books of the Old Testament by a blunder of its Greek translators at Alexandria. Then, by and by, the note specifying their apocryphal character, being carelessly omitted in transcribing, they would in the course of time come to be reckoned with the canon! See what great mistakes may ultimately grow out of a single oversight.

"The second Book of Maccabees is a very weak document. The Jews in those days had received and embraced many notions from the heathen nations around; yes, even that of offering sacrifices for the dead (lustrationes mortuorum.) Hence the passage in ch. xii. appears to me a poor sanction of prayer for the dead. I think we have no scriptural warrant for it. It is possible that, during a few days after the death of any beloved friend or relative, we may be allowed to pray for them; and Luther has even recommended it; but beyond this we can have nothing of the kind to do. Neither can I think that departed spirits intercede for us. They are resigned to the will of God concerning themselves and others. That remarkable passage on prayer in 1 Tim. ii. 1, contains no mention of such a thing; and silence of this sort has its weight.*

"It is good to have to pass through humiliations and a lowly condition; and that our course in this life should be like that of a homeward-bound ship, direct for the haven, and leaving behind it (though in a different sense from what is meant by those Epicureans in the fifth chapter of Ecclesiasticus,) no track of its pathway in the waves.

"No preacher of righteousness can ever so entirely expose and confound profligates and worldlings, as they will one day expose and confound themselves; yes, in the manner here described, Ecclus. v."

* From this passage in Bengel's writings, compared with a paragraph in our preceding chapter, we may safely conclude, that there is no truth at all in the report that a former maid-servant of his confessed upon her death-bed, that she had seen him often go alone in his canonicals into the empty church at Herbrechtingen, and had observed him through the keyhole, on one such occasion, preaching very earnestly to departed spirits; and that Bengel, finding he had been observed, desired her to keep it a secret.

APPENDIX.

A few detached Remarks on Passages of the New Testament.

“2 Tim. iii. 4. How is it that our youth are so very different from those of former times? What no young persons would once have dared to think of, ours freely rush into without prompting. Alas! how πрожεris, precipitate, and headstrong do we find them! This is another sign that the harvest and vintage are very near.

“2 Pet. iii. 12. The day of God!' What is it, but the day of eternity. Majestic expression! Yes, eternity is here intimated as one clear unbroken day.

“1 John iv. 2, 3, 15. See how the apostle all along insists upon this single truth, Whosoever confesseth Christ, is of God.' But we should rightly understand what is meant by confessing,' and how dependant this is upon faith. It means, and especially also in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a decided and entire abandonment to that which we have made up our minds to; yes, that therein rests our total complacency and delight. If we knew the real character of those who in the present day so superficially confess Christ, did they only discover to us the interior of their hearts, alas! should we not find them (without this devotedness to Christ, yes,) empty of every thing of the kind? Times are altered since the days of St. John. For then to confess Christ with the mouth was a great thing, (it implied a renunciation of the world;) whereas now, to be known not to accede to Christianity, would prove no small inconvenience even in the world itself.

"The sacred tears of those who never weep about matters of this life, nobly attest the truth and power of the christian religion, (Acts xx. 19, 31; Matt. xxvi. 75.)

"Persons who are only imperfectly acquainted with christian truth, are, notwithstanding, vividly sensible sometimes of its beauty, (Mark xii. 28, 32-34.)

"Mark vi. 20. The secret remorse and anxieties of the wicked, together with their real respect for persons truly pious, are so many attestations to the truth and reality of religion.

"The apostles are commonly thought to have been rather

elderly at the time they were called to be Christ's disciples. But this appears a mistake; for Peter, the oldest of them, had a mother-in-law, (who could wait upon them) (the rest were probably at that time unmarried;) and Peter may be supposed to have been born after our Saviour, who addresses all his disciples as their superior in age (TɛKvía.) They appear to have been plain, uncultivated persons, not indeed of an uncivilized stamp, but of a homely, blunt, and rather rough character. We may suppose so from Peter's beginning to attack the multitude with his sword, and from his imprecations shortly after. Probably at the beginning of his course he was a character not very unlike one of our honest Hamburg watermen. Hence it is no wonder that these disciples got so often into faults, which their Master as constantly rebuked. But it is a wonder that our blessed Lord should have improved them as he did in so short a time, though he still rebukes their backwardness in this respect.

“ Luke xii. 37. Verily I say unto you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.' This promise I regard as the greatest of any in the Bible; and I take the words in a kind of literal meaning, that is, as a bridegroom on his wedding-day scruples not to wait upon his guests, and to converse in affectionate familiarity with them all, so will Jesus act in the world to come, when the marriage of the Lamb is come.

" 1 Thess. iv. 13. As Scripture was given principally for believers, it speaks of their resurrection expressly, and of the resurrection of the unjust only by the way.

"Acts xvi. 21. The world has been always ready enough to embrace the doctrines of philosophers. But the doctrines of the gospel contain what is revolting and mortifying to the pride of our corrupt nature; this very peculiarity, however, is one internal evidence of their divine origin.

"One peculiarity which always attends evangelical truth is, that all who cordially embrace it, in whatever age or nation, bring forth the same fruits of the Spirit, and have the same conflicts, trials, and experiences.

"There was a wide difference between the condition of the Corinthian church and that of the Colossians. The former had been favoured with many gracious gifts (xapíoμara) and superior knowledge, by which they became 'puffed up' (Tεrvpwμévoi). For this rising of the flesh, the apostle pricks them again and again, to reduce many of them to more humility and natural christian

simplicity. The Colossians, on the contrary, appear to have been very rude in knowledge; he, therefore, much insists upon knowledge itself (Eniyvwow) through the whole of his epistle to them. With the Corinthians there were mountains and hills to be brought low; but with the Colossians, there were vallies to be filled."

CHAPTER XV.

HIS REMARKS UPON THE CHURCH OF THE UNITED BRETHREN.

In the last year but one of his life, he published these remarks, entitled a "Sketch of the Church of the United Brethren," having had for several years a variety of official communications with that church. This was the only one of his publications that was designed, not for framing any thing new in doctrinal or practical knowledge, but to express his opinion upon what was already framed to hand, but which at that time appeared to need the amendments it suggested. As it was occasioned by passing circumstances, it has been variously misunderstood; though, in truth, it was one of the most important and beneficial works of his life. We will, therefore, here particularly notice how it originated, and what was the effect of it.

It is well known, that Count Nicolas Lewis von Zinzendorf, about the year 1722, granted a settlement upon his estate at Berthelsdorf to a few pious refugees from Moravia and Bohemia, members of the church of the Brethren in those countries, a church which for ages had weathered the storms of persecution, by which, however, it had now become almost annihilated. The new little settlement, to which the brethren gave the name of Herrnhut,* may be regarded as the parent scion from which have sprung all those other communities of the Brethren, that have spread abroad, and proved so great a blessing to various parts of the world. To its first handful of colonists were soon added other refugees, alike driven by violent oppression from their native homes in Moravia and Bohemia; and their number was still augmented by persons from various countries, who had become dissatisfied more or less with the views and discipline of their respective churches, and whom one common desire of christian liberty had thus brought together. But as no civil, much less any religious, community can enjoy in a state of anarchy the blessings of order and prosperity, they of course found it necessary to deliberate at once upon having common fixed

The watch of the Lord.