over-confidence—he would not have been a man, if he had not-but these failings he constantly opposed, and as he advanced in life almost entirely subdued, whilst the sterling honesty and determination of his character remained as the spring of all his usefulness.

gan. The marginal references cost him seven years of labour. And the interval between the fourth and present edition was employed in attempting a Concord-^. ance on a new plan, which he did not live to complete, but which served to keep alive that minute acquaintance with every text of Scripture, and that aptitude to employ it, which materially assisted him in his last revision." P. 28.

"Extraordinary diligence was the handmaid to this capital excellency. He was always at work, always busy, always redeeming time; yet never in a hurry. His heart was given up to his pursuits; he was naturally of a studious turn; and his labour was his delight. He gradually acquired the habit of abstracting his mind from sensible objects, and concentrating all his thoughts on the particular topic before him; so that he lived in fact twice the time that most other students do in the same number of years. He had an iron-strength of constitution to support this: and for five or six and forty years he studied eight or ten hours a day, and frequently twelve or fourteen, except when interrupted by sickness. His relaxations of mind were often equal to the diligence of most other persons. But it was not merely incessant labour which distinguished this remarkable man; but incessant labour directed to what was useful and important. He was always bent on his proper work. He was not merely studious, but studious of what was immediately useful. He was not a desultory reader attracted by every novelty, and wasting his time on inferior topics or authors of less moment; but a reader of what was solid and appropriate, and directly subservient to the great subject in hand. Then he was from an early age almost entirely selftaught. He had little aid from masters, small means for the purchase of books, and scarcely any access to great collections. A few first-rate works formed his library, and these he thoroughly mastered. He never remitted his exertions in improv ing his works. After thirty-three years bestowed on his Comment, he was as assiduous in revising it, as when he first be

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The history of Mr. Scott's last illness and death is preceded by some very judicious remarks upon what it has become the fashion to denominate obituaries.

fifteen."

"Before I proceed to give some particulars of his most instructive and affecting departure, I'must observe that I lay no stress on them as to the evidence of his state before God. It is the tenour of the life, not the few morbid and suffering scenes which precede dissolution, that fix the character. We are not authorized by Scripture to place any weight on the last periods of sinking nature, through which the Christian may be called to pass to his eternal reward. The deaths of the saints described in the inspired volume, are without exception the concluding scenes of long and consistent previous devotedness to God. Such are those of Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Stephen. The last of these is the only narrative of this kind in the New Testament which regards the article of death at all-and the circumstances of Stephen as the first martyr of the Christian Church may well account for the exception. The great Apostle of the Gentiles, and the other inspired Founders of the new dispensation, are exhibited to us in the holiness of their lives, in the calmness of their approach towards death, in the deliberate judgment they form of their past labours, in their exhortations to others to supply their vacant posts of daty, in their triumphant anticipations of their future reward-but not in the actual moments of their final conflict. It would therefore have been no subject of surprise if the last days of our beloved friend had been wholly clouded by the natural operations of disease. We should then have drawn the veil entirely over them, as in the case of many of the eminent servants of Christ, in every age. But though no importance is to be attached to these hours of fainting mortality as to the acceptance and final triumph of the dying Christian, yet where it pleases God to afford his departing servant, as in the instance before us, such

measure of faith and self-possession as to close a holy and most consistent life with a testimony which sealed, amidst the pains of acute disease, and in the most impressive manner, all his doctrines and instructions during forty-five preceding years, we are called on, as I think, to record with gratitude the divine benefit, and to use it with humility for the confirmation of our own-faith and joy." P. 45.

We have nothing to add to this passage, except a wish that Mr. Wilson had acted up to it. He is evidently aware of the gross abuse which prevails upon the subject of these death-bed scenes; and when he has exposed their fallacy and impropriety by such unanswerable arguments, why did he proceed to give them the sanction of his example? Whether he does sanction them by his example or not, let the following sentences determine.

