furnished, both in England and | If the command be exceedingly Ireland, of their hatred to the narrow, our sins must be very holy scriptures; and that such few, and the pardon of them a awful facts should exist in small matter. And, if the efFrance. That intolerance fectual influence of the spirit towards Protestants, will al-be supposed to be the source, ways be followed (where suffi- rule, and measure of obligation, cient political power is pos- no one can have reason to sessed by Roman Catholics) mourn for him; since he alby the most bitter persecution. ways does as much as he is There can be no doubt, in our powerfully inclined to do, and, opinion, of the truth of the by this supposition, it was not maxim, that all things being his duty to do any more. Thus, equal," Popery is always the sinless perfection is easily attained, though in the backward way; not by coming up to the standard of rectitude, but by bringing it down to our level. Most comfortable doctrine to a carnal heart!"-Preface to Help to Zion's Travellers," by the late Rev. Robert Hall. same." Aug. 5, 1816. P. N. R. ANTINOMIANISM EXPOSED. THE following extract, from the pen of Dr. Ryland, will plainly state the unscriptural sentiments which the letter of Demas Highman, in our last Number, was intended, sarcastically, to expose ! "To me, it appears a most marvellous instance of the deceitfulness of sin, if any man can think himself a friend to evangelical religion, who, by sinking unbelievers below all obligation, and raising believers above all obligation, almost annihilates both duty and sin, and so leaves no room for the exercise of either pardoning mercy, or sanctifying grace. The apostolic maxim, where there is no law, there is no transgression, justly leads us to conclude, that they who are below, or above law, have no guilt, and need no Saviour: there is no room to show the riches of his grace, or the efficacy of his blood, in the pardon of those who never deserved punishment. Original Letter, from the late Rev, Samuel Medley, addressed to a young Person residing at Luton, Bedfordshire, dated Liverpool, July 11, 1772. "TRULY, my dear friend, I need the pity, and prayers too, of all them who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. I am still in the wilderness, and, God knows, often in danger, from a corrupt, vain, blind, proud, unbelieving heart-a nest of vermin-a cage of unclean birds indeed! Oh for grace, and more grace to sanctify gifts! Men see but my outside, and often, I fear, are ready to think too highly. I see, I hope my dear Lord doth know, that I would desire to have my heart in the dust at his footstool, and him on the throne, and all the crowns on his blessed, his divine, his lovely head for ever! Truly, I can say, I see more occasion, more reason than prayer when you are in the ever, to love and exalt him; he is the chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely.' Oh may I, living, dying, and for ever, be enabled to exalt him, and rejoice in him, and spend my heart and life in recommending him to poor hopeless immortals! Solemn and awful as the work is, yet it is sweet when Jesus is with his poor servant in it. "I hope, and pray, this small token of my best love in the Lord Jesus, may meet you, my dear young friend, in the happy enjoyment of the sweet shimings of his most gracious and comfortable presence with your soul; helping you to come up from this howling wilderness, living, and so leaning, by faith, on Jesus, as your beloved, and your friend: on whose faithfulness, power, and love, you cannot too much depend. Blessed be the Lord Jesus, whose loveliness, has, I hope, sweetly and powerfully attracted the love of your soul in the days of your youth; that when youthful vanity, folly, sin, and sinful and worldly pleasures put in their claim for your heart, you may be helped to say, through rich grace, that your heart is gifted away to another, even Jesus; and, therefore, looking to him, may you be enabled to answer all men with Peter's words, John, vi. 69, To whom should I go, thou hast the words of eternal life.' As you value the presence of God with your soul, or desire to make progress in the ways of God, be much in secret prayer, and this will fix your heart for ejaculatory " God house, and in the world, in the ways of your calling. help you, and me also, to look to it, that the blood of Christ be at the bottom of all our professions, gifts, and experiences also: nothing but this will, or can, make sound work in your soul. If he is all, and in all, it is well. Temptations, trials, conflicts, you must expect by the way for this honour have. all his saints: but this will not last always: the end will crown all: yet a little while, and he who shall come, will come, and will not tarry. Oh, may your heart and mine also, my dear young friend, be inclined to echo, and say: 