But they, whose tears are streaming, Among his prose compositions are an Essay on the Immateriality of the Soul, and another on its Immortality. Several of his pieces were College exercises, and obtained honorary prizes, accompanied with high encomiums from the Professor's chair. But, in the midst of his exertions, and when reaping laurels in rich abundance, in November, 1821, while an inmate in the family of Dr. Wardlaw, of Glasgow, he was seized with a cold, which indisposed him for some days, though from which, little danger was at first apprehended; but, growing worse, he was confined to his bed, and medical aid obtained. The disorder, however, proved too obstinate for the power of the healing art; and in a few days, his fine, robust, and manly frame sunk under it; his career of earthly glory was nipt in the bud-all his own bright prospects of honour and usefulness-all the flattering hopes and expectations of his friends-and the de lightful anticipations of his kind and indulgent parent vanished like the mists of the morning before the rising sun. Dr. Wardlaw, who was intimately acquainted with his character, preached his funeral sermon, in which he has no doubt faithfully pourtrayed his various excellent properties. We shall select a few extracts for the gratification of our readers. It is done more at large, indeed, by his father, who has delineated it with a masterly hand, and incorpo rated the chief materials of Dr. Wardlaw's Sermon, into his Memoirs. "Seldom," says the Doctor, "if ever, have I known a young man possessed of a richer combination of excellencies. His reading had been far beyond his years, in kind, in variety, and in extent; but, it had not been beyond his understanding. It was well remembered, well digested, and ready for application to use. He was distinguished by a general maturity of mind, which evinced itself upon all subjects; by penetration and comprehensiveness of thought, acuteness in reasoning, dexterity in detecting and exposing the fallacies and weak points of an argument; by richness of poetic imagination, chastened and regulated by a correct and classical taste; and, by an uncommon command of appropriate and elegant language, displayed in his compositions, both in prose and verse, and in the facility and eloquence of oral communication-a command which was the result of the early and well-directed study of the most approved and standard writers." "With his high intellectual qualities, there were united an excellent natural temper, Always open and affable, he was equally and dispositions singularly amiable. distant from the extremes of levity and moroseness. All the while he was under my roof, I do not remember to have seen him once out of temper. If he ever was, he had the good sense and self-command to restrain its improper expression. He was the pleasantest of inmates :-temperate, regular, chaste, upright, and faithful, ever blesome, and thoroughly domestic in all his ready to oblige, ever fearful of being trouhabits, he was a universal favourite in the family, with parents, and children, and servants." "But high as this character is-excellent and engaging as this portrait appears-it is not yet finished. It wants a principal feasay, it wants that ture. Or rather, I should animating soul, that living and vivifying fame, which imparted to the whole at once principle, that vital spark of heavenly its energy and its loveliness, its finest expression, both of attractive grace, and of commanding dignity. I need hardly say, · that I mean RELIGION. I have no hesitation in adding this to the intellectual and moral qualities that have already been enumerated. Yes: the splendor of science was, in him, united with the mild and holy radiance of sincere piety;-not the sentiinental piety of poetry and romance, but the intelligent devotion of examined and settled principle. He was a firm believer in divine revelation: and his was not a mind that could ever be satisfied with a opinion of the virtues of the subject of these Memoirs, and of the loss which we have all sustained in his early rcmoval from the sphere of usefulness allotted to mortals. And, surely, sufficient hath been laid before the reader to call forth his tenderest sympathy in behalf of the author of these volumes. Cold and unfeeling, indeed, must the heart of that reader be, who can go over these pages without frequently mingling tears of condolence with those of the bereaved parent. In the short space of about eighteen months, he was doomed of his tenderest affections numbered to see no less than seven of the objects with the dead-until he alone remained of all his family-like the trunk of a venerable oak, shorn of its honours! Let us listen to his own plaintive moan, in the following paragraphs, which conclude his volumes. 