their retreat." Publicola early filled an important station in the public eye; for various circumstances combined to place him as a leader in many departments of life which were highly important and laborious. Every scheme of charity, every plan for domestic improvement, every discovery that wanted à patron was submitted to him. Whether it was the manufacture of stone-bottles or the construction of ships, an improved plan for a dairy, or an improved system of national education, Publicola was sure to be consulted. Indeed, the variety of his engagements public and private, the extent of his correspondence, and his occupation at times as an author, seemed to leave, even to a mind so active and ready as that of Publicola, no interval for private reading or family retirement. And yet, on examining the books in his library, few were to be found in which he had not made frequent notes. An extra ordinary natural thirst of knowledge led him to be always acquiring fresh stores of information; but they were acquired in the circle of his friends and family, which he enjoyed as a man who possessed a heart overflowing with every kindly feeling, and imparting and receiving unmeasured delight from the open and unreserved flow of soul. Sir M. Hale has left a remark, that he never seemed to himself to gain time by engaging in. secular employment on a Sunday. Publicola felt and evidenced a similar feeling with respect to the periods of private or family devotion. His first hours in a morning, and his last at night were never robbed for secular purposes, for it was his conviction that a strict account of the employment of the time already past was the best security for the improvement of the future.

He went cheerfully through his duties by means of an activity which passed rapidly from one engagement to another. He was never at a loss what to do next. He had always some object before him, and some

book in progress; and he knew in an instant to what to turn his hand when an interval occurred; considering time as a talent which was to be spent with economy, and improved to those purposes for which it was given.

Every person may readily make the application of these remarks to his own case. If he fail to find a sufficiency of leisure for all important mental purposes, or suffer the daily occupations of life to have a deteriorating effect on his mind, does he not owe it to his own neglect and indolence? Regular em ployment was marked out as the duty and happiness of the human race on the very day when our first parents were directed to till the garden of Eden. It accords with the system of the universe, and the mind of man. It will ever prove the most favourable scene of culture for the moral and social virtues; for energy, activity, and courage; for self-denial and selfcontroul; for every thing, in short, which qualifies a man for the highest purposes of his being. "I call that," says Milton, "a complete and generous education which fits a person to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously all the offices of public and private life." Or with Seneca, "Hæc si quis sciat et præstet, consummavit scientiam utilem atque necessariam."

ALBYN.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. WITHOUT intending in any degree to advocate the cause of novelreaders, against the strictures of EXCUBITOR, and acknowledging the extreme difficulty, not to say hopelessness, of such an attempt; I, nevertheless, cannot refrain from expressing surprise at the very sweeping condemnation which he has ventured to pass on certain mighty men, who, having essentially served the cause of truth in their generation, are now fallen asleep. Being dead, they yet speak in the works which they have left

behind them, for the benefit of those who come after; and, however secondary" the writings of Blair, Soame Jenyns, Lord Lyttleton, Johnson, Hawkesworth, and Paley, may be esteemed by many excellent individuals, they are such, I think, as must ever be found highly beneficial for rebuking the blasphemy of the infidel, and counteracting the errors of the enthusiast. Even were this all that could be said in their commendation, it might have been enough to secure them from being designated as men fit only to dictate "to the deserted or despised schools of worldly or half Christianized philosophers." The pious eloquence of Blair and the irrefragable reasoning of Paley might at least have called forth a portion of that regret and palliation which is expressed by your correspondent, in his sentence of con demnation on Dr. Johnson. Something, one should think, might have been given to the golden periods so frequently to be found throughout the writings of the elegant scholar of the North; something also to the plain and manly truths of the Archdeacon of Carlisle: It is with reference to the last-mentioned author more espe. cially, as one from whose writings much sound instruction, and that not only in speculative but also in practical Christianity, is to be derived, that the above remarks have been written. In his character of a moral philosopher, it may be, he has fallen into some mistakes; but let not, therefore, his reputation be injured by vague and unsupported animadversions, neither let it be called a "portentous phenomenon," if Christians of the present enlightened times sometimes meet with that in his pages which may chastise their aberrations: Dr. Paley is a writer against whom no accusation ought to be lightly received; and I feel assured that the perfect law of God, as set forth and united in many of his sermons ...CHRIST. OBSERV, No. 189,