'Amen! even so come, Lord Jesus! My best love to your dear mamma, and to dear Mr. Pilley. Deliver a message from me to your two dear sisters. Tell them, as from God, for it is his truth, that a day is coming, when nothing can stand them in any stead, but Jesus Christ: there is no laughing off death, judgment, or eternity: and that day is at hand, though, may be, their youth and gaiety, would put it far off from them. Should their sun set before noon; and, awful thought! it may do so→ and they die without Christ: inconceivably dreadful, this! Tell them, I wish they would look on, and may God himself set home to themselves that awful passage in Genesis, xix. 16, 17-and may God make it an alarming and encouraging word to them. Grace, grace, be ever with you. I remain, Juvenile Department. CALENDAR FOR SEPTEMBER, 1816. I. The Name.--September is composed of septem, seven, and the termination ber, like is in Aprilis, Quintilis, Sextilis. This rule will apply, also, to the three following months, Octo-ber, Novem-ber, Decem-ber. September is the seventh month, followed by the eighth, ninth, and tenth. II. Fasts and festivals.-Sept. 8. Nativity of the Virgin Mary. A concert of angels having been heard in the air (says Popish credulity) to solemnize this important event, the festival was appointed by Pope Servius, about the year 695. Sept. 6. Old Holy rood. The holy rood was an image of Christ on the cross, placed upon a loft made for that purpose, just over the passage out of the church into the chancel. Sept. 26. St. Cyprian. He was an African by birth, of a good family, and well educated. Before his conversion, he taught rhetoric; but, by the persuasion of Cæcilius, a priest, he became a Christian. He gave all his perty to the poor, and was elected bishop of Carthage, A. D. 248. He suffered martyrdom, A. D. 258. pro Sept. 29. Michaelmas day, or the feast of St. Michael and all angels. St. Michael was an archangel, who presided over the Jewish nation. See Dan. xii, 1. Rev. xii. 7. Jude, ix. This festival has been kept with great VOL, VIII.a solemnity ever since the sixth century. Sept. 30. St. Jerome. This most celebrated monk of Palestine, was born about the year 342, and ordained presbyter at Antioch, in 378. He translated the Old Testament into Latin, and this version, afterwards called the Vulgate, is the only one used, or allowed by the Romish church. He died in the eightieth year of his age, A. D. 422. III. Astronomical Occurrences. The sun enters Libra on the 23d, at 43 minutes after four in the morning, when the autumnal quarter begins. The moon is full on the 6th; enters her last quarter on the 14th; her change happens on the 21st; and she enters her first quarter on the 28th. She passes Saturn on the 4th, Jupiter on the 24th, and the Georgian planet on the 26th.The planets Mercury, Venus, and Mars so closely pursue the sun, that no hope can be entertained of seeing them during the present month. Jupiter reaches the western part of the horizon between sunset and the termination of twilight. He does not, therefore, appear in that splendour which distinguished him in former months. He sets on the first, at 32 minutes after eight; and, on the 30th, at fifty-eight minutes. after six.-Saturn is visible during the whole of the evening, and in the early part of the morning. He comes to the south, on the first, at a quarter before eleven at night, and, on the 30th, at ten minutes after nine. His course is that which the sun pursues on the 4th of February, or the 8th 3 G " of November. The Georgian three. The lower star is Beta Caplanet may be seen from the end pricorni, and what may be called of twilight to the time of its set-the upper, will, upon investigating, which is, on the first, at a tion, be found to be not one star, quarter before ten, and, on the but two, to both of which the 30th, at three minutes after eight. name Alpha is given. The first This planet, therefore, ceases to Alpha Capricorni is the western be visible about the end of this star; and it is rather higher than month, as little more than a quar- the second Alpha. The distance ter of an hour then intervenes be- between these two neighbouring tween twilight and the time of stars is about a quarter of the On the easits setting, and as the planet breadth of the sun. must, consequently, be so near tern side of the goat, are the wathe horizon as not to be dis-ter-bearer, fishes, and ram; and cerned, on account of the va- on the western side, are the archer, pours, that constantly hover over scorpion, and balance. That bright that part of the heavens. star in the west is Arcturus, and that near the zenith is Alpha Lyra, or the brightest star of the harp. The increasing length of the evenings, and the early cessation of twilight now invite the contemplative mind to survey the starry IV. Naturalist's Diary.