66 belief, resting on mere educational prejudice and prepossession. True-he had been brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He had seen religion under its most inviting aspects *****: and why should not this have contributed to produce the early impression, and to settle the matured and permanent conviction of its reality and its excellence? Such manifestations of its influence, form a part of the legitimate and conclusive evidences of its truth. But his convictions did not rest on this ground alone. The truth of the gospel was a question, of which he felt the infinite importance, and which he was early encou Memory has, for a season at least, lost raged to examine. He gave all his mind, nearly all its pleasures. Whether they with becoming seriousness, to the inquiry; shall, under any circumstances, return, exhe weighed proofs; he considered objec- perience alone can decide. It now pertions; he searched the Scriptures-for him- forms its office with a dreadful fidelity. I self. His faith was thus founded in evi- shrink from its reviews, yet indulge them; dence, and established by his own expe- they torture me, yet I cherish them. Inrience of the power of those motives to god- stead, however, of sinking into a state of liness, which the gospel presents to the morbid sensibility, I would study to derive, mind. Amidst the temptations of youth, from my severe afflictions, an increased and especially the fascinating seductions of ardor in discharging the duties of life, as a 'the honor that cometh from men,' he main-christian, and a minister of the gospel:tained a steady and dignified consistency; he was capable, I am well persuaded, of no unworthy compromise, of no timid sacrifice of principle, no self-interested or unmanly acquiescence in what he conceived to be erroneous in sentiment, or vicious in conduct. He did not obtrude his principles, but he never shrunk from their avowal. Those who knew him best, his associates and competitors in study, will bear me witness, that he had nothing about him of the cant of religion. He made no high and forward pretensions; no effort to appear more than he actually was. He was serious on serious subjects, and would never bear to hear them treated with levity. But he was cheerful and open as the day. He entered, with a characteristic vivacity, into every thing connected with the business either of his class, or of the University. Whatever approached to hypocritical affectation or disingenuousness, he held in unqualified abhorrence; and on no subject was his abhorrence more indignant, than on the subject of religion, of which humble sincerity is the first and most essential attribute." yet, to suppress sorrows, so natural; to at- OF HOPE." "And now, ye beloved sister, son, and wife, who have preceded me in your flight to glory, farewell, farewell; but not for ever!-I will endeavour, in dependance upon that strength and grace which sustained and sanctified you to follow your footsteps with more exactness than I have hitherto done. And, if your deaths but quicken me to greater circumspection, activity, and usefulness, I will dry up my tears, or smile from amidst them; I wilt bless God for all the pleasure and profit he afforded me by your presence on earth; and even thank him that, to accomplish so much good, he has taken you away from me to heaven! But, while I mark your ascent Ꮓ 66 to glory-congratulate you on not having to weep for me as I now weep-and say to your God and my God, to your Father and my Father, Thy will be done"-I must add, in the beautiful and pious language of one, over whose almost magic-pages, we have, rapt in admiration, spent so many hours together;-" Lord, if thou wilt support me, I will for ever praise thee: if thou wilt suffer the load to press me yet more heavily, I will cry unto thee, and complain unto my God; and at last I will lie down and die; and by thy mercies, and intercession of the holy Jesus, and the conduct of thy blessed Spirit, pass into those regions, where holy souls rest, and weep no more." We may now ask, "Doth the Christian serve God for nought?" The superiority of the religion of the cross to all the vaunted schemes of philosophical scepticism, has frequently been demonstrated on various grounds; but, it is when viewed in connexion with such afflictive dispensations of Providence as those under which Mr. Durant has been placed, that it is seen to the greatest advantage. Though he be called to sorrow, it is not as those who have no hope. The stream of Providence, whose windings are here involved in so much intricacy, rolls into eternity, and issues there. But, the Christian's prospects are not bounded by the narrow horizon of human life. | The eye of faith follows the partners of his heart into that blessed world, "where death-divided friends shall meet to part no more." May the cheering hope of meeting them again, console Mr. Durant in the house of his pilgrimage; and animate him to renewed zeal and constancy in the work of the Lord. notice one of these on which he justly lays great weight. The resemblance between John and the Prophet Elijah was to be so great, that he was spoken of as coming in the spirit and power of that prophet; and Jesus, in reference to this resemblance, after John had ful filled his course, calls him expressly by that name. "I say unto you, that Elias is indeed come; and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him." the character of the Israelitish prophet, The most distinguishing feature in was, "his testimony