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"But tell me, Margaret, what is the reafon of your difcouragement. Be free, open your mind, it may be fome relief to you. Pray, how long have you been in this low way i'

"O, Sufanna," faid Margaret, " I have been in a barren frame for a long time, indeed! but it was not till about two years ago that I found the true cause of it."

"And pray, what do you fuppofe to be the true cause of it, Margaret?"

"I thought to have told it to Philander feveral times, but, as often as I had an opportunity to do it, my heart failed me; and I have kept it to myfelf till now."

"But," faid Sufanna," do tell me what it is.”

Well, if I matt tell you, though I am afhamed that any body fhould know it. It is because I do not love milk!"

"Because you do not love milk? Pray what has this to do with the ftate of your foul, and your progrefs in religion ?"

“O, Sufanna! I think it has a great deal to do with it. One Sunday evening I opened my Bible on the fecond chapter of the first epistle of Peter, and I read," If fo be ye have tafted that the LORD

is gracious; as new-born babes defire the fincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." The words ftruck me to the very heart, for it immediately came into my mind that my mother had told me, she could never get me to touch the breast; and that, as long as I could remember, I had never tasted a drop of milk. This, thought I, is the caufe why I have never gained any degree of ftrength and stability in religion. From this time I tried by all means to get the better of my natural averfion; but all in vain. And as this is the cafe, and if there be any meaning in the apoftle's words, how can I expect to grow thereby !"

"I must confefs," faid Sufanna," that my gift does not much lie in explaining difficult paffages of fcripture, but I am ready to think you must certainly mistake the meaning. I would have you mention it to Philander, I don't doubt but he will clear up the matter, to your fatisfaction, much better than I can pretend to."

"Well, fays Margaret, I will take courage, and endeavour to do it the first opportunity; for, I do affure you, it hangs very heavy on my mind."

After thefe fpecimens of the familiar, our Readers will be furprised to find that the fame work affords examples of the fublime from a moft magnificent defcription of the day of judgment given in the laft dialogue, we fhall felect the following paffage:

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By this time the tempeft, black and dreadful, beyond defcription, driven by the awful frown of the incenfed judge, had nearly reached the eastern horizon, and feemed to fink with increafing horrors into the Tartarian gulf, the place affigned to the devil and his angels, by the unchanging decree of the great JEHOVAH.

I faw, and trembled

Down! down they fell!

All nature felt the fhock!

!

Earth, from its inmoft center, fhook!

The vault of heaven, on ei.her fide,
Retained the long vibration,

And feemed to thake the very throne of GOD!
— A folemn pause.

And now the filver trumpets found;

And all the golden harps are heard,
In fweeteft fymphony.

The whole affembly of the juft approach the throne.
Nor Jew, nor Greek; nor rich, nor poor;

Nor young, nor old; nor bond, nor free, are here.
One precious name includes the whole,

For CHRIST, a precious CHRIST! is all in all !'

Of the whole doctrine and fpirit of this puritanical production [N. B. to prevent mistakes, we give notice that we make ufe of the word puritanical, not as a term of obloquy, but merely as a diftinguishing appellation], and of others of the fame kind, the Author has furnished us with a good refutation in the following conference between Mr. Clement and John the foot

man:

"Well, but, John, do you not think real religion as neceffary for you, and for the meanest fervant in the family, as it is for me, and even for Euphraftus himself? You are greatly mistaken if you think any of us can be truly happy without it."

"To be fure," replied John," we should all of us be good and I think we may be all good without fo much reading and praying. Befides I have a very bad memory, and cannot get fo many prayers by heart as I believe many of the fervants have in this family. I have overheard Hortenfius, and two or three more of you feveral times; but you have always a different form. You fometimes, indeed, make use of the Lord's Prayer; but even this is faid different ways; and I wonder, for my part, where you could get fo many prayers, and how you can remember them all.-But it may be, on this account you think yourselves better than other folk.-Perhaps, however, you may be mistaken. Others may be as good who do nor pray half fo much, nor half fo often as you do!"

