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belongs alike to all: and he who refuses to recognize their Christianity, must be branded as a bigot.

(To be continued.)

SERIOUS HINT TO PREACHERS.

It is not always the gospel that is delivered from the pulpit. A man may preach very sensibly concerning the divine perfections, and the authority of God's government and laws. He may set forth the general obligations to duty and obedience. He may inculcate the amiableness of virtue in general, or of particular virtues, and may represent many worthy examples for men's encouragement and excitement. He may earnestly call on men to repent of their sins, and to reform the disposition of their hearts and their course of life. He may inculcate this with all the advantages of earnestness and action that would entitle him to the character of the complete orator. The composition may be very skilful, the language elegant and pathetic, and the preacher may be so greatly applauded, that it may sometimes be said, He hath his reward. Not only may the ears of the hearers be tickled, but their minds may be very agreeably entertained with sentiments that are in themselves just, and with many a good thought. Yet, in all this, there may be nothing by which a soul may be relieved and refreshed that labours and is heavy laden; nothing by which a serious soul may be directed to the proper sources of sanctification. A discourse may have in it much

truth that is consistent with the gospel, and presupposed by it, and yet have nothing in it of the gospel, properly so called. Of such a discourse, with all its advantage of sentiments and expression, it may be said, as the apostle says of the law, that it is weak through the flesh. The corruption of nature, in which sin hath dominion, is too strong for philosophy, logic, and rhetoric; too strong for refined speculation, strong argument, and the greatest oratory. Miss. Mag.

SHORT SENTENCES.

A CONSTANT seeking after heavenly wisdom, is no bad evidence of having already attained it.

To believe we have immortal souls, while we shew no concern about their eternal welfare, is to display our folly in the highest degree.

When a believer's trials come by the hand of man, a hard struggle may likely ensue, before he attain to a forgiving spirit.

To manifest a real concern for the good of a person's soul and body, in return for an injury received, is a clear evidence of a Christian spirit.

To be laying up for the body at the expense of the soul, is a piece of very unprofitable business.

Multitudes appear to live at ease in Sion, although they know that a wo is denounced in Scripture against them.

A conviction of gospel truth, joined to a disregard of it in the same person, gives a dreadful evidence of that person's state.

Ibid.

ANECDOTES.

OF MR. SHEPARD.

THE celebrated Mr. Shepard, on his death-bed, being visited by some of his younger brethren in the ministry, observed to them, "Your work is great, and calls for great seriousness." With respect to himself, he said, that the studying of his sermons very frequently cost him tears; that before he preached his sermons to others, he derived profit from them himself; and that he always went to the pulpit, as if he were immediately after to give up his account to his Divine Master.

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tain bishop to undertake to reason me out of my errors. He was a person not backward to attempt this, where he found a docile subject. But your son, said he, is too much elated at present, and carried away with the pleasing novelty of his error, to regard any arguments, as appears by the pleasure he takes in puzzling many ignorant persons with his captious questions. Let him alone; only continue praying to the Lord for him; he will in the course of his study discover his error. I myself, perverted by my mother, was once a Manichee, and read almost all their books; and yet at length was convinced of my error, without the help of any disputant. All this satisfied not my anxious parent; with floods of tears she persisted in her request, when at last he, a little out of temper, on account of her importunity, said, "Be gone, good woman; it is not possible that a child of such tears should perish." She has often told me since, that this answer impressed her mind as a voice from heaven."

Review of New Publications.

Mrs. Warren's History of the American Revolution. (Concluded from p. 384.)

THE History of the events during the revolution is both interesting and entertaining, and will be read with pleasure by those, who can be satisfied without entering into the minutia of

cruelty and carnage; and the devout mind will be gratified by the author's repeated acknowledgments of the superintending providence of God, and its frequent interpositions in our favour. But she seems to have occasionally forgotten that she was writing the history of the American Revolution, and has introduced narra

tives, (and those rather copious) of transactions, which had no connexion with it. The conclusions of the 22d and 27th chapters are of this kind.

In vol. 3, p. 93, we have an instance of filial piety, such as is seldom met with, and perhaps the only one of the kind, which has ever occurred in the United States. On the death of Henry Laurens, Esq. "his only surviving son closed his eyes. His

fond affection for his father led him to deviate from the usual customs of his countrymen in the manner of interring their friends. He reared an altar, on which he burned the body of the patriarch, and carefully gathered the ashes from the hearth, deposited them in a silver urn, and placed them in his bed-chamber, with reverence and veneration, where they remained to the day of his death. This circumstance is mentioned, as a peculiar instance of filial affection, and at once a mark of respect due to the memory of both the patriot and the parent."

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This representation differs so widely from the impression made upon our minds at the time of the event, that we have been led to a review of the publications of that day, to see what was then said on this subject; and in the New-York Magazine for January, 1793, p. 64, we find "The following extract of a letter dated Charleston, (S. C.) Dec. 24, is copied from the Norwich Weekly Register, of Jan. 14.

"A few days since departed this life, Henry Laurens, Esq. about seventy years of age, and his corpse was burnt the third day after his decease. This was done by his son, at the request

of his father; who made this reserve in his will," that unless his son complied with his request, he should be cut short of any of his estate," which was worth about 60,0001. sterling. The ashes remaining from the body were taken up, and put into a silver urn for that purpose. The reason that Mr. Laurens gave for this singular desire was, "that his body was too good to be eaten by worms." We pretend not to decide which statement is the more correct, but leave it to the reader to form his own opinion.

The work before us is "The History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution;" having reached the termination, we might be expected to stop; but "more last words" remain: ninety-nine pages of supplementary observations on events" after the ter mination" are yet before us; to which the following paragraph is an introduction.