against polytheism; and his recalling his countrymen to the worship of the One and Only God." Now, the grand object which John constantly kept in view, was, as had been foretold of him, the turning of the children of Israel to the Lord their God; but, in doing this, to whom did he direct their attention? Let it be observed, that John uniformly pointed to Jesus as that very Jehovah, whose way he was sent to prepare; to God manifest in the flesh; to the eternal WORD, who was in the beginning with God, and who was God, but who had now assumed human nature for the purpose of manifesting forth the glory of his character in the salvation of men. In the most minute particulars, John resembled Elias; in his zeal, and boldness, the austerity of his manners, his eremitic life, and even his dress; but all this might have been the case, and yet "the chief particular" been deficient, or entirely wanting; but, it is in this particular, that the resemblance is most clearly made to appear. The point on which he dwells, when giving an account of himself to the messengers of the Jews, who were sent to ask him who he was, is this: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Review of Dr. J. P. Smith's Scripture Tes- Make straight the way of Jehovah, as timony to the Messiah. [Continued from page 146.] THE next point to which Dr. Smith directs his attention, is the testimony horne by John the Baptist to the Messiah, in the investigation of which he has adduced some facts which, of themselves, furnish no slight collateral evidence of the supreme divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. We shall briefly said the prophet Esaias." The whole of the circumstances, taken together, under which John appeared, may seem to render it questionable whether he fully understood the nature of his office. But to this it may be sufficient to reply, that John was, in this respect, precisely in the situation of all the other prophets. It was, remarks Dr. S. essential to the scheme of prophecy, that it should not be "of self solution.' And, * Bishop Jeremy Taylor. + The word Kupios, here rendered Lord, most frequently corresponds to the Hebrew יהוה word we may add, that if it should be thought we take too much for granted, when we suppose John actually called the attention of the Jews to Jehovah the God of Israel, it will throw back the objection on the prophecies of Isaiah, to which he refers as his authority, and in which the most vivid descriptions are given of the glory of the Lord God Almighty, in reference to his manifestation in the human form. were, they seemed to have at once perceived the awful impropriety of Christ's application of the term, Son of God, to himself, on the supposition that he was a poor, unlearned man, whose parents and kindred they well knew. We do not profess to know whether the learned among the Unitarians be much in the habit of conversing with the learned among the modern Jews; but, we firmly believe, that a candid Rabbi The farther we proceed with the ex- would tell them plainly, that the adamination of this interesting subject, mission of the authenticity of the New the more must our surprize be excited Testament must necessarily involve the at the assertion of Unitarian writers, belief of the divinity of Jesus Christ. who, "saying after" Dr. Priestley, af- It is really trifling with the subject to firm, that Jesus did not teach his own argue, as the Unitarians do, that the divinity. It is true, that neither Jesus term, Son of God, was applied to Jesus nor his apostles, nor the prophets, who in a figurative sense, as it was to men preceded them, taught this suject in a occupying stations of eminence under formal manner. We do not and a se- the Old Testament dispensation. Was parate section of the Sacred Scriptures it ever known that the Jews charged allotted to the divinity of the Messiah; Moses with blasphemy because he acted but neither is this the case with regard as a god to Pharaoh? or did any of to the existence of God, his perfections, their critics ever hint at the improthe fall of man, redemption, the resur- priety of their magistrates being called rection, heaven, and hell, nor indeed gods? and, had Jesus used the epithet with respect to any one doctrine or duty. in the same sense in which it was apThe truths of God are all taught in a plied to those characters, do the Unitavery different manner; and, were we rians really think that they would have asked to point out a book the most un-charged him with blasphemy? False as like to the best systems of divinity, we the charges against Jesus were, they should, without hesitation, refer to THE had always the appearance at least, of BIBLE. That our Lord Jesus Christ being well founded. Must the Socitaught his own supreme divinity, and in nians be informed, that the Jews were the same manner in which all the other more than satisfied that Jesus had estatruths of divine origin are taught, is blished his claim as "a Son of God," in abundantly evident from the decla- the sense in which they understand the rations, intimations, and admissions, of word? They beheld the works which he Jesus concerning