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happy hours, when my views of the glorious method of salvation through a mediator appear in an obscure light, and my compla cence in it is wavering or languid: when the fervour of devotion is abated, and my soul is lulled asleep in a carnal security but my mind cannot rest under this uncertainty :- it is too important a matter to make an implicit venture in. Oh! Sir, an eternity of consummate happiness! An eternity of the most intolerable misery! My mind sinks beneath the unwieldy thought, and I cannot finish the sentence! If I am mistaken in this, if I form to myself some easy scheme of religion that may suit the humour of this world well enough, but will not obtain the approbation of the supreme Judge, then my reason is a pernicious superfluity, my very being an eternal curse; Wo is me, my mother, that thou didst bear me. But, in those joyful hours, when I can rest my guilty soul on an all-sufficient Redeemer with all the humble confidence of a confirmed faith; when I can read the evidences of regenerating grace upon my heart; when I can recollect the solemn transactions between God and my soul, and renew them in the most voluntary dedication of myself, and all I am and have, to him, through the blessed Mediator; then immorality is a glorious prospect; the grizzly phantom, death, is disarmed of all its horrors, and, with the inviting mildness, of an angel, charms me into its cold embraces. Then the mortal pale, the dying cold, the quivering lips, the falling jaws, and all the grim attendants of the last

agony, carry nothing terrible in them.

"Clasp'd in my heavenly Father's

arms

I would resign my fleeting breath;
And lose my life amid the charms
Of so divine and blest a death.”

"Dear, dear Sir, I have opened to you some of my senti machts on experimental religion, and, you know, we unhappily differ upon sundry points relat ing to it. Our differences on many other points, and sundry of them even with respect to this, have but a very remote connexion with everlasting sale vation; and, no doubt, multitudes arrive in the same heaven, who are tenacious of different sides. But that thorough change of heart, usually denominated regeneration; that distressing conviction of our undone condi tion by sin, and utter inability to relieve ourselves by virtue of that strength common to mankind in general; that humble acceptance of Christ as our only Saviour and Lord, by a faith of divine operation, that humbling sense of the corruption of human nature, and eager pursuit and practice of universal holi ness, which I have, I believe, mentioned in conversation and my letters, appear to me of absolute necessity.

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"I should be glad you would read the second and third of Dr. Doddridge's Sermons on Regeneration, which, I think, give a very just and rational account of that important change. would not venture my soul on a religion short of this for ten thousand worlds, and I am inexpressibly anxious, (pardon the perhaps needless anxiety of my love) lest you should fatally mis

take here. My anxiety is heightened when I consider your favourite authors. Tillotson's and Sherlock's works, the Whole Duty of Man, and such authors, are truly valuable in their place, and handle many points to peculiar advantage; but if I know any thing of experimental Christianity, they treat of it very superficially, and, I think, in their most obvious sense, tend to mislead us in sundry things of great importance relating to it, not so much by asserting false doctrines, as by omitting sundry branches of it absolutely necessary. I have examined the matter with some care; and I am sure their delineation of Christianity is not an exact copy of what I must experience before I can see the Lord I must indeed come up to their account of it; but I must not rest there; there is a necessity of experiencing something farther than they generally inculcate. The same thing I would inoffensively observe with respect to all the sermons I have heard in Virginia from the established clergy. Hence, by the by, you may see the peculiar safety of my scheme; if their scheme of religion be sufficient, I am as safe as they, since mine includes it; but if it should prove essentially defective, then you see where the advantage lies. This difference is not at all owing to their being of the church of England, for many of that church agree with me; and many Presbyterians with them; but it is owing to their imbibing the modern divinity, which, like a pernicious leaven, has diffused itself among all denominations : and however confidently "some

assert it, I could not embrace it without wilfully throwing myself into ruin.

"You know, Sir, what use I would have you make of these hints; and I am confident you will pardon the affectionate solicitude for you, which prompts me to them. I speak solemnly, dear Sir, solemnly as in the presence of God, and not with the contradictious spirit of a disputant. Of all the systems of practical religion, which have come under my examination, I have endeavoured to choose the most sure as the foundation of my hopes; and I should show a guilty and unfriendly indifference about your immortal interests, should I not recommend it to you, and caution you against those that appear insufficient. It matters little to me whether you use the ceremonial peculiarities of the church of England, or not; as I know they have but little concern with experimental religion: but our notions of the substance of vital piety ought to be well examined, and impartially formed; as a mistake here may be of pernicious consequences. But I must desist. May almighty grace prepare you for a glorious immortality! May divine Providence be your guardian through the dangers of the boisterous ocean!

"May He, whose nod the hurricanes and storms,

And blustering waves in all their dreadful forms,

With calm adoring reverence obey: May He with friendly vigilance preside O'er the outrageous winds and

boist'rous tide,

And safe thro' crowds of deaths con

duct your dang'rous way!

"I commit two letters to your care, one to Dr. Doddridge, and

one to Mr. Mauduit. Upon your arrival in London, please to write a few lines along with mine to Dr. Doddridge, informing him where to find you, that he may commit his answer to your care.

