in the subsequent year was settled minister of the parish of Torphichen, in the Presbytery of Linlithgow, where he continued during the remainder of his life, discharging for the long period of more than fifty years the duty of a most laborious and faithful minister of the gospel,-active and diligent while health and strength continued, and when, for a few of the last years of his life, laid aside in a great measure by debility from public appearances, equally anxious to promote as far as he could the spiritual welfare of his people. In preaching, he was distinguished for earnestness and fervour, united with perspicuity and simplicity in declaring the truth; as a private Christian his piety and humility were no less conspicuous, and his acquaintance with the sacred scriptures was extensive and accurate beyond that of most men, it being an invariable rule with him to read over the whole of the sacred volume once every month, a practice from which he was often heard to declare he still received new pleasure, finding upon every perusal excellencies and beauties which he had never observed before.

Ardent and sincere in his attachment as well to the doctrine as to the discipline of the Church of Scotland, he was always, though naturally fond of retirement, ready to take an active part in the Church-courts, when he thought the cause of truth required it. He was one of the twelve ministers who, in the year 1721, joined in a representation to the General Assembly against the precipitate censure

passed upon the small treatise, entitled, "the Marrow of Modern Divinity," a book which, from the circumstance of the Assembly's interference, attracted considerable attention for a time, and excited a controversy carried on with no small warmth long afterwards, but now only faintly known to us by tradition. In the discussions which a few years after this engaged the attention of the General Assembly respecting Mr Simpson, professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow, and which terminated in 1729 in the suspension of that gentleman from the divinity chair, for the introduction of opinions verging to Socinianism, Mr Bonar took likewise a decided part for the maintenance of purity of doctrine. When the harsh measures were agitated in 1732 and 1733, which finally gave rise to the Secession, he was active and zealous in defence of the censured ministers. He disapproved indeed of their carrying the difference so far as to form a separate party, which he considered as having a tendency to distract and divide the friends of religion; but his personal regard for them was always great, though he frequently expressed his regret that they should bring forward, as they too often did, the subjects of their controversy in the pulpit.

He took a warm interest in every measure and every event friendly to the advancement of religion. A short letter from him to a private religious society in Edinburgh, "On the Duty and Advantages of Religious Societies," written in 1740, and print

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ed in 1748, feelingly expressed the satisfaction with which he contemplated the union of Christians for mutual encouragement and support. When in 1742 the remarkable revival of religion in the west of Scotland took place, Mr Bonar, though then much enfeebled both by age and bodily debility, exerted himself far beyond his usual efforts to make a journey to the spot, that he might personally witness what he had heard of by report, and contribute his latest efforts in the pulpit to promote the important and interesting work. To the last period of his life he preserved the same lively zeal for the interest of religion, and died in 1747, universally esteemed for genuine worth and uniform faithfulness in the discharge of his ministerial duties.

The eldest son of Mr Bonar of Torphichen, and the grandfather of Mr Archibald Bonar, was JOHN BONAR, minister of the united parishes of Fetlar and North Yell in Zetland, where he was settled in 1729, and died in 1752. He had early distinguished himself at the university of Edinburgh by superior attainments in classical and oriental literature, as well as in the studies immediately connected with divinity, and both when he was a preacher, and after he was settled in the remote island of Fetlar, he still retained, amidst the most diligent attention to ministerial and parochial duties, an attachment to the studies which had engaged his attention at the university. He was a complete master both of the Greek and Hebrew languages, besides attaining to consider

able proficiency in the Chaldee and Syriac, and he applied these acquisitions successfully for the better understanding, as well as elucidation, of Scripture. He occasionally indulged in poetical compositions, both in English and Latin; some of these were printed, particularly Elegiac Verses, in commemoration of two of his early friends, the Rev. Mr Brisbane of Stirling, and Mr James Webster of Edinburgh; but being only meant as effusions of friendship, they were circulated among few except the author's immediate acquaintance. Owing to the remoteness of Mr Bonar's residence, he was not much known beyond the bounds of his own presbytery; there, however, and particularly within his parish, he was respected and esteemed in no common degree as a firm and decided advocate of gospel-truth, a warm and impressive preacher, and a minister who adorned the doctrine of our God and Saviour by a suitable life and conversation.

The father of Archibald Bonar, was JOHN BONAR, eldest son of Mr Bonar of Fetlar. He was brought up chiefly with his grandfather at Torphichen, and having finished his studies at the university of Edinburgh, was licensed as a preacher 9th June 1745. He was settled in 1746 as minister of the parish of Cockpen, in the presbytery of Dalkeith. While there, he was presented by the Crown to the church of Jedburgh then vacant; but finding the people attached to another, he voluntarily relinquished the appointment, determined, upon no consideration, to intrude into a

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charge without the consent of the congregation. In 1756 he accepted of an invitation to Perth, where his ministerial gifts and labours were most acceptable and useful. From the commencement of his ministry he gave proofs of superior talents as a zealous, evangelical preacher; and some small tracts which he gave to the world after he was settled as a minister, gave room to hope, that if his life had been prolonged, the church might have derived essential benefit from his future labours. His first publication was entitled, "Observations on the conduct and character of Judas Iscariot," in a letter addressed to his friend Mr Primrose, minister of Crichton, printed in 1750. It went through two editions, and has been deservedly esteemed as containing an ingenious, and, at the same time, satisfactory argument in favour of the divine mission of our Lord, drawn from the conduct of this apostate disciple. This was followed in 1752 by a sermon," On the Nature and Necessity of a Religious Education," preached at the anniversary of the society in Scotland for propagating Christian knowledge; a judicious and solid defence of the religious education of children against the cavils of sceptics, and the degrading policy of narrow-minded politicians. In 1755, he published, without his name, a small pamphlet, entitled, " Analysis of the Moral and Religious Sentiments contained in the writings of Sopho, (Lord Kames), and David Hume." The object of this pamphlet was, by a fair induction from the writings of these two authors, then in great ce

lebrity,