our Saviour and if this courfe be purfued, we fhall find no time for folly, and no inclination for flander.

3. The last and most effectual method, and one that is indeed frequently and earnestly recommended in the word of God, is feparation from the world: "Be not conformed to "this world,-be not partakers of their fins,-touch not "the unclean thing,-come out from among them, and be "ye feparate." In the prefent ftate of fociety, we are not required wholly to feclude ourselves from the company of unbelievers; nor would it be honourable to our profeffion to do fo while Providence is favouring us with abilities, or station, or influence, that may be made fubfervient to the caufe of religion; or while our calling is fuch as obliges us to labour among those whom we should not otherwife chuse for our companions: but while we are prefent with them in perfon, we fhould in fome good meafure be abfent from them in fpirit. The Holy Spirit the Comforter, if we are enabled to pray fervently for his fanctifying influences, can preferve our hearts and minds from contamination in the midft of folly and profanity; and even while we are neceffarily labouring for the food that perifheth, can fix our contemplations on that heavenly inheritance which is referved for thofe whom God upholds through faith unto falvation. And can we in the midst of fuch contemplations defcend to the grovelling vice of flander? Will not our fi lence rather, when this or any other unwarrantable, fubject is in agitation, operate as a guard upon ourfelves, a manifeftation of our living above the world, and a gentle, though unequivocal rebuke to thofe who are thus abufing the greateft and nobleft gift of nature, the gift of fpeech?

These may be serviceable means of combating this hateful propenfity: they will, however, be but laborious and fruitlefs attempts without a divine bleffing upon our endeavours. Let us, conftantly and fervently, put up our petitions to the Holy Spirit, that he would defcend and take up his abode with us, fanctifying our hearts and strengthening our hands to caft out, not only this, but all our fpiritural enemies.

F.

ON THE MIRACLES OF JESUS.

The following extract is taken from John Despagne, on the Creed. He was a French Proteftant, born in Dauphine, in 1591; and was Paftor of a congregation of Refugees, which met at Somerfet chapel, in Westminster. He died in 1659. His works were published at Geneva, in 1671.

"WHEN wine was wanted for others, Jefus Chrift

turned water into wine; but when he was thirsty himself, he asked water of a Samaritan woman: when others were hungry, he fed thousands with a few loaves; but when he hungred, and faw a fig-tree in the way, on which he found nothing but leaves, he did not make it produce fruit for his own ufe, as he might have done by a fingle word. Thus, when wearied with his journey, he might have commanded angels to bear him up in their hands, or have caufed himself to be carried by the Spirit, as Philip was afterwards; but he never wrought miracles for his own ease or convenience. As he came into the world for the benefit of others, fo his miracles were referved for others only. This was a part of his humiliation; but while he employed his miraculous power for the relief of others, he never ufed it for himfelf."

This remark is very juft, though it never directly struck my mind before; but, upon reading it, I was immediately led to confider this peculiarity in the History of the Life and Miracles of Jefus, as a ftrong evidence of its authenticity. Had the four Gofpels been the invention of men, they never would have thought of obferving fuch a rule as this, in their representation of the hero of their legendary tale, so that in reciting many scores of miracles, all fhould appear to anfwer the above defcription; or, if impoftors had laid down fuch a rule, they would have been careful to make every reader notice it. Impoftors would never have given this uniform reprefentation in a fictitious hiftory; or, if they had they would have noticed it as a fubject of panegyric: but the Evangelifts always recorded with this rule, and yet never indicate their defire that fo ftriking a fingularity fhould he admired. Therefore their picture must have been taken from the life, and not created by their own fancy. And if Jefus anfwered their defcription, he must have been "God manifeft in the flesh." Amen. Amen. S. C.

EFFECTS OF SECRET PRAYER,

The following remarkable Circumstance, in which the hand of God is evident, took place a fhort time fince, near the town wherein I refide, and may not be unworthy a place in your valuable Magazine.

