thing to do with the journey he was about to undertake, and busy in the contemplation of spiritual and eternal things. His friend retains a feeling recollection of his last visit, when this venerable pastor, repeating a portion of one of his sermons, in which compassion for the souls of sinners was the principal subject, was more than once interrupted from proceeding by tears. This, it is known, was neither the first nor the last time they were shed on the same subject; and happy will it be for his flock, if they are so mindful of his tears that they may be filled with joy. The illness which was fatal was short. On the Sunday previous to his death, which was likewise the anniversary of the Incarnation of the Redeemer, he took his place in the house of God, and officiated there, with more than usual vigour. On Wednesday night, tire 28th of December, he was violently seized with a complaint to which he had long been subject. He lived through Thursday, part of the day in great pain, but perfectly sensible; and after falling into a quiet sleep at night, he expired the next morning at about two o'clock, uniting rest in sleep with the sleep of death, the beginning of the eternal rest. From the first he was sensible, that he had received the stroke of death; and was henceforth anxious only to set his house in order, with respect both to temporal and spiritual things; and in patience, heavenly-mindedness, and a good hope, he continued to prepare for the great change, occupied by no earthly care, but for his future widow. The state of his mind was manifest from the pious ejaculations which he repeatedly uttered, and especially from the frequency with which he fell on his knees, and poured forth his soul in silent aspirations to the God, who, above all other things, heareth the prayer of the heart. His burial, on the 5th of January, was, according to his express desire, very private; and on the Sunday after, funeral sermons, both appropriate and impressive, were preached by the Rev. Mr. Evans, who was his assistant. As a grateful testimony of respect and love to one so worthy of them, the pulpit was hung in black, and the principal inhabitants have put on mourning. The loss of this good man will be long and deeply felt. The poor, and those in particular among them who experienced his private, active, and extensive benevolence, will take their part in the general sorrow. And his memory will be cherished with peculiar tenderness by those who best knew him, and were most nearly related to him. The friend who was honoured with the office of committing his mortal remains to the tomb, and who has supplied this very inadequate memorial, unites in the same feeling, and adds to it his fervent prayer, that all to whom this departed saint was dear, will testify their attachment by imitating his virtues. POSTSCRIPT. JUNE 28th.-All our anticipations of the favourable consequences of the battle of Waterloo have been far exceeded by the event. The defeat proves to have been attended with the entire disorganization and dissolution of the French Army. A detailed account of it has appeared in the Moniteur of the 22d. was In this account, Bonaparte lays claim to a great victory, which was wrested from him by an imprudent and precipitate movement of his guards, which ended in their repulse. Being thrown into disorder, they took to flight. Their confusion communicated itself to other corps, and in a short time the panic was universal. The whole army became a disordered mass; troops of all kinds were huddled together; and it was impossible to rally a single corps. The enemy took advantage of this state of things, and the rout became complete. Even Bonaparte's body guard broken up. The park of artillery, baggage, and all that was in the field remained in the enemy's power. "Such," it is said, "was the issue of the battle of Mont Saint Jean, so glorious yet so disastrous to the French Army." Bonaparte quitted the army the following day, and reached Paris on the 21st. He found the two houses in permanent sitting. A proposition was made to them, to direct the levy en masse, as the only means of saving their country. This was declined The Council of State in timated to Bonaparte, that his abdication had become necessary. He has accordingly abdicated a second time; and is now supposed to be in reality a prisoner, though continuing to occupy his palace. He issued a proclamation, announcing this event, and declaring his son Emperor, by the title of Napoleon II. This has given rise to violent debates in the Chambers, which were terminated by a kind of compromise. Napoleon II. is, in the mean time, to be declared Emperor, that there may be a nominal head of the empire; but with a manifest understanding that this appointment should not interfere to prevent a favourable arrangement with the allies. A Provisional Government has been named, consisting, it is said, of Carnot, Fouché, Grenier, Caulincourt, and Quinette. The abdication of Bonaparte having thus been sanctioned by the legislative body, commissioners, it is said, have been appointed to treat with the allied sovereigns. In the mean time, the allies were fast advancing on the road to Paris. The duke of Wellington had reached La Fere on the 24th, and was proceeding to Compiegne, within 50 or 60 miles of Paris. Blucher was proceeding by Laon in a parallel line. Large reinforcements had reached him. Such is the astonishing issue of the victory which, through the Divine favour, has been obtained by our gallant army. England will have the chief share of the glory of having purchased with her blood the peace and independence of Europe. May we be preserved from undue elation! And may we feel to whom our thanks are supremely owing! A day of national thanksgiving, we hope, will witness the grateful adoration of millions in this land to Him "who hath taught our hands to war, and our fingers to fight;" who hath been our 66 goodness, and our fortress, our high tower, and our deliverer, our shield, and he in whom we trust." Nor ought we on that occasion to forget those who are now expe riencing every species of bodily agony from the wounds they have suffered in our cause; nor those who have been subjected to mental anguish, of a still less supportable kind, by the stroke which has severed from them for ever the light of their eyes, the support of their youth, or the staff of their age. Let the wounded, the widow, and the or phan, share our prayers and our bounty. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. WE have found it impossible to insert a tenth part of the Religious Intelligence now lying before us. L. A.; Z; C. L.; E; horαreg; have been received. MODERATOR; LAICUS; will appear. Lord Byron's Corsair has been reviewed in the Christian Observer. The Epistles of the Apostolic Fathers have already appeared in this work THE LIFE OF PASCAL. (Continued from p. 356.) M. Pascal had been preserved, by the peculiar favour of God, from the vices into which young men are M. presented before the reader too commonly betrayed: nor was in a very elevated point of view, as a mathematician, a philosopher, and a scholar; but he is now to be exhibited under a much more illustrious character. Whatever honourable distinctions his brilliant acquisitions might have procured for him, the attainments and the fame were alike perishable; but in the very superior sphere in which he is about to be contemplated, he will appear adorned with the dispositions, and animated by the prospects, of a Christian. Towards the end of the year 1647, he was afflicted by a paralytic affection of both his legs, which deprived him nearly of the use of them during three months. It was probably to this circumstance, that his sister alluded, when she recorded his judging it necessary, from a particular occurrence, to employ some time in the perusal of books of piety. While he was thus engaged, it pleased God to impress his mind with such a serious apprehension of the nature and obligations of Christianity, and with so lively a conviction that it is the duty of all men to consider their Creator as alone worthy of their supreme love and unremitting service, that his former pursuits lost much of their apparent excellency and importance. From this period he renounced the study of those sciences which relate merely to natural objects, and devoted himself to the acquisition of that one thing which -Jesus Christ has taught us to believe is alone necessary. CHRIST. OBSERV, No, 163, he moved by those libertine discourses in which revealed religion is insulted, as a subject unworthy the attention of a man of parts, and some of its most important truths are treated, by men who never seriously considered them, with scorn or raillery. Religion was with him an object of too great moment to be sacrificed to the futile arguments, or the misplaced ridicule of unbelievers. He was often heard to acknowledge with gratitude, that among the many obligations which he owed to his father, none were more valuable than the care and assiduity with which he had inculcated this maxim: "Whatever is an object of faith cannot be an object of reason, much less be subordinate to it." Propositions like this, frequently repeated by a father, of whose capacity, erudition, piety, and tenderness he had witnessed so many unequivocal proofs, were admirably calculated to secure his mind against that inconsiderate scepticism under which the enemies of Christianity attempt to veil their immoral and licentious principles. The state of M. Pascal's mind at this period exhibits a remarkable phenomenon in the moral world. We behold a capacious, acute, and inquisitive genius, animated by an ardent desire to penetrate the mysteries of natural science, and anxiously requiring a reason for every object of philosophical inquiry, yet restraining 31 his curiosity within the boundaries conviction, they be deemed unworthy of any answer. of physical truth, and receiving the word of God with reverence, submission, and childlike simplicity. Nor was this simplicity only the companion of his early days; it seemed to govern the tenor of his life, and to direct the course of his studies. His superior powers of intellection were not applied to the discussion of curious questions in theology, nor exhausted in speculations upon impenetrable mystePies. He considered the Bible as a practical book, from which he was to learn the spirit and genius of Christianity. With views like these did he peruse the sacred volume, and employed the remainder of his life in meditating upon the law of God day and night. It may be presumed, that there are few considerate Christians, who have not on some occasions been desirous of assigning the due limits of human reason in matters of religion; and although some variety may be remarked in their opinions upon this point, yet there are still fewer who would venture to deny, that the inquiry is interesting. Dangerous errors, it must be confessed, have arisen from investing human reason with prerogatives to which it has no legitimate claim; yet, on the contrary, to renounce all reliance on our natural faculties, when revealed truth is presented to the understanding, is almost to assume, that a suspension of our rational powers is the surest mode of acquiring Divine wisdom. Of those. who deny the exercise of reason on religious subjects, it may be inquired, do they arrive at this conclusion by the exercise