parts; and, to avoid the pursuit of one death, leaped into the jaws of another. Those unhappy wretches who could not swim, were obliged to remain upon the wreck, though flakes of fire fell on their bodies. Soon the masts went away, and killed numbers. Those who were not killed, thought themselves happy to get upon the floating timber. Nor yet were they safe; for the fire, having communicated itself to the guns, which were loaded and shotted, they swept multitudes from this their last refuge. What say you, sir, to this dismal narrative? Does not your heart bleed? Would you have stood by, and denied your succour, if it had been in your power to help? Would you not have done your utmost to prevent the fatal catastrophe ? Yet the Lord saw this extreme distress. He heard their piteous moans. He was able to save them, yet withdrew his assistance. Now, because you would gladly have succoured them if you could, and God Almighty could but would not send them aid, will you therefore conclude that you are above your Lord, and that your loving-kindness is greater than his? I will not offer to charge any such consequences upon you. I am persuaded you abhor the thought."

The effect of the publication of these Letters was any thing but favourable to the cause of Wesleyanism. In Scotland, where they were published with a recommendation by Dr Erskine, they may be said to have proved fatal to it. They were regarded as the best specimens of controversial writing in the English language. In a question so deeply affecting the honour of the founder of Wesleyanism, we may expect a very different verdict from his followers. Richard Watson tells us "it is just to so excellent a man to record that they were published against his dying injunction." If this is meant to insinuate that Hervey would never have published them himself, it is a mistake which admits of being rectified by the testimony, not only of his friends, who aided him in preparing them for publication, but of his brother, who published them in consequence of finding that a surreptitious edition of them had gone through the press, and who informs us that Hervey's reason for not wishing them to be published, was simply that he had only transcribed about half of them fair for the printer; "and therefore," he said, "as it is not a finished piece, I desire you would think no more about it." The ruling passions were strong in death-fastidious in taste, forgiving in spirit to the last. But though unwilling to wound, he was not afraid to strike. "He had fallen," says Watson, "into the hands of Cudworth, an Antinomian, who put in and out' of the Letters 'what he pleased." This is too bad. The manuscript was, no doubt, sent to Cudworth, with Hervey's usual request that he would suggest or insert any thing to make it edifying and useful; but the whole of the alterations were submitted to the author, and his brother gave the piece as he found it in his manuscripts. Those who have studied the later writings of Cudworth, par

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ticularly his "Marks and Evidences," and his " Aphorisms on the Assurance of Faith," will be very slow in setting him down as an Antinomian. And to talk of Hervey's Letters as "surcharged with Cudworth's Antinomian venom," manifests such a total misapprehension of their character as would lead to the suspicion that the person who could so describe must never have perused them. If any thing more were wanting to show the utter misapprehension into which this writer has fallen, it would be the fact that Hervey was assailed by a very different and more formidable adversary, in the person of Mr George Sandeman, who, under the name of Palæmon, charged him in his Letters on Theron and Aspasio, with the very opposite sins from those laid to his charge by Wesley-with denying the divine justice and sovereignty, and pleading for self-righteousness; and Cudworth was the man that came forth in vindication of his departed friend against this Antinomian writer. But this opens up another view of the subject, on which we cannot

now enter.

Before concluding this brief historical sketch, there are a few reflections suggested by it to which we may advert. Since those characters whom we have introduced have gone the way of all the earth, full time has elapsed to preclude every feeling of personal prejudice; and we are not conscious of having allowed party predilections to give a false or injurious colouring to the facts we have stated. But it is full time also to do justice to the men who were valiant for the truth in their day, and to whom England is still so deeply indebted for her evangelism. When the mists of controversy have passed away, the constellations appear in all their true splendour and relative degrees of glory; and it would be vain to deny that in Hervey and his compeers, Newton and Romaine, and Scott and Doddridge, -not to speak of Cowper, as being a poet, or of Edwards, as being an American, we recognise the genuine luminaries of the evangelical firmament. It is a striking fact, that in the case of every one of these worthies, it was by their writings, and not by their preaching, that they did so much service to the cause of true religion. The importance of the pulpit, in its own place, it is not easy to over-estimate; but its influence, if not confined within the four walls of the chapel, seldom outlives the age of the preacher. Nor is it meet that, in an institution where provision is made for a regular succession of labourers, it should be otherwise. But the press adds wings to human thought, and prolongs indefinitely the living voice. To the bashful student, who shrinks from the gaze of the world, it furnishes a tongue much louder and an audience much larger than ever fell to the lot of the most popular orator. And so was it with the wri

ters we have mentioned. Newton was never popular as a preacher, and Scott, if we remember right, emptied more churches than one; but the seed of their literary labours has grown up, long after they have fallen asleep, into mighty trees, "and the birds of the air have lodged in the branches thereof." The "Cardiphonia" of the one, and the " Commentary" of the other, who can calculate the amount of spiritual good which they have wrought-not only in instructing thousands, but as normal schools in which thousands of teachers have been taught and trained to the work of instruction! The writings of Hervey, though less familiar now than they were once, have penetrated deep into the soil of English society; and grafted on a thousand different stocks, each producing its fruit after its kind, it would be difficult to tell how far their influence has extended.

