treatise on affinities in marriage, which was highly commended by jurists, as marked by an acute discrimination and force of argument.

ner.

About the year 1776, Robinson published his Plea for the Divinity of Christ. This topic was now much agitated by reason of the late resignation of Lindsey and Jebb for scruples of conscience concerning the trinity. Robinson's Plea is drawn up with ingenuity, in a popular style, and winning manThe arguments are less sound than specious; they take names for things, and rest on deductions which go not beneath the surface of the Scriptures ; in the balance with just criticism they lose their weight and their substance. In the eyes of a certain class of trinitarians they were masterly, because with more than common skill they defended an old ground, which it was thought difficult to maintain much longer, and which, in truth, has since been nearly abandoned. But even this popular treatise did not please all parties. None withheld from the author the merit of ingenuity; some professed to admire the force and accuracy of his reasoning; while others were troubled with a kind of indefinable suspicion, that he had stopped short of the desired object. These latter seem to have been alarmed, that the author was so sparing of the fire and rage of controversy. Robinson observes in writing to a friend, "The temper of the Plea has procured me a deal of blame from the good folks, who inhabit the torrid zone." These

zealous partisans were not satisfied, that he should win the day, unless he carried war with flames and sword into the conquered enemy's camp.

Others, however, were of a different mind, and the author received a profusion of complementary letters from dignitaries in the established church. It was whispered, and more than once proclaimed aloud, as a thing to be lamented, that such a man should be a dissenter, and waste his days in strolling with a bewildered flock beyond the enclosures of the true faith. Gilded offers were made to him, if he would have the conscience to slide out of his errors, go up from the unseemly vale of poverty, and take his rest on the commanding eminence of church preferment. To these overtures he was deaf; from his principles he could not be moved. When Dr Ogden said to him, in trying to unsettle his purpose, "Do the dissenters know the worth of the man?" he replied, "The man knows the worth of the dissenters." This reply he verified by his warm devotedness to their interests through life. He received He received many letters ap

proving his work from

persons not belonging to the episcopal church, especially his Baptist associates in the ministry.

The Plea was answered by Lindsey, but Robinson never replied; nor did he write any more in defence of the divinity of Christ. Whether influenced by Lindsey's arguments, or whether his own examination of the subject had supplied him weaker grounds

than he expected, or whether his mind received a bias from any other quarter, it is certain that his sentiments about that time underwent a change. During the latter years of his life he rejected the trinity, and believed in the subordinate nature of Christ.

The year after the Plea, Robinson published a curious tract, entitled the History and Mistery of Good Friday. In this pamphlet he traces back the church holidays 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 disadvantage 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, 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 In the Rev. Charles Simeon's edition, the notes are chiefly omitted, and their place supplied by skeletons of his own sermons.

own.

Mr Robinson's celebrated volume of Village Sermons 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 above 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.