minded :-as it respects those who know not “ the grace of God in truth,” they may be expected to stand by their dogmas until the reign of righteousness shall commence within them. We speak with deliberation when we say, that Mr. Burder bas conferred an obligation on the public by the publication of these Lectures. They furnish a sucid and impressive detail of . all that most essentially enters into the principles, feelings, and conduct of a Christian formed after the inspired model. There is nothing in them that savours of the metaphysical theology : the sentiment and the language are alike in the strictest accordance with the simplicity of Scripture. The volume consists of three distinct sections: the first treats of Repentance; the second, of Faith ; and the third, of Holiness. Under this generic division of subjects, the Author has succeeded in presenting a very luminous and comprehensive view of the numerous topics included in personal religion. In the Introduction to the first Lecture, the Author thus states his general design. • Under this comprehensive title, it is not my design to enter on a discussion of the doctrines which may be pronounced essential to Christianity: my object is rather to exhibit and to enforce the Essentials of Personal and Social Religion. It is to ascertain and to develop the principles which must reign in the heart, and govern the life, of every human being, who would establish a valid title to the name of Christian.' The second discourse, on the motives to repentance,' appears to us eminently adapted to be useful. The motives enumerated are; 1. The imperative command of God.-2. The unalterable determination of God, that without Repentance there shall be no salvation.–3. The mercy of God revealed in the Gospel.-4. The most gracious reception, on the part of God, of the repenting and returning sinner.–5. The invariable connexion of salvation with the exercise of repentance.-6. The readiness of God to bestow the grace necessary to the production of repentance.-7. The benevolent rejoicing which it occasions both on earth and in heaven. Under the Sixth particular, we have the following energetic and encouraging appeal. « « I admit,” some one may be disposed to say, " that Repentance is a duty binding upon all men, and unquestionably imperative upon me. I feel that I am daily contracting additional guilt, by remaining in impenitency and unbelief; but how shall I be able to exercise that Repentance which needeth not to be repented of? You tell me, and I believe and feel it to be true, that my nature is depraved, and that my heart is both obdurate and deceitful; how then shall I re pent?" It is my happiness to remind you, that the Lord Jesus Christ, who "died for our offences, and was raised again for our justification," ,"is" exalted by the right hand of God to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give Repentance" in order to "the remission of sins." This part of his mediatorial "undertaking precisely meets your case, and corresponds with your most pressing exigence. He communicates the grace necessary to that exercise of Repentance, which his word requires, by giving his Holy Spirit to effect deep conviction of sin, and true contrition of heart. He thus fulfils that gracious promise of a former dispensation :-"A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh; and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." If then you have discovered the guilt and danger of continuing in impenitence, and if you deeply lament the hardness and coldness of your hearts towards God, you will attach to these encouraging promises the highest value; you will plead them most earnestly and perseveringly at the throne of grace; and certain it is that you will not thus plead in vain. He who never gave encouragement to an unfounded expectation, has said-" Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for, if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him!" p. 49. In reference to the long agitated question- What is the nature of saving faith?' we have, in the Third Lecture, the following admirable remarks. Greatly is it to be lamented, that the subject of Faith, instead of being usually elucidated by discussion, has often been involved in deep obscurity. The definitions and distinctions of metaphysical expositors, both from the pulpit and from the press, have produced confusion, rather than clearness of ideas; so that the mind, yielded to their guidance, has been bewildered in the entanglements they have laboriously constructed. In all the inquiries connected with revealed truth, I have been disposed to view with suspicion and aversion, scholastic refinements and technical subtleties. I find, in the word of God, a luminous and beauteous simplicity; and I am encouraged to suppose, that when the inspired writers employ words in common use, they intend such words to be understood in their ordinary sense, unless some intimation be given to the contrary. If they evidently proceed on the supposition, that their meaning is unambiguous, and perfectly intelligible to their readers, even without the necessity of any laboured explanation, I am prepared and authorised to presume, that no peculiar difficulty of interpretation is to be encountered. These remarks appear to me strictly applicable to the subject before us. The sacred writers insist much on the importance of Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; but they betray no apprehension of any danger of being misunderstood, in consequence of any diffiVOL. XXIII. N.S. 2 Q culty or obscurity in the terms they employ. They evidently proceed on the supposition, that the persons addressed will be liable to no perplexing embarrassment, either in ascertaining what the faith required really is, or in determining whether, in the true and intended sense of the requirement, they themselves are believers. • Proceeding, then, with these views, to the investigation of the meaning of the important terms currently employed on this subject by the sacred writers, we shall find that, in the use of the nouns rendered “ faith” and “ belief,” and in the use of the verb which denotes the act of believing, there is a direct reference, either to a communication made, or to the character and claims of one who makes a communication. If the case relates directly to the communication itself, and it be made in the form of a testimony, a declaration, or a promise, then that which is required of us is simply that we believe it ;-that is, that we receive and embrace it, as undoubted truth; and, as the natural result of so receiving it, that we yield our hearts to the influence which, from its own nature, it is calculated to exert. • But, in some instances, the case may relate, not so directly to any one specific communication, as to the character and claims of him through whom various communications have been, or may be made. Let us suppose, for example, that the blessed God reveals himself to some individual of our race, in all the majesty and all the benignity of his character, and in all his infinite resources for the happiness of his creatures. Let us suppose that his language is, “I am the Almighty, the all-sufficient God; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” What then is required of that favoured individual? Boyond a doubt--that he should trust in Him, and rely upon Him with grateful, and adoring, and most entire affiance. Now it was thus that God did actually manifest himself to the patriarch Abraham ; and that venerated servant of the Most High, to his immortal honour, exercised a confidence unsuspecting and unbounded.' These extracts will, we are persuaded, sufficiently justify the expression we have given to our warm approbation of the volume. а Art. VIII. A Nosological Practice of Physic, embracing Physiology. By George Pearson Dawson, M.D. 8vo. pp. 380. Price 14s. London, 1824. IT is not often that we are tempted to animadvert on medical productions, unless they possess extraordinary merit, or are prominently distinguished by public utility. Such is the character of the work before us; it is written by a scholar and a man of talent, and contains an excellent nosology, including brief essays on the most important diseases of the humaa frame. We notice the volume with the greater pleasure, as Dr. Dawson is a decided enemy to materialism, and appears to have a mind imbued with sound notions of Christianity, In the following extract, he boldly enters the lists against Mr. Lawrence, who has advanced the monstrous proposition, that all the various forms of insanity spring from disease of the brain, exposing its absurdity with a happy mixture of spirited argument and ridicule. • Mr. Lawrence says, “ that the various forms of insanity, that all the affections comprehended under the general term of mental derangement, are only evidences of cerebral affections; in short, symptoms of diseased brain.*" This will not do; and Mr. Lawrence knows it will not do; hence he shelters himself thus ;--" The brain, like other parts of this complicated machine, may be diseased sympathetically ; and we see it recovert,"--which is sufficiently latitudi. nous for his purpose. That melancholia and mania arise from disease of the brain or its investments, is a favourite opinion with other men than Mr. Lawrence ; yet, a little reflection ought to convince him and them, that it is not founded upon common sense or fact. A man labours under mania.-What is its cause ? Chronic inflammation of the brain, its membranes, or disease of the brain itself, is answered by the espousers of this opinion. No means are employed, and the subject is well in five days. What has become of the inAammation, or structural disease, affirmed to be the proximate cause ? No remedies were used. Was disease of the brain ever cured in five days without the aid of medicine, or chronic inflammation resolved there ?-Before three weeks have expired, the sufferer is worse than he was during the first attack, and requires the application of a strait waistcoat. How is this to be accounted for? Has the inflammation, structural disease, or both, returned ? Still no means are called into action ; and the patient is spcedily restored, and remains rational for a considerable time. Where is the disease of the brain ?-is it cured, gone abroad, or only in abeyance? Altogether it is the most gentle. manly and well-bred disease I ever heard of: it has no opinion of its own, nor any consistency of conduct,-an accomplished disciple of the school of Chesterfield. Is inflammation or structural disease of an important organ easy of cure, or even of relief, under any treat ment, however judicious and vigorous, much less under none? Did á Mr. Lawrence ever witness such extraordinary restorations to inte grity, in any other disease, under similar circumstances ? He must acknowledge that he never did. If a man suffer inflammation, or any other disease of the brain or its membranes, is he ever insane? 1. The best informed, the most sceptical, the most ignorant must answer, i no. Such is the strength of the argument, that, Ajax-like, it only needs light and fair play. He may have excruciating pain in the head, considerable fever, convulsions, delirium, coma, or fatuity of * Lectures on Physiology, &c. p. 104. London, 1822. intellect from inflammation or organic disease of the brain ; but be never will, and never did, in any single remarkable instance, display the symptoms of insanity, and of insanity only. A maniac has bis mind overthrown; yet he is not uniformly ill : he has neither pain nor stupor, fever nor delirium ;-on the contrary, he is acute, vigilant, vivacious, subtle, or ferocious, with his faculties clear, brightened, although perverted : he will spend nights and days in composing, writing, calculating, planning, while, generally, he appears to enjoy unimpaired health, although his system may, and does occasionally, suffer from such long and incontrollable mental excitement. Again, some are only insane on one particular subject, and perfectly rational on every other ;-witness the man who was only insane when he heard the name of Lord North ; the being, who pretended he was the Duke of Hexbam; the unhappy person who thought himself to be our Lord Jesus Christ; and a well-known provincial character, who imagines every genteel woman to be in love with him, and pesters her with his letters. Will Mr. Lawrence enlighten me on this point :will he tell me what kind of disease of the brain is liere, which imi. tates a pretty, fickle, much loved girl, with her likes and dislikes? As Mr. Lawrence is the child and champion of organization, he may suggest that the structural disease has become organized, which, in his opinion, constitutes life ; and being now an intelligent creature, it hates my Lord North for his politics, is strangely smitten with contemptible and impious vanity, or is inspired with the love of the fair sex. It is not in this manner, this material, this Lucretian manner, that the proximate cause of mental derangement is to be revealed. This is not in the spirit of that inductive philosophy which Bacon practised in his life, and illustrated by writings that will never die; no,—these are the dregs of the Epicurean philosophy, invigorated by the elegant poetry of Lucretius, and revived and circulated afresh, in a new and more imposing form, by Cuvier, Lawrence, and other enlightened men!' pp. 178–182. Dr. Dawson's system of medicine is the most concise we have ever seen. It is offered as the result of twenty-eight years dedicated to the study and practice of medicine; and throughout the volume, there are abundant proofs of the great advantages its Author has enjoyed as a military practitioner, and as an eminent physician in private life. The Nosology of Dr. Dawson is divided into five orders; Febrile, Inflammatory, Nervous, Cachectic, and Functional Diseases ; each order containing only a single genus. This nosology is certainly not without its faults ; yet still, it is more simple, useful, and practical, than those which are so elaborate as to render confusion 'worse confounded.' The various essays in the work are written with spirit and talent, and the Writer proves himself a sound pathologist and close reasoner ; but, as is usually the case, some parts are much more laboured and better finished than others. He has taxed all his powers to do justice to |