570 



BLAIR. 



Blair. That wc may be able to form a more accurate idea 



of Dr Blair's merit as a preacher, and of the difficul- 

 ties with which he had to contend, it may be proper 

 shortly to advert to the state in which he found the 

 eloquence of tin. Scottish pulpit. The reformation, 

 which, in the sister kingdom, had been conducted 

 with caution and timidity, under the immediate sanc- 

 tion and by the interference of the civil power, was 

 in Scotland occasioned by the spontaneous impulse of 

 public sentiment, which, with ungovernable fury, 

 burst through every barrier opposed to it by the ef- 

 forts of despotic power. It thus acquired, in its in- 

 fancy, a character of harshness and enthusiasm which 

 subsequent events tended to confirm. The bloody 

 persecutions under Charles II. and his unfortunate 

 and ill-advised brother, kindled afresh the dying em- 

 bers of fanaticism, and, by a consequence extremely 

 natural, cherished in the minds of the people an un- 

 due value for those religious dogmas and forms of ec- 

 clesiastical jurisdiction for which they suffered. These 

 circumstances, whilst they roused a spirit in the king- 

 dom which the revolution of a century was not able 

 to subdue, infused, at the same time, a peculiar tone 

 of wildness and untutored vehemence into the elo- 

 quence of the public teachers. When Blair first 

 commenced his clerical labours, one class of preach- 

 ers still adhered to that bold, unseemly, and incohe- 

 rent mode of declamation, which had been originally 

 introduced by the early reformers, to inflame the ima- 

 gination and rouse the passions of their rude and ig- 

 norant hearers. In their manner of delivery they 

 were warm and violent ; but their warmth had more 

 the appearance of passion than of sentiment, and 

 their violence approached nearer to the boisterous 

 fury of the zealot than to the manly indignation of a 

 generous and enlightened mind. With respect to 

 the matter of their discourses, the range of their ideas 

 was exceedingly circumscribed. The peculiar doc- 

 trines of the gospel were almost the only subjects on 

 which they ventured to address their hearers ; and 

 these they usually treated in the same desultory man- 

 ner, and enforced with the same hackneyed argu- 

 ments. They delighted to confound by mystery, or 

 overwhelm by terror, rather than to instruct by ac- 

 curate reasoning, or edify by practical induction. 

 This irrational and injudicious mode of instruction, 

 adopted by the preachers of the old revolutionary 

 school, gave rise, by a kind of repulsion, to an op- 

 posite class, who, despising the arts by which their 

 brethren rose to fame, and aspiring after the appro- 

 bation of more cultivated minds, fell too frequently 

 into another extreme. In avoiding the awkward 

 gestures, and untunable vociferation, which disgusted 

 the well-educated heater, they usually delivered their 

 discourses with the immoveable rigidity of a statue, 

 and the tiresome monotony of a schoolboy. In 

 adopting a more extensive field for public discussion, 

 they often receded too far from the beaten track, 

 and substituted for the doctrines and the precepts of 

 the gospel a dry metaphysical dissertation, which 

 few of their hearers could follow, or an elegant moral 

 harangue, the reasonings and motives of which, not be- 

 ing drawn from the Christian system, were too affect- 

 edly refined to reach a common understanding, and 

 too feeble to influence a common mind. This account 



of the eloquence of the Scottish pulpit, serves strong- 

 ly to characterise the genius of the nation at that pe- 

 riod, when a sour, uncharitable, and bigotted temper, 

 accompanied by a contempt for human learning, be- 

 gan to give place to a chearful and enlightened piety, 

 which introduced and fostered a predilection for po- 

 lite literature, and a spirit of sober and rational dis- 

 cussion. The extremes, however, to which the two 

 different classes of religious instructors carried their 

 opposite peculiarities, served equally to bring into 

 discredit the principles of genuine Christianity. Whilst 

 the loose and enthusiastic rhapsodies of the one was 

 a subject of ridicule to the sceptical and profane, the 

 suspicious and lukewarm conduct of the other, in 

 the total rejection, and the stinted and cautious use 

 of scriptural doctrines, was to the sincere believer a 

 ground of serious regret and well founded alarm. 

 Such however was, with some exceptions, the situa- 

 tion of the Church of Scotland, before Dr Blair 

 commenced his public labours, and gave a more 

 chaste, correct, and happy form, to the method of 

 religious instruction in Scotland. This accomplish- 

 ed preacher seems, in many respects, to have hit that 

 happy medium at which all pretended to aim, but 

 which few had the good fortune to reach. Uniting 

 the learning and elegance of the polite scholar with 

 the tenderness, the warmth, and the energy of the 

 Christian teacher, he has arrayed truth in her most 

 lovely and venerable garb, and given to her form all 

 the captivating influence of its native attractions. In 

 the composition of his sermons, we discover the re- 

 gular and well-digested plan of the logician joined 

 to the splendid beauties of the orator ; in his senti- 

 ments, we find the ingenious reasoning of the philo- 

 sopher blended with the sublime and enlightened 

 views of the Christian. If, however, the severe eye 

 of criticism were disposed to examine the discourses 

 of Dr Blair by the standard of perfection, it might 

 perhaps be able to point out some deficiency in the 

 execution of that part of his duty, which more pecu- 

 liarly belonged to him as a preacher of the gospel. 

 Scriptural doctrines do not always appear to have 

 been illustrated by him with sufficient attention, nor 

 scriptural motives to have obtained a place due to 

 their importance ; and too strong a bias may perhaps 

 be observed, in his writings, in favour of moral dis- 

 cussions, abstracted from the consideration of the 

 truths inculcated by revelation. See A short ac- 

 count of Blair's Life and Writings, by Dr Finlay- 

 son, subjoined to the fifth volume of Blair's Sermons ; 

 and a separate and more extended account, by Pro- 

 fessor John Hill, LL.D. (h. d.) 



BLAKE, Robkrt, a celebrated English admiral, 

 was born in the month of August 159S. His fa- 

 ther, Mr Humphry Blake, was a Spanish merchant, 

 who had made a considerable fortune, and purchased 

 a small estate in the neighbourhood of Bridgewater, 

 where his family had long been settled. Robert was 

 sent to a free school in that town, and afterwards re- 

 moved to Oxford, where he prosecuted his studies 

 for seven years, being a member, first of St Alban's 

 Hull, and then of Wadham College. He took a 

 degree before leaving the university ; but was unsuc- 

 cessful in the pursuit of academical preferment. Du- 

 ring his residence there, he displayed that temper 



Blair, 

 Blake. 



