SIR,

QUERIES.

QUERY I.

To the Editor of the UNIVERSALIST'S MISCELLANY.

HALL be thankful if you, or any of your correfpondents, will be kind enough to point out, in your useful Mifcellany, what evidences there are that the Song of Solomon has a spiritual fignification.

LITERIAS.

QUERY II.

SIR,

To the Editor of the UNIVERSALIST'S MISCELLANY.

SHOULD efteem it as a favour, if you, or any of your correfpondents would ftate the proofs which the Scriptures furnish of the existence of the wicked in a separate state, between death and the refurrection, and how far that state is probationary.

AN ENQUIRER.

SUPPO

MATHEMATICAL QUESTIONS.

UPPOSE a ladder 40 feet long, where is the point of the fame at which a man would, in raifing it, fuftain the greatelt weight, fuppofing his hands to be lifted 6 feet 4 inches from his feet?

M.

A.'s and B.'s money together is £16 65.; A.'s and C.'s £15 85.; B.'s and C.'s £10 14s. what is each man's feparately?

Z.

A may-pole 100 feet in length broke fo as to fall within 40 feet of the foot of the fame ;-Quere the length of the piece broken off?

POETRY.

THE NAUTIC CONVERT.

(Continued from vol. ii. p. 387.)
HIS veffel bound to Cabot's* distant shores,
The trackless ocean he again explores.
Now mercy fmiles the day of grace draws nigh,
When Heav'n regards him with a Father's eye;
When God reclaims-performs a Saviour's part,
And grace illumines and refines his heart;
When Error flies, at Truth's approach, away,
Like morning dews before the folar ray.
For lo! but fome few days the fav'ring gale
Had driv❜n the fhip, and fwell'd her spreading fail,
E'er the bright Sun of Righteousness arofe,

To win by love this champion of his foes!
As fignals of his wrath, he nor deforms

Heav'n's blue concave, nor fwells the deep with storms;
No light'nings flash, no fearful thunders roll,
To strike with wild affright the failor's foul;
A fweet ferene o'erfpreads the wide profound,
Soft blow the winds, and fifhes fport around;
Terrors more dread fhall fhock the failor's mind,
Than all the raging elements combin'd;
To pang his breaft Conviction now confpires,
Throws the fure dart, and kindles all its fires;
Delusive scenes of happiness are fled,'
And Sinai totters o'er his guilty head;
Its thunders roar, its vivid light'nings fly,
And gloom cimmerian darkens all his fky!
Pray without ceafing, thunders in his ears,
That he ne'er pray'd aroufes all his fears;
Pray without ceafing, preffes on his mind,
He fears to pray, yet feems to pray'r inclin'd
He fears the frowns of an infulted God,
And feels the chaft'ning of his friendly rod.
What fhall he do? Alas! he fain would pray,
Yet fadly ign'rant, knows not what to say!
While thus by fear and confcious guilt opprefs'd,
He haply finds a Bible in his cheft.
There had it long, alas! neglected lain,
Its holy page de fil'd with many a stain;
The facred book, unread for fev'ral years,
He now bedews with penitential tears.

Newfoundland-first discovered by John and Sebastian Cabot,

He

He eager grafps-unfolds with trembling hands,
And reads fubmiffive what a God commands;
Finds Gilead's balm to heal his wounded foul,
And fees the cleaning waves of Jordan roll;
Views Mercy ftoop to fave him bere, and there
Defcries what miracles were wrought by pray'r.
How Mofes pray'd that Ifrael yet might live,
And how a God provok'd could yet forgive.
How Jabez pray'd, more than his brethren bleft,
And how God heard and granted his request.
How, mov'd by fervent pray'r, by fighs, and tears,
God lengthen'd out King Hezekiah's years.

