MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS.

EXTRACTS FROM A LETTER ON CANDOUR. BY ROBERT robinson.

A FRIEND of yours, a man of infinite complaisance to the ladies, sat down one day to study the opinions of the primitive fathers on Baptism; after others, he began Tertullian's book on that subject. That book, you know, is entitled Quinctus Septimius Florens Tertullian, Presbyter of Carthage, on Baptism, against Quintilla. Imagining that the African father was as great an admirer of the ladies as himself, he did not doubt but he should be much edified by Tertullian's addressing Quintilla on baptism. Wisdom, gravity and politeness, said he to himself, are united here, to be sure. But how would you have smiled had you seen his panic, when he discovered in the fifth line of the first chapter that Tertullian falls to abusing her, calling her a heretic, a viper, a serpent, an asp, a most monstrous creature, whose doctrine was of the most poisonous kind. Hah! cried he, is this an African tête-a-tête! Is this your spirit, Tertullian! If you are a gentleman, where's your breeding? If a christian, where's your meekness? If a philosopher, where's your good sense? Well, well, said he (closing the huge book) perhaps Quintilla and you may be well met. E'en scold it out. I'll go seek a gentler

tutor.

The question here is not whether your friend's conclusion from the premises was quite logical; whether asperity and argument may not be sometimes united; but whether passionate writers do not generally produce similar effects on their readers. People are naturally prepossessed in favour of a sufferer; they naturally become prejudiced against such a violent pleader; they cannot help saying, What's the matter? If your accounts be right, why so prodigiously agitated? You surely design to impose on us, and would deter us from detecting you. You are certainly conscious of having maintained a defenceless cause, and you are making effrontery supply the place of argument; thus giving us brass instead of gold.

People are never safe with antagonists of this fierce temper; they are formidable beyond expression in some places. Hence that smart reply of Dr. De Launoi at Paris. The Dr. had made free to censure that angel of the schools, Thomas Aquinas. The Dominicans were exasperated at this, and apologized for their angelical doctor. One day a friend said to De Launoi, "You

have disgusted all the Dominicans, they will all draw their pens against you.' Said he, with a malicious air, 'I dread their penknives more than I do their pens.'

You lament, (and indeed who can help lamenting?) the bad spirit of too many religious controversies. Religion is a sacred thing, and meekness is a part of it; whence then is it, that prejudice and passion in some, fire and flame in others, appear in these disputes? The gospel is nothing of all this; the gospel needs nothing of all this; all this disgraces the gospel; for which reason perhaps our Saviour forbad the devils to publish his mis

sion.

The fierce disputes of christians have always scandalized the good cause, and will always continue to do so, till mildness and moderation succeed violence; and then christianity will reassume her primitive habit, and with that, her native prevalence.

There is in the life of archbishop Tillotson a fine example of the deportment here pleaded for. While Dr. Tillotson was dean of Canterbury, he preached at Whitehall, before his majesty Charles the second, a sermon in which were these words. I cannot think, till I be better informed (which I am always ready to be) that any pretence of conscience warrants any man that is not extraordinarily commissioned, as the apostles and first publishers of the gospel were, and cannot justify that commission by miracles, as they did, to affront the established religion of a nation, although it be false, and openly draw men off from the profession of it, in contempt of the magistrate and the laws. All that persons of a different religion can in such case reasonably pretend to, is to enjoy the private liberty and exercise of their own consciences and religion, for which they ought to be very thankful,' &c. &c. When the dean had ended his sermon, said a certain nobleman to the King, who had been asleep most part of the time, 'Tis pity your majesty slept, for we have had the rarest piece of Hobbism that ever you heard in your life. Ods fish, replied the king, he shall print it then. The dean was accordingly ordered to print it. He did so, and as soon as it came from the press, sent one, (as he usually did) to his friend, the Rev. Mr. John Howe. Mr. Howe (you know) had been ejected for nonconformity, and was at that time pastor of a congregation in London. On reading the dean's sermon, he was exceedingly troubled at the above cited passage, and drew up a long expostulatory letter on the subject. He signified how much he was grieved, that in a sermon against popery he should plead the popish cause against all the reformers. He insisted upon it, that we had incontestable evidences of the miracles wrought by the apostles, and that we are bound to believe them, and take reli

gion to be established by them, without any farther expectations. What, (said he) must the christian religion be repealed, every time a wicked governor thinks fit to establish a new religion? Must no one stand up for the true religion till he can work a miracle?' &c. Mr. Howe carried the letter himself, and delivered it into the dean's own hand, who, thinking they should be less interrupted in the country, proposed Mr. Howe's dining with him at Sutton-court, the seat of the Lady Falconbridge. The invitation was accepted, and Mr. Howe read over the letter to the dean, and enlarged on its contents, as they were travelling along together in his chariot. The dean, at length convinced of his mistake, fell a weeping freely, and said that this was the most unhappy thing that had of a long time befallen him. I see (says he) what I have offered is not to be maintained. Let bigots censure the good archbishop Tillotson's friendship and tenderness to dissenters; let them exclaim at his want of zeal; exclusive of the rest of his conduct, the single example above recited, will make you cry out with Bishop Burnet, His conduct needs no apology, for it is above it. Farewell.

