agement to do so. He tells us, that "though no words will take effect till God pour out his spirit, yet ministers must still press men's duty upon them, and charge them that they give the Lord no rest till he send out that spirit, which he will give to them that ask it."

He teaches," that though none do cordially close with God in Christ Jesus, and acquiesce in that ransom found out by God, except only such as are elected, and whose hearts the Lord doth sovereignly determine to that blessed choice; yet the Lord hath left it as a duty upon people who hear this gospel, "to close with his offer of salvation, as if it were in their power to do it :" and that the Lord, through these commands and exhortations, doth convey life and strength, and the new hearts to the elect; and that it is his mind, in these commands and invitations, to put people to some duty, with which he uses to concur for accomplishing that business between him and them."

Yea, further, answering the objection taken from our natural impotency to close with Christ, he positively affirms, "that if we essay to close with Christ, and rest on him for the offered salvation, God will not be wanting on his part; and that it shall not fail on his part, if we have a mind to the business." Thus he always takes care to keep up an harmony betwixt the freedom and power of grace on the one hand, and the necessity and usefulness of our own endeavours on the other; and while he owns our utter inability to do any thing that is spiritually good, he

gives all encouragement that can be desired to our own most earnest endeavours.

To this same purpose it may be observed, that he formerly exhorts to personal covenanting with God, and largely directs the management of it as a matter of great importance. He did not fear, as some it seems now do, that the soul shall be guilty of presumption in dedicating itself with all solemnity to God in Christ, and in embracing the offered privilege of sealing a sure covenant with him: he doubted not but that particular persons might do that acceptably, which bodies of men had so often done with great success, and glorious tokens of God's presence with them, in holy scripture.

Thus it were easy to enlarge in making many observations upon the excellency and soundness of this author's doctrine; but it is now time to conclude, with taking notice briefly of this excellent author's way and manner of managing his subject, and delivering his doctrine. It is obvious to every one who reads him with attention, that he speaks with a full understanding of his subject; he appears to have mediated deeply upon it, and to have digested fully the several particulars of it: all he says is of a piece and consistent; he seems to have had the last words, and all the intermediate parts of it, in view when he wrote the first. He does not write, as some others upon the same subject have done, loosely and incoherently; nor has he made up his book, as. they bave done theirs, of gathered scraps, put together with little connection, and as little consistency; nay, he speaks every where like one

that is master of his subject; yet he writes always with the utmost modesty and caution: he does not impose his own experiences in religion as absolutely necessary to others, but allows a latitude for God's various ways of dealing with different persons. How carefully does he guard his reader against mistakes upon the several heads which he handles? He does not, as some have done, lay down crued and unguarded assertions in one place, and trust to the attention and judgment of his reader for correcting them by others laid down elsewhere: nay, he was sensible, that not to mislead is much better than to bring back those who have wandered; not to poison than to administer an antidote; and therefore under every head, he pointedly guards and circumscribes his subject.

He writes from his own experience: one may easily perceive the heart speaking out its own experience almost in every line, and the author feeling, as well as understanding his matter. At the same time he discovers the greatest judgment and solidity in distinguishing things doubtful from things certain; and things essential to the christian life from things extrinsic and circumstantial to it founding nothing upon christian experience but what has the countenance of holy scripture.

Thus we have in this little book, a treatise upon that subject, which, of all others, is of the greatest importance to a christian, written in such a manner as equally exalts free grace, and encourages gospel holiness; and guarded with the greatest exactness against the opposite extremes

of presumption and despondency: a treatise written with the utmost plainness, and yet with great solidity and judgment, with all the depth of a knowing and judicious divine, and the feeling of an experienced christian. How happy had it been for the church, if none had undertaken to write practical treatises without these and the like qualities of this excellent author? how much for the growth of true religion in men's hearts and lives, if such a plain and useful treatise as this, were as warmly recommended and as carefully studied, as others of a different character? this treatise of practical christianity, as ancient as the scriptures, should be found more useful than many Marrows of Modern Divinity. It is in this edition attended with all the advantages that the publisher could think of to make it both useful and agreeable to the reader. The Lord himself grant it may further answer its noble end of converting and confirming souls, and in all respects yield much fruit to his honour.

The following account of the Reverend Mr. William Guthrie, is faithfully transcribed from that laborious and worthy divine, Mr. Robert Wodrow, in his history of the sufferings of the church of Scotland, and is as follows:

MR. WILLIAM GUTHRIE, minister at Finwick, in the shire of Air, used the greatest of freedom and sincerity in his sermons at this time. I am too nearly concerned in this great man to say much about him, and therefore choose to give this in the words of a worthy minister, his contemporary, in his character of him. "In his doctrine Mr. William Guthrie was as full and free as any man in Scotland had ever been; which, together with the excellency of his preaching gift, did so recommend him to the affections of people, that they turned the cornfield of his glebe to a little town, and every one building a house for his family upon it, that they might live under the drop of his ordinances and ministry." Indeed the Lord gave him an opportunity to bear a longer testimony against the defections of this time than most of his brethren; till at length the malice of the archbishop of Glasgow, turned him out in the year 1664, as we may hear.

Congregational Fasts kept.

A great many ministers kept congregational fasts; and that was almost all they could do, since now there was scarce any opportunity of presbyterial or synodical appointments of this nature; and in some places where there was disaffected persons to delate them, ministers suffered not a little for this practice, and the plainness of their

doctrine.