pentant, alike in their nature; though different in circumstances and degree.

The gospel, as a free proclamation of mercy to all penitent believers in the blood of Christ, was to this poor, broken hearted, self-loathing, and self-condemned sinner, when believed in, for himself, as life from the dead. It was to him, what an unexpected grove, and fountain are, to the exhausted traveller, toiling over a sandy desert, and sinking from exhaustion, beneath a cloudless sky, and a burning sun. It was his, and, it is also, our encouragement, that Jesus is able and willing to save to the uttermost. Illustrious example of grace! Bright gem in the Redeemer's crown! though dead, thou yet speakest. Thy spirit seems to say, with unutterable delight, to the most infamous characters, but now repentant, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, as well as me, who am a brand plucked from the burning."

How amiable to see one minister rejoicing in the success of another, as Mr. Hardy did in that of Mr. Flavel's. But how lamentable, how disgusting, and how injurious to the character, and spread of our common christianity, to see men pining with envy, if the good which is done, is not done by their favourite minister; or,

in their own particular communion. Was it thus with holy Paul? Did he stand at a distance, did he languish with ill will, did he throw out suspicious hints, or rise into rage malevolent? Hear his enlarged, his disinterested spirit, his noble superiority to all party considerations; "Notwithstending every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached, and I thereindo rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." Churchmen, and Dissenters-Men of God, of various denominations, go ye, and do likewise.

THE SHEPHERDESS OF
DAUPHINE.

You may, perhaps, think it very strange, my brethren, that being accustomed to entertain you with all such extraordinary matters as relate to religion, we have not yet acquainted you with what hath happened in Dauphiné, where God, for so many months past, hath made use of the ministry of a simple shepherdess, that can neither write, nor read, (a child of about fifteen, or sixteen years of age, to declare his marvels, and to publish his

truth. The occasion of our so long silence, hath been the time and care we have taken, to be fully informed of the reality of the fact, that so we might not build our reflections upon false grounds. After all the assurances imaginable, we have found the matter of fact, in short, to be thus:

She is but a young girl, of about fifteen or sixteen years of age, her name is Isabella Vincent, a countryman's daughter, near Saou, within two leagues of Cret, in Dauphine, by profession a shepherdess, dwelling with her uncle, her father, who (several years before the revocation of the edict of Nantes) had left his religion, in consideration of money. She fell into an ecstasy upon this 1st. day of this present February. Her ecstasy did not seem at first, to be any thing else but a sort of apoplexy or natural lethargy, into which she fell without any appearance of a violent motion. She returned out of it again, after having been in it some hours, her health not being in the least impaired by it. In this first fit, she neither said, nor did any thing extraordinary. Upon the following night, which was that of the second or third of February, she fell again into those fits, that have held her ever since that time. They did not seem to be any thing but a kind of profound sleep, out of which it was not

possible to fetch her. They pulled her, they thrust her, they called her, they pricked her, till the blood came, they pinched her, they burnt her, yet nothing would awake her: so that she was in an entire and absolute privation of all sense, which is the true character of an ecstasy. In this condition she spoke and uttered many excellent and divine matters. She can neither write nor read: she never had learnt any other prayer in her life, but Pater Noster and Credo; she could speak in no other language, but the vulgar one of her own country, which hath nothing of French in it. The first five week she spoke (during the time of her ecstasies) no other language but that of her own country, because she had no other auditors but the country people of her own village: for by all the relations that we have seen, it is apparent that she speaks according to her hearers. After these first five weeks, the noise of this miracle being spread abroad, there came people that could speak and understand French: then she fell a speaking of French, and that in as exact and correct a dialect, as if she had been brought up at Paris, and that in one of the families where they speak french best.

The subject of her discourse is always about religion, and therein she uses to follow very near the order and manner of

our divine service, and though she never in her life learnt one psalm, nor ever understood one tune, yet notwithstanding this, she sings them without missing one syllable, or one note: Yea, she sings them very sweetly, and agreeably too, and for the most part quite through. And here it is that she ordinarily begins. After this she makes prayers, which are very admirable and excellent ones. Often-times, she names certain texts of scripture, which she takes for the subject of her discourses. She explains them, and speaks upon them, and that not after the manner of preachers, or in a set method, but in a manner very singular, and always full of good sense; and it being out of the ordinary rules of method, it gives the greater character of divinity to what she saith: for we do not find, that inspired persons use to follow human methods in their discourses. Her expressions are always very vigorous and touching; she is quick in her reprehensions, which she addresses above all others, to such as through baseness have changed their religion for interest, and so have sold their souls for money. She very often addresses herself to the conyerters (as they call them) calling them merchants, and truckers for souls. She endeavours to make them see the foulness of their conduct, and of the means they use to make their conversions by. If there be any one