ment (I have it from undoubted authority), that prayers offered up to God in a conventicle or meeting, will be as favourably received, and as effectually attended to, by God, as from our churches. Another writes, (perfuaded, no doubt, of his fpotlefs perfection, as he must be to write fo) that, at the day of judgment, he will appear, as a witnefs, against those then, who will not liften to his doctrine now. A third, makes no fcruple (I would, if poffible, have avoided the word) prefumptuously to proclaim, his own goodnefs, his confident affurance of his own falvation; and ftrenu oufly infifts upon the abfolute neceffity of others feeling as he does himfelf. How likely fuch fentiments, when urged with vehemence, and an apparent folicitude for the good of others, may be to affect the ignorant, the unguarded, but, above all, the timid, yet otherwife well-difpofed, I leave to unprejudiced reafon and common fenfe to decide, without referring it to the authority of that judgment derived from Chrift and his Apof tles, as preferved in our church. When I reflect upon the apoftle's caution, Rom. 11. 20. "Thou ftandeft by faith-Be not high-minded, but fear." I think myself juftified in comparing fuch flights of enthusiasm to the effects of a diftempered imagination in other cafes; and as we have heard of the poor Hypocondriac, who could fuppofe himself to be a mouse, a glass bottle, or almost any thing equally abfurd, may we not suspect, that fimilar effects may be produced from fimilar caufes alfo in spiritual concerns, and that the melancholy Seeeder from the harmless, perhaps neceffary enjoyment, afforded us in this world, may, from an overftrained attention, and overburdened faculties, have his judgment equally distorted in his fond conceit of holiness and perfection? But what muft become of those who are under fuch direction! Admitting, then, the good intention of the teacher, that no vain glory, no fpiritual pride, attaches to his character, no wish to be called Rabbi, nor to be thought the head of a fect of a numerous congregation; but that the humble Chriftian, the meek and faithful copyer of the bleffed Jefus is open to conviction, is ready to retract his errors, and feeks not the praise of men more than the praise of God, we may venture to recommend to fuch a one a serious examination of St. Luke 18 ch.

We will readily admit with him, that every one ought always to be in a proper difpofition to offer up his prayers (though not inceffantly upon his knees), and that he ought never to be weary in petitioning for what is lawful and right. But we as fteadily contend, that the elect are there most fully defcribed, as fearful of their falvation, and as doing good works: Elect as thofe, who, in the foreknowledge of God, fhall have performed, to the beft of their power, the conditions required of them, and are therefore elect in Chrift upon those terms. But to proceed

God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are," founds very like to-"I am affured of my own falvation-I feel that I can no more fin." "Good mafter-Why calleft thou me good, there is NONE good but ONE, that is GOD." Who, then, can pretend to be perfect!-What fhall I do to inherit eternal life?-Thou knoweft the commandments." Are not good works neceffary, then, to eternal life and falvation? "All these have I kept from my youth up," What! ftill perfift in the vain conceit of being perfect! Haft thou not yet had fufficient inftruction and rebuke! Hear, then, the laft, and from the mouth of our Great Mafter himself. Hear, and may the iffue be different! May the jaundiced eye fee clearly! May'ft thou find out, in time, thy deficiency, concealed at prefent from

thyfelf!

thyfelf! Read, and proceed in good works, in order to be a true difciple of the Son of God. Beware, left by neglecting to do, or by breaking the commandments, thou difhonoureft God. Beware, left while thou affecteft to be a teacher of others, thy head conceiveth falfehood, and by thy errors thou be thyself a caft away. If the profeffed, the allowed minifters of the Church of England, as by law established, as by prefent ufage acknowledged, be wrong, why affumeft thou their garb, their name, and function, to draw away their congregations? Why not plainly, manfully, openly, only, and religiously oppose them? This was our Saviour's practice. Truth needs no artifice to fupport it. The Gofpel did not make its way by Jecret, undermining artifices. If the glory of God alone be thy object, what need of borrowed ornaments, of founding titles, to captivate attention? Whether thou chooseft to be called Rabbi, or Evangelical Preacher, who gave thee an authority to take fuch names upon thee! If from thyfelf alone it is derived, thou bearest witness of thyfelf-thy witnefs therefore is not true.

I fhall beg leave to add a circumftance or two, among the many which have occurred within my own allotted sphere of action. Some years back, at the administration of the bleffed facrament of the Lord's Supper, in my own parish church, my feelings were confiderably interested, by the behaviour of a very respectable well-dreffed woman, whofe face was bedewed with tears, and her deep-fetched fighs denoted the strongest agitation of her mind. After the service was over, I requested a few moments converfation with her at my house.-She readily attended, and it was no difficult talk to find out, what the confeffed, that the had frequented a congregation of Methodifts, but not experiencing the fenfations fhe was taught to expect, he had despaired of her falvation, and had taken the refolution to receive the facrament, for the last time, and to drown herself in the river, upon her return towards home that day. She was perfuaded to come to me upon the following Sunday, and, in the mean time, to reflect upon the converfation which had now paffed between us, and promised not to speak within that time to any of these deluded people. She kept her word. The grace of God prevailed, while he co-operated with his affiftance, not fupernaturally, but fufficiently given. She returned not to the conventicle again, was afterwards happily married, and lived many years in comfort.

