episcopal church, especially his Baptist associates in the ministry.

The year after the Plea, Robinson published a curious tract, entitled the The History and Mystery of Good Friday. In this pamphlet he traces back the church holydays to their origin, and proves them for the most part to have arisen out of heathen, or Jewish practices, and to derive no authority from the Christian religion. It contains a severe, and somewhat rough philippic against the church of England, which boasts of being reformed, and having cast off the abuses of the Romish church, while yet many are cherished, as unwarrantable and pernicious as those severed from the old stock. This tract was exceedingly popular, and ran speedily through several editions.

But the work, which produced greater excitement than any of our author's writings, was a Plan of Lectures on the Principles of Nonconformity, published in 1778. Within a moderate compass, it embraces all the points of controversy between the established church and the dissenters. Its manner is original and striking. The time of its appearance was favourable to its currency and interest, for the dissenters' bill was then pending in parliament. In the House of Lords this Plan of Lectures was honourably mentioned by Lord Shelburne, and in the House of Commons, Burke read passages from it, which he attempted to turn to the advantage of the petitioners. Fox repelled his attack, and foiled his attempt. Many articles were written against it, and, among others, strictures by Mr. Burgess, prebendary of Winchester. Robinson replied to none, except the latter, on which he bestowed a few remarks in his preface to the fifth edition.

The next literary enterprise of Robinson was his translation of Claude's Essay on the Composition of a Sermon. To this essay the translator added a life of the author, remarks on the history of preaching, and a vast body of notes, making together two thick volumes. The notes are written in the author's peculiar manner, full of spirit and vivacity, and discover a prodigious extent of reading. Some of them are valuable, and many

are highly entertaining, but they seem to have been hastily thrown together, and collected with too little discrimination. They occasionally descend to trifling incidents, anecdotes, and inapposite reflections, equally offensive to good taste, and barren of instruction. But with all these defects, Robinson's original edition is vastly preferable to those coming after, in which the editors took the liberty to abridge the notes, and add others of their own. In the Rev. Charles Simeon's edition, the notes are chiefly omitted, and their place supplied by skeletons of his own sermons.

Mr. Robinson's celebrated volume of Village Discourses was published in 1786. We have already observed, that it was his custom to preach in the neighbouring villages, and frequently he tarried at a place over night, and held religious service early in the morning, before the labourers were gone to their work. In summer these exercises were conducted in the open air, and fully attended. The abovementioned volume is composed of discourses delivered on these occasions, and written out afterwards as dictated by the author to an amanuensis. They had evidently been prepared with care in his own mind, and they contain a copiousness of language, a felicity of illustration, and a readiness in quoting and applying appropriate passages of Scripture, rarely to be witnessed. They were framed for a particular purpose, that of enlightening and improving the less informed classes of society; and whoever reads them will not wonder, that this purpose was attained, and that even those for whom the things of the world had attractions should resign for an hour the labour of gain, and listen with delight to the persuasive accents of the preacher. They may be read with profit by all, who love to contemplate the workings of a powerful mind in recommending and enforcing the principles of a holy religion, who are captivated with the inventions of genius, the current of a natural eloquence, sound words uttered in the spirit of Christian philanthropy, and sentiments breathing the influence of a rational, fervent piety.

The last works in which our author was engaged were the History of Baptism, and his Ecclesiastical Re

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searches. These were also his largest works, each making a closely printed quarto volume. It had long been a source of regret among the Baptists, that no full and authentic history of their brethren existed, and that their opinions, character, and progress had never been represented to the world in the light they deserved. It was at length resolved by some of the leading members of this denomination to supply the deficiency, and appoint a suitable person to write a copious and accurate history. The general voice fixed on Robinson, and in 1781 he was invited by an authorized committee to undertake the task. He complied with the request, and immediately set himself about the gigantic labour of wading through the ecclesiastical records of ancient and modern times, appalled neither by the lumber of antiquity, nor the mountains of volumes, which have been raised by the prolific industry of later ages.

