doctrine is discussed, phrases occur which we could not adopt. An instance of this may be adverted to, which seems a root whence a number of these expressions spring. It is the idea that "free choice" on the part of men is an exception from the things included in predestination. This we do not think a tenable position. The free choice which the elect sinner makes in the acceptance of Christ, as freely offered in the gospel, is in every instance the effect of a gracious, divine interposition; and our author himself asserts strongly, that whatever God himself does was predestinated. The work wrought on the soul of the sinner, by which he is disposed and enabled to make this choice, is as really a part of his salvation, and of his sanctification in particular, as any other part of it whatever. There is no truth more clearly revealed in the Bible than this. The testimony of Jesus (John, vi. 44) is, "No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him." It is in the day of Christ's power, also, we are assured, that His people are made willing. (Ps. cx. 3). Certainly this free choice was foreseen by God in His decree of predestination; not, however, in the Arminian sense, but as a part of the sinner's salvation, and a fruit of His own sovereign grace and the work of the Holy Spirit, infallibly secured in the eternal decree. Without such gracious interposition enlightening the mind, to which, without this illumination, the things of the Spirit of God are foolishness, and slaying the enmity of the carnal mind, no one of our fallen race would ever have obeyed the gospel. Why? Because men, in their fallen state, are deprived of power to act from choice? By no means; for sinners act wilfully in refusing to obey the gospel. The charge brought by the Lord Jesus applies to all fallen men-"Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life" (John, v. 40). God, in purposing, in His adorable sovereignty, to permit man to fall, purposed also to permit mankind to lose power to will of themselves to do what is good in relation to God and spiritual things. Hence the declarations which the Apostle in the epistle to the Romans applies to mankind in their fallen state-" They know not, neither will they understand." They will not even understand. They hate the light. "Every one that doeth evil hateth the light." But there is none of our fallen family, except as a fruit of grace, "that doeth good, no, not one" (Rom. iii. 12).

If believers, who have passed from death to life, and are born from above, when called to work out their own salvation, are assured that it is God that worketh in them, even in them, "to WILL" as well as "to do" what is pleasing to God, how much more must divine gracious agency be necessary to bring the sinner, dead in trespasses and sins, to will what is pleasing to God, or, with Mary, to choose the good part, which shall never be taken from him? No means, however excellent-no instrumentality, however valuable,—can bring so much as one sinner to obey the gospel without the gracious agency of the Holy Spirit. In this "neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase" (1 Cor. iii. 7). This is a doctrine, the meet acknowledgment of which is sadly wanting, both in the pulpit and in what may be called the

Christian, and even what is called the evangelical press. The personality of the Spirit is held-His agency in salvation is generally confessed, but the necessity of His influence to the right discharge of Christian duty, internal and external, and accompanying all the means of grace, as essential to conversion and edification, is not interwoven as it ought, and habitually embedded in the teaching of the Church. Our author has not quoted the portions of Scripture which he thinks fully warrant the conclusion, that all infants dying in infancy are saved; and we have never yet been able to find them.

There are very able metaphysical disquisitions in this work, on which, were we in a metaphysical mood, which we are not, we would also make some remarks. The forms of expression with which we cannot sympathise are, we think, not to be ascribed to any personal opposition on the part of Lord Kinloch to any of the Calvinistic doctrines, the strongest of which, in relation to the subjects of predestination and sovereign grace, he declares to be the truths of God, but partly to a strong desire to exhibit these doctrines in such a light as appears to the author most calculated to reconcile others to them, and partly, perhaps, to his not having studied theology as a system with sufficient minuteness. Having earnestly grasped, with his vigorous intellect, certain views of divine truth, his argument in their illustration and support is sometimes stretched beyond the legitimate boundary, without seeing how this comes more or less in collision with some other great scriptural doctrine. This is a mistake against which the best theologians need to guard, in the earnest discussion of some doctrine, in the pulpit and in the press. And there is scarcely any means of preservation from this so effectual as a thorough acquaintance with theology as a

system.

