anxiety to collect information, to diffuse the knowledge of divine truth. and to promote the interests of the kingdom of Christ among men. The celebrated Jonathan Edwards was one of his earliest and most esteemed transatlantic correspondents. For that devoted servant of Jesus Christ, he entertained the highest affection and respect; from his writings he had derived great instruction, and no man did so much to promote their circulation in his own country. To assist him in carrying on the Arminian controversy, Dr Erskine sent him many useful books, and, by his advice and exhortations, powerfully contributed to the production of some of his most valuable publications. In the trying circumstances attending Mr Edwards' dismission from his charge in Northampton, Dr Erskine felt deeply interested, and both by his sympathy, and by setting on foot a subscription for pecuniary relief, manifested his love to this excellent man, who in a very painful situation conducted himself with much Christian patience and fortitude.

Some attempt having been made to still the popular clamour on the subject of philosophical liberty and necessity, raised in Scotland by the publication of Lord Kames's (then Mr Home) Essays, by introducing the sentiments of President Edwards, along with those of Calvin, Turretine, and other orthodox divines, to, justify the views of Kames; Mr Edwards addressed a letter to Dr Erskine, which was afterwards published by him, as a letter from Mr Edwards to a minister of the church of Scotland. In this letter he states the difference between the Christian doctrines of predestination and free agency, and the infidel doctrines of necessity and liberty, with great acuteness. It is justly considered one of the ablest specimens of metaphysical reasoning in our language. The controversy then agitated in Scotland, though carried on with great keenness, would lead to too long details for our limits. It is only proper, in justice to Lord Kames, to state, that he afterwards deserted the sentiments contained in his Essays.

In 1753, Dr Erskine was translated from Kirkintulloch, to the burgh of Culross, where he remained till 1758, when he was called to Edinburgh, by the magistrates and kirk sessions, who then elected the ministers of that city. A short time before Dr Erskine had entered the ministry, a most important secession had taken place from the established church, the effects of which are more evident now than at its commencement. The resumed exercise of the rights of patronage, restored by Queen Anne's Tory ministry, the progressive corruption of doctrine, and the departure of the church of Scotland from the principles for which it had suffered and struggled from the restoration to the revolution, drove some of its most popular ministers from its bosom, and formed a body to which Scotland owes the preservation of Calvinistic doctrine in many places. The first secession took place in 1733, and was completed in 1740, by the deposition of eight of the seceding ministers. This event was deeply regretted by the religious part of the community, though much good, as well as some evils, have resulted from it. In 1751, another rent was made by the deposition of the Rev. Thomas Gillespie, minister of Carnock, for refusing to be present and active at a violent settlement. This laid the foundation of the relief body. Gillespie was a man of singular piety, and sustained the shock with great Christian firmness. Various attempts were afterwards made to get him restored, in which Dr Erskine took an active part.

In 1767, Dr Erskine and Dr Robertson were united in the charge of the Old Grey Friars parish; a connexion which subsisted till the death of Dr Robertson in 1793. It is not easy to conceive two individuals who differed more in spirit, preaching, and various parts of Christian character, than these two men, both eminent, though in very different respects. Dr Robertson, a man of the finest taste and talents, and of the most winning and courteous manners, but devoted to the pursuit of literary renown; the leader of the anti-evangelical party in the church, and who considered Christianity chiefly of importance, as it subserved the interests of worldly aggrandisement and political influence. Dr Erskine, a man deeply versed in religious knowledge, devoted to his Master's work, and alive to every thing which involved his glory; who regarded Christianity as a revelation which chiefly relates to things invisible and eternal; dead to the world, and ambitious only of the approbation of God; who was looked up to as the father of the orthodox clergy, and as the friend of all good men ;-in every point of view, it was a singular combination. That Dr Erskine had some way of reconciling his mind to the propriety of a situation, the irksomeness of which he must have felt, in which he every Lord's day listened to doctrines very different from his own, and had to co-operate where there could be no cordial agreement, we are bound to believe. But it often gave rise, it is said, to rather awkward collisions. The story is told that his colleague one morning had given his audience a very flattering picture of virtue, concluding with declaring his conviction, that if ever perfect virtue should appear on the face of the earth, the world would fall down and worship it. Dr Erskine took an opportunity, as it is reported, of adverting to the same subject in the afternoon, and with equal confidence, and much greater truth, declared, that when the most perfect virtue that ever adorned humanity, descended to the earth, the world, instead of admiring it, cried, "Crucify it, crucify it."