"And now, dear Sir, with affectionate salutations to your family, my whole self wishes you a most hearty farewel."

The ardent and active mind of Mr. Davies entered with a lively interest into the concerns of his country. Her prosperity and honour, her sufferings and her wrongs, he regarded as his own. During that gloomy period when the French and Indians were ravaging the frontiers of Virginia, and when a general listlessness and inactivity seemed to have seized the people, he exerted all his faculties to rouse a spirit of resistance. The sermons, which he preached for this purpose, exhibit him to great advantage as a Christian patriot.

(To be continued.)

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THE father of Mrs. Steele was a dissenting minister, a man of primitive piety, the strictest in, tegrity and benevolence, and the most amiable simplicity of manners. He was for many years the affectionate and faithful pastor of an affectionate congregation at Broughton in Hampshire, where he lived all his days greatly beloved, and died universally lamented. Mrs. Anne Steele, his eldest daughter, discovered in early life her love of the muses, and often entertained her friends with the truly poetical and pious productions of her pen: but it was not without extreme reluctance she was prevailed on to submit any of them to the public eye. It was her infelicity, as it has been of many of her kindred spirits, to have a capacious soaring mind enclosed in a very weak and languid body. Her health was never firm, but the death of her honoured father, to whom she was united by the strongest ties of affectionate duty and gratitude, gave such a shock to her feeble frame, that she never entirely recovered it, though she survived him some years.

Her state of mind upon that awful occasion will best be conceived from the following affecting discription of it by herself. Still bleeds the deep, deep wound!

-Where is the friend

To pour with tender, kind, indulgent hand,

The lenient balm of comfort en my heart?

Alas, that friend is gone!-Ye angels

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greater activity. The duties of friendship and religion occupied her time, and the pleasures of both constituted her delight. Her heart was apt to feel too of ten to a degree too painful for the most tender and generous her own felicity, but always with sympathies for her friends. Yet united with this exquisite sensibility she possessed a native cheerfulness of disposition, which not even the uncommon and agonizing pains she endured in the latter part of her life could deprive her of. In every short interval of abated sufferings, she would, in a variety of ways, as well as by her enlivening conversation, give pleasure to all around her. Her life was a life of unaffected humility, warm benevolence, sincere friendship and genuine devotion. . A life which is not easy truly to describe, or faithfully to imitate.

Having been confined to her chamber some years before her death, she had long waited with Christian dignity for the awful hour of her departure. She often spoke, not merely with tranquillity, but joy of her decease. When the interesting hour came, she welcomed its arrival, and though her feeble body was excruciated with pain, her mind was perfectly serene. She uttered not a murmuring word, but was all resignation, peace, and holy joy. She took the most affectionate leave of her weeping friends around her, and at length, the happy moment of her dismission arriving, she closed her eyes, and with these animating words on her dying lips, I know that my Redeemer liveth, gently fell asleep in Jesus.

Her excellent writings, by which though dead she still speaketh, and which are the faithful counterpart of her amiable mind, exhibit to us the fairest picture of the original. The following lines are inscribed on her tomb.

Silent the lyre, and dumb the tuneful

tongue

That sung on earth her great

Redeemer's praise;

But now in heaven she joins the angelic song,

In more harmonious, more exalted' lays.

Religious Communications.

THE DIVINITY OF THE GOSPEL pious. His enemies, who were

PROVED FROM THE EXAMPLE OF ITS AUTHOR.

THE miracles, which Jesus performed, demonstrate his heavenly mission. But had he wrought no miracles at all, his holy and blameless life would have been a proof, that he came from God, and taught the way of God in truth. No impostor ever lived in the manner in which he lived. Impostors always have some selfish, worldly design-at heart; and though they may teach many useful truths, and may inculcate many excellent precepts, and may seem to practise some specious virtues, yet governed by their favourite object, they run into many inconsistencies of conduct, which betray their pride, avarice and ambition. They never support a uniformly virtuous character. They may for a while deceive the simple and credulous; but their folly and hypocrisy will, sooner or later, be manifest to the wise and discerning. their fruits they will be known." The character of Christ, from his first appearance to the close of his life, was the same; it was unexceptionably pure and

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numerous, learned and subtle, watched him with jealous and envious eyes; and though they used every artifice to ensnare and embarrass him, they could never convict him of sin. Their enmity to him arose, not from any fault, which, they could find in him, but from his freedom in reproving their faults.

Enthusiasts may sometimes, from the warmth of natural passion, fancy themselves inspired, and may teach and practise irrational and absurd things under an impression, that these things are dictated to them by the Spirit of God. But in Christ there never was the remotest appearance of enthusiasm. We see in him no extravagance, no irregularity, or excess. His piety was warm, but calm; his temper was feeling, but serene; his devotions were frequent, but not ostentatious; his virtue was strict, but not austere ; his teaching was affectionate, but rational; he inculcated the observance of instituted forms, but always made them subservient to justice, mercy and the love of God.

Such a man as this could not be an impostor. One, who had

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