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FULLER-WHITAKER - SOUTH.

sands, that great ships drawing many feet of water cannot come near, lighter and lesser pennaces may freely and safely arrive. When we are time-bound, place-bound, or person-bound, so that we cannot compose ourselves to make a large solemn prayer, this is the right instant for ejaculations, whether orally uttered or only poured forth inwardly in the heart.

"Ejaculations take not up any room in the soul. They give liberty of callings, so that at the same instant one may follow his proper vocation. The husbandman may dart forth an ejaculation, and not make a balk the more.

The seaman nevertheless steers his ship right in the darkest night. Yea, the soldier at the same time, may shoot out his prayer to God, and aim his pistol at his enemy, the one better hitting the mark for the other."-FULLER'S Good Thoughts.

[Support of the Clergy.]

"Ir it be allowed," says DR. WHITAKER, (of Whalley, not of Manchester) "that this mode of providing for the Christian Priesthood is, strictly speaking, of divine institution, such a concession will supersede all reasoning, even in favour of the appointment. But waving for the present a point which I mean not either to affirm or deny, I would ask, whether at the foundation of parishes, and for many centuries after, it were possible to devise a method of supporting an incumbent equally wise and proper, with that of a manse, glebe and tithes. The pastor was not to be a vagrant among his flock; an house therefore was to be provided for him. He wanted the common necessaries of life (for it was held at that time that even spiritual men must eat and drink) and money there was none to purchase them; a moderate allotment therefore of land was also required. But the growth of grain, a process which demands much care and attention, would have converted the incumbent, as it has been well and frequently urged of late, into an illite

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rate farmer. It was proper therefore that the glebe should be restricted within such limits as would suffice for the production of milk, butter, cheese, animal food, and such other articles as require little labour, while the bread-corn and other grain of the minister should be supplied by the industry of his parishioners. And if the minister fed the people, as it was his office to do, with the bread that endureth,' there was an harmony as well as equity, in requiring that they should feed him in return with that 'which perisheth.' But this primitive and pleasing reciprocation of good offices too quickly ceased to be universal; and the common corruption of our nature will supersede the necessity of enquiring, whether the evil began with a subtraction of tithes or teaching. The declension would be mutual; and law, not love, would soon become the measure both of the one payment and the other."-History of Craven, p. 6.

[Disrespectful Treatment of the Clergy in England.]

"UPON the whole matter, if we consider the treatment of the clergy in these nations, since Popery was driven out, both as to the language and usage which they find from most about them; I do, from all that I have read, heard, or seen, confidently aver (and I wish I could speak it loud enough to reach all the corners and quarters of the whole world) that there is no nation or people under heaven, christian or not christian, which despise, hate, and trample upon their clergy or priesthood comparably to the English. So that (as matters have been carried) it is really no small argument of the predominance of conscience over interest, that there are yet parents who can be willing to breed up any of their sons (if hopefully endowed) to so discouraged and discouraging a profession."-SOUTH's Sermons, vol. 5, p. 420.

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[Difference of Ministrations.]

"THERE are others of a melancholy, reserved, and severe temper, who think much and speak little; and these are the fittest to serve the Church in the pensive, afflictive parts of religion; in the austerities of repentance and mortification, in a retirement from the world, and a settled composure of their thoughts to self-reflection and meditation. And such also are the ablest to deal with troubled and distressed consciences, to meet with their doubts, and to answer their objections, and to ransack every corner of their shifting and fallacious hearts, and in a word, to lay before them the true state of their souls, having so frequently descended into, and took a strict account of their own. And this is so great a work, that there are not many whose minds and tempers are capable of it, who yet may be serviceable enough to the Church in other things. And it is the same thoughtful and reserved temper of spirit, which must enable others to serve the Church in the hard and controversial parts of religion. Which sort of men, (though they should never rub men's itching ears from the pulpit) the| Church can no more be without, than a garrison can be without soldiers, or a city without walls; or than a man can defend himself with his tongue, when his enemy comes against him with his sword. And therefore, great pity it is, that such as God has eminently and peculiarly furnished, and (as it were) cut out for this service, should be cast upon, and compelled, to the popular, speaking, noisy part of divinity; it being all one, as if, when a town is besieged, the governor of it should call off a valiant and expert soldier from the walls, to sing him a song or play him a lesson upon the violin at a banquet, and then turn him out of town, because he could not sing and play as well as he could fight. And yet as ridiculous as this is, it is but too like the irrational and absurd humour of the present age; which thinks all sense and worth confined wholly to the pulpit. And many

