer my Son, Lord Robert Kerr, who is ambitious to serve as their Colonel, if they do him and my family the honour to prefer him. It would not be decent for me to give his character, but am persuaded he would behave and act so as to gain their good opinion. I beg to obtain your forgiveness for this trouble, and to be esteemed, Sir,

Your most obedient,

and most humble Servant,

LOTHIAN.

"The Duke is soon to be with you, and it will be very proper that you address him, for which end my Son, if you desire, shall attend you."

To this letter Mr, Erskine returned an appropriate and respectful answer.

matter and style, and even with respect to the indications they might exhibit, of the corrupt bias remaining in his heart.

Yet, how moderate soever the estimate he formed of his own productions, he was entitled to no ordinary share of esteem as a PREACHER and an AUTHOR. Endowed with powerful talents and superior gifts, he conscientiously devoted them to the service of the sanctuary. His sermons abounded with evangelical truth, closely brought home to the conscience and the heart. His diction was simple and nervous. His arrangements were generally natural; and though, agreeably to the prevailing practice of his day, his divisions of the subject were numerous, they were enriched with striking and instructive illustrations. He had the advantages of a manly and prepossessing countenance, an easy elocution, and an alluring address. His whole demeanour in the pulpit was characterized by a singular dignity, which made a strong impression on his hearers. The Rev. Adam Gibb, it is said, having asked a certain young preacher, some time after Mr. Erskine's death, whether he had ever heard him, and being answered in the negative, replied; "Well then, sir, you never heard the gospel in its majesty."

As an Author, his Sermons were almost the only productions that were exclusively his own. He prepared, indeed, as has been stated above, the first sketch of the answers to the Twelve Queries. "The Act anent the Doctrine of Grace," too, was the joint work of Mr. Erskine, and that able and excellent man, the Rev. Alexander Moncrieff. He concurred, also, with his brother Ralph and his son-in-law, Mr. Fisher, in composing the Synod's Catechism. Owing partly to the obloquy of his clerical accusers, and partly to the importunities of pious hearers, he gave to the world, at different times, a considerable number of discourses in small pamphlets. A few of these, with several sermons by Mr. Ralph, were early collected and published in London, in one volume, recommended by the Rev. Thomas Bradbury. About seven years after his death, Mr. Fisher published at Edinburgh, in four neat volumes, a complete collection of all the sermons he had printed during his life. An additional volume, containing sermons never before printed, was edited by his son, Mr. David Erskine. The contents of these five volumes have subsequently undergone nu merous and large impressions, in a variety of forms.

It is not our intention to institute a critical inquiry into the merits of these printed sermons. That they have no pretensions to that elegance of language and refinement of taste, which constitute the chief recommendation of many fashionable volumes, is frankly admitted. Nor are we unwilling to allow, that a fastidious reader of the present age may be apt to feel some degree of disgust at the frequent and spirited allusions to various topics that were keenly discussed at the time when they were preached, unless he possess some previous acquaintance with those controversies, and be prepared to make reasonable and candid allowances for the liberties taken by the preacher. But, that these discourses are, on the whole, conducive, in a high degree, to the pur

poses of spiritual edification, will not be readily questioned by the genuine friends of the gospel, and might be presumed, with some appearance of reason, from the extensive circulation which they have long had, and continue to have, amongst serious Christians in Britain, and other parts of the world. Though a certain clergyman of the Church of England, lately deceased, whose acquaintance with them was probably very superficial, has ventured to describe the discourses of the Erskines as "dry" and uninteresting; and though a Reverend Doctor of the Church of Scotland has been pleased, in a recent publication, to represent some of Ebenezer's as deficient "in argument and substance," and meriting only to be consigned to oblivion; the unfavourable judgments of these writers are more than overbalanced by the cordial and ample testimonies to their substantial excellence and undoubted utility, which have been spontaneously given by theologians of high reputation for learning, piety, and worth.

The Rev. THOMAS BRADBURY, a celebrated English dissenter, and author of Sermons on "the Mystery of Godliness," gives them the following character in his recommendatory preface: "In these Sermons, the reader will find a faithful adherence to the design of the gospel, a clear defence of those doctrines that are the pillar and ground of truth, a large compass of thought, and a happy flow of words, both judicious and familiar."-The esteem which the Rev. JAMES HERVEY expressed for Ebenezer Erskine's discourses, is well known. In the sixteenth Dialogue of his Theron and Aspasio, that pious and lively writer says, in a note:-"Were I to read in order to refine my taste, or improve my style, I would prefer Bishop Atterbury's Sermons, Dr. Bates' works, or Mr. Seed's discourses. But were I to read, with a single view to the edification of my heart in true faith, solid comfort, and evangelical holiness, I would have recourse to Mr. ERSKINE, and take his volumes for my guide, my companion, and my familiar friend."-Another clergyman of the Church of England, eminent for the strength of his intellect, and the extent of his learning, as well as for the ardour of his piety; namely, the Rev. AUGUSTUS TOPLADY, seems to have entertained an equally favourable opinion of Ebenezer's sermons with Mr. Hervey; and, far from esteeming them "dry," he feelingly acknowledges the spiritual refreshment they had been the means of imparting to his soul. Having mentioned them in a passage of his Diary, he says: "These sweet discourses were wonderfully blessed to my soul. Great was my rejoicing and triumph in Christ. The Lord was with me of a truth, and his gracious visitation revived my spirit." In another passage, Mr. Toplady has the foliowing expressions: "The Lord was gracious to my soul this afternoon. The Spirit was my comforter; and Mr. Erskine's two sermons on the Rainbow of the Covenant were the channel through which that comfort was conveyed."-Besides, the late Rev. ARCHIBALD HALL of London, in his treatise on Faith, expresses his regard for this writer in the following terms: "It is with particular pleasure the author embraces the opportunity