of their reasoning powers, or by a dere liction of them? If by the former mode, then it is very unfair to deny the same privilege to others: but if they assent to the latter part of the dilemma, they cannot consistently address the understanding of their opponents, nor be surprised, if, where they convey no Reason is that power of the soul, by which axioms are formed from particular instances; and consequences are deduced from acknowledged premises. When a book, professing to be a Divine revelation, is presented to us, it is the province of reason to inquire into the evidences of its authenticity: when these are established, the same faculty dictates implicit submission to its contents. Whether the matter of Divine revelation be such as the logician would have expected, is a discussion unsuitable to his condition as an imperfect and fallen creature; yet he is bound to understand what is plainly revealed, and to believe what the terms of the inspired writers convey. Whoever seriously considers the physical state of the world, will feel himself surrounded on all sides by mystery; and it is not more strange that there should be mysteries in the moral than in the material world. There are few men, it may be presumed, so ignorant, or so audacious, as to deny the omnipotence of God, because the productions of his power cannot be comprehended by their mental faculties; yet the wisdom of God being as infinite as his power, the results of that attribute must equally exceed the boundaries of a finite understanding, and can never become an adequate object of human animadversion. There is a wide difference between understanding the terms of a proposition; the being able to prove that such a proposition is indisputably revealed; and the ability of perfectly comprehending, and correctly explaining all that is contained in that proposition-between not comprehending how a thing can be, and perceiving the impossibility of the thing itself. Yet these notions are too frequently confounded by the enemies of Divine revelation. When we are informed by Moses, that "in the beginning God created, the heavens and the earth," the communication is sufficiently intelligible for every useful purpose; yet it may be doubted, whether any man, who is aware of the imperfection of his own powers, would undertake to explain, in perspicuous and adequate language, all that is comprehended in the word "created." That the heavens and the earth derived their existence from God, the great Maker of all things, is a very intelligible declaration; and we can prove by unanswerable arguments, that nothing can emerge into being without a cause, or be the author of its own existence. The moral obligations deducible from this information are sufficiently obvious, and indicate the feelings and conduct which such a communication requires: but how, or by what means, creatures with all their wonderful qualities were produced out of non-entity, into a state of actual being, never was, and probably never will be, fully comprehended by a finite understand ing. But the general assertion, that "whatever is an object of faith cannot be an object of reason, much less be in subjection to it," may deserve some further dis cussion. It is probable that a Roman Catholic and a Protestant would not have the same ideas excited by the terms of this proposition; yet there is a sense in which they may be adopted by both, without any material violation of their respective tenets. Faith may imply the assent of the mind upon the ground of authority, and where the authority of the Romish Church is admitted implicitly, all reasoning upon her decrees, all examination of her articles of doctrine, must be absolutely excluded. But if faith be defined an assent of the mind to the evidence of testimony, then we receive the holy Scriptures as sacred books, when the proof of their authenticity is established by good historical evidence; and we believe the truths contained in them. because they are a revelation from God. Authority, whether human or Divine, supersedes all reasoning: but the Protestant's faith rests only on the Bible, while the Catholic believes upon the mandate of his church. If the doctrine inculcated by Stephen Pascal were to be received absolutely, and without any limitation or qualification whatever, we should incur the same inconveniences as those which are attributed to the defenders of the Roman Catholic Church; of resolving all religious questions by the authority of men; of requiring implicit credulity, and the suspension of our other intellectual powers, wherever religion is concerned; and of demanding as firm an assent to that which cannot be proved, as to that which admits of the most luminous evidence. Among some of the sad consequences of usurping such a dominion over the faith of those who are in their communion, may be enumerated the encouragement of a degrading superstition and the cherishing of an unrelenting spirit of persecu tion. He who peremptorily affirms his own infallibility, will exercise little forbearance towards those who refuse their assent to an assertion before they are convinced of its truth and reality. The enthusiast, who pretends to the privilege of supernatural guidance, with all his abhorrence, true or affected, of the Romish Church, is involved in the same animadversion. He boldly demands to be heard, as a privileged person, whose communications are not within the sphere of rational examination: and if he could prove his title to Divine inspiration, all further discussion would be terminated. But while he fails here, he is not backward to anathematise and to hate those whom he cannot ensnare. It must always afford a strong presumption against |