"The following expressions mark, perhaps, more clearly than any of the preceding, the union of unshaken trust in Christ, with a full and anxions perception of the unutterable importance of an eternal state: "This is my dying day (to his apprehension it was so); still I have the last struggle, great sufferings to pass; and what that is, what that wrench is, who can tell me? Lord, give me patience, fortitude, holy courage! I have heard persons treat almost with ridicule the expression, Pat underneath me the everlasting arms;' but it is exactly what I feel I want; everlasting arms to raise me up; to be strengthened with might by his 'spirit in the inner man.' I am in full possession of all my faculties; I know I am dying: I feel the immense, the infiuite importance of the crisis; Lord Jesus reIceive my spirit;' Thou art all I want. Blessed be God, there is one Savionr, though but one, in the whole universe;

and

'His love is as great as his power,

And neither knows measure nor end.""

P. 51.

"The affectionate and faithful friend in whose arms he died, has sent me the following touching account of the closing scene. I quote his own words:

One of his last efforts was to give his hand to his weeping servant; which was a beautiful evidence, that the tender attention to the feelings of those around him, which marked his whole illness, con

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tinued to form a prominent feature in bis state of mind even to the last. After this, which took place about five minutes before his death, he appeared to be lost in prayer, but just at the moment when he reclined his head on my breast, the expression of his countenance suddenly changed from that of prayer, and indicated, as I conceived, a transition to feelings of admiring and adoring praise, with a calmness and idea strongly impressed upon my mind, peace which is quite inexpressible. The was, that the vail which intercepts eternal things from our view was removed, and that, like Stephen, he saw things invisible to mortal eye." Note, p. 58.

These sentences are better calculated for a methodist magazine than for a funeral sermon; and we know not how the author of them can consistently object to the most fanatical descriptions of a deathbed scene. These descriptions are generally the work of uneducated and ignorant men, and some allow ance is to be made for them upon this very account. Mr. Wilson has no such excuse to plead; and while he is aware of the danger of being improperly imitated, he has set an example which will justify the very practice that he condemns. following passage is even more objectionable than those which have been already extracted, because it contains a gross misapplication of the Apostle's words.

The

"Upon such a departure no feeling but that of gratitude and joy can arise in the Christian's breast, except perhaps a momentary regret should cross the mind for the extremity of suffering which he was called to endure. But that will soon subside into submission, when he recollects the calmness with which the blessed Apos tle in our text speaks of his own still more violent death. For the Christian will behold in both, not so much the external circumstances or the personal anguish, as the principle on which they were support. ed, and the acceptance with which they were crowned. Sympathy will indeed drop the tear on the pain of the conflict, but faith will pierce the cloud, and esti mate the importance of the offering thus made to God, by the very agony through which it was accomplished. Yes, my brethren, the dissolution of our venerable

friend, though not, like the inspired Apostle's, a martyrdom for r the cause of Christ, in which he poured out his blood

as a libation; yet so far as unspeakable sufferings from the ordinary attacks of discase, and the superadded assaults of Satan, gave him the occasion of testifying his. faith and patience, of confirming his fidelity to Christ, of displaying for the instruction and encouragement of the surviving Church, a most affecting scene of a dying Christian adhering to his Saviour under the bitterest temptations and most oppressive conflicts, and then falling asleep with peace and resignation-his death was an offering, a sacred act, the consummation of his devotedness to God. And his composure, not only in contemplating his departure when near, but in enduring it and

supporting it when it arrived, surrounded

at first with circumstances calculated to dismay an ordinary faith, formed a striking exemplification of the fortitude expressed by the blessed Apostle in the triumphant passage which we have been considering." P. 59.

We do not remember an instance of a more unnecessary or a more unjustifiable wresting of Scripture than that which this paragraph exhibits.

