158 
the eventful Period, from 1793 ta 1803, 
8vo. pp. 424. 
THESE sermons are twenty-one in 
number. In an advertisement prefixed, 
the author disclaims all expectation of 
encreasing either his fortune or his fame 
by the publication of them. He hopes, 
however, “ that they may be read, as 
he was assured they were heard, with 
some advantage.” 
Two leading objects appear to occupy 
the preacher’s attention, through nearly 
the whole of these discourses: the first, 
to combat certain fanatical preachers, 
whom Dr. Gleig describes as having 
gained great influence in the northern 
part of this island; and the second, to 
expose and to censure that system of 
modern philosophy, the prevalence and 
success of which he attributes to a deter- 
rained conspiracy against christianity, of 
the Muminati aided and abetted by what 
he considers as its genuine offspring, the 
French Revolution. ‘The late war, 
therefore, he praises, as justin its prin- 
ciples, and necessary for the preservation 
of religion and social order: and he 
denounces all those who have maintain- 
ed a contrary opinion, or held the pro- 
priety of any reform in our government, 
as levellers and anarchists, zealous only 
te overthrow the happy constitution of 
iheir country. We shall not take upon 
ourselves to animadvert upon the accu- 
racy or the candour of this representa- 
tion, or to decide on the legitimacy of 
all.the inferences drawn from it. Se- 
cluded from the busy world of political 
debate, we have heard at a distance the 
loud acclaim of the justice, the neces- 
sity, and the glorious tendency of former 
wars, the’ secret springs of which have 
been afterwards laid open; and the 
ostensible have been proved to be not 
the real motives by which the actors 
in the bloody scenes were moved. To 
war-preachers, therefore, we would re- 
commend more moderation; and to 
them no less than to all other polemics 
we would suggest this truth, that to 
make an argument prove too much is 
exceedingly to weaken its force. 
Of the fanatics against whom Dr. 
Gleig declaims, of their principles and 
their success, he thus speaks: 
«© Tn an age which has witnessed a whole 
nation renouncing the faith of Christ, and 
when the religion of all Europe has certainly 
waxed cold, this doctrine is peculiarly dan- 
TMEOLOGY AND ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. 
Arr. KXXVI. Sermons preached occasionally in the Episcopal Chapel, Stirling, during 
by Georce Gusric, LL.D. & F.R.S. E 
gerous ; and yet I believe it never was pro- 
pagated among us with more zeal than at 
present. 
** While the more intelligent teachers of 
religion in both parts of the united kingdom, 
supinely suffer things to take their course, 
without exerting one cffort to stem the tor- 
reat of infidelity which threatens to over- 
whelin us—a set of absurd and self-commis- 
sioned fanatics wander over the country, 
“creep into houses, and lead captive silly. 
women,” and sillier men, by assusing them, 
that Christianity requires-of them nothing 
but what they call faith; that what moralists 
term the duty of subjects to their sovereign 
concerns not them ; that the love of their 
country is no virtue, but perhaps a vice ; 
that the precepts of morality are but the 
elements of a legal institution ; and that 
they shall certainly be saved, if they firmly 
believe that Jesus Christ died for the elect, 
and that they themselves are of that happy 
number. 
«« Thus is this nation likely to be lost with 
others, not by the arms of its enemies, but 
by the false principles of its members ; by the 
irreligion of some; the Jukewarnmness of 
many; and the mistaken notions of Chris- 
tianity entertained by those who appear by 
their conduct, compared with that of others, 
to be the only party actuated by zeal.” 
If the following picture of our nor- 
thern youth be not too highly coloured, 
we agree with’ the preacher that we 
have reason to be alarmed at our situa- 
tion. But we hope these have been 
contemplated by him through the same 
magnifying medium that has enlarged 
and rendered terrific the other objects 
of his animadversion. 
«« Of our young men bred to the liberal 
professions, two-thirds at least are avowed 
infidels; and indulge of course, without 
compunction, in the practice of every vice 
which fashion has not made dishonourable, 
and of which the laws of their country take 
no cognisance. In proof of this heavy 
charge, I might refer you to those impious 
and immoral books which daily issue from 
the press, and are bought and read with asto- 
nishing avidity. But to enumerate these 
would be little better than to mingle poison 
with your own cup; and for such a hazard- 
ous proof there is the less necessity, that one 
cannot mix at all with the world without 
finding my position fully verified. Nay, so 
prevalent is fashion, and so infatuating ex- 
ample, that we find professed infidels at 
every table; and no man can be sure that 
the stranger who sits next to him shall not, 
