Mr. Gisborne in this discourse, after observing, in the language of the New Testament, "that whosoever abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God;" but that "the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine," proceeds in the following man

ner:

"That time has long since arrived; numbers at this day, while they profess themselves Christians, exert themselves in opposition to the essential doctrines of the Gospel. Some times they exclaim against its mysteries; and presuming to measure, by their unassisted reason, subjects utterly beyond the grasp of human understanding, plunge into the most extravagant wildnesses of interpretation, rather than bend to the plain and repeated declarations of God concerning the nature of his own Godhead. More frequently they take offence at the humiliating facts which lie at the root of the doctrine of redemption; that man is radically corrupt; that the law of God is a law of perfect holiness, and requires perfect obedience; that any breach of that law in any one point, subjects the offender to the penalty of eternal death; that holiness is in no respect the product of the human heart, but altogether the fruit of the Spirit of God; and, consequently, that whoever shall receive remission of punishment, sanctification, and the gift of life eternal, will receive all these blessings solely through the free grace and mercy of God in Christ, and will owe no one of them in the smallest portion or degree to any right or merit of his own.

“Numbers, instead of humbly acknowledging these truths, which are as consistent with reason as they are decidedly inculcated in the Scriptures, proudly rely on their supposed personal righteousness; dare to claim forgiveness and salvation, as in part at least due to their own excellence and good works; and are so far from looking to Christ as the sole ground of hope of deliverance from the wrath to come, and of admission into the kingdom of glory, that they regard his atoning sacrifice merely, if I may venture to apply the term to so awful a subject, as a sort of make-weight, which may compensate for such of their transgressions, as their own imaginary righteousness may not have been altogether sufficient to wipe away. So blind to their own state; so ignorant of the fundamental principles of Christianity, are many who frequent Christian worship."

The second Sermon is entitled "The Christian Method of Justification explained and vindicated." In this Discourse Mr. Gisborne observes, that

"The primary object of St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, was to convince them that all mankind, Jews and Gentiles, were alike guilty before God, and could look for

pardon and eternal happiness only through Jesus Christ.

"St. Paul well knew with what unwillingness men acknowledge a doctrine which stands in direct opposition to the pride of heart so deeply rooted in our fallen nature. He knew the eagerness, the obstinacy, which we are all disposed to manifest in confiding more or less in our own righteousness; the earnestness with which we strain to shut our eyes against unwelcome conviction; the pains which we employ to twist and explain away the meaning of the Scriptures, in order to escape the humiliating necessity of confessing our own utter unworthiness and depravity in the sight of our Lord and Judge. In several of the early chapters, therefore, of this Epistle, and afterwards in the seventh and eighth, he dwells with marked anxiety on this most important truth; that any man who would be tried by his own works, by his own deservings, must inevitably perish. Until an humble recognition of this truth be extorted from us by a consciousness of our guilt, we never shall be persuaded to fly with godly fear and truly penitent hearts to the cross of Christ for salvation.

"But," our Author proceeds to observe, they whose eyes are opened; they who are penetrated with a true sense of their deplorable condition by nature and by transgression, and feel that they are completely unable to deliver themselves from the just anger of God; will throw themselves with joy at the feet of their Redeemer, and with humble and grateful hearts will accept the blessing which he offers to bestow; they will receive him as their Lord; they will adore him as their Saviour; they, under the guidance of the Spirit of Grace, will believe in him, will love him, and will keep his commandments; they will walk in Christ Jesus, not after the flesh but after the Spirit; and unto them there will be no condemnation."

Mr. Gisborne then points out; first, the inherent and perfect and necessary holiness of the divine laws; secondly, that all men have been guilty of breaking this law; and, thirdly, the reasonableness of annexing punishment to disobedience. It is then added,

"Such was by nature the miserable state of man. So truly did the law work wrath. So truly was the commandment which was ordained to be unto life, found to be unto death. So plainly by the law was the knowledge of sin rendered manifest; the knowledge of its heinous guilt, of its universal and "deadly influence. Thus condemned, thus helpless, thus destitute of all claim to mercy, thus ignorant whether to human guilt mercy could be extended consistently with the other attributes of God, was the whole race of Adam. But God is infinite in mercy, goodness, and wisdom. He saw what man could not discern. He perceived the means of reconciling the offer of

forgiveness to fallen man with the demands of his own righteous and violated law.-A Saviour was at hand. By his obedience unto death the great atonement was made.-Pardon through the blood of Christ, sanctification through the Holy Ghost, and everlasting happiness in the world to come, were offered, as purchased by the sacrifice of Christ, to all who should fly for salvation to him.

"How then may we acquire an interest in these blessings? By faith: by faith only.

"Faith is ordained of God to be the instrument, the only instrument by which we may receive and apply to ourselves the mercy of God, the atonement of our Redeemer. Be lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. A man is justified by faith The law worketh wrath; therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace. Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ."

