the duchess of Gloucester, as an "early, spontaneous, and liberal encourager of the work." In the preface to this volume, Dr Geddes boldly controverts the doctrine of the absolute and plenary inspiration of the scriptures; he considers the Hebrew historians to have written from such human documents as they could find, and that consequently they were liable to mistakes. In the scale of merit, he ranks them much lower than the more celebrated historians of Greece and Rome, because, after carefully perusing them, and properly appreciating their value, he was unable, as he thought, to find in the Hebrew writers that elegance, correctness, and lucid order, which were to be found in the Greeks and Romans. In his volume of Critical Remarks,' published in the year 1800, he entered into a vindication of his theory.

Besides the translation of the early books of the Bible, and the 'Critical Remarks,' Dr Geddes wrote 'The Prospectus of a New Translation of the Bible,' 4to. 1786.- A Letter to the Bishop of London on the same subject,' 1787. His proposals came out in 1788. In the year 1790, he published a 'General Answer to the Queries, Counsels, and Criticisms respecting the intended Translation.' In 1793, he wrote an 'Address to the Public on the Publication of his New Translation and in the succeeding year, his letter to, and correspondence with, the bishop of Centuriæ, were published. As a controversialist, Dr Geddes distinguished himself in the year 1787, by a Letter to Dr Priestley, in defence of the Divinity of Jesus Christ;' and, a Letter to a Member of Parliament, on the expediency of a general repeal of all penal statutes that regard religious opinions.' In a Modest Apology for the Roman Catholics of Great Britain,' published in the spring of 1800, Dr Geddes displayed much zeal in defence of the tenets to which he adhered, and great moderation when descanting upon the injuries to which himself and brethren were subject, by the continuance of persecuting laws. In pursuing his great work, Dr Geddes intended next to have presented the world with a new translation of the book of Psalms. During the last whole year of his life, his studies and literary labours were greatly interrupted by a long series of painful affliction, yet in every interval of ease he applied to a work in which his heart was engaged. He had already printed in octavo size one hundred and four of the Psalms, and had prepared completely for the press as far as the 118th Psalm, when he was arrested by a most painful and excruciating disorder, which terminated his life on the 26th of February, 1802.

Dr John Mason Good published Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr Geddes,' in 1803. The following is a portion of the biographer's general sketch of the doctor's character: "In his corporeal make he was slender, and in the bold and formidable outlines of his countenance, not highly prepossessing on a first interview; but never was there a face or form through which the soul developed itself more completely than through his own. Every feature, and indeed every limb, was in harmony with the entire system, and displayed the restless and indefatigable operations of the interior of the machine. A play of cheerfulness beamed uniformly from his cheeks, and his animated eyes rather darted than looked benevolence. Yet such was the irritability of his nerves, that a slight degree of opposition to his opinions, and especially when advanced by persons whose mental powers did not warrant such oppo

sition, put to flight in a moment the natural character of his countenance, and cheerfulness and benevolence were exchanged for exacerbation and tumult. Of this physical and irresistible impulse in his constitution, no man was more thoroughly sensible than himself; and if no man ever less succeeded in subduing it, no man ever took more pains to obtain a victory. Let us, however, fairly strike the balance, and we shall find, that if such a peculiar construction of body had its evil, it also had its advantage; and that the very irritability of soul which occasionally hurried him, against his consent, into a violence of controversy not perfectly consistent with the polished manners of the day, hurried him a thousand times oftener, and with a thousand times more rapidity, because assisted instead of opposed by his judgment, into acts of kindness and benevolence. The moment he beheld the possibility of doing good by his own exertions, the good was instantly done, although it were to a man who, perhaps, had causelessly quarrelled with him a few hours before. It was not in his nature to pause, with our academic and cold-blooded philosophers of the present day, that he might first weigh the precise demand of moral or political justice, and inquire into the advantage that would accrue to himself, or in what manner the world at large might be benefited either by a good action or a good example; it was stimulus enough for him that distress existed, and that he knew it, and it afterwards afforded him satisfaction enough, that he had removed or mitigated it. In intellectual talents, he had few equals, and fewer still who had improved the possession of equal talents in an equal degree. To an ardent thirst after knowledge, in all its multitudinous ramifications, he added an astonishing facility in acquiring and retaining it: and so extensive was his erudition, that it was difficult to start a subject into which he could not enter, and be heard with both attention and profit. But theology was the prime object of his pursuits, the darling science of his heart, which he had indefatigably studied from his infancy, and to which every other acquisition was made to bend. From his verbal knowledge of the Bible, he might have been regarded as a living concordance; and this not with respect to any individual language alone, or the various and rival renderings of any individual language, but a concordance that should comprise the best exemplars of the most celebrated tongues into which the Bible has ever been translated. As an interpreter of it, he was strictly faithful and honest to the meaning, or what he apprehended to be the meaning, of his original; and though, in his critical remarks upon the text, he allowed himself a latitude and boldness which injured his popularity, and drew down upon his head a torrent of abusive appellations, how seldom have we seen a man systematically educated in the characteristic tenets of any established community whatsoever, and especially of the church of Rome, who, when he has once begun to feel his independence, and has determined to shake off his fetters, and to think for himself, has not flown much further from the goal at which he started."

