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Then deign, Almighty Guardian, still The word of promise to fulfil;

I would not crave release from strife Or absence from the snares of life,

But grant that, in temptation's day,
I still may meekly, humbly say,
"Thanks to my heavenly Father's care,
I feel not more than I can bear."

M. A.

Miscellaneous.

sketch of the LIFE OF REV. JACOB together and read. I had now some

GREEN, A. M.

(Continued from page 468.)* Soon after I began to learn Latin, about two months after my dream, I joined a society of religious young men, who met once a week to pray

* A note appears at the close of that part of the narrative that was given in our last number, which is as follows"Thus far I wrote my life before I was inoculated for the small pox. But now being inoculated, and uncertain whether I shall live to write any more, I here observe, that from the time of my dream, till I went to college, in 1740, I had the form of religion, but knew nothing really of the thing; but the first year that I was at college I met with something remarkable; and if I know any thing of true religion (as I hope I do) then I suppose was the beginning of it-Whether I shall live to write the account I know not. This observation I write the 27th day of February, 1777-1 have for several years had some thoughts of writing a sketch of my life, but never made any attempt till since I was sick last fall. All that precedes this 1 have written within a few

weeks this winter." Under the above, in another note, he adds-"I shall let the above note stand, and proceed in my narrative; which I do May 1st, 1777, after recovering from the small pox and other weakness.'

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We shall here briefly state that in the winter of 1776-1777, after the memorable military manœuvres and battles of Trenton and Princeton, on which the success of our revolutionary struggle apparently turned, General Washington cantoned his whole army, not a large one, in Morris county. The small pox had broken out among the troops, and proved exceed ingly fatal-The church in which the subject of this sketch statedly preached was used as an hospital, for those who had taken the disease in the natural way; and the present writer can never forget the appalling scenes which he there witness

appearance of religion, and, as I supposed, carefully attended to its duties; and by degrees I obtained more and more a hope that I might obtain mercy, and that my sin was not unpardonable: but yet, at times, I had such views of my former sins, and of my dream, as would almost overwhelm me, and sink me into despair. The summer following, viz. 1739, in company with the minister in whose house I lived, and who taught me Latin, our conversation for once (for it was not common) turned a little upon religion; by which he perceived I had some serious thoughts. The next Saturday he came into my room, and told me I must be prepared, for the next day he should propound me to join with the church, as he perceived by conversing with me of late, that I had thoughts of religion; and without saying more he left me. I was thunder struck, for I had no thoughts of joining the church, as I did not conceive my

ed, produced by the ravages of that frightful malady, now so happily disarmed of its terrors by the fortunate discovery of vaccination. The troops were distributed in the dwellings of the inhabitants, and the surgeons of the army inoculated both soldiers and citizens-the citizens without charge. The family of the writer's father consisted of nine individuals; and as well as can be recollected, fourteen officers and soldiers were quartered in the same dwelling. All were inoculated together, and all had the disease in a very favourable manner. Indeed the disease by inoculation was so light, that there was probably not a day in which the army could not have marched against the ene. my, if it had been necessary; but it providentially was not necessary.

self to be at all qualified for it. I did not know what to do, but being young and inconsiderate, I complied with his proposal, and was taken into the church. But I had no satisfaction in coming to the Lord's table from time to time; as might well be the case, for I was a sad instance of the minister's carelessness in admitting members to his church, and of my own presumption in consenting to his proposal. My thoughts and exercises about religion were indeed considerable, and eternal things had weight; but I knew i was not right, yet had a self-righteous hope, that by prayer and other means I should by degrees get into a good state. My exercises for a time were chiefly about my dream, and the sin that had occasioned it being unpardonable, &c. But at length the weight seemed in a measure to go off; and my thoughts turned upon the sins of disobedience to my parents in my childhood, as also some instances of lying when I was quite young. My mind was much exercised about these things, and I bore them in mind in prayer for several months, and then the burden seemed to go off, and I hoped God had pardoned

me.

After this I was much exercised to know what repentance and faith were. I read books on these subjects, but after all I feared I did not know what they were; and the truth was, I was as blind as a stone, for I knew not the things of the Spirit of God. But I was self-righteous, and by degrees I seemed to get considerable satisfaction about repentance and faith. Thus was I exercised, and thus I went to college, at Cambridge, in New England, in the summer of the year 1740.

SECTION III.

Whitefield made his first visit to New England, and preached at Cambridge, among other places. I heard him with wonder and affection, and approved highly of his preaching and conduct: and when he went to the south I followed him in September, 1740, attending his sermons, till he came to Leicester, where I left him and went to see my mother at Killingly-This proved to be the last time that I ever saw her, for she died in the December following.

