destinations have increased in value, and may now produce altogether about 7001. of annual income." pp. xxiii.xxvi.

Our readers are already aware of the purpose to which some portion of this munificent benefaction was applied. The remainder was appropriated in various ways to the benefit of the poor of Aberdeenshire.

We cannot suffer the narrative of such a life to pass without one observation on the honest and scrupulous nature of its morality. The peculiar equity and honour of repaying to a party, in a closed bargain, whatever had been received more than a just computation would have assigned, furnishes a useful lesson to the Christian merchant and tradesman. It brings to our recollection a similar anecdote, equally to the honour of Mr. Parkhurst, the lexicographer, in his intercourse with one of his tenants. "This man falling behindhand in the payment of his rent, which was five hundred pounds per annum, it was represented to his landlord, that it was owing to its being overrented. This being believed to be the case, a new valuation was made. It was then agreed, that for the future the rent should not be more than four hundred and fifty pounds. Justly inferring, moreover, that, if the farm was then too dear, it must necessarily have been always too dear, unasked, and of his own accord, he immediately struck off fifty pounds from the comencement of the lease, and instantly refunded all that he had received more than four hundred and fifty pounds per

annum."

Nor was this, or any other peculiarity in Mr. Burnett's character, assumed or ostentatious. Even his dying bequests he had designed to be anonymous; and it was only the extent of his benefactions that frustrated his plan of secrecy, and made a faithful memoir necessary to supersede the inaccurate reports of curiosity.

CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 182.

We feel it our duty, however, to notice in some degree the peculiar nature of his scruples and religious conduct, as well as a few of those sentiments, expressed on the occasion by the memorialist, to which we find any difficulty in assenting. The author has indeed incorporated rather an unnecessary portion of general reasoning with his detail of private life; though an air of pleasing and amiable simplicity, which pervades it, easily reconciles the reader to what a fastidious taste might censure as out of place.

Mr. Burnett's habitual absence from public worship would indicate, that his religion, though honest and scrupulous, was cold and cautious, resting upon too nice a sense of particular differences, with too weak an apprehension of common duties. At the same time, we imagine, it could have been no slight difference of opinion that occasioned this long-continued retirement of so conscientious a person from the assemblies of Christians. Whatever it was, it is probable that he gradually saw reason to adopt more catholic views as he advanced in life; and the proposal of these prizes may possibly be regarded as the fruit of a desire to impress others with a sense of those important truths, some of which were successively presented to his own mind with growing and at length irresistible conviction. To us he appears to exhibit a striking example of a person who, beginning with obscure views and a conscientious pursuit of clearer, had light after light vouchsafed to him, till at last, perhaps, he was permitted to discern the bright and pure day of the Gospel. We are not inclined, therefore, to accede to the author's conclusion, that Mr. Burnett's temporary scruples must have related to points comparatively indifferent; though perhaps one reason of our differing from him in this particular may be the different conceptions which we appear to entertain upon the great P

question, what it is that is essential to Christianity, and what a matter of indifference. The author's sentiments on this subject are contained in the following pas

sage:

"As the fundamentals of Christianity seem to be preserved among all Protestants, with the exception of such as exclude from salvation those who differ from them in the most minute article of order or worship, there appears to be no solid reason for withdrawing from any Protestant communion in which a person has been educated, and refusing to join with any other, on this sole ground, that assent cannot be given to every individual tenet which its members may profess." pp. xvi. xvii.

This (we acknowledge) is very far from being our ground of attachment to the Church of England. In regard to the general question, it would seem that, in our author's idea, the only tenet held by any set of Protestants, which militates against the fundamentals of Christianity, is that which would exclude from salvation those who differ in the most minute article of order or worship from themselves. We presume that, in making this statement, the author did not mean to include Unitarians under the general denomination of Protestants; and with this understanding we are not unwilling to admit his position, that the fundamentals of Christianity seem to be preserved among all Protestants: for they all maintain, at least in their public documents, the doctrines of the Trinity, of original sin, of the atonement, and of justification by faith only. Our only doubt would relate to the Quakers, who deny the sacraments. But, certainly, we cannot allow intolerance or illiberality to be a test of fundamental doctrines or a tenet of any church: for fundamental doctrines may be held with intolerance as well as anti-Christian ones liberally. Nor would we encourage the notion, which is here supported, that it is safe for a person to remain in communion with

a church, while he differs from its public formularies in some important doctrine, provided it be not a fundamental one. Surely the worship of God ought to be kept pure from every thing which looks like hypocrisy or double-mindedness; and, though we agree with our author, that, unless there were a disposition in each man to concede something to his neighbour, there could be hardly any society among men, there is yet (we apprehend) a wide difference between compromising important truths and overlooking light shades of opinion : while at the same time, if ever a person finds himself stand alone and unable to join any body of worshippers sincerely, such singularity ought immediately to make him suspect the soundness of his own opinions, and lead him to examine them with seriousness.

