when the public interests were endangered, and the enemies of Zion, which was his favourite concern, prevailed.

He used the innocent recreations and exercises which then prevailed, fishing, fowling, and playing upon the ice, which, at the same time contributed to preserve a vigorous health, and while in frequent conversation with the best of the neighbouring gentry, as these occasions gave him access, to bear in upon them reproofs and instructions with an inoffensive familiarity.

His strong, clear, and melodious voice, joined to a good ear, gave him a great pleasure in music, in the theory and practice of which he had a more than ordinary dexterity: and he failed not, with mighty joy and satisfaction, to employ frequently his voice for the noblest use of it, the praises of his Maker and Saviour; in which part of divine worship his soul and body acted with an united and unwearied vigour.

All the other amiable qualities that can give a lustre to a man or a christian recommended this excellent person; his generosity, hospitality, and charitable disposition, were on all proper occasions, conspicuous, and his modest humility gave a loveliness to his other virtues. Few men had greater temptations offered to pride and vanity, his natural and acquired abilities, great success, established reputation, and the applauses of the whole country who admired him, were all dangerous flatterers, apt to beguile a man into a fond conceit of himself; but his lowliness of mind was proof against these pleasing seducers, nor could they charm him into selfsufficiency and

esteem; for he had not so learned Christ, and knew that he possessed nothing but what he had freely received.

He excelled in another noble part of religion, as well as humanity, an affectionate sympathy with such as were exposed either to outward afflictions, or the heavier troubles of a disquieted soul: for such he had always a melting tenderness, and embraced every occasion of succouring and relieving them; his own experience filled him with pity for those who were in like circumstances, and gave him, in some measure, what his great Master hath always, in an incomparably more exalted degree for poor sinners, a fellow-feeling of their infirmities, and enabled as well as stirred him up to comfort them with the consolations whereby God hath refreshed and solaced his own soul; and he was ever sending up fervent prayers to the throne of grace in their behalf.

We have, in the former part of this account of Mr. Guthrie, mentioned several of those eminent ministerial qualifications which he possessed, and made his character as a minister equal to that which he has so justly enjoyed as a man and a christian.

In his youth he had been a hard student, and this gave him a value for all the branches of learning, and an acquaintance with them; but above all, his favourite employment was the study of the holy scriptures, which he read often in the original languages; and out of this divine treasure of spiritual knowledge he brought out, as our Saviour speaks, things new and old, which were

of the highest advantage to him when he came to the pulpit. As a thorough acquaintance with the bible is the best way to make a good preacher, so this was one mean of that excellency in discourses from the pulpit for which Mr. Guthrie was so much celebrated: and indeed his sermons had all the advantages which could be given them, by a clear explication of the text, observations and enlargements, that were important and suitable to the subject, allusions and illustrations adapted to the meanest capacities of his people, and at the same time to the dignity of the pulpit, and the honour of religion, which required a very uncommon talent: and then a lively and affecting application of the doctrines which he taught to the consciences of his hearers, with an admirable mixture of light and heat, calculated to instruct the ignorant, awaken the secure, and enliven the whole soul in the ways of God; and, to conclude, his sermons, so excellent in their composure, were delivered with a clear, strong and well toned voice, a graceful and vehement action, and eyes flowing with tears, which were circumstances of no little advantage.

In prayer to God, Mr. Guthrie equalled, if not exceeded, himself as a preacher : the highest seriousness and fervency, an awe of the great God on his soul, and a lively faith in his fatherly goodness and care, together with an inward feeling of what he spoke, all remarkably accompanying his addresses to the throne of grace in such a degree, that many who heard him were usually melted into tears of affection, and exceedingly edified.

And to conclude, all his eminent qualities were sanctified by the grace of God, and heightened by an unaffected piety, and delightful fellowship with God, through Christ; under the shinings of whose countenance he habitually lived, and attained to a very uncommon degree of spiritual mindedness, of a heavenly frame and temper, and of joy and peace in believing, while he both lived and died in full assurance of faith.

We shall put an end to this imperfect account of the life and character of so eminent a person, by the testimonies of Mr. John Livingstone, minister at Ancrum, and Mr. Matthew Crawford, minister at Eastwood, both his contemporaries, concerning him. The first in a manuscript account which he wrote of the ministers of his own time, hath what follows. "Mr. William Guthrie, minister at Finwick, was a man of a most ready gift, and plentiful invention, with most opposite comparisons, fit both to awaken and pacify consciences; straight and steadfast in the public cause of Christ; he was a great light in the west of Scotland. He was much and often troubled with the gravel, whereof he died." In another place he says, " In his doctrine Mr. William Guthrie was as full and free as any man in Scotland had ever been, which, together with the excellency of his preaching gift, did so recommend him to the affections of people, that they turned the cornfield of his glebe to a little town; every one building a house for his family upon it, that they might live under the drop of his ministry."

The other, Mr. Matthew Crawford, in his manuscript history of the church of Scotland, hath these words: "Mr. William Guthrie was a burning and shining light, kept in after many others, by the favour of the old earl of Eglintoun, the chancellor's father in law. He converted and confirmed many thousand souls, and was esteemed the greatest practical preacher in Scotland."

Mr. Rutherford, in his letters, hath some passages concerning Mr. Guthrie; but these being already published, it would be needless to transcribe any thing from them; nor shall we detain the reader, by the character which Mr. Traill gives of Mr. Guthrie from his own knowledge of him, since it may be found with more advantage in the preface which that worthy minister prefixed to the edition of this treatise, published at London, 1705, and since reprinted at Edinburgh.

Though few people have been in all respects better qualified to write upon practical subjects, yet the modest and diffident sentiments which Mr. Guthrie always entertained of himself, deprived the world of the great advantage they would have reaped from his sermons and other composures of this nature, had he thought fit to make them public. But, to the no small loss of the church, this excellent treatise is the only genuine performance of Mr. Guthrie which hath seen the light, the publication whereof was owing to another cause rather than to the inclination of the author, which was plainly enough forced upon this occasion. Some unknown per