From the Enangelical Magazine for Oct. ORIGINAL HYMNS. BY THE LATE REV. MATTHEW WILKS, AFTER SERMONS PREACHED AT COURT CHAPEL. I. Text-1 Cor. ix. 12. Go, blessed gospel, tell The tale of Jesus' love, Who, to redeem from hell, TOTTENHAM Left the bright realms above; Such love beside. Oh, for a mind to soar above! Until I reach beyond the sky, Heaven is the home, reserved for me, Swifter and swifter let me fly; W. R. Miscellaneous. SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF REV. JACOB GREEN, A. M. SECTION FIFTH. (Continued from p. 55.) Some general miscellaneous observations on my experience and past life. I. Respecting my experience while at college, and my conduct since. My exercises and manner of living since, have not been proportionate to my first exercises; or not such as might have been expected after such experience. I have been a poor, low, dull, unprofitable creature. I have been a wonder to myself, and probably to others.* I have all along found *Those who best knew the writer of this sentence, both as a man and a minister of the gospel, had they known what God should permit so much sin to remain in his children, after regeneration. It has often been to me one of the greatest mysteries and difficulties, respecting his dispensation of grace, that he who has planned and ordered all things, and proportioned grace to his children as he pleased, should give them no greater degrees of grace in general, and not make them more different from the rest of the world. With me, there is a great difference between the views I have before God in secret, and what I am and appear to be in common. I have often such views of God, of Christ, of eternity, &c. in secret, that it seems impossible I should lose them, or not be much influenced by them in common life. Yet when I come to be among people and in common life, these views are strangely gone, and I am bashful, fearful, backward and heartless. I know not whether there ever was any body else, so different in secret and in publick as I am. I have a strange backwardness, reluctance, shyness, diffidence and timidity, as to saying and appearing among others, any thing like to the views I have in secret, or in my own soul. The fear of man, pride and shame, have greatly hurt me. I have many years lived in great hope that I should meet with something very powerful and quickening, that would give me victory over the fear of man, over the world and my various corruptions, so as to enable me to live in common and appear in publick, something according to the views and exercises I have in secret. I have sometimes had strong and almost enthusiastick persuasions that it would be so; but I have hitherto dragged on heavily, and am now a poor broken vessel, that can expect little more in this life. II. Concerning the methods I have taken to promote religion in my own soul. I have been very sensible that my own personal religion was of great importance to myself, and to others-That if any thing would help me to act up to a christian and ministerial character, it would be the life of religion in my own soul. For this purpose I have endeavoured much to know what would be the most proper means, and to use them. For many years I practised fasting once a month, and sometimes oftener. On these fasting days, I used to write my wants, or the things that I would, for each day, bear particularly on my mind before God; and having them in a number of particulars— six, eight, ten, or more—I would meditate and pray upon each one. Sometimes I used to pray as many times in the day as I had particulars; and sometimes I took several of them together. On these occasions I generally found freedom and enlargement, more or less: so that I have often been able to say, I have never found it in vain to seek the Lord. On my fasting days I commonly made and wrote a number of resolutions; but, alas! I often came short in the performance. For some years past, I have, for several reasons, not fasted as formerly, but instead of it, have spent half a day at a time, once in a while, in meditation and prayer, in the manner in which I used to spend my fasting days-Sometimes I have spent only two hours in a day in this manner. I have found it useful and quickening, to meet with people at private meetings. For this purpose I have, with others, endeavoured to promote days of prayer, generally once a month, when my elders and I have, by turns, prayed and sung, &c. These days I have found useful in keeping up some sense of religion. But after all, I have found much sloth, unbelief, and carelessness, prevalent with me. III. Respecting my ministry. a great backwardness, fearfulness and even reluctance to enter into the ministry. I thought I was not fit for it-that if I had any grace, I had not sufficient for that. I was like Moses and Jeremiah-I would, if possible, have been excused. Like Jonah, I was almost ready to run away from the work. Other ministers advised me to engage in it, and I did not care to set up my own judgment entirely against theirs. And after I was in the ministry, for several years, I had much the same difficulty. I thought that I was unfit, because I had not the readiness and promptness to the work that was desirable-I moved in it under and against a great weight. I could speak but poorly in publick; and I was bashful, backward and unapt to speak in private. I often thought I would give any thing in the world if I might, consistently with duty, be free from the ministry, and be engaged in some other calling-the weight seemed too heavy for me to bear. I often had thoughts that I should be willing to have some scandalous sin falsely laid to my charge, so that I should necessarily be put out of the ministry: but I believe, upon trial, I should not have chosen it. And now to speak my own judgment, after so long a time, I think if there were a sufficient number of persons properly qualified for the ministry, it would not be best to introduce such as I was, and have been. My being so reserved in private, and so poor a speaker in publick, with so little zeal and engagedness in the cause, renders me unfit, if there were other persons upon the whole more fit. But considering the scarcity of ministers, I know not but it may be right to introduce such as I have been. When I had actually entered into the ministry, I considered it my duty to promote the good of the people committed to my charge; and I studied and prayed that I might know how to be useful, and that I might be so. Besides preaching in publick, as is usual, and delivering many lectures in private dwellings, and catechising small children in various parts of the congregation, as was the common practice of ministers, I attempted several other methods of rendering myself useful to my people: not that I exceeded others, for at least some others did much the same. One method I used was to give out questions in writing, and have a time appointed to meet the people and hear them answer the questions as they thought proper, and then to make my own observations upon them. Another method, adopted at other times, was, the people gave me questions, and I, at a time appointed, answered and discoursed upon them-something like Pike and Hayward's "cases of conscience," but much shorter. I also proposed many subjects myself to speak upon; and gave previous notice of the time when I would answer and discourse upon them. At these meetings I thought it proper to speak upon some things, and in a manner, that would not have been proper for the pulpit: And at these meetings, a free conference was allowed after I had done speaking, and the people present had liberty to propose