grace of their Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, and Redeemer, and cut themselves off from the rich est privileges and purest joys. When publick worship and family prayer have most generally prevailed; then have the people been most distinguished in all moral virtues and Christian graces, then have they been blessed with domestic comforts, and with social and national privileges. The neglect of prayer is ever accompanied with the decay of godliness, and the prevalence of those follies and crimes, which are the infamy of individuals and the ruin of the community. When a people cease to pray, God will all who believe in God, and love our Lord Jesus Christ, unite in their humble addresses to the throne of grace, that God would be pleased to revive his work in the midst of these years; that he would pour out his Spirit upon his people, and his blessing upon their offspring; that he would create in us a new heart and a new spirit, and thus make us a people of his praise. Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. ASAPH. For the Panoplist. cease to bless, the glory of the QUACKS IN VARIOUS WALKS Lord will depart from them. The fathers of our country were eminent for their Christian profession and their virtuous lives. They fled to this land, that they might pray to God according to his word, without reproach or molestation. Here they planted themselves, and made the wilderness vocal with their prayers and thanksgiving. By prayer they secured the richest privileges, both civil and religious, to themselves and their posterity. If we would enjoy the inheritance received from them, and transmit it down, unimpaired and meliorated, to our offspring; let us copy the examples of our pious forefathers, and become men of prayer. If we seek him diligently, we shall find him. If we forsake him, he will forsake us. The revival of family religion, the devout attendance of people on public worship, the due observance of the Sabbath, and the pure rites of Christianity are the only sure pledges of divine favour. OF LIFE. QUACKERY is generally applied to the medical profession; a quack is a physician, who practises without skill or judgment; but there are quacks in other professions. Every man may be considered a quack, who pretends to more merit, than he possesses; who seeks more praise, than he deserves. A minister of religion, who represents his brethren, who are equal to himself, as materially defective in knowledge, literature, charity, and talents, is indubitably a quack. By depressing others he intends to be considered himself, as one eminently distinguished for genius, catholicism, and goodness. On the other hand, the moaning enthusiast, who traverses the country, telling strangers, without any just reason, how dear they are to his heart, how his eyes weep, and his heart bleeds on their account, is doubtless a quack. If he be really concerned for their welfare, Let let him "weep for them in secret places" without boasting of it. A professor of religion, who makes mournful faces, who tells how much he has improved in grace by afflictions and other instructions, it may be presumed is a quack. He, that often proclaims how bad he was, and how good he is; how impious he once was, and how devout and godly he now is, may be suspected of a design to pass now for more, than he is worth; he is a spiritual quack. Such also are those, who, while they overreach in their bargains, neglect the payment of just debts, and omit many duties of religion and humanity, are yet incessantly talking of ministers, and sermons, and orthodoxy, and faith. A friend, who makes profession of entire devotion to your service, who often inquires, what he can do for your benefit, but never takes a step in your service, who inquires, what is necessary to your comfort, but never bestows a cent, though in many instances he must know your pressing wants, evidently designs to obtain credit for more, than he performs, more applause than he actually deserves. He intends that professions shall be reckoned as genuine friendship, and empty words, as useful actions. All these are quacks in different forms. For the Panoplist· THE MANNER IN WHICH CHRISTIANS ARE TO TREAT AN EXCOMMUNICATED BROTHER. Yet not alto In the 1st Epist. to Cor. chap. v. verses 9, 10, 11, Paul, referring to the case of an incestuous man, thus writes; "I wrote unto you in an epistle, not to company with fornicators. gether with the fornicators of this world," i. e. of the heathen world, "or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters; for then ye must needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or an extortioner, with such an one no not to eat." The question here is, What is that eating with an excommunicated brother, which the apostle disallows? First; It cannot be eating at the Lord's table, for the excommunication itself is an exclusion from this. And besides; the eating intended is such as heathens may be admitted to; but these, however moral in their lives, cannot, while they remain unbelievers, be admitted to eat with Christians at the Lord's table. Secondly; It cannot be eating at a common table, for then, as the apostle observes concerning a refusal to company with heathens, "we must needs go out of the world." As the case might happen, the wife must not eat with her husband, nor the children with their parent. The BETA. laws of Christ were never intended to interfere with domestick or der or with common civility and hospitality. Our Lord has told us, that the offending brother, who cannot be reclaimed by the discipline of the church, is to be to us as a heathen man and a publican. And He never refused to sit down at a common meal with publicans and sinners. He condemned the rigour of the Jews in excluding such persons from their tables. And he would not prescribe to his church a rule of conduct, which he disapproved in the Jews, and refused to adopt in his own practice. The reason why he ate with publicans and sinners was, that by his courteous manners and instructive conversation he might bring them to repentance. They were sick, and needed a physician. The apostle directs the Thessalonian Christians, "to note the disorderly brother, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed." But he cautions them not to carry this matter too far; "Count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." This does not import a denial of common courtesy and civility. What then is the eating for bidden in the passage under consideration? Let it be remarked, that what is principally forbidden is keeping company, cominixing, associating, maintaining special and particular intimacy with such a person; for so the Greek word, evaragrotas, used here, and in the 2d Epist. to the Thessalonians properly signifies. On this word the force of the prohibition lies; and the eating disallowed is such a kind of eating, as implies this intimate mixing, associating and keeping company. In those ancient times it was common for people to make social feasts, to which they invited their special friends, that they might eat and converse together in testimony of mutual regard and confidence. To such feasts among the Jews our Saviour of ten alludes. Such