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ART. VII. Sermons, by Hugh Blair, D.D. F.R.S. Ed. One of the Ministers of the High Church, and Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University, of Edinburgh. Vol. V.; to which is added a short Account of the Life and Character of the Author, by James Finlayson, D. D. 8vo. pp. 520. 7 s. Boards. Cadell jun. and Davies. 1801.

To preacher of our own times has obtained such high celebrity in the composition of sermons, as the late Dr. Blair had universally acquired; and,indeed, the numerous and large editions, through which the preceding volumes of his discourses have passed, form so unequivocal a testimony of the public opinion, that they appear to supersede the necessity of now repeating our evidence in favour of Dr. Blair as a writer. In delineating the operation of the good and evil affections on the formation of different characters, and in the production of the happiness or misery of human life, he has certainly displayed singular felicity; and though his representations of the folly of vice, and of the wisdom of religion, could scarcely be recommended by novelty of sentiment, they have the merit of being elegant and striking. His divisions are few and natural: his periods are short his argument is clear; and his manner of discussing serious subjects is peculiarly agreeable. All his sermons, however, have not an uniform character; nor can we pronounce the latter gleanings equal to the prime gatherings of the vintage but they preserve the same distinguishing flavour, and bespeak the same soil which produced the former. We have no doubt, therefore, that this volume will be equally well received by the public; while it will excite the regret of all the admirers of Dr. Blair, as being his last legacy to the world. It is introduced by an address to the reader, written by the Doctor himself; who, for some time before his death, had been employed in preparing these discourses for the press. His motives and apologies shall here be stated in his own words:

After the very favourable reception which the Four former Volumes of my Sermons have met with, both at home and abroad, I had resolved not to presume on offering any more to the Publick. To this publication of another Volume, my present situation gave rise. Being now, by the infirmity of very advanced age, laid aside from all the labours of the pulpit, and possessing, of course, more retirement and leisure than formerly, it occurred to me, sometimes, to look back into Sermons, most of which had been composed a great many years ago, with a view to observe how far they agreed in the strain of thought with those which I had written at a later period. In reviewing them, passages sometimes appeared which I imagined might be serviceable, either for admonition or consolation to various classes of persons; and the thought began to arise in my

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mind, that by employing my present leisure, as long as health allow ed, in preparing some of those Discourses for the press, it might be in my power to be still of some use in the world. Encouraged by this idea, I went on to revise and correct one Sermon after another, often making alterations and additions, till the present Volume arose.

Though the subjects of these Sermons be different from those which I formerly published, some of the same sentiments and expressions may occasionally be found to be repeated in them. This is apt to happen, partly from that similarity of thought and style. which will run through all the compositions of an Author who is not copying others, but writing from his own reflections; and partly, from the coincidence of some general topicks and allusions which recur frequently in serious discourses of the practical kind. Where any instances of this nature presented themselves to my memory, I found, that without altering the strain of the Sermon, I could not altogether suppress and omit them; and as it is not often they occur, I did not think it requisite that they should be omitted. If the sentiment, where first introduced, was in any degree useful or important, the renewal of it, when brought forth under some different form, enlarged perhaps, or abridged, or placed in connection with some other topick, may be thought to strengthen and con. firm the impression of it.With regard to errors or inaccuracies of any other kind, the Author must trust to the indulgence of the candid Reader.'

Though Dr. Blair lived to select, correct, and embellish these sermons, and even to surperintend their whole progress through the press, he did not enjoy the satisfaction of witnessing their public appearance; and his death left the last ceremonies of introduction to be performed by a friend.-Rightly judging that the Christian world would wish for some account of an advocate to whom it is under such great obligations, that friend has subjoined to the present volume a memoir on the life and character of its respectable and lamented author; from which we shall make an abstract:

Dr. Hugh Blair (says this narrative) was born in Edinburgh, on the 7th day of April, 1718. His father, John Blair, a respectable merchant in that city, was a descendant of the ancient family of Blair, in Ayrshire, and grandson of the famous Mr. Robert Blair, Minister of St. Andrew's, Chaplain to Charles I. and one of the most zealous and distinguished clergymen of the period in which he lived.