excellent persons, because they cannot make a noise with chapter and verse and harangue it twice a day to factitious tradesmen, and ignorant old women, are esteemed of as nothing and scarce thought worthy to eat the Church's bread."-SOUTH's Sermons, vol. 3, p. 429.

[Christians looking to the Sun-rising.]

"THE Primitive Christians used to assemble on the steps of the Basilica of St. Peter, to see the first rays of the rising sun, and kneel, curvatis cervicibus in honorem splendidi Orbis."-S. LEO. Serm. 7. de Nativit.

The practice was prohibited as savouring of, or leading to Gentilism.-BERNINO, vol. 1, p. 45.

[God's Witness of Himself.]

"I HAVE been ever prone to take this for a principle, and a very safe one too, viz. That there is no opinion really good (I mean good in the natural, beneficent consequences thereof) which can be false. And accordingly, when religion, even natural, tells us, that there is a God, and that he is a rewarder of every man according to his works; that he is a most wise Governor, and a most just and impartial Judge, and for that reason has appointed a future estate, wherein every man shall receive a retribution suitable to what he had done in his life time. And moreover, when the Christian religion farther assures us, that Christ has satisfied God's justice for sin, and purchased eternal redemption and salvation, for even the greatest sinners, who shall repent of, and turn from their sins; and withall, has given such excellent laws to the world, that if men perform them, they shall not fail to reap an eternal reward of happiness, as the fruit and effect of the fore-mentioned satisfaction; as on the other side, that if they live viciously, and die impenitent, they shall inevitably be disposed of into a condition of eternal and insup

SOUTH.

portable misery. These, I say, are some of the principal things, which religion, both natural and christian, proposes to mankind. “And now, before we come to acknowledge the truth of them, let us seriously, and in good earnest examine them, and consider how good, how expedient, and how suitably to all the ends and uses of humane life it is, that there should be such things; how unable society would be to subsist without them; how the whole world would sink into another chaos and confusion, did not the awe and belief of these things (or something like them) regulate and controul the exorbitances of men's headstrong and unruly wills. Upon a thorough consideration of all which, I am confident, that there is no truly wise and thinking person, who (could he suppose that the fore-cited dictates of religion should not prove really true) would not however wish at least that they were so. For allowing (what experience too sadly demonstrates) that an universal guilt has passed upon all mankind through sin; and supposing withall that there were no hopes, or terms of pardon held forth to sinners, would not an universal despair follow an universal guilt? And would not such a despair drive the worship of God out of the world? For certain it is, that none would pray to him, serve or worship him, and much less suffer for him, who despaired to receive any good from him. And on the other side, could sinners have any solid ground to hope for pardon of sin, without an antecedent satisfaction made to the Divine Justice so infinitely wronged by sin? Or could the honour of that great Attribute be preserved without such a compensation? And yet farther, could all the wit and reason of man conceive, how such a satisfaction could be made, had not religion revealed to us a Saviour, who was both God and Man, and upon that account only fitted and enabled to make it? And after all could the benefits of this satisfaction be attainable by any, but upon the conditions of repentance, and change of life, would not all piety and

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holy living be thereby banished from the societies of men? So that we see from hence, that it is religion alone which opposes itself to all the dire consequences, and (like the angel appointed to guard Paradise with a flaming sword) stands in the breach against all that despair, violence, and impiety, which would otherwise irresistably break in upon, and infest mankind in all their concerns, civil and spiritual.