convivialities among the heathens the apostle often mentions. And on such festivities made by heathens he allows Christians to attend. He says to the Corinthians, " If any of them, who believe not, bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go, whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience' sake. But if any man say to you, this is offered in sacrifice to idols," and thus intimates a scruple, whether you ought to eat it, "eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience' sake. Conscience, I say, not thine own, but the other's," for though I know, that an idol is nothing, and makes the meat neither better nor worse, and therefore on my own account have no scruple to eat, yet all men have not this knowledge and discernment; "and why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?" i.e. why is my liberty so used, as to be judged and condemned by the conscience of my scrupulous brother? With respect to eating in an idol's temple, the apostle disallows it generally; for though an idol is nothing, yet such a publick act might give general offence to Christians, as carrying too great an appearance of a relapse to idolatry. But with respect to the private festivities of heathens, Christians need not scruple to attend them, except where they found, that their at tendance would give offence to scrupulous brethren. Now though Christians might eat at the social festivities of heathens, yet they might not eat at a social and convivial feast of an excommunicated brother, might not accept an invitation from him, nor give him an invitation to attend such a feast; because this would be to mingle with him as a companion, and countenance him in his vice and impenitence. Such companying with him they should avoid, that he may be ashamed. But those duties which result from family relation; those civilities, which belong to common neighbourhood; to social connexion, to ordinary intercourse, ought still to be paid him, that we may win him by our goodness, may admonish him by our conversation, may reprove him by our example, and thus encourage his repentance. L. J. For the Panoplist. ON PREACHING. THE man, to whom is committed the delightful task of preaching the everlasting gospel, is placed in a situation interesting and vastly important, both with respect to himself and his hearers. If he be an unfaithful steward of the mysteries of our holy religion; if he impart not truth to the ignorant, and warn not the sinner of his danger, of him will the blood of transgressors be required by his Master. On the contrary, if from the treasures of wisdom, he scatter abroad and dispense food to the hungry; his reward is with his God. To instruct and to persuade may comprehend the whole duty of a preacher. Men are ignorant of their Maker and of themselves; of their various relations to God, and of the duties arising from those relations. The preacher is to pour upon them the light of truth, derived from the sacred scriptures. Men are indisposed to good, borne away by passion, and unwilling to follow the convictions of their minds. He is to stop them in their mad career, and to entreat them by every pressing consideration to walk in the sober path of wisdom and uprightness. Useless indeed will be his instructions, and unheeded as the idle wind the exhortations of his lips, unless the Spirit of grace carry them home to the heart; but this Spirit is promised, and when he is tempted to despond in the view of the inefficacy of his labours, the cheering voice of "Lo, I am with you," should exhilarate his mind and quicken his exertion, As, then, the exhibition of truth is the first great duty of the preacher, it is worthy of inquiry what truths are best calculated to make men holy and happy, and what manner of exhibiting them will be most likely to impress. For instruction on both these points we must have recourse “to the law and to the testimony;" and the apostles are examples, which should be carefully followed by all their successors. While we were yet sinners, it is written, Christ died for us. that believeth not on the Son of God hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Except c man be born again, he cannot sec He the kingdom of God. The sinful and perishing condition of men, the atonement of Christ, the necessity of believing in his name, and of a change in our moral characters by the grace of God, are truths asserted in these passages, inculcated throughout the gospel, and which were constantly proclaimed and insisted upon by our divine Master and his disciples. They are therefore foundation stones, on which modern preachers should build the goodly edifice of Christian morality. These truths should now be preached as formerly; not with words of man's wisdom, but with plainness, clearness, and faithfulness. Let not the pure light be reflected from a thousand gilded words, which dazzle the eye, and render the perception confused; nor let it be put under the bushel of learned obscurity. Let it shine, unreflect ed, directly upon us to lighten our path to the kingdom of heaven. The most happy style of preaching is that, which is least noticed, and which, like the deep and gentle stream, carries us silently and imperceptibly along from one object to another. So far therefore as any singularity of attitude or gesture, any contortion of feature, peculiar modulation of voice, or strangeness of composition tends to withdraw the attention from the subject to the manner; so far is the speaker removed from perfec tion. Figurative language, when introduced for the purpose, not of embellishing the discourse, but of illustrating the subject, has the most happy effect. It embodies our ideas and presents them to the eye. It relieves the mind from the pain of abstraction by permitting it to rest upon a sensible object, and it pleases, while it instructs, by pointing out a resemblance between this object and the subject of thought. Our Saviour frequently spake in figurative language, but his speech always distilled as the dew. All his illustrations were natural, easy, familiar, and appropriate, and therefore beautiful. But when rhetorical figures are evidently the fruit of labour, and when they are awkwardly introduced, they tend not to instruct, for they withdraw our attention from the subject, and lead us irresistibly to notice the talents of the writer. Another aim of the preacher should be to persuade. Instruction is of no use, it is worse than useless, unless it be followed; and to induce compliance with it is the object of persuasion. Every one, who observes man, must be convinced that the affections do not always conform to the dictates of the understanding, and that the mind may be well furnished with truth, for which the heart has a total disrelish. The ground work of persua sion is the presentation of some motive, which will interest and excite to action. These motives will crowd upon the speaker. Let him alarm the fears of his hearers by pointing out the consequences of sin, the disgrace, the pain, the anguish, the ruin which will follow. Let him hold up before them their insensibility, their ingratitude, their madness and folly. Let him appeal to every natural sentiment in their minds, and let him dis |