Some time before his union in office with Dr Robertson, Dr Erskine was engaged in a controversy with Mr John Wesley. He published anonymously a small pamphlet entitled, Mr Wesley's principles detected;' in which he endeavours to expose the enthusiasm, the erroneous doctrines, and religious management of that gentleman. Whether it be owing to the peculiar character of the Scots population, the nature of Wesleyan Methodism, or the unsuitableness of its advocates, so it is, Mr Wesley's system has gained less footing in Scotland than in any other part of the world where it has been attempted to plant it. Mr Wesley was too prudent to enter the lists of theological warfare with Dr Erskine; but endeavoured to smooth over the affair by a very flattering and complimentary letter to him.

The melancholy event of the American war deeply interested Dr Erskine, both as a Christian, and as a subject of Great Britain. He considered the war as on both sides unnatural, unchristian, and impolitic. He published several pamphlets before its commencement, and during its progress, which are written with ability, and candour, but which need only now to be thus glanced at. In the Catholic controversy in 1779 and 1780, he took an active part. He dreaded the progress of popery, both at home and abroad, and thought it his duty to warn his countrymen against its dangerous doctrines, and insidious wiles. The bill of 1780. for relieving the Roman Catholics, produced

in Scotland a violent ferment. not as an enemy to religious liberty, or as adverse to all classes of religious persons, of whatever sentiments, enjoying the same privileges; but because he considered popery both as a political and a persecuting system.

Dr Erskine was opposed to the bill,

On the subject of the Catholic controversy, Dr Campbell, of Aberdeen, took the opposite side to Dr Erskine, and published a very masterly Address to the people of Scotland, upon the alarms that have been raised in regard to Popery.' The general assembly, on the other hand, supported the views of Dr Erskine, and deliberately decided against the Catholic claims.

Besides the publications already noticed, and various others of less general interest, Dr Erskine was the author of two volumes of sermons, the one published by himself in 1798, and the other edited after his death by Sir Harry Moncrieff, and published in 1804. These volumes contain specimens of his preaching, from 1745 to 1802.

The sermons of Dr Erskine are distinguished not by studied elegance of language, or by the higher graces of eloquence; but by a native simplicity of style, and an energy of sentiment of far higher importance. They discover a mind mighty in the scriptures, intimately acquainted with human nature, powerfully influenced by the love of Christ, and deeply concerned that his hearers should feel the same. They contain none of those injudicious accommodations of scripture language, which tend to bring the word of God into contempt; nothing of that vain and conceited parade of learning, which only excites disgust, and no attempts to surprise by novelty of argument, or brilliancy of illustration. They are at the same time by no means trite or common-place discourses-the dullest of all the labours of the press. Rich in Christian sentiment, and happy in scriptural illustration, to those who love divine truth, they will be found at once instructive, pungent, consoling, and persuasive.

He died January the 19th, 1803, in the eighty-second year of his age, exhausted by pain, infirmity, and age, and worn out by incessant labour, and no doubt by many and severe afflictions; under which, though far remote from stoical insensibility, he was always greatly too reserved and silent.

Dr Erskine possessed talents, both natural and acquired, considerably above most of his contemporaries, though he never employed them for the purpose of display. His learning was extensive, various, and solid, devoted to the noblest purposes, and combined with unaffected humility and simplicity of manners. He was a modest and unassuining, but by no means a bashful man. As a public speaker he was too little attentive to those external recommendations, which give the great charm to many preachers. His pronunciation was uncommonly broad, and his gestures and action awkward and inelegant. Christian, and a man of honour, he was true to his principles, and decided in his attachments. He could act in difficult circumstances a very determined part; and could show to both his friends and his adversaries, that he would neither be flattered into compliance, nor frightened into submission. As a public character, and minister of the gospel, he had few equals, and no superior; the man of God appeared in all he did and said. At the bed of the sick, and the dying, when