"And this one consideration (were there no farther arguments for it, either from faith or philosophy) is to me an irrefragable proof of the truth of the doctrines delivered by it. For, that a falsehood (which as such, is the defect, the reproach, and the very deformity of nature) should have such generous, such wholesome, and sovereign effects, as to keep the whole world in order, and that a lye should be the great bond or ligament which holds all the societies of mankind together; keeping them from cutting throats, and tearing one another in pieces, as (if religion be not a truth, all these salutary, publick benefits must be ascribed to tricks and lies) would be such an assertion, as, upon all the solid grounds of sense and reason, (to go no farther) ought to be looked upon as unmeasurably absurd and unnatural.”—SOUTH's Sermons, vol. 4, p. 406.

[Meditation.]

"IN meditation, strive rather for graces than for gifts, for affections in the way of virtue more than the overflowings of sensible devotion; and, therefore, if thou findest any thing, by which thou mayest be better, though thy spirit do not actually rejoice, or find any gust or relish in the manducation, yet choose it greedily. For although the chief end of meditation be affection, and not determinations intellectual; yet there is choice to be had of the affections; and care must be taken, that the affections be desires of virtue, or repu

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JEREMY TAYLOR-SOUTH.

diations and aversions from something criminal; not joys and transportations spiritual, comforts, and complacencies; for they are no part of our duty: sometimes they are encouragements, and sometimes rewards; sometimes they depend upon habitude and disposition of body, and seem great matters, when they have little in them; and are more bodily than spiritual, like the gift of tears, and yearning of the bowels; and sometimes they are illusions and temptations, at which if the soul stoops and be greedy after, they may prove like Hippomenes' golden apples to Atalanta, retard our course and possibly do some hazard to the whole race."-JEREMY TAYLOR, vol. 1, p. 114.

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[Evil Results of Want of Catechising.] "It is want of catechising which has been

the true cause of those numerous sects, schisms, and wild opinions, which have so disturbed the peace, and bid fair to destroy the religion of the nation. For the consciences of men have been filled with wind and noise, empty notions and pulpit tattle. So that amongst the most seraphical illuminati, and the highest puritan perfectionists, you shall find people, of fifty, threescore, and fourscore years old, not able to give that account of their faith, which you might have had heretofore from a boy of nine or ten. Thus far had the pulpit (by accident) disordered the church, and the desk must restore it. For you know the main business of the pulpit in the late times (which we are not thoroughly recovered from yet, and perhaps never shall) was to please and pamper a proud, senseless humour, or rather a kind of spiritual itch, which had then seized the greatest part of the nation, and worked chiefly about their ears; and none were so overrun with it, as the holy sisterhood, the daughters of Sion, and the matrons of the new Jerusalem (as they called themselves). These brought with them ignorance and itching ears in abundance;

and holder-forth equalled them in one, and gratified them in the other. So that whatsoever the doctrine was, the application still ran on the surest side; for to give those doctrine and use-men, those pulpit-engineers their due, they understood how to plant their batteries and to make their attacks perfectly well; and knew that by pleasing the wife, they should not fail to preach the husband in their pocket. And therefore to prevent the success of such pious frauds for the future, let children be well-principled, and in order to that let them be carefully catechised."-SOUTH's Sermons, vol. 5. p.

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[Stratagems of Satan.]

"I HAVE known the time," says the S. S. WILLIAM HUNTINGTON, "when I was engaged in the same fight, that as fast as I shifted my ground, the Devil shifted his. When I had made a thing clear by the Word of God, he attacked the Word also, and told me that the Scriptures were a device of his to puzzle, baffle and confound mankind. When I flew to the divine Being, he told me, as the fool says in the Psalms, 'There is no God.' When I fled to the works of creation and asked who made these things? he told me plainly that he did. When I asked who made me? he answers in the affirmative, that he did. When I asked why men worshipped God? he told me he received worship and I must pray to him, for there was no other to pray to;-thus was my mind followed, harassed, confused and confounded; but not one of these lies could fasten on my conscience, though I was dumb, and without an answer."—Gleanings of the Vintage, part 1, p. 38.

