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of triumph for their deliverance, and to praife the LORD with timbrels and with dances: if when the fame people were delivered from the Babylonis captivity, they went out with joy, and were led forth with peace, the mountains and the bills breaking forth before them into finging, and all the trees of the field clapping their bands; if then the lame man leaped as an hart, the tongue of the dumb fung, and the ranformed of the LORD returned, and came to Sion with longs, and everlafting joy upon their beads, joy and gladness going before them, and forrow and fighing fleeing away at their advance: if when king DAVID brought the ark, a fymbol of the Divine prefence, unto Sin, he danced before it in all his might, with fhouting, and the found of the trumpet, while the envious and malignant MICHAL feverely cenfured his pious hilarity: if, when the fame royal Enthusiast* was only banished from the tabernacle of GOD, he affectionately cried out-As the heart panteth after the water brooks, fo panteth my foul after thee, O GOD: my foul is athirst for GOD, for the living GOD; when shall I come and appear before GOD?-My foul thirfteth for thee; my flesh longeth for thee; my foul followeth hard after thee; my foul gafpetb after thee as a thirsty land: and if, when this fame enviable Fanatic came to die, he again cried out in the full afsurance of faith-He bath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and fure; this is all my falvation, and all my defiret: if, when the lame beggar, who had been healed by PETER and JOHN, entered with them into the temple, he walked, and leaped, and praifed GOD, the Scribes and Pharifees being all in arms against them: if, when PAUL and SILAS had been fcourged and imprifoned for the name of the LORD JESUS, they prayed in the dungeon at midnight

It is a common mistake to fuppofe that none but religious people are enthufiafts. Enthufiafm is found in every form and fpecies of human life. The orator and the poet, the hero and the politician, the intolerant advocate for toleration, and the projective defenders of Christianity, may all be enthufiafts. See a fine account of different kinds of enthufiafts in ANDREW's Scripture Doctrine of Grace, p. 93-97; a paffage which every one fhould read and well confider, wno is forward in dealing out the charge of enthufiafm against zealioufly religious people of all denomi

nations.

+ What must have been DAVID's feeling's when he compofed the 95th, 145th, and five following pfalms??

and

and fang praises unto God, for the honour conferred upon them, and in believing views of the reward which awaited them; and if, when the Church of Rome is overturned, the whole triumphant hoft is reprefented as crying aloudHallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! for the LORD GOD OMNIPOTENT reigneth!

If there has been, and would be, and ought to be, fuch ardent defire, and fuch rapturous joy and triumph upon all these very inferior occafions; fhall not a man, who has long been buffetted by the world, allured and feduced by the flefh, and vilely tempted by the foul apoftate Spirit; and who, notwithttanding, has for a good feafon been living under a strong and vigorous sense of the knowledge and falvation by the remiffion of his Jins, and a sweet experimental union and communion with GOD, the father of fpirits, through the infinitely perfect obedience and all-atoning death of his only begotten Son, by the communications of the eternal SPIRIT; fhall not a man, fo fituated, I fay, rejoice in hope of the glory of GOD with exceedingly great and triumphant joy, when he is within fight of land, driving with wind and tide into the haven of reft, juft upon the point of taking affured poffeffion of an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away †?

"What heart of stone, but glows at thoughts like these?
"Such contemplations mount us; and fhould mount

"The mind ftill higher; nor ever glance on man,

66

Unraptured, uninflam'd."

If ever mortal lived the life of an angel upon earth, Mr. JANEWAY feems to have been the man. How far do the enjoyments even of lively Chriftians fall short of those

* Why may not a man, who makes it his main concern in life, to ferve GOD and fave his foul alive, expect peculiar manifeftations of the divine favour? It is certain that the promises of Scripture to this purpose are exceedingly strong and numerous, and the examples not lefs fo. 1 believe I fpeak confiderably within compafs when I fay, that there are in the Bible upwards of an hundred of thefe fpecial manifestations to the fervants of God recorded.

+ Dr. PRIESTLEY confiders thefe ftrong confolations in the views of approaching diffolution as enthufiam See his Obfervations on the Increase of Infidelity. p. 27.

lengths,

lengths, and breadths, and heights, and depths of the love of CHRIST with which he was favoured? To evince this, I will present the reader with a short sketch of his dying fcene, and leave him to judge, whether he ever saw or perused any account of an exit fo far beyond the common run of Chriftians. And yet, by the grace of God, and a diligent use of the divinely appointed means, this, or fomething like this, might be the attainment of all.