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bending over the couch of poverty and disease, ne shone with peculiar lustre. Alive to all that afflicted humanity, and acquainted with all that could comfort the mourner, and cheer the dying, he there poured from the fulness of his heart the treasures of heavenly consolation. His character is thus described by Dr Davidson, one of his oldest and most intimate friends, in a sermon preached to his congregation, the second Lord's day after his death.. Though Dr Erskine sought not fame, and even shrunk from it, yet his uniform character, his public professional labours, his disinterested and active benevolence, and his few, though important, publications, gained him such estimation in the minds of good men, both at home and abroad, as falls to the lot of but a small number of the human race. As a scholar, as a gentleman, as a friend, as a philanthropist, as a Christian, as a pastor, who can be mentioned as excelling Dr Erskine? In rejoicing with those who rejoiced, in weeping with those who wept, in enlivening and enlightening his friends with his cheerful and interesting conversation, and in speaking a word in season to the afflicted Christian, he was surpassed by none. Who was weak, and he was not weak? Who was offended, and he did not burn? In his character were concentrated extensive learning, fervent piety, purity of doctrine, energy of sentiment, enlarged benevolence, uniformly animated by an ardent zeal for the glory of his Master, and for the salvation of men. In a good cause he was inflexible; in friendship invariable; in discharging the duties of his function indefatigable. In his public ministrations he was indeed a 'workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.'"

Archbishop Moore.

BORN A. D. 1731.-DIED A. D. 1805.

THIS prelate was of humble origin. His father was a butcher in the city of Gloucester, a poor but respectable man. He was educated at the free school of his native city, and some friends procured him an humble situation in Pembroke college, Oxford, whence he afterwards removed to Christ-church, in that university.

While at college he applied himself with great assiduity to his studies, and acquired universal respect by the modesty of his demeanour, the regularity of his conduct, and his classical attainments. With these qualifications he had, however, no higher prospect than that of a country curacy; had not one of those fortunate circumstances which the individual can neither command nor influence paved the way to his subsequent exaltation.

Mr Bliss, the Savilian professor of geometry, and astronomer-royal, was in the habit of visiting the duke of Marlborough, at Blenheim. On one of these occasions the duke requested Mr Bliss to recommend a young man as private tutor to his son. While Bliss was in vain endeavouring to recollect a person qualified for that situation, young Moore happened to be strolling in the park. He was of the same college as the professor, who entertained a sincere respect for him, and immediately recommended him to his grace, as well qualified to under

take the charge. The duke, in consequence, sent for Mr Moore, who readily accepted his proposal. In 1769, his grace procured him a golden prebend in the cathedral at Durham; in 1771, he personally solicited for him, of the king, the deanery of Canterbury, which he obtained; and in 1775 Dr Moore was elevated to the see of Bangor.

On the death of Dr Cornwallis, in 1783, the see of Canterbury was successively offered to the bishops Lowth and Hurd; but the former declined it on account of his advanced age and love of lettered ease, and the latter from affection to his own diocese of Worcester. It is reported that his majesty, on this, desired each of those prelates to recommend to him one of the bishops, as the fittest in their judgment to fill the metropolitan chair; and that they both, without any previous knowledge of each other's opinion, named Dr Moore. It has, however, been asserted by others, that his advancement to the primacy was the effect of the same patronage which first raised him in the church. Be this as it may, Dr Moore was raised to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury, and a more worthy prelate could not have been selected for that elevated dignity. While occupying the first station in the church, he avoided all other activity but that of Christian piety and spiritual duty. He seldom took any part in political disputes; neither did he adopt any steps to inflame the minds of dissenters on the one hand, or to alarm the friends of orthodoxy on the other. When any measure was agitated in the house of peers, in which the interests of the church were concerned, his grace never failed to acquit himself with ability and moderation. During his primacy, an extension of toleration took place; the Catholics were greatly relieved in England, and bishops were appointed in America.

Dr Moore afforded the public very little opportunity to appreciate his literary talents, having printed only two sermons; one preached before the lords, on the 30th of January, 1771; and the other on the fast-day, in 1781. His grace died on the 19th of January, 1805.'

Dean Kirwan.

BORN A. D. 1754.-DIED a. D. 1805.

THIS celebrated preacher was descended from an ancient and respectable Roman Catholic family, and born in Galway about the year 1754. He was sent in early youth to the college of English Jesuits at St Omers, in whose classic shades, as he often declared, he imbibed the noble ambition of benefiting mankind.

At the age of seventeen he embarked for the Danish island of St Croix, in the West Indies, under the protection of his father's cousingerman, who had large possessions there; but after enduring for six years a climate pernicious to his delicate constitution, and spectacles of oppression and cruelty shocking to his feelings, he returned to Europe in disgust. By the advice of his maternal uncle, then titular primate of Ireland, he repaired to the university of Louvain, where he received priest's orders, and was soon after honoured with the chair of natural

'Monthly Magazine.