We shall not detain the reader by observing in what manner Mr. Gisborne reconciles the words of St. James with those of St. Paul, on the subject in question, and guards this great doctrine of our Church, that of justification by faith alone, against abuse. "Grace," he observes in this discourse," proscribes and anathematizes continuance in sin." Every part indeed of Mr. Gisborne's book furnishes an answer to the objection of the licentious tendency of the doctrine of justification by faith.

The third, fourth, and fifth Sermons are on the efficacy of divine grace.

In these Mr. Gisborne undertakes to "explain the necessity of the grace of Christ to salvation; to prove that every man is enabled to obtain this grace; to indicate the means by which it is to be acquired; to point out the tests by which the possession of it is to be ascertained; and to evince its complete and unalterable sufficiency." The following passage appears to us to be remarkably clear and excellent.

"How," he proceeds to say, "is sanctification to be obtained? How is the Ethiopian to change his skin, and the leopard his spots? Will you answer, by repentance; by faith in Christ; by perseverance in every good work!" Be it so. Is repentance then, is faith, is perseverance in good works in your own power? Consult the Scriptures on each of these points. The Scriptures call upon every man every where to repent. But do they affirm, do they imply that man can repent by his own strength? Do they admit the possibility of such a supposition? What then is the import of the expressions of the prophet Jeremiah? exprescions not less wisely than piously interwoven

into the liturgy of our Church. Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned. Turn thou me, O Lord, and I shall be turned, for thou art the Lord my God-what is the import of the following passages? God hath exalted Jesus to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance unto Israel, &c. Inquire further how the case stands with respect to faith-what is the language of the Son of God? No man can come unto me, except the Father who hath sent me draw him-What saith St. Luke? Apollos helped them much which had believed through grace. How speaks St. Paul?-Faith is the fruit of the spirit. No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost To you, Philippians, it is given to believe in Christ. Again, are Christian tempers and good works the produce of your own exertions? It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do It is God that maketh man perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well It is thus that pleasing in his sight, &c. &c. an examination into the natural state of the

human heart, and an inquiry into the method by which the different graces of the Christian character are wrought in man, constrain us to ascribe every thing in us which is good to God the author of every good and perfect gift. They constrain us to acknowledge as indispensably necessary to salvation that total change which the Scriptures delineate under a variety of figurative expressions, essentially of the same meaning, and calculated partly to exemplify its magnitude and effect, partly to denote word of God attributes exclusively to the its supreme importance; a change which the sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost, purchased for us by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. They constrain us to confess that except a man be born of water and of the spirit; emblematically of water by baptism, and substantially of the spirit by the renovation of his corrupt nature unto holiness; he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (p. 58.)

Mr. Gisborne strenuously defends the position (p. 63) "that the grace of Christ as necessary to salvation is placed within the reach of every man. "Does this assertion," he says, “so full of consolation and encouragement stand firm on scripture authority? On that authority it stands immoveable. God hath no pleasure that the wicked should die, &c. God our Saviour will have all men to be saved, &c. into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature, &c. But though. it is apparent that God freely offers his grace to every man, is it also clear that every man has the power of it? May there not be a natural or a accepting moral impossibility which may disable the perishing sinner from deriving

Go ye

adherence to duty, and a disposition naturally characterized by timidity. You behold him at ane time strengthening himself with succour sought from above, and steadily pursuing his Christian purposes, regardless of the resentment of a furious and ungovernable monarch; at another, the victim of inherent weakness, tamely subservient to his master's will, overawed into culpable compliances. When danger, after the accession of Mary, mustered its Left terrors, Cranmer sunk in the conflict. to himself, in the hour of temptation he fell away. He renounced his faith. Again he looked to the grace of Christ, and he found it all sufficient. Behold him chained to the stake, as the wind disperses at intervals the volumes of fire and smoke in which he is inveloped. Behold his undaunted demeanour; his face full of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, as it were the face of an angel. Behold him stretching forth into the flames the hand which had signed the recantation; and surveying with a steadfast eye the flesh wasting from the sinews, bone dropping away from bone. Hear him exclaiming with exulting fer. vour "This hand offended; this hand shall suffer, this unworthy hand." Contemplate this spectacle; this insensibility to pain, this sacred fortitude, this substantial repentance, this complete subjugation of nature and its beseting sin, and say, whether this is not the triumph of grace, whether this is not the finger of God?"

The sixth, seventh, and eighth Sermons are not inferior to those more doctrinal ones from which we have already made large quotations. The sixth is "on the marks which distinguish a real Christian;" the seventh is "on the duty of openly ranging ourselves on the side of the Lord;" and the eighth is "on the sin of dissembling with God;" a sin which the reader will probably discover to be much more common than he may have supposed.