From Killingly I returned to college, where religion was certainly at a very low ebb. There were about ten or a dozen scholars belonging to the college, who had formed a religious society and met once a week for religious exercises. To this society Ijoined myself; but so contemptible and persecuted were religion and religious persons, that we dared not sing in our worship, nor more than one or two go to, or return together, from the place where we met, lest our meeting should be discovered, and we not only ridiculed but disturbed in our worship. But in less than six months religious affairs took a very different turn: For in January, 1741, Mr. Gilbert Tennent came to Cambridge, in his preaching tour through New England. The Spirit of God seemed to be mightily operating, and Mr. Tennent's preaching to be much blessed-This was what many called The new light time. Religion seemed for some time to get the upper hand, and to bear all before it: And as I date my religion, if I have any, from this time, I shall endeavour to give some account of what I met with.

In order to this I must observe that I had previously, some how or other, obtained a hope of my good estate, and a hope much stronger Of my religious exercises and other than I imagined it to be before it circumstances, while I was at col- was tried and shaken. I often conlege. demned myself, and considered my Soon after I entered college Mr. religious attainments as very im

perfect, but it seems I had a hope that I was in a way that would end well. I was a church member; I was approved of by good people; the religious societies seemed glad at my joining them; I approved of Mr. Whitefield and the most zealous sort of people; and my mother had lately expressed her satisfaction as to my religion. Such things form a strong foundation for a selfrighteous person, and a false hope: And though I had at times very severe gripes of conscience about the unpardonable sin, yet in a short time I got over them, and resumed my hope. This was my situation when Mr. Tennent came to Cambridge, which was on a Saturday, I think January 24th, 1740-on the evening of which day he went into the college hall and preached his first sermon there. The next day he preached three times in the house of publick worship, at Cambridge. On the Saturday evening of his arrival, it was reported in college that another famous preacher, nearly or quite equal to Mr. Whitefield, had arrived, and was about to preach in the hall. I had never before heard of Mr. Tennent, but at the ringing of the bell I ran with others to the place of worship, with a light and cheerful heart, little thinking what would be to me the consequence.

a little recovery, things came harder and harder, and my hope shook more and more-Thought I with myself, "I cannot give up all hope" -at which instant Mr. Tennent said, "Some of you may try to maintain your old hope, though it shakes and has no foundation, and you will flatter and deceive yourselves; but your hope must come down. I know (said he) it will be like rending soul and body asunder, but down it must come, or you must go to hell with it." The working of my thoughts was just according to his preaching. I tried as long as possible to keep my hopethought it would be dreadful to have no hope of my good estate, and nothing to depend upon to keep me from going to hell. But in vain was my endeavour to keep my former hope-I was obliged to give it up, though it was, as Mr. Tennent said, like giving up the ghost, or rending soul and body asunder-I was divested of all hope of being in a good state: And moreover saw myself, more than I had ever done before-saw myself fit for hell. The sinfulness of my heart and nature appeared infinitely more dreadful than ever it had done before. I had a new and dreadful sense of my wickedness, and of God's holiness and justice-especially of his justice and equity in damning sinners for their sins; and I saw myself altogether defiled. These

Mr. Tennent came into the hall and prayed-"There is nothing in this man-thought I with myself-views began to open wonderfully worth making a noise about in the country;" and so I continued to think for a little while in the fore part of his sermon, which was quite moderate. But before long, I ceased thinking of the character of the preacher I could attend to nothing but my own case. Mr. Tencent was preaching on a false hope; and trying his hearers to see if their hope would stand the test. I tried for a while to agree with him, and to maintain my hope; but at length the battering was too severe, and my hope began to shake; and after

before the sermon was finished. When it was over, I left the hall, and as soon as possible retired at some distance to a solitary place, where I might pour out my soul with freedom. There I spent near an hour, though the weather was very cold. But the cold affected me not-my exercises kept me warm. While in this retirement, I heard a man (about one or two hundred yards from me, in a still more retired part of the fields) crying, groaning and praying aloud, in bitterness of soul. I heard little of

what he said, nor did I much attend to it-my own case was enough for me. But I thought it rational and probable that every one who came from the sermon was affected in that manner; and I was much surprised, when I returned to my room, to hear my room-mate ask me where I had been, and that he should appear in all respects as unaffected and unconcerned as usual -which I thought next to impossible for any one to be-In my retirement I had a great sense of the evil of sin,-of my own sin-heart sin-nature sin-and of the justice of God in damning sinners. It appeared fit and proper, and even necessary. I condemned myself ten thousand times over-I had such a sense of God's infinite greatness and goodness, holiness and excellence, and of the creature's littleness and meanness, that no punishment appeared too great for the sin of such vile creatures against such a God. I thought my lying in hell to all eternity would be little, very little, for such a vile wretch as I was, to bear for sin. I could not form any conception of any punishment, that would be any way adequate to the desert of such a monster as a sinner against such a God as Jehovah is, and then appeared to me to be. I past ten thousand sentences of damnation against myself, with all possible freedom. I could find no words that would suitably express the desert, or deserved punishment of sin. It appeared to me infinitely fit that God should be glorified-glorified by all creatures; and that it would be but little for a sinner to be damned to all eternity for the glory of God. I thought that my eternal suffering would be little, compared with the glory of God's justice that might be by it. My thoughts would run in this manner-the reasonableness or propriety of such thoughts I did not then consider--they came spontaneously, and I could not well help indulging them. Nothing of this kind, as I

