who are actuated by the same exalted principle. The benevolence of Deity shines in creation, and may be traced in the order and economy of Divine Providence. It was conspicuous in the primeval state of man, is more fully developed in the principles of the gospel, but shines with still brighter lustre in the effects produced by renovating grace on the human heart.

"When benevolence was effaced by sin, war, inhumanity, oppression, and murder, occupied its place: and to this source we may trace the various miseries of human life. Earth, renewed in righteousness, will behold the dominion of benevolence re-established. In heaven, its empire knows no limits, no interruption, and fears no termination. It binds all the celestial inhabitants in amity and love; this being the sacred atmosphere which they inhale from the throne of the eternal God.

"The progress of genuine religion may be fairly estimated by the extension and prevalence of this godlike attribute. It includes love to God, and love to man; and must, therefore, have its seat in the heart, while its blessed effects stand developed in the Christian's life. Considering the moral relation in which we stand to the Father of the spirits of all flesh, and the ground we occupy, both duty and interest urge us to promote its influence.

"Be it, then, my dear friend, both your aim and mine, to seek and enjoy the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, that, having this treasure in our earthen vessels, we may contemplate with ecstasy, for ever, that sublime, but incomprehensible expression God is love."

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Wishing, my dear friend, you and yours every blessing for time and eternity,

"I remain, with sincere affection,

"Your old acquaintance and correspondent, "SAMUEL DREW."

"Mrs. Richard Smith, Stoke-Newington."

SECTION XXXII.

Character of Mr. Drew's writings.

THOUGH presenting few attractions for superficial readers, Mr. Drew's original treatises are too well known to the thinking part of the community, to require, in this place, minute examination. They have been long before the public, and from the wisest and the best, have received the meed of approbation. Little, therefore, will be required of the biographer, but to offer a few general remarks, and quote the opinions of more practised and competent judges than himself.

Among those sincere believers in scripture, who dare not trust, even in matters of ordinary duty, to the inferences of their own judgment, there is a prejudice against all attempts to establish or confirm by Reason, any of the doctrines of Revelation. There are individuals also, who, though accustomed to the exercise of thought, seem to dread the application of reason to matters of faith, lest its deductions should be substituted for the declarations of scripture. Mr. Drew was obviously not of this number. All his publications tend to prove, that reason, while it authenticates the canon, and directs us in the interpretation of scripture, leads to the conviction, that, in our relation to each other here, and to our Creator

here and hereafter, we need some other rule of conduct than is discoverable by nature's feeble and uncertain ray.

Frequently does Mr. Drew remind his readers, and often did he reiterate in the pulpit, that, at the precise point where unassisted reason fails, and vague conjecture meets us on every hand, the light of revelation, beaming upon our understandings, dispels the gloomy uncertainty, and, shining brighter and brighter unto the perfect day,' leads on to 'glory, immortality, and eternal life.'

In the preface to his Essay on the Soul, he says,

The great repository of sacred knowledge is the Bible: and, therefore, moral philosophy can be no longer right, than while it acts in concert with revelation. I consider moral truth as an elevated mountain, the summit of which Revelation unveils to the eye of faith, without involving us in the tedious drudgery of painful speculations. To some of its sublimities philosophy will direct us, through a labyrinth of intricacies; but, after the human understanding has put forth all her efforts, it is "by toil and art the steep ascent we gain." If, however, in any given momentous instance, the tardy movements of philosophy will lead us to the same conclusions that the Bible has already formed, it affords us no contemptible evidence of its authenticity; and hence, Revelation challenges our belief in those instances where we can trace no connexion.

Scriptural principles," it is remarked, by a student of Mr. D's works," are interwoven through the whole of his multifarious labours; and, in addition

to his well-earned reputation of sound philosophy, must be added the delightful thought, that the sum and substance of his argumentation, elaborate and cogent as it is, accords with the dictates of eternal truth. In the perusal of Mr. Drew's works, this is felt by every reader capable of thinking; and none but such need be at the trouble of examination; for without thought, properly pursued, they can be neither relished nor comprehended."

The opinion of Mr. Whitaker, in his critique on Mr. Drew's earliest publication, cannot be attributed to the partiality of friendship, or the condescension of patronage. No intimacy subsisted prior to the appearance of the pamphlet; and the critic informs the author, that the favourable article in the AntiJacobin was written "in the fulness of his heart," on the perusal of the "Remarks":-it therefore expresses his unbiassed opinion. "We here behold,” he observes, "a shoemaker of St. Austell encoun'tering a staymaker of Deal, with the same weapons " of unlettered reason, tempered, indeed, from the ar"moury of God, yet deriving their principal power "from the native vigour of the arm that wields them. "Samuel Drew, however, is greatly superior to "Thomas Paine in the justness of his remarks, in "the forcibleness of his arguments, and in the point"edness of his refutations."

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It is equally pleasing to know, that this little work was not without its use. A distinguished Wesleyan minister says, "When I was stationed at Blackburn, there were in that town many professed disciples of

Paine. Several of them acknowledged, that Mr. Drew's answer to the first part of the Age of Reason' had made more impression on their minds, and occasioned them more difficulty in attempting to reply to its arguments, than any other work that had fallen into their hands."

The origin, progress, and success of the Essay on the Immateriality and Immortality of the Human Soul,'- the work which established Mr. Drew's fame as a metaphysical writer and powerful reasoner, has been traced in an earlier page:- his motives for giving it to the world we gather from his own Preface.

"The ground on which I have assumed the present question, is simply this- Have we, or have we not, any rational evidence of the soul's immortality, admitting that no revelation had ever been given us from God? If we have, this branch of infidelity loses one of its strongest fortresses; if not, all rational proof of the immortality of the soul is at once done away.

"A subject so abstruse in its nature, and whose consequences extend to a future state of being, must necessarily impress some obscurities on the manner of its investigation; I have avoided all in my power, and yet many, perhaps, remain. It must, however, be remembered, that our inability to comprehend the reasoning by which a fact may be established, is no more an argument against its legitimacy, than it is against the fact itself. The ploughshare of