John Erskine, D.D.

BORN A. D. 1721.-DIED A. D. 1803.

THE grandfather of Dr Erskine was Lieutenant Colonel John Erskine, son of Henry, second Lord Cardross, who suffered severely during the tyrannical reign of Charles the Second, on account of his attachment to presbyterian principles. Colonel Erskine, who escaped to Holland under circumstances of jeopardy during the reign of James the Second, was one of the most zealous supporters of the revolution in 1688, a warm friend of the Hanover succession, and a determined and conscientious adherent to the church of Scotland. Many anecdotes are still told of this respectable gentleman, illustrative of his peculiarities as a man, his unbending politics as a whig, and his conduct as a Christian. His father was the eldest son of the colonel, and was bred to the profession of the law. He was for many years professor of Scots law in the university of Edinburgh, and while in this office published Institutes of the Law of Scotland,' which continues to this day the standard book of reference in the courts of that country.

Mr Erskine, his eldest son, was born on the 2d of June, 1721. His mother was the daughter of the Hon. James Melville, of Balgarvie, in the county of Fife. He received the rudiments of his classical education, assisted by a private tutor, at the school of Cupar, in Fife, where his grandmother lived; and at the high-school of Edinburgh, and entered the university there some time between 1733 and 1737. At that period several of the chairs were occupied by men of considerable eminence. Sir John Pringle, who was afterwards president of the Royal society of London, was professor of moral philosophy; and of his lectures in this important department, Dr Erskine speaks with high approbation, in the appendix to his sermon on the death of Dr Robert

son.

Dr Erskine was not originally destined for the ministry. It was the wish of his family that he should devote his life to the practice of the law; a profession in which his father had acquired distinguished reputation, and where, had he applied himself, he had every encouragement to expect its honours and emoluments. Indeed he attended the law classes after his course of philosophy was finished, and no doubt afterwards experienced the benefit of these studies. But nothing could divert his mind from the great object to which he determined to devote his time and his talents. His attachment to the ministry of the gospel conquered the pride of family, the love of honour, and the temptation of riches. It would appear that he had considerable difficulty in obtaining his father's consent; though there is no foundation whatever for the assertion of Warburton, in one of his letters to Hurd, that his father disinherited him on this account. In a letter to Dr Doddridge, he had communicated a copy of the reasons which he had assigned to his father in justification of his choice. To this the doctor refers in his answer, dated Northampton, June 11th, 1743:-"The account which you gave to your worthy father, of the motives which determined your resolution to enter on the ministry, in that excellent letter which you

favoured me with a copy of, abundantly convinces me that you were indeed under a divine guidance in that resolution. And I cannot but look on it as a great token for good to the church, that a gentleman of your distinguished abilities, (of which the pamphlet you sent me is a valuable specimen,) and of your elevated circumstances in human life, should be willing to engage in so laborious a work as the ministry, in the midst of the various discouragements which attend it. I hope God will abundantly bless your labours for the good of souls; and I will venture to tell you from my own experience, that if he does so, instead of repenting of your choice, you will rejoice in it through the course of your life, and in the nearest prospect of eternity."

