Modern Writers.

It will be generally allowed, that there has been an extended revival of scriptural divinity within the last century. Its commencement was, as usual in God's dispensations, with a few individuals.

Dr. Buchanan speaks thus on the subject: It was about the middle of the last century that INFIDELITY, which had appeared long before, first began to show itself in strong and general operation. It was at a time when the light of Christianity was very feeble, and it was apprehended that this new adversary would totally extinguish it. But behold the providence of God! at this very period there was a revival of religion in England, commencing in the bosom of our own Church. Distinguished preachers arose in succession, men possessing the spirit and eloquence of the first Reformers; and the doctrine of the blessed apostle and evangelist St. John,' was preached with great energy and effect; multitudes of the people bearing witness by their repentance and conversion to its truth and heavenly power. And it was soon found to be the pure and operative faith of the Primitive Church and of the Reformation; differing as much from mere profession as the substance from the shadow, and bearing the true character which cannot be feigned, namely, righteousness in life, and peace in death. At the very time when the spirit of infidelity was fostering its strength under the name of philosophy, and preparing for the awful revolutions which followed, the spiritual religion of Christ began to revive, and has since produced the most beneficial effects.'

It may be well more distinctly to mark the progress of this revival, and let us take the account of an eminent instrument in carrying it forward-the Rev. Joseph Milner; as it regards both his own case and the general state of the Church.

The Author has in his possession a letter from the late Joseph Milner, to Mr. Newton, dated in Sept. 1771, where, speaking of the great evil of mixing the gospel with philosophy, an evil which he had personally felt, he adds, 'Cambridge Metaphysics. I am obliged to for much of that enmity and reasoning that have distressed me. In vain did I desire, when God showed me the gospel, in some measure to preserve a good understanding between the Scripture and King's Origin of Evil, Locke, Clarke, and other Metaphysicians, which I had read with greediness, digested with kind affection, and remembered, and still remember, with obstinate retention. The affair of free-will particularly has cost me many a pang. In short, by bitter experience, rather than reasoning, I have been convinced, that if man be saved, it must be by free-grace, in

the proper and full sense of the words. What signifies reasoning against facts? I found I could not believe, I could not perform duties, I was sure to break every resolution; I could not change my heart, I was overborne irresistibly, and disappointed in all I attempted. I hope you go on with your people rejoicing in the Lord, and that more and more souls are brought over to know Jesus Christ. Here the gospel is in an infant state, yet has it pleased the Lord to bless my labors in a good degree, and direct them to His own glory: dark myself, I have been made the means of giving light to others; and when I have been myself so little affected with what I have said, that I have been accusing myself of hypocrisy, how have I been astonished at the power with which it has been made to strike others.'

The author has also in his possession a manuscript sermon of the late Mr. Milner, on Matt. ix. 36-38, (written probably about the same time,) in which, urging the duty of prayer for more faithful ministers, he says, 'Look now at a parish, for instance, in which ungodliness, ignorance, and wickedness reign-where the sheep go astray continually, and the shepherd along with them, void himself of any Christian intelligence, and sensibility, and unwilling that his people should have any. The sun shines not on more miserable and more pitiable objects. Pastor and people in this case have scarce an idea of any better situation in religion. In such places, vices of all sorts reign without control, and the Christian religion appears a thing of no importance. You know it is no fancy picture I have been drawing, there are many such parishes in the land.' He speaks of numbers of parishes, nay large tracts in the kingdom, as still walking in darkness and wickedness. He then gives some account of the revival of religion in his day, as an additional motive for prayer-'a great and effectual door is already opened in the Church of England, and the light breaks forth as the morning within her pale. Certainly every candid observer must see that there are at present many more useful, intelligent, and laborious 'ministers than there were twenty, or thirty years ago. Yet the opposition is great, and we are but in the infancy of things.

These extracts will give some insight into the beginning of that gracious effusion of the Holy Spirit, which has happily distinguished the present time, and has produced an extensive revival of religion.

It arose in the middle of the eighteenth century, chiefly in the Established Church, though Watts and Doddridge, among dissenters, prepared the way. Some of those with whom it commenced continued with the utmost consistency of conduct their labors in the Church, as Hervey, Walker, Toplady, Ro

maine, Adam, and Milner; others, as Whitfield and Wesley, &c. were led by the low state of religion in the country to a more irregular system of action. All, notwithstanding minor differences, according to the gifts bestowed on them and the spheres in which they moved, labored indefatigably to spread the main truths of the Bible, and of the Reformation.

Those who were chiefly honored in accomplishing this work, were not men of extended learning or deep research; or having the extraordinary powers of understanding, which distinguished Augustine, Luther, and Calvin. Speaking of the revival of the Reformation in our land at this day, as the last effusion of the Spirit of God, and pointing out the weakness and obscurity of the instruments by which it has been wrought, Milner says, I question whether human learning and sagacity were ever less employed in a religious work since the Apostle's days. It should be an instructive lesson to the learned and wise of this kingdom, that while they have scarcely contributed any thing, persons of lower rank and attainments have been instrumental in reclaiming thousands.' From this fact Milner then takes occasion to put a guard against enthusiasm on the one hand, and reasoning pride on the other.