remember, was said or offered in any sermon of Mr. Tennent that I heard, or heard of.”*

(To be continued.)

MENTAL SCIENCE.

Phenomena of Conscience.

of mental phenomena, and ascerHaving examined three classes tained that they belong to three different faculties, which are entirely sufficient to account for all mental exercises, it remains to examine some combinations, including certain operations of two or more faculties. We begin with Conscience, which has been differently explained.

science on human character and The important influence of conconduct renders it necessary to understand what it means, and its appropriate place in mental science. Perhaps no phenomena of mind have been more variously explained than those of conscience. We have been told it is the monitor of God in the human mind-heaven's vicegerent-a remnant of goodness which escaped the ruins of the fall in our progenitor—a distinct faculty by whose agency all moral actions are controlled, and we know not how many other theories have been published on this subject. It is not our intention now to examine

* It will afterwards appear that the subject of this sketch was no advocate for a person's being willing to be damned for derful that all who think on the subject the glory of God-He saw, what it is wondo not see-that a state of damnation is not only a state of suffering, but of the most awful, and incessant, and endless rebellion and blasphemy against God. There is surely a wide difference between seeing what our sins deserve and justifying the sentence of condemnation, and being willing to have that sentence executed, when the most fearful part of it is, do that which makes them guilty; and that the guilty shall for ever continue to when there is a method of deliverance both from sin and punishment.-Edit.

those theories in detail, to refute or establish them. There is one question involved in the investigation which must be more particularly examined and answered, viz. is conscience a distinct faculty of the mind? We ask this question distinctly and examine it, because the affirmative has been maintained with much plausible acuteness, and by respectable names. In this inquiry no authority can be acknowledged unless supported by facts, ascertained on the principles of induction. Nor can we yield to arguments, however acute, which are derived from theories or speculations. We must have facts well ascertained, and their laws of occurrence distinctly pointed out in all solutions of mental phenomena, before we can yield our assent.

Before describing the operations in question, we dispose of this inquiry by recurring to the principle of classification already established, by which we ascertain the distinction and character of mental faculties. So far as we are able to ascertain there is no distinct class of mental exercises differing in their nature from apprehension, feeling and volition. These have been shown to be distinct, and to prove distinct faculties. But in the range of our discovery there is no evidence of another faculty distinct from understanding, heart and will. So long as we adhere to the principle of classification which assigns all mental operations of the same nature to the same class, we shall have no difficulty in saying that conscience is not a distinct faculty and that there are no evidences of more than the three already described. On this point it is enough to deny the existence of another faculty, and show that the true principle of classification sets aside all pretended evidence of its existence. There is, it is true, a phraseology on this subject, which would seem to imply a faculty of conscience: We say, conscience ap

proves or condemns, estimates the morality of conduct, and the like. But the same is true of judgment, reason and affection, all which are known to be mental operations, not faculties. We need not stop here to explain the customary phraseology which, although figurative, has become so familiar that we overlook the metaphor. The direct explanation of conscience will present, in the analysis, a full refutation of all the arguments and hypotheses which are intended to prove it to be a distinct faculty.

Taking the principle of classification before illustrated as our guide; what is the character of that which we call conscience? We answer, it is apprehension and feeling; nothing more. There are some things presupposed and necessarily implied in the operations of conscience, which require to be explained in order fully to understand the phenomena and their analysis. Conscience always respects one's own feelings and actions, their moral relations and estimate. The moral qualities of our own conduct are the appropriate objects of the operations called conscience. The rule by which the morality is estimated, must always be taken into account in the analysis of these phenomena. There is a rule of estimation--a consciousness of our own conduct-an intellectual apprehension of the agreement or disagreement of our conduct with the rule-and the consequent approbation or disapprobation, which is a mode of feeling; either pleasure or pain. We are not able to find any thing more in the analysis.

But this needs some further explanation, in its several parts. The rule by which we ascertain the moral estimate of our conduct should be perfect, obvious and uniform; otherwise there may be doubt and great diversity in the estimate. Such a rule God has furnished in the revelation of his will; one that is definite, plain and perfect. Who

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