The anonymous pamphlet referred to in this letter, was written by Dr Erskine when he was little more than twenty years of age, and more than two years before he was licensed to preach. It was entitled, The law of nature sufficiently propagated to the heathen world; or, an inquiry into the ability of the heathens to discover the being of a God, and the immortality of human souls, in some miscellaneous reflections, occasioned by Dr Campbell's (the professor of divinity in the university of St Andrews) late treatise on the necessity of revelation : 1741.' The work of Dr Campbell's, to part of which this is a reply, though written professedly to serve the cause of Christianity, was considered by many a covert attack upon it. It produced a considerable ferment in the church of Scotland, and an attempt was made to convict the professor of heresy; but which was defeated by the strength of those whom Warburton terms, the paganized divines, in the general assembly. The position examined by Dr Erskine, is not, perhaps, the most dangerous of Campbell's doctrines; but as a part of his system, which maintained, "that the religion of nature is our most valuable property, and the only sure means of our lasting happiness," it deserved consideration. Whether Dr Erskine has succeeded in his attempt to overthrow the argument of his opponent or not, it must be admitted that his pamphlet discovers a large portion of solid learning, extensive reading, and acute reasoning. This treatise was the means of leading to a correspondence with Warburton, to whom Dr Erskine had sent it, which continued at intervals during the whole period of that prelate's life, and through the entire course of which, the bishop treated his presbyterian correspondent with a degree of respect and kindness, he scarcely showed to any other individual.

Dr Erskine was licensed to preach the gospel, by the presbytery of Dunblane, in the year 1743, and preached his first public sermon in the church of Torryburn, of which parish he was afterwards patron, from Psalm lxxxiv. 10, a passage remarkably suitable to his own circumstances and feelings. He had before this communicated his determination to enter into the ministry to Warburton, and some time after received from him an answer, part of which we shall extract, as an illustration of the kind of intercourse that subsisted between two individuals, the opposite of each other in almost every thing but acuteness and strength of mind; and to show the opinion which Dr Erskine seems to have entertained of some of the doctrines of his own church. It is dated Newark, February 20th, 1744. "I heartily felicitate you on your choice of the better part. You have an advantage that numbers may envy, in going to divinity from the study of civil

law.

I am pleased too with your new choice on another account; you will now be at leisure to digest those just and noble thoughts which you have on the most important subject of antiquity, and I beg leave to urge and press you to pursue them. One who can write with

that learning, precision, and force of reason, with which you have confuted Campbell, ought never to have his pen out of his hand. What you say of the state of learning and religion among you is very curious, but very melancholy. I find there is not a reigning folly or perversity among our clergy, but yours have got it. The paganized divines you speak of, are what formerly passed among us under the name of Latitudinarian, of late, Bangorian divines. But Socinus lies at the root. I think Toland was not much out when he said, the Mahometans were a sort of Christians, and not the worst sort neither. In another thing too, they perfectly agree with ours, and that is, in the large extent of their consciences, as well as thoughts. However, I think the next you mention, are of a still more dangerous sort of madmen, with their yeauTopoßia, those who fear to touch upon letters at all. Indeed the other sort have shown, that

Their shallow draughts intoxicate the brain;
But drinking largely sobers them again."

In May, 1744, Dr Erskine was appointed to the charge of the parisu of Kirkintulloch, containing a large population, in the neighbourhood of Glasgow.

In the year 1741, 2, and 8, Mr Whitefield had visited Scotland, in consequence of pressing solicitation; and here, as in all other places, he was received with distinguished attention. He was admitted to the pulpits of many of the established clergy, (a privilege he could not now enjoy,) and, among the rest, to that of Dr Erskine. The doctor was well acquainted with his labours, while he had been student of divinity at Edinburgh. He warmly espoused his cause, and considered himself bound to defend the character and principles of that much injured man. On a visit to the west country, where his labours at a former period had been eminently blessed, he was cordially welcomed to the pulpit of Dr Erskine, and of some of his pious friends on the same side of the church. This liberality was not relished by some of his clerical brethren. A motion was made at a meeting of the synod at Glasgow, in October, 1748, with special reference to Mr Whitefield, who had just been in that district, That no minister in their bounds should employ a stranger of doubtful character, till after consulting his presbytery.' This produced an animated and prolonged debate, in which Dr Erskine took an active part, and of which he afterwards published a short account, without his name.

No circumstance relating to Dr Erskine is more interesting than the extensive correspondence which he maintained with eminent men in all parts of the world, about the state and progress of religion and learning, and particularly of divine knowledge. With America, his intercourse began at a very early period, and perhaps there were few of its most celebrated writers, or preachers, or men of eminence in civil life, with whom he did not exchange books and letters. For more than half a century he was the centre of one of the most extensive religious circles in Great Britain, or perhaps in the world. This was the effect of his