with the saving doctrines of the Gospel, is admirably calculated to convert the souls of mankind. These are a part of his works, which have probably never met the eye of Excubitor; otherwise, I am persuaded, he would have been more measured in his animadversions.

In conclusion, I would request to know on what fair grounds the above-mentioned authors are spo, ken of as only "secondary divines and moralists" in the estimation of "the spiritually-minded Christian."

SEVI.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer, I HAVE lately seen, with grief, a notice respecting the re-publication of Dr. Crisp's Sermons. Crisp was the great Antinomian opponent of Baxter, Bates, Howe, &c. Some years after his death the re-publication of his sermons, by his son, called forth Dr. Williams's "Gospel Truth stated and vindicated;" a book which came before the world recommended by all the soundest divines amongst the Non-conform ists, and which seems to have prov ed the great means of checking the alarming progress of Antinomianism in that day. (Vide Nelson's Life of Bishop Bull, pp. 259-276.) The following extract from Dr. Williams's preface to his "Gospel Truth," &c. may throw some light upon the subject of Dr. Crisp's opi nions. I take it from the beginning of the third volume of his works, the first two volumes of which were pub lished in 1738, and the last three in 1750. The style partakes much of the faults common to all the Nonconformist divines of his day.

"A dislike of contention hath long restrained my engaging in this work, though oft solicited thereto by several worthy ministers. Peace is the blessing which I cheerfully, pursue, and is, with the trutb, what, I propose in this very endeavour..

"I am convinced, after frequent prayers and serious thoughts, that, the revival of these errors must, not only exclude that ministry as, 4F

legal which is most apt, in its nature and by Christ's ordination, to convert souls and secure the practical power of religion, but also renders unity among Christians a thing impossible. Every sermon will be matter of debate, and mutual censures of the severest kind are unavoidable; while one side justly press the terms of the Gospel under its promises and threats, for which they are accused as enemies to Christ and grace; and the other side ignorantly set up the name of Christ and free grace against the government of Christ and the rule of judgment," (meaning, probably, the rule by which we shall be judged at last.)

I believe many abettors of these mistakes are honestly zealous for the honour of free grace, but have not light sufficient to see how God hath provided for this in his rectoral distribution of benefits by a Gospel-rule. By this pretence An tinomianism so greatly corrupted Germany; it bid fair to overthrow church and state in New-England; and by its stroke at the vitals of feligion, it alarmed most of the pulpits in England. Many of our ablest pens were engaged against these errors, as Mr. Gataker, &c. whose labours God was pleased to bless to the stopping of the attempts of Dr. Crisp, &c. To the grief of such as perceive the ten dency of these principles, we are en gaged in a new opposition, or must betray the truth as it is in Jesus.

"I believe many abettors of these notions have grace to preserve their minds and practices from their inAuence. But they ought to consider that the generality of mankind have no such antidote, and themselves need not fortify their own tempta tions, nor lose the defence which the wisdom of God has provided against rémissness in duty and sinful backslidings. Who can wonder at the security of sinners, the mistaking the motion of sensible passions for conversion, and the general abatement of exact and humble walking, when so many affirm, Sins are

not to be feared as doing any hurt even when the most flagitious are committed: grace and holiness cannot do us the least good. God hath no more to lay to the charge of the wickedest man, if he be elected, than he bath to lay to the charge of a saint in glory. The elect are not governed by fear or hope; for the laws of Christ have no promises nor threats to rule them by; nor are they under the impressions of rewards or punishments, as motives to duty or preservatives against sin,' &c.