Very lately, a poor diftreffed object called upon me to find, if poffible, fome relief to his diftreffed mind. He was not confcious of any material offence towards God or man-he had failed in the world, but had injured no one. His family had the neceffaries of life, and fome of its conveniences, but not all the comforts he had hoped for in his former fituation. He also had been a follower of these unhappy doctrines. He found himfelf for the prefent fomewhat eafier, and was very thankful, but I fear was too far gone to struggle effectually with the oppreffion of his mind, as I have never feen him fince, though earnestly perfuaded to repeat his vifit to me.

One of thefe felf-fufficient teachers, who acted in the double capacity of phyfician to the foul and body, was fent for to a woman dangerously ill. His first enquiry was, what religion the profeffed? and, being told that The was a member of the Church of England, and who was her Clergyman, he made no fcruple to tell her, even in her extreme weakness of body, 'that fhe was certainly d-mn-d, if the continued in that perfuafion; but Rr 2

that

308

The Existence of a God feen in the Works of Nature.

that he having been fuddenly converted, as he was walking in his gardett, her foul would be fafe, if the liftened to his advice. The poor affrighted woman fent, to requeft that I would call upon her, as fhe had fomething very particular to tell me. I called, and the almost verbatim related the above. The alarmist was of course difmiffed.

At another time, another woman, under fome weakness of body, called upon the fame perfon, who accofted her in his ufual manner; told her, that he must first wash her foul, and he would then cure her disorder: And to induce her to do this, he inveighed against the Clergy of the Establishment, with the most shameful, groundless, and indiscriminate abuse; but the happened to entertain a very different opinion of her own Parish Prieft, from his experienced conduct and exertions, which the fupported against his abominable calumny, and went no more for affiftance to the reviler. I will not trouble you with any more anecdotes, but fhall occafionally communicate my fentiments to you, on other subjects, if the above is fufficiently interesting to merit a place in your excellent Repofitory. L.

THE EXISTENCE OF A GOD SEEN IN THE WORKS OF NATURE.

HERE

(Continued from page 265.)

ERE we muft obferve,-pardon the digreffion,-that Solomon--an exalted perfonage, loaded with the government of an empire, engaged in a variety of pursuits, a wifer man than Ethan, wiser than Heman and Calcal and Dardal,-in fhort, the wifeft of the Jews, the author of three thousand proverbs, and a large collection of odes and fongs— devoted fome hours to the ftudy of nature. He gave his countrymen a hiftory of quadrupeds-we lament that his fcientific labours have not come down to pofterity-and of birds, infects and fishes, and of vegetables, from the cedar of Lebanon to the the hyffop, a cryptogamous plant, that grows upon the walls of Jerufalem*. His merit in fcience, if we may judge from the teftimonies that are given us, must have been preeminent. Jofephus, a Jewish hiftorian, who, no doubt, faw the Natural Hiftory of Solomon, fays that he described the objects of nature like a philofopher, and demonstrated an exquifite knowledge of their properties. An eminent character of our own time, the prefident of a learned fociety of naturalifts, informs us in a tour of his-but we now quote from memory -that, if he had not poffeffed a knowledge of the vegetable regio, he could not, when on the fummit of Mount Cenis, have enjoyed one of the greatest pleasures that can arise from a travel in that country.

Shielded by these authorities from the ridicule of the ignorant, and from the fcorn of the votaries of lower and groffer pleasures, we may venture to affert, if nature was ftudied in our public and private feminaries, that neither the condition, nor the mind of man, could be deteriorated. A preceptor of fome celebrity, in a treatise on practical education, has recommended, and inculcated with fheer gravity, plans for the attainment of wit. We wish to observe, but with deference to this author, that wit, and the graces, to which an eminent nobleman of the last century was, perhaps, too partial, cannot be imparted: they are the gifts of heaven. The

*Dr. Haffelguift, a famous naturalift, obferved a mofs, the Bryum truncatulum, growing in great abundance upon the walls of Jerufalem, and concluded that it was the Hyffop of Scripture.

man

man who has not, before he fees the light of the fun, been blessed with thefe, muft for ever be without them. That facetiousness which diftinguished Mark Antony, and recommended him to the higheft and the lowest of his fellow-citizens, could not, in the opinion of Cicero, be acquired by art (in eo Facetiæ erant, quæ nulla Arte tradi poffunt). And a modern, not a lefs competent judge than this ancient, is ftill more decifive. "Could we," fays he, in a difcourfe to the members of the Royal Academy, "teach taste or genius by rules, they would be no longer taste and genius.* We should have been grateful if this author had, in the place of wit, and in the place of many puerilities which difgrace his volume, recommended and inculcated plans for the attainment of natural history. Information of this kind must benefit the public. The study of nature is of the last importance; and fhould, when certain peculiar exercitations, the study of wit, and the study of magic, take the lead, and exclude ftudies of greater dignity and utility, be particularly cultivated. To fubftantiate this pofition, and to give force and importance to our fubject, we thall introduce a paffage from the writings of John James Rouffeau, the celebrated philofopher of Geneva. "The ftudy of nature abates a tafte for frivolous amufements, prevents the tumult of the paffions, and provides the mind with a nourishment which is falutary, by filling it with an object worthy of its contemplations."