young man in the army, lately called by divine grace, not having a place in the barracks in which he was quartered, wherein to pour out his foul unto God in fecret, went one dark night into a large field adjoining. Here he thought no eye could fee, nor ear hear him, but God's: but He, "whofe thoughts are not as our thoughts," ordained otherwife. Two ungodly men belonging to the fame regi ment, in whofe hearts enmity had long fubtisted against each other, were refolved that night to end it (as they faid) by a battle, being prevented at day-time for fear of punishment. They chofe the fame field to fight as the other had chosen to pray. Now the field is very large, and they might have taken different ways; but they were led by Providence to the fame spot, where the young man was engaged in his delightful exercife. They were furprized at hearing, as they thought, a voice in the field at that time of night; and much more fo, when they drew nearer and heard a man at prayer. They halted, and gave attention; and, wonderful to tell, the prayer had fuch an effect upon both, as to turn that enmity they before manifefted against each other, into love. They took each other inftantly by the hand, and cor. dially confeffed that there remained no longer, in either of their breafts, hatred against each other-And that the Lord may fo faften what they felt upon their hearts, that it may be the inftrument in his hands, of allaying the enmity in their breafts againft his Bleffed Self, let every reader offer. up his humble petitions with thofe of

H. D

ACCOUNT OF THE CONVERSION OF LEVI P

AND CATHARINE M

FROM THE JEWISH RELIGION TO CHRISTIANITY,

(Received from the Secretary of the Dutch Missionary Society.)

EVI, the fon of an honeft Jew, well known at Schiedam,

cepts of the rabbins, was as well as his deceased brother (in a good fenfe) a Jewith free-thinker; having a great respect for Mofes and the Prophets, but by no means fatisfied with the traditions of the Talmud, on which the brothers often converfed together, and communicated their doubts to one another.

1

Catharina, the daughter of parents who, as fhe fays, are very honeft and virtuous, but rather bigotted to Jewish precepts, had lived formerly as fervant with fome refpectable Portuguese Jews, at whofe houfe fhe firft heard the New Teftament and Chriftianity spoken of as worthy fome attention; and fhe came with her mafter and mistress into England, where the got acquainted with fome Chriftian fervants, which led her to form a ftill more favourable opinion of Christianity.

Catharina, firft-coufin of Levi and his brother, having taken charge of their houfe-keeping, often heard the brothers difcourfe freely of feveral points of the Jewish faith, in which they differed from other Jews, without being offended, conducting herfelf according to the fituation in which the ftood, and conniving at their not obferving the Jewish cuftoms in every particular,

The brother of Levi was very much indifpofed, and fometimes flood in need of veal foup, and other ftrengthening things. He felt the inconvenience of the diet allowed by the Jewish Talmud to thofe who are weak and fickly; which ftrengthened his opinion, that thofe laws could not be of God, as his laws are calculated to promote the happiness of mankind, and not their mifery. His brother Levi, agreed with him in this; and both began to perceive that the eccle Haftical and civil laws of Mofes were only temporary and

local, being calculated for Ifrael in the hot climate of Canaan, and not for other climates, where they could not be permanent nor lafting.

This led them farther to examine the nature and tendency of the Mofaical difpenfation, to confider the present state of their people, and to enquire into the reafon of their being banifhed out of Canaan: and they could not reft fatisfied in the answers of the rabbins on these questions: "Why Ifrael is excluded from Canaan?-and what can be the caufe that the Meffiah, their deliverer, does not come to the help of his people?"

The brother of Levi dying in this uncertainty, Levi himfelf was made acquainted with the New Teftament by means of the furgeon who attended his brother. Reading this divine book, together with his coufin Catharina, they both felt an uncommon attachment to the perfon of Jefus of Nazareth.

In Levi's opinion, Jefus was a great man, because he dared openly contradict the Pharifees, who caft a veil over the law of God, and defended their precepts to the injury of the true faith.

In Catharina's opinion, Jefus was a minifter worthy of great efteem for his excellent morals; chiefly, for his com mand, Love your enemies! Both formed a favourable opinion of the perfon of the Redeemer; but ftill doubted of his being the Meffiah. For this reafon they afked the perfon who gave them the New Teftament, for the Old, which they had not yet read entirely. This having obtained, and confidered the near affinity between the Old and New Tefla ment, they both concluded,-" The Old Teftament is defective without the New; and the New Teftament is a clear completion of the Old." Refpecting the Saviour, they were, and remained ftill doubtful; and chiefly, because he himfelf complained, as he hung on the crofs, that God had forfaken him; whereas they thought, that God neither would nor could forfake the true Mefliah. Being oppreffed with this burthen, and not knowing how to obtain fatisfaction, they took the refolution of going once to the Chriftian church, which they did, providentially juft before Easter, when the paffion of Chrift was the fubject of difcourse, particularly his exclamation on the crofs, Eloi, Eloi, &c. They now perceived the caufe why Jefus was thus left in his fuf ferings, was, that he then made his foul an offering for fin for the fins of his people. They acknowledged him to be the Meffiah, and fought to be inftructed in the doctrines of Christianity.