"The narration of the revolutionary war between Great-Britain and her former colonies, brought down to its termination, leaves the mind at leisure for more general observations on the subsequent consequences, without confining it to time and place."

Amongst the "subsequent consequences" are enumerated "the insurrection in Massachusetts; a general convention of the States; the adoption of a new constitution; the choice of Gen. Washington as President; the treaty with Great Britain, negotiated by Mr. Jay ; and Gen. Washington's second retreat from public life." Beside these, "banks; the funding system; the Cincinnati; the federal city; the distribution of offices; the French Revolution; scepticism;"

the importance of delegating suitable men for the administration of government; the clergy; the rights of man; and the equal claims of mankind, have not been forgotten. "General observations" conclude the whole.

In the course of the work a great number of characters are drawn in this the author has discovered much facility, but we are not sufficiently informed to be able to pronounce upon her accuracy. We think a freedom is used in some instances which a gentleman would not, perhaps, have thought prudent.

After many remarks upon the characters and conduct of Gen. Washington and Mr. Adams, the reader is informed that

"The operations and the consequences of the civil administration of the first President of the United States, notwithstanding the many excellent qualities of his heart, and the virtues which adorned his life, have since been viewed at such opposite points, that further strictures on his charac ter and conduct shall be left to future historians, after time has mollified the passions and prejudices of the present generation." Vol. III. p. 389. "The

administration of his immediate successor we shall also leave." p. 391.

"The laborious statesmen, who with ability and precision defined the rights of men, and supported the freedom of their country; without whose efforts America never would have had an army, are many of them neglected or forgotten." p. 418.

The historian has evidently aimed at being impartial; but as she justly observes, "complete perfection is not to be attributed to man; undue prejudices and partialities often imperceptibly creep into the best of hearts." We naturally feel for our friends, and it is not impossible that the following complaints extracted from "a letter to the author," written by a "very judicious

gentleman, during the administration of Gen. Washington," may have excited her sympathy, and upon some occasions influenced her pen.

"The President of the United States held the hearts of all America in his hand from the moment of his elevation to the command of her armies, to his honourable retirement to private life, and from his dignified retreat to his inauguration at New York. Placed in the executive chair by the united voice of all parties, it was expected the chief magistrate, whom flattery endows with all perfection, and to whom justice attributes many excellent qualities, would have felt himself above the partialities that usually hang about the human heart; and that divesting himself of the little prejudices that obtrude, and frequently sully the greatest characters, he would have been of no party in his appointments, and that real merit, whether federal or anti-federal, would have the people begin to inquire whether been equally noticed...........Many of all the late energetic exertions were designed only to subserve the interests of a certain party, and to furnish salaries, sinecures, and extravagant compensations for the favourites of the army and the sycophants of power, to the exclusion of all who had not adopted the creed of passive obedi

ence."

Our author's remark respecting the clergy is, that they "should keep within their own line, which directs them to enforce the moral obligations of society, and to inculcate the doctrines of peace, brotherly kindness, and the forgiveness of injuries, taught by the example of their divine Master, nor should they leave the appropriate duties of their profession to descant on political principles or characters." The remark is certainly just; and if any of the gentlemen referred to have left "the appropriate duties of their profession to descant on political principles or characters," they de

obvious sense of the words, and not be made to speak the language of our particular theory. If we depart in the smallest degree from this rule, we open the door for incalculable injury to the cause of inspired truth. Were the passage abovementioned the only one, in which similar language is used concerning the ways of God, the construction of T. might be more readily admitted. But no one who has attentively read the Scriptures, needs to be informed that, in different connexions, and in various forms of speech, they often convey the same sentiment. Nor can I easily conceive that the figure, which T. introduces, of God's hardening himself against sinners, conveys a sentiment any more pleasing, or more free from difficulty, than the language of our common version.

T.'s explanation of Rom. ix. 2, 3, I am disposed to receive, if it will bear a close examination. But at present I am apprehensive that it weakens the apostle's reasoning, and sinks the sublime, holy patriotism, which glowed in his breast. At least I would ask, before resorting to T.'s explanation, whether the passage may not receive light from other parts of Paul's writings? May not his admirable sentiment in this place be illustrated by what he said to his brethren, who wept in prospect of the evils to which he would be exposed at Jerusalem; "what mean ye to weep and to break my heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Why may it not be illustrated by what he says to Timothy; "I endure all things

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for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory;" and by the spirit of a martyr, which he so strikingly expresses to the Philippians; yea, and if I be offered, &c." or as Doddridge translates and paraphrases it; “if I should even be poured forth, and my blood be shed, as a kind of libation or drink-offering, on the sacrifice and ministration of your faith, while you are presented by my means, as an acceptable offering to God, far from lamenting that I should meet with death in such a cause, I rather rejoice and congratulate you all. He not only presents himself as a resolute victim at the altar of God, but speaks of that stroke, by which his blood was to be poured out, as an occasion of joy, and calls for the congratulation of his friends upon it." Finally, how beautifully may the apostle's sublime sentiment, now under consideration be illustrated, by the self-denial of his life; by his voluntary submission to the severest sufferings; and by the Christlike benevolence, with which he forsook his own private interest, and devoted himself unreservedly and heroically, to the cause of the church.

Requesting you, Messrs. Editors, and Theophilus, to consider candidly the freedom of these remarks, and every reader to examine and judge for himself, I subscribe your constant friend,

CRITO.

BRIEF REMARKS ON A CIVIL

OATH.

An oath is the " calling upon God to witness, i. e. to take no

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