"Yes, John, that is very true; we might do with lefs of the form, had we more of the power. But, you may depend upon it, he that lives without prayer, lives without GOD in the world!”

"And do you think," fays John, "that I am one of them! Pray

don't be fo uncharitable!"

Well faid, John! Good advice, and well-timed! Whatever your maft.r, or his parfon, may fay to the contrary, maintain it as long as you live, that "others may be as good, who do not pray halt fo much nor half fo often as they do :" for you may read it in your Bible, that " Pure religion and undefiled before God, is -not hearing long fermons or faving long prayersbut, vifiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and keeping ourselves unfpotted from the world; or in other words, keeping ourselves fober and honeft, and doing all the good we can."

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ART. IV. An Effay on the Compofition of a Sermon. Tranflated from the original French of the Rev. John Claude, Minifter of the French Reformed Church at Charenton. With Notes. By Robert Robinfon. 2 Vols. avo. 12 s. Boards. Fletcher, Cambridge. Buckland, London. 1779.

TH HE Art of Preaching, from the nature of the objects on

which it is employed, and the importance of the ends which it is intended to anfwer, fo well deferves, and, after all the varieties of forms in which it has been practifed in different ages, is fo capable of farther improvements, that every judicious attempt to place it on its true foundation, to deduce its laws from rational principles, to point out the defects which have attended, and ftill attend, the practice of it, and to render it of more general utility, merits the attention of the Public. In the work here tranflated, though the rational divine will not meet with fuch a complete and philofophical difcuffion of the fubject as he might wish; though he will probably think many of the rules here laid down, rather adapted to fupport a particular fyftem of faith, and encourage mysticism in religion, than to direct the labours of the moral and practical preacher, he will nevertheless meet with much good advice, which a judicious understanding and improved tafte may apply to great advantage in the compofition and delivery of fermons.

This publication, however, derives its principal value from the original notes which the Tranflator has fubjoined, in which, fomewhat after the manner, though not in the spirit of Bayle, he has introduced a great variety of remarks and quotations, which answer a better purpose than that of elucidating the text, affording the reader much valuable information and agreeable entertainment. Thefe notes are exceedingly miscellaneous, confifting of pertinent examples of the beauties or faults of preaching, from various writers, and thefe many of them little known, curious and often humorous anecdotes, fenfible reflections, and bold and free ftrokes of fatire. From this mifcellany we could, with pleasure, felect many amusing articles; but we chufe rather to fill up the space which we can allot to this work, with a few extracts from the Tranflator's introductory effays, from which it will appear that he writes with great boldness of language, and with all the zeal of a reformer.

To the first volume Mr. Robinfon has prefixed the life of Mr. Claude, where he introduces many reflections on ecclefiaftical power, in which, if there be much keennefs, and fometimes a fmall portion of acrimony, it must be acknowledged that there is likewife fome truth. On the fubject of religious Liberty he makes the following fpirited remarks:

• The

The union of all Chriftian congregations in one grand corporate body is a godlike defign. The author of Chriftianity profeffed to aim at making all his followers one fold under one fhepherd; and, had officious human folly, let divine wisdom alone, union had been effected long ago. The idea has ftruck all mankind: Princes and prelates, civilians and divines have all attempted to produce union. Not a foul of them has fucceeded; and, we will venture to affirm, the man will never be born, who can fucceed on their principles. They have retained the end: but loft fight of the original means of effecting it. All other means foft or fanguinary, papal, epifcopal and fynodical, controverfial or pecuniary, all have divided Christians more and more, and widened those breaches, which they pretended to heal. This rage of union was the foul of the feventeenth century, and it convulfed and distorted the body, as fouls agitated by violent conflicting paffions transform the features of an incarnate angel into the face of a fiend.

