you any brothers? Yes; four befides me, and daddy and mammy. And do they none of them go to church? No.. What do you do on a Sunday? Why, daddy and mammy lie abed all the morning, and I and my brothers go out into the foreft to gather wood."

Now what muft become of thefe poor creatures, if no perfon goes into the foreft to feek them? Is it criminal in any good man to read, or fpeak to them, unlefs he is ordain-ed and licenfed by the Bishop himself? Will the Bishop feel light under the load of these perifhing, neglected beings, and neither fend himself to seek them, and those who were willing to go, would he hinder? The fact is certain, that multitudes of fuch are every to be found; who are distant from the church, or carelefs about the fabbath, or even when, they go once a week, if fo often, the means of inftruction are fo fmall and inadequate to all neceffary information in divine knowledge, that ignorance and error cannot but reign. uncontrouled, and with them the profanenefs and difordered manners, against which many make fo loud a cry, and yet take no effectual steps to remove them. If the Lord hath yet mercy in store for this guilty land, he will revive his, work, and ftir up a fpirit of more awakened attention in minifters and people. Then none will think it a fufficient excufe to fay," Am I my brother's keeper ?" But loving out of a pure heart fervently every good man will feek to communicate the bleffed truths he himself has been taught of God, and will not fuppofe the abuse or reproach of men a reafon for preventing him from plucking thefe brands from the burning.

PHILOSUKOS.

1

ANSWER TO THE FOLLOWING QUERY:

How could Jefus grow in wifdom and knowledge, if he were the true God, and, confequently, infinite in both?

F there be any difficulty in reconciling thefe ideas, it muft"

and

man natures in the perfon of Chrift implies a communication of properties; i. e. that whatever property belongs to him as a divine perfon, it muft, on his affuming human nature, belong to him as human. But I know of no fuch fentiment being held by any trinitarian. It is always maintained, fe

far as I know, that as Chrift was very God, he retained all the peculiar properties of godhead; and as he was made ve ry man, he affumed all the peculiar properties of manhood. The above fuppofition, fo far from belonging to the doctrine of what is called the hypoftatical union, is utterly inconfiftent with it; for if the union of the human nature to the Divini ty imply, that it must become infinite in wisdom and know ledge, it alfo implies that it must become omniprefent and almighty. And it might with equal propriety be afked how could Jefus grow in ftature and ftrength, if he were infinite in power? as how could he grow in wifdom and knowledge, if he were infinite in both? But this is equivalent to asking, How could he be a child born, and yet be called the Mighty God? That is, how could he be both God and man?

Further, if a union between the divine and human natures of Chrift imply a communication of properties, why should not that communication be mutual? There is just as much reafon for concluding that all the imperfections of humanity fhould be imparted to the divinity, as that all the perfections of divinity should be imparted to the humanity. But this would form a contradiction; as it would be fuppofing him to retain neither perfection nor imperfection, and fo to be neither God nor man.

But if we admit the fcripture account of things, no fuch confequences will follow. If that eternal life that was with the Father was fo manifested to us, as to be capable of being heard, and seen with our eyes, and looked upon and handled ; in other words, if he were a divine perfon, always exifting with the Father, and was manifefted to us by the affumption of human nature; and if each nature, though mysterioufly united, yet retains its peculiar properties, all is confiftent. Things may then be attributed to Chrift which belong to either his divine, or his human nature: he may be a child born, may grow up from infancy to age, increafe in knowledge, in wifdom, and in ftature; be fubject to hunger, and thirft, and wearinefs, and painfulnefs; in a word, in all things be made like unto his brethren: and at the fame time be, in another refpect, the mighty God, upholding all things by the word of his power.

If thou be the Son of God, faid Satan, command that these stones be made bread. This was infinuating that it was inconfiftent for fo divine a perfonage, who had the command of the whole creation, to be fubject to want. But the anfwer of Jefus intimates, that he was alfo the son of man, and that, as fuch, it was fitting that he fhould feel his depeadance upon God.

VOL. II.

T

The writer of the epiftle to the Hebrews, after afferting the dignity of the great Author of Chriftianity, as not only fuperior to angels, but acknowledged by the Father as God, whose throne was for ever and for ever, obviates an objection, that would arife from his deep humiliation; fhewing the neceffity there was for his being made like unto his breth

ren.

Socinians may amufe themselves, and their admirers, by talking of the abfurdity of God being expofed to fuffering, and of a man of Judea being the creator of the world. They know well enough, if they had candour fufficient to own it, that it is not as God that we afcribe the former to him, nor as man, the latter: yet, owing to the intimate union of divinity and humanity in his perfon, there is an important fenfe in which it may be faid, that the prince (or author) of life was killed; that God purchased his church with his own blood; that, hereby perceive we the love of GOD, because he LAID DOWN HIS LIFE for us; that our GREAT HIGH PRIEST, JESUS THE SON GOD, WAS TOUCHED WITH THE FEELING OF OUR INFIRMITIES, and that he who was born in Bethlehem, was before all things, and by him all things GAIUS.

consist.