-Our heavens, and to observe the pe- English plants are now becoming culiarities of the constellations, very scarce. The earth seems to or those arrangements of the have exhausted all her powers, stars, which may be supposed and, like a weary labourer, reto bear some resemblance to the quires a period of repose comforms of certain animals, and mensurate with that of exertion. other terrestrial objects. The We may, however, observe the best time in the month for view-wild angelica, (angelica silvesing and distinguishing these as-tris,) coming into flower; also semblages of fixed stars is from the 12th to the 25th, as the moon is then absent after twilight ceases. On the 12th, at twenty-five minutes after eight, when complete darkness begins, the constellation of the eagle is in the south. Its principal star, Alpha Aquila, is a little higher than the sun, on the same day, at noon. Below Alpha is Beta Aquile, and above it is Gamma Aquila; so that a striking feature in the eagle is three stars in a row, the brightest being in the middle. Below the eagle, a little towards the east, and above half-way towards the horizon, is the constellation of the goat, which may be distinguished by the appearance of two stars, pointing nearly in the same direction as the forementioned the common peppermint,(mentha peperita,) and the red dead nettle, (galeopsis ladanum.) Several plants too, that began to blossom in former months, still afford the botanist an opportunity of pursuing his investigations. The red dead-nettle must be distinguished from the red archangel. The leaves of the former plant are heart-shaped; but those of the latter are either spear-shaped or strap-spear-shaped : and the latter plant is destitute of that scent which is possessed by the red archangel. At the end of this month some of the mosses begin to attract our attention: but these, with some of the lichens, &c. will probably be noticed in succeeding months, when they attain their perfection. V. Remarkable events.-Sept. | 2, 1666, O. S. London burnt. The fire of London broke out on Sunday morning, and being impelled by strong winds, raged with irresistible fury, nearly four days and nights; nor was it entirely mastered till the fifth morning after it began. See "Vincent's God's terrible voice in the city." 1667. The property destroyed, was estimated at ten millions sterling. St. Paul's was valued at two millions! Sept. 8, 70. Jerusalem taken by Titus. Sept. 11, 1709. Battle of Malplaquet, gained by Prince Eugene and the Duke of Marlborough. Sept. 14, 1544. taken by Henry VIII. Sept. 22, 1761. of King George III. Boulogne Coronation Sept. 30, 1795. The French National Convention decreed the incorporation of Belgium with the Republic of France. VI. Births and Deaths of Illustrious Individuals.-Sept. 1, 1715. Expired Louis XIV. king of France. Sept. 5, 1569. Died Edmund Bonner, bishop of London. Sept. 9, 1087. Expired, near Rouen, William the Conqueror. Sept. 13, 1759. The heroic Wolfe was killed at Quebec, in Canada, North America. Sept. 16, 1701. James II. the abdicated king of England, expired at St. Germain's, near Paris. Sept. 18, 1709. Dr. Samuel Johnson was born at Litchfield, in Staffordshire. Sept. 21, 1558, Expired at St. Juste, near Placentia, Estramadura, Spain, the celebrated Charles V. Sept. 21, 1745. Colonel Gardiner was slain at Preston-Pans, Haddingtonshire, Scotland. Sept. 24, 1680. Expired Samuel Butler, the celebrated author of " Hudibras." He was a native of Streasham, in Worcestershire. Sept. 27, 1772. Died the ingenious mechanic, James Brindley. Sept. 29, 1560. Died at Stock holm, Gustavus Vasa, king of Sweden. VII. Reflections.-1. The fire of London had but a small beginning. "Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth," James, iii. 5. Mr. Vincent (above referred to) says, it began in the depth and dead of the night, at a baker's house, in Pudding-lane, by Fish-street hill. 2. The hand of God was visible. "The Lord Mayor of the city comes with his officers; a confusion there is; counsel is taken way; and London, so famous for wisdom and dexterity, can now find neither brains nor hands to prevent its ruin.-That which made the ruin more dismal was, that it was begun on the Lord's-day morning: never was there the like Sabbath in London; some churches were in flames that day; and God seems to come down, and to preach himself in them, as he did in Mount Sinai, when the mount burned with fire; such warm preaching those churches never had; such lightning, dreadful sermons never were before delivered in London. In other churches, ministers were preaching their farewel sermons, and people were hearing with quaking and astonishment!" 3. "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?" Isaiah, xxxiii. 14. "Now carts, and drays, and coaches, and horses, as many as could have entrance into the city, were loaden, and |