The views of Dr. Blair, from his earliest youth, were turned towards the Church, and his education received a suitable direction. In the year 1739, he took his degree of A. M. On that occasion he printed and defended a thesis De Fundamentis et Obligatione Legis Natura, which contains a short, but masterly discussion of this important subject, and exhibits in elegant Latin an outline of the moral principles, which have been since more fully unfolded and illustrated in his Sermons.

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On the completion of his academical course, he underwent the customary trials before the Presbytery of Edinburgh, and received from that venerable body a licence to preach the Gospel, on the 21st of October 1741. His public life now commenced with very favourable prospects. The reputation which he brought from the University was fully justified by his first appearances in the pulpit; and, in a few months, the fame of his eloquence procured for him a presentation to the parish of Colessie in Fife, where he was ordained to the office of the holy ministry, on the 23d of September 1742. But he was not permitted to remain long in this rural retreat. A vacancy in the second charge of the Canongate of Edinburgh furnished to his friends an opportunity of recalling him to a station more suited to his talents. And, though one of the most popular and eloquent clergymen in the Church was placed in competition with him, a great majority of the electors decided in favour of this young orator, and restored him in July 1743 to the bounds of his native city.

In this station, Dr. Blair continued eleven years, discharging with great fidelity and success the various duties of the pastoral office.

In consequence of a call from the Town-Ceuncil and GeneralSession of Edinburgh, he was translated from the Canongate to Lady Yester's, one of the city churches, on the 11th of October 1754 and on the 15th day of June 1758, he was promoted to the High Church of Edinburgh, the most important ecelesiastical charge in the kingdom. To this charge he was raised at the request of the Lords of Council and Session, and of the other distinguished official characters who have their seats in that church. And the uniform prudence, ability and success which, for a period of more than forty years, accompanied all his ministerial labours in that conspicuous and dificult station, sufficiently evince the wisdom of their choice.

No production of his pen had yet been given to the world by himself, except two sermons preached on particular occasions, some translations, in verse, of passages of Scripture for' the Psalmody of the Church, and a few articles in the Edinburgh Review; a publication begun in 1755, and conducted for a short time by some of the ablest men in the kingdom. But standing as he now did at the head of his profession, and released by the labour of former years from the drudgery of weekly preparation for the pulpit, he began to think seriously on a plan for teaching to others that art which had contributed so much to the establishment of his own fame. With this view, he communicated to his friends a scheme of Lectures on Composition; and, having obtained the approbation of the University, he began to read them in the College on the 11th of December 1759. To this undertaking he brought all the qualifications requisite for executing it well; and along with them a weight of reputation, which could not fail to give effect to the lessons he should deliver. For, besides the testimony given to his talents by his successive promotions in the Church, the University of St. Andrew's, moved chiefly by the merit of his eloquence, had in June $757 conferred on him the degree of D.D. a literary honour which, REY. FEB. 180z. M

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at that time, was very rare in Scotland. Accordingly his first Course of Lectures was well attended, and received with great applause. The patrons of the University, convinced that they would form a valuable addition to the system of education, agreed in the following summer to institute a rhetorical class, under his direction, as a permanent part of their academical establishment: and, on the 7th of April 1762, his Majesty was graciously pleased "To erect and endow a Professorship of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University of Edinburgh, and to appoint Dr. Blair, in consideration of his approved qualifications, Regius Professor thereof, with a salary of 70l." It was not till the year 1777 that he could be induced to favour the world with a volume of the Sermons which had so long furnished instruction and delight to his own congregation. But this volume being well received, the public approbation encouraged him to proceed: three other volumes followed at different intervals; and all of them experienced a degree of success of which few publications can boast. They circulated rapidly and widely wherever the English tongue extends; they were soon translated into almost all the languages of Europe; and his present Majesty, with that wise attention to the interests of religion and literature which distinguishes his reign, was graciously pleased to judge them worthy of a public reward. By a royal mandate to the Exchequer in Scotland, dated July 25th, 1780, a pension of £. 200 a-year was conferred on their author, which continued unaltered till his death.