It would be a labour, and this article would fwell into volumes, were we to enumerate and expatiate upon every inftance in which the hand of a Deity is confpicuous; the minutest as well as the largeft objects,-the Mouse and the Elephant, the Humming-Bird and the Oftrich, the Aphis and the Libellula, the Stickleback and the Whale-proclaim that there is a God who made and governs every part of nature's wide and wonderful domain. B. D.

REFLECTIONS ON THE PEACE.

EACE, though highly defirable, and generally a bleffing, may yet prove the very reverie. It may degrade the national character--it may produce a ftagnation of trade, and lofs of commerce. our vigilance, and deftroy our wifdom.

It may relax

We have reafon to rejoice, that the calamities of war are at an end; that the preffure of fcarcity, and the heavy burthen of taxation, are lef fened, and will be diminished. We have reason to rejoice, that the conditions of our peace are fo good; that an ambitious and violent foe did not invade our shores, and disturb our domestic quiet, and, in the madnefs of infolent ambition, and blood-thirsty revenge, refufe to grant the peace we requested of him.

But yet we must rejoice with TREMBLING, when we confider, that the ftorm may not be paffed over, but only a little delayed; when we confider, that not one of those vile principles, which, for ten years, have deluged Europe with blood, and fhaken the thrones of kings, has ever been difavowed or retracted.

The monster of Jacobinifm, which we have to contend with, is juft the fame; whether it excites terror in war, or whether it addreffes us in the complimentary language of peace. In war we are prepared, but in peace we may be deceived; lulled into a fatal fecurity-dreaming of permanency and delight-while a sudden destruction is preparing for us.

* Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Our

Our fecurity muft depend on the most conftant watchfulness, and the pureft morals. If we relax, we may be fhortly ruined. Invasions from abroad, or feditions at home, nurfed with the delufive profpect of foreign affistance, may prove more deftructive than the most ruinous war abroad.

War had its terrors and burdens, but peace has its fnares and delufions. If we are not on our guard against thefe, we fhall be easily deceived, and as eafily corrupted. Our enemies will prove themselves more formidable by the blandifhments of peace, the fophiftry of vice, and the gay refinement of fenfuality, than they were by the force of their arms.

Hitherto our national character-our regard for revealed religion-our veneration for the facred fcripture-our respect for ancient establish ments-our obedience to approved laws, have, under Divine Providence, been our protection and defence. Should we ever deviate from thefe, our ruin is near at hand: Should we invade the rights of property-fhould we substitute infidelity, or fcepticism, for real religion-fhould we fneer at the inftitution of antiquity, and degrade the marriage vow, to a mere civil contract, to be diffolved by caprice, or to gratify the restless defires of unrestrained concupifcence. It will not require the voice of a prophet, to declare, that our deftruction cometh fuddenly.

We have been engaged in a long, an expenfive, and neceffary war, and now we have concluded a neceffary peace. The war was contrary to our wishes-the peace may not answer our expectations. A war of neceffity has been concluded by a peace of equal neceffity. If the refources of the kingdom were equal to the continuance of the war, (as I believe they were) yet the spirit, the energy, the perfevering refolution to call them forth was wanting. The length of this extraordinary conteft, the uncommon fucceffes of our foe, the heavy preffure of taxes, the late enormous prices of all the neceffaries of life, which reduced several, from paying taxes, to receiving parochial affiftance; the hopeless prospect of continuing the contest without any effective ally,* ought to be taken into the confideration, and may well account for a brave people earnestly longing for peace.

It is very easy, in the hour of triumph, to make high demands-to talk of obtaining indemnity for the past, and fecurity for the future. But confidering the calamities of war, the lives which have been loft, the miferies endured, what indemnity for the past can be given? What price is equal to the blood of the flain?" Security for the future" is equally unattainable, if it were only from the common fluctuation of human affairs, and the little infight into futurity which man has. Add to all this, the vaft acceffion of power of our ancient enemy; the immenfe extent of their coafts, the variety of their refources, with the reduction of the other powers in Europe; and he must be bold indeed, who can promise himself a long continuance of peace, and thus expect" fecurity for the future." Man continueth not in one stay: All that belongs to man is fubject to like change. We may expect a bright morn to ufher in a long fummer's day; but we may find the morning foon overclouded, and the day agitated with tempefts.

In fuch a peace, confidence and fecurity might prove our greatest danger: the direful foe, which alarmed us in war, and put us on our guard, * The Ottoman Porte cannot be brought as an objection to this, for the Turks were flowly engaged, merely to recover their own Province. Portugal and Naples were to reduced, as fcarcely to have any political existence.