and say what they thought proper. Another method I used was, to catechise the young people between meetings on the Sabbath. This I found was the only time I could have them together. On week days they would not attend; and after both services were concluded, some of them would go home. I used to catechise the young men on one Sabbath, and the young women the next. My method was to have the questions which I intended to ask written down; but I talked freely on the subjects brought into view; and sometimes one question would introduce several new and unexpected ones. This practice I continued for several years, but it was laborious and trying to my constitution. Another method I took was, to visit families by name. This I did for more than a year, till I had nearly or quite gone through the congregation. I usually visited two days in the week; and on the previous Sabbath told them the families I would visit, on such or such a day-This I did that they might have opportunity to be at home. When I came to the house, and the family was collected together, I first prayed with them; and then I began with the youngest, and so proceeded on till I came to the heads of the family -asking questions and discoursing, according to their several capacities and circumstances. This method I continued but little more than a year, and once over my charge. In general, through my ministry hitherto, my visiting has been more occasional than stated -just as I have had opportunity. But I have been deficient in this duty; and in general people complain more of this deficiency in ministers than of any other. To promote religion in our several congregations, most or all of the neighbouring ministers encouraged family meeting societies of young persons, and days of prayer. I used, when I could, to meet with these societies in my own charge, for prayer-sometimes in one part of the congregation, and sometimes in another. This I did both for my own advantage, and for the encouragement and edification of others-Another method which I, with my elders, attempted for the promotion of religion, was the care and discipline of the young people: Or more properly, of such of them as were baptised. These we looked upon as in a sort within the church, and under its care. We proceeded in this, not without some good effect. But the want of this discipline in all the other neighbouring churches, prevented our carrying it to a proper extent. It was thought best by others that we should not, at least for the present, proceed to suspension, or cutting off from our care; and we found that without this, we could do no more than give good advice, and reprove in private. The elders and myself also tried to promote family government; and I wrote articles of agreement, by which families should concur and join in the same practice, for mutual help and encouragement to one another. In many such ways have I endeavoured to promote religion among the people of my charge; but after all, I have done but little; not so much as was my duty to do, and the effect has been but small.* (To be continued.) MENTAL SCIENCE. Doctrine of Power. The doctrine of power is more perplexed than any other department of mental philosophy. For this reason it will require careful attention, and protract the discussion beyond what has been devoted to any other topic in this series of articles. Our present intention is to settle the doctrine, and remove some of its perplexities; reserving * It will be recollected, as elsewhere stated, that this was written nearly thirteen years before Mr. Green's death; and that he died in the midst of a most remarkable and general revival of religion, among the people of his charge. They were ripening for the harvest, which although delayed, was at last rich and abundant-Probably no congregation in our country was composed of a better instructed people than his. Hence an entire freedom, from all that is so justly considered as exceptionable and injurious, in many of those which have of late been denominated revivals of religion.—EDIT. for a subsequent article certain of its applications and uses. The terms used to indicate power are so indefinitely and variously employed, that it need not be considered strange, if there should be much confusion and perplexity attending the investigation of certain mental and theological subjects. These terms are used in law, in government, in rights, in wealth, in martial operations, in physics, in mathematicks, in argument and in mental philosophy. In some departments, as in numbers and mechanics, the terms are fixed in their meaning, but in a great majority of the sciences they are not. Though they occur in all departments, their meaning varies exceedingly, and it is oftentimes impossible to ascertain their import. But the origin of all our apprehensions and conceptions of power is from a connexion between cause and effect. This connexion is a dependence of the effect upon the cause. Whenever such connexion is recognised, we ascribe it to power; but if none is recognised, no existence of power is suggested. It should here be observed, that neither the effect, nor the cause, nor the connexion, but that on which the connexion rests, is the power, and nothing else can be properly so called. Now if men always spoke and wrote on all subjects with this notion of power distinctly in view, there would be no perplexity or confusion from the use of those terms. But it is far otherwise, as must be evident to all who reflect carefully on the subject. The question has often been asked, What is power? It is easily asked: but has it ever been answered? Has it ever been defined? If it has, we confess it has not been our happiness to see the answer or the definition. The best substitute for a definition, that we have yet seen or conceived, is the connexion between cause and effect. This we can recognise and describe, but it is not power. The thing itself is utterly beyond our cognizance. We cannot see it, describe it, or define it at all. But since power is that which binds the effect to its cause, we may use that relation in place of its definition, without error, and often with great advantage. Let any man fasten his attention upon this inquiry and seek to define or describe power; he will soon find himself in difficulty, and at length yield the object, in despair of success. Some philosophers have found themselves so perplexed with inquiries relating to power, that they have chosen to do what we consider equivalent to a denial of its existence. They have denied, in theory, any other connexion between cause and effect than mere antecedent and consequent. Without stopping to discuss the theory, and expose at length its absurdities, we say that every effect supposes a cause, with power to produce it. Whether the power belongs to the cause, inherently, incidentally, or instrumentally, will not affect the question in its present aspect. The simple fact, to which we allude, is that the connexion between cause and effect, involves a dependence, which always denotes power. The terms have no appropriate meaning on any other supposition. It is absurd to speak of a cause without the idea of power; of an effect, without power to produce it. We recur again to the propriety of using this connexion between cause and effect, as a substitute for the definition of power. It cannot mislead us to use that relation, which power alone supports, and which alone suggests the idea, as its substitute. In physiscs it is not necessary to employ any substitute, but in mental philosophy and theological discussions, it is often very important. The perplexing vagueness and great diver |