For in the first place there is no sufficient authority for saying that St. Paul spoke of his death as of an offering made to God. If this had been the opinion of the translators of the Bible, they would have rendered the words of the original, "I am ready to offer myself," not "I am ready to be offered." viz. by his barbarous enemies. In the second place, supposing that Mr. Wilson's interpretation be correct, what pretext is there for applying it to the case of Mr. Scott. St. Paul may, in a metaphorical sense, be said to have offered himself to

God, because he voluntarily submitted to a death which he might have avoided-by apostacy. But

Mr. Scott had no offer of a diminution of torment, or a prolongation of life, if he would consent to renounce the faith; and when we are told of his unspeakable sufferings,' and of the superadded assaults of Satan, of his bitterest temptations, and most oppressive conflicts, we are addressed in very rhetorical,

The

we

'estimating the value of his offering by the agony through which it was accomplished,' and believing that his departure was surrounded at first with circumstances to dismay an ordinary faith,' is it possible that Mr. Wilson can be so little acquainted with human nature as to think that an old, and pious, and dying man is more likely to forsake than to cling closely to his God? Unless he chooses the former alternative, his words are idle, and un scriptural declamation. Unless he chooses the latter he will have general, we believe we may say universal, experience against him. We do not question the propriety of praying heartily to God "to suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall from him." Such a petition is a proper expression of humility and dependence, and reminds us that even in this Christian country no person can tell what manner of death he shall die. But to say that the circumstance of such a petition having been heard and granted, is so peculiar or uncommon as to deserve particular notice, is to say what very few will believe.

We now turn to the application which Mr. Wilson makes of his discourse; and it is to this that we particularly object. The faults which have been, and many more which might be pointed out in the two first divisions of the subject are neither few nor unimportant; but if the

preacher hall stopped here we should not have called the attention of our readers to his Sermons. Unhappily he has thought proper to devote nearly the whole of his third division to the purposes of proselytism, and such a proceeding we feel bound to expose and condemn. The passages which we extract will shew in what spirit this object is pursued, and we shall offer some brief remarks upon the value of the reasoning that is employed. The first paragraph enquires, very properly, of Mr. Wilson's hearers, whether they are fighting the good fight, running the race, and keeping the faith-and if our limits would permit we should readily transcribe it. The second paragraph is as follows:

"But some may, perhaps, be disposed to doubt concerning many of these topics of admonition, and even to object to those peculiar views of Christianity on which they rest. To such persons let me now be allowed to address myself, more especially if they sustain the sacred office of ministers of religion. I will not presume to enter with them on any points of hesitation or controversy; but I will respectfully beg them to review attentively the whole character of the aged and venerated person which we have been considering. This may lead to an easier solution of the question, what constitutes the genuine doctrines of Christianity. You will allow, I am sure, that his life was a most holy and diligent one-that is, the fruit by which we are to judge of the tree was good, and good in a very elevated sense that he laboured for the salvation of his fellow-creatures, opposed and subdued his own sinful dispositions of every kind, was an example to his family, and a blessing to his neighbourhood, walked in all justice and benevolence towards man, and in all humility and subjection before God. Such was his life for above forty-five years. You will not deny, also, that he was a man of comprehensive powers of mind, intense application, and remarkable acuteness; and that all his talents were concentrated on one great subject, religion. You will concede, moreover, that his cast of mind was as far removed from any thing capricious or enthusiastical as can well be imagined reasoning and investigation, not ardour, were his characteristics. I ask, then,

whether his deliberate sentiments on the nature of Christianity, do not deserve consideration.

He explicitly acknowledges his own entire corruption and his natural inability to any thing spiritually good, he renounces all trust in his own doings, and places his entire confidence in the meritorious death of bis Saviour; he ascribes every thing in himself that was right to the efficacious influences of the Holy Spirit, he confesses that after he had done all, he was an unprofitable servant,' and he dies, as it were, with the words of the Publican on his lips, God be merciful to me a sinner*: The question is, whether such a testimony does not demand attention. And this the more, because he did not imbibe these sentiments from educaafter the most diligent examination of the tion or early habit, but arrived at them Scriptures, and with the strongest prejudices against every one of them originally lodged in his mind, and only resigned as