[Effects of the Predestinarian Doctrine.]

THERE is a curious passage in the works of WILLIAM HUNTINGTON, S.S. more illustrative of the effects of the Predestinarian doctrines than that Arch-Calvinist would have liked to allow. It occurs in his second

HUNTINGTON · SCOTT.

operation upon Timothy Priestley (vol. x. p. 248). "I could at this time," he says, "bring two persons to friend Timothy, who are so willing to be delivered from sin, and with the mind to serve the law of God, that I verily believe they would part with the whole world if they had it, pluck out their own eyes and give them to Timothy, and suffer every bone in their bodies to be broken on the wheel, for one beam of hope, much more to be persuaded that the good hand of God is with them. And I add that all the above bodily sufferings would be but a flee-bite to what they daily feel in their minds: and they are not driven into this willingness to be saved by what Timothy calls an accidental frame, for they have been thus willing for years. One of them has lain at the pool above thirty years: it came on the person when a child. They have puzzled and wearied all the divines that they have hitherto consulted; and for my part I should like to see Timothy try the validity of this evidence of his upon them. But alas, they find it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth: but of God, who will have mercy on whom he will have mercy. The grand question with them is, not whether they will be saved? this they could answer without hesitation: but it is, whether they may be saved, or whether God will save them? Let them be persuaded of this, and the work is done."

[Unfounded Charge of the Bishops' hinder

ing of the Printing of Good Books.] Is a Dialogue upon the causes of our civil wars under Charles the First, translated from the Dutch, it is said of the bishops, "they have to their power forbidden the printing of all good books, and contrarily, suffered to be printed all arminianish, papish, vain books of Amadis de Gaul, and of comedies to 40,000 in a year." -SCOTT's Edition of the Somers' Tracts, vol. 5, p. 17.

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[Beza's Rejection of all profane Studies for Christ.]

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"Ir enim in causâ sunt, ii multiplicibus tandem effecerunt precibus, ut opus hoc ab ipso auctore in hac summâ senectâ, in tantis occupationibus sit collectum et recognitum. Sed recensendæ sunt causæ, quibus hoc ut faceret, passus sibi est ab amicis persuaderi. Intellexit enim et pro certo compertum habuit. Juvenilia ista sua poemata ab Adversariis non tam in sui, quam in Dei ipsius odium, subinde recudi, et hoc non tantum, sed et multò indigniora effingi ac addi. Quæ sane audacia, vel impietas potiùs, detestanda est et intolerabilis. Scripsit ista D. Beza, liberius quidem sed juvenis admodum, et adhortante viro optimo doctissimoque Meliore Volmario preceptore suo, edidit, incitatus insuper exemplis, tam recentiorum, quam veterum. Sed quàm primum Christi cognitione fuisset imbutus, et veræ Ecclesiæ civis factus esset, nemo ista priùs, nemo severiùs, et quidem publicè, quam ipse D. Beza damnavit; ac ab eo tempore omnia sua dicta et scripta in solius Redemptoris sui laudem direxit."Ded. Preface to the Geneva Edition of Beza's Poemata Varia (1597), by VINCESLAUS MORKOVVSKY de ZartriseLL. Inserted in Sir Egerton Brydges' Polyanthea Librorum Vetustiorum, p. 337.

[Beza's Rejection of Poetry.]

"POETAS, (quos naturæ quodam impulsu amabat) non legit tantum, sed imitari studuit; unde ab eo intra annum vicesimum scripta sunt ferè omnia poemata illa, quæ præceptori illi suo inscripsit. In quibus non mores, sed stylum Catulli et Nasonis, ad imitandum sibi proponens, epigrammata quædum licentiosius, quam postea voluisset, scripta effudit. Illa enim ipsemet paulo post, omnium primus damnavit ac detestatus est. Ac sanè vivunt contrario librorum omnium genio. Nam adquum versariorum scriptis bellum indicere adver

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