There has, in various quarters, of late been a most unreasonable opposition made to the systematic teaching and study of theology. But if no one can expect to be a successful student of any other science without prosecuting the study of it systematically, how should it be otherwise in regard to the study of theology? It is true that the doctrines of revelation are not exhibited in the Bible in a systematic form. But neither are the materials of other sciences so exhibited in the natural world. Are those of botany so presented to the eye on this earth's surface? No; but rather the farthest from this that could be imagined. System, however, exists there; and it is by finding this out, and availing ourselves of the labours of those who have arranged its parts into order, that advances in the knowledge of this science become comparatively easy, and the pursuit of it a very pleasing employment. Well, however varied and glorious the matter of that revelation which God has given to men in the Scriptures is, it consists of a most perfect system, all the parts of which constitute one grand whole, united in the most perfect harmony. This admits of the most irrefragable evidence, eductive and inductive. It is to be confidently inferred from the character of the Author, and it has been demonstrated by the closest examination and comparison of its different parts in relation to each other. This is a position which will remain unshaken, and set all the assaults of infidels and rationalistic bishops combined at perpetual defiance.

The Approved Servant of God: his Public Work, Rest, and Reward. A Discourse preached on the occasion of the Death of the Rev. John Wright Graham, Bailies' Mill, County Down, Ireland. By Thomas Houston, D.D., Knockbracken. Belfast: James Johnstone. Paisley: Alexander Gardiner.

1863.

THIS is a very faithful, judicious, and effective discourse, and stands in striking contrast with a multitude of modern "funeral sermons." There is an alarming tendency at present to a species of saint-worship. In many "funeral discourses" the departed minister is really the text-his graces and virtues the subject-matter of the sermon,—while his labours, or sacrifices, or liberality, however far short of privilege or duty, are exaggerated as models of perfection. If there is any period, in the history of a congregation, when the supremacy of the living Head, the fulness of the gospel, and the responsibility of minister and people, should be set forth, it is surely at the time when death has deprived them of the under shepherd. But, instead of this, an oration in fulsome praise of the departed is frequently delivered to a mourning congregation. In the discourse before us, from the text, "For David, after he had served his own generation, by the will of God fell on sleep," &c., there is presented a luminous view of The Life and Public Works of a Faithful Servant of God-his Distinction and Honour in Death,-succeeded by a very judicious reference to the character and labours of the deceased brother, and the practical lessons which his life and death are designed to teach. There is, indeed, honour to whom honour is due; but the servant is seen as reflecting the grace of the Master, while holding fast and holding forth a covenanted testimony for the truth and cause of God.

The Works of Thomas Goodwin, D.D., sometime President of Magdalene College, Oxford. With General Preface by John C. Millar, D.D., and Memoir by Robert Hally, D.D. Vols. V. and VI. Edinburgh: James Nichol. London: James Nisbet & Co. Dublin: W. Robertson. 1863.

WE take blame to ourselves for not sooner noticing this other series of "Nichol's Standard Divines." The conception and execution of this scheme for restoring the standard works of the Puritan period are alike creditable to the spirit, judgment, and taste, of this enterprising publisher. The books selected are just such as the age requires -viz., spiritual food for earnest souls, and sound theology wherewith to confront incipient heresy. In the reissue of the Puritan theology, in a style at once attractive and cheap, there is a literary resurrection of the truths and principles for which these divines lived and laboured and suffered. We find his name among the Westminster divines, and his works furnish ample evidence of his qualifications for the task assigned them. The two volumes now before us are replete with clear, rich, discriminating, and comprehensive views of Christ the Mediator-the Supereminence of Christ above Moses-the Reconciliation of the People of God by Christ's Death-the one Sacrifice, and Reconciliation by the Blood of Christ-together with the Work of the Holy Ghost in our Salvation. More especially, the Work of

the Spirit in the Anointing of Jesus to be our Saviour-His Operations upon the Church-upon her members,-viz., in Regeneration, Conversion, and Sanctification.

In treating of these topics, many collateral and relative subjects are discussed, but generally in such a way as to shed light upon the entire plan of mercy, and to unfold the glory of God as the leading principle in redemption work. At a time when incipient Arminianism is rife in some quarters where it ought not to be found, and when in others it is assuming the rationalistic, and even Socinian type, it is of the utmost importance that such works should be restored to the study library, in order that their definite views of divine truth may help to correct the present tendency to a loose, unsubstantial, pictorial, defective, and, not unfrequently, erroneous theology. The careful study of even one volume of the more distinguished Puritan divines will do more to enlighten the mind and enlarge the heart than the cursory reading of many volumes of our most popular religious periodical literature, or even a whole library of those semi-philosophical, semi-religious books of modern times. We regret that our space forbids even an extract from these volumes; but we heartily commend them to our readers, assured that their study will greatly extend the sphere of religious knowledge, and, even where there may not be acquiescence in every view of doctrine presented, or arrangement of matter, there cannot fail to be realised a clearer and more comprehensive conception of the Triune Deity, as revealed in the work of human redemption.