Such

Again we should say, that the moral strictness of Mr. Burnett is no adequate proof to us, as Dr. Brown conceives it to be, (p. xxii.,) of the strength of his religious principles; because the same degree of moral strictness has been sometimes produced by the pride of independence or the love of character, by a stoical sense of human dignity or a studied admission of the fitness of virtue. moral strictness would in a great degree have appeared in the conduct of Cato or Seneca, without flowing from a principle which can in any sense be called religious. At the same time, we would earnestly hold out the conduct of Mr. Burnett, as an example that might well shame others, whose religious principles have been from their earliest education clearer, purer, and

more evangelical than Mr. Burnett can be supposed to have acquired till the very close of his life-at least if his biographer has done them justice, where he says of him, that

"he raised his views to heaven, and as the best preparation for its happiness, practised those virtues, in the

completion of which this happiness must chiefly consist." p. xlvi.

We propose to close our strictures on this narrative by a few remarks on the summary view of Mr. Burnett's religious creed and practice contained in this short sentence. Whether they are correctly represented in it, we have no means of judging. Our observations relate only to the description itself, and to the view of Christian faith and duty which would seem to be countenanced in this and one or two other passages of the Memoir.

Although it be true, that the happiness of heaven must chiefly consist in, or be derived from, the completion of the moral virtues; if by that term be understood the whole of our duty to God and to all his creatures; and although consequently the practice of those virtues on right principles be the best preparation for that happiness, we hold it not safe to represent, that man can by any moral virtues prepare his soul for heaven. If he attempt them in his

own

strength, it is to be feared that it will have a quite contrary effect, and teach him, by going about to establish his own righteousness, not to submit unto the righteousness of God. It is only when justified by faith in an atoning Saviour, that we begin to purify ourselves in his strength, and to have some adequate, though still infinitely imperfect, conception of what is meant by purifying ourselves even as He is pure. Till we apprebend this, we shall be in danger of taking up an imperfect standard and contenting ourselves with such moral virtues as are founded

in a sense of human expediency; and thus shall not make any proAciency in that heavenly mindedness, that prevailing love of God and distrust of ourselves, and those humbling and self-denying virtues, which adorn the walk of the Christian virtues, of which heathen philosophy could not discern the

beauty, or stoical dignity enforce the performance; and therefore we would wish to be on our guard, and to place others on their guard, against the seduction of such passages as might be calculated to leave an impression behind them, that it is possible for any but those who have themselves, in the language of Saint Paul, been justified by faith without the works of the law, to perform such works or virtues as a justifying faith would dictate.

These remarks on the eminent life of Mr. Burnett have detained us longer than we had intended from the two valuable works in which he, being dead, yet speaketh. On the general subject of these works, we would first quote the pertinent observation of Mr. Sum

ner.

"It was a sound and excellent judgment which directed that the attributes of the Deity should be treated of, in the first place, from considerations independent of written Revelation; and, in the

second place, from the Revelation of

Jesus Christ. Natural reason conducts us to the doors of the temple; but he who would penetrate farther, and behold in their just proportions the greatness and majesty of the Deity within, must consent to be led by Revelation. P. xvii.

Accordingly, he lays out the general scheme for the conduct of his future argument in the following manner :

"I have not ventured to take the Christian Revelation as the groundwork of my argument; because, that being granted, any treatise upon the Divine attributes would be superfluous: at the same time I would consider it equally absurd and unprofitable to argue in this age, and in this country, as if we were really as much in the dark respecting the counsels of God, or the object of man's existence, as Socrates or Cicero. The experiment of vindicating the moral administration of the universe without the help of a future state, has been sufficiently tried. The necessity of general laws, or the imperfection of matter, or the inevitable consequences of human liberty, or the degrees of perfection of

possible worlds, may serve by turns to exercise, or amuse, or perplex the reasoning powers of a few philosophers. But something more satisfactory must confute the skeptic; something more consolatory must sooth the afflicted; something more irresistible must arm the moralist." pp. xiv. xv.

This decision we conceive to be conformable to the dictates of common sense. The existence and primary attributes of a Supreme Creator we judge to lie within the province of natural religion: for "the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead." It is fit, therefore, that every Christian should be taught to see those evidences which the Deity has stamped upon the face of nature concerning bimself, as well as those which he has furnished in the page of Revelation. But in the conduct of this inquiry, while we endeavour to gather all the light which Nature can furnish to us, it would seem to be a preposterous adherence to system to refuse studiously (for we are persuaded it is not possible to refuse altogether) the collateral light which the risen sun of Revelation has thrown over the same prospect.