That he might have a more ready access to scarce books, it was a part of his plan to reside a few days in every month in London. This design, however, was soon given up as impracticable, for so much was he sought after as a preacher, that he found his attention perpetually diverted from his studies. Appointments were made by his friends for preaching every day in the week, and so slowly did his history advance in the midst of these interruptions that he was glad to escape from them to his farm, his family, and his people, in the country. Here he was kindly favoured with books from the University, and occasionally from London, and here he completed the History of Baptism.

This volume was chiefly printed before the author's death, but not published till after that event. It contains a vast fund of historical knowledge on the subject which he professes to treat, and indicates an uncommonly deep and patient examination. The "Ecclesiastical Researches" was a posthumous work, and having been left in an unfinished state, is in many respects imperfect. It contains some curious facts relating to the history of the existence and progress of the principles of religious liberty and a rational faith during the early periods of Christianity, and throughout the dark ages.

It

proves, that these principles. were never extinct in the gloomiest times, but that they were cherished in the hearts of a few sincere, secluded worshippers, who were either too remote from the public eye to be ob served, or too insignificant to draw down upon themselves the wrath of bigotry, or the rod of persecution. In this respect the Ecclesiastical Researches supplies a valuable link in the history of the church. But on the whole, neither this nor the History of Baptism, is equal to the author's other performances. While preparing them, it is evident his mind had lost much of its former vigour, and was approaching that state of inefficiency, which it was the melancholy lot of his friends to contemplate in the latter days of his life. However much the cause of truth may have gained by these works, they have added little to the author's fame.

During the last year of Robinson's life, his health and his intellect gave symptoms of a rapid decline. Of this he appeared to be fully aware, for to a friend, who visited him not long before his death, he said, "You are come to see only the shadow of Robert Robinson." In the spring of 1790 he engaged to preach the charity sermons for the benefit of the dissenting schools at Birmingham. He left home on the second day of June in a languid frame of body and mind, but so well did he bear the fatigue of the journey, that he preached twice on the following sabbath. On monday evening he was taken ill, and his friends were alarmed; but he gained strength the next day. He retired to rest late in the evening, after eating his supper with a good appetite, and by the ease and cheerfulness of his conversatiou relieving those around him from all apprehensions of immediate danger. But how frail are the foundations of human confidence, how deceitful the visions of human hope! When the morning came he was found lifeless in his bed. His features were tranquil, and his spirit seemed to have deserted without a struggle its mortal tenement. His body was interred at Birmingham, and on the sabbath following a discourse adapted to the occasion was preached by Dr. Priestley.

In the year 1807, Mr. Flower published the Miscellaneous

Works of Robert Robinson, in four volumes, to which he prefixed a brief memoir of the author's life and writings. This edition comprises all his works, except the History of Baptism, Ecclesiastical Researches, Village Discourses, and Notes to Claude. Among his best writings are the prefaces to the several volumes of Saurin, especially the one on Christian Liberty. The Life of Claude is well written, but a dissertation on Public Preaching, prefixed to the second volume of Claude's Essay, although it contains some novel thoughts, and valuable facts, is imperfect, and obviously put together from ill digested materials. This remark, indeed, applies to several of his minor pieces, where a broader plan seems to have been laid, than his leisure and opportunities allowed him to fill up.

Among the numerous excellencies of Robinson's style, there are some glaring faults. His imagination is brilliant and active, but it rambles without license, and luxuriates without moderation. He never wants an apposite figure to illustrate any position, but his choice is frequently ill-judged, and rests on low images unworthy of his subject. This may be accounted for, perhaps, from the circumstances of his education, and from his invariable habit of bringing down his language to the plain country people to whom he preached. Another fault is want of method, and looseness of reasoning. This fault is not perpetual, but it occurs too often. Logic was not his strongest point; he loved not that his fancy should be clogged and hampered by the trammels of the schools; he chose a path of his own, and in his passion for freedom was impatient of the restraints which others have thought so wholesome a branch of discipline, and so useful in checking the exuberance of a prurient imagination, and maturing the decisions of a wayward judgment. It hardly needs to be added, that his taste partook of these defects; it is sometimes bad, and often not to be commended.

But these are small imperfections compared with the predominant features of Robinson's mind. The comprehensive views which he took of every subject, the richness and abundance of his thoughts, the power o