Mr. JANEWAY was born in the year 1633, at Tylly in Hertfordshire. At about twelve years old, he had made a confiderable proficiency in mathematic fcience, and in the study of aftronomy, and other parts of useful literature. At feventeen he was admitted to King's College in Cambridge. At eighteen it pleased GOD to enlighten his underftanding, and to give him the knowledge and experience of evangelical truth. Mr. BAXTER's Saints Everlasting Rest became his favourite book. This he read, ftudied, imitated. Now he knew, that aftronomy, with which he was fo delighted, furveyed but a dunghill in comparison of that fyftem of things which the religion of Jesus contemplates. Stars, about which Mr. PAINE makes fuch a pother, are but dirty clods, when compared with that glory which lies beyond the reach of the highest human contemplation. He was now, therefore, wholly occupied with divine contemplations, and tafted fo much sweetness in the knowledge of CHRIST, that it was difcernable in very appearance, and he counted every thing but drofs and dung, in comparison of the knowledge of CHRIST and bim crucified. Not that he looked upon human learning as useless: but when fixed below CHRIST, not improved for CHRIST, or fet in oppofition to CHRIST; he looked upon wisdom as folly, upon learning as madnefs, and upon genius as a curfe, which would make a man more like the Devil, more fit for his fervice, and put a greater accent upon our misery in another world.

his

At the age of twenty he was admitted a Fellow of his College. Still, however, he went on with his religious contemplations, and became fo mighty in prayer, and other facred exercifes, that he forgot the weakness of his body, and injured his health. He studied much, prayed much,

and

and laboured much in every way he could contrive to be of use to mankind, and to promote the honour of the DIVINE BEING. Sickness coming on, he was never permitted to preach but twice. His diforder, which was of the confumptive kind, encreased rapidly upon him, but yet with fome intervals of relief. During the greatest part of his fickness, however, he was fo filled with love, and peace, and joy, that human language finks under what he faw and felt. During the greatest part of his illness, he talked as if he had been in the third heavens; breaking out every now and then into extafies of joy and praise. Not a word dropped from his mouth but it breathed of CHRIST and heaven. He talked as if he had been with JESUS, and came from the immediate presence of GOD. At one time he said:" O my friends stand and wonder; come, look upon a dying man and wonder. Was there ever greater kindness? Were there ever more fenfible manifeftations of rich grace? O, why me, LORD? why me? Sure this is akin to heaven. And if I were never to enjoy more than this, it were well worth all the torments men and devils could invent. If this be dying, dying is fweet. Let no Chriftian ever be afraid of dying. Oh! death is sweet to me! This bed is foft. CHRIST's arms, his smiles, and vifits, fure they would turn hell into heaven! Oh! that you did but fee and feel what I do! Come, and behold a dying man, more cheerful than ever you saw any healthful man in the midft of his fweeteft enjoyments. O Sirs! worldly pleasures are pitiful, poor, forry things, compared with one glimpfe of his glory which fhines fo ftrongly into my foul. Oh! why fhould any of you be fo fad, when I am fo glad! This, this is the hour that I have waited for."

About forty-eight hours before his diffolution he faid again:

"Praise is now my work, and I fhall be engaged in that sweet employment for ever. Come, let us lift up our voice in praise. I have nothing else to do. I have done with prayer, and all other ordinances. I have almost done converfing with mortals. I fhall presently be beholding CHRIST himself, that died for me, and loved me, and

washed

wafhed me in his blood. I fhall in a few hours be in eternity, finging the fong of MOSES, and the fong of the LAMB. I fhall prefently stand upon mount Sion with an innumerable company of angels, and the fpirits of just men made perfect, and JESUS the mediator of the new covenant. I fhall hear the voice of much people, and be one amongst them who fay-Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and honour, and power unto the LORD our GOD! And again we say, Hallelujah! Methinks I ftand as it were one foot in heaven, and the other on earth. Methinks I hear the melody of heaven, and by faith I fee the angels waiting to carry my foul to the bofom of JESUS, and I fhall be for ever with the LORD in glory. And who can choose but rejoice in all this ?"

In fuch a rapturous ftrain as this he continued, full of praife, full of admiration, full of joy, till at length, with abundance of faith and fervency, he cried aloud:-"Amen! Amen!" and foon after expired*.

And

Mr. JANEWAY arrived at these high attainments in the divine life, by a conftant perusal of his Bible; a frequent perufal of Mr. BAXTER'S Saint's Everlasting Reft, a book tor which multitudes will have caufe to blefs God for ever; and by spending a due proportion of every day in fecret prayer, and devout contemplation.

The Earl of Mirandola and Concordia, who died in the flower of his age, about the year 1494, after he had for fome time quitted all his great employments under CHARLES the fifth, emperor of Germany, was efteemed the most beautiful perfon of that age, and a man of the moft exalted genius; and yet, after having read all that could be read, and learned every thing that could then be learned, he wrote to his Nephew, an officer in the army, in a ftile worthy of the above example of JANEWAY:"I make it my humble request to you," fays he, "that you would not "fail to read the Holy Scriptures night and morning with great attention; "for as it is our duty to meditate upon the Law of Gop day and night,

fo nothing can be more ufeful; because there is in the Holy Scriptures a celestial and efficatious power, inflaming the foul with divine fear "and love."

Our celebrated SPENCER, though a man of diffipation in his youth, in his more advanced years entered into the interior of religion, and in his two Hymns on Heavenly Love, and Heavenly Beauty, hath expreffed all the height and depth of JANEWAY's experience;

Then fhalt thou feel thy fpirit fo poffeft,
"And ravifht with devouring great defire
"Of his dear felf, that shall thy feeble breaft

"Inflame

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