"In this present testimony to the truth of the Gospel, to the best of my knowledge I have in nothing misrepresented Dr. Crisp's opinion, nor mistaken his sense for most of them he oft studiously pleadeth; of each I could easily multiply proofs; and all of them are necessary for his scheme, though not consistent with all his other oceasional expressions. His scheme is this-That by God's mere electing decree, all saving blessings are by Divine obligation made ours, and nothing more is needful to our title to these blessings: that on the cross all the sins of the elect were transferred to Christ, and ceased ever after to be their sins: that at the first moment of con ception a title to all those decreed blessings is personally applied to the elect, and they invested actu ally therein. Hence the elect have nothing to do, in order to an inter est in any of those blessings, nor ought they to intend the least good to themselves in what they do sin can do them no harm, because it is none of theirs; nor can God afflict them for any sin.' And all the rest of his opinions follow in a chain to the dethroning of Christ, enervating his laws and pleadings, obstrueting the great designs of redemption, opposing the very scope of the Gospel and the ministry of Christ and his prophets and apostles."

In order to shew that Dr. Wil, liams's statement of Dr. Crisp's opi uions is not exaggerated, I will

subjoin two quotations from the early part of the work itself, to which this is the preface.

Dr. Crisp tells us, "It is thought by some, that in case such a person (i.e. one elect) should happen to die before God call him to grace, and give him to believe, that person had been eternally condemned; and that elect persons are in a damnable estate in the time they walk in excess of riot, before they are called. Let me speak freely to you, and tell you, that the Lord hath no more to lay to the charge of an elect person, yet in the height of bis iniquity, and in the excess of riot, and committing all the abominatious that can be committed; I say even then, when an elect person runs such a course, the Lord hath no more to lay to that person's charge, than God hath to lay to the charge of a believer: nay, God hath no more to lay to the charge of such a person than he hath to lay to the charge of a saint triumphant in glory. The elect of God, they are the heirs of God; and as they are heirs, so the first being of them puts them into the right of inheritance, and there is no time but such a person is the child of God."Again, in answer to the question, "When did the Lord justify us?" he says "He did, from eternity, in respect of obligation; but in respect of execution, he did it when Christ was on the cross; and in respect of application, he doth it while chil

dren are yet unborn." (Williams, vol. III. pp. 2,3.) Again on the question, how our sins are laid upon Christ, Dr. Crisp speaks thus:-" Our sins so became Christ's that He stood the sinner in our stead, and we discharged. It is the iniquity itself that the Lord laid upon Christ: I mean it is the fault of the transgression itself, &c. To speak more plainly; hast thou been an idolater, a blasphemer, a murderer, a thief, a liar, or a drunkard? If thou hast part in the Lord, all these transgressions of thine become actually the transgressions of Christ. Nor are we so completely sinful, but Christ being made sin was as completely sinful as we, &c. and God himself did account him among the number of transgressors."

Of such awful extracts, I could send you many more; but I should think the mere statement of Dr. Crisp's views sufficient to deter all serious readers from looking into his writings; the republication of which, at the present day, appears to me to indicate a rising spirit of Antinomianism, which, if not happily checked, will do infinitely more towards injuring the cause of true religion than even those dangerous enemies, Indifference and Formality.-Nothing but the importance of the case would induce me to stain your pages with such passages as the foregoing.

B. J.

PEARSON'S Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr. Claudius Buchanan.

(Continued from p. 527.) Most of our readers will recollect the unsparing severity with which Dr. Buchanan, during his life-time, was accused, by the Anglo-Indian body, of having, in some of his writings, grossly misrepresented

the character of the Hindoos; at least, of having, in almost all of them, culpably exaggerated their acknowledged defects. Sir Henry Montgomery, in a speech delivered in the House of Commons, during the discussions which took place in 1813, on the Bill for renewing the East-India Company's Charter, pronounced the works of Dr. Bu