FUNERAL ANTHEM.

6
FROM MILMAN'S MARTYR OF ANTIOCH.'

Brother, thou art gone before us, and thy saintly soul is flown
Where tears are wiped from every eye, and sorrow is unknown;
From the burthen of the flesh, and from care and fear released,
Where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.

The toilsome way thou'st travelled o'er, and borne the heavy load,
But Christ hath taught thy languid feet to reach his blest abode.
Thou'rt sleeping now, like Lazarus upon his father's breast,
Where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.

Sin can never taint thee now, nor doubt thy faith assail,
Nor thy meek trust in Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, fail. [best,
And there thou'rt sure to meet the good, whom on earth thou lovedst
Where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.

'Earth to earth,' and 'dust to dust,' the solemn priest hath said,
So we lay the turf above thee now, and we seal thy narrow bed;
But thy spirit, brother, soars away among the faithful blest,
Where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.

And when the Lord shall summon us, whom thou hast left behind,
May we, untainted by the world, as sure a welcome find;
May each, like thee, depart in peace, to be a glorious guest,
Where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.
New Series-vol. IV.

24

ON PRAYING FOR ONE ANOTHER.

'You are apprized, I presume, of the extraordinary fact that after the prayer meeting, holden by ministers last [Election] week, in Park-street, a motion was made by Rev. Mr. Pond, and the vote carried, to set apart for prayer in their several churches, the hour from 8 to 9 o'clock every Saturday evening, that it may please God to visit Boston and the University at Cambridge with the out-pourings of his spirit. It is a good thing to pray for one another, and I know not but the motion and the vote proceeded from the purest motives. But there is something in this attempt to carry the unhallowed feelings of controversy to the Throne of Grace, which shocks me. It cannot, if executed, but have an unhappy influence on churches and will inspire them, I fear, with a spirit of cursing rather than of prayer.'-Christian Register.

The propriety and duty of praying for one another will not, of course, be called in question by any, who believe in the Scriptures, or in the efficacy of prayer in general. There are those, whom we cannot love or esteem, and there are those, whom we ought not to aid or countenance; but there are none for whom we may not and ought not to pray. We may be unable to render our fellow-creatures any other assistance, or they may be unable, or perhaps unwilling, to receive it; but we can at least pray for them. And to suppose that such intercessions, when rightly made, will have no avail, seems to us like making the Deity as senseless an object of invocation as the idols of the heathen.

Much however depends upon the manner and spirit in which this duty is performed. Our prayers for one another in order to be acceptable, must be made in charity. We are required to pray for those who differ from us in opinion, and even for our personal enemies; but better would it be for us not to pray for them at all, unless we can pray for them in charity. There is a glaring inconsistency in affecting to pray for men, when in our hearts we feel nothing but bitterness and jealousy towards them. It is gross hypocrisy to pray for men, when we are doing every thing in our power to injure and wrong them. Unless we can divest ourselves of uncharitable feelings towards those for whom we would pray, and unless we can appeal to our general conduct to prove that we have done this-to pray for them would be mockery. (Nay worse; it would be a vain and impious attempt to practise upon the Searcher of hearts

that same system of duplicity, which is so frequently and so successfully practised upon the world.) If we cannot divest ourselves of uncharitable feelings towards those that differ from us, we had better not pray for them at all; for what communion can there be between prayer and uncharitableness ?— what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousuess ?--what communion hath light with darkness?--what concord hath Christ with Belial??

When we pray for one another we should also pray with humility. When our petitions have respect to the errors and sins of other people, we should remember that we likewise are compassed with infirmity; and we should pray as fallible men for fallible men, and as sinful men for sinful men. Oh, there is nothing in which pride and self-righteousness appear so inexcusable-so awfully presumptuous--so much like insanity--as in prayer. To see a man sharing with his fellow-creatures a common frailty of nature-full of feelings and sentiments any thing but amiable-guilty in many respects and imperfect in all--with nothing to hope but from the mercy of God-to see such a man officious to pray for others in every point his equals, except perhaps in self-righteousness and spiritual pride-praying for them too in a tone of superiority if not of insult, as if he were safe, and as if they were apostates and reprobates-there is something in this which, if it were not shocking, would be sickening and disgusting. If we cannot pray for one another as we should wish to be prayed for in return, in a spirit of common and equal humility, we had better omit it altogether. If we must bring our arrogant and supercilious feelings even to our devotions, it is plain we come to them in a much fitter temper to blaspheme than to pray.

Again, when we pray for others, it should be with a single view to benefit them. It is well known how seldom, if ever, men act from motives purely disinterested; and it is very pos sible that we may be actuated, in part at least, even in our prayers, by other views and motives besides those which appear. It is very possible that while we affect to pray or others, we may be thinking chiefly of the influence it will have on ourselves, and on our standing in society. Like the Pharisees of old we may pray to be seen of men. We may pray that we may make ourselves of more consequence, and acquire the reputation of being uncommonly devout. Even when we pray for those who differ from us in religion, it may only be, or at least it may partly be, that we may gain more credit to our own side; and while we affect to intercede with exceeding earnestness for their conversion, we may all the time be insidiously endeavour.