The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained, by way of Question and Answer. By James Fisher, and other Ministers of the Gospel. Twenty-third Edition. Edinburgh Oliver & Boyd, Tweeddale Court. London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. 1863.

It is to the honour of Christians in Scotland that so many editions of this valuable work have been demanded. There were six editions published in nine years from the date of its completion, when it was not so common to multiply editions as at the present time. There is, so far as we know, no other work in the English language which contains such a concise, full, and clear exhibition of the doctrines of revelation, in relation to faith and practice, as this volume. It is also distinguished for the remarkable accuracy with which the great doctrines of the gospel are stated in it. As the result of the Marrow controversy, and the measure in which the Spirit was enjoyed by the first Seceders, there is an exhibition in their writings, and especially in the writings of the two Erskines, of the covenant of grace, which, in respect of distinctness, is in advance of that given in the Westminster Standards, and in the works of the theologians of a previous date. This is brought out perhaps a little too elaborately in this Work, under the explanation of the 20th Question. It never received any judicial sanction, and thus, however much valued, had no authoritative standing in the Secession except what sprung from its own intrinsic merit. As is to be expected in a work, the range of which, in the discussion of doctrine, is so extended, and in which the most difficult points in theology are minutely set forth, there are some things introduced,

though very rarely, as to which, to use an old phrase, there are different opinions among the orthodox. It is so far to this able and scriptural work, and the diligent study of its contents, as one means, as well as to the scriptural simplicity and fulness with which the truths of the gospel were proclaimed from the pulpit throughout the Secession, that its adherents were indebted for the distinct views of Bible truth by which they were long characterised. It is generally known that such was, and to some extent still is, the measure of theological knowledge existing in the congregations of the Secession over Scotland, and elsewhere, that there could not have been the least shade of error introduced into a sermon without being detected. The spirited publishers have conferred a boon of great value on the Christian community in issuing a new edition of this work in so neat a form, and at a price so moderate as to place it within the reach of all. The lovers of Bible truth, who know the excellence of the volume, will be earnest that it may have an extensive circulation. It contains a rich mine of divine truth, whence gospel ministers may dig precious stores for the edification of their congregations.

Biblical Natural Science; being the Explanation of all References in Holy Scripture to Geology, Botany, Zoology, and Physical Geography. By the Rev. John Duns, F.R.S.E., Professor of Natural Science, New College, Edinburgh, author of Memoir of Rev. John Fleming, D.D., &c. &c. William Mackenzie, 32, Paternoster Row, London; 45 and 47, Hanover Street, Glasgow; and 59, South Bridge, Edinburgh.

FOUR Parts of this work are already published, and have been examined by us. It is remarkable to see the unruffled calm with which Professor Duns proceeds in the execution of the herculean task which he undertook. He seems equally at home in every branch of science to which there is reference in any part of Scripture in his exposition of it. One striking characteristic of the work is the ease with which the author moves onward in removing difficulties. It seems as if it were to exceed the expectations of subscribers. It can scarcely be expected that, in a work containing such a variety of subjects, one will always find what he may judge the best solution furnished, or the best exposition of the sacred text; but he will always have presented to him the judgment, clearly stated, of one who has given great attention to the subject, and to whose conclusions great deference is due, and respectful consideration should be given. There is an entrance made on the long-agitated question of the universality, or non-universality of the deluge, at the conclusion of Part IV.; and there will be considerable anxiety in the minds of some as to the light which Mr Duns may be able to throw on this subject in the forthcoming Part.

The third Part contains a valuable map of the celestial sphere, in which all the constellations of the Antarctic, as well as the Arctic Hemispheres, are laid down, with the stars of the various magnitudes from the first to the sixth. Varied plates are also furnished, and numerous woodcuts. It is very satisfactory to find science and art employed as the handmaids of religion as they are in this work.