The motives which gave rise to the present volume are suffi. ciently explained by himself in his Address to the Reader. The Sermons which it contains were composed at very different periods of his life; but they were all written out anew in his own hand, and in many parts re-composed, during the course of last summer, after he had completed his eighty-second year. They were delivered to the publishers about six weeks before his death, in the form and order in which they now appear. And it may gratify his readers to know, that the last of them which he composed, though not the last in the order adopted for publication, was the Sermon on a Life of Dissipation and Pleasure-a sermon written with great dignity and eloquence, and which should be regarded as his solemn parting admonition to a class of men, whose conduct is highly important to the community, and whose reformation and virtue he had long laboured most zealously to promote.

In April 1748, he married his cousin Katherine Bannatine, daughter of the Rev. James Bannatine, one of the Ministers of Edinburgh. By her he had a son who died in infancy, and a daughter, who lived to her twenty-first year, the pride of her parents, and adorned with all the accomplishments that became her age and sex, Mrs. Blair herself, a woman of great good sense and spirit, was also taken from him a few years before his death, after she had shared with the tenderest affection in all his fortunes, and contributed near half a century to his happiness and comfort.

Dr. Blair had been naturally of a feeble constitution of body; but as he grew up his constitution acquired greater firmness and vigour. Though liable to occasional attacks from some of the sharpest

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and most painful diseases that afflict the human frame, he enjoyed a general state of good health; and, through habitual cheerfulness, temperance, and care, survived the usual term of human life.-For some years he had felt himself unequal to the fatigue of instructing his very large congregation from the pulpit; and, under the impres sion which this feeling produced, he has been heard at times to say with a sigh," that he was left almost the last of his cotemporaries.' Yet he continued to the end in the regular discharge of all his other official duties, and particularly in giving advice to the afflicted, who, from different quarters of the kindgom, solicited his correspondence. His last summer was devoted to the preparation of this volume of Sermons; and, in the course of it, he exhibited a vigour of understanding and capacity of exertion equal to that of his best days. He began the winter pleased with himself on account of the completion of this work; and his friends were flattered with the hope that he might live to enjoy the accession of emolument and fame which he expected it would bring. But the seeds of a mortal disease were lurking unperceived within him. On the 24th of December 1800, he complained of a pain in his bowels, which, during that and the following day, gave him but little uneasiness; and he received as usual the visits of his friends. On the afternoon of the 26th, the symptoms became violent and alarming:-he felt that he was approaching the end of his appointed course and retaining to the last moment the full possession of his mental faculties, he expired on the morning of the 27th, with the composure and hope which become a Christian pastor.

The lamentation for his death was universal and deep through the city which he had so long instructed and adorned. Its Magistrates, participating in the general grief, appointed his church to be put in mourning; and his colleague in it, the writer of this Narrative, who had often experienced the inestimable value of his counsel and friendship, delivered on the Sabbath after his funeral a discourse to his congregation.?

A long quotation from this discourse closes the biographical sketch now before us; in which Dr. Finlayson exhibits the estimable character of his deceased friend, and exhorts those who respect his memory to evince their regard by a practical use of his invaluable instruction.

The volume contains twenty sermons, on the following subjects.-On Hopes and Disappointments. On the proper Disposition of the Heart towards God.-On the Moral Character of Chirst. On the Wounds of the Heart.-On all Things working together for Good to the Righteous.-On the Love of our Country.—On a Contented Mind. On drawing near to God.-On Wisdom in Religious Conduct.-On the Immortality of the Soul, and a future State. -On overcoming Evil with Good.-On a Life of Dissipation and Pleasure. On the Conscience void of Offence.-On the Ascension of Christ.-On a peaceable Disposition.-On Religious Joy, as giving Strength and Support to Virtue.-On the Felly of the Wisdom of

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