himself," which Dr. did, and they could not deny them to Smith has carefully collected, and can be of the most surprising nature; but, didly examined. The term, Son of God, it was not on these that the point at according to the Unitarians, is to be un- issue between them rested; and, had derstood as merely expressive of dignity Jesus only declared himself to be a of office, or, at the most, of very re- mere prophet, like unto Moses, he markable powers, and extensive au- might, without giving offence to the thority, held by delegation from a su- Jews, have claimed greater honour than perior being. But, it certainly was not they were accustomed to ascribe to in this limited sense that it was used by Moses. It is worse than absurd to Jesus; nor was it thus understood by raise the cry of cruelty against the Jews the Jews. We freely admit, that, in for putting Jesus to death; they were consequence of the deplorably corrupt conscientious in what they did; for, state of knowledge among the Jews being exactly of the same opinion with when our Lord appeared, and their the modern Unitarians, as to his person, deep-rooted enmity against every thing and having a high regard for the letter he advanced, an enmity of the most pe- of their law, they were bound, as the culiar description, and which still dis-professed disciples of Moses, to act actinguishes the seed of Abraham, accordingly. Hence their reasoning; "We cording to the flesh, little, very little have a law," referring to the law resweight is due to their interpretations of pecting blasphemy-"and, by our law, Scripture; but blind and deaf as they [he ought to die, because he made him course entirely different. He advances self the Son of God." We grossly mistake, when we suppose, that the Jews did not duly appreciate the good works which Jesus performed among them. It is obvious that these, in themselves, always attracted the multitude, and would have drawn the whole nation after him, but for the important truth they were wrought to confirm; it was this that formed the ground of accusation; he being a man, made himself God; on this they instituted the most solemn proceedings against him; be yond this they required no farther evidence on this ground they put him to death; and thus, while they thought they were doing God service, Jesus died as the King of Martyrs, bearing witness to the truth. It would be important to this question to trace the claims of Jesus as they were advanced on different occasions; but we can only instance a few particulars. We have mentioned the opinion of the Jews relative to the works which Jesus performed, and would here farther remark, that there could not possibly be a difference of opinion between the friends and the foes of Jesus, with regard to the nature of those works. It was the claims which Jesus founded on those works, But an objection is anticipated by. that drew forth the opposition of his Dr. S. to the view which he has given enemies. "For a good work we stone of the union, or oneness of Jesus and. thee not, but for blasphemy; and, be- his Father. Because from numerous cause, that thou being a man, makest passages of Scripture, it is plain, that an thyself God." This, it must be ob- intimate union of holy love subsists served, was occasioned by our Lord's between the Father of spirits, and his having plainly declared, that he and the faithful servants, in the present state of Father are one. Had the Jews misun-existence-why then, he asks, may not derstood this declaration, can we for a moment believe that, he who stood among them for the express purpose of manifesting to them the character of Jehovah, would have allowed them to continue in their error, without even once attempting to remove it? But we do not find Jesus in one single instance attempting any thing of the kind; on the contrary, we find him, as the controversy proceeded, maintaining the same high ground, and appealing to his own consciousness of unity and equality with the Most High God, as the ground on which he acted. On the occasion of Jesus having healed a lame man on the Sabbath, he was charged with a violation of the fourth commandment. In repelling this charge, he does not, as on some other occasions, "plead the character of the work," as being an act of mercy and beneficence, but adopts a this phrase, "IN ME" is the Father, and "I IN HIM," be regarded as conveying no more than a metaphysical indwelling -an union of affection and moral principles? To this he replies-"A regard to the nature and circumstances of the ap plication will not permit us to do so." The case in question refers not to any moral quality, but to a oneness of power,-to a oneness of power for the performance of works of Omnipotence. Thus, by the peculiarity of the case, a metaphorical application of the words is excluded; and, there is no alternative, but to take them in a strict, proper, and physical sense, as referring to identity of power, such power as can belong to Deity alone, implying and resting on identity of nature. Hence, then, it follows, that the title, Son of God, as belonging to Christ, denotes one who has the same essential nature with the Fa |