Here, too, he finds, beneath the gospel plan,
What love, what kindness, God reveal'd to man!
How his beloved fon-O ftrange to tell!-
Bore the fevereft pangs of death and hell.
How his moft precious blood the Saviour spilt,
To wash away the ftains of human guilt!
How by the finner's hand his blood was fhed,
That grace might crown the guilty finner's head.
Angels defcending with the heav'nly news,
A God on earth the wond'ring failor views!
And as they high extol the Saviour king,
"Good will to men," the joyful angels fing.
Lo! here the Saviour kind, of wond'rous birth,
A meek itin'rant preacher on the earth,
Spreads the glad tidings of falvation round,
And faving health is in his doctrine found;
The conscious water owns the pow'r divine *,
And in his prefence blushes into wine!
Death's icy gates, fast frozen as the north,
His word diffolves, and Lazarus comes forth?
The fish, obedient to their Maker's will,
In myriads prefs, the wily net to fill!
Lo! demons trembling quit their haunted prey,
And winds and waves his mighty voice obey!
To him refort the vileft of mankind,

He heals the lame, gives eye-fight to the blind;
Declares, if fought for with a heart devout,
He will, in no wife caft the guilty out.

And Canaan's alien daughter here can prove,

When fought by pray'r, how great a Saviour's love.
With Love divine the failor's heart expands,
The more he reads the more he understands.
Low on his stubborn knees, unus'd to bend,
He falls to fupplicate the finner's friend!
With broken heart, and forrow-itreaming eyes,
O fave a guilty finner, Lord?" he cries.
Strait with the found recording angels fly,
And waft the fentence to their God on high.
A Saviour now unveils his fhining face,
Difplays the riches of redeeming grace.
The failor views with joy an op'ning heav'n,
Defcries the fignal of his fins forgiv❜n.
With real joy his heart begins to melt,
For real joy till now he never felt.

*The confcious water faw its God and blush'd."

Dryden,

How

How chang'd the fcene from that in former days!
Now fongs obfcene give way to pray'r and praife.
Now no delight indecent tales afford,

He does his duty and he ferves the Lord.
Though Tar and Saint are names that ill agree,
In him, combin'd both characters we fee;
He fhines in both--both active and fincere,
No brute in that, and no enthusiast here.
Slave to no fect, but ev'ry Chriftian's friend,
Whofe various views to the fame object tend.
For ev'ry faith he values as his own,

Which builds on Chrift the fure foundation stone.
Uncenfur'd Tuspen fprinkles--Evans dips,
No controverfial words escape his lips.

For him might Calvin clofe falvation's mine,
And with restrictions curb the will divine.
For him might Luther's universal plan,
Redemption deal to all the race of man.
For him might Weftley urge the gen'ral scope,
With pious zeal throw wide the door of hope.
He fought a mean betwixt each wide extreme
The Saviour's boundless love was ali his theme
His Bible told him, that the purest heart,
Whilft here on earth, could only know in part;
That diff'rent errors did on all attend,
And more or lefs with man's opinions blend;
That though perfe&ion none attain'd below,
Enough was giv'n to erring man to know,

;

Thus far the Chriftian---nor the hero lefs,
Whene'er his country's wrongs requir'd redrefs.
Oft to affert his injur'd country's right,
He fince has brav'd the dangersof the fight;
Has nobly fought where'er his duty led,
And frequent in his country's fervice bled.

* Unwife are ye who deem the Chriftian's heart
Unfit to act the gallant hero's part.

Not all the terrors of mad war's career
Could fhake the Chriftian hero's foul with fear.
To those who doubt. let his own hist'ry tell,
How like a foldier gallant Gard'ner fell.

*Although the author had not then been made acquainted with that more benevolent scheme of the Univerfal Restoration, he had discovered fome defect in the jarring fyftems here alluded to; and recollects that Mr. Tupper complained of his having made the failor too much of a Latitudinarian.

