A noise is heard from the bowels of the earth, at first low and rumbling, but growing louder, and soon exceeding the roaring of the most violent thunder. This was instantly followed by a trembling of the earth: the first shocks were of short continuance; but in a few minutes they became quicker, and of longer duration. The sea seemed to be thrown up into the sky, the arch of heaven to bend downwards. The Cordeliers, the highest mountains of the earth, shook, and roared with unutterable noises, sending forth from their bursting sides rivers of flame, and throwing up immense rocks. The houses, arsenals, and churches of Callao tottered from side to side, and at last tumbled upon the heads of the wretched inhabitants.

Those who had not perished in this mauner, you might see of every age and sex, rushing into the streets and public roads, to escape from the like ruins. But even there was no safety: the whole earth was in motion; nor was the ocean less disturbed : some of the ships in the harbour were torn from their anchors, some of them swallowed up in the waves, some dashed on rocks, many thrown several miles up into the land. The whole town of Callao late so flourishing, filled with half the wealth of the Indies, disappeared, being partly ingulphed, partly carried away in explosion by minerals, bursting from the entrails of the earth. Vast quantities of rich spoils, of furniture, and precious goods, were afterwards taken up floating some leagues off at sea.

In the midst of this astonishing confusion, Mendoza was perhaps the sole human creature unconcerned for himself. He beheld the whole tremendous scene from the ship's deck, frighted only for the destruction falling on his beloved Cornelia. He saw, and mourned her fate as unavoidable, little rejoicing at his own safety, since life was now become a burthen.

After the space of an hour this terrible hurricane ended; the earth regained her stability, and the sky its calmness. He then beholdeth, close by the stern of his ship, floating upon an olivetree, to a bough of which she clung, one in the dress of a female. He was touched with compassion, and ran to her relief; he findeth her yet breathing, and raising her up, how unspeakable was his astonishment, when he beheld in his arms, his beloved, his lamented Cornelia! The manner of whose miraculous deliverance is thus recorded.

In this universal wreck as it were of nature, in which the elements of the earth and water had changed their places, fishes were borne up into the mid-land; trees, and houses, and men into the deep; it happened, that this fair one was hurried into the sea, together with the tree, to which in the beginning of the commotion she bad clung, and was thrown up by the

might extend, we neither can nor ought to presume to ascertain.

But solely to show the fact to be philosophically possible, even according to the experience we are permitted to be acquainted with, is sufficient to remove, and fully to answer, the objections of scoffers, and is a sufficient ground for us to consider our Lord's allusion to this narration, as being an allusion to an event that really happened.

A MAN POSSESSED OF THE DEVIL.

An extract from the Rev. Mr. Easterbrook's account of George Lukins. Published under J. Wesley's patronage.

[Eng. Methodist Mag. vol. 12th, page 155.]

On Saturday May 31, 1788, Mrs. Sarah Barber called on me acquainting me that she had just returned from a visit to Yatton, in the county of Somerset, where she had found a poor man afflicted with an extraordinary malady. She said his name was George Lukins; that he had fits daily during her stay at Yatton, in which he sang and screamed in various sounds, some of which did not resemble a human voice; and declared, doctors could do him no service. Some time ago she resided at Yatton several years together, well knew George Lukins and his relations, and was thoroughly acquainted with the opinion of the neighbourhood concerning them: and could with confidence declare, that he bore an extraordinary good character from his childhood, and had constantly attended the church and sacrament. Of her own knowledge she said, that she could affirm, that he had been subject to fits of a very uncommon nature, for the last eighteen years: for the cure of which he had been placed for a considerable time under the care of Mr. Smith, an eminent surgeon of Wrington, who administered all the assistance in his power, without effect: many other medical gentlemen she said had in like manner tried to help him, but in vain. Many of the people about Yatton conceived him to be bewitched; but he himself declared that he was possessed of seven devils, and that nothing could avail but the united prayers of seven clergymen, who could ask deliverance for him in faith. But seven could not be procured in that neighbourhood to meet his ideas, and try the experiment: she therefore earnestly requested me to go to Yattou to see him.

To this I answered, that it would be a pleasure to me to com

gulph, Havilah: whereas the eastern branch must of course be Gihon, which encompasses the country of Cush.

This opinion seems exactly to coincide with the sacred text: which informs us that "A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." These words evidently imply, that in Eden the river had but one channel; but when it was gone out of Eden, divided itself into four, two upwards, and two downwards; for, supposing the Shat al Arab to be the common channel; we may by directing our view to Babylon, see the Tigris and Euphrates running into it; and by looking toward the Persian gulph, observe the Pison and Gihon flowing out of it.

This scheme, though incumbered with some minute geographical difficulties, is nevertheless of all the rest most consonant to the description of the sacred historian. And what seems to

give it an additional force, is the surprising fertility of the adjacent country; for, as it would be absurd to suppose, that God should plant a garden in so barren a soil; so all ancient historians inform us, that Mesopotamia and Chaldea were not only blessed with uncommon fertility, but also adorned with the most enchanting rural beauties. Besides, though the accounts of the ancients were not to be depended on; yet modern travellers, of the most untainted candour and veracity, assure us that in all the spacious dominions of the Grand Seignor, there is not a finer and richer country, though in some parts uncultivated, than that between Bagdat and Basora, the very tract of ground which was anciently called the land of Eden.

If it should be asked, in what particular part of Eden this garden was situated? Moses answers the question, by informing us that it was eastward in Eden. If then the Terrestrial Paradise lay in the easterly part of this country; and the river, which watered it, ran through the said country, before it eutered the garden; we must necessarily conclude, that the memorable spot of ground, destined for the primitive scenes of love and innocence, was situated on the east side of one of the turnings of the Shat al Arab. That is, the river formed by the conjunction of the Tigris and Euphrates; and probably at the lowest great turning mentioned by Ptolemy, not far from the place by modern geographers assigned to Arceca, in scripture called Erce.

Though our maps do not make the river answer exactly the description of Moses; yet, as that author wrote according to the best geography of his time; if the course or number of rivers about Babylon have since undergone great alterations, they have probably been occasioned by the ducts and canals made by order of the monarchs of that empire, of Alexander