• The true original remedy for all thefe ills is the restoration of that PRIMITIVE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, which the Saviour of the world bestowed on his first followers. It was equal and univerfal. Church power was vefted in the people, and the exercise of it limited to each congregation. So many congregations, fo many little states, each governed by its own laws, and all independent on one another. Like confederate ftates, they affembled by deputies in one large ecclefiaftical body, and deliberated about the common interests of the whole. The whole was unconnected with fecular affairs, and all their opinions amounted to no more than advice devoid of coercion. Here was an union. Liberty was the object, and love was the bond. It was an evil day, when princes hired the church for a standing army, and everlasting fhame muft cover the faces of thofe ecclefiaftics, who, like Judas, made their mafter a marketable commodity. Princes affected to be as wife as Solomon, and fet lions to guard the Reps of their thrones: but they had not penetration equal to the Jewish monarch; his lions could not bite: but theirs have devoured the creators of their being, elevation and form.'

Again, he says,

Whether the fourth community, of which we now speak, came from the valleys of Piedmont, or whether it originated among those reformers, who, confiftent with their own principles, made pure fcripture the rule of reformation, it is certain, fome focieties appeared, very early, advocates for congregational church-government. The churches included both Baptifts and Independents. Some, as the Brownifts, ran liberty into licentioufnefs; and others, as Robinfon in Holland, and Jacob in England, fometimes explained, and arranged, and at other times rather cramped matters: but all held the grand principle of felf-government, and the abfolute independence of each congregation on any exterior jurifdiction. Here, as in all fafe civil focieties, the bafes and principles of good government are held. Individuals are born free, each with liberty to difpofe of himself. Several individuals congregated, cariy together feparate power, and depofit it in any degree, more or less, as the whole think fit, in one aggregate fum, in one or more hands for the public good. Officers, chofen by all to hold and difpenfe this delegated power,

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are in truft only, confequently refponfible to their conftituents, and all their power is conkitutionally revertible to the fource, whence it came, on abufe of the truft, or at the demise of the truflee. As all this business is fpiritual, power extends over only fpiritualities. Life, liberty, property, credit, and fo on, are all infured in another office, exttufted in other hands, under the care of civil governors. Here than is religious liberty. Various churches enjoy it in various degrees but in thofe churches, where infants are excluded, and where all are volunteers, where each fociety pleaseth itself and inJures nobody, where impofition is not known, and where blind subiniflion cannot be borne; where each fociety is a feparate family, and all together a regular confederacy, unpaid for believing, and far from the fear of fullering; there does religious liberty reign. We enjoy this liberty in Britain. It feems good to our civil governors to oblige us to purchase it by a refignation of fome of our civil birthrights. We think this hard. However, we pay the price, and enjoy the purchafe.

This fort is more than tenable, it is invincible. Grant us vox populi vox Dei; only allow the FEOPLE to be the fource of power, and we have a with equal to that of Archimedes, and as much more glorious as the dignity of directing the world of fpirit is fuperior to that of guiding the motion of matter. Farewell popery, prelacy, prefbytery, I have understanding as well as you. My Creator gave me ability to judge for myfelf. My Redeemer brought a charter from Heaven to confirm my right of doing fo, and gave me a rule to guide the exercise of my right. In the exercife of this right I may be holy and happy. The univerfe can do no more for me.'

Thefe fhort extracts may be fufficient to give our Readers an idea of Mr. Robinfon as a zealous champion for religious Liberty.

We now proceed to take notice of the differtation on Preaching prefixed to the fecond volume, which the Author informs his readers is only a fketch of a larger work, "An Effay towards the Hiftory of Public Preaching;" a plan which, it seems, he has laid afide, but which he appears fo well qualified to execute, that we cannot but with he may find fufficient inducements to refume the undertaking.

In this fketch, Mr. Robinfon traces the progrefs of preach-. ing, in its feveral forms, through every age of the world,———— Speaking of the fcribes which were employed in the later ages of the Jewish church to copy the law, he fays,

Writing, reading, giving a fenfe of what is written, ftudying to find out a true fenfe to give, and proving and fupporting the fenfe given, go together, and fcribes naturally became tudious, difputaEzra, the reformer of the church at the tious, and learned men. return from captivity, was the molt eminent of his profeflion, a ready Scribe in the law of his God.

This man laid the foundation of reformation in religious prineiple, and he refted religious principle on that infallible rock, the word of God. In order to lay a firm and good ground of this, he

collected

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