As the author had, at the time this poem was written, but juft left the fea fervice, perhaps his notions were rather more warlike than they are at prefent; for now he happens to think that a true difciple of the Prince of Peace cannot, with propriety, be a Man of Blood. However, for a perfon who had been trained up to the trade of war, and could turn his hand to no other trade, fome excufe can certainly be made.

Bath, Dec. 5, 1798.

S. WHITCHURCH.

MONTHLY

MONTHLY OCCURRENCES.

December 26.

ADMIRAL Nelfon has declared all the ports of the Ligurian Republe to be in a state of blockade; and that all Ligurian veffels taken by the fhips of the coalefced powers fhall be deemed good and lawful prizes.

By the accounts received from Jamaica by the packet, we are forry to learn that the yellow fever is making confiderable ravages in that ifland. The packet is now under quarantine, fome of the people belonging to her having died in the paffage. There is a great profpect of the best harvelt they have had these twelve years.

27. The Britifh fhip Medufa, of 30 guns, laden with ftores, was, on the 22d of December laft, in a violent gale of wind, driven on fhore in Rofe Bay, near Gibraltar. The crew was happily faved; but it was apprehended the fhip and cargo would be loft.

28. In the Paris Journals we find letters from Bruffels, dated the 12th Inft. which fay, "The war waged by the infurgents itill continues with the greatest obftinacy; much blood is thed on both fides; but hitherto the infurgents have gained no permanent advantage. Their fuccefles have been merely temporary, and followed with a new defeat. General Beguinet has fet off to Paris in order to give an account to government of the ftate of our departments. The Commune of Bruflels is to remain in a ftate of fiege, until it has paid the whole of the contributions in arrear, and until the first clafs of the levy has obeyed the law which requires its incorporation with the armies.

Jan. 1, 1799. The Dublin mails which arrived yesterday brought intelligence of the clafs of attornies, and feveral other public bodies, havng pafled ftrong refolutions againft the Union. Accounts of pillage and murder ftill continue to fill the journals daily, and fears are pretended to be entertained of the rebellion being renewed. The Caftle gates are shut every night, and every precaution taken for refifting an attack.

3. The laft accounts received from the feat of war in Italy reprefent the Neapolitans as unable to refift the

French in any quarter. They have been defeated in feveral very severe battles, loft feveral thousand men, and an immenfe quantity of artillery. Rome has been retaken by the French

and their victorious armies are on their march to Naples, which city, it is faid, is in a ítate of great disturbance, and very favourable to the French.

5. Letters from Otranto, of the 24th of November laft, announce the commencement of hoftilities between the Ottoman Porte and the French Republic. The country called Sully in Macedonia is in a ftate of infurrection against the Pacha of Jenaina, and the inhabitants, already organised into National Guards, begin to wear the French cockade. They have been furnished with arms, cannon, and warlike ftores, from Corfu. Muf tapha, Pacha of Lions, has declared in favour of the caufe of liberty, and has become a French general. The inhabitants of Beirceftro, and several other provinces, are animated with the fame views, and have followed the example of Sully.

7. The Ambufcade, a British frigate, has been captured by a French fhip, about the fame fize. They were engaged upwards of three hours, when the fore-maft of the Ambufcade, falling over, dropped on the enemy's fhip, which made a kind of bridge, and fhe was boarded. The French ship was full of troops.

10. A letter from Stockholm, dated Dec. 8. ftates, That a rupture is foon expected to take place between the courts of Sweden and Petersburg. It is faid, the latter endeavoured to prevail on the former to renounce the fyftem of neutrality, and to declare againit France, which the Swedish cabinet would not confent to. If a war fhould break out among the powers of the north, it will be almoft impoffible for Denmark not to declare herself, particularly if Sweden claims the execution of exifting treaties. Thus no part of Europe would avoid this dreadful fcourge.

11. Pafwan Oglu, it appears, still continues to be victorious He has taken a great number of transports in the Danube, and waggons loaded with ftores for the Ruffian army. 14. The