the force of truth carried him over them. Besides this, it is undeniable that in proportion as he admitted and obeyed these peculiar doctrines, his whole character was changed, till at length, from a proud contemptuous worldly minister, he became a humble lowly spiritual and devoted servant of God, delighting in the yoke of his Saviour, counting all things but loss' for his sake, and only lamenting his remaining deficiences, and his inadequate returns of gratitude and duty for the blessings he had received. Moreover, he afterwards spent a long and most laborious life in the further study of every part of Scripture, on which he was engaged for thirty-three years in writing a comment, and yet on each suitable occasion he solemnly repeated his increasing conviction of the truth of all the doctrines which he maintained. Now I ask whether any fair solution can be given of such a case, but the truth of the principles from which it sprung." P. 67.

This passage contains the pith of Mr. Wilson's argument, and as it is especially addressed to clergymen who do not subscribe to his opinions, we trust that it has been inserted, since his Sermons were

*"He actually intimated this passage to be the proper text, if any funeral Sermon were to be preached on the occusion of his death; dwelling on the word indobni, as implying mercy through a propitiation; and the words T anagraλ as signifying emphatically, the sinner.".

preached. For of those who are, thus especially addressed, the numbers that frequent* "St. John's, Bedford-Row," cannot, we presume, be great. And if they were especially admonished by its Minister from his pulpit, they were admonished in their absence, and could not profit by the admonition; and they were admonished in the presence of a congregation by whom they are condemned unheard, and who did not require any addition to their prejudices against the Clergy, Such addition, however, they must have received from other passages in these discourses. For having enumerated what he considers the genuine doctrines of the New Testa ment, Mr. Wilson proceeds in the following terms;

You shall find that these principles are the key to a holy life; that they constitute that divine method of recovering man to the favour and image of his Creator, which is

the grand peculiarity of the Christian faith; and that no other scheme, however plausible, has the broad impress of God's blessing in actually producing the conversion and edification of souls. You will, moreover, discover, as you pursue sincerely the inquiry, that, not merely one individual, like the eminent person before us, has held these principles as the nutriment and life of all practical religion, but that they have been maintained by Prophets and Apostles and Martyrs before us, that they form the grand decisive features of the faith of the whole Church, that the holy effects continually produced by them wherever they are scripturally preached, resemble those in the first ages of Christianity, that the great luminaries of the Reformation agreed in the profession of them, and founded on them the various Protestant Churches, that the entire fabric of our own Church in her Articles and Homilies and Liturgy rests on them; that when they are fully admitted, the language of those formularies, as well as of the Scriptures, becomes the

There is an affectation, if not a trick in this title. Every body has heard of St. George's, Hanover-Square, St. Andrew's, Holborn, &c. &c. But Mr. Wilson's chapel ought not to affect a desig nation which is appropriated to parish. Churches. Why has the word Chapel been dropped?

REMEMBRANCER, No. 33.

easy and natural expression of our sentiments; whilst without them, all is defective and constrained and sophisticated, salvation of men; that, in short, every and, what is more, inefficacions as to the imaginable attestation to divine truth cons curs in the support of them, and concurs also in marking the utter impotency of every other system." P. 71.

If the reader thinks that it was necessary, in preaching a funeral sermon upon Mr. Scott, to lug in the Bishop of Peterborough's examination questions, or that no "scheme of Scriptural doctrine has the impress of God's blessing in actually producing the conversion and edification of souls," except the scheme of Messrs. Wilson and Co., it is useless to say another word upon the subject. But if he thinks that our vulgar uncalvinised Christians have, in some few instances, been pious men themselves, and fostered and promoted piety in others, he will probably venture to maintain his opinion in spite of the rash and unwarranted and uncharitable declarations of Mr. Wilson. Perhaps also, he may smile at the modesty and humility of him who asserts that the question between himself and his brethren "is settled at once in his favour, and that there never was a case more clear," than that he himself is in the right, and

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