To us, indeed, it would appear, that the existence of the Inspired Volume affords of itself a distinct and incontrovertible evidence of the existence and providence of God, perfectly independent of that which may be collected from other sources. We cannot, therefore, in any sense, accede to the consequence drawn by Dr. Brown on this subject.

"His existence is presupposed by Revelation, is the foundation of Revelation, and cannot consequently be proved, in the first instance, by Revelation." p. xiv.

Surely, of all the proofs of the existence of any thing, a revelation of its existence is the most convincing. This was, probably, the

It

first proof which Adam enjoyed of the existence of his Creator. was the proof afforded to the Israelites on Mount Sinai. It was the proof of the resurrection of our Saviour, granted to the Apostles. And it is itself a proof of such a nature, that, when vouchsafed, it must render all proofs, collected from his works or from any other quarters, superfluous. Indeed, all our knowledge of God is in some way derived from Revelation. Even of the ancient heathens, if it is said that that which may be known of God is manifest in them, the reason assigned is— "for God hath showed it unto them." All discoveries of the Divine nature are revelations more or less perfect. The world itself, when studied rightly, is a revelation of his works: for "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work." History is a revelation of his providence: for in that also "he left not himself without witness;" in that it shows him to have done good continually, and given us "rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.' The Scriptures are a revelation of his will: for "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." But above all these revelations, will be the revelation bereafter to be made to the pure in heart; "for they," said our blessed Saviour, "shall see God." Other revelations we find denied and controverted. Even the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is denied, perverted, and vilified; and even many, who receive the testimony of the Gospel, are yet assailed with harassing doubts in moments of temptation and distress. But those who shall bereafter be permitted to see God, who shall see him as he is, and, holding perpetual communion with his Majesty, shall ever be with the Lord,

can never know doubt or unbelief more. The revelation of him will be to them perfect. It will be such a proof as will make all their former knowledge, from whatever sources derived, show like ignorance: for we shall then know, even as also we are known.

We are so far, therefore, from admitting, that the existence of God cannot be proved in the first instance by Revelation, that we look upon the very existence of that Book which conveys a revelation of him to mankind as one of the most palpable proofs of his existence. That Book may be proved by a series of citations from it, made in every successive age, to have come into being, part by part, immediately after the several facts which it records. Those facts are of such a nature, that no imposture, which depended upon a forgery of such facts as its basis, could possibly have succeeded at the time of their occurrence; while the whole volume, comprising a train of prophecies, with a history of their accomplishment, is a monument, the existence of which can in no way be adequately accounted for without involving the existence and the highest attributes, such attributes as Nature alone can never unfold, of a Deity.

At the same time, we by no means undervalue those proofs of his being and character which he has mercifully scattered up and down in every part of creation. They are pearls in our path, which we are both bound and privileged to pick up and accordingly, we proceed now to exhibit those two strings of them which our authors have put together. The unlikeness of the two compilations to each other may well illustrate the harmonious variety of those evidences with which the Almighty has interspersed our walk, and which the Atheist perpetually overlooks.

The first thing to be demonstrated is the simple fact of the being of a God. To this object,

the first of the three books, of which Dr. Brown's Essay consists, is exclusively devoted and it is, with some exceptions, a clear, plain, and simple abstract of those arguments which have, in all ages, been advanced in proof of this momentous fact, both from the necessity of a First Cause, from the manifestation of design through the whole of creation, from the constitution and faculties of the human mind, from the general consent of mankind, from the evidences in the world itself of a recent origin, from tradition, and, lastly, from Scripture. Whoever wishes to see a short epitome of these several lines of argument, may be gratified here. Mr. Sumner, on the other hand, disposes of the whole of this part of his subject in twenty-seven pages, in which he disproves very clearly, though in a compressed form, the theories which would represent the universe as having subsisted from eternity, or as having had its origin in chance, and then draws the irresistible conclusion, that it must have proceeded from an intelligent Creator: and he closes his summary argument with the following apology for its brevity:

"If this chapter had been intended as any thing more than a brief statement of the nature of the argument from final causes, it would have been

necessary of course to detail the chief marks of contrivance which the world exhibits, which have here been only alluded to incidentally. But, in addition to the numerous volumes upon this subject, the recent and popular work of Dr. Paley seems to render any fresh enumeration of those instances quite superfluous. I do not mean to say that the subject is exhausted; nor indeed can it be, till every part of the universe is laid open to our inquiry. But perhaps there is some justice in the remark, that it already labours under disadvantage from its unlimited extent. A single example seems altogether as conclusive as a thousand; and be that cannot discover any traces of contrivance in the formation of an eye, will probably retain his Atheism at the end