The doctrine of justification was now revived afresh from all the incumbrances with which the learning of Bishop Bull, the metaphysical mind of Baxter, and the unscriptural statements of Tillotson and his followers had oppressed it, and was proclaimed in its simplicity and purity as the divine and healing doctrine of the gospel. As usual, Satan when he could not smother the flame, sought again to give it a wrong direction. It is fully allowed that in this revival there were extravagances and errors, but the true reason of those is not to be found so much in their labors who revived religion, as in the negligence of those who had suffered the people to grow up in ignorance and indifference. A population thus neglected, when suddenly awakened to a sense of religion, easily fell into the snares of the enemy, who ever mingles tares with the wheat. Such works as Warburton's Doctrine of Grace, and Lavington's Enthusiasm, in fact thus condemn not only the enthusiasm of the people, but the negligence of their previous pastors. This revival was not confined to England. Brown, Erskine, and others in Scotland were greatly blessed of God. A similar revival took place in America: Dr. Green, the President of New Jersey College, observes, 'It is known to those who are acquainted with the state of religion in this country (America) about the middle of last century, that a great and general attention to religion was at that time excited in a large part of what were then called the British Provinces of North America. The celebrated George Whit

field was chiefly instrumental in producing the religious impressions which were then so extensively and generally felt.'

The Author feels very incompetent, on various grounds, to enter into a review of even the leading writers in general in this period; and it would carry him beyond the designed limits of the present work to attempt to do so. He would merely notice one or two of the more devotional and practical, or decidedly evangelical authors, whose works may be useful to the student.

Bishop Horne died in 1792. His Commentary on the Psalms has long been a refreshing and delightful companion in the Christian's retirement. His sermons are polished, and have many beautiful and excellent thoughts, but they are wanting in the full declaration of justification by grace, and therefore meet not adequately the distresses of an awakened conscience. Jonathan Edwards died in 1758. He is a writer of great originality and piety, and with extraordinary mental powers. His Treatises on the freedom of the will, on the affections, on original sin, his History of Redemption, and Life of Brainerd, abundantly manifest this; and without concurring in every statement, and allowing that there is a dryness in the treatment of some of his subjects, and that metaphysical difficulties are not cleared up after all his arguments, yet there is a strength of mind, a soundness of principle, a holiness of purpose, an elevation of devotion, and an evangelical glow in his more spiritual writings, which will ever make him a valuable author. He, in fact, commenced a new and higher school in divinity to which many subsequent writers, Erskine, Fuller, Newton, Scott, Ryland, the Milners, Dwight, and indeed the great body of evangelical authors who have since lived, have been indebted. His discourses on Justification are among the best on that all-important, but in its varied connexions and bearings, difficult doctrine.

Romaine, who died in 1795, was one of the earliest of those writers to whom we owe that revival of religion in our own country, of which we have been speaking. He had considerable learning as well as remarkably clear evangelical views, and few books have been more circulated than his Treatises on Faith, which are full of evangelical and devotional statements. He was strongly attached to the established church.

Milner of Hull, who died in 1797, will ever be valued by the Christian mind for his History of the Church of Christ, an inestimable treasure of evangelical truth and Christian experience, continuing the History of the Church of Christ, in the very spirit of the sacred writers, as far as human infirmity can tread in their steps. His sermons also are searching, and yet full of the gospel. His answer to Gibbon not only exposes

the sophistry of that infidel historian, but gives the true character of the religion which he had attempted to undermine. Milner's works altogether are full of instruction to the student.

Mr. Jones of Nayland, who died in 1800, is in many respects a valuable writer, and his Treatise on the Trinity is one of the most satisfactory defences of that fundamental doctrine, on the simple testimony of the Holy Scriptures. His figurative Language of Scripture, Book of Nature, and other practical works are (notwithstanding the excess of figurative interpretation) interesting and useful; but towards Dissenters and Calvinists he is painfully bitter. Following Charles Leslie's example, he takes partial and unfair views. Such views aggravate an evil which they design to remedy. The Author, however, is delighted to be able to add, on the testimony of a pious friend, (a relative of Mr. Jones,) that in his latter days his prejudices were much softened, and he courted the society of one of more decidedly evangelical sentiments, whom formerly he had despised, and viewed rather with hostility than friendship.

Newton died in 1807. His conversion was remarkable, and his works manifest that rich Christian experience which such a course as his, under the Divine Spirit, was adapted to give. His letters show great knowledge of the heart, and furnish excellent lessons of Christian wisdom.

Fuller died in 1815. He was a writer among the Baptists, but of the same good school of divinity as Scott. With a lively imagination and all the powers of a masculine mind, he maintains the distinguishing doctrines of the gospel, and insists on its practical holiness.

Scott died in 1821. He was a man of a strong, reflecting, and original mind, gradually compelled, under the teaching of the Divine Spirit, to bow to the force of scriptural truth, and then firmly and steadily following and serving that truth. He was thrown among Antinomians, and was fully alive to all the dangers of their pestilent error. His Commentary was a noble gift to the church of Christ, and furnishes us with the solid interpretation of a man of a powerful mind and great good sense, giving his own views wisely, freely, and plainly.

Some who did not hold evangelical principles at first, embraced them afterwards. Thus Paley, in a Visitation Sermon, preached July 17, 1777, on the question, What the expressions in scripture, regenerate, born of the Spirit, new creatures, mean?-answers, 'Nothing! that is, nothing to us! nothing to be found or sought for in the present circumstances of Christianity! It is very gratifying, however, to know that Paley's views materially changed on this topic before he died; and that, among the sermons directed to be printed after his