The topics of the other Sermons, many of which are very striking, appear to be well chosen. In the Sermon "on the guilt of establishing unscriptural principles of conduct," enthusiasm is defined to be "the subjection of the judgment in points of religious faith or practice to the influence of the imagination." "In many instances," Mr. Gisborne observes, "enthusiasm suggests unauthorized ideas of personal communication between the individual and the Deity; of personal inspiration sensibly vouchsafed by the Holy Ghost, in mode or measure different from that divine influence on the heart and understand

ing which is promised to every Christian," &c. He observes, however, "that enthusiasm is frequently imputed by the careless, the ignorant, and the prejudiced, where it is not." After speaking of the evil effects resulting from this cause, and after insisting that the ignorance of the enthusiast cannot, any more than other religious ignorance, be deemed altogether innocent, he compares the mischief of enthusiasm with that of lukewarmness, and pronounces the latter to be much the more common as well as the greater evil.

In the discourse on the extent of genuine Religion, and in a few others, several branches of morality are dwelt upon, of morality, we mean, which is described as arising out of Christian principles. The Sermon on the character of Naaman, and of Herod Antipas, give variety to the volume, and amuse by the biography which is combined with the religious instruction. The discourse "on the guilt and consequence of despising the divine threatenings," is remarkably able; and that "on the happiness attendant on the paths of Religion," which is the last in the volume, has some large passages which are highly pleasing.

Having enriched our work with such abundant extracts from this important volume, it seems to be almost superfluous to subjoin our testimony to its merit.

Mr. Gisborne's style is clear and nervous; his piety dignified and elevated; his zeal is tempered with mildness and candour; his quotations from Scripture are fair and apposite; and, above all, the doctrinal truths which he inculcates are uniformly and closely connected with their practical effects.

These excellences render his Sermons a model which young students of divinity, especially those who may have to address congregations of the higher class, would do well to imitate, and will not fail to recommend them strongly to attention.

The reader of this volume will be made to see, that in rejecting the leading doctrines it contains, he rejects the only solid security against ungodliness, self-righteousness, pride, selfishness, and discontent, with all the train of cri

minal and sensual passions. Does he complain that Mr. Gisborne (to use the ordinary phrase) carries things too far? he is made to feel that in effect he complains of too much piety, of too much humility, of too much faith in Christ, of too much circumspection in avoid ing sin, of too much dependence on the divine aid, of too much integrity in the various transactions of life, of too much exactness in the performance of its duties, and of too much truth, candour, charity, and love; of being taught to look for too much support from Religion in the present world, and to indulge too lively and exalted hopes of the happiness which is to result from it in a life to come.

The great doctrinal truths of Christianity, when ungardedly exhibited or injudiciously defended, seldom fail to excite opposition and disgust in all who have not already taken their stand on the side of orthodoxy. But as here presented by Mr. Gisborne, we trust they will, by the blessing of God, make their way to the hearts and consciences of a large proportion of his readers. If he had enforced only two or three even of the most important truths of the Gospel, insulated from other truths which serve to qualify and correct them, and clothed in that phraseology which is thought to characterize a sect; if he had deduced them from unsuitable texts, and attempted to confirm them by passages of scripture somewhat strained and misinterpreted; and, above all, if he had exhibited the doctrines in such a manner, as not clearly to point out their practical value; what would have been the effect? A few persons, partial to the tenets in question, might have applauded the discourses; but another and a much larger class would have laid aside the volume, disgusted with the author, and confirmed in their prejudices against the leading truths of Christianity.

These faults Mr. Gisborne happily avoids, and in this every preacher will do well to imitate him.

We would remark, however, that elegance of style and propriety of expression are apt to fascinate even many readers who do not truly assent to the doctrines which are affirmed. It is

therefore probable, that not a few may join in the commendation of Mr. Gisborne's Sermons, who are far from being cordially attached to his system of divinity. Let all, therefore, who commend the work before us be reminded, that if they cannot endure the same truths, when clothed in meaner language, or accompanied with some mixture of error or infirmity, they are justly liable to a suspicion of not approving the Religion of Mr. Gisborne, however they may praise it.

A sound and sincere Christian will often rather bear with some things which he disapproves, and incur the reproach of countenancing the very faults which he laments, than lay aside an author of sterling worth, or turn his back on a pious man, on account of weaknesses, or even faults of secondary importance.

These Discourses of Mr. Gisborne, an author already well known and in very general estimation, will furnish, as we trust, a powerful antidote against those errors, both in doctrine and practice, which are contained in the writings of Mr. Fellowes, in some parts of the Letters of Mrs. West, lately reviewed by us, and also in other recent publications.

Our author justly regards true faith as the only foundation of right practice; and in surveying the superstructure which he has erected upon that foundation, we discover that his standard of practice is a very high one. That this high standard is attainable by all, is a point which Mr. Gisborne has taken pains to establish. In the arguments he employs to prove the practicability of every man's becoming consistently and deeply religious, he will appear to some to use language too much opposed to the peculiar doctrines of Calvinism. Even Calvinists, however, will acknowledge, that his Sermons abound in evangelical truth, breathe a remarkably Christian spirit, and exhibit a just and edifying picture of the Religion of Jesus Christ.

We were surprised at the 120th and following page, by a want of simplicity, very unusual in the writings of this pious and respectable author.