-a

gospel foundation of hope?—any doubt of its being trustworthy?—any conviction, or even any suspicion, forced upon them in this testing-time of human confidences, of its being, after all, not rock, as they had fancied, but sand—a delusion "refuge of lies?"-The very reverse. Their doubts have not been about it, but about themselves! The question has not been about the security of the foundation, but about the fact of their having built upon it:-not about the sufficiency of Christ, but about the reality of their interest in him :-not about the soundness of the hope, but about their scriptural warrant to entertain it. That is a very different matter. So far from repenting in the end their having trusted to the gospel, their bitter regrets and their heartsinking fears are all about the reality of their trust. Their hearts misgive them,—whether under the morbid operation of physical causes, or of mystical obscurity in their views of truth, when they think of their past profession. They fear-they fear-that they may have been self-deceived,fancying themselves Christ's, when they were "none of his." But regrets, lamentations, anxieties, and fears, springing from such sources, bear testimony, not against the gospel, but for it.—I ask for an instance of any individual, in perfect possession of his mental powers, unaffected by any morbid hallucinations, and in the full prospect of death, expressing regret for the folly, or repentance for the sin, of having believed and followed Christ;-disowning the foundation on which he has rested through life, as now seen, in the searching light of its closing hour, to be false and unstable. Infidelity, and every system of human framing, have had their dying penitents by thousands. How comes it, that the gospel has had none? If it were itself human, how should it have this extraordinary distinction from all else that is human? Many are the schemes, with which men have made shift to live, but which have misgiven them when they have come to die. The last enemy is a ruthless inquisitor. Many a time has he shown what a power he possesses of detecting to the mind the sophistries by which it had flattered itself in error, and of exposing to the con

science the flimsiness of its favourite refuges. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, there is often a revealing light, which compels the sinner to see what he had been shutting his eyes against before, and awakens him to a late and appalling sense of his infatuation. How comes it, then, that to no one mind has Death, in the hour of his dread inquisition, ever made the discovery of the insufficiency and delusiveness of the gospel? How comes it that of this foundation the hollowness, the unsoundness, the sandy instability, has never been exposed, and the fool who has trusted to it been convinced too late of his folly? Is there not something extraordinary in this?-that of all systems this should be the only one that has stood the scrutiny of death, and the test of anticipated judgment?—Let the infidel account for it. To me it appears as the seal of the God of Heaven to his own truth; evincing its divine adaptation to all our nature's consciousnesses, and to all our nature's exigencies,--and peculiarly in the hour of that nature's extremity. It proves itself, in this unvarying experience, to have proceeded from Him who "knoweth what is in man."

"I own to you," says Sir James Mackintosh,* "that I prefer the old custom of prefixing a modest preface by way of memoir, to the modern practice of writing huge narratives. of lives in which there are no events; which seems to me a tasteless parade, and a sure way of transmitting nothing to posterity."-Should my readers think that I have gone beyond the due limit of such "modest prefaces," I flatter myself that, when my subject is considered, the extent of my trespass will not be deemed so flagrant as to render it unpardonable. The incidents of a life like that which has been under review are necessarily neither very numerous, very diversified, nor very extraordinary. Such as they are, it has been my endeavour, not merely to record them with impartiality, but to place them in those lights in which they might best answer the ends of eliciting illustrations of character, and of suggest

Letter to Dr. Gregory, in Preface to Mr. Hall's Works.

ing profitable reflections.

On the success of the endeavour, it is for others to pronounce. My prayer is, that the influence of the Divine Spirit may so accompany it, as that God's servants and people may be roused to emulation:—“THAT THEY BE NOT SLOTHFUL, BUT FOLLOWERS OF THEM WHO, THROUGH FAITh and patience, inherit the promises."

PREFATORY NOTICES.

THESE relate to a variety of topics, and shall be very briefly despatched.

I. MANUSCRIPTS.—I regard it as a happy providential appointment, that, ere he died, the consent of my lamented friend was obtained to the publication of such of his Manuscripts as might be deemed worthy of the public eye. It would have been distressing, had no liberty been felt to raise any monument to his memory from materials of his own.— The discourses, however, now published, will be subject, in one respect at least, to much more than the ordinary drawback on what is posthumous. They will miss the living voice, in a degree very rarely equalled. They who ever heard him during his life, will hear him still, now that he is dead; their imagination supplying the speaker, while they read. Readers who never enjoyed this pleasure should not forget, under what a disadvantage they peruse the discourses of such a preacher; what an amount of additional interest and effect arose from his surpassing powers of utterance, which cannot be transfused into the written composition. From this cause, some, whose expectations have been inordinately raised by the representations of others, may possibly experience a measure of disappointment. Yet I feel confident, that there is an abundant sufficiency of intrinsic excellence, both in matter and in style, to maintain the writer's well-earned eminence of reputation, even when the tongue,, whose eloquence was wont to entrance his auditors, and to give impression so vivid to the effusions of his mind,

"Lies silent in the grave."

II. DELAY OF PUBLICATION.-It was at one time my intention, to enter into a detail of the various circumstances, whether dependent on myself and others, or independent of both, by which the regretted delay has been occasioned. This, however, might only be a further trial of the reader's patience; and I therefore think it better simply to say, which I can do with all confidence, that there has been no delay which could have been avoided; but that, were I to enter into detail, I could make out a case satisfactory to every reasonable mind. The question now will be-how the task has been executed:and should the reader chance to be pleased, I may safely leave my cause with himself:- -we are not apt to judge with uncharitable severity, when we are in good humour.

III. PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS.—The original autographs were, at my request, transmitted to me, along with transcripts for the printers, written out by my young friend— "beloved for the father's sake” as well as for his own-Robert W. M'All; in order that, in case of any suspected mistake, the means of correction might be at hand. In a few instances, I have found this reference to the originals of essential value for the ascertaining of the true sense; while, considering their great extent, and the evident rapidity and consequent occasional obscurity of the hand-writing, the smallness of the number of mistakes is extremely creditable to the care and accuracy of the transcriber.-I have felt it needful to bestow special attention on the article of punctuation; always a matter of importance, and peculiarly so in compositions, where the sentences are at times long and involved,—containing, it may be, several compartments, and each of these several clauses,—all well adjusted, and all coming out clearly in the end, but to the reader requiring those points to be accurately placed, which to the hearer were marked by the pauses, however brief, and the varied intonations, of the speaker.

IV. ARRANGEMENT OF DISCOURSES.-On this point, I was at a loss; and, without troubling the reader with the reasons for and against different principles of order which suggested themselves, I shall merely state the one that has