There is, however, one characteristic feature in Hervey's theology, which, from its innate importance, and the decided tone which it gives to the religious sentiments and teaching of all who embrace it, justly merits our attention. We refer to its strictly objective character. Looking back to the middle of last century, we discern two distinct schools into which the evangelical writers of England may be divided. The first, which, for distinction's sake, may be designated the Doddridge school, devoted themselves to the analysis of Christian experience. Taking up their position on the stand-point of regeneration, their main business was to deal with the consciences of men, to awaken them from false security, to dislodge them from fictitious strongholds, to draw the lines which divide the living from the dead, the hypocrite from the true believer, and to urge all to make sure work of their calling and election. In short, following up the practical writings of Baxter and Alleine, the prevailing character of their theology was, to use a modern phrase, subjectivity; the subject being "the inner man of the heart." The other school, at the head of which we would place Hervey, making justification their stand-point, and looking on the sinner rather as the object of God's mercy than as the subject of his operations, were led to give the whole of their theology an objective turn; the great object being Christ and him crucified. Both schools dealt with the great matter of salvation, both aimed at gaining possession of " the town of Man-soul;" but the one carried on its operations within the town, while the other, directing its batteries against it from without, displayed the white flag of reconciliation, and called on sinners to capitulate to the Prince of peace. Thus the theology of Hervey is decidedly of an objective character. Hence his great anxiety to convince the sinner that he has and can have no righteousness of his own; hence his zeal to wean him

from law-work as the ground of his confidence; hence the prominence which he gives to the doctrine of imputation,-a doctrine which lays man in the dust, and reduces him and all about him, whether as saint or as sinner, renewed or unrenewed, to a mere cypher in the matter of justification. The doctrine itself, indeed, viewed as a theological point, may be demonstrated, we think, as clear as Scripture and reason can make it; for it amounts to nothing more nor less than this, that as Christ was dealt with as if he had been the guilty one in our room, so the believer is dealt with as if he were righteous in Christ. But without entering on this discussion, one thing is evident, that, by this system, Christian theology becomes decidedly objective in its character.

That both the subjective and objective views we have noticed are needful to a right comprehension of the truth, will, of course, be conceded by all who remember that the gospel deals with man both as criminal and as corrupt; but if we are asked which of the views is most characteristic of the gospel, we can have no hesitation in deciding upon the objective. Viewed in its subjective form, the gospel has nothing to distinguish it from other systems of religion or morals, except the superiority of the motives which it employs for the accomplishment of its purposes. It is the objectivity of Christianity-in the grand facts and mysteries of redemption that gives it all its distinctiveness, impart to it all its dignity as a revelation, and all its efficacy as a moral instrument. It is hardly possible to do justice to the gospel, objectively considered,-meaning by this the glad tidings of salvation through Christ,-without fulfilling the great ends of the gospel, subjectively considered, as bearing on the spiritual transformation of the sinner. But it is quite possible, and by no means uncommon, to treat the gospel subjectively, in such a way as practically to ignore its objective character and lose sight of its distinctive glory and blessedness. Young and ardent preachers are apt to fall into this mistake. Finding themselves confronted with a class of hearers who give no evidences of regeneration, they cease to present the saving truths of the gospel, and confine themselves to a few commonplaces, bearing on the nature and necessity of conversion. A more fatal blunder can hardly be committed. Men are not to be converted by treatises on conversion. Dead souls are not to be quickened by being hectored on the neces sity of regeneration. We never hear such preachers without thinking of the words addressed to the man of mistimed filial affection, "But go thou and preach the gospel." Another evil resulting from giving an undue predominance to the subjective over the objective form of the gospel is, that it tends to introvert the eye of the soul, to turn it away from "looking

unto Jesus," and to turn it in upon ourselves. Self-examination is good, provided it is occupied in "proving our own selves," by looking to the fruit of the Spirit in a holy life and heavenly conversation. The apostle, by the surprise which he expresses that Christians should not "know their own selves," plainly intimates that the regenerating work of the Spirit, as developed in conversion, corresponds with our nature as moral and intellectual agents, and may be detected in desires and affections perfectly cognoscible by all. But if, instead of looking to conversion, in which we are active agents, we look to regeneration, which is the exclusive work of the Spirit-if, instead of looking to the fruit, we are called to decide upon the mysterious working of the Spirit in producing the seed of the divine life, is there no danger of indulging in fanatical presumption, or yielding to perpetual doubting and despondency? May it not be owing to this that regeneration is never mentioned in our standard books as a distinct benefit of redemption, but included under our effectual calling and sanctification as the hidden spring of the visible stream? One thing, however, is certain, that Christian comfort, as well as true conversion, is a plant, the roots of which are to be sought, not in ourselves, but in Christ-the Christ of the Word, not the Christ of the heart. Now, the excellency of Hervey's school is, that it leads us entirely and at once out of ourselves to Christ. First, it First, it presents us in Christ with what the sinner needs-a perfect righteousness, to justify him before a holy God. We say, not merely with what God needs, an exhibition of justice, a vindication of law; but what man needs, a justice-satisfying and law-magnifying RIGHTEOUSNESS. And then, while the eye is fixed wishfully and with eager appetence on this desirable object, it assures every sinner of his immediate and unchallengeable right to accept of Christ as his own Saviour, and to rely on him alone for salvation, founded on the divine offer or exhibition of him made in the gospel to all without exception. Thus, it presents an object "worthy of acceptation," and, at the same time, clears the path of the sinner from every obstacle in the way of his actually accepting it. Such was the doctrine of Paul when he prayed, “That I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law." Not mine own righteousness, pharisaic or evangelic; not mine own inherent holiness, but the righteousness of another Person. Not even the righteousness of my faith, as if my faith were now my righteousness, but "the righteousness which is by faith in Christ Jesus." Not a human righteousness, but "the righteousness which is of God by faith." Here we lose sight of Paul altogether,--Paul the sinner, and Paul the saint; and if we would seek for him, he is only to be "found