(1) A POEM, dedicated to the Reverend Mr. RALPH ERSKINE, by a Lady in New-England, upon reading his Gospel-Sonnets. E RSKINE, thou blessed herald, found SOME ACCOUNT OF THE REVEREND Mr. RALPH ERSKINE. T was honourably HE Rev. Mr. RALPH ERSKINE descended of very respectable ancestors; his father, the Rev. Mr. HENRY ERSKINE, being one of the thirtythree children of RALPH ERSKINE of Shieldfield, a family of confiderable repute and standing in the county of Merse, and originally defcended from the ancient house of MAR. Our Author, and his brother, the Rev. Mr. EBENEZER ERSKINE, late Minister of the Gofpel at Stirling, were two of the children of the faid Rev. Mr. HENRY ERSKINE, who was sometime Minister of the Gofpel at Cornwall, afterwards at Chirnside*; a man eminent in his day, and justly diftinguifhed for his piety and firm attachment to Prefbyterian Principles: For his stedfast adherence to which, he was fubjected to many confiderable hardships in the latter part of the last century, during the perfecuting period of Charles II. and James VIL.†. The Author of the following Poems, was born at Monilaws, in the county of Northumberland, on Sabbath the 15th of March, 1685, at three o'clock in the afternoon; and baptized at Chirnside on the 5th of April said year, by the Reverend Mr. William Violand. He gave pretty early proofs of a great genius and fine fancy; and several instances of a pious difpofrion and a folid way of reflecting on matters. On this account he was, by his parents, early destined for the holy ministry, who resolved to give him a regular and liberal education, in order to qualify him for that important office. * Cornwall is in the shire of Northumberland; Chirnfide lies about five miles from Berwick upon Tweed, in the Scots fide. + See the continuation of Calamy's life of Baxter, p. 681. When he had acquired a competent measure of Grammar, and other introductory parts of education, he went to the university of Edinburgh, to complete his studies; where he went through the ordinary courses of Philofophy and Divinity with success; and made a confiderable progress in all the different branches of literature: for, he foon became a fine Grecian, and excellent Logician, and an accomplished Philo. sopher. But after having acquired such a competent measure of knowledge, in these various branches of erudition, he gave himself up to the study of theology, his darling and beloved topic; in which he made great progress, as his productions therein do abundantly evidence. The ordinary course of philofophical and theological Audies being gone through, at the college of Edinburgh, with fuccess; he was, in the providence of God, called forth to appear in a public character; and being well reported of, by all who knew him, for a conversation becoming the gospel, he was accordingly taken upon trials by the Prefbytery of Dunfermline: and having finished the usual pieces of trial afsigned him, to the entire fatisfaction of the Prefbytery, he was by them licensed to preach, as a probationer, the everlasting gospel, on the 8th of June, 1709. In which capaci. ty he exercised the talents which the Lord had graciouily conferred on him, within the bounds of the faid Presbytery, both in vacancies and settled congregations, to the great fatisfaction of his hearers, both minitters and people, as his certificate from that Prefbytery, dated April 4th, 1711, exprefly bears.-- In this station of life he did not long remain: Providence foon opened a door for him; and he got an unanimous call, from the parishioners of Dunferm line, on the first of May 1711, to exercise his minuterial talents and abilities amongst them, which call was approven of by the Presbytery, on the day following, as regularly proceeded in. He went through the usual pieces of trial, for ordination, prescribed by the Prefbytery, with approbation, and thereupon they set him apart to the office of the holy ministry, in the collegiate charge of Dunfermline, on August 7th, 1711. Under the character of a minister of the gospel, having now a pastoral relation to a particular flock; in the church univerfal, he determined not to know any thing jave Jefus Chrifl and him crucified: He was inflant in season and out of seafon, in all parts of of his ministerial labours, and gave himself wholly thereunto; exhorting the people - under his truft, from house to house, in the way of family vifitation; examining them more publicly upon the principles of our holy religion; visiting the fick when called; and preaching the everlasting gospel, in which he had a very pleasant and edifying gift He preached, by turns, with his colleague. every Sabbath and Thursday, through the year: and afterwards, when he had none, for feveral years before his death, he officiated alone, very punctually, both on Sabbath and week day. He delivered few extemporary productions. His fermons were generally the fruit of diligent study, and affiduous application. For the most part he wrote all; and kept very close by his notes in the delivery, except when the Lord was pleased to carry in upon his mind, in time of preaching, fome pat and appofite enlargements, whereof he had no previons study, and to which he nevertheless chearfully gave way, as coming from HIM, who has the tongue of the learned; who knows how to speak a word in season to him that is weary; and who says, It shall be given you the same hour what ye shall speak, for it is not ye that Speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you. He was bleffed with a rich and fertile invention, as appears in the agreeable and entertaining diversity, wherewith his heads of doctrine are every where adorned. The poe. tical genius, with which he was happily endowed, contributed not a little to the embellishment of his discourses, with a variety of pertinent epithets and striking metaphors. His gift of preaching was both instructing and searching. Few outshone him in the nervous and convincing manner, whereby he confirmed the truth of the doctrines he infisted on; and fewer still in the warm and pathetic address, in which he enforced the practice of them. He peculiarly excelled in the ample and free offers of Chrift he made to his hearers: and the captivating and alluring methods he used, for gaining their compliance, or their receiving and resting on Chrift alone for their salvation, as thus freely and fully exhibited unto them in the gofpel. On all which accounts he was justly esteemed, and and much followed, as one of the most popular and edify ing preachers of his day. During his time, sacramental folemnities, at Dunfermline, were very much crouded; numbers of people, from several parts of the kingdom, resorting unto them: and the Lord was pleased to countenance some of these communions, with signal evidences of his gracious prelence and influence, to the sweet and comfortable experience of many. It will easily appear to the judicious and experienced reader, in perusing his writings, that he had as dexterous a faculty in ransacking the plagues of the heart, and defcribing the diversified circumftances of serious and exercised souls, as if they had fully communicated their several doubts and cafes unto him; while, in the mean time, he was only unfolding the inward experience of his own foul, what he himself felt of the workings of unbelief, and of the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit, in oppofition thereunto; which could not but quadrate or agree, with the operations of the self fame Spirit of God in others; for, as in water, face answereth to face, So doth the heart of man to man. This eminent servant of Jesus Christ, being exercised to godliness from his youth, became, by the grace of God, a fcribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, whom our Lord compares to an housholder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure, things new and old. Old invariable truths, but new illustrations of them; old experiences, the fame with other saints before, but new observations and improvements upon them: so that, with abundance of propriety, it may be said, that there are few perplexing doubts, or intricate cases, which the faints have, at any time, been exercised with, that are not in some one or other of his fermons, very judicioufly folved, and distinctly elucidated, or cleared up. During our Author's life-time, and at the importunity of many of his acquaintances, both minifters and people, he published a great number of his fermons, on the most interesting subjects, which were well relished by the truly godly, and had their praises in the churches of Christ, both at home and abroad. These, with several others, transcribed from his notes, were first collected together, after his death, and published along with his poems, in two large volumes in folio, in the years 1764 and 1765, printed in an elegant manner; and, fince that time, re-printed in ten large volumes octavo, B |