ANECDOTE OF DR. DODDRIDGE.

To the Editor.

SIR,

Persuaded that the name of Doddridge will create no common degree of intereft in the minds of those who fofter the orphan memory of departed worth; I have selected, for the gratification of your numerous readers, the following interesting Anecdote, recorded by the Rev. Job Orton, in his "Memoirs of the late Rev. Phillip Doddridge, D. D." The early infertion of it will oblige,

Bonner's Hall,
Jan. 2d, 1801.

Your's respectfully,

MINIMUS.

N event of a public uncommon nature, (fays Mr. Orton,) in which he was particularly concerned, deferves to be related, as an evidence of his great benevolence, and

for the fake of the useful reflections he makes upon it :"April 5th, 1741. At our affize laft month, one Bryan Connell, an Irish Baptist was convicted of the murder of Richard Brymiey, of Weedon, about two years ago. The evidence against him at his trial feemed full and ftrong; but it chiefly depended on the credit of an infamous woman, who owned the had lived with him in adultery fome years. There were fome remarkable circumftances in the courfe of the trial, in which I thought the Providence of GOD wonderfully appeared. The prifoner told a long story of himfelf; but it was fo ill fupported, that I imagine no one perfon in court believed it. I vifited him after his conviction, with a compaflionate view to his eternal concerns; but initead of being able, by any remonftrances, to perfuade him to confefs the fact, I found him fixed in a moft refolute denial of it. He continued to deny it the next day with fuch folemn, calm, but earnest appeals to heaven, and fervent cries that GOD would infpire fome with the belief of his innocence, that I was much impreffed. As he defired to leave with me, at the time of his execution, a paper, in which he would give an account of the places where, and the perfons with whom he was, when the murder was committed, I was fo ftruck with the affair, that I obtained time of the Under Sheriff to make enquiry into the truth of what he had told me. Having fent a wife and faithful friend to Whitchurch and Chefter, to examine the evidence he pealed to, I found every circumftance which the convict had afferted, proved; and the concurrent teftimony of five credible perfons attefted, that he was in Chefhire, when the murder was committed. Thefe teftimonies I laid before the Judge by whom he was condemned, for the deliverance of what in my confcience I believed, and do ftill believe, to be innocent blood. But the Judge did not think himself warranted to reprieve him; as the evidence given against him by the wicked woman was materially confirmed by two other witneffes; and because he thought the most danger- . ous confequences might attend fuch an examination of the affair as I propofed. The Convict was accordingly executed! I had laboured with unwearied pains and zeal, both for the deliverance of his life, and the falvation of his foul. What made the cafe more affecting to me was, that nothing could be more tender than his expreffions of gratitude, and nothing more cheerful than his hope of deliverance had been. Among other things I remember he faid, Every drop of my blood thanks you.' He wished he might, before he died, have leave to kneel at the threshold of my door to

ap

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pray for me and mine, You," ," faith he, "are my Redeemer in one fenfe, (a poor, impotent redeemer !) and you have a right to me. If I live I am your property, and I will be a faithful fubject." The manner in which he spoke of what he promised himself from my friendship, if he had been spared, was exceeding natural and touching. Upon the whole, I never paffed through a more friking fcene. I defire it may teach me the following leffons: 1ft, to adore the awful justice of GOD in caufing this unhappy creature thus infamoufly to fall by her with whom he had fo fcandaloufly finned, to the ruin of a very loving and virtuous wife. Thus GoD made his own law effectual, that the adulterer should die. 2dly, To acknowledge the depths of the divine counfels; which in this affair, when I think on all the circumstances of it, are to me impenetrable. 3dly, To continue refolute in well-doing, though I fhould be, as in this inftance, I have been reproached and reviled for it. Some have faid, that I am an Irish Papist; others have ufed very contemptuous language, and thrown out bafe cenfures for my interpofing in this affair; though I am in my confcience perfua ded, that to have neglected that interpolition, in the view I then had of things, would have been the most criminal part in my whole life. 4thly, May I not learn from itgratitude to Him, who hath redeemed and delivered me? In which, alas! how far fhort do I fall of this poor creature! How eagerly did he receive the news of a reprieve for a few days! How tenderly did he exprefs his gratitude; that he hould be mine; that I might do what I pleafed with him; that I had bought him; fpoke of the delight with which he fhould fee and ferve me that he would come once a year from one end of the kingdom to the other, to fee and thank me, and fhould be glad never to go out of my fight. O why do not our hearts overflow with fuch fentiments on an occafion infinitely greater! We are all dead men. Execution would

foon have been done upon us: But Christ has redeemed us to God by his blood. We are not merely reprieved but par, doned; not merely pardoned but adopted; made heirs of eternal glory and near the borders of it. In confequence of all this we are not our own, but bought with a price. May we glorify God in our bodieies and fpirits which are his!